"I do," said my Lord; and that was the last word that he spoke; for the
headsman immediately stepped up, so soon as he was down, and with one
blow cut his head all off, except a bit of skin, which he cut through
with his knife.

Then he lifted up the head, and carried it to the four sides of the
scaffold by the hair, crying:

"Here is the head of a traitor," as the custom was. My Lord's face
looked very peaceful.

* * * * *

I rode home again alone, thinking of what I had seen, and the innocent
blood that was being shed, and wondering whether this might not be the
last shed for that miserable falsehood. But even after that sight, the
thought of my Cousin Dorothy was never very far away; and before I was
home again I was once more thinking of her more than of that from which
I was just come, or of that to which I was going, for I was to see His
Majesty that evening and so to France next day.




PART III