not entirely on account of me that she, a court lady, had been put to a pitiless sword before she was twenty? Imagine if you can what feelings tormented me! If I had known of the danger to her, no demons could have frightened me. I would have charged alone into three hundred, five hundred, enemy, so little did I value my life. But the deed had occurred without my knowing of it, and I had been powerless. That very night I shaved my head and became a priest. It is now some twenty years that I have lived on this mountain, praying for the repose of her soul.”
When he had finished speaking the other two priests wetted with tears the sleeves of their dark robes.
- · ·
The next priest to speak was a man about fifty. He stood six feet tall, had a jutting collarbone, angular chin, high cheekbones, thick lips, and a prominent nose. He was dark of complexion and very powerfully built. Above his tattered robes he also wore a stole thrust in at the breast. As he spoke he fingered a large rosary. “I should like to be the next to tell my story,” he said. The others urged him to do so. He began, “Strange to relate, it was I who killed the lady!” Kasuya started up at the words; his color changed, and an attitude of determination came over him.
The second priest said, “Please remain calm for a little while, and I shall tell you in detail what happened.” Kasuya composed his feelings and asked him to begin at once. The second priest said, “Since you gentlemen are from Kyoto, I believe that you may have heard of me. My name is Aragorō of the Third Ward. I began my career of robbery at the age of eight, and first killed a man at twelve. That lady was about the three hundred eightieth person I had killed. I always prided myself on my skill at burglary with violence, but, perhaps because of accumulated sins, from the tenth month of that year I had not been able to carry off a single successful robbery. I tried my hand at mountain banditry, but failed at that too. Every time I thought that I had at last found a way to make a living, it would suddenly come to nothing. I fell on difficult times, and there was often nothing in the house to eat. My wife and children were
