SCENE I.

_Palace_, OFFICIALS, DIGNITARIES, _and_ MASTERS _of the_ CEREMONIES.

FIRST MASTER OF CEREMONIES

[_Placing in line one of the last blocks of porcelain_] There, the eighteenth group of high literates will stand there, facing the throne, but somewhat obliquely.

SECOND MASTER OF CEREMONIES

Everything seems to me in perfect order. We shall soon be ready.

AN OFFICIAL

So they say, indeed. He has been downcast and melancholy for several days, it seems as though each fresh victory of his army affected him like a disaster.

THIRD OFFICER

Yes, no one would have supposed that he would demand so elaborate a ceremony to celebrate his triumph.

FOURTH OFFICER

And have you heard the news? The prisoner is to make her appearance here.

THIRD OFFICER

Who?

FOURTH OFFICER

Who? How can you ask? The great, the only one. She of whom everyone speaks--the Ex-Empress of the rebels.

FIFTH OFFICER

Ah, the goddess! So now we are going to see her.

SIXTH OFFICER

And we can judge of her supernatural power----unless she has lost it.

FOURTH OFFICER

Oh, power she still has. Yesterday evening, by order of the Emperor, two eunuchs were decapitated simply for having announced to her the death of her son without preliminary forms.

THIRD OFFICER

And I know something, too, from the Governess of the Palace----To-day the goddess deigned to speak, to request mourning garments----So they searched the wardrobes of the late Empress Regent for all that was most magnificent in the way of white robes and shoes!