The temple bell was booming the hour of parting day as Jurobei
disconsolately hurried home. All his attempts had failed to procure
the money wherewith to pay Izæmon's debt to Butaroku, and knowing that
Butaroku was the kind of man to take a merciless revenge, he was in a
mood of profound depression.
Suddenly in the road he came upon a group of beggars surrounding a
little girl dressed as a pilgrim. The wretches, thinking her an easy
prey to their cupidity, were tormenting the poor little wayfarer and
trying to wrest from her the contents of her wallet, but she was
bravely defending herself and resisting their attacks with great spirit.
Seeing how matters stood, Jurobei promptly drove the beggars away
with his stick, and then, to avoid the return of her assailants, he
compassionately took the child by the hand and led her home with him.
But alas! by a fatal mischance they had taken a different road to that
chosen by O Yumi.
As soon as they reached the porch he called out:
"I have come back, O Yumi!"
Contrary to his expectation there was no response, and entering hastily
he found the cottage empty and in darkness.
"How is it that the place is deserted? Where can O Yumi have gone to at
this hour?" he grumbled as he groped his way across the room and set
light to the standing lantern.
Then by its fitful glow he sank down upon the mats in gloomy
abstraction and the lassitude of disappointment, and pondered seriously
on the desperate straits to which he and his wife were reduced: the
situation seemed hopeless, for well he knew that no clemency could be
expected from the enemy and unless some money was forthcoming that very
night he was a lost man. All at once a thought struck him. He beckoned
the little pilgrim to draw near.
"Come here, my child! Those rascally beggars from whom I rescued you
were trying to steal your wallet. Tell me, have you much money with
you?"
"Yes, I have what several kind people have given me," was her reply.
"Let me see how much you have?" demanded Jurobei peremptorily.
O Tsuru, for indeed it was she, took out a little bag, and reluctantly
offered a few coins for her inquisitor's inspection.
"Is this all you have, child?" he persisted impatiently.
"No, no, I have several _koban_[5] besides," answered the girl, her
childish mind exaggerating the amount.
"Oh, indeed, so you have many _koban_?" Jurobei mused for a few
minutes. Here was an unexpected opportunity to satisfy the avarice of
Butaroku. "Let me take care of the _koban_ for you. It is not safe for
you to keep them," said Jurobei, stretching out his hand towards her.
"No, no!" replied O Tsuru, shaking her head with decision. "When my
grandmother was dying she made me promise faithfully never to show the
money to any one, as it is tied together with a very precious thing. I
must not give or show the bag to any one."
Jurobei, who saw deliverance from his debt of honour in the money he
supposed the child to carry, tried to frighten her into giving it up
to him, but she was firm in her refusal, and rose to her feet with the
intention of escaping from her persecutor.
"Oh, I will stay here no longer. You frighten me!" she exclaimed,
moving towards the porch.
Jurobei, in fear lest his last hope should fail, seized her by the
collar of her dress.
"Oh, oh, help, help!" loudly screamed the girl in terror.
"What a noise, what a noise!" exclaimed Jurobei in exasperation, and
alarmed lest the neighbours should overhear the child's cries, he
roughly attempted to stifle her screams with his hand across her mouth.
For a few minutes, as a snared bird flutters in the net of its captor,
the hapless O Tsuru put forth all her strength and endeavoured
desperately to disengage herself; her struggles then subsided and she
grew still.
Jurobei began to reason with her without removing his hold:
"There is nothing whatever to fear! The truth is I am in pressing need
of some money. I do not know how much you have, but lend it to me for a
few days. During that time stay here quietly. I will take you to visit
the Temple of Kwannon Sama, and we will go every day to see the sights
of the city near by and amuse ourselves. Never fear, only lend me all
you have like a good child."
As he freed her she fell to the ground.
"What is the matter?" said Jurobei, anxiously bending over her little
form.
There was no answer. She lay quite still with no sign of life or motion.
"Oh, oh!" exclaimed Jurobei. Thinking that she had fainted, he fetched
water and sprinkled her pale face and tried to force a few drops
between her closed lips, but there was not even a flicker of response.
