“Owari will hold Keiki if the Mito men do not overwhelm us!” I responded.
“Old Mito will either strike at once, or draw in his claws and wait for another opening. Announce that Iyeyoshi has been wounded by a Mito man. That will rally to us the greater number of the three hundred thousand samurais who have flocked to Yedo.”
“Wounded?—And slain?” I said.
“Only wounded. The city must be kept in doubt until sanction of Iyesada’s accession has been received from the Mikado. It will be well for your august father to join his counsel to that of Abe and Ii.—Here is your waiting-room.”
I nodded farewell, and darted into the banquet room, where my retainers sat in decorous quiet, keenly alert to the stir and commotion that desecrated the solemn hush of the palace, yet all unaware of its terrible cause. I told them that, instigated by the Mito faction, my would-be poisoner had wounded the Shogun, a deed worthy of the days of the Ashikaga Shoguns.
Silencing their horrified outcries with a gesture, I gave my seal to Yuki, and commanded him to ride at full speed to Owari Yashiki and bring a force to assist me in the blockade of Keiki’s residence. He rushed out without an instant’s delay, while I followed with the utmost haste that my princely dignity would permit.
CHAPTER XXIX—Intrigue
Within the hour Satsuma had Midzuano trapped in his yashiki, and I was closing in upon Keiki. The Mito men gathered rapidly, with the evident purpose of driving us off or cutting their way through to their Hitotsubashi allies. But the timely arrival of Yuki with a thousand Owari retainers compelled the enemy to draw back for reinforcements. Before these could come up, the rumor of the attack upon the Shogun had spread throughout the official quarter, and so vast a number of loyal samurais swarmed to my support that the Mito men barely averted destruction by a quick retreat across the outer moat to their Superior Yashiki.