le that Japan had ever known. The Taira fleet consisted of
five hundred vessels, which held not only the fighting men, but their
mothers, wives, and children, among them the dethroned mikado, a child
six years of age. The Minamoto fleet was composed of seven hundred
junks, containing none but men.

In the battle that followed, the young leader of the Minamoto showed the
highest intrepidity. The fight began with a fierce onset from the Taira,
which drove back their foe. With voice and example Yoshitsune encouraged
his men. For an interval the combat lulled. Then Wada, a noted archer,
shot an arrow which struck the junk of a Taira chief.

"Shoot it back!" cried the chief.

An archer plucked it from the wood, fitted it to his bow, and let it fly
at the Minamoto fleet. The shaft grazed the helmet of one warrior and
pierced the breast of another.

"Shoot it back!" cried Yoshitsune.

"It is short and weak," said Wada, plucking it from the dead man's
breast. Taking a longer shaft from his quiver, he shot it with such
force and sureness of aim that it passed through the armor and flesh of
the Taira bowman and fell into the sea beyond. Yoshitsune emptied his
quiver with similar skill, each arrow finding a victim, and soon the
tide of battle turned.

Treason aided the Minamoto in their victory. In the vessel containing
the son, widow, and daughter of Kiyomori, and the young mikado, was a
friend of Yoshitsune, who had agreed upon a signal by which this junk
could be known. In the height of the struggle the signal appeared.
Yoshitsune at once ordered a number of captains to follow with their
boats, and bore down on this central vessel of the Taira fleet.

Soon the devoted vessel was surrounded by hostile junks, and armed men
leaped in numbers on its deck. A Taira man sprang upon Yoshitsune, sword
in hand, but he saved his life by leaping to another junk, while his
assailant plunged to death in the encrimsoned waves. Down went the Taira
nobles before the swords of their assailants. The widow of Kiyomori,
determined not to be taken alive, seized the youthful mikado and leaped
into the sea. Munemori, Kiyomori's son and the head of the Taira house,
was taken, with many nobles and ladies of the court.

Still the battle went on. Ship after ship of the Taira fleet, their
sides crushed by the prows of their opponents, sunk beneath the reddened
waters. Others were boarded and swept clear of defenders by the sword.
Hundreds perished