He made a sign with his fan, and commanded: “All others than Midzuano will withdraw beyond earshot.”
“The matter is between Your Highness and myself,” I said. “My life is in the hand of Minamoto Iyeyoshi. Rather than speak in the presence of a third person, I am prepared to die without benefit of medicine.”
The Shogun again signed with his fan. Midzuano rose to his knees and shuffled away after the others. I was left alone in front of the dais, still too angry to flinch before the Shogun’s frown and the menace of his eyes.
“Your Highness has condemned me without a hearing,” I charged. “Is that the boasted justice of Dai Nippon?”
“Such insolence is of itself worthy of death!” he exclaimed.
“Your Highness,” I replied, “I come of a family so proud that it is a degradation for me to kowtow even before the exalted ruler of Nippon, yet my desire to serve has caused me to humble myself.”
“The rudeness of the tojin might be forgiven on the plea of his ignorance. Not so an insult to the Princess my daughter.”
“Your Highness has listened to the lying tales of my enemies. I would sooner strike off my right hand than insult the Princess Azai. Your Highness does ill to heed the malicious slanders of those who condemned me on false charges and who, when baffled by the command of Your Highness, laid an ambush for me in the garden of the Princess.”
“In the garden of the Princess!—ambush!” he repeated.
“Upon the first day of the panic,” I said, and I gave him a concise account of all that had occurred from the interruption of my passage to Owari Yashiki by Gengo to my rescue by the Princess on the bridge.