Marching down the valley, set with peaceful homes, disturbed only by the retreating fragments of a broken and routed army, twice the size of his but then endangered advance, Ieyasu marvelled the instability, the pliableness, the simplicity, and withal the potency of man.
The mountains around sat upon their base, unmovable, except at the cost of total annihilation; vegetation retained its vitality, till stricken from the root giving sustenance; wild beasts at bay, fought unto death. But man, he above all others, turned his heels at the commonest occasion, more than any other creature here on earth stupidly hearkened the devil, willingly disobeyed the divinest of injuncts, know thyself. It resolved that the more his liberty were granted the less intelligence he retained; and yet a new civilization had come to their door, knocking, and carrying with it seeds of discontent, quarrelling over methods of government, as unsettled about the origin of man as uncertain of Gods (Kamis) prevision.
Away with such nonsense, threatened he, traveling along, fully resolved. These hills and valleys have held to the truer doctrine since Izanagi and Izanami (the god and the goddess principles positive and negative), meeting upon the floating bridge ofheaven, did as God (Kami) willed, placing man upon this earth to do and survive His edict and that only. Speculate as you will, man hears no ultimate relation to the things placed here for his use and sustenance. He is descended from above: let the jungle answer to his call; intelligence looks heavenward: the throne unmistakably echoes the voice of God.
And in that revelation, as before, perfumed with the creeping, sheltering azalea, Ieyasu discerned the hand of Yodogima. He would now hasten to her and claim what then he had the courage to refuse. God had preserved her for him and him for her. The failure of Hideyasu, his own son, had come as a fitting rebuke to the devil lurking underneath: his soul at last seemed purified; the fragrance, the divinity of love now found within a befitting response; the mind cleared in its vision, strengthened of a will untarnished, the soul cried out, livid and alluring—God had willed him great, and in that love, which had not once failed him, the godhead unfolded atop that it is not a province or pleasure to doubt and question.
Christianity had set up faith as gospel, which had fallen at the first stand; courage faced it, divided them, and crushed theirs: his edict alone should suffice to banish as much forever from the land: what more the breath of a goddess; one fraught with the inspiration of victory; a living example of the divinity of man; the very incarnation of purity; her transcendant ideal worthy of his most uncompromising sanctity—Ieyasu, penitent, in the face of all thathad gone before, regardless of doubting mens opinions or the carping tongues of unfitted women, still believed Yodogima inviolate: held her incapable of word or deed suggestive though befitting.
My foot is upon the dragons neck: appear, goddess divine; it is I who speaks! commanded he, halting at the mountains crest, overlooking the spreading valley, where reposed the harbinger of his fancied haven.
The hero of Sekigahara had dreamed before, husbanded a love absorbing virtues as intense, but never had reality seemed as close as now. Fired at the thought of mastery, he would drink deeper than ideality had bidden, quaff at last the golden elixir of a realized fount, bring down to earth heavens supremest joy and trend thence the glad onrush with the prize of living securely resting willingly and unbidden in his arms.
The heavens over him rent in twain, and out of the once unfathomed gap there streamed the warmth and radiance of Amaterasu, grand, inspiring, and withal so promising. The light of love cast its halo over the peaceful, towering walls of Ozaka: the face of Yodogima stood out smilingly against a background of blue there reflected, overset the dark, envisaged canopy of time sweltering and seething underneath.
She is mine—God, she is mine! swore he, stamping down the hill-slope, his veins dilated, and expression overjoyed.
There, in the sunlight, high over the emblazonedembattlements, with the gates closed, an army of faithful defenders, at either side, overhead, and at every turret stationed, the hills and valley responding to the glad visitation of now rapidly receding, romping rain clouds, Yodogima pleasingly returned that message which holds dearer than life the truth of existence.
It is he! cried she, God knows that I love him—see! He has made the very elements oblivious to any denial. Oh, Ieyasu; fail me not. What are these dead and living things, but for you? Hasten, oh hasten; dread moments fly; he comes; bravo!
Hurrying maids, and mirrors, and treasures dear, told the welcome that then awaited his coming. Cranes white as snow stalked lazily in the reed marshes, and flowers precious perfumed the gardens in readiness. Spotless floors and walls of golden lacquer again hushed with expectancy. There were cuckoos now of rarest note, and banks and borders of geishas to enliven every step, and charm—the soul poured out its abundance, the heart trembled at only thought, the mind waxed eager and resplendent, and the tongue failed her:
Come, oh come—my lover, come!
Down at the gates, across the moats, underneath the outer walls, of those triple terraced embankments, from the housed-over plain at the bottom, to the terraced enclosures above, an ardent, anxious, confident man rapped impatiently, hotly, daringly for admission.
Who comes there? rang out huskily, at the tunnelled-out entrance.
Ieyasu paused; the defiance seemed as if from below. No such sound had disturbed his fancied right since the days when a worthier blade dared invoke the blessings of denial, and the dull grindings of an indiscernable machine, the tireless demands of an unfaltering conventionality, startled him into questioning verily the survival of anything.
There must be some mistake, ventured he, coldly pondering the consequence of his arrest.
No; there is none, answered the keeper, in order; travellers should make sure that they are prepared, before seeking entrance to a strange place; the princess, Yodogima, resides within, and as observed you have come a long way, with a large retinue, and must be desirous of some rest and recreation. Pray you, keep without, till quite ready; the princess just now implores: I command it.
But I am not a stranger here: the princess wills me enter.
Just so. Therefore look you well that deed and will carry corresponding virtues, before the one lower in consequence invokes another higher in authority. Come, prepare yourself; it has been done, before.
Ieyasu waits on none; I have the means at hand to enforce my way.
So you have, but consider first the defence; no man passes here except at his peril.
