assembled at the Satsuma mansion in the city, had fired on a barrack occupied by Tokugawa troops, and that the latter had consequently attacked the mansion and driven out its occupants, who had taken refuge in a warship anchored in Shinagawa Bay. Incensed by this news, the shōgun, on January 3 in the first year of the Meiji era, 1868, issued orders to the various clans to combine for the purpose of chastising Satsuma. He commenced the campaign by mustering the troops of Aidzu and Kuwana in Kyōto and marching to attack the forces of Satsuma and Chōshū. But in the engagements that ensued at Fushimi and Toba the shōgun's army was completely defeated, and Prince Yoshiaki was formally ordered by the imperial court to lead a punitory expedition against Tokugawa, now an open rebel. The latter retired to Edo by sea, accompanied by the forces of Aidzu and Kuwana, when they and twenty-seven other feudal chiefs were deprived by the emperor of all their ranks and offices, the duty of breaking their power by force of arms being intrusted to the barons of Aki, Chōshū, and Tosa. Also, special officers were dispatched to the various provinces to restore peace, and their presence impressed the feudal barons so strongly that no resistance was offered, and the provinces to the west of Kyōto and Ōsaka surrendered without hesitation to the imperial government. On February 9 Prince Arisugawa received the commission of commander in chief, with instructions to bring the east under control, and under his orders the imperial forces moved upon Tōkai, Tōsan, and Hokuriku. The prince entered Sumpu on March 5 and made preparations for the assault of Edo. Before the attack took place, however, the shōgun retired to a temple in Edo, and dispatched Ōkubo Tadahiro, Katsu Awa Yoshikuni, and others to open negotiations with Saigō Takamori, general of the imperial forces then about to move on the eastern capital. Both armies, the imperial and the feudal, were animated with an uncontrollable desire to fight to the last, and the imminent clash was barely averted by the word of honor exchanged between two individuals, General Saigō of the emperor's army and Katsu, a vassal of the shōgun. They had met each other only once, years before, but, although circumstances had placed them in hostile camps, had entertained so unbounded an admiration and confidence in each other's noble character that now only a few words sufficed for them to pledge, on their honor as _samurai_, to effect the surrender of the Tokugawa with their dignity unimpaired, and to save Edo from an unnecessary destruction of the lives and properties of its two million inhabitants. On March 4 the van of the imperial army entered Edo and occupied the castle, the Shōgun Yoshinobu being granted his life and confined in Mito. On the 15th the prince entered Edo, and in May a grant of lands yielding annually 700,000 _koku_ of rice in Suruga, Tōtōmi, and Mutsu was made to the Tokugawa family for its maintenance.