,
and as Ieyasu had omitted to indicate any limit for the work of
destruction, it went on without check, and presently the second line
of parapets began to follow the first. The Osaka leaders protested
and essayed to stay the destruction. But the officers who were in
command of the operation said that without a direct message from
Honda Masazumi, who represented Ieyasu, they could not suspend their
task. Efforts were then made to approach Honda, but he was
conveniently absent "on account of his health," and the ensuing
correspondence occupied several days, during which the pulling-down
and filling-up went on by day and by night. More than one-half of the
second moat had disappeared before Masazumi could be found. His
answer was that he had been merely told to fill up the moat. Possibly
he had mistaken the scope of his instructions and he would refer the
matter to Ieyasu. This involved further delay and more filling,
until, finally, Masazumi acknowledged that he had made a mistake,
declared himself prepared to undergo punishment, and withdrew his men
to Fushimi.

Ieyasu supplied the sequel of the farce. When complaint was made
against Masazumi, the Tokugawa leader simulated astonishment,
expressed much regret, and said that he would condemn Masazumi to
commit suicide were it permissible to mar this happy occasion by any
capital sentence. "Peace," declared the astute old statesman, "has
now been fortunately concluded. Let us not talk any more about the
castle's moats or parapets." Against such an attitude the Osaka men
could not enter any protest, and the farce ended there. Had the Osaka
leaders possessed any measure of the wisdom that marked all the
doings of Ieyasu, they would not have suffered matters to rest at
such a stage. But they foolishly imagined that some retaliation might
be effected by calling upon the Tokugawa to supplement that part of
the peace provisions which related to allowances for the samurai who
had fought on the side of the garrison. A demand in that sense was
preferred to Ieyasu. But he had now laid aside his transient suavity.
The Osaka people were brusquely informed that they must look to the
Toyotomi family for recompense, and that as for rewarding unattached
samurai who had drawn the sword against the shogun, the Osaka people,
were they obedient to the dictates of loyalty, would of their own
account peremptorily reject such an unwarranted proposition, even
though Ieyasu himself were disposed