destroyed. Behind all this there was extortionate taxation, a form of
oppression the Chinese have never learned to tolerate, and discontent
led to disorder. Kublai's grandson was for a time an honest ruler and
tried to stem the tide, but by 1368 the mandate of the Mongols was
exhausted. They were an alien race, and the Chinese were glad to get rid
of them.

Chinese soldiers are often stigmatized as arrant cowards, who run away
at the slightest provocation, their first thought being for the safety
of their own skins. No doubt Chinese soldiers do run away--sometimes; at
other times they fight to the death, as has been amply proved over and
over again. It is the old story of marking the hits and not the misses.
A great deal depends upon sufficiency and regularity of pay. Soldiers
with pay in arrear, half clad, hungry, and ill armed, as has frequently
been the case in Chinese campaigns, cannot be expected to do much for
the flag. Given the reverse of these conditions, things would be likely
to go badly with the enemy, whosoever he might be.

Underneath a mask of complete facial stolidity, the Chinese conceal one
of the most exciteable temperaments to be found in any race, as will
soon be discovered by watching an ordinary street row between a couple
of men, or still better, women. A Chinese crowd of men--women keep
away--is a good-tempered and orderly mob, partly because not inflamed
by drink, when out to enjoy the Feast of the Lanterns, or to watch the
twinkling lamps float down a river to light the wandering ghosts of the
drowned on the night of their All Souls' Day, sacred to the memory of
the dead; but a rumour, a mere whisper, the more baseless often the more
potent, will transform these law-abiding people into a crowd of fiends.
In times when popular feeling runs high, as when large numbers of men
were said to be deprived suddenly and mysteriously of their queues, or
when the word went round, as it has done on more occasions than one,
that foreigners were kidnapping children in order to use their eyes for
medicine,--in such times the masses, incited by those who ought to know
better, get completely out of hand.

A curious and tragic instance of this excitability occurred some years
ago. The viceroy of a province had succeeded in organizing a contingent
of foreign-drilled troops, under the guidance and leadership of two
qualified foreign instructors. After some time had elapsed, and it was
thought that the troops w