Ieyasu withdrew, and Kyogoku reported the circumstanceto his superior, Kitagira; who had dispatched him for his audacity had not Jokoin appeared to prevent it; Ieyasu had sent her in to inquire the reason of his refusal; she, counseling Yodogima, sought to fasten the blame upon Kitagira; thus saving her own husband, for purposes of her own, at the expense of Kitagira, an innocent man; whom Ieyasu forthwith insisted should be dismissed and banished, before himself consenting to an audience with Yodogima; having sooner effected his own entrance past Kyogoku in the disguise of a womans palanquin.
Ieyasu refuses to see me, except the childs guardian be dismissed? repeated Yodogima, thoughtfully.
That is the advice, replied Harunaga, who had interceded to save Kitagira.
Then let Kitagira produce Ieyasu; here, in audience; he has the force with which to do it: if he have not the courage, why, then, Ieyasu may dismiss him; I have, as it is, really no occasion for doing so—but, I want to see Ieyasu.
Kitagira vacillated; he believed Harunagas growing influence over Hideyori and estimate by the mother unwarranted, and would have married Yodogima to Ieyasu at once had he not discerned in that the ultimate defeat of Hideyoshi, the deceased taikos succession. Said he, to Hayami Morihisa, a captain of the Ozaka guard:
Ieyasu plans to wed Yodogima and substitute himself in authority over Hideyori: what we must do is to gain time. Let him take her as hostage, if hechoose, but see to it that no marriage take place while the son is yet under age. Hideyori is an intelligent lad, and capable of crushing Hidetada or any other of Ieyasus descendants, but in the meantime, we should let Ieyasu die; to go against him now, with the crushed and defeated Christians acknowledging Ozakas protection, would be but to invite defeat; the daimyos and captains of established faith would, to a man, rally to the cause of Ieyasu.
You reason well, Kitagira, replied Hayami, thereat approved in what he said by the remainder of the seven captains, but Harunaga, as a man, could not recommend it, and his advice is paramount at court. Nor would, nor should the daimyos submit to Yodogimas virtual imprisonment; the taiko never contemplated any such irreverence, and I am sure that she, herself, to-day, with a voice unequalled by any other, among all classes, throughout the land, once able to resist Hideyoshi, himself, as she was, would hardly consent to a degradation of the sort you suggest, or so belittle herself and those dependent upon her as to fawn favors for or of anybody. I shall advise Harunaga of your plans and let him decide; he stands best in favor with Yodogima.
And he did so, forthwith.
It is a make-believe, replied she, to Harunaga, who had related the proposal, truthfully and unreservedly; Ieyasu is not so much to fear—yet I shall not dismiss Kitagira; he is a creature of Ieyasus,and my best and only pawn. Does Ieyasu still refuse me a visit?
Yes, my dear.
Please do not call me dear; it is enough to retain ones confidence in men, without their overstepping bounds granted. But this Ieyasu: where is he now, that he can refuse?
Inside the castle grounds, and not so very far distant, either, your ladyship.
Not your ladyship, Harunaga; I said it should be Yodogima—I do believe the world itself shall sooner or later grow into a veritable machine.
Yodogima!
That is more to my liking. Why everybody or anybody so impersonal? But Ieyasu: I shall go to him, he refusing to come to me: perhaps Kitagira may thus retain his head, and I my lover. What think you, Harunaga?
I am at your service.
And I can trust you; results are the best sort of proof.
The fires had by this time considerably abated, and out of the glowing embers there burned a warmth as steady and as sure as the reactional beating back upon a passionate ordainedly evolves within lifes exultant strand. Ieyasu sulked, and Yodogima took heart; his brow darkened, and her intention waxed the brighter; had his will been permitted, her lot need not have been resolved, for he would have her shorn of every influence but his; he believed her pure,and out of his blamelessness and its correlative demands had come reflection: making it possible for Yodogima to decide upon revealing the exact light in which she responded—the only meed of a living affinity.
I hope I find you comfortable, and—
In a good humor, responded he, to her half spoken address; barely turning to recognize her, as she approached, considerately; bowing as became her and the niceties of the situation prompted.
Yes, replied she, unabashed; I am, and why should Ieyasu not be in as fair mood?
Perhaps I ought to be, but I cannot quite bring myself to believe that I am as deserving. You make sport with me, I do so myself, and the world is no different than we.
It is more alluring, however, I take it, in the case of some than of others. Look underneath the smiles, Ieyasu; it is not all gold that glitters; perchance my heart may have bled, is bleeding this very minute; do not consider me happy, till—
I am out of the way, interceded he, not one whit thawed or observant.
Look at me, commanded she, her very frame racking with a passion that he, in his coldness, had not the power to comprehend.
You do love me, then, stammered Ieyasu, ravenously reading the words so lengthily written for his dull eyes to feast faun-like upon.
Love you? I presume you know what it is to love? I do.
Yodogima! Forgive me, plead he, the clouds vanishing as they had gathered: uncontrolled and misapprehended.
Yes; but not with the assurance you possess, replied Yodogima, more anxious to divulge than he were ready to exact, now, any secret incapable of ingraining or outliving a nature as commonplace as his.
The princess had seated herself, at leisure, a little in front of the rapidly recovering lover, whose ardor would again have bordered the extreme had not her last admonition once more set him thinking. But Ieyasus mind moved like a tortoise, and Yodogima flushed a little, no doubt at the prospect of having to reach a bit deeper into that unthinkable comprehension of his—with which she had wrestled mostly since their meeting underneath the really suggestive azalea.
Ieyasu observed, however, the one indiscretion, and would have bowed to the mat, at her feet—no closer contact being permitted, either in heart or at will, by the bushido and of choice—but for Yodogimas further cautioning:
Pray do not prostrate yourself; the victor may not prove to have been worthy.
Ieyasu held himself, sat there in bended fashion, considering half-doubtfully, half-consciously the warning. A thousand possibilities leaped to the fore, suddenly and provokingly. Had he been wrong, andher detractors truthful; were she clever, and he over-trustful; did some terrible revelation parch those lips he had sworn divine; or was it the idle mockings of his own brutal response that troubled her and mystified him?
