第67章

'Marry, a good thought- and thanks for it,' said Sir Hugh, his face lighting with a sardonic satisfaction. 'Let the little beggar go, and give this fellow a dozen in his place- an honest dozen, well laid on.' The king was in the act of entering a fierce protest, but Sir Hugh silenced him with the potent remark, 'Yes, speak up, do, and free thy mind- only, mark ye, that for each word you utter he shall get six strokes the more.'

Hendon was removed from the stocks, and his back laid bare; and while the lash was applied the poor little king turned away his face and allowed unroyal tears to channel his cheeks unchecked. 'Ah, brave good heart,' he said to himself, 'this loyal deed shall never perish out of my memory. I will not forget it- and neither shall they!' he added, with passion. While he mused, his appreciation of Hendon's magnanimous conduct grew to greater and still greater dimensions in his mind, and so also did his gratefulness for it.

Presently he said to himself, 'Who saves his prince from wounds and possible death- and this he did for me- performs high service; but it is little- it is nothing! -oh, less than nothing!- when 'tis weighed against the act of him who saves his prince from SHAME!'

Hendon made no outcry under the scourge, but bore the heavy blows with soldierly fortitude. This, together with his redeeming the boy by taking his stripes for him, compelled the respect of even that forlorn and degraded mob that was gathered there; and its gibes and hootings died away, and no sound remained but the sound of the falling blows. The stillness that pervaded the place when Hendon found himself once more in the stocks, was in strong contrast with the insulting clamour which had prevailed there so little a while before.

The king came softly to Hendon's side, and whispered in his ear:

'Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who is higher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirm thy nobility to men.' He picked up the scourge from the ground, touched Hendon's bleeding shoulders lightly with it, and whispered, 'Edward of England dubs thee earl!'

Hendon was touched. The water welled to his eyes, yet at the same time the grisly humor of the situation and circumstances so undermined his gravity that it was all he could do to keep some sign of his inward mirth from showing outside. To be suddenly hoisted, naked and gory, from the common stocks to the Alpine altitude and splendor of an earldom, seemed to him the last possibility in the line of the grotesque. He said to himself, 'Now am I finely tinseled, indeed! The specter-knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows is become a specter-earl!- a dizzy flight for a callow wing! An this go on, I shall presently be hung like a very May-pole with fantastic gauds and make-believe honors. But I shall value them, all valueless as they are, for the love that doth bestow them. Better these poor mock dignities of mine, that come unasked from a clean hand and a right spirit, than real ones bought by servility from grudging and interested power.'

The dreaded Sir Hugh wheeled his horse about, and, as he spurred away, the living wall divided silently to let him pass, and as silently closed together again. And so remained; nobody went so far as to venture a remark in favor of the prisoner, or in compliment to him;but no matter, the absence of abuse was a sufficient homage in itself.

A late comer who was not posted as to the present circumstances, and who delivered a sneer at the 'impostor' and was in the act of following it with a dead cat, was promptly knocked down and kicked out, without any words, and then the deep quiet resumed sway once more.