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The emperor at length died; it did not clearly appear by what means, and it would perhaps have been troublesome to inquire: the empress-dowager waived the claims of her son; and Taou-Kwang ascended the throne without bloodshed.
He was restored, indeed, to a seat on the Tsungli Yamen, or Board of Foreign Affairs, but, for twelve months, it seemed as if, despite the support of the Empress-dowager Tsi An, his influence would never revive. The two years that followed the Shimonoseki Treaty gave a breathing spell to China, and should have been devoted to energetic reforms in the military and naval administration.
In the meantime, the Governor was requested not to calumniate the estates to foreign governments, as he had so recently done in his intercepted letter to the Empress-dowager. Upon receiving this letter, "Don John," says a faithful old chronicler, "found that the cranes had invited the frog to dinner."
In fact, she has the rank of a sovereign, without any of the responsibilities that are attached thereto, and while she may have experienced, at one moment, disappointment at being deprived by her husband's premature death of engineering a number of political, social and economic reforms in Germany, upon which she had set her heart, yet she cannot but have realized by this time that her existence as an empress-dowager is infinitely more agreeable than that of an empress-regent would have been, for had she been at the present moment seated by her husband's side on the throne, she would have found no time to devote to those arts and sciences to which she is so passionately devoted, and which nowadays occupy the greater portion of her life.
The Empress-Dowager herself was well aware that the importance of these Peace Negotiations could not be overestimated.
In the meantime, the Governor was requested not to calumniate the estates to foreign governments, as he had so recently done in his intercepted letter to the Empress-dowager. Upon receiving this letter, "Don John," says a faithful old chronicler, "found that the cranes had invited the frog to dinner."
At the time of the death of the emperor and empress-dowager, an aboriginal family at the village of Kuang-hsi-chou, in the southeast of Yün-nan province, knowing that a successor to the throne must be found, and having a son of about eight years of age, put this boy up as a pretender to the Chinese throne, and not without considerable success.
It was quite right and proper that, being appointed, Li should share Prince Ching's labours and not allow everything, criticism included, to be thrown on the latter alone; but the more he was discredited, the more need for Prince Ching to return to Peking and quickly. In the costume given her by the Empress-Dowager of China when Miss Carl painted her portrait for the St.
Nevertheless, he did not yet despair of revenge. "These rebels," he wrote to the Empress-dowager, his sister, "think that fortune is all smiles for them now, and that all is ruin for me. The wretches are growing proud enough, and forget that their chastisement, some fine morning, will yet arrive." On the 7th of August he addressed another long letter to the estates.
But, as they gave him no definite answer, there was nothing for it but to remind them that he had agreed to go and soon. Downcast faces listened; a most unconsenting silence answered. "Well, are you willing?" said he at last. "Is Her Majesty the Empress-Dowager agreeable to receiving me as British Minister?"
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