“Let a samurai volunteer as executioner, but let him remember that he, too, must die, that no Shogun follower may punish him.”
A grim, middle-aged ronin pushed forward.
“I was of Satsuma,” he said; “that is all you need know of me.”
“Do thy office,” commanded Hasuda.
The samurai thereupon forced the Regent to his knees, where he cringed trembling and shivering. The sword of the samurai hissed, curved, shone, shot through the air. The head of Ii lay upon the ground.
Hasuda then spoke:
“That no malice may be imputed to us, use thy second sword.”
Without a word the Satsuma samurai drew his second sword from his belt. The hilt he rested upon the ground. In an instant he fell upon its point.
The ronins left the vicinity of the palace, carrying the head of Ii with them. This they nailed to a post in a public place of the city.
In a short time, from the newly established foreign quarter of Yedo, flames leaped forth in destruction of the legations. Many foreigners found Japanese graves that night.