The child lay dead before him. Worn out with the hardships and fatigues
of the long, long pilgrimage, as a frail light flickers out before
a rough gust of wind, her waning strength had failed in that last
struggle. The griefs of earth were left behind and the brave little
soul had set out on its longer journey to the _Meido_ (Hades).
Jurobei was thoroughly alarmed. In that tragic moment he knew not what
to do. However, hearing his wife's returning footsteps, he hastily
moved the body to one side of the room and covered it with a quilt.
O Yumi entered the room in great perturbation.
"Oh, oh! Help me to look for her, help me! While you were out this
afternoon, wonderful to tell! who should come here in search for us but
our own child, O Tsuru. How I longed to reveal myself to her, the poor,
poor little one! But the knowledge that she must share our miserable
fate when we are arrested, which may be at any moment now, forced me
to send her away without telling her that I was her mother. After she
had gone I could not bear the thought of never seeing her again. I ran
after her, but she had disappeared! She cannot have gone far. I came
back to fetch you. Let us look for her together."
Jurobei was dumbfounded at this totally unexpected intelligence. He
stood up as though ready to start out into the night.
"How was she clothed? What kind of dress did she wear?" he asked
hurriedly.
"She wore a long-sleeved robe brightly patterned with designs of spring
blossoms, and on her shoulders she carried a pilgrim's pack."
"She carried a pilgrim's pack!" echoed Jurobei forlornly, and seized
with an icy trembling. The frightful truth had flashed upon his brain.
He knew that he had killed his own child!
O Yumi, wondering at his hesitation, prepared to start out again.
"You need not go to look for our child!" Jurobei hoarsely muttered.
"She is already here!"
"Has she come back?" cried O Yumi in excitement. "Tell me where she is."
"She is lying there under that quilt," he replied, pointing to where
the body lay.
O Yumi quickly crossed the room and drew back the coverlet. "My child!
Oh, my child! At last, at last I may call you so!" cried the delighted
mother sinking on her knees in a transport of joy.
Long and tenderly she gazed at the little figure, lying prone before
her. But how strange that her clothes were still unloosened and the
heavy pack had not been unstrapped from the tired shoulders. O Yumi
touched her hands and found them cold. Panic-stricken, she listened at
the child's breast only to find her fears confirmed and that the little
form was still and lifeless.
"Oh, oh, oh!" wailed O Yumi, "She is dead! She is dead!"
The shock was too deep for tears. For a moment the unhappy woman was
paralysed.
Then turning to her husband:
"You must know how she died. Tell me! Tell me!" she gasped distractedly.
The half-dazed Jurobei related as well as he could all the events of
that fatal afternoon. He finished his recital:
"I put my hand over her mouth to stop her screaming, and on releasing
her she fell to the ground. I had no intention of killing her and
pitied the poor unfortunate girl, though I had no idea that she was
my little Tsuru. That I should have slain our own child must be the
result of sin committed in one of the former states of existence, alas!
Forgive me, O Yumi! Forgive me!" and the stricken man broke down and
wept.
"Was it you, her father, who killed her?" cried O Yumi, in horror.
"Oh, my child, my own child!" she sobbed. "It was your fate to come
in search of such cruel, unnatural parents. When you told me of the
hardships you had suffered in looking for them, my soul was pierced
with woe. When I refrained from making myself known to you I felt as
though my heart must break. It was only the depth of my love for you
that made me drive you away from our door. If only I had kept you here
this would never have happened. This calamity has come upon us as a
result of my driving you away. Forgive me, oh, forgive me! O Tsuru,
O Tsuru!" and the miserable mother gathered the lifeless form of her
little daughter to her breast and rocked herself to and fro in the
frenzy of grief unutterable.
"Words are useless. What is done can never be undone. If only I had
not known that she possessed the money to help me out of this crisis
it would never have happened. Money is a curse!" he said in broken
accents, as he took out from the folds of the child's dress the bag
containing the coins. Opening it only three _ryo_[6] were disclosed.
"What a miserable pittance! Can this be all? I made a mistake in
thinking she had a great deal. This certainly must be retribution for
some bad action in my previous existence!"
