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cross when he fell forward on his knees. I am not sure whether he was now dead or not, some of the others said he was not. One assistant now held both his arms at full length behind which a second held his “pig tail” at full length in front. The executioner changed his knife for a heavy looking sword about 5 inches broad at the cutting point. Holding this with both hands, he measured his distance, raised the sword and with one clean stroke, which I heard as well as saw, severed the head from the body which was suddenly drawn back, by the assistant who held the arms, into a sitting posture. This "coup de grace" was received with a cheer from the crowd; and this was repeated a few seconds after, when I suppose the same thing was done to the other victim. This was the end of what we saw and probably occupied 4 or 5 minutes. When we all turned away it would be hard to say which one of us looked the most ghastly. We were all pretty well sickened.
The gates were now opened the Mandarins left and the crowd poured in to see the cutting up of the bodies. We scrambled down from the roof and, after waiting for a while in the shop to allow the crowd to disperse somewhat, we thanked the shop master for our accommodation and sallied out, walked about 100 yards and got into our chairs and were glad when we once more found ourselves in Shameen and went and had a stiff whiskey and soda at Jardine's Hong.
HAI JUI: MINISTER, GOD AND SPARK FOR REVOLUTION
Hai Jui (4) otherwise known by his literary names of Ju Hsien (汝賢), Kuo K'ai (開) and Kang Feng (剛峯) was born in Kiungshan in northern Hainan island in AD 1513. He became a celebrated scholar and a poet of great repute; and as a fearless statesman of unflinching probity was thrown into gaol at the age of 53, for his remonstrances with the Emperor, where stripped of his rank and honours he remained for nine months in chains under sentence of death. Only in 1567 when the Ming Emperor Mu Tsung came to the throne was Hai Jui released and reinstated as President of the Board of War. Two years later he became the Governor of Nanking and of ten other prefectures but went to extremes in supporting the poor against the rich and was compelled to resign. Whilst in office he took a deep interest in his native island, plan-
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