d very differently from what it has, will
you not, out of an emotion of gratitude, relate a story for my ear
alone, weaving into it the substance of this ancient arch whose shade
proves our rest?"

"Your wish is the crown of my attainment, unearthly one," replied Kai
Lung, preparing to obey. "This concerns the story of Ten-teh, whose
name adorns the keystone of the fabric."

The Story of the Loyalty of Ten-teh, the Fisherman
"Devotion to the Emperor--"
The Five Great Principles

The reign of the enlightened Emperor Tung Kwei had closed amid scenes
of treachery and lust, and in his perfidiously-spilled blood was
extinguished the last pale hope of those faithful to his line. His
only son was a nameless fugitive--by ceaseless report already Passed
Beyond--his party scattered and crushed out like the sparks from his
blackened Capital, while nothing that men thought dare pass their
lips. The usurper Fuh-chi sat upon the dragon throne and spake with
the voice of brass cymbals and echoing drums, his right hand shedding
blood and his left hand spreading fire. To raise an eye before him was
to ape with death, and a whisper in the outer ways foreran swift
torture. With harrows he uprooted the land until no household could
gather round its ancestral tablets, and with marble rollers he
flattened it until none dare lift his head. For the body of each one
who had opposed his ambition there was offered an equal weight of fine
silver, and upon the head of the child-prince was set the reward of
ten times his weight in pure gold. Yet in noisome swamps and forests,
hidden in caves, lying on desolate islands, and concealing themselves
in every kind of solitary place were those who daily prostrated
themselves to the memory of Tung Kwei and by a sign acknowledged the
authority of his infant son Kwo Kam. In the Crystal City there was a
great roar of violence and drunken song, and men and women lapped from
deep lakes filled up with wine; but the ricesacks of the poor had long
been turned out and shaken for a little dust; their eyes were closing
and in their hearts they were as powder between the mill-stones. On
the north and the west the barbarians had begun to press forward in
resistless waves, and from The Island to The Beak pirates laid waste
the coast.

i. UNDER THE DRAGON'S WING

Among the lagoons of the Upper Seng river a c