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CHAPTER XXXI.
THE STORM BREAKS. A NEW NATION.
ri \HE Choshiu men, in firing on foreign vessels,
-- had obeyed the Mikado and disobeyed the
Tycoon. The Throne and the Camp had again dis-
agreed, and this time the disagreement
was "the
beginning of the end." Thousands of " foreignerhaters
" now gathered in Choshiu, and took service
as soldiers and artillerymen. This one clan, thus
re-inforced, seemed determined to fight the Treaty
Nations and the Yedo government, and, if possible,
capture Kyoto, seize the Mikado, and in place of the
Tokugawa dynasty set up that of Mori of Choshiu.
On the fourth of September they fired on a bakufu
steamer and, boarding her, compelled certain men on
board to commit hara-kiri, and then assassinated two
men known to be spies from Yedo. This opened the
long war between Tokugawa and Mori.
At Kyoto, there being fifteen hundred Choshiu
clansmen in or near the city, and being suspected of
plotting to seize the Mikado's person, they were outlawed
by a decree of the court, then under the in-
fluence of Aidzu and Tokugawa. Eighteen kuge",
or court nobles, were punished, and five more de-
with Cho-
prived of rank and titles for conspiring
shiu. On the thirtieth of September the clansmen
364