It did not take long to find a way. Hong Kye-heui, Hong Pong-han and Kim Sang-no, three choice spirits came together and began laying plans for the overthrow of the Crown Prince. They first instructed the soldiers about the person of the Prince to steal women or goods and, when questioned about it, claim that it was at the order of the Prince. One day when the king was taking a walk behind the palace he came across a shallow excavation in the earth, covered with thatch. Looking in, he found it filled with mourners’ clothes and other objects of mourning. Inquiring what it meant, he was told that the Crown Prince was impatient to have him die and that he had prepared the mourners’ garments in advance. This aroused the anger of the king. He never stopped to think that it might be a trick against the Prince. Every thing lent color to the suspicion. Again, one day, the king found the palace woman, above mentioned, weeping bitterly. She said it was because the Crown Prince had offered her indignity. So by degrees plotters, bringing apparent evidence from several sides, which could not but seem conclusive, gradually estranged the king from his son and at last caused the removal of the latter to another palace, the one called the “Old Palace.” These things preyed upon the mind of the Crown Prince and made him ill, but to add to this, it is said they administered drugs to him which tended to unbalance his mind and make him violent toward those about him. Then the Princess his sister arranged a trip to P’yŭng-yang for his health. It was intended that while he was there he should be charged with plotting to bring a force to overthrow the king and usurp the government. On his return, as he was approaching the city near night, an official came in to the king and announced that the Crown Prince was outside the gate and intended to come in that night and seize the scepter. This threw the king into a frenzy of rage. He immediately had all the gates put under double guard and sent out demanding the reason of the Prince’s treasonable actions. The latter denied all treasonable intentions, but it was too late. The old man was unable to reason calmly about the matter. On the fifteenth day of the fifth moon the king went down to the “Old Palace” to sit in judgment on his son. It was an exceedingly hot day. When the Crown Prince came in and bowed before his father, the latter said “Do you realize how you have sinned?” The Prince replied that he was not conscious of having sinned against his father in any way whatever. As the king had already decided in his mind that the Prince was guilty, this denial made him simply furious. He screamed “If you do not die it will mean the destruction of the dynasty. So die.” He then ordered all the assembled courtiers to bare their swords but they hesitated, for they knew the Prince was innocent; but when the king leaped up and drew his sword they had to do likewise. The Prince calmly