Ranelagh dropped to one knee.
"Alas, sire," he began, "'twas from the first hopeless.... Harley hath such a hold——"
William interrupted.
"The Commons have refused our request?"
Ranelagh dared not make words about it.
"Yes, sire," he answered, in a broken voice.
"Ah!" exclaimed William. He turned away from all of them, and walked up and down the long shining floor; after a moment or so he paused beside Dorset, and said, in a very curious tone—
"I must get beyond sea—to—to breathe a little."
None of them ventured to speak, and he moved to the window again; there on the seat was the little crumpled paper boat William of Gloucester had been making out of a scrap of his lesson paper.
The King saw it, and a sudden passion kindled in him; he cast his eyes wildly about him, and exclaimed, with the vehemence of agony—