And now you would have
thought that all was over. But the Commodore was already in
treaty with the Shogun's Government; it was one of the
stipulations that no Japanese was to be aided in escaping
from Japan; and Yoshida and his followers were handed over as
prisoners to the authorities at Simoda. That night he who
had been to explore the secrets of the barbarian slept, if he
might sleep at all, in a cell too short for lying down at
full length, and too low for standing upright. There are
some disappointments too great for commentary.
Sakuma, implicated by his handwriting, was sent into his own
province in confinement, from which he was soon released.
Yoshida and the soldier suffered a long and miserable period
of captivity, and the latter, indeed, died, while yet in
prison, of a skin disease. But such a spirit as that of
Yoshida-Torajiro is not easily made or kept a captive; and
that which cannot be broken by misfortune you shall seek in
vain to confine in a bastille. He was indefatigably active,
writing reports to Government and treatises for
dissemination. These latter were contraband; and yet he
found no difficulty in their distribution, for he always had
the jailor on his side. It was in vain that they kept
changing him from one prison to another; Government by that
plan only hastened the spread of new ideas; for Yoshida had
only to arrive to make a convert.
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