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"The Emperor," said the Princess, "was not asked for an
expression of his opinion on this occasion, but when he saw that
the Boxer leaders had won the day he burst into tears and left
the room."
Similar meetings were held in the palace on two other occasions,
when the Emperor implored that they make no attempt to fight all
the foreign nations, for said he, "the foreigners are stronger
than we, both in money and in arms, while their soldiers are much
better drilled and equipped in every way. If we undertake this
and fail as we are sure to do, it will be impossible to make
peace with the foreigners and our country will be divided up
amongst them." His pleadings, however, were disregarded, and
after the meeting was over, he had to return to his little
island, where for eight weeks he was compelled to sit listening
to the rattling guns, booming cannons and bursting firecrackers,
for the Boxers seemed to hope to exterminate the foreigners by
noise. He must have felt from the books he had studied that it
could only result in disaster to his own people.
When the allies reached Peking and the Boxers capitulated the
Emperor was taken out of his prison and compelled to flee with
the court.
"What do you think of your bullet-proof Boxers now?" one can
imagine they hear him saying to his august aunt, as he sees her
cutting off her long finger nails, dressing herself in blue
cotton garments, and climbing into a common street cart as an
ordinary servant
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