Long lines of coerced, machine-made, and let-live mortals wended the broadening valleys leading from the seat of empire, Kyotos mouldering gate, Fushima, toward the walled-in adjuster, Ozaka, under whose shelter there throbbed in every archer and each spearman the impulse that leads to liberty.
A mighty task confronted these invaders, the mercenary half of a nation. Obedience to an over-mastery had become their watchword; through long ages the spark that enlightens had been drubbed and coaled into nothing more than the droll leaden heat of an improvident toll, and the hills on either side echoed from one to the other only such monotonous rhythm as dulled or tinkled in the ears of baser content or lulled to sleep any instinct born of more than earths paid transient competence.
Law and order is the order and the law, growled Ieyasu, as the last one of those corpulent commanders eased back upon the tired, stooped shoulders bearing him hence—to what and where only the lost and fading records of regardful time could or would flaunt in the faces of a blushing posterity.
Are the spears sharp, demanded he, when the train had as diligently ranked apace.
Ill inquire, sir, responded the orderly, thinking only of the wage he had contracted—and the echoanswering back, from the farthest spoke in the wheel, sounded like:
Alls well, sir.
Avast! I warrant, muttered Ieyasu, not one of them knows the meaning, however prodded or ribbed. A heartless task, this; and, I do believe the soul cries—but to the work:
Forward, march! and the drive began; the machine creaked; the master builder, however, oiled methodically its thirsty bearings and adjusted as economically the squeaking parts.
Its a time-keeper, if ugly, muttered he, as the trodden ground, too, responded with agony to the listless demands of an overly candid, if seldom understood, tramp, tramp, tramp—and the knowing few, constant criers of, hands off, hands off, hands off, paled at the prospect of their own befouling—Christs blood bore no relation to the parboiling blue of their ensemble; Pontius had exemplified the wiser conduct.
Anxious hearts and eager eyes, over there, on the other side, amid the burnings and yearnings of betterment, atop privilege and opposed to lying, their honor at stake and a lighted beacon in the hand, singing songs of gladness and shouting defiance at sin, a mission to perform and life ahead—these were the men and women who manned the ship whose supercargo responds only to healthful dictation and whose decks are freighted with the fragrant odor of valorous deeds.
Let the work be quickly done, advised Yodogima,high at the helms guidance, aloft the citadel of manlier entente. Strike the vibrating thing at its weakest point, and when these carping conservatives shall have once scented the cost of healthier action their flagrant confidence must fall of its own overweight. The very thought is shocking, but truth is most obvious: the only way to rid a body is to gouge an evil growth. Your hearts are strong; see that you strike deep, and nobly.
Not a man faltered, no one questioned his rations; the prize savored of freedom, the penalties were of trifling consideration, and these men deployed their forces with a vim and an assurance that sounded afar the masked countenance of those they defied.
Kuroda and Fukushima hearkened, sickening at their own stupid estimate. The two of them, lifelong servers of a better fortune, respected supporters of Hideyoshi, had sworn, sealing the oath with their own blood, to defend and uphold the cause that Hideyori, an infant, had inherited and Yodogima, his mother, now sought with fearless energy to conserve, that Hideyoshi, the builder, had inaugurated, and that Nobunaga, a beginner, had conceived. A terrible retribution bore down hard, as their foolish mistake and her upright stand fairly began to dawn. Committed and hemmed in, there seemed no escape—Ieyasu solved the problem.
Banished, snarled he, to Hidetada, his chief counsellor, and in the presence of other barons assembled for that purpose; and that their example may provesalutary, in the case of any like minded or weak kneed, it is my instruction that you kill these upon the slightest show of rebellion. To Yedo with them, and dagger athwart.
Only Maeda, the younger, responded; he had witnessed the dispatch of his father, sometime guardian over Hideyori, and jumping to his feet, vowed undying fidelity to Ieyasu; he knew the forced intriguers methods, perhaps divined some advantage in his tactics, for he had inherited untouched his fathers estates, if not a better security—Ieyasu then made him head commander, under Hidetada, his chief, subject only to himself as dictator, obeyed, if despised.
