The story is still told with
bated breath of the terrible manner in which Yuan Shih-kai sated
his rage when this news reached him--Szechuan being governed by a
man he had hitherto thoroughly trusted--one General Chen Yi.
Arming himself with a sword and beside himself with rage he burst
into the room where his favourite concubine was lying with her
newly-delivered baby. With a few savage blows he butchered them
both, leaving them lying in their gore, thus relieving the
apoplectic stroke which threatened to overwhelm him. Nothing
better illustrates the real nature of the man who had been so long
the selected bailiff of the Powers. On the 12th May it became
necessary to suspend specie payment in Peking, the government
banks having scarcely a dollar of silver left, a last attempt to
negotiate a loan in America having failed. Meanwhile under
inspiration of General Feng Kuo-chang, a conference to deal with
the situation was assembling at Nanking; but on the 11th May, the
Canton Military Government, representing the Southern Confederacy,
had already unanimously elected Vice-President Li Yuan Hung as
president of the Republic, it being held that legally Yuan Shih-
kai had ceased to be President when he had accepted the Throne on
the previous 13th December. The Vice-President, who had managed to
remove his residence outside the Palace, had already received
friendly offers of protection from certain Powers which he
declined, showing courage to the end.
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