On the 3d day of the 3d month (March 24, 1860) the Gorochiu wrote to the commander of the guard kept by Matzdaira Segami no kami: “Why did you allow men in disguise, with small sleeves and drawn swords, to pass your guard and loiter about the Tatsu no kutchi?” To this a reply was given: “There was a heavy fall of snow at the time. I noticed the men once, and they disappeared; but I acknowledge my fault--I am much to blame in the matter. But what shall I do now? Shall I cut off my men’s heads?” The same question was put to Matzdaira Daizen no daibu’s (Choshiu) guard, who kept the Sakurada gate. He answered: “This morning at nine o’clock many men passed, but whether they were porters or soldiers I cannot tell. Several passed with blood-stained swords in their hands. I was on the point of arresting them, but as there was much snow falling I could not see them distinctly, or where they went to.” The principal gentleman in the late Regent’s service, Kimatta Watari, wrote to the Gorochiu as follows: “This morning, while my master was on his way to the shiro to pay his respects to the Shiogoon, an attack was made upon his train. In the scuffle one man was killed, and the servants of Ee brought the body to the house here.” It is a general impression in Yedo that the servants, or some of them, as well as the guards about, and even some of the Daimios living in the neighborhood, were cognizant of the attack about to be made. Some of them gave no assistance to their master. The same day the Shiogoon sent two Katchi metsuki to Ee Kamong no kami’s house to make inquiries. The servants of Sakkai oota no kami, guards of the Owo tay, a large gate of the castle, wrote a similar letter to the above. It is a common plan in Japan, even among Daimios, when an investigation is to be made in which many are concerned, for all to write similar letters, to prevent the government seizing one. They added: “One Ronin, between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age, cut his throat. He only had his sword-sheath when found, and no sword. We found one wounded by a shot, and seized him.” At Tatsu no kutchi, the men at the cross-street guard-house, occupied by Tajima no kami and Sakkai oota no kami, said to the Gorochiu: “At about eight o’clock this morning a man shot himself through the neck while holding a man’s head in his hand. Immediately one of the guard said, ‘I will ask the man where he came from.’ He said he was a servant of Satsuma. We sent for a surgeon, and he is now under treatment.”