Then it is Maeda that Ieyasu, a wooer, would pit against my Sanada, a patriot? replied Yodogima, when advised of the circumstance—no doings on either side escaped her; Kyogoku, now, again, for the one, and Honda, Ieyasus secretary, with the other, proved good intelligencers, if shaky, or resolute, otherwise. Perhaps he, Maeda, too, will have changed somewhat when he has unexpectedly discovered that smoking powder, and not farmers arrows, await him. Sanada may sleep at the gate, but Maeda shall never cross these walls—no doubt there are others in Ieyasus train of the same mind as Kuroda and Fukushima: we shall see, well before the wise Ieyasu has bought or defeated a man of mine; freedom and failure are antithetical in fact.
Ridding his camp of the last, as he believed, who dared shake at the knees, and shouldering the remainingdaimyos with the brunt of fighting and danger, keeping his own immediate levies, the Tokugawas, in reserve at the rear, where neither spear or arrow nor powder and shot could do them harm, Ieyasu gave out the orders:
Form a semicircle, the rest of you, my doubtful daimyos—I shall test your backbones; single-handed, and with no shelter available, you shall fight or turn traitor; Yodogimas methods and mood are well known—from Settsu to Idzumi, surrounding from shore to shore the enemys grounds: they will hardly take to the water; there are no ships available: Maeda shall lead well round the Yamato (Nara) hills and approaching Ozaka from the south, with Hidetada at his rear and myself close after, strike them at their strongest point. The arm is strong, we have two to their one, and every hot-head fallen is an abiding guarantee of peace. It is a shame that these beautiful engines of war should needs be put to use, but—well, I have exhausted every recourse to bring Hideyori to my way of thinking: he is foolishly ambitious, wickedly rooted, and must be removed.
Two hundred thousand of them thus moved upon Yodogima, the mother, perhaps responsible for some of Hideyoris real traits, however misjudging or particular Ieyasu had taken it upon himself to be. Nor had she been less pronounced in her convictions.
Remove the cause for all this war paraphernalia, and the effect shall be at once to relieve humanity of its needless building: the very best way to do that is touse well what we have got—here and elsewhere, now, before our resources shall have been exhausted with trying to bluff each other, she had said to Ieyasu. repeatedly, upon his showing the white feather, to Hideyoshi, his earliest rival.
They came on, these derelicts, of duty, their banners waving and mouths sustaining, the advancing heavy-weights skirting the mountains to the eastward, with the singly doled daimyos holding down their respective posts as assigned. Yodogima surveyed the situation, as she could, from her central position. The semicircle occasioned no uneasiness; as she surmised—Ieyasu had overlooked it—every one of them considered his place a most advantageous roost from which to observe results in front, sliding down on either side as convenience should dictate.
They did serve their would-be master, however, in quite another respect: their absence relieved Ieyasu of the necessity of lumbering more than Maedas contingent around those hills and over the plains, where bubbled the waters and grew the seed Yodogima had sprung or sown in lavish abundance. Patriots were budding like cherries in springtime, and a driven march but made the fragrance smell the sweeter.
Now, Maeda swung into the open, a formidable army loomed to the southward, and Yodogima breathed easier; her estimate thus far had proven correct; the attack would come as expected; Ieyasu had employed the only tactics he knew—Sanada apparently slept at the nearest gate.
Directly across the intended battlefield, well in advance of the outer moat, running from the water front on the right to the river Nekogawa at her left, a low embankment, some ten feet in height, had been unexpectedly thrown up and faced of rock, with a deep water-trap hugging the farthest side, from end to end.
The invaders mistook this to be the outer moat: the patriots lay low, behind Sanada; who, to their astonishment, only snored.
Then, Hidetada wheeled his van, the flower of Yedo, well onto the plain; they were loyal men, but as yet in the measurement, as to their fullest capacity; the commander-in-chief had recruited of the newer Tokugawa, and any sudden charge might be expected to stampede the whole, in case of Maedas rout, in advance—Harunaga, mobilized just inside the last regular moat, at the right-hand gate, awaiting only a chance.
