d me. Seized and thrown down the clenched fist
of O'Tsugi was roughly pressed into my abdomen. In fright and pain, in
dread for the unborn child, I cried out. Then the violent old woman
dragged out the confession of all that had passed with his lordship.
Minute and shameful the details to be told in the presence of a man. But
Shimo was an animal with powers of speech, and must tell all. With the
confession the old woman's smoothness departed. "Vile slut! A townsman's
brat, sprung from the stable dung, you would play the adulteress, take
her ladyship's place, and supplant her with an heir got by some
stranger's seed.... She is gone to the sixth month? High time for
interference. She shall be kept here, until the separation of persons
takes place. No wonder his lordship abandoned the shameless hussy--for
some fresh country wench in Ko[u]shu[u]. For such loose jades to please
the taste of the Tono Sama causes surprise. But off with her, to the
room for confinement. There she is to lie, until her affair is settled."
At a sign O'Tsugi and O'Han seized hold of me. Clothes torn and in
disorder, the person vilely exposed, roughly I was dragged over to this
barred and retired apartment. Always I made effort to preserve my body
and its fruit from their harsh violence. O'Tsugi roared with laughter at
the feeble resistance. The woman was strong as a horse. To O'Han--"Look
at her big belly. Ah! Her ladyship is none too wise. Let the matter but
be left to Tsugi, and the midwife soon would be needed." She raised a
massive leg with suggestive gesture. In some fright O'Han stopped her,
on plea of no such orders. The girl was young, of full figure and not
without attraction. Perhaps she harboured hopes, and would not in a
rival's person set precedent for her own. O'Tsugi spun me around, as a
child would a top with the cord. Then suddenly she released me. With a
crash my body fell against the wall. Sick and faint I tried to rise, and
failed. They watched me for a time as I grovelled and retched in
sickness. Then the bar fell on the outer passage and my imprisonment.

The day light waned. The sound of the birds going to roost came to the
ears. It was now spring, the gladsome period of the year. The cooing and
chirping brought no charm to the prisoner's ear. These birds were as the
birds of Shideyama (in Hell). Mournful the dirge they sang. Filled with
foreboding, with dread for self and the passing from the darkness of the
womb to the darkn