In the anteroom my austerity subdued Gengo to his usual obsequiousness.
He bowed low before my glance, and ushered me out with the utmost
deference. But as we recrossed into the enclosure of the main palace he
halted and signed to Yuki and Fujimaro to turn aside.
“Rejoin your fellow-retainers,” he commanded.
“No. Follow me,” I interposed.
“It is not permissible,” stated the chamberlain.
“It was permissible when I came with the Prince of Owari.”
“The _tojin sama_ is not Owari dono.”
“The Shogun has summoned me. My attendants accompany me to the waiting
room. Lead on.”
Again my stern composure overcame his servile nature. He led us through
the garden to one of the side entrances of the palace. In the first
room three other officials appeared and called upon my attendants to
halt. Fujimaro and Yuki stopped and kowtowed. I gave over my sword and
dirk to Yuki, and proceeded with Gengo and one of the other officials.
Hastening along a broad corridor, we soon came to a room full of
armed guards, who crouched in a peculiar posture, with hands on their
swordhilts, as though about to leap up. The room was without screens
along the hall, but was closed on the side adjoining the Shogun’s
audience chamber, into which the corridor opened a few paces farther
on. At the threshold the second official halted. Gengo kowtowed and
began to crawl up the mats of the audience hall.
The Shogun was seated on a low dais, behind which a group of guards
crouched in the same posture as those in the anteroom. Before the
Shogun, on the right, knelt five officials. Of these, the nearest one
to the dais was Midzuano Echizen-no-kami, from which I inferred that
the four others were his fellow-members of the Council of Elders. All
turned and stared at me as I stalked up the chamber after Gengo. But
the Shogun sat with eyes downcast, contemplating the fan which he held
unopened upon his lap.
Several mats short of the dais Gengo kowtowed and drew aside. I
advanced much nearer, kowtowed, and rose to my knees to face the
Shogun. My heart sank. His gloomy eyes were fixed upon me in a menacing
stare. It was evident that he was greatly angered at me, and Midzuano
was present to spur him on to extremes. I contrived to smile and utter
a courtier’s phrase: “Your Highness has commanded. The _tojin_ hastens
to render service.”
“The _tojin_ is ill advised to use the word ‘service,’” rejoined the
Shogun harshly. “It is said that Woroto has taken into his service Yuki
the _ronin_. Such an act cannot be regarded other than as a reflection
upon my justice.”
“Your Highness,” I replied, “it is the glory of Japanese justice
that deeds are considered in the light of motives and circumstances.
Doubtless the members of the august Elder Council have sought to
persuade Your Highness that I made Yuki my swordbearer with the
deliberate intent to affront the Sei-i-tai Shogun. In such matters,
Your Highness, certain classes of the _tojin_ peoples are very
plain-spoken. On my honor as a man of highest birth among my people, I
say that if such an allegation has been made, it is a malicious lie and
slander.”
“The _tojin_ speaks with an excess of heat,” murmured the Chief
Counsellor. “Let him give proof that he is slandered.”
“First let my defamer give proof of the charge against me,” I retorted.
“You do not deny having taken the _ronin_ into your service,” said the
Shogun.
“In the midst of my trial before the High Court, Your Highness, the
Daimio of Satsuma interposed to save Yuki from further torture, and
honored him with a priceless gift. Does Midzuano charge the Daimio with
affronting Your Highness?”
“The Lord of Satsuma did not take the _ronin_ into his service.”
“For the reason, Your Highness, that I spoke first. Ask the Daimio if
he does not regret his delay. Yet any thought of aspersion upon the
justice of Your Highness was as far from my mind as from the Daimio’s.
And in justice to a most loyal subject, I must declare that among
all the _hatamotos_ there is none truer than Yuki. In the hour of
humiliation the brave man bowed to the justice of his lord without a
murmur. So devoted was his loyalty that he endured torture rather than
testify against those who had saved the daughter of Your Highness from
_ronin_ capture.”
The Shogun bent towards me with sudden deepening of his frown.
“Insolent barbarian! do you dare speak of your artifice?”
“My artifice, Your Highness?”
“Can you deny that the attack of the _ronins_ was a prearranged plot by
which you and Yoritomo profited?” demanded Midzuano.
The subtle intriguer was actually charging us with the villainy of his
own party. The sudden springing of the snare caused me to hesitate.
“Answer!” cried the Shogun. “You and your accomplices knew beforehand
of the plot.”
“We knew beforehand that Keiki had plotted the attack--”
“Keiki?”
“He set the Mito _ronins_ upon the cortege of the Princess, expecting
to rescue her at the last moment, and so gain the favor of Your
Highness.”
“Did I not foretell to Your Highness that they would seek to divert
the charge of guilt from themselves by some such incredible tale?”
murmured the Chief Counsellor. “Keiki Sama did not appear until after
the massacre. But this _tojin_ and his fellow-spy followed the cortege
in disguise from beyond the outer moat. If they knew beforehand of the
intended attack and were innocent of complicity, why did they not warn
the cortege?”
To refute such subtleness was beyond me. The best I could do was to
assume a bold front.
“As a kinsman of Owari, I do not choose to answer the queries of the
partisan of Mito,” I declared.
“Not even to explain why you held off until the _ronins_ had
slaughtered the _hatamotos_, and why the _ronins_ fled before two men
when they had slain a score?” interrogated Midzuano.
“Give me a sword and confront me with a Mito partisan in full armor,” I
rejoined. “One reason for the fleeing of the _ronins_ will shortly be
made apparent.”
