Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://books.google.com/books?id=UCQXAAAAYAAJ 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]; "y" with a circumflex above by [^y]; "o" with a macron above by [=o]. THE CURSE OF KOSHIU. _A CHRONICLE OF OLD JAPAN_. BY The Honble. LEWIS WINGFIELD, AUTHOR OF "LADY ORIZEL," "IN HER MAJESTY'S KEEPING," "ABIGEL ROWE," "BARBARA PHILPOT," ETC. LONDON: WARD & DOWNEY, 12 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. * * * 1888. [_All Rights reserved_.] EDINBURGH COLSTON AND COMPANY PRINTERS CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Boy and Girl. CHAPTER II. The Last Hojo. CHAPTER III. Married Life. CHAPTER IV. The Abbess gives Advice. CHAPTER V. The Farmer girds His Loins. CHAPTER VI. The Young Mikado. CHAPTER VII. The Farmer's Sentence. CHAPTER VIII. Destiny is Busy. CHAPTER IX. The Execution. CHAPTER X. Forebodings. CHAPTER XI. The Curse begins to Work. CHAPTER XII. The Daimio of Nara Begins to Work. CHAPTER XIII. The Despot obeys Orders. CHAPTER XIV. The Mikado does Business. CHAPTER XV. Will Buddha Speak? CHAPTER XVI. Masago takes the Reins. CHAPTER XVII. Under the Moon. CHAPTER XVIII. Face to Face. CHAPTER XIX. The Web Is Woven. THE CURSE OF KOSHIU. CHAPTER I. BOY AND GIRL. It was towards the end of the fourteenth century that the grandeur of the Hojo family rose to its acme, then fell with awful crash. The feudal story of the Land of the Rising Sun is a long dark chronicle of blood and tears, of crime and rapine, of vengeance and vendetta, out of which there glints at intervals a gleam of glorious heroism, of holy devotion, of pure love and unsullied faith.