ay freely lay your cause before
him with the full assurance of an unswerving justice."

A moment later the storm broke out again with redoubled vigour, and
raising his face from the ground Ten-teh perceived that he was again
alone.

ii. THE MESSAGE FROM THE OUTER LAND

After the departure of Hoang the affairs of Ten-teh ceased to prosper.
The fish which for so many years had leaped to meet his hand now
maintained an unparalleled dexterity in avoiding it; continual storms
drove him day after day back to the shore, and the fostering
beneficence of the deities seemed to be withdrawn, so that he no
longer found forgotten stores of wealth nor did merchants ever again
mistake his door for that of another to whom they were indebted.

In the year that followed there passed from time to time through the
secluded villages lying in the Upper Seng valley persons who spoke of
the tumultuous events progressing everywhere. In such a manner those
who had remained behind learned that the great rising had been
honourably received by the justice-loving in every province, but that
many of official rank, inspired by no friendship towards Fuh-chi, but
terror-stricken at the alternatives before them, had closed certain
strong cities against the Army of the Avenging Pure. It was at this
crisis, when the balance of the nation's destiny hung poised, that Kwo
Kam, the only son of the Emperor Tung Kwei, and rightful heir of the
dynasty of the glorious Tang, miraculously appeared at the head of the
Avenging Pure and being acclaimed their leader with a unanimous shout
led them on through a series of overwhelming and irresistible
victories. At a later period it was told how Kwo Kam had been crowned
and installed upon his father's throne, after receiving a mark of
celestial approbation in the Temple of Heaven, how Fuh-chi had escaped
and fled and how his misleading records had been publicly burned and
his detestable name utterly blotted out.

At this period an even greater misfortune than his consistent ill
success met Ten-teh. A neighbouring mandarin, on a false pretext,
caused him to be brought before him, and speaking very sternly of
certain matters in the past, which, he said, out of a well-intentioned
regard for the memory of Ten-teh's father he would not cast abroad, he
fined him a much larger sum than all he possessed, and then at once
caused the raft and the cormorants to be seized in satisfaction of the
claim. This he