The business of the day had now arrived. Presently the Emperor’s bearers stopped, and he alighted at the entrance of a tent of yellow silk, which had been erected at the angle of the Palace and Legation walls, within the shade of trees in the Legation garden. It was in this spot that his Majesty had given us permission to watch the passing of his Court. It was here, within a moment of his arrival, that the retinue of the Crown Prince, his chair of red silk borne upon the shoulders of sixteen bearers, stopped to set down its princely burden. The Emperor and the Crown Prince passed within the tent, changing the Imperial yellow and crimson robes of state in which they had first appeared for the sacrificial yellow silk, and emerging a little later to make obeisance before the passing of the tablets of their ancestors. The character of the procession was now modified. Soldiers and courtiers, nobles and dignitaries of the Court, gave place to priests clothed in the yellow robes of sacrifice, and chanting in solemn tones the words of benediction. The screaming of pipes took on fresh vigour, rising and falling in shrill cadence, until the air vibrated with conflicting discords. Men, solemn of visage, their yellow skirts swaying with the frenzy of their movements, swept past the throne, a surge of song rising to their lips expressive of the passionate despair and lamentation which (should have) filled their souls. They disappeared, a mocking echo haunting their retreating footsteps. Again the music of the priests broke forth in noisy triumph, heralding the presence of the twelve ancestral tablets, each carried by eight men in chairs of sacrificial yellow, which demanded the homage of the expectant pair. One came, moving slowly in a burst of solemn song. The Emperor, his son the Crown Prince, and the baby Prince, the offspring of Lady Om, dropped to the earth. For a moment they rested upon their bended knees, with crossed hands, in a reverent attitude, as their own proud heads sank to the dust before the gilded burdens in the sacred chairs. Twelve times they passed before the Imperial group; twelve times each Prince humbled himself, the circle of supporting nobles and attendant eunuchs assisting them. [Illustration: IMPERIAL TABLET-HOUSE, SEOUL]