The War Tiger Part 12

"All pet.i.tions now pa.s.s through the Prince Li-Kong," said Ki sorrowfully.

"Then, by the vermilion pencil, I will seek the Emperor himself, O n.o.ble Ki."

"Thou wouldst be slain in the attempt, O daring boy; there is but one means."

"Name it, O n.o.ble Ki, and thy name shall be buried in my heart," said Nicholas impetuously.

"It would be but to condemn thee to death."

"Thou art laughing at me, O n.o.ble Ki," replied Nicholas bitterly.

"Not so, youth; and since thou hast set thy heart upon the venture, open thine ears to the only means," said Ki; adding, "Know that the Emperor has one young and beautiful daughter, who apart from the bonzes and Li-Kong, alone dares to present a pet.i.tion to his majesty."

"Again, I say, thou art laughing at me, O cruel Ki; for how is it possible for a strange youth to pa.s.s the guard that surrounds the palace of the ladies?"

"Know then, further, that every morning the princess, with her ladies, walks in those gardens just beyond the prohibited wall; through the outer gate you can pa.s.s by means of this key," said Ki, giving him a key; adding, "Near the inner wall there is a tall mulberry-tree, up which you must climb, and so reach the top, and fall into the gardens; then hide thyself till the royal lady pa.s.ses. She will be attended by the lady Candida Hiu, at whose feet throw thyself, proclaim thy mission, and she will influence her beautiful mistress to deliver thy pet.i.tion to the Emperor; but remember, O youth, should you cross the path of one of the eunuchs of the palace thy hours are numbered."

"n.o.ble Ki, I am thy servant for life," said Nicholas, kneeling and clasping the knees of the old colao; adding, "but say, O Ki, who is this Lady Candida Hiu?"

"The pupil of the good Christian fathers whom the bonzes would have ma.s.sacred, the Lady Candida is the friend and teacher of the princess, and but for her influence over her royal mistress, the punishment would be death for worshiping in any of the many churches erected by the lady herself."

"Art thou then a disciple of the Saviour of mankind, O Ki?"

"To the teaching of the lady Candida Hiu am I indebted for having forsworn the stupid worship of Fo and the selfish philosophy of Confucius," replied the colao; adding, "But ask no more, O youth, for to speak of Christ out of the pale of that lady's influence is to earn disgrace, if not death." So saying the ex-minister retired, leaving Nicholas to his own thoughts.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE IMPERIAL GARDENS.

The next morning Nicholas proceeded on his mission, and, as the courts of the palace were crowded with soldiers and mandarins of various ranks, in waiting to receive the great lords of state, who were that day to have audience with the Emperor, he managed to pa.s.s through the crowd without being once challenged. With but little difficulty, he found the door mentioned by Ki, and pa.s.sing through by means of the key, he entered a narrow lane between two walls. Near the inner wall stood the mulberry-tree, up which he clambered quickly, for he knew not who might enter the pa.s.sage. When, by means of one of the branches, he had gained the top of the wall, his eyes drank in a new pleasure. There, before, beneath were the magnificent gardens of the inner palace, and so charmed were his senses that for a minute it seemed as if the penalty of death were but a small price for the vision. The enclosed grounds were of many miles extent, and so varied in their arrangement, that they might have served for a model of the empire itself. There was something of most things natural and artificial in China: towering mountains cut into terraces and planted with trees of rarity and beauty; fertile valleys laid out in orange groves and intermingled with murmuring rivulets; then bridges of tinted marble, wrought to resemble flying dragons, whose eyes and scales were fashioned from colored metals, flew across small lakes of clear, transparent water, in which, as a paradise of their own, gamboled shoals of gold and silver fish, which at that time had not been brought to Europe; then orchards of fruit trees, making the morning air redolent with the mingled scents of rare specimens of pears, apples, peaches, citrons, apricots, muscadine grapes, pomegranates, and oranges.

