would have had his ankles squeezed for him, and his fingers pinched, perhaps, not to mention the bamboo. "What we have escaped," says Confucius, " may well be reckoned as gain.":

'How long, Twang-hi, will the messenger whom you send to the governor of the province take to go and return?'

'About eight-and-forty hours.'

And if the sentence should be'-Conway was a brave man, but a certain creeping of the flesh here seized him- should be,' he continued, as you apprehend, when will it be executed?'

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'It must be put into effect at once. I shall have no choice in the matter, but be personally responsible for the least delay. The affair is not in my hands, but in those of Imperial justice. I conclude you have the money you spoke of in the boat?'

'Your Excellency shall have it at once,' said Conway gravely. In the mean time I have your solemn promise that I shall have unrestrained communication with my friend, and that he will be treated with kindness?'

'As to that, dear sir,' replied Twang-hi, with blandness,' he will have to make his own arrangements. I can only see that no wrong is done here in my own court; "men's consciences are in their own private keeping," says Confucius, and I have heard, unofficially, that our gaoler makes his little perquisites. I am thus frank with you because I wish you well, and believe you to be a good man.'

Then Twang-hi arose, and, in the name of the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, announced that he, for his part, washed his hands of the barbarian blasphemer, and left him to be dealt with by the mercy of the governor of the province.

This phrase, as Conway was well aware, corresponds in China with the euphonious terms in which heretics were wont to be recommended to the attentions of the Holy Office, and is always fatal to the prospects of a prisoner.

At the same time Ralph Pennicuick was twitched up by the arms from his kneeling posture, and, followed by two soldiers with drawn swords, the points of which almost touched his retreating figure, was hurried from the room. Conway would have hastened after him, but the master of the ceremonies interposed.

It is the desire of Twang-hi,' said he, with great politeness, ⚫ that an immediate opportunity should be afforded you of returning to your boat, and making the arrangements about which you expressed anxiety.'

Conway would have remonstrated, but the mandarin had disappeared, nor was even Fu-chow to be seen, being, in fact, in his character of prosecutor, already on his way to prison. For the rest, the malignity that was expressed upon the countenances of

all, especially on that of the scowling priest, evidenced the futility of any appeal. There was nothing for it but to accompany the major-domo to the boat.

'His Excellency, your master, has given orders, I presume, that after I have made my compliments '—as delicate a phrase as he could think of for greasing the hands of justice—' I shall be at liberty to visit my friend?'

'Except the words of wisdom which have just fallen from his mouth, like the pure and sparkling drops of yonder fountain,' said the major-domo serenely, 'his Excellency has kept silence.'

This gentleman, as is always the case with persons in his position in China, was devoted to literature; he had a very pretty turn for poetic imagery, and a talent for iteration from the classics, and would, under less auspicious circumstances, and in a barbarian clime such as our own, have probably been an artcritic.

'Do you mean to say that the word of Twang-hi is as your mock money?' inquired Conway, his patience, which was considerable, on the brink of giving way, notwithstanding his familiarity with the national methods of procedure.

'Speak not disrespectfully of that which is burnt before the gods,' answered the other reprovingly. Twang-hi wishes you well. But his hands are washed of you. It is henceforth the pride and pleasure of Kushan to take charge of your esteemed interests. You will be kept under guard on board the boat until your friend has met with the fate awarded to him, unless any solid reason should chance, by the will of Heaven, to be advanced to the contrary.'

"Would a "tael," O Kushan, be a solid reason?'

A tael is what is given to-day upon the Sacred Hill to every beggar,' observed the major-domo abstractedly.

'Then a sycee-let us say of five taels-is at your service.' 'There is no weight in it,' replied the other, holding out his finger as if balancing a feather; it would almost float in the air. When one has ten taels in the hand, then indeed we say, "Ah, there is something!""

'When I behold the face of my friend again, O Kushan, thou shalt have ten taels.'

'Good. Human joys are but as the skippings of a sparrow, yet the face of a friend is a sweet spectacle. "Sunder not man from his brother," says the Best and Wisest. I will myself accompany you to the gaol when the business that we have on hand is concluded.'

Something over an ounce of silver, or a little more than a dollar in value.

Kushan was not only literary but (which is rare in persons of that class) a man of business. He accompanied Conway to the cabin, and assured himself of the value of the notes and bullion which the latter paid over to him for the mandarin on behalf of his friend.

6

These will go to Shanghae at once to be realised, I suppose,' observed Conway.

6

Kushan nodded. Delay is deprecated by the Wise,' he said. And for how many taels could a letter be taken with them by a sure and private hand?'

6

That

'It is hopeless,' answered the philosopher, with a sigh of unmistakable regret. To do business, and at the same time to benefit humanity, is an opportunity that rarely offers itself. gentleman yonder,' he pointed towards the court, indicating Pennicuick, will be dead before your messenger could go two days' journey; and those who sent him would smart for it. You will say that you meant nothing, that you only intended to send a messenger to your wife to say the weather is beautiful. But you should not pull up your stockings in a melon field; people always think you are stealing.'

