Before dawn began to break the King learned that Japanese troops were pouring into the barracks in front of the palace, and as some semblance of order had been restored in the immediate presence of His Majesty, a note was sent in haste to the Japanese Minister asking what all this meant. The messenger found Miura and Sugimura already up and dressed and sedan chairs at the door. Miura told the messenger that he had heard that troops had been marched to the barracks but did not know why. The Minister and his secretary thereupon proceeded rapidly to the palace. Immediately upon their arrival all the disturbance suddenly quieted down and the soshi dispersed and left the palace grounds. The Japanese Minister and secretary immediately sought an audience with His Majesty, accompanied only by an interpreter and another Japanese who had led the soshi. The Tă-wŭn-gun was also present.
Three documents were prepared by those present and placed before His Majesty for signature, one of them guaranteeing that the Cabinet should thereafter manage the affairs of the country, the second appointing Yi Chă-myŭn, the King’s brother, as Minister of the Household in place of Yi Kyŭng-jik who had just been killed, and the third appointing a vice-Minister of the Household. These documents the king perforce signed. Whereupon all Japanese troops were removed from the palace and only the Japanese-trained Korean troops were left as a palace-guard. Later in the day Ministers of War and Police were appointed in the persons of Cho Heui-yŭn and Kwŭn Yŭng-jin, both strong partisans of the Japanese and doubtless privy to the attack upon the palace and the murder of the Queen. In other words the King and court was surrounded by men every one of whom were in sympathy with the movement which had been planned by Viscount Miura.
Very early in the morning, while it was still scarcely daylight, Mr. Waeber the Russian Charge d’Affaires and Dr. Allen the American Charge d’Affaires ad interim came to the palace and sought audience with the King but were told that the King was unwell and could not see them. They insisted, however, and succeeded in seeing His Majesty, who told them that he still had hopes that the Queen had escaped, and besought their friendly offices to prevent further trouble. Other foreign representatives were received later[later] in the day.
It soon became evident that the Japanese authorities intended to deny any responsibility for the outrages committed. Miura stated in his dispatches to his government that the origin of the emeute was a conflict between the Japanese-drilled Korean troops, who desired to lay a complaint before His Majesty, and the palace guards who tried to prevent their entrance into the palace. Miura even sought to strengthen his disclaimer by obtaining from the newly appointed Minister of War a definite official statement that the rumors of his (Miura’s) complicity in the affair were without foundation. The document that the Minister of War sent in reply proved altogether too much and defeated its own purpose, for it stated baldly that there was not a single Japanese in the palace on the night of the eighth of October, when the Queen was murdered. As this Minister was a creature of the Japanese and as the presence of Japanese in the palace was clearly proved subsequently it is evident that Miura, by this sort of trickery, only succeeded in further implicating himself.
On the ninth, the day after the emeute, a full cabinet was appointed composed entirely of Japanese sympathisers, but with one or two exceptions they were not privy to the assassination of the Queen, though they were willing to profit by that crime in accepting office at the hands of the perpetrators. The men appointed were Yi Chă-myŭn, Kim Hong-jip, Kim Yun-sik, Pak Chöng-yang, Sim Sang-hun, Cho Heui-yŭn, So Kwang-böm and Chong Pyung-ha.
One would have supposed that the enemies of the Queen would have been satisfied by her death, but not so. On the eleventh, three days after her assassination, an edict purporting to have originated with His Majesty and signed by the full cabinet appeared in the Court Gazette. In it the Queen is charged with having interfered in public matters, disturbed the government and put the dynasty in peril. It is stated that she has disappeared and that her guilt is excessive; therefore she is deposed from her rank as Queen and reduced to the level of the lowest class.
There can be no doubt that this edict is fraudulent. The King never gave his consent to it and several of the members of the Cabinet knew nothing about it, notably Sim Sang-hun who had already thrown up his position and run away, and Pak Chöng-yang who denounced the nefarious business and resigned. It was put through by a few of the Cabinet who were thoroughly subservient to the Japanese. The Japanese Minister in reply to the announcement of the Queen’s degradation, affected to sympathize with the Korean Government but thought it was done for the good of the State. The United States Representative refused to recognize the decree as coming from His Majesty, and in this he was seconded by all the the other Foreign Representatives except one.
Meanwhile the Japanese government began to learn something of the truth in regard to the Queen’s death and felt called upon to defend itself from the charge of complicity in the outrage through its accredited Minister. Consequently it recalled Miura and Sugimura and upon their arrival in Japan they were arrested and charged with complicity in the matter. The fact of their arrest and trial was a distinct disclaimer on the part of the Japanese government that it was accessory to the crime; and in spite of the utter inadequacy of the trial and its almost ludicrous termination we hold to the theory that the Japanese government was not a party to the crime excepting in so far as the appointment of such a man as Miura can[can] be called complicity.
But the vigorous action of Japan in arresting Miura and putting him on trial had a strong influence upon the course of events in Korea. The Korean public and all the Foreign Representatives were demanding that the occurrences of the eighth of October should be investigated and the responsibility for the murder of the Queen placed where it rightly belonged. This itself bore strongly upon the Cabinet, but when in addition to this the Japanese government itself seemed to be weakening and it appeared that Miura’s acts would prove to have been unauthorized things begun to look rather black for the men who were enjoying office solely through Miura’s influence, and although the fiction was still maintained that the Queen was not dead but in hiding somewhere, the situation became more and more strained until at last it became evident even to the Cabinet that something must be done to relieve the situation. Accordingly on the 26th of November the Foreign Representatives and several other foreigners were invited to the palace and it was announced in the presence of His Majesty that Cho Heui-yŭn the Minister of War and Kwŭn Yŭng-jin the Chief of Police were dismissed, that the edict degrading the Queen was rescinded and that the facts connected with the attack on the palace would be investigated by the Department of Justice and all guilty persons tried and punished. At the same time the death of Her Majesty was formally announced.
The popular feeling against the Japanese-trained troops was so strong that they were dismissed and another guard summoned, but as a matter of fact this new guard was composed almost entirely of the very men who had formerly composed the Japanese-drilled corps.