Going down to where the waves washed his feet and frequently covered him with their spray, Nitta looked out over the sea long and earnestly. The white-crested billows came and went, but the last-comer showed no sign of lagging behind those that had preceded it. Sennoske, seeing the anxiety depicted on his chief’s face, ventured to step up to him and give his opinion. He had been brought up in a seaport town, with a harbor which was none of the best, where he had been out at all times, and had learned to know the tides and the signs of the weather. Therefore he felt that he could now take it upon himself to assert that in a few hours, or a day at most, the flood must subside. Nitta, although he appeared absorbed in thought, and scarcely to listen to his lieutenant, eagerly drank in every word the latter said; and, placing confidence in it, performed one of those acts which, trifling as they may appear, are yet emanations of genius. Exerting a purely moral force, such actions are often all-powerful in shaping the destinies of men and nations, by giving decision to the vacillating, courage to the timid, a feeling of strength which is equivalent to real force to the weak, and making heroes of those who possess manly qualities in any degree.
Taking his sword, of matchless workmanship and ornamentation, glittering in the sunlight which reflected itself in the burnished gold, Nitta cast it out into the waters as far as a warrior’s arm could throw it, asking the gods to accept it as a peace-offering, and calling upon them to give their divine aid to the army which now marched to uphold the vested and inherited rights of their descendants, the Emperors of the country. In the name of the Mikado, driven from the throne into a lonely exile, he prayed them to bid the angry waves subside and give free passage to those who came to avenge his despoilers and punish the sacrilege. It was a powerful invocation, and its effect was thorough and instantaneous, creating general and unbounded enthusiasm. If any man there had misgivings, it would have been dangerous for him to express them; and when next morning the waters had subsided, leaving the road free and open, all lingering doubts as well as the hopes of the Hōjō sympathizers vanished as the dew of the night that disappeared in the morning sun.
As they approached Kamakura, they found a large portion of the enemy’s army posted before the walls; so fierce, however, was the onslaught of Nitta’s troops that the ranks of the besieged were at once broken, and they fled for protection into the city. But the assailants were close upon them, and followed in such numbers that the gates could not be shut against them. From ward to ward, from street to street, from house to house, the Hōjō were driven, in spite of their persistent and desperate struggles, and before nightfall the city was taken.
This battle decided the war and the fate of the Hōjō. The honest portion of their adherents consisted merely of those who had been dazzled and won over by the spell of absolute power exercised for a considerable time; and this spell once broken, they fully recognized their folly as well as their guilt, and were ready to sue for and accept pardon on any terms. It was expected that the principal men of the defeated clan, together with such of their partisans and abetters as were too deeply implicated to hope for forgiveness, would form into roving bands and flee to distant inaccessible parts of the empire; but as they were now without physical or moral support, a general engagement was no longer to be feared. In view of this it was decided by Nitta to dismiss at once a part of the army, so that divisions of the retiring troops might be employed in protecting their several provinces from the marauders who should flee thither, and in hunting them down and bringing them to punishment.
NITTA PRAYING TO THE GODS BEFORE THROWING HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA.
One of the provinces to which it was believed that the defeated would be certain to resort in large numbers was Idzu, lying to the west of the Tokaido, beyond the Hakone Mountain-range, on the road to Kuwana. Here the great Yoritomo had in his youth found an asylum from his Taira foes. It required coolness and courage, a steady eye and a firm foot to track foes into these Idzu fastnesses, over these rugged, pathless mountains, where Nature alone offered almost insurmountable obstacles. Nitta gave a proof to the country of his confidence in Sennoske by intrusting to him the military command of that region, as well as of the country along the Tokaido from the Hakone Mountains to the province of Kuwana. The contingent from the latter province, which was to return for the purpose, was to be under his orders, together with such other troops as he might think it advisable to raise in the districts assigned. Nominally, it was necessary to have this appointment acknowledged by the daimios in whose dominions the new commander was to act; but this was merely a matter of form entailing a short delay. No one would have been willing to displease the victorious Nitta, or to incur the suspicion of being a Hōjō sympathizer, by in any way impeding the measures deemed necessary to bring the insurgents to justice.