own battles without
fear of being stabbed in the back; since under the eye of the foreign
Legations even Yuan Shih-kai was exhibiting a certain timidity. Indeed
after the outcry which General Chang Cheng-wu's judicial murder had
aroused he had reserved his ugliest deeds for the provinces, only small
men being done to death in Peking. Accordingly, General Li Yuan-hung
packed a bag and accompanied only by an aide-de-camp left abruptly for
the capital where he arrived on the 11th December, 1913.

A great sensation was caused throughout China by this sudden departure,
consternation prevailing among the officers and men of the Hupeh
(Wuchang) army when the newspapers began to hint that their beloved
chief had been virtually abducted. Although cordially received by Yuan
Shih-kai and given as his personal residence the. Island Palace where
the unfortunate Emperor Kwanghsu had been so long imprisoned by the
Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi after her _coup d'etat_ of 1898, it did not take
long for General Li Yuan-hung to understand that his presence was a
source of embarrassment to the man who would be king. Being, however,
gifted with an astounding fund of patience, he prepared to sit down and
allow the great game which he knew would now unroll to be played to its
normal ending. What General Li Yuan-hung desired above all was to be
forgotten completely and absolutely--springing to life when the hour of
deliverance finally arrived. His policy was shown to be not only
psychologically accurate, but masterly in a political sense. The
greatest ally of honesty in China has always been time, the inherent
decency of the race finally discrediting scoundrelism in every period of
Chinese history.

The year 1914 dawned with so many obstacles removed that Yuan Shih-kai
became more and more peremptory in his methods. In February the young
Empress Lun Yi, widow of the Emperor Kwanghsu, who two years previously
in her character of guardian of the boy-Emperor Hsuan Tung, had been
cajoled into sanctioning the Abdication Edicts, unexpectedly expired,
her death creating profound emotion because it snapped the last link
with the past. Yuan Shih-kai's position was considerably strengthened by
this auspicious event which secretly greatly delighted him; and by his
order for three days the defunct Empress lay in State in the Grand Hall
of the Winter Palace and received the obeisance of countless multitudes
who appeared strangely moved by this hitherto unknown