peror had been; how this trusted protector had made away with poor Kûng-ti in order that he might usurp the throne; and how she, the Princess Woo, had been flung into the swift Hwang-ho, from the turbid waters of which she had been rescued by the bannerinan of the Dragon Gate.

"This may or may not be so," Thomas the Nestorian said, uncertain whether or not to credit the girl's surprising story; "but even were it true, my daughter, how couldst thou right thyself? What can a girl hope to do?"

The young Princess drew up her small form proudly. "Do?" she cried in brave tcnes, "I can do much, wise O-lo-pun, girl though I am! Did not a girl save the divine books of Confucius, when the great Emperor Chi-Hwang-ti did command the burning of all the books in the empire? Did not a girl-though but a soothsayer's daughter-raise the outlaw Liû Pang straight to the Yellow Throne? And shall I, who am the daughter of Emperors, fail to be as able or as brave as they?"

The wise Nestorian was shrewd enough to see that here was a prize that might be worth the fostering. By the assumption of mystic knowledge, he learned from the bannerman of the Dragon Gate, the truth of the girl's story, and so worked upon the good bannerman's native superstition and awe of superior power as to secure the custody of the young Princess, and to place her in his mission-house at Tûng-Chow for teaching and guidance. Among the early Christians, the Nestorians held peculiarly helpful and elevating ideas of the worth and proper condition of woman. Their precepts were full of mutual help, courtesy, and fraternal love. All these the Princess Woo learned under her preceptor's guidance. She grew to be even more assertive and self-reliant, and became, also, expert in many sports in which, in that womandespising country, only boys could hope to excel.

One day, when she was about fourteen years old, the Princess Woo was missing from the Nestorian mission-house, by the Yellow River. Her troubled guardian, in much anxiety, set out to find the truant; and, finally, in the course of his search, climbed the high bluff from which he saw the massive walls, the many gateways, the gleaming roofs, and porcelain towers of the Imperial city of Chang-an- the City of Continuous Peace.

But even before he had entered its northern gate, a little maid in loose silken robe, peaked cap, and embroidered shoes, had passed through that very gateway, and slipping through the thronging streets of the great city, approached at last the group of picturesque and glittering buildings that composed the palace of the great Emperor Tai.

thousand Chinese boys received instruction under the patronage of the Emperor, while, just beyond extended the long, low range of the archery school, in which even the Emperor himself sometimes came to witness, or take part in, the exciting contests.

Drawing about her shoulders the yellow sash that denoted alliance with royalty, the Princess Woo, without a moment's hesitation, walked straight through the palace gateway, past the wondering guards, and into the boundaries of the archery court.

Here the young Prince Kaou, an indolent and lazy lad of about her own age, was cruelly goading on his trained crickets to a ferocious fight within their gilded bamboo cage, while, just at hand, the slaves were preparing his bow and arrows for his daily archery practice.

Now, among the rulers of China there are three classes of privileged targets - the skin of the bear for the Emperor himself, the skin of the deer for the princes of the blood, and the skin of the tiger for the nobles of the court; and thus, side by side, in the Imperial Archery School at Chang-an, hung the three targets.

The

The girl with the royal sash and the determined face walked straight up to the Prince Kaou. boy left off goading his fighting crickets, and looked in astonishment at this strange and highly audacious girl, who dared to enter a place from which all women were excluded. Before the guards could interfere, she spoke.

"Are the arrows of the great Prince Kaou so well fitted to the cord," she said, "that he dares to try his skill with one who, although a girl, hath yet the wit and right to test his skill?"

The guards laid hands upon the intruder to drag her away, but the Prince, nettled at her tone, yet glad to welcome anything that promised novelty or amusement, bade them hold off their hands.

"No girl speaketh thus to the Prince Kaou and liveth," he said insolently. "Give me instant test of thy boast or the wooden collar,* in the palace torture-house, shall be thy fate."

"Give me the arrows, Prince,” the girl said, bravely, "and I will make good my words."

