She was speaking slowly and distinctly, so that each sentence should take effect upon her father.
“Having broken the heart and spirit of my enemy,” said Shimadzu, “I shall have accomplished all. It will be sufficient, and my work, my duty, will then be consummated.”
“But think you, my father, that by the killing of this prince you will indeed have broken the heart and spirit of your enemy?”
“Ay! For I shall have robbed him of that thing which he prizes above all else on earth—his son!”
“But has he not seven other sons who would quickly fill the place of this one?”
“That is so. Were it possible for me to have seven instead of one Mori prince for execution this day, I would be seven times the happier.”
“August father, you have taught me, and I have learned, that death is not the greatest of sorrows that can befall us. Execute this prince and he will quickly pass into another world, where the fates may befriend him. He will be beyond our reach. In the eyes of his parent he will have died an heroic and exalted death, since he gives up his life for what he deems a noble cause. Oh, my father, in all the empire of Japan, what Imperialist would not envy him such a death? No, the death of this prince would be inadequate revenge for the wrongs we have suffered. Far better if he could be forced to live so that he might suffer the devils of pain to gnaw at his heart all the rest of his life.”
“Thou wouldst have him spared for purposes of torture?”
“Yes, honored father.”
“Thou art indeed a woman,” said the samurai. “Yet a samurai’s sword has never been turned to such a purpose.”