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BLACK CLOUDS. 337
the Choshiu flag (three balls
under a white bar) at
the fore. On the pennants in the redoubt was read
the " legend, In obedience to imperial orders." All
eager and thirsting for blood they worked night
and day to be ready to open fire on the first foreign
ship that passed into the straits on the date of the
twenty-fifth of June, as fixed by the Mikado's order.
As for Honda Jiro, having tasted to the full the
excitement and turmoil of politics and impending
war, and having seen enough of the bloody work
of fanatics to disgust him, and full of a new thirst,
he made his way, with his wife, to Yokohama to seek
knowledge of the "barbarians." He resolved to go
at once to the houses of the missionaries, to become,
if necessary, a servant in order to learn. Heartily
appreciating the noble patriots who, under the pretext
of "driving out the aliens," were in reality
working for a united and regenerated country with
one ruler and one capital, he was yet heartily sick
of the narrow bigotry and brutal bloodthirstiness
of ignorant fanatics.