On finishing this speech he made a genuflexion, kissed the crucifix, and handed it to the chaplain of the castle, who stood trembling nearest him among the king's suite, and bent his knee, while he pressed this so fearfully abused symbol of blessing with a look of sorrow to his heart. "And now, excommunicated king!" added the archbishop, with a triumphant countenance, and with the mien of an exulting martyr, tearing the mantle from his emaciated breast, "now may'st thou, if thou darest, order to be torn asunder the church's anointed, who announced to thee the sentence of the Lord. My body is, perhaps, in thy power, but the spirit is God's, and his is the power throughout all eternity." A death-like silence reigned throughout the hall, the greatest terror was depicted in the faces of the knights, while their eyes turned with sorrowing sympathy towards their excommunicated sovereign. It seemed for a moment as if the lightnings of excommunication had struck the young king with the power of real lightning, and smitten him with lameness. He had staggered back so dizzy that he was forced to support himself by the door-post; but he now summoned up all his strength, and stepped forward with quick and passionate strides among his knights and courtiers. "A regicide stands in the midst of us, and would give us over to the Devil, to whom he himself belongs," he burst forth, in a tone of the highest exasperation; "he who is himself accursed presumes to pronounce the Lord's judgment upon men. On this unfortunate St. Cecilia's eve my father's blood cried aloud from the earth, and accused this criminal before the Lord's tribunal. His head should long since have fallen under the axe of the executioner, and now he would judge and excommunicate us; he would destroy my immortal soul, had he the power; but no! each word he hath spoken is lifeless and powerless--his curses fall back on his own guilty head. The Holy Father shall judge between us! The King of Denmark recognizes no sentence as lawful which is not confirmed by 'the Father of Christendom. Away with the miscreant!" The knights and courtiers appeared able to breathe freely again, on hearing these words from the king. They looked on him with confidence and devotion, yet still appeared to hesitate, and no one prepared to seize the dreaded prisoner, who stood erect and haughty among them, and seemed to triumph in the spiritual power he had exercised even in chains. "Hence with the criminal!" repeated the king; "until he recalls the ungodly ban he sees not the light of day. Guards! halberdiers! why tarry ye? hath this miscreant's words struck you deaf and lame? Fear ye to obey your liege sovereign?"