“Why should there be danger for me in Kioto?” inquired Keiki, quickly. “I am in my Emperor’s capital now.”
“But the massacres you have just instigated in Yedo are being used to your disadvantage. Aidzu has come to Kioto two hours ahead of you, and all is known to his Majesty.”
“Massacres!”
“Are you ignorant of them?”
“You do not mean—” Keiki paused, a suspicion of Hasuda dawning upon him. “Massacres by the ronins?”
“Yes.”
The Prince of Mori groaned.
“Hasuda, the chief ronin,” he said, “has broken his pledged word to me.” He explained briefly to Echizen his compact with Hasuda.
The Prince of Echizen had received a courier who came on horseback but half an hour prior to Mori’s arrival. He came shortly after the arrival of Aidzu, who was closeted with the Emperor. The courier’s only definite news was that the Regent Ii had been assassinated and the foreign legations burned by a band of ronins under Hasuda, acting, it was believed, under Mori’s orders. The ronins had pretended to be the Shogun’s men.
The latter information pleased Mori.