laughter from the theatre, I judged that the tao-tai was acquitting himself well. “As the sun mounted higher in the heavens I had dozed off, but was suddenly aroused by the honourable Hop Li himself. He seemed annoyed that I was still alive, and after delivering me a neat and carefully-worded oration on my disgraceful insubordination in still living after the punishment I had undergone, he proceeded to the booths outside where food of all kinds could be purchased. He there bought everything eatable and returned to the theatre, where he announced from the stage that there would be an interval of seven minutes, during which time free meals would be served at the stalls outside, and at the resumption of the performance he would repeat his drunken scene, undertaking to make it last four hours, and that in that time he would get genuinely drunk as a special compliment to the audience. “The sympathies of the audience were undoubtedly with me, but the prospect of a free meal and the spectacle of their tao-tai intoxicated were so alluring that the finer feelings of my fellow-townsmen were for the moment blunted. Out they came helter-skelter. It was no time for apologies, food was at the other end, so over my poor body rushed the entire audience. It seemed only a few seconds since the last feet pounded my unfortunate body, when a gong sounded, and back rushed everyone, their mouths stuffed with roast duck, stewed pork, rice, melon seeds, fish, ginger, prunes, hardbake, macaroni—in fact, every eatable imaginable. “I fainted. When I recovered it was getting dusk, the theatre was still full, but I ceased to take much interest. My guards again gave me food, and at the conclusion of the performance again the people passed over my bruised body, but on this occasion they did it quietly and without much discomfort to the miserable being pegged down in their pathway. “Then came the tao-tai. He wished to walk on me himself, but he was so drunk that he was unable to do so, and I was taken back to my prison in the Yamen bruised and exhausted. I slept till late the next day, and the tao-tai, who had made himself a martyr to art in order to personate a drunken man to perfection, slept late too.