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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Talisman
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: July, 1998  [Etext #1377]
+Posting Date: 8, 2009
+Last Updated: February 27, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALISMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonomous Volunteer
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TALISMAN
+
+By Sir Walter Scott
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN.
+
+The “Betrothed” did not greatly please one or two friends, who thought
+that it did not well correspond to the general title of “The Crusaders.”
+ They urged, therefore, that, without direct allusion to the manners of
+the Eastern tribes, and to the romantic conflicts of the period, the
+title of a “Tale of the Crusaders” would resemble the playbill, which
+is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of
+the Prince of Denmark being left out. On the other hand, I felt the
+difficulty of giving a vivid picture of a part of the world with which
+I was almost totally unacquainted, unless by early recollections of
+the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and not only did I labour under the
+incapacity of ignorance--in which, as far as regards Eastern manners, I
+was as thickly wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog--but my contemporaries
+were, many of them, as much enlightened upon the subject as if they had
+been inhabitants of the favoured land of Goshen. The love of travelling
+had pervaded all ranks, and carried the subjects of Britain into all
+quarters of the world. Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by
+its struggles for freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name,
+where every fountain had its classical legend--Palestine, endeared
+to the imagination by yet more sacred remembrances--had been of late
+surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers. Had I,
+therefore, attempted the difficult task of substituting manners of my
+own invention, instead of the genuine costume of the East, almost every
+traveller I met who had extended his route beyond what was anciently
+called “The Grand Tour,” had acquired a right, by ocular inspection, to
+chastise me for my presumption. Every member of the Travellers' Club who
+could pretend to have thrown his shoe over Edom was, by having done so,
+constituted my lawful critic and corrector. It occurred, therefore,
+that where the author of Anastasius, as well as he of Hadji Baba, had
+described the manners and vices of the Eastern nations, not only with
+fidelity, but with the humour of Le Sage and the ludicrous power of
+Fielding himself, one who was a perfect stranger to the subject must
+necessarily produce an unfavourable contrast. The Poet Laureate also,
+in the charming tale of “Thalaba,” had shown how extensive might be
+the researches of a person of acquirements and talent, by dint of
+investigation alone, into the ancient doctrines, history, and manners of
+the Eastern countries, in which we are probably to look for the cradle
+of mankind; Moore, in his “Lalla Rookh,” had successfully trod the
+same path; in which, too, Byron, joining ocular experience to extensive
+reading, had written some of his most attractive poems. In a word, the
+Eastern themes had been already so successfully handled by those who
+were acknowledged to be masters of their craft, that I was diffident of
+making the attempt.
+
+These were powerful objections; nor did they lose force when they
+became the subject of anxious reflection, although they did not finally
+prevail. The arguments on the other side were, that though I had no hope
+of rivalling the contemporaries whom I have mentioned, yet it occurred
+to me as possible to acquit myself of the task I was engaged in without
+entering into competition with them.
+
+The period relating more immediately to the Crusades which I at last
+fixed upon was that at which the warlike character of Richard I., wild
+and generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all its extravagant virtues,
+and its no less absurd errors, was opposed to that of Saladin, in which
+the Christian and English monarch showed all the cruelty and violence
+of an Eastern sultan, and Saladin, on the other hand, displayed the deep
+policy and prudence of a European sovereign, whilst each contended
+which should excel the other in the knightly qualities of bravery and
+generosity. This singular contrast afforded, as the author conceived,
+materials for a work of fiction possessing peculiar interest. One of the
+inferior characters introduced was a supposed relation of Richard Coeur
+de Lion--a violation of the truth of history which gave offence to Mr.
+Mills, the author of the “History of Chivalry and the Crusades,” who was
+not, it may be presumed, aware that romantic fiction naturally includes
+the power of such invention, which is indeed one of the requisites of
+the art.
+
+Prince David of Scotland, who was actually in the host, and was the hero
+of some very romantic adventures on his way home, was also pressed into
+my service, and constitutes one of my DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
+
+It is true I had already brought upon the field him of the lion heart.
+But it was in a more private capacity than he was here to be exhibited
+in the Talisman--then as a disguised knight, now in the avowed character
+of a conquering monarch; so that I doubted not a name so dear to
+Englishmen as that of King Richard I. might contribute to their
+amusement for more than once.
+
+I had access to all which antiquity believed, whether of reality or
+fable, on the subject of that magnificent warrior, who was the proudest
+boast of Europe and their chivalry, and with whose dreadful name the
+Saracens, according to a historian of their own country, were wont to
+rebuke their startled horses. “Do you think,” said they, “that King
+Richard is on the track, that you stray so wildly from it?” The most
+curious register of the history of King Richard is an ancient romance,
+translated originally from the Norman; and at first certainly having a
+pretence to be termed a work of chivalry, but latterly becoming stuffed
+with the most astonishing and monstrous fables. There is perhaps no
+metrical romance upon record where, along with curious and genuine
+history, are mingled more absurd and exaggerated incidents. We have
+placed in the Appendix to this Introduction the passage of the romance
+in which Richard figures as an ogre, or literal cannibal.
+
+A principal incident in the story is that from which the title is
+derived. Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps most
+remarkable for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells, periapts,
+and similar charms, framed, it was said, under the influence of
+particular planets, and bestowing high medical powers, as well as the
+means of advancing men's fortunes in various manners. A story of this
+kind, relating to a Crusader of eminence, is often told in the west of
+Scotland, and the relic alluded to is still in existence, and even yet
+held in veneration.
+
+Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee and Gartland made a considerable figure in the
+reigns of Robert the Bruce and of his son David. He was one of the chief
+of that band of Scottish chivalry who accompanied James, the Good Lord
+Douglas, on his expedition to the Holy Land with the heart of King
+Robert Bruce. Douglas, impatient to get at the Saracens, entered into
+war with those of Spain, and was killed there. Lockhart proceeded to the
+Holy Land with such Scottish knights as had escaped the fate of their
+leader and assisted for some time in the wars against the Saracens.
+
+The following adventure is said by tradition to have befallen him:--
+
+He made prisoner in battle an Emir of considerable wealth and
+consequence. The aged mother of the captive came to the Christian camp,
+to redeem her son from his state of captivity. Lockhart is said to have
+fixed the price at which his prisoner should ransom himself; and the
+lady, pulling out a large embroidered purse, proceeded to tell down the
+ransom, like a mother who pays little respect to gold in comparison of
+her son's liberty. In this operation, a pebble inserted in a coin, some
+say of the Lower Empire, fell out of the purse, and the Saracen matron
+testified so much haste to recover it as gave the Scottish knight a
+high idea of its value, when compared with gold or silver. “I will not
+consent,” he said, “to grant your son's liberty, unless that amulet be
+added to his ransom.” The lady not only consented to this, but explained
+to Sir Simon Lockhart the mode in which the talisman was to be used,
+and the uses to which it might be put. The water in which it was dipped
+operated as a styptic, as a febrifuge, and possessed other properties as
+a medical talisman.
+
+Sir Simon Lockhart, after much experience of the wonders which it
+wrought, brought it to his own country, and left it to his heirs, by
+whom, and by Clydesdale in general, it was, and is still, distinguished
+by the name of the Lee-penny, from the name of his native seat of Lee.
+
+The most remarkable part of its history, perhaps, was that it so
+especially escaped condemnation when the Church of Scotland chose to
+impeach many other cures which savoured of the miraculous, as occasioned
+by sorcery, and censured the appeal to them, “excepting only that to
+the amulet, called the Lee-penny, to which it had pleased God to annex
+certain healing virtues which the Church did not presume to condemn.” It
+still, as has been said, exists, and its powers are sometimes resorted
+to. Of late, they have been chiefly restricted to the cure of persons
+bitten by mad dogs; and as the illness in such cases frequently arises
+from imagination, there can be no reason for doubting that water which
+has been poured on the Lee-penny furnishes a congenial cure.
+
+Such is the tradition concerning the talisman, which the author has
+taken the liberty to vary in applying it to his own purposes.
+
+Considerable liberties have also been taken with the truth of history,
+both with respect to Conrade of Montserrat's life, as well as his death.
+That Conrade, however, was reckoned the enemy of Richard is agreed both
+in history and romance. The general opinion of the terms upon which they
+stood may be guessed from the proposal of the Saracens that the Marquis
+of Montserrat should be invested with certain parts of Syria, which they
+were to yield to the Christians. Richard, according to the romance which
+bears his name, “could no longer repress his fury. The Marquis he said,
+was a traitor, who had robbed the Knights Hospitallers of sixty thousand
+pounds, the present of his father Henry; that he was a renegade, whose
+treachery had occasioned the loss of Acre; and he concluded by a solemn
+oath, that he would cause him to be drawn to pieces by wild horses, if
+he should ever venture to pollute the Christian camp by his presence.
+Philip attempted to intercede in favour of the Marquis, and throwing
+down his glove, offered to become a pledge for his fidelity to the
+Christians; but his offer was rejected, and he was obliged to give way
+to Richard's impetuosity.”--HISTORY OF CHIVALRY.
+
+Conrade of Montserrat makes a considerable figure in those wars, and was
+at length put to death by one of the followers of the Scheik, or Old Man
+of the Mountain; nor did Richard remain free of the suspicion of having
+instigated his death.
+
+It may be said, in general, that most of the incidents introduced in
+the following tale are fictitious, and that reality, where it exists, is
+only retained in the characters of the piece.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.
+
+While warring in the Holy Land, Richard was seized with an ague.
+
+The best leeches of the camp were unable to effect the cure of the
+King's disease; but the prayers of the army were more successful. He
+became convalescent, and the first symptom of his recovery was a violent
+longing for pork. But pork was not likely to be plentiful in a country
+whose inhabitants had an abhorrence for swine's flesh; and
+
+     “Though his men should be hanged,
+     They ne might, in that countrey,
+     For gold, ne silver, ne no money,
+     No pork find, take, ne get,
+     That King Richard might aught of eat.
+     An old knight with Richard biding,
+     When he heard of that tiding,
+     That the king's wants were swyche,
+     To the steward he spake privyliche--
+     “Our lord the king sore is sick, I wis,
+     After porck he alonged is;
+     Ye may none find to selle;
+     No man be hardy him so to telle!
+     If he did he might die.
+     Now behoves to done as I shall say,
+     Tho' he wete nought of that.
+     Take a Saracen, young and fat;
+     In haste let the thief be slain,
+     Opened, and his skin off flayn;
+     And sodden full hastily,
+     With powder and with spicery,
+     And with saffron of good colour.
+     When the king feels thereof savour,
+     Out of ague if he be went,
+     He shall have thereto good talent.
+     When he has a good taste,
+     And eaten well a good repast,
+     And supped of the BREWIS [Broth] a sup,
+     Slept after and swet a drop,
+     Through Goddis help and my counsail,
+     Soon he shall be fresh and hail.'
+     The sooth to say, at wordes few,
+     Slain and sodden was the heathen shrew.
+     Before the king it was forth brought:
+     Quod his men, 'Lord, we have pork sought;
+     Eates and sups of the brewis SOOTE,[Sweet]
+     Thorough grace of God it shall be your boot.'
+     Before King Richard carff a knight,
+     He ate faster than he carve might.
+     The king ate the flesh and GNEW [Gnawed] the bones,
+     And drank well after for the nonce.
+     And when he had eaten enough,
+     His folk hem turned away, and LOUGH.[Laughed]
+     He lay still and drew in his arm;
+     His chamberlain him wrapped warm.
+     He lay and slept, and swet a stound,
+     And became whole and sound.
+     King Richard clad him and arose,
+     And walked abouten in the close.”
+
+An attack of the Saracens was repelled by Richard in person, the
+consequence of which is told in the following lines:--
+
+     “When King Richard had rested a whyle,
+     A knight his arms 'gan unlace,
+     Him to comfort and solace.
+     Him was brought a sop in wine.
+     'The head of that ilke swine,
+     That I of ate!' (the cook he bade,)
+     'For feeble I am, and faint and mad.
+     Of mine evil now I am fear;
+     Serve me therewith at my soupere!'
+     Quod the cook, 'That head I ne have.'
+     Then said the king, 'So God me save,
+     But I see the head of that swine,
+     For sooth, thou shalt lesen thine!'
+     The cook saw none other might be;
+     He fet the head and let him see.
+     He fell on knees, and made a cry--
+     'Lo, here the head!  my Lord, mercy!'”
+
+The cook had certainly some reason to fear that his master would be
+struck with horror at the recollection of the dreadful banquet to which
+he owed his recovery; but his fears were soon dissipated.
+
+     “The swarte vis [Black face] when the king seeth,
+     His black beard and white teeth,
+     How his lippes grinned wide,
+     'What devil is this?' the king cried,
+     And 'gan to laugh as he were wode.
+     'What!  is Saracen's flesh thus good?
+     That never erst I nought wist!
+     By God's death and his uprist,
+     Shall we never die for default,
+     While we may in any assault,
+     Slee Saracens, the flesh may take,
+     And seethen and roasten and do hem bake,
+     [And] Gnawen her flesh to the bones!
+     Now I have it proved once,
+     For hunger ere I be wo,
+     I and my folk shall eat mo!”'
+
+The besieged now offered to surrender, upon conditions of safety to the
+inhabitants; while all the public treasure, military machines, and arms
+were delivered to the victors, together with the further ransom of
+one hundred thousand bezants. After this capitulation, the following
+extraordinary scene took place. We shall give it in the words of the
+humorous and amiable George Ellis, the collector and the editor of these
+Romances:--
+
+“Though the garrison had faithfully performed the other articles of
+their contract, they were unable to restore the cross, which was not
+in their possession, and were therefore treated by the Christians
+with great cruelty. Daily reports of their sufferings were carried to
+Saladin; and as many of them were persons of the highest distinction,
+that monarch, at the solicitation of their friends, dispatched an
+embassy to King Richard with magnificent presents, which he offered
+for the ransom of the captives. The ambassadors were persons the most
+respectable from their age, their rank, and their eloquence. They
+delivered their message in terms of the utmost humility; and without
+arraigning the justice of the conqueror in his severe treatment of their
+countrymen, only solicited a period to that severity, laying at his feet
+the treasures with which they were entrusted, and pledging themselves
+and their master for the payment of any further sums which he might
+demand as the price of mercy.
+
+     “King Richard spake with wordes mild.
+     'The gold to take, God me shield!
+     Among you partes [Divide] every charge.
+     I brought in shippes and in barge,
+     More gold and silver with me,
+     Than has your lord, and swilke three.
+     To his treasure have I no need!
+     But for my love I you bid,
+     To meat with me that ye dwell;
+     And afterward I shall you tell.
+     Thorough counsel I shall you answer,
+     What BODE [Message] ye shall to your lord bear.
+
+“The invitation was gratefully accepted. Richard, in the meantime, gave
+secret orders to his marshal that he should repair to the prison,
+select a certain number of the most distinguished captives, and, after
+carefully noting their names on a roll of parchment, cause their heads
+to be instantly struck off; that these heads should be delivered to the
+cook, with instructions to clear away the hair, and, after boiling
+them in a cauldron, to distribute them on several platters, one to
+each guest, observing to fasten on the forehead of each the piece of
+parchment expressing the name and family of the victim.
+
+     “'An hot head bring me beforn,
+     As I were well apayed withall,
+     Eat thereof fast I shall;
+     As it were a tender chick,
+     To see how the others will like.'
+
+“This horrible order was punctually executed. At noon the guests were
+summoned to wash by the music of the waits. The king took his seat
+attended by the principal officers of his court, at the high table, and
+the rest of the company were marshalled at a long table below him.
+On the cloth were placed portions of salt at the usual distances, but
+neither bread, wine, nor water. The ambassadors, rather surprised at
+this omission, but still free from apprehension, awaited in silence
+the arrival of the dinner, which was announced by the sound of pipes,
+trumpets, and tabours; and beheld, with horror and dismay, the unnatural
+banquet introduced by the steward and his officers. Yet their sentiments
+of disgust and abhorrence, and even their fears, were for a time
+suspended by their curiosity. Their eyes were fixed on the king, who,
+without the slightest change of countenance, swallowed the morsels as
+fast as they could be supplied by the knight who carved them.
+
+     “Every man then poked other;
+     They said, 'This is the devil's brother,
+     That slays our men, and thus hem eats!'
+
+“Their attention was then involuntarily fixed on the smoking heads
+before them. They traced in the swollen and distorted features the
+resemblance of a friend or near relation, and received from the
+fatal scroll which accompanied each dish the sad assurance that this
+resemblance was not imaginary. They sat in torpid silence, anticipating
+their own fate in that of their countrymen; while their ferocious
+entertainer, with fury in his eyes, but with courtesy on his lips,
+insulted them by frequent invitations to merriment. At length this first
+course was removed, and its place supplied by venison, cranes, and other
+dainties, accompanied by the richest wines. The king then apologized to
+them for what had passed, which he attributed to his ignorance of their
+taste; and assured them of his religious respect for their characters as
+ambassadors, and of his readiness to grant them a safe-conduct for their
+return. This boon was all that they now wished to claim; and
+
+     “King Richard spake to an old man,
+     'Wendes home to your Soudan!
+     His melancholy that ye abate;
+     And sayes that ye came too late.
+     Too slowly was your time y-guessed;
+     Ere ye came, the flesh was dressed,
+     That men shoulden serve with me,
+     Thus at noon, and my meynie.
+     Say him, it shall him nought avail,
+     Though he for-bar us our vitail,
+     Bread, wine, fish, flesh, salmon, and conger;
+     Of us none shall die with hunger,
+     While we may wenden to fight,
+     And slay the Saracens downright,
+     Wash the flesh, and roast the head.
+     With 0 [One] Saracen I may well feed
+     Well a nine or a ten
+     Of my good Christian men.
+     King Richard shall warrant,
+     There is no flesh so nourissant
+     Unto an English man,
+     Partridge, plover, heron, ne swan,
+     Cow ne ox, sheep ne swine,
+     As the head of a Sarazyn.
+     There he is fat, and thereto tender,
+     And my men be lean and slender.
+     While any Saracen quick be,
+     Livand now in this Syrie,
+     For meat will we nothing care.
+     Abouten fast we shall rare,
+     And every day we shall eat
+     All as many as we may get.
+     To England will we nought gon,
+     Till they be eaten every one.'”
+
+
+      ELLIS'S SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH METRICEL ROMANCES.
+
+The reader may be curious to know owing to what circumstances so
+extraordinary an invention as that which imputed cannibalism to the King
+of England should have found its way into his history. Mr. James, to
+whom we owe so much that is curious, seems to have traced the origin of
+this extraordinary rumour.
+
+“With the army of the cross also was a multitude of men,” the same
+author declares, “who made it a profession to be without money. They
+walked barefoot, carried no arms, and even preceded the beasts of burden
+in their march, living upon roots and herbs, and presenting a spectacle
+both disgusting and pitiable.
+
+“A Norman, who, according to all accounts, was of noble birth, but who,
+having lost his horse, continued to follow as a foot soldier, took
+the strange resolution of putting himself at the head of this race
+of vagabonds, who willingly received him as their king. Amongst the
+Saracens these men became well known under the name of THAFURS (which
+Guibert translates TRUDENTES), and were beheld with great horror
+from the general persuasion that they fed on the dead bodies of their
+enemies; a report which was occasionally justified, and which the king
+of the Thafurs took care to encourage. This respectable monarch was
+frequently in the habit of stopping his followers, one by one, in a
+narrow defile, and of causing them to be searched carefully, lest the
+possession of the least sum of money should render them unworthy of the
+name of his subjects. If even two sous were found upon any one, he
+was instantly expelled the society of his tribe, the king bidding him
+contemptuously buy arms and fight.
+
+“This troop, so far from being cumbersome to the army, was infinitely
+serviceable, carrying burdens, bringing in forage, provisions, and
+tribute; working the machines in the sieges; and, above all, spreading
+consternation among the Turks, who feared death from the lances of the
+knights less than that further consummation they heard of under the
+teeth of the Thafurs.” [James's “History of Chivalry.”]
+
+It is easy to conceive that an ignorant minstrel, finding the taste and
+ferocity of the Thafurs commemorated in the historical accounts of the
+Holy Wars, has ascribed their practices and propensities to the Monarch
+of England, whose ferocity was considered as an object of exaggeration
+as legitimate as his valour.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832.
+
+
+
+
+
+TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. TALE II.--THE TALISMAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     They, too, retired
+     To the wilderness, but 'twas with arms.
+         PARADISE REGAINED.
+
+The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in
+the horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant
+northern home and joined the host of the Crusaders in Palestine, was
+pacing slowly along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the
+Dead Sea, or, as it is called, the Lake Asphaltites, where the waves of
+the Jordan pour themselves into an inland sea, from which there is no
+discharge of waters.
+
+The warlike pilgrim had toiled among cliffs and precipices during the
+earlier part of the morning. More lately, issuing from those rocky
+and dangerous defiles, he had entered upon that great plain, where
+the accursed cities provoked, in ancient days, the direct and dreadful
+vengeance of the Omnipotent.
+
+The toil, the thirst, the dangers of the way, were forgotten, as the
+traveller recalled the fearful catastrophe which had converted into an
+arid and dismal wilderness the fair and fertile valley of Siddim, once
+well watered, even as the Garden of the Lord, now a parched and blighted
+waste, condemned to eternal sterility.
+
+Crossing himself, as he viewed the dark mass of rolling waters, in
+colour as in duality unlike those of any other lake, the traveller
+shuddered as he remembered that beneath these sluggish waves lay the
+once proud cities of the plain, whose grave was dug by the thunder of
+the heavens, or the eruption of subterraneous fire, and whose remains
+were hid, even by that sea which holds no living fish in its bosom,
+bears no skiff on its surface, and, as if its own dreadful bed were the
+only fit receptacle for its sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes,
+a tribute to the ocean. The whole land around, as in the days of Moses,
+was “brimstone and salt; it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass
+groweth thereon.” The land as well as the lake might be termed dead, as
+producing nothing having resemblance to vegetation, and even the very
+air was entirely devoid of its ordinary winged inhabitants, deterred
+probably by the odour of bitumen and sulphur which the burning sun
+exhaled from the waters of the lake in steaming clouds, frequently
+assuming the appearance of waterspouts. Masses of the slimy and
+sulphureous substance called naphtha, which floated idly on the sluggish
+and sullen waves, supplied those rolling clouds with new vapours, and
+afforded awful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic history.
+
+Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost intolerable
+splendour, and all living nature seemed to have hidden itself from the
+rays, excepting the solitary figure which moved through the flitting
+sand at a foot's pace, and appeared the sole breathing thing on the wide
+surface of the plain. The dress of the rider and the accoutrements of
+his horse were peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country. A
+coat of linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel
+breastplate, had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour; there
+were also his triangular shield suspended round his neck, and his barred
+helmet of steel, over which he had a hood and collar of mail, which
+was drawn around the warrior's shoulders and throat, and filled up the
+vacancy between the hauberk and the headpiece. His lower limbs were
+sheathed, like his body, in flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs,
+while the feet rested in plated shoes, which corresponded with the
+gauntlets. A long, broad, straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with
+a handle formed like a cross, corresponded with a stout poniard on the
+other side. The knight also bore, secured to his saddle, with one end
+resting on his stirrup, the long steel-headed lance, his own proper
+weapon, which, as he rode, projected backwards, and displayed its little
+pennoncelle, to dally with the faint breeze, or drop in the dead calm.
+To this cumbrous equipment must be added a surcoat of embroidered cloth,
+much frayed and worn, which was thus far useful that it excluded the
+burning rays of the sun from the armour, which they would otherwise have
+rendered intolerable to the wearer. The surcoat bore, in several places,
+the arms of the owner, although much defaced. These seemed to be a
+couchant leopard, with the motto, “I sleep; wake me not.” An outline of
+the same device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had
+almost effaced the painting. The flat top of his cumbrous cylindrical
+helmet was unadorned with any crest. In retaining their own unwieldy
+defensive armour, the Northern Crusaders seemed to set at defiance the
+nature of the climate and country to which they had come to war.
+
+The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and unwieldy
+than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated with
+steel, uniting in front with a species of breastplate, and behind with
+defensive armour made to cover the loins. Then there was a steel axe,
+or hammer, called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow. The
+reins were secured by chain-work, and the front-stall of the bridle was
+a steel plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the
+midst a short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the horse
+like the horn of the fabulous unicorn.
+
+But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second
+nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers, indeed,
+of the Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere they became
+inured to the burning climate; but there were others to whom that
+climate became innocent and even friendly, and among this fortunate
+number was the solitary horseman who now traversed the border of the
+Dead Sea.
+
+Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength, fitted
+to wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the meshes had been
+formed of cobwebs, had endowed him with a constitution as strong as his
+limbs, and which bade defiance to almost all changes of climate, as well
+as to fatigue and privations of every kind. His disposition seemed, in
+some degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as
+the one possessed great strength and endurance, united with the power of
+violent exertion, the other, under a calm and undisturbed semblance, had
+much of the fiery and enthusiastic love of glory which constituted the
+principal attribute of the renowned Norman line, and had rendered
+them sovereigns in every corner of Europe where they had drawn their
+adventurous swords.
+
+It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such tempting
+rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight during two years'
+campaign in Palestine had been only temporal fame, and, as he was taught
+to believe, spiritual privileges. Meantime, his slender stock of money
+had melted away, the rather that he did not pursue any of the ordinary
+modes by which the followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit
+their diminished resources at the expense of the people of Palestine--he
+exacted no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
+when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed
+himself of any opportunity of enriching himself by the ransom of
+prisoners of consequence. The small train which had followed him from
+his native country had been gradually diminished, as the means of
+maintaining them disappeared, and his only remaining squire was at
+present on a sick-bed, and unable to attend his master, who travelled,
+as we have seen, singly and alone. This was of little consequence to the
+Crusader, who was accustomed to consider his good sword as his safest
+escort, and devout thoughts as his best companion.
+
+Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even on
+the iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the Sleeping
+Leopard; and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some distance on his
+right, he joyfully hailed the sight of two or three palm-trees, which
+arose beside the well which was assigned for his mid-day station. His
+good horse, too, which had plodded forward with the steady endurance of
+his master, now lifted his head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened
+his pace, as if he snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the
+place of repose and refreshment. But labour and danger were doomed to
+intervene ere the horse or horseman reached the desired spot.
+
+As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
+attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed to him
+as if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated
+itself from the trees, which partly hid its motions, and advanced
+towards the knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman,
+whom his turban, long spear, and green caftan floating in the wind, on
+his nearer approach showed to be a Saracen cavalier. “In the desert,”
+ saith an Eastern proverb, “no man meets a friend.” The Crusader was
+totally indifferent whether the infidel, who now approached on his
+gallant barb as if borne on the wings of an eagle, came as friend or
+foe--perhaps, as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might rather have
+preferred the latter. He disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized
+it with the right hand, placed it in rest with its point half elevated,
+gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's mettle with
+the spur, and prepared to encounter the stranger with the calm
+self-confidence belonging to the victor in many contests.
+
+The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman, managing
+his steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his body than by any
+use of the reins, which hung loose in his left hand; so that he was
+enabled to wield the light, round buckler of the skin of the rhinoceros,
+ornamented with silver loops, which he wore on his arm, swinging it as
+if he meant to oppose its slender circle to the formidable thrust of the
+Western lance. His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that
+of his antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and
+brandished at arm's-length above his head. As the cavalier approached
+his enemy at full career, he seemed to expect that the Knight of the
+Leopard should put his horse to the gallop to encounter him. But the
+Christian knight, well acquainted with the customs of Eastern warriors,
+did not mean to exhaust his good horse by any unnecessary exertion; and,
+on the contrary, made a dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced
+to the actual shock, his own weight, and that of his powerful charger,
+would give him sufficient advantage, without the additional momentum
+of rapid motion. Equally sensible and apprehensive of such a probable
+result, the Saracen cavalier, when he had approached towards the
+Christian within twice the length of his lance, wheeled his steed to the
+left with inimitable dexterity, and rode twice around his antagonist,
+who, turning without quitting his ground, and presenting his front
+constantly to his enemy, frustrated his attempts to attack him on an
+unguarded point; so that the Saracen, wheeling his horse, was fain to
+retreat to the distance of a hundred yards. A second time, like a hawk
+attacking a heron, the heathen renewed the charge, and a second time
+was fain to retreat without coming to a close struggle. A third time he
+approached in the same manner, when the Christian knight, desirous to
+terminate this illusory warfare, in which he might at length have been
+worn out by the activity of his foeman, suddenly seized the mace which
+hung at his saddle-bow, and, with a strong hand and unerring aim,
+hurled it against the head of the Emir, for such and not less his enemy
+appeared. The Saracen was just aware of the formidable missile in time
+to interpose his light buckler betwixt the mace and his head; but the
+violence of the blow forced the buckler down on his turban, and though
+that defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the Saracen was
+beaten from his horse. Ere the Christian could avail himself of this
+mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and, calling on his
+steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat
+without touching the stirrup, and regained all the advantage of which
+the Knight of the Leopard hoped to deprive him. But the latter had
+in the meanwhile recovered his mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who
+remembered the strength and dexterity with which his antagonist had
+aimed it, seemed to keep cautiously out of reach of that weapon of which
+he had so lately felt the force, while he showed his purpose of waging a
+distant warfare with missile weapons of his own. Planting his long spear
+in the sand at a distance from the scene of combat, he strung, with
+great address, a short bow, which he carried at his back; and putting
+his horse to the gallop, once more described two or three circles of
+a wider extent than formerly, in the course of which he discharged six
+arrows at the Christian with such unerring skill that the goodness of
+his harness alone saved him from being wounded in as many places. The
+seventh shaft apparently found a less perfect part of the armour, and
+the Christian dropped heavily from his horse. But what was the surprise
+of the Saracen, when, dismounting to examine the condition of his
+prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly within the grasp of the
+European, who had had recourse to this artifice to bring his enemy
+within his reach! Even in this deadly grapple the Saracen was saved by
+his agility and presence of mind. He unloosed the sword-belt, in which
+the Knight of the Leopard had fixed his hold, and, thus eluding his
+fatal grasp, mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with
+the intelligence of a human being, and again rode off. But in the last
+encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of arrows, both
+of which were attached to the girdle which he was obliged to abandon. He
+had also lost his turban in the struggle.
+
+These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a truce. He
+approached the Christian with his right hand extended, but no longer in
+a menacing attitude.
+
+“There is truce betwixt our nations,” he said, in the lingua franca
+commonly used for the purpose of communication with the Crusaders;
+“wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me? Let there be peace
+betwixt us.”
+
+“I am well contented,” answered he of the Couchant Leopard; “but what
+security dost thou offer that thou wilt observe the truce?”
+
+“The word of a follower of the Prophet was never broken,” answered the
+Emir. “It is thou, brave Nazarene, from whom I should demand security,
+did I not know that treason seldom dwells with courage.”
+
+The Crusader felt that the confidence of the Moslem made him ashamed of
+his own doubts.
+
+“By the cross of my sword,” he said, laying his hand on the weapon as
+he spoke, “I will be true companion to thee, Saracen, while our fortune
+wills that we remain in company together.”
+
+“By Mohammed, Prophet of God, and by Allah, God of the Prophet,” replied
+his late foeman, “there is not treachery in my heart towards thee. And
+now wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour of rest is at hand, and
+the stream had hardly touched my lip when I was called to battle by thy
+approach.”
+
+The Knight of the Couchant Leopard yielded a ready and courteous assent;
+and the late foes, without an angry look or gesture of doubt, rode side
+by side to the little cluster of palm-trees.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Times of danger have always, and in a peculiar degree, their seasons
+of good-will and security; and this was particularly so in the ancient
+feudal ages, in which, as the manners of the period had assigned war
+to be the chief and most worthy occupation of mankind, the intervals
+of peace, or rather of truce, were highly relished by those warriors to
+whom they were seldom granted, and endeared by the very circumstances
+which rendered them transitory. It is not worth while preserving any
+permanent enmity against a foe whom a champion has fought with to-day,
+and may again stand in bloody opposition to on the next morning. The
+time and situation afforded so much room for the ebullition of violent
+passions, that men, unless when peculiarly opposed to each other,
+or provoked by the recollection of private and individual wrongs,
+cheerfully enjoyed in each other's society the brief intervals of
+pacific intercourse which a warlike life admitted.
+
+The distinction of religions, nay, the fanatical zeal which animated the
+followers of the Cross and of the Crescent against each other, was much
+softened by a feeling so natural to generous combatants, and especially
+cherished by the spirit of chivalry. This last strong impulse had
+extended itself gradually from the Christians to their mortal enemies
+the Saracens, both of Spain and of Palestine. The latter were, indeed,
+no longer the fanatical savages who had burst from the centre of Arabian
+deserts, with the sabre in one hand and the Koran in the other, to
+inflict death or the faith of Mohammed, or, at the best, slavery and
+tribute, upon all who dared to oppose the belief of the prophet of
+Mecca. These alternatives indeed had been offered to the unwarlike
+Greeks and Syrians; but in contending with the Western Christians,
+animated by a zeal as fiery as their own, and possessed of as
+unconquerable courage, address, and success in arms, the Saracens
+gradually caught a part of their manners, and especially of those
+chivalrous observances which were so well calculated to charm the minds
+of a proud and conquering people. They had their tournaments and games
+of chivalry; they had even their knights, or some rank analogous; and
+above all, the Saracens observed their plighted faith with an accuracy
+which might sometimes put to shame those who owned a better religion.
+Their truces, whether national or betwixt individuals, were faithfully
+observed; and thus it was that war, in itself perhaps the greatest
+of evils, yet gave occasion for display of good faith, generosity,
+clemency, and even kindly affections, which less frequently occur in
+more tranquil periods, where the passions of men, experiencing wrongs or
+entertaining quarrels which cannot be brought to instant decision, are
+apt to smoulder for a length of time in the bosoms of those who are so
+unhappy as to be their prey.
+
+It was under the influence of these milder feelings which soften the
+horrors of warfare that the Christian and Saracen, who had so lately
+done their best for each other's mutual destruction, rode at a slow pace
+towards the fountain of palm-trees to which the Knight of the Couchant
+Leopard had been tending, when interrupted in mid-passage by his
+fleet and dangerous adversary. Each was wrapt for some time in his own
+reflections, and took breath after an encounter which had threatened to
+be fatal to one or both; and their good horses seemed no less to enjoy
+the interval of repose.
+
+That of the Saracen, however, though he had been forced into much the
+more violent and extended sphere of motion, appeared to have suffered
+less from fatigue than the charger of the European knight. The sweat
+hung still clammy on the limbs of the latter, when those of the noble
+Arab were completely dried by the interval of tranquil exercise, all
+saving the foam-flakes which were still visible on his bridle and
+housings. The loose soil on which he trod so much augmented the distress
+of the Christian's horse, heavily loaded by his own armour and the
+weight of his rider, that the latter jumped from his saddle, and led his
+charger along the deep dust of the loamy soil, which was burnt in the
+sun into a substance more impalpable than the finest sand, and thus
+gave the faithful horse refreshment at the expense of his own additional
+toil; for, iron-sheathed as he was, he sunk over the mailed shoes at
+every step which he placed on a surface so light and unresisting.
+
+“You are right,” said the Saracen--and it was the first word that either
+had spoken since their truce was concluded; “your strong horse deserves
+your care. But what do you in the desert with an animal which sinks over
+the fetlock at every step as if he would plant each foot deep as the
+root of a date-tree?”
+
+“Thou speakest rightly, Saracen,” said the Christian knight, not
+delighted at the tone with which the infidel criticized his favourite
+steed--“rightly, according to thy knowledge and observation. But my good
+horse hath ere now borne me, in mine own land, over as wide a lake as
+thou seest yonder spread out behind us, yet not wet one hair above his
+hoof.”
+
+The Saracen looked at him with as much surprise as his manners permitted
+him to testify, which was only expressed by a slight approach to a
+disdainful smile, that hardly curled perceptibly the broad, thick
+moustache which enveloped his upper lip.
+
+“It is justly spoken,” he said, instantly composing himself to his usual
+serene gravity; “List to a Frank, and hear a fable.”
+
+“Thou art not courteous, misbeliever,” replied the Crusader, “to doubt
+the word of a dubbed knight; and were it not that thou speakest in
+ignorance, and not in malice, our truce had its ending ere it is well
+begun. Thinkest thou I tell thee an untruth when I say that I, one of
+five hundred horsemen, armed in complete mail, have ridden--ay, and
+ridden for miles, upon water as solid as the crystal, and ten times less
+brittle?”
+
+“What wouldst thou tell me?” answered the Moslem. “Yonder inland sea
+thou dost point at is peculiar in this, that, by the especial curse of
+God, it suffereth nothing to sink in its waves, but wafts them away, and
+casts them on its margin; but neither the Dead Sea, nor any of the
+seven oceans which environ the earth, will endure on their surface the
+pressure of a horse's foot, more than the Red Sea endured to sustain the
+advance of Pharaoh and his host.”
+
+“You speak truth after your knowledge, Saracen,” said the Christian
+knight; “and yet, trust me, I fable not, according to mine. Heat, in
+this climate, converts the soil into something almost as unstable
+as water; and in my land cold often converts the water itself into
+a substance as hard as rock. Let us speak of this no longer, for
+the thoughts of the calm, clear, blue refulgence of a winter's lake,
+glimmering to stars and moonbeam, aggravate the horrors of this fiery
+desert, where, methinks, the very air which we breathe is like the
+vapour of a fiery furnace seven times heated.”
+
+The Saracen looked on him with some attention, as if to discover in
+what sense he was to understand words which, to him, must have appeared
+either to contain something of mystery or of imposition. At length he
+seemed determined in what manner to receive the language of his new
+companion.
+
+“You are,” he said, “of a nation that loves to laugh, and you make sport
+with yourselves, and with others, by telling what is impossible, and
+reporting what never chanced. Thou art one of the knights of France, who
+hold it for glee and pastime to GAB, as they term it, of exploits that
+are beyond human power. [Gaber. This French word signified a sort of
+sport much used among the French chivalry, which consisted in vying
+with each other in making the most romantic gasconades. The verb and the
+meaning are retained in Scottish.] I were wrong to challenge, for the
+time, the privilege of thy speech, since boasting is more natural to
+thee than truth.”
+
+“I am not of their land, neither of their fashion,” said the Knight,
+“which is, as thou well sayest, to GAB of that which they dare not
+undertake--or, undertaking, cannot perfect. But in this I have imitated
+their folly, brave Saracen, that in talking to thee of what thou canst
+not comprehend, I have, even in speaking most simple truth, fully
+incurred the character of a braggart in thy eyes; so, I pray you, let my
+words pass.”
+
+They had now arrived at the knot of palm-trees and the fountain which
+welled out from beneath their shade in sparkling profusion.
+
+We have spoken of a moment of truce in the midst of war; and this, a
+spot of beauty in the midst of a sterile desert, was scarce less dear
+to the imagination. It was a scene which, perhaps, would elsewhere have
+deserved little notice; but as the single speck, in a boundless
+horizon, which promised the refreshment of shade and living water, these
+blessings, held cheap where they are common, rendered the fountain and
+its neighbourhood a little paradise. Some generous or charitable hand,
+ere yet the evil days of Palestine began, had walled in and arched over
+the fountain, to preserve it from being absorbed in the earth, or choked
+by the flitting clouds of dust with which the least breath of wind
+covered the desert. The arch was now broken, and partly ruinous; but it
+still so far projected over and covered in the fountain that it excluded
+the sun in a great measure from its waters, which, hardly touched by a
+straggling beam, while all around was blazing, lay in a steady repose,
+alike delightful to the eye and the imagination. Stealing from under the
+arch, they were first received in a marble basin, much defaced indeed,
+but still cheering the eye, by showing that the place was anciently
+considered as a station, that the hand of man had been there and that
+man's accommodation had been in some measure attended to. The thirsty
+and weary traveller was reminded by these signs that others had suffered
+similar difficulties, reposed in the same spot, and, doubtless, found
+their way in safety to a more fertile country. Again, the scarce visible
+current which escaped from the basin served to nourish the few trees
+which surrounded the fountain, and where it sunk into the ground and
+disappeared, its refreshing presence was acknowledged by a carpet of
+velvet verdure.
+
+In this delightful spot the two warriors halted, and each, after his own
+fashion, proceeded to relieve his horse from saddle, bit, and rein,
+and permitted the animals to drink at the basin, ere they refreshed
+themselves from the fountain head, which arose under the vault. They
+then suffered the steeds to go loose, confident that their interest, as
+well as their domesticated habits, would prevent their straying from the
+pure water and fresh grass.
+
+Christian and Saracen next sat down together on the turf, and produced
+each the small allowance of store which they carried for their own
+refreshment. Yet, ere they severally proceeded to their scanty meal,
+they eyed each other with that curiosity which the close and doubtful
+conflict in which they had been so lately engaged was calculated to
+inspire. Each was desirous to measure the strength, and form some
+estimate of the character, of an adversary so formidable; and each was
+compelled to acknowledge that, had he fallen in the conflict, it had
+been by a noble hand.
+
+The champions formed a striking contrast to each other in person and
+features, and might have formed no inaccurate representatives of their
+different nations. The Frank seemed a powerful man, built after the
+ancient Gothic cast of form, with light brown hair, which, on the
+removal of his helmet, was seen to curl thick and profusely over his
+head. His features had acquired, from the hot climate, a hue much darker
+than those parts of his neck which were less frequently exposed to view,
+or than was warranted by his full and well-opened blue eye, the colour
+of his hair, and of the moustaches which thickly shaded his upper
+lip, while his chin was carefully divested of beard, after the Norman
+fashion. His nose was Grecian and well formed; his mouth rather large
+in proportion, but filled with well-set, strong, and beautifully white
+teeth; his head small, and set upon the neck with much grace. His age
+could not exceed thirty, but if the effects of toil and climate were
+allowed for, might be three or four years under that period. His form
+was tall, powerful, and athletic, like that of a man whose strength
+might, in later life, become unwieldy, but which was hitherto united
+with lightness and activity. His hands, when he withdrew the mailed
+gloves, were long, fair, and well-proportioned; the wrist-bones
+peculiarly large and strong; and the arms remarkably well-shaped and
+brawny. A military hardihood and careless frankness of expression
+characterized his language and his motions; and his voice had the tone
+of one more accustomed to command than to obey, and who was in the habit
+of expressing his sentiments aloud and boldly, whenever he was called
+upon to announce them.
+
+The Saracen Emir formed a marked and striking contrast with the Western
+Crusader. His stature was indeed above the middle size, but he was at
+least three inches shorter than the European, whose size approached the
+gigantic. His slender limbs and long, spare hands and arms, though well
+proportioned to his person, and suited to the style of his countenance,
+did not at first aspect promise the display of vigour and elasticity
+which the Emir had lately exhibited. But on looking more closely, his
+limbs, where exposed to view, seemed divested of all that was fleshy or
+cumbersome; so that nothing being left but bone, brawn, and sinew, it
+was a frame fitted for exertion and fatigue, far beyond that of a bulky
+champion, whose strength and size are counterbalanced by weight, and
+who is exhausted by his own exertions. The countenance of the Saracen
+naturally bore a general national resemblance to the Eastern tribe from
+whom he descended, and was as unlike as possible to the exaggerated
+terms in which the minstrels of the day were wont to represent the
+infidel champions, and the fabulous description which a sister art still
+presents as the Saracen's Head upon signposts. His features were small,
+well-formed, and delicate, though deeply embrowned by the Eastern sun,
+and terminated by a flowing and curled black beard, which seemed trimmed
+with peculiar care. The nose was straight and regular, the eyes keen,
+deep-set, black, and glowing, and his teeth equalled in beauty the ivory
+of his deserts. The person and proportions of the Saracen, in short,
+stretched on the turf near to his powerful antagonist, might have been
+compared to his sheeny and crescent-formed sabre, with its narrow and
+light but bright and keen Damascus blade, contrasted with the long and
+ponderous Gothic war-sword which was flung unbuckled on the same sod.
+The Emir was in the very flower of his age, and might perhaps have been
+termed eminently beautiful, but for the narrowness of his forehead and
+something of too much thinness and sharpness of feature, or at least
+what might have seemed such in a European estimate of beauty.
+
+The manners of the Eastern warrior were grave, graceful, and decorous;
+indicating, however, in some particulars, the habitual restraint which
+men of warm and choleric tempers often set as a guard upon their native
+impetuosity of disposition, and at the same time a sense of his own
+dignity, which seemed to impose a certain formality of behaviour in him
+who entertained it.
+
+This haughty feeling of superiority was perhaps equally entertained by
+his new European acquaintance, but the effect was different; and the
+same feeling, which dictated to the Christian knight a bold, blunt, and
+somewhat careless bearing, as one too conscious of his own importance
+to be anxious about the opinions of others, appeared to prescribe to the
+Saracen a style of courtesy more studiously and formally observant of
+ceremony. Both were courteous; but the courtesy of the Christian seemed
+to flow rather from a good humoured sense of what was due to others;
+that of the Moslem, from a high feeling of what was to be expected from
+himself.
+
+The provision which each had made for his refreshment was simple, but
+the meal of the Saracen was abstemious. A handful of dates and a morsel
+of coarse barley-bread sufficed to relieve the hunger of the latter,
+whose education had habituated them to the fare of the desert, although,
+since their Syrian conquests, the Arabian simplicity of life frequently
+gave place to the most unbounded profusion of luxury. A few draughts
+from the lovely fountain by which they reposed completed his meal. That
+of the Christian, though coarse, was more genial. Dried hog's flesh, the
+abomination of the Moslemah, was the chief part of his repast; and his
+drink, derived from a leathern bottle, contained something better than
+pure element. He fed with more display of appetite, and drank with more
+appearance of satisfaction, than the Saracen judged it becoming to show
+in the performance of a mere bodily function; and, doubtless, the secret
+contempt which each entertained for the other, as the follower of a
+false religion, was considerably increased by the marked difference of
+their diet and manners. But each had found the weight of his opponent's
+arm, and the mutual respect which the bold struggle had created was
+sufficient to subdue other and inferior considerations. Yet the Saracen
+could not help remarking the circumstances which displeased him in the
+Christian's conduct and manners; and, after he had witnessed for some
+time in silence the keen appetite which protracted the knight's banquet
+long after his own was concluded, he thus addressed him:--
+
+“Valiant Nazarene, is it fitting that one who can fight like a man
+should feed like a dog or a wolf? Even a misbelieving Jew would shudder
+at the food which you seem to eat with as much relish as if it were
+fruit from the trees of Paradise.”
+
+“Valiant Saracen,” answered the Christian, looking up with some surprise
+at the accusation thus unexpectedly brought, “know thou that I exercise
+my Christian freedom in using that which is forbidden to the Jews,
+being, as they esteem themselves, under the bondage of the old law of
+Moses. We, Saracen, be it known to thee, have a better warrant for
+what we do--Ave Maria!--be we thankful.” And, as if in defiance of
+his companion's scruples, he concluded a short Latin grace with a long
+draught from the leathern bottle.
+
+“That, too, you call a part of your liberty,” said the Saracen; “and
+as you feed like the brutes, so you degrade yourself to the bestial
+condition by drinking a poisonous liquor which even they refuse!”
+
+“Know, foolish Saracen,” replied the Christian, without hesitation,
+“that thou blasphemest the gifts of God, even with the blasphemy of thy
+father Ishmael. The juice of the grape is given to him that will use it
+wisely, as that which cheers the heart of man after toil, refreshes him
+in sickness, and comforts him in sorrow. He who so enjoyeth it may thank
+God for his winecup as for his daily bread; and he who abuseth the gift
+of Heaven is not a greater fool in his intoxication than thou in thine
+abstinence.”
+
+The keen eye of the Saracen kindled at this sarcasm, and his hand sought
+the hilt of his poniard. It was but a momentary thought, however, and
+died away in the recollection of the powerful champion with whom he
+had to deal, and the desperate grapple, the impression of which still
+throbbed in his limbs and veins; and he contented himself with pursuing
+the contest in colloquy, as more convenient for the time.
+
+“Thy words” he said, “O Nazarene, might create anger, did not thy
+ignorance raise compassion. Seest thou not, O thou more blind than any
+who asks alms at the door of the Mosque, that the liberty thou dost
+boast of is restrained even in that which is dearest to man's happiness
+and to his household; and that thy law, if thou dost practise it, binds
+thee in marriage to one single mate, be she sick or healthy, be she
+fruitful or barren, bring she comfort and joy, or clamour and strife,
+to thy table and to thy bed? This, Nazarene, I do indeed call slavery;
+whereas, to the faithful, hath the Prophet assigned upon earth the
+patriarchal privileges of Abraham our father, and of Solomon, the wisest
+of mankind, having given us here a succession of beauty at our pleasure,
+and beyond the grave the black-eyed houris of Paradise.”
+
+“Now, by His name that I most reverence in heaven,” said the Christian,
+“and by hers whom I most worship on earth, thou art but a blinded and
+a bewildered infidel!--That diamond signet which thou wearest on thy
+finger, thou holdest it, doubtless, as of inestimable value?”
+
+“Balsora and Bagdad cannot show the like,” replied the Saracen; “but
+what avails it to our purpose?”
+
+“Much,” replied the Frank, “as thou shalt thyself confess. Take my
+war-axe and dash the stone into twenty shivers: would each fragment be
+as valuable as the original gem, or would they, all collected, bear the
+tenth part of its estimation?”
+
+“That is a child's question,” answered the Saracen; “the fragments of
+such a stone would not equal the entire jewel in the degree of hundreds
+to one.”
+
+“Saracen,” replied the Christian warrior, “the love which a true knight
+binds on one only, fair and faithful, is the gem entire; the affection
+thou flingest among thy enslaved wives and half-wedded slaves is
+worthless, comparatively, as the sparkling shivers of the broken
+diamond.”
+
+“Now, by the Holy Caaba,” said the Emir, “thou art a madman who hugs
+his chain of iron as if it were of gold! Look more closely. This ring
+of mine would lose half its beauty were not the signet encircled and
+enchased with these lesser brilliants, which grace it and set it off.
+The central diamond is man, firm and entire, his value depending on
+himself alone; and this circle of lesser jewels are women, borrowing
+his lustre, which he deals out to them as best suits his pleasure or
+his convenience. Take the central stone from the signet, and the
+diamond itself remains as valuable as ever, while the lesser gems are
+comparatively of little value. And this is the true reading of thy
+parable; for what sayeth the poet Mansour: 'It is the favour of man
+which giveth beauty and comeliness to woman, as the stream glitters no
+longer when the sun ceaseth to shine.'”
+
+“Saracen,” replied the Crusader, “thou speakest like one who never saw
+a woman worthy the affection of a soldier. Believe me, couldst thou
+look upon those of Europe, to whom, after Heaven, we of the order of
+knighthood vow fealty and devotion, thou wouldst loathe for ever the
+poor sensual slaves who form thy haram. The beauty of our fair ones
+gives point to our spears and edge to our swords; their words are our
+law; and as soon will a lamp shed lustre when unkindled, as a knight
+distinguish himself by feats of arms, having no mistress of his
+affection.”
+
+“I have heard of this frenzy among the warriors of the West,” said the
+Emir, “and have ever accounted it one of the accompanying symptoms of
+that insanity which brings you hither to obtain possession of an empty
+sepulchre. But yet, methinks, so highly have the Franks whom I have met
+with extolled the beauty of their women, I could be well contented to
+behold with mine own eyes those charms which can transform such brave
+warriors into the tools of their pleasure.”
+
+“Brave Saracen,” said the Knight, “if I were not on a pilgrimage to the
+Holy Sepulchre, it should be my pride to conduct you, on assurance of
+safety, to the camp of Richard of England, than whom none knows better
+how to do honour to a noble foe; and though I be poor and unattended
+yet have I interest to secure for thee, or any such as thou seemest, not
+safety only, but respect and esteem. There shouldst thou see several
+of the fairest beauties of France and Britain form a small circle, the
+brilliancy of which exceeds ten-thousandfold the lustre of mines of
+diamonds such as thine.”
+
+“Now, by the corner-stone of the Caaba!” said the Saracen, “I will
+accept thy invitation as freely as it is given, if thou wilt postpone
+thy present intent; and, credit me, brave Nazarene, it were better for
+thyself to turn back thy horse's head towards the camp of thy people,
+for to travel towards Jerusalem without a passport is but a wilful
+casting-away of thy life.”
+
+“I have a pass,” answered the Knight, producing a parchment, “Under
+Saladin's hand and signet.”
+
+The Saracen bent his head to the dust as he recognized the seal and
+handwriting of the renowned Soldan of Egypt and Syria; and having kissed
+the paper with profound respect, he pressed it to his forehead, then
+returned it to the Christian, saying, “Rash Frank, thou hast sinned
+against thine own blood and mine, for not showing this to me when we
+met.”
+
+“You came with levelled spear,” said the Knight. “Had a troop of
+Saracens so assailed me, it might have stood with my honour to have
+shown the Soldan's pass, but never to one man.”
+
+“And yet one man,” said the Saracen haughtily, “was enough to interrupt
+your journey.”
+
+“True, brave Moslem,” replied the Christian; “but there are few such as
+thou art. Such falcons fly not in flocks; or, if they do, they pounce
+not in numbers upon one.”
+
+“Thou dost us but justice,” said the Saracen, evidently gratified by
+the compliment, as he had been touched by the implied scorn of the
+European's previous boast; “from us thou shouldst have had no wrong. But
+well was it for me that I failed to slay thee, with the safeguard of
+the king of kings upon thy person. Certain it were, that the cord or the
+sabre had justly avenged such guilt.”
+
+“I am glad to hear that its influence shall be availing to me,” said the
+Knight; “for I have heard that the road is infested with robber-tribes,
+who regard nothing in comparison of an opportunity of plunder.”
+
+“The truth has been told to thee, brave Christian,” said the Saracen;
+“but I swear to thee, by the turban of the Prophet, that shouldst thou
+miscarry in any haunt of such villains, I will myself undertake thy
+revenge with five thousand horse. I will slay every male of them, and
+send their women into such distant captivity that the name of their
+tribe shall never again be heard within five hundred miles of Damascus.
+I will sow with salt the foundations of their village, and there shall
+never live thing dwell there, even from that time forward.”
+
+“I had rather the trouble which you design for yourself were in revenge
+of some other more important person than of me, noble Emir,” replied the
+Knight; “but my vow is recorded in heaven, for good or for evil, and I
+must be indebted to you for pointing me out the way to my resting-place
+for this evening.”
+
+“That,” said the Saracen, “must be under the black covering of my
+father's tent.”
+
+“This night,” answered the Christian, “I must pass in prayer and
+penitence with a holy man, Theodorick of Engaddi, who dwells amongst
+these wilds, and spends his life in the service of God.”
+
+“I will at least see you safe thither,” said the Saracen.
+
+“That would be pleasant convoy for me,” said the Christian; “yet might
+endanger the future security of the good father; for the cruel hand of
+your people has been red with the blood of the servants of the Lord, and
+therefore do we come hither in plate and mail, with sword and lance, to
+open the road to the Holy Sepulchre, and protect the chosen saints and
+anchorites who yet dwell in this land of promise and of miracle.”
+
+“Nazarene,” said the Moslem, “in this the Greeks and Syrians have much
+belied us, seeing we do but after the word of Abubeker Alwakel, the
+successor of the Prophet, and, after him, the first commander of true
+believers. 'Go forth,' he said, 'Yezed Ben Sophian,' when he sent that
+renowned general to take Syria from the infidels; 'quit yourselves like
+men in battle, but slay neither the aged, the infirm, the women, nor the
+children. Waste not the land, neither destroy corn and fruit-trees; they
+are the gifts of Allah. Keep faith when you have made any covenant,
+even if it be to your own harm. If ye find holy men labouring with their
+hands, and serving God in the desert, hurt them not, neither destroy
+their dwellings. But when you find them with shaven crowns, they are of
+the synagogue of Satan! Smite with the sabre, slay, cease not till
+they become believers or tributaries.' As the Caliph, companion of the
+Prophet, hath told us, so have we done, and those whom our justice has
+smitten are but the priests of Satan. But unto the good men who, without
+stirring up nation against nation, worship sincerely in the faith of
+Issa Ben Mariam, we are a shadow and a shield; and such being he whom
+you seek, even though the light of the Prophet hath not reached him,
+from me he will only have love, favour, and regard.”
+
+“The anchorite whom I would now visit,” said the warlike pilgrim, “is, I
+have heard, no priest; but were he of that anointed and sacred order, I
+would prove with my good lance, against paynim and infidel--”
+
+“Let us not defy each other, brother,” interrupted the Saracen; “we
+shall find, either of us, enough of Franks or of Moslemah on whom to
+exercise both sword and lance. This Theodorick is protected both by Turk
+and Arab; and, though one of strange conditions at intervals, yet, on
+the whole, he bears himself so well as the follower of his own prophet,
+that he merits the protection of him who was sent--”
+
+“Now, by Our Lady, Saracen,” exclaimed the Christian, “if thou darest
+name in the same breath the camel-driver of Mecca with--”
+
+An electrical shock of passion thrilled through the form of the Emir;
+but it was only momentary, and the calmness of his reply had both
+dignity and reason in it, when he said, “Slander not him whom thou
+knowest not--the rather that we venerate the founder of thy religion,
+while we condemn the doctrine which your priests have spun from it. I
+will myself guide thee to the cavern of the hermit, which, methinks,
+without my help, thou wouldst find it a hard matter to reach. And,
+on the way, let us leave to mollahs and to monks to dispute about the
+divinity of our faith, and speak on themes which belong to youthful
+warriors--upon battles, upon beautiful women, upon sharp swords, and
+upon bright armour.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The warriors arose from their place of brief rest and simple
+refreshment, and courteously aided each other while they carefully
+replaced and adjusted the harness from which they had relieved for the
+time their trusty steeds. Each seemed familiar with an employment which
+at that time was a part of necessary and, indeed, of indispensable duty.
+Each also seemed to possess, as far as the difference betwixt the animal
+and rational species admitted, the confidence and affection of the horse
+which was the constant companion of his travels and his warfare. With
+the Saracen this familiar intimacy was a part of his early habits; for,
+in the tents of the Eastern military tribes, the horse of the soldier
+ranks next to, and almost equal in importance with, his wife and
+his family; and with the European warrior, circumstances, and indeed
+necessity, rendered his war-horse scarcely less than his brother in
+arms. The steeds, therefore, suffered themselves quietly to be taken
+from their food and liberty, and neighed and snuffled fondly around
+their masters, while they were adjusting their accoutrements for further
+travel and additional toil. And each warrior, as he prosecuted his own
+task, or assisted with courtesy his companion, looked with observant
+curiosity at the equipments of his fellow-traveller, and noted
+particularly what struck him as peculiar in the fashion in which he
+arranged his riding accoutrements.
+
+Ere they remounted to resume their journey, the Christian Knight again
+moistened his lips and dipped his hands in the living fountain, and said
+to his pagan associate of the journey, “I would I knew the name of this
+delicious fountain, that I might hold it in my grateful remembrance; for
+never did water slake more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than I
+have this day experienced.”
+
+“It is called in the Arabic language,” answered the Saracen, “by a name
+which signifies the Diamond of the Desert.”
+
+“And well is it so named,” replied the Christian. “My native valley hath
+a thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I attach hereafter
+such precious recollection as to this solitary fount, which bestows
+its liquid treasures where they are not only delightful, but nearly
+indispensable.”
+
+“You say truth,” said the Saracen; “for the curse is still on yonder
+sea of death, and neither man nor beast drinks of its waves, nor of the
+river which feeds without filling it, until this inhospitable desert be
+passed.”
+
+They mounted, and pursued their journey across the sandy waste. The
+ardour of noon was now past, and a light breeze somewhat alleviated
+the terrors of the desert, though not without bearing on its wings
+an impalpable dust, which the Saracen little heeded, though his
+heavily-armed companion felt it as such an annoyance that he hung his
+iron casque at his saddle-bow, and substituted the light riding-cap,
+termed in the language of the time a MORTIER, from its resemblance
+in shape to an ordinary mortar. They rode together for some time in
+silence, the Saracen performing the part of director and guide of the
+journey, which he did by observing minute marks and bearings of the
+distant rocks, to a ridge of which they were gradually approaching. For
+a little time he seemed absorbed in the task, as a pilot when navigating
+a vessel through a difficult channel; but they had not proceeded half
+a league when he seemed secure of his route, and disposed, with more
+frankness than was usual to his nation, to enter into conversation.
+
+“You have asked the name,” he said, “of a mute fountain, which hath the
+semblance, but not the reality, of a living thing. Let me be pardoned
+to ask the name of the companion with whom I have this day encountered,
+both in danger and in repose, and which I cannot fancy unknown even here
+among the deserts of Palestine?”
+
+“It is not yet worth publishing,” said the Christian. “Know, however,
+that among the soldiers of the Cross I am called Kenneth--Kenneth of
+the Couching Leopard; at home I have other titles, but they would sound
+harsh in an Eastern ear. Brave Saracen, let me ask which of the tribes
+of Arabia claims your descent, and by what name you are known?”
+
+“Sir Kenneth,” said the Moslem, “I joy that your name is such as my lips
+can easily utter. For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my descent from
+a line neither less wild nor less warlike. Know, Sir Knight of the
+Leopard, that I am Sheerkohf, the Lion of the Mountain, and that
+Kurdistan, from which I derive my descent, holds no family more noble
+than that of Seljook.”
+
+“I have heard,” answered the Christian, “that your great Soldan claims
+his blood from the same source?”
+
+“Thanks to the Prophet that hath so far honoured our mountains as to
+send from their bosom him whose word is victory,” answered the paynim.
+“I am but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria, and yet in my
+own land something my name may avail. Stranger, with how many men didst
+thou come on this warfare?”
+
+“By my faith,” said Sir Kenneth, “with aid of friends and kinsmen, I was
+hardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed lances, with maybe
+some fifty more men, archers and varlets included. Some have deserted
+my unlucky pennon--some have fallen in battle--several have died of
+disease--and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing my
+pilgrimage, lies on the bed of sickness.”
+
+“Christian,” said Sheerkohf, “here I have five arrows in my quiver,
+each feathered from the wing of an eagle. When I send one of them to my
+tents, a thousand warriors mount on horseback--when I send another, an
+equal force will arise--for the five, I can command five thousand men;
+and if I send my bow, ten thousand mounted riders will shake the desert.
+And with thy fifty followers thou hast come to invade a land in which I
+am one of the meanest!”
+
+“Now, by the rood, Saracen,” retorted the Western warrior, “thou
+shouldst know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steel glove can crush
+a whole handful of hornets.”
+
+“Ay, but it must first enclose them within its grasp,” said the Saracen,
+with a smile which might have endangered their new alliance, had he not
+changed the subject by adding, “And is bravery so much esteemed amongst
+the Christian princes that thou, thus void of means and of men, canst
+offer, as thou didst of late, to be my protector and security in the
+camp of thy brethren?”
+
+“Know, Saracen,” said the Christian, “since such is thy style, that the
+name of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle him to place
+himself on the same rank with sovereigns even of the first degree, in
+so far as regards all but regal authority and dominion. Were Richard
+of England himself to wound the honour of a knight as poor as I am, he
+could not, by the law of chivalry, deny him the combat.”
+
+“Methinks I should like to look upon so strange a scene,” said the Emir,
+“in which a leathern belt and a pair of spurs put the poorest on a level
+with the most powerful.”
+
+“You must add free blood and a fearless heart,” said the Christian;
+“then, perhaps, you will not have spoken untruly of the dignity of
+knighthood.”
+
+“And mix you as boldly amongst the females of your chiefs and leaders?”
+ asked the Saracen.
+
+“God forbid,” said the Knight of the Leopard, “that the poorest knight
+in Christendom should not be free, in all honourable service, to devote
+his hand and sword, the fame of his actions, and the fixed devotion of
+his heart, to the fairest princess who ever wore coronet on her brow!”
+
+“But a little while since,” said the Saracen, “and you described love as
+the highest treasure of the heart--thine hath undoubtedly been high and
+nobly bestowed?”
+
+“Stranger,” answered the Christian, blushing deeply as he spoke, “we
+tell not rashly where it is we have bestowed our choicest treasures. It
+is enough for thee to know that, as thou sayest, my love is highly and
+nobly bestowed--most highly--most nobly; but if thou wouldst hear of
+love and broken lances, venture thyself, as thou sayest, to the camp of
+the Crusaders, and thou wilt find exercise for thine ears, and, if thou
+wilt, for thy hands too.”
+
+The Eastern warrior, raising himself in his stirrups, and shaking aloft
+his lance, replied, “Hardly, I fear, shall I find one with a crossed
+shoulder who will exchange with me the cast of the jerrid.”
+
+“I will not promise for that,” replied the Knight; “though there be in
+the camp certain Spaniards, who have right good skill in your Eastern
+game of hurling the javelin.”
+
+“Dogs, and sons of dogs!” ejaculated the Saracen; “what have these
+Spaniards to do to come hither to combat the true believers, who, in
+their own land, are their lords and taskmasters? with them I would mix
+in no warlike pastime.”
+
+“Let not the knights of Leon or Asturias hear you speak thus of them,”
+ said the Knight of the Leopard. “But,” added he, smiling at the
+recollection of the morning's combat, “if, instead of a reed, you were
+inclined to stand the cast of a battle-axe, there are enough of Western
+warriors who would gratify your longing.”
+
+“By the beard of my father, sir,” said the Saracen, with an approach to
+laughter, “the game is too rough for mere sport. I will never shun them
+in battle, but my head” (pressing his hand to his brow) “will not, for a
+while, permit me to seek them in sport.”
+
+“I would you saw the axe of King Richard,” answered the Western warrior,
+“to which that which hangs at my saddle-bow weighs but as a feather.”
+
+“We hear much of that island sovereign,” said the Saracen. “Art thou one
+of his subjects?”
+
+“One of his followers I am, for this expedition,” answered the Knight,
+“and honoured in the service; but not born his subject, although a
+native of the island in which he reigns.”
+
+“How mean you? “ said the Eastern soldier; “have you then two kings in
+one poor island?”
+
+“As thou sayest,” said the Scot, for such was Sir Kenneth by birth. “It
+is even so; and yet, although the inhabitants of the two extremities of
+that island are engaged in frequent war, the country can, as thou seest,
+furnish forth such a body of men-at-arms as may go far to shake the
+unholy hold which your master hath laid on the cities of Zion.”
+
+“By the beard of Saladin, Nazarene, but that it is a thoughtless and
+boyish folly, I could laugh at the simplicity of your great Sultan, who
+comes hither to make conquests of deserts and rocks, and dispute the
+possession of them with those who have tenfold numbers at command, while
+he leaves a part of his narrow islet, in which he was born a sovereign,
+to the dominion of another sceptre than his. Surely, Sir Kenneth, you
+and the other good men of your country should have submitted yourselves
+to the dominion of this King Richard ere you left your native land,
+divided against itself, to set forth on this expedition?”
+
+Hasty and fierce was Kenneth's answer. “No, by the bright light of
+Heaven! If the King of England had not set forth to the Crusade till
+he was sovereign of Scotland, the Crescent might, for me, and all
+true-hearted Scots, glimmer for ever on the walls of Zion.”
+
+Thus far he had proceeded, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he
+muttered, “MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA! what have I, a soldier of the Cross, to
+do with recollection of war betwixt Christian nations!”
+
+The rapid expression of feeling corrected by the dictates of duty did
+not escape the Moslem, who, if he did not entirely understand all
+which it conveyed, saw enough to convince him with the assurance that
+Christians, as well as Moslemah, had private feelings of personal pique,
+and national quarrels, which were not entirely reconcilable. But the
+Saracens were a race, polished, perhaps, to the utmost extent which
+their religion permitted, and particularly capable of entertaining high
+ideas of courtesy and politeness; and such sentiments prevented his
+taking any notice of the inconsistency of Sir Kenneth's feelings in the
+opposite characters of a Scot and a Crusader.
+
+Meanwhile, as they advanced, the scene began to change around them. They
+were now turning to the eastward, and had reached the range of steep and
+barren hills which binds in that quarter the naked plain, and varies the
+surface of the country, without changing its sterile character. Sharp,
+rocky eminences began to rise around them, and, in a short time, deep
+declivities and ascents, both formidable in height and difficult from
+the narrowness of the path, offered to the travellers obstacles of a
+different kind from those with which they had recently contended.
+
+Dark caverns and chasms amongst the rocks--those grottoes so often
+alluded to in Scripture--yawned fearfully on either side as they
+proceeded, and the Scottish knight was informed by the Emir that these
+were often the refuge of beasts of prey, or of men still more ferocious,
+who, driven to desperation by the constant war, and the oppression
+exercised by the soldiery, as well of the Cross as of the Crescent, had
+become robbers, and spared neither rank nor religion, neither sex nor
+age, in their depredations.
+
+The Scottish knight listened with indifference to the accounts of
+ravages committed by wild beasts or wicked men, secure as he felt
+himself in his own valour and personal strength; but he was struck
+with mysterious dread when he recollected that he was now in the awful
+wilderness of the forty days' fast, and the scene of the actual personal
+temptation, wherewith the Evil Principle was permitted to assail the Son
+of Man. He withdrew his attention gradually from the light and worldly
+conversation of the infidel warrior beside him, and, however acceptable
+his gay and gallant bravery would have rendered him as a companion
+elsewhere, Sir Kenneth felt as if, in those wildernesses the waste and
+dry places in which the foul spirits were wont to wander when expelled
+the mortals whose forms they possessed, a bare-footed friar would have
+been a better associate than the gay but unbelieving paynim.
+
+These feelings embarrassed him the rather that the Saracen's spirits
+appeared to rise with the journey, and because the farther he penetrated
+into the gloomy recesses of the mountains, the lighter became his
+conversation, and when he found that unanswered, the louder grew his
+song. Sir Kenneth knew enough of the Eastern languages to be assured
+that he chanted sonnets of love, containing all the glowing praises
+of beauty in which the Oriental poets are so fond of luxuriating, and
+which, therefore, were peculiarly unfitted for a serious or devotional
+strain of thought, the feeling best becoming the Wilderness of the
+Temptation. With inconsistency enough, the Saracen also sung lays in
+praise of wine, the liquid ruby of the Persian poets; and his gaiety at
+length became so unsuitable to the Christian knight's contrary train of
+sentiments, as, but for the promise of amity which they had exchanged,
+would most likely have made Sir Kenneth take measures to change his
+note. As it was, the Crusader felt as if he had by his side some gay,
+licentious fiend, who endeavoured to ensnare his soul, and endanger his
+immortal salvation, by inspiring loose thoughts of earthly pleasure, and
+thus polluting his devotion, at a time when his faith as a Christian and
+his vow as a pilgrim called on him for a serious and penitential state
+of mind. He was thus greatly perplexed, and undecided how to act; and it
+was in a tone of hasty displeasure that, at length breaking silence, he
+interrupted the lay of the celebrated Rudpiki, in which he prefers the
+mole on his mistress's bosom to all the wealth of Bokhara and Samarcand.
+
+“Saracen,” said the Crusader sternly, “blinded as thou art, and plunged
+amidst the errors of a false law, thou shouldst yet comprehend that
+there are some places more holy than others, and that there are some
+scenes also in which the Evil One hath more than ordinary power
+over sinful mortals. I will not tell thee for what awful reason this
+place--these rocks--these caverns with their gloomy arches, leading as
+it were to the central abyss--are held an especial haunt of Satan and
+his angels. It is enough that I have been long warned to beware of this
+place by wise and holy men, to whom the qualities of the unholy region
+are well known. Wherefore, Saracen, forbear thy foolish and
+ill-timed levity, and turn thy thoughts to things more suited to the
+spot--although, alas for thee! thy best prayers are but as blasphemy and
+sin.”
+
+The Saracen listened with some surprise, and then replied, with
+good-humour and gaiety, only so far repressed as courtesy required,
+“Good Sir Kenneth, methinks you deal unequally by your companion, or
+else ceremony is but indifferently taught amongst your Western tribes.
+I took no offence when I saw you gorge hog's flesh and drink wine, and
+permitted you to enjoy a treat which you called your Christian liberty,
+only pitying in my heart your foul pastimes. Wherefore, then, shouldst
+thou take scandal, because I cheer, to the best of my power, a gloomy
+road with a cheerful verse? What saith the poet, 'Song is like the
+dews of heaven on the bosom of the desert; it cools the path of the
+traveller.'”
+
+“Friend Saracen,” said the Christian, “I blame not the love of
+minstrelsy and of the GAI SCIENCE; albeit, we yield unto it even too
+much room in our thoughts when they should be bent on better things.
+But prayers and holy psalms are better fitting than LAIS of love, or of
+wine-cups, when men walk in this Valley of the Shadow of Death, full of
+fiends and demons, whom the prayers of holy men have driven forth
+from the haunts of humanity to wander amidst scenes as accursed as
+themselves.”
+
+“Speak not thus of the Genii, Christian,” answered the Saracen, “for
+know thou speakest to one whose line and nation drew their origin from
+the immortal race which your sect fear and blaspheme.”
+
+“I well thought,” answered the Crusader, “that your blinded race had
+their descent from the foul fiend, without whose aid you would never
+have been able to maintain this blessed land of Palestine against so
+many valiant soldiers of God. I speak not thus of thee in particular,
+Saracen, but generally of thy people and religion. Strange is it to me,
+however, not that you should have the descent from the Evil One, but
+that you should boast of it.”
+
+“From whom should the bravest boast of descending, saving from him that
+is bravest?” said the Saracen; “from whom should the proudest trace
+their line so well as from the Dark Spirit, which would rather fall
+headlong by force than bend the knee by his will? Eblis may be hated,
+stranger, but he must be feared; and such as Eblis are his descendants
+of Kurdistan.”
+
+Tales of magic and of necromancy were the learning of the period, and
+Sir Kenneth heard his companion's confession of diabolical descent
+without any disbelief, and without much wonder; yet not without a secret
+shudder at finding himself in this fearful place, in the company of
+one who avouched himself to belong to such a lineage. Naturally
+insusceptible, however, of fear, he crossed himself, and stoutly
+demanded of the Saracen an account of the pedigree which he had boasted.
+The latter readily complied.
+
+“Know, brave stranger,” he said, “that when the cruel Zohauk, one of the
+descendants of Giamschid, held the throne of Persia, he formed a league
+with the Powers of Darkness, amidst the secret vaults of Istakhar,
+vaults which the hands of the elementary spirits had hewn out of the
+living rock long before Adam himself had an existence. Here he fed,
+with daily oblations of human blood, two devouring serpents, which had
+become, according to the poets, a part of himself, and to sustain whom
+he levied a tax of daily human sacrifices, till the exhausted patience
+of his subjects caused some to raise up the scimitar of resistance, like
+the valiant Blacksmith and the victorious Feridoun, by whom the tyrant
+was at length dethroned, and imprisoned for ever in the dismal caverns
+of the mountain Damavend. But ere that deliverance had taken place, and
+whilst the power of the bloodthirsty tyrant was at its height, the band
+of ravening slaves whom he had sent forth to purvey victims for his
+daily sacrifice brought to the vaults of the palace of Istakhar seven
+sisters so beautiful that they seemed seven houris. These seven maidens
+were the daughters of a sage, who had no treasures save those beauties
+and his own wisdom. The last was not sufficient to foresee this
+misfortune, the former seemed ineffectual to prevent it. The eldest
+exceeded not her twentieth year, the youngest had scarce attained her
+thirteenth; and so like were they to each other that they could not
+have been distinguished but for the difference of height, in which they
+gradually rose in easy gradation above each other, like the ascent which
+leads to the gates of Paradise. So lovely were these seven sisters when
+they stood in the darksome vault, disrobed of all clothing saving a
+cymar of white silk, that their charms moved the hearts of those who
+were not mortal. Thunder muttered, the earth shook, the wall of the
+vault was rent, and at the chasm entered one dressed like a hunter, with
+bow and shafts, and followed by six others, his brethren. They were tall
+men, and, though dark, yet comely to behold; but their eyes had more the
+glare of those of the dead than the light which lives under the eyelids
+of the living. 'Zeineb,' said the leader of the band--and as he spoke
+he took the eldest sister by the hand, and his voice was soft, low, and
+melancholy--'I am Cothrob, king of the subterranean world, and supreme
+chief of Ginnistan. I and my brethren are of those who, created out of
+the pure elementary fire, disdained, even at the command of Omnipotence,
+to do homage to a clod of earth, because it was called Man. Thou mayest
+have heard of us as cruel, unrelenting, and persecuting. It is false. We
+are by nature kind and generous; only vengeful when insulted, only cruel
+when affronted. We are true to those who trust us; and we have heard the
+invocations of thy father, the sage Mithrasp, who wisely worships not
+alone the Origin of Good, but that which is called the Source of Evil.
+You and your sisters are on the eve of death; but let each give to us
+one hair from your fair tresses, in token of fealty, and we will carry
+you many miles from hence to a place of safety, where you may bid
+defiance to Zohauk and his ministers.' The fear of instant death, saith
+the poet, is like the rod of the prophet Haroun, which devoured all
+other rods when transformed into snakes before the King of Pharaoh; and
+the daughters of the Persian sage were less apt than others to be
+afraid of the addresses of a spirit. They gave the tribute which Cothrob
+demanded, and in an instant the sisters were transported to an enchanted
+castle on the mountains of Tugrut, in Kurdistan, and were never again
+seen by mortal eye. But in process of time seven youths, distinguished
+in the war and in the chase, appeared in the environs of the castle of
+the demons. They were darker, taller, fiercer, and more resolute than
+any of the scattered inhabitants of the valleys of Kurdistan; and they
+took to themselves wives, and became fathers of the seven tribes of the
+Kurdmans, whose valour is known throughout the universe.”
+
+The Christian knight heard with wonder the wild tale, of which Kurdistan
+still possesses the traces, and, after a moment's thought, replied,
+“Verily, Sir Knight, you have spoken well--your genealogy may be dreaded
+and hated, but it cannot be contemned. Neither do I any longer wonder
+at your obstinacy in a false faith, since, doubtless, it is part of the
+fiendish disposition which hath descended from your ancestors, those
+infernal huntsmen, as you have described them, to love falsehood rather
+than truth; and I no longer marvel that your spirits become high and
+exalted, and vent themselves in verse and in tunes, when you approach to
+the places encumbered by the haunting of evil spirits, which must excite
+in you that joyous feeling which others experience when approaching the
+land of their human ancestry.”
+
+“By my father's beard, I think thou hast the right,” said the Saracen,
+rather amused than offended by the freedom with which the Christian had
+uttered his reflections; “for, though the Prophet (blessed be his name!)
+hath sown amongst us the seed of a better faith than our ancestors
+learned in the ghostly halls of Tugrut, yet we are not willing, like
+other Moslemah, to pass hasty doom on the lofty and powerful elementary
+spirits from whom we claim our origin. These Genii, according to our
+belief and hope, are not altogether reprobate, but are still in the way
+of probation, and may hereafter be punished or rewarded. Leave we this
+to the mollahs and the imauns. Enough that with us the reverence for
+these spirits is not altogether effaced by what we have learned from the
+Koran, and that many of us still sing, in memorial of our fathers' more
+ancient faith, such verses as these.”
+
+So saying, he proceeded to chant verses, very ancient in the language
+and structure, which some have thought derive their source from the
+worshippers of Arimanes, the Evil Principle.
+
+
+                AHRIMAN.
+
+     Dark Ahriman, whom Irak still
+     Holds origin of woe and ill!
+     When, bending at thy shrine,
+     We view the world with troubled eye,
+     Where see we 'neath the extended sky,
+     An empire matching thine!
+
+     If the Benigner Power can yield
+     A fountain in the desert field,
+     Where weary pilgrims drink;
+     Thine are the waves that lash the rock,
+     Thine the tornado's deadly shock,
+     Where countless navies sink!
+
+     Or if he bid the soil dispense
+     Balsams to cheer the sinking sense,
+     How few can they deliver
+     From lingering pains, or pang intense,
+     Red Fever, spotted Pestilence,
+     The arrows of thy quiver!
+
+     Chief in Man's bosom sits thy sway,
+     And frequent, while in words we pray
+     Before another throne,
+     Whate'er of specious form be there,
+     The secret meaning of the prayer
+     Is, Ahriman, thine own.
+
+     Say, hast thou feeling, sense, and form,
+     Thunder thy voice, thy garments storm,
+     As Eastern Magi say;
+     With sentient soul of hate and wrath,
+     And wings to sweep thy deadly path,
+     And fangs to tear thy prey?
+
+     Or art thou mix'd in Nature's source,
+     An ever-operating force,
+     Converting good to ill;
+     An evil principle innate,
+     Contending with our better fate,
+     And, oh!  victorious still?
+
+     Howe'er it be, dispute is vain.
+     On all without thou hold'st thy reign,
+     Nor less on all within;
+     Each mortal passion's fierce career,
+     Love, hate, ambition, joy, and fear,
+     Thou goadest into sin.
+
+     Whene'er a sunny gleam appears,
+     To brighten up our vale of tears,
+     Thou art not distant far;
+     'Mid such brief solace of our lives,
+     Thou whett'st our very banquet-knives
+     To tools of death and war.
+
+     Thus, from the moment of our birth,
+     Long as we linger on the earth,
+     Thou rulest the fate of men;
+     Thine are the pangs of life's last hour,
+     And--who dare answer?--is thy power,
+     Dark Spirit!  ended THEN?
+
+     [The worthy and learned clergyman by whom this species of
+     hymn has been translated desires, that, for fear of
+     misconception, we should warn the reader to recollect that
+     it is composed by a heathen, to whom the real causes of
+     moral and physical evil are unknown, and who views their
+     predominance in the system of the universe as all must view
+     that appalling fact who have not the benefit of the
+     Christian revelation.  On our own part, we beg to add, that
+     we understand the style of the translator is more
+     paraphrastic than can be approved by those who are
+     acquainted with the singularly curious original.  The
+     translator seems to have despaired of rendering into English
+     verse the flights of Oriental poetry; and, possibly, like
+     many learned and ingenious men, finding it impossible to
+     discover the sense of the original, he may have tacitly
+     substituted his own.]
+
+These verses may perhaps have been the not unnatural effusion of some
+half-enlightened philosopher, who, in the fabled deity, Arimanes, saw
+but the prevalence of moral and physical evil; but in the ears of Sir
+Kenneth of the Leopard they had a different effect, and, sung as they
+were by one who had just boasted himself a descendant of demons, sounded
+very like an address of worship to the arch-fiend himself. He weighed
+within himself whether, on hearing such blasphemy in the very desert
+where Satan had stood rebuked for demanding homage, taking an abrupt
+leave of the Saracen was sufficient to testify his abhorrence; or
+whether he was not rather constrained by his vow as a Crusader to defy
+the infidel to combat on the spot, and leave him food for the beasts of
+the wilderness, when his attention was suddenly caught by an unexpected
+apparition.
+
+The light was now verging low, yet served the knight still to discern
+that they two were no longer alone in the desert, but were closely
+watched by a figure of great height and very thin, which skipped over
+rocks and bushes with so much agility as, added to the wild and hirsute
+appearance of the individual, reminded him of the fauns and silvans,
+whose images he had seen in the ancient temples of Rome. As the
+single-hearted Scottishman had never for a moment doubted these gods of
+the ancient Gentiles to be actually devils, so he now hesitated not
+to believe that the blasphemous hymn of the Saracen had raised up an
+infernal spirit.
+
+“But what recks it?” said stout Sir Kenneth to himself; “down with the
+fiend and his worshippers!”
+
+He did not, however, think it necessary to give the same warning of
+defiance to two enemies as he would unquestionably have afforded to one.
+His hand was upon his mace, and perhaps the unwary Saracen would have
+been paid for his Persian poetry by having his brains dashed out on the
+spot, without any reason assigned for it; but the Scottish Knight was
+spared from committing what would have been a sore blot in his shield
+of arms. The apparition, on which his eyes had been fixed for some time,
+had at first appeared to dog their path by concealing itself behind
+rocks and shrubs, using those advantages of the ground with great
+address, and surmounting its irregularities with surprising agility. At
+length, just as the Saracen paused in his song, the figure, which was
+that of a tall man clothed in goat-skins, sprung into the midst of
+the path, and seized a rein of the Saracen's bridle in either hand,
+confronting thus and bearing back the noble horse, which, unable to
+endure the manner in which this sudden assailant pressed the long-armed
+bit, and the severe curb, which, according to the Eastern fashion, was
+a solid ring of iron, reared upright, and finally fell backwards on his
+master, who, however, avoided the peril of the fall by lightly throwing
+himself to one side.
+
+The assailant then shifted his grasp from the bridle of the horse to the
+throat of the rider, flung himself above the struggling Saracen, and,
+despite of his youth and activity kept him undermost, wreathing his
+long arms above those of his prisoner, who called out angrily, and yet
+half-laughing at the same time--“Hamako--fool--unloose me--this passes
+thy privilege--unloose me, or I will use my dagger.”
+
+“Thy dagger!--infidel dog!” said the figure in the goat-skins, “hold it
+in thy gripe if thou canst!” and in an instant he wrenched the Saracen's
+weapon out of its owner's hand, and brandished it over his head.
+
+“Help, Nazarene!” cried Sheerkohf, now seriously alarmed; “help, or the
+Hamako will slay me.”
+
+“Slay thee!” replied the dweller of the desert; “and well hast thou
+merited death, for singing thy blasphemous hymns, not only to the praise
+of thy false prophet, who is the foul fiend's harbinger, but to that of
+the Author of Evil himself.”
+
+The Christian Knight had hitherto looked on as one stupefied, so
+strangely had this rencontre contradicted, in its progress and event,
+all that he had previously conjectured. He felt, however, at length,
+that it touched his honour to interfere in behalf of his discomfited
+companion, and therefore addressed himself to the victorious figure in
+the goat-skins.
+
+“Whosoe'er thou art,” he said, “and whether of good or of evil, know
+that I am sworn for the time to be true companion to the Saracen whom
+thou holdest under thee; therefore, I pray thee to let him arise, else I
+will do battle with thee in his behalf.”
+
+“And a proper quarrel it were,” answered the Hamako, “for a Crusader to
+do battle in--for the sake of an unbaptized dog, to combat one of his
+own holy faith! Art thou come forth to the wilderness to fight for the
+Crescent against the Cross? A goodly soldier of God art thou to listen
+to those who sing the praises of Satan!”
+
+Yet, while he spoke thus, he arose himself, and, suffering the Saracen
+to rise also, returned him his cangiar, or poniard.
+
+“Thou seest to what a point of peril thy presumption hath brought thee,”
+ continued he of the goat-skins, now addressing Sheerkohf, “and by what
+weak means thy practised skill and boasted agility can be foiled, when
+such is Heaven's pleasure. Wherefore, beware, O Ilderim! for know that,
+were there not a twinkle in the star of thy nativity which promises for
+thee something that is good and gracious in Heaven's good time, we
+two had not parted till I had torn asunder the throat which so lately
+trilled forth blasphemies.”
+
+“Hamako,” said the Saracen, without any appearance of resenting the
+violent language and yet more violent assault to which he had been
+subjected, “I pray thee, good Hamako, to beware how thou dost again urge
+thy privilege over far; for though, as a good Moslem, I respect those
+whom Heaven hath deprived of ordinary reason, in order to endow them
+with the spirit of prophecy, yet I like not other men's hands on the
+bridle of my horse, neither upon my own person. Speak, therefore, what
+thou wilt, secure of any resentment from me; but gather so much sense
+as to apprehend that if thou shalt again proffer me any violence, I will
+strike thy shagged head from thy meagre shoulders.--and to thee, friend
+Kenneth,” he added, as he remounted his steed, “I must needs say, that
+in a companion through the desert, I love friendly deeds better than
+fair words. Of the last thou hast given me enough; but it had been
+better to have aided me more speedily in my struggle with this Hamako,
+who had well-nigh taken my life in his frenzy.”
+
+“By my faith,” said the Knight, “I did somewhat fail--was somewhat tardy
+in rendering thee instant help; but the strangeness of the assailant,
+the suddenness of the scene--it was as if thy wild and wicked lay had
+raised the devil among us--and such was my confusion, that two or three
+minutes elapsed ere I could take to my weapon.”
+
+“Thou art but a cold and considerate friend,” said the Saracen; “and,
+had the Hamako been one grain more frantic, thy companion had been slain
+by thy side, to thy eternal dishonour, without thy stirring a finger in
+his aid, although thou satest by, mounted, and in arms.”
+
+“By my word, Saracen,” said the Christian, “if thou wilt have it in
+plain terms, I thought that strange figure was the devil; and being of
+thy lineage, I knew not what family secret you might be communicating to
+each other, as you lay lovingly rolling together on the sand.”
+
+“Thy gibe is no answer, brother Kenneth,” said the Saracen; “for know,
+that had my assailant been in very deed the Prince of Darkness, thou
+wert bound not the less to enter into combat with him in thy comrade's
+behalf. Know, also, that whatever there may be of foul or of fiendish
+about the Hamako belongs more to your lineage than to mine--this Hamako
+being, in truth, the anchorite whom thou art come hither to visit.”
+
+“This!” said Sir Kenneth, looking at the athletic yet wasted figure
+before him--“this! Thou mockest, Saracen--this cannot be the venerable
+Theodorick!”
+
+“Ask himself, if thou wilt not believe me,” answered Sheerkohf; and
+ere the words had left his mouth, the hermit gave evidence in his own
+behalf.
+
+“I am Theodorick of Engaddi,” he said--“I am the walker of the desert--I
+am friend of the Cross, and flail of all infidels, heretics, and
+devil-worshippers. Avoid ye, avoid ye! Down with Mahound, Termagaunt,
+and all their adherents!”--So saying, he pulled from under his shaggy
+garment a sort of flail or jointed club, bound with iron, which he
+brandished round his head with singular dexterity.
+
+“Thou seest thy saint,” said the Saracen, laughing, for the first time,
+at the unmitigated astonishment with which Sir Kenneth looked on the
+wild gestures and heard the wayward muttering of Theodorick, who, after
+swinging his flail in every direction, apparently quite reckless whether
+it encountered the head of either of his companions, finally showed
+his own strength, and the soundness of the weapon, by striking into
+fragments a large stone which lay near him.
+
+“This is a madman,” said Sir Kenneth.
+
+“Not the worse saint,” returned the Moslem, speaking according to
+the well-known Eastern belief, that madmen are under the influence
+of immediate inspiration. “Know, Christian, that when one eye is
+extinguished, the other becomes more keen; when one hand is cut off,
+the other becomes more powerful; so, when our reason in human things
+is disturbed or destroyed, our view heavenward becomes more acute and
+perfect.”
+
+Here the voice of the Saracen was drowned in that of the hermit, who
+began to hollo aloud in a wild, chanting tone, “I am Theodorick of
+Engaddi--I am the torch-brand of the desert--I am the flail of the
+infidels! The lion and the leopard shall be my comrades, and draw nigh
+to my cell for shelter; neither shall the goat be afraid of their fangs.
+I am the torch and the lantern--Kyrie Eleison!”
+
+He closed his song by a short race, and ended that again by three
+forward bounds, which would have done him great credit in a gymnastic
+academy, but became his character of hermit so indifferently that the
+Scottish Knight was altogether confounded and bewildered.
+
+The Saracen seemed to understand him better. “You see,” he said, “that
+he expects us to follow him to his cell, which, indeed, is our only
+place of refuge for the night. You are the leopard, from the portrait
+on your shield; I am the lion, as my name imports; and by the goat,
+alluding to his garb of goat-skins, he means himself. We must keep him
+in sight, however, for he is as fleet as a dromedary.”
+
+In fact, the task was a difficult one, for though the reverend guide
+stopped from time to time, and waved his hand, as if to encourage them
+to come on, yet, well acquainted with all the winding dells and passes
+of the desert, and gifted with uncommon activity, which, perhaps, an
+unsettled state of mind kept in constant exercise, he led the knights
+through chasms and along footpaths where even the light-armed Saracen,
+with his well-trained barb, was in considerable risk, and where the
+iron-sheathed European and his over-burdened steed found themselves in
+such imminent peril as the rider would gladly have exchanged for the
+dangers of a general action. Glad he was when, at length, after this
+wild race, he beheld the holy man who had led it standing in front of
+a cavern, with a large torch in his hand, composed of a piece of wood
+dipped in bitumen, which cast a broad and flickering light, and emitted
+a strong sulphureous smell.
+
+Undeterred by the stifling vapour, the knight threw himself from
+his horse and entered the cavern, which afforded small appearance of
+accommodation. The cell was divided into two parts, in the outward of
+which were an altar of stone and a crucifix made of reeds: this served
+the anchorite for his chapel. On one side of this outward cave the
+Christian knight, though not without scruple, arising from religious
+reverence to the objects around, fastened up his horse, and arranged him
+for the night, in imitation of the Saracen, who gave him to understand
+that such was the custom of the place. The hermit, meanwhile, was busied
+putting his inner apartment in order to receive his guests, and there
+they soon joined him. At the bottom of the outer cave, a small aperture,
+closed with a door of rough plank, led into the sleeping apartment of
+the hermit, which was more commodious. The floor had been brought to a
+rough level by the labour of the inhabitant, and then strewed with white
+sand, which he daily sprinkled with water from a small fountain which
+bubbled out of the rock in one corner, affording in that stifling
+climate, refreshment alike to the ear and the taste. Mattresses, wrought
+of twisted flags, lay by the side of the cell; the sides, like the
+floor, had been roughly brought to shape, and several herbs and flowers
+were hung around them. Two waxen torches, which the hermit lighted,
+gave a cheerful air to the place, which was rendered agreeable by its
+fragrance and coolness.
+
+There were implements of labour in one corner of the apartment, in
+another was a niche for a rude statue of the Virgin. A table and two
+chairs showed that they must be the handiwork of the anchorite, being
+different in their form from Oriental accommodations. The former was
+covered, not only with reeds and pulse, but also with dried flesh, which
+Theodorick assiduously placed in such arrangement as should invite the
+appetite of his guests. This appearance of courtesy, though mute, and
+expressed by gestures only, seemed to Sir Kenneth something entirely
+irreconcilable with his former wild and violent demeanour. The movements
+of the hermit were now become composed, and apparently it was only a
+sense of religious humiliation which prevented his features, emaciated
+as they were by his austere mode of life, from being majestic and noble.
+He trod his cell as one who seemed born to rule over men, but who had
+abdicated his empire to become the servant of Heaven. Still, it must
+be allowed that his gigantic size, the length of his unshaven locks and
+beard, and the fire of a deep-set and wild eye were rather attributes of
+a soldier than of a recluse.
+
+Even the Saracen seemed to regard the anchorite with some veneration,
+while he was thus employed, and he whispered in a low tone to Sir
+Kenneth, “The Hamako is now in his better mind, but he will not speak
+until we have eaten--such is his vow.”
+
+It was in silence, accordingly, that Theodorick motioned to the Scot to
+take his place on one of the low chairs, while Sheerkohf placed himself,
+after the custom of his nation, upon a cushion of mats. The hermit then
+held up both hands, as if blessing the refreshment which he had placed
+before his guests, and they proceeded to eat in silence as profound
+as his own. To the Saracen this gravity was natural; and the Christian
+imitated his taciturnity, while he employed his thoughts on the
+singularity of his own situation, and the contrast betwixt the wild,
+furious gesticulations, loud cries, and fierce actions of Theodorick,
+when they first met him, and the demure, solemn, decorous assiduity with
+which he now performed the duties of hospitality.
+
+When their meal was ended, the hermit, who had not himself eaten a
+morsel, removed the fragments from the table, and placing before the
+Saracen a pitcher of sherbet, assigned to the Scot a flask of wine.
+
+“Drink,” he said, “my children”--they were the first words he had
+spoken--“the gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is
+remembered.”
+
+Having said this, he retired to the outward cell, probably for
+performance of his devotions, and left his guests together in the inner
+apartment; when Sir Kenneth endeavoured, by various questions, to
+draw from Sheerkohf what that Emir knew concerning his host. He was
+interested by more than mere curiosity in these inquiries. Difficult as
+it was to reconcile the outrageous demeanour of the recluse at his first
+appearance with his present humble and placid behaviour, it seemed yet
+more impossible to think it consistent with the high consideration in
+which, according to what Sir Kenneth had learned, this hermit was held
+by the most enlightened divines of the Christian world. Theodorick, the
+hermit of Engaddi, had, in that character, been the correspondent of
+popes and councils; to whom his letters, full of eloquent fervour,
+had described the miseries imposed by the unbelievers upon the Latin
+Christians in the Holy Land, in colours scarce inferior to those
+employed at the Council of Clermont by the Hermit Peter, when he
+preached the first Crusade. To find, in a person so reverend and so
+much revered, the frantic gestures of a mad fakir, induced the Christian
+knight to pause ere he could resolve to communicate to him certain
+important matters, which he had in charge from some of the leaders of
+the Crusade.
+
+It had been a main object of Sir Kenneth's pilgrimage, attempted by
+a route so unusual, to make such communications; but what he had that
+night seen induced him to pause and reflect ere he proceeded to the
+execution of his commission. From the Emir he could not extract much
+information, but the general tenor was as follows:--That, as he had
+heard, the hermit had been once a brave and valiant soldier, wise in
+council and fortunate in battle, which last he could easily believe from
+the great strength and agility which he had often seen him display; that
+he had appeared at Jerusalem in the character not of a pilgrim, but in
+that of one who had devoted himself to dwell for the remainder of his
+life in the Holy Land. Shortly afterwards, he fixed his residence amid
+the scenes of desolation where they now found him, respected by the
+Latins for his austere devotion, and by the Turks and Arabs on account
+of the symptoms of insanity which he displayed, and which they ascribed
+to inspiration. It was from them he had the name of Hamako, which
+expresses such a character in the Turkish language. Sheerkohf himself
+seemed at a loss how to rank their host. He had been, he said, a wise
+man, and could often for many hours together speak lessons of virtue or
+wisdom, without the slightest appearance of inaccuracy. At other
+times he was wild and violent, but never before had he seen him so
+mischievously disposed as he had that day appeared to be. His rage was
+chiefly provoked by any affront to his religion; and there was a story
+of some wandering Arabs, who had insulted his worship and defaced his
+altar, and whom he had on that account attacked and slain with the
+short flail which he carried with him in lieu of all other weapons.
+This incident had made a great noise, and it was as much the fear of the
+hermit's iron flail as regard for his character as a Hamako which caused
+the roving tribes to respect his dwelling and his chapel. His fame had
+spread so far that Saladin had issued particular orders that he should
+be spared and protected. He himself, and other Moslem lords of rank, had
+visited the cell more than once, partly from curiosity, partly that they
+expected from a man so learned as the Christian Hamako some insight into
+the secrets of futurity. “He had,” continued the Saracen, “a rashid, or
+observatory, of great height, contrived to view the heavenly bodies, and
+particularly the planetary system--by whose movements and influences,
+as both Christian and Moslem believed, the course of human events was
+regulated, and might be predicted.”
+
+This was the substance of the Emir Sheerkohf's information, and it left
+Sir Kenneth in doubt whether the character of insanity arose from the
+occasional excessive fervour of the hermit's zeal, or whether it was not
+altogether fictitious, and assumed for the sake of the immunities
+which it afforded. Yet it seemed that the infidels had carried their
+complaisance towards him to an uncommon length, considering the
+fanaticism of the followers of Mohammed, in the midst of whom he was
+living, though the professed enemy of their faith. He thought also there
+was more intimacy of acquaintance betwixt the hermit and the Saracen
+than the words of the latter had induced him to anticipate; and it
+had not escaped him that the former had called the latter by a
+name different from that which he himself had assumed. All these
+considerations authorized caution, if not suspicion. He determined to
+observe his host closely, and not to be over-hasty in communicating with
+him on the important charge entrusted to him.
+
+“Beware, Saracen,” he said; “methinks our host's imagination wanders
+as well on the subject of names as upon other matters. Thy name is
+Sheerkohf, and he called thee but now by another.”
+
+“My name, when in the tent of my father,” replied the Kurdman, “was
+Ilderim, and by this I am still distinguished by many. In the field, and
+to soldiers, I am known as the Lion of the Mountain, being the name my
+good sword hath won for me. But hush, the Hamako comes--it is to warn us
+to rest. I know his custom; none must watch him at his vigils.”
+
+The anchorite accordingly entered, and folding his arms on his bosom as
+he stood before them, said with a solemn voice, “Blessed be His name,
+who hath appointed the quiet night to follow the busy day, and the calm
+sleep to refresh the wearied limbs and to compose the troubled spirit!”
+
+Both warriors replied “Amen!” and, arising from the table, prepared to
+betake themselves to the couches, which their host indicated by waving
+his hand, as, making a reverence to each, he again withdrew from the
+apartment.
+
+The Knight of the Leopard then disarmed himself of his heavy panoply,
+his Saracen companion kindly assisting him to undo his buckler and
+clasps, until he remained in the close dress of chamois leather, which
+knights and men-at-arms used to wear under their harness. The Saracen,
+if he had admired the strength of his adversary when sheathed in steel,
+was now no less struck with the accuracy of proportion displayed in his
+nervous and well-compacted figure. The knight, on the other hand, as, in
+exchange of courtesy, he assisted the Saracen to disrobe himself of his
+upper garments, that he might sleep with more convenience, was, on his
+side, at a loss to conceive how such slender proportions and slimness of
+figure could be reconciled with the vigour he had displayed in personal
+contest.
+
+Each warrior prayed ere he addressed himself to his place of rest. The
+Moslem turned towards his KEBLAH, the point to which the prayer of each
+follower of the Prophet was to be addressed, and murmured his heathen
+orisons; while the Christian, withdrawing from the contamination of the
+infidel's neighbourhood, placed his huge cross-handled sword upright,
+and kneeling before it as the sign of salvation, told his rosary with
+a devotion which was enhanced by the recollection of the scenes through
+which he had passed, and the dangers from which he had been rescued, in
+the course of the day. Both warriors, worn by toil and travel, were soon
+fast asleep, each on his separate pallet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Kenneth the Scot was uncertain how long his senses had been lost in
+profound repose, when he was roused to recollection by a sense of
+oppression on his chest, which at first suggested a flirting dream of
+struggling with a powerful opponent, and at length recalled him fully
+to his senses. He was about to demand who was there, when, opening his
+eyes, he beheld the figure of the anchorite, wild and savage-looking as
+we have described him, standing by his bedside, and pressing his right
+hand upon his breast, while he held a small silver lamp in the other.
+
+“Be silent,” said the hermit, as the prostrate knight looked up in
+surprise; “I have that to say to you which yonder infidel must not
+hear.”
+
+These words he spoke in the French language, and not in the lingua
+franca, or compound of Eastern and European dialects, which had hitherto
+been used amongst them.
+
+“Arise,” he continued, “put on thy mantle; speak not, but tread lightly,
+and follow me.”
+
+Sir Kenneth arose, and took his sword.
+
+“It needs not,” answered the anchorite, in a whisper; “we are going
+where spiritual arms avail much, and fleshly weapons are but as the reed
+and the decayed gourd.”
+
+The knight deposited his sword by the bedside as before, and, armed only
+with his dagger, from which in this perilous country he never parted,
+prepared to attend his mysterious host.
+
+The hermit then moved slowly forwards, and was followed by the knight,
+still under some uncertainty whether the dark form which glided
+on before to show him the path was not, in fact, the creation of a
+disturbed dream. They passed, like shadows, into the outer apartment,
+without disturbing the paynim Emir, who lay still buried in repose.
+Before the cross and altar, in the outward room, a lamp was still
+burning, a missal was displayed, and on the floor lay a discipline, or
+penitential scourge of small cord and wire, the lashes of which were
+recently stained with blood--a token, no doubt, of the severe penance of
+the recluse. Here Theodorick kneeled down, and pointed to the knight to
+take his place beside him upon the sharp flints, which seemed placed for
+the purpose of rendering the posture of reverential devotion as uneasy
+as possible. He read many prayers of the Catholic Church, and chanted,
+in a low but earnest voice, three of the penitential psalms. These last
+he intermixed with sighs, and tears, and convulsive throbs, which bore
+witness how deeply he felt the divine poetry which he recited. The
+Scottish knight assisted with profound sincerity at these acts of
+devotion, his opinion of his host beginning, in the meantime, to be so
+much changed, that he doubted whether, from the severity of his penance
+and the ardour of his prayers, he ought not to regard him as a saint;
+and when they arose from the ground, he stood with reverence before
+him, as a pupil before an honoured master. The hermit was, on his side,
+silent and abstracted for the space of a few minutes.
+
+“Look into yonder recess, my son,” he said, pointing to the farther
+corner of the cell; “there thou wilt find a veil--bring it hither.”
+
+The knight obeyed, and in a small aperture cut out of the wall, and
+secured with a door of wicker, he found the veil inquired for. When he
+brought it to the light, he discovered that it was torn, and soiled in
+some places with some dark substance. The anchorite looked at it with
+a deep but smothered emotion, and ere he could speak to the Scottish
+knight, was compelled to vent his feelings in a convulsive groan.
+
+“Thou art now about to look upon the richest treasure that the earth
+possesses,” he at length said; “woe is me, that my eyes are unworthy to
+be lifted towards it! Alas! I am but the vile and despised sign, which
+points out to the wearied traveller a harbour of rest and security, but
+must itself remain for ever without doors. In vain have I fled to the
+very depths of the rocks, and the very bosom of the thirsty desert. Mine
+enemy hath found me--even he whom I have denied has pursued me to my
+fortresses.”
+
+He paused again for a moment, and turning to the Scottish knight, said,
+in a firmer tone of voice, “You bring me a greeting from Richard of
+England?”
+
+“I come from the Council of Christian Princes,” said the knight;
+“but the King of England being indisposed, I am not honoured with his
+Majesty's commands.”
+
+“Your token?” demanded the recluse.
+
+Sir Kenneth hesitated. Former suspicions, and the marks of insanity
+which the hermit had formerly exhibited, rushed suddenly on his
+thoughts; but how suspect a man whose manners were so saintly? “My
+password,” he said at length, “is this--Kings begged of a beggar.”
+
+“It is right,” said the hermit, while he paused. “I know you well; but
+the sentinel upon his post--and mine is an important one--challenges
+friend as well as foe.”
+
+He then moved forward with the lamp, leading the way into the room which
+they had left. The Saracen lay on his couch, still fast asleep. The
+hermit paused by his side, and looked down on him.
+
+“He sleeps,” he said, “in darkness, and must not be awakened.”
+
+The attitude of the Emir did indeed convey the idea of profound repose.
+One arm, flung across his body, as he lay with his face half turned to
+the wall, concealed, with its loose and long sleeve, the greater part
+of his face; but the high forehead was yet visible. Its nerves, which
+during his waking hours were so uncommonly active, were now motionless,
+as if the face had been composed of dark marble, and his long silken
+eyelashes closed over his piercing and hawklike eyes. The open and
+relaxed hand, and the deep, regular, and soft breathing, all gave tokens
+of the most profound repose. The slumberer formed a singular group along
+with the tall forms of the hermit in his shaggy dress of goat-skins,
+bearing the lamp, and the knight in his close leathern coat--the former
+with an austere expression of ascetic gloom, the latter with anxious
+curiosity deeply impressed on his manly features.
+
+“He sleeps soundly,” said the hermit, in the same low tone as before;
+and repeating the words, though he had changed the meaning from that
+which is literal to a metaphorical sense--“he sleeps in darkness, but
+there shall be for him a dayspring.--O Ilderim, thy waking thoughts
+are yet as vain and wild as those which are wheeling their giddy dance
+through thy sleeping brain; but the trumpet shall be heard, and the
+dream shall be dissolved.”
+
+So saying, and making the knight a sign to follow him, the hermit went
+towards the altar, and passing behind it, pressed a spring, which,
+opening without noise, showed a small iron door wrought in the side
+of the cavern, so as to be almost imperceptible, unless upon the most
+severe scrutiny. The hermit, ere he ventured fully to open the door,
+dropped some oil on the hinges, which the lamp supplied. A small
+staircase, hewn in the rock, was discovered, when the iron door was at
+length completely opened.
+
+“Take the veil which I hold,” said the hermit, in a melancholy tone,
+“and blind mine eyes; For I may not look on the treasure which thou art
+presently to behold, without sin and presumption.”
+
+Without reply, the knight hastily muffled the recluse's head in the
+veil, and the latter began to ascend the staircase as one too much
+accustomed to the way to require the use of light, while at the same
+time he held the lamp to the Scot, who followed him for many steps up
+the narrow ascent. At length they rested in a small vault of irregular
+form, in one nook of which the staircase terminated, while in another
+corner a corresponding stair was seen to continue the ascent. In a
+third angle was a Gothic door, very rudely ornamented with the usual
+attributes of clustered columns and carving, and defended by a wicket,
+strongly guarded with iron, and studded with large nails. To this
+last point the hermit directed his steps, which seemed to falter as he
+approached it.
+
+“Put off thy shoes,” he said to his attendant; “the ground on which
+thou standest is holy. Banish from thy innermost heart each profane and
+carnal thought, for to harbour such while in this place were a deadly
+impiety.”
+
+The knight laid aside his shoes as he was commanded, and the hermit
+stood in the meanwhile as if communing with his soul in secret prayer,
+and when he again moved, commanded the knight to knock at the wicket
+three times. He did so. The door opened spontaneously--at least Sir
+Kenneth beheld no one--and his senses were at once assailed by a stream
+of the purest light, and by a strong and almost oppressive sense of the
+richest perfumes. He stepped two or three paces back, and it was the
+space of a minute ere he recovered the dazzling and overpowering effects
+of the sudden change from darkness to light.
+
+When he entered the apartment in which this brilliant lustre was
+displayed, he perceived that the light proceeded from a combination of
+silver lamps, fed with purest oil, and sending forth the richest odours,
+hanging by silver chains from the roof of a small Gothic chapel, hewn,
+like most part of the hermit's singular mansion, out of the sound and
+solid rock. But whereas, in every other place which Sir Kenneth had
+seen, the labour employed upon the rock had been of the simplest and
+coarsest description, it had in this chapel employed the invention and
+the chisels of the most able architects. The groined roofs rose from six
+columns on each side, carved with the rarest skill; and the manner in
+which the crossings of the concave arches were bound together, as it
+were, with appropriate ornaments, were all in the finest tone of the
+architecture of the age. Corresponding to the line of pillars, there
+were on each side six richly-wrought niches, each of which contained the
+image of one of the twelve apostles.
+
+At the upper and eastern end of the chapel stood the altar, behind
+which a very rich curtain of Persian silk, embroidered deeply with gold,
+covered a recess, containing, unquestionably, some image or relic of no
+ordinary sanctity, in honour of which this singular place of worship
+had been erected, Under the persuasion that this must be the case, the
+knight advanced to the shrine, and kneeling down before it, repeated his
+devotions with fervency, during which his attention was disturbed by the
+curtain being suddenly raised, or rather pulled aside, how or by whom he
+saw not; but in the niche which was thus disclosed he beheld a cabinet
+of silver and ebony, with a double folding-door, the whole formed into
+the miniature resemblance of a Gothic church.
