But the doctor and the attendants were alarmed. His retainers also came in anxiously, one after another, to look in on him.

But Hideyoshi never even looked around. With his back still turned to them, he waved them away as he might a fly.

"This happens all the time. Just leave me in peace, and I'll be better soon."

The attendants quickly prepared a sweet-smelling decoction for him, which Hideyoshi drank in one gulp. Then he lay down again and seemed to fall asleep, so his attendants and samurai withdrew to the next room. The conference hall was some distance away, so Hideyoshi did not know what happened after he had excused himself. He had left just as the attendants were repeatedly announcing the noon hour, however, so his departure had most likely given the generals the portunity to adjourn for lunch.

About two hours passed. During that time, the afternoon sun of the Seventh Month shone relentlessly. The castle was as peaceful as though nothing were happening at all. Niwa came into the room and asked, "How are you feeling, Hideyoshi? Has your stomach settled down?"

Hideyoshi turned and propped himself up on one elbow. Seeing Niwa's face, he seemed to quickly regain consciousness and sat up straight. "My goodness, excuse me!"

"Katsuie asked me to come and fetch you."

"What about the conference?"

"It cannot resume without you. Katsuie said we would continue after you came back."

"I have said all I had to say."

"After an hour's rest in their rooms, the retainers' mood seems to have changed. Even Katsuie has had second thoughts."

"Let's go."

Hideyoshi stood up. Niwa smiled, but an unsmiling Hideyoshi was already leaving the room.

Katsuie greeted him with a direct look in the eye, while the men gathered there seemed somehow relieved. The atmosphere of the conference hall had changed. Katsuie stated positively that he had given in and accepted Hideyoshi's proposal. A measure had been agreed upon establishing Samboshi as Nobunaga's heir.

With Katsuie's conciliation, the entire conference hall was swept clean of the ominous clouds in an instant. A blending spirit of peace was beginning to arise.

"Everyone agreed that Lord Samboshi should be regarded as the head of the Oda clan, and I have no objection." Katsuie repeated. Seeing that his own view had been re­jected by everyone, Katsuie had quickly withdrawn his previous remarks but had barely survived his disappointment.

There was, however, one hope he still held.

It had to do with the next item to be discussed by the conference: the fate of the for­mer Akechi domain—or, in other words, the problem of how the domain would be di­vided up between the surviving Oda retainers.

Because it was a substantial problem directly affecting the interests of all the generals, it was a difficulty—even more so than the problem of succession—that no one expected to be able to avoid.

"This matter should be decided upon by the senior retainers." Hideyoshi, who had obtained the first victory, expressed his modest opinion, and it greatly smoothed the progress of the conference.

"Well, what are the thoughts of our most senior retainer?"

Niwa, Takigawa, and the others now saved the crushed Katsuie from disgrace, giving him the central position in the conference.

The presence of Hideyoshi, however, was difficult to deny, and the draft proposal was eventually sent to him as well. Apparently it could not be finished without first asking his opinion.

"Bring me a brush," he ordered. Dipping the brush in the ink, he artlessly drew a line through three or four clauses and wrote in his own opinions. With this revision, he sent it back.

Once again it was sent to Katsuie, and Katsuie looked displeased. He thought silently for some time; the clause containing his own hopes was still wet with the ink that had been drawn across it. Hideyoshi, however, had also inked a line through the section al­lotting himself Sakamoto Castle, which he had replaced by the province of Tamba.

Exhibiting a lack of selfishness, he was proposing that Katsuie exhibit the same quality. Finally, a good portion of the Akechi domain was allotted to Nobuo and Nobutaka,

And the rest was assigned as allotments to men according to their merits at the battle of Yamazaki.

“There will be more business tomorrow," Katsuie began. "And with this long conference taking place in such heat, I'm sure you're all tired. I certainly am. Shall we adjourn, my lords?"

Katsuie finally refused to make a quick reply to Hideyoshi's new proposals. There was no objection to that. The afternoon sun was shining brightly, and the heat was becoming more and more severe. The first day was finished.

On the following day Katsuie presented the senior retainers with a compromise. The night before he had gathered his own retainers, and they had put their heads together in a discussion at their lodgings. Hideyoshi, however, turned down the new proposal as well.

On that day again the clause containing the allotments came between the two men and opposition between them seemed to be intensifying. The general trend, however, was already supporting Hideyoshi. No matter how Katsuie persevered, Hideyoshi's conditions were followed in the end.

At noon there was a break, and at the Hour of the Ram the decisions were presented to all the generals.

The territory being distributed was the Akechi's confiscated land as well as Nobunaga’s personal domain.

The first on the list for the division of the Oda provinces was Lord Nobuo, who received the entire province of Owari, followed by Lord Nobutaka, who was given Mino. One was the cradle of the Oda clan; the other, Nobunaga's second home.

There were two clauses, however, that added a good bit more to the original proposal: Ikeda Shonyu was given Osaka, Amagasaki, and Hyogo, which were worth one hundred tweny thousand bushels; Niwa Nagahide received Wakasa and two districts of Omi. Hideyoshi received the province of Tamba.

Katsuie's only grant was Hideyoshi's own castle of Nagahama. It was the strategic bottleneck on the road leading from Katsuie's home province of Echizen to Kyoto. Katsuie requested the province forcibly and had hoped for three or four other districts, but Hideyoshi had scratched out all other grants. Hideyoshi's only condition was that Nagahama would be given to Katsutoyo, Katsuie's adopted son.

The night before, the retainers of the Shibata clan had surrounded Katsuie and advocated a protest against such a humiliating share. They even encouraged him to reject the conditions and leave, and Katsuie was of the same mind right up to the time of his arrival on the second day of the conference. When he faced the men seated there, however, it was evident that the general trend was not to accept what he alone was demanding.

“It wouldn't be right to humble myself, but I shouldn't be viewed as selfish, either. A majority are going to approve of these articles anyway, so if I don't show sympathy for them, it might get worse later on."

In view of the opinions of those seated at the conference, he could naturally do nothing more than restrain himself.

If I can only take the strategic area of Nagahama from Hideyoshi, he thought. In the end, he hoped to realize his secret intentions on another day, and accepted the conditions as they were.

In contrast to Katsuie's vacillation, Hideyoshi's attitude seemed to be one of uncon­cern. From the time of the campaign in the western provinces to the victory at Yamazaki, Hideyoshi had taken the leadership in both military and administrative policies, and peo­ple naturally thought he would expect to receive more than the others. Despite those no­tions, however, what he did receive was nothing more than the province of Tamba. He gave up his domain of Nagahama and granted Sakamoto—which everyone would have thought it proper for him to take—to Niwa.