'My friend is very rich, Kushan,' pleaded Conway earnestly. 'If time were given me, I could make it worth the while even of the lord of the province to take a merciful view of the case.'

'You could not buy his head, and that is what he would lose by such a course,' returned the other coolly. You think I paint a snake and add legs. On the contrary, I understate the matter. No human power can save the man; and it is not likely, under the circumstances'-here a quiet smile crossed the grave face of the speaker that Buddha will interfere in his favour.'

Then what advantage, in Heaven's name, do we gain by all this expenditure?'

For yourself, immunity and escape; for your friend—well, when one is on his death-bed there is sometimes mitigation from pain. A fish may sport in the kettle though his life will not be long. By the by, I conclude that he has money in his pocket."' "In his pocket? No; I think not.'

'What, has he gone to gaol without money? That is like going to sea without sails; he will not get on at all.'

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But they will not venture to ill-treat him in spite of the mandarin's orders to the contrary?'

'I am afraid it is possible that, by this time, the honourable person about whom we are discoursing may have been made exceedingly uncomfortable.'

The face of Kushan expressed so much more even than his

words that Conway did not lose a moment in providing himself with funds, and starting with the major-domo for the prison.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PRISONER'S HOPE.

THE Chinese themselves, who ought to be the best authorities upon the matter, indicate their gaols by the same name as that which they give to the infernal regions. When a man has been committed to prison, they say, 'He is gone to -,' the short for Gehenna, concerning which locality their views are identical with those entertained by our own theologians. These places of durance are built for the accommodation of prisoners only; and as witnesses and prosecutors are sent thither as well as the accused, the consequence is over-crowding. The inmates also suffer another sort of squeezing at the hands of the officials. The gaolers receive from Government a mere pittance, and make up their income by perquisites, which are wrung from those who are so unfortunate as to fall into their hands.

Conway and Pennicuick had both beheld with their own eyes the condition of these miserable beings, during a visit which curiosity had led them to take to a certain prison on their road, and they had been each impressed in their several ways. It is a nice world,' was Pennicuick's observation. Thousands of persons in it, mostly innocent, are suffering slow tortures in these places day and night. What bas become of all the principles of eternal justice, and so forth?' It would be unjust to say that he felt no pity; but there had nevertheless been something satisfactory to his feelings in this corroborative testimony (as he considered it) to the non-existence of a Supreme Benevolence.

Conway had kept silence; for unhappy persons, when not base enough to derive pleasure from the greater misery of their fellows, are rendered by the contemplation of it still more depressed.

"Your view of the case,' Pennicuick had continued, in his bitter way, 'is that matters are redressed hereafter. You allow that such a state of things as we have just been witnessing would be a reproach to any government calling itself divine, except for the doctrine of compensation. All these poor tortured friendless beings are to go to heaven. Yet, I suppose, their being in prison, even in China, does not argue that they are more virtuous than the rest of their lying, thieving fellow-countrymen who happen to be at large. Why should they therefore go to heaven? and if not, why should they be thus oppressed on earth?'

I am not the Creator, Pennicuick,'

'You are His apologist; and I ask you if this is justice, and (especially) mercy?"

I reply, in the words of Scripture, that He is in Heaven, and we are on earth; and that, being equally ignorant of the riddle of human fate and destiny, it is no use asking questions of one another about it.'

'Well, it is something that you don't fold your hands, Connie, and, looking smug and submissive, observe that whatever is is right. Let us light our cigars, and forget all about it.'

Conway had not forgotten all about these unimaginable horrors of which he had been a witness, but their impression had grown faint and vague upon the retina of his mind, just as happens to all of us -except some Mrs. Fry (who is cne in a million)-when we have visited any scene of misfortune, such as a workhouse, or a lunatic asylum, in, which, nevertheless, many thousands of our fellows continue to live on.

When now, in company with the dignified Kushan, he reached the gate of the gaol, it was with no greater apprehension concerning the present position of his friend than that his own absence might have distressed him, since he would not know how long they might be kept apart. His mind, too, was monopolised by the ultimate fate of Pennicuick, which, he was only too sure, was sealed, and which it was become, he thought, his painful duty to break to him.

Although, as we have said, the man was not very dear to him as a friend, his unhappy position seemed to beget a dearness, or rather, perhaps, to revive all those feelings of regard he had once entertained for him in youth. The memory of their old college days together welled up from his still kindly heart into his eyes, as he thought of this man and the bitter end that awaited him. What an end it was for so masterful and proud a spirit! If his sentence had been death--mere death-that would have been sad enough; but no soldier would have looked down the muzzle of the guns that were to kill him more firmly, he was well aware, than would Ralph Pennicuick. But that he should be bound to a post, and hacked to pieces by savage hands-faugh! His soul sickened at the contemplation of it. It seemed too hideous and terrible a thing to happen. And yet it was certain to happen.

They were standing before a long low building of but two stories high- or rather of one story and a half, for the basement was half sunk, and only showed the tops of certain barred windows without panes, through which, even to where they stood, came a sickly effluvium that seemed to poison the spring air.

'Why do they not open the gate, Kushan? They have both heard and seen us,'