Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/68

RV 63 (PORTRAIT OF AN EMPEROR) The fumes of intrigue still spoiled the air when Ming Huang mounted the throne, so he beheaded a few of his relatives. The atmosphere was much improved. Nevertheless he was opposed to violence, though he was not opposed to its use if peace could be had by no other means. His first concern was the happiness of his people. The weak grew strong because he had their welfare at heart.

No man was so low in despair that he could not find the ear of his Emperor. Perhaps he was weary of the flagrant abuse of power which he had witnessed in the mad court of Wu How. Sometimes he walked incognito among his people. His blood was warmed by the praises of the government that he heard on every side.

When the harvest was abundant and there was a shortage of labor, he emptied the prisons of several hundred convicts who were awaiting the headsman's sword, in order that they might go into the fields and gather the rice. When the crops were in the granaries, the convicts returned to their cells. Not a man of them was missing. Whereupon, the Emperor freed them all.

"Men who keep their word," he said, "must keep their lives."

On another occasion as he walked through the bazaars of the city, he stopped to talk to a small boy. The child was carrying a toy, a tiny pigeon chariot. Ming Huang took him by the hand and they walked along like old friends.

As they parted, the boy gave Ming Huang the pigeon chariot. RV 63 (63)