KANPEI. Ah, I am ashamed to appear before you. I was prepared to kill myself if my desire could not be attained. Since the murder of my father-in-law will, you say, be a stain upon our lord’s name, I will tell you all. Hear me, gentlemen. Last night, on my way home after meeting Master Yagoro, I came across a wild boar in the dark running on the hill, and I sent two shots after it. I ran up to it and groped for it, and found that I had killed, not a boar, but a traveller. Great Heavens, thought I, I have made a terrible mistake! I felt in his bosom for some medicine, and caught hold of a pouch with this money in it. It was not right, I knew, but I felt that Heaven had given me the money; and so I ran off at once and handed it to Master Yagoro. And when I came home, I found that it was my father-in-law that I had killed and the money was the price of my wife’s virtue. When everything I do thus goes awry like the cross-bill’s beak, it shows that Kanpei’s knightly fortune has come to an end. Oh, sympathise with me, gentlemen. RECITATIVE. There are tears of mortification in his blood-shot eyes. On hearing his account, Yagoro stands up, and turning the dead body round, he examines the wound. YAGORO. Master Goemon, look at this. Though it looks like a gunshot wound, it is a cut made by scooping with a sword. Ah, you have acted rashly, Kanpei. RECITATIVE. The wounded man looks up with a start, and the mother, too, is astonished. GOEMON. That reminds me, Master Senzaki. As you yourself saw, we came upon a traveller lying dead with a gunshot wound on our way hither. Upon nearer approach, we found he was Ono Sadakuro, the villain whom even his avaricious father, Kudayu, had to disown. It was said that having nowhere to go, he had turned a highwayman. There is no doubt that the murderer of Kanpei’s father-in-law was no other than he. MOTHER. What, was it then somebody else that murdered the old man? RECITATIVE. The mother clings to Kanpei. MOTHER. See, I clasp my hands to you and entreat you. It was all my fault that I should have abused you from my old complaining heart. Please, forgive me, Kanpei, and do not, do not die. RECITATIVE. As she entreats with tears, he raises his head. KANPEI. Now my mother’s suspicions are dispelled and my name is cleared. I will take this thought with me to the other world and overtaking my father-in-law, accompany him over the Mountain of Death and across the Three-streamed River. RECITATIVE. He plunges his dirk deeper and turns it round. GOEMON. Ah, wait a while. That you revenged your father-in-law’s death without knowing it, shows that your knightly fortune is not yet at an end. By the mercy of the God of War, you have done a meritorious deed, Kanpei, and there is something I wish to show you secretly while you breathe. RECITATIVE. He takes a scroll from his bosom and deftly unrolls it. GOEMON. This is the covenant signed by the confederates who have sworn to slay our lord’s enemy, Kono Moronao.