Yodogima had not as much confidence in his boldness, as respect for his courage; their strategy, like the enemys valor, must abide younger heads or hearts than those of Harunaga and Ieyasu.
Lastly, Ieyasu showed his face, and the veterans of his experience, samurai tried and found true, on many a scarred and fought-to-the-finish contest, their steps more studied and ears better cocked, these trusties ranked in, on the farthest side of the broad open, still beyond, in the rear. This, then, were the division that Hideyori, young and untried, should meet, ifneeds be, in a final determination of their destinies: the decisive conflict of an age.
Hideyori at the beginning: Ieyasu at the end of a career.
It is blood against experience, and who would change it? half whispered, half shouted Yodogima, a mother, as she swept the horizon with those eyes that had never failed her, looked into the faces which had gathered, and drilled, and armed, in behalf of manliness.
My dear men, said she, turning to them, from her seat above, you cannot fail. Whatever may become of me, however I or mine may demean himself, manhood is the secret buried underneath or revealed of any and every godlike doctrine, thought, or action. It is Godly, and the trend of the devil is toward the flesh. A strong heart knows its haven: a weak one abides the fires that consume. Manhood has made this world what it is, perhaps soared here, to this, from planets above; is making the world of to-day, however prosperous lying may seem; shall continue to make it, till there remains no need of a hell—thus and then, only, may heaven be attained. On with the work, and let no guilty thing escape!
Ieyasu, too, had spoken; climbing to a hill-top, Chausu, close at hand, on the right, the would-be besieger levelled his glasses, scanning the field before him. His own division of some sixty thousand samurai occupied the open lying between the hill on which he stood and the sea to the left; on the extremeopposite side of the field to his right stood Hidetada and his army of equal size, extending on toward the eastward, till the hill Okayama, rearing up as a sentinel, shut out all intervening space between his forces and the river Hirano: the top of which hill afforded also the commander-in-chief, Hidetada, a most excellent vantage point.
At the extreme front, toward the center, lay Maeda, with his perhaps forty thousand Kaga bloods, including their allies, ready to do when bid. To his, Maedas, right and to his left, spanning the distance from Hirano river, the eastern field border, to the sea at the west, stretched, together with his own—an intended battering ram—minor forces of the doubtful daimyos who had been placed to form the famed semicircle, as well as such others as had been brought up to strengthen the contemplated charge. Still in front of all, near by, lay the small hill Sasayama, coveted by Maeda, but held as an outpost by Sanada—apparently sleeping, farther on, at the gate post.
We have the foe, safe enough, in front of us: our rear is free from molestation, chuckled Ieyasu, to Hidetada, his son, who had come over, in the evening, to consult about the proposed early morning attack. With the enemy before them and the Tokugawa behind, what chance have these dilatory daimyos of ours? Why, theyll be chowdered before the sun is risen.
Then Hidetada shall pounce upon the foe with the freshness of morning, replied he, elated, if over-anxious,and before the dew is fairly dried they shall have gone, to their happy hunting-ground.
Well said, my son, ejaculated the forgetful hero of Sekigahara, and Ieyasu shall dine in Ozaka.
Alone, father?
Why do you ask; have I ever denied you, my boy?
Oh; I had another thought in mind.
It had been better, were it a view.
I dont just like, so very much, fighting in the dark; but, as it may take the enemy some time to obliterate Maeda—and the rest of them, the sneaking daimyos lines—I may not have to expose myself, till daylight, at best, surmised Hidetada, the Taira-wed branch of the family, descended Minamoto.
Ieyasu made no answer; he could not, had he tried; Yodogima rose to mind, and he thought only of what might have been, had he but taken advantage of Hideyoshis bluffing, long ago, at Fuchu, the elder Maedas once upon a time seat of true chivalry. Esyo had in fact, as observed, exercised an influence over her husband: what might not the sister have done, had she been the mother.
Oh, well; it is too late, now, muttered the taikos once trusted ally, giving the order, in reality, for an unrecallable, before-the-day-break assault; then staggering to the ground, helplessly, under the weight of his own remorseful thirst, as he did the quenchless deed. Stab; yes, stab her, too!
And Yodogima answered, that final test, as became a weaker hand, if stronger heart.
