Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/303

Rh had formerly been chief maid-of-honour to Ōtomo Munéshigé, the lord of the province of Buzen. Some years before, Ōtomo had hoisted the standard of revolt against the Shogun. This rebellion quickly ended in his defeat and death at the hands of Ōuchi Yoshitaka, then Governor-General of Chinzei. This Yoshitaka was the father of Asojirō's lord, Yoshi-oki.

Aratayé, a heroine in her way, resolved to fan anew the flame of rebellion and to sap the power of the Ōuchi house, the enemies of her dead lord. With this intent she had called a muster of the surviving adherents of Ōtomo, and had established her headquarters in a cave on Mayasan, a high and steep mountain, that extends across the provinces of Settsu and Harima. To raise the sinews of war she and her followers stopped at nothing in the way of violence and cruelty. Sometimes it was a traveller done to death for the sake of his money and garments; sometimes it was a young girl kidnapped and sold to procurers. It was to their terrible mountain fastness that Miyuki was now conducted.

After an imprisonment of several days in the cave, she was disposed of to a procurer named