searched the whole mansion for him, but apparently without success. They feared that he had escaped them; but one of them, hearing a man’s voice in a shed near the kitchen, went in and dragged him out and found he was the enemy they had undergone so many hardships to seize. They cut off his head. Then, they marched out in order without losing a single man. It was about six o’clock, so that the fight had lasted two hours. The eleventh act merely serves to bring the story to a conclusion. The true climax would have been the suicide of the loyal retainers; but it was doubtless felt by the authors that they would give the greatest satisfaction to the sympathetic audience by ending the play when the loyal men were at the height of their joy after accomplishing their long-cherished object. THE CONCLUSION. Although the story of the famous vendetta in the play concludes with the departure of the retainers from the mansion with their enemy’s head, we may, to complete the story, here give a brief account of the subsequent events. The loyal retainers of Ako marched in order through the city and arrived at the temple of Sengakuji, their lord’s burial-place, in the south of Yedo. There they washed Kira’s bloody head and placing it in front of their lord’s grave, reported as to a living person all the circumstances of the revenge. Oishi sent two of his men to the Chief Censor, Sengoku Hoki-no-Kami, to report their late attack, while a similar report was made by the superior of the temple to Abe Hida-no-Kami, the Commissioner of Temples and Shrines; and both these officers went to the Shogun’s palace to report the matter. Officers were then sent to inspect Kira’s mansion to verify the report. Universal sympathy was expressed for the retainers; and pending the decision of their case, they were given in charge, seventeen to Hosokawa Etchu-no-Kami, Lord of Higo, ten each to Mori Kai-no-Kami, Lord of Chofu and Hisamatsu Oki-no-Kami, Lord of Matsuyama, and nine to Mizuno Kenmotsu, Lord of Okazaki. All these _daimyo_ received them into their mansions with willingness and treated them with great consideration. It will be seen that the number of retainers taken charge of by these _daimyo_ was forty-six, because one of them, Terasaka Kichiemon, the Teraoka Heiyemon of the play, was sent immediately after the attack to report to Takumi-no-Kami’s widow, and his name did not appear in the report made by Oishi to the Chief Censor.