To the two most powerful among all the barons, Shimazu Narishige, lord of Satsuma, and Mōri Yoshichika, lord of Chōshū, secret commissions were specially given by the emperor. Before anything decisive could be accomplished, however, Narishige died and was succeeded by his younger brother, Hisamitsu, who, together with the Chōshū chief, remained in Kyōto at the head of a large force of _samurai_, with the avowed intention of restoring tranquillity to the country. There they were joined by Yamanouchi Toyonobu, lord of Tosa, and this triumvirate of puissant barons, Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa, began to be spoken of throughout the length and breadth of the land as the certain saviors of the situation. The imperial court, in accordance with the advice of these three powerful councilors, now dispatched an envoy to Edo conveying a command that the shōgun should repair to Kyōto, that order should be established in the affairs of the administration, and that foreigners should be expelled from Japan. Prior to the receipt of this rescript the Tokugawa government had released the persons then in confinement, had dismissed all officials of proved incompetence, and had effected various reforms in the state organization. After the arrival of the imperial rescript these measures were supplemented by other changes, and punishments were meted out to Andō and other officials who had been removed from office. At the same period a most significant step was taken by the shōgun's government: the system that required the presence of the feudal barons in Edo was abolished--a step indicative of the marked decadence of the Tokugawa power. For the first time in two centuries and a half the power of the imperial court overshadowed that of the castle in Edo. An event now occurred that tended to precipitate the impending crisis. As the Satsuma chief, Shimazu Hisamitsu, was escorting the imperial envoy on his return journey from Edo to Kyōto, a party of four English equestrians met the procession near the village of Namamugi in Musashi, and attempted to break through its ranks. This violation of Japanese official etiquette, an act unpardonable in the eyes of the _samurai_, was violently resented. Two of the foreigners were severely wounded, one of them shortly afterward falling from his horse and dying by the roadside. Incensed by this affair, the British government demanded that the men who had perpetrated the deed and the personage under whose direction it had been carried out should be arrested, and that an indemnity of a hundred thousand dollars should be paid as blood-money, a demand that greatly embarrassed the shōgun's ministers, who knew that, even if they had possessed the power to comply in full, the attempt must lead to the gravest domestic troubles.