At a sign, the slaves handed her a bow and arrows. But, as she tried the cord and glanced along the polished shaft, the Prince said:

"Yet, stay, girl; here is no target set for thee. Let the slaves set up the people's target. These are not for such as thou.”

"Hands off, slaves; nor dare to question my right to the bearskin target. I am the Empress!" It needed but this to cap the climax. Prince, guards, and slaves looked at this extraordinary girl in open-mouthed wonder. But ere their speechless amazement could change to instant seizure, a loud laugh rang from the Imperial doorway and a hearty voice exclaimed, "Braved, and by a girl! Who is thy Empress, Prince? Let me, too, salute the Tsih-tien!" Then a portly figure, clad in yellow robes, strode down to the targets, while all within the archery lists prostrated themselves in homage before one of China's greatest monarchs-the Emperor Tai-tsûng, Wun-woo-ti.f Before even the Emperor could reach the girl, the bamboo screen was swept hurriedly aside, and into the archery lists came the anxious priest,

*"The Sovereign Divine"- an Imperial title.

the bold front of this only daughter of his former master and rival, suited his warlike humor. But he was a wise and clement monarch withal.

"Nay, wise O-lo-pun," he said. "Such rivals to our throne may not be at large, even though sheltered in the temples of the hung-mao. The royal blood of the house of Sui§ flows safely only within palace walls. Let the proper decree be registered, and let the gifts be exchanged, for to-morrow thy ward, the Princess Woo, becometh one of our most noble queens."

And so at fourteen, even as the records show, this strong-willed young girl of the Yellow River became one of the wives of the great Emperor Tai. She proved a very gracious and acceptable stepmother to young Prince Kaou, who, as the records also tell us, grew so fond of the girl queen that, "Our Exalted Ancestor - the Literary-Martial Emperor."

The name of the former Dynasty.

within a year from the death of his great father, and when he himself had succeeded to the Yellow Throne, as Emperor Supreme, he recalled the Queen Woo from her retirement in the missionhouse at Tûng Chow and made her one of his royal wives. Five years after, in the year 655, she was declared Empress, and during the reign of her lazy and indolent husband, she was "the power behind the throne." And when, in the year 683, Kaou-tsûng died, she boldly assumed the direction of the government, and, ascending the throne, declared herself Woo How Tsih-tien--Woo, the Empress Supreme and Sovereign Divine !

History records that this Zenobia of China proved equal to the great task. She "governed the empire with discretion," extended its borders, and was acknowledged as Empress from the shores of the Pacific to the borders of Persia, of India, and of the Caspian Sea.

Her reign was one of the longest and most successful in that period known in history as the Golden Age of China. Because of the relentless native prejudice against a successful woman, in a country where girl babies are ruthlessly drowned, as the quickest way of ridding the world of useless incumbrances, Chinese historians have endeavored to blacken her character and undervalue her services. But later scholars now see that she was a powerful and successful queen, who did great good to her native land and strove to maintain its power and glory.

She never forgot her good friend and protector Thomas, the Nestorian. During her long reign of almost fifty years, Christianity strengthened in the kingdom and obtained a footing that only the great Mahometan conquests of five centuries later entirely destroyed; and the Empress Woo, so the chronicles declare, herself "offered sacrifices to the great God of all." When, hundreds of years after, the Jesuit missionaries penetrated into this most exclusive of all the nations of the earth, they found near the palace at Chang-an the ruins of the Nestorian mission church with the cross still standing and, preserved through all the changes of dynasties, an abstract in Syriac characters of the Christian law, and with it the names of seventy-two attendant priests who had served the church established by O-lo-pun.

Thus, in a land in which from the earliest ages women have been regarded as little else but slaves, did a self-possessed and wise young girl triumph over all difficulties and rule over her many millions of subjects"in a manner becoming a great prince." This, even her enemies admit. "Lessening the miseries of her subjects," so the historians declare, she governed the wide Empire of China wisely, discreetly, and peacefully; and she displayed upon the throne, all the daring, wit, and wisdom that had marked her actions when, years before, she was nothing but a sprightly and determined little Chinese maiden, on the banks of the turbid Yellow River.

