“Now, O my King, take these regal garments back, and give poor Tom, thy servant, his shreds and remnants again.”

The Lord Protector spoke up —

“Let the small varlet be stripped and flung into the Tower.”

But the new King, the true King, said —

“I will not have it so.

But for him I had not got my crown again — none shall lay a hand upon him to harm him. And as for thee, my good uncle, my Lord Protector, this conduct of thine is not grateful toward this poor lad, for I hear he hath made thee a duke” — the Protector blushed — ”yet he was not a king; wherefore what is thy fine title worth now? To-morrow you shall sue to me, through him, for its confirmation, else no duke, but a simple earl, shalt thou remain.”