"And you shall not be disappointed; you may keep the infant; women are cheap, and shoguns dear--do you observe the pattern, of my gown, Yodogima? I trust I wear it, becomingly, you perceive?" "Yes, Esyo; I understand, now. It has taken me a long time to believe a sister could play another false--you have my protection beyond the lines, and my best wishes always: tell your father-in-law that I accept his challenge, and that war alone can determine the issue." Esyo could not await her own return, so couriers were advanced with the intelligence. Upon her arrival, much excitement but little enthusiasm lingered at Fushima. Kuroda, Fukushima, and others of the daimyos were there in council with Ieyasu--the new shogun, Hidetada, had already prepared to march. "It is your fault, Kuroda, and Fukushima, and you my spineless schemers, that hostilities have begun, and--" "Cannot their leaders be bought?" "You shall have to fight, or surrender to the Christians; Yodogima is not purchasable." Levies were hastened forward, and the treasures brought in; Ieyasu had succeeded, and greed for once stood compelled to surrender its power unto determined men, or subject themselves to the leadership of a man who hated no less the influence of plethoric wealth upon state than dreaded the consequences of a partial democracy among men. The Christians had become the instrument; and diplomacy proved the means with which Ieyasu divided the nation and equipped himself to enforce centralization. Yodogima had builded upon broader lines: her star seemed the brighter. CHAPTER XXX War had been declared, the decisive battle faced them, and neither side underestimated the other's strength nor neglected his own best possible recourse. Yodogima and Ieyasu, two lovers at heart, loomed the more formidable as enemies, measuring each other in the luminous cauldron of a perfect understanding, and did not their souls unite in the attainment of a common, supreme, an overwhelming obligation--the means as widely divergent as the uplift had been ideal--courage had failed either, and humanity must have lost a most ardently conceived, if untimely wrought, exemplification. At her left, the sun rose clear and commanding, behind the hills of Nara, where the sages had lived and died unto the days of myth, perhaps when Jimmu landed a wanderer from burdens escaped, or as descended of the gods in heaven. Memories of these things inspired Yodogima. The sacredness of its soil compelled thoughts farther away than of to-day.