“So he shows his resentment by writing poems, eh! A fair excuse to put them all out of the way,” said Tung. Li Ju was sent with ten men into the palace to consummate the foul deed. The three were in one of the upper rooms when he arrived. The Emperor shuddered when the maid announced the visitor’s name. Presently Li entered and offered a cup of poisoned wine to the Emperor. The Emperor asked what this meant. “Spring is the season of blending and harmonious interchange and the Minister sends a cup of the wine of longevity,” said he. “If it be the wine of longevity you may share it too; pledge me first,” said the Empress. Then Li became brutally frank. “You will not drink!” cried he. He called the men with daggers and cords and bade her look at them. “The cup, or these?” said he. Then said the Lady Tʻang, “Let the handmaiden drink in place of her lord. Spare the mother and her son, I pray.” “And who may you be to die for a prince?” said Li. Then he presented the cup to the Empress once more and bade her drink. She railed against her brother, the feckless Ho Chin, the author of all this trouble. She would not drink. Next Li approached the Emperor. “Let me say farewell to my mother,” begged he, and he did so in these lines:— The heaven and earth are changed alas! the sun and the moon leave their courses, I, once the centre of all eyes, am driven to the farthest confines. Oppressed by an arrogant minister my life nears its end, Everything fails me and vain are my falling tears. The Lady Tʻang sang:— Heaven is to be rent asunder, Mother Earth to fall away; I, handmaid of an Emperor, would grieve if I followed him not. We have come to the parting of ways, the quick and the dead walk not together; Alas! I am left alone with the grief in my heart. When they had sung these lines they fell weeping into each others’ arms. “The minister is awaiting my report,” said Li, “and you delay too long. Think you that there is any hope of succour?” The Empress broke into another fit of railing. “The rebel forces us to death, mother and son, and Heaven has abandoned us. But you, the tool of his crime, will assuredly perish.” Thereupon Li grew more angry, laid hands on the Empress and threw her out of the window. Then he bade the soldiers strangle Lady Tʻang and forced the lad to swallow the wine of death. He reported the achievement of the cruel deed to his master who bade them bury the victims without the city. After this Tung’s behaviour was more atrocious than before. He spent his nights in the palace, defiled the virgins there and even slept on the imperial couch.