He thus managed to communicate with the outer world; Lord Salisbury intervened, and he was released after a fortnight's detention.
Well might Sun Yat-sen now say-- "They little thought that day of pain That one day I should come again." More a revolutionary than ever, he soon set to work to collect funds which flowed in freely from Chinese sources in all quarters of the world.

At last, in September 1911, the train was fired, beginning with the province of Ss{u}ch`uan, and within an incredibly short space of time, half China was ablaze.

By the middle of October the Manchus were beginning to feel that a great crisis was at hand, and the Regent was driven to recall Yuean Shih-k`ai, whom he had summarily dismissed from office two years before, on the conventional plea that Yuean was suffering from a bad leg, but really out of revenge for his treachery to the late Emperor, which had brought about the latter's arrest and practical deposition by the old Empress Dowager in 1898.
To this summons Yuean slily replied that he could not possibly leave home just then, as his leg was not yet well enough for him to be able to travel, meaning, of course, to gain time, and be in a position to dictate his own terms.

On the 30th October, when it was already too late, the baby Emperor, reigning under the year-title Hsuean T`ung (wide control), published the following edict:-- "I have reigned for three years, and have always acted conscientiously in the interests of the people, but I have not employed men properly, not having political skill.

I have employed too many nobles in political positions, which contravenes constitutionalism.