venom of adders, too, beneath our
tongues--except one or two rude fellows, and my lord King who knew him
for a prophet, and the ankret, who tells us we shall all be damned for
what we have done, and yourself. There be so many of these wild asses
that bray and kick, that when he came we did not distinguish him to be
the colt on which our Lord came to town--and now, as it was then,
_Dominus eum necessarium habet_." ["The Lord hath need of him" (Luke
xix. 34.)]

"But I know what I wish to be said to him, though I dare not say it
myself, or set eyes on him--and that is that I pray him to forgive us,
and to speak our names before the Lord God when he comes before His
Majesty."

"I will tell him that, my lord," I said softly, for I did not doubt that
Master Richard would speak before he died.

After a while longer my lord cardinal asked how he did, and I told him
that he had lain very quiet all day without speaking or moving, and
then, for I knew what my lord wanted, I bade him in Jesu's name to come
in and look on him. For a while he would not, and then he came, and
knelt down beside the King.

Master Richard was lying now upon his back, with his hands hidden and
clasped upon his breast, and his lips were moving a little without
sound. I think that he had never had so long and so heavenly a colloquy
as he was enjoying then. I do not know whether it were the cardinal's
presence that disturbed him, or whether in that secret place where his
soul was retired he heard what had been said by us, but he spoke aloud
for the first time that day, and this is what he said:--

"_Et dimitte nobis debita nostra; sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus
nostris._" ["And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that
trespass against us."]

I saw my lord's face go down upon his hands, and the King's face rise
and look at him. And presently my lord went out.

* * * * *

I cannot tell you, my children, how that day passed, for it was like no
day that I have ever spent. It appeared to me that there was no time,
but that all stood still. Without, the palace was as still as death on
the one side--for the King had ordered it so--and on the other there was
the noise from the river, little and clear and distinct, of the water
washing in the sedges and against the stones, and the cries of the
boatmen on the further shore, and the rattle of their oars as they took
men across.

Once, as I stood by the window s