Within a few moments his norimon was carrying him out of Yedo.
Two ronins joined Hasuda near the headquarters half an hour later.
“Your news?” he demanded.
“The Prince of Mori is on the highway to Kioto.”
“Good! Then let the bands separate.”
The several hundred ronins, divided into parties of some six or seven, set out in various directions. Two hours later they were in the shadow of the Sakurada gate of the Shogun’s palace.
A spy from the interior made his report to Hasuda. It was accompanied by many gestures directed towards the wide path which led through the garden to the palace within.
A stately procession was passing down the garden path and had taken the road. It was the cortège of the Baron Ii Kamon-no-Kami, the hated Regent of Japan. Only his ordinary train of attendants and samurai accompanied him. Absorbed in their own personal reflections, they were apparently without suspicion of a planned assault.
Hasuda, in the shadow of the gate and the farther shadow of the cedars which bent their branches over the walls, raised his sword.
“Now,” he whispered, in a soft, penetrating voice, insistent as the hiss of a serpent. From the shadows of the walls against which they had stood ronins leaped upon the samurai and attendants about the norimon of Ii. These gave way instantly, some were killed outright, others wounded, while still others were left engaged in deadly strife with ronin adversaries.