The Usurper. Gautier Judith

yet."

      "But the others! There were forty of them, and not one has returned! If he has escaped me again, it is maddening."

      "Perhaps you exaggerate the man's importance," said Faxibo. "It is a love-affair that attracts him to Kioto; his head is full of follies."

      "So you think; and I confess that this man terrifies me," said the Regent vehemently, pausing before Faxibo. "No one ever knows what he is doing; you think him here, he is there. He outwits the most cunning spies: one declares that he followed him to Kioto, another swears that he has not lost sight of him for an instant, and that he has hot left Osaka; all his friends supped with him, while he was fighting on his return from the Miako9 with men stationed by me. I think him asleep, or busy with his own affairs: one of my schemes is on the eve of success; his hand descends upon me at the last, moment. The empire would long since have been ours if it had not been for him; my partisans are numerous, but his are no less strong, and he has the right on his side. Stay: that plan which I had so skilfully arranged to rid the country, under the guise of accident, of a sovereign without talent and without energy, – that plan which was to throw the power into my hands, – who frustrated it? Who was the accursed coachman who urged that infernal team across the bridge? Nagato! He, always he. However," added Hieyas, "some one else, one of my allies, must have played the traitor, for it is impossible that any other can have guessed the scheme. Ah! if I knew the villain's name, I would at least gratify myself by an awful revenge."

      "I told you what I was able to discover," said Faxibo. "Fide-Yori exclaimed at the moment of the crash: 'Omiti, you were right!'"

      "Omiti! Who is Omiti? I do not know the name."

      The Regent had advanced into the hall adjoining his chamber, which was divided, by a large screen only, from the veranda where the nobles were awaiting his coming. From within, this screen admitted of seeing without being seen. Hieyas heard the name of Nagato uttered; he approached eagerly, and signed to Faxibo to come close to him. Thus they heard the whole story of the Prince of Tosa.

      "Yes," muttered Hieyas; "for a long time I took him for a man of dissolute morals and of no political importance; that was why I at first favored his intimacy with Fide-Yori. How deeply I repent it, now that I know what he is worth!"

      "You see, master," said Faxibo, "that the Prince, doubtless warned of your project, did not quit Osaka."

      "I tell you he was at the Miako, and did not leave there until far on in the night."

      "And yet the Prince of Tosa was with him until very late."

      "One of my spies followed him to Kioto; he entered the city in broad daylight, and remained there until midnight."

      "It is incomprehensible," said Faxibo. "Stay! there he is, going home," he added, seeing Nagato's procession.

      "Is it really he who occupies the litter?" asked Hieyas, trying to look out.

      "I think I recognized him," replied Faxibo.

      "Impossible! it cannot be the Prince of Nagato, unless it be his corpse."

      At this moment a man entered the chamber, and prostrated himself with his face on the ground.

      "It is my envoy," cried Hieyas. "Speak quickly, come I What have you learned?" he cried to the messenger.

      "I went to the part of the road to which you directed me, all-powerful master," said the envoy. "At that spot the ground was strewn with corpses; I counted forty men and fifteen horses. Peasants were hovering around the dead; some felt of them, to see if there were no lingering trace of life. Others pursued the wounded horses, which were running about the rice-fields. I asked what had happened. They told me that no one knew; but at sunrise they saw a band of horsemen pass, belonging to the divine Mikado; they were on their way to Kioto. As for the corpses lying by the roadside, red with their blood, they all wore dark costumes, without any armorial bearings, and their faces were half hidden by their headdress, after the fashion of bandits and assassins."

      "Enough!" exclaimed Hieyas, frowning; "go!"

      The envoy retired, or rather fled.

      "He has escaped me again," said Hieyas. "Well! I must deal the blow with my own hand. The end which I would attain is so noble, that I should not hesitate to use infamous means to overthrow the obstacles which rise in my path. Faxibo," he added, turning to the ex-groom, "usher in those who wait. Their presence may drive away the sad forebodings which oppressed me all night."

      Faxibo lifted aside the screen, and the nobles entered one after another to greet the master. Hieyas observed that the courtiers were loss numerous than usual; none were present except those princes who were wholly devoted to his cause, and some few indifferent people who sought a special favor of the Regent.

      Hieyas, still talking with the lords, moved out upon the veranda and looked around.

      It seemed to him that an unusual bustle pervaded the palace courts. Messengers were starting off every moment, and princes coming up in their norimonos, in spite of the early hour. All were proceeding towards Fide-Yori's palace.

      "What is the matter?" thought he; "whence comes all this stir I what mean these messengers bearing orders of which I know nothing?" And, full of alarm, he dismissed the lords with a gesture.

      "You will excuse me, I know," he said "the interests of the country call me."

      But before the princes had taken leave, a soldier entered the room.

      "The Shogun, Fide-Yori, begs the illustrious Hieyas to be good enough to come before his presence at once," said he; and without waiting for an answer, he departed.

      Hieyas stopped the lords who were about to leave.

      "Wait for me here," he said; "I do not know what is going on, but I am devoured by anxiety. You are devoted to me; I may possibly need you."

      He saluted them with a wave of the hand, and went slowly out, his head bent, followed only by Faxibo.

      CHAPTER VII.

      PERJURY

      When he entered the hall where Fide-Yori was waiting for him, Hieyas saw that something important was about to occur.

      All the party devoted to the son of Taiko-Sama were assembled there.

      Fide-Yori wore for the first time, that warlike and royal costume which he alone had the right to assume. The cuirass of black horn girt his body, and heavy skirts, made of a series of plates fastened together by stitches of red silk, fell over a pair of loose trousers confined from the ankle to the knee by velvet gaiters. He had a sword on his left side, and another on the right. Three golden stars glittered on his breast; his hand rested upon an iron wand. The young man was seated on a folding stool such as warriors use in their tents.

      On his right stood his mother, the beautiful Yodogimi, pale and nervous, but splendidly arrayed; on his left, the Prince of Mayada, who shared the regency with Hieyas; but being very old, and for some time past an invalid, this Prince held himself aloof from business matters. He however kept watch over Hieyas, and maintained the interests of Fide-Yori as far as possible.

      On one side were the princes of Satsuma, Satake, Arima, Aki, and Issida; on the other, the warriors, – General Sanada-Sayemon-Yoke-Moura at their head, – in battle array; Aroufza, Moto-Tsoumou, Harounaga, Moritzka, and a very beautiful and serious young man, named Signenari.

      All the Shogun's friends, in fact, and all the mortal enemies of the Regent were assembled; yet Nagato was absent.

      Hieyas cast a haughty glance around the assembly.

      "Here I am," he said, in a firm voice; "I am waiting. What are your wishes?"

      A profound silence was the only answer. Fide-Yori turned away his eyes from him in horror.

      At last the Prince of Mayada began to speak.

      "We wish nothing from you but justice," said he; "we would simply recall to you a fact which you seem to have forgotten, – that your term of regency as well as mine, expired some months since, Hieyas; and in your zeal for governing the empire you have not heeded this. The son of Taiko-Sama is now of a

9

That is to say, the capital.