compelled him to besiege it in form. To all his promises and arguments there was made the uniform reply that they held it for their master, and would continue to hold it with their lives. The delay caused by this resistance ruffled the usually serene disposition of Bayan, and for the first time in his carcer he used threats towards a garrison endeavouring to perform its duty. His threats were as unavailing as his promises and his appeals to the hard logic of fact. At length the town was carried by assault; all the Chinese officers were slain except one, who cut his way out with eight followers; and the Mongols, breaking loose from the restraining influence of their general, put every one they came across to the sword. The massacre of the brave garrison and inhabitants of Changchow is the single stain on Bayan's reputation.

Meanwhile all was in confusion at Hangchow, where there was none to direct the military preparations commenced for its defence. The Mongol armies were verging on it both from the north and from the west, for while Bayan had been delayed before Changchow, another force was rapidly advancing through Kiangsi on the doomed capital. In these straits an embassy was sent to Bayan imploring peace on any conditions. "Our ruler is young, and cannot be held responsible for the differences that have arisen between the peoples. Kiassetao, the guilty one, has been punished; give us peace, and we shall be better friends. for the future." Such was the burden of their message. Bayan's reply was to the point. "The age of your prince has nothing to do with the question between us. The war must go on to its legitimate end. Further argument is

useless."

After the capture of Changchow no further obstacle worthy of the name remained in Bayan's path. The important towns Souchow and Kiahing, on the Imperial Canal, both

There is much doubt whether the facts were exactly as stated in the Chinese history. Marco Polo says that the force Bayan left in possession was first massacred by the Chinese, and that Bayan only ordered the destruction of the town in expiation for this offence. Marco Polo, vol. ii., p. 41, and Colonel Yule's notes.

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surrendered to him without resistance. As a precaution, several of the princes of the Imperial family were now sent into Fuhkien, and all those who had the power began their preparations for withdrawing to a place of safety. The Empress Regent refused all proposals to retire with the Emperor to the south, and in a very few weeks after the plan was first mooted its execution was rendered impossible by the arrival of the Mongol army. Hangchow was in no position to offer a protracted defence, and the Empress Regent made, therefore, an unconditional surrender. The terms were arranged by conferences in Bayan's camp, and, after appointing a tribunal for the administration of affairs, it does not appear that the Mongols in any way interfered with the government of the city. Bayan made a triumphal progress through the streets at the head of his army, whilst one of his officers notified to the Empress that she and the Emperor would have to set out with as little delay as possible for Kublai's court. Kongtsong, accompanied by all his relations who had been taken at Hangchow, was sent to the northern capital, thus closing his reign and virtually the Sung dynasty as well. His mother summed up the situation in the words, "The Son of Heaven grants you the favour of sparing your life; it is just to thank him for it, and to pay him homage."

After the capture of the capital, many of the great generals and officials of the Sungs made their obedience to Kublai. The departure of the Emperor and of the principal members of his family removed the objects of their fidelity. The country was exhausted and tired of war. It wished for peace, and would accept the favour with some gratitude even at the hands of an enemy. Hiakoue and several other Sung commanders received from the hands of Kublai a reappointment to their different functions. There were still some exceptions to this wide-spread worshipping of the rising sun, and a few brave men preferred to encounter all the dangers of an unequal struggle to recognizing a foreign enemy as their master.

The relics of the Chinese army rallied at Wenchow, in Chekiang, under the command of the two princes, Ywang

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and Kwang Wang, with whom still remained the faithful Chang Chikia. The former of these princes was declared Emperor, and the people of the coast and the southern provinces gathered round these representatives of their ancient kings. The immediate effects of their proclamation were to arrest the defection of many Chinese who meditated going over to the side of the Mongols, and to attract a very considerable force to their standard. Several skirmishes were fought and won, and these princes established their headquarters at Foochow, the capital of Fuhkien. These preliminary advantages were followed up, and for a moment it seemed as if the tide of Mongol success was not only arrested, but on the point of being rolled back. The successes were, however, only hollow and deceptive. They were more than counterbalanced at the time by the capture of Yangchow in Kiangsu, which had long resisted under the command of Litingchi the utmost efforts of Artchu and a chosen force.

