“It was permissible when I came with the Prince of Owari.”
“The tojin sama is not Owari dono.”
“The Shogun has summoned me. My attendants accompany me to the waiting room. Lead on.”
Again my stern composure overcame his servile nature. He led us through the garden to one of the side entrances of the palace. In the first room three other officials appeared and called upon my attendants to halt. Fujimaro and Yuki stopped and kowtowed. I gave over my sword and dirk to Yuki, and proceeded with Gengo and one of the other officials.
Hastening along a broad corridor, we soon came to a room full of armed guards, who crouched in a peculiar posture, with hands on their swordhilts, as though about to leap up. The room was without screens along the hall, but was closed on the side adjoining the Shogun’s audience chamber, into which the corridor opened a few paces farther on. At the threshold the second official halted. Gengo kowtowed and began to crawl up the mats of the audience hall.
The Shogun was seated on a low dais, behind which a group of guards crouched in the same posture as those in the anteroom. Before the Shogun, on the right, knelt five officials. Of these, the nearest one to the dais was Midzuano Echizen-no-kami, from which I inferred that the four others were his fellow-members of the Council of Elders. All turned and stared at me as I stalked up the chamber after Gengo. But the Shogun sat with eyes downcast, contemplating the fan which he held unopened upon his lap.
Several mats short of the dais Gengo kowtowed and drew aside. I advanced much nearer, kowtowed, and rose to my knees to face the Shogun. My heart sank. His gloomy eyes were fixed upon me in a menacing stare. It was evident that he was greatly angered at me, and Midzuano was present to spur him on to extremes. I contrived to smile and utter a courtier’s phrase: “Your Highness has commanded. The tojin hastens to render service.”
“The tojin is ill advised to use the word ‘service,’” rejoined the Shogun harshly. “It is said that Woroto has taken into his service Yuki the ronin. Such an act cannot be regarded other than as a reflection upon my justice.”
“Your Highness,” I replied, “it is the glory of Japanese justice that deeds are considered in the light of motives and circumstances. Doubtless the members of the august Elder Council have sought to persuade Your Highness that I made Yuki my swordbearer with the deliberate intent to affront the Sei-i-tai Shogun. In such matters, Your Highness, certain classes of the tojin peoples are very plain-spoken. On my honor as a man of highest birth among my people, I say that if such an allegation has been made, it is a malicious lie and slander.”
“The tojin speaks with an excess of heat,” murmured the Chief Counsellor. “Let him give proof that he is slandered.”