'Arthur,' said King John, trying to meet his nephew's eyes, 'will you not trust to your loving uncle?'
'I will trust my loving uncle,' replied the boy, 'when he does me right. Restore to me my kingdom of England, and then come and ask me that question.'
The king looked at his nephew, whose high-spirited young face had become so much paler by confinement; then he turned away without a word and left the prison.
After this King John took counsel with his advisers.
'What shall I do with this boy,' he said, 'who defies me and thinks that he is to become King of England?'
'Behead him,' said one. 'Have him poisoned,' said another.
'Put his eyes out,' suggested a hard-faced nobleman who had not spoken before; 'the people will not care to have a blind man for their king.'
'Put out his eyes,' mused the king; 'put out his eyes; those eyes which look with unseemly boldness at his uncle and true sovereign.'
The longer he dwelt upon the idea the more attractive did it become to him.
The boy who could not be made to fear him; who persisted in believing that he would one day force his uncle to yield up the crown—it would be gratifying to know that he had been deprived of his frank, fearless eyes.