se of Mori, whereas, by
keeping faith, the friendship of Hideyoshi and his fellow barons
would be secured. Accordingly the withdrawal was allowed to take
place unmolested.

IEYASU

The life of the Tokugawa chieftain was placed in great jeopardy by
the Mitsuhide incident. After being brilliantly received by Nobunaga
at Azuchi, Ieyasu, at his host's suggestion, had made a sightseeing
excursion to Kyoto, whence he prolonged his journey to Osaka and
finally to Sakai. The news of the catastrophe reached him at the
last-named place, and his immediate impulse was to be avenged upon
the assassin. But it was pointed out to him that his following was
much too small for such an enterprise, and he therefore decided to
set out for the east immediately. Mitsuhide, well aware of the
Tokugawa baron's unfriendliness, made strenuous efforts to waylay
Ieyasu on the way, and with great difficulty the journey eastward was
accomplished by avoiding all the highroads.

NOBUNAGA

Nobunaga perished at the age of forty-nine. The great faults of his
character seem to have been want of discrimination in the treatment
of his allies and his retainers, and want of patience in the conduct
of affairs. In his eyes, a baron of high rank deserved no more
consideration than a humble retainer, and he often gave offence which
disturbed the achievement of his plans. As for his impetuousness, his
character has been well depicted side by side with that of Hideyoshi
and Ieyasu in three couplets familiar to all Japanese. These couplets
represent Nobunaga as saying:

Nakaneba korosu
Hototogisu.
(I'll kill the cuckoo
If if it won't sing)

By Hideyoshi the same idea is conveyed thus:--

Nakashite miyo
Hototogisu.
(I'll try to make the cuckoo sing.)

Whereas, Ieyasu puts the matter thus:--

Nakumade mato
Hototogisu.
(I'll wait till the cuckoo does sing.)

Nevertheless, whatever Nobunaga may have lost by these defects, the
fact remains that in the three decades of his military career he
brought under his sway thirty-three provinces, or one-half of the
whole country, and at the time of his death he contemplated the
further conquest of Shikoku, Chugoku, and Kyushu. To that end he had
appointed Hideyoshi to be Chikuzen no Kami; Kawajiri Shigeyoshi to be
Hizen no Kami, while his own son, Nobutaka, with Niwa Nagahide for
chief of staff, had been sent to subdue Shikoku. Even admitting that
his ambition was self-aggrandizement