Fog clouds hung low, the darkness grew intense, and these men could scarcely see their way; dread uncertainty had laid hold on shrivelled hearts; Maedas advance groped its way round the hill Sasayama; Maeda and some few others climbed up.
Where is he? asked they, of one another; these grounds seem deserted.
Hark! ventured someone.
Did you hear that snore? inquired another.
It is Sanada; he sleeps; over there; at the outer castle gate; let us strike him; he is foolish.
They stumbled forward, in the darkness, and coming upon a man propped against a stake. Date prodded him; this daimyo had been doing similar service since the days of Odawara.
What are you doing here; do you not know that we are enemies? inquired Mori, another of Hideyoshis upon-a-time staunch supporters.
I wait to see, that we make no mistake; we have some farmers arrows to shoot with, but would do no harm, to a friend.
Hear you, said they, all alike, one to another, he makes sport, in the face of danger; avenge our good name, Maeda, and let us make short work of the rest. Did you hear what he said? They have some farmers arrows—a pretty weapon to use against such as we! Spread the word, and well scale those walls before a soul of them has half finished sleeping.
Junkei therefore paid the penalty, without resistance; he had truly slept his sleep, for it was he and not Sanada who snored those daimyos to their doom.
Eighty thousand of their force rushed forward to scale the walls, and that blind ditch of Yodogimas provisioning emptied its waters to make room for the drowning invaders. Others rushed over these and against the embankment, where Sanada stood, his sleepless forces unscathed, to chop and slash them down. For hours they mired and fought, trapped and headless—but to no purpose; every stones width in that wall had its defender, with another and still others within reach to take his place should chance or fatigue down and disable him. There was no shouting of orders; the word had gone round and around till every man of them knew by heart the role he should enact. Neither had a shot been fired; the guns lay loaded, and the powder unburned, behind still other walls of huger import and loftier building.
Practically one-third of Ieyasus strength—for those scared hirelings did fight, when cornered, quite as stubbornly as the liege masters aged samurai could have done—his most valiant commander, under Hidetada, Maeda, and nearly all of those doubtful daimyos—a few of them yet remained behind Ozaka, still in the semicircle—were either killed, routed, or scared into further uselessness. Nor was this all, for inside the fortifications a newer confidence sprang to the fore, impulse beat harder against the dictates of judgment, and but for Yodogimas influence alone they hadrushed one and all thirstily upon the waiting reserves.
Calm yourselves, my friends, urged she, confident in their strength; if you would follow one victory with another, then buckle your armor the closer. Madness means weakness, and you shall yet have enough to do before Hidetada is worsted; he will not expose his strength under cover of night; he has had better training. And there is Ieyasu, behind him; an inverted pyramid, with both sides blocked by natural barriers. Mind what I say: Ieyasu planned well, but his strategy is ancient; no doubt it served in the days of Confucius, but a new warfare has come; I command you: do not fire a gun, not a man of you, till you can count the teeth, each and everybody in his targets head.
They waited; no one would disobey, and only one so much as sold himself—Nanjo, a subordinate captain, for a miserly price ventured to carry Ieyasus fiefly proposals to Sanada; who scorned the proffered estates, publishing everywhere the traitors head as an example. Here, at last, Ieyasu, the wise, had found exemplified the truth, to his betterment, that honor and not gold measures the content of highest living.
I am doubtful about an open charge, cautioned he, of Hidetada, as the cover of night began breaking, yet far to the eastward.
I am not, replied the younger man, more doubtful about covers, or chicanery, of any kind.
Then you shall have to face them—I am ill.
At ease, I trow; and if you think you can bribe aTaira into retirement—see here, father; you should have tried first my wife; I think I know her breed; I am going to fight.
The clouds rose, and the day opened glad, if not inspiring. Hidetada bestirred himself with the first lifting of night, and as the gray fogs banked over against the gorged-out mountains, with here and there a village or a temple hung defiantly or standing gracefully upon some jutting point or sloping greensward, those more sympathetic, if rawer, recruits, from the Tokugawa domain, took up the forward advance, and refacing the broken fragments of Maedas demolished command now at first made that valley resound with the frenzy of rallying blood-tasted savagery.
