Page:Strange stories from a Chinese studio.djvu/270

241 A CHINESE STUDIO 241

each with a sharp knife in his hand. The soldiers imme- diately took to their heels, and TsSng fell on his knees before the robbers, saying, " I am a poor criminal going into banishment, and have nothing to give you. I pray you spare my life." But the robbers sternly replied, '* We are all the victims of your crimes, and now we want your wicked head." Then Tseng began to revile them, sa5dng, " Dogs ! though I am under sentence of banish- ment, I am still an officer of the State." But the robbers cursed him again, flourishing a sword over his neck, and the next thing he heard was the noise of his own head as it fell with a thud to the ground. At the same instant two devils stepped forward and seized him each by one hand, compelling him to go with them. After a little whUe they arrived at a great city where there was a hideously ugly king sitting upon a throne judging between good and evil. Tseng crawled before him on his hands and knees to receive sentence, and the king, after turning over a few pages of his register, thundered out, **The punishment of a traitor who has brought misfortune on his coimtry : the cauldron of boiling oil ! " To this ten thousand devils responded with a cry like a clap of thunder, and one huge monster led Tseng down alongside the cauldron, which was seven feet in height, and surrounded on all sides by blazing fuel, so that it was of a glowing red heat. Tseng shrieked for mercy, but it was all up with him, for the devil seized him by the hair and the small of his back and pitched him headlong in. Down he fell with a splash, and rose and sank with the bubbling of the oil, which ate through his flesh into his very vitals. He longed to die, but death would not come to him. A*fter about half-an-hour's boiling, a devil took him out on a pitchfork and threw him down before the Infernal King, who again consulted his note-book, and said, ** You reUed on your position to treat others with contumely and injustice, for which you must siiffer on the Sword-Hill." Again he was led away by devils to a large hill thickly studded with sharp swords, their points upwards Uke the shoots of bamboo, with here and there the remains of many miserable wretches who had suffered before him. Tseng again cried for mercy and crouched upon the ground ; but a devil bored into him with a poisoned