wait till the days arrive to learn its accomplishment. Is it possible that one country female can complete the decreed numbers and changes of such prognostics ?" responded Peh.

The king humming to himself did not answer, but all at once recollected that three years before he had ordered Governor Tu Peh to make search, by means of the constables, for the elfin girl, on which matter he had hitherto received no report. So, after the sacrifices had been divided, he went back into court, where the officers returned thanks for them, and asked Tu Peh why he had not already reported respecting her. He answered, "I myself personally inquired after the girl without success; but after the strange woman had expiated her crime, and thus fulfilled the ditty of the children, I concluded that if I kept stirring in the affair it would alarm the whole country. I therefore went no further."

Much irritated, the king asked, seeing that such was his conclusion, why he had not reported it, and exclaimed, "Really such negligence is nothing short of an entire disregard of our commands, and acting as one pleases. Of what further service can such a disloyal, unfaithful minister be ?" He then ordered the guard to arrest and take him outside of the palace gate, there to exhibit his head to the populace. Terror seized the officers present, on hearing this, and they became pale as clay. One of the secretaries left his seat, and hastily taking hold of Tu Peh as the guard was dragging him off, cried out to them, No! No! You must not. The king saw that it was the former lieutenant-governor, Tso Yu, a near friend of Tu Peh, and one who had been promoted with him. Prostrating himself, he said, "I have heard that although Yao had a nine years' flood, he did not thereby lose his throne; nor did Tang the Successful suffer injury to his power by a seven years' drought. If such disturbances in nature did not bring injury to a reign, how can mere human prodigies be relied on to cause it? If your Majesty executes Tu Peh, I fear that the people will quote these ominous oracles to make sedition, and the outside tribes will rebel as soon as they hear of them. I therefore pray he may be pardoned." The monarch remarked that as he stood up in behalf of his friend, he thereby disobeyed his sovereign's orders, thus esteeming a friend more than a sovereign. Tso Yu rejoined, "When a prince is in the right and a friend is in the wrong, then the latter must be opposed and the former obeyed; but just the contrary, when the prince is wrong

and the friend right. Tu Peh has done nothing worthy of death; and if he be sacrificed, the country will say that the ruler is blinded; and if his ministers cannot convince him of error, they may be justly charged with disloyalty and unfaithfulness. If he dies, therefore, may I fall with him." King Siuen's ire was still unappeased, and he cried out, "To destroy Tu Peh is like clearing off old stubble; why do we waste words on it ?" Hearing this, the guard accordingly carried him out and executed him at the palace gate. Tso Yu on returning to his house, cut his throat. Old Yen has another eulogy based on this incident:

A right noble man was Tso Yu,

Whose stern reproofs peeled off the scales;

In the right he stood up for his friend,
And opposed his prince when in the wrong.
He threw off his coronet to confirm his words,

And took his life to clinch the truth:

His name will be honored for ages,

And held as a model for all humanity.

The king, hearing the next day that Tso Yu had cut his throat, regretted that he had put Tu Peh to death, and returned to the palace very sad and mortified. He was unable to sleep that night, and erelong fell ill of a shaking sickness, talked incoherently, and became careless and forgetful of affairs, constantly absenting himself from the council. The queen learned that he was indisposed, but did not venture to enter his presence to remonstrate with him. In the 46th year of his reign, he became rather better, and proposed to go out to the park to the autumnal hunt, and thereby to revive his spirits. His servants and guard made ready the chariots, and the whole equipage was all in complete order; on the fortunate day selected for the excursion, he took his seat in his chariot with six outriders, supported by Yin Kih-fu and Shao Hu on the right and left. A fine display of banners in pairs, and serried platoons of soldiers in rank, all added to his state as he went to the hunt. This eastern park was a large expanse of untilled land, and had long been used for a hunting-ground. The king had not been abroad for a long time, and now felt the exhilaration of the scene and place. He commanded a camp to be pitched with stockades, and issued orders that no one should tread down or destroy the grain, burn or injure the trees, or needlessly enter the houses of the people to disturb them; all the animals and birds taken should be brought in to him, when proportionate rewards would be conferred, and punishment duly meted to all

who concealed their game. At a given signal, away they all rushed, each person striving to be foremost, encircling the ground and beating up the covers. The charioteers showed their skill in driving their horses around, right and left, front and rear, and the bow-men exhibited their strength in archery. The falcons and dogs, eager and furious to seize the quarry, drove the foxes and hares in terror, pellmell, into their burrows. The twanging bows carried death wherever heard, and the whizzing arrows scattered the game in wildest flight; the whole arena, in short, was everywhere a scene of lively excitement. Siuen-wang was greatly pleased with the sport, and the day beginning to decline, he directed the ring to be removed, and every person to bring in whatever animals and birds had been taken, neatly tied up. Then with joyful acclamations, he set out on his return. He had not gone much over a mile, when he suddenly felt a mistiness before his eyes as he sat in his chariot. From afar he saw a small car driving up rapidly, in which two persons stood up, each having a scarlet bow on his arm, and holding a red dart. Turning towards him, they sneeringly asked, O my king! are you pretty well these days? He then perceived that the two were Tu Peh and Tso Yu, and cried out in a shriek of terror. The apparition vanished. while one could rub his eyes; and yet when the king asked his retinue, not one of them had seen anything of it. While in this state of doubt and alarm, he again saw them both in the little car coming on, just in front of him. He screamed out, "Get out of the way, you guilty devils! How dare you thus insult your sovereign?" and cut at them with his drawn sword. They at once railed at him: "O thou perverse and stupid prince! Thou hast no regard for righteous rule, and madly destroyest innocent people. Your days are now numbered, and we have come to get vengeance for our lives taken by you." As they finished speaking, each fitted a red arrow on his scarlet bow, and shot at the king's heart. Uttering a scream, he fell bewildered in his chariot; Lord Yin was also seized with trembling in his limbs, and Lord Shao could not see plain; the servants instantly gave some ginger essence which restored the monarch, who still complained of increased pain in his heart. In this state they drove rapidly back to the palace, and assisted him out of his chariot; but the guard and attendants, without staying to receive their promised rewards, miscellaneously dispersed. Truly they went out with great parade, but they came back in a poor plight; but if you wish to learn what was Siuen-wang's fate, look at the next chapter.

