now;' and accordingly he ordered them to accompany the dead monarch into
the next world, those who thus perished being many in number. When the
internment was completed, some one suggested that the workmen who had
made the machinery and concealed the treasure knew the great value of
the latter, and that the secret would leak out. Therefore, so soon as
the ceremony was over, and the path giving access to the sarcophagus had
been blocked up at its innermost end, the outside gate at the entrance
to this path was let fall, and the mausoleum was effectually closed, so
that not one of the workmen escaped. Trees and grass were then planted
around, that the spot might look like the rest of the mountain."

The career of the Second Emperor finds an apt parallel in that of
Richard Cromwell, except that the former was put to death, after a
short and inglorious reign. Then followed a dynasty which has left an
indelible mark upon the civilization as well as on the recorded history
of China. A peasant, by mere force of character, succeeded after a
three-years' struggle in establishing himself upon the throne, 206 B.C.,
and his posterity, known as the House of Han, ruled over China for four
hundred years, accidentally divided into two nearly equal portions
by the Christian era, about which date there occurred a temporary
usurpation of the throne which for some time threatened the stability
of the dynasty in the direct line of succession. To this date, the more
northern Chinese have no prouder title than that of a "son of Han."

During the whole period of four hundred years the empire cannot be said
to have enjoyed complete tranquillity either at home or abroad. There
were constant wars with the Tartar tribes on the north, against whom the
Great Wall proved to be a somewhat ineffectual barrier. Also with the
Huns, the forbears of the Turks, who once succeeded in shutting up the
founder of the dynasty in one of his own cities, from which he only