“So it seems,” said Stratford, drily; “but does he fight with women?”
“Nay,” said the official, plucking up courage to speak again; “he fights with men, and therefore it is that we are here.”
“The King is evidently in need of money, and requires a ransom,” said Stratford, turning to the rest, and speaking with an airy confidence which he was far from feeling. “How much does he want?” he asked of the messengers.
“Our lord desires not money, nor does he war with women,” repeated the Amir. “In exchange for the woman he requires a man.”
A gasp from Fitz, an exclamation from Dick, and a stifled cry from Lady Haigh warned Stratford of the effect which the announcement of the King’s demand had produced on his friends. He himself felt a certain relief—almost akin to the “stern joy” of the warrior—in the conviction that the crisis for which he had been looking had at last arrived, and his voice rang out clearly as he asked, “And who is it that the King requires?”
“My lord must see,” said the old official reluctantly, “that our lord the King desires him who is chief in authority among you to be sent to him, that he may make the treaty with him which the Queen of England desired when she sent her servants hither.”
“But we have no stronger wish than that the King should sign that very treaty,” objected Stratford.
“But my lord’s treaty is not the King’s treaty,” was the unanswerable reply of the ambassador.
“And if the man you desire should go to the Palace, and yet refuse to sign the King’s treaty, what then?” asked Stratford.
“It is not for the health of any man to withstand our lord the King,” was the evasive answer.