Hidetada led them, and like with him the reward of valor had justified the risk. Stringing out his long formation into V shape, his right resting upon the solid Hirano, the left hard upon the seashore, and a solid oblong breaking and forming the Vs middle, they tramped straight ahead, thus in zigzag alignment, toward a solid defense, from river to sea, behind the fortifications at Ozaka.
They mean to break our walls midway, disregarding altogether the gates, then quarter about and march each half to the opening thus made, said Yodogima, to Hideyori, her readiest counsellor. I wonder what means they have to batter down barriers so thick and high—a hundred and twenty feet, I presume, just there.
Let them come, replied the son. And if they domake the breach, I promise you that I and not they shall be the first to sally through; Harunagas guns are trained, and he is going to count their teeth. Depend upon it.
Sanada lay close, under shelter of the low, temporary embankment: his ranks had been little impaired; Yodogima remained high up in the citadel—Hidetada advanced, to the wall where lay Sanada.
What kind of hunting do you have out there? You might find it better on this side the wall, said Sanada, to Hidetada.
Hidetada made no answer, but began hopping his men over—the center first, and then others, as they came up—charging toward the outer main walls, as Yodogima had surmised.
Sanada fell back, coaxing them on.
They had come well within range of Harunagas matchlocks, the main body facing them squarely, when suddenly there rang out the unexpected:
Fire!
The enemy fell like rice heads underneath a sickle bar, and Sanada, wheeling, charged those reeling columns that Hidetada had marched to no better results than Maedas.
Ieyasu groaned under the weight of their defeat; no one knew better than he the futility of matching defiance against gun-powder, and Jokoin had forewarned him, inadvertently let the secret out, yet the would-be builder of an intended autocracy dared not delay at all the execution of his plans. One that had of necessity materialized doggedly, now found him inconveniently approaching the end of any real assured activity, then awaiting better, as he knew only too well, the internal weakening of a democracy engrafted firmly, if insecurely, by Hideyoshi, in the face of him.
His own forces, the Tokugawas, upon whom he could rely, were inadequate to batter down the defenses round Ozaka, and Yodogima, with the Christians and their devices safely driven into her camp, required only the opportunity to win over a dissenting element; who had already begun to smart, if not waver, under his very questionably assumed domination. These he had placed as well as he could in the teeth of danger, not only to save his own meager samurai, and Hidetadas raw recruits, together constituting the heart and the flower of the Tokugawa, but to weaken no less, if possible, the besieged. To do this, a midnight attack proffered an only hope—he must not disclose the fact, yet knew of his own knowledge that a daylight engagement meant disaster. CouldHarunaga have been inveigled into wasting his ammunition upon darkness, whatever the outcome of Maeda, and the daimyos, those scarred samurai of his, following up the fiery youth under Hidetadas command, had made quick work of all that should be left at the castle.
All these plans, so carefully laid, if inadvertently executed, had missed the outcome expected; the chagrinned and defeated master at last lay exhausted and hopeless; he had threatened harakiri as a last resort; the bushido should not be violated; Hidetada alone consoled him; the fragments of his beaten youths were returning in handfuls; word came in, also, of Hideyoris marshaling his untouched reserves and that the reorganized and fired-up hosts of democracy might be expected to swoop down upon them at any moment.
Prepare yourself, Hidetada; there is but one honor left us.
Withdrawing tearfully, the obedient son, an enforced husband and dearly-bought shogun, staggered to his own deserted quarters; only one remained to comfort him.
What now, my lord? inquired Esyo, gallantly, if concerned.
Make ready, Esyo; all is done for, save—
What?
Harakiri.
Not for me, my good husband.
Do you deny me, also this consideration?
Yes.
Buddha! May there be one left, then, to avenge my good name.
There shall be—Sakuma, unhand this husband of mine, albeit he would dishonor not me; I shall have need for him here, in better grace, if not of reason.
Sakuma! Does the grave yield its own? whispered Hidetada.
You see him—perhaps a little aged, but in the flesh and blood. Keep a good watch, Sakuma, lest the shoguns honor fail me his boots.
