VI

When these matters were arranged, Ling returned to his tent, a victim
to feelings of a deep and confused doubt, for all courses seemed to be
surrounded by extreme danger, with the strong possibility of final
disaster. While he was considering these things attentively, the spy
who had brought word of the presence of the enemy again sought him. As
he entered, Ling perceived that his face was the colour of a bleached
linen garment, while there came with him the odour of sickness.

"There are certain matters which this person has not made known," he
said, having first expressed a request that he might not be compelled
to stand while he conversed. "The bowmen are as an inferior kind of
jackal, and they who lead them are pigs, but this person has observed
that the Heaven-sent Commander has internal organs like steel hardened
in a white fire and polished by running water. For this reason he will
narrate to him the things he has seen--things at which the lesser ones
would undoubtedly perish in terror without offering to strike a blow."

"Speak," said Ling, "without fear and without concealment."

"In numbers the rebels are as three to one with the bowmen, and are,
in addition, armed with matchlocks and other weapons; this much I have
already told," said the spy. "Yesterday they entered the village of Ki
without resistance, as the dwellers there were all peaceable persons,
who gain a living from the fields, and who neither understood nor
troubled about the matters between the rebels and the army. Relying on
the promises made by the rebel chiefs, the villagers even welcomed
them, as they had been assured that they came as buyers of their corn