Chap. XY. MURDER OP MR. RICHARDSON. 
who had arrived determined at once to proceed in 
search of Mr. Richardson, who had been seen by 
him also to fall from his horse exhausted. As 
they reached the main road they perceived Captain 
Yyse, accompanied by several residents on horse- 
back, together with the mounted guard, proceeding 
on the same errand. . . . They continued on 
the road till they arrived at the half-way house 
between Kanagawa and Kawasaki, where they 
were joined by the French mounted guard, who 
had received orders from M. de Bellecourt, His 
Imperial Majesty’s Envoy, to act in concert with 
Captain Yyse and those who accompanied him. 
Here they made inquiries, but could get no in- 
formation, the people affecting entire ignorance 
upon the matter. A little boy, however, came 
forward and volunteered to point out where the 
body was lying ; under his guidance they retraced 
their steps about half a mile, and found the body 
lying about ten yards off the road in a field, at the 
side of a small cottage. It was covered over with 
a couple of old mats, which, on being removed, re- 
vealed a most ghastly and horrible spectacle. The 
whole body was one mass of blood; one wound, 
from which the bowels protruded, extended from 
the abdomen to the back ; another,' on the left 
shoulder, had severed all the bones into the chest ; 
there was a gaping spear-wound over the region 
of the heart; the right wrist was completely di- 
vided, and the hand was hanging merely by a 
strip of flesh ; the back of the left hand was nearly 
s 2 
