Then he threw his arms out wide, and there came a sob into his voice as the liquid Spanish poured from him.
"But to die thus!" he said. "Mother of God! to die thus! unshrived, with my sins upon me!"
Johnnie tapped impatiently with the point of his sword upon the floor.
"Kill you, Sire?" he said. "I have sworn the oath of allegiance to Her Grace, the Queen, and eke to you. I break no oaths. Kill you I will not. Kill you I cannot. I dare not raise my hand against the King."
He dropped on one knee. "Sire," he said again, "I am your Gentleman, and you will go free from this vile house as you came into it."
Then he rose, took his sword, snapped it across his knee—staining his hands in doing so—and flung it into the corner of the room.
"And that is that," he said, with a different manner. "So now as man to man, as from one gentleman to another, hear my voice. You are a gentleman of high degree, and you are King also of half this globe, named, and glad to be named His Most Catholic Majesty. Of your kingship I am not at this moment aware. I am not Royal. But as a gentleman and a Christian, I tell you to your face that you are low and vile. You deceive a wife that loveth you. You take maidens to force them to your will. If you were a simple gentleman I would kill you where you stood. No! If thou wert a simple gentleman, I would not cross swords with thee, because thou art unworthy of my sword. I would tell my man here to slit thee and have done. But as thou art a King"—he spat upon the floor in his disgust—"and I am sworn to thee, I cannot punish thee as I would, thou son of hell, thou very scurvy, lying, and most dirty knave."
The King's face was a dead white now. He lifted his hands and beat with them upon his breast. "Mea culpa! Mea culpa! What have I done that I should endure this?"
"What no King should ever do, what no gentleman could ever do."
The King's hands dropped to his side.