“If thou canst say aught in thy behalf, speak.”
“Nought that will avail, my King. I am innocent, yet cannot I make it appear. I have no friends, else might I show that I was not in Islington that day; so also might I show that at that hour they name I was above a league away, seeing I was at Wapping Old Stairs; yea more, my King, for I could show, that whilst they say I was taking life, I was saving it. A drowning boy — ”
“Peace! Sheriff, name the day the deed was done!”
“At ten in the morning, or some minutes later, the first day of the New Year, most illustrious — ”
“Let the prisoner go free — it is the King’s will!”