"You mean, 'but for me,'" suggested she, coldly. Now I do not wish you death, nor shall I marry you: I could not, as yet--I might say, for laughing; but, if you do as I direct, I will see you safely from here. Use this disguise, and reaching Fushima forthwith subject yourself to the good will of Ieyasu; he may protect you, but if you cannot hold your tongue I should advise rather that you trust the captains; they are less apt to procrastinate." Donning thus the guise of a bonze--he had, at all events, professed Christianity--Ishida made off toward Fushima fully determined to win the hand of Yodogima, if not by valor, then with catering, for withal his meanness he believed himself worth her while. Meeting Ieyasu at Bungo bashi (bridge), Ishida kneeled and craved his pardon. Ieyasu granted it; he had sooner heard from Yodogima, at the hand of a messenger, one of the captains, Honda Masanobu, advising him: upon recalling a previous conversation: "I, too, have been considering whether it were best to let the captains make way with Ishida or to save him for further use." "Whose use," inquired Masanobu; "your own, or--" "As you think, friend Masanobu," replied Ieyasu, in the twinkling of an eye. Thence Masanobu became a friend to Ieyasu, and of the seven captains left by Hideyoshi, none was, however alienated, actively engaged directly with advancing the interests of Hideyori. Those who had sworn to take the life of Ishida now deemed it obligatory to cry umbrage at Ieyasu's saving him: between the two of them, Ishida and Ieyasu, they all, but Kuroda (who continued to remain absent) alike stood ready and anxious to enter the ranks of the one or the other madly to avenge a threatening wrong, on either side attributable to a common cause, an assumably attempted infringement upon the rights and duties of the house Hideyoshi had builded. Each of them, Ishida and Ieyasu--the only ones whose ambitions seemingly conflicted with hers--had sunk himself so deeply into the mire that no rescue save a conflict could eradicate the danger of an after consequence, and Yodogima quietly seated herself, there, in Ozaka, apparently independent and alone, upon a throne, perhaps builded by herself and unthought of by the taiko or those sworn to do him justice, ready to give and to take, frown or smile, as occasion required and fortune betokened: and she did as much, and more. Ieyasu, refusing to listen to the captains, forthwith sent Ishida to his keep at Sawayama. And that none might do him harm on the way, or learn too much about his liberties and movements after there, he afforded his own son, Hideyasu, and a goodly force, as well, for escort.