Miles is growing impatient with his confinement as the day of his sentencing finally arrives. He has to sit two hours in the pillory, while the king is almost condemned to the stocks for keeping such bad company. Edward is dismissed with only a lecture, however; but when he sees Hendon in such a humiliating position, he begins once again to assert his royal indignation. Hendon tells the guard to “mind him not . . . he is mad.” Sir Hugh then suggests that the little rascal be given half a dozen lashes for being so impertinent. Edward is seized and suddenly decides to take a beating rather than beg for mercy; it would be unseemly for nobility to beg. Hendon, however, asks that he might be allowed to take the lashes and, consequently, he is removed from the pillory and is given twelve lashes.
Edward responds deeply to this sacrifice in his behalf—not only because Hendon saves him from pain, but also because Hendon saves “the royal person” from shame. After the beating, the young king comes to Hendon and dubs him an earl. Hendon is touched but muses that if “this goes on, I shall presently be hung like a very maypole with fantastic gauds and make-believe honors. But I shall value them, all valueless as they are, for the love that doth bestow them.”
After Miles’s punishment, he is ordered to leave the land, and he wonders how he can ever gain redress for all the injustices perpetrated against him. It is then that he remembers that old Andrews gave him reports concerning “the young king’s goodness and his generous championship of the wronged and unfortunate.” The question, however, is this: How can a pauper gain an interview with a prince or a monarch? Hendon also remembers that his father’s old friend, Sir Humphrey Marlow, might be able to help. But the most important matter concerns poor young Edward. Miles fears that life in London might cause his madness to increase. Yet when Hendon inquires of Edward where they should go, the king answers, “To London!” and off they go, making the entire journey without incident. They arrive on the eve of Coronation Day and find a great deal of celebrating going on. Unfortunately, during the celebrating Hendon and Edward become hopelessly separated from one another.
