was
prepared to surrender if his life and reputation were spared. By the 9th
July the position was this: the Republican forces had surrounded
Peking: Chang Hsun had resigned every appointment save the command of
his own troops: the Manchu Court party had drafted a fresh Edict of
Renunciation, but being terrorized by the pigtailed troops surrounding
the Palace did not dare to issue it.

The usual bargaining now commenced with the Legation Quarter acting as a
species of middleman. No one was anxious to see warfare carried into the
streets of Peking, as not only might this lead to the massacres of
innocent people, but to foreign complications as well. The novelty had
already been seen of a miniature air-raid on the Imperial city, and the
panic that exploding bombs had carried into the hearts of the Manchu
Imperial Family made them ready not only to capitulate but to run away.
The chief point at issue was, however, not the fate of the monarchy,
which was a dead thing, but simply what was going to happen to Chang
Hsun's head--a matter which was profoundly distressing Chang Hsun. The
Republican army had placed a price of L10,000 on it, and the firebrands
were advocating that the man must be captured, dead or alive, and suffer
decapitation in front of the Great Dynastic Gate of the Palace as a
revenge for his perfidy. Round this issue a subtle battle raged which
was not brought to a head until the evening of the 11th July, when all
attempts at forcing Chang Hsun to surrender unconditionally having
failed, it was announced that a general attack would be made on his
forces at daylight the next morning.

Promptly at dawn on the 12th July a gun-signal heralded the assault.
Large Republican contingents entered the city through various Gates, and
a storm of firing aroused terror among the populace. The main body of
Chang Hsun's men, entrenched in the great walled enclosure of the Temple
of Heaven, were soon surrounded, and although it would have been
possible for them to hold out for several days, after a few hours'
firing a parley began and they quietly surrendered. Similarly in the
Imperial city, where Chang Hsun had taken up his residence, this leader,
in spite of his fire-eating declarations, soon fled to the Legation
Quarter and besought an asylum. His men held out until two in the
afternoon, when their resistance collapsed and the cease-fire sounded.
The number of casualties on both sides was infinitesimal, and thus after
el