how, Chaocheng, and Fensi had a marvellous escape. The
Boxers, practising their mystic rites, overran the district. Whole
families fled to the mountains, and no one was safe from robbery and
violence. The mandarin of Chaocheng, fearful lest massacres should take
place in the county under his jurisdiction and desiring at any cost to
keep the peace, called together some of the leading gentry and asked for
advice as to the problem facing them. "I know," said he, "that calling
upon the Christians to recant will be useless, but can we not issue
tickets to them upon which are the very words they use in entering the
Church, 'I promise to repent?' There should be no difficulty in getting
them to take these, for it will mean to them what they themselves
preach, while to the anti-Christian fanatic it will be sufficiently
satisfactory."

Orders were accordingly issued that all Christians were to receive this
official paper whereby their safety would be ensured. Large numbers in
the Church regarded the mandarin's action as the overruling of
Providence on their behalf, and accepted tickets which involved no
verbal recantation of their faith. Others, amongst whom was Mrs. Hsi
(now a widow), with more sensitive spiritual perceptions, refused to
take advantage of even the semblance of a subterfuge.

The Chaocheng mandarin, surrounded by his bodyguard, went outside the
city gates to the place where the Boxers were practising their rites
with the intention of burning incense in their presence, by which act he
would acknowledge them as invulnerable and holy men. At the critical
moment, however, one of them was said to have made a move as if to
attack the official, who instantly called upon his bodyguard to seize
the men, exclaiming: "These are insurgents, and no holy men; bind them,
they are prisoners." As such they entered the city, and Boxerism never
spread in the district. Thus did the Hand of God protect the hundreds of
men and women who in these three counties were called by His Name, and
while in many places few escaped the sword, the numerically largest
Church in the province of Shansi was spared.

Mrs. Hsi was in Chaocheng seeking to help the women in their troubles,
when news reached her that her brother-in-law, Elder Si, was stabbed by
one of the local Boxers. Rumours followed rapidly, and she heard that
her mother-in-law was in serious danger. She hastened to her home, and
found matters worse than she had feared. There was no