"Your master is now the prisoner of our new King Henry, and, unless the aforesaid King be of more forgiving nature than I think, Catesby shall soon be with his master, the usurping tyrant, Richard, which is even now in Hell's consuming fire." "Oh, poor Sir William!" she wailed. "Ah, sir! I nursed him at my breast, and ever since have I been his servant. Oh! save him, sir! I know he did have his faults; but still do I love and serve him, as though he were mine own. For God's sake, sir, speak but a word to your new King, and thou canst save him! Return good for evil, now that thou hast the power!" and she knelt at my feet and threw her arms about my legs. "Strange," thought I, "that even such a villain as is Catesby hath some one who loves him." Then aloud I said:--"It must not be. My wrongs are not the only ones that he must answer for. Catesby hath writ a volume of misdeeds, and the whole world hath perused them. No man can stop the bad effects of these in other ways than by the suppression of the one that doeth them." "Wilt thou not have mercy on him, Walter dear?" asked the tender-hearted maid which now clung to my side. I started in surprise. "What! dost thou plead for Catesby?" I asked. "Nay, not for him; but for this old woman here. She hath done naught but obey her master. Save the knave, Walter, for this old woman's sake. We can now afford to be generous, Walter dear; now that all danger is past. Besides, he can do no harm, and mayhap your generosity will show him the evil of his acts, and he will then repent," and she stroked my cheek coaxingly. Truly, a woman is the most unfathomable work of God. Here was this maid, quick as a hornet to resent a wrong, and yet forgiving as a dove when the danger had passed. I hesitated; but her tender eyes were on me, and I could not resist their wondrous charm. "Well,--I will see what may be done," I replied slowly, and with great reluctance. "But remember, I have little thought that he can avoid the block, or halter." Then I went unto the King's headquarters and told him my request. "What, Bradley! spare the life of Catesby; the man that so hath wronged thee? By the light of Heaven! my long sojourn across the channel hath made me to forget the nature of an English gentleman! But may I ask your reason for this strange request?" he asked more seriously. I told him. "'Tis but an old woman's whim; but even so I had been glad to grant thee this request; but thou art too late. His head was stricken off but a few moments before thou earnest." "Thank Gawd!" growled Michael from the door, whither he had followed, as faithful as my shadow. "And is this a friend of thine?" asked the King. "Ay, your Majesty, he is my noble squire. To him, your Grace, do I owe my life a score of times." And then I told him of the worthy Irishman. When I came to the part that Michael had played that day the King exclaimed:--