The sides of the main ca.n.a.l, from which the dripping rivulets sprang, were embossed with cypress and mulberry-trees, whose feet seemed planted in a sprinkled fringe of water melons. On this ca.n.a.l, with its awning of yellow silk and golden fringe, floated the gilded j.a.panned pleasure barge of the ladies.

For a time the boy's head swam with a new sensation. Such, thought he, must have been the garden of that Emperor whose jealousy of the powers of the cruel winter over his summer beauties caused him to waste the revenue of a kingdom and the industry of a whole people in creating a garden of artificial flowers, forgetting that the annual decay was alone the cause of the ever-living freshness and perfume of nature.

Then the sweet scents and beauteous sight tired Nicholas, for he thought of the suffering, starving people. Surely it should not be possible for such a paradise to exist in the midst of so much treason and rotten-heartedness, and then the bold sea boy thought of his own rough life, and became disgusted with himself for dwelling upon so much sensuousness, for he knew that the empire had never smiled and prospered with a happy, peaceable and well-fed people, except when the Emperor had set the example of temperance and labor; and, moreover, that luxury and indolence had ever preceded the downfall of dynasties; and then by far more interesting became the cotton, the tallow and the mulberry-trees that Heaven had bestowed upon the land of China for the support of its hundreds of millions, and which had no vocation in such a garden of luxury.

As it must be interesting to my young readers, I will give a description of these singularly valuable trees. The seed of the cotton shrub is sown by the husbandmen on the same day that they get in the harvest. When the rain has moistened the earth the shrub thrusts itself forward to a height of about two feet, and in the month of August gives forth a yellow or a red flower, which fades into a pod, which on the fortieth day after the appearance of the flower divides itself into three parts, each containing a wrapping of pure white cotton, similar in size to the ball of the silk-worm. At this period, the husbandmen fasten the ball to the pod, leaving it till the following year, when the fibres of the cotton become so securely fastened to the seeds, that the husbandman is compelled to separate them by means of two thin rollers, one of wood and the other of iron, placed so close to each other, that in pa.s.sing the cotton between them, the naked seed is exuded from behind. The cotton is then carded and ready to be converted into calico, an employment that gives food to many thousands of people.

Of equal value and more curious is the tallow-tree, which lights the whole of the empire. While the leaves and long stalks of this plant cause it to resemble the aspen and the birch, its trunk and branches resemble in shape, height, and size the cherry-tree. From the grey bark, spring long elastic branches, the leaves of which grow but from the middle to the end, where they finish in a tuft, where the fruit grows in a hard brown husk of triangular form. The husk generally contains three kernels, covered with a thin substance resembling white tallow. When the husk begins to open and fall away, the fruit gradually appears. Each kernel contains another of the size of a hemp seed, which from its oleaginous nature is converted into oil.

To make the tallow, the sh.e.l.l and kernel are beaten together in boiling water till the surface becomes covered with fat, which when cold, condenses; then, by adding fair proportions of linseed oil and wax to give consistency, they have produced the material which, when shaped around a wick of hollow reed, produces the candles in use in China. Thus does nature and the ingenuity of the people create from this extraordinary tree a double means of lighting the empire.

As for the mulberry-tree, it is so well known that I need but tell you, that after rice, the Chinese consider its culture as a sacred duty, and deservedly so, for by feeding the silk-worm, it not only clothes the people, but silk, being in immense demand over the known world, is the primary means of giving them employment; indeed the mulberry-tree is an "inst.i.tution," and of such ancient date, that even in four thousand years old China, which contains the oldest records in the world, there is no authentic record of its discovery. There is a legend, however, "that, till the days of Ti-Long, the wife of the Emperor Hoang-ti, the people were savages, and used the skins of animals for clothing, but her far-sighted majesty noticed that as the people were many, and the animals few, they would soon become short of garments, when, like the parent of invention, she was pushed to a discovery that worms might be made the greatest manufacturers of her empire;" and that there is some truth in this fable seems likely, as, from the earliest times, the Empress of China has had a portion of the grounds of the palace planted as a mulberry grove, where, at certain periods of the year, she goes in state, to show her interest in the silk manufacture, by gathering three mulberry leaves, and unwinding a quant.i.ty of silk. Lastly, I may tell you, that the most learned men and the greatest ministers have devoted a great portion of their lives to teach the people "how to bring up and feed silk worms, so as to obtain the greatest quant.i.ty and best quality of silk."

