At last the emperor consented to admit Valignani to an audience, but only on condition that he should say nothing about religion or the revocation of the edict against the Jesuits. Through the care of Kodera, to whom that business had been entrusted, the embassy was received at Miyako with all honor, and was able to make a display which strongly impressed the inhabitants, and even the emperor in its favor. On the day of audience, Gon-dainagon Hidetsugu, the emperor’s nephew and presumptive heir, attended by a great number of lords, met the ambassador, and conducted him to the hall of audience. This hall, which opened upon a magnificent balcony, before which spread a parterre of great beauty, consisted of five several divisions, rising, like steps, one above the other. The first served as an antechamber, or hall of waiting, for the gentlemen in attendance. In the two next were assembled the lords of the court and the great officers of the empire, arranged in order, according to their rank. In the fourth, there were only two persons, a priest who held the first dignity in the household of the Dairi, and the chief counsellor of that same dignitary; by the side of whom Gon-dainagon also took his place, after introducing the ambassador to the fifth and highest apartment, in which the emperor was seated alone, on his heels, in the Japanese fashion upon an elevated throne, approached by steps on all sides. Father Valignani was preceded by one of the Portuguese gentlemen of his suite, bearing the letter of the Indies, written in gilded letters upon fine vellum, with a golden seal attached to it, the whole enclosed in a little box beautifully wrought. That letter was as follows: LETTER OF THE VICEROY OF GOA TO THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN.