A grace, a grace, my lord the
King! in thy royal compassion grant my prayer--give commandment that I
be hanged!”

Tom was amazed.  This was not the outcome he had looked for.

“Odds my life, a strange _boon_!  Was it not the fate intended thee?”

“O good my liege, not so!  It is ordered that I be _boiled alive_!”

The hideous surprise of these words almost made Tom spring from his
chair.