i had promised your excellency in my last dispatch to let him know with the least delay both the consequences of my appeal to the king in this country and the events that might flow from his attitude.
it is with profound sorrow that i communicate to your excellency the whole of this passage.
upon wednesday, st. james's day, i was granted an audience by his majesty at seven in the morning, which is his usual hour for receiving foreign envoys and all those accredited with public or secret powers from another court.
his majesty, whom i had not met before, is a man tall in stature, but stooping somewhat at the shoulders. his age is not apparent in his features, his hair and beard (which is scanty) are still black, and his eyes, though they betray an expression of weariness, are lively. he was good enough to bid certain officials near him to go out into the anteroom, where i trust my words could not be heard, though there is no door separating the king's closet from that passage, but only a german tapestry, [pg 90]presented, i think, at the time of the king's marriage by the elector, his father-in-law.
the king would first have me set before him what i had to say, which i did as briefly as possible, and following exactly the instructions given me by your excellency. i made no attempt to diminish, still less to deny the crime of which my lord had been guilty; nay, i even exaggerated it, if that were possible, in order to prepare his sovereign for my plea, which was that my lord's youth and the manner in which the adventure was presented to him excused him in some part for the action of which he had been guilty. i briefly spoke of the campaigns in which he had fought since his sixteenth year, and i showed how easily to a soldier the expedition which has had so disastrous an ending might have appeared as a just and loyal war. i was careful to omit any whisper of what the emperor had threatened in case of a refusal (for such were your instructions), and finally i laid at the feet of his majesty the plea of common mercy, dwelling upon my lord's household, the future of his young and innocent children, and all else that would follow upon the sacrifice of such a life.
his majesty listened to me gravely, and replied that he had fully revolved my lord's action, and its nature and consequence, in his mind, as also the effect of the determination he himself had taken, which determination could not be shaken by any argument that i or another might put before him.[pg 91] it was (he said) a necessary example to others, and the more highly placed the culprit the stronger the necessity of the sentence appeared to him. he said further, that in the matter of rebellion and treason (which, as holy writ discovered, was among the most detestable of crimes, and compared even to witchcraft, against which enormity his majesty is especially watchful) it was a thing which must be ended once and for all, and could not be dealt with in any manner save by the extirpation of its authors and the total suppression and extinction of the originators and begettors thereof. to be brief, his majesty would not be moved in any manner, but told me, speaking as a man will who has no more to say, the date and hour were already fixed, and had been communicated to me. with this his majesty dismissed me, and i left him.
upon the thursday, therefore, the morrow, which they reckon in this country as the 15th of the month, i bade charles, my attendant, go warn my lord that i would see him at his convenience, and my lord answered very graciously that my convenience was his own, whereupon i said i would come at once, and did so, it being about an hour after noon, and my lord sitting at wine after his meal, which he had eaten alone in the room assigned to him.
my lord was well furnished in all particulars, and the clemency of the season further lessened his discomforts of prison, but he was closely guarded, and he complained to me, though without bitterness,[pg 92] that when his wife had visited him but a week before, bringing with her the little count, my master, and his little sister also by the hand, a man-at-arms had been present throughout their interview. he also told me that for writing he might have what liberty he would, but that he might fold over and seal no letter. i asked him what his regimen had been in the matter of religion, at which he sighed and said that he had been permitted to see the carthusian whom your excellency had sent to this part under a safeguard, but that no mass might be said in his room, nor within the precincts of the whole castle: which, as he was told, was forbidden by a law of this realm; but this i would hardly believe, and indeed we had permission of his majesty (who is indifferent to such things) that mass should be privily said upon the following morning, which was that on which my lord was to suffer. and for this purpose a table was set, he whom your excellency has sent bringing with him a little altar stone and all that was necessary for the office.
my lord dismissed me when i had spoken to him for perhaps half-an-hour, asking him what i should do, but he bade me return a little before sunrise on the morrow, which (your excellency) i very punctually did, more sorrowful at heart than i could say, having not slept that night for the multitude of letters that i must read and dispatch, and for the weight of the business that was before me.
when therefore it was fully light, but the sun not[pg 93] yet risen, i went over from my lodgings (which are not far from the royal mint) to the castle, and was admitted to my lord's presence, where he sat with a heavy look, and yet gallantly as it were, having with him my lady and the two little children, the priest having said mass and the table being now in order, but he remaining for the last offices.
