1799.) 
call her young malter : But, too profound- 
ly afleep, he cannot hear her. Then the 
takes a ferule of leather which is on the 
table, and gives hima flight blow on the 
cheek. 
 Siou-yé awakes, rifes up ina paffion, 
and abufes Aouana, afking her what made 
her fo bold as-to dare to {trike him, fince 
fle very well knows fhe is not his mother, 
but only a flave éfhis father. He manifeits 
inall his geftures a degree of refentment 
for that aétion, which he thinks imperti- 
nent. 
Aouana, who has confidered Siou-yé with 
the expreffion which a flight fit of anger 
infpires, rifes when fhe perceives the ef- 
feéts of that ftorm drawing to an end, and 
comes to place herfelf before him. The 
youth is yet letting fall reproaches from 
his mouth, but it is already eafy to re- 
mark that he has a fentiment of his fault. 
At length Aouana addrefles him, and tells 
him in a tone full of tendernefs, that fhe 
well knows fhe is not his mother. ‘‘ But” 
adds fhe, ‘* where can you now, find her 
from whom you received life, and by 
whom you have been fo cruelly abandoned 
in your tender infancy ? Since. that fatal 
period, who has taken care of your days? 
who has proyided for all your wants ?— 
Without doubt, nature has not made me 
your mother: but has my heart ever ceafed 
to have the tendernefs and folicitudes of 
one? Have not old Atay and IJ laboured, 
day and night, for agreat number of years, 
to fuccour all your neceffities, in order to 
give you the moft ufetul of all benefits, 
that education which in time was to make 
you a valuable man ?—-Who can be fure 
that your true father is yet alive ?—-Ah! I 
now feel it cruelly,—I have only taken fo 
much pains, have only experienced’ fo 
much anguifh, for an ungrateful wretch! 
Already I become the objeét of your con- 
tempt and of your haughty humour. It 
mutt be fo, fince you force me to it,—TI re- 
nounce for the future inquietudes which I 
fee are likely to be fo unavailing. No, I 
am not your mother.—I reftore you to 
yourtelf, and will rigidly abftain for the 
future from all the duties of a fenfible foul, 
of a nurfe.—May the gods forget your 
ingratitude, as I do.”’ : 
Stow yé, who has heard all this tirade 
without daring to interrupt her (according 
to the cuftom of the Chinefe children), and 
who has liftened to all her expreffions with 
a painful attention, through which he dif- ~ 
covered from time to time movements 
which exprefied repentance, throws him- 
felf at the feet of Aouana when fhe has 
done. {peaking. He proitrates himfelf 
~ 
Account of a Chinefe Drama by M1, Van Braam. 
that can denote mifery, 
519 
with his face againft the earth. He in- 
vokes her pardon; he {wears that hehas no 
other mother, and promifes her, with a 
thoufand fobs, to have the obedience and 
refpeét for her which that title commands. 
Aouana is overcome, fhe raifes him, pro- 
mifes to forget what is paft, and, in mild 
language, exhorts. him to fubdue his paf- 
fions, and thus to render himfelf, by his 
moderation, worthy to bear the name of 
his father. 
[They both retire afterwards into the inte 
rior of the Houfe, and the Act fnifhes. | 
ACT IV. 
At the moment in which the curtain 
rifes, we fee the Mandarin Thayé in a vely 
fel which is coming down the river; and 
he is returning to his dwelling covered 
with marks of honour and dignities by the 
emperor, who has raifed him to one of the 
firft ranks. 
He details all that has taken place in his 
expedition, and terminates by the picture 
of all the enjoyments which await him on 
his return to the bofom of his family, after 
having been feparated trom it for fo great 
a number of years. He paints to himfelf 
the joy which his prefence will give rife 
to, efpecially at the inftant when nothing 
has announced him. 
Full of thefe delicious thoughts, he pers . 
ceives, onone of the banks of the river, a 
woman wafhing linen, furrounded with all 
This woman 
raifes her head, looks at the mandarin, 
thinks fhe fees a fpeétre, imagines he ts 
going to purfue her, fets up a cry, aban- 
dons her linen, and runs away. 
While the mandarin is himfelf moved 
at this {cene, and his ideas are thrown into 
confufion by this fmgular rencounter, he 
is feeking for the explication of it; there 
comes a fecond woman that appears as 
miferable as the former one, and who, 
bearing a yoke at which were fufpended 
two buckets, comes to draw water at the 
river. This woman fees the mandarin, 
cries out, throws down her buckets, and 
runs to a diftance off. 
The mandarin now experiences a greater 
trouble. He reafons on thefe two cir- 
cumftances, inexplicable for him, and ar 
rives, full of thought and penfive, at the 
place which he inhabited. 
ACY Ve 
The Curtain rifes. 
Old Atay appears in a movement and 
ina difpofition of mind very extraordinary, 
from having learned that his mafter, be- 
come a mandarin of an elevated rank, was 
approaching. . He is occupied, with two 
He, Ge ‘ yunog 
