“To know your intentions towards the foreigners.”
“Are you aware,” returned the Shogun, “that a single sign from me would bring down a thousand guards upon your head?”
Mori smiled coldly, grimly.
“Ah, but your highness will not make that sign,” he said.
“Why will I not?”
“Because your highness loves life.”
“You would murder me?”
“I would cut off your head and show it to the people as the head of a traitor and an enemy to the Son of Heaven.”
The Shogun appeared rather amused than alarmed. He regarded Mori with a peculiar and penetrating glance. Then he sighed.
“I was young and venturesome once,” he said. “I, too, at one time, secretly believed as you do. Now—” He shrugged his shoulders.