have I sworn that
Peter the Red Ferret shall hang, for all his noble blood and coat-armor,
if ever he should fall into my hands. Now at last his time has come;
but I would not put him to death until you, who had taken him, could be
there to see it done. Nay, thank me not, for I could do no less, seeing
that it is to you that I owe him."

But it was not thanks which Nigel was trying to utter. It was hard to
frame his words, and yet they must be said. "Sire," he murmured, "it ill
becomes me to cross your royal will--"

The dark Plantagenet wrath gathered upon the King's high brow and
gloomed in his fierce deep-set eyes. "By God's dignity! no man has ever
crossed it yet and lived unscathed. How now, young sir, what mean such
words, to which we are little wont? Have a care, for this is no light
thing which you venture."

"Sire," said Nigel, "in all matters in which I am a free man I am ever
your faithful liege, but some things there are which may not be done."

"How?" cried the King. "In spite of my will?"

"In spite of your will, sire," said Nigel, sitting up on his couch, with
white face and blazing eyes.

"By the Virgin!" the angry King thundered, "we are come to a pretty
pass! You have been held too long at home, young man. The overstabled
horse will kick. The unweathered hawk will fly at check. See to it,
Master Chandos! He is thine to break, and I hold you to it that you
break him. And what is it that Edward of England may not do, Master
Loring?"

Nigel faced the King with a face as grim as his own. "You may not put to
death the Red Ferret."

"Pardieu! And why?"

"Because he is not thine to slay, sire. Because he is mine. Because I
promised him his life, and it is not for you, King though you be, to
constrain a man of gentle blood to break his plighted word and lose his
honor."

Chandos laid his soothing hand upon his Squire's shoulder. "Excuse him,
sire; he is weak from his wounds," said he. "Perhaps we have stayed
overlong, for the leech has ordered repose."

But the angry King was not easily to be appeased. "I am not wont to
be so browbeat," said he hotly. "This is your Squire, Master John. How
comes it that you can stand there and listen to his pert talk, and say
no word to chide him? Is this how you guide your household? Have you not
taught him that every promise given is subject to the King's consent,
and that with him only lie the springs of life and death? If he is sick,
you at least are hale.