palled at the apparently irresistible energy of the
followers of Meha, remained apathetic in his palace. The representations
of his ministers and generals failed to rouse him from his stupor, and
the weapon to which he resorted was the abuse of his opponent, and not
his prompt chastisement. Meha was "a wicked and faithless man, who had
risen to power by the murder of his father, and one with whom oaths and
treaties carried no weight." In the mean while the Tartars were
continuing their victorious career. The capital itself could not be
pronounced safe from their assaults, or from the insult of their
presence.

In this crisis counsels of craft and dissimulation alone found favor in
the Emperor's cabinet. No voice was raised in support of the bold and
only true course of going forth to meet the national enemy. The
capitulation of Pingching had for the time destroyed the manhood of the
race, and Kaotsou held in esteem the advice of men widely different to
those who had placed him on the throne. Kaotsou opened fresh
negotiations with Meha, who concluded a treaty on condition of the
Emperor's daughter being given to him in marriage, and on the assumption
that he was an independent ruler. With these terms Kaotsou felt obliged
to comply, and thus for the first time this never-ceasing collision
between the tribes of the desert and the agriculturists of the plains of
China closed with the admitted triumph of the former. The contest was
soon to be renewed with different results, but the triumph of Meha was
beyond question.[47]

[Footnote 47: One historian had the courage to declare that "Never was
so great a shame inflicted on the Middle Kingdom, which then lost its
dignity and honor."]

The weakness thus shown against a foreign foe brought its own punishment
in domestic troubles. The palace became the scene of broils, plots, and
counterplots, and so badly did Kaotsou manage his affairs at this epoch
that one of his favorite generals raised the standard of revolt against
him through apparently a mere misunderstanding. In this instance Kaotsou
easily put down the rising, but others followed which, if not pregnant
with danger, were at the least extremely troublesome. The murder of
Hansin, to whose aid Kaotsou owed his elevation to the throne as much as
to any other, by order of the empress, during a reception at the palace,
shook confidence still more in the ruler, and many of his followers were
forced into open rebellion throug