120 THE LAND OF PEACH BLOOM 



arrogant fellow of savage countenance and devoid of com- 

 passion. This important personage, whose rapacity for gain 

 never allowed a prisoner to pass without the closest scrutiny 

 of his practised eyes, soon perceived that the fisherman was 

 not a premising sort of subject for the extraction of pecuniary 

 benefits, and accordingly loaded him with chains, and un- 

 ceremoniously bundled him into a filthy, reeking cell, there 

 to be kept under observation as a dangerous character, ana 

 held in durance vile until such time as it would suit the 

 Magistrate to enquire into his case. Here the fisherman, 

 left to himself and his thoughts, had ample leisure to medi- 

 tate on the instability of human affairs, the vicissitudes of 

 life, and the fickleness of fortune. In a strange land he had 

 been received with open arms and generously treated by 

 strangers; but when he returned to his own kin, to claim his 

 own, he was abused, roughly handled, taken for an evil 

 incarnation and cast into prison. All these reflections so 

 embittered his soul that he resolved, should he ever escape 

 alive from his miserable predicament, to abandon all and 

 return at once to the land of sunshine beyond the hills. After 

 spending several unenviable days, and worse nights, in con- 

 finement with vermin for company, one frosty grey morning 

 he was roughly dragged out to appear before the Magistrate. 



Now it happened that the Magistrate of the important 

 City of Wuling was a man of vast experience, keen intellect, 

 and sound judgment. When the fisherman knelt before him 

 in open court and told his simple tale, the Magistrate decided 

 at once that he was not a madman, and that the words he 

 spoke bore the impress of truth. He therefore ordered the 

 prisoner to be. released forthwith, and he further gave judg- 

 ment for the immediate restoration to him of all his belong- 

 ings. The fisherman bowed his head to the ground as an 

 expression of his gratitude, and was about to rise and depart 

 when the Magistrate again addressed him. 



'You have told us," said the Magistrate, "of a wonder- 

 ful passage in the hills that leads to a wonderful land of never 

 fading verdure. I have never before heard of any such 

 passage, nor of any such land in this neighbourhood; but as 

 I firmly believe there is something supernatural at the bottom 

 of this very extraordinary adventure of yours, I desire you 

 to conduct one of my officers to the spot and show him the 

 tunnel so that we may gather some further particulars re- 

 garding a subject which is not only of paramount importance 

 to this District, but which, I .opine, must be of peculiar 

 interest to the lettered classes throughout the realm. It is 

 my duty, therefore, to investigate the matter as far as I can." 



The fisherman said he would gladly show the way to the 



