14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY
MY father's four months' leave having expired,
he was received in audience by their Majesties
on the first day of the sixth moon. He was
much improved in health, but his rheumatism
was still very troublesome. This was particularly
noticeable when climbing the steps to the
Audience Hall, and Her Majesty ordered two
of the eunuchs to assist him.
First he thanked Her Majesty for her kindness
towards my sister and myself, and, as was
the custom, took off his hat and knelt down, bowing
his head until it struck the ground. This
ceremony was always gone through by any official
who had received special favors from Their
Majesties.
He then replaced his hat on his head and
remained kneeling before the throne. Her
Majesty then questioned him about his life
in Paris, from time to time complimenting him
on his work. Seeing that remaining in this
kneeling position appeared to be making him
tired, Her Majesty ordered one of the eunuchs
to bring a cushion for him to use, which was
another great honor, as this cushion was only
used by the President of the Grand Council.
Her Majesty told him that as he was now
getting to be a very old man, she did not intend
sending him away from China again, as she
wanted to keep my sister and myself at the
Court, which she could not do if she sent him to
some foreign country, as he would want to take
his daughters with him. She said she was
pleased, that although we had been away from
China for such a long time, we were well
acquainted with the Manchu customs. My father
replied that it had been his care that we should
be brought up according to the customs of our
own country.
Her Majesty when asked the Emperor if he
had anything to say, and he replied by asking
my father if he spoke French, and thought it
very strange on learning that he did not. My
father explained that he had never had the time
to study it, besides which he considered himself
too old to learn a foreign language.
The Emperor next asked what was the feeling
in France towards China. My father replied that
they were very friendly at that time, but that
immediately after the Boxer trouble the post of
Minister had been a very embarrassing one. Her
Majesty said that it had been an unfortunate
affair, but she was glad that everything was
now settled satisfactorily. She told my father
that he was to get well again as quickly as possible,
and the audience came to an end.
Afterwards Her Majesty said that my father
was looking very old since his return from
France and that he would have to be careful
and take things easy until he got stronger again.
She was pleased that he had shown appreciation
of her interest in my sister and myself.
Preparations were now commenced for celebrating
the birthday of His Majesty, the Emperor
Kwang Hsu, which was to take place on
the 28th of that month. The actual date of the
Emperor's birthday was the 26th of the sixth
moon, but this day, being the anniversary of
the death of a previous Emperor of China, we
were unable to hold any festivities, and so it was
always celebrated on the 28th day instead. The
official celebration lasted for seven days, three
days before and four days after the actual date.
During that time the whole of the Court dressed
in official robes, and no business of any kind
whatever was attended to. This being the
Emperor's 32nd birthday, and as the full celebrations
only took place every tenth year, i. e.
On his 20th birthday, his 30th birthday, and
so on, the festivities were not carried out on a
very grand scale. However, it was quite sufficient
to interfere with all business, and the usual
morning audiences did not take place during
these seven days. The Empress Dowager herself
was the only person who did not dress especially
during these celebrations, and who did not
take any active part in the festivities. Another
reason why the celebrations were not carried out
on a very large scale was the fact that the
Empress Dowager, being alive, she took precedence,
according to the Manchu custom, over the
Emperor himself, in fact she was the actual ruler
of the country, the Emperor being second. The
Emperor was quite aware of this fact, and
when the Empress commanded that preparations
be commenced for the celebrations, the
Emperor would always suggest that it was not
at all necessary to celebrate the occasion unless
it happened to be a tenth year, and would
very reluctantly agree to the festivities taking
place. Of course this was more out of politeness
on the part of the Emperor and to conform
to the recognized etiquette, but the nation recognized
this birthday and naturally celebrated according
to the usual custom. During this
period, therefore, the painting of the portrait was
postponed.
