T was night when the runners of the Prince Mori’s norimon, having travelled the highway to its gated termination, entered Kioto. Uncertain as to his exact course, the Prince was settled upon one thing—haste—haste to arrive in the neighborhood of the Mikado’s palace, that he might plan in the shadows his future actions.

He had passed through the city’s gates, and with new cries to his runners was again urging them forward, when a cloaked figure, holding in one hand a naked sword, barred to the norimon farther passage. The runners stopped abruptly. Impatiently Mori thrust his head through the curtains.

“What now, you laggards?” he demanded, in no gentle voice.

At the sound of Mori’s words the man in the roadway uttered a cry of surprise.

“Thou, Mori!”

“What then?” inquired the Prince, defiantly, preparing to leap to the ground, sword in hand.

“It is I, Echizen. I will join you in your norimon.”

“Good!” said Mori. “Urgently I need your advice.”

Echizen climbed into the vehicle quickly. With a swift movement he drew Mori’s cloak about his shoulders in such a way that it hid his face.

“There is danger in Kioto for you,” he said. “Just now as I passed, the sound of your voice instructing your runners struck me with its familiar tones. When you raised your voice I recognized you immediately. You must be more careful, my lord.”

“Why should there be danger for me in Kioto?” inquired Keiki, quickly. “I am in my Emperor’s capital now.”

“But the massacres you have just instigated in Yedo are being used to your disadvantage. Aidzu has come to Kioto two hours ahead of you, and all is known to his Majesty.”

“Massacres!”

“Are you ignorant of them?”

“You do not mean—” Keiki paused, a suspicion of Hasuda dawning upon him. “Massacres by the ronins?”

“Yes.”

The Prince of Mori groaned.

“Hasuda, the chief ronin,” he said, “has broken his pledged word to me.” He explained briefly to Echizen his compact with Hasuda.

The Prince of Echizen had received a courier who came on horseback but half an hour prior to Mori’s arrival. He came shortly after the arrival of Aidzu, who was closeted with the Emperor. The courier’s only definite news was that the Regent Ii had been assassinated and the foreign legations burned by a band of ronins under Hasuda, acting, it was believed, under Mori’s orders. The ronins had pretended to be the Shogun’s men.

The latter information pleased Mori.

“Good!” he said; “the foreigners will lay the blame upon the shogunate.”

Echizen leaned from the norimon.

“Proceed slowly,” he told the runner, “in that direction,” pointing to a quarter of the town distant from the Imperial palace.

“We must adopt some plan of action,” he continued to Keiki. “These outbreaks, which I at first thought were at your order, will have fearful consequences. We must plan to turn them to account with the Emperor.

“But he already knows of the massacres.”

“Assuredly. Aidzu is governor of the city, and a person of influence with him. He will use the Yedo massacres to your disadvantage.”

“But Aidzu is a shogunate.”

“True; but lately he has gone over to the Emperor. He is still at heart a shogunate. It is by the order of the Shogun that he has come to the Mikado’s court, in fact. He is both a spy and an influence upon the Emperor for the shogunate.”

“How do you know all these things?” inquired Keiki.

“Since I left you in Yedo,” replied Echizen, “I have made considerable progress in the favor of the Emperor, all for the sake of the cause. I try to set myself against Aidzu.”

“Well, and what is the disposition of the Emperor towards my wing of the party? What does he desire us to do? What attitude should we take towards the foreigners and the shogunate at this time? I have a purpose in these questions.”

Echizen looked thoughtfully towards the east, where the offshoots of the still distant day were charging the rear-guard of night.

“My prince,” he said, slowly, “I feel that this day will be a decisive one in our annals. I feel that there is a great opportunity to be born a new nation to-day.”

“Speak on,” said Mori.

“The Emperor Kommei is, of course, desirous of regaining the power once held by his ancestors. He knows, as an educated man, that the shogunate has no legitimate right to existence. But he is a man of two natures. Fear, which is not cowardice, and suspicion, which is not discretion, is his ruling motive. He is surrounded by shogunate spies. Every effort he has made up to this time to communicate with us has been frustrated. Were he to put trust in a samurai and think of sending him as a messenger to us, the shogunate straightway removed that samurai.”

“By the sword, of course.”

“By secret means. In time the Emperor Kommei came to believe that the shogunate held his life in its hands, as it has. He came to distrust all men. He trusts neither Aidzu, his enemy, nor me, his friend.”

“What of the foreigners?”

“I believe that he would desire above all things to issue an order for their expulsion, and encourage us secretly to make war upon the shogunate, convinced as he is that his life and the very office of Emperor are at stake.”

“Could he be brought to give us secret instructions?”

“He might,” returned Echizen, dubiously, “but such is the temper of the man that, while bidding us make war upon the shogunate, he would also warn us that if the shogunate prevailed he could do nothing for us—he would leave us to die.”

With knotted brows, Mori considered long. Then:

“You think Aidzu is endeavoring at this moment to discredit me with the Emperor by laying responsibility for Hasuda at my door?”

“Yes, this very instant.”

Mori leaned out from the norimon and signed to the runners. They halted.

“One question more,” he said to Echizen. “Have you convenient access to the Emperor?”

“At any hour,” Echizen answered. Mori bent towards the runners.

“Full speed,” he cried, “to the Emperor’s palace.”

The norimon started ahead.

“To the Emperor’s palace?” repeated Echizen. “What are you going to do?”

“To confront Aidzu, my accuser, and urge the Emperor to expel the foreigners,” said Mori.

“Perhaps it is the best course,” answered Echizen, slowly.

“It is the opportunity of which you spoke,” said Mori. “The opportunity for which I have long waited.”