She spoke in a dull, broken voice, growing weaker and weaker. Her eyes opened wide; a waxen pallor over-spread her face. "You will speak of me to your father, Iwakura," she resumed; "he loved me well! I told him that I should never see the castle again. I was almost happy there. I saw the room where you were born, your baby dresses--Ah! I have loved you fondly!" She gasped; drops of sweat stood on her brow. She tore the bandage from her wound. "Iwakura!" she said, "I cannot see you; lean over me--nearer--Ah!" she shrieked, "to go when he is here!" "She is dying!" cried the agonized Prince. "She is dead," said the doctor. Tika uttered a howl of grief. The Prince hid his face in his hands. "All her sufferings are over now," said the doctor; "she is at rest, and forgets her troubles in the serene tranquillity of the last sleep." CHAPTER XXIV. THE TREATY OF PEACE. Hieyas consented to close the war; but, as Fide-Yori predicted, his terms were hard. "I demand," he said, "the execution of one of the three following alternatives: let Fide-Yori give up the fortress, and spend seven years at Yamato; let me receive Yodogimi as hostage; or let the walls of Osaka be razed, and the moats filled up." The last proposition only was received with favor by the assembled generals in council of war. But Yoke-Moura regarded the destruction of the ramparts as almost sacrilegious. "This peace will not last long," said he; "and If the war is renewed, what will become of us with our dismantled castle?" There was a question of letting Yodogimi go. "My mother! How can you think of such a thing?" cried the Shogun. "Such a hostage once in his hands, we should cease to be aught but the slaves of Hieyas." "True," exclaimed General Harounaga; "it is impossible." "Our walls once destroyed, we are left defenceless. War is preferable to such a peace," broke in Yoke-Moura. He would willingly have surrendered Yodogimi; he cared but little for a woman. "Hieyas specifies," said some one, "that the moats are to be filled up in such a way that children of three can run up and down into them at play." "Ten thousand laborers are to be set to work on the walls in all haste," said another. Yoke-Moura sighed. "We must accept that condition," said the Shogun; "we are forced to do so. At the least suspicion of war, we can build up the walls and dig out the moats again." "As you insist," said Yoke-Moura, "I will follow your advice; let us demolish the fortress." "Let General Signenari proceed to Hieyas' camp to exchange treaties of peace; he will represent me worthily; and, I am sure, will acquit himself nobly in this delicate affair." "I will strive to deserve the trust with which you honor me," said Signenari. "I await your orders to depart." "You have scarcely sheathed the sword with which you punished the province of Tosa," said the Shogun; "if you require a day's rest, take it."