Hidetada may not have liked the idea of being disarmed, or disillusioned, but the reasoning of his wife baffled him. Abstruse and as headstrong she had raised him from a secondary place in the family to that of shogun: the very consciousness of that advancement induced some consideration for if not confidence in her abilities, though the methods yet seemed as incomprehensible as the motive hitherto had been elusive. The shogun therefore suffered the disgrace; there was no denying Esyo, whether shamefaced or pleased.
Nor did she trust alone to promising; once his sword had been removed, the guard was doubled and instructed to let none pass—there might have been a true samurai among them, though everybody left appeared to be bent wholly upon saving his own neck.
Esyo hurriedly disguised herself, for no woman might safely attend unguarded the battlefield. She must see Ieyasu, alone, and that quickly. His owndivision steadfastly maintained its rigid formation, expecting as well to be called forthwith into action—Honda had intercepted Ieyasus threat at its threshold—but Hidetadas routed command continued bolting headlong in, bearing tales as disconcerting as untimely.
Honda? whispered she, approaching and beckoning from the outside.
Yes, my lady, replied he, as nervously as anxiously.
Is he still alive?
Y-e-s—but desperate.
Then let me in, and see that none else approaches.
Ill do it, swore he, in confidence.
Ieyasu sat with his face buried close in his hands. Why none had come to strike the stroke that should save his grace seemed more than he could solve.
Honda, muttered he, at Esyos approach. Is there none here, meaner than Honda, to serve me, in this my last right? Shame upon them, ungrateful beggars!
Shame upon you, my lord, hissed Esyo, her blood fairly boiling, as she ran directly there. What do you mean, by acting in this way?
Ieyasu looked up, amazed if relieved. He had mistaken her for Honda.
Oh, it is you, is it? I thought you safe in Ozaka, no doubt before this.
Well I might be, and you, too, were you not quite bent upon insulting others.
I, insult anyone? And who might it be, pray.
Among others, Yodogima, my sister.
Yodogima!
Yes, Yodogima.
Why so?
She just now sends a message, inquiring about your welfare.
By whom?
Kyogoku.
She loves me still, and I would kill myself? No, no; I must see her. Esyo; can you arrange it; I would first meet Yodogima?
Promise me this: you will keep the engagement.
I swear it.
Then lend me your sword; I shall have had need for it before I am returned.
Over at Ozaka, men bound and eager, to follow up a significant rout, were massing and ordering and devising the last and only onslaught that had been necessary to end a feudalism, throttle an aristocracy, and implant for good the democracy that Hideyoshi had all but consolidated.
Yodogima looked out and over the dazzling troopers, as they marched and countermarched to orders flowing from lips she adored as only a mother can. Hideyori, her son, had come into his own; should follow up that defeated army, and make doubly sure glories which were of right only his; would send his name down to all posterity, as the builder of a commonwealth founded upon an equality of opportunityand with favoritism to none. Men and women should thenceforth develop the ideal that God infixes, share the real in due proportion, and worship according to the dictates each of his own untrammelled conscience.
God bless you, my son; and may He give you strength to win, said she, with no other thought encouraging, as their preparations progressed apace.
Then, as if fate intervened, she looked toward the South. The mother instinct had strangely given way, to that other force, mans larger comprehension. Love itself had beamed inconsequently through those rays illuminating and searching had not a lesser respondent turned heavenward with glad countenance long before race or creed echoed the part and powers of an abiding God.
Kyogoku? commanded she. Carry this, a message, to Ieyasu. Then await, at yonder gate, his answer.
Yodogima apparently faltered in the face of positive victory. Was it soul that stirred her to larger comprehension, or had God himself intervened to stay an absolute, a total, the fatal?
Jokoin came in from the field, aglow with expectation, fairly dawning and resolving at the prospect of Hideyoris famed, unquestioned gallantry. His furbelows shone out bewilderingly beautiful under the influence of a risen sun, and her light heart danced the more in consequence of its apparently disassociated illusionment—the food she really relished.