Tell me, Yodogima—no, no; you must not; it would kill me; it is not true; they speak falsely—shall this weapon vindicate me, or you, Yodogima; you have but to nod the head, and spare your lips!
Ha, ha, ha—Ieyasu! Put away that knife and invoke a wit. I should never have guessed you half so sentimental. Why, I do believe you would make a martyr of yourself, or me—who wouldnt be at all worth the trouble. Come; sit down again; let us reason it out; one drop of blood is, after all, worth a lot of nobleness—as codes are written in these times.
Ill never sit down, till you declare them false—that you are determined to talk, as all women are. Nor have I anything to gain, at my age, by reasoning; acting is all important, whatever the point, now that the end crowds fast upon me. Shout it if you like, but consider well the effect.
I shall do nothing of the kind. Take care of your own shattered prospects; I have all I can do to bear with you, let alone conserve your ease. You deny me the privilege of explaining, hence defeat me of a duty I had intended performing.
Oh, well; I can presume as much.
If you like, pray do.
I shall.
Then what?
Go.
And why?
Because you are lost.
Then I but knock in vain!
Christianity is responsible for it, not I—understanding had saved the need of forgiveness.
Perhaps; but I should advise you, if advice be meet, to listen; there may not be, after all, so much to choose, between knowledge and faith. Have you no other estimate?
No; nor do I want one; I am satisfied.
And I am pained; yet I have faith: were knowing my only asset, I should shut you in, here, till good and done with you; I, too, might make some sordid use of a plaything, but there are larger compensations in store for those who look more charitably upon their brothers: therefore I dismiss you, with a suitable escort hence.
Ieyasu went as permitted and directed.
Had she driven her lover from her? Should she have accepted him on faith, granted his unchallenged desire, and ignored truth? Might either passive, or, if needs be, active lying have resolved better their happiness? Could heaven be attained without knowledge? Buddhism said no; Christianity claimed yes, but deeper than these, broader than either, more compelling than any other, Yodogimas religion searched, expanded, and enforced truths unclaimed adherence.And yet, how attain it? In denying him, she had falsified: in accepting she had done more: how reduce the blessings of God—infinite, all-compulsory?
The very thought of her great sin overbore Yodogima with a determination to survive any test. The walls around her resounded with a growth and a strength fairly laughing to scorn the very desirability of absolution—Ieyasu had done right, and yet erred; Christ filled a void, at least, and for that should not be cast upon.
Ill live down the wrong Ive done, mused she, and when its absolved with the blood shed of my own veins, therell be no need of condonations, and faith, hope, and charity, knowledge, uprightness or consideration, the state, the church, and the castes, shall have vanished in the stead of one united and indivisible brotherhood, where sin and sorrow, the virtues and the joys are no longer remembered of man.
The countenance of her fathers looked down from an old kakemono (picture) hanging from the wall, behind the shrine, above the potted pine, with kindly expression.
The princess gazed long and earnestly thereat, then said to herself:
You, too, shall vanish, and all that we prize or hate of this earth shall have sometime proven itself of no more final consequence than the slenderest reed that grows and withers with the rising and the setting of the sun. My little sins and virtues, his, and theirs,will then resolve and not abide the existence of a soul. God himself shall stand revealed, and the world attain its destined end—a heaven here where men are doomed, and none denied, of treasures yet undreamed.
Sitting within the confines of her own allotted environment, far removed from the turmoils of rendering, shorn of creations compensatory appeal, but clothed with the choicer products of highest endeavor, Yodogima, too, pondered the complexity of human nature, and its languor or celerity in rendering the tidy milestones so highly prized or bitterly condemned as we go. Yet, unlike Ieyasu, she had partaken thereof a self-suffered resignation. What the consequence?
For the other, there seemed but a single course. He had exhausted, as it would appear, all the avenues open to him but one. No such thing as being born again had entered into Ieyasus curriculum, and the very tenets of his religion scorned the lesser beatitudes of a troubled soul. Stoicism had survived mercy, and his goddess profaned the world must answer.
Concentrate at Fushima, commanded he, of Hidetada, now his favorite, and most trusted commander.
But Hideyasu is intractable: refuses to obey Hidetada, his younger, replied Esyo, before Hidetada, her husband, could make any answer.
Then let him be humbled; I declare Hidetada my successor, and do invest him with supreme authority under me, declared Ieyasu; Esyo withdrawing to convey the intelligence, to her displaced brother-in-law, with all the force and color at her tongues end.
A thousand regiments stood ready to assemble and fight under Ieyasus colors, and no daimyo of position would raise the feeblest protest—though fully cognizant of the motive and bitterly regretting the coup—against the cry of:
Out with the Christians!
The edict had gone forth, and regardless of Ieyasusintent no loyal defender, not a supporter of the taikos regime, much less any true believer in the mikado, had failed to respond to a call so vital to their existence, as obnoxious to their ways of living and welfare in death. Those godly men, the priests, and their converts, by word and by deed, had proven themselves marauders and evil-boding. They had reached over mens consciences, struck at the state, and meddled with the home—and for what? To substitute one religion for another—and why?
To gratify ambition, replied Ieyasu, and for once Christianity found a foe worthy its steel.
This stupid pilots inadvertent speech, he of theSan Felipe, however petty, but echoes the cornerstone of a philosophy, disguised and spread as religion, intended to profit the sophisticated at the expense of the confiding, continued he, reasoning with the court at Kyoto. Why, they are already sniffling at the largest treasury in the empire, seek under the guise of patriots to invest the strongest fortress left us, and are poisoning the mind, as they abused a reliance, of our departed taikos widow, the princess Yodogima; than whom, till their withering touch defiled, none better, purer, or more faithful lived. Give me this appointment, I say; influence our beloved mikado to make me shogun—Yoshiaki is dead and Minamoto blood is in me—and I shall oust them and close these doors to the world. Then, and not till then, shall peace reign in this most favored and only blessed domain.
Enthusiasm bore them on, as it always does, when founded well, however conceived, and Ieyasu thereat became shogun—an honor Hideyoshi had striven all his life, yet died to see lowering upon another.
