of all the undesirable and hated foreigners. Of course they
meant mostly missionaries, and you know how I hate them and how very
religious I always am, so I thought I would not say anything then but
would wait and see what would happen. I felt sure they were going too
far as one day Prince Tuan brought the Boxer leader to the Summer Palace
and summoned all the eunuchs into the courtyard of the Audience Hall and
examined each eunuch on the head to see if there was a cross. He said,
'This cross is not visible to you, but I can identify a Christian by
finding a cross on the head.' Prince Tuan then came to my private Palace
and told me that the Boxer leader was at the Palace Gate and had found
two eunuchs who were Christians and asked me what was to be done. I
immediately became very angry and told him that he had no right to bring
any Boxers to the Palace without my permission; but he said this leader
was so powerful that he was able to kill all the foreigners and was not
afraid of the foreign guns, as all the gods were protecting him. Prince
Tuan told me that he had witnessed this himself. A Boxer shot another
with a revolver and the bullet hit him, but did not harm him in the
least. Then Prince Tuan suggested that I hand these two eunuchs supposed
to be Christians to the Boxer leader, which I did. I heard afterwards
that these two eunuchs were beheaded right in the country somewhere near
here. This chief Boxer came to the Palace the next day, accompanied by
Prince Tuan and Duke Lan, to make all the eunuchs burn incense sticks
to prove that they were not Christians. After that Prince Tuan also
suggested that we had better let the chief Boxer come every day and
teach the eunuchs their belief; that nearly all of Peking was studying
with the Boxers. The next day I was very much surprised to see all my
eunuchs dressed as Boxers. They wore red jackets, red turbans and yellow
trousers. I was sorry to see all my attendants discard their official
robes and wear a funny costume like that. Duke Lan presented me with
a suit of Boxer clothes. At that time Yung Lu, who was the head of the
Grand Council, was ill and asked leave of absence for a month. While he
was sick, I used to send one of the eunuchs to see him every day, and
that day the eunuch returned and informed me that Yung Lu was quite well
and would come to the Palace the next day, although he still had fifteen
days more leave. I was puzzled to know why he should give up the b