+
+As he gazed with anxious curiosity on the shrine, the two folding-doors
+also flew open, discovering a large piece of wood, on which were
+blazoned the words, VERA CRUX; at the same time a choir of female voices
+sung GLORIA PATRI. The instant the strain had ceased, the shrine was
+closed, and the curtain again drawn, and the knight who knelt at the
+altar might now continue his devotions undisturbed, in honour of the
+holy relic which had been just disclosed to his view. He did this under
+the profound impression of one who had witnessed, with his own eyes, an
+awful evidence of the truth of his religion; and it was some time ere,
+concluding his orisons, he arose, and ventured to look around him for
+the hermit, who had guided him to this sacred and mysterious spot. He
+beheld him, his head still muffled in the veil which he had himself
+wrapped around it, crouching, like a rated hound, upon the threshold of
+the chapel; but, apparently, without venturing to cross it--the holiest
+reverence, the most penitential remorse, was expressed by his posture,
+which seemed that of a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the
+burden of his inward feelings. It seemed to the Scot that only the
+sense of the deepest penitence, remorse, and humiliation could have thus
+prostrated a frame so strong and a spirit so fiery.
+
+He approached him as if to speak; but the recluse anticipated his
+purpose, murmuring in stifled tones, from beneath the fold in which his
+head was muffled, and which sounded like a voice proceeding from the
+cerements of a corpse,--“Abide, abide--happy thou that mayest--the
+vision is not yet ended.” So saying, he reared himself from the ground,
+drew back from the threshold on which he had hitherto lain prostrate,
+and closed the door of the chapel, which, secured by a spring bolt
+within, the snap of which resounded through the place, appeared so much
+like a part of the living rock from which the cavern was hewn, that
+Kenneth could hardly discern where the aperture had been. He was now
+alone in the lighted chapel which contained the relic to which he had
+lately rendered his homage, without other arms than his dagger, or other
+companion than his pious thoughts and dauntless courage.
+
+Uncertain what was next to happen, but resolved to abide the course of
+events, Sir Kenneth paced the solitary chapel till about the time of the
+earliest cock-crowing. At this dead season, when night and morning met
+together, he heard, but from what quarter he could not discover, the
+sound of such a small silver bell as is rung at the elevation of the
+host in the ceremony, or sacrifice, as it has been called, of the mass.
+The hour and the place rendered the sound fearfully solemn, and, bold as
+he was, the knight withdrew himself into the farther nook of the
+chapel, at the end opposite to the altar, in order to observe, without
+interruption, the consequences of this unexpected signal.
+
+He did not wait long ere the silken curtain was again withdrawn, and the
+relic again presented to his view. As he sunk reverentially on his knee,
+he heard the sound of the lauds, or earliest office of the Catholic
+Church, sung by female voices, which united together in the performance
+as they had done in the former service. The knight was soon aware that
+the voices were no longer stationary in the distance, but approached the
+chapel and became louder, when a door, imperceptible when closed, like
+that by which he had himself entered, opened on the other side of the
+vault, and gave the tones of the choir more room to swell along the
+ribbed arches of the roof.
+
+The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and,
+continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and
+scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations. A
+procession appeared about to issue from the door. First, four beautiful
+boys, whose arms, necks, and legs were bare, showing the bronze
+complexion of the East, and contrasting with the snow-white tunics
+which they wore, entered the chapel by two and two. The first pair bore
+censers, which they swung from side to side, adding double fragrance
+to the odours with which the chapel already was impregnated. The second
+pair scattered flowers.
+
+After these followed, in due and majestic order, the females who
+composed the choir--six, who from their black scapularies, and black
+veils over their white garments, appeared to be professed nuns of the
+order of Mount Carmel; and as many whose veils, being white, argued them
+to be novices, or occasional inhabitants in the cloister, who were
+not as yet bound to it by vows. The former held in their hands large
+rosaries, while the younger and lighter figures who followed carried
+each a chaplet of red and white roses. They moved in procession around
+the chapel, without appearing to take the slightest notice of Kenneth,
+although passing so near him that their robes almost touched him, while
+they continued to sing. The knight doubted not that he was in one of
+those cloisters where the noble Christian maidens had formerly openly
+devoted themselves to the services of the church. Most of them had been
+suppressed since the Mohammedans had reconquered Palestine, but many,
+purchasing connivance by presents, or receiving it from the clemency
+or contempt of the victors, still continued to observe in private the
+ritual to which their vows had consecrated them. Yet, though Kenneth
+knew this to be the case, the solemnity of the place and hour, the
+surprise at the sudden appearance of these votaresses, and the
+visionary manner in which they moved past him, had such influence on his
+imagination that he could scarce conceive that the fair procession
+which he beheld was formed of creatures of this world, so much did
+they resemble a choir of supernatural beings, rendering homage to the
+universal object of adoration.
+
+Such was the knight's first idea, as the procession passed him, scarce
+moving, save just sufficiently to continue their progress; so that,
+seen by the shadowy and religious light which the lamps shed through the
+clouds of incense which darkened the apartment, they appeared rather to
+glide than to walk.
+
+But as a second time, in surrounding the chapel, they passed the spot on
+which he kneeled, one of the white-stoled maidens, as she glided by him,
+detached from the chaplet which she carried a rosebud, which dropped
+from her fingers, perhaps unconsciously, on the foot of Sir Kenneth. The
+knight started as if a dart had suddenly struck his person; for, when
+the mind is wound up to a high pitch of feeling and expectation,
+the slightest incident, if unexpected, gives fire to the train
+which imagination has already laid. But he suppressed his emotion,
+recollecting how easily an incident so indifferent might have happened,
+and that it was only the uniform monotony of the movement of the
+choristers which made the incident in the slightest degree remarkable.
+
+Still, while the procession, for the third time, surrounded the chapel,
+the thoughts and the eyes of Kenneth followed exclusively the one among
+the novices who had dropped the rosebud. Her step, her face, her form
+were so completely assimilated to the rest of the choristers that it
+was impossible to perceive the least marks of individuality; and yet
+Kenneth's heart throbbed like a bird that would burst from its cage, as
+if to assure him, by its sympathetic suggestions, that the female who
+held the right file on the second rank of the novices was dearer to him,
+not only than all the rest that were present, but than the whole sex
+besides. The romantic passion of love, as it was cherished, and indeed
+enjoined, by the rules of chivalry, associated well with the no less
+romantic feelings of devotion; and they might be said much more to
+enhance than to counteract each other. It was, therefore, with a glow
+of expectation that had something even of a religious character that
+Sir Kenneth, his sensations thrilling from his heart to the ends of
+his fingers, expected some second sign of the presence of one who, he
+strongly fancied, had already bestowed on him the first. Short as
+the space was during which the procession again completed a third
+perambulation of the chapel, it seemed an eternity to Kenneth. At length
+the form which he had watched with such devoted attention drew nigh.
+There was no difference betwixt that shrouded figure and the others,
+with whom it moved in concert and in unison, until, just as she passed
+for the third time the kneeling Crusader, a part of a little and
+well-proportioned hand, so beautifully formed as to give the highest
+idea of the perfect proportions of the form to which it belonged, stole
+through the folds of the gauze, like a moonbeam through the fleecy cloud
+of a summer night, and again a rosebud lay at the feet of the Knight of
+the Leopard.
+
+This second intimation could not be accidental---it could not be
+fortuitous, the resemblance of that half-seen but beautiful female hand
+with one which his lips had once touched, and, while they touched it,
+had internally sworn allegiance to the lovely owner. Had further proof
+been wanting, there was the glimmer of that matchless ruby ring on that
+snow-white finger, whose invaluable worth Kenneth would yet have prized
+less than the slightest sign which that finger could have made; and,
+veiled too, as she was, he might see, by chance or by favour, a stray
+curl of the dark tresses, each hair of which was dearer to him a hundred
+times than a chain of massive gold. It was the lady of his love! But
+that she should be here--in the savage and sequestered desert--among
+vestals, who rendered themselves habitants of wilds and of caverns, that
+they might perform in secret those Christian rites which they dared
+not assist in openly; that this should be so, in truth and in reality,
+seemed too incredible--it must be a dream--a delusive trance of the
+imagination. While these thoughts passed through the mind of Kenneth,
+the same passage, by which the procession had entered the chapel,
+received them on their return. The young sacristans, the sable nuns,
+vanished successively through the open door. At length she from whom he
+had received this double intimation passed also; yet, in passing, turned
+her head, slightly indeed, but perceptibly, towards the place where he
+remained fixed as an image. He marked the last wave of her veil--it was
+gone--and a darkness sunk upon his soul, scarce less palpable than that
+which almost immediately enveloped his external sense; for the last
+chorister had no sooner crossed the threshold of the door than it shut
+with a loud sound, and at the same instant the voices of the choir were
+silent, the lights of the chapel were at once extinguished, and Sir
+Kenneth remained solitary and in total darkness. But to Kenneth,
+solitude, and darkness, and the uncertainty of his mysterious situation
+were as nothing--he thought not of them--cared not for them--cared for
+nought in the world save the flitting vision which had just glided past
+him, and the tokens of her favour which she had bestowed. To grope on
+the floor for the buds which she had dropped--to press them to his lips,
+to his bosom, now alternately, now together--to rivet his lips to the
+cold stones on which, as near as he could judge, she had so lately
+stepped--to play all the extravagances which strong affection suggests
+and vindicates to those who yield themselves up to it, were but the
+tokens of passionate love common to all ages. But it was peculiar to the
+times of chivalry that, in his wildest rapture, the knight imagined of
+no attempt to follow or to trace the object of such romantic attachment;
+that he thought of her as of a deity, who, having deigned to show
+herself for an instant to her devoted worshipper, had again returned
+to the darkness of her sanctuary--or as an influential planet, which,
+having darted in some auspicious minute one favourable ray, wrapped
+itself again in its veil of mist. The motions of the lady of his love
+were to him those of a superior being, who was to move without watch or
+control, rejoice him by her appearance, or depress him by her absence,
+animate him by her kindness, or drive him to despair by her cruelty--all
+at her own free will, and without other importunity or remonstrance than
+that expressed by the most devoted services of the heart and sword of
+the champion, whose sole object in life was to fulfil her commands, and,
+by the splendour of his own achievements, to exalt her fame.
+
+Such were the rules of chivalry, and of the love which was its ruling
+principle. But Sir Kenneth's attachment was rendered romantic by other
+and still more peculiar circumstances. He had never even heard the sound
+of his lady's voice, though he had often beheld her beauty with rapture.
+She moved in a circle which his rank of knighthood permitted him
+indeed to approach, but not to mingle with; and highly as he stood
+distinguished for warlike skill and enterprise, still the poor Scottish
+soldier was compelled to worship his divinity at a distance almost as
+great as divides the Persian from the sun which he adores. But when was
+the pride of woman too lofty to overlook the passionate devotion of
+a lover, however inferior in degree? Her eye had been on him in the
+tournament, her ear had heard his praises in the report of the battles
+which were daily fought; and while count, duke, and lord contended
+for her grace, it flowed, unwillingly perhaps at first, or even
+unconsciously, towards the poor Knight of the Leopard, who, to support
+his rank, had little besides his sword. When she looked, and when she
+listened, the lady saw and heard enough to encourage her in a partiality
+which had at first crept on her unawares. If a knight's personal beauty
+was praised, even the most prudish dames of the military court of
+England would make an exception in favour of the Scottish Kenneth;
+and it oftentimes happened that, notwithstanding the very considerable
+largesses which princes and peers bestowed on the minstrels, an
+impartial spirit of independence would seize the poet, and the harp was
+swept to the heroism of one who had neither palfreys nor garments to
+bestow in guerdon of his applause.
+
+The moments when she listened to the praises of her lover became
+gradually more and more dear to the high-born Edith, relieving the
+flattery with which her ear was weary, and presenting to her a subject
+of secret contemplation, more worthy, as he seemed by general report,
+than those who surpassed him in rank and in the gifts of fortune. As her
+attention became constantly, though cautiously, fixed on Sir Kenneth,
+she grew more and more convinced of his personal devotion to herself and
+more and more certain in her mind that in Kenneth of Scotland she beheld
+the fated knight doomed to share with her through weal and woe--and the
+prospect looked gloomy and dangerous--the passionate attachment to which
+the poets of the age ascribed such universal dominion, and which its
+manners and morals placed nearly on the same rank with devotion itself.
+
+Let us not disguise the truth from our readers. When Edith became aware
+of the state of her own sentiments, chivalrous as were her sentiments,
+becoming a maiden not distant from the throne of England--gratified as
+her pride must have been with the mute though unceasing homage rendered
+to her by the knight whom she had distinguished, there were moments
+when the feelings of the woman, loving and beloved, murmured against the
+restraints of state and form by which she was surrounded, and when she
+almost blamed the timidity of her lover, who seemed resolved not to
+infringe them. The etiquette, to use a modern phrase, of birth and rank,
+had drawn around her a magical circle, beyond which Sir Kenneth might
+indeed bow and gaze, but within which he could no more pass than an
+evoked spirit can transgress the boundaries prescribed by the rod of a
+powerful enchanter. The thought involuntarily pressed on her that she
+herself must venture, were it but the point of her fairy foot, beyond
+the prescribed boundary, if she ever hoped to give a lover so reserved
+and bashful an opportunity of so slight a favour as but to salute her
+shoe-tie. There was an example--the noted precedent of the “King's
+daughter of Hungary,” who thus generously encouraged the “squire of low
+degree;” and Edith, though of kingly blood, was no king's daughter, any
+more than her lover was of low degree--fortune had put no such extreme
+barrier in obstacle to their affections. Something, however, within
+the maiden's bosom--that modest pride which throws fetters even on love
+itself forbade her, notwithstanding the superiority of her condition, to
+make those advances, which, in every case, delicacy assigns to the other
+sex; above all, Sir Kenneth was a knight so gentle and honourable, so
+highly accomplished, as her imagination at least suggested, together
+with the strictest feelings of what was due to himself and to her,
+that however constrained her attitude might be while receiving his
+adorations, like the image of some deity, who is neither supposed to
+feel nor to reply to the homage of its votaries, still the idol feared
+that to step prematurely from her pedestal would be to degrade herself
+in the eyes of her devoted worshipper.
+
+Yet the devout adorer of an actual idol can even discover signs of
+approbation in the rigid and immovable features of a marble image;
+and it is no wonder that something, which could be as favourably
+interpreted, glanced from the bright eye of the lovely Edith, whose
+beauty, indeed, consisted rather more in that very power of expression,
+than an absolute regularity of contour or brilliancy of complexion. Some
+slight marks of distinction had escaped from her, notwithstanding her
+own jealous vigilance, else how could Sir Kenneth have so readily and
+so undoubtingly recognized the lovely hand, of which scarce two fingers
+were visible from under the veil, or how could he have rested so
+thoroughly assured that two flowers, successively dropped on the spot,
+were intended as a recognition on the part of his lady-love? By what
+train of observation--by what secret signs, looks, or gestures--by what
+instinctive freemasonry of love, this degree of intelligence came to
+subsist between Edith and her lover, we cannot attempt to trace; for we
+are old, and such slight vestiges of affection, quickly discovered by
+younger eyes, defy the power of ours. Enough that such affection
+did subsist between parties who had never even spoken to one
+another--though, on the side of Edith, it was checked by a deep sense of
+the difficulties and dangers which must necessarily attend the further
+progress of their attachment; and upon that of the knight by a thousand
+doubts and fears lest he had overestimated the slight tokens of the
+lady's notice, varied, as they necessarily were, by long intervals
+of apparent coldness, during which either the fear of exciting the
+observation of others, and thus drawing danger upon her lover, or that
+of sinking in his esteem by seeming too willing to be won, made her
+behave with indifference, and as if unobservant of his presence.
+
+This narrative, tedious perhaps, but which the story renders necessary,
+may serve to explain the state of intelligence, if it deserves so strong
+a name, betwixt the lovers, when Edith's unexpected appearance in the
+chapel produced so powerful an effect on the feelings of her knight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     Their necromantic forms in vain
+     Haunt us on the tented plain;
+     We bid these spectre shapes avaunt,
+     Ashtaroth and Termagaunt.     WARTON.
+
+The most profound silence, the deepest darkness, continued to brood for
+more than an hour over the chapel in which we left the Knight of the
+Leopard still kneeling, alternately expressing thanks to Heaven and
+gratitude to his lady for the boon which had been vouchsafed to him.
+His own safety, his own destiny, for which he was at all times little
+anxious, had not now the weight of a grain of dust in his reflections.
+He was in the neighbourhood of Lady Edith; he had received tokens of her
+grace; he was in a place hallowed by relics of the most awful sanctity.
+A Christian soldier, a devoted lover, could fear nothing, think of
+nothing, but his duty to Heaven and his devoir to his lady.
+
+At the lapse of the space of time which we have noticed, a shrill
+whistle, like that with which a falconer calls his hawk, was heard to
+ring sharply through the vaulted chapel. It was a sound ill suited to
+the place, and reminded Sir Kenneth how necessary it was he should be
+upon his guard. He started from his knee, and laid his hand upon his
+poniard. A creaking sound, as of a screw or pulleys, succeeded, and a
+light streaming upwards, as from an opening in the floor, showed that
+a trap-door had been raised or depressed. In less than a minute a long,
+skinny arm, partly naked, partly clothed in a sleeve of red samite,
+arose out of the aperture, holding a lamp as high as it could stretch
+upwards, and the figure to which the arm belonged ascended step by step
+to the level of the chapel floor. The form and face of the being who
+thus presented himself were those of a frightful dwarf, with a large
+head, a cap fantastically adorned with three peacock feathers, a
+dress of red samite, the richness of which rendered his ugliness more
+conspicuous, distinguished by gold bracelets and armlets, and a white
+silk sash, in which he wore a gold-hilted dagger. This singular figure
+had in his left hand a kind of broom. So soon as he had stepped from
+the aperture through which he arose, he stood still, and, as if to show
+himself more distinctly, moved the lamp which he held slowly over
+his face and person, successively illuminating his wild and fantastic
+features, and his misshapen but nervous limbs. Though disproportioned in
+person, the dwarf was not so distorted as to argue any want of strength
+or activity. While Sir Kenneth gazed on this disagreeable object, the
+popular creed occurred to his remembrance concerning the gnomes or
+earthly spirits which make their abode in the caverns of the earth; and
+so much did this figure correspond with ideas he had formed of their
+appearance, that he looked on it with disgust, mingled not indeed with
+fear, but that sort of awe which the presence of a supernatural creature
+may infuse into the most steady bosom.
+
+The dwarf again whistled, and summoned from beneath a companion. This
+second figure ascended in the same manner as the first; but it was
+a female arm in this second instance which upheld the lamp from the
+subterranean vault out of which these presentments arose, and it was a
+female form, much resembling the first in shape and proportions,
+which slowly emerged from the floor. Her dress was also of red samite,
+fantastically cut and flounced, as if she had been dressed for some
+exhibition of mimes or jugglers; and with the same minuteness which her
+predecessor had exhibited, she passed the lamp over her face and person,
+which seemed to rival the male's in ugliness. But with all this most
+unfavourable exterior, there was one trait in the features of both which
+argued alertness and intelligence in the most uncommon degree. This
+arose from the brilliancy of their eyes, which, deep-set beneath black
+and shaggy brows, gleamed with a lustre which, like that in the eye
+of the toad, seemed to make some amends for the extreme ugliness of
+countenance and person.
+
+Sir Kenneth remained as if spellbound, while this unlovely pair, moving
+round the chapel close to each other, appeared to perform the duty of
+sweeping it, like menials; but as they used only one hand, the floor was
+not much benefited by the exercise, which they plied with such oddity of
+gestures and manner as befitted their bizarre and fantastic appearance.
+When they approached near to the knight in the course of their
+occupation, they ceased to use their brooms; and placing themselves side
+by side, directly opposite to Sir Kenneth, they again slowly shifted the
+lights which they held, so as to allow him distinctly to survey features
+which were not rendered more agreeable by being brought nearer, and to
+observe the extreme quickness and keenness with which their black and
+glittering eyes flashed back the light of the lamps. They then turned
+the gleam of both lights upon the knight, and having accurately surveyed
+him, turned their faces to each other, and set up a loud, yelling laugh,
+which resounded in his ears. The sound was so ghastly that Sir Kenneth
+started at hearing it, and hastily demanded, in the name of God, who
+they were who profaned that holy place with such antic gestures and
+elritch exclamations.
+
+“I am the dwarf Nectabanus,” said the abortion-seeming male, in a voice
+corresponding to his figure, and resembling the voice of the night-crow
+more than any sound which is heard by daylight.
+
+“And I am Guenevra, his lady and his love,” replied the female, in tones
+which, being shriller, were yet wilder than those of her companion.
+
+“Wherefore are you here?” again demanded the knight, scarcely yet
+assured that they were human beings which he saw before him.
+
+“I am,” replied the male dwarf, with much assumed gravity and dignity,
+“the twelfth Imaum. I am Mohammed Mohadi, the guide and the conductor of
+the faithful. A hundred horses stand ready saddled for me and my train
+at the Holy City, and as many at the City of Refuge. I am he who shall
+bear witness, and this is one of my houris.”
+
+“Thou liest!” answered the female, interrupting her companion, in tones
+yet shriller than his own; “I am none of thy houris, and thou art no
+such infidel trash as the Mohammed of whom thou speakest. May my curse
+rest upon his coffin! I tell thee, thou ass of Issachar, thou art King
+Arthur of Britain, whom the fairies stole away from the field of Avalon;
+and I am Dame Guenevra, famed for her beauty.”
+
+“But in truth, noble sir,” said the male, “we are distressed princes,
+dwelling under the wing of King Guy of Jerusalem, until he was driven
+out from his own nest by the foul infidels--Heaven's bolts consume
+them!”
+
+“Hush,” said a voice from the side upon which the knight had
+entered--“hush, fools, and begone; your ministry is ended.”
+
+The dwarfs had no sooner heard the command than, gibbering in discordant
+whispers to each other, they blew out their lights at once, and left the
+knight in utter darkness, which, when the pattering of their retiring
+feet had died away, was soon accompanied by its fittest companion, total
+silence.
+
+The knight felt the departure of these unfortunate creatures a relief.
+He could not, from their language, manners, and appearance, doubt that
+they belonged to the degraded class of beings whom deformity of person
+and weakness of intellect recommended to the painful situation of
+appendages to great families, where their personal appearance and
+imbecility were food for merriment to the household. Superior in no
+respect to the ideas and manners of his time, the Scottish knight might,
+at another period, have been much amused by the mummery of these poor
+effigies of humanity; but now their appearance, gesticulations, and
+language broke the train of deep and solemn feeling with which he was
+impressed, and he rejoiced in the disappearance of the unhappy objects.
+
+A few minutes after they had retired, the door at which he had entered
+opened slowly, and remaining ajar, discovered a faint light arising from
+a lantern placed upon the threshold. Its doubtful and wavering gleam
+showed a dark form reclined beside the entrance, but without its
+precincts, which, on approaching it more nearly, he recognized to be the
+hermit, crouching in the same humble posture in which he had at first
+laid himself down, and which, doubtless, he had retained during the
+whole time of his guest's continuing in the chapel.
+
+“All is over,” said the hermit, as he heard the knight approaching, “and
+the most wretched of earthly sinners, with him who should think himself
+most honoured and most happy among the race of humanity, must retire
+from this place. Take the light, and guide me down the descent, for I
+must not uncover my eyes until I am far from this hallowed spot.”
+
+The Scottish knight obeyed in silence, for a solemn and yet ecstatic
+sense of what he had seen had silenced even the eager workings of
+curiosity. He led the way, with considerable accuracy, through the
+various secret passages and stairs by which they had ascended, until at
+length they found themselves in the outward cell of the hermit's cavern.
+
+“The condemned criminal is restored to his dungeon, reprieved from one
+miserable day to another, until his awful Judge shall at length appoint
+the well-deserved sentence to be carried into execution.”
+
+As the hermit spoke these words, he laid aside the veil with which his
+eyes had been bound, and looked at it with a suppressed and hollow sigh.
+No sooner had he restored it to the crypt from which he had caused the
+Scot to bring it, than he said hastily and sternly to his companion;
+“Begone, begone--to rest, to rest. You may sleep--you can sleep--I
+neither can nor may.”
+
+Respecting the profound agitation with which this was spoken, the knight
+retired into the inner cell; but casting back his eye as he left the
+exterior grotto, he beheld the anchorite stripping his shoulders with
+frantic haste of their shaggy mantle, and ere he could shut the frail
+door which separated the two compartments of the cavern, he heard
+the clang of the scourge and the groans of the penitent under his
+self-inflicted penance. A cold shudder came over the knight as he
+reflected what could be the foulness of the sin, what the depth of the
+remorse, which, apparently, such severe penance could neither cleanse
+nor assuage. He told his beads devoutly, and flung himself on his rude
+couch, after a glance at the still sleeping Moslem, and, wearied by the
+various scenes of the day and the night, soon slept as sound as infancy.
+Upon his awaking in the morning, he held certain conferences with the
+hermit upon matters of importance, and the result of their intercourse
+induced him to remain for two days longer in the grotto. He was regular,
+as became a pilgrim, in his devotional exercises, but was not again
+admitted to the chapel in which he had seen such wonders.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     Now change the scene--and let the trumpets sound,
+     For we must rouse the lion from his lair.  OLD PLAY.
+
+The scene must change, as our programme has announced, from the mountain
+wilderness of Jordan to the camp of King Richard of England, then
+stationed betwixt Jean d'Acre and Ascalon, and containing that army with
+which he of the lion heart had promised himself a triumphant march
+to Jerusalem, and in which he would probably have succeeded, if not
+hindered by the jealousies of the Christian princes engaged in the same
+enterprise, and the offence taken by them at the uncurbed haughtiness
+of the English monarch, and Richard's unveiled contempt for his brother
+sovereigns, who, his equals in rank, were yet far his inferiors
+in courage, hardihood, and military talents. Such discords, and
+particularly those betwixt Richard and Philip of France, created
+disputes and obstacles which impeded every active measure proposed by
+the heroic though impetuous Richard, while the ranks of the Crusaders
+were daily thinned, not only by the desertion of individuals, but of
+entire bands, headed by their respective feudal leaders, who withdrew
+from a contest in which they had ceased to hope for success.
+
+The effects of the climate became, as usual, fatal to soldiers from
+the north, and the more so that the dissolute license of the Crusaders,
+forming a singular contrast to the principles and purpose of their
+taking up arms, rendered them more easy victims to the insalubrious
+influence of burning heat and chilling dews. To these discouraging
+causes of loss was to be added the sword of the enemy. Saladin, than
+whom no greater name is recorded in Eastern history, had learned, to
+his fatal experience, that his light-armed followers were little able to
+meet in close encounter with the iron-clad Franks, and had been taught,
+at the same time, to apprehend and dread the adventurous character of
+his antagonist Richard. But if his armies were more than once routed
+with great slaughter, his numbers gave the Saracen the advantage in
+those lighter skirmishes, of which many were inevitable.
+
+As the army of his assailants decreased, the enterprises of the Sultan
+became more numerous and more bold in this species of petty warfare. The
+camp of the Crusaders was surrounded, and almost besieged, by clouds of
+light cavalry, resembling swarms of wasps, easily crushed when they are
+once grasped, but furnished with wings to elude superior strength, and
+stings to inflict harm and mischief. There was perpetual warfare of
+posts and foragers, in which many valuable lives were lost, without
+any corresponding object being gained; convoys were intercepted, and
+communications were cut off. The Crusaders had to purchase the means
+of sustaining life, by life itself; and water, like that of the well of
+Bethlehem, longed for by King David, one of its ancient monarchs, was
+then, as before, only obtained by the expenditure of blood.
+
+These evils were in a great measure counterbalanced by the stern
+resolution and restless activity of King Richard, who, with some of his
+best knights, was ever on horseback, ready to repair to any point where
+danger occurred, and often not only bringing unexpected succour to the
+Christians, but discomfiting the infidels when they seemed most secure
+of victory. But even the iron frame of Coeur de Lion could not support
+without injury the alternations of the unwholesome climate, joined to
+ceaseless exertions of body and mind. He became afflicted with one of
+those slow and wasting fevers peculiar to Asia, and in despite of his
+great strength and still greater courage, grew first unfit to mount on
+horseback, and then unable to attend the councils of war which were from
+time to time held by the Crusaders. It was difficult to say whether this
+state of personal inactivity was rendered more galling or more endurable
+to the English monarch by the resolution of the council to engage in a
+truce of thirty days with the Sultan Saladin; for on the one hand, if he
+was incensed at the delay which this interposed to the progress of the
+great enterprise, he was, on the other, somewhat consoled by knowing
+that others were not acquiring laurels while he remained inactive upon a
+sick-bed.
+
+That, however, which Coeur de Lion could least excuse was the general
+inactivity which prevailed in the camp of the Crusaders so soon as his
+illness assumed a serious aspect; and the reports which he extracted
+from his unwilling attendants gave him to understand that the hopes of
+the host had abated in proportion to his illness, and that the interval
+of truce was employed, not in recruiting their numbers, reanimating
+their courage, fostering their spirit of conquest, and preparing for a
+speedy and determined advance upon the Holy City, which was the
+object of their expedition, but in securing the camp occupied by their
+diminished followers with trenches, palisades, and other fortifications,
+as if preparing rather to repel an attack from a powerful enemy so soon
+as hostilities should recommence, than to assume the proud character of
+conquerors and assailants.
+
+The English king chafed under these reports, like the imprisoned lion
+viewing his prey from the iron barriers of his cage. Naturally rash
+and impetuous, the irritability of his temper preyed on itself. He was
+dreaded by his attendants and even the medical assistants feared to
+assume the necessary authority which a physician, to do justice to his
+patient, must needs exercise over him. One faithful baron, who, perhaps,
+from the congenial nature of his disposition, was devoutly attached to
+the King's person, dared alone to come between the dragon and his wrath,
+and quietly, but firmly, maintained a control which no other dared
+assume over the dangerous invalid, and which Thomas de Multon only
+exercised because he esteemed his sovereign's life and honour more than
+he did the degree of favour which he might lose, or even the risk
+which he might incur, in nursing a patient so intractable, and whose
+displeasure was so perilous.
+
+Sir Thomas was the Lord of Gilsland, in Cumberland, and in an age
+when surnames and titles were not distinctly attached, as now, to the
+individuals who bore them, he was called by the Normans the Lord de
+Vaux; and in English by the Saxons, who clung to their native language,
+and were proud of the share of Saxon blood in this renowned warrior's
+veins, he was termed Thomas, or, more familiarly, Thom of the Gills,
+or Narrow Valleys, from which his extensive domains derived their
+well-known appellation.
+
+This chief had been exercised in almost all the wars, whether waged
+betwixt England and Scotland, or amongst the various domestic factions
+which then tore the former country asunder, and in all had been
+distinguished, as well from his military conduct as his personal
+prowess. He was, in other respects, a rude soldier, blunt and careless
+in his bearing, and taciturn--nay, almost sullen--in his habits of
+society, and seeming, at least, to disclaim all knowledge of policy and
+of courtly art. There were men, however, who pretended to look deeply
+into character, who asserted that the Lord de Vaux was not less shrewd
+and aspiring than he was blunt and bold, and who thought that, while he
+assimilated himself to the king's own character of blunt hardihood, it
+was, in some degree at least, with an eye to establish his favour, and
+to gratify his own hopes of deep-laid ambition. But no one cared to
+thwart his schemes, if such he had, by rivalling him in the dangerous
+occupation of daily attendance on the sick-bed of a patient whose
+disease was pronounced infectious, and more especially when it was
+remembered that the patient was Coeur de Lion, suffering under all the
+furious impatience of a soldier withheld from battle, and a sovereign
+sequestered from authority; and the common soldiers, at least in the
+English army, were generally of opinion that De Vaux attended on
+the King like comrade upon comrade, in the honest and disinterested
+frankness of military friendship contracted between the partakers of
+daily dangers.
+
+It was on the decline of a Syrian day that Richard lay on his couch of
+sickness, loathing it as much in mind as his illness made it irksome to
+his body. His bright blue eye, which at all times shone with uncommon
+keenness and splendour, had its vivacity augmented by fever and mental
+impatience, and glanced from among his curled and unshorn locks of
+yellow hair as fitfully and as vividly as the last gleams of the sun
+shoot through the clouds of an approaching thunderstorm, which still,
+however, are gilded by its beams. His manly features showed the
+progress of wasting illness, and his beard, neglected and untrimmed,
+had overgrown both lips and chin. Casting himself from side to side, now
+clutching towards him the coverings, which at the next moment he flung
+as impatiently from him, his tossed couch and impatient gestures showed
+at once the energy and the reckless impatience of a disposition whose
+natural sphere was that of the most active exertion.
+
+Beside his couch stood Thomas de Vaux, in face, attitude, and manner
+the strongest possible contrast to the suffering monarch. His stature
+approached the gigantic, and his hair in thickness might have resembled
+that of Samson, though only after the Israelitish champion's locks had
+passed under the shears of the Philistines, for those of De Vaux were
+cut short, that they might be enclosed under his helmet. The light of
+his broad, large hazel eye resembled that of the autumn morn; and it was
+only perturbed for a moment, when from time to time it was attracted by
+Richard's vehement marks of agitation and restlessness. His features,
+though massive like his person, might have been handsome before they
+were defaced with scars; his upper lip, after the fashion of the
+Normans, was covered with thick moustaches, which grew so long and
+luxuriantly as to mingle with his hair, and, like his hair, were dark
+brown, slightly brindled with grey. His frame seemed of that kind which
+most readily defies both toil and climate, for he was thin-flanked,
+broad-chested, long-armed, deep-breathed, and strong-limbed. He had not
+laid aside his buff-coat, which displayed the cross cut on the shoulder,
+for more than three nights, enjoying but such momentary repose as the
+warder of a sick monarch's couch might by snatches indulge. This Baron
+rarely changed his posture, except to administer to Richard the medicine
+or refreshments which none of his less favoured attendants could
+persuade the impatient monarch to take; and there was something
+affecting in the kindly yet awkward manner in which he discharged
+offices so strangely contrasted with his blunt and soldierly habits and
+manners.
+
+The pavilion in which these personages were, had, as became the time,
+as well as the personal character of Richard, more of a warlike than a
+sumptuous or royal character. Weapons offensive and defensive, several
+of them of strange and newly-invented construction, were scattered about
+the tented apartment, or disposed upon the pillars which supported it.
+Skins of animals slain in the chase were stretched on the ground, or
+extended along the sides of the pavilion; and upon a heap of
+these silvan spoils lay three ALANS, as they were then called
+(wolf-greyhounds, that is), of the largest size, and as white as snow.
+Their faces, marked with many a scar from clutch and fang, showed their
+share in collecting the trophies upon which they reposed; and their
+eyes, fixed from time to time with an expressive stretch and yawn upon
+the bed of Richard, evinced how much they marvelled at and regretted the
+unwonted inactivity which they were compelled to share. These were but
+the accompaniments of the soldier and huntsman; but on a small table
+close by the bed was placed a shield of wrought steel, of triangular
+form, bearing the three lions passant first assumed by the chivalrous
+monarch, and before it the golden circlet, resembling much a ducal
+coronet, only that it was higher in front than behind, which, with
+the purple velvet and embroidered tiara that lined it, formed then the
+emblem of England's sovereignty. Beside it, as if prompt for defending
+the regal symbol, lay a mighty curtal-axe, which would have wearied the
+arm of any other than Coeur de Lion.
+
+In an outer partition of the pavilion waited two or three officers of
+the royal household, depressed, anxious for their master's health, and
+not less so for their own safety, in case of his decease. Their gloomy
+apprehensions spread themselves to the warders without, who paced about
+in downcast and silent contemplation, or, resting on their halberds,
+stood motionless on their post, rather like armed trophies than living
+warriors.
+
+“So thou hast no better news to bring me from without, Sir Thomas!”
+ said the King, after a long and perturbed silence, spent in the feverish
+agitation which we have endeavoured to describe. “All our knights turned
+women, and our ladies become devotees, and neither a spark of valour nor
+of gallantry to enlighten a camp which contains the choicest of Europe's
+chivalry--ha!”
+
+“The truce, my lord,” said De Vaux, with the same patience with which
+he had twenty times repeated the explanation--“the truce prevents us
+bearing ourselves as men of action; and for the ladies, I am no great
+reveller, as is well known to your Majesty, and seldom exchange steel
+and buff for velvet and gold--but thus far I know, that our choicest
+beauties are waiting upon the Queen's Majesty and the Princess, to a
+pilgrimage to the convent of Engaddi, to accomplish their vows for your
+Highness's deliverance from this trouble.”
+
+“And is it thus,” said Richard, with the impatience of indisposition,
+“that royal matrons and maidens should risk themselves, where the dogs
+who defile the land have as little truth to man as they have faith
+towards God?”
+
+“Nay, my lord,” said De Vaux, “they have Saladin's word for their
+safety.”
+
+“True, true!” replied Richard; “and I did the heathen Soldan
+injustice--I owe him reparation for it. Would God I were but fit
+to offer it him upon my body between the two hosts--Christendom and
+heathenesse both looking on!”
+
+As Richard spoke, he thrust his right arm out of bed naked to the
+shoulder, and painfully raising himself in his couch, shook his clenched
+hand, as if it grasped sword or battle-axe, and was then brandished over
+the jewelled turban of the Soldan. It was not without a gentle degree of
+violence, which the King would scarce have endured from another, that
+De Vaux, in his character of sick-nurse, compelled his royal master
+to replace himself in the couch, and covered his sinewy arm, neck, and
+shoulders with the care which a mother bestows upon an impatient child.
+
+“Thou art a rough nurse, though a willing one, De Vaux,” said the King,
+laughing with a bitter expression, while he submitted to the strength
+which he was unable to resist; “methinks a coif would become thy
+lowering features as well as a child's biggin would beseem mine. We
+should be a babe and nurse to frighten girls with.”
+
+“We have frightened men in our time, my liege,” said De Vaux; “and, I
+trust, may live to frighten them again. What is a fever-fit, that we
+should not endure it patiently, in order to get rid of it easily?”
+
+“Fever-fit!” exclaimed Richard impetuously; “thou mayest think, and
+justly, that it is a fever-fit with me; but what is it with all the
+other Christian princes--with Philip of France, with that dull Austrian,
+with him of Montserrat, with the Hospitallers, with the Templars--what
+is it with all them? I will tell thee. It is a cold palsy, a dead
+lethargy, a disease that deprives them of speech and action, a canker
+that has eaten into the heart of all that is noble, and chivalrous, and
+virtuous among them--that has made them false to the noblest vow ever
+knights were sworn to--has made them indifferent to their fame, and
+forgetful of their God!”
+
+“For the love of Heaven, my liege,” said De Vaux, “take it less
+violently--you will be heard without doors, where such speeches are but
+too current already among the common soldiery, and engender discord and
+contention in the Christian host. Bethink you that your illness mars the
+mainspring of their enterprise; a mangonel will work without screw and
+lever better than the Christian host without King Richard.”
+
+“Thou flatterest me, De Vaux,” said Richard, and not insensible to
+the power of praise, he reclined his head on the pillow with a more
+deliberate attempt to repose than he had yet exhibited. But Thomas
+de Vaux was no courtier; the phrase which had offered had risen
+spontaneously to his lips, and he knew not how to pursue the pleasing
+theme so as to soothe and prolong the vein which he had excited. He was
+silent, therefore, until, relapsing into his moody contemplations, the
+King demanded of him sharply, “Despardieux! This is smoothly said to
+soothe a sick man; but does a league of monarchs, an assemblage or
+nobles, a convocation of all the chivalry of Europe, droop with the
+sickness of one man, though he chances to be King of England? Why
+should Richard's illness, or Richard's death, check the march of thirty
+thousand men as brave as himself? When the master stag is struck down,
+the herd do not disperse upon his fall; when the falcon strikes the
+leading crane, another takes the guidance of the phalanx. Why do not
+the powers assemble and choose some one to whom they may entrust the
+guidance of the host?”
+
+“Forsooth, and if it please your Majesty,” said De Vaux, “I hear
+consultations have been held among the royal leaders for some such
+purpose.”
+
+“Ha!” exclaimed Richard, his jealousy awakened, giving his mental
+irritation another direction, “am I forgot by my allies ere I have taken
+the last sacrament? Do they hold me dead already? But no, no, they are
+right. And whom do they select as leader of the Christian host?”
+
+“Rank and dignity,” said De Vaux, “point to the King of France.”
+
+“Oh, ay,” answered the English monarch, “Philip of France and
+Navarre--Denis Mountjoie--his most Christian Majesty! Mouth-filling
+words these! There is but one risk--that he might mistake the words EN
+ARRIERE for EN AVANT, and lead us back to Paris, instead of marching to
+Jerusalem. His politic head has learned by this time that there is more
+to be gotten by oppressing his feudatories, and pillaging his allies,
+than fighting with the Turks for the Holy Sepulchre.”
+
+“They might choose the Archduke of Austria,” said De Vaux.
+
+“What! because he is big and burly like thyself, Thomas--nearly as
+thick-headed, but without thy indifference to danger and carelessness
+of offence? I tell thee that Austria has in all that mass of flesh no
+bolder animation than is afforded by the peevishness of a wasp and the
+courage of a wren. Out upon him! He a leader of chivalry to deeds
+of glory! Give him a flagon of Rhenish to drink with his besmirched
+baaren-hauters and lance-knechts.”
+
+“There is the Grand Master of the Templars,” continued the baron, not
+sorry to keep his master's attention engaged on other topics than his
+own illness, though at the expense of the characters of prince and
+potentate. “There is the Grand Master of the Templars,” he continued,
+“undaunted, skilful, brave in battle, and sage in council, having no
+separate kingdoms of his own to divert his exertions from the recovery
+of the Holy Land--what thinks your Majesty of the Master as a general
+leader of the Christian host?”
+
+“Ha, Beau-Seant?” answered the King. “Oh, no exception can be taken to
+Brother Giles Amaury; he understands the ordering of a battle, and the
+fighting in front when it begins. But, Sir Thomas, were it fair to take
+the Holy Land from the heathen Saladin, so full of all the virtues which
+may distinguish unchristened man, and give it to Giles Amaury, a worse
+pagan than himself, an idolater, a devil-worshipper, a necromancer, who
+practises crimes the most dark and unnatural in the vaults and secret
+places of abomination and darkness?”
+
+“The Grand Master of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem is not
+tainted by fame, either with heresy or magic,” said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+“But is he not a sordid miser?” said Richard hastily; “has he not been
+suspected--ay, more than suspected--of selling to the infidels those
+advantages which they would never have won by fair force? Tush, man,
+better give the army to be made merchandise of by Venetian skippers and
+Lombardy pedlars, than trust it to the Grand Master of St. John.”
+
+“Well, then, I will venture but another guess,” said the Baron de Vaux.
+“What say you to the gallant Marquis of Montserrat, so wise, so elegant,
+such a good man-at-arms?”
+
+“Wise?--cunning, you would say,” replied Richard; “elegant in a lady's
+chamber, if you will. Oh, ay, Conrade of Montserrat--who knows not the
+popinjay? Politic and versatile, he will change you his purposes as
+often as the trimmings of his doublet, and you shall never be able to
+guess the hue of his inmost vestments from their outward colours. A
+man-at-arms? Ay, a fine figure on horseback, and can bear him well in
+the tilt-yard, and at the barriers, when swords are blunted at point
+and edge, and spears are tipped with trenchers of wood instead of steel
+pikes. Wert thou not with me when I said to that same gay Marquis, 'Here
+we be, three good Christians, and on yonder plain there pricks a band of
+some threescore Saracens--what say you to charge them briskly? There are
+but twenty unbelieving miscreants to each true knight.”
+
+“I recollect the Marquis replied,” said De Vaux, “that his limbs were
+of flesh, not of iron, and that he would rather bear the heart of a
+man than of a beast, though that beast were the lion, But I see how
+it is--we shall end where we began, without hope of praying at the
+Sepulchre until Heaven shall restore King Richard to health.”
+
+At this grave remark Richard burst out into a hearty fit of laughter,
+the first which he had for some time indulged in. “Why what a thing is
+conscience,” he said, “that through its means even such a thick-witted
+northern lord as thou canst bring thy sovereign to confess his folly!
+It is true that, did they not propose themselves as fit to hold my
+leading-staff, little should I care for plucking the silken trappings
+off the puppets thou hast shown me in succession. What concerns it me
+what fine tinsel robes they swagger in, unless when they are named as
+rivals in the glorious enterprise to which I have vowed myself? Yes,
+De Vaux, I confess my weakness, and the wilfulness of my ambition. The
+Christian camp contains, doubtless, many a better knight than Richard of
+England, and it would be wise and worthy to assign to the best of them
+the leading of the host. But,” continued the warlike monarch, raising
+himself in his bed, and shaking the cover from his head, while his eyes
+sparkled as they were wont to do on the eve of battle, “were such a
+knight to plant the banner of the Cross on the Temple of Jerusalem while
+I was unable to bear my share in the noble task, he should, so soon as I
+was fit to lay lance in rest, undergo my challenge to mortal combat,
+for having diminished my fame, and pressed in before to the object of my
+enterprise. But hark, what trumpets are those at a distance?”
+
+“Those of King Philip, as I guess, my liege,” said the stout Englishman.
+
+“Thou art dull of ear, Thomas,” said the King, endeavouring to start up;
+“hearest thou not that clash and clang? By Heaven, the Turks are in the
+camp--I hear their LELIES.” [The war-cries of the Moslemah.]
+
+He again endeavoured to get out of bed, and De Vaux was obliged to
+exercise his own great strength, and also to summon the assistance of
+the chamberlains from the inner tent, to restrain him.
+
+“Thou art a false traitor, De Vaux,” said the incensed monarch, when,
+breathless and exhausted with struggling, he was compelled to submit
+to superior strength, and to repose in quiet on his couch. “I would I
+were--I would I were but strong enough to dash thy brains out with my
+battle-axe!”
+
+“I would you had the strength, my liege,” said De Vaux, “and would
+even take the risk of its being so employed. The odds would be great in
+favour of Christendom were Thomas Multon dead and Coeur de Lion himself
+again.”
+
+“Mine honest faithful servant,” said Richard, extending his hand, which
+the baron reverentially saluted, “forgive thy master's impatience of
+mood. It is this burning fever which chides thee, and not thy kind
+master, Richard of England. But go, I prithee, and bring me word what
+strangers are in the camp, for these sounds are not of Christendom.”
+
+De Vaux left the pavilion on the errand assigned, and in his absence,
+which he had resolved should be brief, he charged the chamberlains,
+pages, and attendants to redouble their attention on their sovereign,
+with threats of holding them to responsibility, which rather added to
+than diminished their timid anxiety in the discharge of their duty; for
+next, perhaps, to the ire of the monarch himself, they dreaded that
+of the stern and inexorable Lord of Gilsland. [Sir Thomas Multon of
+Gilsland.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     There never was a time on the march parts yet,
+     When Scottish with English met,
+     But it was marvel if the red blood ran not
+     As the rain does in the street.
+     --BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
+
+A considerable band of Scottish warriors had joined the Crusaders,
+and had naturally placed themselves under the command of the English
+monarch, being, like his native troops, most of them of Saxon and
+Norman descent, speaking the same languages, possessed, some of them, of
+English as well as Scottish demesnes, and allied in some cases by blood
+and intermarriage. The period also preceded that when the grasping
+ambition of Edward I. gave a deadly and envenomed character to the wars
+betwixt the two nations--the English fighting for the subjugation
+of Scotland, and the Scottish, with all the stern determination and
+obstinacy which has ever characterized their nation, for the defence
+of their independence, by the most violent means, under the most
+disadvantageous circumstances, and at the most extreme hazard. As yet,
+wars betwixt the two nations, though fierce and frequent, had been
+conducted on principles of fair hostility, and admitted of those
+softening shades by which courtesy and the respect for open and generous
+foemen qualify and mitigate the horrors of war. In time of peace,
+therefore, and especially when both, as at present, were engaged in war,
+waged in behalf of a common cause, and rendered dear to them by their
+ideas of religion, the adventurers of both countries frequently fought
+side by side, their national emulation serving only to stimulate them to
+excel each other in their efforts against the common enemy.
+
+The frank and martial character of Richard, who made no distinction
+betwixt his own subjects and those of William of Scotland, excepting as
+they bore themselves in the field of battle, tended much to
+conciliate the troops of both nations. But upon his illness, and the
+disadvantageous circumstances in which the Crusaders were placed, the
+national disunion between the various bands united in the Crusade, began
+to display itself, just as old wounds break out afresh in the human body
+when under the influence of disease or debility.
+
+The Scottish and English, equally jealous and high-spirited, and apt to
+take offence--the former the more so, because the poorer and the weaker
+nation--began to fill up by internal dissension the period when the
+truce forbade them to wreak their united vengeance on the Saracens.
+Like the contending Roman chiefs of old, the Scottish would admit no
+superiority, and their southern neighbours would brook no equality.
+There were charges and recriminations, and both the common soldiery
+and their leaders and commanders, who had been good comrades in time of
+victory, lowered on each other in the period of adversity, as if their
+union had not been then more essential than ever, not only to the
+success of their common cause, but to their joint safety. The same
+disunion had begun to show itself betwixt the French and English, the
+Italians and the Germans, and even between the Danes and Swedes; but it
+is only that which divided the two nations whom one island bred, and who
+seemed more animated against each other for the very reason, that our
+narrative is principally concerned with.
+
+Of all the English nobles who had followed their King to Palestine,
+De Vaux was most prejudiced against the Scottish. They were his near
+neighbours, with whom he had been engaged during his whole life in
+private or public warfare, and on whom he had inflicted many calamities,
+while he had sustained at their hands not a few. His love and devotion
+to the King was like the vivid affection of the old English mastiff to
+his master, leaving him churlish and inaccessible to all others even
+towards those to whom he was indifferent--and rough and dangerous to
+any against whom he entertained a prejudice. De Vaux had never observed
+without jealousy and displeasure his King exhibit any mark of courtesy
+or favour to the wicked, deceitful, and ferocious race born on the
+other side of a river, or an imaginary line drawn through waste and
+wilderness; and he even doubted the success of a Crusade in which they
+were suffered to bear arms, holding them in his secret soul little
+better than the Saracens whom he came to combat. It may be added that,
+as being himself a blunt and downright Englishman, unaccustomed
+to conceal the slightest movement either of love or of dislike, he
+accounted the fair-spoken courtesy which the Scots had learned, either
+from imitation of their frequent allies, the French, or which might
+have arisen from their own proud and reserved character, as a false and
+astucious mark of the most dangerous designs against their neighbours,
+over whom he believed, with genuine English confidence, they could, by
+fair manhood, never obtain any advantage.
+
+Yet, though De Vaux entertained these sentiments concerning his Northern
+neighbours, and extended them, with little mitigation, even to such as
+had assumed the Cross, his respect for the King, and a sense of the duty
+imposed by his vow as a Crusader, prevented him from displaying them
+otherwise than by regularly shunning all intercourse with his Scottish
+brethren-at-arms as far as possible, by observing a sullen taciturnity
+when compelled to meet them occasionally, and by looking scornfully upon
+them when they encountered on the march and in camp. The Scottish barons
+and knights were not men to bear his scorn unobserved or unreplied to;
+and it came to that pass that he was regarded as the determined and
+active enemy of a nation, whom, after all, he only disliked, and in some
+sort despised. Nay, it was remarked by close observers that, if he had
+not towards them the charity of Scripture, which suffereth long, and
+judges kindly, he was by no means deficient in the subordinate and
+limited virtue, which alleviates and relieves the wants of others.
+The wealth of Thomas of Gilsland procured supplies of provisions and
+medicines, and some of these usually flowed by secret channels into
+the quarters of the Scottish--his surly benevolence proceeding on the
+principle that, next to a man's friend, his foe was of most importance
+to him, passing over all the intermediate relations as too indifferent
+to merit even a thought. This explanation is necessary, in order that
+the reader may fully understand what we are now to detail.
+
+Thomas de Vaux had not made many steps beyond the entrance of the royal
+pavilion when he was aware of what the far more acute ear of the English
+monarch--no mean proficient in the art of minstrelsy--had instantly
+discovered, that the musical strains, namely, which had reached their
+ears, were produced by the pipes, shalms, and kettle-drums of the
+Saracens; and at the bottom of an avenue of tents, which formed a broad
+access to the pavilion of Richard, he could see a crowd of idle soldiers
+assembled around the spot from which the music was heard, almost in the
+centre of the camp; and he saw, with great surprise, mingled amid the
+helmets of various forms worn by the Crusaders of different nations,
+white turbans and long pikes, announcing the presence of armed
+Saracens, and the huge deformed heads of several camels or dromedaries,
+overlooking the multitude by aid of their long, disproportioned necks.
+
+Wondering, and displeased at a sight so unexpected and singular--for it
+was customary to leave all flags of truce and other communications from
+the enemy at an appointed place without the barriers--the baron looked
+eagerly round for some one of whom he might inquire the cause of this
+alarming novelty.
+
+The first person whom he met advancing to him he set down at once, by
+his grave and haughty step, as a Spaniard or a Scot; and presently after
+muttered to himself, “And a Scot it is--he of the Leopard. I have seen
+him fight indifferently well, for one of his country.”
+
+Loath to ask even a passing question, he was about to pass Sir Kenneth,
+with that sullen and lowering port which seems to say, “I know thee, but
+I will hold no communication with thee.” But his purpose was defeated
+by the Northern Knight, who moved forward directly to him, and accosting
+him with formal courtesy, said, “My Lord de Vaux of Gilsland, I have in
+charge to speak with you.”
+
+“Ha!” returned the English baron, “with me? But say your pleasure, so it
+be shortly spoken--I am on the King's errand.”
+
+“Mine touches King Richard yet more nearly,” answered Sir Kenneth; “I
+bring him, I trust, health.”
+
+The Lord of Gilsland measured the Scot with incredulous eyes, and
+replied, “Thou art no leech, I think, Sir Scot; I had as soon thought of
+your bringing the King of England wealth.”
+
+Sir Kenneth, though displeased with the manner of the baron's
+reply, answered calmly, “Health to Richard is glory and wealth to
+Christendom.--But my time presses; I pray you, may I see the King?”
+
+“Surely not, fair sir,” said the baron, “until your errand be told more
+distinctly. The sick chambers of princes open not to all who inquire,
+like a northern hostelry.”
+
+“My lord,” said Kenneth, “the cross which I wear in common with
+yourself, and the importance of what I have to tell, must, for the
+present, cause me to pass over a bearing which else I were unapt to
+endure. In plain language, then, I bring with me a Moorish physician,
+who undertakes to work a cure on King Richard.”
+
+“A Moorish physician!” said De Vaux; “and who will warrant that he
+brings not poisons instead of remedies?”
+
+“His own life, my lord--his head, which he offers as a guarantee.”
+
+“I have known many a resolute ruffian,” said De Vaux, “who valued his
+own life as little as it deserved, and would troop to the gallows as
+merrily as if the hangman were his partner in a dance.”
+
+“But thus it is, my lord,” replied the Scot. “Saladin, to whom none will
+deny the credit of a generous and valiant enemy, hath sent this
+leech hither with an honourable retinue and guard, befitting the high
+estimation in which El Hakim [The Physician] is held by the Soldan, and
+with fruits and refreshments for the King's private chamber, and such
+message as may pass betwixt honourable enemies, praying him to be
+recovered of his fever, that he may be the fitter to receive a visit
+from the Soldan, with his naked scimitar in his hand, and a hundred
+thousand cavaliers at his back. Will it please you, who are of the
+King's secret council, to cause these camels to be discharged of
+their burdens, and some order taken as to the reception of the learned
+physician?”
