Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/257

Rh son, Kojirō. Naozané was out, and Kojirō was not to be seen.

While she was talking about her husband and her son with a samurai, who was in charge of the camp in Naozané's absence, there suddenly arose a noise outside the entrance. Then Atsumori's mother, Fuji-no-Kata, rushed into the camp, hotly pursued by the Minamoto soldiers. Sagami ran out in suprise [sic], to meet her. They both looked into each other's face.

"You are Madame Fuji-no-Kata, are you not?" asked Sagami.

"And you, I believe, are Sagami."

Both were exceedingly delighted to meet each other, thus unexpectedly. As was previously mentioned, Sagami had served Fuji-no-Kata as maid-of-honour, sixteen years before, and Naozané had served the ex-Emperor at the same time. But at that time, Naozané's surname had been Sataké, so Fuji-no-Kata did not know that the famous Naozané and her former maid's husband were one and the same man. Therefore, as she talked with Sagami, she was amazed to learn the truth. It was Sataké who had killed her son Atsumori. He was her mortal enemy. She was