ancestors, so We hereby depose her from the rank of Queen and reduce her to
the level of the lowest class."

The poor King, trembling, broken, fearful of being poisoned, remained
closely confined in his palace. The foreign community, Ministers and
missionaries, did their best for him, conveying him food and visiting him.

If the Japanese thought that their crime could be hushed up they were much
mistaken. Some of the American missionaries' wives were the Queen's
friends. A famous American newspaper man, Colonel Cockerill, of the New
York _Herald_, came to Seoul, and wrote with the utmost frankness about
what he learned. So much indignation was aroused that the Japanese
Government promised to institute an enquiry and place the guilty on trial.
Ito was then Prime Minister and declared that every unworthy son of Japan
connected with the crime would be placed on trial. "Not to do so would be
to condemn Japan in the eyes of all the world," he declared. "If she does
not repudiate this usurpation on the part of the Tai Won Run, she must lose
the respect of every civilized government on earth." Miura and his
associates were, in due course, brought before a court of enquiry. But the
proceedings were a farce. They were all released, Miura became a popular
hero, and his friends and defenders tried openly to justify the murder.

Japan, following her usual plan of following periods of great harshness by
spells of mildness, sent Count Inouye as Envoy Extraordinary, to smooth
over matters. He issued a decree restoring the late Queen to full rank. She
was given the posthumous title of "Guileless, revered" and a temple called
"Virtuous accomplishment" was dedicated to her memory. Twenty-two officials
of high rank were commissioned to write her biography. But the King was
still kept a prisoner in the palace.