ry party sprang up among this
deluded people, claiming that their own Government was showing too much
favor to foreign religions and foreign machines. The Government did not
put down this revolt. Some said that it did not have the power and that
the provinces were practically independent of the central authority.
Others whispered that the Imperial Court secretly favored the rebels.
However this may be, the Fencers, as the rebels were called from their
skill with the native sword, succeeded without much difficulty in
getting possession of the imperial city and imprisoning the foreign
embassies and legations in the enclosure of the Anglian Embassy. The
Imperial Court meanwhile fled to a distant city and left the entire
control of the situation in the hands of the Fencers. The peril of the
legations was extreme. They were cut off completely from the coast,
which was many miles distant, and the foreign newspaper correspondents
amused themselves by sending detailed accounts of the manner in which
they had been tortured and murdered. The principal men among the
Porsslanese assured the Powers that the legations were safe, but they
were not believed. A great expedition was organized in which all the
great Powers took a part. The forts near the sea were stormed and
taken. The intermediate city of Gin-Sin was besieged and finally fell,
and the forces advanced to the gates of the Capital. Before long they
succeeded in taking possession of the great city. The Fencers fled in
confusion, and at least two-thirds of the population fled with them,
fearing the vengeance of the foreigners. The legations were saved,
after one ambassador had been shot by an assassin. The city was divided
into districts, each of which was turned over to the safe-keeping of
one of the foreign armies, and the object of the expedition had been
accomplished. In the mean time many foreign residents, including many
missionaries in various parts of the Empire, had been murdered, the
inhabitants not recognizing the obvious fact that they and their
countrymen were their best friends.

Affairs had reached this position when orders came to Havilla for
Colonel Jinks to proceed to join the army in Porsslania, where he would
be placed in command of a regiment. His fidus Achates, Cleary, had also
received permission from his journal to accompany him, and the two set
sail on a transport which carried details of troops. It is true that
the