Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/90

42 offering to the deities of poetry. She remembered that people had told her that the liquor stimulated one's courage; and taking down the bottle, she desperately drank two or three cupfuls. Then taking the bottle with its remaining contents in her hand, the love-sick girl stole out of the chamber to give it to Arihira, who was in the carriage.

But the man in the carriage was not really Arihira. He was Ōtomo-no-Kuronushi, the other passionate adorer of Komachi, lying in wait to take Arihira's life. When he had found out about the intimacy existing between the couple, he had been filled with a burning anger and jealousy. After some consideration, he came to the desperate resolution to make away with his rival, and make Komachi a "jewel in his own hand." U-noha was utterly ignorant of this; and emboldened by saké, she groped her way towards the carriage.

"Lord Arihira! Lord Arihira!" she exclaimed in a whisper. "Oh! He is asleep! Lord Arihira, you will take cold if you sleep here in this cold weather."

The would-be assassin awoke from his slumber and cried out in terrified tones: