William Bentinck murmured impatiently—
“I would as lief that a dozen of the States were hanged, so that the war was taken out of the country and Your Highness king of it.”
“Is that your final decision?” asked Arlington, deeply mortified.
“Yes,” replied the Prince firmly; “and nothing will move me, my lord.”
So curt, unfaltering, and stern were his words that the envoys saw no hope of persuading him. They prepared to leave; but Buckingham was too angry to go in silence.
“If you do not put yourself wholly in the King’s hands you are lost,” he declared. “If you have any wisdom you will consider——”
The Prince cut him short—
“My countrymen,” he said, “have trusted me, and I will never deceive nor betray them for any base ends of my own.”
Buckingham, his hand on the door, answered hotly—