“Who threw me into the boat?” he demanded.

“The honor was mine,” declared the minister.

The King’s minion lacked not the courage of the body, nor, when passionate action had brought him naught, a certain reserve force of philosophy. He now did the best thing he could have done, — burst into a roar of laughter. “Zooks!” he cried. “It’s as good a comedy as ever I saw! How’s the play to end, captain? Are we to go off laughing, or is the end to be bloody after all? For instance, is there murder to be done?” He looked at me boldly, one hand on his hip, the other twirling his mustaches.

“We are not all murderers, my lord,” I told him. “For the present you are in no danger other than that which is common to us all.”