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322 HONDA THE SAMUEAI.
This tragic event only served to loosen still more
the whole feudal system of Japan. The samurai
daily deserted their masters, the daimios, and became
organized bands of ronin. Their sole pretext
was to see the Mikado restored to supreme power,
while most of them were also jo-i, or alien-haters.
Thoy lived by extorting money and food from the
merchants and farmers. Early in the winter of 1861
a party of the cowardly wretches lay in wait in the
. dissolution,
streets of Yedo for Mr. Heusken, a young Hollander,
and the secretary of Mr. Harris, the American
minister. Returning from the Prussian legation, he
was attacked in the darkness. So sharp are Japanese
swords that, in time of excitement, a man may
receive many and fatal wounds without knowing
until too late their seriousness. Though he reached
the American legation, he lived but two hours.
This was the eighth foreigner killed since 1859.
The foundations of society were threatened with
as the whole empire seemed to be swarm-
ing with bands of men who owned no allegiance to
the daimios ; for while little or no national senti-
ment existed among the farmers and lower class
people, they looked to their local lords as their
only rulers and to the Mikado as only a shadowy
and far-off being. The political heavens were gath-
ering blackness and all hearts feared. It was true,
as one of the most high-souled ronins of the time
expressed it, " the empire is on the point of becom-
ing a hell."
Indeed, in the system of terrorism, such as the