The child! shrieked she, as it dawned that Hideyori was nowhere to be found.
The moments seemed ages now, and a thousand occasions suggested the most likely place to search—yet back of it all there stood the look of Ishida. He had proffered Hideyoshi the cup, condemned Hidetsugu, and baffled Ieyasu: had he likewise the need of kidnapping her child? Were he in truth master of Hideyoshi? Could she not play him and Ieyasu yet, one against the other, to some advantage?
Have faith, Yodogima; we still have Taketomo, my own dear little imp, and our intended ruse may yet avail—in the opposite direction. Would you believe it, Harunaga says Take looks enough like Hide to be his brother; and Im sure you can have him, and welcome, for I should just love to find another like him.
Yodogima snatched the child up, and vowed that the rearing of children and the conserving of fortune were two occupations utterly incompatible and hopelessly attempted—Hideyoshi had, without further consultation or compunction, sent Hidetsugu, his three children, their mothers and some thirty other ladies of his court to the execution grounds at Kyoto.
These are marvels, not virtues: therein lies my strength, surmised the expectant princess, long before The Mound of Beasts had echoed its final warning over against the headsmens block in Sanjomachi.
CHAPTER XXI
A consummation covertly auguring the final purpose of Ishida; who had so ingratiated himself into the grace of their master that an intrigue against him had been in fact resolved into a better consequence. With Hidetsugu out of the way, only Hideyori stood between him and final authority—so thought Ishida: another occasion might prove more certainly Hideyoshis fate.
The doors at Fushima stood ajar, and Hideyoshi entered: there seemed no friend now other than Ishida; who, also, deemed it convenient or necessary to dwell elsewhere, mostly; and only sycophants and confusion surrounded the taiko.