await a reply within twenty-four hours.

(Signed) THE GOVERNORS OF YUNNAN PROVINCE.

[Illustration: General Feng Kuo-chang, President of the Republic.]

[Illustration: The Scholar Liang Chi-chao, sometime Minister of Justice,
and the foremost "Brain" in China.]

It was evident from the beginning that pride prevented Yuan Shih-kai
from retreating from the false position he had taken up. Under his
instructions the State Department sent a stream of powerful telegraphic
messages to Yunnan attempting to dissuade the Republican leaders from
revolt. But the die had been cast and very gravely the standard of
rebellion was raised in the capital city of Yunnan and the people
exhorted to shed their blood. Everything pointed to the fact that this
rising was to be very different from the abortive July outbreak of 1913.
There was a soberness and a deliberation about it all which impressed
close observers with a sense of the ominous end which was now in sight.

Still Peking remained purblind. During the month of January the
splendour of the dream empire, which was already dissolving into thin
air, filled the newspapers. It was reported that an Imperial Edict
printed on Yellow Paper announcing the enthronement was ready for
universal distribution: that twelve new Imperial Seals in jade or gold
were being manufactured: that a golden chair and a magnificent State
Coach in the style of Louis XV were almost ready. Homage to the portrait
of Yuan Shih-kai by all officials throughout the country was soon to be
ordered; sycophantic scholars were busily preparing a volume poetically
entitled "The Golden Mirror of the Empire," in which the virtues of the
new sovereign were extolled in high-sounding language. A recondite
significance, it was said, was to be given to the old ceremonial dress,
which was to be revived, from the fact that every official would carry a
Hu or Ivory Tablet to be held against the breast. The very mention of
this was sufficient to make the local price of ivory leap skywards! In
the privacy of drawing-rooms the story went the rounds that Yuan
Shih-kai, now completely deluded into believing in the success of his
great scheme, had held a full dress rehearsal of a ceremony which would
be the first one at his new Court when he would invest the numerous
ladies of his establishment with royal rank. Seated on his Throne he had
been engaged in instructing these interested females, already robed in
magnificent costumes,