Majesty's veranda.
This was Her Majesty's own idea, in order that she could keep an eye on
all of us and could see when we either went out or came in.

Her Majesty now conducted us to her own Palace, and pausing a little
said: "I will now show you something which will be quite new to you."
We entered a room adjoining her bedroom, which was connected by a narrow
passage some fifteen feet in length. On either side the walls were
painted and decorated very beautifully. Her Majesty spoke to one of the
eunuch attendants, who stooped down and removed from the ground at each
end of this passage two wooden plugs which were fitted into holes in the
basement. I then began to realize that what I had hitherto regarded as
solid walls were in reality sliding panels of wood. These panels when
opened revealed a kind of grotto. There were no windows, but in the roof
was a skylight. At one end of this room or grotto was a large rock,
on the top of which was a seat with a yellow cushion, and beside the
cushion an incense burner. Everything had the appearance of being very
old. The room contained no furniture of any description. One end of
this room led into another passage similar to the one already described,
having sliding panels, which led into another grotto, and so on; in fact
the whole of the palace walls were intersected by these secret passages,
each concealing an inner room. Her Majesty told us that during the Ming
dynasty these rooms had been used for various purposes, principally by
the Emperor when he wished to be alone. One of these secret rooms was
used by Her Majesty as a treasure room where she kept her valuables.
During the time of the Boxer trouble, she hid all her valuables here
before she fled. When she returned and opened this secret room she found
everything intact, not one of the vandals who ransacked the Palace even
suspecting there was such a place.

We returned to our veranda, and on looking around for the rooms we had
just vacated, could see nothing excepting black stone walls, so well
were they hidden. One of the principal reasons for Her Majesty's dislike
to the Forbidden City was the mysteries which it contained, many of
which she did not know of herself. She said: "I don't even talk about
these places at all, as people might think that they were used for all
kinds of purposes."

While at the Palace in the Forbidden City I met the three Secondary
wives of the previous Emperor Tung Chi, son of the Empress Do