Tuan Chih-kuei, Chow Tze-chi, Liang Shih-yi, Chang Cheng-fang and Yuan Nai-kuan to the end that the whole nation may be pacified.  Then, and not till then, will the world believe in the sincerity of the President, in his love for the country and his intention to abide by the law.  All the troops and people here are in anger; and unless a substantial proof from the Central Authorities is forthcoming, guaranteeing the maintenance of the Republic, it will be impossible to suppress or pacify them.  We await a reply within twenty-four hours.

(Signed) the governors of Yunnan province.

It was evident from the beginning that pride prevented Yuan Shih-kai from retreating from the false position he had taken up.  Under his instructions the State Department sent a stream of powerful telegraphic messages to Yunnan attempting to dissuade the Republican leaders from revolt.  But the die had been cast and very gravely the standard of rebellion was raised in the capital city of Yunnan and the people exhorted to shed their blood.  Everything pointed to the fact that this rising was to be very different from the abortive July outbreak of 1913.  There was a soberness and a deliberation about it all which impressed close observers with a sense of the ominous end which was now in sight.

Still Peking remained purblind.  During the month of January the splendour of the dream empire, which was already dissolving into thin air, filled the newspapers.  It was reported that an Imperial Edict printed on Yellow Paper announcing the enthronement was ready for universal distribution:  that twelve new Imperial Seals in jade or gold were being manufactured:  that a golden chair and a magnificent State Coach in the style of Louis XV were almost ready.  Homage to the portrait of Yuan Shih-kai by all officials throughout the country was soon to be ordered; sycophantic scholars were busily preparing a volume poetically entitled “The Golden Mirror of the Empire,” in which the virtues of the new sovereign were extolled in high-sounding language.  A recondite significance, it was said, was to be given to the old ceremonial dress, which was to be revived, from the fact that every official would carry a Hu or Ivory Tablet to be held against the breast.  The very mention of this was sufficient to make the local price of ivory leap skywards!  In the privacy of drawing-rooms the story went the rounds that Yuan Shih-kai, now completely deluded into believing in the success of his great scheme, had held a full-dress rehearsal of a ceremony which would be the first one at his new Court when he would invest the numerous ladies of his establishment with royal rank.  Seated on his Throne he had been engaged in instructing these interested females, already robed in magnificent costumes, in the parts they were to play, when he had noticed the absence of the Korean Lady—­a consort he had won, it is said, in his Seoul days in competition