Chapter XXVIII. The sacrifice.

by Mark Twain

　　Meantime Miles was growing sufficiently tired of confinement andinaction. But now his trial came on, to his great gratification,and he thought he could welcome any sentence provided a furtherimprisonment should not be a part of it. But he was mistakenabout that. He was in a fine fury when he found himself describedas a 'sturdy vagabond' and sentenced to sit two hours in thestocks for bearing that character and for assaulting the master ofHendon Hall. His pretensions as to brothership with hisprosecutor, and rightful heirship to the Hendon honours andestates, were left contemptuously unnoticed, as being not evenworth examination.He raged and threatened on his way to punishment, but it did nogood; he was snatched roughly along by the officers, and got anoccasional cuff, besides, for his irreverent conduct.The King could not pierce through the rabble that swarmed behind;so he was obliged to follow in the rear, remote from his goodfriend and servant. The King had been nearly condemned to thestocks himself for being in such bad company, but had been let offwith a lecture and a warning, in consideration of his youth. Whenthe crowd at last halted, he flitted feverishly from point topoint around its outer rim, hunting a place to get through; and atlast, after a deal of difficulty and delay, succeeded. There sathis poor henchman in the degrading stocks, the sport and butt of adirty mob--he, the body servant of the King of England! Edwardhad heard the sentence pronounced, but he had not realised thehalf that it meant. His anger began to rise as the sense of thisnew indignity which had been put upon him sank home; it jumped tosummer heat, the next moment, when he saw an egg sail through theair and crush itself against Hendon's cheek, and heard the crowdroar its enjoyment of the episode. He sprang across the opencircle and confronted the officer in charge, crying--"For shame! This is my servant--set him free! I am the--""Oh, peace!" exclaimed Hendon, in a panic, "thou'lt destroythyself. Mind him not, officer, he is mad.""Give thyself no trouble as to the matter of minding him, goodman, I have small mind to mind him; but as to teaching himsomewhat, to that I am well inclined." He turned to a subordinateand said, "Give the little fool a taste or two of the lash, tomend his manners.""Half a dozen will better serve his turn," suggested Sir Hugh, whohad ridden up, a moment before, to take a passing glance at theproceedings.The King was seized. He did not even struggle, so paralysed washe with the mere thought of the monstrous outrage that wasproposed to be inflicted upon his sacred person. History wasalready defiled with the record of the scourging of an Englishking with whips--it was an intolerable reflection that he mustfurnish a duplicate of that shameful page. He was in the toils,there was no help for him; he must either take this punishment orbeg for its remission. Hard conditions; he would take thestripes--a king might do that, but a king could not beg.But meantime, Miles Hendon was resolving the difficulty. "Let thechild go," said he; "ye heartless dogs, do ye not see how youngand frail he is? Let him go--I will take his lashes.""Marry, a good thought--and thanks for it," said Sir Hugh, hisface lighting with a sardonic satisfaction. "Let the littlebeggar go, and give this fellow a dozen in his place--an honestdozen, well laid on." The King was in the act of entering afierce protest, but Sir Hugh silenced him with the potent remark,"Yes, speak up, do, and free thy mind--only, mark ye, that foreach word you utter he shall get six strokes the more."Hendon was removed from the stocks, and his back laid bare; andwhilst the lash was applied the poor little King turned away hisface and allowed unroyal tears to channel his cheeks unchecked."Ah, brave good heart," he said to himself, "this loyal deed shallnever perish out of my memory. I will not forget it--and neithershall they!" he added, with passion. Whilst he mused, hisappreciation of Hendon's magnanimous conduct grew to greater andstill greater dimensions in his mind, and so also did hisgratefulness for it. Presently he said to himself, "Who saves hisprince from wounds and possible death--and this he did for me--performs high service; but it is little--it is nothing--oh, lessthan nothing!--when 'tis weighed against the act of him who saveshis prince from shame!"Hendon made no outcry under the scourge, but bore the heavy blowswith soldierly fortitude. This, together with his redeeming theboy by taking his stripes for him, compelled the respect of eventhat forlorn and degraded mob that was gathered there; and itsgibes and hootings died away, and no sound remained but the soundof the falling blows. The stillness that pervaded the place, whenHendon found himself once more in the stocks, was in strongcontrast with the insulting clamour which had prevailed there solittle a while before. The King came softly to Hendon's side, andwhispered in his ear--"Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who ishigher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirmthy nobility to men." He picked up the scourge from the ground,touched Hendon's bleeding shoulders lightly with it, andwhispered, "Edward of England dubs thee Earl!"Hendon was touched. The water welled to his eyes, yet at the sametime the grisly humour of the situation and circumstances soundermined his gravity that it was all he could do to keep somesign of his inward mirth from showing outside. To be suddenlyhoisted, naked and gory, from the common stocks to the Alpinealtitude and splendour of an Earldom, seemed to him the lastpossibility in the line of the grotesque. He said to himself,"Now am I finely tinselled, indeed! The spectre-knight of theKingdom of Dreams and Shadows is become a spectre-earl--a dizzyflight for a callow wing! An' this go on, I shall presently behung like a very maypole with fantastic gauds and make-believehonours. But I shall value them, all valueless as they are, forthe love that doth bestow them. Better these poor mock dignitiesof mine, that come unasked, from a clean hand and a right spirit,than real ones bought by servility from grudging and interestedpower."The dreaded Sir Hugh wheeled his horse about, and as he spurredaway, the living wall divided silently to let him pass, and assilently closed together again. And so remained; nobody went sofar as to venture a remark in favour of the prisoner, or incompliment to him; but no matter--the absence of abuse was asufficient homage in itself. A late comer who was not posted asto the present circumstances, and who delivered a sneer at the'impostor,' and was in the act of following it with a dead cat,was promptly knocked down and kicked out, without any words, andthen the deep quiet resumed sway once more.