my lady was troubled exceedingly, and a woman of hers who was with her was but little help to her or to us. as for my lord's children, though they could not understand the case, they saw that something great and terrible was at hand. but all this should not be detailed to your excellency, nor can my pen properly express it. my lady and her servant and the two children were taken, i think, from the room, but i did not look, nor did i hear any sound except a slight sobbing, which very soon ceased: the passing of men-at-arms set at regular places without i remember to hear continuing, and if it be a trivial matter to have this set down for your excellency, i do so only in the desire to relate every particular and to omit nothing. i asked my lord whether there was anything that i could further communicate to the king or to his family, or to any one. he answered in a firm voice that he had attended to all. and he gave me a letter sealed (for this was now permitted him), which letter i am to deliver to your excellency and will do so, since i must entrust it to no one. he told me further that he had made his peace and that he had received[pg 94] communion, but that he would beg the priest whom your excellency had sent to remain with him to the end. the warden of the castle, a man of strict purpose, but not harsh in his demeanour (though silent, as are the most of these people), said here that the populace, who had gathered in a great crowd, might be angered at the sight of a priest, which sight indeed would recall in them all the circumstances of the war. to this my lord answered, a little disdainfully i thought, that it was but little to ask, and that for the anger of the people, and indeed for any feeling they might have towards himself, he had no care of it. he did not desire to arouse it, nor did he fear it. then said the warden of the castle, he might be accompanied as he wished, but the priest must put off his gown: which he did and stood dressed like any common man of this country, or rather like some servant. but his hair and the trim of his beard seemed the more foreign in such a habit.
the sun had now risen, and we were apprised that my lord's hour had come by the beating of drums outside the castle and the noise of the people. my lord hearing this looked at me sorrowfully for a little time and asked me a question in the matter of religion which i thought both terrible and confusing at such a time, but he pressed me and i replied very humbly that for my part i had lived as most men lived in these times, which are corrupt and evil, and that indeed no man could fully understand the[pg 95] unseen things; no, nor so much as conceive them; but that none the less i hoped i might always bear witness to the faith as did he at that very moment. to which my lord answered, sighing, "i bear no witness to that, but only to my constancy, and i could wish that they had left me my sword."
i set down for your excellency all that happened, but i would not have your excellency think that my lord was troubled in these matters; only it was his custom to debate learning and philosophy and to express doubts that he might hear them answered: this was all. and it is truly said that a man's custom will be seen expressed in the end of his life.
meanwhile they were waiting for us, and as i was to be the other that might be present with my lord when he suffered, the priest and i went before him and behind the men-at-arms, while first went the warden of the castle. and we found that the scaffold had been put up upon a level with the window at the side of the main gate, which looks westward towards the city. there was a red cloth upon it, a square, but the rest naked, and round it a sort of railing of rope stretched from posts. the whole was guarded by soldiers of the king's guard who were a-horse, even the drummers. there was a very great crowd of people who were silent, but when they saw my lord shouted and made a confusion, till the soldiers pressed them back. the warden asked my lord whether he would speak to the people, but he shook his head and pressed his[pg 96] lips together so firmly that one would have thought he smiled. then the headsman, kneeling upon one knee, as is the custom, asked my lord's forgiveness for what he was to do, to whom my lord answered in a cheerful voice that he very heartily forgave him and all others in this matter. and then saying this word "come," wherein i did not understand his meaning—but he may have been doing no more than call me as one calls a servant—he took off his cloak, which was dark and heavy and which was that which he had commonly carried in the field, very serviceable and without ornament, and this cloak he handed to me, so that i have it and will bring it with me upon my journey. when he had done this he took off also his undercoat, upon which, as upon his cloak, he had kept no sign of his rank nor any jewel, even of his order; and this done he kissed me and also him whom your excellency sent, the religious; then he knelt down and, as i think, prayed, but very shortly, after which he laid his head upon the block and asked the headsman if it were fairly so. to which the headsman said yes, and that at his signal he would strike: which, when it was given, the headsman struck, and by the mercy of god was ready at his business: so we threw a cloth that had been given us quickly over the body of my lord, and while the people groaned we lifted him, two men-at-arms, the priest and i together, to set him in a case of wood which was prepared. only the headsman showed my lord's head to the people,[pg 97] and said, "so perish all traitors," while the people still groaned. then my lord's head also was given us and we set it very reverently down, and we covered the case with the cloth given us, which was the end of the business of that morning, from which time till now i have not written, but now write as your excellency ordered, and in the first hour in which i find myself able and in command of myself to do so.
my lord was a great captain.
