“No, you must explain.”
“What—have you forgotten the incident at the ford, from which all this luckless mission derived? To send a convicted pander to sing his employer’s praises! God in heaven! Who but a prince could have failed to foresee the end?”
“Well, sir—continue. I begin, I think, to perceive.”
“Not justly, sir, nor the whole. I sang your praises; I was loyal to my friendship and my humiliating task. Never doubt that for one instant. But what was the force of an advocacy so recommended? What any but a prince might have foretold. I was scorned, I was repudiated, and rightly, because my honour was in question; and that I could not endure. It was above all things dear to me, and I wrought to exculpate it. I could not have gained a hearing without—and that is my excuse and my crime.”
He ended, breathing deeply. Still the unwinking eyes canvassed him, and without emotion, it seemed.
“You sought to convince her of your honour?”
“I had no alternative.”
“By converting it, so vindicated, to a dishonourable purpose?”
“I never ceased to extol your Highness’s noble qualities—no, not to the end.”
“The end!”