86 MURDER OF THE REGENT. Chap. V. 
deliberately performed the Harikari,* to the 
edification of their pursuers ; for it seems to be 
the law (so sacred is the rite, or right, which- 
ever may be the proper reading) that no one 
may be interrupted, even for the ends of justice. 
These are held to be sufficiently secured by the 
gelf-immolation of the criminal, however heinous 
the offence ; and it is a privilege to be denied to 
no one entitled to wear two swords. Other 
accounts say that their companions, as a last act 
of friendship, despatched them to prevent their 
falling into the hands of the torturer. Eight 
of the assailants were unaccounted for when all 
was over ; and the remnant of the Regent’s 
people, released from their deadly struggle, hur- 
ried to the norimon to see how it fared with 
their master in the brief interval, to find only a 
headless trunk. The bleeding trophy carried 
off had been the head of the Gotiro himself, 
hacked off on the spot. But strangest of all 
these startling incidents, it is further related 
that two heads were found missing, and that 
which was seen in the fugitive’s hand was only 
a lure to the pursuing party, while the true 
trophy had been secreted on the person of 
another, and was thus successfully carried off. 
The decoy paid the penalty of his life. After 
leading the chase through a first gateway down 
the road, and dashing past the useless guard, he 
was finally overtaken ; the end for which he 
* The act of suicide'by ripping open the stomach. 
