“Noble youth, take this purse—it is heavy,” exclaimed Ho—“hasten to relieve the necessities of thy mother—a happy mother in so dutiful a son—then return without delay and await the examination. I promise thee, thou shalt not this time lack a present for the greedy judges—though, by Budha, I would like to give it them at the dagger’s point!” Accordingly Lí bade farewell to his generous friend, promising to return as speedily as possible. ----- [1] A deleterious liquor distilled from rice. [2] A Chinese coin. [3] The custom of announcing the names of the successful candidates at the examination. [4] The god of intoxicating liquors. PART II. A man who has a tongue may go to Rome. _Chin. Prov’b._ Within the “Tranquil Palace of Heaven,” Hwant-sung sat upon the Dragon’s Throne, with all his court prostrate before him. There was evidently “something rotten in the state of Denmark,” for the clouds which veiled the august features of the Celestial Monarch were black as night—thunder might soon be expected, and low in the dust his humble courtiers awaited the outpouring of his terrible wrath. Before his footstool knelt the Premier Yang, bearing in his hand an official document inscribed with curious hieroglyphics. “By my ancestors,” exclaimed the emperor, with a wrathful look from one to the other of his trembling courtiers, “a wise court is sustained by the bounty of Hwant-sung! say rather a pack of idiots, asses, dolts, fatted dogs! What! shall we become a jibe in the mouths of foreign nations! Shall barbarian kings mock the court of Nankin! _Hi!_ Is there not one then of my learned counsellors—not one of my renowned warriors can decipher me this scroll! Tremble, then, ye hounds! Yang, I command thee to make known to us the purport of the missive which the foreign ambassadors have brought to our court.” At this order well might Yang turn pale—for there was no more meaning to him in the characters on which his eyes were fixed, than in the slimy trail which the green lizard draws upon the sand. Over and over he turned it—now on this side, now on that—watched narrowly and jealously meanwhile by all around—for when was one high in favor with princes also the favorite with the mass! At length, nine times reverently knocking his head before Hwant-sung, Yang said: “Let not the displeasure of Earth’s Glory, before whose frown the whole world stands affrighted, annihilate his slave that the gods have not granted him power to do the will of his majesty in this thing. He cannot read.”