“These be honourable scars,” he said, and turned back his grey hair and showed the mutilated stubs of what had once been his ears.

The King’s eye burned with passion.  He said—­

“None believe in me—­neither wilt thou.  But no matter—­within the compass of a month thou shalt be free; and more, the laws that have dishonoured thee, and shamed the English name, shall be swept from the statute books.  The world is made wrong; kings should go to school to their own laws, at times, and so learn mercy.” {1}

Chapter XXVIII.  The sacrifice.

Meantime Miles was growing sufficiently tired of confinement and inaction.  But now his trial came on, to his great gratification, and he thought he could welcome any sentence provided a further imprisonment should not be a part of it.  But he was mistaken about that.  He was in a fine fury when he found himself described as a ‘sturdy vagabond’ and sentenced to sit two hours in the stocks for bearing that character and for assaulting the master of Hendon Hall.  His pretensions as to brothership with his prosecutor, and rightful heirship to the Hendon honours and estates, were left contemptuously unnoticed, as being not even worth examination.

He raged and threatened on his way to punishment, but it did no good; he was snatched roughly along by the officers, and got an occasional cuff, besides, for his irreverent conduct.

The King could not pierce through the rabble that swarmed behind; so he was obliged to follow in the rear, remote from his good friend and servant.  The King had been nearly condemned to the stocks himself for being in such bad company, but had been let off with a lecture and a warning, in consideration of his youth.  When the crowd at last halted, he flitted feverishly from point to point around its outer rim, hunting a place to get through; and at last, after a deal of difficulty and delay, succeeded.  There sat his poor henchman in the degrading stocks, the sport and butt of a dirty mob—­he, the body servant of the King of England!  Edward had heard the sentence pronounced, but he had not realised the half that it meant.  His anger began to rise as the sense of this new indignity which had been put upon him sank home; it jumped to summer heat, the next moment, when he saw an egg sail through the air and crush itself against Hendon’s cheek, and heard the crowd roar its enjoyment of the episode.  He sprang across the open circle and confronted the officer in charge, crying—­

“For shame!  This is my servant—­set him free!  I am the—­”

“Oh, peace!” exclaimed Hendon, in a panic, “thou’lt destroy thyself.  Mind him not, officer, he is mad.”

“Give thyself no trouble as to the matter of minding him, good man, I have small mind to mind him; but as to teaching him somewhat, to that I am well inclined.”  He turned to a subordinate and said, “Give the little fool a taste or two of the lash, to mend his manners.”