“Yoritomo, son of Owari dono!” called one of the secretaries, and he signed with his fan.
Yoritomo stepped forward before the judges, and bowed to them with grave dignity. Another secretary lifted a sheet of writing to his forehead, and read slowly: “Charges have been made that Yoritomo, son of Owari dono, left the shores of Nippon; that he has returned to the shores of Nippon from the lands of the tojins; and that he has brought with him into the country a tojin who belongs to the evil sect.”
The reading of the brief indictment was followed by a profound hush, in which the only sound I could hear was the quick drumming of my heart. The silence was broken by one of the magistrates, who leaned forward and asked sharply: “What has Yoritomo Sama to say to the charges?”
The secretaries wetted their inkbrushes and wrote down the question with swift strokes. They did not have long to wait for Yoritomo’s answer. He smiled up into the faces of those who were about to condemn him, and replied without a trace of hesitancy:
“Regarding the first and second charges, no proof can be brought forward by the august court, yet I speak freely the truth. Many years have passed since word came from Nagasaki how the hairy tojins had humbled the pride of the arrogant Chinese and forced them with cannonballs to open their ports to tojin trade. That is well known to all men of samurai blood.”
“It is well known,” assented the magistrate.
Yoritomo bowed, and continued: “When I had attained to manhood I chanced upon a full account of the tojin victory and China’s humiliation. The realization that a like humiliation might come to the sacred Empire of the Rising Sun sobered me in the midst of drunken revels. I put on pilgrim dress and journeyed to the holy shrine of Ise. There I prayed for enlightenment. The High Ones sent me a vision, in which I was directed to cross the seas and learn the secrets of tojin power. I waited my opportunity, and embarked in one of the black ships.”
“Your accomplices?” demanded the magistrate who had spoken before.
“I had no accomplices. I boarded the black ship unknown to any person in Nippon.”
“Was this at Nagasaki, on the Dutch ship, or on one of the Chinese junks?” asked another magistrate.