Flattered, she gave her secret assent.
Things marched quickly after that. The Empress, nothing loth,
began making certain dispositions. Troops were moved, men were
shifted here and there in a way that presaged action; and the
Emperor, now thoroughly alarmed and yielding to the entreaties of
his followers, sent two members of the Reform Party to Yuan Shih-
kai bearing an alleged autograph order for him to advance
instantly on Peking with all his troops; to surround the Palace,
to secure the person of the Emperor from all danger, and then to
depose the Empress Dowager for ever from power. What happened is
equally well-known. Yuan Shih-kai, after an exhaustive examination
of the message and messengers, as well as other attempts to
substantiate the genuineness of the appeal, communicated its
nature to the then Viceroy of Chihli, the Imperial Clansman Jung
Lu, whose intimacy with the Empress Dowager since the days of her
youth has passed into history. Jung Lu lost no time in acting. He
beheaded the two messengers and personally reported the whole plot
to the Empress Dowager who was already fully warned. The result
was the so-called coup d'etat of September, 1898, when all the
Reformers who had not fled were summarily executed, and the
Emperor Kwanghsu himself closely imprisoned in the Island Palace
within that portion of the Forbidden City known as the Three
Lakes, having (until the Boxer outbreak of 1900 carried him to
Hsianfu), as sole companions his two favourites, the celebrated
odalisques "Pearl" and "Lustre.
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