EMPEROR.  The envoy may retire to repose himself in his lodging.
    [Exit the Envoy.] Let our civil and military officers consult, and
    report to us the best mode of causing the foreign troops to retire,
    without yielding up the princess to propitiate them.  They take
    advantage of the compliant softness of her temper.  Were the Empress
    Leuhow alive—­let her utter a word—­which of them would dare to be
    of a different opinion?  It would seem that, for the future, instead
    of men for ministers, we need only have fair women to keep our
    empire in peace.

PRINCESS.  In return for your Majesty’s bounties, it is your
    handmaid’s duty to brave death to serve you.  I can cheerfully enter
    into this foreign alliance, for the sake of producing peace, and
    shall leave behind me a name still green in history.—­But my
    affection for your Majesty, how am I to lay aside!

EMPEROR.  Alas, I [4] know too well that I can do no more than
    yourself!

PRESIDENT.  I entreat your Majesty to sacrifice your love, and
    think of the security of your Dynasty.  Hasten, sir, to send the
    princess on her way!

EMPEROR.  Let her this day advance a stage on her journey,
    and be presented to the envoy.—­To-morrow we will repair as far as
    the bridge of Pahling, and give her a parting feast.

PRESIDENT.  Alas!  Sir, this may not be!  It will draw on us
    the contempt of these barbarians.

EMPEROR.  We have complied with all our minister’s propositions—­shall
    they not, then, accede to ours?  Be it as it may, we will witness her
    departure—­and then return home to hate the traitor Maouyenshow!

PRESIDENT.  Unwillingly we advise that the princess be sacrificed
    for the sake of peace; but the envoy is instructed to insist upon
    her alone—­and from ancient times, how often hath a nation suffered
    for a woman’s beauty!

PRINCESS.  Though I go into exile for the nation’s good, yet ill
    can I bear to part from your Majesty! [Exeunt.

[Footnote 1:  The honor of the imperial alliance being the chief object.]

[Footnote 2:  Changngo, the goddess of the moon, gives her name to the finely curved eyebrows of the Chinese ladies, which are compared to the lunar crescent when only a day or two old.]

[Footnote 3:  Chow-wong was the last of the Shang dynasty, and infamous by his debaucheries and cruelties, in concert with his empress Takee, the Theodora of Chinese history.]

[Footnote 4:  The imperial pronoun “Tchin,” me, is with very good taste supplied by I in these impassioned passages.]

ACT THIRD

Enter Envoy, escorting the Princess, with a band of music.