“So our petition, which we gave in after so much pains, has been returned after all!  With what f ace can we return to our villages after such a disgrace?  I, for one, do not propose to waste my labour for nothing; accordingly, I shall bide my time until some day, when the Shogun shall go forth from the castle, and, lying in wait by the roadside, I shall make known our grievances to him, who is lord over our lord.  This is our last chance.”

[Illustration:  SOGORO THRUSTING THE PETITION INTO THE SHOGUN’S LITTER.]

The others all applauded this speech, and, having with one accord hardened their hearts, waited for their opportunity.

Now it so happened that, on the 20th day of the 12th month, the then Shogun, Prince Iyemitsu, was pleased to worship at the tombs of his ancestors at Uyeno;[62] and Sogoro and the other elders, hearing this, looked upon it as a special favour from the gods, and felt certain that this time they would not fail.  So they drew up a fresh memorial, and at the appointed time Sogoro hid himself under the Sammaye Bridge, in front of the black gate at Uyeno.  When Prince Iyemitsu passed in his litter, Sogoro clambered up from under the bridge, to the great surprise of the Shogun’s attendants, who called out, “Push the fellow on one side;” but, profiting by the confusion, Sogoro, raising his voice and crying, “I wish to humbly present a petition to his Highness in person,” thrust forward his memorial, which he had tied on to the end of a bamboo stick six feet long, and tried to put it into the litter; and although there were cries to arrest him, and he was buffeted by the escort, he crawled up to the side of the litter, and the Shogun accepted the document.  But Sogoro was arrested by the escort, and thrown into prison.  As for the memorial, his Highness ordered that it should be handed in to the Gorojiu Hotta Kotsuke no Suke, the lord of the petitioners.

[Footnote 62:  Destroyed during the revolution, in the summer of 1868, by the troops of the Mikado.  See note on the tombs of the Shoguns, at the end of the story.]

When Hotta Kotsuke no Suke had returned home and read the memorial, he summoned his councillor, Kojima Shikibu, and said—­

“The officials of my estate are mere bunglers.  When the peasants assembled and presented a petition, they refused to receive it, and have thus brought this trouble upon me.  Their folly has been beyond belief; however, it cannot be helped.  We must remit all the new taxes, and you must inquire how much was paid to the former lord of the castle.  As for this Sogoro, he is not the only one who is at the bottom of the conspiracy; however, as this heinous offence of his in going out to lie in wait for the Shogun’s procession is unpardonable, we must manage to get him given up to us by the Government, and, as an example for the rest of my people, he shall be crucified—­he and his wife and his children; and, after his death, all that he possesses shall be confiscated.  The other six men shall be banished; and that will suffice.”