+
+“Wonderful!” said De Vaux, as speaking to himself.--“And who will vouch
+for the honour of Saladin, in a case when bad faith would rid him at
+once of his most powerful adversary?”
+
+“I myself,” replied Sir Kenneth, “will be his guarantee, with honour,
+life, and fortune.”
+
+“Strange!” again ejaculated De Vaux; “the North vouches for the
+South--the Scot for the Turk! May I crave of you, Sir Knight, how you
+became concerned in this affair?”
+
+“I have been absent on a pilgrimage, in the course of which,” replied
+Sir Kenneth “I had a message to discharge towards the holy hermit of
+Engaddi.”
+
+“May I not be entrusted with it, Sir Kenneth, and with the answer of the
+holy man?”
+
+“It may not be, my lord,” answered the Scot.
+
+“I am of the secret council of England,” said the Englishman haughtily.
+
+“To which land I owe no allegiance,” said Kenneth. “Though I have
+voluntarily followed in this war the personal fortunes of England's
+sovereign, I was dispatched by the General Council of the kings,
+princes, and supreme leaders of the army of the Blessed Cross, and to
+them only I render my errand.”
+
+“Ha! sayest thou?” said the proud Baron de Vaux. “But know, messenger
+of the kings and princes as thou mayest be, no leech shall approach the
+sick-bed of Richard of England without the consent of him of Gilsland;
+and they will come on evil errand who dare to intrude themselves against
+it.”
+
+He was turning loftily away, when the Scot, placing himself closer, and
+more opposite to him, asked, in a calm voice, yet not without expressing
+his share of pride, whether the Lord of Gilsland esteemed him a
+gentleman and a good knight.
+
+“All Scots are ennobled by their birthright,” answered Thomas de Vaux,
+something ironically; but sensible of his own injustice, and perceiving
+that Kenneth's colour rose, he added, “For a good knight it were sin to
+doubt you, in one at least who has seen you well and bravely discharge
+your devoir.”
+
+“Well, then,” said the Scottish knight, satisfied with the frankness of
+the last admission, “and let me swear to you, Thomas of Gilsland, that,
+as I am true Scottish man, which I hold a privilege equal to my ancient
+gentry, and as sure as I am a belted knight, and come hither to acquire
+LOS [Los--laus, praise, or renown] and fame in this mortal life, and
+forgiveness of my sins in that which is to come--so truly, and by the
+blessed Cross which I wear, do I protest unto you that I desire but the
+safety of Richard Coeur de Lion, in recommending the ministry of this
+Moslem physician.”
+
+The Englishman was struck with the solemnity of the obtestation, and
+answered with more cordiality than he had yet exhibited, “Tell me, Sir
+Knight of the Leopard, granting (which I do not doubt) that thou art
+thyself satisfied in this matter, shall I do well, in a land where the
+art of poisoning is as general as that of cooking, to bring this
+unknown physician to practise with his drugs on a health so valuable to
+Christendom?”
+
+“My lord,” replied the Scot, “thus only can I reply--that my squire, the
+only one of my retinue whom war and disease had left in attendance on
+me, has been of late suffering dangerously under this same fever, which,
+in valiant King Richard, has disabled the principal limb of our holy
+enterprise. This leech, this El Hakim, hath ministered remedies to him
+not two hours since, and already he hath fallen into a refreshing sleep.
+That he can cure the disorder, which has proved so fatal, I nothing
+doubt; that he hath the purpose to do it is, I think, warranted by his
+mission from the royal Soldan, who is true-hearted and loyal, so far as
+a blinded infidel may be called so; and for his eventual success, the
+certainty of reward in case of succeeding, and punishment in case of
+voluntary failure, may be a sufficient guarantee.”
+
+The Englishman listened with downcast looks, as one who doubted, yet was
+not unwilling to receive conviction. At length he looked up and said,
+“May I see your sick squire, fair sir?”
+
+The Scottish knight hesitated and coloured, yet answered at last,
+“Willingly, my Lord of Gilsland. But you must remember, when you see my
+poor quarter, that the nobles and knights of Scotland feed not so high,
+sleep not so soft, and care not for the magnificence of lodgment which
+is Proper to their southern neighbours. I am POORLY lodged, my Lord of
+Gilsland,” he added, with a haughty emphasis on the word, while, with
+some unwillingness, he led the way to his temporary place of abode.
+
+Whatever were the prejudices of De Vaux against the nation of his new
+acquaintance, and though we undertake not to deny that some of these
+were excited by its proverbial poverty, he had too much nobleness
+of disposition to enjoy the mortification of a brave individual
+thus compelled to make known wants which his pride would gladly have
+concealed.
+
+“Shame to the soldier of the Cross,” he said, “who thinks of worldly
+splendour, or of luxurious accommodation, when pressing forward to
+the conquest of the Holy City. Fare as hard as we may, we shall yet be
+better than the host of martyrs and of saints, who, having trod these
+scenes before us, now hold golden lamps and evergreen palms.”
+
+This was the most metaphorical speech which Thomas of Gilsland was ever
+known to utter, the rather, perhaps (as will sometimes happen), that it
+did not entirely express his own sentiments, being somewhat a lover of
+good cheer and splendid accommodation. By this time they reached the
+place of the camp where the Knight of the Leopard had assumed his abode.
+
+Appearances here did indeed promise no breach of the laws of
+mortification, to which the Crusaders, according to the opinion
+expressed by him of Gilsland, ought to subject themselves. A space of
+ground, large enough to accommodate perhaps thirty tents, according to
+the Crusaders' rules of castrametation, was partly vacant--because,
+in ostentation, the knight had demanded ground to the extent of his
+original retinue--partly occupied by a few miserable huts, hastily
+constructed of boughs, and covered with palm-leaves. These habitations
+seemed entirely deserted, and several of them were ruinous. The central
+hut, which represented the pavilion of the leader, was distinguished by
+his swallow-tailed pennon, placed on the point of a spear, from which
+its long folds dropped motionless to the ground, as if sickening under
+the scorching rays of the Asiatic sun. But no pages or squires--not even
+a solitary warder--was placed by the emblem of feudal power and knightly
+degree. If its reputation defended it not from insult, it had no other
+guard.
+
+Sir Kenneth cast a melancholy look around him, but suppressing his
+feelings, entered the hut, making a sign to the Baron of Gilsland to
+follow. He also cast around a glance of examination, which implied pity
+not altogether unmingled with contempt, to which, perhaps, it is as
+nearly akin as it is said to be to love. He then stooped his lofty
+crest, and entered a lowly hut, which his bulky form seemed almost
+entirely to fill.
+
+The interior of the hut was chiefly occupied by two beds. One was empty,
+but composed of collected leaves, and spread with an antelope's hide. It
+seemed, from the articles of armour laid beside it, and from a crucifix
+of silver, carefully and reverentially disposed at the head, to be the
+couch of the knight himself. The other contained the invalid, of whom
+Sir Kenneth had spoken, a strong-built and harsh-featured man, past, as
+his looks betokened, the middle age of life. His couch was trimmed
+more softly than his master's, and it was plain that the more courtly
+garments of the latter, the loose robe in which the knights showed
+themselves on pacific occasions, and the other little spare articles
+of dress and adornment, had been applied by Sir Kenneth to the
+accommodation of his sick domestic. In an outward part of the hut,
+which yet was within the range of the English baron's eye, a boy,
+rudely attired with buskins of deer's hide, a blue cap or bonnet, and a
+doublet, whose original finery was much tarnished, sat on his knees by
+a chafing-dish filled with charcoal, cooking upon a plate of iron the
+cakes of barley-bread, which were then, and still are, a favourite food
+with the Scottish people. Part of an antelope was suspended against one
+of the main props of the hut. Nor was it difficult to know how it had
+been procured; for a large stag greyhound, nobler in size and appearance
+than those even which guarded King Richard's sick-bed, lay eyeing
+the process of baking the cake. The sagacious animal, on their first
+entrance, uttered a stifled growl, which sounded from his deep chest
+like distant thunder. But he saw his master, and acknowledged his
+presence by wagging his tail and couching his head, abstaining from more
+tumultuous or noisy greeting, as if his noble instinct had taught him
+the propriety of silence in a sick man's chamber.
+
+Beside the couch sat on a cushion, also composed of skins, the Moorish
+physician of whom Sir Kenneth had spoken, cross-legged, after the
+Eastern fashion. The imperfect light showed little of him, save that
+the lower part of his face was covered with a long, black beard, which
+descended over his breast; that he wore a high TOLPACH, a Tartar cap of
+the lamb's wool manufactured at Astracan, bearing the same dusky colour;
+and that his ample caftan, or Turkish robe, was also of a dark hue.
+Two piercing eyes, which gleamed with unusual lustre, were the only
+lineaments of his visage that could be discerned amid the darkness in
+which he was enveloped.
+
+The English lord stood silent with a sort of reverential awe; for
+notwithstanding the roughness of his general bearing, a scene of
+distress and poverty, firmly endured without complaint or murmur, would
+at any time have claimed more reverence from Thomas de Vaux than would
+all the splendid formalities of a royal presence-chamber, unless that
+presence-chamber were King Richard's own. Nothing was for a time heard
+but the heavy and regular breathings of the invalid, who seemed in
+profound repose.
+
+“He hath not slept for six nights before,” said Sir Kenneth, “as I am
+assured by the youth, his attendant.”
+
+“Noble Scot,” said Thomas de Vaux, grasping the Scottish knight's hand,
+with a pressure which had more of cordiality than he permitted his words
+to utter, “this gear must be amended. Your esquire is but too evil fed
+and looked to.”
+
+In the latter part of this speech he naturally raised his voice to its
+usual decided tone, The sick man was disturbed in his slumbers.
+
+“My master,” he said, murmuring as in a dream, “noble Sir Kenneth, taste
+not, to you as to me, the waters of the Clyde cold and refreshing after
+the brackish springs of Palestine?”
+
+“He dreams of his native land, and is happy in his slumbers,” whispered
+Sir Kenneth to De Vaux; but had scarce uttered the words, when the
+physician, arising from the place which he had taken near the couch of
+the sick, and laying the hand of the patient, whose pulse he had been
+carefully watching, quietly upon the couch, came to the two knights,
+and taking them each by the arm, while he intimated to them to remain
+silent, led them to the front of the hut.
+
+“In the name of Issa Ben Mariam,” he said, “whom we honour as you,
+though not with the same blinded superstition, disturb not the effect
+of the blessed medicine of which he hath partaken. To awaken him now is
+death or deprivation of reason; but return at the hour when the muezzin
+calls from the minaret to evening prayer in the mosque, and if left
+undisturbed until then, I promise you this same Frankish soldier shall
+be able, without prejudice to his health, to hold some brief converse
+with you on any matters on which either, and especially his master, may
+have to question him.”
+
+The knights retreated before the authoritative commands of the leech,
+who seemed fully to comprehend the importance of the Eastern proverb
+that the sick chamber of the patient is the kingdom of the physician.
+
+They paused, and remained standing together at the door of the hut--Sir
+Kenneth with the air of one who expected his visitor to say farewell,
+and De Vaux as if he had something on his mind which prevented him from
+doing so. The hound, however, had pressed out of the tent after them,
+and now thrust his long, rough countenance into the hand of his master,
+as if modestly soliciting some mark of his kindness. He had no sooner
+received the notice which he desired, in the shape of a kind word and
+slight caress, than, eager to acknowledge his gratitude and joy for his
+master's return, he flew off at full speed, galloping in full career,
+and with outstretched tail, here and there, about and around, cross-ways
+and endlong, through the decayed huts and the esplanade we have
+described, but never transgressing those precincts which his sagacity
+knew were protected by his master's pennon. After a few gambols of this
+kind, the dog, coming close up to his master, laid at once aside his
+frolicsome mood, relapsed into his usual gravity and slowness of gesture
+and deportment, and looked as if he were ashamed that anything should
+have moved him to depart so far out of his sober self-control.
+
+Both knights looked on with pleasure; for Sir Kenneth was justly proud
+of his noble hound, and the northern English baron was, of course, an
+admirer of the chase, and a judge of the animal's merits.
+
+“A right able dog,” he said. “I think, fair sir, King Richard hath not
+an ALAN which may match him, if he be as stanch as he is swift. But let
+me pray you--speaking in all honour and kindness--have you not heard the
+proclamation that no one under the rank of earl shall keep hunting dogs
+within King Richard's camp without the royal license, which, I think,
+Sir Kenneth, hath not been issued to you? I speak as Master of the
+Horse.”
+
+“And I answer as a free Scottish knight,” said Kenneth sternly. “For
+the present I follow the banner of England, but I cannot remember that I
+have ever subjected myself to the forest-laws of that kingdom, nor have
+I such respect for them as would incline me to do so. When the trumpet
+sounds to arms, my foot is in the stirrup as soon as any--when it clangs
+for the charge, my lance has not yet been the last laid in the rest. But
+for my hours of liberty or of idleness King Richard has no title to bar
+my recreation.”
+
+“Nevertheless,” said De Vaux, “it is a folly to disobey the King's
+ordinance; so, with your good leave, I, as having authority in that
+matter, will send you a protection for my friend here.”
+
+“I thank you,” said the Scot coldly; “but he knows my allotted quarters,
+and within these I can protect him myself.--And yet,” he said, suddenly
+changing his manner, “this is but a cold return for a well-meant
+kindness. I thank you, my lord, most heartily. The King's equerries
+or prickers might find Roswal at disadvantage, and do him some injury,
+which I should not, perhaps, be slow in returning, and so ill might come
+of it. You have seen so much of my house-keeping, my lord,” he added,
+with a smile, “that I need not shame to say that Roswal is our principal
+purveyor, and well I hope our Lion Richard will not be like the lion
+in the minstrel fable, that went a-hunting, and kept the whole booty to
+himself. I cannot think he would grudge a poor gentleman, who follows
+him faithfully, his hour of sport and his morsel of game, more
+especially when other food is hard enough to come by.”
+
+“By my faith, you do the King no more than justice; and yet,” said the
+baron, “there is something in these words, vert and venison, that turns
+the very brains of our Norman princes.”
+
+“We have heard of late,” said the Scot, “by minstrels and pilgrims, that
+your outlawed yeomen have formed great bands in the shires of York and
+Nottingham, having at their head a most stout archer, called Robin Hood,
+with his lieutenant, Little John. Methinks it were better that Richard
+relaxed his forest-code in England, than endeavour to enforce it in the
+Holy Land.”
+
+“Wild work, Sir Kenneth,” replied De Vaux, shrugging his shoulders, as
+one who would avoid a perilous or unpleasing topic--“a mad world, sir.
+I must now bid you adieu, having presently to return to the King's
+pavilion. At vespers I will again, with your leave, visit your quarters,
+and speak with this same infidel physician. I would, in the meantime,
+were it no offence, willingly send you what would somewhat mend your
+cheer.”
+
+“I thank you, sir,” said Sir Kenneth, “but it needs not. Roswal hath
+already stocked my larder for two weeks, since the sun of Palestine, if
+it brings diseases, serves also to dry venison.”
+
+The two warriors parted much better friends than they had met; but ere
+they separated, Thomas de Vaux informed himself at more length of
+the circumstances attending the mission of the Eastern physician, and
+received from the Scottish knight the credentials which he had brought
+to King Richard on the part of Saladin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
+     Is more than armies to the common weal.
+       POPE'S ILLIAD.
+
+
+“This is a strange tale, Sir Thomas,” said the sick monarch, when he had
+heard the report of the trusty Baron of Gilsland. “Art thou sure this
+Scottish man is a tall man and true?”
+
+“I cannot say, my lord,” replied the jealous Borderer. “I live a little
+too near the Scots to gather much truth among them, having found them
+ever fair and false. But this man's bearing is that of a true man,
+were he a devil as well as a Scot; that I must needs say for him in
+conscience.”
+
+“And for his carriage as a knight, how sayest thou, De Vaux?” demanded
+the King.
+
+“It is your Majesty's business more than mine to note men's bearings;
+and I warrant you have noted the manner in which this man of the Leopard
+hath borne himself. He hath been full well spoken of.”
+
+“And justly, Thomas,” said the King. “We have ourselves witnessed him.
+It is indeed our purpose in placing ourselves ever in the front of
+battle, to see how our liegemen and followers acquit themselves, and
+not from a desire to accumulate vainglory to ourselves, as some have
+supposed. We know the vanity of the praise of man, which is but a
+vapour, and buckle on our armour for other purposes than to win it.”
+
+De Vaux was alarmed when he heard the King make a declaration so
+inconsistent with his nature, and believed at first that nothing short
+of the approach of death could have brought him to speak in depreciating
+terms of military renown, which was the very breath of his nostrils. But
+recollecting he had met the royal confessor in the outer pavilion, he
+was shrewd enough to place this temporary self-abasement to the effect
+of the reverend man's lesson, and suffered the King to proceed without
+reply.
+
+“Yes,” continued Richard, “I have indeed marked the manner in which this
+knight does his devoir. My leading-staff were not worth a fool's bauble
+had he escaped my notice; and he had ere now tasted of our bounty, but
+that I have also marked his overweening and audacious presumption.”
+
+“My liege,” said the Baron of Gilsland, observing the King's countenance
+change, “I fear I have transgressed your pleasure in lending some
+countenance to his transgression.”
+
+“How, De Multon, thou?” said the King, contracting his brows, and
+speaking in a tone of angry surprise. “Thou countenance his insolence?
+It cannot be.”
+
+“Nay, your Majesty will pardon me to remind you that I have by mine
+office right to grant liberty to men of gentle blood to keep them a
+hound or two within camp, just to cherish the noble art of venerie; and
+besides, it were a sin to have maimed or harmed a thing so noble as this
+gentleman's dog.”
+
+“Has he, then, a dog so handsome?” said the King.
+
+“A most perfect creature of Heaven,” said the baron, who was an
+enthusiast in field-sports--“of the noblest Northern breed--deep in the
+chest, strong in the stern--black colour, and brindled on the breast
+and legs, not spotted with white, but just shaded into grey--strength to
+pull down a bull, swiftness to cote an antelope.”
+
+The King laughed at his enthusiasm. “Well, thou hast given him leave to
+keep the hound, so there is an end of it. Be not, however, liberal of
+your licenses among those knights adventurers who have no prince or
+leader to depend upon; they are ungovernable, and leave no game in
+Palestine.--But to this piece of learned heathenesse--sayest thou the
+Scot met him in the desert?”
+
+“No, my liege; the Scot's tale runs thus. He was dispatched to the old
+hermit of Engaddi, of whom men talk so much--”
+
+“'Sdeath and hell!” said Richard, starting up. “By whom dispatched,
+and for what? Who dared send any one thither, when our Queen was in the
+Convent of Engaddi, upon her pilgrimage for our recovery?”
+
+“The Council of the Crusade sent him, my lord,” answered the Baron de
+Vaux; “for what purpose, he declined to account to me. I think it is
+scarce known in the camp that your royal consort is on a pilgrimage;
+and even the princes may not have been aware, as the Queen has been
+sequestered from company since your love prohibited her attendance in
+case of infection.”
+
+“Well, it shall be looked into,” said Richard. “So this Scottish
+man, this envoy, met with a wandering physician at the grotto of
+Engaddi--ha?”
+
+“Not so my liege,” replied De Vaux? “but he met, I think, near that
+place, with a Saracen Emir with whom he had some MELEE in the way of
+proof of valour, and finding him worthy to bear brave men company, they
+went together, as errant knights are wont, to the grotto of Engaddi.”
+
+Here De Vaux stopped, for he was not one of those who can tell a long
+story in a sentence.
+
+“And did they there meet the physician?” demanded the King impatiently.
+
+“No, my liege,” replied De Vaux; “but the Saracen, learning your
+Majesty's grievous illness, undertook that Saladin should send his own
+physician to you, and with many assurances of his eminent skill; and he
+came to the grotto accordingly, after the Scottish knight had tarried a
+day for him and more. He is attended as if he were a prince, with drums
+and atabals, and servants on horse and foot, and brings with him letters
+of credence from Saladin.”
+
+“Have they been examined by Giacomo Loredani?”
+
+“I showed them to the interpreter ere bringing them hither, and behold
+their contents in English.”
+
+Richard took a scroll, in which were inscribed these words: The blessing
+of Allah and his Prophet Mohammed [“Out upon the hound!” said Richard,
+spitting in contempt, by way of interjection], Saladin, king of kings,
+Saldan of Egypt and of Syria, the light and refuge of the earth, to the
+great Melech Ric, Richard of England, greeting. Whereas, we have been
+informed that the hand of sickness hath been heavy upon thee, our royal
+brother, and that thou hast with thee only such Nazarene and Jewish
+mediciners as work without the blessing of Allah and our holy Prophet
+[“Confusion on his head!” again muttered the English monarch], we have
+therefore sent to tend and wait upon thee at this time the physician
+to our own person, Adonbec el Hakim, before whose face the angel Azrael
+[The Angel of Death.] spreads his wings and departs from the sick
+chamber; who knows the virtues of herbs and stones, the path of the sun,
+moon, and stars, and can save man from all that is not written on his
+forehead. And this we do, praying you heartily to honour and make use
+of his skill; not only that we may do service to thy worth and valour,
+which is the glory of all the nations of Frangistan, but that we may
+bring the controversy which is at present between us to an end, either
+by honourable agreement, or by open trial thereof with our weapons, in a
+fair field--seeing that it neither becomes thy place and courage to die
+the death of a slave who hath been overwrought by his taskmaster, nor
+befits it our fame that a brave adversary be snatched from our weapon by
+such a disease. And, therefore, may the holy--”
+
+“Hold, hold,” said Richard, “I will have no more of his dog of a
+prophet! It makes me sick to think the valiant and worthy Soldan should
+believe in a dead dog. Yes, I will see his physician. I will put
+myself into the charge of this Hakim--I will repay the noble Soldan
+his generosity--I will meet Saladin in the field, as he so worthily
+proposes, and he shall have no cause to term Richard of England
+ungrateful. I will strike him to the earth with my battle-axe--I will
+convert him to Holy Church with such blows as he has rarely endured. He
+shall recant his errors before my good cross-handled sword, and I will
+have him baptized on the battle-field, from my own helmet, though the
+cleansing waters were mixed with the blood of us both.--Haste, De Vaux,
+why dost thou delay a conclusion so pleasing? Fetch the Hakim hither.”
+
+“My lord,” said the baron, who perhaps saw some accession of fever in
+this overflow of confidence, “bethink you, the Soldan is a pagan, and
+that you are his most formidable enemy--”
+
+“For which reason he is the more bound to do me service in this matter,
+lest a paltry fever end the quarrel betwixt two such kings. I tell thee
+he loves me as I love him--as noble adversaries ever love each other. By
+my honour, it were sin to doubt his good faith!”
+
+“Nevertheless, my lord, it were well to wait the issue of these
+medicines upon the Scottish squire,” said the Lord of Gilsland. “My own
+life depends upon it, for worthy were I to die like a dog did I proceed
+rashly in this matter, and make shipwreck of the weal of Christendom.”
+
+“I never knew thee before hesitate for fear of life,” said Richard
+upbraidingly.
+
+“Nor would I now, my liege,” replied the stout-hearted baron, “save that
+yours lies at pledge as well as my own.”
+
+“Well, thou suspicious mortal,” answered Richard, “begone then, and
+watch the progress of this remedy. I could almost wish it might either
+cure or kill me, for I am weary of lying here like an ox dying of
+the murrain, when tambours are beating, horses stamping, and trumpets
+sounding without.”
+
+The baron hastily departed, resolved, however, to communicate his errand
+to some churchman, as he felt something burdened in conscience at the
+idea of his master being attended by an unbeliever.
+
+The Archbishop of Tyre was the first to whom he confided his doubts,
+knowing his interest with his master, Richard, who both loved and
+honoured that sagacious prelate. The bishop heard the doubts which De
+Vaux stated, with that acuteness of intelligence which distinguishes the
+Roman Catholic clergy. The religious scruples of De Vaux he treated
+with as much lightness as propriety permitted him to exhibit on such a
+subject to a layman.
+
+“Mediciners,” he said, “like the medicines which they employed, were
+often useful, though the one were by birth or manners the vilest of
+humanity, as the others are, in many cases, extracted from the basest
+materials. Men may use the assistance of pagans and infidels,” he
+continued, “in their need, and there is reason to think that one cause
+of their being permitted to remain on earth is that they might minister
+to the convenience of true Christians. Thus we lawfully make slaves of
+heathen captives. Again,” proceeded the prelate, “there is no doubt that
+the primitive Christians used the services of the unconverted heathen.
+Thus in the ship of Alexandria, in which the blessed Apostle Paul sailed
+to Italy, the sailors were doubtless pagans; yet what said the holy
+saint when their ministry was needful?--'NISI HI IN NAVI MANSERINT, VOS
+SALVI FIERI NON POTESTIS'--Unless these men abide in the ship, ye
+cannot be saved. Again, Jews are infidels to Christianity, as well as
+Mohammedans. But there are few physicians in the camp excepting Jews,
+and such are employed without scandal or scruple. Therefore,
+Mohammedans may be used for their service in that capacity--QUOD ERAT
+DEMONSTRANDUM.”
+
+This reasoning entirely removed the scruples of Thomas de Vaux, who was
+particularly moved by the Latin quotation, as he did not understand a
+word of it.
+
+But the bishop proceeded with far less fluency when he considered the
+possibility of the Saracen's acting with bad faith; and here he came not
+to a speedy decision. The baron showed him the letters of credence. He
+read and re-read them, and compared the original with the translation.
+
+“It is a dish choicely cooked,” he said, “to the palate of King Richard,
+and I cannot but have my suspicions of the wily Saracen. They are
+curious in the art of poisons, and can so temper them that they shall
+be weeks in acting upon the party, during which time the perpetrator
+has leisure to escape. They can impregnate cloth and leather, nay, even
+paper and parchment, with the most subtle venom. Our Lady forgive me!
+And wherefore, knowing this, hold I these letters of credence so close
+to my face? Take them, Sir Thomas--take them speedily!”
+
+Here he gave them at arm's-length, and with some appearance of haste,
+to the baron. “But come, my Lord de Vaux,” he continued, “wend we to the
+tent of this sick squire, where we shall learn whether this Hakim hath
+really the art of curing which he professeth, ere we consider whether
+there be safety in permitting him to exercise his art upon King
+Richard.--Yet, hold! let me first take my pouncet-box, for these fevers
+spread like an infection. I would advise you to use dried rosemary
+steeped in vinegar, my lord. I, too, know something of the healing art.”
+
+“I thank your reverend lordship,” replied Thomas of Gilsland; “but had
+I been accessible to the fever, I had caught it long since by the bed of
+my master.”
+
+The Bishop of Tyre blushed, for he had rather avoided the presence of
+the sick monarch; and he bid the baron lead on.
+
+As they paused before the wretched hut in which Kenneth of the Leopard
+and his follower abode, the bishop said to De Vaux, “Now, of a surety,
+my lord, these Scottish Knights have worse care of their followers than
+we of our dogs. Here is a knight, valiant, they say, in battle, and
+thought fitting to be graced with charges of weight in time of truce,
+whose esquire of the body is lodged worse than in the worst dog-kennel
+in England. What say you of your neighbours?”
+
+“That a master doth well enough for his servant when he lodgeth him in
+no worse dwelling than his own,” said De Vaux, and entered the hut.
+
+The bishop followed, not without evident reluctance; for though he
+lacked not courage in some respects, yet it was tempered with a strong
+and lively regard for his own safety. He recollected, however, the
+necessity there was for judging personally of the skill of the Arabian
+physician, and entered the hut with a stateliness of manner calculated,
+as he thought, to impose respect on the stranger.
+
+The prelate was, indeed, a striking and commanding figure. In his youth
+he had been eminently handsome, and even in age was unwilling to appear
+less so. His episcopal dress was of the richest fashion, trimmed with
+costly fur, and surrounded by a cope of curious needlework. The rings
+on his fingers were worth a goodly barony, and the hood which he wore,
+though now unclasped and thrown back for heat, had studs of pure gold to
+fasten it around his throat and under his chin when he so inclined. His
+long beard, now silvered with age, descended over his breast. One of two
+youthful acolytes who attended him created an artificial shade, peculiar
+then to the East, by bearing over his head an umbrella of palmetto
+leaves, while the other refreshed his reverend master by agitating a fan
+of peacock-feathers.
+
+When the Bishop of Tyre entered the hut of the Scottish knight, the
+master was absent, and the Moorish physician, whom he had come to see,
+sat in the very posture in which De Vaux had left him several hours
+before, cross-legged upon a mat made of twisted leaves, by the side of
+the patient, who appeared in deep slumber, and whose pulse he felt from
+time to time. The bishop remained standing before him in silence for
+two or three minutes, as if expecting some honourable salutation, or
+at least that the Saracen would seem struck with the dignity of his
+appearance. But Adonbec el Hakim took no notice of him beyond a passing
+glance, and when the prelate at length saluted him in the lingua
+franca current in the country, he only replied by the ordinary Oriental
+greeting, “SALAM ALICUM--Peace be with you.”
+
+“Art thou a physician, infidel?” said the bishop, somewhat mortified at
+this cold reception. “I would speak with thee on that art.”
+
+“If thou knewest aught of medicine,” answered El Hakim, “thou wouldst be
+aware that physicians hold no counsel or debate in the sick chamber of
+their patient. Hear,” he added, as the low growling of the staghound was
+heard from the inner hut, “even the dog might teach thee reason, Ulemat.
+His instinct teaches him to suppress his barking in the sick man's
+hearing. Come without the tent,” said he, rising and leading the way,
+“if thou hast ought to say with me.”
+
+Notwithstanding the plainness of the Saracen leech's dress, and his
+inferiority of size when contrasted with the tall prelate and
+gigantic English baron, there was something striking in his manner and
+countenance, which prevented the Bishop of Tyre from expressing strongly
+the displeasure he felt at this unceremonious rebuke. When without the
+hut, he gazed upon Adonbec in silence for several minutes before he
+could fix on the best manner to renew the conversation. No locks were
+seen under the high bonnet of the Arabian, which hid also part of a brow
+that seemed lofty and expanded, smooth, and free from wrinkles, as were
+his cheeks, where they were seen under the shade of his long beard. We
+have elsewhere noticed the piercing quality of his dark eyes.
+
+The prelate, struck with his apparent youth, at length broke a pause,
+which the other seemed in no haste to interrupt, by demanding of the
+Arabian how old he was?
+
+“The years of ordinary men,” said the Saracen, “are counted by their
+wrinkles; those of sages by their studies. I dare not call myself older
+than a hundred revolutions of the Hegira.” [Meaning that his attainments
+were those which might have been made in a hundred years.]
+
+The Baron of Gilsland, who took this for a literal assertion that he was
+a century old, looked doubtfully upon the prelate, who, though he better
+understood the meaning of El Hakim, answered his glance by mysteriously
+shaking his head. He resumed an air of importance when he again
+authoritatively demanded what evidence Adonbec could produce of his
+medical proficiency.
+
+“Ye have the word of the mighty Saladin,” said the sage, touching his
+cap in sign of reverence--“a word which was never broken towards friend
+or foe. What, Nazarene, wouldst thou demand more?”
+
+“I would have ocular proof of thy skill,” said the baron, “and without
+it thou approachest not to the couch of King Richard.”
+
+“The praise of the physician,” said the Arabian, “is in the recovery of
+his patient. Behold this sergeant, whose blood has been dried up by the
+fever which has whitened your camp with skeletons, and against which the
+art of your Nazarene leeches hath been like a silken doublet against a
+lance of steel. Look at his fingers and arms, wasted like the claws and
+shanks of the crane. Death had this morning his clutch on him; but had
+Azrael been on one side of the couch, I being on the other, his soul
+should not have been left from his body. Disturb me not with further
+questions, but await the critical minute, and behold in silent wonder
+the marvellous event.”
+
+The physician had then recourse to his astrolabe, the oracle of Eastern
+science, and watching with grave precision until the precise time of the
+evening prayer had arrived, he sunk on his knees, with his face turned
+to Mecca, and recited the petitions which close the Moslemah's day of
+toil. The bishop and the English baron looked on each other, meanwhile,
+with symptoms of contempt and indignation, but neither judged it fit to
+interrupt El Hakim in his devotions, unholy as they considered them to
+be.
+
+The Arab arose from the earth, on which he had prostrated himself, and
+walking into the hut where the patient lay extended, he drew a sponge
+from a small silver box, dipped perhaps in some aromatic distillation,
+for when he put it to the sleeper's nose, he sneezed, awoke, and looked
+wildly around. He was a ghastly spectacle as he sat up almost naked on
+his couch, the bones and cartilages as visible through the surface of
+his skin as if they had never been clothed with flesh. His face was
+long, and furrowed with wrinkles; but his eye, though it wandered at
+first, became gradually more settled. He seemed to be aware of the
+presence of his dignified visitors, for he attempted feebly to pull
+the covering from his head in token of reverence, as he inquired, in a
+subdued and submissive voice, for his master.
+
+“Do you know us, vassal?” said the Lord of Gilsland.
+
+“Not perfectly, my lord,” replied the squire faintly. “My sleep has been
+long and full of dreams. Yet I know that you are a great English lord,
+as seemeth by the red cross, and this a holy prelate, whose blessing I
+crave on me a poor sinner.”
+
+“Thou hast it--BENEDICTIO DOMINI SIT VOBISCUM,” said the prelate, making
+the sign of the cross, but without approaching nearer to the patient's
+bed.
+
+“Your eyes witness,” said the Arabian, “the fever hath been subdued.
+He speaks with calmness and recollection--his pulse beats composedly as
+yours--try its pulsations yourself.”
+
+The prelate declined the experiment; but Thomas of Gilsland, more
+determined on making the trial, did so, and satisfied himself that the
+fever was indeed gone.
+
+“This is most wonderful,” said the knight, looking to the bishop; “the
+man is assuredly cured. I must conduct this mediciner presently to King
+Richard's tent. What thinks your reverence?”
+
+“Stay, let me finish one cure ere I commence another,” said the Arab; “I
+will pass with you when I have given my patient the second cup of this
+most holy elixir.”
+
+So saying he pulled out a silver cup, and filling it with water from a
+gourd which stood by the bedside, he next drew forth a small silken
+bag made of network, twisted with silver, the contents of which the
+bystanders could not discover, and immersing it in the cup, continued to
+watch it in silence during the space of five minutes. It seemed to the
+spectators as if some effervescence took place during the operation; but
+if so, it instantly subsided.
+
+“Drink,” said the physician to the sick man--“sleep, and awaken free
+from malady.”
+
+“And with this simple-seeming draught thou wilt undertake to cure a
+monarch?” said the Bishop of Tyre.
+
+“I have cured a beggar, as you may behold,” replied the sage. “Are
+the Kings of Frangistan made of other clay than the meanest of their
+subjects?”
+
+“Let us have him presently to the King,” said the Baron of Gilsland. “He
+hath shown that he possesses the secret which may restore his health. If
+he fails to exercise it, I will put himself past the power of medicine.”
+
+As they were about to leave the hut, the sick man, raising his voice
+as much as his weakness permitted, exclaimed, “Reverend father, noble
+knight, and you, kind leech, if you would have me sleep and recover,
+tell me in charity what is become of my dear master?”
+
+“He is upon a distant expedition, friend,” replied the prelate--“on an
+honourable embassy, which may detain him for some days.”
+
+“Nay,” said the Baron of Gilsland, “why deceive the poor
+fellow?--Friend, thy master has returned to the camp, and you will
+presently see him.”
+
+The invalid held up, as if in thankfulness, his wasted hands to Heaven,
+and resisting no longer the soporiferous operation of the elixir, sunk
+down in a gentle sleep.
+
+“You are a better physician than I, Sir Thomas,” said the prelate--“a
+soothing falsehood is fitter for a sick-room than an unpleasing truth.”
+
+“How mean you, my reverend lord?” said De Vaux hastily. “Think you I
+would tell a falsehood to save the lives of a dozen such as he?”
+
+“You said,” replied the bishop, with manifest symptoms of alarm--“you
+said the esquire's master was returned--he, I mean, of the Couchant
+Leopard.”
+
+“And he IS returned,” said De Vaux. “I spoke with him but a few hours
+since. This learned leech came in his company.”
+
+“Holy Virgin! why told you not of his return to me?” said the bishop, in
+evident perturbation.
+
+“Did I not say that this same Knight of the Leopard had returned
+in company with the physician? I thought I had,” replied De Vaux
+carelessly. “But what signified his return to the skill of the
+physician, or the cure of his Majesty?”
+
+“Much, Sir Thomas--it signified much,” said the bishop, clenching
+his hands, pressing his foot against the earth, and giving signs of
+impatience, as if in an involuntary manner. “But where can he be gone
+now, this same knight? God be with us--here may be some fatal errors!”
+
+“Yonder serf in the outer space,” said De Vaux, not without wonder
+at the bishop's emotion, “can probably tell us whither his master has
+gone.”
+
+The lad was summoned, and in a language nearly incomprehensible to
+them, gave them at length to understand that an officer had summoned his
+master to the royal tent some time before their arrival at that of his
+master. The anxiety of the bishop appeared to rise to the highest, and
+became evident to De Vaux, though, neither an acute observer nor of a
+suspicious temper. But with his anxiety seemed to increase his wish to
+keep it subdued and unobserved. He took a hasty leave of De Vaux, who
+looked after him with astonishment, and after shrugging his shoulders in
+silent wonder, proceeded to conduct the Arabian physician to the tent of
+King Richard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     This is the prince of leeches; fever, plague,
+     Cold rheum, and hot podagra, do but look on him,
+     And quit their grasp upon the tortured sinews.
+        ANONYMOUS.
+
+The Baron of Gilsland walked with slow step and an anxious countenance
+towards the royal pavilion. He had much diffidence of his own capacity,
+except in a field of battle, and conscious of no very acute intellect,
+was usually contented to wonder at circumstances which a man of livelier
+imagination would have endeavoured to investigate and understand, or
+at least would have made the subject of speculation. But it seemed very
+extraordinary, even to him, that the attention of the bishop should have
+been at once abstracted from all reflection on the marvellous cure which
+they had witnessed, and upon the probability it afforded of Richard
+being restored to health, by what seemed a very trivial piece of
+information announcing the motions of a beggardly Scottish knight, than
+whom Thomas of Gilsland knew nothing within the circle of gentle
+blood more unimportant or contemptible; and despite his usual habit
+of passively beholding passing events, the baron's spirit toiled with
+unwonted attempts to form conjectures on the cause.
+
+At length the idea occurred at once to him that the whole might be a
+conspiracy against King Richard, formed within the camp of the allies,
+and to which the bishop, who was by some represented as a politic and
+unscrupulous person, was not unlikely to have been accessory. It was
+true that, in his own opinion, there existed no character so perfect as
+that of his master; for Richard being the flower of chivalry, and the
+chief of Christian leaders, and obeying in all points the commands of
+Holy Church, De Vaux's ideas of perfection went no further. Still, he
+knew that, however unworthily, it had been always his master's fate
+to draw as much reproach and dislike as honour and attachment from the
+display of his great qualities; and that in the very camp, and amongst
+those princes bound by oath to the Crusade, were many who would have
+sacrificed all hope of victory over the Saracens to the pleasure of
+ruining, or at least of humbling, Richard of England.
+
+“Wherefore,” said the baron to himself, “it is in no sense impossible
+that this El Hakim, with this his cure, or seeming cure, wrought on the
+body of the Scottish squire, may mean nothing but a trick, to which he
+of the Leopard may be accessory, and wherein the Bishop of Tyre, prelate
+as he is, may have some share.”
+
+This hypothesis, indeed, could not be so easily reconciled with the
+alarm manifested by the bishop on learning that, contrary to his
+expectation, the Scottish knight had suddenly returned to the Crusaders'
+camp. But De Vaux was influenced only by his general prejudices,
+which dictated to him the assured belief that a wily Italian priest,
+a false-hearted Scot, and an infidel physician, formed a set of
+ingredients from which all evil, and no good, was likely to be
+extracted. He resolved, however, to lay his scruples bluntly before
+the King, of whose judgment he had nearly as high an opinion as of his
+valour.
+
+Meantime, events had taken place very contrary to the suppositions which
+Thomas de Vaux had entertained. Scarce had he left the royal pavilion,
+when, betwixt the impatience of the fever, and that which was natural
+to his disposition, Richard began to murmur at his delay, and express
+an earnest desire for his return. He had seen enough to try to reason
+himself out of this irritation, which greatly increased his bodily
+malady. He wearied his attendants by demanding from them amusements, and
+the breviary of the priest, the romance of the clerk, even the harp of
+his favourite minstrel, were had recourse to in vain. At length, some
+two hours before sundown, and long, therefore, ere he could expect
+a satisfactory account of the process of the cure which the Moor or
+Arabian had undertaken, he sent, as we have already heard, a messenger
+commanding the attendance of the Knight of the Leopard, determined to
+soothe his impatience by obtaining from Sir Kenneth a more particular
+account of the cause of his absence from the camp, and the circumstances
+of his meeting with this celebrated physician.
+
+The Scottish knight, thus summoned, entered the royal presence as one
+who was no stranger to such scenes. He was scarcely known to the King
+of England, even by sight, although, tenacious of his rank, as devout in
+the adoration of the lady of his secret heart, he had never been absent
+on those occasions when the munificence and hospitality of England
+opened the Court of its monarch to all who held a certain rank in
+chivalry. The King gazed fixedly on Sir Kenneth approaching his bedside,
+while the knight bent his knee for a moment, then arose, and stood
+before him in a posture of deference, but not of subservience or
+humility, as became an officer in the presence of his sovereign.
+
+“Thy name,” said the King, “is Kenneth of the Leopard--from whom hadst
+thou degree of knighthood?”
+
+“I took it from the sword of William the Lion, King of Scotland,”
+ replied the Scot.
+
+“A weapon,” said the King, “well worthy to confer honour; nor has it
+been laid on an undeserving shoulder. We have seen thee bear thyself
+knightly and valiantly in press of battle, when most need there was; and
+thou hadst not been yet to learn that thy deserts were known to us, but
+that thy presumption in other points has been such that thy services can
+challenge no better reward than that of pardon for thy transgression.
+What sayest thou--ha?”
+
+Kenneth attempted to speak, but was unable to express himself
+distinctly; the consciousness of his too ambitious love, and the keen,
+falcon glance with which Coeur de Lion seemed to penetrate his inmost
+soul, combining to disconcert him.
+
+“And yet,” said the King, “although soldiers should obey command, and
+vassals be respectful towards their superiors, we might forgive a brave
+knight greater offence than the keeping a simple hound, though it were
+contrary to our express public ordinance.”
+
+Richard kept his eye fixed on the Scot's face, beheld and beholding,
+smiling inwardly at the relief produced by the turn he had given to his
+general accusation.
+
+“So please you, my lord,” said the Scot, “your majesty must be good
+to us poor gentlemen of Scotland in this matter. We are far from home,
+scant of revenues, and cannot support ourselves as your wealthy nobles,
+who have credit of the Lombards. The Saracens shall feel our blows the
+harder that we eat a piece of dried venison from time to time with our
+herbs and barley-cakes.”
+
+“It skills not asking my leave,” said Richard, “since Thomas de Vaux,
+who doth, like all around me, that which is fittest in his own eyes,
+hath already given thee permission for hunting and hawking.”
+
+“For hunting only, and please you,” said the Scot. “But if it please
+your Majesty to indulge me with the privilege of hawking also, and you
+list to trust me with a falcon on fist, I trust I could supply your
+royal mess with some choice waterfowl.”
+
+“I dread me, if thou hadst but the falcon,” said the King, “thou wouldst
+scarce wait for the permission. I wot well it is said abroad that we of
+the line of Anjou resent offence against our forest-laws as highly as we
+would do treason against our crown. To brave and worthy men, however, we
+could pardon either misdemeanour.--But enough of this. I desire to know
+of you, Sir Knight, wherefore, and by whose authority, you took this
+recent journey to the wilderness of the Dead Sea and Engaddi?”
+
+“By order,” replied the knight, “of the Council of Princes of the Holy
+Crusade.”
+
+“And how dared any one to give such an order, when I--not the least,
+surely, in the league--was unacquainted with it?”
+
+“It was not my part, please your highness,” said the Scot, “to inquire
+into such particulars. I am a soldier of the Cross--serving, doubtless,
+for the present, under your highness's banner, and proud of the
+permission to do so, but still one who hath taken on him the holy symbol
+for the rights of Christianity and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre,
+and bound, therefore, to obey without question the orders of the
+princes and chiefs by whom the blessed enterprise is directed. That
+indisposition should seclude, I trust for but a short time, your
+highness from their councils, in which you hold so potential a voice, I
+must lament with all Christendom; but, as a soldier, I must obey those
+on whom the lawful right of command devolves, or set but an evil example
+in the Christian camp.”
+
+“Thou sayest well,” said King Richard; “and the blame rests not with
+thee, but with those with whom, when it shall please Heaven to raise me
+from this accursed bed of pain and inactivity, I hope to reckon roundly.
+What was the purport of thy message?”
+
+“Methinks, and please your highness,” replied Sir Kenneth, “that were
+best asked of those who sent me, and who can render the reasons of mine
+errand; whereas I can only tell its outward form and purport.”
+
+“Palter not with me, Sir Scot--it were ill for thy safety,” said the
+irritable monarch.
+
+“My safety, my lord,” replied the knight firmly, “I cast behind me as a
+regardless thing when I vowed myself to this enterprise, looking rather
+to my immortal welfare than to that which concerns my earthly body.”
+
+“By the mass,” said King Richard, “thou art a brave fellow! Hark thee,
+Sir Knight, I love the Scottish people; they are hardy, though dogged
+and stubborn, and, I think, true men in the main, though the necessity
+of state has sometimes constrained them to be dissemblers. I deserve
+some love at their hand, for I have voluntarily done what they could not
+by arms have extorted from me any more than from my predecessors, I
+have re-established the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, which lay
+in pledge to England; I have restored your ancient boundaries; and,
+finally, I have renounced a claim to homage upon the crown of England,
+which I thought unjustly forced on you. I have endeavoured to make
+honourable and independent friends, where former kings of England
+attempted only to compel unwilling and rebellious vassals.”
+
+“All this you have done, my Lord King,” said Sir Kenneth, bowing--“all
+this you have done, by your royal treaty with our sovereign at
+Canterbury. Therefore have you me, and many better Scottish men, making
+war against the infidels, under your banners, who would else have been
+ravaging your frontiers in England. If their numbers are now few, it is
+because their lives have been freely waged and wasted.”
+
+“I grant it true,” said the King; “and for the good offices I have done
+your land I require you to remember that, as a principal member of
+the Christian league, I have a right to know the negotiations of my
+confederates. Do me, therefore, the justice to tell me what I have a
+title to be acquainted with, and which I am certain to know more truly
+from you than from others.”
+
+“My lord,” said the Scot, “thus conjured, I will speak the truth; for
+I well believe that your purposes towards the principal object of our
+expedition are single-hearted and honest, and it is more than I dare
+warrant for others of the Holy League. Be pleased, therefore, to know
+my charge was to propose, through the medium of the hermit of Engaddi--a
+holy man, respected and protected by Saladin himself--”
+
+“A continuation of the truce, I doubt not,” said Richard, hastily
+interrupting him.
+
+“No, by Saint Andrew, my liege,” said the Scottish knight; “but the
+establishment of a lasting peace, and the withdrawing our armies from
+Palestine.”
+
+“Saint George!” said Richard, in astonishment. “Ill as I have justly
+thought of them, I could not have dreamed they would have humbled
+themselves to such dishonour. Speak, Sir Kenneth, with what will did you
+carry such a message?”
+
+“With right good will, my lord,” said Kenneth; “because, when we had
+lost our noble leader, under whose guidance alone I hoped for victory,
+I saw none who could succeed him likely to lead us to conquest, and I
+accounted it well in such circumstances to avoid defeat.”
+
+“And on what conditions was this hopeful peace to be contracted?” said
+King Richard, painfully suppressing the passion with which his heart was
+almost bursting.
+
+“These were not entrusted to me, my lord,” answered the Knight of the
+Couchant Leopard. “I delivered them sealed to the hermit.”
+
+“And for what hold you this reverend hermit--for fool, madman, traitor,
+or saint?” said Richard.
+
+“His folly, sire,” replied the shrewd Scottish man, “I hold to be
+assumed to win favour and reverence from the Paynimrie, who regard
+madmen as the inspired of Heaven--at least it seemed to me as exhibited
+only occasionally, and not as mixing, like natural folly, with the
+general tenor of his mind.”
+
+“Shrewdly replied,” said the monarch, throwing himself back on his
+couch, from which he had half-raised himself. “Now of his penitence?”
+
+“His penitence,” continued Kenneth, “appears to me sincere, and the
+fruits of remorse for some dreadful crime, for which he seems, in his
+own opinion, condemned to reprobation.”
+
+“And for his policy?” said King Richard.
+
+“Methinks, my lord,” said the Scottish knight, “he despairs of the
+security of Palestine, as of his own salvation, by any means short of
+a miracle--at least, since the arm of Richard of England hath ceased to
+strike for it.”
+
+“And, therefore, the coward policy of this hermit is like that of these
+miserable princes, who, forgetful of their knighthood and their faith,
+are only resolved and determined when the question is retreat, and
+rather than go forward against an armed Saracen, would trample in their
+flight over a dying ally!”
+
+“Might I so far presume, my Lord King,” said the Scottish knight, “this
+discourse but heats your disease, the enemy from which Christendom
+dreads more evil than from armed hosts of infidels.”
+
+The countenance of King Richard was, indeed, more flushed, and his
+action became more feverishly vehement, as, with clenched hand, extended
+arm, and flashing eyes, he seemed at once to suffer under bodily pain,
+and at the same time under vexation of mind, while his high spirit led
+him to speak on, as if in contempt of both.
+
+“You can flatter, Sir Knight,” he said, “but you escape me not. I must
+know more from you than you have yet told me. Saw you my royal consort
+when at Engaddi?”
+
+“To my knowledge--no, my lord,” replied Sir Kenneth, with considerable
+perturbation, for he remembered the midnight procession in the chapel of
+the rocks.
+
+“I ask you,” said the King, in a sterner voice, “whether you were not in
+the chapel of the Carmelite nuns at Engaddi, and there saw Berengaria,
+Queen of England, and the ladies of her Court, who went thither on
+pilgrimage?”
+
+“My lord,” said Sir Kenneth, “I will speak the truth as in the
+confessional. In a subterranean chapel, to which the anchorite conducted
+me, I beheld a choir of ladies do homage to a relic of the highest
+sanctity; but as I saw not their faces, nor heard their voices, unless
+in the hymns which they chanted, I cannot tell whether the Queen of
+England was of the bevy.”
+
+“And was there no one of these ladies known to you?”
+
+Sir Kenneth stood silent.
+
+“I ask you,” said Richard, raising himself on his elbow, “as a knight
+and a gentleman--and I shall know by your answer how you value either
+character--did you, or did you not, know any lady amongst that band of
+worshippers?”
+
+“My lord,” said Kenneth, not without much hesitation, “I might guess.”
+
+“And I also may guess,” said the King, frowning sternly; “but it is
+enough. Leopard as you are, Sir Knight, beware tempting the lion's paw.
+Hark ye--to become enamoured of the moon would be but an act of folly;
+but to leap from the battlements of a lofty tower, in the wild hope of
+coming within her sphere, were self-destructive madness.”
+
+At this moment some bustling was heard in the outer apartment, and
+the King, hastily changing to his more natural manner, said,
+“Enough--begone--speed to De Vaux, and send him hither with the Arabian
+physician. My life for the faith of the Soldan! Would he but abjure his
+false law, I would aid him with my sword to drive this scum of French
+and Austrians from his dominions, and think Palestine as well ruled by
+him as when her kings were anointed by the decree of Heaven itself.”
+
+The Knight of the Leopard retired, and presently afterwards the
+chamberlain announced a deputation from the Council, who had come to
+wait on the Majesty of England.
+
+“It is well they allow that I am living yet,” was his reply. “Who are
+the reverend ambassadors?”
+
+“The Grand Master of the Templars and the Marquis of Montserrat.”
+
+“Our brother of France loves not sick-beds,” said Richard; “yet, had
+Philip been ill, I had stood by his couch long since.--Jocelyn, lay me
+the couch more fairly--it is tumbled like a stormy sea. Reach me yonder
+steel mirror--pass a comb through my hair and beard. They look, indeed,
+liker a lion's mane than a Christian man's locks. Bring water.”
+
+“My lord,” said the trembling chamberlain, “the leeches say that cold
+water may be fatal.”
+
+“To the foul fiend with the leeches!” replied the monarch; “if they
+cannot cure me, think you I will allow them to torment me?--There,
+then,” he said, after having made his ablutions, “admit the worshipful
+envoys; they will now, I think, scarcely see that disease has made
+Richard negligent of his person.”
+
+The celebrated Master of the Templars was a tall, thin, war-worn man,
+with a slow yet penetrating eye, and a brow on which a thousand dark
+intrigues had stamped a portion of their obscurity. At the head of
+that singular body, to whom their order was everything, and their
+individuality nothing--seeking the advancement of its power, even at
+the hazard of that very religion which the fraternity were originally
+associated to protect--accused of heresy and witchcraft, although by
+their character Christian priests--suspected of secret league with the
+Soldan, though by oath devoted to the protection of the Holy Temple, or
+its recovery--the whole order, and the whole personal character of its
+commander, or Grand Master, was a riddle, at the exposition of which
+most men shuddered. The Grand Master was dressed in his white robes
+of solemnity, and he bore the ABACUS, a mystic staff of office, the
+peculiar form of which has given rise to such singular conjectures and
+commentaries, leading to suspicions that this celebrated fraternity of
+Christian knights were embodied under the foulest symbols of paganism.
+
+Conrade of Montserrat had a much more pleasing exterior than the dark
+and mysterious priest-soldier by whom he was accompanied. He was a
+handsome man, of middle age, or something past that term, bold in the
+field, sagacious in council, gay and gallant in times of festivity; but,
+on the other hand, he was generally accused of versatility, of a narrow
+and selfish ambition, of a desire to extend his own principality,
+without regard to the weal of the Latin kingdom of Palestine, and of
+seeking his own interest, by private negotiations with Saladin, to the
+prejudice of the Christian leaguers.
+
+When the usual salutations had been made by these dignitaries, and
+courteously returned by King Richard, the Marquis of Montserrat
+commenced an explanation of the motives of their visit, sent, as he said
+they were, by the anxious kings and princes who composed the Council of
+the Crusaders, “to inquire into the health of their magnanimous ally,
+the valiant King of England.”
+
+“We know the importance in which the princes of the Council hold our
+health,” replied the English King; “and are well aware how much they
+must have suffered by suppressing all curiosity concerning it for
+fourteen days, for fear, doubtless, of aggravating our disorder, by
+showing their anxiety regarding the event.”
+
+The flow of the Marquis's eloquence being checked, and he himself thrown
+into some confusion by this reply, his more austere companion took up
+the thread of the conversation, and with as much dry and brief gravity
+as was consistent with the presence which he addressed, informed
+the King that they came from the Council, to pray, in the name of
+Christendom, “that he would not suffer his health to be tampered with
+by an infidel physician, said to be dispatched by Saladin, until the
+Council had taken measures to remove or confirm the suspicion which they
+at present conceived did attach itself to the mission of such a person.”
+
+“Grand Master of the Holy and Valiant Order of Knights Templars, and
+you, most noble Marquis of Montserrat,” replied Richard, “if it please
+you to retire into the adjoining pavilion, you shall presently see what
+account we make of the tender remonstrances of our royal and princely
+colleagues in this religious warfare.”