It proves nothing, continued Ieyasu, shrugging his shoulders, except the value of blood, establishes the divinity of the mikado, and preserves to us the religion we know resolves in practice what it preaches. I pronounce it.
Not so at Ozaka; Yodogima had looked as far into the working of social, religious, and political complexities as the sage of Yedo had thought to enter; understood theSan Felipethreat equally as well, but regarded it rather as a source, not as much as any sort of finality—Yodogima knew better the hearts of men; as a woman, she had had an experience that no man can have: she believed that Ieyasus act in seeking the shogunate were no less personal than had been Hideyoshis purpose in denying her the privileges of an inherent love; than the king of Spains motive was mercenary in speeding forth the missionaries.
With transportation established, there is no end to greed, and Japan, if she would live, must open, and not close her doors. Does Ieyasu think that God in his wisdom were so narrow as to exempt this tiny spot from the responsibilities and compensations everywhere else around us borne? said the princess, to Hideyori, who had grown to respect his mothers advice, and now sought it, before answering Ieyasusimportuning him to proceed thither and do homage to the newly made shoguns attempted precedence.
For every missionary sent to us, continued she, let us send two to them; as they build ships, then double their output; if it is with arms they would grab, we have more than twice their number, the largest of them, and discipline to spare. Go against them my child; possession is the secret, and the fittest shall survive; it is Gods law, and woe unto him who disobeys—Ieyasu as well; he has denied me, and let come what may your mother will be vindicated.
Hideyori had just arrived at earliest manhood, and little did he care about anything so inane and deceptive as enforced peace, as unequal and degrading as discriminative prosperity. The old stock, the spirit of an age that did not lie, of men unstooped to a progress that would rob Peter to pay Paul, a civilization that had brought the Wests proudest knocking at their doors, made them the coveted of all continents, these aspirations burned at his finger tips.
A mother had been wronged: what more could have fired a lesser zeal?
Trained by a man whose only thought was of his best interests, loved dearly by one who had given him being, applauded by a multitude, endowed of an authority, heir to vast treasures and supported by men of valor—who could have resisted the challenge to honor a name?
Hideyori respects the honorable Ieyasu, but cannot concede him the rank or authority claimed, wasthe modest though significant answer returned, by the insulted heir to an exalted taikos prestige.
I am pleased, promised Ieyasu, to Kitagira, directly his own best trusted intermediary; Hideyoris refusal affords me the opportunity—awaited all these barren years.
And with bated breath those captains, now scattered and broken, looked on, powerless to see and helpless to act. Yodogima threw open her doors to the patriots: Ieyasu closed his against all but the wise, and no such cloud had risen since the days of Ashikaga.
My daughter shall not become the wife of this stripling, Hideyori, declared Esyo, at the shoguns repeated threat.
Yes she will, replied he, coldly considering the prospects, from another standpoint altogether.
Esyo stared balefully at the floor, and Ieyasu labored watchfully the trend of her reasoning; he would not force the issue at Ozaka, not just yet, and he knew that Yodogima would regard her sisters feelings. A cloud, also, had risen in the direction of Jokoin. The banishment of the Christians had roused her ire, particularly as Takiyama had been ordered into seclusion, and with both sisters, his own sons, the Christians, and Yodogima against him the small prospect at hand of squeezing out the house of Hideyoshi would be forever dissipated.
I am an old man, Esyo, said he, after a short reflection, and would make Hidetada my successor; suppose I do it now; resign, and persuade his appointmentinstead, as shogun; would it be asking too much in that event, to expect your reasonable consent to this marriage?
Esyo deliberated. It had been her one ambition from the day she landed in Hideyoshis camp, a victim if a meddler. Would she quit the pleasure of frustrating Yodogima, as she believed, to gain the eminence so long and craftily sought? The bare thought of needing to decide pained her; she would have snatched both, the gratification and the honor, but this Ieyasu, her father-in-law, the shogun, had never been pressed to extremes, while in a corner, and she faltered.
Upon one condition, concluded she, presently.
That seems fair, chanced he; what is it?
That you kill Hideyori.
Before, or after? inquired the shogun, without so much as smiling.
Presumably you may think it as easily done, retorted she, the pride of blood, for the nonce, asserting some sort of peculiar sway.
The Taira, however, had measured swords with the Minamoto centuries before Esyo inadvertently condescended to vouchsafe this one lonely thrill, and Ieyasu perhaps, therefore, sooner learned to attend the reckoning that awaited him, in this his final effort to dislodge an intrepid foe. Were the last fight to have been fought with a man, the battle-scarred Ieyasu had buckled on his armor, and gladly; but look as he might, heed whom he chose, Yodogima,a love of his and an offspring of theirs, rose up, out of the smoldering embers, to bid and to challenge.
My God! I cannot face her—oh, yes; I can; she is nothing to me—curse the Christians! Ill slay them—
No you wont, threatened Jokoin, in her way, having entered shortly after Esyos withdrawal, in the course of the hearers meditation; theyve got powder to burn, of a right good quality—just in from Hirado, the foreigners hold out—and a pound of it is worth a lot of valor—
Ill double the price; tell your friends that Ieyasu is in the market for powder.
And a wife, as well. But you cant have Yodogima; shes given you the mit.
Silence, child; will you never use modesty; you are in the presence of the shogun?
Oh, I wonder—indeed Im not; you have no right to be shogun, and what isnt right isnt; there now! I shall take my orders from Hideyori: perhaps marry him, if Takiyama, Goto, Sanada, and all the rest worth while—
You have a husband.
So have you a wife; and, what is more, my husband is willing; and, I am sure, you cant say as much; and, better still, Esyo wants her daughter to marry Kyogoku—dont you think you could use him; he is as good as forty women, at that?
Kyogoku! Perhaps—he may know more about them than I do, sighed the shogun, hopelessly entangled,undoing the riddle she had unwound for his special edification. Ill let you off, however; though, I ought to send you as company for Takiyama.
