Page:China Under the Empress Dowager - ed. Backhouse and Bland - 1914.pdf/192

 vindictive Empress took summary revenge on the presumptuous concubine.

The Empress Consort, with whom Kuang Hsü was hardly on speaking terms, was commanded to remain with him. She, as Tzǔ Hsi's niece, could be trusted to spy upon the Emperor and report all his doings. He was allowed to see no one but her and the eunuchs in attendance, except in the presence of the Empress Dowager.

To the end of his life Kuang Hsü blamed Yüan Shih-k'ai, and him alone, for having betrayed him. To Yüan he owed his humiliation, the end of all his cherished plans of government and the eighteen months of solitary confinement which he had to endure on the "Ocean Terrace." Almost his last words, as he lay dying, were to bid his brothers remember his long agony and promise to be revenged upon the author of his undoing. Of Jung Lu he said that it was but natural that he should consider first his duty to the Empress Dowager and seek to warn her; and, after all, as he had planned Jung Lu's death, he could hardly expect from him either devotion or loyalty. The Old Buddha's resentment was also natural; he had plotted against her and failed. But Yüan Shih-k'ai had solemnly sworn loyalty and obedience. The Emperor never willingly spoke to him again, even when, as Viceroy of Chihli, Yüan came to the height of his power.

For three years Yüan lived in retirement, and under the constant shadow of fear; for the Emperor's brother, the Regent, kept his promise. Such were the intricate humanities of the inner circle around and about the Dragon Throne, the never-ending problem of the human equation as a factor in the destinies of peoples.