their gratitude, they pressed Gompachi to remain with them, and they prepared feasts for him, and entertained him hospitably:  but their daughter, who had fallen in love with him for his beauty and knightly valour, spent her days in thinking of him, and of him alone.  The young man, however, in spite of the kindness of the old merchant, who wished to adopt him as his son, and tried hard to persuade him to consent to this, was fretting to go to Yedo and take service as an officer in the household of some noble lord; so he resisted the entreaties of the father and the soft speeches of the daughter, and made ready to start on his journey; and the old merchant, seeing that he would not be turned from his purpose, gave him a parting gift of two hundred ounces of silver, and sorrowfully bade him farewell.

[Illustration:  GOMPACHI AWAKENED BY THE MAIDEN IN THE ROBBERS’ DEN.]

But alas for the grief of the maiden, who sat sobbing her heart out and mourning over her lover’s departure!  He, all the while thinking more of ambition than of love, went to her and comforted her, and said:  “Dry your eyes, sweetheart, and weep no more, for I shall soon come back to you.  Do you, in the meanwhile, be faithful and true to me, and tend your parents with filial piety.”

So she wiped away her tears and smiled again, when she heard him promise that he would soon return to her.  And Gompachi went his way, and in due time came near to Yedo.

But his dangers were not yet over; for late one night, arriving at a place called Suzugamori, in the neighbourhood of Yedo, he fell in with six highwaymen, who attacked him, thinking to make short work of killing and robbing him.  Nothing daunted, he drew his sword, and dispatched two out of the six; but, being weary and worn out with his long journey, he was sorely pressed, and the struggle was going hard with him, when a wardsman,[12] who happened to pass that way riding in a chair, seeing the affray, jumped down from his chair and drawing his dirk came to the rescue, and between them they put the robbers to flight.

[Footnote 12:  Japanese cities are divided into wards, and every tradesman and artisan is under the authority of the chief of the ward in which he resides.  The word chonin, or wardsman, is generally used in contradistinction to the word samurai, which has already been explained as denoting a man belonging to the military class.]

Now it turned out that this kind tradesman, who had so happily come to the assistance of Gompachi, was no other than Chobei of Bandzuin, the chief of the Otokodate, or Friendly Society of the wardsmen of Yedo—­a man famous in the annals of the city, whose life, exploits, and adventures are recited to this day, and form the subject of another tale.

When the highwaymen had disappeared, Gompachi, turning to his deliverer, said—­

“I know not who you may be, sir, but I have to thank you for rescuing me from a great danger.”