“This is by no means an easy matter, my masters. It certainly is of great importance that we should forward our complaint to our lord’s palace at Yedo; but what are your plans? Have you any fixed intentions?”
“It is, indeed, a most important matter,” rejoined the others; but they had nothing further to say. Then Sogoro went on to say—
“We have appealed to the public office of our province, but without avail; we have petitioned the Prince’s councillors, also in vain. I know that all that remains for us is to lay our case before our lord’s palace at Yedo; and if we go there, it is equally certain that we shall not be listened to—on the contrary, we shall be cast into prison. If we are not attended to here, in our own province, how much less will the officials at Yedo care for us. We might hand our petition into the litter of one of the Gorojiu, in the public streets; but, even in that case, as our lord is a member of the Gorojiu, none of his peers would care to examine into the rights and wrongs of our complaint, for fear of offending him, and the man who presented the petition in so desperate a manner would lose his life on a bootless errand. If you have made up your minds to this, and are determined, at all hazards, to start, then go to Yedo by all means, and bid a long farewell to parents, children, wives, and relations. This is my opinion.”
The others all agreeing with what Sogoro said, they determined that, come what might, they would go to Yedo; and they settled to assemble at the village of Funabashi on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month.