“He just told me of your treachery; he is my witness,” said Tsʻao. “Who would dare kill him?” “How can you, the first Minister of State, heed the unsupported tale of an absconding slave?” “But I have Wang and the others in prison,” said Tsʻao Tsʻao. “And how can you rebut their evidence?” He then called in the remainder of his followers and ordered them to search Tung Chʻêng’s bedroom. They did so and found the decree that had been given him in the girdle and the pledge signed by the conspirators. “You mean rat!” cried Tsʻao, “you dared do this?” He gave orders to arrest the whole household without exception. Then he returned to his Palace with the incriminating documents and called all his advisers together to discuss the dethronement of the Emperor and the setting up of a successor. Many decrees, blood written, have issued, accomplishing nothing One inscribed pledge was fraught with mountains of sorrow. The reader who wishes to know the fate of the Emperor must read the next chapter. CHAPTER XXIV. MURDER OF A KUEI-FEI: LIU PEI DEFEATED; FLIGHT TO YÜAN SHAO. The last chapter closed with the discovery of the “girdle” decree and the assembly of Tsʻao Tsʻao’s advisers to consider the deposition of the Emperor Hsien. Chʻêng Yü spoke strongly against this saying, “Illustrious Sir, the means by which you impress the world and direct the government is the command of the House of Han. In these times of turmoil and rivalry among the nobles such a step as the deposition of the ruler will certainly bring about civil war and is much to be deprecated.” After reflection Tsʻao Tsʻao abandoned the project. But Tung Chʻêng’s plot was not to go unpunished. All five of the conspirators with every member of their households, seven hundred at least, were taken and put to death at one or another of the gates of the city. The people wept at such merciless and wholesale slaughter. A secret decree in a girdle sewn, In red blood written, the Emperor’s own, To the staunch and faithful Tung addressed, Who had saved him once when enemies pressed, And who, sore grieved at his Sovereign’s fate, Expressed in dreams his ceaseless hate, Carried misfortune and death in its train But glory to him who died in vain. Another poet wrote of the sad fate of Wang Tzŭ-fu and his friends:— Greatheartedly these signed the silken roll, And pledged themselves to save their King from shame. Alas! black death of them took heavy toll, To write their names upon the roll of fame.