Daimios have treated us. Let Ikéda Kunaishôyu send to claim this man,
and we will show him the power of the Hatamotos."

All the other Hatamotos, with one accord, applauded this
determination, and made ready their force for an armed resistance,
should my Lord Kunaishôyu send to demand the surrender of Matugorô.
But the latter remained as a welcome guest in the house of Abé
Shirogorô.

[Illustration: MATAGORÔ KILLS YUKIYÉ.]

Now when Watanabé Kazuma saw that, as the night advanced, his father
Yukiyé did not return home, he became anxious, and went to the house
of Matagorô to seek for him, and finding to his horror that he was
murdered, fell upon the corpse and, embraced it, weeping. On a sudden,
it flashed across him that this must assuredly be the handiwork of
Matagorô; so he rushed furiously into the house, determined to kill
his father's murderer upon the spot. But Matagorô had already fled,
and he found only the mother, who was making her preparations for
following her son to the house of Abé Shirogorô: so he bound the old
woman, and searched all over the house for her son; but, seeing that
his search was fruitless, he carried off the mother, and handed her
over to one of the elders of the clan, at the same time laying
information against Matagorô as his father's murderer. When the affair
was reported to the Prince, he was very angry, and ordered that the
old woman should remain bound and be cast into prison until the
whereabouts of her son should be discovered. Then Kazuma buried his
father's corpse with great pomp, and the widow and the orphan mourned
over their loss.