I had served King James long and well and he had requited me, after having banished me for a venial offence that any other monarch had freely pardoned, by endeavouring to take from me all that life held of sweetness and light for me--my bonny Kate, my wife. Had he not laid his hand upon her person, I think I could have waited a little while behind the tapestry enjoying the situation. My wife had ever a witty and a cutting tongue, although she uses it not now upon me--thank God!--and I doubt not that there would have been rare baiting of the King; but the clasp on her dainty ankle and his insulting laugh, his boastful statement, moved me, and I spoke as she hath written. "Your Majesty," I added quietly, "hath it not been one of the lessons of your kingship that he laughs best who laughs last?" At the first sound of my voice the King had released Lady Katharine and wheeled to face me. His red face went suddenly white as he saw me standing there, grim, forbidding, with a naked and bloody sword in my hand. I could not have been a very pleasant spectacle, although Lady Katharine, with a woman's fond exaggeration, has since assured me that I was the fairest thing she ever looked upon--for the nonce. I am glad I so appeared to her. "Holy Virgin!" exclaimed the King, as soon as he could get breath. "Richmond!" "I am glad to see that Your Majesty recognises me." "Hugh!" cried my wife, finding voice at last. "Thank God, you have come in time." "And did you ever doubt that I should be here, sweetheart?" I asked, in turn. I never took my eyes off the King, though I spoke to her. I stood between him and the door, and, at a move, I could have spitted him like a fowl, and I would, too; I cared not a snap of my finger for his Majesty or his Kingship. By means of the chair, my wife sprang down from the high window and came close to my side, and, before I knew what she would be at, she seized my left hand and kissed it. That sight aroused the King; he opened his mouth to cry for assistance, but, before he could utter a sound, I was upon him fiercely. "Be silent," I hissed at him, "or I will run you through." It was impossible for him to turn any whiter, he was so pale already, but he shrank away from the menacing point of the red weapon in terrific agitation. "You draw your sword against your King?" he exclaimed. "You raise your hand against my wife?" I retorted. "Down on your knees, sir," said the King, striving to recover his dominance, "and beg for your life. Because of your wife, I may give it to you." "Now," mocked I, "that is a most royal clemency on the part of Your Majesty, but, if any knees press the floor in this room, they will not be mine." "I am the King of England..." "No one would ever imagine it from your actions." "And you are my subject." "Nay," said I; "here we be two men--James Stewart and Hugh Richmond--and of the two I am the master."