Chinese Literature

were now sheathed and hung on the wall of the court. When the prince had taken his seat and all had bowed to him, Tsui and Hsiu-hsiu were brought in and made to kneel before him. Fuming with rage, with his left hand the prince grasped the small blue sword and swung his right arm to draw it from the sheath, glaring as if he were killing Tartars again and gnashing his teeth in fury.

The prince’s wife felt very nervous. “Your Highness!” she whispered to her husband from behind the screen. “We are right under the emperor’s eye here! This is not the frontier. If they have done wrong, let the city authorities deal with them. Don’t go slicing off heads at random.”

The prince answered his wife: “How dare these two wretches run away! Now they are caught, and I am angry, why shouldn’t I kill them? But since you advise against it, I’ll have the maid taken to the back garden and Tsui sent to be tried by the city court.’ The prince also ordered that the officers who had arrested the runaways be rewarded with money and wine.

Haled before the city court, Tsui confessed: “After the fire that night, when I went to the palace and found everything had been taken away, I met Hsiu-hsiu in the corridor and she took hold of me and said: ‘Why have you put your hand in my breast? Unless you do as I say, I shall make trouble for you.’ She wanted to run away, and I had to go with her. This is the truth I’m telling.”

The city authorities sent the record of the case to the Prince of Hsienan, who was a stern but just man. “Since this is the case,” he said, “let Tsui’s punishment be light.” To punish him for running away, Tsui was beaten and banished to Chienkang.

Tsui was sent off under armed escort. He had just left the North Gate and reached Gooseneck Bend, when he saw a sedan-chair behind him carried by two men and heard someone shouting: “Wait for me, Master Tsui!” Tsui thought he recognized Hsiu-hsiu’s voice, but could not understand how she came to be running after him. Once bitten, twice shy: bending his head, he kept on his way. Presently, however, the sedan-chair caught up with him and a woman got out who proved to be none other but Hsiu-hsiu.

“You are going to Chienkang, but what about me?” she demanded.

“What do you want?”

“After you were sent to the city court for trial, I was taken to the back garden and given thirty strokes with a bamboo stick, then driven out. When I heard that you were going to Chienkang, I hurried after you to join you.”

“Good,” said Tsui.

So they hired a boat and went straight to Chienkang, after which Tsui’s escort returned to the capital. If that escort had been a talkative fellow, Tsui would have been in trouble again; but the man knew that

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