THE DAIMIO OF NARA IMITATES THE SPHYNX.
What a pity it is that in our odd world the wicked should be so much
more clever than the good,--that the combinations of sinners should so
easily outwit the simply virtuous. But then, were not the good so
naive, they might not possibly submit so quietly to the unhappiness
which is usually their portion. They might scream, and rail, and wax
obstreperous, point out the cases of flagrant injustice too often to
be observed among their ranks, and become unedifying texts and
examples.
Poor Sampei, being less cunning than the geisha, and not perceiving
the advantage of which he might have availed himself, naturally did
not seize it. It never occurred to him that the appearance of Nara on
the scene might have brought about the salvation of his family,--that
he and Sampei united might have ousted the female marplot. Clearly
this lack of discrimination was due to the interference of the gods.
Sampei was quite as surprised as the concubine at singular conduct of
Nara. He took no umbrage at his sullen reception by the lord of Tsu;
seemed not to perceive how little he was welcomed; showed a
disposition to be easily pleased, a slowness to take offence, such as
ill became a daimio. Closeted with his daughter, he refrained from
searching questions, conversed about the pleasures of Ki[^y]oto, and
the probabilities of a visit in the summer, while she, stony and
indifferent, as reticent as her parent, and dreamily gazing into
vacancy, replied in monosyllables. With studied ceremony he took leave
of her as though she were a stranger, bade farewell of his sulky host
with suave courtesy, and, followed by his brilliant retinue, journeyed
slowly up into the mountains. So cautious was he, even under the
glances of his own people, that it was not until, resigning his horse
to a betto, he retired into a litter, and drew the curtains close,
that he permitted his thoughts to appear upon his features. "It is
very nearly time," he murmured, "very nearly time, and then shall my
child--ay, and all Japan--be avenged, and signally." With gleeful
exultation he rubbed his hands together as he revolved a host of
little points which had not escaped the eagle ken of his experience. A
drunken dissolute cohort now, the redoubtable warriors of Tsu.
Arriving unawares by night, he had found no sentries at the gate. His
men had blown the horn, and hammered with lances, and shouted till
their throats were hoarse, ere any one had appeared upon the walls;
and what a scurry then! The castle, left unprotected in the silent
watches, would have fallen without a struggle into the hands of a
skilful foe. And--the cognisance and titles of the father of the
chatelaine having been recognised, and the drawbridge lowered--the
relaxation of discipline everywhere apparent within did not escape his
practised eye. Before the presence of a stranger was made known, he
had heard sounds of wassail and of quarrelling,--had seen the
abandoned concubine of the Hojo toying with the common soldiers.
And he was enchanted. What mattered it that his child looked
wretched?--women must suffer for the common good. Patience--a little
patience--and her burthen would soon be removed.
The Abbess, proud as she was of considering herself in some sort a
Hojo, had naturally turned, in her anxiety, to him who had been
selected by her now departed lord as the prime adviser of the family.
Unwitting of what she did, it was her finger that first pointed out
how the joints in the harness were loosening; and with a savage laugh
Nara gave her thanks for it.
The young General, who had never learned the arts of diplomacy,
blushed crimson as the eyes of the new arrival took in the situation,
and stammered awkward excuses. His brother was ill, had for some time
past been unable to occupy himself with affairs, and was, moreover, so
jealous of interference, that for a while he, the elder, had let
things go. But now that my lord had come, his father's friend, the
twain would remonstrate, and arrange together. And then, from under
the white bettle-brows of the old man there shot a meaning leer which
chilled the words upon the lips of the younger, and brought to his
mind an earlier interview which had seemed ominous of complications.
Was this man a friend, or the worst of enemies, one who wears
disguise? Buffeting in a sea of knavery, wherein fraud and chicane and
stratagem and pitfall boil into a seething broth, what wonder if the
true and single-minded grow bewildered and confused? Sampei was so
little skilled in double-dealing, that, lulled by specious sentences,
mystified, he concluded that he had been wrong, had misunderstood the
purport of lord Nara's talk in the palace. Was he not his father's
ally,--the man specially picked out for the guidance of the Hojo's
sons? The old Daimio, ever quick to read thoughts, pressed the hand of
his young friend with touching affection.