Is it not unjust that the race of worms should have been so long despised, when, for thousands of years, one of their representatives has been at the base of the prosperity of the largest, most populated, and longest-enduring empire since the foundation of the world?

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PRINCESSES OF THE MINGS, AND THE LADY CANDIDA.

Enwrapped as the mind of Nicholas had been in the delicious scene around him, no sooner did he reach the ground than a bitter feeling arose that his beloved Emperor should be content to repose in such soft and costly indolence, while millions of his subjects were being plundered by rapacious n.o.bles. In deep thought he reached the far-famed mulberry orchard, where, for a time, he stood contemplating the industry of the marvelous little worms whose number and color cast a sickly hue over the broad green foliage of the trees, then in full leaf. Pa.s.sing through this orchard, he came in front of a mimic palace, hewn out of rock crystal, and which glittered in the sun, so that it was some minutes before his dazzled vision could perceive that he was near the imperial menagerie and aviary, where were kept the rare beasts and birds presented to the Emperor by his tributary kings. The sight was curious, and he would have stopped, but for the rustling of leaves in the orchard, and the sound of soft footsteps, that warned him of his imprudence, and made him seek shelter in a small paG.o.da, from whence, through a kind of loophole which fronted the menagerie, he could see without being seen. Now his heart beat tremulously; the footsteps might be those of the princess and her ladies. He was right in his conjecture, for scarcely had he placed himself at the loophole, when two ladies, attended by female slaves, who held above the heads of their mistresses umbrellas of embroidered yellow silk deeply fringed with gold, came toward the menagerie. The princess was of middle height, with a form as graceful and elastic as a fawn; her face, like those of all of her race, was broad, but fair almost as a European blonde, yet looked the fairer from its contrast with the raven hair and eyelashes which beneath the thin brows shaded a pair of tiny jet black eyes, which like the purest diamonds, compensated by fire for their deficiency in size, and with the delicately small mouth, parted by a pair of thin pouting lips, lit up her sweet countenance with animation and vivacity. Of her hands and feet I can say nothing, for they were hidden beneath the ample folds of her long gold-embroidered robe of yellow satin. Upon her head she wore a kind of crown of rich silk, decorated upon each side with a "fong-hoang," the phoenix of China, which it is believed has but once appeared, and whose next advent will be the fore-running of the golden age. The extended wings of the little birds, which were of frosted gold, and sparkling with jewels, rested upon the forepart of the crown, so that while their beaks fell over the forehead, the spreading plumage of their tails afforded a graceful crest upon its summit; moreover they appeared to come with a tiny parterre of artificial flowers, which were fastened with a bevy of silver bodkins, whose heads were formed out of pearls, diamonds, and rubies; but far beyond her rare beauty and costly attire was the artlessness of her manner, which, arising from a virtuous heart and cultivated mind, won the love of all with whom she came in contact.

As for Nicholas, he was bewitched, and from the moment his eyes rested upon her, he lost all doubt of the success of his mission.

