“But why bother about it? She is nothing to me, and, come to think, it might be best, as urged, to marry Esyo, and make an end of it. I’ll test Hideyoshi, however, before committing myself,” threatened he, hastening toward the end of his journey, there to spy rather than serve, while Esyo schemed, no more discreetly, at the capital.

As it turned out, there proved no need of his waiting, this time, as concerned, however, only the witnessing of results; the test had been, to his surprise, occasioned fairly beforehand: from an unexpected source, as well, hence doubly instructive. Jokoin had before this, as might have been anticipated, connived the assistance of Yodogima in exacting from Hideyoshi permission for the return to Japan, and their settlement at Nagasaki, near Hideyoshi’s present headquarters, of the priests; who had been, sometime before, expelled for acts of intolerance and violence—such as the burning of temples and the killing of bonzes, and others whom they could not convert and dared molest—that had unquestionably settled for once and for all, in the mind of every loyal subject, the temper of these godly men and as well the drift of their converted allies.

This sudden turnover of Hideyoshi’s startled Ieyasu; he could not account for it, not knowing the source, and Yodogima held her counsel as well as Jokoin’s. She had a part of her own to play now, and may have served some deeper purpose than a sister’s sympathetic whim by temporizing for the moment with an ousted sect more at variance from her own views than any other hitherto attempted importation by upstart or trader. At all events they came, and their apparent entireness of reinvestiture at once paralyzed further conjecture.

“So this is the kind of keep the taiko would assign me?” queried Ieyasu, of Asano Nagamasa, a friendly co-supporter. “Most likely, between two such fires, a Christian propaganda and an infidel ruler, Ieyasu, his professed friend, might well be rid. I shall not remain: we must devise some means.”

“Hideyoshi is mad,” replied Nagamasa, in a high voice and nervous manner.

An attendant, within hearing, forthwith reported this last speech to his master, Hideyoshi: a hubbub ensued, and no further occasion became necessary to warrant their remaining at home; Nagamasa was sent to his fief in disgrace, and Ieyasu questioned.

“There is a lesson that we should heed in this accusation by Nagamasa; who loves you as he does his life; the barons have been, as you well know, subjected by force, and with the master gone out of the country they should be ill content to wear the yoke: Ieyasu is not the man to do Hideyoshi’s work,” argued Ieyasu, to Hideyoshi, discreetly: with a purpose and an estimation not wholly made known.

“What you say is true, but I shall go; I have better counsel,” retorted Hideyoshi, not the least bit perturbed at heart or altered in purpose by his antagonist’s insinuations.

“Yes; at Ozaka. As you have, also, the prospect of an heir,” ventured Ieyasu, conserving well an only opportunity.

“What?”