"All will be well by-and-by," he murmured. His dear young General, of
whom he and Japan were so justly proud, must sit quiet, and hope for
the best. He too, then, was preaching patience. Sure, the venerable
Abbess and the hoary statesman must be right--of course they were. The
loyal Sampei blamed himself accordingly, and put his suspicions from
him.
Although no open confidences passed between the pair, Nara was
satisfied, for he could detect a change in the young man. His easy
confidence in the direction of the straight and honest course was
gone, had given place to a pained perplexity which boded well for the
future. The arrow which the astute kuge had planted during the
interview at the palace, was festering. He seemed to perceive that
much. Sampei's sense of right and wrong had been disturbed. He was
uncomfortable, and half-suspecting he knew not what, held his peace
moodily, while his brain groped in darksome byways. Yes, he was
mistaken when he deemed Nara to be a foe. Yet how was it possible he
could be really friendly, perceiving as he must how bad was his
daughter's treatment, how outrageous on every count were the
proceedings of her spouse? Could any one who loved Japan be Hojo's
friend? Alack, even he, Sampei, his only brother, was but too well
aware that he was his country's scourge--that one who should remove
the incubus would earn his country's gratitude.
The old Daimio, guessing what knotty problem it was that so vexed the
young soldier's mind, evolved a stroke of genius. Suave and sweet in
manner, with an engaging air of candour, he communed with himself
aloud, "What a sad thing it is," he mused abstractedly, "that the
history and the literature of our country should so teem with the
enmity of brothers! And yet, in the main, a happy land, more
privileged than the dim fog-bound realms of the west." Again, how
bewildering was this to one who was groping so anxiously for light.
Looking in the wrinkled face, Sampei could see no meaning there--no
special meaning--addressed to himself especially. And then, as the two
strolled about the precincts of the castle, Sampei became more
bewildered yet and more uneasy, for in some unaccountable way it had
come about, without his knowing how, that old Nara concealed no longer
that he was No-Kami's enemy, that he was aware of the ill-treatment of
his child, and grateful for the sympathy of his companion. He even, as
a matter of course, affected to look on him as a willing accomplice;
gave him no chance of disavowal. And then, tacit consent to this being
given, he dropped mysterious hints. Verily the future was growing
strangely dark, the skein of the race more tangled hourly. With
helpless resignation Sampei was fain to allow that the fiat had gone
forth, that the days of the Hojos were numbered. If, as was growing
every moment plainer, the prophecy of the farmer was to be fulfilled
to the minutest detail, what was to be gained by struggling?
Patience was in very truth the only virtue which it became the doomed
to cultivate. Humbled, therefore, and filled with murky presage, the
young man bowed his neck and folded his hands, resolved to float with
the stream, obedient to the whim of destiny.
Thus Nara--kuge and devoted servant of the Holy Mikado--having been
warned by the Abbess of Tsu of the tottering condition of her house,
came and spied out the land, and returned home delighted; while she,
hearing in due course how he had come and gone, smiling and
dangerously courteous, fell a prey to vague misgivings, and betook
herself to prayer and abstinence. Vainly she cross-examined O'Tei,
grown stonier and whiter. Since her father's unsatisfactory visit, the
unhappy lady appeared to wake from a frozen trance to a sense of
feverish existence, only when prostrate on the temple floor praying
for the untying of her bonds. The words of Koshiu were seared as by an
iron on her heart; sleeping or waking, she saw them burning on the
wall.
The scene within the grey circle of weird trees was never absent from
her vision. What had she done to deserve the ban? The full horror of
the anathema ate into her being slowly. In succeeding cycles she was
destined to be accursed. Little by little she realised her doom; for
her there was to be no rest, no peace, no change for the better. Why?
