be pleased to absolve them from so severe
a punishment."

"Where the sin of the father is great, the wife and children cannot be
spared," replied Kotsuke no Suke; and his councillor, seeing that his
heart was hardened, was forced to obey his orders without further
remonstrance.

So Kotsuke no Suke, having obtained that Sogoro should be given up to
him by the Government, caused him to be brought to his estate of
Sakura as a criminal, in a litter covered with nets, and confined him
in prison. When his case had been inquired into, a decree was issued
by the Lord Kotsuke no Suke that he should be punished for a heinous
crime; and on the 9th day of the 2d month of the second year of the
period styled Shoho (A.D. 1644) he was condemned to be crucified.
Accordingly Sogoro, his wife and children, and the elders of the
hundred and thirty-six villages were brought before the Court-house of
Sakura, in which were assembled forty-five chief officers. The elders
were then told that, yielding to their petition, their lord was
graciously pleased to order that the oppressive taxes should be
remitted, and that the dues levied should not exceed those of the
olden time. As for Sogoro and his wife, the following sentence was
passed upon them:--

"Whereas you have set yourself up as the head of the villagers;
whereas, secondly, you have dared to make light of the Government by
petitioning his Highness the Shogun directly, thereby offering an
insult to your lord; and whereas, thirdly, you have presented a
memorial to the Gorojiu; and, whereas, fourthly, you were privy to a
conspiracy: for these four heinous crimes you are sentenced to death
by crucifixion. Your wife is sentenced to die in like manner; and your
children will be decapitated.

"This sentence is passed upon the following persons:--

"Sogoro, chief of the village of Iwahashi, aged 48.

"His wife, Man, aged 38.

"His son, Gennosuke, aged 13.

"His son, Sohei, aged 10.

"His son, Kihachi, aged 7."

The eldest daughter of Sogoro, named Hatsu, nineteen years of age, was
married to a man named Jiuyemon, in the village of Hakamura, in
Shitachi, beyond the river, in the territory of Matsudaira Matsu no
Kami (the Prince of Sendai). His second daughter, whose name was Saki,
sixteen years of age, was married to one Tojiuro, chief of a village
on the property of my lord Naito Geki. No punishment was decreed
against these two women.

The six elders who had accompanied Sogoro