a promise that you will submit to the will
of the Holy Father, and by penance seek absolution for yourself and your
city."

A red flush swept into the young cheeks that had been so pale.

"What?" he cried, his voice a roar. "Release my mother, depose Zuleyman,
recall that fugitive recreant who cursed me, and humble myself to seek
pardon at the hands of this insolent Italian cleric? May my bones rot,
may I roast for ever in hell-fire if I show myself such a craven! And
do you counsel it, Emigio--do you really counsel that?" He was in a
towering rage.

"Listen to that voice," Emigio answered him, and waved a hand to the
open window. "How else will you silence it?"

Affonso Henriques sat down on the edge of the bed, and took his head in
his hands. He was checkmated--and yet....

He rose and beat his hands together, summoning chamberlain and pages to
help him dress and arm.

"Where is the legate lodged?" he asked Moniz.

"He is gone," the knight answered him. "He left at cock-crow, taking the
road to Spain along the Mondego--so I learnt from the watch at the River
Gate."

"How came they to open for him?"

"His office, lord, is a key that opens all doors at any hour of day or
night. They dared not detain or delay him."

"Ha!" grunted the Infante. "We will go after him, then." And he made
haste to complete his dressing. Then he buckled on his great sword, and
they departed.

In the courtyard of the alcazar, he summoned Sancho Nunes and a
half-dozen men-at-arms to attend him, mounted a charger and with Emigio
Moniz at his side and the others following, he rode out across the
draw-bridge into the open space that was thronged with the clamant
inhabitants of the stricken city.

A great cry went up when he showed himself--a mighty appeal to him for
mercy and the remission of the curse. Then silence fell, a silence that
invited him to answer and give comfort.

He reined in his horse, and standing in his stirrups very tall and
virile, he addressed them.

"People of Coimbra," he announced, "I go to obtain this city's
absolution from the ban that has been laid upon it. I shall return
before sunset. Till then do you keep the peace."

The voice of the multitude was raised again, this time to hail him as
the father and protector of the Portuguese, and to invoke the blessing
of Heaven upon his handsome head.

Riding between Moniz and Nunes, and followed by his glittering
men-at-arms, he crossed the city and took the