changed the word “slay” into “protect,” and this is the sense in which the decree was acted upon by provincial officials generally, with the exception of the Governor of Shansi, who sent a second memorial, eliciting the second decree as above.  It is impossible to say how many foreigners owe their lives to this alteration of a word, and the Empress Dowager herself would scarcely have escaped so easily as she did, had her cruel order been more fully executed.  The trick was soon discovered, and the two heroes, Yuean Ch`ang and Hsue Ching-ch`eng, were both summarily beheaded, even though it was to the former that the Empress Dowager was indebted for information which enabled her to frustrate the plot against her life in 1898.

Now, at the very moment of departure, she perpetrated a most brutal crime.  A favourite concubine of the Emperor’s, who had previously given cause for offence, urged that his Majesty should not take part in the flight, but should remain in Peking.  For this suggestion the Empress Dowager caused the miserable girl to be thrown down a well, in spite of the supplications of the Emperor on her behalf.  Then she fled, ultimately to Hsi-an Fu, the capital of Shensi, and for a year and a half Peking was rid of her presence.  In 1902, she came back with the Emperor, whose prerogative she still managed to usurp.  She declared at once for reform, and took up the cause with much show of enthusiasm; but those who knew the Manchu best, decided to “wait and see.”  She began by suggesting intermarriage between Manchus and Chinese, which had so far been prohibited, and advised Chinese women to give up the practice of footbinding, a custom which the ruling race had never adopted.  It was henceforth to be lawful for Manchus, even of the Imperial family, to send their sons abroad to be educated,—­a step which no Manchu would be likely to take unless forcibly coerced into doing so.  Any spirit of enterprise which might have been possessed by the founders of the dynasty had long since evaporated, and all that Manchu nobles asked was to be allowed to batten in peace upon the Chinese people.

The direct issue of the emperors of the present dynasty and of their descendants in the male line, dating from 1616, are popularly known as Yellow Girdles, from a sash of that colour which they habitually wear.  Each generation becomes a degree lower in rank, until they are mere members of the family with no rank whatever, although they still wear the girdle and receive a trifling allowance from the government.  Thus, beggars and even thieves are occasionally seen with this badge of relationship to the throne.  Members of the collateral branches of the Imperial family wear a red girdle, and are known as Gioros, Gioro being part of the surname—­Aisin Gioro = Golden Race—­of an early progenitor of the Manchu emperors.