e!

EMPEROR. Alas, I [4] know too well that I can do no more than
yourself!

PRESIDENT. I entreat your Majesty to sacrifice your love, and
think of the security of your Dynasty. Hasten, sir, to send the
princess on her way!

EMPEROR. Let her this day advance a stage on her journey,
and be presented to the envoy.--To-morrow we will repair as far as
the bridge of Pahling, and give her a parting feast.

PRESIDENT. Alas! Sir, this may not be! It will draw on us
the contempt of these barbarians.

EMPEROR. We have complied with all our minister's propositions--shall
they not, then, accede to ours? Be it as it may, we will witness her
departure--and then return home to hate the traitor Maouyenshow!

PRESIDENT. Unwillingly we advise that the princess be sacrificed
for the sake of peace; but the envoy is instructed to insist upon
her alone--and from ancient times, how often hath a nation suffered
for a woman's beauty!

PRINCESS. Though I go into exile for the nation's good, yet ill
can I bear to part from your Majesty! _[Exeunt._

[Footnote 1: The honor of the imperial alliance being the chief object.]

[Footnote 2: Changngo, the goddess of the moon, gives her name to the
finely curved eyebrows of the Chinese ladies, which are compared to the
lunar crescent when only a day or two old.]

[Footnote 3: Chow-wong was the last of the Shang dynasty, and infamous
by his debaucheries and cruelties, in concert with his empress Takee,
the Theodora of Chinese history.]

[Footnote 4: The imperial pronoun "Tchin," _me_, is with very good taste
supplied by _I_ in these impassioned passages.]

~ACT THIRD~

_Enter Envoy, escorting the Princess, with a band of music_.

PRINCESS. Thus was I, in spite of the treachery of Maouyenshow,
who disfigured my portrait, seen and exalted by his Majesty; but the
traitor presented a truer likeness to the Tartar king, who comes at
the head of an army to demand me, with a threat of seizing the
country. There is no remedy--I must be yielded up to propitiate the
invaders! How shall I bear the rigors--the winds and frosts of that
foreign land! It has been said of old, that "surpassing beauty is
often coupled with an unhappy fate." Let me grieve, then, without
entertaining fruitless resentment at the effects of my own
attractions.

_Enter Emperor, attended by his several officers_.

EMPEROR.