There was at this time in the service of the Shogun a physician, named Nakarai Tsusen, who was in the habit of frequenting the palace of my Lord Kunaishoyu, and who for some time past had been treating him for the disease from which he was suffering.  Idzu no Kami sent secretly for this physician, and, summoning him to his private room, engaged him in conversation, in the midst of which he suddenly dropped his voice and said to him in a whisper—­

“Listen, Tsusen.  You have received great favours at the hands of the Shogun.  The Government is now sorely straitened:  are you willing to carry your loyalty so far as to lay down your life on its behalf?”

“Ay, my lord; for generations my forefathers have held their property by the grace of the Shogun.  I am willing this night to lay down my life for my Prince, as a faithful vassal should.”

“Well, then, I will tell you.  The great Daimios and the Hatamotos have fallen out about this affair of Matagoro, and lately it has seemed as if they meant to come to blows.  The country will be agitated, and the farmers and townsfolk suffer great misery, if we cannot quell the tumult.  The Hatamotos will be easily kept under, but it will be no light task to pacify the great Daimios.  If you are willing to lay down your life in carrying out a stratagem of mine, peace will be restored to the country; but your loyalty will be your death.”

“I am ready to sacrifice my life in this service.”

“This is my plan.  You have been attending my Lord Kunaishoyu in his sickness; to-morrow you must go to see him, and put poison in his physic.  If we can kill him, the agitation will cease.  This is the service which I ask of you.”

Tsusen agreed to undertake the deed; and on the following day, when he went to see Kunaishoyu, he carried with him poisoned drugs.  Half the draught he drank himself,[18] and thus put the Prince off his guard, so that he swallowed the remainder fearlessly.  Tsusen, seeing this, hurried away, and as he was carried home in his litter the death-agony seized him, and he died, vomiting blood.

[Footnote 18:  A physician attending a personage of exalted rank has always to drink half the potion he prescribes as a test of his good faith.]

My Lord Kunaishoyu died in the same way in great torture, and in the confusion attending upon his death and funeral ceremonies the struggle which was impending with the Hatamotos was delayed.

In the meanwhile the Gorojiu Idzu no Kami summoned the three leaders of the Hatamotos and addressed them as follows—­

“The secret plottings and treasonable, turbulent conduct of you three men, so unbecoming your position as Hatamotos, have enraged my lord the Shogun to such a degree, that he has been pleased to order that you be imprisoned in a temple, and that your patrimony be given over to your next heirs.”

Accordingly the three Hatamotos, after having been severely admonished, were confined in a temple called Kanyeiji; and the remaining Hatamotos, scared by this example, dispersed in peace.  As for the great Daimios, inasmuch as after the death of my Lord Kunaishoyu the Hatamotos were all dispersed, there was no enemy left for them to fight with; so the tumult was quelled, and peace was restored.