"Yes; it is he--and you need not start at my presence. I hear that I am,
by some, called vulgar; by many, said to be cruel; I know only that I am
human: that the touch of your garment would rouse in ordinary man a
passion fiercer than the flames: that I myself would make you queen; yet
you are as safe from harm in my possession as he--the man you just now
fancied more than manly--is impotent to render in the least a real
consolation or a substantial aid. That you may realize fully that I am
true and not false, I tender you the only instrument that ever made or
unmade god or man. Do with it and with me as you like; you are both
strong of arm and quick to see," urged Hideyoshi, approaching and
tendering with much reverence the hilt of his unsheathed, if vain,
resolver of ethics.
Yodogima frowned. All the womanhood within her revolted at such boasted
display of wanton cowardice. That man never is right till might has made
him so, she could well believe; that might is right in the eyes of the
gods were as incomprehensible to her as it seemed satisfying to him.
"Look me in the face," demanded she, without lifting a foot.
Hideyoshi colored, and bowed only the lower: his eyes shifted about
reluctantly, and useless.
"Shame!" threatened she, advancing a step.
"I am advised of no better means than--" began Hideyoshi, cold with
suspense.
"A bluff? How often have you practiced this sort of ennui upon others,
perhaps more tolerant? I would set a better example," interposed
Yodogima, snapping his weapon against the ground and casting the
fragments away.
"Well done," promised he, recovering somewhat his composure. "But
haven't you oversaid yourself, a bit? The tables turned, however, may be
more becoming; I can prove my valor: a broken heart is less easily
mended. I need not suggest, of course, that you yourself might name--the
terms?"
"No, no," gasped Yodogima, as the possible fate of Ieyasu flashed into
mind.
"Then it is really quite unnecessary to arrange it--yet I had sooner
meet a worthy man than fall begging of a pretty woman. Come; I shall
take you whether you will or not, with or without the means, before or
after the test, temptation or provocation. Let us be off, to Azuchi,
where the muses hold their tongues and order wins fairly the heart."
"Captivity implies compulsion--in some instances; but our lord's
behavior convinces me that I might have fallen into less--considerate
hands."
Hideyoshi led the way down along the winding incline and back into the
very place which she had but a short hour thence deserted; in a more
hopeful, if less certain, mood. The same walls enclosed the front and
sides, the outlet at the rear had not changed at all; humanity seemed
continuing its blind rush toward an ideal bolstered with ten thousand
times ten thousand conjured notions: the breath of ages smelled as sweet
and wholesome as it did before she had quitted there and gone to the
mountain's crest: her heart beat as warmly for her own chosen lord as
ever; but something within, a silent mover of the senses and regulator
of the mind, told her that were that love to ripen and shed its fruit
something better than waiting and a thing more potent than might must
intervene to stay the hand of probability--and together with
consciousness came the sting.
Then the will arose, calling loudly upon the often fickle, but now most
worthy, God of Constancy to lead her truly and deliver her aright unto
the man she believed incapable of design; much more, fully competent to
make the rescue.
"I do love you--I know it now--O Ieyasu--my love, my faith, my hope."
The men and trappings rattled and tramped on the outside; preparations
were making for the march, and Hideyoshi now more than ever scolded the
lines and spruced his bearing. The fortunes of war had made him master
of central Japan, had given him the capital and placed him in possession
of the emperor, but the wiles of a woman taxed more heavily his
energies.
Whether to overawe with guards and poltroonery or to encourage by
liberties granted and confidences bestowed, were to him, now, under the
circumstances, and in this case, quite as vital a matter as had been in
ordinary times the choice between tweedledee and tweedledum.
The princess, herself, had made light of his own puerile methods; he had
purposely refrained from demanding, as was the custom, the head of his
old-time rival, Shibata, her father, solely in the hope of soothing and
inspiring her: had he failed also in that? Ieyasu had been allowed to
escape, that terror should not drive his coveted love to a last
extremity; but seemingly all his plans had miscarried, placing him now
at the brink of a still more vital blunder--and win he would: if
unfairly, none the less manly, for that.
Her two sisters had disappeared--Takiyama had laid siege to the one, and
the other scolded the way along to keep her company and see that
Hideyoshi's second best general proved a diligent escort.
The roads were smooth, withal their crookedness and the rugged aspect of
the country through which they entered to pass. An occasional rabbit
jumped away, into the thicket, none the wiser for a strange, harmless
fright, and Yodogima marvelled the dextrousness of his small endeavor.
Could she likewise defeat or escape harm? No; civilization had reduced
her to less agile and more hardened methods. And for what? They had gone
into a thickened cluster of stragglingly growing pines with drooping,
needle-laden branches and no dry leaves or fallen limbs to rattle and
crackle underneath. It was now getting dark again, and the probabilities
of the occasion caused her to peer and listen with more than ordinary
anxiety, yet no spook had ever roused in her so much as a possible
thought.
The advance had gone on, rapidly, and were by this time far in the lead.
