"The secret plottings and treasonable, turbulent conduct of you three
men, so unbecoming your position as Hatamotos, have enraged my lord
the Shogun to such a degree, that he has been pleased to order that
you be imprisoned in a temple, and that your patrimony be given over
to your next heirs."

Accordingly the three Hatamotos, after having been severely
admonished, were confined in a temple called Kanyeiji; and the
remaining Hatamotos, scared by this example, dispersed in peace. As
for the great Daimios, inasmuch as after the death of my Lord
Kunaishôyu the Hatamotos were all dispersed, there was no enemy left
for them to fight with; so the tumult was quelled, and peace was
restored.

Thus it happened that Matagorô lost his patron; so, taking his mother
with him, he went and placed himself under the protection of an old
man named Sakurai Jiuzayémon. This old man was a famous teacher of
lance exercise, and enjoyed both wealth and honour; so he took in
Matagorô, and having engaged as a guard thirty Rônins, all resolute
fellows and well skilled in the arts of war, they all fled together to
a distant place called Sagara.

All this time Watanabé Kazuma had been brooding over his father's
death, and thinking how he should be revenged upon the murderer; so
when my Lord Kunaishôyu suddenly died, he went to the young Prince
who succeeded him and obtained leave of absence to go and seek out
his father's enemy. Now Kazuma's elder sister was married to a man
named Araki Matayémon, who at that time was famous as the first
swordsman in Japan. As Kazuma was but sixteen years of age, this