For this suggestion the Empress Dowager caused the miserable girl to be thrown down a well, in spite of the supplications of the Emperor on her behalf.

Then she fled, ultimately to Hsi-an Fu, the capital of Shensi, and for a year and a half Peking was rid of her presence.

In 1902, she came back with the Emperor, whose prerogative she still managed to usurp.

She declared at once for reform, and took up the cause with much show of enthusiasm; but those who knew the Manchu best, decided to "wait and see." She began by suggesting intermarriage between Manchus and Chinese, which had so far been prohibited, and advised Chinese women to give up the practice of footbinding, a custom which the ruling race had never adopted.

It was henceforth to be lawful for Manchus, even of the Imperial family, to send their sons abroad to be educated,--a step which no Manchu would be likely to take unless forcibly coerced into doing so.