“Ah, you villain, you did kidnap her after all. Now if any harm has come to her, off goes your head, and down goes your pasteboard city.”
“Ah, Excellency,” said the Prime Minister with a wail of woe, “it was indeed depths of wickedness, but what was I to do? If I did not bring her to Seoul, not only was my head lost, but the heads of all my kin; and now, alas, the Emperor says that if she goes not willingly away he will yet execute me, and all my family as well. Excellency, it was an unlucky day when the white Princess came to the Palace. The Emperor is in fear of his life, and terror reigns in every corner. Yet she would not go until the King, her father, brought his warship to Chemulpo, and she demanded to be escorted by the whole court with the honours of an Empress from the capital to the sea. She was going to make the Emperor himself come, but he bowed his forehead in the dust, a thing unknown these ten thousand years in Corea, and so she laughed at him and allowed him to remain in the Palace. She has made a mock of his Majesty and his ancestors.”
“Serves him jolly well right,” said I, beginning to get an inkling of how the case stood. “Her ancestors fought for liberty, and it is not likely she is going to be deprived of hers by any tan-bark monarch who foolishly undertakes the job. Is the lady still at the Palace, Hun Woe?”
“No, Excellency, she is on her way hither, escorted by the Court, and riding proudly with her white ambassador. Indeed,” he continued, looking over his shoulder, “I can see them now, coming over the brow of that hill. She was so anxious to meet her father that she would not await your coming.”
“All right, Hun Woe, you line up your troops on each side of the road, and see that they bow low when the Princess passes. I shall return and acquaint the King, her father, with the state of the poll.”
So saying I wheeled my horse, galloped back, and informed the old gentleman that everything was all right. He heaved a deep sigh of relief, and I fancied his eyes twinkled somewhat as I related what particulars I had gathered of the reign of terror in Seoul since his daughter’s enforced arrival.
By the time I had finished my recital the cavalcade to the rear had passed between the lines of prostrate soldiers. The old gentleman moved forward to meet his daughter, and she came galloping on her pony and greeted him with an affectionate abandon that was delightful to see, although when she flung her arms round his neck she nearly unhorsed him. Her reception of the rest of us was like that of a school-girl out on a lark. She seemed to regard her abduction as the greatest fun that ever was, and was bubbling with laughter and glee. She kissed the sedate Hilda as if she were an only sister, reproaching herself that even for a moment she had preferred that little beast of a Countess, as she called her, to so noble a treasure as Miss Stretton. To me she was as gracious as if I were her dearest friend.
“And now, Poppa,” she cried, “shall I make this circus come with us to Chemulpo? I can do what I please with them; they belong to me.”
“I don’t think we want that crowd tagging after us, Gertie,” said her father without enthusiasm.
“Then, Mr. Tremorne,” she said, “will you order them home again, and tell ’em to be good for ever after. And oh! I want you to ask the Prime Minister if I didn’t make that old Emperor kow-tow to me.”