The Japanese had been keeping watch of events that were transpiring during these troublesome times, and at this juncture an envoy came from the island empire announcing, as between friends, the name of the new Japanese year. This letter was not received by the king, who asked what use it would be to him. The Japanese replied, “You have given up China and are now a masterless dog. Why is our name not good as any?” It shows how pride had been crushed out of the Koreans to find that Ch‘oé Myŭng-gil himself said, “We have done wrong to surrender to the Manchus. Now let us make friendly advances toward Japan.” From that time on it was customary to receive politely the annual message from Japan, but there seems to have been no more _rapport_ between the two countries than this. As the Manchu emperor passed north through P‘yŭng-an province he gave orders to the prefect of Cheung-san to seize and deliver up to him the person of Hong Ik-han who had been especially virulent in his opposition to the Manchus. It was done, and the man was carried captive to the Manchu capital at Sim-yang (Mukden). There he was decently lodged in a house of detention called the Pyŭl-gwan, until a certain day when he was called before the emperor, who sat in state surrounded by soldiery. Being asked why he had opposed the Manchu influence he replied in writing. “All men within the four seas are brothers but there can be but one father. From the first the king of Korea acted uprightly and mannerly. In Korea we have censors who chide and correct him. Last year, being censor, I heard that you, who held to us the relation of elder brother, had styled yourself emperor and by so doing had ruptured the actual relations subsisting between us. From the earliest times we have owed allegience to China and how could we then advise the king to hold to a false relation? This is the reason I advised the king to stand out against you. This war and all its attendant miseries are my work alone and I would that you might decapitate me ten thousand times.” The emperor, who seems to have cherished the idea that he had overawed the man, was thrown into a great rage by this brave avowal and instantly threw the man into a dismal dungeon where he doubtless starved to death, for nothing more is heard of him. The two men who had been delivered up by the king in Nam-han were also carried north. They were also arraigned before the dreaded chieftain Yonggoldă who attempted to flatter them into making a complete surrender to the Manchus and taking up their abode permanently in Manchuria; but they utterly refused and asked to be killed at once. The Manchu chief argued, urged and threatened, but the men were not to be moved. Being ordered to execution they looked the chieftain in the face and cursed him. Chöng No-gyŭng, an attendant of the Crown Prince, begged for their bodies that he might carry them back and bury them on Korean soil, but the favor was not granted.