Note 36 — Chapter XI · THE COMPACT

None of the party gathered in the council chamber saw Mr. Han after that. It seems from the accounts subsequently given by Palace officials that a little later Mr. Han went upstairs still deeply agitated. His evident purpose was to gain access to the Emperor, which, as he had not requested an audience, was a flagrant violation of etiquette from the Korean point of view. But the poor man in his confusion turned the wrong way and stumbled into Lady Om’s quarters. Some of the officials led him to a small retiring room, where he spent the night. The next morning it was officially announced that he had been dismissed from office in disgrace and would be severely punished. Marquis Ito immediately begged that the Emperor would pardon him, and, in deference to this request, Mr. Han was permitted to go into retirement with no other punishment than the loss of his office. The whole proceeding was one of those things which apparently can happen only in Korea and not excite any one’s special wonder. No one seemed to know precisely why the Minister was punished. He was amiable, not very strong mentally, but well-meaning and of comparatively good repute; he had done his best to carry out the Emperor’s wishes as he understood them, and, having failed, as was inevitable, his grief was the best proof possible of his sincerity; and one would think it might have excited sufficient pity to preclude resentment. However, it should be added that the sincerity manifest in Mr. Han’s grief did not extend to his memory or his powers of narration. At least that is an inference which one may draw from certain published accounts of these occurrences—Mr. Han having seemingly been the fountain-head of the information.