CHING. Call Chang-lin. Get a piece of chalk,
and make a circle, in the middle of which you
will place the child. Set the two women to pull
at the child together, the true mother will easily
get possession of it, the false mother will not be
able.

(The officer makes the circle, and places
the child in the centre. Mrs. Ma drags the
child out of the circle; Hai-tang fails to do
so.)

CHING. Surely Hai-tang cannot be the mother
of the child, or she would have obtained possession
of it. Officer! seize her and apply the
bastinado.

(The officer obeys.)

CHING. Let them have another trial. Let us
once more see who gets the child.

(Again the child is placed in the circle, and
again Mrs. Ma gets hold of the child.)

CHING. Woman! have we not given you
every chance? You did nothing to obtain the
child. Officer! deal her out severer blows.

HAI-TANG. Excellence! O check your anger;
it frightens me like the noise of thunder. Lay
aside that threatening frown, terrible as the look
of the wolf or the tiger. Your servant was
married to Ma, and bore this child to him.
Nine months I carried it in my bosom, three
years I nourished it with my own milk, and I
have always treated it with maternal love.
When it was cold it was I who warmed its
delicate limbs. With pain and weariness I have
brought it to its present age of five. I know
how weak it is; I knew it would have been
injured had I seized the child violently to drag
it from her who held it so strongly. I could
not obtain my child without tearing its limbs
asunder. I had rather perish than subject my
child to what it must have suffered had I
attempted to drag it out of the circle. Pity
me!

She sings:

A tender mother could do no other!

Judge, excellency! judge for yourself!
She sings:

The poor child's arms are soft and weak as pith
Hidden by the outer hemp. And how could she,
Cold, cruel as she is, partake my fears?
But you, sir, you—you should perceive the truth.
Our fates how different! She is rich and strong;
I, helpless, poor, humiliated, scorned!
Yes! had I been as violent as she,
You would have heard the poor child's breaking
bones,
And seen his flesh in fragments!

CHING. We cannot always see our way, and
yet we may sometimes reach the secret workings
of the heart. Did not the sage say,

How can a man conceal his real self
When you can read his actions? can explore
The motives of his doings, and discern
The goal towards which he runs?

There was a marvellous power in that chalk
circle. It is certain that the widow sought to
grasp the child, that with him she might grasp
the fortune of Ma, her late husband. Might
she not have thought that the concealed truth
would force itself into open day?

He recites this verse:

She seized the child the heritage to seize,
But the white ring revealed her treacheries!
She had a sweet expression, but within
There lay a mine of cruelty and sin.

But the true mother is found. Bring forward
the adulterer.

Chang-lin, kneeling, produces Chao.

CHING. A pretty business this. Let us have
the truth—the truth in all its details. To
gratify a criminal passion, you poisoned Ma.
You took possession of this child that you might
get hold of his inheritance. You bribed these
men and women to bring forward their false
testimony.

CHAO. Your servant is but the clerk of the
court. How could he be ignorant of the penal
law? That he is so, is the fault of the governor
of Ching-chow. I am but a mute instrument
in his hands. I only hold the pencil, and write
down the answers of the accused. If there
be errors on the record, it is no fault of the
clerk.

CHING. I do not ask you about errors on the
record. I ask you if, to indulge a criminal
passion, you poisoned Ma?

CHAO. O, sir! look on that countenance
covered with a mask. Remove the paint, you
will find a hideous face, which no man would
pick up in the street. How could such an one
seduce your servant?

WIDOW MA. What? You never ceased to
tell me that I was as beautiful as the beautiful
Kwan-yin—and now to treat me thus insultingly!
Perfidious cur! that deserve not the
name of man!

CHANG-LIN. Yesterday, while the snow was
falling in large flakes, Chao and Mrs. Ma were
together. They followed two soldiers to come
to an understanding with them. It is clear he
was her lover. Excellence, call the soldiers and
inquire of them.

CHAO. We ourselves brought them.

CHING. Take hold of Chao, officer, and flog
him lustily with the heavy bamboo.

HAI-TANG sings:

You only thought to deal with Mistress Ma!
And never dreamed I should come back again.
Did I not see ye both upon the road?
And now we meet again. Reply, reply!

Chao feigns death.

CHING. The fellow pretends to be dead. Lift
him up, officer, throw water upon his face. Let
us waste no time. Confess!

CHAO. I have sinned with this woman; but
I am not a murderer. I did buy the poison,
but I did not suggest the crime. This woman
took it from me; she mixed it in a basin
of soup. She caused her husband's death. I
did not carry away the child. I told her, as she
was not its mother, to leave the matter alone.
She said if she got the child, she got Ma's
fortune with it. I am but a poor clerk. Where
could I have found the money to bribe these