"'T is like enough, sir," said the Prince. "But I do not look to hear them from you." Then, turning to the two troopers, he bade them arrest Captain Royston, saying to them and the officer that he should hold them responsible for the prisoner's person till Exeter was reached. Now, Ned had stood all this while with my father's sword still naked in his hand, the point resting upon the floor.
"Take his sword," said His Highness.
And poor Ned, by this caring little what he did, flung the borrowed weapon on the ground.
"The sword is mine!" said Sir Michael.
"I ask your pardon, Sir Michael," cried Ned, and stooped to raise it, saying, as he reverently presented the hilt to its owner: "I did use it for your daughter, sir."
For which Sir Michael thanked him very civilly, and then addressed the future King of England in words that I think he has not to this day forgot.
"William, Prince of Orange," he said, "this sword had been raised against King Charles the Martyr himself in defence of the friend beneath my roof. But now my hand can barely fetch it from the sheath. Yet is my tongue not rusted, and the old man's voice must be heard." And then, as a silence fell heavy upon the room, he added, "Ay, and heard it shall be."
The Prince turned his aquiline gaze upon him, but the man who had met and endured unflinching the eyes of the Lord Protector Cromwell was no whit abashed. I have heard old men say that thirty years ago my father's glance could be terrible as his sword; and even now there were moments when from the dimmed azure of that deep-set eye the mist of its many years was lifted, and the color grew cerulean round the keen and glowing spark that lit up, it seemed, not only the orb, but the whole countenance of the man, while it pierced the heart of the wicked, and not seldom affected even the innocent with a great fear. The Prince, like the brave man he ever was, met the old man's eye with courage.
"Be brief, sir," said he, "and I will hear you." And although it was at this moment that without we heard the clamorous arrival of a despatch-rider who shortly after entered, with bloody spurs and bespattered to the eyes with mud, and presented a sealed packet to Mr. Bentinck, yet, throughout the little commotion thus made, His Highness never once turned his attention from Sir Michael.
"I do here solemnly declare," said my father, "that Edward Royston hath done no treason to you."