their master; and the four set out together upon their journey to seek
out Matagorô, of whose whereabouts they were completely ignorant.

Matagorô in the meanwhile had made his way, with the old man Sakurai
Jiuzayémon and his thirty Rônins, to Osaka. But, strong as they were
in numbers, they travelled in great secrecy. The reason for this was
that the old man's younger brother, Sakurai Jinsuké, a fencing-master
by profession, had once had a fencing-match with Matayémon, Kazuma's
brother-in-law, and had been shamefully beaten; so that the party were
greatly afraid of Matayémon, and felt that, since he was taking up
Kazuma's cause and acting as his guardian, they might be worsted in
spite of their numbers: so they went on their way with great caution,
and, having reached Osaka, put up at an inn in a quarter called
Ikutama, and hid from Kazuma and Matayémon.

The latter also in good time reached Osaka, and spared no pains to
seek out Matagorô. One evening towards dusk, as Matayémon was walking
in the quarter where the enemy were staying, he saw a man, dressed as
a gentleman's servant, enter a cook-shop and order some buckwheat
porridge for thirty-six men, and looking attentively at the man, he
recognized him as the servant of Sakurai Jiuzayémon; so he hid himself
in a dark place and watched, and heard the fellow say--

"My master, Sakurai Jiuzayémon, is about to start for Sagara to-morrow
morning, to return thanks to the gods for his recovery from a sickness
from which he has been suffering; so I am in a great hurry."

With these words the servant hastened away; and Matayémon, entering
the shop, called for some porridge, and as he ate it, made some
inquiries as to the man who had just given so large an order for