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The Emperor of Korea was still in the hands of the reactionaries. His Prime Minister and favourite was Yi Yung-ik, the one-time coolie who had rescued the Queen, and was now the man at the right hand of the throne. After a time Russia repented of her generosity. She sought to regain control in Korea. She sent M. Pavloff, an astute and charming statesman, to Seoul, and a series of intrigues began.
Allen gained a foothold soon after his arrival by sticking to his post in Seoul during the uprising against foreigners that followed the attack by the Japanese and the reformers on the Cabinet and their seizure of the King and Queen. When Min Yung-ik, the Queen's nephew, was badly wounded, Dr. Allen attended to him and saved his life. Henceforth the King was the missionaries' friend.
The drink was not stinted. Then there came a call of "Fire!" It was the duty of Min Yung-ik, as General Commanding the right Guard Regiment, to keep the custody of the fire apparatus.
Yi Yung-ik sided with the Russians. The end was war. One personal recollection of these last days before the war remains stamped on my memory. I was in Seoul and had been invited to an interview with Yi Yung-ik. Squatted on the ground in his apartment we discussed matters. I urged on him the necessity of reform, if Korea was to save herself from extinction.
She was as ambitious as the Regent. The birth of a son greatly improved and strengthened her authority, and she gradually edged the Regent's party out of high office. Her brother, Min Yeung-ho, became Prime Minister; her nephew, Min Yung-ik, was sent as Ambassador to the United States. The Regent was anti-foreign; the Queen advocated the admission of foreigners.
They felt that the Queen was against them. Her nephew, Min Yung-ik, had been on their side when he returned from America. Now, under her influence, he had taken the other side. Kim Ok-kiun, leader of the malcontents, was an ambitious and restless politician, eager to have the control of money.
She quickly changed clothes with one of her serving women, who somewhat resembled her in appearance. The serving woman, dressed in the robes of the Queen, was given a draught of poison and died. The Queen hurried out through a side way, in peasant woman's dress, guarded by a water carrier, Yi Yung-ik, who for his services that day rose till he finally became Prime Minister of the land.
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