Its a jolly fair day, this, Yodogima, promised she, bounding in, without so much as a permission. Have you seen the artillery? Oh, but its an odd looking thing—a gun on wheels! Im sure if Ieyasu had had one like it he could have made some impression on these walls. I should like to have seen the fun—but, I suppose, its lucky there was only one of them to be had; and luckier still that weve got it. We couldnt have made out at all without the Christians, and theyre a bully lot, too; gold is no temptation to such people.
Perhaps, remarked Yodogima, unconcernedly—
A shell burst near by, in the palace grounds. The impact deafened them.
Horrors! exclaimed Jokoin, nestling close under Yodogimas shelter.
I am afraid there must have been two of them, after all, surmised Yodogima, attempting to calm the fears of Jokoin. But it is too late now, to be firing at random into the castle. They had better save themselves the trouble. Oh, well; I shouldnt mind a little thing like that; Hideyori shall soon enough put an end to any further nonsense of the kind. Have courage, Jokoin.
I pray they dont shoot again, this way.
Esyo had directed a return message in care of Jokoin, at the hands of Kyogoku; she understood this particular sister, suspicioned her true proclivities, and surmising that a well directed shot would startle her into the activities desired—should induce the younger to implore the elder sister—had, herself, unbeknown either to her husband or his father, brought into use an old mortar, a companion piece to the one boasted of Hideyori, purchased in consequence by Ieyasu at great expense and stored away safely under cover of his compound, admiredly, if not for service.
Ill give them a taste in advance, of what is to come, threatened she, as the inexperienced gunners fell back in terror and she herself tripped forward to light the fuse.
The aim proved blunderingly good: though the citadel her intended target had been missed, a small addition to one of the minor buildings was in fact demolished and some two or three of the occupants—servingmaids to Yodogima—were as observed at this either maimed or killed outright.
The explosion had its desired effect, and no amount of assurance or coaxing would or could allay the fears or quell the anxiety of concerned Jokoin. She must at once and at all hazards get Yodogima out of that demoniacal inferno—her own security quite overlooked—and when Kyogoku came in with the message supposedly from Ieyasu, Yodogima, perhaps to quiet Jokoin, but more likely to carry out a deeper-laid plan of her own, readily yielded to her little sisters persuasion.
Yodogima:Meet me, at Kyogokus residence, outside the castle; I must see you, and would ask no further guarantee than yours.Ieyasu.
Yodogima:
Meet me, at Kyogokus residence, outside the castle; I must see you, and would ask no further guarantee than yours.
Ieyasu.
It was all there was of the message—presumably an answer to the one she had sent—yet no greater influence than Jokoins pleading were necessary to induce an immediate cessation of hostilities on Yodogimas part—insofar as a meeting with Ieyasu was concerned.
Hideyori protested. For once his will rebelled against his mothers. The opportunity proffering overwhelmed every other consideration, and the young man proudly threatened to die behind those walls rather than let the enemy enter otherwise than as vanquished.
Meet my mother, upon friendly terms? It is impossible!
But, my son, Ieyasu out of the way the empire shall fall directly into your hands; there is none else to dispute you, and war is—
Hell—all of which Kitagira advised me long ago; but you see them anxious on all hands—just now, since that message was written, a shell has been fired into our midst. There is no end to fighting as long as mens blood runs red.
Yodogima paused; it had come to a parting with the one or the other. Blood and love are elemental within the human, but only for love there had been none to measure in the light of soul; heart and instinct might have gone on hand in hand, yet an Infinitys unvarying prudence saw fit to match understanding against the one; love is an affinity.
Then accept my blessing, urged the mother, thoughtfully, after a while; mine is run.
And give you, as well, my protection; have no fear; go as you like; do what conscience bids, and the gods shall render you justice.
Harunaga? commanded he, directing his further conversation to him.
Yes, my lord.
Do not call me lord—not to-day; to-morrow you may, but if you would serve me now attend my mother; old men should yet be of some help, and if there are any others, of a like mind, behind these walls, letthem, too, depart; this is going to be a hot place, perchance worse, if I interpret Esyos message correctly.
Esyo! gasped Jokoin.
Yes; it is she; and, you are safe at Kyogokus.