Send me? Id like to see you do it; banish me, if you dare!
Ill harness the whole of you, if you dont mind your ps and qs. And to convince you that I mean just what I say I am this very day going to send the infant daughter of Hidetada, together with a retinue, to Ozaka. No doubt you yourself will have advised Hideyori—whom I have had appointed Nai-dai-jin—in advance something of my expectations so that he may be prepared to take my granddaughter as wife upon arrival. I shall, out of consideration for you, forego any more forceful intelligence.
He shall do nothing of the kind, is not a nai-dai-jin, nor will Yodogima harbor your spies—not if I can prevent it. Neither do I care to be bored with your concern for me.
Oh, ho—there are worse lovers.
None as inane, whom I know.
Tut, tut—louder and more of it.
You havent begun to hear from me.
No?
N-o-o-?—Im off.
The shogun had not misjudged Jokoin, in the least, yet did not wish at all to enforce any kind of restraint. Unable to fathom Esyo, there was danger of estranging Hidetada himself—for the wife had quite dominated and held him verily subject to her own strongerwill—while Hideyasu, not yet wholly without some influence, still refused to become entirely reconciled to his naturally unexpected displacement. There were, also, rumors around that certain of the captains and daimyos who had sided with him as against Ishida were growing nervous about his attitude toward the taikos heir. Whether it were because of their own jealousies, or due to Yodogimas influence, he could not satisfactorily determine, as indited; he had rewarded them all, liberally, for their services, if deserving, while the princess had estranged some by her friendliness to Harunaga; whatever the case the breach must be held over till his forces had been raised and insured to the likelihood of Yodogimas. His contention about the Christians had enthused the populace, but open hostilities against Hideyori, so soon after, would certainly lose him the advantage at first gained.
Diplomacy were his most available instrument, just then, however drastic the conclusive threshing.
Are you certain about this boy, Hideyoris incapacity, Kitagira? inquired he—soon after Jokoin had left—doubtfully. You have persistently told me that he were no match for Hidetada; I should like to know, of my own knowledge; cannot you arrange a meeting?
One thing at a time, my lord; if he marry your granddaughter, what better proof need anyone?
Just so. Therefore see you that the marriage take place.
Kitagira made no answer, but drawing his ownconclusions, from that last answer, as to the shoguns own capableness, trudged off toward Ozaka, with the intentionally betrothed in his arms, fully decided upon escaping to his own miserably allotted fief, should he fail of the mission imposed.
At Ozaka a storm of protest went up from all but Yodogima. She had threatened something worse. Esyo arriving first, Jokoin after, and the trundled granddaughter lastly, everybody had had ample occasion to hit upon something—save alone Ieyasu; who by remaining at home surveyed better the feelings engendered with the ruse.
Take the brat away, shouted Kyogoku, still vigilant at the gate.
No, commanded Yodogima; let the mother decide; she is present, and of right should elect a daughters husband.
I can save you trouble, suggested Hideyori; reluctantly, however, for the baby looked pretty; I am already engaged—
To Jokoin, interposed Harunaga; I have the mikados permission.
A storm of applause followed upon the one side, occasioning as violent denunciation from the other. No one except the shogun had for a long time so much as thought of profaning the precincts of celestial Kyoto, let alone essaying to voice a message thus sacredly emanating.
Who is this Harunaga? demanded Fukushima, most cruel and savage, an old captain of the guardand relative to Oyea, but not averse to Christian tolerance. What right has he to put words into the mouth of a taikos son?
Kuroda, still older, and more devoted to the sympathies of Yodogima, grumbled accordance.
Esyo held her tongue; she wanted her daughter—strange to believe, except as she knew—married to Kyogoku, and deemed it best not to interfere.
Oh, I guess, you are not so much, Mr. Fukushima; we have Sanada, Goto, and a few more equally as reliable; if you want to rebel, I think we shall be able to make out; what say you, Esyo? put in Jokoin, boastfully.
I give my daughter to Kyogoku.
What? He is married, threatened Kitagira, nervously.
He can divorce me, replied Jokoin, concernedly.
Without authority? inquired Kyogoku, gasping at some vain law instead of a better wit.
I have it, and shall use it, declared Hideyori.
You have not been appointed, are not an official, reasoned Fukushima.
Yes, he has; he is nai-dai-jin; Ieyasu just now told me so, and I am sure an Interior Great Minister can do anything he likes, threatened Jokoin, more confident than discreet.
They all ran about with glee, those of the Christians present; that one so near conversion, as Hideyori, had been raised to some exalted position were enough to enthuse them; but Yodogima meditated; the confusionthereat had left her as doubtful as Ieyasu had been perplexed with Jokoins entanglement. Yet she would not restrain Hideyori in his exultation from irretrievably committing himself by exercising only once the authority; she wanted to accommodate her sisters, especially Esyo, and perhaps Jokoin—possibly herself—so the power was invoked.
Ieyasu laughed when informed of the circumstance, and sending for Jokoin, told her that now he should encounter little discouragement in winning her over.
I want you to be my wife, Jokoin, said he, without a wrinkle or a quaver; you are the last of the family, and are single again; what say you to feasting Hideyori: dont you think he might be gotten rid of in some such way?
Jokoins eyes opened wide. The sister to Yodogima had never heard that ones former lover talk in that way before. It seemed impossible that the great Ieyasu, an unsuspected character, if self-inflicted shogun, a lifelong aspirant to her sisters hand, should so belittle himself as to banter respect however much else.
I shall speak with Yodogima; you overwhelm me, replied Jokoin, dumfounded at her own sensibility.
Please do; tell her that I wish to marry you; that I would spread a befitting feast; that I beseech a fool to attend; that Hideyori may judge of what he has missed; that your extravagance would swamp a younger man—all this, and more: say that Esyo, hersister, wants to kill Hideyori, and that I know of no better means of encompassing that event.
Jokoin hurried away, fully determined never to return; the ghost of Hideyori already betokened a reality at every turn in the road, and from the moorland hard by arose the whisperings and the wailings of a repentant sister—Esyos voice rang ominously in her ears.