After the surrender of that fortress, the Mongols resumed operations on a larger and more active scale in the south, where they had not enjoyed unvaried success. Their attention was called the more urgently to the matter by the tidings of a defeat inflicted upon one of their lieutenants in the neighbourhood of Canton. The Mongols rapidly advanced out of Kiangsi for the purpose of restoring their shaken authority, and a victory at Nanyong, in the north of Kwantung, more than compensated for the defeat near Canton. Following up their advantages with their usual rapidity, they had in a few days also seized Chaochow, where the Chinese vainly sought to defend their homes from the housetops and in barricaded streets. The main army of the Sungs was still more unfortunate. In a great battle at Chuchow, in Chekiang, it was driven from the field with heavy loss, and many of the leaders, who could ill be spared, were among the slain. The Sung princes then retired from Foochow to Siuenchow, a harbour further to the southhaving only succeeded in evading the pursuing Mongol fleet in a mist. At this place the governor received them with very little friendly feeling, and in consequence of some

misunderstanding even turned his arms against his fellowcountrymen. The Sung fleet was then obliged to seek another asylum. The year A.D. 1276 closed in unrelieved gloom for the cause of the native rulers. They had lost possession of every province, with the exception of a few districts in Kwantung and Fuhkien.

During that winter Kublai's attention was again summoned to affairs in Mongolia, where his nephew Kaidu had renewed his hostile measures; and this afforded the Sungs an opportunity for momentarily recovering some of the ground they had lost. The Mongol armies speedily returned, vanquished the Chinese forces, and left the Sung princes no place of safety except their vessels and some of the lonely islands. off the Canton estuary. Canton itself had before this been again taken by the Mongol forces. In this extremity the young Emperor died, but a few brave men were still left resolved to continue the struggle. Another prince was declared Emperor by this faithful but much reduced band, under the name of Tiping, and Chang Chikia and a few other resolute adherents prepared to renew hostilities with the Mongols. "If Heaven has not resolved to overthrow the Sungs," said one of them, "do you think that even now it cannot restore their ruined throne?" Tiping's proclamation was made in the year A.D. 1278; but, instead of being the inauguration of a more prosperous period in the history of the dynasty, it was only the prelude to its fall.

The Sung prince took refuge with his fleet in a natural harbour in an island named Tai, which could only be entered with a favourable tide, and there Chang Chikia set himself to work with all his energy to prepare for a renewal of the contest. He had not neglected any precautions for the defence of the position he held should he be attacked in it. His fortifications crowned the heights above the bay, and nearly two hundred thousand men were under his orders. The Mongol fleet at last discovered the whereabouts of the Chinese place of retreat, and prepared to attack it. Reinforcements were procured from Canton, and on their arrival the signal was given for an immediate assault on the position held by Chang Chikia and the only force remaining to the Sungs.

THE LAST SUNG EMPEROR.

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The Mongols attacked with their usual impetuosity, but after two days' fighting they had obtained no decisive advantage. The Chinese fought with great gallantry, and under Chang Chikia's leading their rude valour was supplemented by his skilful dispositions. On the third day the Mongol admiral Chang Hofan, who happened to be a connection of the Chinese commander, renewed his attack, and after a stubbornly contested engagement succeeded in throwing the Chinese fleet into confusion. There can be no doubt that not a ship would have made good its escape but for a heavy mist which suddenly fell over the scene, when Chang Chika succeeded in making his way out to sea, and his example was imitated by sixteen vessels.

The vessel of the Emperor had not the same good fortune. Unable to extricate itself from the press of battle, it fell into the power of the victor. In this desperate situation Lousionfoo, one of the most faithful of the Sung ministers, resolved to save the honour if not the life of his master. Having thrown into the sea his own wife and children, he took the Emperor in his arms, and jumped overboard with him. The greater number of the officers adopted the same resolution. Thus perished Tiping, the last of the Sung Emperors.

Meanwhile Chang Chikia was sailing away in search of another place of refuge; but his first thought still was more of the cause to which he was attached than of saving a life which had become of little value. On learning the death of Tiping, he requested the mother of that prince, who had escaped with him, to choose a member of the Sung family to succeed him; but the grief at the loss of a son proved more potent than any inducement on public grounds to name a successor. She refused to be consoled for her loss, and seeing no hope left, threw herself overboard, thus putting an end to her anxieties. The high courage of Chang Chikia would not recognize the impossibility of retrieving their defeat, and he accordingly continued to sail in the direction of the south, where he might be safe from the Mongol pursuit, and could obtain some fresh succours from the tributary states of that region.

VOL. I

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