Page:China Under the Empress Dowager - ed. Backhouse and Bland - 1914.pdf/300

 ancestors. In spite of her superstitious nature, however, she was far ioo level-headed and far-seeing a woman to aitach supreme importance to sentimental considerations, or to allow them to weigh heavily in the balance when the guestion of hex own rulership was at stake. The hesitation which she had shown and the attention which she had paid to the advice of those who, like Chang Chih-tung, desired her to establish a new capital in Central China, were primarily a question of “‘face.” She would only return to Peking if guaranteed the full dignity and power of her former position. But as the peace negotiations pro- ceeded, and as it became clear to her that along the well- worn path of international jealousies she might return unpunished, and even welcomed, to Peking, she proceeded to make preparations for an early return. Fully informed each day by Prince Ch’ing of the progress which her plenipotentiarics were making towards the completion of the Peace Protocol, and overjoyed at its terms, she waited only until the condition of the roads, always more or less impassable after the summer rains, had sufficiently im- proved to permit of comfortable travelling. During the delay necessitated by the collecting and packing of the enormous quantity of “tribute” collected by Her Majesty and the Court during their stay at Hsi-an, she received definite confirmation of the good news that her treasure vaults in the capital had not been plundered by the foreign troops—good news which increased her anxiety to return as quickly as possible to superintend its removal before any pilfering by the eunuchs should take place.

It was on the 24th day of the 8th Moon (zoth October, igor) that the long procession started from Her Majesty’s temporary residence in the Governor’s Yamén ; followed by an enormous retinue, she commenced her journey by sacrificing to the God of War, the guardian spirit of her Dynasty (and, it may be added, patron of the Boxers), at a small temple outside the city gates. From this onward the Court advanced northward by easy stages of about twenty- five miles a day, resting first at Honan fu; thence on to K’ai-féng, where her sixty-sixth birthday was celebrated