+
+The Marquis and Grand Master retired accordingly; nor had they been
+many minutes in the outward pavilion when the Eastern physician arrived,
+accompanied by the Baron of Gilsland and Kenneth of Scotland. The baron,
+however, was a little later of entering the tent than the other two,
+stopping, perchance, to issue some orders to the warders without.
+
+As the Arabian physician entered, he made his obeisance, after the
+Oriental fashion, to the Marquis and Grand Master, whose dignity was
+apparent, both from their appearance and their bearing. The Grand Master
+returned the salutation with an expression of disdainful coldness, the
+Marquis with the popular courtesy which he habitually practised to men
+of every rank and nation. There was a pause, for the Scottish knight,
+waiting for the arrival of De Vaux, presumed not, of his own authority,
+to enter the tent of the King of England; and during this interval the
+Grand Master sternly demanded of the Moslem, “Infidel, hast thou the
+courage to practise thine art upon the person of an anointed sovereign
+of the Christian host?”
+
+“The sun of Allah,” answered the sage, “shines on the Nazarene as
+well as on the true believer, and His servant dare make no distinction
+betwixt them when called on to exercise the art of healing.”
+
+“Misbelieving Hakim,” said the Grand Master, “or whatsoever they call
+thee for an unbaptized slave of darkness, dost thou well know that thou
+shalt be torn asunder by wild horses should King Richard die under thy
+charge?”
+
+“That were hard justice,” answered the physician, “seeing that I can but
+use human means, and that the issue is written in the book of light.”
+
+“Nay, reverend and valiant Grand Master,” said the Marquis of
+Montserrat, “consider that this learned man is not acquainted with our
+Christian order, adopted in the fear of God, and for the safety of His
+anointed.--Be it known to thee, grave physician, whose skill we doubt
+not, that your wisest course is to repair to the presence of the
+illustrious Council of our Holy League, and there to give account and
+reckoning to such wise and learned leeches as they shall nominate,
+concerning your means of process and cure of this illustrious patient;
+so shall you escape all the danger which, rashly taking such a high
+matter upon your sole answer, you may else most likely incur.”
+
+“My lords,” said El Hakim, “I understand you well. But knowledge hath
+its champions as well as your military art--nay, hath sometimes had its
+martyrs as well as religion. I have the command of my sovereign, the
+Soldan Saladin, to heal this Nazarene King, and, with the blessing
+of the Prophet, I will obey his commands. If I fail, ye wear swords
+thirsting for the blood of the faithful, and I proffer my body to your
+weapons. But I will not reason with one uncircumcised upon the virtue
+of the medicines of which I have obtained knowledge through the grace
+of the Prophet, and I pray you interpose no delay between me and my
+office.”
+
+“Who talks of delay?” said the Baron de Vaux, hastily entering the tent;
+“we have had but too much already. I salute you, my Lord of Montserrat,
+and you, valiant Grand Master. But I must presently pass with this
+learned physician to the bedside of my master.”
+
+“My lord,” said the Marquis, in Norman-French, or the language of
+Ouie, as it was then called, “are you well advised that we came to
+expostulate, on the part of the Council of the Monarchs and Princes
+of the Crusade, against the risk of permitting an infidel and Eastern
+physician to tamper with a health so valuable as that of your master,
+King Richard?”
+
+“Noble Lord Marquis,” replied the Englishman bluntly, “I can neither use
+many words, nor do I delight in listening to them; moreover, I am much
+more ready to believe what my eyes have seen than what my ears have
+heard. I am satisfied that this heathen can cure the sickness of King
+Richard, and I believe and trust he will labour to do so. Time is
+precious. If Mohammed--may God's curse be on him! stood at the door of
+the tent, with such fair purpose as this Adonbec el Hakim entertains,
+I would hold it sin to delay him for a minute. So, give ye God'en, my
+lords.”
+
+“Nay, but,” said Conrade of Montserrat, “the King himself said we should
+be present when this same physician dealt upon him.”
+
+The baron whispered the chamberlain, probably to know whether the
+Marquis spoke truly, and then replied, “My lords, if you will hold your
+patience, you are welcome to enter with us; but if you interrupt, by
+action or threat, this accomplished physician in his duty, be it known
+that, without respect to your high quality, I will enforce your absence
+from Richard's tent; for know, I am so well satisfied of the virtue of
+this man's medicines, that were Richard himself to refuse them, by our
+Lady of Lanercost, I think I could find in my heart to force him to take
+the means of his cure whether he would or no.--Move onward, El Hakim.”
+
+The last word was spoken in the lingua franca, and instantly obeyed by
+the physician. The Grand Master looked grimly on the unceremonious old
+soldier, but, on exchanging a glance with the Marquis, smoothed his
+frowning brow as well as he could, and both followed De Vaux and the
+Arabian into the inner tent, where Richard lay expecting them, with that
+impatience with which the sick man watches the step of his physician.
+Sir Kenneth, whose attendance seemed neither asked nor prohibited, felt
+himself, by the circumstances in which he stood, entitled to follow
+these high dignitaries; but, conscious of his inferior power and rank,
+remained aloof during the scene which took place.
+
+Richard, when they entered his apartment, immediately exclaimed, “So ho!
+a goodly fellowship come to see Richard take his leap in the dark.
+My noble allies, I greet you as the representatives of our assembled
+league; Richard will again be amongst you in his former fashion, or ye
+shall bear to the grave what is left of him.--De Vaux, lives he or dies
+he, thou hast the thanks of thy prince. There is yet another--but this
+fever hath wasted my eyesight. What, the bold Scot, who would climb
+heaven without a ladder! He is welcome too.--Come, Sir Hakim, to the
+work, to the work!”
+
+The physician, who had already informed himself of the various symptoms
+of the King's illness, now felt his pulse for a long time, and with deep
+attention, while all around stood silent, and in breathless expectation.
+The sage next filled a cup with spring water, and dipped into it the
+small red purse, which, as formerly, he took from his bosom. When he
+seemed to think it sufficiently medicated, he was about to offer it to
+the sovereign, who prevented him by saying, “Hold an instant. Thou hast
+felt my pulse--let me lay my finger on thine. I too, as becomes a good
+knight, know something of thine art.”
+
+The Arabian yielded his hand without hesitation, and his long, slender
+dark fingers were for an instant enclosed, and almost buried, in the
+large enfoldment of King Richard's hand.
+
+“His blood beats calm as an infant's,” said the King; “so throbs not
+theirs who poison princes. De Vaux, whether we live or die, dismiss this
+Hakim with honour and safety.--Commend us, friend, to the noble Saladin.
+Should I die, it is without doubt of his faith; should I live, it will
+be to thank him as a warrior would desire to be thanked.”
+
+He then raised himself in bed, took the cup in his hand, and turning
+to the Marquis and the Grand Master--“Mark what I say, and let my royal
+brethren pledge me in Cyprus wine, 'To the immortal honour of the first
+Crusader who shall strike lance or sword on the gate of Jerusalem; and
+to the shame and eternal infamy of whomsoever shall turn back from the
+plough on which he hath laid his hand!'”
+
+He drained the cup to the bottom, resigned it to the Arabian, and sunk
+back, as if exhausted, upon the cushions which were arranged to receive
+him. The physician then, with silent but expressive signs, directed
+that all should leave the tent excepting himself and De Vaux, whom
+no remonstrance could induce to withdraw. The apartment was cleared
+accordingly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     And now I will unclasp a secret book,
+     And, to your quick-conceiving discontent,
+     I'll read you matter deep and dangerous.
+       HENRY IV., PART I.
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat and the Grand Master of the Knights Templars
+stood together in the front of the royal pavilion, within which this
+singular scene had passed, and beheld a strong guard of bills and bows
+drawn out to form a circle around it, and keep at distance all which
+might disturb the sleeping monarch. The soldiers wore the downcast,
+silent, and sullen looks with which they trail their arms at a funeral,
+and stepped with such caution that you could not hear a buckler ring
+or a sword clatter, though so many men in armour were moving around the
+tent. They lowered their weapons in deep reverence as the dignitaries
+passed through their files, but with the same profound silence.
+
+“There is a change of cheer among these island dogs,” said the Grand
+Master to Conrade, when they had passed Richard's guards. “What hoarse
+tumult and revel used to be before this pavilion!--nought but pitching
+the bar, hurling the ball, wrestling, roaring of songs, clattering of
+wine pots, and quaffing of flagons among these burly yeomen, as if they
+were holding some country wake, with a Maypole in the midst of them
+instead of a royal standard.”
+
+“Mastiffs are a faithful race,” said Conrade; “and the King their Master
+has won their love by being ready to wrestle, brawl, or revel amongst
+the foremost of them, whenever the humour seized him.”
+
+“He is totally compounded of humours,” said the Grand Master. “Marked
+you the pledge he gave us! instead of a prayer, over his grace-cup
+yonder.”
+
+“He would have felt it a grace-cup, and a well-spiced one too,” said
+the Marquis, “were Saladin like any other Turk that ever wore turban,
+or turned him to Mecca at call of the muezzin. But he affects faith, and
+honour, and generosity, as if it were for an unbaptized dog like him to
+practise the virtuous bearing of a Christian knight. It is said he hath
+applied to Richard to be admitted within the pale of chivalry.”
+
+“By Saint Bernard!” exclaimed the Grand Master, “it were time then
+to throw off our belts and spurs, Sir Conrade, deface our armorial
+bearings, and renounce our burgonets, if the highest honour of
+Christianity were conferred on an unchristened Turk of tenpence.”
+
+“You rate the Soldan cheap,” replied the Marquis; “yet though he be a
+likely man, I have seen a better heathen sold for forty pence at the
+bagnio.”
+
+They were now near their horses, which stood at some distance from the
+royal tent, prancing among the gallant train of esquires and pages by
+whom they were attended, when Conrade, after a moment's pause, proposed
+that they should enjoy the coolness of the evening breeze which had
+arisen, and, dismissing their steeds and attendants, walk homewards to
+their own quarters through the lines of the extended Christian camp. The
+Grand Master assented, and they proceeded to walk together accordingly,
+avoiding, as if by mutual consent, the more inhabited parts of the
+canvas city, and tracing the broad esplanade which lay between the tents
+and the external defences, where they could converse in private, and
+unmarked, save by the sentinels as they passed them.
+
+They spoke for a time upon the military points and preparations for
+defence; but this sort of discourse, in which neither seemed to take
+interest, at length died away, and there was a long pause, which
+terminated by the Marquis of Montserrat stopping short, like a man who
+has formed a sudden resolution, and gazing for some moments on the dark,
+inflexible countenance of the Grand Master, he at length addressed him
+thus: “Might it consist with your valour and sanctity, reverend Sir
+Giles Amaury, I would pray you for once to lay aside the dark visor
+which you wear, and to converse with a friend barefaced.”
+
+The Templar half smiled.
+
+“There are light-coloured masks,” he said, “as well as dark visors, and
+the one conceals the natural features as completely as the other.”
+
+“Be it so,” said the Marquis, putting his hand to his chin, and
+withdrawing it with the action of one who unmasks himself; “there lies
+my disguise. And now, what think you, as touching the interests of your
+own order, of the prospects of this Crusade?”
+
+“This is tearing the veil from my thoughts rather than exposing your
+own,” said the Grand Master; “yet I will reply with a parable told to me
+by a santon of the desert. 'A certain farmer prayed to Heaven for rain,
+and murmured when it fell not at his need. To punish his impatience,
+Allah,' said the santon, 'sent the Euphrates upon his farm, and he was
+destroyed, with all his possessions, even by the granting of his own
+wishes.'”
+
+“Most truly spoken,” said the Marquis Conrade. “Would that the ocean had
+swallowed up nineteen parts of the armaments of these Western princes!
+What remained would better have served the purpose of the Christian
+nobles of Palestine, the wretched remnant of the Latin kingdom of
+Jerusalem. Left to ourselves, we might have bent to the storm; or,
+moderately supported with money and troops, we might have compelled
+Saladin to respect our valour, and grant us peace and protection on easy
+terms. But from the extremity of danger with which this powerful Crusade
+threatens the Soldan, we cannot suppose, should it pass over, that the
+Saracen will suffer any one of us to hold possessions or principalities
+in Syria, far less permit the existence of the Christian military
+fraternities, from whom they have experienced so much mischief.”
+
+“Ay, but,” said the Templar, “these adventurous Crusaders may succeed,
+and again plant the Cross on the bulwarks of Zion.”
+
+“And what will that advantage either the Order of the Templars, or
+Conrade of Montserrat?” said the Marquis.
+
+“You it may advantage,” replied the Grand Master. “Conrade of Montserrat
+might become Conrade King of Jerusalem.”
+
+“That sounds like something,” said the Marquis, “and yet it rings but
+hollow. Godfrey of Bouillon might well choose the crown of thorns for
+his emblem. Grand Master, I will confess to you I have caught some
+attachment to the Eastern form of government--a pure and simple
+monarchy should consist but of king and subjects. Such is the simple and
+primitive structure--a shepherd and his flock. All this internal chain
+of feudal dependance is artificial and sophisticated; and I would rather
+hold the baton of my poor marquisate with a firm gripe, and wield
+it after my pleasure, than the sceptre of a monarch, to be in effect
+restrained and curbed by the will of as many proud feudal barons as hold
+land under the Assizes of Jerusalem. [The Assises de Jerusalem were
+the digest of feudal law, composed by Godfrey of Boulogne, for the
+government of the Latin kingdom of Palestine, when reconquered from the
+Saracens. “It was composed with advice of the patriarch and barons,
+the clergy and laity, and is,” says the historian Gibbon, “a precious
+monument of feudatory jurisprudence, founded upon those principles
+of freedom which were essential to the system.”] A king should tread
+freely, Grand Master, and should not be controlled by here a ditch, and
+there a fence-here a feudal privilege, and there a mail-clad baron with
+his sword in his hand to maintain it. To sum the whole, I am aware that
+Guy de Lusignan's claims to the throne would be preferred to mine, if
+Richard recovers, and has aught to say in the choice.”
+
+“Enough,” said the Grand Master; “thou hast indeed convinced me of thy
+sincerity. Others may hold the same opinions, but few, save Conrade of
+Montserrat, dared frankly avow that he desires not the restitution of
+the kingdom of Jerusalem, but rather prefers being master of a portion
+of its fragments--like the barbarous islanders, who labour not for the
+deliverance of a goodly vessel from the billows, expecting rather to
+enrich themselves at the expense of the wreck.”
+
+“Thou wilt not betray my counsel?” said Conrade, looking sharply and
+suspiciously. “Know, for certain, that my tongue shall never wrong my
+head, nor my hand forsake the defence of either. Impeach me if thou
+wilt--I am prepared to defend myself in the lists against the best
+Templar who ever laid lance in rest.”
+
+“Yet thou start'st somewhat suddenly for so bold a steed,” said the
+Grand Master. “However, I swear to thee by the Holy Temple, which our
+Order is sworn to defend, that I will keep counsel with thee as a true
+comrade.”
+
+“By which Temple?” said the Marquis of Montserrat, whose love of sarcasm
+often outran his policy and discretion; “swearest thou by that on the
+hill of Zion, which was built by King Solomon, or by that symbolical,
+emblematical edifice, which is said to be spoken of in the councils
+held in the vaults of your Preceptories, as something which infers the
+aggrandizement of thy valiant and venerable Order?”
+
+The Templar scowled upon him with an eye of death, but answered calmly,
+“By whatever Temple I swear, be assured, Lord Marquis, my oath is
+sacred. I would I knew how to bind THEE by one of equal obligation.”
+
+“I will swear truth to thee,” said the Marquis, laughing, “by the
+earl's coronet, which I hope to convert, ere these wars are over, into
+something better. It feels cold on my brow, that same slight coronal;
+a duke's cap of maintenance were a better protection against such a
+night-breeze as now blows, and a king's crown more preferable still,
+being lined with comfortable ermine and velvet. In a word, our interests
+bind us together; for think not, Lord Grand Master, that, were these
+allied princes to regain Jerusalem, and place a king of their own
+choosing there, they would suffer your Order, any more than my poor
+marquisate, to retain the independence which we now hold. No, by Our
+Lady! In such case, the proud Knights of Saint John must again spread
+plasters and dress plague sores in the hospitals; and you, most puissant
+and venerable Knights of the Temple, must return to your condition of
+simple men-at-arms, sleep three on a pallet, and mount two upon one
+horse, as your present seal still expresses to have been your ancient
+most simple custom.”
+
+“The rank, privileges, and opulence of our Order prevent so much
+degradation as you threaten,” said the Templar haughtily.
+
+“These are your bane,” said Conrade of Montserrat; “and you, as well
+as I, reverend Grand Master, know that, were the allied princes to be
+successful in Palestine, it would be their first point of policy to
+abate the independence of your Order, which, but for the protection of
+our holy father the Pope, and the necessity of employing your valour in
+the conquest of Palestine, you would long since have experienced. Give
+them complete success, and you will be flung aside, as the splinters of
+a broken lance are tossed out of the tilt-yard.”
+
+“There may be truth in what you say,” said the Templar, darkly smiling.
+“But what were our hopes should the allies withdraw their forces, and
+leave Palestine in the grasp of Saladin?”
+
+“Great and assured,” replied Conrade. “The Soldan would give large
+provinces to maintain at his behest a body of well-appointed Frankish
+lances. In Egypt, in Persia, a hundred such auxiliaries, joined to his
+own light cavalry, would turn the battle against the most fearful odds.
+This dependence would be but for a time--perhaps during the life of
+this enterprising Soldan; but in the East empires arise like mushrooms.
+Suppose him dead, and us strengthened with a constant succession of
+fiery and adventurous spirits from Europe, what might we not hope to
+achieve, uncontrolled by these monarchs, whose dignity throws us at
+present into the shade--and, were they to remain here, and succeed in
+this expedition, would willingly consign us for ever to degradation and
+dependence?”
+
+“You say well, my Lord Marquis,” said the Grand Master, “and your words
+find an echo in my bosom. Yet must we be cautious--Philip of France is
+wise as well as valiant.”
+
+“True, and will be therefore the more easily diverted from an expedition
+to which, in a moment of enthusiasm, or urged by his nobles, he rashly
+bound himself. He is jealous of King Richard, his natural enemy, and
+longs to return to prosecute plans of ambition nearer to Paris than
+Palestine. Any fair pretence will serve him for withdrawing from a scene
+in which he is aware he is wasting the force of his kingdom.”
+
+“And the Duke of Austria?” said the Templar.
+
+“Oh, touching the Duke,” returned Conrade, “his self-conceit and folly
+lead him to the same conclusions as do Philip's policy and wisdom. He
+conceives himself, God help the while, ungratefully treated, because
+men's mouths--even those of his own MINNE-SINGERS [The German minstrels
+were so termed.]--are filled with the praises of King Richard, whom he
+fears and hates, and in whose harm he would rejoice, like those unbred,
+dastardly curs, who, if the foremost of the pack is hurt by the gripe of
+the wolf, are much more likely to assail the sufferer from behind than
+to come to his assistance. But wherefore tell I this to thee, save to
+show that I am in sincerity in desiring that this league be broken up,
+and the country freed of these great monarchs with their hosts? And thou
+well knowest, and hast thyself seen, how all the princes of influence
+and power, one alone excepted, are eager to enter into treaty with the
+Soldan.”
+
+“I acknowledge it,” said the Templar; “he were blind that had not seen
+this in their last deliberations. But lift yet thy mask an inch higher,
+and tell me thy real reason for pressing upon the Council that Northern
+Englishman, or Scot, or whatever you call yonder Knight of the Leopard,
+to carry their proposals for a treaty?”
+
+“There was a policy in it,” replied the Italian. “His character of
+native of Britain was sufficient to meet what Saladin required, who knew
+him to belong to the band of Richard; while his character of Scot, and
+certain other personal grudges which I wot of, rendered it most unlikely
+that our envoy should, on his return, hold any communication with the
+sick-bed of Richard, to whom his presence was ever unacceptable.”
+
+“Oh, too finespun policy,” said the Grand Master; “trust me, that
+Italian spiders' webs will never bind this unshorn Samson of the
+Isle--well if you can do it with new cords, and those of the toughest.
+See you not that the envoy whom you have selected so carefully hath
+brought us, in this physician, the means of restoring the lion-hearted,
+bull-necked Englishman to prosecute his Crusading enterprise. And so
+soon as he is able once more to rush on, which of the princes dare hold
+back? They must follow him for very shame, although they would march
+under the banner of Satan as soon.”
+
+“Be content,” said Conrade of Montserrat; “ere this physician, if he
+work by anything short of miraculous agency, can accomplish Richard's
+cure, it may be possible to put some open rupture betwixt the
+Frenchman--at least the Austrian--and his allies of England, so that
+the breach shall be irreconcilable; and Richard may arise from his bed,
+perhaps to command his own native troops, but never again, by his sole
+energy, to wield the force of the whole Crusade.”
+
+“Thou art a willing archer,” said the Templar; “but, Conrade of
+Montserrat, thy bow is over-slack to carry an arrow to the mark.”
+
+He then stopped short, cast a suspicious glance to see that no one
+overheard him, and taking Conrade by the hand, pressed it eagerly as he
+looked the Italian in the face, and repeated slowly, “Richard arise from
+his bed, sayest thou? Conrade, he must never arise!”
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat started. “What! spoke you of Richard of
+England--of Coeur de Lion--the champion of Christendom?”
+
+His cheek turned pale and his knees trembled as he spoke. The Templar
+looked at him, with his iron visage contorted into a smile of contempt.
+
+“Knowest thou what thou look'st like, Sir Conrade, at this moment? Not
+like the politic and valiant Marquis of Montserrat, not like him
+who would direct the Council of Princes and determine the fate of
+empires--but like a novice, who, stumbling upon a conjuration in his
+master's book of gramarye, has raised the devil when he least thought of
+it, and now stands terrified at the spirit which appears before him.”
+
+“I grant you,” said Conrade, recovering himself, “that--unless some
+other sure road could be discovered--thou hast hinted at that which
+leads most direct to our purpose. But, blessed Mary! we shall become the
+curse of all Europe, the malediction of every one, from the Pope on his
+throne to the very beggar at the church gate, who, ragged and leprous,
+in the last extremity of human wretchedness, shall bless himself that he
+is neither Giles Amaury nor Conrade of Montserrat.”
+
+“If thou takest it thus,” said the Grand Master, with the same composure
+which characterized him all through this remarkable dialogue, “let us
+hold there has nothing passed between us--that we have spoken in our
+sleep--have awakened, and the vision is gone.”
+
+“It never can depart,” answered Conrade.
+
+“Visions of ducal crowns and kingly diadems are, indeed, somewhat
+tenacious of their place in the imagination,” replied the Grand Master.
+
+“Well,” answered Conrade, “let me but first try to break peace between
+Austria and England.”
+
+They parted. Conrade remained standing still upon the spot, and watching
+the flowing white cloak of the Templar as he stalked slowly away, and
+gradually disappeared amid the fast-sinking darkness of the Oriental
+night. Proud, ambitious, unscrupulous, and politic, the Marquis of
+Montserrat was yet not cruel by nature. He was a voluptuary and an
+epicurean, and, like many who profess this character, was averse,
+even upon selfish motives, from inflicting pain or witnessing acts of
+cruelty; and he retained also a general sense of respect for his own
+reputation, which sometimes supplies the want of the better principle by
+which reputation is to be maintained.
+
+“I have,” he said, as his eyes still watched the point at which he had
+seen the last slight wave of the Templar's mantle--“I have, in truth,
+raised the devil with a vengeance! Who would have thought this stern,
+ascetic Grand Master, whose whole fortune and misfortune is merged in
+that of his order, would be willing to do more for its advancement than
+I who labour for my own interest? To check this wild Crusade was my
+motive, indeed, but I durst not think on the ready mode which this
+determined priest has dared to suggest. Yet it is the surest--perhaps
+even the safest.”
+
+Such were the Marquis's meditations, when his muttered soliloquy was
+broken by a voice from a little distance, which proclaimed with the
+emphatic tone of a herald, “Remember the Holy Sepulchre!”
+
+The exhortation was echoed from post to post, for it was the duty of
+the sentinels to raise this cry from time to time upon their periodical
+watch, that the host of the Crusaders might always have in their
+remembrance the purpose of their being in arms. But though Conrade was
+familiar with the custom, and had heard the warning voice on all former
+occasions as a matter of habit, yet it came at the present moment so
+strongly in contact with his own train of thought, that it seemed a
+voice from Heaven warning him against the iniquity which his heart
+meditated. He looked around anxiously, as if, like the patriarch of
+old, though from very different circumstances, he was expecting some
+ram caught in a thicket some substitution for the sacrifice which his
+comrade proposed to offer, not to the Supreme Being, but to the Moloch
+of their own ambition. As he looked, the broad folds of the ensign of
+England, heavily distending itself to the failing night-breeze, caught
+his eye. It was displayed upon an artificial mound, nearly in the midst
+of the camp, which perhaps of old some Hebrew chief or champion had
+chosen as a memorial of his place of rest. If so, the name was now
+forgotten, and the Crusaders had christened it Saint George's
+Mount, because from that commanding height the banner of England was
+supereminently displayed, as if an emblem of sovereignty over the many
+distinguished, noble, and even royal ensigns, which floated in lower
+situations.
+
+A quick intellect like that of Conrade catches ideas from the glance of
+a moment. A single look on the standard seemed to dispel the uncertainty
+of mind which had affected him. He walked to his pavilion with the hasty
+and determined step of one who has adopted a plan which he is resolved
+to achieve, dismissed the almost princely train who waited to attend
+him, and, as he committed himself to his couch, muttered his amended
+resolution, that the milder means are to be tried before the more
+desperate are resorted to.
+
+“To-morrow,” he said, “I sit at the board of the Archduke of Austria. We
+will see what can be done to advance our purpose before prosecuting the
+dark suggestions of this Templar.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     One thing is certain in our Northern land--
+     Allow that birth or valour, wealth or wit,
+     Give each precedence to their possessor,
+     Envy, that follows on such eminence,
+     As comes the lyme-hound on the roebuck's trace,
+     Shall pull them down each one.
+              SIR DAVID LINDSAY.
+
+Leopold, Grand Duke of Austria, was the first possessor of that noble
+country to whom the princely rank belonged. He had been raised to the
+ducal sway in the German Empire on account of his near relationship to
+the Emperor, Henry the Stern, and held under his government the finest
+provinces which are watered by the Danube. His character has been
+stained in history on account of one action of violence and perfidy,
+which arose out of these very transactions in the Holy Land; and yet
+the shame of having made Richard a prisoner when he returned through
+his dominions; unattended and in disguise, was not one which flowed from
+Leopold's natural disposition. He was rather a weak and a vain than
+an ambitious or tyrannical prince. His mental powers resembled the
+qualities of his person. He was tall, strong, and handsome, with a
+complexion in which red and white were strongly contrasted, and had long
+flowing locks of fair hair. But there was an awkwardness in his gait
+which seemed as if his size was not animated by energy sufficient to
+put in motion such a mass; and in the same manner, wearing the richest
+dresses, it always seemed as if they became him not. As a prince, he
+appeared too little familiar with his own dignity; and being often at
+a loss how to assert his authority when the occasion demanded it, he
+frequently thought himself obliged to recover, by acts and expressions
+of ill-timed violence, the ground which might have been easily and
+gracefully maintained by a little more presence of mind in the beginning
+of the controversy.
+
+Not only were these deficiencies visible to others, but the Archduke
+himself could not but sometimes entertain a painful consciousness that
+he was not altogether fit to maintain and assert the high rank which he
+had acquired; and to this was joined the strong, and sometimes the just,
+suspicion that others esteemed him lightly accordingly.
+
+When he first joined the Crusade, with a most princely attendance,
+Leopold had desired much to enjoy the friendship and intimacy of
+Richard, and had made such advances towards cultivating his regard as
+the King of England ought, in policy, to have received and answered.
+But the Archduke, though not deficient in bravery, was so infinitely
+inferior to Coeur de Lion in that ardour of mind which wooed danger as a
+bride, that the King very soon held him in a certain degree of contempt.
+Richard, also, as a Norman prince, a people with whom temperance was
+habitual, despised the inclination of the German for the pleasures of
+the table, and particularly his liberal indulgence in the use of wine.
+For these, and other personal reasons, the King of England very soon
+looked upon the Austrian Prince with feelings of contempt, which he was
+at no pains to conceal or modify, and which, therefore, were speedily
+remarked, and returned with deep hatred, by the suspicious Leopold. The
+discord between them was fanned by the secret and politic arts of Philip
+of France, one of the most sagacious monarchs of the time, who, dreading
+the fiery and overbearing character of Richard, considering him as his
+natural rival, and feeling offended, moreover, at the dictatorial manner
+in which he, a vassal of France for his Continental domains, conducted
+himself towards his liege lord, endeavoured to strengthen his own party,
+and weaken that of Richard, by uniting the Crusading princes of inferior
+degree in resistance to what he termed the usurping authority of the
+King of England. Such was the state of politics and opinions entertained
+by the Archduke of Austria, when Conrade of Montserrat resolved upon
+employing his jealousy of England as the means of dissolving, or
+loosening at least, the league of the Crusaders.
+
+The time which he chose for his visit was noon; and the pretence, to
+present the Archduke with some choice Cyprus wine which had lately
+fallen into his hands, and discuss its comparative merits with those of
+Hungary and of the Rhine. An intimation of his purpose was, of course,
+answered by a courteous invitation to partake of the Archducal meal, and
+every effort was used to render it fitting the splendour of a sovereign
+prince. Yet the refined taste of the Italian saw more cumbrous profusion
+than elegance or splendour in the display of provisions under which the
+board groaned.
+
+The Germans, though still possessing the martial and frank character of
+their ancestors--who subdued the Roman Empire--had retained withal
+no slight tinge of their barbarism. The practices and principles of
+chivalry were not carried to such a nice pitch amongst them as amongst
+the French and English knights, nor were they strict observers of the
+prescribed rules of society, which among those nations were supposed
+to express the height of civilization. Sitting at the table of the
+Archduke, Conrade was at once stunned and amused with the clang of
+Teutonic sounds assaulting his ears on all sides, notwithstanding the
+solemnity of a princely banquet. Their dress seemed equally fantastic to
+him, many of the Austrian nobles retaining their long beards, and
+almost all of them wearing short jerkins of various colours, cut, and
+flourished, and fringed in a manner not common in Western Europe.
+
+Numbers of dependants, old and young, attended in the pavilion, mingled
+at times in the conversation, received from their masters the relics of
+the entertainment, and devoured them as they stood behind the backs
+of the company. Jesters, dwarfs, and minstrels were there in unusual
+numbers, and more noisy and intrusive than they were permitted to be in
+better regulated society. As they were allowed to share freely in the
+wine, which flowed round in large quantities, their licensed tumult was
+the more excessive.
+
+All this while, and in the midst of a clamour and confusion which would
+better have become a German tavern during a fair than the tent of a
+sovereign prince, the Archduke was waited upon with a minuteness of form
+and observance which showed how anxious he was to maintain rigidly the
+state and character to which his elevation had entitled him. He was
+served on the knee, and only by pages of noble blood, fed upon plate of
+silver, and drank his Tokay and Rhenish wines from a cup of gold. His
+ducal mantle was splendidly adorned with ermine, his coronet might have
+equalled in value a royal crown, and his feet, cased in velvet shoes
+(the length of which, peaks included, might be two feet), rested upon
+a footstool of solid silver. But it served partly to intimate the
+character of the man, that, although desirous to show attention to the
+Marquis of Montserrat, whom he had courteously placed at his right hand,
+he gave much more of his attention to his SPRUCH-SPRECHER--that is, his
+man of conversation, or SAYER-OF-SAYINGS--who stood behind the Duke's
+right shoulder.
+
+This personage was well attired in a cloak and doublet of black velvet,
+the last of which was decorated with various silver and gold coins
+stitched upon it, in memory of the munificent princes who had conferred
+them, and bearing a short staff to which also bunches of silver coins
+were attached by rings, which he jingled by way of attracting attention
+when he was about to say anything which he judged worthy of it. This
+person's capacity in the household of the Archduke was somewhat betwixt
+that of a minstrel and a counsellor. He was by turns a flatterer, a
+poet, and an orator; and those who desired to be well with the Duke
+generally studied to gain the good-will of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER.
+
+Lest too much of this officer's wisdom should become tiresome, the
+Duke's other shoulder was occupied by his HOFF-NARR, or court-jester,
+called Jonas Schwanker, who made almost as much noise with his fool's
+cap, bells, and bauble, as did the orator, or man of talk, with his
+jingling baton.
+
+These two personages threw out grave and comic nonsense alternately;
+while their master, laughing or applauding them himself, yet carefully
+watched the countenance of his noble guest, to discern what impressions
+so accomplished a cavalier received from this display of Austrian
+eloquence and wit. It is hard to say whether the man of wisdom or the
+man of folly contributed most to the amusement of the party, or stood
+highest in the estimation of their princely master; but the sallies of
+both seemed excellently well received. Sometimes they became rivals for
+the conversation, and clanged their flappers in emulation of each other
+with a most alarming contention; but, in general, they seemed on such
+good terms, and so accustomed to support each other's play, that the
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER often condescended to follow up the jester's witticisms
+with an explanation, to render them more obvious to the capacity of
+the audience, so that his wisdom became a sort of commentary on the
+buffoon's folly. And sometimes, in requital, the HOFF-NARR, with a pithy
+jest, wound up the conclusion of the orator's tedious harangue.
+
+Whatever his real sentiments might be, Conrade took especial care that
+his countenance should express nothing but satisfaction with what he
+heard, and smiled or applauded as zealously, to all appearance, as the
+Archduke himself at the solemn folly of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the
+gibbering wit of the fool. In fact, he watched carefully until the one
+or other should introduce some topic favourable to the purpose which was
+uppermost in his mind.
+
+It was not long ere the King of England was brought on the carpet by the
+jester, who had been accustomed to consider Dickon of the Broom (which
+irreverent epithet he substituted for Richard Plantagenet) as a subject
+of mirth, acceptable and inexhaustible. The orator, indeed, was silent,
+and it was only when applied to by Conrade that he observed, “The
+GENISTA, or broom-plant, was an emblem of humility; and it would be well
+when those who wore it would remember the warning.”
+
+The allusion to the illustrious badge of Plantagenet was thus rendered
+sufficiently manifest, and Jonas Schwanker observed that they who
+humbled themselves had been exalted with a vengeance. “Honour unto whom
+honour is due,” answered the Marquis of Montserrat. “We have all had
+some part in these marches and battles, and methinks other princes might
+share a little in the renown which Richard of England engrosses amongst
+minstrels and MINNE-SINGERS. Has no one of the joyeuse science here
+present a song in praise of the royal Archduke of Austria, our princely
+entertainer?”
+
+Three minstrels emulously stepped forward with voice and harp. Two were
+silenced with difficulty by the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who seemed to act as
+master of the revels, and a hearing was at length procured for the
+poet preferred, who sung, in high German, stanzas which may be thus
+translated:--
+
+“What brave chief shall head the forces, Where the red-cross legions
+gather? Best of horsemen, best of horses, Highest head and fairest
+feather.”
+
+Here the orator, jingling his staff, interrupted the bard to intimate to
+the party--what they might not have inferred from the description--that
+their royal host was the party indicated, and a full-crowned goblet went
+round to the acclamation, HOCH LEBE DER HERZOG LEOPOLD! Another stanza
+followed:--
+
+“Ask not Austria why, 'midst princes, Still her banner rises highest;
+Ask as well the strong-wing'd eagle, Why to heaven he soars the
+highest.”
+
+“The eagle,” said the expounder of dark sayings, “is the cognizance of
+our noble lord the Archduke--of his royal Grace, I would say--and the
+eagle flies the highest and nearest to the sun of all the feathered
+creation.”
+
+“The lion hath taken a spring above the eagle,” said Conrade carelessly.
+
+The Archduke reddened, and fixed his eyes on the speaker, while the
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER answered, after a minute's consideration, “The Lord
+Marquis will pardon me--a lion cannot fly above an eagle, because no
+lion hath got wings.”
+
+“Except the lion of Saint Mark,” responded the jester.
+
+“That is the Venetian's banner,” said the Duke; “but assuredly that
+amphibious race, half nobles, half merchants, will not dare to place
+their rank in comparison with ours.”
+
+“Nay, it was not of the Venetian lion that I spoke,” said the Marquis of
+Montserrat, “but of the three lions passant of England. Formerly, it is
+said, they were leopards; but now they are become lions at all points,
+and must take precedence of beast, fish, or fowl, or woe worth the
+gainstander.”
+
+“Mean you seriously, my lord?” said the Austrian, now considerably
+flushed with wine. “Think you that Richard of England asserts any
+pre-eminence over the free sovereigns who have been his voluntary allies
+in this Crusade?”
+
+“I know not but from circumstances,” answered Conrade. “Yonder hangs
+his banner alone in the midst of our camp, as if he were king and
+generalissimo of our whole Christian army.”
+
+“And do you endure this so patiently, and speak of it so coldly?” said
+the Archduke.
+
+“Nay, my lord,” answered Conrade, “it cannot concern the poor Marquis of
+Montserrat to contend against an injury patiently submitted to by
+such potent princes as Philip of France and Leopold of Austria. What
+dishonour you are pleased to submit to cannot be a disgrace to me.”
+
+Leopold closed his fist, and struck on the table with violence.
+
+“I have told Philip of this,” he said. “I have often told him that it
+was our duty to protect the inferior princes against the usurpation
+of this islander; but he answers me ever with cold respects of their
+relations together as suzerain and vassal, and that it were impolitic in
+him to make an open breach at this time and period.”
+
+“The world knows that Philip is wise,” said Conrade, “and will judge his
+submission to be policy. Yours, my lord, you can yourself alone account
+for; but I doubt not you have deep reasons for submitting to English
+domination.”
+
+“I submit!” said Leopold indignantly--“I, the Archduke of Austria, so
+important and vital a limb of the Holy Roman Empire--I submit myself to
+this king of half an island, this grandson of a Norman bastard! No, by
+Heaven! The camp and all Christendom shall see that I know how to right
+myself, and whether I yield ground one inch to the English bandog.--Up,
+my lieges and merry men; up and follow me! We will--and that without
+losing one instant--place the eagle of Austria where she shall float as
+high as ever floated the cognizance of king or kaiser.”
+
+With that he started from his seat, and amidst the tumultuous cheering
+of his guests and followers, made for the door of the pavilion, and
+seized his own banner, which stood pitched before it.
+
+“Nay, my lord,” said Conrade, affecting to interfere, “it will blemish
+your wisdom to make an affray in the camp at this hour; and perhaps it
+is better to submit to the usurpation of England a little longer than
+to--”
+
+“Not an hour, not a moment longer,” vociferated the Duke; and with the
+banner in his hand, and followed by his shouting guests and attendants,
+marched hastily to the central mount, from which the banner of England
+floated, and laid his hand on the standard-spear, as if to pluck it from
+the ground.
+
+“My master, my dear master!” said Jonas Schwanker, throwing his arms
+about the Duke, “take heed--lions have teeth--”
+
+“And eagles have claws,” said the Duke, not relinquishing his hold on
+the banner-staff, yet hesitating to pull it from the ground.
+
+The speaker of sentences, notwithstanding such was his occupation, had
+nevertheless some intervals of sound sense. He clashed his staff loudly,
+and Leopold, as if by habit, turned his head towards his man of counsel.
+
+“The eagle is king among the fowls of the air,” said the
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER, “as is the lion among the beasts of the field--each has
+his dominion, separated as wide as England and Germany. Do thou, noble
+eagle, no dishonour to the princely lion, but let your banners remain
+floating in peace side by side.”
+
+Leopold withdrew his hand from the banner-spear, and looked round for
+Conrade of Montserrat, but he saw him not; for the Marquis, so soon as
+he saw the mischief afoot, had withdrawn himself from the crowd, taking
+care, in the first place, to express before several neutral persons his
+regret that the Archduke should have chosen the hours after dinner to
+avenge any wrong of which he might think he had a right to complain. Not
+seeing his guest, to whom he wished more particularly to have addressed
+himself, the Archduke said aloud that, having no wish to breed
+dissension in the army of the Cross, he did but vindicate his own
+privileges and right to stand upon an equality with the King of England,
+without desiring, as he might have done, to advance his banner--which he
+derived from emperors, his progenitors--above that of a mere descendant
+of the Counts of Anjou; and in the meantime he commanded a cask of wine
+to be brought hither and pierced, for regaling the bystanders, who,
+with tuck of drum and sound of music, quaffed many a carouse round the
+Austrian standard.
+
+This disorderly scene was not acted without a degree of noise, which
+alarmed the whole camp.
+
+The critical hour had arrived at which the physician, according to the
+rules of his art, had predicted that his royal patient might be awakened
+with safety, and the sponge had been applied for that purpose; and
+the leech had not made many observations ere he assured the Baron of
+Gilsland that the fever had entirely left his sovereign, and that,
+such was the happy strength of his constitution, it would not be even
+necessary, as in most cases, to give a second dose of the powerful
+medicine. Richard himself seemed to be of the same opinion, for, sitting
+up and rubbing his eyes, he demanded of De Vaux what present sum of
+money was in the royal coffers.
+
+The baron could not exactly inform him of the amount.
+
+“It matters not,” said Richard; “be it greater or smaller, bestow it
+all on this learned leech, who hath, I trust, given me back again to the
+service of the Crusade. If it be less than a thousand byzants, let him
+have jewels to make it up.”
+
+“I sell not the wisdom with which Allah has endowed me,” answered the
+Arabian physician; “and be it known to you, great Prince, that the
+divine medicine of which you have partaken would lose its effects in my
+unworthy hands did I exchange its virtues either for gold or diamonds.”
+
+“The Physician refuseth a gratuity!” said De Vaux to himself. “This is
+more extraordinary than his being a hundred years old.”
+
+“Thomas de Vaux,” said Richard, “thou knowest no courage but what
+belongs to the sword, no bounty and virtue but what are used in
+chivalry. I tell thee that this Moor, in his independence, might set an
+example to them who account themselves the flower of knighthood.”
+
+“It is reward enough for me,” said the Moor, folding his arms on his
+bosom, and maintaining an attitude at once respectful and dignified,
+“that so great a king as the Melech Ric [Richard was thus called by the
+Eastern nations.] should thus speak of his servant.--But now let me pray
+you again to compose yourself on your couch; for though I think there
+needs no further repetition of the divine draught, yet injury might
+ensue from any too early exertion ere your strength be entirely
+restored.”
+
+“I must obey thee, Hakim,” said the King; “yet believe me, my bosom
+feels so free from the wasting fire which for so many days hath scorched
+it, that I care not how soon I expose it to a brave man's lance.--But
+hark! what mean these shouts, and that distant music, in the camp? Go,
+Thomas de Vaux, and make inquiry.”
+
+“It is the Archduke Leopold,” said De Vaux, returning after a minute's
+absence, “who makes with his pot-companions some procession through the
+camp.”
+
+“The drunken fool!” exclaimed King Richard; “can he not keep his brutal
+inebriety within the veil of his pavilion, that he must needs show
+his shame to all Christendom?--What say you, Sir Marquis?” he added,
+addressing himself to Conrade of Montserrat, who at that moment entered
+the tent.
+
+“Thus much, honoured Prince,” answered the Marquis, “that I delight
+to see your Majesty so well, and so far recovered; and that is a long
+speech for any one to make who has partaken of the Duke of Austria's
+hospitality.”
+
+“What! you have been dining with the Teutonic wine-skin!” said
+the monarch. “And what frolic has he found out to cause all this
+disturbance? Truly, Sir Conrade, I have still held you so good a
+reveller that I wonder at your quitting the game.”
+
+De Vaux, who had got a little behind the King, now exerted himself by
+look and sign to make the Marquis understand that he should say nothing
+to Richard of what was passing without. But Conrade understood not, or
+heeded not, the prohibition.
+
+“What the Archduke does,” he said, “is of little consequence to any one,
+least of all to himself, since he probably knows not what he is acting;
+yet, to say truth, it is a gambol I should not like to share in, since
+he is pulling down the banner of England from Saint George's Mount, in
+the centre of the camp yonder, and displaying his own in its stead.”
+
+“WHAT sayest thou?” exclaimed the King, in a tone which might have waked
+the dead.
+
+“Nay,” said the Marquis, “let it not chafe your Highness that a fool
+should act according to his folly--”
+
+“Speak not to me,” said Richard, springing from his couch, and casting
+on his clothes with a dispatch which seemed marvellous--“Speak not to
+me, Lord Marquis!--De Multon, I command thee speak not a word to
+me--he that breathes but a syllable is no friend to Richard
+Plantagenet.--Hakim, be silent, I charge thee!”
+
+All this while the King was hastily clothing himself, and, with the last
+word, snatched his sword from the pillar of the tent, and without any
+other weapon, or calling any attendance, he rushed out of his pavilion.
+Conrade, holding up his hands as if in astonishment, seemed willing to
+enter into conversation with De Vaux; but Sir Thomas pushed rudely past
+him, and calling to one of the royal equerries, said hastily, “Fly to
+Lord Salisbury's quarters, and let him get his men together and follow
+me instantly to Saint George's Mount. Tell him the King's fever has left
+his blood and settled in his brain.”
+
+Imperfectly heard, and still more imperfectly comprehended, by the
+startled attendant whom De Vaux addressed thus hastily, the equerry and
+his fellow-servants of the royal chamber rushed hastily into the tents
+of the neighbouring nobility, and quickly spread an alarm, as general
+as the cause seemed vague, through the whole British forces. The English
+soldiers, waked in alarm from that noonday rest which the heat of the
+climate had taught them to enjoy as a luxury, hastily asked each other
+the cause of the tumult, and without waiting an answer, supplied by the
+force of their own fancy the want of information. Some said the Saracens
+were in the camp, some that the King's life was attempted, some that he
+had died of the fever the preceding night, many that he was assassinated
+by the Duke of Austria. The nobles and officers, at an equal loss with
+the common men to ascertain the real cause of the disorder, laboured
+only to get their followers under arms and under authority, lest their
+rashness should occasion some great misfortune to the Crusading army.
+The English trumpets sounded loud, shrill, and continuously. The
+alarm-cry of “Bows and bills, bows and bills!” was heard from quarter
+to quarter, again and again shouted, and again and again answered by the
+presence of the ready warriors, and their national invocation, “Saint
+George for merry England!”
+
+The alarm went through the nearest quarter of the camp, and men of
+all the various nations assembled, where, perhaps, every people in
+Christendom had their representatives, flew to arms, and drew together
+under circumstances of general confusion, of which they knew neither
+the cause nor the object. It was, however, lucky, amid a scene so
+threatening, that the Earl of Salisbury, while he hurried after De
+Vaux's summons with a few only of the readiest English men-at-arms,
+directed the rest of the English host to be drawn up and kept under
+arms, to advance to Richard's succour if necessity should require, but
+in fit array and under due command, and not with the tumultuary
+haste which their own alarm and zeal for the King's safety might have
+dictated.
+
+In the meanwhile, without regarding for one instant the shouts, the
+cries, the tumult which began to thicken around him, Richard, with
+his dress in the last disorder, and his sheathed blade under his arm,
+pursued his way with the utmost speed, followed only by De Vaux and one
+or two household servants, to Saint George's Mount.
+
+He outsped even the alarm which his impetuosity only had excited,
+and passed the quarter of his own gallant troops of Normandy, Poitou,
+Gascony, and Anjou before the disturbance had reached them, although the
+noise accompanying the German revel had induced many of the soldiery to
+get on foot to listen. The handful of Scots were also quartered in the
+vicinity, nor had they been disturbed by the uproar. But the King's
+person and his haste were both remarked by the Knight of the Leopard,
+who, aware that danger must be afoot, and hastening to share in it,
+snatched his shield and sword, and united himself to De Vaux, who with
+some difficulty kept pace with his impatient and fiery master. De Vaux
+answered a look of curiosity, which the Scottish knight directed towards
+him, with a shrug of his broad shoulders, and they continued, side by
+side, to pursue Richard's steps.
+
+The King was soon at the foot of Saint George's Mount, the sides as well
+as platform of which were now surrounded and crowded, partly by those
+belonging to the Duke of Austria's retinue, who were celebrating, with
+shouts of jubilee, the act which they considered as an assertion of
+national honour; partly by bystanders of different nations, whom dislike
+to the English, or mere curiosity, had assembled together to witness the
+end of these extraordinary proceedings. Through this disorderly troop
+Richard burst his way, like a goodly ship under full sail, which cleaves
+her forcible passage through the rolling billows, and heeds not that
+they unite after her passage and roar upon her stern.
+
+The summit of the eminence was a small level space, on which were
+pitched the rival banners, surrounded still by the Archduke's friends
+and retinue. In the midst of the circle was Leopold himself, still
+contemplating with self-satisfaction the deed he had done, and still
+listening to the shouts of applause which his partisans bestowed with no
+sparing breath. While he was in this state of self-gratulation, Richard
+burst into the circle, attended, indeed, only by two men, but in his own
+headlong energies an irresistible host.
+
+“Who has dared,” he said, laying his hands upon the Austrian
+standard, and speaking in a voice like the sound which precedes an
+earthquake--“Who has dared to place this paltry rag beside the banner of
+England?”
+
+The Archduke wanted not personal courage, and it was impossible he
+could hear this question without reply. Yet so much was he troubled
+and surprised by the unexpected arrival of Richard, and affected by the
+general awe inspired by his ardent and unyielding character, that the
+demand was twice repeated, in a tone which seemed to challenge heaven
+and earth, ere the Archduke replied, with such firmness as he could
+command, “It was I, Leopold of Austria.”
+
+“Then shall Leopold of Austria,” replied Richard, “presentry see the
+rate at which his banner and his pretensions are held by Richard of
+England.”
+
+So saying, he pulled up the standard-spear, splintered it to pieces,
+threw the banner itself on the ground, and placed his foot upon it.
+
+“Thus,” said he, “I trample on the banner of Austria. Is there a knight
+among your Teutonic chivalry dare impeach my deed?”
+
+There was a momentary silence; but there are no braver men than the
+Germans.
+
+“I,” and “I,” and “I,” was heard from several knights of the Duke's
+followers; and he himself added his voice to those which accepted the
+King of England's defiance.
+
+“Why do we dally thus?” said the Earl Wallenrode, a gigantic warrior
+from the frontiers of Hungary. “Brethren and noble gentlemen, this man's
+foot is on the honour of your country--let us rescue it from violation,
+and down with the pride of England!”
+
+So saying, he drew his sword, and struck at the King a blow which might
+have proved fatal, had not the Scot intercepted and caught it upon his
+shield.
+
+“I have sworn,” said King Richard--and his voice was heard above all
+the tumult, which now waxed wild and loud--“never to strike one whose
+shoulder bears the cross; therefore live, Wallenrode--but live to
+remember Richard of England.”
+
+As he spoke, he grasped the tall Hungarian round the waist, and,
+unmatched in wrestling, as in other military exercises, hurled him
+backwards with such violence that the mass flew as if discharged from a
+military engine, not only through the ring of spectators who witnessed
+the extraordinary scene, but over the edge of the mount itself, down
+the steep side of which Wallenrode rolled headlong, until, pitching at
+length upon his shoulder, he dislocated the bone, and lay like one dead.
+This almost supernatural display of strength did not encourage either
+the Duke or any of his followers to renew a personal contest so
+inauspiciously commenced. Those who stood farthest back did, indeed,
+clash their swords, and cry out, “Cut the island mastiff to pieces!”
+ but those who were nearer veiled, perhaps, their personal fears under an
+affected regard for order, and cried, for the most part, “Peace! Peace!
+the peace of the Cross--the peace of Holy Church and our Father the
+Pope!”
+
+These various cries of the assailants, contradicting each other, showed
+their irresolution; while Richard, his foot still on the archducal
+banner, glared round him with an eye that seemed to seek an enemy, and
+from which the angry nobles shrunk appalled, as from the threatened
+grasp of a lion. De Vaux and the Knight of the Leopard kept their places
+beside him; and though the swords which they held were still sheathed,
+it was plain that they were prompt to protect Richard's person to the
+very last, and their size and remarkable strength plainly showed the
+defence would be a desperate one.
+
+Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and
+partisans brandished, and bows already bended.
+
+At this moment King Philip of France, attended by one or two of his
+nobles, came on the platform to inquire the cause of the disturbance,
+and made gestures of surprise at finding the King of England raised from
+his sick-bed, and confronting their common ally, the Duke of Austria, in
+such a menacing and insulting posture. Richard himself blushed at being
+discovered by Philip, whose sagacity he respected as much as he disliked
+his person, in an attitude neither becoming his character as a monarch,
+nor as a Crusader; and it was observed that he withdrew his foot, as
+if accidentally, from the dishonoured banner, and exchanged his look of
+violent emotion for one of affected composure and indifference. Leopold
+also struggled to attain some degree of calmness, mortified as he was
+by having been seen by Philip in the act of passively submitting to the
+insults of the fiery King of England.
+
+Possessed of many of those royal qualities for which he was termed by
+his subjects the August, Philip might be termed the Ulysses, as Richard
+was indisputably the Achilles, of the Crusade. The King of France was
+sagacious, wise, deliberate in council, steady and calm in action,
+seeing clearly, and steadily pursuing, the measures most for the
+interest of his kingdom--dignified and royal in his deportment, brave in
+person, but a politician rather than a warrior. The Crusade would
+have been no choice of his own; but the spirit was contagious, and the
+expedition was enforced upon him by the church, and by the unanimous
+wish of his nobility. In any other situation, or in a milder age, his
+character might have stood higher than that of the adventurous Coeur de
+Lion. But in the Crusade, itself an undertaking wholly irrational, sound
+reason was the quality of all others least estimated, and the chivalric
+valour which both the age and the enterprise demanded was considered as
+debased if mingled with the least touch of discretion. So that the merit
+of Philip, compared with that of his haughty rival, showed like the
+clear but minute flame of a lamp placed near the glare of a huge,
+blazing torch, which, not possessing half the utility, makes ten times
+more impression on the eye. Philip felt his inferiority in public
+opinion with the pain natural to a high-spirited prince; and it cannot
+be wondered at if he took such opportunities as offered for placing his
+own character in more advantageous contrast with that of his rival. The
+present seemed one of those occasions in which prudence and calmness
+might reasonably expect to triumph over obstinacy and impetuous
+violence.
+
+“What means this unseemly broil betwixt the sworn brethren of the
+Cross--the royal Majesty of England and the princely Duke Leopold? How
+is it possible that those who are the chiefs and pillars of this holy
+expedition--”
+
+“A truce with thy remonstrance, France,” said Richard, enraged inwardly
+at finding himself placed on a sort of equality with Leopold, yet not
+knowing how to resent it. “This duke, or prince, or pillar, if you will,
+hath been insolent, and I have chastised him--that is all. Here is a
+coil, forsooth, because of spurning a hound!”
+
+“Majesty of France,” said the Duke, “I appeal to you and every sovereign
+prince against the foul indignity which I have sustained. This King of
+England hath pulled down my banner-torn and trampled on it.”
+
+“Because he had the audacity to plant it beside mine,” said Richard.
+
+“My rank as thine equal entitled me,” replied the Duke, emboldened by
+the presence of Philip.
+
+“Assert such equality for thy person,” said King Richard, “and, by Saint
+George, I will treat thy person as I did thy broidered kerchief there,
+fit but for the meanest use to which kerchief may be put.”