Hideyoshi had remained well behind, bringing up the rear and keeping the
whole under observation with as little inconvenience or damage as
likely; as he was wont to do under all circumstances and in much less
trying situations than this, the proudest homecoming in his hard,
eventful career. That part of the cavalcade in which Yodogima's chair
constituted the principal charge had strung out along the roadstead in
single file, and as there seemed no possible chance for escape in either
direction the guards sang their way along in front or lagged behind in
contemplation of the uncertainties foreshadowing a visit with their
mothers or sweethearts at home.
Directly they had reached the darkest place, rounding a sharp curve, the
princess leaned forward, staring vacantly into an ominous opening,
covered and narrow, through the limbs and brush, at the lower side of
the roadway. The same bettos that rescued her from the conflagration at
Kitanoshi had been at her especial solicitation grudgingly retained for
her further use upon this particular part of the renewed journey. They
knew full well the reason--Yodogima slid carefully down from the chair
and as cautiously entered the gloomy place on which her eyes had all but
riveted.
"Yodogima?" whispered a voice, that quickly set at rest her anxiously
pulsating self, as to what it was and who it were so subtlely attracting
her attention.
"Yes, Ieyasu--but you must not be discovered here. Let me go, and save
yourself. The escape you propose would ill afford either of us the
relief sought."
"Can you trust me, Yodogima?"
"I do."
"Then go; and, depend upon it, I shall recover you; your good sense
convinces me of an abiding sincerity."
Ieyasu again slunk off into the wilderness, and Yodogima, his love
pledged anew, softly climbed back into the chair, without so much as
attracting a concerned witness. To constancy there had been added
assurance, and thence the heart waxed light and the mind clear--the will
had sooner halted at no bounds.
"He shall have me, and I will know no other; poor, weak, insignificant
woman that I am," resolved she, as the bettos at first slowly, then more
rapidly, stretched forward to recover the small ground lost.
At Azuchi, to Yodogima's surprise--agreeable as it was--and Hideyoshi's
chagrin, there developed at once much confusion and not a little
bickering. Most of the three hundred or thereabout female court and
household attendants already there took the matter of an additional
three, though respectively young and knowing and pretty, with something
of indifference; arrayed against curiosity, of course; but there
happened to be one among them, the lord daimyo's lawful wife and always
best helpmeet, Oyea, who looked upon the introduction of three such
princesses--whose character and former standing she had had, already,
abundant opportunity as well as occasion to know and understand--with
something more than ordinary concern if not outright suspicion.
This Oyea happened to be, as she herself well knew, the second wife of
the rapidly rising Hideyoshi; the first one had been set aside early for
no other reason than personal felicitation; and though Oyea had proven
constantly his best adviser as well as most companionable personage she
now held, perhaps not altogether without cause, some reasonable doubt
about the future. Her husband had won his spurs, such as they were, with
no other appreciable aid than her own good counsel, and now stood in a
position to do pretty much as he pleased, political or otherwise,
especially socially. His lordship was getting more restless, seeking new
fields to conquer. She judged him rightly; had failed to render him an
heir; and was she really, after all, to lose him, or his love?
Neither Jokoin nor Esyo caused her so much as a heart pang; the one
frivolous, the other intrusive, could be of no other use to her husband
than to serve some political necessity or trading convenience--in fact
were forthwith adopted by him for those express purposes. But Yodogima!
Here came a victim who stood in the light of a possible intruder.
"Take her away," commanded Oyea, understanding her liege lord from the
beginning and deigning to set her foot down only as she knew how and
why.
"You wouldn't have me turn the princess, Shibata's daughter, out, would
you? Come; let us be more charitable; the reason need not deter you, in
the least; Oyea denies not to others traits she herself most admires."
The princess, finally admitted, upon terms--thanks to Oyea--more
pleasing to her than satisfying to the would-be traducer, had gained
from their parley more than a knowledge of just what to expect and how
best to demean herself; she had not only won with modesty the friendship
of his wife but thenceforth knew better than any other the weakest spot
in Hideyoshi's hitherto unreadable make-up. Here at least the great
daimyo had really halted in the enforcement of his will. No man had yet
checked or escaped him in his onward rush toward the goal of an ardent
ambition, but one woman, and that, too, his wife, had called a halt upon
desire; perhaps a far more difficult thing of controlling than any mere
mental trait. Oyea had temporarily interceded, though, without any other
hold than mentality; why not herself, if she must, master him; having at
least something more potent, with which to begin?
Nor had she long to wait for an opportunity to pit herself against him:
as well, her sister Esyo. In the final allotment of stations in the
household, Jokoin and Esyo had been assigned quarters and allowed
service befitting a younger and an elder daughter; but Yodogima fared in
some respects better: in fact, was at once provided with attendance more
elaborate and attention no less sumptuous than it had been theretofore
the good wife's privilege to enjoy.