His hand still searching the bag came upon a letter. He drew it forth
and read the address:
"_To Jurobei and his Wife!_"
"Ah! this is my mother's handwriting!"
Jurobei tore it open and began to read:
"Ever since the day you left home we must have felt mutual
anxiety concerning each other's health and welfare. This is
the natural feeling between parent and child, so I shall
not write more upon this subject, but inform you of the
real reason for this letter without further detail.
"First of all what I wish to tell you is, that it has come
to my knowledge that Onota Gunbei has the lost Kunitsugu
sword in his possession. Immediately I tried to obtain
indisputable evidence of this fact, but as I am only a
stupid woman, on second thoughts I feared that were I to
take any steps in this direction it might result in more
harm than good.
"Intending, therefore, to seek you out and let you proceed
in this matter, I began to prepare myself and O Tsuru for
the journey. But at the last moment I was suddenly taken
with a mortal illness and was compelled to relinquish
all hope of setting out to find you. I write this letter
instead. As soon as it reaches your hands return home at
once.
"Restore the sword to its rightful owner and earn your
promotion--for this I shall wait beneath the flowers and
the grass."
"Oh," exclaimed Jurobei, "then it was Gunbei who stole the sword. How
grateful I am to my mother for this discovery. But what a cruel blow to
think that she is dead!"
O Yumi took the letter from his hand and continued to read aloud:
"My greatest anxiety now is concerning little O Tsuru left
helpless and friendless, and about to start alone on this
journey. If by the mercy and help of the Gods she reaches
you safely, bring her up tenderly and carefully. She is a
clever child. She writes and plays the _koto_ well, besides
being clever at her needle, and can skilfully sew _crêpe_
and silken robes. I myself have taken pains to instruct
her, and am proud of my pupil. Give her an opportunity of
showing her handiwork, and then praise her both of you.
"She brings with her the medicine which I have found by
experience to suit her best. Should she ail at any time,
fail not to administer it. Although repetition is irksome,
yet again I beg you to take every care of my precious
grandchild."
Here O Yumi, unable to read further, broke down in lamentations and
cried aloud.
* * * * *
Now the spiteful Butaroku, finding that Jurobei did not come to pay
Izæmon's debt according to agreement, was highly incensed. Knowing that
the authorities were on the alert to seize Jurobei, he maliciously went
and lodged information of his whereabouts.
Just at the moment they had finished reading the momentous letter the
officers of the law arrived outside the house with a great noise,
shouting and clamouring.
Jurobei and O Yumi, to gain a few minutes' time, snatched up the body
of O Tsuru and quickly concealed themselves in a back room.
The police entered and a scene of wild confusion ensued. Confident of
finding their prey hidden somewhere in the cupboards, they broke down
the walls, the _shoji_, the boards of the ceiling, and even the little
shrine dedicated to the Goddess Kwannon.
Jurobei had in those few moments braced himself up for a desperate
fight. He would rather die than surrender to the law before his mission
of finding the sword had been accomplished. Like a whirlwind he rushed
into the room where his adversaries were battering down all before
them, and like a demon of fury he attacked them, mortally slashing with
his sword each man that attempted to lay hands on him.
The savage bravery of his onslaught was terrific, and so dexterous and
unerring was his aim that he seemed possessed of superhuman strength:
his opponents were terror-stricken, and in a few minutes, like a
spider's nest, when the threads of the binding web are broken by rough
contact, they fled for their very lives and rushed scattered in all
directions.
"Now is our time! Let us escape!" cried O Yumi.
Both began to run from the wrecked house.
"You have forgotten our child!" Jurobei whispered brokenly.
"She needs our anxiety no more. She is safe beyond the suffering of
this world. We will bury her here before we leave."
Hurriedly retracing their steps they re-entered the house, and seizing
the debris that lay strewn in all directions, placed it in a heap
upon the little corpse. It was the work of a few moments to light the
torches: this was the sole alternative that was left them to prevent
their beloved dead from falling into the desecrating hands of callous
strangers.
It was impossible to carry the body with them in their flight.
As the flames crackled and blazed up, Jurobei and O Yumi stood side by
side, praying for the departed soul with uplifted hands placed palm to
palm, while they watched the burning of their child's funeral pyre.