lace, was handed to the boy by the usurper
himself. Drinking it unsuspiciously, the unfortunate youth was soon
lying on the floor in the agonies of death, while the murderer woke the
palace halls with his cries of counterfeit grief, loudly bewailing the
young emperor's sad fate, and denouncing heaven for having sent this
sudden and fatal illness upon the royal youth.

To keep up appearances, another child was placed upon the throne. A
conspiracy against the usurper was now formed by the great men of the
state, but Wang Mang speedily crushed plot and plotters, rid himself of
the new boy emperor in the same arbitrary fashion as before, and,
throwing off the mask he had thus far worn, had himself proclaimed
emperor of the realm. It was the Han dynasty he had in this arbitrary
fashion brought to an end. He called his dynasty by the name of Sin.

But the usurper soon learned the truth of the saying, "uneasy lies the
head that wears a crown." The Tartars of the desert defied his
authority, broke their long truce, and raided the rich provinces of the
north, which had enjoyed thirty years of peace and prosperity. In this
juncture Wang Mang showed that he was better fitted to give poison to
boys than to meet his foes in the field. The Tartars committed their
ravages with impunity, and other enemies were quickly in arms.
Rebellions broke out in the east and the south, and soon, wherever the
usurper turned, he saw foes in the field or lukewarm friends at home.

The war that followed continued for twelve years, the armies of
rebellion, led by princes of the Han line of emperors, drawing their net
closer and closer around him, until at length he was shut up within his
capital city, with an army of foes around its walls. The defence was
weak, and the victors soon made their way through the gates, appearing
quickly at the palace doors. The usurper had reached the end of his
troubled reign, but at this fatal juncture had not the courage to take
his own life. The victorious soldiers rushed in while he was hesitating
in mortal fear, and with a stroke put an end to his reign and his
existence. His body was hacked into bleeding fragments, which were cast
about the streets of the city, to be trampled underfoot by the rejoicing
throng.

It is not, however, the story of Wang Mang's career that we have set out
to tell, but that of one of his foes, the leader of a band of rebels,
Fanchong by name. This partisan leader had shown himself a man