In the Days of Queen Mary

by E. E. Crake

The King was not appeased.

"Go on," he said, "I see you have something further to tell me; I listen."

"Oh, sire," cried the Ambassador, "pardon me if I err through zeal in your service. There is a deed on record, just lately performed, which raised the admiration of the Londoners."

Then as briefly as possible Don Renard told the stirring tale of the rescue on the Thames, hiding for the moment his own connection with it. He told it well, bringing out vividly all the strong points.

The King was a cold-blooded man, yet he was something of a soldier, and a deed of arms like this moved him.

"And the man they rescued, who was he, you have not told me his name?" said he.

"It was my stepson, Don Diego, sire," was the reply.

"Ah! I see, I see," said the King.

Then after a moments thought he continued—

"I will see the Queen on his behalf, and I will ask that the pillory and the mutilation be not undergone by the condemned man. Yet, Renard, he is a seditious man, and, I doubt not, a heretic. The sentence as to the fine and the imprisonment must stand."