CHAPTER XL.
THE GREAT BOY EMPEROR.--NICHOLAS MEETS WITH A FEARFUL SURPRISE.
Once having entered the rich empire of China, the Tartar king determinedto 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 introducemore and more of the warrior tribes beneath his rule: moreover, he wasso cruel to those who resisted his army, and so generous and kind tothose who submitted freely, that the people, glad to get a sovereign whohad power enough to crush the rapacious nobles, unanimously hailed himEmperor; before, however, he could be formally installed, he becameseized with a mortal illness, so, calling his brother Amavan, he createdhim regent during the minority of his son Chun-ti, a child six years ofage.
Fortunately for the young Emperor, Amavan, unlike most Asiatic uncles,proved faithful to his nephew, and, more fortunately still, Amavanhappened to be a great as well as a brave man, who conquered his enemiesas much by his intellect as his sword. Taking care, therefore, to havean overwhelming number of troops in Pekin, he first sought to establishthe government by distributing the great offices of the empire equallyamong his Tartars and the Chinese mandarins. Then to Woo-san-Kwei he hadrepresented by his ambassadors the folly of endeavoring to oppose thegreat power of the new Emperor, and, moreover, the cruelty of bringingupon the people the horrors of a civil war; while, if he would aid inthe firm settlement of the new dynasty, he should not only be createdKing of Chen-si, but that, as the laws of the Chinese were the best inthe world, the Tartars should conform to them in every respect. To allof which Woo-san-Kwei, being so entirely checkmated, could but submit,retaining a hope that the time and opportunity might come when he shouldbe powerful enough to drive these Tartars from the land--a task which,when too late, he found to be rather more difficult than bringing themin.
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 toconciliate them, Amavan resolved that the greatest of their countrymenshould 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'sfirst 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 histhrone, to rise, the child Emperor Chun-ti addressed them in a speechthat not only astonished the whole court, but remains to the presentday one of the marvels in the history of China.
"It is your strength and power more than my felicity, my dear andgenerous uncle, and you, the rest of my noble commanders, which supportsmy weakness, and makes me so undauntedly ascend this imperial throne. Mypresent assurance, and this chair's stability, is, I hope, as happy asign of my future prosperity as its tottering proved unfortunate to thethief Li-Kong. You see my first step to the empire, but I know yourvalor to be such that I look not only upon the kingdom of China as myown, but conceive the empire of the world not only by me possessed, butalso established. The rewards due to such incomparable virtues shall beno other than the riches of the empire and royal dignities."
At this extraordinary speech from the lips of so young a child, andwhich, notwithstanding the silence of solemn historians on the subjects,I believe must have been taught Master Chun-ti by his uncle, the artfulAmavan, the nobles fell upon their faces, as thankfully as a flock offamished wolves at the sight of a good meal after a run of a great manyhundreds of miles.
After which the Emperor added, "And that it may be known throughout theempire that we can reward merit, whether it be found in our Chinesesubjects or our own black-haired race, we bestow upon the rebel-subduingPrince Woo-san-Kwei, the title of Pacifier of the Western World, and thedignity and rank of King of Chen-si; may his appointment provefortunate to the people." Whereupon, to the disgust of Nicholas, theMing general knelt before the Emperor, and holding his hands above hishead, received the golden box, in which were placed the symbols of hisoffice.
After this Nicholas was pained not only to witness the bestowal of highoffices upon the Tartar chieftains, but, for worse, the acceptation ofdignities by Chinese mandarins, who had been profuse in theirprofessions of loyalty to the Ming family. Then, as the Emperor wasabout to move his sleeves as a signal of the close of the audience, oneof the nobles announced the arrival of some great personage, whose namehis ears failed to catch, whereupon the regent Amavan said, "This man, Omy prince, is the greatest of your majesty's conquests," and in anotherminute a personage of majestic height and figure, attired and attendedwith all the magnificence of a king, entered the hall and fell at thefoot of the throne, and as he did so Amavan proclaimed his name andtitles, when Nicholas gave a cry of astonishment, and would have rushedforward, but for Woo-san-Kwei, who, by whispering in his ear, caused himto become as pale and almost as silent as marble. His surprise andindignation was not wonderful, for the great man who knelt at the feetof the Tartar chief was no less a personage than his own father,Chin-Chi-Loong.
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