Lord Rippingdale had touched the tenderest spot in the King’s mind. His vanity was no less than his impecuniosity, and this was the third time in one day he had been defeated in his efforts to confer an honour, and exact a price beyond all reason for that honour. The gentlemen he had sought had found business elsewhere, and were not to be seen when his messengers called at their estates. It was not the King’s way to give anything for nothing. Some of these gentlemen had been benefited by the draining of the Holland fens, which the King had undertaken, reserving a stout portion of the land for himself; but John Enderby benefited nothing, for his estates lay further north, and near the sea, not far from the town of Mablethorpe. He had paid all the taxes which the King had levied and had not murmured beyond his own threshold.
He spoke his mind with candour, and to him the King was still a man to whom the truth was to be told with directness, which was the highest honour one man might show another.
“Rank treason!” repeated Lord Rippingdale, loudly. “Enderby has been in bad company, your Majesty. If you are not wholly with the King, you are against him. ‘He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.’”
A sudden anger seized the King, and turning, he set foot in the stirrup, muttering something to himself, which boded no good for John Enderby. A gentleman held the stirrup while he mounted, and, with Lord Rippingdale beside him in the saddle, he turned and spoke to Enderby. Self-will and resentment were in his tone. “Knight of Enderby we have made you,” he said, “and Knight of Enderby you shall remain. Look to it that you pay the fees for the accolade.”
“Your Majesty,” said Enderby, reaching out his hand in protest, “I will not have this greatness you would thrust upon me. Did your Majesty need, and speak to me as one gentleman to another in his need, then would I part with the last inch of my land; but to barter my estate for a gift that I have no heart nor use for—your Majesty, I cannot do it.”
The hand of the King twisted in his bridle-rein, and his body stiffened in anger.
“See to it, my Lord Rippingdale,” he said, “that our knight here pays to the last penny for the courtesy of the accolade. You shall levy upon his estate.”
“We are both gentlemen, your Majesty, and my rights within the law are no less than your Majesty’s,” said Enderby stoutly.
“The gentleman forgets that the King is the fountain of all law,” said Lord Rippingdale obliquely to the King.
“We will make one new statute for this stubborn knight,” said Charles; “even a writ of outlawry. His estates shall be confiscate to the Crown. Go seek a King and country better suited to your tastes, our rebel Knight of Enderby.”