e. I am ashamed to
meet my ancestors; and therefore I myself take off my crown, and with my
hair covering my face await dismemberment at the hands of the rebels. Do
not hurt a single one of my people." He then hanged himself, as also did
one faithful eunuch; and his body, together with that of the empress,
was reverently encoffined by the rebels.

So ended the Ming dynasty, of glorious memory, but not in favour of the
rebel commander, who was driven out of Peking by the Manchus and was
ultimately slain by local militia in a distant province.

The subjugation of the empire by the victors, who had the disadvantage
of being an alien race, was effected with comparative ease and rapidity.
It was carried out by a military occupation of the country, which has
survived the original necessity, and is part of the system of government
at the present day. Garrisons of Tartar troops were stationed at various
important centres of population, each under the command of an officer of
the highest military grade, whose duty it was to co-operate with, and
at the same time watch and act as a check upon, the high authorities
employed in the civil administration. Those Tartar garrisons still
occupy the same positions; and the descendants of the first battalions,
with occasional reinforcements from Peking, live side by side and in
perfect harmony with the strictly Chinese populations, though the two
races do not intermarry except in very rare cases. These Bannermen, as
they are called, in reference to eight banners or corps under which they
are marshalled, may be known by their square heavy faces, which contrast
strongly with the sharper and more astute-looking physiognomies of the
Chinese. They speak the dialect of Peking, now regarded as the official
or "mandarin" language, just as the dialect of Nanking was, so long as
that city remained the capital of the empire.

In many respects the conquering Tartars have been themselves conquered
by the people over whom they set themselves to rule. They have adopted
the language, written and colloquial, of China; and they are fully as
proud as the purest-blooded Chinese of the vast literature and glorious
traditions of those past dynasties of which they have made themselves
joint heirs. Manchu, the language of the conquerors, is still kept
alive at Peking. By a fiction, it is supposed to be the language of the
sovereign; but the emperors of China have now in their youth to make a
study of Manchu, and