CHAPTER II.

A man of Pao offers a pretty woman to atone his crimes.
King Yiu lights the beacons to delude the princes.

On his return from the hunt in which he met the ghosts of Tu Peh and Tso Yu, threatening his life, King Siuen fell sick. Whenever he shut his eyes, he constantly saw them again, and felt that he should never leave his bed; he therefore refused all medicines and grew much worse on the third day. At this period, Duke Chau had retired from age; and Chung Shan-fu was dead. He sent for his long-tried ministers Yin Kih-fu and Shao Hu, therefore, to intrust the prince to them. They drew near his bed, and knocking their heads inquired for his health. Making the attendants raise him up, he reclined upon the embroidered pillows, and thus said to them: "We, by the help of our officers, have now reigned forty-six years; the south is subdued, the north has been chastised, and all our realm enjoys peace. An unexpected illness prevents my rising. The crown-prince Kung-nieh, though of full age, has rather a dull disposition; but let all the officers assist him with their counsel, nor decline the duties of their lives." The two courtiers received these orders, prostrated themselves, and withdrew. At the door they met the astrologer Peh Yang-fu, to whom Shao Hu privately remarked, that he feared the expression in the boys' ballad respecting revolutions coming by means of warlike weapons, which he himself had formerly so explained, was now coming to pass; for the monarch had himself met furious demons grasping scarlet bows and red darts, who had shot him, and caused this grievous sickness, from which he would not recover. Peh replied, "I myself last night saw a significant omen in the sky, a baleful star hiding behind the palace wall; it indicates still further revolutions in the state, which even the king's own person would not suffice to countervail."

Yin Kih-fu then inquired, "If Heaven's decrees are too strong for man, man on his part likewise wills to overcome Heaven; if you, Sirs, say Heaven speaks, and human affairs are ruined, what agency do you give us statesmen in them ?" Each one then took his own path, but it was not long before they found their way back to the palace gate to wait for whatever should transpire. They there learned that the king grew worse, and did not venture to go home, for that night he died. Queen Kiang issued orders to the old ministers Yin Kih-fu and Shao Hu to come to the

palace, and together superintend the officers of state in assisting the crown-prince Kung-nieh to go through the prescribed ceremonies of lamentation. He was then enthroned in front of the bier under the title of King Yiu, and the next year was made the first of his reign; his wife, the daughter of the Earl of Shin, was also made Queen, their son I-kiu proclaimed heir-apparent, and her father advanced to be Marquis of Shin. Queen Kiang not long after these things also succumbed to her great affliction.

King Yiu was a cruel man, exhibiting little kindness towards others, strange and capricious in his actions. Even during the period of mourning, he gathered about him a crowd of low parasites, with whom he caroused and drank, evincing no grief or sorrow for his father. Nor did he, after his mother's decease, exhibit any regret, but revelling in plays and wantonness, entirely neglected the business of the state. The Marquis of Shin frequently admonished him, but as he refused to listen, soon after retired to the country of Shin. In truth the force of the house of Chau and its days were nearly exhausted. The officers Shao, Yin, and their compeers were now all dead. In their places the monarch had promoted Kwoh, Tsi, and Yin Kiu a son of Yin Kih-fu, to be the three dukes. These were all men of a censorious spirit, cringing before superiors, greedy of office and emolument, and never weary to promote the caprices of King Yiu. Among them all, the Earl of Ching was the only man of probity remaining, but he was neither promoted nor employed in any responsible post.

One day, at a court held at Ki-shan, an officer reported that an earthquake had happened on the same day at the three rivers, the King, the Ho, and the Loh; at which the king laughed, saying, "Hills toppling and earthquakes shaking are common events; why do you announce them to me?" He straightway dismissed the audience and returned to the palace. But the astrologer Peh Yang-fu grasping the hand of Chau Shuh-tai, one of the councillors, sorrowfully said, "Who ought not to tremble when three rivers burst out at Ki-shan? When the Loh in the days of I-yin became dry, the dynasty of Hia expired; so did that of Shang when the Yellow river dried up; but now we have these three streams shaken, and their sources seem to be stopping. If these streams entirely dry up, this mountain (i. e. this dynasty) will surely fall, for it is the region whence Tai-wang, the ancestor of its founder, originated. Will the house of Chau therefore have any power if