“That for your friend Nelie, if you please!”
Almost immediately he repeated the action, saying:
“And that for your friend Montferrat!”
“For your master, the Lord De Preau, I beg your acceptance of that,” continued John, running his rapier through the fleshy part of the other’s shoulder.
[The terrified Frenchman dropped his sword and fell upon his knees] with upraised hands.
“Mercy for the love of heaven!” he cried. “Slay me not unshriven with my sins upon my head.”
“Maybe we can find a priest to prepare thee for the journey to a better land,” replied John, not unwilling that the robber should suffer a little more. “Ho, there!” to a group of rustics who had been attracted by the sounds of the conflict. “Know’st any holy father confessor living in these parts?”
The peasants declared that a priest resided within a mile of the spot and one of them departed in haste to fetch him to the scene.
As we know, John had no intention of killing Courcelles, nor did he desire to await the return of the shriver, so finding that the Frenchman had no means of making restitution for the theft of his goods, he left him. But before doing so, he extorted from the apparently repentant man a promise to live an honest life in future.