Yodogima, contrary to expectations, brightened at the thought of sending Hideyori into the enemys camp. He had shown himself the man to foil Ieyasus contemplated espionage at its inception: what greater capacity might be discovered if brought face to face with a man whose extremity had induced so flagrant a mouthing.
Tell Ieyasu that Hideyori shall attend with pleasure, not his marriage revel, but more the witless unmaking of as pampered a braggadocio as an humbler memory of Hideyoshi and Nobunaga combined might have fairly conduced. Tell him that he would eat the rice-cake these two worthies made; but in the doing he shall choke for lack of throat. Let him know that Yodogima lives, and so long as there is a Taira alive justice shall be done: no mans religion is to be the occasion of his persecution, my sisters may do as their God tells them to do, and Hideyori must reign.
I couldnt remember to say all that, at once, and I had rather remain here, sighed Jokoin, her great opened-up eyes dancing at the prospect.
Sitting there unconscious of another obligation, Yodogima considered also her resources. Though rememberingwell the countenance of Kuroda, and Fukushimas measured words, on that memorable morning, she could but believe them true to their trust. To her way of thinking, no more probable course had conformed to an aim attainable; the life she lived breathed, at every stride, of action, inviolable; their traditions known so well, Buddhas precepts, and Christs faith all cried in her ears, do, do, do; a constant struggle had made her what she was—the face of Shin Hachiman (statue of Hideyoshi, the new War God) looked down from its pedestal at Kyoto, imploring her to stay the hand of Ieyasu: how becomingly could a faithful wife, and a mother, have concluded otherwise?
Then Hideyori may pronounce it, at the banquet table; he is my son, and the worthy mouthpiece of a nobler purpose than feasting.
They had gathered in sumptuous splendor, round the laden trays, with Ieyasu in place and Hideyori at his left, as became an honored guest. Kitagira was there, too; he had been discovered hiding at Ibaraki, and in consideration of Hideyoris presence was allowed or compelled to witness the shoguns placing of his own valuation.
With being told that Hideyori had not the intelligence to cope with Hidetada, and deciding that only Yodogima stood between himself and ultimate supremacy, Ieyasu estimated carefully the former, and planned the necessity of immediate action against the latter.
He had grown old in the harness, would thence witness a widening of the channel: the prop that he had visioned must inure to the swift, for Hideyori justified a mothers confidence.
The lotus studding the ponds below lagged lazily in the breeze that fanned them off the coast at Ozaka. Softened evidences of his good taste toned and inspired every nook and cranny of those immaculate halls and safely trodden grounds, but steel had marked each turn toward their advance. Must steel again assert superiority? Would he die fighting? Why should man at first despise, then relish, the olive? In his younger days Ieyasu, too, had balked at culture, but with ripenedyears it had become a slogan, compelling, all-forceful, and inevitable.
Ill crush him, untutored man, vain infant, inspired mongrel; endowed with better wit than I, he lacks only the wisdom—but his mother! Oh, well; she might as well be Christian, and dangle her bells at church; the taikos jingle shall be split, and men can very well spare their better halves, in the pursuit of a less obstreperous divertisement—
Hideyori, my lad, what do you think of women?
They are the pendulum in a clock.
Pouff! Ill make cogs and spindles of them. Kitagira, show this young man thence he came, and send Hidetada hither; I am satisfied; either of you have more brains than pluck; the sword is master, and not a balancer. Hence; and let me strike while the blood yet runs hot; I have neither time to wait nor patience to woo a goddess that isnt mine; Ozaka must fall.
I thank you for the entertainment, also for losing your head, horonable host, vouchsafed Hideyori, in parting; the former, because it is meet to respect gray hairs: the latter, that honest men may make due defense. You need not spare Kitagira, or his kind, for escort; a newer generation makes it possible for me to leave here, not as you once entered there—in a womans palanquin—but as the defender of my own fortune, and the builder of a nations hope—both the usefulness and the sacredness of mothers: no less their motherhood.
Hideyori withdrew, the more a man, if such had been his failing. His elder at arms and with diplomacy, had thrown to the winds all the finer notions that the younger had been taught about mans province and womans part. Look as he would into the fading realities of a living yesterday, adjure from scenes imagined against the dawning to-morrow as he did, the one thought that man is a free agent and beholding only to the God that lives within drove him toward his destiny like the thundering waters of a mighty gorge leap and laugh their way to the calm and peace always lying somewhere in the untimed, but certain beyond. And as he tramped along, looking to the right and to the left, there appeared myriads of living atoms answering to the same call that so eagerly gladdened his step, and when the sun burst through, upon these, their faces turned heavenward—only the dead and unborn failed a natural appeal, Amaterasu had written Ieyasu down, and the younger man hastened to accept the responsibility.
Woman a slave to man, men the creature of state, and the state no better than a mechanism? Hearken not the vulture, but to arms: Christ died upon the cross; let these hills and valleys grow green in the blood of Hideyori; a mothers will and not a fathers way is the final test of a beginningless God.
Harunaga had taught him better than Yodogima believed; there lay behind his spirit an abiding distaste for anything and everything smacking of unearned felicity; the getting of something by sufferancewere a crime; profit at the expense of some other mans effort betokened inanity; the trading of wares or of benefits lay beneath him; commercialism was robbery, and diplomacy worse; deception belonged to the devil, and God had always won, must always win.
The bribe, therefore, offered to him, by Ieyasu, the master fibber, the safe, sane, and sound merchant of goods and other things, had no effect upon the high-born, reenergized, and rightly tutored Hideyori. The sop thrown out by the one to the other, of accepting new territories in exchange for real manhood—as in the case of Ieyasu, of Hideyoshi, thence past—fell upon deaf ears; as had the attempt to seduce Yodogima, his mother, with privileges of building temples, casting bells, and otherwise demeaning herself according to the predetermined notions of the man who would use her for a plaything.
