THE GREAT BOY EMPEROR.--NICHOLAS MEETS WITH A FEARFUL SURPRISE.
Once having entered the rich empire of China, the Tartar king determined
to remain, and thus artfully sent Woo-san-Kwei, the only man he feared,
to chastise the rebels in Chen-si, so that he could the better introduce
more and more of the warrior tribes beneath his rule: moreover, he was
so cruel to those who resisted his army, and so generous and kind to
those who submitted freely, that the people, glad to get a sovereign who
had power enough to crush the rapacious nobles, unanimously hailed him
Emperor; before, however, he could be formally installed, he became
seized with a mortal illness, so, calling his brother Amavan, he created
him regent during the minority of his son Chun-ti, a child six years of
age.
Fortunately for the young Emperor, Amavan, unlike most Asiatic uncles,
proved faithful to his nephew, and, more fortunately still, Amavan
happened to be a great as well as a brave man, who conquered his enemies
as much by his intellect as his sword. Taking care, therefore, to have
an overwhelming number of troops in Pekin, he first sought to establish
the government by distributing the great offices of the empire equally
among his Tartars and the Chinese mandarins. Then to Woo-san-Kwei he had
represented by his ambassadors the folly of endeavoring to oppose the
great power of the new Emperor, and, moreover, the cruelty of bringing
upon the people the horrors of a civil war; while, if he would aid in
the firm settlement of the new dynasty, he should not only be created
King of Chen-si, but that, as the laws of the Chinese were the best in
the world, the Tartars should conform to them in every respect. To all
of which Woo-san-Kwei, being so entirely checkmated, could but submit,
retaining a hope that the time and opportunity might come when he should
be powerful enough to drive these Tartars from the land--a task which,
when too late, he found to be rather more difficult than bringing them
in.
Having thus, as he thought, gained over the Ming general to his cause,
and wishing to give the Chinese a proof that the young Emperor wished to
conciliate them, Amavan resolved that the greatest of their countrymen
should be received on his entry into Pekin with royal honors; and more,
that the same day should be the one chosen for his imperial nephew's
first grand levee.
I will now return to Nicholas, who, with hardly suppressed indignation,
was compelled to witness the following scene.
Having commanded the great lords, who were prostrate at the foot of his
throne, to rise, the child Emperor Chun-ti addressed them in a speech
that not only astonished the whole court, but remains to the present
day one of the marvels in the history of China.
"It is your strength and power more than my felicity, my dear and
generous uncle, and you, the rest of my noble commanders, which supports
my weakness, and makes me so undauntedly ascend this imperial throne. My
present assurance, and this chair's stability, is, I hope, as happy a
sign of my future prosperity as its tottering proved unfortunate to the
thief Li-Kong. You see my first step to the empire, but I know your
valor to be such that I look not only upon the kingdom of China as my
own, but conceive the empire of the world not only by me possessed, but
also established. The rewards due to such incomparable virtues shall be
no other than the riches of the empire and royal dignities."
At this extraordinary speech from the lips of so young a child, and
which, notwithstanding the silence of solemn historians on the subjects,
I believe must have been taught Master Chun-ti by his uncle, the artful
Amavan, the nobles fell upon their faces, as thankfully as a flock of
famished wolves at the sight of a good meal after a run of a great many
hundreds of miles.
After which the Emperor added, "And that it may be known throughout the
empire that we can reward merit, whether it be found in our Chinese
subjects or our own black-haired race, we bestow upon the rebel-subduing
Prince Woo-san-Kwei, the title of Pacifier of the Western World, and the
dignity and rank of King of Chen-si; may his appointment prove
fortunate to the people." Whereupon, to the disgust of Nicholas, the
Ming general knelt before the Emperor, and holding his hands above his
head, received the golden box, in which were placed the symbols of his
office.
After this Nicholas was pained not only to witness the bestowal of high
offices upon the Tartar chieftains, but, for worse, the acceptation of
dignities by Chinese mandarins, who had been profuse in their
professions of loyalty to the Ming family. Then, as the Emperor was
about to move his sleeves as a signal of the close of the audience, one
of the nobles announced the arrival of some great personage, whose name
his ears failed to catch, whereupon the regent Amavan said, "This man, O
my prince, is the greatest of your majesty's conquests," and in another
minute a personage of majestic height and figure, attired and attended
with all the magnificence of a king, entered the hall and fell at the
foot of the throne, and as he did so Amavan proclaimed his name and
titles, when Nicholas gave a cry of astonishment, and would have rushed
forward, but for Woo-san-Kwei, who, by whispering in his ear, caused him
to become as pale and almost as silent as marble. His surprise and
indignation was not wonderful, for the great man who knelt at the feet
of the Tartar chief was no less a personage than his own father,
Chin-Chi-Loong.