"During this time the poor man languished in his prison, from whence he was only taken to appear before the judges.
"Accused of sorcery and of using black magic, he explained very simply that he had foreseen the danger, because in raising his eyes he had noticed that the part of the ground over which the herald had passed was sinking, and that he had drawn the following conclusions:
"The earth seemed to have only a medium thickness.
"Under the feet of the herald he had seen it crumble and fall in.
"He had deduced from this that a weight five times as heavy added to that of the palanquin, would not fail to produce a landslide.
"As to the prediction concerning the fever, it was based on what he had seen when in the war.
"He had then observed that every wound is always followed by a disposition to fever; he therefore could not fail to deduce that the serious contusions occasioned by the fall of the prince would produce the inevitable consequences.
"The judge was very much imprest with the perspicacity of this man; not only did he give him his liberty, but he engaged him in his personal service and in due time enabled him to make his fortune."
We do not wish to affirm—any more than Yoritomo, for that matter—that fortunate deductions are always so magnificently rewarded as were those of this man.
However, without the causes being so striking, many people have owed their fortune to the faculty which they possest of deducing results where the analogy of the past circumstances suggested to them what would happen.