I cannot express my love for you, promised she, to her idol, upon his return and the departure of their two hostages, held as a guarantee; you convince me that there is something better in man than the greed of instinct. Possession is the ultimate goal, but of the heart and not the belly—hence harakiri is a virtue and no man would despoil the fountain-head. But, my son, have you considered well the means?
Yes, mother—truth is invincible.
Yet it, like all nature, is subject to hindrances; the waters tumbling down their natural courses are oft-times retarded with log-jams, the banks break, and the producing land is flooded.
Only for the inevitable good of their enforced fertilization.
Are you sure that we, in our day, do not confront the immediate necessity of such replenishment? Are the rice-fields abundant, the dikes strong, and the waters free?
Let me answer with a question: if the fields are hungry, will denial, deception, or putting off, stay the hand of reckoning? Is it making history to shoulder posterity with the evil of to-days cowardice? Is it manly? Is it godlike? If so, then we, too, can makeshift honorably. If not, I would crush the hydra-headed monster in his den. Let him not, through our stupidity, carelessness, or cursedness, fasten his tentacles upon the unborn—most compelling of Gods previsioning—sons and daughters in whom alone we shall survive hell and attain heaven.
Yodogima bowed in her sons presence; she could not speak for the pride arising out of a greater sentiment; words would have voiced the colder side of life; attributes only of the soul moved her to make some recognition of this fancied, hoped-for, and willed higher reach. All the felicities of a life earnestly lived seemed answered in that one likened expression. Then why should he have burdened her with further obligation? What lacked she yet of the great circle that encompasses creation?
Do not bow, my mother, requested he, his voice modulated as if to penetrate deeper than heart; it is I who should kneel; maternity is the keynote ofexistence, and when it has thought to command, and not obey, men shall have reached indeed the threshold of greatness. Arise, that I may do what in the future men shall learn of necessity.
Must I, too, do service?
Yes; it is ordained of equality.
Then Ill do it, and see you, each, that his spear is in order, for the battle shall be to the quick.
Before Hideyori could at all respond; Jokoin snatched up the bugle, and running to the ramparts edge, blew a blast that brought the loyal speeding; no live man would fail a summons as vital: the one call that has lifted antiquitys veil, makes the day worth its enduring, and rouses better expectations of the future: Sanada shouted:
Let me fight; the princess foresees, and progression is her right, and Goto, Ono, the young and the vigorous, those patriots and their martyrs, Christian or Pagan, rallied to the defense of liberty.
Only Kuroda, Fukushima, and the hirelings of content, their kind, refused accession to Yodogimas stand.
When you are as old as we, the wells of enthusiasm shall have dried, whined they, walking out at the gate—thrown open by Kyogoku, the instrument of Esyo—regretting only that their convenience and Yodogimas indiscretion made it more delectable for them to break an uncrossed faith than perform a sworn duty.
They walked out, and others came in, in legion.The Christians responded, to a man, and no such stalwart soldiery had before gathered—in any cause. The edict against these Christians, on the one hand, and the attempt upon Hideyori, on the other, had brought to Yodogimas support a force and a promise that jarred for once the understanding of Ieyasu. Policy had been his stronghold, from the first; the one battle risked and fought, at Sekigahara, had been forced and won at the instance of Yodogima, and the reaper of its booty knew it, had extended his hand as recompense, and in the frenzy of madness brought about an unthought catastrophe, seemingly as needless as destructive.
Only the pinched of face and sycophant at heart surrounded him now; men waxing corpulent, and others anxious to coddle them; the philosopher because he could afford to be one; possessors of endowed chairs at colleges, the gifts of one another; builders of libraries, in the hope of perpetuating doubtful memories; merchant princes, and financial jugglers, these and their like, who lap for favors, jostled each other in the crying of peace—that their interests might not be disturbed.
Ieyasu looked them over.
And this is what Hideyoshis democracy really developed! A war, and all the men at the enemys beck and call. Had I Yodogimas strength Id close these doors—but I can; Ill make the barons defend their own vested interests. Diplomacy shall yet avail the state, resolved he, cold and set.
Esyo?
What is it, demanded she.
Tell Yodogima that Ieyasu would like to call, in conference, at her pleasure. Will you do me the kindness?
Yes, honorable father-in-law. When, please?
Forthwith, my good Esyo.
Esyo went, but delivered instead an ultimatum.
I came to thank you for the loan of Kyogoku, Yodogima, said she, artfully.
But he played me a trick?
Did you expect more?
No; not of him; but of you.
And you shall not be disappointed; you may keep the infant; women are cheap, and shoguns dear—do you observe the pattern, of my gown, Yodogima? I trust I wear it, becomingly, you perceive?
Yes, Esyo; I understand, now. It has taken me a long time to believe a sister could play another false—you have my protection beyond the lines, and my best wishes always: tell your father-in-law that I accept his challenge, and that war alone can determine the issue.
Esyo could not await her own return, so couriers were advanced with the intelligence. Upon her arrival, much excitement but little enthusiasm lingered at Fushima. Kuroda, Fukushima, and others of the daimyos were there in council with Ieyasu—the new shogun, Hidetada, had already prepared to march.
It is your fault, Kuroda, and Fukushima, and you my spineless schemers, that hostilities have begun, and—
Cannot their leaders be bought?
You shall have to fight, or surrender to the Christians; Yodogima is not purchasable.
Levies were hastened forward, and the treasures brought in; Ieyasu had succeeded, and greed for once stood compelled to surrender its power unto determined men, or subject themselves to the leadership of a man who hated no less the influence of plethoric wealth upon state than dreaded the consequences of a partial democracy among men. The Christians had become the instrument; and diplomacy proved the means with which Ieyasu divided the nation and equipped himself to enforce centralization.
Yodogima had builded upon broader lines: her star seemed the brighter.
