en
and get them to do anything he wished--and Liu, the _ch'en-tai_, set
himself the task of capturing him. Disguising himself in the garb of a
pedlar, Liu went out towards Li's camp, and met three spies on the
look-out for a possible clue to the foreigners; they asked him where the
_ch'en-tai_ was and all about him, declaring that if he did not tell
them all he knew they would take him to Li, and that he would then lose
his head. Just behind were a few of Liu's best soldiers. Strolling up
quite casually as if they knew least in the world of what was going on,
they made their arrest, and clapped the handcuffs on them before their
captives knew it. Liu ordered that two be beheaded immediately, which
was done, and the other man was kept to show where Li's camp was and
where Li himself was hiding.

And in this way Li the Invincible was captured also. This was the
master-stroke of the situation. Li was brought back to the city with
many other prisoners and a few heads, guarded by a strong body of the
military.

Almost simultaneously, Huang, one of the other rebel chiefs, was
captured; and at dusk one evening Li was put to death by the slow
process. Afraid that if he were taken outside the city his followers
might possibly re-capture him, he was murdered outside the chief
_yamen_, about ten hacks being necessary by process adopted to sever the
head from the body. Only two men have been put to death inside the walls
since the city of Chao-t'ong was built, over two hundred years ago.
After death had taken place, Li was served in the same way as he had
served the village headman, and his heart and his tongue were taken from
his body. Huang was killed in the usual way, and his head placed in a
frame on the city gate.

And so there died two of the bravest men who have headed rebellions in
this part of country of late years. Both were handsome fellows, of
magnificent physique and undaunted courage, worthy of fighting for a
better cause. It seemed so strange that two such men should have had to
die in the very bloom of life, when every strong sinew and drop of blood
must have rebelled at such premature dissolution, and by a death more
hideous than imagination can depict or speech describe, just at a time
in China's awakening when such fellows might have made for the uplifting
of their country. And they died because they hated the foreigner.

After further desultory fighting, the remaining leader, losing heart,
fled into Kwei-ch