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THE RED AND WHITE BANNERS. 123
to Kyoto, and thence southward to the castle into
which the He'ike' had taken refuge. The weakest
part of the castle was backed by a high mountain,
having such precipitous sides that it was thought
impossible for any human beings or horses to descend
it.
Only the wild boar and deer made it
their path. On all the other sides, except one
narrow approach, was the sea. So the He'ike
fancied themselves secure.
" Yoshitsune*, with his hundred picked horsemen,
went around and ascended to the top of the hill
overlooking the steep precipice. Then he set a
horse loose and drove it down into the dense woods.
For a few minutes nothing was seen or heard but
the crashing of sticks and the scraping
of treebranches,
and then the horse was seen trotting
unharmed on the level ground below.
" Then, turning to his men, Yoshitsune' said,
' Follow me ;
and clapping his stirrups and whipping
'
his horse he dashed forward and down the face of
the cliff. Forward then followed the whole band,
and, after breathless plunges and some hard brushing
against boughs and tumbling over stones and
underbrush, the whole band with white pennons
streaming stood in battle array before the weak wall
of the castle to the terror of the He'ike' garrison.
" Victory and the red flag and many prisoners remained
under the white banner. The palaces of
the He'ike' were one after another set on fire. The
He'ike' were driven to the end of the main island
and took to their ships. The Genji prepared a fleet