War had been declared, the decisive battle faced them, and neither side underestimated the others strength nor neglected his own best possible recourse. Yodogima and Ieyasu, two lovers at heart, loomed the more formidable as enemies, measuring each other in the luminous cauldron of a perfect understanding, and did not their souls unite in the attainment of a common, supreme, an overwhelming obligation—the means as widely divergent as the uplift had been ideal—courage had failed either, and humanity must have lost a most ardently conceived, if untimely wrought, exemplification.
At her left, the sun rose clear and commanding, behind the hills of Nara, where the sages had lived and died unto the days of myth, perhaps when Jimmu landed a wanderer from burdens escaped, or as descended of the gods in heaven. Memories of these things inspired Yodogima. The sacredness of its soil compelled thoughts farther away than of to-day.
A thousand temples commemorated events that would not yield to the onrush of ambition or the more potent realities of an every-day humdrum; bonzes gray and firm chanted music both sacred and dear behind those walls scattered here and there throughout the rugged fastness to and beyond this Nara, the seat of the best that God, in his fairness, had inspired;birds soared statelier here, the odor of flowers smelled more authentic, and the stones stubborn puzzled their reading; no man ventured into these hallowed mysteries without a deeper sense of the responsibilities that fade and shadow as we trudge or falter the stepping liege of escaping time, and out of its depths there arose a force as restraining.
Over to the westward, the passions and the penalties crowded hard and fast those of realistic now; not a man of them spared the energy of a thought or wended the loss of a step toward that past and gone, or measured in other than dollars and cents the future and its dependence, as against an always tardy, yet fast-running present; shop or hovel, land and water, man or beast, the cultured and the uncultured, jammed and fretted in one continuous roar commercial. What compensations, for such turmoil! A million souls dwarfed into no higher recompense than thirst to own, hunger to appease, and only death to relieve it all. No glad messages trumpeted their tired and aimless steps, serving or served, the plethoric rich and the indigent poor, the hopeful or the despairing alike groped, ran, or loafed their allotted space in its empty, beggarly passing.
Yodogima prayed for these; they lay sadly beyond any more helpful, if grateful, equivalent.
But to the front, looking southward, broad vistas of undulated expanse led on, over the rice fields and into areas bordered with the blue of oceans tireless, unpolluted energies. At her back reared mighty wallsand sank deeper the moats—no intruder might strike there; but here, in the foreground, upon unsullied soil, underneath her own surveillance, in the very bosom of their stronghold, the battle must be fought.
The hosts were already gathering: Sanada led them; he had tasted of the blood sacrificial; fought his way to Uyeda, in the teeth of Hideyasus avenging; his father gave him the choice, of following Ieyasu or donning the new: in him, young and active, there had risen fresher desires, fervid, if inconsiderate.
Let us fight, he had said, replying to Jokoins trumpeting, and in view of these energies had been given command, under Hideyori, the chief, counselled by Harunaga, more matured than either, directed by Yodogima, their princess—trusted, if not worshipped.
Were she then, to them, Christian or Pagan, as much as goddess; or should the future, yet, reveal some deeper hidden truth?
It is good to behold confidences as liberally bestowed, vowed Yodogima, to Jokoin, who came up to share, in her way, the picture unfolding, albeit, the responsibility; Hideyori can well acquit himself, but these Christians—so wrought in faith, hopeful, and charitable: withal unknowing, helpless, and confiding. I must not lose this contest; they are no match for the colder ethics of Orientalism: yet were not placed here to go down martyrs, or to eke out materialistically—their religion is not at fault so much, as itis inadequate, undeveloped, short of finality. The circle is incomplete.
Nor shall we fail, though defeated, chimed in the good sister; there are more ways than one, to skin a cat, and well dodge, as sure as whipped. You can bet on Christ, every time; hes a winner, and the world has just got to kowtow.
What makes you talk that way, Jokoin? One would think the Old Nick himself had the better hold—and I am sure you were not as you are till something made you so: was it Christianity?
How do I know? I just feel that way, and whats the use of bothering? Why ask? Just go in, to win; thats the game, to lose—well, I wont say what its like, but the name spells horrors!
And if I should fail?
You cant—not as long as I am left; Id eat fire, for you; that is my religion.
Thank you, sister; but—well, I was going to say, that that sounds more like the Taira. I wonder if the Coming could have had any connection—do you see those plains, Jokoin? There is a hill, near the center: is there a Cross there; I cannot quite make out: your Vision may be stronger than mine?
I couldnt see half so far; besides, Id miss the fun of going, if I did; theres somebody there, now; its Hideyori; Im off; so long.
Yodogima, however serious or busied, could not resist the infection, and with Jokoins bounding downthe slope for the time being lost control, as it were, of herself.
What buoyancy, mused she; if the world could imbibe the half of hers, there wouldnt be anything but mock—yes, make-believe—fighting done. And then—oh; it is too absurd; man is not a laughing stock. Nero may have grimaced his way into Rome, but its hills shall drench still yet with the tears he shed.
And back at Fushima, far removed from Ozaka, and its elemental forces, at work upon plans and defences, as indefatigable as laudable, a more conscienceless, less movable coterie of individuals, the shapening parts to a masterful piece of mechanism, their features wan and purses opened, the whip-lash laid or tackles baited—these, barons by profession and soldiers of compulsion, haters in fact, yet supporters for safety—they, under extremes, busied their bodies with replenishing the commissary and recruiting the ranks of an army as different in character as it were essential to habit.
No thought of daringness conserved the interests of these shouters for peace, at any price save its legitimate cost. Every reformer in their eyes became at once a disturber; patriotism were charlatanism, and the knowing ones cried down as demagogues; they shouted plenty and practiced penuriousness, gorged themselves and bade others be satisfied with the crumbs—or their lot.
Such were the motley hordes gathered to renderIeyasu master—and he had learned a lesson, knew the kind of discipline these fellows relished, and gave them their due—hunger. To feed, then, or to keep, as well, these hirelings, or their hirers, drilled and coddled, marched or trudged upon Ozaka.
Poor humans; I pity you, sighed Yodogima; Ieyasu dragged after, as uncertain as dogged.