Their
precepts were full of mutual help, courtesy, and fraternal love.
All these the Princess Woo learned under her preceptor's
guidance. She grew to be even more assertive and self-reliant,
and became, also, expert in many sports in which, in that
woman-despising country, only boys could hope to excel. One day,
when she was about fourteen years old, the Princess Woo was
missing from the Nestorian mission-house, by the Yellow River.
Her troubled guardian, in much anxiety, set out to find the
truant; and, finally, in the course of his search, climbed the
high bluff from which he saw the massive walls, the many
gateways, the gleaming roofs, and porcelain towers of the
Imperial city of Chang-an-the City of Continuous Peace.
But even before he had entered its northern gate, a little maid
in loose silken robe, peaked cap, and embroidered shoes had
passed through that very gateway, and slipping through the
thronging streets of the great city, approached at last the group
of picturesque and glittering buildings that composed the palace
of the great Emperor Tai.
Just within the main gateway of the palace rose the walls of the
Imperial Academy, where eight thousand Chinese boys received
instruction under the patronage of the emperor, while, just
beyond extended the long, low range of the archery school, in
which even the emperor himself sometimes came to witness, or take
part in, the exciting contests.
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