"More blood on your hands! Another life taken! The first, perhaps, had to be, but this man had done no direct harm, this man——"
"Kate," I interrupted her sternly, "this, too, as you put it, 'had to be.' The issues at stake were too tremendous to justify me in running any risk. And this man was an English-speaking foreign mercenary, whom I, with my own eyes, saw deliberately murder two policemen and a soldier in cold blood and without mercy."
"And the King?" she gasped, white to the lips.
"The King," I said, "is safe. I stayed only to put the body out of sight, and to cover up the traces of the tragedy, before going back to set him free. The rising is over. It is the King himself who has given it its death-blow. When the contingent of rioters, who had succeeded in passing the barriers, reached Buckingham Palace, the King declared his intention of going out himself to meet them. Notwithstanding the Queen's tears, the Prince's entreaties, his Ministers' prayers, he refused to be turned from his purpose.
"'I am not afraid of my people,' he said unconcernedly, 'and I do not think my people will harm me.'
"Walking to a window on the ground floor, he threw it up, and standing upon a chair in sight of all, spoke to the crowd.
"'My friends!' he said. 'My people, whom I have loved, and who have never yet before failed in love to me, you have been misled by a madman and a murderer, who is now dead. The uproar began with him, and with his death it will assuredly end. Your leaders, those who have planned and carried out this treason and this devilry, and those who have shed blood, must answer to the law for what they have done, and must answer, it may be, with their lives.
"'But for you, my people, who have been blinded, duped, and misled by the dead arch-traitor who called himself the Dumpling, to you, my people, if you now disperse and go to your homes, free pardon and forgiveness shall be extended. It is your King who says it, and your King's word is enough.
"'And now, listen. I am not afraid of my people, and I do not think there is one sane man among my people who would harm me. See, I come out to you of my own accord, unescorted, unattended, and unarmed.'
"Stepping upon the window-sill, he said, laughingly: