buckwheat porridge. The master of the shop answered that he was the
attendant of a party of thirty-six gentlemen who were staying at such
and such an inn. Then Matayémon, having found out all that he wanted
to know, went home and told Kazuma, who was delighted at the prospect
of carrying his revenge into execution on the morrow. That same
evening Matayémon sent one of his two faithful retainers as a spy to
the inn, to find out at what hour Matagorô was to set out on the
following morning; and he ascertained from the servants of the inn,
that the party was to start at daybreak for Sagara, stopping at Isé to
worship at the shrine of Tershô Daijin.[19]

[Footnote 19: Goddess of the sun, and ancestress of the Mikados.]

Matayémon made his preparations accordingly, and, with Kazuma and his
two retainers, started before dawn. Beyond Uyéno, in the province of
Iga, the castle-town of the Daimio Tôdô Idzumi no Kami, there is a
wide and lonely moor; and this was the place upon which they fixed for
the attack upon the enemy. When they had arrived at the spot,
Matayémon went into a tea-house by the roadside, and wrote a petition
to the governor of the Daimio's castle-town for permission to carry
out the vendetta within its precincts;[20] then he addressed Kazuma,
and said--

"When we fall in with Matagorô and begin the fight, do you engage and
slay your father's murderer; attack him and him only, and I will keep
off his guard of Rônins;" then turning to his two retainers, "As for
you, keep close to Kazuma; and should the Rônins attempt to rescue
Matagorô, it will be your duty to prevent them, and succour Kazuma."
And having further laid down each man's duties with great minuteness,
they lay in wait for the arrival of the enemy. Whilst they were