Poor queen! her kingdom threatened on all sides, at that time in the hands of an ancient foe, traitors and relentless enemies among her own people and kindred, and some of the men whom she had raised and advanced ready and plotting then to betray her to death. No wonder she sighed for that haven of peace and rest. But I was forced to tell her very sadly, that no sinners might enter there. “No sinners!” Her face fell, the bright look faded, for she knew, accustomed though she was to almost divine honors, that she was a sinner. Then as silence fell in the room, I told her the good tidings, that all who would trust in Jesus were forgiven and purified through him, and so made holy and fit for that country. She listened very thoughtfully, and though no other opportunity came to talk further on this subject, I was unspeakably thankful that I had been permitted on these occasions to point out clearly the way of salvation. I think that in this time, when her nation’s helplessness and weakness were emphasized, the queen sought to strengthen friendly relations with European and Americans. She gave several formal audiences to European and American ladies, and all who met her felt her powerful magnetic charm and became at once her friends and well-wishers. Twice during that winter the queen bade me ask all my friends to skate on the pond in the palace gardens, graciously asking me to act as hostess in her place and serve tea in the little pavilion near-by. On Christmas day her majesty sent a beautiful sedan-chair, which had been her own, covered with blue velvet and lined with Chinese brocaded silk, and with it any number of screens, mats, rolls of cloth and interesting and curious articles of Korean manufacture, with great quantities of eggs, pheasants, fish, nuts and dates, and on the Korean New Year’s day five hundred yen, which the queen requested me to use in the purchase of pearls, or something similar, for myself, and a gift as well for my little son. He was then between four and five years of age, and the palace women were constantly urging me to bring him with me to the palace. This, of course, I would not do without a special request from their majesties, and at length one day the queen asked why I had never brought him, expressed surprise that I considered an invitation necessary, and bade me bring him next day. I therefore took him to the palace, and no sooner had the coolies lowered my chair than the women, who were evidently on the watch for us, clutched him up and bore him away in triumph, I, his mother, knew not whither. Some few minutes elapsed before I was asked to go from the waiting room to the audience, during which I employed my time in lively conjectures as to what was happening to my kidnapped son. When I was called for a little later I found him with the royal party, the center of an admiring circle.