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TUEN, SLAVE AND EMPRESS

by

KATHLEEN GRAY NELSON

Illustrations by William M. Cary


[Illustration: TUEN AT WORK ON THE TUNIC.--_Page 65_]






New York
Copyright by
E. P. Dutton & Company
31 West Twenty-Third Street
1898


[Illustration: _Frontispiece._ THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT. Page 190.]




PREFACE.


This story is founded upon facts in the life of the Empress-dowager of
China, the mother of the present Emperor.

She was sold as a slave by her father to a renowned government
official, who after a few years adopted her as his daughter, and
afterwards presented her to the Emperor.

The Emperor was altogether charmed with the gift. In a few years the
slave girl became the wife of the Emperor, second in rank only to the
Empress. From this time she was a power at the Imperial Court. Her
administrative ability in governmental affairs became invaluable to the
Emperor.

After the death of the Empress, and the death of the Emperor and eldest
son, she became Empress-dowager of China, and reigned as regent during
the minority of her son, who is the present Emperor of China, now about
twenty-four years of age.

Bishop Galloway tells us this wonderful woman's sixtieth birthday,
celebrated last year, "was to have been the greatest event in Chinese
history for a century or more." The war, however, prevented this
display. He says, too: "It is significant that in this country, in which
women are at a discount, are secluded and kept in ignorance, are
protested against at birth, and regarded as a calamity in youth, the
ruling spirit in all national affairs is a woman."




ILLUSTRATIONS.

                                            PAGE
NIU TSANG AND FAMILY                           2

THE VICEROY AND NIU TSANG                     24

TUEN AND WANG                                 43

TUEN AT WORK ON THE TUNIC (_on title-page_)   65

"I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN TO READ"               78

THE SAIL UP THE RIVER                        159

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT (_frontispiece_)        190




TUEN, SLAVE AND EMPRESS.




CHAPTER I.


The sun had set in the land where the dragon reigns, and darkness and
silence and rest and sleep, the ministers of the night, waited to come
to their own. But their presence was not needed in the eastern portion
of the province of Hunan, for a wonderful stillness hung over all the
barren landscape, and there was no sign of life. On the banks of the
streams the patient buffalo no longer went his ceaseless rounds, working
the pumps that sent water over the thirsty earth; the shrill cries of
the boatmen that were wont to echo on the river were hushed; not even a
bird crossed the quiet sky; and where the waving rice-fields had once
stretched out proud and green under the summer sun, was now but a lonely
waste that gave no hope of harvest, for man and beast had either
perished or fled. The great Tai-ping rebellion had stirred this peaceful
country to its very centre, and war and war's grim follower, famine, had
swept through this once fertile province, and naught was left to tell of
what had been, save a few scattered ruins.

[Illustration: NIU TSANG AND FAMILY. Page 2.]

Suddenly, against the purplish shadows of the distant mountains, a
little group could be seen moving slowly along, the only living things
in all this vast solitude. On they came over the parched levels, but the
man who was leading the way walked with bowed head, as one that saw not,
but only went forward because he must. He was small in stature, and thin
and lithe, while his complexion showed through its dark, the pallor of
the student. His face was of the Oriental type peculiar to the Chinese
Empire, and his carefully braided cue also indicated his nationality. He
had dark, sloping eyes that you might have thought sleepy if you had not
seen