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132 innocent man with murder, and have palmed off on him the body of some one else as that of the man you said he had murdered?"

Seeing that circumstances were against him Lai was silent.

"Now listen," said the magistrate; "you, Lai, are the principal culprit in this affair. You brought an unjust accusation against an innocent man, and by means of it extorted money from him. For these crimes I sentence you to receive a hundred blows with the large bamboo, and to be transported into Mongolia for five years. Because you, Tan, having connived at the concealment of what you believed to be a murder, charged your master with the murder out of a spirit of revenge, I sentence you to receive fifty blows on the mouth, and fifty blows with the large bamboo. And as to you, Ts'èng, though your conduct has been bad in attempting to conceal what you believed to be your crime, and in bribing others to silence, yet, in consideration of your imprisonment and of what you have gone through, I acquit you."

Never were more life-giving words uttered than those addressed by the magistrate to Ts'èng. Their effect was visible upon him physically; he seemed to grow in bulk under their gracious influence, and his face reverted from the pallor of death to the colour of life.

"May your Excellency live for ever," said he, as he kotowed before his judge, who, however, had left the judgment-seat before he had completed his nine prostrations. As the magistrate turned away from the hall, he met Mr Tso, who had come to call upon him.

"So our friend Ts'èng has got off, I see," said his visitor.

"Yes," said the magistrate, "but I have quite come round to your estimate of his character. He is a poor creature. I sent a much finer fellow to the execution-ground yesterday."