Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/268

202 "Many thanks, my lord," replied the mason, "but may I not examine the contents before I accept it?"

He removed the lid, and looked into the chest. He at once started back in amazement, and then quickly replaced the cover with an anxious look. The coffer contained the delicate young warrior Atsumori, whose concealment therein, the sagacious Yoshitsuné had perceived.

The old man in question was a Taira warrior named Munékiyo, in disguise. After his clansmen had left the capital, and been defeated in several battles, he had secretly retired from the army. He had then become a stone-mason, with the intention of getting tombstones erected for those Tairas who had fallen in battle. Yoshitsuné owed his life to this old man. Many years before, when he was a baby, his mother had wandered from place to place, carrying him in her bosom. She had at last been discovered by the Tairas. But Munékiyo had sympathized with them, and by his intermediation they were both saved from death. Now, as he wished to repay his benefactor, Yoshitsuné gave him Atsumori hidden in the chest. He then ordered him to conduct