Would she bid defiance away, under the stress of heart? Or would she starve self, to uphold tradition? The tanka progressed, and Ieyasu trembled underneath advancement's harsher demands; time had wrought his inevitable change. Ages ago his nearest ancestors had snatched the coveted morsel and gorged unchallenged behind a fiercer deity. Yet still farther back and over that again stood Amaterasu, benign, supreme, unquestioned. Whence this fleeting thought of man? Were he but the crude remnant of an unbroken descent thence the God of gods? Man, only a product of decline, groping his way from past to present; often recovering, then again but losing; only to sink still lower, more hopelessly, till dust once and forever claimed him? Were hell his goal, or heaven his due? The tanka alone answered. Her notes quickened, and it strengthened him: there remained but a single verse, and it seemed as if breathing were a penalty. Sakuma passed them by, at some distance, in the garden below. The concerned captain had just left the council chamber, and walking as if in a hurry, toward the armory, not far distant, underneath the inner ramparts, at the farther side of the castle enclosure, without observing the lovers, well hidden behind the overhanging vine's long drooping branches--they were as unmindful of him as he was careless about them--Sakuma only heard, though marvelled its more than usual pathos the last informing strains of Yodogima's world-appealing message. Knowing though who her auditor might be and divining the occasion for such feeling--only the last measures had reached him distinctly--there appeared no need for any closer contact: the grizzled veteran went his way, determined, however convinced. Yodogima and Ieyasu both had risen, and standing facing, each bowed earnestly, meditating deeply the responsibilities they had then for all time of their own will so freely assumed. "Pardon me, Ieyasu; I did not mean to be irreverent. Some ungovernable impulse truly possessed me--relieve and forget." "Forget I could not, and why relieve? Is it not meet to take?" "You know my father's will." "And I know yours." "And your own?" "Yes." "You disadvantage me." "I'll prove it's not a quandary." "Then I am yours, for I have confidence in you, and confidence rightfully bestowed is truly real liberty won." "Quite democratic, Yodogima, and--perchance justly so; were men without some wholesome check the world should sooner reach its final doom." "But we live, Ieyasu, and--is not life worth the while? Does it not portend something more than merely living?" "It would were it not for the price--but trust me, Yodogima; I live only for you." "I do." "Then you are mine, and the world can take care of itself."