When the morning of the 25th arrived, the
Emperor dressed himself in his official robe —
yellow gown, embroidered with gold dragons and
coat of a reddish black color. Of course, being
the Emperor, in place of the usual button on the
hat he wore a large pearl. I might mention that
the Emperor was the only person who could wear
this particular pearl in place of a button. He
came as usual to wish Her Majesty Chi Hsiang
and then proceeded to the temple to worship before
the ancestral tablets. After this ceremony
was over he returned to the Empress Dowager
and kowtowed to her. All the Chinese adopt
this rule of kowtowing to their parents on
their own birthdays, as a sign of reverence and
respect. The Emperor next proceeded to the
Audience Hall, where all the Ministers were
assembled, and received their salutations and
congratulations. This ceremony very often caused
amusement, for to see several hundred people all
bobbing their heads up and down, especially when
they did not all manage to do it together, was a
very funny sight. Even the Emperor himself
had to laugh, it was such an extraordinary
spectacle.
The musical instruments which were used during
the ceremony deserve a little description.
The principal instrument is made of hard wood,
and has a flat bottom about three feet in diameter,
with a dome-shaped top raised about three
feet from the ground. The inside is quite hollow.
A long pole made of the same material
is used as a drumstick, and an official, specially
appointed, beats with all his might on the drum.
The noise can be better imagined than described.
This is used as a signal to announce when the
Emperor takes his seat upon the throne. In
addition to the above, a full sized model of a
tiger, also made of similar hard wood, and having
twenty-four scales on its back, is brought
into the courtyard. In this case they did not
beat the instrument, but scraped along its back
over the scales, which emitted a noise similar to
the letting off simultaneously of innumerable
crackers. This noise was kept up during the
whole of the ceremony, and what with the drum
and this tiger instrument it was sufficient to
deafen one. During the ceremony, an official
crier used to call out the different orders, such as
when to kneel, bow, stand up, kowtow, etc., etc.,
but with the noise it was quite impossible to hear
a single word of what he uttered. Another
instrument was composed of a frame made of
wood, about eight feet high by three feet broad.
Across this frame were three wooden bars, from
which was suspended twelve bells, made out of
pure gold. When these were struck with a
wooden stick the sound was not at all unlike the
dulcimer, only, of course, very much louder.
This was placed on the right side of the Audience
Hall. On the left side a similar instrument was
placed, with the exception that the bells were
carved out of white jade. The music which
could be brought out of the instrument was very
sweet.
When this ceremony of receiving the Ministers
was concluded, the Emperor proceeded to
his private Palace, where the Young Empress
(his wife), the Secondary wife and all the Court
ladies were gathered, and, after kowtowing, all
of the Court ladies present, led by the Young
Empress, knelt before him and presented him
with a Ru Yee. This is a kind of sceptre.
Some are made out of pure jade, while others
are made out of wood inlaid with jade. This
Ru Yee is a symbol of good luck and was supposed
to bring happiness and prosperity to the
person to whom it was presented. The ceremony
was gone through to the accompaniment
of music played on string instruments, which
was very sweet.
Next the eunuchs were received by the Emperor,
and they similarly congratulated him, but
without the accompaniment of music. After the
eunuchs came the servant girls, and the whole of
the ceremony was over. The Emperor next proceeded
to Her Majesty's Palace, where he knelt
before Her Majesty and thanked her for the
celebration which had been given in his honor,
after which Her Majesty, accompanied by the
whole Court, went to the theatre to see the play.
On arrival at the theatre we were all presented
by Her Majesty with sweetmeats, this being the
custom on these occasions, and after a little while
Her Majesty retired for her afternoon rest.
Thus the celebration ended.
Two days after the celebration the seventh
moon commenced. The seventh day of the seventh
moon was the occasion of another important
anniversary.
The two stars, Niu Lang (Capricorn) and
Chih Nu (Lyra) are supposed to be the patrons
of agriculture and weaving and, according to
tradition, were at one time man and wife. As the
result of a quarrel, however, they were doomed
to live apart, being separated from each other
by the "Milky Way.'' But on the seventh day
of the seventh moon of each year they are allowed
to see each other and the magpies are supposed
to build a bridge to enable them to meet.
