Failing to obtain any help or satisfaction, they at length decided to go directly to the French legation and seek justice and relief there. They were received, attentively heard, carefully questioned, given a promise of redress, and sent politely away. They waited long and patiently, but no redress came, nor any sign of it. Again and again they sought the fulfilment of the promises of the representative of France, only to be put off repeatedly with fair words and indefinite assurances.
So at length they published their whole story in the leading Korean newspaper in Seoul. Then the French minister did indeed begin to act. He immediately requested the Korean Foreign Office to have the men beaten and imprisoned, on the ground that conduct like theirs had caused the Boxer trouble in China.
When affairs came to this crisis, the Protestant missionaries awoke to the situation. Rev. Mr. Gale and Mr. Underwood went to the office of Foreign Affairs and pled for the men, and also laid the matter before the American minister, Dr. Allen. He gave it his careful attention and succeeded in having a commission appointed by the Korean government to go to Hai Ju and investigate the charges. Dr. Moffett, of Pyeng Yang, and Mr. Underwood were also requested to be present and attend the trials. From the beginning to the end of this attempt to bring the truth to light, the French priests by every art in their power tried to block and delay the proceedings of the judge, to annoy and overawe him in Hai Ju, and (we were informed) by letters, special messengers and telegrams, to limit his power, hinder his plans, and undermine him in Seoul.
CARRIERS WITH JIKAYS. [PAGE 184]
WOMAN WITH BUNDLE OF WASHING ON HER HEAD. [PAGE 246]
He was a sturdy, clear-headed, determined man, who had had long intercourse with Europeans in his post in the Foreign Office, and held his own with much self-possession and sang-froid. It was said of him that he carried on the trials more fairly and more in accordance with equity than had ever been seen before in Korea.
The priests arrested and tortured a policeman who had been sent to bring some of the accused to the court, hanging him by his wrists. They used all the influence they possessed in Seoul, through the French, to force the Korean government to order the commission to yield to their demands for the release of prisoners already in the hands of the law, and for the remittance of punishment as they should dictate.
They induced the commissioner to promise that he would not try to arrest any one for a week, on the solemn assurance that they would themselves bring all the accused to court, and then, although they had two of the most notorious malefactors in their house for several days before the week expired, they allowed them to escape.