With the passing of Hideyoshi, Yodogima faced a maze possibly less
promising than had the taiko lived longer--to suffer violence or
subversion at the hands of those eager and prepared to take advantage of
his decline. The captains, his real adherents, stood as it were,
confused and unready; whereas had any one of the enemy's schemes to do
the master false sooner proven successful there should no doubt have
been in consequence a mere pronounced or sudden welding and rousing of
them to the cause he left. Yet, in the face of uncertainty, they
gathered to a man in support of the infant kwambaku: also many of the
larger daimyos proffered their friendship--if not to Hideyori, then to
his mother--and Ozaka rang again resonant with the glamor of authority.
Oyea had been ignored, perhaps understood; Hideyoshi, at the last moment
taking from her every visage of authority--discerning Yodogima's true
disposition--her own conduct in the presence of all and under stress of
a last appeal alienated others upon whom she might have reasonably
depended.
"I'll yet see her burned at the stake," muttered Oyea, departing
unheeded and alone toward the beggarly inheritance left her--Azuchi, and
that as well with no other immediate chance or real adviser save Esyo,
the wife of an infant, a son of Ieyasu, Hidetada, verily Buddhist born.
A mixed situation, therefore, presented itself for her delectation.
Yodogima had won favors on every hand, and there were no more Christians
than Buddhists at Ozaka, with Shintoists a plenty and to spare over
both. The government had been, as a last resort, intrusted to the care
of five designated Regents during the minority of Hideyori: the taiko
believed Yodogima competent to see that justice were done, and no one
there assumed his responsibility more readily or inauspiciously than
she.
"I'll make my son ruler in fact, not alone suffer him to succeed in
name: what greater end can a mother achieve than succor the laurels of a
child she bears?" meditated she, as the luxuries--even shorn of the
comforts--of a respected, though unloved, husband's bounty showered down
upon and around her.
Kuroda accepting command, not a captain among them--excepting
Takiyama--wavered in his loyalty or bore the slightest mistrust. The
chests were filled to bursting; no such bounty as that left in Ozaka had
theretofore accumulated, and new recruits proffered enlistment from
every source save one--Yedo apparently foresaw another need for its
soldiery.
The regents had sworn to respect the will of their deceased taiko, who
had enjoined them severally and collectively from engaging in political
marriages of whatsoever kind or character during the regency: as Ieyasu
and Ishida both stood highest in council, Yodogima very naturally had
good occasion to rest easy thereabout on her own account, and certainly
nowise other respecting Hideyori, her son and their kwambaku.
"There is nothing to this _San Filipe_ affair; it was but the babbling
of an underling, who, finding himself in a tight place, sought by
braggadocio to escape further custody or avoid some fancied harm; please
do not refer to it again," begged Yodogima, of Ishida, who had called
professedly to advise her of certain rumors, which she had sooner heard,
emanating no one seemed to know just how or where, yet surmised high in
authority.
"But Ieyasu is bent upon expelling the Christians, and of course needs
some excuse. No doubt your ladyship is right in her estimation, still
there are other reasons why the good and faithful should listen to any
proposal aiming at perhaps total extinction, and Ieyasu is clever."
"Are you not his equal? And, I am sure, there can be no good reason for
drastic measures except it be political. Are a few priests, a dozen or
so daimyos, and a handful of followers to be treated a menace? Nonsense!
None knew better than Hideyoshi the province and probabilities of
religion, and I mean to be as tolerant, if not so capable. Must you let
every project that comes along, invented or otherwise, swerve you in
your bounden duty? Christianity has quite as much right or reason to
thrive and comfort whoso or whereat as any other religion: when creed
has proven itself fruitless, it shall die of its own accord: as soon as
inimical to further progress, then chop it down; man is neither rank nor
incapable."
The sun shone hot out of a clear sky, and the shade fell invitingly from
an aged wistaria that hung in profusion overhead. Threatening clouds
gathered and banked huge and dark in the west, yet the voice of storm
had not sounded there, in Ozaka, where they two sat, overlooking the
glassy bay to the southward, nor had it quite closed with Amaterasu in
her downward whirl toward the passing of day. They pondered, and a sail
came into view far distant.
There appeared nothing as yet to distinguished it from one of their own,
and the imagination played on. Who has not been stirred by the mysteries
of an undiscernable ship at sea?
Once upon a time the good _San Filipe_ had likewise stolen in upon them;
a storm drove her against shoals; as was custom and law they seized her
and confiscated the cargo; the pilot captured and questioned,
confidently, but proudly, spread before them a chart showing the vast
domain of Spain, his native country, and the ship's defender.
"How came your king by all these possessions?" Hideyoshi had asked him.
"Oh, that is simple enough," replied the unsophisticated sailor. "We
first send out our religieux to convert the people, then seize upon
their lands with an army supported by the newly made Christians. It's
easily done."
"What? My states filled with traitors, and the government about to
devolve upon a child? Impossible!" cried the taiko, amid his adherents,
and the echo had not died or ceased of its meaning.
This unguarded statement of the over-anxious, yet innocent Spaniard, of
the merchant class--and not so particular about the fate of priests or
religion--that, it were, had, more than anything else, among other
things, convinced Ieyasu of Hideyoshi's having acted very unwisely,
through weakness or decline, with yielding to the importunities or
blandishments of a woman, Yodogima or Jokoin, presumably the former, in
permitting the priests to return to Nagasaki; that it now became him as
a leader, first of all to remove them bag and baggage from the land.
They had seized upon their reinstatement with an avidity that augured
renewed activity and their operations seemed directed chiefly toward
Ozaka, alternating between the highest and the lowest in or out of
authority.
