emselves in order to watch the
foreigner's doings. All of a sudden there was a piercing squeak and a
quick change of scene. Every one standing fell flat on his chest, the
soldiers to a man hid their faces in their hands on the ground, and the
clumsy eunuchs dropped down pell-mell from their perches, like over-ripe
fruit coming off the branch of a tree, and disappeared behind the wall.
Then, for a moment, all was silence; then there followed another shriek.
It was evidently a command to stand still until further notice. When I
looked for my Corean companion I found that he, like the rest, was spread
out with his face to the ground.

"I say, Mr. S." I whispered, touching him with my foot, "what does all
this mean?"

"Please, sir," he murmured, "do not look! do not speak! do not turn your
head! or I shall be beheaded!"

"Oh! I do not mind that at all," said I, laughingly, as my friend was
squashing what he had in the shape of a nose into the dust.

At this point there was another noise at the window, as if it were being
pushed quite open, and I heard a whisper. The supreme moment had come,
and I was bold. I turned quickly round. It was just as I had judged. The
queen, with her bright, jet black eyes and refined features, was there,
caught in the act of thrusting her head out of the window, while several
ladies of different ages were in the background, apparently on the tips
of their toes and peeping over Her Majesty's shoulders. I had just time
to see her face; for, taken as she was by surprise at such an unbounded
bit of forwardness on my part, she remained perplexed for a second, then
quickly withdrew, coming into dreadful collision with her
ladies-in-waiting, who were at the moment just moving forward. The
sliding window was hurriedly closed; there were shrieks of laughter from
inside--apparently they had enjoyed the fun--and by the sound of a shrill
whistle the men who had been lying "dead" rose and fled, relieved from
their uncomfortable position.

"Do you know," said my Corean friend, as he got up and shook the dust and
dirt off his beautiful silk gown, quite ignorant of what had happened,
"do you know that if you had turned your head round and looked, I would
be a dead man to-morrow?"

"Why; who was there?"

"The queen, of course. Did you not hear the two shrieks and the whistle?
Those were the signs of her coming and going."

"If you were to be beheaded, Mr. S., would you be afraid of death?"

"Oh, no, s