"Indeed, it has but one head," I replied. "I pray Your Highness to suspend his case till the war be done. Is it granted?" "No," said the Prince; "it is not granted, and it shall not be." "And wherefore not?" I demanded, with a boldness that does at this present vastly astonish me to think on. "I gave the sword, with its pledge," he replied, "to one I thought loyal to my person and a friend to my cause, the liberties of England. I am not, and may never be, a king; and I have not learned," he said, with irony very cynical, "to grant favor to traitors." "But you are a great Prince," I persisted; "a Prince, I have heard tell, that never departs from his plighted word. This pledge I hold until it be redeemed. Again I entreat Your Highness to return to Captain Royston his sword." "Give me that in your hand," he said, after a moment's thought, which had taken him, with a few pondering paces, to some distance from the spot where I yet knelt. But as I rose to bring it to him, I believe he read in my face the joy that I felt within, for, raising his hand with a gesture that at once checked my advance--"Nay," he said, "I will not give him back the sword he has dishonored. But, for my word's sake, he has his life and liberty. Let him begone. And if he cross my path again, to raise his hand by never so little against me or mine; if he be found after this night ever within my lines, he dies--as spies die, _Master_ Royston," he added, turning upon him a glance of keen contempt. Then, after a little pause, he said, with great solemnity, "May the life I give serve unto repentance." In that moment I think poor Ned's heart was very near breaking. In a voice slow and measured from the restraint he used, he said that he would not accept his life at such a price. His Highness, replying that the choice did not lie with him, turned sharply to me and said: "Give me the sword." And then the sight of the stricken man's white and ghastly face--stricken for his faith to me and my people--inspired my heart to the most audacious act of my life. I took the sword by the hilt, and, pressing hard upon it with both hands, bent down the lower part until a portion lay upon the floor. On this setting my foot with all my body's weight to back it, I wrenched the hilt over toward the point, so that the blade broke some seven inches from the end. M. de Rondiniacque, stepping forward to arrest my purpose, was too late. I waved him back with a gesture I took to be mighty full of haughtiness, and, standing firm upon the fragment, I presented the hilt to His Highness of Orange. On the snapping of the blade the Prince had started in anger; as I handed him the truncated weapon, he drew back and--"What is this?" he cried. "Your Highness grants no more than half my prayer," I replied. "I render half the pledge." "The greater half," he said, and in despite of himself he smiled.