arried her to a grove of
trees in the deer park not far away. There they poured the oil over her,
piled faggots of wood around, and set all on fire. They fed the flames with
more and more kerosene, until everything was consumed, save a few bones.
Almost before the body was alight the Regent was being borne in triumph to
the palace under an escort of triumphant Japanese soldiers. He at once
assumed control of affairs. The King was made a prisoner in his palace. The
Regent's partizans were summoned to form a Cabinet, and orders were given
that all officials known to be friendly to the Queen's party should be
arrested.

The Japanese were not content with this. They did everything they could,
the Regent aiding them, to blacken the memory of the murdered women. A
forged Royal Decree, supposed to have been issued by the King, was
officially published, denouncing Queen Min, ranking her among the lowest
prostitutes, and assuming that she was not dead, but had escaped, and would
again come forward. "We knew the extreme of her wickedness," said the
decree, "but We were helpless and full of fear of her party, and so could
not dismiss and punish her. We are convinced that she is not only unfitted
and unworthy to be Queen, but also that her guilt is excessive and
overflowing. With her We could not succeed to the glory of the Royal
ancestors, so We hereby depose her from the rank of Queen and reduce her to
the level of the lowest class."

The poor King, trembling, broken, fearful of being poisoned, remained
closely confined in his palace. The foreign community, Ministers and
missionaries, did their best for him, conveying him food and visiting him.

If the Japanese thought that their crime could be hushed up they were much
mistaken. Some of the American missionaries' wives were the Queen's
friends. A famous American newspaper man, Colonel Cockerill, of the New
York _Herald_, came to Seoul, and wrote with the utmost frankness about
what he learned. So much indignation was aroused that the Japanese
Government promised to institute an enquiry and place the guilty on trial.
Ito was then Prime Minister and declared that every unworthy son of Japan
connected with the crime would be placed on trial. "Not to do so would be
to condemn Japan in the eyes of all the world," he declared. "If she does
not repudiate this usurpation on the part of the Tai Won Run, she must lose
the respect of every civilized government on earth." Miura and his
ass