"Unhappily," returned the Bonze, "these persons, without exception, belong
to the abominable sect of Lao-tsze, whose members your Majesty long ago
commanded to cease from existence, with which august order they have for
the most part complied. In my own diocese, where for some years after your
Majesty's happy accession we were accustomed to impale twenty thousand
annually, it is now difficult to find twenty, with the utmost diligence on
the part of the executioners."

"It has of late sometimes appeared to me," said the Emperor, "that there
may be more good in that sect than I have been led to believe by my
counsellors."

"I have always thought," said the Prime Minister, "that they were rather
misguided than wilfully wicked."

"They are a kind of harmless lunatics," said the Chancellor; "they should,
I think, be made wards in Chancery."

"Their money does not appear different from other men's," said the
Treasurer.

"I," said the Chamberlain, "have known an old woman who had known another
old woman who belonged to this sect, and who assured her that she had been
very good when she was a little girl."

"If," said the Emperor, "it appears that his Grace the Principal Bonze hath
in any respect misled us, his property will necessarily be confiscated to
the Imperial Treasury, and the Second Bonze will succeed to his office. It
is needful, however, to ascertain before all things whether this sect does
really possess the Elixir of Immortality, for on that the entire question