I shall remain here, replied Jokoin, unobserved by Yodogima; whose interests had already settled upon one thought only.
These went their way, Yodogima accompanied by Kyogoku, to the latters yashiki, a commodious dwelling, nestled away among the samurai huts fringing the castle grounds all round well under the outlying citys over-crowding borders. It was a sightly place and a safe one to which the honor-bound Kyogoku, a trusted intermediary, had led the proud, if anxious, princess, there to meet and do with lifes final consummation. The very walls around seemed to echo some fain portent, in keeping with times most cruelly adjudged, if seemly ending.
Harunaga lay hidden in the fastness of an humbler shrine builded farther up on the hillside overlooking the walls and guarding eagerly each approach. No deed of the hand or foulness of a heart should harm or hinder his ladyships grace as long as he might serve; he had divined well her secret, and marshalled afresh his own hardening courage: sought as best he knew to induce the moral which every man must finally know as in prudence wisely revealed.
She had gone there that Hideyoris hand might not be stained, that a nation should rise upon the hard-burned figments of ambition, that her love attain itsjust reward, and an ideal come down from heaven to earth—a lifes work rounded out in God.
Weighing over against his own feelings a greater force, the obligations that he had incurred, this gray-haired bonze, faiths most truly devoted, resolved in his own heart that she had chosen well, and that so long as he might prevent, her confidence should not be abused or Ieyasus word broken. Harunaga sat there, as he had lived, the sphinx, grinning against the gray and the dawn of duty.
Little birds twittered in the tree-tops, the frosts of winter threatened coming on, the shadows of evening were lengthening and casting their grim visages toward the treasured homestead she had left—
Two chairs, one bearing the three asarum leaves, the other an under mans crest, came tottering up the long, crooked, narrow, and overshaded alley-way, the first ahead and the other after, their heads bobbing and poles creaking, to the patter of hurrying feet and bating of heated breaths. Harunaga, springing to his feet, edged closer to the wall, and peering hard through its miserly cracks muttered:
It is well, and the two passed on, to their vainly induced, if death averting, task.
Dismounting and dismissing the carriers, the two entered, at one side the larger passage, through a small, low gate in the massive unscalable stone fence surrounding the house; leaving and abandoning thus any means of defence or escape, for the gate once closed could not be again opened without assistance.Ieyasu apparently bore no weapon at all, and Honda carried only the customary appendages allowable to a gentleman of his worth and rank. Harunaga, it would seem, had adjudged rightly, for he gave the matter no further concern.
Kyogoku met them at the inner entrance, in response to Ieyasus loud knocking upon the door-case.
Welcome, my lord, vouched the former; whereat the latter responded:
Thank you, but not as lord; I seek, am harmless, hence lordless. I trust I find myself still bidden and the princess in good parts. May I enter?
The leaves upon the trees, standing here and there like sentinels, rustled gently in the days abiding round, yet there arose out of its vigor as it were the meaning of a rebirth, the resurrection of man, the inspiration of soul—an ever-present God, whom the grind of time or the compensations of living alone reveal.
Conjure that God as we may, borrow if we can, proclaim Him from the house tops though we do, worship whom we will, there is no salvation till the eye has responded to conscience; and going there, as he did, had Ieyasu but answered to the call that emanated betwixt duty and neglect? Had Yodogima found a haven that is neither of the real nor of the ideal? Had the circle that encompasses encountered its magnet?
The broad vistas opening to the eastward carried their gaze back over the same fields they had buttrodden: a Star illuminated the universe, and their hearts throbbed with the freshness of a regenerated past. No earthly thing could have parted them: might a heavenly grace have cemented more deeply the affection they two had wrought in the fiery cauldron of human endeavor? Ieyasu bowed low in her presence, and she responded as no other living thing responds—the light of intelligence made certain the order intended.
Sitting there, in quiet contemplation, upon the floating bridge they trod, the future alone bursting jealously, they greeted each other; he, How good to meet a lovely woman; she, How lovely to meet an honorable man: thence love ruled and blessings showered.
Out upon the field, in front, Hideyori thundered the cry of, To battle, and Esyo marshaled, as well, the hosts against him. War reigned there.