hands,
confounded and brought to naught? Shall we then answer it, my lord,
either to our conscience, our God, or our queen, if we shall set loose
men (not one of whom, I warrant, but is stained with murder on murder)
to go and fill up the cup of their iniquity among these silly sheep?
Have not their native wolves, their barbarous chieftains, shorn, peeled,
and slaughtered them enough already, but we must add this pack of
foreign wolves to the number of their tormentors, and fit the Desmond
with a body-guard of seven, yea, seven hundred devils worse than
himself? Nay, rather let us do violence to our own human nature, and
show ourselves in appearance rigorous, that we may be kind indeed; lest
while we presume to be over-merciful to the guilty, we prove ourselves
to be over-cruel to the innocent."

"Captain Raleigh, Captain Raleigh," said Lord Grey, "the blood of these
men be on your head!"

"It ill befits your lordship," answered Raleigh, "to throw on your
subordinates the blame of that which your reason approves as necessary."

"I should have thought, sir, that one so noted for ambition as Captain
Raleigh would have been more careful of the favor of that queen for
whose smiles he is said to be so longing a competitor. If you have not
yet been of her counsels, sir, I can tell you you are not likely to be.
She will be furious when she hears of this cruelty."

Lord Grey had lost his temper: but Raleigh kept his, and answered
quietly--

"Her majesty shall at least not find me among the number of those who
prefer her favor to her safety, and abuse to their own profit that
over-tenderness and mercifulness of heart which is the only blemish
(and yet, rather like a mole on a fair cheek, but a new beauty) in her
manifold perfections."

At this juncture Cary returned.

"My lord," said he, in some confusion, "I have proposed your terms; but
the captains still entreat for some mitigation; and, to tell you truth,
one of them has insisted on accompanying me hither to plead his cause
himself."

"I will not see him, sir. Who is he?"

"His name is Sebastian of Modena, my lord."

"Sebastian of Modena? What think you, gentlemen? May we make an
exception in favor of so famous a soldier?"

"So villainous a cut-throat," said Zouch to Raleigh, under his breath.

All, however, were for speaking with so famous a man; and in came, in
full armor, a short, bull-necked Italian, evidently of immense strength,
of the true Caesar Borgi