“Enough of the _ronin_ attack and of Yuki the _ronin_,” said the
Shogun. “There remains a matter that more nearly concerns my honor.
Gengo will repeat his account of the outrageous conduct of the _tojin_
in the palace of the Princess.”
I flushed crimson with rage. The treacherous chamberlain had stolen out
during my instruction of Azai, to aid Midzuano in setting this snare
for my destruction. I met the gaze of the Shogun with a look as angry
as his own, and said with deliberate reproof: “In my land men of noble
blood do not publicly discuss matters concerning ladies.”
He made a sign with his fan, and commanded: “All others than Midzuano
will withdraw beyond earshot.”
“The matter is between Your Highness and myself,” I said. “My life is
in the hand of Minamoto Iyeyoshi. Rather than speak in the presence of
a third person, I am prepared to die without benefit of medicine.”
The Shogun again signed with his fan. Midzuano rose to his knees and
shuffled away after the others. I was left alone in front of the dais,
still too angry to flinch before the Shogun’s frown and the menace of
his eyes.
“Your Highness has condemned me without a hearing,” I charged. “Is that
the boasted justice of Dai Nippon?”
“Such insolence is of itself worthy of death!” he exclaimed.
“Your Highness,” I replied, “I come of a family so proud that it is a
degradation for me to kowtow even before the exalted ruler of Nippon,
yet my desire to serve has caused me to humble myself.”
“The rudeness of the _tojin_ might be forgiven on the plea of his
ignorance. Not so an insult to the Princess my daughter.”
“Your Highness has listened to the lying tales of my enemies. I would
sooner strike off my right hand than insult the Princess Azai. Your
Highness does ill to heed the malicious slanders of those who condemned
me on false charges and who, when baffled by the command of Your
Highness, laid an ambush for me in the garden of the Princess.”
“In the garden of the Princess!--ambush!” he repeated.
“Upon the first day of the panic,” I said, and I gave him a concise
account of all that had occurred from the interruption of my passage to
Owari Yashiki by Gengo to my rescue by the Princess on the bridge.
“_Namida!_” he muttered, when I came to a pause. “I cannot put to
torture a man whom she saved.”
“Your Highness,” I replied, hastening to take advantage of this
betrayal of tenderness, “the happiness of a child is one of the fondest
wishes of a parent. I ask permission to speak openly, after the manner
of my people.”
He studied me for some moments, between curiosity and rankling anger.
Curiosity won. “Speak according to the manner of your people,” he
commanded.
I bowed. “Let Your Highness bear in mind that whatever I say, though
contrary to Japanese etiquette, is spoken with utmost deference and
respect for yourself and the Princess Azai.”
“Speak,” he repeated, masking his anger behind an inscrutable calm.
“In the first place,” I began, “Your Highness should know that Yoritomo
Sama, my friend and brother in spirit, has vowed to enter the monastery
of Zozoji. Your Highness may recall the statement of Azai Sama, made
upon the occasion of my first audience with Your Highness. In the chief
temple of Shiba, below the image of the Goddess of Mercy, was where the
Princess and I first gazed into each other’s eyes.”
The Shogun started, and a threatening flash shot from his sombre eyes.
But again he masked all feeling behind a look of inquisitorial coldness.
I continued: “Is it an error to believe that my meetings with the
august lady have been guided by a higher cause than human will or blind
chance? As I have said, we first saw one another before Kwannon, in the
sanctuary of the temple. Our second meeting was in the midst of battle
and slaughter; the third in the presence of Your Highness, when I was
received as the kinsman of Owari dono and as a _daimio_ of the first
class; the fourth in her garden, when she saved me from the treacherous
plot of my enemies--”
“Proof is yet to be made that either Keiki or Midzuano knew of the
attack. You have yourself stated Gengo’s claim that he was confused by
reason of the great terror which lay upon all. The gate watch had only
to discover your presence in the forbidden enclosure, to charge upon
you.”
“I have presented the facts so far as I know them, Your Highness. What
I now wish to make clear is how Fate has brought together myself and
the august lady. Twice Your Highness called upon your daughter to serve
the _tojin_ guest. It cannot be that Your Highness failed to perceive
that her soul shone in my eyes--”
“_Namida!_” he broke in. “For far less presumption men have been sawn
asunder--crucified!--burned!”
“Is the presumption so great when consideration is taken of the honor
accorded me by Your Highness? As the acknowledged peer of the Prince of
Owari and the Daimio of Satsuma--”
“Hairy barbarian!” he flung at me.
“Your Highness has read the memorial of Yoritomo Sama,” I replied. “My
people are as vastly above your people in some respects as your people
are above mine in others. Another matter--who may say whence our souls
come and whither they go? My friend Yoritomo contends that the august
lady and I must have loved one another in a previous incarnation. This
I do not know, but I do know that I have seen my soul in the eyes of
the Princess.”
His face darkened with a sudden return of anger, but his voice was
constrained to a false calmness: “It is now perceived that the _tojin_
is a madman. Permission is granted him to withdraw.”
“Your Highness!” I protested. “The happiness of the Princess--”
“Her happiness and honor will be safe in the keeping of her husband.
She shall wed Keiki, the son of Mito.”
“Keiki?” I cried. “The man who sought to disgrace her?”
“Does the _tojin_ still hold to that lie? Enough! His punishment will
be considered, and command sent in due time.--Go!”
There was no hope for me in the cold menace of his look. Yet I did not
give way to any outward display of the fear and despair that was within
me. Sustained by the pride of race and blood, I forced a smile, and
kowtowed and withdrew, complying with the most punctilious requirements
of court etiquette.