"Behold the evidence to thy black lie! My liege, this fragment was found beside the body deluged in gore.
We know the hilt too well to doubt, one moment, the name of its possessor; there is not another like it throughout Spain.

It snapt in the blow, as if more honorable than its master, it could not survive so foul a stain.

What arm should wield it save his own ?" A universal murmur of execration, acknowledged this convincing evidence; doubly confirmed, as it seemed to be by the fearful start and muttered exclamation, on the part of the prisoner the moment it was produced.

The nobles thronged round the King, some entreating him to sentence the midnight assassin to instant execution; others, to retain him in severest imprisonment till the proofs of his guilt could be legally examined, and the whole European World hear of the crime, and its chastisement; lest they should say that as a foreigner, justice was refused to him.

To this opinion the King leaned.
"Ye counsel well and wisely, my lords," he said.