Now, as indolence will spread as fast as nettles, the officers of the army, instead of attending to their duties, spend the greater part of their night-watches in gambling and drinking so hard, that had the enemy come upon them suddenly they must have surrendered. Yet the imperial troops were so numerous and the defences so strong, that with anything like a good show of fighting the rebels could have been beaten back, if not indeed entirely destroyed. As, however, these officers must have been fully aware of all this, it is only reasonable to suppose they were playing another little game of their own, that we shall soon see. Thus weeks passed away, without more than mere rumors of the movements of the rebel Li-Kong, who, it was said, was fast approaching the capital, and sacking towns or destroying the people on his march. There one day came a number of men to the eastern gate, reporting themselves to be fugitives, who had been driven to seek protection in the capital from Li, who was on his march by the eastern suburbs; and as also they brought the joyful intelligence that a vast quantity of rice was on the road from the southern provinces, under the charge of a body of merchants, who had managed to evade the rebels by taking a different route, they were received with open arms and treated handsomely. Then, as the General Kin feared that the starving people would set upon the wagons as they entered the city, he came out on the day of their arrival with a large body of soldiers to escort the food to the storehouse, where it could be fairly distributed. But so eager was the general to secure the grain from a sudden rush of the hungry people, that he encompassed the procession with his troops so perfectly, that neither wagons nor the fugitive tradesmen who accompanied them could be seen by the crowd. Moreover Kin kept close the wagons till they were safe within the fore-court of the storehouses. After performing his duty, the general astonished Nicholas by carrying his indefatigability so far as to personally inspect the walls, post the sentries, and examine the flints of their matchlocks, all of which was very puzzling, for not only was there no enemy to be seen, but the deserters and fugitives reported that the attack, if made at all, would be upon the opposite walls of the city, whither, in fact, Kin had sent already a great part of the soldiers who had hitherto been posted upon that side. CHAPTER XXVII. THE REBELS ATTACK PEKIN.--TREACHERY OF A GENERAL, AND THE FIGHT. It was the middle of the third watch; Nicholas was dreaming of the rebel Li-Kong, the Emperor, the princess, the soldiers, and his father's fleet. A sudden grip upon his arm made him set bolt upright upon his sleeping mat, and there stood Chow, in a state of great excitement, holding in his arms his master's habiliments and accoutrements, as if the place had been on fire, or he had suddenly turned thief, and was about commencing business upon his master's clothes.