The ceremony is rather peculiar. Several
basins full of water were placed so that the sun's
rays would fall upon them. Her Majesty then
took several tiny needles and dropped one into
each basin. These floated on the water, casting
a shadow across the bottom of the basins. These
shadows took different forms, according to the
position of the needle, and if the shadow took
certain prescribed forms, the person throwing
in the needle was supposed to be very lucky and
clever, while if they represented certain other
forms, they were despised by the gods as being
ignorant. In addition, Her Majesty burned incense
and offered up prayers to the two gods referred
to.
This was always a sad moon for Her Majesty,
it being the anniversary of the death of her husband,
the Emperor Hsien Feng, who died on the
17th of that month. The fifteenth of the
seventh moon each year is the day of the festival
for the dead, and early in the morning
the Court moved to the Sea Palace in order to
sacrifice. The Chinese hold that when a person
dies, his soul still remains on the earth, and on
these anniversaries they burn imitation money,
the belief being that the soul of the departed one
will benefit to the extent of the amount of money
so represented. On the anniversary above
referred to Her Majesty sent for hundreds of
Buddhist priests to pray for those unfortunate
people who had died without leaving anyone who
could sacrifice for them. On the evening of
this day, Her Majesty and all her Court ladies
set out in open boats on the lake, where imitation
lotus flowers were arranged as lanterns, with a
candle placed in the centre, which formed a sort
of floating light, the idea being to give light to
the spirits of those who had departed during the
year, so as to enable them to come and receive
the blessings which had been prepared for them.
Her Majesty ordered us to light the candles and
place the flowers on the water ourselves, as she
said it would be appreciated by the spirits of the
dead. Some of the eunuchs had told Her
Majesty that they had actually seen some of
these spirits, which assertion was thoroughly
believed. Although she had never seen them herself,
she accounted for this by the fact that she
was of too high a rank and the spirits were afraid
of her, but she ordered all the rest of us to keep
a sharp lookout and tell her if we saw anything.
Of course we didn't see anything, but many of
the Court ladies were so frightened that they
closed their eyes for fear they might see something
supernatural.
Her Majesty was devoted to the late Emperor
Hsien Feng, and she was very sad and morose
during this period. We all had to be very careful
indeed not to upset her in any way, as she
would find fault on the slightest provocation.
She hardly had a word to say to any of us, and
cried almost incessantly. I could hardly understand
the reason for such grief, seeing that the
Emperor had died so many years previously.
None of the Court ladies were allowed to dress
in light-coloured gowns during the whole of the
seventh moon. We all dressed either in dark
blue or pale blue, while Her Majesty herself
dressed in black every day without exception.
Even her handkerchiefs were black. The theatres
which were usually opened on the first
and fifteenth of each month, were closed during
the seventh moon. There was no music, and
everything was conducted in the most solemn
manner; in fact, the whole Court was in deep
mourning.
On the morning of the seventeenth day of the
seventh moon, Her Majesty visited the late
Emperor's tablet, and knelt there crying for
quite a while. In order to show respect for the
late Emperor, none of us were allowed to eat
meat for three days. This being my first year
at the Palace, it appeared to me very strange,
after the customary gaiety and noise. Of course
I felt very sorry for Her Majesty, as I could see
that it was a genuine display of grief and was
not in any way put on. As I was her favorite
at that time, she kept me close to her side during
this sad period. The Young Empress said to
me one day: "Her Majesty is very much attached
to you, and I think you had better stay with her
for the time being.'' This I did, and I was so
miserable myself that when Her Majesty commenced
crying I would cry also. When she saw
that I was crying, Her Majesty would immediately
stop and ask me not to cry. She would tell
me that I was too young to cry, and that in any
case I did not know what real sorrow was as yet.
