THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR
fight, cutting down fifteen or sixteen of his assailants, so that at last they retired beyond the reach of his sword, and bent their bows to shoot him. Then he ascended to the roof of the house and shouted to them to hold their hands while he spoke: "A crowd of you have come to attack me as I slept. Cowards! Did you not dare to challenge me in fair fight? I have already given my life to my lord on the plain of Yoshino, and to lose it now is nothing. It would be easy to fall, fighting so long as my sword had an edge. But to slay one or two hundred common fellows like you would be an idle task. Yet you shall not carry to Kamakura a lying story how you took the head of such an one as Tadanobu. See now how a true warrior dies, so that you may tell it to your children." Thus speaking, he plunged his sword into his body and drew it across and upward in the true seppuku fashion. Yoritomo applauded his death in terms of high praise, and caused his body to be buried with all honour.
Prince Morinaga, besieged by his enemies (1333 A.D.) and reduced to desperate straits, fled at the last moment from his castle. If the assailants suspected his flight, escape would be impossible. Murakami Yoshimitsu, donning a suit of the Prince's armour, ascended a tower, and presenting himself to the enemy, shouted, "Hear me, rebels! I, the son of the Emperor Godaigo, destroyed by your disloyalty, die here by my own
189
