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106 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
of conquests beginning nearly a thousand years ago.
After campaigns on the borders were over, the heads
of the two clans living in Kyoto became jealous of
each other. At last a great feud broke out, and a
bloody contest began at the base of the imperial
chariot, that was before the palace gates.
Ten
separate battles were fought in one day in front of
the palace from sunrise until noon. Then, after the
Gen ranks had become greatly thinned, their swords
broken, their quivers empty, and men and horses
wounded, their leader sounded the conch to retreat.
" Let me pass over the actual details of blood and
slaughter and personal onsets on which our historians
delight to dwell, and tell
you of Yoshitomo, the
grandson of Yoshi-iye*, who led the Gen band on
that day. He retreated eastward, and one day while
in the bath was assassinated by three ruffians hired
b} 7 Kiyomori, the victorious head of the He'ike', who
now sent out orders all over the empire to seize
every man of Genji and put them to death.
"Yoritomo, the son of Yoshitomo, who afterwards
became the first
Tycoon of Japan, was then only thirteen
years old but ; though so young, he was of a
hardy and enduring nature and had great control of
himself, so that he showed neither joy nor anger in
his countenance. He was beloved and respected
by all.
" He was an officer of the palace guards and carried
the famous sword of the family called ' Beardcutter.'
This blade was so named because, after
cutting off a kneeling man's head it clipped the