Every one remembers that day in Peking when popular rumour
declared that the man's last hour had come. Warned on every side
to beware, Yuan Shih-kai left the Palace as soon as he had read
the Edict of dismissal in the Grand Council and drove straight to
the railway-station, whence he entrained for Tientsin, dressed as
a simple citizen. Rooms had been taken for him at a European
hotel, the British Consulate approached for protection, when
another train brought down his eldest son bearing a message direct
from the Grand Council Chamber, absolutely guaranteeing the safety
of his life. Accordingly he duly returned to his native place in
Honan province, and for two years--until the outbreak of the
Revolution--devoted himself sedulously to the development of the
large estate he had acquired with the fruits of office. Living
like a patriarch of old, surrounded by his many wives and
children, he announced constantly that he had entirely dropped out
of the political life of China and only desired to be left in
peace. There is reason to believe, however, that his henchmen
continually reported to him the true state of affairs and bade him
bide his time. Certain it is that the firing of the first shots on
the Yangtsze found him alert and issuing private orders to his
followers. It was inevitable that he should have been recalled to
office--and actually within one hundred hours of the first news of
the outbreak the Court sent for him urgently and ungraciously.
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