SEVENTH PAPER.

A MOUNTAIN-TOP AND HOW WE GET THERE.

THE mountain to which we are now going is in Switzerland - that country which contains more celebrated mountains, more beautiful mountains, more accessible mountains, and, I may add, more useful mountains, than any other country in the world. There is no part of Switzerland where mountains are not to be seen; and to travel in that country, it is generally necessary to cross the mountains, to go around their sides, or to go through them. Switzerland, indeed, may be said to be a great deal larger than would be supposed, from the very limited extent of its boundary lines, because so much of the surface is piled up into the air, in the shape of mountains.

These vast eminences, which lie in chains and groups all over the country, are called Alps, and they are divided into three classes, the High Alps, the Middle Alps, and the Lower Alps. The first of these divisions consists of those mountains, the tops of which rise above the snow line, which is about eight thousand feet above the sea. The portions of a mountain which are higher than this imaginary line are covered with snow which never melts, even in summer. The Middle Alps are those which raise themselves above the height at which all trees cease to grow, or four thousand five hundred feet above the sea. The Lower Alps are more than two thousand feet high, but do not rise to the altitude of the last division.

The word alp means a mountain pasture, and many of the lower mountains, as well as great portions of the sides of the higher ones, are covered with rich grass, on which, during the summer-time, great numbers of cattle graze. In queer little chalets, or Swiss huts, which look as if they were nearly all roof, scattered here and there upon the grassy sides of the mountains, live the people who attend to the cattle, and make butter and cheese.

Nothing can be more picturesque than some of these Alpine pastures, with their great slopes of rich green, dotted here and there with dark-red chalets. The cattle wander about over the grass, and sometimes, on the rocks, we see a girl blowing a horn to call together her flock of goats. Beautiful flowers of various colors spring up on every side; the air

is warm and pleasant, and everything gives the idea of a lovely summer scene, while just above, in the hollow of a ravine, to which we could walk in ten minutes, lies a great mass of white and glittering snow, which never melts.

Almost all persons who travel in Switzerland have a great desire to go to the top of at least one of the towering peaks they see about them; and mountain ascensions are very common and popular. Some go up one kind of mountain, and some another; and the kind is generally determined by their spirit of enterprise, their general health, and the strength of their legs. There is such a choice of mountains in Switzerland, and such a variety of ways of going to the top of them, that there are few persons who can not make an ascension, if they desire it.

The highest of all the mountains in Europe is Mont Blanc, which towers fifteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-one feet into the air. Although this great mountain is not in Switzerland, but in Savoy, it is very near the Swiss boundary line, and is plainly visible from Geneva. It is considered one of the principal sights of that charming little city, and many travelers never see it from any other point. Although many people ascend Mont Blanc every year, the undertaking requires a great degree of muscular as well as nervous strength. The top of Mont Blanc can not be reached in less than two days, and fine weather is absolutely necessary, for in storms or fogs the climbers would be apt to lose their way, and this would be very dangerous. Some years ago a party of eleven persons lost their lives on Mont Blanc in consequence of being overtaken by a storm. The first day the traveler ascends about ten thousand fect to a place called the Grands Mulets. Here, in a little stone hut, he passes the night, or, rather, part of it, for he is obliged to start again in the very small hours of the next morning. When the top is reached, and one stands on the highest peak of that vast mass of eternal snow, he has the proud satisfaction of being there, but he does not find that the highest point in Switzerland gives him the grandest view. The surrounding mountains and landscape are at so great a distance that sometimes they are not seen at all, and it is only in a very clear atmosphere that you get an idea of the mountain chains which lie about Mont Blanc.

The ascent is, also, not a cheap pleasure.

No