"
The mockery of it stung the legate sharply. His sallow, ascetic
face empurpled.
"It is not gold I bring you," he answered, "but a lesson in the
faith which you would seem to have forgotten. I am come to teach
you your Christian duty, and to require of you immediate
reparation of the sacrilegious wrongs you have done. The Holy
Father demands of you the instant re-instatement of the Bishop of
Coimbra, whom you have driven out with threats of violence, and
the degradation of the cleric you blasphemously appointed Bishop
in his stead."
"And is that all?" quoth the boy, in a voice dangerously quiet.
"No." Fearless in his sense of right, the legate towered before
him. "It is demanded of you further that you instantly release
the lady, your mother, from the unjust confinement in which you
hold her."
"That confinement is not unjust, as all here can witness," the
Infante answered. "Rome may believe it, because lies have been
carried to Rome. Dona Theresa's life was a scandal, her regency
an injustice to my people. She and the infamous Lord of Trava
lighted the torch of civil war in these dominions. Learn here the
truth, and carry it to Rome. Thus shall you do worthy service.
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