ally offered to Sanada
and Kimura; and any or all of the seven captains could have made terms
of advantage--to themselves.

"The scent of the plum, with the flower of the cherry;
Blooming on branch of willow 'tis seen."[18]

Iyemitsu Ko[u] hung this poem on the flowering plum tree to which he
gave the name of Kimura no Ume; a conscious tribute to the chivalry of
Shigenari. And O[u]kubo Hikozaemon risked life and favour in the
destruction of the plant, and rebuke of the bad taste shown to men who
had lost fathers, brothers, gone down before the deadly spear of the
young captain.

The fall of O[u]saka-Jo[u] decided the fate of the Toyotomi House. Not
at once, for the rumour of the Udaijin's escape to Kyu[u]shu[u] kept
alive hopeful resentment in the minds of the scattered _samurai_ whose
captains had perished in the battles around O[u]saka, had died or cut
belly in the final assault, or had lost their heads by the executioner's
sword in the bed of the Kamogawa. Among those who found refuge in the
hills of Iga was a certain Ogita Kuro[u]ji; a retainer of Nagato no
Kami. This man gathered a band of kindred spirits, among whom his
favoured lieutenant was Mo[u]ri Muneoki, although he much leaned to the
astonishing acumen of Kosaka Jinnai, a mere boy in years, but hiding in
his short and sturdy form a toughness and agility, with expertness in
all feats of arms, which discomfited would be antagonists. In the
discussions as to future movements there was wide difference of opinion.
Muneoki, the true partisan, proposed to rejoin Hideyori in Satsuma. "The
prince is now harboured by Higo no Kami; Shimazu Dono of Satsuma, close
at hand, will never permit the entrance of the Tokugawa into his
borders. It is at Kagoshima-Jo[u] that the prince will reorganize his
party; and thither duty calls." But Kosaka Jinnai was equally positive
in the opposite sense. He turned Muneoki's own argument against the
proposal. The prince could well be left to organize the West. It was
for others to see how affairs went in the North. Therefore the first
thing was to hasten to Edo, to ascertain the position of Date Masamune
and the great northern lords at this final triumph of the Tokugawa, when
at last their jealousy and fear might be aroused to opposition.

Adventurous inclination, the desire to meet rather than run away from
the enemy, turned the scale to Edo. Reluctantly Muneoki agreed. With
Jinnai he proceeded, to learn the state of affai