and committed suicide, at
which sight the dying man smiled contentedly. As for Konno, after a
futile attempt to lay hands on Tadamune and Kagemune, he cut his way
through their retainers and rode off safely. The heads of Yoshitomo
and Masaie were carried to Kyoto by Tadamune and Kagemune, but they
made so much of their exploit and clamoured for such high reward that
Kiyomori threatened to punish them for the murder of a close
connexion--Kiyomori, be it observed, on whose hands the blood of his
uncle was still wet.

Yoshitomo had many sons* but only four of them escaped from the Heiji
tumult. The eldest of these was Yoritomo, then only fourteen. After
killing two men who attempted to intercept his flight, he fell into
the hands of Taira Munekiyo, who, pitying his youth, induced
Kiyomori's step-mother to intercede for his life, and he was finally
banished to Izu, whence, a few years later, he emerged to the
destruction of the Taira. A still younger son, Yoshitsune, was
destined to prove the most renowned warrior Japan ever produced. His
mother, Tokiwa, one of Yoshitomo's mistresses, a woman of rare
beauty, fled from the Minamoto mansion during a snow-storm after the
Heiji disaster, and, with her three children, succeeded in reaching a
village in Yamato, where she might have lain concealed had not her
mother fallen into the hands of Kiyomori's agents. Tokiwa was then
required to choose between giving herself up and suffering her mother
to be executed. Her beauty saved the situation. Kiyomori had no
sooner seen her face than he offered to have mercy if she entered his
household and if she consented to have her three sons educated for
the priesthood. Thus, Yoshitsune survived, and in after ages people
were wont to say of Kiyomori's passion and its result that his
blissful dream of one night had brought ruin on his house.

*One of these sons, Tomonaga, fell by his father's hand. Accompanying
Yoshitomo's retreat, he had been severely wounded, and he asked his
father to kill him rather than leave him at Awobake to fall into the
hands of the Taira. Yoshitomo consented, though the lad was only
fifteen years of age.

THE TAIRA AND THE FUJIWARA

In human affairs many events ascribed by onlookers to design are
really the outcome of accident or unforseen opportunity. Historians,
tracing the career of Taira no Kiyomori, ascribe to him singular
astuteness in creating occasions and marked promptness in utilizing
them. But Kiyomori