Kano knocked the ashes out of his pipe, put it up, and looked for further particulars. Ito continued:—
“It was blowing a severe storm in Yedo that day. There was rain and sleet, and sometimes it snowed very heavily. The streets within the moats of the castle are almost always deserted, but this time they were wholly so on account of the weather. It appears that there was some meeting at the castle. At all events the Daimiyo of Kii and Owari with their respective retinues were marching across the bridge into the inner walls, when the retinue of the Lord Regent also approached. The last of the Kii samurai had just left the bridge when the head of Ii’s retinue reached it. Several men in rain coats had been loitering; they flung off their coats and as samurai in full armor, attacked the regent’s escort. These men were taken unawares, and before they could drop their rain coats a number of them had been killed and Ii was dragged out of his nosimono, and decapitated. Several of the assailants lost their lives, but the leader escaped with the head. It is said that they were Mito rônin.”
Kano was silent for some time. At last he said: “This is a death blow for the Tokugawa, for Ii Naosuke was the only man, so far as I know, who could have propped up that falling house. For that reason I am glad. But I am sorry too, for Ii was a patriot. I disagreed with him, but he may have been right when he said, in defense of the treaty which he had made: ‘Let us have intercourse with foreign countries, learn their drill and tactics, and let us make the nation united as one family.’ I do not think that he could have succeeded, but—”
There was a stifled cry and a blow. A moment later a sho ji opened, and Ekichi came in holding in one hand the bleeding head of the spy, and in the other his drawn sword. The boy said simply: “I have silenced him.”
Kano and Ito both looked at the boy. He stood there, waiting patiently until his father should address him. Ito, however, took some paper from his sleeve, and placed it upon the woodwork of the grooves, motioning Ekichi to put the head on it. The boy did so, and Kano told him to come near and tell him what had happened.
“I have watched him several times, as you told me to, when he was trying to listen, and once when he was looking over some of your papers. Every time he made some excuse, but I did not answer him. A few moments ago, I passed into that room, and saw his form crouching before the sho ji. You had ordered me to silence him, and I did so.”
Kano said a few words in praise, and bade him go to sleep. Ekichi bowed and withdrew.
Kano went out of the room and in a few moments returned with Fujii. The old man looked grimly at the head as he took it up. The body was removed, and the bloodspots cleaned. It was merely an incident in the life of old Japan.