During the conversations we had at that time she
would tell me quite a lot about herself. On one
occasion she said: "You know I have had a very
hard life ever since I was a young girl. I was not
a bit happy when with my parents, as I was not
the favorite. My sisters had everything they
wanted, while I was, to a great extent, ignored
altogether. When I first came to the Court,
a lot of the people were jealous of me because
I was considered to be a beautiful woman at
that time. I must say myself that I was a clever
one, for I fought my own battles, and won them,
too. When I arrived at Court the late Emperor
became very much attached to me and would
hardly glance at any of the other ladies. Fortunately,
I was lucky in giving birth to a son, as
it made me the Emperor's undisputed favorite;
but after that I had very bad luck. During the
last year of his reign the Emperor was seized with
a sudden illness. In addition to this the foreign
soldiers burnt down the Palace at Yuen Ming
Yuen, so we fled to Jehol. Of course everybody
knows what took place at that time. I was still
a young woman, with a dying husband and a
young son. The East Empress Dowager's
nephew was a bad man, who coveted the throne,
which he had no right to in any event, as he was
not of royal blood. I would not wish anyone
to experience what I myself passed through at
that time. When the Emperor was in a dying
condition, being practically unconscious of what
was taking place around him, I took my son to
his bedside and asked him what was going to be
done about his successor to the throne. He made
no reply to this, but, as has always been the case
in emergencies, I was equal to the occasion, and
I said to him: `Here is your son,' on hearing
which he immediately opened his eyes and said:
`Of course he will succeed to the throne.' I naturally
felt relieved when this was settled once
and for all. These words were practically the
last he spoke, for he died immediately afterwards.
Although it is now so many years ago, I can see
him now in that dying condition, just as though
it all happened only yesterday.
"I thought that I could be happy with my son
as the Emperor Tung Chi, but unfortunately he
died before he was twenty years of age. Since
that time I have been a changed woman, as all
happiness was over as far as I was concerned
when he died. I had also quite a lot of trouble
with the East Empress Dowager and found it
very difficult to keep on good terms with her.
However, she died five years after the death of
my son. In addition to all this, when the Emperor
Kwang Hsu was brought to me as a baby
three years old, he was a very sickly child, and
could hardly walk, he was so thin and weak. His
parents seemed to be afraid of giving him anything
to eat. You know his father was Prince
Chung, and his mother was my sister, so of course
he was almost the same as my own son, in fact I
adopted him as such. Even now, after all my
trouble on his account, he is not in perfect health.
As you know, I have had plenty of other troubles
beside these, but it is useless to mention them
now. I am disappointed with everything, as
nothing has turned out as I had expected.''
With this remark Her Majesty commenced crying
afresh. Continuing, she said: "People seem
to think that just because I am the Empress
Dowager that I am bound to be happy, but what
I have just told you is not all. I have gone
through much more than that. If ever anything
went wrong, I was always the one who was
blamed. The censors even dare to impeach me
once in a while. However, I am philosopher
enough to take things for what they are worth,
otherwise I would have been in my own grave
long, long ago. Just imagine how small minded
these people are. Amongst other things they objected
to my transferring my Court to the Summer
Palace during the hot weather, although I
could do no harm by being there. Even in the
short time you have spent at Court, you can see
that I am unable to decide anything alone, while
whenever they want anything they consult with
each other and then present their petition to me,
which, unless it is something of a very serious
nature, I never think of refusing.''
After the time set apart for mourning had
expired, we all went back to the Summer Palace,
where Miss Carl re-commenced her work on Her
Majesty's portrait. Her Majesty apparently
soon got tired of this portrait painting, for one
day she asked me when I thought it would be
finished. She was afraid that it would not be
finished by the time the cold weather came on,
when we always removed the Court to the Forbidden
City, and she said it would be a lot of
trouble and inconvenience to have to continue
the portrait there. I told Her Majesty that it
could easily be arranged and that she need not
worry herself.
