There at least he would be in daily touch with developments and
able to fight his own battles without fear of being stabbed in the
back; since under the eye of the foreign Legations even Yuan Shih-
kai was exhibiting a certain timidity. Indeed after the outcry
which General Chang Cheng-wu's judicial murder had aroused he had
reserved his ugliest deeds for the provinces, only small men being
done to death in Peking. Accordingly, General Li Yuan-hung packed
a bag and accompanied only by an aide-de-camp left abruptly for
the capital where he arrived on the 11th December, 1913.
A great sensation was caused throughout China by this sudden
departure, consternation prevailing among the officers and men of
the Hupeh (Wuchang) army when the newspapers began to hint that
their beloved chief had been virtually abducted. Although
cordially received by Yuan Shih-kai and given as his personal
residence the Island Palace where the unfortunate Emperor Kwang
Hsu had been so long imprisoned by the Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi
after her coup d'etat of 1898, it did not take long for General Li
Yuan-hung to understand that his presence was a source of
embarrassment to the man who would be king. Being, however, gifted
with an astounding fund of patience, he prepared to sit down and
allow the great game which he knew would now unroll to be played
to its normal ending. What General Li Yuan-hung desired above all
was to be forgotten completely and absolutely--springing to life
when the hour of deliverance finally arrived.
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