That is the law.

It was the word of the Son of Heaven that this should be.
But those who were in office with me would not kill me, because they approved of what I did.

Yet they must kill me, since it was the law.
What was there to do but in the night to flee, so that they who should kill me might not obey the law?
Had I remained, and they had not obeyed the law, they also would have been slain." He paused for a moment and then went on.

"So I fled, and it is many years since by the Yang-tze-kiang I killed my ruler and saved my friends.

Yet I had not been faithful to the ancient law, and so through the long years I have done low work among a low people.