Yodogima in Feudalistic Japan

the taking. Shibata, grizzled and fair, sat upon the veranda, looking out, over the ramparts, across the moats, along the busied streets, to the mellowed hillsides beyond. It was all his gained by lifes devoted, loyal service, not to self, but to a chosen, rising superior. It had now come time for him to assert his own supremacy the lord he served had met his doom. gone the self same wray that ambition for ages had decreed - lay shrouded in state, with his good rich blood dripping cold at the daggers point. Nobunaga conceived well, mused he, half aloud, the tears fast welling in his great dark eyes, but Shibata, his oldest captain, alone shall . finish what the master undertoolc - Japan must be subdued. The skies darkened and the land-tempered breeze calmed, as the big lord rested back upon the softmatted floor, gazing now afar over the hill tops toward the starry vaulted space in the distance. A little maiden, tender and eager, wit11 black eyes and darker, massive hair, stealing near, sat at his side. Perhaps she, too, dreamed of the future, for she had learned to love. Learned to love as the Taira maidens, her ancestors, of a half thousand years ago, had not attempted to do. The deeds of daring and flights of fancy through all those tuinultuous centuries had not oilly given to Inan the privileges of individuality, but wrested woman from the thraldom of the ages and secured to her a place and choice worthy her being. Once again she ir ight love and be loved - though the fathers command, the shoguns decree, or the mikados will stood over her, in fact as law, and at heart, both materially and spiritually. Shibata did not at once turn to her, nor did he take his eyes from the vision conjured within. Conscious of her presence, the very thought burned and seared deeper and firmer his ready-made if rigorous anticipation. Fortune had given him a child in whom the blood of Taira made possible the connection. His own efforts had carved out a place and privilege. Their chieftains death afforded the opportunity. Ey the sarcrifice of a child he himself would gain the shoguns favor. Yodogi lla commanded he, after a while. Yes, father. What were you just now thinking about Amitla, most honorable father. Your own, or some other fair ones godtless of mercy you are so considerate, my laughter Aline. dear father, replied she, without any change of espressio l or an apparent heart-beat. Hun ph ejaculated Shibata, thoughtfully it is strange 11o v affinities get mixed I myself possessed sonlewhat a consciousness-of Amaterascl, though, the goddess of love. I wonder what is the time the hour IIILIS draw nigh the baro ls will soon be gathering it is really getting dark. You may retire now, to make ready Katsutoya shall be present, and your maid must grow impatient - though, I promise, nature has left really little to be done, ancl you need not blush a father is privileged, you know. In the great hall, at another side of the high-walled inclosure - with its ponderous gate and turreted angles, surrouncling a network of tile-covered, - wootl-lacquered buildings or grained-post colonnades... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.