Page:Kojiki by Chamberlain.djvu/274

188 charged me, saying: ‘I and thou will together rule the Empire; so the Heavenly Sovereign must be slain;’—and so saying, he made an eight times tempered stiletto, and handed it to me. Therefore I wanted to cut thine august throat; but though I thrice lifted [the weapon], a feeling of regret suddenly arose, so that I could not cut thy throat, and the tears that I wept fell and wetted thine august face. [The dream] was surely the omen of this.” Then the Heavenly Sovereign said: “How nearly have I been betrayed!!” [sic]—and forthwith he raised an army to smite King Saho-biko, whereupon the King made a rice-castle to await the fray. At this time Her Augustness Saho-bime, unable to forget her elder brother, fled out through the back-gate [of the palace], and came into the rice-castle.

At this time the Empress was pregnant. Thereupon the Heavenly Sovereign could not restrain [his pity for] the Empress, who was pregnant and whom he had loved for now three years. So he turned his army aside, and did not hasten the attack. During this delay, the august child that she had conceived was born. So having put out the august child and set it outside the rice-castle, she caused [these words] to be said to the Heavenly Sovereign: “If this august child be