It will probably occur to the reader of this unique but
veracious story that there is more in it than meets the eye, and
more than the one moral alluded to by the Emperor according to
the point of view of the different actors.
To the discernment of the reader it must accordingly be left.
THE HATRED OF THE QUEEN
A Story of Burma
Most wonderful is the Irawadi, the mighty river of Burma. In all
the world elsewhere is no such river, bearing the melted snows
from its mysterious sources in the high places of the mountains.
The dawn rises upon its league. wide flood; the moon walks upon
it with silver feet. It is the pulsing heart of the land, living
still though so many rules and rulers have risen and fallen
beside it, their pomps and glories drifting like flotsam dawn the
river to the eternal ocean that is the end of all - and the
beginning. Dead civilizations strew its banks, dreaming in the
torrid sunshine of glories that were - of blood-stained gold,
jewels wept from woeful crowns, nightmare dreams of murder and
terror; dreaming also of heavenly beauty, for the Lord Buddha
looks down in moonlight peace upon the land that leaped to kiss
His footprints, that has laid its heart in the hand of the
Blessed One, and shares therefore in His bliss and content.
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