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 said the king, “authentic and indubitable proofs that at least in the one matter of the fifty thousand marks the Lord Zawis expressed the strict truth, and his probity has been vindicated. I fear that rashness and abitrary haste have marked the proceedings that have recently occurred. Personally I feel a deep regret at the result.”

Tobias took the documents and explained their purport to the queen. After a brief conference Tobias said: “The queen’s highness reminds the council of a most happy escape from the machinations and magical devices of the guilty conspirator, whose poisoned gift threatened the queen’s highness and the king with the fatal results of their diabolical effects. No deliverance could be more providential, no intervention of holy powers could be more gracious, than the auspicious discovery of the malignant purposes of the heretical culprit who has justly suffered. Such an interposition merits our most grateful acknowledgment. Surely no memorial could be more just, and no pious work more suitable than the erection and endowment of this holy house that shall preserve the memory of this fortunate event.”

Here Benes interposed. He possessed acuteness and observation. “The reverend bishop has assumed that the gift from the Lady Judith contained the venom of poison magic. The reverend bishop is aware that the Lady Judith had entered into vows in holy church, and had exhibited exemplary devotion and faith. Such profession and life are not favorable to the belief that the Lady Judith could