Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/357

RV 352 (VICTORY) Dr. Chau had the audacity to step forward and help the helpless ruler to his feet.

"Yes," he said gently, "the Yang and the Yin are badly disrupted. You stand in real peril, Gracious Majesty. Continuance of such actions will only bring a fatal draught of gold which you will swallow whether you wish to or not."

An Lu-shan was all humility. "Was ever Emperor more acutely cursed?" he said. "Do whatever you can for me, Doctor. My complete trust is in you."

For months, the three Doctors remained in the Palace at Loyang. They feasted well and grew fat. They made daily reports to An Lu-shan, long, involved, fantastic reports that meant nothing. Still they bolstered up the hopes of the wretched preposterous Emperor of the Great Yen Dynasty.

In the interim, when he was not absorbed in his quest for light, An Lu-shan gloried in cruelty. Eunuchs approached him in fear for they believed that An Lu-shan was dead and that an evil spirit now dwelt in his body, a spirit that subsisted on the blood of eunuchs.

The thoughts of An Lu-shan were more painful than the itching pustules. Where was Yang Kuei-fei, what had happened to all that gay future he had planned so assiduously?

An Ch'ing-hsü was little disturbed by his father's blindness. He wasted no time in sorrow or sympathy. The most decisive attribute of his existence was hatred RV 352 (352)