Then, as if fate intervened, she looked toward the South. The mother instinct had strangely given way, to that other force, mans larger comprehension. Love itself had beamed inconsequently through those rays illuminating and searching had not a lesser respondent turned heavenward with glad countenance long before race or creed echoed the part and powers of an abiding God.
Kyogoku? commanded she. Carry this, a message, to Ieyasu. Then await, at yonder gate, his answer.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Yodogima apparently faltered in the face of positive victory. Was it soul that stirred her to larger comprehension, or had God himself intervened to stay an absolute, a total, the fatal?
Jokoin came in from the field, aglow with expectation, fairly dawning and resolving at the prospect of Hideyoris famed, unquestioned gallantry. His furbelows shone out bewilderingly beautiful under the influence of a risen sun, and her light heart danced the more in consequence of its apparently disassociated illusionment—the food she really relished.
Its a jolly fair day, this, Yodogima, promised she, bounding in, without so much as a permission. Have you seen the artillery? Oh, but its an odd looking thing—a gun on wheels! Im sure if Ieyasu had had one like it he could have made some impression on these walls. I should like to have seen the fun—but, I suppose, its lucky there was only one of them to be had; and luckier still that weve got it. We couldnt have made out at all without the Christians, and theyre a bully lot, too; gold is no temptation to such people.
Perhaps, remarked Yodogima, unconcernedly—
A shell burst near by, in the palace grounds. The impact deafened them.