Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/419

Rh at the happiest time of life, and could not resolve to die of his own accord, as the barbarous prejudices of his nation required, but the two officers who had brought him the fatal present had orders from the empress mother to help him out of this perplexity, and give a little assistance to his courage should he be unable to put himself to death, and they helped him accordingly. The coffin of the deceased Emperor was transported to the burial-place of the new dynasty, at twenty-four leagues north of Pekin, and never probably was there such a procession as that which accompanied the re- mains of Chun-Tchc to Mantchuria. The immense multitude made the whole country resound with the voice of weeping and lamentation, for this prince, of whom in his latter days the people had seemed ex- ceedingly tired, was now clamorously, and perhaps sincerely, regretted. " For my own part," wrote Father Schall to his friends in Europe, " I owe an especial mourning to the memory of the Emperor. For the seventeen years of his reign he never ceased to bestow on me many marks of kindness and regard ; at my request he did much for the welfare of his empire, and would doubtless have done much more if a premature death had not thus carried off, at the age of twenty-four, this certainly intelligent and highly-gifted young man."

THE END.