history of japan - Library

own personal satisfaction proceeded to ask them many
questions about the happenings of the previous night. It
was to Hosokawa of Kumamoto (540,000 koku) that Ōishi
himself, with sixteen of his comrades, was entrusted, the
others were distributed among the smaller Daimyō of
Matsuyama,
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Chōfu, and Okazaki. Hosokawa sent no fewer than 750
men to fetch the seventeen committed to his charge. It was
past ten o'clock when the cavalcade reached his yashiki in
Shirokane, and yet, late as the hour was, Hosokawa at
once proceeded to the officers' room to meet them, and to
load them with expressions of admiration and praise. He
felt highly honoured, he assured them, to be entrusted with
the care of such staunch and loyal samurai as they proved
themselves to be; he begged them, though many
attendants were set about them in obedience to the
Shōgun's order, to be quite at their ease, and to repose
themselves after their laborious exertions. He then ordered
supper to be set before them and withdrew. As for the other
smaller Daimyō, they did not see the rōnin that night, but,
on learning what had taken place at the great Shirokane
yashiki, they were not slow to take their cue from the
powerful Kokushū Daimyō of Higo, [1] and they personally
bade the rōnin welcome on the following day.