Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/288

218 of gold and treasures from the wealthy, with no other object than to acquire funds wherewith to glut his vices. The people of the clan, goaded to discontent, had risen in revolt, mobs had marched upon the lord's castle and the disturbance they were creating was beyond description. No one but Yuminosuké was equal to the task of quelling the rebellion; so it was the order of the lord that he should return to the clan, and re-establish peace and order.

As Yuminosuké was loyalty itself, he at once expressed his intention of obeying the command, and as the crisis was one that demanded instant action, on his part, he left Kyōto that same night and took ship at Ōsaka en route to his province. This was two or three days after his daughter, Miyuki, had parted from her lover on the Uji River.

The vessel in which Yuminosuké and his family were sailing homeward lay becalmed one night in Akashi harbour in the province of Harima. While they waited for a wind, by a strange coincidence, the ship that carried Asojirō, also proceeding homeward, anchored by their side, gunwale to gunwale. The moon shone full and the haven