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. What promises of
good behaviour it was necessary for him to make before he was
even allowed this much liberty, it is useless for us to
conjecture.
Following this audience the Empress Dowager, who up to this time
had been seen by no foreigner except Prince Henry of Prussia,
decided to receive the wives of the foreign ministers. Her
motives for this new move it is impossible to determine. It may
have been to ascertain how the foreign governments would treat
her who had been reported to have calmly ousted "their great and
good friend the Emperor," to whom their ministers were
accredited. Or it may have been that she hoped by this stroke of
diplomacy to gain some measure of recognition as head of the
government. She would at least see how she was regarded.
The audience was an unqualified success. The seven ladies
received were charmed by the gracious manner of their imperial
hostess, who assured them each as she touched her lips to the tea
which she presented to them that "we are all one family," and up
to that period of her life there was nothing to indicate that she
did not feel that the sentiment she expressed was true. Up to the
time of the coup d'etat, as Dr. Martin says, "she herself was
noted for progressive ideas." "It will not be denied by any one,"
says Colonel Denby, "that the improvement and progress" described
in his first volume, "are mainly due to the will and power of the
Empress Regent
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