Among the people, unknown, unseen, and unsuspected, except to the
proved ones to whom they desired to reveal themselves, moved the
agents of the Three Societies. While to the many of Ching-fow nothing
was desired or even thought of behind the downfall of their own
officials, and, chief of all, the execution of the evil-minded and
depraved Mandarin Ping Siang, whose cruelties and extortions had made
his name an object of wide and deserved loathing, the agents only
regarded the city as a bright spot in the line of blood and fire which
they were fanning into life from Peking to Canton, and which would
presumably burst forth and involve the entire Empire.
Although it had of late become a plain fact, by reason of the manner
of behaving of the people, that events of a sudden and turbulent
nature could not long be restrained, yet outwardly there was no
exhibition of violence, not even to the length of resisting those whom
Ping Siang sent to enforce his unjust demands, chiefly because a
well-founded whisper had been sent round that nothing was to be done
until Tung Fel should arrive, which would not be until the seventh day
in the month of Winged Dragons.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271