Reformers who had not fled were summarily executed, and the
Emperor Kwanghsu himself closely imprisoned in the Island Palace
within that portion of the Forbidden City known as the Three
Lakes, having (until the Boxer outbreak of 1900 carried him to
Hsianfu), as sole companions his two favourites, the celebrated
odalisques "Pearl" and "Lustre."

This is no place to enter into the controversial aspect of Yuan
Shih-kai's action in 1898 which has been hotly debated by
partisans for many years. For onlookers the verdict must always
remain largely a matter of opinion; certainly this is one of those
matters which cannot be passed upon by any one but a Chinese
tribunal furnished with all the evidence. Those days which
witnessed the imprisonment of Kwang Hsu were great because they
opened wide the portals of the Romance of History: all who were in
Peking can never forget the counter-stroke; the arrival of the
hordes composed of Tung Fu-hsiang's Mahommedan cavalry--men who
had ridden hard across a formidable piece of Asia at the behest of
their Empress and who entered the capital in great clouds of dust.
It was in that year of 1898 also that Legation Guards reappeared
in Peking--a few files for each Legation as in 1860--and it was
then that clear-sighted prophets saw the beginning of the end of
the Manchu Dynasty.

Yuan Shih-kai's reward for his share in this counter-revolution
was his appointment to the governorship of Shantung province. He
moved thither with all his troops in December, 1899. Armed cap-a-
pie he was ready for the next act--the Boxers, who burst on China
in the Summer of 1900. These men were already at work in Shantung
villages with their incantations and alleged witchcraft. There is