“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 T‘ang 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 T‘ang 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.
Once he led his soldiers out of the city to Yangch‘êng when the villagers, men and women, were assembled from all sides for the annual festival. His men surrounded the place and plundered it. They took away booty by the cart load, and women prisoners and a large number of heads. The procession returned to the city and published a story that they had obtained a great victory over some rebels. They burned the heads beneath the walls and the women and jewellery were shared out among the soldiers.
An officer named Wu Fou was disgusted at this ferocity and sought a chance to slay the tyrant. He constantly wore a breastplate underneath his court dress and carried concealed a sharp dagger. One day when Tung came to court Fou met
