“Wait, brother! Not yet!” entreated Yoritomo, above the thunderous tocsin of the alarm bells.
The captain knelt to receive the warrant. I glanced about to assure myself that the guard was not approaching to seize us. Once in their grip, only Yuki would stand between me and a hideous death. The risk of his failure was too great. I could now be certain of myself and of Midzuano as well.
A hatamoto was approaching us from the rear. I half drew my revolver. A second glance showed me that the man was not one of the guard, but Gengo, the new court chamberlain. He walked arrogantly up the chamber to the place of highest honor, before the tokonoma, raised a scroll to his forehead, and kowtowed with his back to all in the room. Beams and floors were shaking and screens rattling in their slots with the boom of temple bells and the wild clang of firebells in every quarter of Yedo. The alarm was sweeping over the city like a tidal wave. Yet not a man about us stirred. Every eye was fixed upon the messenger of the Shogun.
Gengo rose, faced about, and displayed the great vermilion seal of his master upon the scroll. All in the room, from the humblest samurai among the attendants to the daimios of Satsuma and Echizen, kowtowed before the emblem. Gengo swelled with pride.
“Give heed to the command of His Highness the Tycoon!” he shouted above the booming of the bells, and he cried out the contents of the scroll: “All proceedings against Yoritomo, son of Owari dono, and Woroto Sama the tojin, are annulled. The prisoners are freed within the outermost boundaries of Yedo, upon the recognizance of Owari dono. Strict obedience is required. Minamoto Iyeyoshi.”
CHAPTER XIX—The Garden of Azai
The draught was a bitter one for Midzuano Echizen-no kami. He thrust the death warrant into his bosom, bowed punctiliously to Gengo and Satsuma, and rose to depart, with the excuse that he must call a meeting of the Council of Elders to consider the threatened invasion of the barbarians. Gengo the chamberlain withdrew immediately afterwards, too puffed with importance to acknowledge the nod of Satsuma.
With the disappearance of the Shogun’s messenger, the alarm and confusion outside the audience chamber seized upon the hatamotos about us. Giving way to the terror which drove in upon them with the din of the bells and wild cries from all parts of the yashiki, the guardsmen flung open the screens and rushed out in a panic of fear.