+
+“Nay, but patience, brother of England,” said Philip, “and I will
+presently show Austria that he is wrong in this matter.--Do not think,
+noble Duke,” he continued, “that, in permitting the standard of England
+to occupy the highest point in our camp, we, the independent sovereigns
+of the Crusade, acknowledge any inferiority to the royal Richard. It
+were inconsistent to think so, since even the Oriflamme itself--the
+great banner of France, to which the royal Richard himself, in respect
+of his French possessions, is but a vassal--holds for the present an
+inferior place to the Lions of England. But as sworn brethren of the
+Cross, military pilgrims, who, laying aside the pomp and pride of this
+world, are hewing with our swords the way to the Holy Sepulchre, I
+myself, and the other princes, have renounced to King Richard, from
+respect to his high renown and great feats of arms, that precedence
+which elsewhere, and upon other motives, would not have been yielded.
+I am satisfied that, when your royal grace of Austria shall have
+considered this, you will express sorrow for having placed your banner
+on this spot, and that the royal Majesty of England will then give
+satisfaction for the insult he has offered.”
+
+The SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the jester had both retired to a safe distance
+when matters seemed coming to blows; but returned when words, their own
+commodity, seemed again about to become the order of the day.
+
+The man of proverbs was so delighted with Philip's politic speech that
+he clashed his baton at the conclusion, by way of emphasis, and forgot
+the presence in which he was, so far as to say aloud that he himself had
+never said a wiser thing in his life.
+
+“It may be so,” whispered Jonas Schwanker, “but we shall be whipped if
+you speak so loud.”
+
+The Duke answered sullenly that he would refer his quarrel to the
+General Council of the Crusade--a motion which Philip highly applauded,
+as qualified to take away a scandal most harmful to Christendom.
+
+Richard, retaining the same careless attitude, listened to Philip until
+his oratory seemed exhausted, and then said aloud, “I am drowsy--this
+fever hangs about me still. Brother of France, thou art acquainted with
+my humour, and that I have at all times but few words to spare. Know,
+therefore, at once, I will submit a matter touching the honour
+of England neither to Prince, Pope, nor Council. Here stands my
+banner--whatsoever pennon shall be reared within three butts' length
+of it--ay, were it the Oriflamme, of which you were, I think, but now
+speaking--shall be treated as that dishonoured rag; nor will I yield
+other satisfaction than that which these poor limbs can render in the
+lists to any bold challenge--ay, were it against five champions instead
+of one.”
+
+“Now,” said the jester, whispering his companion, “that is as complete
+a piece of folly as if I myself had said it; but yet, I think, there may
+be in this matter a greater fool than Richard yet.”
+
+“And who may that be?” asked the man of wisdom.
+
+“Philip,” said the jester, “or our own Royal Duke, should either accept
+the challenge. But oh, most sage SPRUCH-SPECHER, what excellent kings
+wouldst thou and I have made, since those on whose heads these crowns
+have fallen can play the proverb-monger and the fool as completely as
+ourselves!”
+
+While these worthies plied their offices apart, Philip answered calmly
+to the almost injurious defiance of Richard, “I came not hither to
+awaken fresh quarrels, contrary to the oath we have sworn, and the holy
+cause in which we have engaged. I part from my brother of England as
+brothers should part, and the only strife between the Lions of England
+and the Lilies of France shall be which shall be carried deepest into
+the ranks of the infidels.”
+
+“It is a bargain, my royal brother,” said Richard, stretching out his
+hand with all the frankness which belonged to his rash but generous
+disposition; “and soon may we have the opportunity to try this gallant
+and fraternal wager.”
+
+“Let this noble Duke also partake in the friendship of this happy
+moment,” said Philip; and the Duke approached half-sullenly,
+half-willing to enter into some accommodation.
+
+“I think not of fools, nor of their folly,” said Richard carelessly; and
+the Archduke, turning his back on him, withdrew from the ground.
+
+Richard looked after him as he retired.
+
+“There is a sort of glow-worm courage,” he said, “that shows only by
+night. I must not leave this banner unguarded in darkness; by daylight
+the look of the Lions will alone defend it. Here, Thomas of Gilsland, I
+give thee the charge of the standard--watch over the honour of England.”
+
+“Her safety is yet more dear to me,” said De Vaux, “and the life of
+Richard is the safety of England. I must have your Highness back to your
+tent, and that without further tarriance.”
+
+“Thou art a rough and peremptory nurse, De Vaux,” said the king,
+smiling; and then added, addressing Sir Kenneth, “Valiant Scot, I
+owe thee a boon, and I will pay it richly. There stands the banner of
+England! Watch it as novice does his armour on the night before he is
+dubbed. Stir not from it three spears' length, and defend it with thy
+body against injury or insult. Sound thy bugle if thou art assailed by
+more than three at once. Dost thou undertake the charge?”
+
+“Willingly,” said Kenneth; “and will discharge it upon penalty of my
+head. I will but arm me, and return hither instantly.”
+
+The Kings of France and England then took formal leave of each other,
+hiding, under an appearance of courtesy, the grounds of complaint which
+either had against the other--Richard against Philip, for what he deemed
+an officious interference betwixt him and Austria, and Philip against
+Coeur de Lion, for the disrespectful manner in which his mediation had
+been received. Those whom this disturbance had assembled now drew off in
+different directions, leaving the contested mount in the same solitude
+which had subsisted till interrupted by the Austrian bravado. Men judged
+of the events of the day according to their partialities, and while the
+English charged the Austrian with having afforded the first ground of
+quarrel, those of other nations concurred in casting the greater blame
+upon the insular haughtiness and assuming character of Richard.
+
+“Thou seest,” said the Marquis of Montserrat to the Grand Master of the
+Templars, “that subtle courses are more effective than violence. I
+have unloosed the bonds which held together this bunch of sceptres and
+lances--thou wilt see them shortly fall asunder.”
+
+“I would have called thy plan a good one,” said the Templar, “had there
+been but one man of courage among yonder cold-blooded Austrians to sever
+the bonds of which you speak with his sword. A knot that is unloosed may
+again be fastened, but not so the cord which has been cut to pieces.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     'Tis woman that seduces all mankind.
+        GAY.
+
+In the days of chivalry, a dangerous post or a perilous adventure was a
+reward frequently assigned to military bravery as a compensation for its
+former trials; just as, in ascending a precipice, the surmounting one
+crag only lifts the climber to points yet more dangerous.
+
+It was midnight, and the moon rode clear and high in heaven, when
+Kenneth of Scotland stood upon his watch on Saint George's Mount, beside
+the banner of England, a solitary sentinel, to protect the emblem of
+that nation against the insults which might be meditated among the
+thousands whom Richard's pride had made his enemies. High thoughts
+rolled, one after each other, upon the mind of the warrior. It seemed
+to him as if he had gained some favour in the eyes of the chivalrous
+monarch, who till now had not seemed to distinguish him among the crowds
+of brave men whom his renown had assembled under his banner, and Sir
+Kenneth little recked that the display of royal regard consisted in
+placing him upon a post so perilous. The devotion of his ambitious and
+high-placed affection inflamed his military enthusiasm. Hopeless as that
+attachment was in almost any conceivable circumstances, those which had
+lately occurred had, in some degree, diminished the distance between
+Edith and himself. He upon whom Richard had conferred the distinction
+of guarding his banner was no longer an adventurer of slight note, but
+placed within the regard of a princess, although he was as far as ever
+from her level. An unknown and obscure fate could not now be his. If
+he was surprised and slain on the post which had been assigned him, his
+death--and he resolved it should be glorious--must deserve the praises
+as well as call down the vengeance of Coeur de Lion, and be followed
+by the regrets, and even the tears, of the high-born beauties of the
+English Court. He had now no longer reason to fear that he should die as
+a fool dieth.
+
+Sir Kenneth had full leisure to enjoy these and similar high-souled
+thoughts, fostered by that wild spirit of chivalry, which, amid its
+most extravagant and fantastic flights, was still pure from all selfish
+alloy--generous, devoted, and perhaps only thus far censurable, that it
+proposed objects and courses of action inconsistent with the frailties
+and imperfections of man. All nature around him slept in calm moon-shine
+or in deep shadow. The long rows of tents and pavilions, glimmering or
+darkening as they lay in the moonlight or in the shade, were still and
+silent as the streets of a deserted city. Beside the banner-staff lay
+the large staghound already mentioned, the sole companion of Kenneth's
+watch, on whose vigilance he trusted for early warning of the approach
+of any hostile footstep. The noble animal seemed to understand the
+purpose of their watch; for he looked from time to time at the rich
+folds of the heavy pennon, and, when the cry of the sentinels came from
+the distant lines and defences of the camp, he answered them with one
+deep and reiterated bark, as if to affirm that he too was vigilant in
+his duty. From time to time, also, he lowered his lofty head, and wagged
+his tail, as his master passed and repassed him in the short turns which
+he took upon his post; or, when the knight stood silent and abstracted
+leaning on his lance, and looking up towards heaven, his faithful
+attendant ventured sometimes, in the phrase of romance, “to disturb his
+thoughts,” and awaken him from his reverie, by thrusting his large rough
+snout into the knight's gauntleted hand, to solicit a transitory caress.
+
+Thus passed two hours of the knight's watch without anything remarkable
+occurring. At length, and upon a sudden, the gallant staghound bayed
+furiously, and seemed about to dash forward where the shadow lay
+the darkest, yet waited, as if in the slips, till he should know the
+pleasure of his master.
+
+“Who goes there?” said Sir Kenneth, aware that there was something
+creeping forward on the shadowy side of the mount.
+
+“In the name of Merlin and Maugis,” answered a hoarse, disagreeable
+voice, “tie up your fourfooted demon there, or I come not at you.”
+
+“And who art thou that would approach my post?” said Sir Kenneth,
+bending his eyes as keenly as he could on some object, which he
+could just observe at the bottom of the ascent, without being able to
+distinguish its form. “Beware--I am here for death and life.”
+
+“Take up thy long-fanged Sathanas,” said the voice, “or I will conjure
+him with a bolt from my arblast.”
+
+At the same time was heard the sound of a spring or check, as when a
+crossbow is bent.
+
+“Unbend thy arblast, and come into the moonlight,” said the Scot, “or,
+by Saint Andrew, I will pin thee to the earth, be what or whom thou
+wilt!”
+
+As he spoke he poised his long lance by the middle, and, fixing his eye
+upon the object, which seemed to move, he brandished the weapon, as
+if meditating to cast it from his hand--a use of the weapon sometimes,
+though rarely, resorted to when a missile was necessary. But Sir Kenneth
+was ashamed of his purpose, and grounded his weapon, when there stepped
+from the shadow into the moonlight, like an actor entering upon the
+stage, a stunted, decrepit creature, whom, by his fantastic dress and
+deformity, he recognized, even at some distance, for the male of the two
+dwarfs whom he had seen in the chapel at Engaddi. Recollecting, at the
+same moment, the other and far different visions of that extraordinary
+night, he gave his dog a signal, which he instantly understood, and,
+returning to the standard, laid himself down beside it with a stifled
+growl.
+
+The little, distorted miniature of humanity, assured of his safety from
+an enemy so formidable, came panting up the ascent, which the shortness
+of his legs rendered laborious, and, when he arrived on the platform at
+the top, shifted to his left hand the little crossbow, which was just
+such a toy as children at that period were permitted to shoot small
+birds with, and, assuming an attitude of great dignity, gracefully
+extended his right hand to Sir Kenneth, in an attitude as if he expected
+he would salute it. But such a result not following, he demanded, in a
+sharp and angry tone of voice, “Soldier, wherefore renderest thou not
+to Nectabanus the homage due to his dignity? Or is it possible that thou
+canst have forgotten him?”
+
+“Great Nectabanus,” answered the knight, willing to soothe the
+creature's humour, “that were difficult for any one who has ever looked
+upon thee. Pardon me, however, that, being a soldier upon my post,
+with my lance in my hand, I may not give to one of thy puissance the
+advantage of coming within my guard, or of mastering my weapon. Suffice
+it that I reverence thy dignity, and submit myself to thee as humbly as
+a man-at-arms in my place may.”
+
+“It shall suffice,” said Nectabanus, “so that you presently attend me to
+the presence of those who have sent me hither to summon you.”
+
+“Great sir,” replied the knight, “neither in this can I gratify thee,
+for my orders are to abide by this banner till daybreak--so I pray you
+to hold me excused in that matter also.”
+
+So saying, he resumed his walk upon the platform; but the dwarf did not
+suffer him so easily to escape from his importunity.
+
+“Look you,” he said, placing himself before Sir Kenneth, so as to
+interrupt his way, “either obey me, Sir Knight, as in duty bound, or I
+will lay the command upon thee, in the name of one whose beauty could
+call down the genii from their sphere, and whose grandeur could command
+the immortal race when they had descended.”
+
+A wild and improbable conjecture arose in the knight's mind, but he
+repelled it. It was impossible, he thought, that the lady of his love
+should have sent him such a message by such a messenger; yet his voice
+trembled as he said, “Go to, Nectabanus. Tell me at once, and as a true
+man, whether this sublime lady of whom thou speakest be other than
+the houri with whose assistance I beheld thee sweeping the chapel at
+Engaddi?”
+
+“How! presumptuous Knight,” replied the dwarf, “think'st thou the
+mistress of our own royal affections, the sharer of our greatness, and
+the partner of our comeliness, would demean herself by laying charge on
+such a vassal as thou? No; highly as thou art honoured, thou hast not
+yet deserved the notice of Queen Guenevra, the lovely bride of Arthur,
+from whose high seat even princes seem but pigmies. But look thou here,
+and as thou knowest or disownest this token, so obey or refuse her
+commands who hath deigned to impose them on thee.”
+
+So saying, he placed in the knight's hand a ruby ring, which, even in
+the moonlight, he had no difficulty to recognize as that which usually
+graced the finger of the high-born lady to whose service he had devoted
+himself. Could he have doubted the truth of the token, he would have
+been convinced by the small knot of carnation-coloured ribbon which was
+fastened to the ring. This was his lady's favourite colour, and more
+than once had he himself, assuming it for that of his own liveries,
+caused the carnation to triumph over all other hues in the lists and in
+the battle.
+
+Sir Kenneth was struck nearly mute by seeing such a token in such hands.
+
+“In the name of all that is sacred, from whom didst thou receive
+this witness?” said the knight. “Bring, if thou canst, thy wavering
+understanding to a right settlement for a minute or two, and tell me the
+person by whom thou art sent, and the real purpose of thy message, and
+take heed what thou sayest, for this is no subject for buffoonery.”
+
+“Fond and foolish Knight,” said the dwarf, “wouldst thou know more of
+this matter than that thou art honoured with commands from a princess,
+delivered to thee by a king? We list not to parley with thee further
+than to command thee, in the name and by the power of that ring, to
+follow us to her who is the owner of the ring. Every minute that thou
+tarriest is a crime against thy allegiance.”
+
+“Good Nectabanus, bethink thyself,” said the knight. “Can my lady know
+where and upon what duty I am this night engaged? Is she aware that my
+life--pshaw, why should I speak of life--but that my honour depends on
+my guarding this banner till daybreak; and can it be her wish that
+I should leave it even to pay homage to her? It is impossible--the
+princess is pleased to be merry with her servant in sending him such
+a message; and I must think so the rather that she hath chosen such a
+messenger.”
+
+“Oh, keep your belief,” said Nectabanus, turning round as if to leave
+the platform; “it is little to me whether you be traitor or true man to
+this royal lady--so fare thee well.”
+
+“Stay, stay--I entreat you stay,” said Sir Kenneth. “Answer me but one
+question: is the lady who sent thee near to this place?”
+
+“What signifies it?” said the dwarf. “Ought fidelity to reckon furlongs,
+or miles, or leagues--like the poor courier, who is paid for his
+labour by the distance which he traverses? Nevertheless, thou soul
+of suspicion, I tell thee, the fair owner of the ring now sent to so
+unworthy a vassal, in whom there is neither truth nor courage, is not
+more distant from this place than this arblast can send a bolt.”
+
+The knight gazed again on that ring, as if to ascertain that there was
+no possible falsehood in the token. “Tell me,” he said to the dwarf, “is
+my presence required for any length of time?”
+
+“Time!” answered Nectabanus, in his flighty manner; “what call you time?
+I see it not--I feel it not--it is but a shadowy name--a succession of
+breathings measured forth by night by the clank of a bell, by day by
+a shadow crossing along a dial-stone. Knowest thou not a true knight's
+time should only be reckoned by the deeds that he performs in behalf of
+God and his lady?”
+
+“The words of truth, though in the mouth of folly,” said the knight.
+“And doth my lady really summon me to some deed of action, in her name
+and for her sake?--and may it not be postponed for even the few hours
+till daybreak?”
+
+“She requires thy presence instantly,” said the dwarf, “and without the
+loss of so much time as would be told by ten grains of the sandglass.
+Hearken, thou cold-blooded and suspicious knight, these are her very
+words--Tell him that the hand which dropped roses can bestow laurels.”
+
+This allusion to their meeting in the chapel of Engaddi sent a thousand
+recollections through Sir Kenneth's brain, and convinced him that the
+message delivered by the dwarf was genuine. The rosebuds, withered as
+they were, were still treasured under his cuirass, and nearest to his
+heart. He paused, and could not resolve to forego an opportunity, the
+only one which might ever offer, to gain grace in her eyes whom he had
+installed as sovereign of his affections. The dwarf, in the meantime,
+augmented his confusion by insisting either that he must return the ring
+or instantly attend him.
+
+“Hold, hold, yet a moment hold,” said the knight, and proceeded to
+mutter to himself, “Am I either the subject or slave of King Richard,
+more than as a free knight sworn to the service of the Crusade? And whom
+have I come hither to honour with lance and sword? Our holy cause and my
+transcendent lady!”
+
+“The ring! the ring!” exclaimed the dwarf impatiently; “false and
+slothful knight, return the ring, which thou art unworthy to touch or to
+look upon.”
+
+“A moment, a moment, good Nectabanus,” said Sir Kenneth; “disturb not
+my thoughts.--What if the Saracens were just now to attack our lines?
+Should I stay here like a sworn vassal of England, watching that her
+king's pride suffered no humiliation; or should I speed to the breach,
+and fight for the Cross? To the breach, assuredly; and next to the cause
+of God come the commands of my liege lady. And yet, Coeur de Lion's
+behest--my own promise! Nectabanus, I conjure thee once more to say, are
+you to conduct me far from hence?”
+
+“But to yonder pavilion; and, since you must needs know,” replied
+Nectabanus, “the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its
+roof, and which is worth a king's ransom.”
+
+“I can return in an instant,” said the knight, shutting his eyes
+desperately to all further consequences, “I can hear from thence the bay
+of my dog if any one approaches the standard. I will throw myself at my
+lady's feet, and pray her leave to return to conclude my watch.--Here,
+Roswal” (calling his hound, and throwing down his mantle by the side of
+the standard-spear), “watch thou here, and let no one approach.”
+
+The majestic dog looked in his master's face, as if to be sure that he
+understood his charge, then sat down beside the mantle, with ears erect
+and head raised, like a sentinel, understanding perfectly the purpose
+for which he was stationed there.
+
+“Come now, good Nectabanus,” said the knight, “let us hasten to obey the
+commands thou hast brought.”
+
+“Haste he that will,” said the dwarf sullenly; “thou hast not been in
+haste to obey my summons, nor can I walk fast enough to follow your long
+strides--you do not walk like a man, but bound like an ostrich in the
+desert.”
+
+There were but two ways of conquering the obstinacy of Nectabanus, who,
+as he spoke, diminished his walk into a snail's pace. For bribes Sir
+Kenneth had no means--for soothing no time; so in his impatience
+he snatched the dwarf up from the ground, and bearing him along,
+notwithstanding his entreaties and his fear, reached nearly to the
+pavilion pointed out as that of the Queen. In approaching it, however,
+the Scot observed there was a small guard of soldiers sitting on the
+ground, who had been concealed from him by the intervening tents.
+Wondering that the clash of his own armour had not yet attracted
+their attention, and supposing that his motions might, on the present
+occasion, require to be conducted with secrecy, he placed the little
+panting guide upon the ground to recover his breath, and point out what
+was next to be done. Nectabanus was both frightened and angry; but he
+had felt himself as completely in the power of the robust knight as an
+owl in the claws of an eagle, and therefore cared not to provoke him to
+any further display of his strength.
+
+He made no complaints, therefore, of the usage he had received; but,
+turning amongst the labyrinth of tents, he led the knight in silence
+to the opposite side of the pavilion, which thus screened them from
+the observation of the warders, who seemed either too negligent or too
+sleepy to discharge their duty with much accuracy. Arrived there, the
+dwarf raised the under part of the canvas from the ground, and made
+signs to Sir Kenneth that he should introduce himself to the inside of
+the tent, by creeping under it. The knight hesitated. There seemed an
+indecorum in thus privately introducing himself into a pavilion pitched,
+doubtless, for the accommodation of noble ladies; but he recalled
+to remembrance the assured tokens which the dwarf had exhibited, and
+concluded that it was not for him to dispute his lady's pleasure.
+
+He stooped accordingly, crept beneath the canvas enclosure of the tent,
+and heard the dwarf whisper from without, “Remain here until I call
+thee.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     You talk of Gaiety and Innocence!
+     The moment when the fatal fruit was eaten,
+     They parted ne'er to meet again; and Malice
+     Has ever since been playmate to light Gaiety,
+     From the first moment when the smiling infant
+     Destroys the flower or butterfly he toys with,
+     To the last chuckle of the dying miser,
+     Who on his deathbed laughs his last to hear
+     His wealthy neighbour has become a bankrupt.
+         OLD PLAY.
+
+Sir Kenneth was left for some minutes alone and in darkness. Here was
+another interruption which must prolong his absence from his post, and
+he began almost to repent the facility with which he had been induced to
+quit it. But to return without seeing the Lady Edith was now not to be
+thought of. He had committed a breach of military discipline, and was
+determined at least to prove the reality of the seductive expectations
+which had tempted him to do so. Meanwhile his situation was unpleasant.
+There was no light to show him into what sort of apartment he had
+been led--the Lady Edith was in immediate attendance on the Queen
+of England--and the discovery of his having introduced himself thus
+furtively into the royal pavilion might, were it discovered; lead to
+much and dangerous suspicion. While he gave way to these unpleasant
+reflections, and began almost to wish that he could achieve his retreat
+unobserved, he heard a noise of female voices, laughing, whispering, and
+speaking, in an adjoining apartment, from which, as the sounds gave him
+reason to judge, he could only be separated by a canvas partition. Lamps
+were burning, as he might perceive by the shadowy light which extended
+itself even to his side of the veil which divided the tent, and he
+could see shades of several figures sitting and moving in the adjoining
+apartment. It cannot be termed discourtesy in Sir Kenneth that, situated
+as he was, he overheard a conversation in which he found himself deeply
+interested.
+
+“Call her--call her, for Our Lady's sake,” said the voice of one of
+these laughing invisibles. “Nectabanus, thou shalt be made ambassador to
+Prester John's court, to show them how wisely thou canst discharge thee
+of a mission.”
+
+The shrill tone of the dwarf was heard, yet so much subdued that
+Sir Kenneth could not understand what he said, except that he spoke
+something of the means of merriment given to the guard.
+
+“But how shall we rid us of the spirit which Nectabanus hath raised, my
+maidens?”
+
+“Hear me, royal madam,” said another voice. “If the sage and princely
+Nectabanus be not over-jealous of his most transcendent bride and
+empress, let us send her to get us rid of this insolent knight-errant,
+who can be so easily persuaded that high-born dames may need the use of
+his insolent and overweening valour.”
+
+“It were but justice, methinks,” replied another, “that the Princess
+Guenever should dismiss, by her courtesy, him whom her husband's wisdom
+has been able to entice hither.”
+
+Struck to the heart with shame and resentment at what he had heard, Sir
+Kenneth was about to attempt his escape from the tent at all hazards,
+when what followed arrested his purpose.
+
+“Nay, truly,” said the first speaker, “our cousin Edith must first learn
+how this vaunted wight hath conducted himself, and we must reserve the
+power of giving her ocular proof that he hath failed in his duty. It
+may be a lesson will do good upon her; for, credit me, Calista, I have
+sometimes thought she has let this Northern adventurer sit nearer her
+heart than prudence would sanction.”
+
+One of the other voices was then heard to mutter something of the Lady
+Edith's prudence and wisdom.
+
+“Prudence, wench!” was the reply. “It is mere pride, and the desire to
+be thought more rigid than any of us. Nay, I will not quit my advantage.
+You know well that when she has us at fault no one can, in a civil way,
+lay your error before you more precisely than can my Lady Edith. But
+here she comes.”
+
+A figure, as if entering the apartment, cast upon the partition a
+shade, which glided along slowly until it mixed with those which
+already clouded it. Despite of the bitter disappointment which he had
+experienced--despite the insult and injury with which it seemed he had
+been visited by the malice, or, at best, by the idle humour of Queen
+Berengaria (for he already concluded that she who spoke loudest, and in
+a commanding tone, was the wife of Richard), the knight felt something
+so soothing to his feelings in learning that Edith had been no partner
+to the fraud practised on him, and so interesting to his curiosity in
+the scene which was about to take place, that, instead of prosecuting
+his more prudent purpose of an instant retreat, he looked anxiously,
+on the contrary, for some rent or crevice by means of which he might be
+made eye as well as ear witness to what was to go forward.
+
+“Surely,” said he to himself, “the Queen, who hath been pleased for
+an idle frolic to endanger my reputation, and perhaps my life, cannot
+complain if I avail myself of the chance which fortune seems willing to
+afford me to obtain knowledge of her further intentions.”
+
+It seemed, in the meanwhile, as if Edith were waiting for the commands
+of the Queen, and as if the other were reluctant to speak for fear of
+being unable to command her laughter and that of her companions; for Sir
+Kenneth could only distinguish a sound as of suppressed tittering and
+merriment.
+
+“Your Majesty,” said Edith at last, “seems in a merry mood, though,
+methinks, the hour of night prompts a sleepy one. I was well disposed
+bedward when I had your Majesty's commands to attend you.”
+
+“I will not long delay you, cousin, from your repose,” said the Queen,
+“though I fear you will sleep less soundly when I tell you your wager is
+lost.”
+
+“Nay, royal madam,” said Edith, “this, surely, is dwelling on a jest
+which has rather been worn out, I laid no wager, however it was your
+Majesty's pleasure to suppose, or to insist, that I did so.”
+
+“Nay, now, despite our pilgrimage, Satan is strong with you, my gentle
+cousin, and prompts thee to leasing. Can you deny that you gaged your
+ruby ring against my golden bracelet that yonder Knight of the Libbard,
+or how call you him, could not be seduced from his post?”
+
+“Your Majesty is too great for me to gainsay you,” replied Edith,
+“but these ladies can, if they will, bear me witness that it was your
+Highness who proposed such a wager, and took the ring from my finger,
+even while I was declaring that I did not think it maidenly to gage
+anything on such a subject.”
+
+“Nay, but, my Lady Edith,” said another voice, “you must needs grant,
+under your favour, that you expressed yourself very confident of the
+valour of that same Knight of the Leopard.”
+
+“And if I did, minion,” said Edith angrily, “is that a good reason why
+thou shouldst put in thy word to flatter her Majesty's humour? I spoke
+of that knight but as all men speak who have seen him in the field, and
+had no more interest in defending than thou in detracting from him. In a
+camp, what can women speak of save soldiers and deeds of arms?”
+
+“The noble Lady Edith,” said a third voice, “hath never forgiven Calista
+and me, since we told your Majesty that she dropped two rosebuds in the
+chapel.”
+
+“If your Majesty,” said Edith, in a tone which Sir Kenneth could judge
+to be that of respectful remonstrance, “have no other commands for
+me than to hear the gibes of your waiting-women, I must crave your
+permission to withdraw.”
+
+“Silence, Florise,” said the Queen, “and let not our indulgence lead
+you to forget the difference betwixt yourself and the kinswoman of
+England.--But you, my dear cousin,” she continued, resuming her tone
+of raillery, “how can you, who are so good-natured, begrudge us poor
+wretches a few minutes' laughing, when we have had so many days devoted
+to weeping and gnashing of teeth?”
+
+“Great be your mirth, royal lady,” said Edith; “yet would I be content
+not to smile for the rest of my life, rather than--”
+
+She stopped, apparently out of respect; but Sir Kenneth could hear that
+she was in much agitation.
+
+“Forgive me,” said Berengaria, a thoughtless but good-humoured princess
+of the House of Navarre; “but what is the great offence, after all? A
+young knight has been wiled hither--has stolen, or has been stolen, from
+his post, which no one will disturb in his absence--for the sake of a
+fair lady; for, to do your champion justice, sweet one, the wisdom of
+Nectabanus could conjure him hither in no name but yours.”
+
+“Gracious Heaven! your Majesty does not say so?” said Edith, in a
+voice of alarm quite different from the agitation she had previously
+evinced,--“you cannot say so consistently with respect for your own
+honour and for mine, your husband's kinswoman! Say you were jesting with
+me, my royal mistress, and forgive me that I could, even for a moment,
+think it possible you could be in earnest!”
+
+“The Lady Edith,” said the Queen, in a displeased tone of voice,
+“regrets the ring we have won of her. We will restore the pledge to you,
+gentle cousin; only you must not grudge us in turn a little triumph over
+the wisdom which has been so often spread over us, as a banner over a
+host.”
+
+“A triumph!” exclaimed Edith indignantly--“a triumph! The triumph will
+be with the infidel, when he hears that the Queen of England can
+make the reputation of her husband's kinswoman the subject of a light
+frolic.”
+
+“You are angry, fair cousin, at losing your favourite ring,” said the
+Queen. “Come, since you grudge to pay your wager, we will renounce our
+right; it was your name and that pledge brought him hither, and we care
+not for the bait after the fish is caught.”
+
+“Madam,” replied Edith impatiently, “you know well that your Grace could
+not wish for anything of mine but it becomes instantly yours. But I
+would give a bushel of rubies ere ring or name of mine had been used to
+bring a brave man into a fault, and perhaps to disgrace and punishment.”
+
+“Oh, it is for the safety of our true knight that we fear!” said the
+Queen. “You rate our power too low, fair cousin, when you speak of
+a life being lost for a frolic of ours. O Lady Edith, others have
+influence on the iron breasts of warriors as well as you--the heart
+even of a lion is made of flesh, not of stone; and, believe me, I have
+interest enough with Richard to save this knight, in whose fate Lady
+Edith is so deeply concerned, from the penalty of disobeying his royal
+commands.”
+
+“For the love of the blessed Cross, most royal lady,” said Edith--and
+Sir Kenneth, with feelings which it were hard to unravel, heard her
+prostrate herself at the Queen's feet--“for the love of our blessed
+Lady, and of every holy saint in the calendar, beware what you do! You
+know not King Richard--you have been but shortly wedded to him. Your
+breath might as well combat the west wind when it is wildest, as your
+words persuade my royal kinsman to pardon a military offence. Oh, for
+God's sake, dismiss this gentleman, if indeed you have lured him hither!
+I could almost be content to rest with the shame of having invited him,
+did I know that he was returned again where his duty calls him!”
+
+“Arise, cousin, arise,” said Queen Berengaria, “and be assured all will
+be better than you think. Rise, dear Edith. I am sorry I have played my
+foolery with a knight in whom you take such deep interest. Nay, wring
+not thy hands; I will believe thou carest not for him--believe anything
+rather than see thee look so wretchedly miserable. I tell thee I
+will take the blame on myself with King Richard in behalf of thy fair
+Northern friend--thine acquaintance, I would say, since thou own'st him
+not as a friend. Nay, look not so reproachfully. We will send Nectabanus
+to dismiss this Knight of the Standard to his post; and we ourselves
+will grace him on some future day, to make amends for his wild-goose
+chase. He is, I warrant, but lying perdu in some neighbouring tent.”
+
+“By my crown of lilies, and my sceptre of a specially good water-reed,”
+ said Nectabanus, “your Majesty is mistaken, He is nearer at hand than
+you wot--he lieth ensconced there behind that canvas partition.”
+
+“And within hearing of each word we have said!” exclaimed the Queen, in
+her turn violently surprised and agitated. “Out, monster of folly and
+malignity!”
+
+As she uttered these words, Nectabanus fled from the pavilion with a
+yell of such a nature as leaves it still doubtful whether Berengaria had
+confined her rebuke to words, or added some more emphatic expression of
+her displeasure.
+
+“What can now be done?” said the Queen to Edith, in a whisper of
+undisguised uneasiness.
+
+“That which must,” said Edith firmly. “We must see this gentleman and
+place ourselves in his mercy.”
+
+So saying, she began hastily to undo a curtain, which at one place
+covered an entrance or communication.
+
+“For Heaven's sake, forbear--consider,” said the Queen--“my
+apartment--our dress--the hour--my honour!”
+
+But ere she could detail her remonstrances, the curtain fell, and there
+was no division any longer betwixt the armed knight and the party of
+ladies. The warmth of an Eastern night occasioned the undress of Queen
+Berengaria and her household to be rather more simple and unstudied than
+their station, and the presence of a male spectator of rank, required.
+This the Queen remembered, and with a loud shriek fled from the
+apartment where Sir Kenneth was disclosed to view in a compartment of
+the ample pavilion, now no longer separated from that in which they
+stood. The grief and agitation of the Lady Edith, as well as the deep
+interest she felt in a hasty explanation with the Scottish knight,
+perhaps occasioned her forgetting that her locks were more dishevelled
+and her person less heedfully covered than was the wont of high-born
+damsels, in an age which was not, after all, the most prudish or
+scrupulous period of the ancient time. A thin, loose garment of
+pink-coloured silk made the principal part of her vestments, with
+Oriental slippers, into which she had hastily thrust her bare feet, and
+a scarf hurriedly and loosely thrown about her shoulders. Her head had
+no other covering than the veil of rich and dishevelled locks falling
+round it on every side, that half hid a countenance which a mingled
+sense of modesty and of resentment, and other deep and agitated
+feelings, had covered with crimson.
+
+But although Edith felt her situation with all that delicacy which is
+her sex's greatest charm, it did not seem that for a moment she placed
+her own bashfulness in comparison with the duty which, as she thought,
+she owed to him who had been led into error and danger on her account.
+She drew, indeed, her scarf more closely over her neck and bosom, and
+she hastily laid from her hand a lamp which shed too much lustre over
+her figure; but, while Sir Kenneth stood motionless on the same spot in
+which he was first discovered, she rather stepped towards than retired
+from him, as she exclaimed, “Hasten to your post, valiant knight!--you
+are deceived in being trained hither--ask no questions.”
+
+“I need ask none,” said the knight, sinking upon one knee, with the
+reverential devotion of a saint at the altar, and bending his eyes on
+the ground, lest his looks should increase the lady's embarrassment.
+
+“Have you heard all?” said Edith impatiently. “Gracious saints! then
+wherefore wait you here, when each minute that passes is loaded with
+dishonour!”
+
+“I have heard that I am dishonoured, lady, and I have heard it from
+you,” answered Kenneth. “What reck I how soon punishment follows? I
+have but one petition to you; and then I seek, among the sabres of the
+infidels, whether dishonour may not be washed out with blood.”
+
+“Do not so, neither,” said the lady. “Be wise--dally not here; all may
+yet be well, if you will but use dispatch.”
+
+“I wait but for your forgiveness,” said the knight, still kneeling,
+“for my presumption in believing that my poor services could have been
+required or valued by you.”
+
+“I do forgive you--oh, I have nothing to forgive! have been the means of
+injuring you. But oh, begone! I will forgive--I will value you--that is,
+as I value every brave Crusader--if you will but begone!”
+
+“Receive, first, this precious yet fatal pledge,” said the knight,
+tendering the ring to Edith, who now showed gestures of impatience.
+
+“Oh, no, no “ she said, declining to receive it. “Keep it--keep it as a
+mark of my regard--my regret, I would say. Oh, begone, if not for your
+own sake, for mine!”
+
+Almost recompensed for the loss even of honour, which her voice had
+denounced to him, by the interest which she seemed to testify in his
+safety, Sir Kenneth rose from his knee, and, casting a momentary glance
+on Edith, bowed low, and seemed about to withdraw. At the same instant,
+that maidenly bashfulness, which the energy of Edith's feelings had till
+then triumphed over, became conqueror in its turn, and she hastened from
+the apartment, extinguishing her lamp as she went, and leaving, in Sir
+Kenneth's thoughts, both mental and natural gloom behind her.
+
+She must be obeyed, was the first distinct idea which waked him from
+his reverie, and he hastened to the place by which he had entered the
+pavilion. To pass under the canvas in the manner he had entered required
+time and attention, and he made a readier aperture by slitting the
+canvas wall with his poniard. When in the free air, he felt rather
+stupefied and overpowered by a conflict of sensations, than able to
+ascertain what was the real import of the whole. He was obliged to spur
+himself to action by recollecting that the commands of the Lady Edith
+had required haste. Even then, engaged as he was amongst tent-ropes and
+tents, he was compelled to move with caution until he should regain
+the path or avenue, aside from which the dwarf had led him, in order to
+escape the observation of the guards before the Queen's pavilion; and he
+was obliged also to move slowly, and with precaution, to avoid giving an
+alarm, either by falling or by the clashing of his armour. A thin cloud
+had obscured the moon, too, at the very instant of his leaving the tent,
+and Sir Kenneth had to struggle with this inconvenience at a moment when
+the dizziness of his head and the fullness of his heart scarce left him
+powers of intelligence sufficient to direct his motions.
+
+But at once sounds came upon his ear which instantly recalled him to the
+full energy of his faculties. These proceeded from the Mount of Saint
+George. He heard first a single, fierce, angry, and savage bark, which
+was immediately followed by a yell of agony. No deer ever bounded with
+a wilder start at the voice of Roswal than did Sir Kenneth at what he
+feared was the death-cry of that noble hound, from whom no ordinary
+injury could have extracted even the slightest acknowledgment of pain.
+He surmounted the space which divided him from the avenue, and, having
+attained it, began to run towards the mount, although loaded with his
+mail, faster than most men could have accompanied him even if unarmed,
+relaxed not his pace for the steep sides of the artificial mound, and in
+a few minutes stood on the platform upon its summit.
+
+The moon broke forth at this moment, and showed him that the Standard of
+England was vanished, that the spear on which it had floated lay broken
+on the ground, and beside it was his faithful hound, apparently in the
+agonies of death.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     All my long arrear of honour lost,
+     Heap'd up in youth, and hoarded up for age.
+     Hath Honour's fountain then suck'd up the stream?
+     He hath--and hooting boys may barefoot pass,
+     And gather pebbles from the naked ford!
+          DON SEBASTIAN.
+
+After a torrent of afflicting sensations, by which he was at first
+almost stunned and confounded, Sir Kenneth's first thought was to look
+for the authors of this violation of the English banner; but in no
+direction could he see traces of them. His next, which to some persons,
+but scarce to any who have made intimate acquaintances among the canine
+race, may appear strange, was to examine the condition of his faithful
+Roswal, mortally wounded, as it seemed, in discharging the duty which
+his master had been seduced to abandon. He caressed the dying animal,
+who, faithful to the last, seemed to forget his own pain in the
+satisfaction he received from his master's presence, and continued
+wagging his tail and licking his hand, even while by low moanings he
+expressed that his agony was increased by the attempts which Sir Kenneth
+made to withdraw from the wound the fragment of the lance or javelin
+with which it had been inflicted; then redoubled his feeble endearments,
+as if fearing he had offended his master by showing a sense of the pain
+to which his interference had subjected him. There was something in
+the display of the dying creature's attachment which mixed as a bitter
+ingredient with the sense of disgrace and desolation by which Sir
+Kenneth was oppressed. His only friend seemed removed from him, just
+when he had incurred the contempt and hatred of all besides. The
+knight's strength of mind gave way to a burst of agonized distress, and
+he groaned and wept aloud.
+
+While he thus indulged his grief, a clear and solemn voice, close beside
+him, pronounced these words in the sonorous tone of the readers of the
+mosque, and in the lingua franca mutually understood by Christians and
+Saracens:--
+
+“Adversity is like the period of the former and of the latter
+rain--cold, comfortless, unfriendly to man and to animal; yet from that
+season have their birth the flower and the fruit, the date, the rose,
+and the pomegranate.”
+
+Sir Kenneth of the Leopard turned towards the speaker, and beheld the
+Arabian physician, who, approaching unheard, had seated himself a little
+behind him cross-legged, and uttered with gravity, yet not without a
+tone of sympathy, the moral sentences of consolation with which the
+Koran and its commentators supplied him; for, in the East, wisdom is
+held to consist less in a display of the sage's own inventive talents,
+than in his ready memory and happy application of and reference to “that
+which is written.”
+
+Ashamed at being surprised in a womanlike expression of sorrow, Sir
+Kenneth dashed his tears indignantly aside, and again busied himself
+with his dying favourite.
+
+“The poet hath said,” continued the Arab, without noticing the knight's
+averted looks and sullen deportment, “the ox for the field, and the
+camel for the desert. Were not the hand of the leech fitter than that of
+the soldier to cure wounds, though less able to inflict them?”
+
+“This patient, Hakim, is beyond thy help,” said Sir Kenneth; “and,
+besides, he is, by thy law, an unclean animal.”
+
+“Where Allah hath deigned to bestow life, and a sense of pain and
+pleasure,” said the physician, “it were sinful pride should the sage,
+whom He has enlightened, refuse to prolong existence or assuage agony.
+To the sage, the cure of a miserable groom, of a poor dog and of a
+conquering monarch, are events of little distinction. Let me examine
+this wounded animal.”
+
+Sir Kenneth acceded in silence, and the physician inspected and handled
+Roswal's wound with as much care and attention as if he had been a human
+being. He then took forth a case of instruments, and, by the judicious
+and skilful application of pincers, withdrew from the wounded shoulder
+the fragment of the weapon, and stopped with styptics and bandages the
+effusion of blood which followed; the creature all the while suffering
+him patiently to perform these kind offices, as if he had been aware of
+his kind intentions.
+
+“The animal may be cured,” said El Hakim, addressing himself to Sir
+Kenneth, “if you will permit me to carry him to my tent, and treat him
+with the care which the nobleness of his nature deserves. For know,
+that thy servant Adonbec is no less skilful in the race and pedigree and
+distinctions of good dogs and of noble steeds than in the diseases which
+afflict the human race.”
+
+“Take him with you,” said the knight. “I bestow him on you freely, if
+he recovers. I owe thee a reward for attendance on my squire, and have
+nothing else to pay it with. For myself, I will never again wind bugle
+or halloo to hound!”
+
+The Arabian made no reply, but gave a signal with a clapping of his
+hands, which was instantly answered by the appearance of two black
+slaves. He gave them his orders in Arabic, received the answer that “to
+hear was to obey,” when, taking the animal in their arms, they removed
+him, without much resistance on his part; for though his eyes turned to
+his master, he was too weak to struggle.
+
+“Fare thee well, Roswal, then,” said Sir Kenneth--“fare thee well, my
+last and only friend--thou art too noble a possession to be retained
+by one such as I must in future call myself!--I would,” he said, as the
+slaves retired, “that, dying as he is, I could exchange conditions with
+that noble animal!”
+
+“It is written,” answered the Arabian, although the exclamation had not
+been addressed to him, “that all creatures are fashioned for the
+service of man; and the master of the earth speaketh folly when he would
+exchange, in his impatience, his hopes here and to come for the servile
+condition of an inferior being.”
+
+“A dog who dies in discharging his duty,” said the knight sternly, “is
+better than a man who survives the desertion of it. Leave me, Hakim;
+thou hast, on this side of miracle, the most wonderful science which man
+ever possessed, but the wounds of the spirit are beyond thy power.”
+
+“Not if the patient will explain his calamity, and be guided by the
+physician,” said Adonbec el Hakim.
+
+“Know, then,” said Sir Kenneth, “since thou art so importunate, that
+last night the Banner of England was displayed from this mound--I was
+its appointed guardian--morning is now breaking--there lies the broken
+banner-spear, the standard itself is lost, and here sit I a living man!”
+
+“How!” said El Hakim, examining him; “thy armour is whole--there is no
+blood on thy weapons, and report speaks thee one unlikely to return thus
+from fight. Thou hast been trained from thy post--ay, trained by the
+rosy cheek and black eye of one of those houris, to whom you Nazarenes
+vow rather such service as is due to Allah, than such love as may
+lawfully be rendered to forms of clay like our own. It has been thus
+assuredly; for so hath man ever fallen, even since the days of Sultan
+Adam.”
+
+“And if it were so, physician,” said Sir Kenneth sullenly, “what
+remedy?”
+
+“Knowledge is the parent of power,” said El Hakim, “as valour supplies
+strength. Listen to me. Man is not as a tree, bound to one spot of
+earth; nor is he framed to cling to one bare rock, like the scarce
+animated shell-fish. Thine own Christian writings command thee, when
+persecuted in one city, to flee to another; and we Moslem also know
+that Mohammed, the Prophet of Allah, driven forth from the holy city of
+Mecca, found his refuge and his helpmates at Medina.”
+
+“And what does this concern me?” said the Scot.
+
+“Much,” answered the physician. “Even the sage flies the tempest which
+he cannot control. Use thy speed, therefore, and fly from the vengeance
+of Richard to the shadow of Saladin's victorious banner.”
+
+“I might indeed hide my dishonour,” said Sir Kenneth ironically, “in a
+camp of infidel heathens, where the very phrase is unknown. But had I
+not better partake more fully in their reproach? Does not thy advice
+stretch so far as to recommend me to take the turban? Methinks I want
+but apostasy to consummate my infamy.”
+
+“Blaspheme not, Nazarene,” said the physician sternly. “Saladin makes
+no converts to the law of the Prophet, save those on whom its precepts
+shall work conviction. Open thine eyes to the light, and the great
+Soldan, whose liberality is as boundless as his power, may bestow on
+thee a kingdom; remain blinded if thou will, and, being one whose second
+life is doomed to misery, Saladin will yet, for this span of present
+time, make thee rich and happy. But fear not that thy brows shall be
+bound with the turban, save at thine own free choice.”
+
+“My choice were rather,” said the knight, “that my writhen features
+should blacken, as they are like to do, in this evening's setting sun.”
+
+“Yet thou art not wise, Nazarene,” said El Hakim, “to reject this fair
+offer; for I have power with Saladin, and can raise thee high in his
+grace. Look you, my son--this Crusade, as you call your wild enterprise,
+is like a large dromond [The largest sort of vessels then known were
+termed dromond's, or dromedaries.] parting asunder in the waves. Thou
+thyself hast borne terms of truce from the kings and princes, whose
+force is here assembled, to the mighty Soldan, and knewest not,
+perchance, the full tenor of thine own errand.”
+
+“I knew not, and I care not,” said the knight impatiently. “What avails
+it to me that I have been of late the envoy of princes, when, ere night,
+I shall be a gibbeted and dishonoured corpse?”
+
+“Nay, I speak that it may not be so with thee,” said the physician.
+“Saladin is courted on all sides. The combined princes of this league
+formed against him have made such proposals of composition and peace,
+as, in other circumstances, it might have become his honour to have
+granted to them. Others have made private offers, on their own
+separate account, to disjoin their forces from the camp of the Kings of
+Frangistan, and even to lend their arms to the defence of the standard
+of the Prophet. But Saladin will not be served by such treacherous and
+interested defection. The king of kings will treat only with the Lion
+King. Saladin will hold treaty with none but the Melech Ric, and with
+him he will treat like a prince, or fight like a champion. To Richard he
+will yield such conditions of his free liberality as the swords of all
+Europe could never compel from him by force or terror. He will permit
+a free pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and all the places where the Nazarenes
+list to worship; nay, he will so far share even his empire with his
+brother Richard, that he will allow Christian garrisons in the six
+strongest cities of Palestine, and one in Jerusalem itself, and suffer
+them to be under the immediate command of the officers of Richard, who,
+he consents, shall bear the name of King Guardian of Jerusalem.
+Yet further, strange and incredible as you may think it, know, Sir
+Knight--for to your honour I can commit even that almost incredible
+secret--know that Saladin will put a sacred seal on this happy union
+betwixt the bravest and noblest of Frangistan and Asia, by raising to
+the rank of his royal spouse a Christian damsel, allied in blood to King
+Richard, and known by the name of the Lady Edith of Plantagenet.” [This
+may appear so extraordinary and improbable a proposition that it is
+necessary to say such a one was actually made. The historians, however,
+substitute the widowed Queen of Naples, sister of Richard, for the
+bride, and Saladin's brother for the bridegroom. They appear to have
+been ignorant of the existence of Edith of Plantagenet.--See MILL'S
+History of the Crusades, vol. ii., p. 61.]
+
+“Ha!--sayest thou?” exclaimed Sir Kenneth, who, listening with
+indifference and apathy to the preceding part of El Hakim's speech,
+was touched by this last communication, as the thrill of a nerve,
+unexpectedly jarred, will awaken the sensation of agony, even in the
+torpor of palsy. Then, moderating his tone, by dint of much effort he
+restrained his indignation, and, veiling it under the appearance of
+contemptuous doubt, he prosecuted the conversation, in order to get as
+much knowledge as possible of the plot, as he deemed it, against the
+honour and happiness of her whom he loved not the less that his passion
+had ruined, apparently, his fortunes, at once, and his honour.--“And
+what Christian,” he said, With tolerable calmness, “would sanction a
+union so unnatural as that of a Christian maiden with an unbelieving
+Saracen?”
+
+“Thou art but an ignorant, bigoted Nazarene,” said the Hakim. “Seest
+thou not how the Mohammedan princes daily intermarry with the noble
+Nazarene maidens in Spain, without scandal either to Moor or Christian?
+And the noble Soldan will, in his full confidence in the blood of
+Richard, permit the English maid the freedom which your Frankish manners
+have assigned to women. He will allow her the free exercise of her
+religion, seeing that, in very truth, it signifies but little to which
+faith females are addicted; and he will assign her such place and rank
+over all the women of his zenana, that she shall be in every respect his
+sole and absolute queen.”
+
+“What!” said Sir Kenneth, “darest thou think, Moslem, that Richard would
+give his kinswoman--a high-born and virtuous princess--to be, at best,
+the foremost concubine in the haram of a misbeliever? Know, Hakim, the
+meanest free Christian noble would scorn, on his child's behalf, such
+splendid ignominy.”
+
+“Thou errest,” said the Hakim. “Philip of France, and Henry of
+Champagne, and others of Richard's principal allies, have heard the
+proposal without starting, and have promised, as far as they may, to
+forward an alliance that may end these wasteful wars; and the wise
+arch-priest of Tyre hath undertaken to break the proposal to Richard,
+not doubting that he shall be able to bring the plan to good issue. The
+Soldan's wisdom hath as yet kept his proposition secret from others,
+such as he of Montserrat, and the Master of the Templars, because he
+knows they seek to thrive by Richard's death or disgrace, not by his
+life or honour. Up, therefore, Sir Knight, and to horse. I will give
+thee a scroll which shall advance thee highly with the Soldan; and deem
+not that you are leaving your country, or her cause, or her religion,
+since the interest of the two monarchs will speedily be the same. To
+Saladin thy counsel will be most acceptable, since thou canst make him
+aware of much concerning the marriages of the Christians, the treatment
+of their wives, and other points of their laws and usages, which, in
+the course of such treaty, it much concerns him that he should know. The
+right hand of the Soldan grasps the treasures of the East, and it is the
+fountain or generosity. Or, if thou desirest it, Saladin, when allied
+with England, can have but little difficulty to obtain from Richard, not
+only thy pardon and restoration to favour, but an honourable command in
+the troops which may be left of the King of England's host, to maintain
+their joint government in Palestine. Up, then, and mount--there lies a
+plain path before thee.”
+
+“Hakim,” said the Scottish knight, “thou art a man of peace; also thou
+hast saved the life of Richard of England--and, moreover, of my own poor
+esquire, Strauchan. I have, therefore, heard to an end a matter which,
+being propounded by another Moslem than thyself, I would have cut short
+with a blow of my dagger! Hakim, in return for thy kindness, I advise
+thee to see that the Saracen who shall propose to Richard a union
+betwixt the blood of Plantagenet and that of his accursed race do put on
+a helmet which is capable to endure such a blow of a battle-axe as that
+which struck down the gate of Acre. Certes, he will be otherwise placed
+beyond the reach even of thy skill.”
+
+“Thou art, then, wilfully determined not to fly to the Saracen host?”
+ said the physician. “Yet, remember, thou stayest to certain destruction;
+and the writings of thy law, as well as ours, prohibit man from breaking
+into the tabernacle of his own life.”
+
+“God forbid!” replied the Scot, crossing himself; “but we are also
+forbidden to avoid the punishment which our crimes have deserved. And
+since so poor are thy thoughts of fidelity, Hakim, it grudges me that I
+have bestowed my good hound on thee, for, should he live, he will have a
+master ignorant of his value.”
+
+“A gift that is begrudged is already recalled,” said El Hakim; “only
+we physicians are sworn not to send away a patient uncured. If the dog
+recover, he is once more yours.”
+
+“Go to, Hakim,” answered Sir Kenneth; “men speak not of hawk and hound
+when there is but an hour of day-breaking betwixt them and death. Leave
+me to recollect my sins, and reconcile myself to Heaven.”
+
+“I leave thee in thine obstinacy,” said the physician; “the mist hides
+the precipice from those who are doomed to fall over it.”
+
+He withdrew slowly, turning from time to time his head, as if to observe
+whether the devoted knight might not recall him either by word or
+signal. At last his turbaned figure was lost among the labyrinth of
+tents which lay extended beneath, whitening in the pale light of the
+dawning, before which the moonbeam had now faded away.
+
+But although the physician Adonbec's words had not made that impression
+upon Kenneth which the sage desired, they had inspired the Scot with a
+motive for desiring life, which, dishonoured as he conceived himself
+to be, he was before willing to part from as from a sullied vestment no
+longer becoming his wear. Much that had passed betwixt himself and the
+hermit, besides what he had observed between the anchorite and Sheerkohf
+(or Ilderim), he now recalled to recollection, and tended to confirm
+what the Hakim had told him of the secret article of the treaty.
+
+“The reverend impostor!” he exclaimed to himself; “the hoary hypocrite!
+He spoke of the unbelieving husband converted by the believing wife; and
+what do I know but that the traitor exhibited to the Saracen, accursed
+of God, the beauties of Edith Plantagenet, that the hound might judge if
+the princely Christian lady were fit to be admitted into the haram of
+a misbeliever? If I had yonder infidel Ilderim, or whatsoever he is
+called, again in the gripe with which I once held him fast as ever hound
+held hare, never again should HE at least come on errand disgraceful
+to the honour of Christian king or noble and virtuous maiden. But
+I--my hours are fast dwindling into minutes--yet, while I have life and
+breath, something must be done, and speedily.”
+
+He paused for a few minutes, threw from him his helmet, then strode down
+the hill, and took the road to King Richard's pavilion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     The feather'd songster, chanticleer,
+     Had wound his bugle-horn,
+     And told the early villager
+     The coming of the morn.
+     King Edward saw the ruddy streaks
+     Of light eclipse the grey,
+     And heard the raven's croaking throat
+     Proclaim the fated day.
+     “Thou'rt right,” he said, “for, by the God
+     That sits enthron'd on high,
+     Charles Baldwin, and his fellows twain,
+     This day shall surely die.”
+                    CHATTERTON.
+
+On the evening on which Sir Kenneth assumed his post, Richard, after the
+stormy event which disturbed its tranquillity, had retired to rest in
+the plenitude of confidence inspired by his unbounded courage and the
+superiority which he had displayed in carrying the point he aimed at in
+presence of the whole Christian host and its leaders, many of whom, he
+was aware, regarded in their secret souls the disgrace of the Austrian
+Duke as a triumph over themselves; so that his pride felt gratified,
+that in prostrating one enemy he had mortified a hundred.