Of the lady in attendance I will only say, that she was of maturer age, and of fuller form. More plainly attired than the royal lady, she wore a robe of green silk, embroidered with flowers of the same color, and a head-dress of silk, slightly sprinkled with large pearls; her brow was high, and her features regular and handsome, but seemingly shadowed with care for the interests and ministers of Christ, to whose doctrines she had long been a convert; for this lady was no other than the ill.u.s.trious Candida Hiu, of whom the colao had spoken to Nicholas. Her history was remarkable, and may be told in a few lines. The Emperor at the commencement of his reign, had been so favorably disposed to the Christian religion, that, although not a convert himself, he had permitted many of the lords and ladies of his court to embrace its tenets; chief and most sincere among the proselytes had been the prime minister, Paul Syu, whose influence over his weak-minded master had enabled him to protect the missionaries from the jealous bonzes and pagan mandarins around. No sooner, however, had this good man gone to his grave, than the bonzes accused the Christians of endeavoring to subvert the reigning family, and so artfully did they intrigue, that the Emperor ordered the Christians to leave China, and a terrible persecution took place, when all the court but the Lady Candida and the son and daughter of the monarch, returned to the worship of Fo. As I have said, the Emperor's love was so great for his beautiful daughter, that he permitted the princess and her friend Candida to follow the dictates of their own hearts; hence it was that the good lady had been able to protect her fellow-Christians from the rapacity of the bonzes and mandarins, even to obtaining permission for them to remain in Pekin.

Further, to show her zeal, she founded at her own cost no less than thirty churches in different parts of the empire, and had vast numbers of religious books translated into Chinese, which she distributed by means not only of blind beggars, but vagabond fortune-tellers, whom she paid handsomely to stand at the corners of streets, and read the Gospel, in place of practicing upon the credulity of the populace with their vile falsehoods. Such were the two ladies now within a few yards of Nicholas.

CHAPTER XX.

DANGER OF THE PRINCESS.--HER RESCUE BY NICHOLAS.

As the princess and her friend approached, Nicholas almost felt ashamed of his intrusion upon their privacy. Should he not appear to them in the despicable light of an eaves-dropper? Then he would determine to come forward, but fell back again in dread of giving offence. Then the ladies began a conversation, and he dared not interrupt them.

"This then, dear Candida, is the sin-fin that my royal parent values so highly," said the princess, looking at a large black ape of the ourang-outang species, which sat grinning, with its elbows upon its knees.

"Truly, dear princess, this is the wonderful beast that the Prince Li-Kong has presented to the Emperor, from the wild province of Yun-nan," said Candida.

"Candida is surely laughing at her pupil, for is it not said that this Li-Kong is chiefest of the rebels, who have so lately been disturbing my royal parent's repose?"

"Alas! my princess, that it should be necessary to pour words of grief into thy sweet ears," said Candida, sorrowfully.

"What words are these, Candida? What grief can come in such a place of repose? Truly you terrify without answering my question," said the princess, angrily.

"But that my sweet mistress alone possesses the ear of the Emperor, and may open it for the benefit of the starving millions of the empire, her friend and servant would not grieve her," replied the lady.

"Tell me, O Candida, if thou wouldst not vex thy mistress, what mean these words," said the princess, pettishly; adding, "Surely you would not protect the traitor Li-Kong."

"It is of that prince thy servant would speak," said the lady; adding, "Know then, O princess, that, angered at some refusal of thy royal father, the Prince Li-Kong, fled from the court, placed himself at the head of a robber army, and being joined by thousands of the starving people, among whom he made himself popular, took possession of two of the largest provinces, and caused himself to be proclaimed as Emperor, and took the t.i.tle of Tien-Chun (He that obeys Heaven), persuading the people that he had been appointed by Heaven to deliver them from the cruelty of the Emperor and his ministers."

"Dared the dog say this? Surely my royal father is the parent of his people."

"Nay, O princess, for as it was the duty of my father, the great minister, so is it mine, at the risk of death, to speak the truth. Until within the last moon, the greater part of the empire was in the hands of robbers and a.s.sa.s.sins, justice was openly sold by the mandarins to the highest bidder, the husbandmen of the hills and fields and the tradesmen in the streets were dying by thousands of starvation, while the Son of Heaven was shut up in his palaces intent upon nothing but his pleasures and the society of the bonzes."

"Candida, dear Candida, thou who art so truth-loving that thou darest even to rebuke thy Emperor, canst thou tell thy friend and mistress that while all is so calm, beautiful, and happy within these walls, there can be so much misery without?" said the princess, trembling with fear.

"Even worse, O dear princess, for while the imperial storehouses are groaning with grain, thousands of people are dying of starvation within the walls of Pekin," replied Candida.