After I had been posing in Her Majesty's
place for several days Her Majesty asked me
whether Miss Carl had said anything about it,
and if she did, I was to inform her that it was a
command from Her Majesty, and that I dare
not make any further suggestions in that respect.
So we had no further trouble with Miss Carl
after that. I had, however, quite a lot of trouble
with the eunuchs, who, in spite of Her Majesty's
instructions, were anything but polite to Miss
Carl. Of course Miss Carl herself did not know
this. I tried to make them behave better by
threatening to tell Her Majesty about them,
which had a good effect for a while, but they were
soon as bad as ever.
At the commencement of the eighth moon, Her
Majesty always attended to the transplanting
of her chrysanthemums, which was one of her
favorite flowers, so each day she would take us
with her to the west side of the lake and, assisted
by us, would cut the tops of the young plants
and set them in flower pots. I was very much
surprised at this, as there were no roots, only
the stems of the flowers, but Her Majesty
assured me that they would soon grow into
very pretty plants. Every day we went over
to water these flowers until they began to bud.
In case it rained heavily, Her Majesty would
order some of the eunuchs to go over and cover
up these chrysanthemum plants with mats, so
that they would not be broken. It was characteristic
of Her Majesty that, no matter what
other business she had to attend to, her flowers
had her first consideration and she would, if
necessary, even go without her usual rest in order
to superintend them personally. She also spent
quite a time in looking after her orchard, where
she had planted apple trees, pear trees, etc.
Another thing which I began to notice was that
when the spring and summer days had passed,
she got quite irritable and sad, while in the winter
she was simply unbearable. She loathed
cold weather.
One day, during the eighth moon, Her
Majesty was taken slightly ill, and complained
of suffering from severe headaches. This was
the only time I ever saw Her Majesty actually
sick. She, however, got up as usual in the morning,
and held audience, but was unable to take
her luncheon, and very soon had to retire to her
bed. Several doctors were summoned, each of
whom took her pulse. This was quite a ceremony
in itself. The doctors knelt at the bedside,
and Her Majesty stretched forth her arm, resting
her hand upon a small pillow which was
provided for that purpose. After this each
doctor wrote out his prescription, all of which
were different from each other. We handed them
to Her Majesty, who chose the one which she
thought was the nicest to take, and two attendants
and the doctor himself had to take a dose
in her presence before she would touch it. Then
she would take it all right.
During this time it rained a great deal and
was very hot. The climate at this time of the
year is very damp, which causes the flies to make
their appearance in millions. If there was one
thing more than another that Her Majesty
detested it was these flies. During the actual
summer they were not so troublesome as at this
particular time. Of course every precaution
was taken to keep them away, a eunuch being
posted at each door, provided with sort of a switch
made of horse hair fastened at the end of a bamboo
pole. We were never troubled by mosquitoes,
however; in fact I never saw a mosquito
curtain in the Palace during the whole of my
stay there. These flies were an abomination,
and in spite of all that could be done a few
would find their way into the rooms. Whenever
they alighted on Her Majesty she would
scream, while if by any chance one were to alight
on her food she would order the whole lot to be
thrown away. This would spoil her appetite for
the whole day and put her into a terrible temper
as well. Whenever she saw one anywhere near
her, she would order whoever happened to be
present to go and catch it. I myself often
received this order, but I detested them almost
as much as Her Majesty did, they were so dirty,
and stuck to one's hands whenever they touched
them.