A prodigious evil this appeared to be--the gathering and fraternizing of
the high and the lowly, the good and the ill, the interested and the
disinterested, under the auspices of a single flag, unfurled and waved
solely and authoritatively by none other than Ishida, whom he knew and
could not misunderstand.
"You accuse Yodogima wrongly," said he, to Oyea, as they too sat upon a
veranda, overlooking not the sea, but that selfsame lake, Biwa, with its
more subtle, if less inspiring outlook. "She is surrounded with evil
influences, and must be relieved. Her motives are
pure--over-intended--but the chicanery of Ishida is more than a woman
should be left to cope."
"Then it is Yodogima that concerns our lord: the Christians are but an
excuse?" queried Oyea, with suppressed emotion.
Ieyasu answered discreetly with a question; still resist as best he
could, the rising color in his face disclosed to Oyea unmistakably the
one truth which had under-disturbed her every thought and action since
the day she had consoled with Yodogima in the hope that Ieyasu should
not lose to Hideyoshi:
"Why do you ask, Oyea?"
"Is it not enough that I have insured you Hideki, my nephew's support,
intrigued with Ishida to further your cause, surrendered favors, which I
might have had, in the interests of one whom I--"
"Hold, Oyea. You have already gone too far. I am loved, and I love--"
"But Oyea is patient: I am not too old--will serve you--look, Ieyasu;
my face comely--form preserved--"
Ieyasu turned away, toward the mountains: looked into space, limitless
and conjectural. Words had been worse than a crime, then. Oyea read the
answer, searched his innermost depths; she had failed the taiko; should
Ieyasu take her on trust? True her hair was streaked, but underneath
that, down deep in her heart, there held and beat a warmth as fervid, an
ardor as prone, and the purpose as strong as of the days when Hideyoshi
had abused a confidence no less compellingly bestowed.
Thunder rumblings in the distance, lightning flashes bolting the
heavens, ominous clouds overcasting the earth--these drove home the
dragon's fearful promise: Oyea only drew closer round her the simple
kimono she so gratefully wore.
Arising, Ishida approached, and respreading his rug sat nearer. Yodogima
gazed the more intently at the tiny speck upon the angering waters in
front.
"How like a human," mused she, as the struggling bark raised and
lowered, bantered or plowed its way toward the beacon that fond
anticipation shall never cease of hailing.
"It lacks originality," ventured he, in some vainly attempted response.
"As I do, you may think," retorted the princess, bowing with just a
blush, which no man could resist.
"You grant me undeserved merit, your ladyship."
"Why not 'Yodogima', though not guilty of as much as a thought?"
"May I dare?"
"I should be mean to deny a worthy man," responded she, with a look more
convincing than words could have been.
"I'll prove it, my lady. In the meantime--oh, Ishida; what an ass to
bandy opportunity!" muttered he, bounding off, as convinced as pleased.
With a long drawn sigh, perhaps of satisfaction, Yodogima continued
gazing into the distance. The approaching vessel had ceased to be a
center of attraction, though still tossing and laboring with the
elements. Subtler affairs now engrossed all the princess's attention,
and clapping carelessly for a servant Junkei approached unreservedly:
"Call Maeda," commanded she, dreamily.
Junkei bowing low departed on the run; long service with Hideyoshi had
wrought of him a veritable machine, self-wound, but motionless till
sprung. Not far to go, Maeda soon appeared and the princess greeted him
with reverence; for he it was who had accommodated her father with a
horse and service on his last flight from the enemy. Yodogima loved the
old veteran, who by dint of prudence and much quivering had preserved
his life and retained a domain through all those troublesome years of
Hideyoshi's enforced subduction.
None save Ieyasu--of those near the capital, and only two others,
widely separated, at the two extremes of the empire--could boast or
master a larger income or force: not a daimyo of them all bore the
respect generally that this giant of a bygone day enjoyed among them.
Hence Hideyoshi, himself, before death, had singled him out as the best
fitted or suited to exercise public guardianship over the infant
Kwambaku, Hideyori, during his minority, a thankless undertaking at
best, refused by Ieyasu--perhaps at the request of Yodogima, for she
trusted in Maeda's honesty: believed herself competent and rightly
entitled, if not best intended, to direct.
Maeda, therefore, was legal guardian, and no two held forth in stricter
confidence than he and Yodogima.
"Sit down, Maeda," commanded she--he, too, bore toward her the respect
due a superior.
"I beg to be at your service, my lady," responded he, seating himself
near at hand.
"You are a friend to Ieyasu, Maeda?"
"Yes, my lady," unconcernedly.
"You are a friend to Ishida?"
"Yes, my lady," with growing interest.
"Then I would warn you: beware of Ishida."
The old man trembled perceptibly; to question the integrity of a friend
was more than he could do, and to listen to a proposal like that had
fairly unnerved him--yet he knew this daughter of an older champion, had
studied her every mood from childhood up: no uncertain thing could
prompt her to make such a declaration.
"I thank you, Yodogima--pardon the allusion; I was thinking of your
father," replied he, presently the moments passed.
"Thank you, my lord," responded she, no less spontaneously.
A greater respect could not have been paid him, or an honor more highly
appreciated; the old diplomat thenceforth knew no higher duty, cherished
not a thought other than to uphold the child whose mother he believed
divinely cast, no matter what his opinion or other men's contentions
might be--about a father.
Maeda had pledged himself irredeemably, and Yodogima believed the
fortress impregnable against the arms alike their cunning of any man or
combination that might dare or choose to go against it. Night came on,
and they parted; the ship she had fancied vanished, with the light that
lowered real.