WOO'S FLIGHT. 101 notwithstanding Go's dying advice and his own proved abilities, he was unaware of the plot against his life till told of it by a son of Go. Such base ingratitude so disgusted and grieved him, that he was ready, by suicide, to gprant the eager wish of his enemies. His friends, however, urged him to save himself by flight With a number of his own men, he therefore set out for Loongchung, but was pursued, and most of his men, by force or argument, were got back to Ya He however escaped, probably with the connivance of his enemies ; and after much wandering, found himself at the Court of Chin, whose lord gave a right royal welcome to the one man of Yen of whom he was afraid. Both he and his son were ennobled on the spot Mung, whether from jealousy of a man who might be his rival, or, as he pretended, from fear that Woo Wang would return to his native land and give trouble to Chin,— quietly hinted that the Woo, father and son, were dragon and tiger, and the sooner they were out of the way the better. Jien refused to act so base a part, after the warm welcome he had given them, declaring it was far better to employ their bravery in acquiring peace for the Four* Seaa Ping, the absolute controller of the Yen court, was daily reminded of the bravery of the men whom first to last his jealousy had driven from court and country. Rumours were also ceaseless of the accumulation by Chin of stores on the border, east of Shenchung, on the south-western frontier of Yen ; and he was told that peace would not be of long standing. But, like all inferior men, neither Ping nor his lord was capable or seeing anything great or formidable in either Mung or his lord. And when urged to make some preparation, he refused to act, because of the present good relations subsisting between the two countries, which could not but be immediately broken if he began active war preparations. Besides, he angrily said, that he did not think it proper to hazard the rupture of their present amity at the suggestion of a stranger; for the fugitive Jun was his chief adviser.
- A common name for ChinA, which is the Middle Land'* between the Four
Seas, these being the barbarians east, west, north, and south of her.