After her illness Her Majesty was indisposed
more or less for quite a long time, and doctors
were constantly in attendance. She took so
many different kinds of medicine that instead of
getting better she got worse and eventually contracted
a fever. Her Majesty was very much
afraid of fevers of any kind and we had to stay
with her all night and all day and had to take
our meals whenever we could get away from her
bedside for a few minutes. Another peculiarity
was Her Majesty's aversion for any kind of perfume
near her when she was sick, while when
she was feeling well she was simply smothered
in it. The same applied to fresh flowers; in spite
of her love for them under ordinary conditions,
when she was sick she could not bear them anywhere
near. Her nerves became absolutely
unstrung, as she was unable to sleep during the
day, and consequently the time passed very
slowly to her. In order to make the time pass
a little less tediously, she gave instructions for
one of the better educated eunuchs to read to her
during the daytime. This reading generally
consisted of ancient Chinese history, poetry and
all kinds of Chinese lore, and while the eunuch
was reading to her we had to stand by her bedside,
one of us being told off to massage her
legs, which seemed to soothe her somewhat. This
same program was gone through every day until
she was completely herself again — some ten days
later.
One day Her Majesty asked me: "What kind
of medicine does a foreign doctor usually give
in case of a fever? I have heard that they make
you take all kinds of pills. This must be very
dangerous, as you never know what they are
made of. Here in China all medicines are made
from roots, and I can always find out whether
I am receiving the right medicine, as I have a
book which explains what each different medicine
is for. Another thing I have heard is that
foreign doctors generally operate on you with a
knife, while we cure the same sickness by means
of our medicine. Li Lien Ying told me that
one of our little eunuchs had a boil on his wrist
and someone advised him to go to the hospital.
Of course they didn't know what they would do,
and the foreign doctor there opened the boil
with a knife, which frightened the child very
much. I was very much surprised when I heard
he was all right again in a couple of days.''
Continuing, Her Majesty said: "A year ago one of
the foreign ladies came to the Palace, and hearing
me cough a lot, gave me some black pills
and told me to swallow them. I did not like to
offend her, so I took the pills and told her I
would take them by and bye. However, I was
afraid to take them and threw them away.'' Of
course I answered that I didn't know much about
medicines, to which she replied that she had
seen me take foreign medicines whenever I was
not feeling well. She then said: "Of course I
know there are people in Peking who do take
the medicines given them by foreign doctors and
even some of my own relatives patronize these
foreigners also. They try not to let me know,
but I do know for all that. In any case, if they
choose to kill themselves by taking these things,
it is none of my business; that is the reason why,
when they are sick, I never send my own doctors
to attend them.''
When Her Majesty had completely recovered
from her illness she used to go out on the lake
a great deal, sometimes in an open boat and at
other times in a steam launch. She always
appeared to enjoy this kind of thing. For some
reason or other she always insisted on taking the
west side of the lake, which was very shallow,
and invariably the launch would get stuck fast
in the mud, which seemed to afford Her Majesty
great enjoyment; she simply loved to feel the
launch strike the bottom. The open boats would
then come alongside and we would have to
get out of the launch and enter the boats and
proceed to the top of the nearest hill to watch
the efforts of the eunuchs trying to refloat the
launch. It was a characteristic of Her Majesty
to experience a keen sense of enjoyment at the
troubles of other people. The eunuchs knew
this quite well, and whenever opportunity
offered, they would do something which they
thought would amuse Her Majesty. So long
as it was nothing of a serious nature Her
Majesty would always overlook it, but in case
it proved serious or was carelessness, she would
always order them to be severely punished.
Thus it was very hard to tell just what to do
in order to please her.
Another of Her Majesty's peculiarities was
inquisitiveness. For example: As I have stated
before, it was the custom for Her Majesty to
have sweetmeats brought to her before every
meal, and after she had finished with them, the
remainder were distributed among the Court
ladies. Whenever it happened that we were
very busy, we did not bother with the sweetmeats
at all, which Her Majesty very soon found out.
One day, after she had finished dining, she came
and looked through the window to see what we
were doing, and saw some of the eunuchs eating
the sweetmeats which she had given to us. She
did not say anything, but simply ordered that
the sweetmeats should be brought back again,
making us believe that she wanted some more
herself. I knew that there was something
wrong, as she never ordered them back before.
