at
difficulty. Of course we were all in chairs, as usual, and the eunuchs
who were not employed as chair-bearers rode horseback. Many of
the horses fell on the slippery stones and one of Her Majesty's
chair-bearers also slipped and brought Her Majesty to the ground. All of
a sudden I thought something dreadful had happened, horses galloping and
eunuchs howling: "Stop! Stop!!" I heard someone saying: "See if she is
still alive." The whole procession stopped and blocked the way. This
happened on the stone road just before entering the Western Gate.
Finally we saw that Her Majesty's chair was resting on the ground, so
we all alighted and went forward to see what had happened. A great many
people were talking excitedly all at the same time, and for a moment I
was rather frightened (for just about that time we heard a rumor that
some of the revolutionists were going to take the life of the whole
Court, and, although we heard that, we did not dare tell Her Majesty),
so I immediately went to her chair and found her sitting there
composedly giving orders to the chief eunuch not to punish this
chair-bearer, for he was not to blame, the stones being wet and very
slippery. Li Lien Ying said that would never do, for this chair-bearer
must have been careless, and how dare he carry the Old Buddha in this
careless way. After saying this, he turned his head to the beaters
(these beaters, carrying bamboo sticks, went everywhere with the Court,
for such occasions as this) and said: "Give him eighty blows on his
back." This poor victim, who was kneeling on the muddy ground, heard the
order. The beaters took him about a hundred yards away from us, pushed
him down and started to do their duty. It did not take very long to
give the eighty blows and, much to my surprise, this man got up, after
receiving the punishment, as if nothing had happened to him. He looked
just as calm as could be. While we were waiting a eunuch handed me a cup
of tea, which I presented to Her Majesty, and asked her if she was
hurt. She smiled and said it was nothing, ordering us to proceed on our
journey. I must explain about this tea; the eunuchs had it prepared
all the time and always carried a little stove along with hot water.
Although this went every time when the Court moved, it was seldom used.

As usual, all the Court ladies take a short cut to the Palace, so as to
be ready to receive Her Majesty, when she arrived. After waiting in the
courtyard for quite a lo