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. "Wouldn't it have been better to have taken my
advice and that of Hsu Ching-cheng and Yuan Chang instead of
having put them to death for endeavouring in their earnestness to
save the country? What about your old conservative friends? Can
they be depended upon as pillars of state?" Or some other
"I-told-you-so" language of this kind.
From their exile in Hsian decrees continued to be issued in his
name, and when affairs began to be adjusted, and the allies
insisted on setting aside forever the pretentions of the
anti-foreign Prince Tuan and his son, banishing the former to
perpetual exile, our hopes ran high that the Emperor would be
restored to his throne. But to our disappointment the framers of
the Protocol contented themselves with the clause that: "Rational
intercourse shall be permitted with the Emperor as in Western
countries," and with the return of the court in 1902 he was still
a prisoner.
Every one who has written about audiences with the Empress
Dowager tells how "the Emperor was seated near, though a little
below her," but they never tell why. The reason is not far to
seek. The world must not know that he was a prisoner in the
palace. They must see him near the throne, but they may not speak
to him. The addresses of the ministers were passed to her by her
kneeling statesmen, and it was they who replied. No notice was
taken of the Emperor though he seemed to be in excellent health
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