When she saw what was left of them, she asked
who had been eating so many, as they were nearly
all finished, but she got no reply — we were all
too scared. However, after thinking it over, I
came to the conclusion that it would be best to
tell her the truth, for I was quite certain that
she knew anyhow. So I told her that we had all
been very busy and had forgotten all about the
sweetmeats, and that the eunuchs had come and
taken them themselves, and I added that this
was not the first time they had done so. I was
rather glad that she had given me this opportunity
to report the eunuchs, for Her Majesty
replied that if she intended the eunuchs to have
sweetmeats, she herself could give them some,
but thought it a lack of appreciation on our part
not eating them ourselves after she had been so
kind as to provide them for us. She turned to
me, and said: "I am glad that you have told the
truth, as I saw myself what was happening.''
She gave orders that the offending eunuchs
should each have three months' wages deducted
as a punishment, but of course I knew very well
they didn't mind that, as they were making many
times the amount of their salary in other ways.
On my return to the sitting room, one of the
Court ladies said: "You should not have told
Her Majesty about the eunuchs, they are sure
to revenge themselves in some way.'' I asked
how they could possibly injure me in any way,
as they were only servants, but she told me that
they would find some underhand way in which
to get even with me, this being their general custom.
Of course I knew the eunuchs were a bad
lot, but could not see what cause they had to be
against me in any way. I knew they dare not
say anything against me to Her Majesty, so I
forgot all about the matter. I found out afterwards
that one of the tricks they used to play on
any of the Court ladies who offended them was
to try and prejudice Her Majesty against us.
For instance, if Her Majesty told one of the
eunuchs that a certain thing should be done,
instead of telling me what Her Majesty wanted,
the eunuch would go off to one of the other ladies
and tell her. In this way Her Majesty would
get the impression that I was too lazy to wait
upon her myself, and of course the other lady
would get all the credit. Although Her Majesty
was very kind to me, also the Young Empress,
it was very hard to get along with eunuchs, and
it was not good policy to offend them in any way.
They regarded themselves as being exclusively
the servants of Her Majesty, the Empress Dowager,
and refused to take instructions from anybody
else, consequently they were often very
rude to the other ladies of the Court, not even
excepting the Young Empress.
Everything proceeded as usual until the eighth
moon, when the Emperor was to sacrifice at the
"Temple of the Sun.'' On this occasion the
Emperor wore a red robe.
About this time Mrs. Conger asked for a private
audience, as she wanted to see Her Majesty
and at the same time see how the portrait was
progressing. Her Majesty replied that she
would receive her and gave orders accordingly.
At this private audience Mrs. Conger brought
into the Court two of her relatives to be presented
to Her Majesty, besides Miss Campbell
and a missionary lady. As it was a private audience,
the guests were conducted to Her Majesty's
private Palace. They were received in the hall
which was being used as studio for this lady
artist, although Her Majesty was out of patience
with the portrait painting, and talked to us a
great deal about it, yet when she saw Mrs.
Conger and the others she was extremely polite
and told them that the portrait was going to be
a masterpiece. She was in an unusually good
humor that day and told me to give orders to
the eunuchs to open all the buildings and show
them to her guests. Her Majesty led the way
from one room to another and showed them her
curios in the different rooms, until she came to
rest in one of the bedrooms, when she ordered
chairs to be brought in for the guests. There
were many chairs in this room, but they were
really small thrones of Her Majesty's, although
they looked like any ordinary chairs. The custom
is that no matter what kind of a chair
it may be, as soon as she uses it, it is at
once called her throne and no one is allowed to sit
on it thereafter unless the order is given by
her.
