formidable evil spirit; for as she passed along, quickly yet with so
dignified a motion that the moss received no impression beneath her
footsteps, she became aware of a circumstance which caused her to stop
by imparting to her mind two definite and greatly dissimilar emotions.

In a grassy and open space, on the verge of which she stood, lay the
dead bodies of seventeen rebels, all disposed in very degraded
attitudes, which contrasted strongly with the easy and becoming
position adopted by the eighteenth--one who bore the unmistakable
emblems of the Imperial army. In this brave and noble-looking
personage Mian at once saw her preserver, and not doubting that an
inopportune and treacherous death had overtaken him, she ran forward
and raised him in her arms, being well assured that however indiscreet
such an action might appear in the case of an ordinary person, the
most select maiden need not hesitate to perform so honourable a
service in regard to one whose virtues had by that time undoubtedly
placed him among the Three Thousand Pure Ones. Being disturbed in this
providential manner, Ling opened his eyes, and faintly murmuring, "Oh,
sainted and adorable Koon Yam, Goddess of Charity, intercede for me
with Buddha!" he again lost possession of himself in the Middle Air.
At this remark, which plainly proved Ling to be still alive, in spite
of the fact that both the maiden and the person himself had thoughts
to the contrary, Mian found herself surrounded by a variety of
embarrassing circumstances, among which occurred a remembrance of the
dead magician and the wise person at Ki whom she had set out to
summon; but on considering the various natural and sublime laws which
bore directly on the alternative before her, she discovered that her
plain destiny was to endeavour to restore the breath in the person who
was still alive rather than engage on the very unsatisfactory chance
of attempting to call it back to the body from which it had so long