I found a fully armed Japanese in uniform, who asked for the prince. My suspicions were of course aroused, especially as I could only conjecture how many battalions he might have concealed around the corner of the house. I inquired who he was and why he came at that hour to see the prince. He replied in good Korean, that he was his particular friend, and gave me a name which was that of a Korean whom I knew to be a friend of our guest, adding that he had dined at our house that day, handing me a card engraved with Chinese characters. This was palpably false, as the friend of the prince had long hair, done in a top-knot, with a Korean hat above it, this man’s hair was cut short like a Japanese. The Korean wore white silk garments, this man was from head to foot a Japanese soldier.
“This card is Chinese, I cannot read it,” I replied coldly. “You are a Japanese officer whom I have never seen before, you cannot see the prince at this hour, you must go away and return in the morning if you have business with him.” The man, however, was very insistent on seeing the prince then, in fact he seemed determined to take no denials, and the more he persisted, the more I became convinced that once acquainted with the prince’s whereabouts in our house, he would call up his concealed assassins and arrest or kill him. With the strengthening of suspicion, my temper rose, and my verbs took on lower and lower endings, until I finally ordered him with the most degrading terminations in the grammar, to leave on short order. All through this conversation our Westerner, who understood no Korean, had been repeating at intervals, “Shall I shoot, Mrs. Underwood? If you say so, I’ll shoot,” brandishing his big revolver in an excited way, dangerous to all concerned. So at last our visitor considering his attempt to find the prince hopeless, reluctantly went away. We felt we had won a great victory, and covered ourselves with glory, in thus dispersing the enemy.
In the meanwhile the prince, whose door opened also in the garden, just opposite the one where we stood, heard the arrival, the long conference, the clash of a sword against the steps, and stood guarding his chamber door, while his attendant with drawn sword guarded that of the closet, which happening to be locked they supposed also opened on the garden. Next morning, when I showed the prince the card, he recognized with high glee the name of his Korean friend, and shortly afterwards the individual himself appeared. He had for purposes of disguise cut his hair that very day, and had donned garments which completely changed his appearance. It was owing to the success of this disguise that he had been ordered from our door with most injurious verb endings. I did not apologize very abjectly, however, for aside from the fright he had put me in, he had robbed me of all my glory, and the occasion of all its romance, and dropped it to the level of low comedy, and while the laughter of the family was ringing in my ears, I felt I could not forgive him.
The morning after the attack on the palace found General Yun, the leader and promoter, in our sarang, whither he had fled for shelter, well knowing it would be worse than useless to go to his own, or any Korean house. He inquired who had been captured, and on learning how many there were, remarked, “Then I am a dead man,” well knowing the most merciless torture would be used to extract from the prisoners the names of all concerned, and if his whereabouts were known, the American minister would be compelled to give search warrants to the police. He was an old friend of my husband, who promised to conceal him as long as possible, and get him out of the country soon. The Russian minister, who espoused the king’s cause as warmly as any of us, and who had refused to recognize the new government, was consulted, and a plan was formed to get General Yun to China. Next to our house lay that of another Presbyterian missionary, and adjoining that the Russian legation, just beyond which is a kind of diplomatic club-house, and only a few steps further one of the smaller city gates.
So Mr. Yun was lodged in the Rev. Mr. M——’s gate-quarters (between his house and ours), and that night Mr. Underwood shaved and dressed the general and his friend in Mr. M——’s and his own clothes, a fur cap well drawn down concealed his face. Mr. Underwood conducted the two men thus disguised through the Russian legation, the club grounds and then through the gates, where they were never suspected to be other than what they looked. A short distance beyond the gates chairs were in waiting. Mr. M—— and a Bible Society agent met them and escorted them to Chemulpo, where they were met by a guard from a Russian gunboat, on which they were conveyed to Chefoo, and there transhipped, and finally landed safe in Shanghai, where they were gladly received and hospitably entertained in the house of a M. E. missionary, until the king was restored to power.
Mr. Underwood was bitterly accused in Japanese newspapers of having promoted, and even led the harmless attack on the palace, and though as he was not only absolutely innocent, but ignorant of it, and not one particle of evidence could be found, he was obliged to endure a great deal of slander, which he would not have considered worth a second thought had it not been made to reflect on his profession and the cause he lives only to forward. The two facts that General Yun was at our house the night before, and that Mr. Underwood, at the request of our minister and the king, was at the palace on the eventful night, were used to give a show of probability to stories widely circulated, and allowed to remain uncontradicted by those who knew the facts.
The conspirators having defeated the restoration party, now carried things with a high hand indeed, and among the other obnoxious and tyrannical sumptuary laws, which they proclaimed as furthering “Kaiwha,” they ordered the summary removal of all top-knots, from the palace to the hovel, and it was reported that even the highest personages were compelled, in spite of useless protests, to undergo this humiliating treatment, and certain it is that the attempt was made to shear every sheep in the flock. The explanation of what this meant must be reserved for another chapter.
A KOREAN TOP-KNOT. [PAGE 167]