+
+Another monarch would have doubled his guards on the evening after such
+a scene, and kept at least a part of his troops under arms. But Coeur de
+Lion dismissed, upon the occasion, even his ordinary watch, and assigned
+to his soldiers a donative of wine to celebrate his recovery, and to
+drink to the Banner of Saint George; and his quarter of the camp would
+have assumed a character totally devoid of vigilance and military
+preparation, but that Sir Thomas de Vaux, the Earl of Salisbury, and
+other nobles, took precautions to preserve order and discipline among
+the revellers.
+
+The physician attended the King from his retiring to bed till midnight
+was past, and twice administered medicine to him during that period,
+always previously observing the quarter of heaven occupied by the
+full moon, whose influences he declared to be most sovereign, or most
+baleful, to the effect of his drugs. It was three hours after midnight
+ere El Hakim withdrew from the royal tent, to one which had been pitched
+for himself and his retinue. In his way thither he visited the tent of
+Sir Kenneth of the Leopard, in order to see the condition of his first
+patient in the Christian camp, old Strauchan, as the knight's esquire
+was named. Inquiring there for Sir Kenneth himself, El Hakim learned
+on what duty he was employed, and probably this information led him
+to Saint George's Mount, where he found him whom he sought in the
+disastrous circumstances alluded to in the last chapter.
+
+It was about the hour of sunrise, when a slow, armed tread was heard
+approaching the King's pavilion; and ere De Vaux, who slumbered beside
+his master's bed as lightly as ever sleep sat upon the eyes of a
+watch-dog, had time to do more than arise and say, “Who comes?” the
+Knight of the Leopard entered the tent, with a deep and devoted gloom
+seated upon his manly features.
+
+“Whence this bold intrusion, Sir Knight?” said De Vaux sternly, yet in a
+tone which respected his master's slumbers.
+
+“Hold! De Vaux,” said Richard, awaking on the instant; “Sir Kenneth
+cometh like a good soldier to render an account of his guard. To such
+the general's tent is ever accessible.” Then rising from his slumbering
+posture, and leaning on his elbow, he fixed his large bright eye upon
+the warrior--“Speak, Sir Scot; thou comest to tell me of a vigilant,
+safe, and honourable watch, dost thou not? The rustling of the folds of
+the Banner of England were enough to guard it, even without the body of
+such a knight as men hold thee.”
+
+“As men will hold me no more,” said Sir Kenneth. “My watch hath neither
+been vigilant, safe, nor honourable. The Banner of England has been
+carried off.”
+
+“And thou alive to tell it!” said Richard, in a tone of derisive
+incredulity. “Away, it cannot be. There is not even a scratch on thy
+face. Why dost thou stand thus mute? Speak the truth--it is ill jesting
+with a king; yet I will forgive thee if thou hast lied.”
+
+“Lied, Sir King!” returned the unfortunate knight, with fierce emphasis,
+and one glance of fire from his eye, bright and transient as the flash
+from the cold and stony flint. “But this also must be endured. I have
+spoken the truth.”
+
+“By God and by Saint George!” said the King, bursting into fury, which,
+however, he instantly checked. “De Vaux, go view the spot. This fever
+has disturbed his brain. This cannot be. The man's courage is proof. It
+CANNOT be! Go speedily--or send, if thou wilt not go.”
+
+The King was interrupted by Sir Henry Neville, who came, breathless, to
+say that the banner was gone, and the knight who guarded it overpowered,
+and most probably murdered, as there was a pool of blood where the
+banner-spear lay shivered.
+
+“But whom do I see here?” said Neville, his eyes suddenly resting upon
+Sir Kenneth.
+
+“A traitor,” said the King, starting to his feet, and seizing the
+curtal-axe, which was ever near his bed--“a traitor! whom thou shalt see
+die a traitor's death.” And he drew back the weapon as in act to strike.
+
+Colourless, but firm as a marble statue, the Scot stood before him, with
+his bare head uncovered by any protection, his eyes cast down to the
+earth, his lips scarcely moving, yet muttering probably in prayer.
+Opposite to him, and within the due reach for a blow, stood King
+Richard, his large person wrapt in the folds of his camiscia, or ample
+gown of linen, except where the violence of his action had flung the
+covering from his right arm, shoulder, and a part of his breast,
+leaving to view a specimen of a frame which might have merited his Saxon
+predecessor's epithet of Ironside. He stood for an instant, prompt
+to strike; then sinking the head of the weapon towards the ground,
+he exclaimed, “But there was blood, Neville--there was blood upon the
+place. Hark thee, Sir Scot--brave thou wert once, for I have seen
+thee fight. Say thou hast slain two of the thieves in defence of the
+Standard--say but one--say thou hast struck but a good blow in our
+behalf, and get thee out of the camp with thy life and thy infamy!”
+
+“You have called me liar, my Lord King,” replied Kenneth firmly; “and
+therein, at least, you have done me wrong. Know that there was no blood
+shed in defence of the Standard save that of a poor hound, which, more
+faithful than his master, defended the charge which he deserted.”
+
+“Now, by Saint George!” said Richard, again heaving up his arm. But De
+Vaux threw himself between the King and the object of his vengeance, and
+spoke with the blunt truth of his character, “My liege, this must not
+be--here, nor by your hand. It is enough of folly for one night and day
+to have entrusted your banner to a Scot. Said I not they were ever fair
+and false?” [Such were the terms in which the English used to speak of
+their poor northern neighbours, forgetting that their own encroachments
+upon the independence of Scotland obliged the weaker nation to defend
+themselves by policy as well as force. The disgrace must be divided
+between Edward I. and Edward III., who enforced their domination over
+a free country, and the Scots, who were compelled to take compulsory
+oaths, without any purpose of keeping them.]
+
+“Thou didst, De Vaux; thou wast right, and I confess it,” said Richard.
+“I should have known him better--I should have remembered how the fox
+William deceived me touching this Crusade.”
+
+“My lord,” said Sir Kenneth, “William of Scotland never deceived; but
+circumstances prevented his bringing his forces.”
+
+“Peace, shameless!” said the King; “thou sulliest the name of a prince,
+even by speaking it.--And yet, De Vaux, it is strange,” he added, “to
+see the bearing of the man. Coward or traitor he must be, yet he abode
+the blow of Richard Plantagenet as our arm had been raised to lay
+knighthood on his shoulder. Had he shown the slightest sign of fear,
+had but a joint trembled or an eyelid quivered, I had shattered his head
+like a crystal goblet. But I cannot strike where there is neither fear
+nor resistance.”
+
+There was a pause.
+
+“My lord,” said Kenneth--
+
+“Ha!” replied Richard, interrupting him, “hast thou found thy speech?
+Ask grace from Heaven, but none from me; for England is dishonoured
+through thy fault, and wert thou mine own and only brother, there is no
+pardon for thy fault.”
+
+“I speak not to demand grace of mortal man,” said the Scot; “it is in
+your Grace's pleasure to give or refuse me time for Christian shrift--if
+man denies it, may God grant me the absolution which I would otherwise
+ask of His church! But whether I die on the instant, or half an hour
+hence, I equally beseech your Grace for one moment's opportunity to
+speak that to your royal person which highly concerns your fame as a
+Christian king.”
+
+“Say on,” said the King, making no doubt that he was about to hear some
+confession concerning the loss of the Banner.
+
+“What I have to speak,” said Sir Kenneth, “touches the royalty of
+England, and must be said to no ears but thine own.”
+
+“Begone with yourselves, sirs,” said the King to Neville and De Vaux.
+
+The first obeyed, but the latter would not stir from the King's
+presence.
+
+“If you said I was in the right,” replied De Vaux to his sovereign, “I
+will be treated as one should be who hath been found to be right--that
+is, I will have my own will. I leave you not with this false Scot.”
+
+“How! De Vaux,” said Richard angrily, and stamping slightly, “darest
+thou not venture our person with one traitor?”
+
+“It is in vain you frown and stamp, my lord,” said De Vaux; “I venture
+not a sick man with a sound one, a naked man with one armed in proof.”
+
+“It matters not,” said the Scottish knight; “I seek no excuse to put off
+time. I will speak in presence of the Lord of Gilsland. He is good lord
+and true.”
+
+“But half an hour since,” said De Vaux, with a groan, implying a mixture
+of sorrow and vexation, “and I had said as much for thee!”
+
+“There is treason around you, King of England,” continued Sir Kenneth.
+
+“It may well be as thou sayest,” replied Richard; “I have a pregnant
+example.”
+
+“Treason that will injure thee more deeply than the loss of a hundred
+banners in a pitched field. The--the--” Sir Kenneth hesitated, and at
+length continued, in a lower tone, “The Lady Edith--”
+
+“Ha!” said the King, drawing himself suddenly into a state of haughty
+attention, and fixing his eye firmly on the supposed criminal; “what of
+her? what of her? What has she to do with this matter?”
+
+“My lord,” said the Scot, “there is a scheme on foot to disgrace your
+royal lineage, by bestowing the hand of the Lady Edith on the
+Saracen Soldan, and thereby to purchase a peace most dishonourable to
+Christendom, by an alliance most shameful to England.”
+
+This communication had precisely the contrary effect from that which Sir
+Kenneth expected. Richard Plantagenet was one of those who, in Iago's
+words, would not serve God because it was the devil who bade him; advice
+or information often affected him less according to its real import,
+than through the tinge which it took from the supposed character and
+views of those by whom it was communicated. Unfortunately, the
+mention of his relative's name renewed his recollection of what he had
+considered as extreme presumption in the Knight of the Leopard, even
+when he stood high in the roll of chivalry, but which, in his present
+condition, appeared an insult sufficient to drive the fiery monarch into
+a frenzy of passion.
+
+“Silence,” he said, “infamous and audacious! By Heaven, I will have
+thy tongue torn out with hot pincers, for mentioning the very name of
+a noble Christian damsel! Know, degenerate traitor, that I was already
+aware to what height thou hadst dared to raise thine eyes, and endured
+it, though it were insolence, even when thou hadst cheated us--for thou
+art all a deceit--into holding thee as of some name and fame. But now,
+with lips blistered with the confession of thine own dishonour--that
+thou shouldst NOW dare to name our noble kinswoman as one in whose fate
+thou hast part or interest! What is it to thee if she marry Saracen or
+Christian? What is it to thee if, in a camp where princes turn cowards
+by day and robbers by night--where brave knights turn to paltry
+deserters and traitors--what is it, I say, to thee, or any one, if I
+should please to ally myself to truth and to valour, in the person of
+Saladin?”
+
+“Little to me, indeed, to whom all the world will soon be as nothing,”
+ answered Sir Kenneth boldly; “but were I now stretched on the rack, I
+would tell thee that what I have said is much to thine own conscience
+and thine own fame. I tell thee, Sir King, that if thou dost but
+in thought entertain the purpose of wedding thy kinswoman, the Lady
+Edith--”
+
+“Name her not--and for an instant think not of her,” said the King,
+again straining the curtal-axe in his gripe, until the muscles started
+above his brawny arm, like cordage formed by the ivy around the limb of
+an oak.
+
+“Not name--not think of her!” answered Sir Kenneth, his spirits, stunned
+as they were by self-depression, beginning to recover their elasticity
+from this species of controversy. “Now, by the Cross, on which I place
+my hope, her name shall be the last word in my mouth, her image the last
+thought in my mind. Try thy boasted strength on this bare brow, and see
+if thou canst prevent my purpose.”
+
+“He will drive me mad!” said Richard, who, in his despite, was once more
+staggered in his purpose by the dauntless determination of the criminal.
+
+Ere Thomas of Gilsland could reply, some bustle was heard without,
+and the arrival of the Queen was announced from the outer part of the
+pavilion.
+
+“Detain her--detain her, Neville,” cried the King; “this is no sight
+for women.--Fie, that I have suffered such a paltry traitor to chafe me
+thus!--Away with him, De Vaux,” he whispered, “through the back entrance
+of our tent; coop him up close, and answer for his safe custody with
+your life. And hark ye--he is presently to die--let him have a ghostly
+father--we would not kill soul and body. And stay--hark thee--we will
+not have him dishonoured--he shall die knightlike, in his belt and
+spurs; for if his treachery be as black as hell, his boldness may match
+that of the devil himself.”
+
+De Vaux, right glad, if the truth may be guessed, that the scene ended
+without Richard's descending to the unkingly act of himself slaying
+an unresisting prisoner, made haste to remove Sir Kenneth by a private
+issue to a separate tent, where he was disarmed, and put in fetters
+for security. De Vaux looked on with a steady and melancholy attention,
+while the provost's officers, to whom Sir Kenneth was now committed,
+took these severe precautions.
+
+When they were ended, he said solemnly to the unhappy criminal, “It is
+King Richard's pleasure that you die undegraded--without mutilation of
+your body, or shame to your arms--and that your head be severed from the
+trunk by the sword of the executioner.”
+
+“It is kind,” said the knight, in a low and rather submissive tone of
+voice, as one who received an unexpected favour; “my family will not
+then hear the worst of the tale. Oh, my father--my father!”
+
+This muttered invocation did not escape the blunt but kindly-natured
+Englishman, and he brushed the back of his large hand over his rough
+features ere he could proceed.
+
+“It is Richard of England's further pleasure,” he said at length, “that
+you have speech with a holy man; and I have met on the passage hither
+with a Carmelite friar, who may fit you for your passage. He waits
+without, until you are in a frame of mind to receive him.”
+
+“Let it be instantly,” said the knight. “In this also Richard is kind. I
+cannot be more fit to see the good father at any time than now; for life
+and I have taken farewell, as two travellers who have arrived at the
+crossway, where their roads separate.”
+
+“It is well,” said De Vaux slowly and solemnly; “for it irks me somewhat
+to say that which sums my message. It is King Richard's pleasure that
+you prepare for instant death.”
+
+“God's pleasure and the King's be done,” replied the knight patiently.
+“I neither contest the justice of the sentence, nor desire delay of the
+execution.”
+
+De Vaux began to leave the tent, but very slowly--paused at the door,
+and looked back at the Scot, from whose aspect thoughts of the world
+seemed banished, as if he was composing himself into deep devotion. The
+feelings of the stout English baron were in general none of the most
+acute, and yet, on the present occasion, his sympathy overpowered him in
+an unusual manner. He came hastily back to the bundle of reeds on which
+the captive lay, took one of his fettered hands, and said, with as much
+softness as his rough voice was capable of expressing, “Sir Kenneth,
+thou art yet young--thou hast a father. My Ralph, whom I left training
+his little galloway nag on the banks of the Irthing, may one day attain
+thy years, and, but for last night, would to God I saw his youth bear
+such promise as thine! Can nothing be said or done in thy behalf?”
+
+“Nothing,” was the melancholy answer. “I have deserted my charge--the
+banner entrusted to me is lost. When the headsman and block are
+prepared, the head and trunk are ready to part company.”
+
+“Nay, then, God have mercy!” said De Vaux. “Yet would I rather than my
+best horse I had taken that watch myself. There is mystery in it,
+young man, as a plain man may descry, though he cannot see through
+it. Cowardice? Pshaw! No coward ever fought as I have seen thee do.
+Treachery? I cannot think traitors die in their treason so calmly. Thou
+hast been trained from thy post by some deep guile--some well-devised
+stratagem--the cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or
+the laughful look of some merry one has taken thine eye. Never blush for
+it; we have all been led aside by such gear. Come, I pray thee, make a
+clean conscience of it to me, instead of the priest. Richard is merciful
+when his mood is abated. Hast thou nothing to entrust to me?”
+
+The unfortunate knight turned his face from the kind warrior, and
+answered, “NOTHING.”
+
+And De Vaux, who had exhausted his topics of persuasion, arose and left
+the tent, with folded arms, and in melancholy deeper than he thought
+the occasion merited--even angry with himself to find that so simple a
+matter as the death of a Scottish man could affect him so nearly.
+
+“Yet,” as he said to himself, “though the rough-footed knaves be
+our enemies in Cumberland, in Palestine one almost considers them as
+brethren.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     'Tis not her sense, for sure in that
+     There's nothing more than common;
+     And all her wit is only chat,
+     Like any other woman.
+        SONG.
+
+The high-born Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre, and
+the Queen-Consort of the heroic Richard, was accounted one of the most
+beautiful women of the period. Her form was slight, though exquisitely
+moulded. She was graced with a complexion not common in her country, a
+profusion of fair hair, and features so extremely juvenile as to make
+her look several years younger than she really was, though in reality
+she was not above one-and-twenty. Perhaps it was under the consciousness
+of this extremely juvenile appearance that she affected, or at least
+practised, a little childish petulance and wilfulness of manner, not
+unbefitting, she might suppose, a youthful bride, whose rank and age
+gave her a right to have her fantasies indulged and attended to. She was
+by nature perfectly good-humoured, and if her due share of admiration
+and homage (in her opinion a very large one) was duly resigned to her,
+no one could possess better temper or a more friendly disposition; but
+then, like all despots, the more power that was voluntarily yielded to
+her, the more she desired to extend her sway. Sometimes, even when all
+her ambition was gratified, she chose to be a little out of health, and
+a little out of spirits; and physicians had to toil their wits to invent
+names for imaginary maladies, while her ladies racked their imagination
+for new games, new head-gear, and new court-scandal, to pass away those
+unpleasant hours, during which their own situation was scarce to be
+greatly envied. Their most frequent resource for diverting this malady
+was some trick or piece of mischief practised upon each other; and
+the good Queen, in the buoyancy of her reviving spirits, was, to speak
+truth, rather too indifferent whether the frolics thus practised were
+entirely befitting her own dignity, or whether the pain which those
+suffered upon whom they were inflicted was not beyond the proportion of
+pleasure which she herself derived from them. She was confident in her
+husband's favour, in her high rank, and in her supposed power to make
+good whatever such pranks might cost others. In a word, she gambolled
+with the freedom of a young lioness, who is unconscious of the weight of
+her own paws when laid on those whom she sports with.
+
+The Queen Berengaria loved her husband passionately, but she feared the
+loftiness and roughness of his character; and as she felt herself not
+to be his match in intellect, was not much pleased to see that he would
+often talk with Edith Plantagenet in preference to herself,
+simply because he found more amusement in her conversation, a more
+comprehensive understanding, and a more noble cast of thoughts and
+sentiments, than his beautiful consort exhibited. Berengaria did
+not hate Edith on this account, far less meditate her any harm; for,
+allowing for some selfishness, her character was, on the whole, innocent
+and generous. But the ladies of her train, sharpsighted in such matters,
+had for some time discovered that a poignant jest at the expense of
+the Lady Edith was a specific for relieving her Grace of England's low
+spirits, and the discovery saved their imagination much toil.
+
+There was something ungenerous in this, because the Lady Edith was
+understood to be an orphan; and though she was called Plantagenet, and
+the fair Maid of Anjou, and admitted by Richard to certain privileges
+only granted to the royal family, and held her place in the circle
+accordingly, yet few knew, and none acquainted with the Court of England
+ventured to ask, in what exact degree of relationship she stood to
+Coeur de Lion. She had come with Eleanor, the celebrated Queen Mother of
+England, and joined Richard at Messina, as one of the ladies destined
+to attend on Berengaria, whose nuptials then approached. Richard treated
+his kinswoman with much respectful observance, and the Queen made her
+her most constant attendant, and, even in despite of the petty jealousy
+which we have observed, treated her, generally, with suitable respect.
+
+The ladies of the household had, for a long time, no further advantage
+over Edith than might be afforded by an opportunity of censuring a less
+artfully disposed head attire or an unbecoming robe; for the lady was
+judged to be inferior in these mysteries. The silent devotion of the
+Scottish knight did not, indeed, pass unnoticed; his liveries, his
+cognizances, his feats of arms, his mottoes and devices, were nearly
+watched, and occasionally made the subject of a passing jest. But then
+came the pilgrimage of the Queen and her ladies to Engaddi, a journey
+which the Queen had undertaken under a vow for the recovery of her
+husband's health, and which she had been encouraged to carry into effect
+by the Archbishop of Tyre for a political purpose. It was then, and in
+the chapel at that holy place, connected from above with a Carmelite
+nunnery, from beneath with the cell of the anchorite, that one of the
+Queen's attendants remarked that secret sign of intelligence which Edith
+had made to her lover, and failed not instantly to communicate it to
+her Majesty. The Queen returned from her pilgrimage enriched with this
+admirable recipe against dullness or ennui; and her train was at
+the same time augmented by a present of two wretched dwarfs from the
+dethroned Queen of Jerusalem, as deformed and as crazy (the excellence
+of that unhappy species) as any Queen could have desired. One of
+Berengaria's idle amusements had been to try the effect of the sudden
+appearance of such ghastly and fantastic forms on the nerves of the
+Knight when left alone in the chapel; but the jest had been lost by the
+composure of the Scot and the interference of the anchorite. She had now
+tried another, of which the consequences promised to be more serious.
+
+The ladies again met after Sir Kenneth had retired from the tent, and
+the Queen, at first little moved by Edith's angry expostulations, only
+replied to her by upbraiding her prudery, and by indulging her wit
+at the expense of the garb, nation, and, above all the poverty of the
+Knight of the Leopard, in which she displayed a good deal of playful
+malice, mingled with some humour, until Edith was compelled to carry her
+anxiety to her separate apartment. But when, in the morning, a female
+whom Edith had entrusted to make inquiry brought word that the Standard
+was missing, and its champion vanished, she burst into the Queen's
+apartment, and implored her to rise and proceed to the King's tent
+without delay, and use her powerful mediation to prevent the evil
+consequences of her jest.
+
+The Queen, frightened in her turn, cast, as is usual, the blame of her
+own folly on those around her, and endeavoured to comfort Edith's grief,
+and appease her displeasure, by a thousand inconsistent arguments. She
+was sure no harm had chanced--the knight was sleeping, she fancied,
+after his night-watch. What though, for fear of the King's displeasure,
+he had deserted with the Standard--it was but a piece of silk, and he
+but a needy adventurer; or if he was put under warding for a time,
+she would soon get the King to pardon him--it was but waiting to let
+Richard's mood pass away.
+
+Thus she continued talking thick and fast, and heaping together all
+sorts of inconsistencies, with the vain expectation of persuading both
+Edith and herself that no harm could come of a frolic which in her heart
+she now bitterly repented. But while Edith in vain strove to intercept
+this torrent of idle talk, she caught the eye of one of the ladies who
+entered the Queen's apartment. There was death in her look of affright
+and horror, and Edith, at the first glance of her countenance, had sunk
+at once on the earth, had not strong necessity and her own elevation of
+character enabled her to maintain at least external composure.
+
+“Madam,” she said to the Queen, “lose not another word in speaking, but
+save life--if, indeed,” she added, her voice choking as she said it,
+“life may yet be saved.”
+
+“It may, it may,” answered the Lady Calista. “I have just heard that he
+has been brought before the King. It is not yet over--but,” she
+added, bursting into a vehement flood of weeping, in which personal
+apprehensions had some share, “it will soon, unless some course be
+taken.”
+
+“I will vow a golden candlestick to the Holy Sepulchre, a shrine of
+silver to our Lady of Engaddi, a pall, worth one hundred byzants, to
+Saint Thomas of Orthez,” said the Queen in extremity.
+
+“Up, up, madam!” said Edith; “call on the saints if you list, but be
+your own best saint.”
+
+“Indeed, madam,” said the terrified attendant, “the Lady Edith speaks
+truth. Up, madam, and let us to King Richard's tent and beg the poor
+gentleman's life.”
+
+“I will go--I will go instantly,” said the Queen, rising and trembling
+excessively; while her women, in as great confusion as herself, were
+unable to render her those duties which were indispensable to her levee.
+Calm, composed, only pale as death, Edith ministered to the Queen
+with her own hand, and alone supplied the deficiencies of her numerous
+attendants.
+
+“How you wait, wenches!” said the Queen, not able even then to forget
+frivolous distinctions. “Suffer ye the Lady Edith to do the duties of
+your attendance? Seest thou, Edith, they can do nothing; I shall never
+be attired in time. We will send for the Archbishop of Tyre, and employ
+him as a mediator.”
+
+“Oh, no, no!” exclaimed Edith. “Go yourself madam; you have done the
+evil, do you confer the remedy.”
+
+“I will go--I will go,” said the Queen; “but if Richard be in his mood,
+I dare not speak to him--he will kill me!”
+
+“Yet go, gracious madam,” said the Lady Calista, who best knew her
+mistress's temper; “not a lion, in his fury, could look upon such a face
+and form, and retain so much as an angry thought, far less a love-true
+knight like the royal Richard, to whom your slightest word would be a
+command.”
+
+“Dost thou think so, Calista?” said the Queen. “Ah, thou little knowest
+yet I will go. But see you here, what means this? You have bedizened
+me in green, a colour he detests. Lo you! let me have a blue robe,
+and--search for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of
+Cyprus's ransom; it is either in the steel casket, or somewhere else.”
+
+“This, and a man's life at stake!” said Edith indignantly; “it passes
+human patience. Remain at your ease, madam; I will go to King Richard. I
+am a party interested. I will know if the honour of a poor maiden of
+his blood is to be so far tampered with that her name shall be abused to
+train a brave gentleman from his duty, bring him within the compass of
+death and infamy, and make, at the same time, the glory of England a
+laughing-stock to the whole Christian army.”
+
+At this unexpected burst of passion, Berengaria listened with an almost
+stupefied look of fear and wonder. But as Edith was about to leave the
+tent, she exclaimed, though faintly, “Stop her, stop her!”
+
+“You must indeed stop, noble Lady Edith,” said Calista, taking her arm
+gently; “and you, royal madam, I am sure, will go, and without
+further dallying. If the Lady Edith goes alone to the King, he will be
+dreadfully incensed, nor will it be one life that will stay his fury.”
+
+“I will go--I will go,” said the Queen, yielding to necessity; and Edith
+reluctantly halted to wait her movements.
+
+They were now as speedy as she could have desired. The Queen hastily
+wrapped herself in a large loose mantle, which covered all inaccuracies
+of the toilet. In this guise, attended by Edith and her women, and
+preceded and followed by a few officers and men-at-arms, she hastened to
+the tent of her lionlike husband.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     Were every hair upon his head a life,
+     And every life were to be supplicated
+     By numbers equal to those hairs quadrupled,
+     Life after life should out like waning stars
+     Before the daybreak--or as festive lamps,
+     Which have lent lustre to the midnight revel,
+     Each after each are quench'd when guests depart!
+          OLD PLAY
+
+
+The entrance of Queen Berengaria into the interior of Richard's pavilion
+was withstood--in the most respectful and reverential manner indeed, but
+still withstood--by the chamberlains who watched in the outer tent. She
+could hear the stern command of the King from within, prohibiting their
+entrance.
+
+“You see,” said the Queen, appealing to Edith, as if she had exhausted
+all means of intercession in her power; “I knew it--the King will not
+receive us.”
+
+At the same time, they heard Richard speak to some one within:--“Go,
+speed thine office quickly, sirrah, for in that consists thy mercy--ten
+byzants if thou dealest on him at one blow. And hark thee, villain,
+observe if his cheek loses colour, or his eye falters; mark me the
+smallest twitch of the features, or wink of the eyelid. I love to know
+how brave souls meet death.”
+
+“If he sees my blade waved aloft without shrinking, he is the first ever
+did so,” answered a harsh, deep voice, which a sense of unusual awe had
+softened into a sound much lower than its usual coarse tones.
+
+Edith could remain silent no longer. “If your Grace,” she said to the
+Queen, “make not your own way, I make it for you; or if not for your
+Majesty, for myself at least.--Chamberlain, the Queen demands to see
+King Richard--the wife to speak with her husband.”
+
+“Noble lady,” said the officer, lowering his wand of office, “it grieves
+me to gainsay you, but his Majesty is busied on matters of life and
+death.”
+
+“And we seek also to speak with him on matters of life and death,” said
+Edith. “I will make entrance for your Grace.” And putting aside the
+chamberlain with one hand, she laid hold on the curtain with the other.
+
+“I dare not gainsay her Majesty's pleasure,” said the chamberlain,
+yielding to the vehemence of the fair petitioner; and as he gave way,
+the Queen found herself obliged to enter the apartment of Richard.
+
+The Monarch was lying on his couch, and at some distance, as awaiting
+his further commands, stood a man whose profession it was not difficult
+to conjecture. He was clothed in a jerkin of red cloth, which reached
+scantly below the shoulders, leaving the arms bare from about half way
+above the elbow; and as an upper garment, he wore, when about as at
+present to betake himself to his dreadful office, a coat or tabard
+without sleeves, something like that of a herald, made of dressed bull's
+hide, and stained in the front with many a broad spot and speckle of
+dull crimson. The jerkin, and the tabard over it, reached the knee; and
+the nether stocks, or covering of the legs, were of the same leather
+which composed the tabard. A cap of rough shag served to hide the upper
+part of a visage which, like that of a screech owl, seemed desirous to
+conceal itself from light, the lower part of the face being obscured by
+a huge red beard, mingling with shaggy locks of the same colour. What
+features were seen were stern and misanthropical. The man's figure was
+short, strongly made, with a neck like a bull, very broad shoulders,
+arms of great and disproportioned length, a huge square trunk, and thick
+bandy legs. This truculent official leant on a sword, the blade of which
+was nearly four feet and a half in length, while the handle of twenty
+inches, surrounded by a ring of lead plummets to counterpoise the weight
+of such a blade, rose considerably above the man's head as he rested his
+arm upon its hilt, waiting for King Richard's further directions.
+
+On the sudden entrance of the ladies, Richard, who was then lying on his
+couch with his face towards the entrance, and resting on his elbow as he
+spoke to his grisly attendant, flung himself hastily, as if displeased
+and surprised, to the other side, turning his back to the Queen and the
+females of her train, and drawing around him the covering of his couch,
+which, by his own choice, or more probably the flattering selection of
+his chamberlains, consisted of two large lions' skins, dressed in Venice
+with such admirable skill that they seemed softer than the hide of the
+deer.
+
+Berengaria, such as we have described her, knew well--what woman knows
+not?--her own road to victory. After a hurried glance of undisguised
+and unaffected terror at the ghastly companion of her husband's secret
+counsels, she rushed at once to the side of Richard's couch, dropped on
+her knees, flung her mantle from her shoulders, showing, as they hung
+down at their full length, her beautiful golden tresses, and while her
+countenance seemed like the sun bursting through a cloud, yet bearing
+on its pallid front traces that its splendours have been obscured, she
+seized upon the right hand of the King, which, as he assumed his wonted
+posture, had been employed in dragging the covering of his couch, and
+gradually pulling it to her with a force which was resisted, though but
+faintly, she possessed herself of that arm, the prop of Christendom
+and the dread of Heathenesse, and imprisoning its strength in both her
+little fairy hands, she bent upon it her brow, and united to it her
+lips.
+
+“What needs this, Berengaria?” said Richard, his head still averted, but
+his hand remaining under her control.
+
+“Send away that man, his look kills me!” muttered Berengaria.
+
+“Begone, sirrah,” said Richard, still without looking round, “What
+wait'st thou for? art thou fit to look on these ladies?”
+
+“Your Highness's pleasure touching the head,” said the man.
+
+“Out with thee, dog!” answered Richard--“a Christian burial!” The man
+disappeared, after casting a look upon the beautiful Queen, in her
+deranged dress and natural loveliness, with a smile of admiration more
+hideous in its expression than even his usual scowl of cynical hatred
+against humanity.
+
+“And now, foolish wench, what wishest thou?” said Richard, turning
+slowly and half reluctantly round to his royal suppliant.
+
+But it was not in nature for any one, far less an admirer of beauty
+like Richard, to whom it stood only in the second rank to glory, to
+look without emotion on the countenance and the tremor of a creature so
+beautiful as Berengaria, or to feel, without sympathy, that her lips,
+her brow, were on his hand, and that it was wetted by her tears. By
+degrees, he turned on her his manly countenance, with the softest
+expression of which his large blue eye, which so often gleamed with
+insufferable light, was capable. Caressing her fair head, and mingling
+his large fingers in her beautiful and dishevelled locks, he raised and
+tenderly kissed the cherub countenance which seemed desirous to hide
+itself in his hand. The robust form, the broad, noble brow and majestic
+looks, the naked arm and shoulder, the lions' skins among which he lay,
+and the fair, fragile feminine creature that kneeled by his side,
+might have served for a model of Hercules reconciling himself, after a
+quarrel, to his wife Dejanira.
+
+“And, once more, what seeks the lady of my heart in her knight's
+pavilion at this early and unwonted hour?”
+
+“Pardon, my most gracious liege--pardon!” said the Queen, whose fears
+began again to unfit her for the duty of intercessor.
+
+“Pardon--for what?” asked the King.
+
+“First, for entering your royal presence too boldly and unadvisedly--”
+
+She stopped.
+
+“THOU too boldly!--the sun might as well ask pardon because his rays
+entered the windows of some wretch's dungeon. But I was busied with work
+unfit for thee to witness, my gentle one; and I was unwilling, besides,
+that thou shouldst risk thy precious health where sickness had been so
+lately rife.”
+
+“But thou art now well?” said the Queen, still delaying the
+communication which she feared to make.
+
+“Well enough to break a lance on the bold crest of that champion who
+shall refuse to acknowledge thee the fairest dame in Christendom.”
+
+“Thou wilt not then refuse me one boon--only one--only a poor life?”
+
+“Ha!--proceed,” said King Richard, bending his brows.
+
+“This unhappy Scottish knight--” murmured the Queen.
+
+“Speak not of him, madam,” exclaimed Richard sternly; “he dies--his doom
+is fixed.”
+
+“Nay, my royal liege and love, 'tis but a silken banner neglected.
+Berengaria will give thee another broidered with her own hand, and rich
+as ever dallied with the wind. Every pearl I have shall go to bedeck it,
+and with every pearl I will drop a tear of thankfulness to my generous
+knight.”
+
+“Thou knowest not what thou sayest,” said the King, interrupting her in
+anger. “Pearls! can all the pearls of the East atone for a speck upon
+England's honour--all the tears that ever woman's eye wept wash away a
+stain on Richard's fame? Go to, madam, know your place, and your time,
+and your sphere. At present we have duties in which you cannot be our
+partner.”
+
+“Thou hearest, Edith,” whispered the Queen; “we shall but incense him.”
+
+“Be it so,” said Edith, stepping forward.--“My lord, I, your poor
+kinswoman, crave you for justice rather than mercy; and to the cry of
+justice the ears of a monarch should be open at every time, place, and
+circumstance.”
+
+“Ha! our cousin Edith?” said Richard, rising and sitting upright on
+the side of his couch, covered with his long camiscia. “She speaks
+ever kinglike, and kinglike will I answer her, so she bring no request
+unworthy herself or me.”
+
+The beauty of Edith was of a more intellectual and less voluptuous
+cast than that of the Queen; but impatience and anxiety had given
+her countenance a glow which it sometimes wanted, and her mien had a
+character of energetic dignity that imposed silence for a moment even
+on Richard himself, who, to judge by his looks, would willingly have
+interrupted her.
+
+“My lord,” she said, “this good knight, whose blood you are about to
+spill, hath done, in his time, service to Christendom. He has fallen
+from his duty through a snare set for him in mere folly and idleness of
+spirit. A message sent to him in the name of one who--why should I not
+speak it?--it was in my own--induced him for an instant to leave his
+post. And what knight in the Christian camp might not have thus far
+transgressed at command of a maiden, who, poor howsoever in other
+qualities, hath yet the blood of Plantagenet in her veins?”
+
+“And you saw him, then, cousin?” replied the King, biting his lips to
+keep down his passion.
+
+“I did, my liege,” said Edith. “It is no time to explain wherefore. I am
+here neither to exculpate myself nor to blame others.”
+
+“And where did you do him such a grace?”
+
+“In the tent of her Majesty the Queen.”
+
+“Of our royal consort!” said Richard. “Now by Heaven, by Saint George
+of England, and every other saint that treads its crystal floor, this
+is too audacious! I have noticed and overlooked this warrior's insolent
+admiration of one so far above him, and I grudged him not that one of
+my blood should shed from her high-born sphere such influence as the
+sun bestows on the world beneath. But, heaven and earth! that you should
+have admitted him to an audience by night, in the very tent of our royal
+consort!--and dare to offer this as an excuse for his disobedience and
+desertion! By my father's soul, Edith, thou shalt rue this thy life long
+in a monastery!”
+
+“My liege,” said Edith, “your greatness licenses tyranny. My honour,
+Lord King, is as little touched as yours, and my Lady the Queen can
+prove it if she think fit. But I have already said I am not here to
+excuse myself or inculpate others. I ask you but to extend to one, whose
+fault was committed under strong temptation, that mercy, which even you
+yourself, Lord King, must one day supplicate at a higher tribunal, and
+for faults, perhaps, less venial.”
+
+“Can this be Edith Plantagenet?” said the King bitterly--“Edith
+Plantagenet, the wise and the noble? Or is it some lovesick woman who
+cares not for her own fame in comparison of the life of her paramour?
+Now, by King Henry's soul! little hinders but I order thy minion's skull
+to be brought from the gibbet, and fixed as a perpetual ornament by the
+crucifix in thy cell!”
+
+“And if thou dost send it from the gibbet to be placed for ever in my
+sight,” said Edith, “I will say it is a relic of a good knight, cruelly
+and unworthily done to death by” (she checked herself)--“by one of whom
+I shall only say, he should have known better how to reward chivalry.
+Minion callest thou him?” she continued, with increasing vehemence. “He
+was indeed my lover, and a most true one; but never sought he grace from
+me by look or word--contented with such humble observance as men pay to
+the saints. And the good--the valiant--the faithful must die for this!”
+
+“Oh, peace, peace, for pity's sake,” whispered the Queen, “you do but
+offend him more!”
+
+“I care not,” said Edith; “the spotless virgin fears not the raging
+lion. Let him work his will on this worthy knight. Edith, for whom he
+dies, will know how to weep his memory. To me no one shall speak more of
+politic alliances to be sanctioned with this poor hand. I could not--I
+would not--have been his bride living--our degrees were too distant. But
+death unites the high and the low--I am henceforward the spouse of the
+grave.”
+
+The King was about to answer with much anger, when a Carmelite monk
+entered the apartment hastily, his head and person muffled in the
+long mantle and hood of striped cloth of the coarsest texture which
+distinguished his order, and, flinging himself on his knees before the
+King, conjured him, by every holy word and sign, to stop the execution.
+
+“Now, by both sword and sceptre,” said Richard, “the world is leagued to
+drive me mad!--fools, women, and monks cross me at every step. How comes
+he to live still?”
+
+“My gracious liege,” said the monk, “I entreated of the Lord of Gilsland
+to stay the execution until I had thrown myself at your royal--”
+
+“And he was wilful enough to grant thy request,” said the King; “but
+it is of a piece with his wonted obstinacy. And what is it thou hast to
+say? Speak, in the fiend's name!”
+
+“My lord, there is a weighty secret, but it rests under the seal of
+confession. I dare not tell or even whisper it; but I swear to thee
+by my holy order, by the habit which I wear, by the blessed Elias, our
+founder, even him who was translated without suffering the ordinary
+pangs of mortality, that this youth hath divulged to me a secret, which,
+if I might confide it to thee, would utterly turn thee from thy bloody
+purpose in regard to him.”
+
+“Good father,” said Richard, “that I reverence the church, let the arms
+which I now wear for her sake bear witness. Give me to know this secret,
+and I will do what shall seem fitting in the matter. But I am no
+blind Bayard, to take a leap in the dark under the stroke of a pair of
+priestly spurs.”
+
+“My lord,” said the holy man, throwing back his cowl and upper vesture,
+and discovering under the latter a garment of goatskin, and from beneath
+the former a visage so wildly wasted by climate, fast, and penance, as
+to resemble rather the apparition of an animated skeleton than a human
+face, “for twenty years have I macerated this miserable body in the
+caverns of Engaddi, doing penance for a great crime. Think you I, who am
+dead to the world, would contrive a falsehood to endanger my own soul;
+or that one, bound by the most sacred oaths to the contrary--one such
+as I, who have but one longing wish connected with earth, to wit,
+the rebuilding of our Christian Zion--would betray the secrets of the
+confessional? Both are alike abhorrent to my very soul.”
+
+“So,” answered the King, “thou art that hermit of whom men speak so
+much? Thou art, I confess, like enough to those spirits which walk in
+dry places; but Richard fears no hobgoblins. And thou art he, too, as
+I bethink me, to whom the Christian princes sent this very criminal to
+open a communication with the Soldan, even while I, who ought to have
+been first consulted, lay on my sick-bed? Thou and they may content
+themselves--I will not put my neck into the loop of a Carmelite's
+girdle. And, for your envoy, he shall die the rather and the sooner that
+thou dost entreat for him.”
+
+“Now God be gracious to thee, Lord King!” said the hermit, with much
+emotion; “thou art setting that mischief on foot which thou wilt
+hereafter wish thou hadst stopped, though it had cost thee a limb. Rash,
+blinded man, yet forbear!”
+
+“Away, away,” cried the King, stamping; “the sun has risen on the
+dishonour of England, and it is not yet avenged.--Ladies and priest,
+withdraw, if you would not hear orders which would displease you; for,
+by St. George, I swear--”
+
+“Swear NOT!” said the voice of one who had just then entered the
+pavilion.
+
+“Ha! my learned Hakim,” said the King, “come, I hope, to tax our
+generosity.”
+
+“I come to request instant speech with you--instant--and touching
+matters of deep interest.”
+
+“First look on my wife, Hakim, and let her know in you the preserver of
+her husband.”
+
+“It is not for me,” said the physician, folding his arms with an air of
+Oriental modesty and reverence, and bending his eyes on the ground--“it
+is not for me to look upon beauty unveiled, and armed in its
+splendours.”
+
+“Retire, then, Berengaria,” said the Monarch; “and, Edith, do you retire
+also;--nay, renew not your importunities! This I give to them that
+the execution shall not be till high noon. Go and be pacified--dearest
+Berengaria, begone.--Edith,” he added, with a glance which struck terror
+even into the courageous soul of his kinswoman, “go, if you are wise.”
+
+The females withdrew, or rather hurried from the tent, rank and ceremony
+forgotten, much like a flock of wild-fowl huddled together, against whom
+the falcon has made a recent stoop.
+
+They returned from thence to the Queen's pavilion to indulge in regrets
+and recriminations, equally unavailing. Edith was the only one who
+seemed to disdain these ordinary channels of sorrow. Without a sigh,
+without a tear, without a word of upbraiding, she attended upon the
+Queen, whose weak temperament showed her sorrow in violent hysterical
+ecstasies and passionate hypochondriacal effusions, in the course of
+which Edith sedulously and even affectionately attended her.
+
+“It is impossible she can have loved this knight,” said Florise to
+Calista, her senior in attendance upon the Queen's person. “We have been
+mistaken; she is but sorry for his fate, as for a stranger who has come
+to trouble on her account.”
+
+“Hush, hush,” answered her more experienced and more observant comrade;
+“she is of that proud house of Plantagenet who never own that a hurt
+grieves them. While they have themselves been bleeding to death, under a
+mortal wound, they have been known to bind up the scratches sustained
+by their more faint-hearted comrades. Florise, we have done frightfully
+wrong, and, for my own part, I would buy with every jewel I have that
+our fatal jest had remained unacted.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     This work desires a planetary intelligence
+     Of Jupiter and Sol; and those great spirits
+     Are proud, fantastical. It asks great charges
+     To entice them from the guiding of their spheres,
+     To wait on mortals.
+            ALBUMAZAR.
+
+The hermit followed the ladies from the pavilion of Richard, as shadow
+follows a beam of sunshine when the clouds are driving over the face of
+the sun. But he turned on the threshold, and held up his hand towards
+the King in a warning, or almost a menacing posture, as he said, “Woe to
+him who rejects the counsel of the church, and betaketh himself to the
+foul divan of the infidel! King Richard, I do not yet shake the dust
+from my feet and depart from thy encampment; the sword falls not--but it
+hangs but by a hair. Haughty monarch, we shall meet again.”
+
+“Be it so, haughty priest,” returned Richard, “prouder in thy goatskins
+than princes in purple and fine linen.”
+
+The hermit vanished from the tent, and the King continued, addressing
+the Arabian, “Do the dervises of the East, wise Hakim, use such
+familiarity with their princes?”
+
+“The dervise,” replied Adonbec, “should be either a sage or a madman;
+there is no middle course for him who wears the khirkhah, [Literally,
+the torn robe. The habit of the dervises is so called.] who watches
+by night, and fasts by day. Hence hath he either wisdom enough to bear
+himself discreetly in the presence of princes; or else, having no reason
+bestowed on him, he is not responsible for his own actions.”
+
+“Methinks our monks have adopted chiefly the latter character,” said
+Richard. “But to the matter. In what can I pleasure you, my learned
+physician?”
+
+“Great King,” said El Hakim, making his profound Oriental obeisance,
+“let thy servant speak one word, and yet live. I would remind thee
+that thou owest--not to me, their humble instrument--but to the
+Intelligences, whose benefits I dispense to mortals, a life--”
+
+“And I warrant me thou wouldst have another in requital, ha?”
+ interrupted the King.
+
+“Such is my humble prayer,” said the Hakim, “to the great Melech
+Ric--even the life of this good knight, who is doomed to die, and
+but for such fault as was committed by the Sultan Adam, surnamed
+Aboulbeschar, or the father of all men.”
+
+“And thy wisdom might remind thee, Hakim, that Adam died for it,” said
+the King, somewhat sternly, and then began to pace the narrow space of
+his tent with some emotion, and to talk to himself. “Why, God-a-mercy,
+I knew what he desired as soon as ever he entered the pavilion! Here
+is one poor life justly condemned to extinction, and I, a king and a
+soldier, who have slain thousands by my command, and scores with my own
+hand, am to have no power over it, although the honour of my arms, of
+my house, of my very Queen, hath been attainted by the culprit. By Saint
+George, it makes me laugh! By Saint Louis, it reminds me of Blondel's
+tale of an enchanted castle, where the destined knight was withstood
+successively in his purpose of entrance by forms and figures the most
+dissimilar, but all hostile to his undertaking! No sooner one sunk than
+another appeared! Wife--kinswoman--hermit--Hakim-each appears in the
+lists as soon as the other is defeated! Why, this is a single knight
+fighting against the whole MELEE of the tournament--ha! ha! ha!” And
+Richard laughed aloud; for he had, in fact, begun to change his mood,
+his resentment being usually too violent to be of long endurance.
+
+The physician meanwhile looked on him with a countenance of surprise,
+not unmingled with contempt; for the Eastern people make no allowance
+for these mercurial changes in the temper, and consider open laughter,
+upon almost any account, as derogatory to the dignity of man, and
+becoming only to women and children. At length the sage addressed the
+King when he saw him more composed:--
+
+“A doom of death should not issue from laughing lips. Let thy servant
+hope that thou hast granted him this man's life.”
+
+“Take the freedom of a thousand captives instead,” said Richard;
+“restore so many of thy countrymen to their tents and families, and I
+will give the warrant instantly. This man's life can avail thee nothing,
+and it is forfeited.”
+
+“All our lives are forfeited,” said the Hakim, putting his hand to his
+cap. “But the great Creditor is merciful, and exacts not the pledge
+rigorously nor untimely.”
+
+“Thou canst show me,” said Richard, “no special interest thou hast to
+become intercessor betwixt me and the execution of justice, to which I
+am sworn as a crowned king.”
+
+“Thou art sworn to the dealing forth mercy as well as justice,” said El
+Hakim; “but what thou seekest, great King, is the execution of thine own
+will. And for the concern I have in this request, know that many a man's
+life depends upon thy granting this boon.”
+
+“Explain thy words,” said Richard; “but think not to impose upon me by
+false pretexts.”
+
+“Be it far from thy servant!” said Adonbec. “Know, then, that the
+medicine to which thou, Sir King, and many one besides, owe their
+recovery, is a talisman, composed under certain aspects of the heavens,
+when the Divine Intelligences are most propitious. I am but the poor
+administrator of its virtues. I dip it in a cup of water, observe the
+fitting hour to administer it to the patient, and the potency of the
+draught works the cure.”
+
+“A most rare medicine,” said the King, “and a commodious! and, as it may
+be carried in the leech's purse, would save the whole caravan of camels
+which they require to convey drugs and physic stuff; I marvel there is
+any other in use.”
+
+“It is written,” answered the Hakim, with imperturbable gravity, “'Abuse
+not the steed which hath borne thee from the battle.' Know that such
+talismans might indeed be framed, but rare has been the number of adepts
+who have dared to undertake the application of their virtue. Severe
+restrictions, painful observances, fasts, and penance, are necessary on
+the part of the sage who uses this mode of cure; and if, through neglect
+of these preparations, by his love of ease, or his indulgence of sensual
+appetite, he omits to cure at least twelve persons within the course of
+each moon, the virtue of the divine gift departs from the amulet,
+and both the last patient and the physician will be exposed to speedy
+misfortune, neither will they survive the year. I require yet one life
+to make up the appointed number.”
+
+“Go out into the camp, good Hakim, where thou wilt find a-many,” said
+the King, “and do not seek to rob my headsman of HIS patients; it is
+unbecoming a mediciner of thine eminence to interfere with the practice
+of another. Besides, I cannot see how delivering a criminal from the
+death he deserves should go to make up thy tale of miraculous cures.”
+
+“When thou canst show why a draught of cold water should have cured
+thee when the most precious drugs failed,” said the Hakim, “thou mayest
+reason on the other mysteries attendant on this matter. For myself, I
+am inefficient to the great work, having this morning touched an unclean
+animal. Ask, therefore, no further questions; it is enough that, by
+sparing this man's life at my request, you will deliver yourself, great
+King, and thy servant, from a great danger.”
+
+“Hark thee, Adonbec,” replied the King, “I have no objection that
+leeches should wrap their words in mist, and pretend to derive knowledge
+from the stars; but when you bid Richard Plantagenet fear that a danger
+will fall upon HIM from some idle omen, or omitted ceremonial, you speak
+to no ignorant Saxon, or doting old woman, who foregoes her purpose
+because a hare crosses the path, a raven croaks, or a cat sneezes.”
+
+“I cannot hinder your doubt of my words,” said Adonbec; “but yet let my
+Lord the King grant that truth is on the tongue of his servant--will he
+think it just to deprive the world, and every wretch who may suffer by
+the pains which so lately reduced him to that couch, of the benefit of
+this most virtuous talisman, rather than extend his forgiveness to one
+poor criminal? Bethink you, Lord King, that, though thou canst slay
+thousands, thou canst not restore one man to health. Kings have the
+power of Satan to torment, sages that of Allah to heal--beware how thou
+hinderest the good to humanity which thou canst not thyself render. Thou
+canst cut off the head, but not cure the aching tooth.”
+
+“This is over-insolent,” said the King, hardening himself, as the Hakim
+assumed a more lofty and almost a commanding tone. “We took thee for our
+leech, not for our counsellor or conscience-keeper.”
+
+“And is it thus the most renowned Prince of Frangistan repays benefit
+done to his royal person?” said El Hakim, exchanging the humble and
+stooping posture in which he had hitherto solicited the King, for an
+attitude lofty and commanding. “Know, then,” he said, “that: through
+every court of Europe and Asia--to Moslem and Nazarene--to knight and
+lady--wherever harp is heard and sword worn--wherever honour is loved
+and infamy detested--to every quarter of the world--will I denounce
+thee, Melech Ric, as thankless and ungenerous; and even the lands--if
+there be any such--that never heard of thy renown shall yet be
+acquainted with thy shame!”
+
+“Are these terms to me, vile infidel?” said Richard, striding up to him
+in fury. “Art weary of thy life?”
+
+“Strike!” said El Hakim; “thine own deed shall then paint thee more
+worthless than could my words, though each had a hornet's sting.”
+
+Richard turned fiercely from him, folded his arms, traversed the tent
+as before, and then exclaimed, “Thankless and ungenerous!--as well be
+termed coward and infidel! Hakim, thou hast chosen thy boon; and though
+I had rather thou hadst asked my crown jewels, yet I may not, kinglike,
+refuse thee. Take this Scot, therefore, to thy keeping; the provost will
+deliver him to thee on this warrant.”
+
+He hastily traced one or two lines, and gave them to the physician. “Use
+him as thy bond-slave, to be disposed of as thou wilt--only, let him
+beware how he comes before the eyes of Richard. Hark thee--thou art
+wise--he hath been over-bold among those in whose fair looks and weak
+judgments we trust our honour, as you of the East lodge your treasures
+in caskets of silver wire, as fine and as frail as the web of a
+gossamer.”
+
+“Thy servant understands the words of the King,” said the sage, at once
+resuming the reverent style of address in which he had commenced. “When
+the rich carpet is soiled, the fool pointeth to the stain--the wise man
+covers it with his mantle. I have heard my lord's pleasure, and to hear
+is to obey.”
+
+“It is well,” said the King; “let him consult his own safety, and never
+appear in my presence more. Is there aught else in which I may do thee
+pleasure?”
+
+“The bounty of the King hath filled my cup to the brim,” said the
+sage--“yea, it hath been abundant as the fountain which sprung up amid
+the camp of the descendants of Israel when the rock was stricken by the
+rod of Moussa Ben Amram.”
+
+“Ay, but,” said the King, smiling, “it required, as in the desert, a
+hard blow on the rock ere it yielded its treasures. I would that I knew
+something to pleasure thee, which I might yield as freely as the natural
+fountain sends forth its waters.”
+
+“Let me touch that victorious hand,” said the sage, “in token that if
+Adonbec el Hakim should hereafter demand a boon of Richard of England,
+he may do so, yet plead his command.”
+
+“Thou hast hand and glove upon it, man,” replied Richard; “only, if thou
+couldst consistently make up thy tale of patients without craving me
+to deliver from punishment those who have deserved it, I would more
+willingly discharge my debt in some other form.”
+
+“May thy days be multiplied!” answered the Hakim, and withdrew from the
+apartment after the usual deep obeisance.
+
+King Richard gazed after him as he departed, like one but half-satisfied
+with what had passed.
+
+“Strange pertinacity,” he said, “in this Hakim, and a wonderful chance
+to interfere between that audacious Scot and the chastisement he has
+merited so richly. Yet let him live! there is one brave man the more in
+the world. And now for the Austrian. Ho! is the Baron of Gilsland there
+without?”
+
+Sir Thomas de Vaux thus summoned, his bulky form speedily darkened
+the opening of the pavilion, while behind him glided as a spectre,
+unannounced, yet unopposed, the savage form of the hermit of Engaddi,
+wrapped in his goatskin mantle.
+
+Richard, without noticing his presence, called in a loud tone to the
+baron, “Sir Thomas de Vaux, of Lanercost and Gilsland, take trumpet and
+herald, and go instantly to the tent of him whom they call Archduke of
+Austria, and see that it be when the press of his knights and vassals
+is greatest around him, as is likely at this hour, for the German
+boar breakfasts ere he hears mass--enter his presence with as little
+reverence as thou mayest, and impeach him, on the part of Richard of
+England, that he hath this night, by his own hand, or that of others,
+stolen from its staff the Banner of England. Wherefore say to him our
+pleasure that within an hour from the time of my speaking he restore
+the said banner with all reverence--he himself and his principal barons
+waiting the whilst with heads uncovered, and without their robes of
+honour. And that, moreover, he pitch beside it, on the one hand, his own
+Banner of Austria reversed, as that which hath been dishonoured by theft
+and felony, and on the other, a lance, bearing the bloody head of him
+who was his nearest counsellor, or assistant, in this base injury. And
+say, that such our behests being punctually discharged we will, for
+the sake of our vow and the weal of the Holy Land, forgive his other
+forfeits.”
+
+“And how if the Duke of Austria deny all accession to this act of wrong
+and of felony?” said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+“Tell him,” replied the King, “we will prove it upon his body--ay, were
+he backed with his two bravest champions. Knightlike will we prove it,
+on foot or on horse, in the desert or in the field, time, place, and
+arms all at his own choice.”
