in
haste. Close at their heels followed the land owner (_jinushi_), the two
bails (_jiuki_ and _tanauki_). All looked with surprise and suspicion at
these hurried preparations for departure. "Oya! Oya! This will never do.
Honoured Sir of Aizawaya, the _yakunin_ are now at hand from the office
of Aoyama Sama. Your daughter in summoned to the white sand. Remove at
once these signs of what looks like a flight." Eyes agog the frightened
parents watched their neighbours and the servants hustle goods and
parcels into the closets. They had hardly done so when the _do[u]shin_,
followed by several constables, burst into the room. "The girl Some,
where is she? Don't attempt to lie, or conceal her whereabouts." Eyes
ferreting everywhere, the parents too frightened to move, the _yakunin_
soon entered, dragging along the weeping O'Some. "Heigh! Heigh! The
rope! At once she is to be bound and dragged before the honoured
presence." Amid the bawling and the tumult at last the father found
opportunity to make himself heard. He prostrated himself at the feet of
the _do[u]shin_, so close to O'Some that the process of binding and
roping necessarily included his own ample person. "Deign, honoured
official, to forbear the rope. There is no resistance. The girl is very
young, and ill. We accompany her to the presence of his lordship."
Weeping he preferred the request. Iyenushi, Jinushi, Gumi-gashira, in
pity added their own petition to the officer. This latter surveyed the
slight figure of this fearful criminal. Besides, notoriously she had
been foxed. He grumbled and conceded. "The rope can be forborne; not so
as to the hands, which must be securely tied to prevent escape. The
affair is most important. Delay there cannot be. His lordship is not to
be kept waiting." Then he swept them all into his net. _Do[u]shin_,
_Yakunin_, _Jinushi_, _Iyenushi_, _Gumi-gashira_, _Ban-gashira_,
_Jiuki_, _Tanauki_, debtors, creditors, all and every in the slightest
degree connected with the Aizawaya fell into the procession. But Edo
town was growing used to these. 'Twas merely another haul of the active
officers of the honoured Yakujin. "Kimyo[u] Cho[u]rai"--may the Buddha's
will be done, but spare this Taro[u]bei, Jizaemon, Tasuke, or whoever
the petitioner chanced to be.

Aoyama Shu[u]zen stalked slowly forward to the _ro[u]ka_. Scowling he
ran his eye over the crowd, taking in each and every. Then his eyes
fell--first on Kogiku, the harlot of the Uedaya; t