But he was not left destitute of
sympathy in this last hour of trial. In the next cell lay
one Kusakabe, a reformer from the southern highlands of
Satzuma. They were in prison for different plots indeed, but
for the same intention; they shared the same beliefs and the
same aspirations for Japan; many and long were the
conversations they held through the prison wall, and dear was
the sympathy that soon united them. It fell first to the lot
of Kusakabe to pass before the judges; and when sentence had
been pronounced he was led towards the place of death below
Yoshida's window. To turn the head would have been to
implicate his fellow-prisoner; but he threw him a look from
his eye, and bade him farewell in a loud voice, with these
two Chinese verses:-
"It is better to be a crystal and be broken,
Than to remain perfect like a tile upon the housetop."
So Kusakabe, from the highlands of Satzuma, passed out of the
theatre of this world. His death was like an antique
worthy's.
A little after, and Yoshida too must appear before the Court.
His last scene was of a piece with his career, and fitly
crowned it. He seized on the opportunity of a public
audience, confessed and gloried in his design, and, reading
his auditors a lesson in the history of their country, told
at length the illegality of the Shogun's power and the crimes
by which its exercise was sullied.
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