This ceremony being ended, they were desired to follow the Emperor's chair, which was carried to the side of a pond or bason in the gardens, then frozen over. From this place the Emperor was drawn on a sledge to a tent pitched on the ice, whilst the Embassador and his suite were conducted into a dirty hovel little better than a pig-stye, where they were desired to sit down on a sort of bench built of stone and mortar; for, like the room they were put into on a former day, it was destitute of the least furniture; and they were told that something presently would be brought for them to eat. On complaining to their conductors that this was not the manner in which they were accustomed to sit down to meat, and that they did not conceive such apartments to be at all suitable to the situation they had the honour to hold, they were shortly afterwards conducted into another room, little better however than the first, but partly furnished with a few old chairs and tables. The candlesticks were small blocks of wood, to which the candles were fastened with a couple of nails. A few dishes of stewed meat were served up and, as a great delicacy from the Emperor's table, were brought in, without any dish, a pair of stag's legs, which the Chinese threw down upon the naked table; and for this mark of imperial favour they were required to make the customary genuflections and nine prostrations.
Van Braam, in the journal which he or some of his friends published in Paris, gives a curious account of the manner in which they were fed from the Emperor's table: "La viande consistait en un morceau de côtes sur lequelles il n'y avait point un demi-pouce d'épaisseur d'une chair maigre, en un petit os de l'épaule ou il n'y avait presque pas de chair, et en quatre ou cinq autres ossemens fournis par le dos ou par les pattes d'un mouton, et qui semblaient avoir été déja rongés. Tout ce dégoûtant ensemble était sur un plat sale et paraissait plutôt destiné à faire le regal d'un chien que le repas d'un homme. En Holland le dernier des mendians recevrait, dans un hôpital, une pittance plus propre, et cependant c'est une marque d'honneur de la part d'un Empereur envers un Ambassadeur! Peut-être mème etait-ce le reste du Prince, et dans ce cas, selon l'opinion des Chinois, c'était le dernier terme de la faveur, puisque nous pouvions achever l'os que sa Majesté avait commencé à nettoyer."—"The meat consisted of a small piece of the ribs, on which there was not half an inch in thickness of lean flesh, and a small shoulder-blade almost without any upon it; and in four or five other pieces of bones from the back, or the legs of a sheep, which appeared to have been already gnawed. The whole of this disgusting mess was brought upon a dirty plate, and seemed much rather intended to feast a dog than as a refreshment for man. In Holland the meanest beggar would receive in an hospital his allowance in a neater manner; and yet it was intended as a mark of honour on the part of an Emperor towards an Embassador! Perhaps it was even the remains of the Sovereign, and in that case, according to the opinion of the Chinese, it was the greatest possible act of favour, since we should then have had an opportunity of finishing the bone which his Imperial Majesty had begun to pick."
The Dutch gentlemen, equally disgusted with the meanness and filthiness of the place, and with the pride and haughtiness of the people, became now reconciled to the shabby appearance of their old travelling dresses, which they began to consider as fully good enough for the occasion.
Having finished their elegant repast, the amusements of the day commenced on the ice. The Emperor made his appearance in a sort of sledge, supported by the figures of four dragons. This machine was moved about by several great Mandarins, some dragging before, and others pushing behind. The four principal ministers of state were also drawn upon the ice in their sledges by inferior mandarins. Whole troops of civil and military officers soon appeared, some on sledges, some on skaits, and others playing at football upon the ice, and he that picked up the ball was rewarded by the Emperor. The ball was then hung up in a kind of arch, and several mandarins shot at it, in passing on skaits, with their bows and arrows. Their skaits were cut off short under the heel, and the forepart was turned up at right angles. Owing to this form, or to the inexpertness of the skaiters, they could not stop themselves on a sudden, but always tumbled one over the other whenever they came near the edge of the ice, or towards the quarter where the Emperor happened to be.
Leaving this place, they were carried through several narrow streets, composed of miserable houses, forming a surprising contrast with the proud walls of the palace. They were conducted into a small room of one of these houses, almost void of furniture, in order to pay their compliments to Ho-tchung-tang, the Collao, or prime minister, whom they found sitting cross-legged on a truckle bedstead with cane bottom. Before this creature of fortune, whose fate I shall have occasion hereafter to notice, they were obliged to go down on their knees. Like a true prime minister of China, he waved all conversation that might lead towards business, talked to them of the length of their journey, was astonished how they bore the cold weather in such scanty clothing, and such like general topics, which, in fact, signified nothing. From the first minister they paid their visit to the second, whom they found lodged in a similar manner; after which they returned to their mean apartments in the city, more satisfied on a comparison with the miserable little chambers in which they had found the two first ministers of this far-famed empire lodged, and the mean hovels which they met with in the very center of the space shut in by the walls of the imperial palace. The impressions that the events and transactions of this day made on the minds of the visitors were those of utter astonishment, on finding every thing so very much the reverse of what they had been led to expect.
The following day they were again drawn to court in their little carts, before four o'clock in the morning, where, after having waited about five hours in empty rooms, similar to those of the preceding day, two or three great men (Ta-gin) called upon them, but behaved towards them in a distant, scornful, and haughty manner. "We had once more," observes the Dutch journalist, from which I quote, "an occasion to remark the surprising contrast of magnificence and meanness in the buildings, and of pride and littleness in the persons belonging to the imperial palace."
After these interviews, they were suffered to remain a day or two at home; but on a bag of dried grapes being brought by a mandarin from the Emperor, they were required to thank him for the present with nine prostrations, as usual. Another time a little pastry from the imperial kitchen demanded the same ceremony. In short, whether at home or in the palace, the Chinese were determined they should be kept in the constant practice of the koo-too, or ceremony of genuflexion and prostration.
On the 26th of January, the Embassadors received notice that it was expected they should attend the procession of the Emperor to the temple, where he was about to make an offering to the God of Heaven and of earth. Having waited accordingly by the road side, from three o'clock in the morning till six, the weather dismally cold, Fahrenheit's thermometer standing at 16° below the freezing point, the Emperor at length passed in his chair, when they made the usual prostrations and returned home.
The next morning they were again required to proceed to the same place, and at the same early hour, to witness his return and again to go through the usual ceremony.
On the 29th, they were again summoned to attend by the road side to do homage before the Emperor, as he passed them on his way to a pagoda or Poo-ta-la, a kind of temple or monastery, where a great number of priests, clothed in yellow, lived together in a state of celibacy; and here he made his burnt-offerings. The mystical rates performed, presents were brought out for the Embassador and suite, and also for the King of Holland, consisting of little purses, flimsey silks, and a coarse stuff somewhat similar to that known by seamen under the name of bunting; and, in token of gratitude for this mark of imperial kindness, they were directed again to bow down their heads to the ground.