Because, obedient to her father's commands, she had bestowed her hand
upon a tyrant. For blind obedience, punished for all time; for more
than time--for ever!
There was no justice, then, in this life, or in the realms beyond the
grave. She was created for misfortune and misery, specially picked out
for all the worst evils that beset mortality. If accursed in future
cycles, she might never rise,--never win Nirvana,--never hope for
oblivion. The unflecked blackness of the despair that settled down
like a foldless sable curtain upon O'Tei, caused the heart of Masago
to bleed for her. The gentlest, noblest, most patient, as well as the
most innocent of ladies! Truly the ways of the Eternal are
inscrutable. The austere Abbess strove to instil comfort into the
numbed soul--without avail. Her arguments, after all, were shallowest
platitudes, to be tossed aside by O'Tei with easy scorn. What to her
were the puny arts of O'Kiku the second wife? Shielded by the buckler
of such suffering as hers, the tiny pins of the geisha fell harmless.
Pity that 'twas so, for wholesome indignation might have wakened her
from the stupor which, unless broken, must shortly end in dissolution.
Pondering as she paced the silent groves, the Abbess sought for a clue
in vain. If the family was doomed to be smitten root and branch, it
was doomed. But what a store of faith is needed humbly to acquiesce
in the monstrous belief that the innocent must suffer for the
guilty,--that generations yet unborn are to come into the world
for the express purpose of bearing on their backs the guilt of
their ancestors. With terror Masago felt that she was growing
rebellious,--that her faith was trembling,--that she could no longer
gaze with trustful veneration upon Buddha, the expressionless and the
impassible, reposing cross-legged on his lotus. Herself, O'Tei, the
dearly-loved Sampei, were all to suffer for No-Kami. Sure Tomoye must
be writhing on some other sphere for being the mother of such a
cockatrice! And so it naturally came about that Masago, as well as
others, looked forward to the sacrificing of Hojo--the chief to whom
they owed allegiance,--of the head of the family of which she was
proud to be one,--that she even prayed for the death of No-Kami as the
only possible solution of the problem.
O'Kiku was not above profiting by the lesson which had been taught by
Nara's visit. Instead of being permitted to subside into hopeless
imbecility, her lord must be aroused,--must be exhorted to tighten the
cords of his nervous system, in preparation for a sudden strain.
Accordingly, after a period of wonder at Nara's visit and its apparent
abortiveness, she began to suspect that, courteous as his manner was,
and suavely ceremonious his departure, they had not yet heard the last
of the kuge's irruption; and that it behoved her, as the guiding
spirit of the castle, to practise caution. That snake, Sampei, was
wriggling in the grass in inconvenient proximity, darting glances of
adoration at the chatelaine. For the dignity of her dear lord's name
(and her own future comfort), she must accentuate and renew her
exposure of the villain and his paramour, now that the coast was
clear. To this end, in order that vengeance might be tempered with
_sang froid_, their deluded victim must be taught to mingle vigilance
with circumspection, which would require a measure of sobriety. It
would be vexatious to have to resign a modicum of personal liberty,
but the sacking of the castle by a watchful enemy, who knew of its
master's sottishness, would be a worse evil. It behoved her for her
own sake to protect my lord from the enemy within the citadel. Arguing
from her own ways of thought, it was a logical deduction that, in love
with No-Kami's wife, Sampei must desire his death.
The geisha, adapting herself to the circumstances of the moment,
became outwardly more circumspect in her behaviour; watched over her
lord with affectionate care; exhorted and chid him with tender
patience till his paroxysms of fear were past; made herself so
absolutely needful to his existence, that he could not but fondly mark
the contrast betwixt her and his legitimate consort. And she was not
slow in administering the deadly drops when occasion served. What
should the lady O'Tei care? she would babble artlessly, that her lord
was well or ill, since her affections were engrossed by another, who
all along had possessed her heart. The silent twilight of cryptomeria
groves is conducive to holy meditation, but is also vastly convenient
for mundane dallying. But no! he must not excite himself. Why should
my lord exercise his shattered nerves, and pace like a caged bear?