Oyea knew only too well what this meant in reality; but she had also
measured the limit of her influence and sought by compromise to ease the
burden of having ultimately to bear both the chagrin and the sorrow of
tolerating under one and the same roof the fruits of a regularly
established first-in-rank concubine.
She had made no mistake in Yodogima, however, and surmised from the
first that would Hideyoshi succeed he must not only hold his own against
outside influences but should find it necessary to combat not any the
less at home the combined energies of two heads, both feminine and bent
upon a common purpose.
Esyo reasoned differently. She was cold and negative by nature. Jokoin
had gathered round herself all the available chivalry at the castle,
leaving her less ardent sister to worry and resolve rather a more
studied diversion. And jealousy soon developed an opportunity. She
wrought accordingly.
Thus ensconced in time as satisfactorily as possible under the
circumstances, Hideyoshi thought it best to let the women wrangle out
among themselves the ordinarily necessary little adjustments of so vital
a beginning; hence, without much ado, and little encroachment upon the
liberties or patience of Yodogima, set off toward Ozaka fully determined
upon providing the young princess with a place and environment all her
own. This important old fortress city--wrested in former years by
Nobunaga from the turbulent monks--not only occupied one of the
strongest natural sites for offensive and defensive purposes but offered
as well some most advantageous prospects for residential beautification
and enjoyment. The property already fallen into his hands, Hideyoshi
forthwith gave instructions for the building of a castle that should
outstrip anything of a like kind theretofore attempted.
"I mean to do this for Yodogima, and for her alone," said he, to Oyea,
who called him to task for such intended prodigality, "in consideration
of the benefits bestowed upon me by her dear father in the performance
of harakiri (suicide). You need have no fears, nor she any misgivings."
The men were set at work, and Esyo began planning; she could not bear
the slight, yet knew that her only prospect lay in Ieyasu.
Dispatching forthwith a message (duly intercepted, of course) in which
all of the facts were related with as much imagination as she could
bring to bear upon the subject, Esyo deliberately set herself the task
of undoing all that Yodogima had suffered to accomplish.
"Depend upon what I say, she has no thought or intention of keeping or
remembering her obligations to your own dear self or to any one else,
not even her own abused and neglected sisters," wrote she, at length,
winding up with the admonition that would he save himself harm he should
act at once.
Having sooner made without any success several attempts at communicating
with Yodogima, this first missive of an avowed friend--whom he believed
to be turned somewhat practical and not at all sentimental--quite
overcame Ieyasu, wholly upsetting the meager plans that he had evolved
for the at least temporary subversion of a prospective antagonist and
the immediate recovery of his truly dearer than ever sweetheart.
Conscious of the pitfalls with which she must be surrounded, yet he
could not believe her untrue: realizing the dangerous ground upon which
he must tread, still he would not for that refrain from attempting a
personal visit; Yodogima had advised him: she, if recovered at all, must
be released by some subtler art than war--Hideyoshi held it in his power
to crush him, and was he any less a diplomat?
Hitherto Ieyasu had held peace to be well gained at any price, but now
that love possessed him, burned and coaled deep into the heart-chords,
he had given up the future, sold his soul for the loan of a force with
which to fight reasonably a single combat. Recalling the occasion, he
would have thrust Hideyoshi through at the cost of a bushido:
remembering Katsutoya's warning, the barest conception of a laggard wit
startled him into the first really energizing confession that he had
ever made:
"I am unworthy of her."
Everywhere around, men with less opportunity were rising as if metalled
to accomplish anything. He, too, must do something to prove himself
worth the confidence of a true love--why not trust Esyo? Designing to
poison him against Yodogima, she had paved the way only to a more
questionable undertaking--that of betrayal. Ieyasu answered the message
kindly, inclosing therewith another to Yodogima (also intercepted),
informing her of his intentions and asking that she make ready.
Upon the arrival of the letter, Yodogima said:
"I am going to confide in you, Esyo; you are a sister--next to me--and
have never proven false: I just must have the confidence of someone; it
is killing me, this terrible suspense. Will you listen, dear?"
Esyo nestled close to Yodogima's side, and looking submissively into her
face, begged:
"Let us trust each other, Yodogima; otherwise how can we bear the awful
burden of this horrid place?"
"Ieyasu is coming; he has arranged it, and I am going away from here,
to be his wife, never to part again."
"How nice that will be--but the castle! Had you forgotten that?"
"Yes; it shall then be yours; and you, a more gracious queen."
The bare thought of gaining such preferment only at the will of a much
sought after sister, and that, too, for the sake of serving rather her
convenience, stung Esyo as no words could have done. She would fight
out, now, the course sooner determined upon; hence Hideyoshi, on the
very next day, found it agreeable to dispatch, without any compunction
upon his part, an invitation to Ieyasu forthwith to come to Azuchi,
there to pay respects and claim his intended bride.
Other advice went along, however, as Jokoin well knew, which was neither
intercepted nor answered, advising him to do no such thing, but to
prepare himself at once for defense.