alance
of his leave. However, I was very anxious to see him, as I wished to
consult him about this chief Boxer. Yung Lu looked grieved when he
learned what had taken place at the Palace, and said that these Boxers
were nothing but revolutionaries and agitators. They were trying to get
the people to help them to kill the foreigners, but he was very much
afraid the result would be against the Government. I told him that
probably he was right, and asked him what should be done. He told me
that he would talk to Prince Tuan, but the next day Prince Tuan told me
that he had had a fight with Yung Lu about the Boxer question, and said
that all of Peking had become Boxers, and if we tried to turn them, they
would do all they could to kill everyone in Peking, including the Court;
that they (the Boxer party) had the day selected to kill all the foreign
representatives; that Tung Fou Hsiang, a very conservative General and
one of the Boxers, had promised to bring his troops out to help the
Boxers to fire on the Legations. When I heard this I was very much
worried and anticipated serious trouble, so I sent for Yung Lu at once
and kept Prince Tuan with me. Yung Lu came, looking very much worried,
and he was more so after I had told him what the Boxers were going to
do. He immediately suggested that I should issue an Edict, saying that
these Boxers were a secret society and that no one should believe their
teaching, and to instruct the Generals of the nine gates to drive all
the Boxers out of the city at once. When Prince Tuan heard this he was
very angry and told Yung Lu that if such an Edict was issued, the Boxers
would come to the Court and kill everybody. When Prince Tuan told me
this, I thought I had better leave everything to him. After he left the
Palace, Yung Lu said that Prince Tuan was absolutely crazy and that he
was sure these Boxers would be the cause of a great deal of trouble.
Yung Lu also said that Prince Tuan must be insane to be helping the
Boxers to destroy the Legations; that these Boxers were a very common
lot, without education, and they imagined the few foreigners in China
were the only ones on the earth and if they were killed it would be the
end of them. They forgot how very strong these foreign countries are,
and that if the foreigners in China were all killed, thousands would
come to avenge their death. Yung Lu assured me that one foreign soldier
could kill one hundred Boxers without the slightest trouble, and