d'affaires_, and had just removed from Yokohama and resumed the
occupancy of the temple of Tozenji. The government took the precaution to
establish guards, who daily and nightly made their rounds to protect the
buildings. Besides this there was a guard detailed from the British fleet
to render the legation more secure. The officials persisted in claiming
that only one person, Ito Gumpei, was engaged in the attack, and that it
was a matter of private revenge for an insult which one of the English
guards had put upon him. Two of these guards were killed in the attack,
and Ito Gumpei the assassin escaped to his own house, where he was
permitted to commit _hara-kiri_. There was probably no plot on the part of
those whose duty it was to protect the legation. But the uncertainty which
hung over the affair, and the repetition of the violence of the preceding
year led Colonel Neale to abandon his residence at Yedo and return to
Yokohama. An indemnity of L10,000 was demanded and finally paid for the
families of the two members of the guard who had been murdered.

In the meantime the relations between the courts at Kyoto and Yedo had
become more and more strained. The efforts at reconciliation, such as the
marriage between the young shogun and the sister of the emperor in 1861,
produced no permanent effect. The disease was too deep-seated and serious
to be affected by such palliations. Shimazu Saburo, the uncle(289) and
guardian of the young daimyo of Satsuma, came in 1862 to Kyoto with the
avowed purpose of advising the emperor in this emergency. He was
accompanied by a formidable body of Satsuma troops, and on these he relied
to have his advice followed.

On his way thither he had been joined by a body of _ronins_ who were
contemplating the accomplishment of some enterprise which should be
notable in the expulsion of foreigners. They imagined that the powerful
head of the Satsuma clan would be a suitable leader for such an
enterprise. They approached him therefore and humbly petitioned to be
received under his standard. Not quite satisfied to have such a band of
reckless ruffians under his command, he, however, scarcely dared to refuse
their petition. He therefore permitted them to join his escort and march
with him to Kyoto.

The emperor's court, although bitterly hostile to the liberal policy which
prevailed at Yedo, were alarmed by the desperate allies which Shimazu was
bringing with him. He presented their memorial to the