Having dismissed the soldiers, the two boys mingled with the vast crowd that was surging toward the palace with deafening cheers for Li-Kong, who, by the treachery of the general, aided by those of his own troops who for weeks past had been passing into the city under the pretence of being fugitive tradespeople, had now reached the very walls of the outer palace without opposition. Indeed, so great were the numbers of the rebel troops and the mass of people who joined on their way, that when they came in sight of the palace walls the imperial soldiers fled in dismay, and so well had the rebel chief, and his brother traitors near the person of the Emperor, organized the conspiracy, that it was not until the outer palace was in flames that Wey-t-song became aware that Li-Kong had even entered Pekin. Then, however, like another Sardanapalus, his energies became aroused, and he collected together some few hundreds of his body guard, and determined to sell his life as dearly as possible, and till morning he held out; for so well did his guards handle the bows, and so clumsily did the rebels use their matchlocks, that it was early morning before the latter could effect an entrance to the inner palace. When, however, the broad light of morning came, what with the force of numbers, and their being enabled to use their matchlocks to greater advantage, they soon forced the gates and rushed into the great court _en masse_. Being among the first to enter, Nicholas and Chow beheld the Emperor, in the uniform of one of his own officers, exhorting his troops to die with him rather than to succumb to rebels. After a short fight, however, the coward guards threw down their arms, and shouted, "Long life to the heaven-bestowed Emperor Li-Kong." Indignant at their cowardice, Nicholas would have rushed among them, but for Chow, who whispered the danger of the princess. For a minute the fraternization of the guards appeased the rebels--it was only for a minute--then they shouted for the head of the vile Wey-t-song, and one of the guards pointing to the inner palace, they ran in that direction like a herd of hungry wolves, killing all, men, women, or children, whom they met in their way; then they came to the ladies' palace, and with hideous shouts of exultation, set it on fire; and the poor women, at least those who were not destroyed by the flames, ran from all quarters, but, alas! only to fall by the swords of the fiends, or, if escaping the latter, to perform, to them, the sacred duty of throwing themselves headlong into the canals, that they might not survive the downfall of their imperial master. More infuriated than the rebels, and with a wild hope of saving the Emperor and the princess, Nicholas ran through the burning palace, as if seeking death from the falling timbers; but, alas no clue could be found to those he sought. At length he thought of the imperial gardens, a place that the rebels, in their anxiety to plunder the palace, had forgotten.