During the time the eunuchs were bringing in
the chairs kept purposely for foreigners to use,
one of the ladies of the party made a mistake
and sat upon one of Her Majesty's thrones. I
noticed her at once, and before I had a chance
to warn her, Her Majesty made a sign of annoyance
to me. I went to this lady at once and told
her I wanted to show her something and naturally
she was obliged to get up. The trouble
was this, although Her Majesty felt that no one
had the right to sit upon her throne, she expected
me to get this lady off the chair and at the same
time not to tell her the reason why. While I
was busy interpreting for her, she said in an
undertone: "There she is again, sitting on my
bed. We had better leave this room.'' After
this the ladies were conducted to the refreshment
room, and when they had partaken of lunch,
bade Her Majesty good-bye, leaving Miss Carl
with us. As usual we reported to her that we
had seen the guests safely off. She said to me:
"That was a funny lady: first she sat upon my
throne, and then upon my bed. Perhaps she
does not know what a throne is when she sees
one, and yet foreigners laugh at us. I am sure
that our manners are far superior to theirs.
Another thing — did you notice that Mrs. Conger
handed a parcel to Miss Carl out in the courtyard
when she came in?'' I replied that I had
noticed her passing something like a parcel, but
could not tell what the parcel contained. She
thereupon told me to go and ask Miss Carl what
it was. At that time I had received so many
peculiar orders from Her Majesty that I was
beginning to get accustomed to them and used
my own discretion in carrying out her instructions.
Therefore I did not ask Miss Carl, but
set about finding out for myself. However,
when I began to look around for the parcel, it
had mysteriously disappeared and I could not
find the thing anywhere. This naturally worried
me, knowing as I did that Her Majesty
liked her instructions carried out quickly. While
I was searching, one of the eunuchs came in and
told me that Her Majesty wanted to see me,
and of course I had to go to her. Before she
could say anything to me, I informed Her
Majesty that I had not been able to ask Miss
Carl about the parcel as she was asleep, but
would do so immediately she got up. Her
Majesty said: "I don't want Miss Carl to think
I have told you to ask what the parcel contains,
otherwise she might think I am suspicious of
what is going on, so you must manage to get the
information somehow without mentioning the
matter; you are clever enough to do that much.''
Shortly afterwards, while I was walking along
with Miss Carl to Her Majesty's Palace, to
proceed with the portrait, I noticed that she
was carrying the parcel in question, which was
a great relief to me, I can assure you. On
arrival at the Palace, Miss Carl said to me:
"You need not trouble to pose at present, as
it is rather dark, and I can be painting the
throne; you can look through this magazine,
if you like, to pass the time away.'' So I
opened up the parcel, which proved to contain
nothing more than an ordinary American
monthly magazine. After glancing through the
book, I made an excuse to hurry away and
inform Her Majesty. However, she had
already gone out for her usual trip on the lake,
so I took my chair and followed. When I
reached the lake, Her Majesty, who had seen
me, sent a small boat and I was rowed out to
the launch. Before I could get a chance to
speak, Her Majesty said with a smile: "I know
all about it, it was a book and Miss Carl handed
it to you to read.'' I was very much disappointed
that I had had my journey for nothing.
I knew that the eunuchs would report it to Her
Majesty at the first opportunity, but I hardly
expected they would have done so already. Her
Majesty was now quite satisfied, and simply
asked whether Miss Carl suspected that she had
enquired about the matter.
As I was about to return to Miss Carl, Her
Majesty called me and said: "There is one thing
I want to tell you and that is whenever any foreign
ladies are visiting the Palace, always keep
close to the Emperor so that in the event of their
speaking to him you can interpret.'' I answered
that so far whenever any foreigners were present
I was present also and did not think that anybody
had held any conversation with the Emperor
whatsoever. She explained that her reason
for mentioning this was that she wanted me
to be just as courteous to the Emperor as I was
to herself, and I was to place myself entirely at
his disposal whenever visitors were present. Of
course I knew very well that this was not the
true reason at all but that she wanted to take
every precaution to preclude the possibility of
foreigners influencing the Emperor in matters
of reform, etc.