ation, walked into the camp of
Ah-tang. The omen of this occurrence was of too specific a nature not
to be regarded as conclusive.

Ah-tang was one who had neglected the Classics from his youth upwards.
For this reason his detestable name is never mentioned in the
Histories, and the various catastrophes he wrought are charitably
ascribed to the action of earthquakes, thunderbolts and other admitted
forces. He himself, with his lamentable absence of literary style, was
wont to declare that while confessedly weak in analogies he was strong
in holocausts. In the end he drove the sublime emperor from his
capital and into the Outer Lands; with true refinement the annalists
of the period explain that the condescending monarch made a journey of
inspection among the barbarian tribes on the confines of his Empire.

When Tian, charged with being a hostile spy, was led into the presence
of Ah-tang, it was the youth's intention to relate somewhat of his
history, but the usurper, excusing himself on the ground of literary
deficiency, merely commanded five of his immediate guard to bear the
prisoner away and to return with his head after a fitting interval.
Misunderstanding the exact requirement, Tian returned at the appointed
time with the heads of the five who had charge of him and the excuse
that in those times of scarcity it was easier to keep one head than
five. This aptitude so pleased Ah-tang (who had expected at the most a
farewell apophthegm) that he at once made Tian captain of a chosen
band.

Thus was Tian positioned outside the city of Ti-foo, materially
contributing to its ultimate surrender by the resourceful courage of
his arms. For the first time in the history of opposing forces he
tamed the strength and swiftness of wild horses to the use of man, and
placing copper loops upon their feet and iron bars between their
teeth, he and his band encircled Ti-foo with an ever-moving shield
through which no outside word could reach the town. Cut off in this
manner from all hope of succour, the stomachs of those within the
walls grew very small, and their eyes became weary of watching for
that which never came. On the third day of the third moon of their
encirclement they sent a submissive banner, and one bearing a written
message, into the camp of Ah-tang.

"We are convinced" (it ran) "of the justice of your cause. Let
six of your lordly nobles appear unarmed before our ill-kept
Lantern Gate at the middle gong