How mayst thou hope to
say such direful words against the Son of Heaven[1] and live?"
[1] "The Son of Heaven" is one of the chief titles of the Chinese
emperor.
"The Son of Heaven killed the emperor, my father," said the
child.
"The emperor thy father!" Thomas the Nestorian almost gasped in
this latest surprise. "Is the girl crazed or doth she sport with
one who seeketh her good?" And amazement and perplexity settled
upon his face.
"The Princess Woo is neither crazed nor doth she sport with the
master," said the girl. "I do but speak the truth. Great is
Tai-tsung. Whom he will he slayeth, and whom he will he keepeth
alive." And then she told the astonished priest that the
bannerman of the Dragon Gate was not her father at all. For, she
said, as she had lain awake only the night before, she had heard
enough in talk between the bannerman and his wife to learn her
secret--how that she was the only daughter of the rightful
emperor, the Prince Kung-ti, whose guardian and chief adviser the
present emperor had been; how this trusted protector had made
away with poor Kung-ti in order that he might usurp the throne;
and how she, the Princess Woo, had been flung into the swift
Hwang-ho, from the turbid waters of which she had been rescued by
the bannerman of the Dragon Gate.
Pages:
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97