What mattered it what they did, or how frequently they met? For
her part, his faithful O'Kiku thought it very diverting that any
warm-blooded man should elect to fall in love with an icicle.
No-Kami hearkened, and although his reason rejected the geisha's
hints, they set him pondering. Of O'Tei's character he had never seen
any side, after the first few days, but the cold, repellent one, made
more obnoxious sometimes by that lack of proper pride, which to his
nostrils was as an evil savour. His brother was also a riddle; as a
soldier brave to a fault, in other concerns hesitating, even timid,
beset with petty scruples incomprehensible to the broader views of his
feudal master. At the bottom of his heart he was afraid of his first
wife, and disliked his brother, who, instinct whispered, was more
worthy than himself. But to suspect those two of love passages!
O'Kiku, unable to read correctly the characters of either, was led
astray by over anxiety on his behalf. And yet, what if she were right?
That dreadful curse that was ringing ever in his ears. Was this one of
the ways in which he was to be stricken? Was he to be held up by wife
and brother as a laughing-stock in the eyes of his assembled warriors?
He had been weak, unnerved; had groaned and grovelled, forgetting his
name and lineage; had all but been lured to submit to degradation that
night among the enchanted trees. He would battle with the phantoms
now, like a true son of his father and Tomoye--would conquer, by force
of indomitable will, even the goblins that pursued him. Rising up, and
girding his loins, thankful that the samurai had never beheld his
throes of terror, he appeared once more in the hall, overbearing and
stern and firm of step--as fierce and harsh as heretofore, if haggard
and ashen of hue.
Sampei marked the change with approval; for the idea that the head of
the house was to turn coward seemed the most grievous of possibilities
in connection with the martyr's curse. At this juncture an event
occurred which added yet further to his relief. The lord of Tsu was
summoned, by sudden mandate of the Mikado, and was ordered to present
himself in the sacred precincts of Ki[^y]oto without delay,
accompanied by a small following. This order, publicly given, he must
perforce obey, and, removed from the bad influence of the favourite,
there was no knowing what happy turn might follow. Though polygamy was
a recognised institution, it was not etiquette for any other than the
first wife to hold communion with the ladies of the imperial court.
The peremptory nature of the summons surprised and offended the lord
of Tsu. Old Nara, doubtless, had perceived how unstrung he was, had
whispered to the silly babbling kuges and their infatuated head that
the lion was toothless, that the poison-bag of the serpent was
removed. A sense of their mistake, and the speedy discomfiture of the
feeble gang, acted on the system of the despot like a dash of fresh
salt brine. He laughed aloud, as, detaching the clinging arm of the
siren from about his neck, he leapt lightly on Typhoon, his war-horse.
The day was crisp and brightly cold--exhilarating--the sky cloudless,
as he galloped towards the hills. In the frosty reviving air of the
mountains the vengeful shades were exorcised; Koshiu and Kennui and
their baleful family lingered behind in the plains, and stretch forth
in vain their talons. The ghosts faded into thin vapour--nightmare was
shaken off--No-Kami felt ten years younger than yesterday. A fig for
the farmer and his curse! The tyrant of Japan must have been sick
indeed to have shivered under a peasant's puling!
Of a surety a signal change had come over my lord. Peradventure there
was to be an alteration in the mind as well as the body--greater
miracles have come to pass. So mused Sampei--strangely relieved--while
he watched the knot of horsemen as they wound upwards and over the
sky-line. The gods grant it! O'Kiku also mused as she stood watching.
My lord was better--that was a comfort,--would prove to the trembling
courtiers that they had reckoned wrongly. She had a secret for him on
his return which should bind him yet closer to her. Meanwhile she
could enjoy a time of absolute freedom, give vent to her proclivities,
whilst narrowly watching the young General and his love, and weaving
the web of her intrigues.