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A NEW NATION. 365
and the court nobles retreated to Choshiu; but in
the following July a small army of irregulars from
various clans came to Kyoto to petition the Mikado
to restore the lord of Choshiu and the outlawed court
nobles to honor. An order was issued to chastise
the irregulars, which was duly issued, and Fujimaro
and his Fukui soldiers guarded the Sakai-street gate.
Then at daydawn, on the twentieth of August,
began a battle before the palace gates, like that of
the Genji and He'ike' seven hundred and five
before. On the one side were the Choshiu
years
clansmen
and the ronins, and on the other the soldiers of
Tokugawa, Aidzu, Echizen, and other clans. The
warriors were dressed in armor, but equipped also
with muskets, and using cannon as well as arrows,
spears, and swords. The prize of victory was the
government to gain and hold the palace and the
imperial person. As before, in 1159 A.D., those in
possession of the palace and gardens held their own.
The Choshiu army was driven back, but Kyoto was
nearly destroyed by the cannonade and by fire.
Thirty-seven of the captured southerners were beheaded
in prison. Fujimaro was richly rewarded.
Elated with success, the Tokugawas now resolved
to utterly suppress the rebellious province ; but the
southern clan, undismayed, prepared to fight both
the allied squadrons of Great Britain, France, Holland,
and the United States, and the armies from
Yedo. In September, 1864, the fleet of four nations,
with seventeen ships, two hundred and eight guns,
and seventy-five hundred and ninety men, bombarded