The girl with the royal sash and the determined face walked straight up to the Prince Kaou. The boy left off goading his fighting crickets, and looked in astonishment at this strange and highly audacious girl, who dared to enter a place from which all women were excluded. Before the guards could interfere, she spoke. “Are the arrows of the great Prince Kaou so well fitted to the cord,” she said, “that he dares to try his skill with one who, although a girl, hath yet the wit and right to test his skill?” The guards laid hands upon the intruder to drag her away, but the prince, nettled at her tone, yet glad to welcome any thing that promised novelty or amusement, bade them hold off their hands. “No girl speaketh thus to the Prince Kaou and liveth,” he said insolently. “Give me instant test of thy boast, or the wooden collar(1) in the palace torture-house, shall be thy fate.” (1) The “wooden collar” was the “kia” or “cangue,”--a terrible instrument of torture used in China for the punishment of criminals. “Give me the arrows, Prince,” the girl said, bravely, “and I will make good my words.” At a sign, the slaves handed her a bow and arrows. But, as she tried the cord and glanced along the polished shaft, the prince said: “Yet, stay, girl; here is no target set for thee. Let the slaves set up the people’s target. These are not for such as thou.” “Nay, Prince, fret not thyself,” the girl coolly replied. “My target is here!” and while all looked on in wonder, the undaunted girl deliberately toed the practice line, twanged her bow, and with a sudden whiz, sent her well-aimed shaft quivering straight into the small white centre of the great bearskin--the imperial target itself! With a cry of horror and of rage at such sacrilege, the guards pounced upon the girl archer, and would have dragged her away. But with the same quick motion that had saved her from the Tartar robbers, she sprang from their grasp and, standing full before the royal target, she said commandingly: “Hands off, slaves; nor dare to question my right to the bearskin target. I am the Empress!” It needed but this to cap the climax. Prince, guards, and slaves looked at this extraordinary girl in open-mouthed wonder. But ere their speechless amazement could change to instant seizure, a loud laugh rang from the imperial doorway and a hearty voice exclaimed: “Braved, and by a girl! Who is thy Empress, Prince? Let me, too, salute the Tsih-tien!”(1) Then a portly figure, clad in yellow robes, strode down to the targets, while all within the archery lists prostrated themselves in homage before one of China’s greatest monarchs--the Emperor Tai-tsung, Wun-woo-ti.(2) (1) “The Sovereign Divine”--an imperial title. (2) “Our Exalted Ancestor--the Literary-Martial Emperor.”