They all ran about with glee, those of the Christians present; that one so near conversion, as Hideyori, had been raised to some exalted position were enough to enthuse them; but Yodogima meditated; the confusion thereat had left her as doubtful as Ieyasu had been perplexed with Jokoin's entanglement. Yet she would not restrain Hideyori in his exultation from irretrievably committing himself by exercising only once the authority; she wanted to accommodate her sisters, especially Esyo, and perhaps Jokoin--possibly herself--so the power was invoked. Ieyasu laughed when informed of the circumstance, and sending for Jokoin, told her that now he should encounter little discouragement in winning her over. "I want you to be my wife, Jokoin," said he, without a wrinkle or a quaver; "you are the last of the family, and are single again; what say you to feasting Hideyori: don't you think he might be gotten rid of in some such way?" Jokoin's eyes opened wide. The sister to Yodogima had never heard that one's former lover talk in that way before. It seemed impossible that the great Ieyasu, an unsuspected character, if self-inflicted shogun, a lifelong aspirant to her sister's hand, should so belittle himself as to banter respect however much else. "I shall speak with Yodogima; you overwhelm me," replied Jokoin, dumfounded at her own sensibility. "Please do; tell her that I wish to marry you; that I would spread a befitting feast; that I beseech a fool to attend; that Hideyori may judge of what he has missed; that your extravagance would swamp a younger man--all this, and more: say that Esyo, her sister, wants to kill Hideyori, and that I know of no better means of encompassing that event." Jokoin hurried away, fully determined never to return; the ghost of Hideyori already betokened a reality at every turn in the road, and from the moorland hard by arose the whisperings and the wailings of a repentant sister--Esyo's voice rang ominously in her ears. Yodogima, contrary to expectations, brightened at the thought of sending Hideyori into the enemy's camp. He had shown himself the man to foil Ieyasu's contemplated espionage at its inception: what greater capacity might be discovered if brought face to face with a man whose extremity had induced so flagrant a mouthing. "Tell Ieyasu that Hideyori shall attend with pleasure, not his marriage revel, but more the witless unmaking of as pampered a braggadocio as an humbler memory of Hideyoshi and Nobunaga combined might have fairly conduced. Tell him that he would eat the rice-cake these two worthies made; but in the doing he shall choke for lack of throat. Let him know that Yodogima lives, and so long as there is a Taira alive justice shall be done: no man's religion is to be the occasion of his persecution, my sisters may do as their God tells them to do, and Hideyori must reign."