ill-requited Her Majesty's kindness. Who shall now relieve
her grief? I sincerely hope that you, the Statesmen who
surround the Throne, may yet find means to restore our
fallen fortiune, and that you will honourably fulfil your
bounden duty in ministering to the distress of their Imperial
Majesties."

On the following day, at one o'clock of the afternoon,
Yü Hsien's head was severed from his body, in the presence
of a great crowd, which greeted his end with sounds of
lamentation.

The Death of Ch'i Hsiu.--Ch'i Hsiu was executed, together
with Hsii Ching-yu, outside the wall of the Tartar city, in
Peking, early one morning in February, 1901, the execution
being witnessed by more than one European. When in-
formed that he was to die, Ch'i Hsiu's only question was:
"By whose commands?" and when told that a Decree had
come from Hsi-an fu, he said, "It is by the will of the
Empress Dowager; I die happy then, so long as it is not by
order of the foreigners." This Grand Councillor had been
arrested soveral months before by the Japanese, and Prince
Ch'ing had been able to obtain his release on the ground that
his aged mother was very ill; but when she subsequently
died, he strongly advised Ch'i Hsiu"to make his filial
piety coincide with his loyalty by committing suicide."
Coming from Prince Ch'ing, the suggestion was one hardly
to be misunderstood, but Ch'i Hsiu failed to act upon it,
thereby incurring a certain amount of criticism.

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