do you cry? Do you
think the Mogu are coming?"

It may be well here to say that the story of this invasion is told by
Marco Polo, who was at the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol conqueror of
China, at the time it took place, and that his tale differs in many
respects from that of the Japanese historians. Each party is apparently
making the best of its side of the affair.

According to Marco Polo's account, the failure of the expedition was due
to jealousy between the two officers in command. He states that one
Japanese fortification was taken and all within put to the sword, except
two, whose flesh was charmed against the sword and who could be killed
only by being beaten to death with great clubs. As for those who reached
Taka Island, they contrived by strategy to gain possession of the boats
of the assailing Japanese, by whose aid, and that of the flags which the
boats flew, they captured the chief city of Japan. Here for six months
they were closely besieged, and finally surrendered on condition that
their lives should be spared.

_NOBUNAGA AND THE FALL OF THE BUDDHISTS._

For more than two centuries the Ashikaga lorded it over Japan, as the
Hojo had done before them, and the mikados were tools in their strong
hands. Then arose a man who overthrew this powerful clan. This man,
Nobunaga by name, was a descendant of Kiyomori, the great leader of the
Taira clan, his direct ancestor being one of the few who escaped from
the great Minamoto massacre.

The father of this Taira chief was a soldier whose valor had won him a
large estate. Nobunaga added to it, built himself a strong castle, and
became the friend and patron of the last of the Ashikaga, whom he made
shogun. (The Ashikaga were descendants of the Minamoto, who alone had
hereditary claim to this high office.) But Nobunaga remained the power
behind the throne, and, a quarrel arising between him and the shogun, he
deposed the latter, and became himself the ruler of Japan. After two
hundred and thirty-eight years of dominion the lordship of the Ashikaga
thus came to an end.

Of this great Japanese leader we are told, "He was a prince of large
stature, but of weak and delicate complexion, with a heart and soul that
supplied all other wants; ambitious above all mankind; brave, generous,
and bold, and not without many excellent moral virtues; inclined to
justice, and an enemy to treason. With a quick and penetrating wit, he
seemed cut out for business. Ex