+
+“Bethink you of the peace of God and the church, my liege lord,”
+ said the Baron of Gilsland, “among those princes engaged in this holy
+Crusade.”
+
+“Bethink you how to execute my commands, my liege vassal,” answered
+Richard impatiently. “Methinks men expect to turn our purpose by their
+breath, as boys blow feathers to and fro. Peace of the church! Who, I
+prithee, minds it? The peace of the church, among Crusaders, implies war
+with the Saracens, with whom the princes have made truce; and the one
+ends with the other. And besides, see you not how every prince of them
+is seeking his own several ends? I will seek mine also--and that is
+honour. For honour I came hither; and if I may not win it upon the
+Saracens, at least I will not lose a jot from any respect to this paltry
+Duke, though he were bulwarked and buttressed by every prince in the
+Crusade.”
+
+De Vaux turned to obey the King's mandate, shrugging his shoulders at
+the same time, the bluntness of his nature being unable to conceal that
+its tenor went against his judgment. But the hermit of Engaddi stepped
+forward, and assumed the air of one charged with higher commands than
+those of a mere earthly potentate. Indeed, his dress of shaggy skins,
+his uncombed and untrimmed hair and beard, his lean, wild, and contorted
+features, and the almost insane fire which gleamed from under his
+bushy eyebrows, made him approach nearly to our idea of some seer of
+Scripture, who, charged with high mission to the sinful Kings of Judah
+or Israel, descended from the rocks and caverns in which he dwelt in
+abstracted solitude, to abash earthly tyrants in the midst of their
+pride, by discharging on them the blighting denunciations of Divine
+Majesty, even as the cloud discharges the lightnings with which it is
+fraught on the pinnacles and towers of castles and palaces. In the
+midst of his most wayward mood, Richard respected the church and its
+ministers; and though offended at the intrusion of the hermit into his
+tent, he greeted him with respect--at the same time, however, making a
+sign to Sir Thomas de Vaux to hasten on his message.
+
+But the hermit prohibited the baron, by gesture, look, and word, to stir
+a yard on such an errand; and holding up his bare arm, from which the
+goatskin mantle fell back in the violence of his action, he waved it
+aloft, meagre with famine, and wealed with the blows of the discipline.
+
+“In the name of God, and of the most holy Father, the vicegerent of the
+Christian Church upon earth, I prohibit this most profane, bloodthirsty,
+and brutal defiance betwixt two Christian princes, whose shoulders are
+signed with the blessed mark under which they swore brotherhood. Woe
+to him by whom it is broken!--Richard of England, recall the most
+unhallowed message thou hast given to that baron. Danger and death are
+nigh thee!--the dagger is glancing at thy very throat!--”
+
+“Danger and death are playmates to Richard,” answered the Monarch
+proudly; “and he hath braved too many swords to fear a dagger.”
+
+“Danger and death are near,” replied the seer, and sinking his voice to
+a hollow, unearthly tone, he added, “And after death the judgment!”
+
+“Good and holy father,” said Richard, “I reverence thy person and thy
+sanctity--”
+
+“Reverence not me!” interrupted the hermit; “reverence sooner the vilest
+insect that crawls by the shores of the Dead Sea, and feeds upon its
+accursed slime. But reverence Him whose commands I speak--reverence Him
+whose sepulchre you have vowed to rescue--revere the oath of concord
+which you have sworn, and break not the silver cord of union
+and fidelity with which you have bound yourself to your princely
+confederates.”
+
+“Good father,” said the King, “you of the church seem to me to presume
+somewhat, if a layman may say so much, upon the dignity of your
+holy character. Without challenging your right to take charge of our
+conscience, methinks you might leave us the charge of our own honour.”
+
+“Presume!” repeated the hermit. “Is it for me to presume, royal Richard,
+who am but the bell obeying the hand of the sexton--but the senseless
+and worthless trumpet carrying the command of him who sounds it? See,
+on my knees I throw myself before thee, imploring thee to have mercy on
+Christendom, on England, and on thyself!”
+
+“Rise, rise,” said Richard, compelling him to stand up; “it beseems not
+that knees which are so frequently bended to the Deity should press the
+ground in honour of man. What danger awaits us, reverend father? and
+when stood the power of England so low that the noisy bluster of this
+new-made Duke's displeasure should alarm her or her monarch?”
+
+“I have looked forth from my mountain turret upon the starry host of
+heaven, as each in his midnight circuit uttered wisdom to another, and
+knowledge to the few who can understand their voice. There sits an enemy
+in thy House of Life, Lord King, malign at once to thy fame and thy
+prosperity--an emanation of Saturn, menacing thee with instant and
+bloody peril, and which, but thou yield thy proud will to the rule of
+thy duty, will presently crush thee even in thy pride.”
+
+“Away, away--this is heathen science,” said the King. “Christians
+practise it not--wise men believe it not. Old man, thou dotest.”
+
+“I dote not, Richard,” answered the hermit--“I am not so happy. I know
+my condition, and that some portion of reason is yet permitted me, not
+for my own use, but that of the Church and the advancement of the Cross.
+I am the blind man who holds a torch to others, though it yields no
+light to himself. Ask me touching what concerns the weal of Christendom,
+and of this Crusade, and I will speak with thee as the wisest counsellor
+on whose tongue persuasion ever sat. Speak to me of my own wretched
+being, and my words shall be those of the maniac outcast which I am.”
+
+“I would not break the bands of unity asunder among the princes of the
+Crusade,” said Richard, with a mitigated tone and manner; “but what
+atonement can they render me for the injustice and insult which I have
+sustained?”
+
+“Even of that I am prepared and commissioned to speak by the Council,
+which, meeting hastily at the summons of Philip of France, have taken
+measures for that effect.”
+
+“Strange,” replied Richard, “that others should treat of what is due to
+the wounded majesty of England!”
+
+“They are willing to anticipate your demands, if it be possible,”
+ answered the hermit. “In a body, they consent that the Banner of
+England be replaced on Saint George's Mount; and they lay under ban
+and condemnation the audacious criminal, or criminals, by whom it was
+outraged, and will announce a princely reward to any who shall denounce
+the delinquent's guilt, and give his flesh to the wolves and ravens.”
+
+“And Austria,” said Richard, “upon whom rest such strong presumptions
+that he was the author of the deed?”
+
+“To prevent discord in the host,” replied the hermit, “Austria will
+clear himself of the suspicion by submitting to whatsoever ordeal the
+Patriarch of Jerusalem shall impose.”
+
+“Will he clear himself by the trial by combat?” said King Richard.
+
+“His oath prohibits it,” said the hermit; “and, moreover, the Council of
+the Princes--”
+
+“Will neither authorize battle against the Saracens,” interrupted
+Richard, “nor against any one else. But it is enough, father--thou hast
+shown me the folly of proceeding as I designed in this matter. You shall
+sooner light your torch in a puddle of rain than bring a spark out of a
+cold-blooded coward. There is no honour to be gained on Austria, and so
+let him pass. I will have him perjure himself, however; I will insist
+on the ordeal. How I shall laugh to hear his clumsy fingers hiss, as he
+grasps the red-hot globe of iron! Ay, or his huge mouth riven, and
+his gullet swelling to suffocation, as he endeavours to swallow the
+consecrated bread!”
+
+“Peace, Richard,” said the hermit--“oh, peace, for shame, if not for
+charity! Who shall praise or honour princes who insult and calumniate
+each other? Alas! that a creature so noble as thou art--so accomplished
+in princely thoughts and princely daring--so fitted to honour
+Christendom by thy actions, and, in thy calmer mood, to rule her by thy
+wisdom, should yet have the brute and wild fury of the lion mingled with
+the dignity and courage of that king of the forest!”
+
+He remained an instant musing with his eyes fixed on the ground, and
+then proceeded--“But Heaven, that knows our imperfect nature, accepts
+of our imperfect obedience, and hath delayed, though not averted, the
+bloody end of thy daring life. The destroying angel hath stood still, as
+of old by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and the blade
+is drawn in his hand, by which, at no distant date, Richard, the
+lion-hearted, shall be as low as the meanest peasant.”
+
+“Must it, then, be so soon?” said Richard. “Yet, even so be it. May my
+course be bright, if it be but brief!”
+
+“Alas! noble King,” said the solitary, and it seemed as if a tear
+(unwonted guest) were gathering in his dry and glazened eye, “short and
+melancholy, marked with mortification, and calamity, and captivity, is
+the span that divides thee from the grave which yawns for thee--a grave
+in which thou shalt be laid without lineage to succeed thee--without
+the tears of a people, exhausted by thy ceaseless wars, to lament
+thee--without having extended the knowledge of thy subjects--without
+having done aught to enlarge their happiness.”
+
+“But not without renown, monk--not without the tears of the lady of my
+love! These consolations, which thou canst neither know nor estimate,
+await upon Richard to his grave.”
+
+“DO I not know, CAN I not estimate the value of minstrel's praise and of
+lady's love?” retorted the hermit, in a tone which for a moment seemed
+to emulate the enthusiasm of Richard himself. “King of England,” he
+continued, extending his emaciated arm, “the blood which boils in thy
+blue veins is not more noble than that which stagnates in mine. Few
+and cold as the drops are, they still are of the blood of the royal
+Lusignan--of the heroic and sainted Godfrey. I am--that is, I was when
+in the world--Alberick Mortemar--”
+
+“Whose deeds,” said Richard, “have so often filled Fame's trumpet! Is it
+so?--can it be so? Could such a light as thine fall from the horizon of
+chivalry, and yet men be uncertain where its embers had alighted?”
+
+“Seek a fallen star,” said the hermit, “and thou shalt only light on
+some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for
+a moment an appearance of splendour. Richard, if I thought that rending
+the bloody veil from my horrible fate could make thy proud heart stoop
+to the discipline of the church, I could find in my heart to tell thee
+a tale, which I have hitherto kept gnawing at my vitals in concealment,
+like the self-devoted youth of heathenesse. Listen, then, Richard, and
+may the grief and despair which cannot avail this wretched remnant of
+what was once a man be powerful as an example to so noble, yet so wild,
+a being as thou art! Yes--I will--I WILL tear open the long-hidden
+wounds, although in thy very presence they should bleed to death!”
+
+King Richard, upon whom the history of Alberick of Mortemar had made
+a deep impression in his early years, when minstrels were regaling his
+father's halls with legends of the Holy Land, listened with respect
+to the outlines of a tale, which, darkly and imperfectly sketched,
+indicated sufficiently the cause of the partial insanity of this
+singular and most unhappy being.
+
+“I need not,” he said, “tell thee that I was noble in birth, high in
+fortune, strong in arms, wise in counsel. All these I was. But while
+the noblest ladies in Palestine strove which should wind garlands for my
+helmet, my love was fixed--unalterably and devotedly fixed--on a maiden
+of low degree. Her father, an ancient soldier of the Cross, saw our
+passion, and knowing the difference betwixt us, saw no other refuge
+for his daughter's honour than to place her within the shadow of the
+cloister. I returned from a distant expedition, loaded with spoils and
+honour, to find my happiness was destroyed for ever! I too sought the
+cloister; and Satan, who had marked me for his own, breathed into my
+heart a vapour of spiritual pride, which could only have had its source
+in his own infernal regions. I had risen as high in the church as
+before in the state. I was, forsooth, the wise, the self-sufficient,
+the impeccable!--I was the counsellor of councils--I was the director
+of prelates. How should I stumble?--wherefore should I fear temptation?
+Alas! I became confessor to a sisterhood, and amongst that sisterhood
+I found the long-loved--the long-lost. Spare me further confession!--A
+fallen nun, whose guilt was avenged by self-murder, sleeps soundly in
+the vaults of Engaddi; while, above her very grave, gibbers, moans, and
+roars a creature to whom but so much reason is left as may suffice to
+render him completely sensible to his fate!”
+
+“Unhappy man!” said Richard, “I wonder no longer at thy misery. How
+didst thou escape the doom which the canons denounce against thy
+offence?”
+
+“Ask one who is yet in the gall of worldly bitterness,” said the hermit,
+“and he will speak of a life spared for personal respects, and from
+consideration to high birth. But, Richard, I tell thee that Providence
+hath preserved me to lift me on high as a light and beacon, whose ashes,
+when this earthly fuel is burnt out, must yet be flung into Tophet.
+Withered and shrunk as this poor form is, it is yet animated with two
+spirits--one active, shrewd, and piercing, to advocate the cause of
+the Church of Jerusalem; one mean, abject, and despairing, fluctuating
+between madness and misery, to mourn over my own wretchedness, and to
+guard holy relics on which it would be most sinful for me even to cast
+my eye. Pity me not!--it is but sin to pity the loss of such an abject;
+pity me not, but profit by my example. Thou standest on the highest,
+and, therefore, on the most dangerous pinnacle occupied by any Christian
+prince. Thou art proud of heart, loose of life, bloody of hand. Put from
+thee the sins which are to thee as daughters--though they be dear to the
+sinful Adam, expel these adopted furies from thy breast--thy pride, thy
+luxury, thy bloodthirstiness.”
+
+“He raves,” said Richard, turning from the solitary to De Vaux, as one
+who felt some pain from a sarcasm which yet he could not resent; then
+turned him calmly, and somewhat scornfully, to the anchoret, as he
+replied, “Thou hast found a fair bevy of daughters, reverend father, to
+one who hath been but few months married; but since I must put them
+from my roof, it were but like a father to provide them with suitable
+matches. Therefore, I will part with my pride to the noble canons of the
+church--my luxury, as thou callest it, to the monks of the rule--and my
+bloodthirstiness to the Knights of the Temple.”
+
+“O heart of steel, and hand of iron,” said the anchoret, “upon whom
+example, as well as advice, is alike thrown away! Yet shalt thou be
+spared for a season, in case it so be thou shouldst turn, and do that
+which is acceptable in the sight of Heaven. For me I must return to my
+place. Kyrie Eleison! I am he through whom the rays of heavenly grace
+dart like those of the sun through a burning-glass, concentrating them
+on other objects, until they kindle and blaze, while the glass itself
+remains cold and uninfluenced. Kyrie Eleison!--the poor must be called,
+for the rich have refused the banquet--Kyrie Eleison!”
+
+So saying, he burst from the tent, uttering loud cries.
+
+“A mad priest!” said Richard, from whose mind the frantic exclamations
+of the hermit had partly obliterated the impression produced by the
+detail of his personal history and misfortunes. “After him, De Vaux, and
+see he comes to no harm; for, Crusaders as we are, a juggler hath more
+reverence amongst our varlets than a priest or a saint, and they may,
+perchance, put some scorn upon him.”
+
+The knight obeyed, and Richard presently gave way to the thoughts which
+the wild prophecy of the monk had inspired. “To die early--without
+lineage--without lamentation! A heavy sentence, and well that it is not
+passed by a more competent judge. Yet the Saracens, who are accomplished
+in mystical knowledge, will often maintain that He, in whose eyes the
+wisdom of the sage is but as folly, inspires wisdom and prophecy into
+the seeming folly of the madman. Yonder hermit is said to read the
+stars, too, an art generally practised in these lands, where the
+heavenly host was of yore the object of idolatry. I would I had asked
+him touching the loss of my banner; for not the blessed Tishbite, the
+founder of his order, could seem more wildly rapt out of himself, or
+speak with a tongue more resembling that of a prophet.--How now, De
+Vaux, what news of the mad priest?”
+
+“Mad priest, call you him, my lord?” answered De Vaux. “Methinks
+he resembles more the blessed Baptist himself, just issued from the
+wilderness. He has placed himself on one of the military engines, and
+from thence he preaches to the soldiers as never man preached since the
+time of Peter the Hermit. The camp, alarmed by his cries, crowd around
+him in thousands; and breaking off every now and then from the main
+thread of his discourse, he addresses the several nations, each in their
+own language, and presses upon each the arguments best qualified to urge
+them to perseverance in the delivery of Palestine.”
+
+“By this light, a noble hermit!” said King Richard. “But what else could
+come from the blood of Godfrey? HE despair of safety, because he hath
+in former days lived PAR AMOURS? I will have the Pope send him an ample
+remission, and I would not less willingly be intercessor had his BELLE
+AMIE been an abbess.”
+
+As he spoke, the Archbishop of Tyre craved audience, for the purpose of
+requesting Richard's attendance, should his health permit, on a secret
+conclave of the chiefs of the Crusade, and to explain to him the
+military and political incidents which had occurred during his illness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     Must we then sheathe our still victorious sword;
+     Turn back our forward step, which ever trod
+     O'er foemen's necks the onward path of glory;
+     Unclasp the mail, which with a solemn vow,
+     In God's own house, we hung upon our shoulders--
+     That vow, as unaccomplish'd as the promise
+     Which village nurses make to still their children,
+     And after think no more of?
+           THE CRUSADE, A TRAGEDY.
+
+The Archbishop of Tyre was an emissary well chosen to communicate to
+Richard tidings, which from another voice the lion-hearted King would
+not have brooked to hear without the most unbounded explosions of
+resentment. Even this sagacious and reverend prelate found difficulty in
+inducing him to listen to news which destroyed all his hopes of gaining
+back the Holy Sepulchre by force of arms, and acquiring the renown which
+the universal all-hail of Christendom was ready to confer upon him as
+the Champion of the Cross.
+
+But, by the Archbishop's report, it appeared that Saladin was assembling
+all the force of his hundred tribes, and that the monarchs of Europe,
+already disgusted from various motives with the expedition, which had
+proved so hazardous, and was daily growing more so, had resolved to
+abandon their purpose. In this they were countenanced by the example of
+Philip of France, who, with many protestations of regard, and assurances
+that he would first see his brother of England in safety, declared his
+intention to return to Europe. His great vassal, the Earl of Champagne,
+had adopted the same resolution; and it could not excite surprise that
+Leopold of Austria, affronted as he had been by Richard, was glad
+to embrace an opportunity of deserting a cause in which his haughty
+opponent was to be considered as chief. Others announced the same
+purpose; so that it was plain that the King of England was to be left,
+if he chose to remain, supported only by such volunteers as might, under
+such depressing circumstances, join themselves to the English army, and
+by the doubtful aid of Conrade of Montserrat and the military orders of
+the Temple and of Saint John, who, though they were sworn to wage battle
+against the Saracens, were at least equally jealous of any European
+monarch achieving the conquest of Palestine, where, with shortsighted
+and selfish policy, they proposed to establish independent dominions of
+their own.
+
+It needed not many arguments to show Richard the truth of his situation;
+and indeed, after his first burst of passion, he sat him calmly down,
+and with gloomy looks, head depressed, and arms folded on his bosom,
+listened to the Archbishop's reasoning on the impossibility of his
+carrying on the Crusade when deserted by his companions. Nay, he forbore
+interruption, even when the prelate ventured, in measured terms, to hint
+that Richard's own impetuosity had been one main cause of disgusting the
+princes with the expedition.
+
+“CONFITEOR,” answered Richard, with a dejected look, and something of
+a melancholy smile--“I confess, reverend father, that I ought on some
+accounts to sing CULPA MEA. But is it not hard that my frailties of
+temper should be visited with such a penance--that, for a burst or two
+of natural passion, I should be doomed to see fade before me ungathered
+such a rich harvest of glory to God and honour to chivalry? But it shall
+NOT fade. By the soul of the Conqueror, I will plant the Cross on the
+towers of Jerusalem, or it shall be planted over Richard's grave!”
+
+“Thou mayest do it,” said the prelate, “yet not another drop of
+Christian blood be shed in the quarrel.”
+
+“Ah, you speak of compromise, Lord Prelate; but the blood of the infidel
+hounds must also cease to flow,” said Richard.
+
+“There will be glory enough,” replied the Archbishop, “in having
+extorted from Saladin, by force of arms, and by the respect inspired by
+your fame, such conditions as at once restore the Holy Sepulchre, open
+the Holy Land to pilgrims, secure their safety by strong fortresses,
+and, stronger than all, assure the safety of the Holy City, by
+conferring on Richard the title of King Guardian of Jerusalem.”
+
+“How!” said Richard, his eyes sparkling with unusual light. “I--I--I the
+King Guardian of the Holy City! Victory itself, but that it is victory,
+could not gain more--scarce so much, when won with unwilling and
+disunited forces. But Saladin still proposes to retain his interest in
+the Holy Land?”
+
+“As a joint sovereign, the sworn ally,” replied the prelate, “of the
+mighty Richard--his relative, if it may be permitted, by marriage.”
+
+“By marriage!” said Richard, surprised, yet less so than the prelate had
+expected. “Ha!--ay--Edith Plantagenet. Did I dream this? or did some one
+tell me? My head is still weak from this fever, and has been agitated.
+Was it the Scot, or the Hakim, or yonder holy hermit, that hinted such a
+wild bargain?”
+
+“The hermit of Engaddi, most likely,” said the Archbishop, “for he hath
+toiled much in this matter; and since the discontent of the princes has
+became apparent, and a separation of their forces unavoidable, he hath
+had many consultations, both with Christian and pagan, for arranging
+such a pacification as may give to Christendom, at least in part, the
+objects of this holy warfare.”
+
+“My kinswoman to an infidel--ha!” exclaimed Richard, as his eyes began
+to sparkle.
+
+The prelate hastened to avert his wrath.
+
+“The Pope's consent must doubtless be first attained, and the holy
+hermit, who is well known at Rome, will treat with the holy Father.”
+
+“How?--without our consent first given?” said the King.
+
+“Surely no,” said the Bishop, in a quieting and insinuating tone of
+voice--“only with and under your especial sanction.”
+
+“My sanction to marry my kinswoman to an infidel!” said Richard; yet
+he spoke rather in a tone of doubt than as distinctly reprobating the
+measure proposed. “Could I have dreamed of such a composition when I
+leaped upon the Syrian shore from the prow of my galley, even as a lion
+springs on his prey! And now--But proceed--I will hear with patience.”
+
+Equally delighted and surprised to find his task so much easier than he
+had apprehended, the Archbishop hastened to pour forth before Richard
+the instances of such alliances in Spain--not without countenance from
+the Holy See; the incalculable advantages which all Christendom would
+derive from the union of Richard and Saladin by a bond so sacred; and,
+above all, he spoke with great vehemence and unction on the probability
+that Saladin would, in case of the proposed alliance, exchange his false
+faith for the true one.
+
+“Hath the Soldan shown any disposition to become Christian?” said
+Richard. “If so, the king lives not on earth to whom I would grant the
+hand of a kinswoman, ay, or sister, sooner than to my noble Saladin--ay,
+though the one came to lay crown and sceptre at her feet, and the other
+had nothing to offer but his good sword and better heart!”
+
+“Saladin hath heard our Christian teachers,” said the Bishop, somewhat
+evasively--“my unworthy self, and others--and as he listens with
+patience, and replies with calmness, it can hardly be but that he be
+snatched as a brand from the burning. MAGNA EST VERITAS, ET PREVALEBIT!
+moreover, the hermit of Engaddi, few of whose words have fallen
+fruitless to the ground, is possessed fully with the belief that there
+is a calling of the Saracens and the other heathen approaching, to which
+this marriage shall be matter of induction. He readeth the course of
+the stars; and dwelling, with maceration of the flesh, in those divine
+places which the saints have trodden of old, the spirit of Elijah the
+Tishbite, the founder of his blessed order, hath been with him as it was
+with the prophet Elisha, the son of Shaphat, when he spread his mantle
+over him.”
+
+King Richard listened to the Prelate's reasoning with a downcast brow
+and a troubled look.
+
+“I cannot tell,” he said, “How, it is with me, but methinks these cold
+counsels of the Princes of Christendom have infected me too with a
+lethargy of spirit. The time hath been that, had a layman proposed such
+alliance to me, I had struck him to earth--if a churchman, I had spit at
+him as a renegade and priest of Baal; yet now this counsel sounds not
+so strange in mine ear. For why should I not seek for brotherhood and
+alliance with a Saracen, brave, just, generous--who loves and honours
+a worthy foe, as if he were a friend--whilst the Princes of Christendom
+shrink from the side of their allies, and forsake the cause of Heaven
+and good knighthood? But I will possess my patience, and will not think
+of them. Only one attempt will I make to keep this gallant brotherhood
+together, if it be possible; and if I fail, Lord Archbishop, we will
+speak together of thy counsel, which, as now, I neither accept nor
+altogether reject. Wend we to the Council, my lord--the hour calls
+us. Thou sayest Richard is hasty and proud--thou shalt see him humble
+himself like the lowly broom-plant from which he derives his surname.”
+
+With the assistance of those of his privy chamber, the King then hastily
+robed himself in a doublet and mantle of a dark and uniform colour; and
+without any mark of regal dignity, excepting a ring of gold upon his
+head, he hastened with the Archbishop of Tyre to attend the Council,
+which waited but his presence to commence its sitting.
+
+The pavilion of the Council was an ample tent, having before it the
+large Banner of the Cross displayed, and another, on which was portrayed
+a female kneeling, with dishevelled hair and disordered dress, meant to
+represent the desolate and distressed Church of Jerusalem, and bearing
+the motto, AFFLICTAE SPONSAE NE OBLIVISCARIS. Warders, carefully
+selected, kept every one at a distance from the neighbourhood of this
+tent, lest the debates, which were sometimes of a loud and stormy
+character, should reach other ears than those they were designed for.
+
+Here, therefore, the princes of the Crusade were assembled awaiting
+Richard's arrival. And even the brief delay which was thus interposed
+was turned to his disadvantage by his enemies, various instances being
+circulated of his pride and undue assumption of superiority, of which
+even the necessity of the present short pause was quoted as an instance.
+Men strove to fortify each other in their evil opinion of the King of
+England, and vindicated the offence which each had taken, by putting the
+most severe construction upon circumstances the most trifling; and all
+this, perhaps, because they were conscious of an instinctive reverence
+for the heroic monarch, which it would require more than ordinary
+efforts to overcome.
+
+They had settled, accordingly, that they should receive him on his
+entrance with slight notice, and no more respect than was exactly
+necessary to keep within the bounds of cold ceremonial. But when they
+beheld that noble form, that princely countenance, somewhat pale from
+his late illness--the eye which had been called by minstrels the bright
+star of battle and victory--when his feats, almost surpassing human
+strength and valour, rushed on their recollection, the Council of
+Princes simultaneously arose--even the jealous King of France and the
+sullen and offended Duke of Austria--arose with one consent, and the
+assembled princes burst forth with one voice in the acclamation, “God
+save King Richard of England! Long life to the valiant Lion's-heart!”
+
+With a countenance frank and open as the summer sun when it rises,
+Richard distributed his thanks around, and congratulated himself on
+being once more among his royal brethren of the Crusade.
+
+“Some brief words he desired to say,” such was his address to the
+assembly, “though on a subject so unworthy as himself, even at the
+risk of delaying for a few minutes their consultations for the weal of
+Christendom and the advancement of their holy enterprise.”
+
+The assembled princes resumed their seats, and there was a profound
+silence.
+
+“This day,” continued the King of England, “is a high festival of the
+church, and it well becomes Christian men, at such a tide, to reconcile
+themselves with their brethren, and confess their faults to each
+other. Noble princes and fathers of this holy expedition, Richard is a
+soldier--his hand is ever readier than his tongue--and his tongue is
+but too much used to the rough language of his trade. But do not, for
+Plantagenet's hasty speeches and ill-considered actions, forsake the
+noble cause of the redemption of Palestine--do not throw away earthly
+renown and eternal salvation, to be won here if ever they can be won by
+man, because the act of a soldier may have been hasty, and his speech as
+hard as the iron which he has worn from childhood. Is Richard in
+default to any of you, Richard will make compensation both by word and
+action.--Noble brother of France, have I been so unlucky as to offend
+you?”
+
+“The Majesty of France has no atonement to seek from that of England,”
+ answered Philip, with kingly dignity, accepting, at the same time, the
+offered hand of Richard; “and whatever opinion I may adopt concerning
+the prosecution of this enterprise will depend on reasons arising out of
+the state of my own kingdom--certainly on no jealousy or disgust at my
+royal and most valorous brother.”
+
+“Austria,” said Richard, walking up to the Archduke, with a mixture
+of frankness and dignity, while Leopold arose from his seat, as if
+involuntarily, and with the action of an automaton, whose motions
+depended upon some external impulse--“Austria thinks he hath reason to
+be offended with England; England, that he hath cause to complain of
+Austria. Let them exchange forgiveness, that the peace of Europe and the
+concord of this host may remain unbroken. We are now joint supporters of
+a more glorious banner than ever blazed before an earthly prince, even
+the Banner of Salvation. Let not, therefore, strife be betwixt us for
+the symbol of our more worldly dignities; but let Leopold restore the
+pennon of England, if he has it in his power, and Richard will say,
+though from no motive save his love for Holy Church, that he repents him
+of the hasty mood in which he did insult the standard of Austria.”
+
+The Archduke stood still, sullen and discontented, with his eyes fixed
+on the floor, and his countenance lowering with smothered displeasure,
+which awe, mingled with awkwardness, prevented his giving vent to in
+words.
+
+The Patriarch of Jerusalem hastened to break the embarrassing silence,
+and to bear witness for the Archduke of Austria that he had exculpated
+himself, by a solemn oath, from all knowledge, direct or indirect, of
+the aggression done to the Banner of England.
+
+“Then we have done the noble Archduke the greater wrong,” said Richard;
+“and craving his pardon for imputing to him an outrage so cowardly, we
+extend our hand to him in token of renewed peace and amity. But how is
+this? Austria refuses our uncovered hand, as he formerly refused our
+mailed glove? What! are we neither to be his mate in peace nor his
+antagonist in war? Well, let it be so. We will take the slight esteem in
+which he holds us as a penance for aught which we may have done against
+him in heat of blood, and will therefore hold the account between us
+cleared.”
+
+So saying, he turned from the Archduke with an air rather of dignity
+than scorn, leaving the Austrian apparently as much relieved by the
+removal of his eye as is a sullen and truant schoolboy when the glance
+of his severe pedagogue is withdrawn.
+
+“Noble Earl of Champagne--princely Marquis of Montserrat--valiant Grand
+Master of the Templars--I am here a penitent in the confessional. Do any
+of you bring a charge or claim amends from me?”
+
+“I know not on what we could ground any,” said the smooth-tongued
+Conrade, “unless it were that the King of England carries off from his
+poor brothers of the war all the fame which they might have hoped to
+gain in the expedition.”
+
+“My charge, if I am called on to make one,” said the Master of the
+Templars, “is graver and deeper than that of the Marquis of Montserrat.
+It may be thought ill to beseem a military monk such as I to raise his
+voice where so many noble princes remain silent; but it concerns our
+whole host, and not least this noble King of England, that he should
+hear from some one to his face those charges which there are enow to
+bring against him in his absence. We laud and honour the courage and
+high achievements of the King of England; but we feel aggrieved that he
+should on all occasions seize and maintain a precedence and superiority
+over us, which it becomes not independent princes to submit to. Much we
+might yield of our free will to his bravery, his zeal, his wealth,
+and his power; but he who snatches all as matter of right, and leaves
+nothing to grant out of courtesy and favour, degrades us from allies
+into retainers and vassals, and sullies in the eyes of our soldiers and
+subjects the lustre of our authority, which is no longer independently
+exercised. Since the royal Richard has asked the truth from us, he must
+neither be surprised nor angry when he hears one, to whom worldly pomp
+is prohibited, and secular authority is nothing, saving so far as it
+advances the prosperity of God's Temple, and the prostration of the lion
+which goeth about seeking whom he may devour--when he hears, I say, such
+a one as I tell him the truth in reply to his question; which truth,
+even while I speak it, is, I know, confirmed by the heart of every one
+who hears me, however respect may stifle their voices.”
+
+Richard coloured very highly while the Grand Master was making this
+direct and unvarnished attack upon his conduct, and the murmur of
+assent which followed it showed plainly that almost all who were present
+acquiesced in the justice of the accusation. Incensed, and at the
+same time mortified, he yet foresaw that to give way to his headlong
+resentment would be to give the cold and wary accuser the advantage over
+him which it was the Templar's principal object to obtain. He therefore,
+with a strong effort, remained silent till he had repeated a pater
+noster, being the course which his confessor had enjoined him to pursue
+when anger was likely to obtain dominion over him. The King then spoke
+with composure, though not without an embittered tone, especially at the
+outset:--
+
+“And is it even so? And are our brethren at such pains to note the
+infirmities of our natural temper, and the rough precipitance of our
+zeal, which may sometimes have urged us to issue commands when there
+was little time to hold council? I could not have thought that offences,
+casual and unpremeditated like mine, could find such deep root in the
+hearts of my allies in this most holy cause; that for my sake they
+should withdraw their hands from the plough when the furrow was near
+the end--for my sake turn aside from the direct path to Jerusalem, which
+their swords have opened. I vainly thought that my small services
+might have outweighed my rash errors--that if it were remembered that I
+pressed to the van in an assault, it would not be forgotten that I
+was ever the last in the retreat--that, if I elevated my banner upon
+conquered fields of battle, it was all the advantage that I sought,
+while others were dividing the spoil. I may have called the conquered
+city by my name, but it was to others that I yielded the dominion. If
+I have been headstrong in urging bold counsels, I have not, methinks,
+spared my own blood or my people's in carrying them into as bold
+execution; or if I have, in the hurry of march or battle, assumed a
+command over the soldiers of others, such have been ever treated as my
+own when my wealth purchased the provisions and medicines which their
+own sovereigns could not procure. But it shames me to remind you of what
+all but myself seem to have forgotten. Let us rather look forward to
+our future measures; and believe me, brethren,” he continued, his face
+kindling with eagerness, “you shall not find the pride, or the wrath,
+or the ambition of Richard a stumbling-block of offence in the path to
+which religion and glory summon you as with the trumpet of an archangel.
+Oh, no, no! never would I survive the thought that my frailties and
+infirmities had been the means to sever this goodly fellowship of
+assembled princes. I would cut off my left hand with my right, could my
+doing so attest my sincerity. I will yield up, voluntarily, all right to
+command in the host--even mine own liege subjects. They shall be led by
+such sovereigns as you may nominate; and their King, ever but too apt to
+exchange the leader's baton for the adventurer's lance, will serve
+under the banner of Beau-Seant among the Templars--ay, or under that of
+Austria, if Austria will name a brave man to lead his forces. Or if
+ye are yourselves a-weary of this war, and feel your armour chafe your
+tender bodies, leave but with Richard some ten or fifteen thousand of
+your soldiers to work out the accomplishment of your vow; and when
+Zion is won,” he exclaimed, waving his hand aloft, as if displaying the
+standard of the Cross over Jerusalem--“when Zion is won, we will write
+upon her gates, NOT the name of Richard Plantagenet, but of those
+generous princes who entrusted him with the means of conquest!”
+
+The rough eloquence and determined expression of the military monarch
+at once roused the drooping spirits of the Crusaders, reanimated their
+devotion, and, fixing their attention on the principal object of the
+expedition, made most of them who were present blush for having been
+moved by such petty subjects of complaint as had before engrossed them.
+Eye caught fire from eye, voice lent courage to voice. They resumed, as
+with one accord, the war-cry with which the sermon of Peter the Hermit
+was echoed back, and shouted aloud, “Lead us on, gallant Lion's-heart;
+none so worthy to lead where brave men follow. Lead us on--to
+Jerusalem--to Jerusalem! It is the will of God--it is the will of God!
+Blessed is he who shall lend an arm to its fulfilment!”
+
+The shout, so suddenly and generally raised, was heard beyond the ring
+of sentinels who guarded the pavilion of Council, and spread among
+the soldiers of the host, who, inactive and dispirited by disease and
+climate, had begun, like their leaders, to droop in resolution; but
+the reappearance of Richard in renewed vigour, and the well-known shout
+which echoed from the assembly of the princes, at once rekindled their
+enthusiasm, and thousands and tens of thousands answered with the same
+shout of “Zion, Zion! War, war! Instant battle with the infidels! It is
+the will of God--it is the will of God!”
+
+The acclamations from without increased in their turn the enthusiasm
+which prevailed within the pavilion. Those who did not actually catch
+the flame were afraid--at least for the time--to seem colder than
+others. There was no more speech except of a proud advance towards
+Jerusalem upon the expiry of the truce, and the measures to be taken in
+the meantime for supplying and recruiting the army. The Council broke
+up, all apparently filled with the same enthusiastic purpose--which,
+however, soon faded in the bosom of most, and never had an existence in
+that of others.
+
+Of the latter class were the Marquis Conrade and the Grand Master of
+the Templars, who retired together to their quarters ill at ease, and
+malcontent with the events of the day.
+
+“I ever told it to thee,” said the latter, with the cold, sardonic
+expression peculiar to him, “that Richard would burst through the flimsy
+wiles you spread for him, as would a lion through a spider's web. Thou
+seest he has but to speak, and his breath agitates these fickle fools
+as easily as the whirlwind catcheth scattered straws, and sweeps them
+together, or disperses them at its pleasure.”
+
+“When the blast has passed away,” said Conrade, “the straws, which it
+made dance to its pipe, will settle to earth again.”
+
+“But knowest thou not besides,” said the Templar, “that it seems, if
+this new purpose of conquest shall be abandoned and pass away, and each
+mighty prince shall again be left to such guidance as his own scanty
+brain can supply, Richard may yet probably become King of Jerusalem by
+compact, and establish those terms of treaty with the Soldan which thou
+thyself thought'st him so likely to spurn at?”
+
+“Now, by Mahound and Termagaunt, for Christian oaths are out of
+fashion,” said Conrade, “sayest thou the proud King of England
+would unite his blood with a heathen Soldan? My policy threw in that
+ingredient to make the whole treaty an abomination to him. As bad for us
+that he become our master by an agreement, as by victory.”
+
+“Thy policy hath ill calculated Richard's digestion,” answered the
+Templar; “I know his mind by a whisper from the Archbishop. And then thy
+master-stroke respecting yonder banner--it has passed off with no more
+respect than two cubits of embroidered silk merited. Marquis Conrade,
+thy wit begins to halt; I will trust thy finespun measures no longer,
+but will try my own. Knowest thou not the people whom the Saracens call
+Charegites?”
+
+“Surely,” answered the Marquis; “they are desperate and besotted
+enthusiasts, who devote their lives to the advancement of
+religion---somewhat like Templars, only they are never known to pause in
+the race of their calling.”
+
+“Jest not,” answered the scowling monk. “Know that one of these men has
+set down in his bloody vow the name of the Island Emperor yonder, to be
+hewn down as the chief enemy of the Moslem faith.”
+
+“A most judicious paynim,” said Conrade. “May Mohammed send him his
+paradise for a reward!”
+
+“He was taken in the camp by one of our squires, and in private
+examination frankly avowed his fixed and determined purpose to me,” said
+the Grand Master.
+
+“Now the heavens pardon them who prevented the purpose of this most
+judicious Charegite!” answered Conrade.
+
+“He is my prisoner,” added the Templar, “and secluded from speech with
+others, as thou mayest suppose; but prisons have been broken--”
+
+“Chains left unlocked, and captives have escaped,” answered the Marquis.
+“It is an ancient saying, no sure dungeon but the grave.”
+
+“When loose, he resumes his quest,” continued the military priest; “for
+it is the nature of this sort of blood hound never to quit the suit of
+the prey he has once scented.”
+
+“Say no more of it,” said the Marquis; “I see thy policy--it is
+dreadful, but the emergency is imminent.”
+
+“I only told thee of it,” said the Templar, “that thou mayest keep
+thyself on thy guard; for the uproar will be dreadful, and there is
+no knowing on whom the English may vent their rage. Ay, and there
+is another risk. My page knows the counsels of this Charegite,” he
+continued; “and, moreover, he is a peevish, self-willed fool, whom I
+would I were rid of, as he thwarts me by presuming to see with his own
+eyes, not mine. But our holy order gives me power to put a remedy to
+such inconvenience. Or stay--the Saracen may find a good dagger in his
+cell, and I warrant you he uses it as he breaks forth, which will be of
+a surety so soon as the page enters with his food.”
+
+“It will give the affair a colour,” said Conrade; “and yet--”
+
+“YET and BUT,” said the Templar, “are words for fools; wise men neither
+hesitate nor retract--they resolve and they execute.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     When beauty leads the lion in her toils,
+     Such are her charms, he dare not raise his mane,
+     Far less expand the terror of his fangs.
+     So great Alcides made his club a distaff,
+     And spun to please fair Omphale.
+               ANONYMOUS.
+
+Richard, the unsuspicious object of the dark treachery detailed in the
+closing part of the last chapter, having effected, for the present at
+least, the triumphant union of the Crusading princes in a resolution
+to prosecute the war with vigour, had it next at heart to establish
+tranquillity in his own family; and, now that he could judge more
+temperately, to inquire distinctly into the circumstances leading to
+the loss of his banner, and the nature and the extent of the connection
+betwixt his kinswoman Edith and the banished adventurer from Scotland.
+
+Accordingly, the Queen and her household were startled with a visit
+from Sir Thomas de Vaux, requesting the present attendance of the Lady
+Calista of Montfaucon, the Queen's principal bower-woman, upon King
+Richard.
+
+“What am I to say, madam?” said the trembling attendant to the Queen,
+“He will slay us all.”
+
+“Nay, fear not, madam,” said De Vaux. “His Majesty hath spared the life
+of the Scottish knight, who was the chief offender, and bestowed him
+upon the Moorish physician. He will not be severe upon a lady, though
+faulty.”
+
+“Devise some cunning tale, wench,” said Berengaria. “My husband hath too
+little time to make inquiry into the truth.”
+
+“Tell the tale as it really happened,” said Edith, “lest I tell it for
+thee.”
+
+“With humble permission of her Majesty,” said De Vaux, “I would say Lady
+Edith adviseth well; for although King Richard is pleased to believe
+what it pleases your Grace to tell him, yet I doubt his having the same
+deference for the Lady Calista, and in this especial matter.”
+
+“The Lord of Gilsland is right,” said the Lady Calista, much agitated at
+the thoughts of the investigation which was to take place; “and besides,
+if I had presence of mind enough to forge a plausible story, beshrew me
+if I think I should have the courage to tell it.”
+
+In this candid humour, the Lady Calista was conducted by De Vaux to the
+King, and made, as she had proposed, a full confession of the decoy by
+which the unfortunate Knight of the Leopard had been induced to desert
+his post; exculpating the Lady Edith, who, she was aware, would not
+fail to exculpate herself, and laying the full burden on the Queen, her
+mistress, whose share of the frolic, she well knew, would appear the
+most venial in the eyes of Coeur de Lion. In truth, Richard was a fond,
+almost a uxorious husband. The first burst of his wrath had long since
+passed away, and he was not disposed severely to censure what could
+not now be amended. The wily Lady Calista, accustomed from her earliest
+childhood to fathom the intrigues of a court, and watch the indications
+of a sovereign's will, hastened back to the Queen with the speed of
+a lapwing, charged with the King's commands that she should expect
+a speedy visit from him; to which the bower-lady added a commentary
+founded on her own observation, tending to show that Richard meant just
+to preserve so much severity as might bring his royal consort to repent
+of her frolic, and then to extend to her and all concerned his gracious
+pardon.
+
+“Sits the wind in that corner, wench?” said the Queen, much relieved by
+this intelligence. “Believe me that, great commander as he is, Richard
+will find it hard to circumvent us in this matter, and that, as the
+Pyrenean shepherds are wont to say in my native Navarre, Many a one
+comes for wool, and goes back shorn.”
+
+Having possessed herself of all the information which Calista could
+communicate, the royal Berengaria arrayed herself in her most becoming
+dress, and awaited with confidence the arrival of the heroic Richard.
+
+He arrived, and found himself in the situation of a prince entering an
+offending province, in the confidence that his business will only be to
+inflict rebuke, and receive submission, when he unexpectedly finds it in
+a state of complete defiance and insurrection. Berengaria well knew
+the power of her charms and the extent of Richard's affection, and
+felt assured that she could make her own terms good, now that the first
+tremendous explosion of his anger had expended itself without mischief.
+Far from listening to the King's intended rebuke, as what the levity
+of her conduct had justly deserved, she extenuated, nay, defended as a
+harmless frolic, that which she was accused of. She denied, indeed,
+with many a pretty form of negation, that she had directed Nectabanus
+absolutely to entice the knight farther than the brink of the Mount on
+which he kept watch--and, indeed, this was so far true, that she had not
+designed Sir Kenneth to be introduced into her tent--and then, eloquent
+in urging her own defence, the Queen was far more so in pressing upon
+Richard the charge of unkindness, in refusing her so poor a boon as the
+life of an unfortunate knight, who, by her thoughtless prank, had been
+brought within the danger of martial law. She wept and sobbed while she
+enlarged on her husband's obduracy on this score, as a rigour which had
+threatened to make her unhappy for life, whenever she should reflect
+that she had given, unthinkingly, the remote cause for such a tragedy.
+The vision of the slaughtered victim would have haunted her dreams--nay,
+for aught she knew, since such things often happened, his actual spectre
+might have stood by her waking couch. To all this misery of the mind was
+she exposed by the severity of one who, while he pretended to dote upon
+her slightest glance, would not forego one act of poor revenge, though
+the issue was to render her miserable.
+
+All this flow of female eloquence was accompanied with the usual
+arguments of tears and sighs, and uttered with such tone and action as
+seemed to show that the Queen's resentment arose neither from pride nor
+sullenness, but from feelings hurt at finding her consequence with her
+husband less than she had expected to possess.
+
+The good King Richard was considerably embarrassed. He tried in vain
+to reason with one whose very jealousy of his affection rendered her
+incapable of listening to argument, nor could he bring himself to use
+the restraint of lawful authority to a creature so beautiful in the
+midst of her unreasonable displeasure. He was therefore reduced to the
+defensive, endeavoured gently to chide her suspicions and soothe her
+displeasure, and recalled to her mind that she need not look back upon
+the past with recollections either of remorse or supernatural fear,
+since Sir Kenneth was alive and well, and had been bestowed by him upon
+the great Arabian physician, who, doubtless, of all men, knew best how
+to keep him living. But this seemed the unkindest cut of all, and
+the Queen's sorrow was renewed at the idea of a Saracen--a
+mediciner--obtaining a boon for which, with bare head and on bended
+knee, she had petitioned her husband in vain. At this new charge
+Richard's patience began rather to give way, and he said, in a serious
+tone of voice, “Berengaria, the physician saved my life. If it is of
+value in your eyes, you will not grudge him a higher recompense than the
+only one I could prevail on him to accept.”
+
+The Queen was satisfied she had urged her coquettish displeasure to the
+verge of safety.
+
+“My Richard,” she said, “why brought you not that sage to me, that
+England's Queen might show how she esteemed him who could save from
+extinction the lamp of chivalry, the glory of England, and the light of
+poor Berengaria's life and hope?”
+
+In a word, the matrimonial dispute was ended; but, that some penalty
+might be paid to justice, both King and Queen accorded in laying the
+whole blame on the agent Nectabanus, who (the Queen being by this time
+well weary of the poor dwarf's humour) was, with his royal consort
+Guenevra, sentenced to be banished from the Court; and the unlucky dwarf
+only escaped a supplementary whipping, from the Queen's assurances that
+he had already sustained personal chastisement. It was decreed further
+that, as an envoy was shortly to be dispatched to Saladin, acquainting
+him with the resolution of the Council to resume hostilities so soon as
+the truce was ended, and as Richard proposed to send a valuable present
+to the Soldan, in acknowledgment of the high benefit he had derived from
+the services of El Hakim, the two unhappy creatures should be added to
+it as curiosities, which, from their extremely grotesque appearance, and
+the shattered state of their intellect, were gifts that might well pass
+between sovereign and sovereign.
+
+Richard had that day yet another female encounter to sustain; but
+he advanced to it with comparative indifference, for Edith, though
+beautiful and highly esteemed by her royal relative--nay, although she
+had from his unjust suspicions actually sustained the injury of which
+Berengaria only affected to complain--still was neither Richard's wife
+nor mistress, and he feared her reproaches less, although founded in
+reason, than those of the Queen, though unjust and fantastical. Having
+requested to speak with her apart, he was ushered into her apartment,
+adjoining that of the Queen, whose two female Coptish slaves remained on
+their knees in the most remote corner during the interview. A thin black
+veil extended its ample folds over the tall and graceful form of the
+high-born maiden, and she wore not upon her person any female ornament
+of what kind soever. She arose and made a low reverence when Richard
+entered, resumed her seat at his command, and, when he sat down beside
+her, waited, without uttering a syllable, until he should communicate
+his pleasure.
+
+Richard, whose custom it was to be familiar with Edith, as their
+relationship authorized, felt this reception chilling, and opened the
+conversation with some embarrassment.
+
+“Our fair cousin,” he at length said, “is angry with us; and we own that
+strong circumstances have induced us, without cause, to suspect her
+of conduct alien to what we have ever known in her course of life. But
+while we walk in this misty valley of humanity, men will mistake shadows
+for substances. Can my fair cousin not forgive her somewhat vehement
+kinsman Richard?”
+
+“Who can refuse forgiveness to RICHARD,” answered Edith, “provided
+Richard can obtain pardon of the KING?”
+
+“Come, my kinswoman,” replied Coeur de Lion, “this is all too solemn.
+By Our Lady, such a melancholy countenance, and this ample sable veil,
+might make men think thou wert a new-made widow, or had lost a betrothed
+lover, at least. Cheer up! Thou hast heard, doubtless, that there is no
+real cause for woe; why, then, keep up the form of mourning?”
+
+“For the departed honour of Plantagenet--for the glory which hath left
+my father's house.”
+
+Richard frowned. “Departed honour! glory which hath left our house!” he
+repeated angrily. “But my cousin Edith is privileged. I have judged her
+too hastily; she has therefore a right to deem of me too harshly. But
+tell me at least in what I have faulted.”
+
+“Plantagenet,” said Edith, “should have either pardoned an offence, or
+punished it. It misbecomes him to assign free men, Christians, and
+brave knights, to the fetters of the infidels. It becomes him not to
+compromise and barter, or to grunt life under the forfeiture of liberty.
+To have doomed the unfortunate to death might have been severity, but
+had a show of justice; to condemn him to slavery and exile was barefaced
+tyranny.”
+
+“I see, my fair cousin,” said Richard, “you are of those pretty ones who
+think an absent lover as bad as none, or as a dead one. Be patient; half
+a score of light horsemen may yet follow and redeem the error, if thy
+gallant have in keeping any secret which might render his death more
+convenient than his banishment.”
+
+“Peace with thy scurrile jests!” answered Edith, colouring deeply.
+“Think, rather, that for the indulgence of thy mood thou hast lopped
+from this great enterprise one goodly limb, deprived the Cross of one of
+its most brave supporters, and placed a servant of the true God in the
+hands of the heathen; hast given, too, to minds as suspicious as thou
+hast shown thine own in this matter, some right to say that Richard
+Coeur de Lion banished the bravest soldier in his camp lest his name in
+battle might match his own.”
+
+“I--I!” exclaimed Richard, now indeed greatly moved--“am I one to be
+jealous of renown? I would he were here to profess such an equality! I
+would waive my rank and my crown, and meet him, manlike, in the lists,
+that it might appear whether Richard Plantagenet had room to fear or to
+envy the prowess of mortal man. Come, Edith, thou think'st not as thou
+sayest. Let not anger or grief for the absence of thy lover make thee
+unjust to thy kinsman, who, notwithstanding all thy techiness, values
+thy good report as high as that of any one living.”
+
+“The absence of my lover?” said the Lady Edith, “But yes, he may be
+well termed my lover, who hath paid so dear for the title. Unworthy as I
+might be of such homage, I was to him like a light, leading him forward
+in the noble path of chivalry; but that I forgot my rank, or that he
+presumed beyond his, is false, were a king to speak it.”
+
+“My fair cousin,” said Richard, “do not put words in my mouth which I
+have not spoken. I said not you had graced this man beyond the favour
+which a good knight may earn, even from a princess, whatever be his
+native condition. But, by Our Lady, I know something of this
+love-gear. It begins with mute respect and distant reverence; but when
+opportunities occur, familiarity increases, and so--But it skills not
+talking with one who thinks herself wiser than all the world.”
+
+“My kinsman's counsels I willingly listen to, when they are such,” said
+Edith, “as convey no insult to my rank and character.”
+
+“Kings, my fair cousin, do not counsel, but rather command,” said
+Richard.
+
+“Soldans do indeed command,” said Edith, “but it is because they have
+slaves to govern.”
+
+“Come, you might learn to lay aside this scorn of Soldanrie, when you
+hold so high of a Scot,” said the King. “I hold Saladin to be truer to
+his word than this William of Scotland, who must needs be called a
+Lion, forsooth; he hath foully faulted towards me in failing to send the
+auxiliary aid he promised. Let me tell thee, Edith, thou mayest live to
+prefer a true Turk to a false Scot.”
+
+“No--never!” answered Edith--“not should Richard himself embrace the
+false religion, which he crossed the seas to expel from Palestine.”
+
+“Thou wilt have the last word,” said Richard, “and thou shalt have it.
+Even think of me what thou wilt, pretty Edith. I shall not forget that
+we are near and dear cousins.”
+
+So saying, he took his leave in fair fashion, but very little satisfied
+with the result of his visit.
+
+It was the fourth day after Sir Kenneth had been dismissed from the
+camp, and King Richard sat in his pavilion, enjoying an evening breeze
+from the west, which, with unusual coolness on her wings, seemed
+breathed from merry England for the refreshment of her adventurous
+Monarch, as he was gradually recovering the full strength which was
+necessary to carry on his gigantic projects. There was no one with
+him, De Vaux having been sent to Ascalon to bring up reinforcements and
+supplies of military munition, and most of his other attendants being
+occupied in different departments, all preparing for the re-opening
+of hostilities, and for a grand preparatory review of the army of the
+Crusaders, which was to take place the next day. The King sat listening
+to the busy hum among the soldiery, the clatter from the forges, where
+horseshoes were preparing, and from the tents of the armourers, who were
+repairing harness. The voice of the soldiers, too, as they passed
+and repassed, was loud and cheerful, carrying with its very tone an
+assurance of high and excited courage, and an omen of approaching
+victory. While Richard's ear drank in these sounds with delight, and
+while he yielded himself to the visions of conquest and of glory which
+they suggested, an equerry told him that a messenger from Saladin waited
+without.
+
+“Admit him instantly,” said the King, “and with due honour, Josceline.”
+
+The English knight accordingly introduced a person, apparently of no
+higher rank than a Nubian slave, whose appearance was nevertheless
+highly interesting. He was of superb stature and nobly formed, and his
+commanding features, although almost jet-black, showed nothing of negro
+descent. He wore over his coal-black locks a milk-white turban, and over
+his shoulders a short mantle of the same colour, open in front and at
+the sleeves, under which appeared a doublet of dressed leopard's skin
+reaching within a handbreadth of the knee. The rest of his muscular
+limbs, both legs and arms, were bare, excepting that he had sandals
+on his feet, and wore a collar and bracelets of silver. A straight
+broadsword, with a handle of box-wood and a sheath covered with
+snakeskin, was suspended from his waist. In his right hand he held a
+short javelin, with a broad, bright steel head, of a span in length, and
+in his left he led by a leash of twisted silk and gold a large and noble
+staghound.
+
+The messenger prostrated himself, at the same time partially uncovering
+his shoulders, in sign of humiliation, and having touched the earth with
+his forehead, arose so far as to rest on one knee, while he delivered
+to the King a silken napkin, enclosing another of cloth of gold,
+within which was a letter from Saladin in the original Arabic, with a
+translation into Norman-English, which may be modernized thus:--
+
+“Saladin, King of Kings, to Melech Ric, the Lion of England. Whereas, we
+are informed by thy last message that thou hast chosen war rather than
+peace, and our enmity rather than our friendship, we account thee as
+one blinded in this matter, and trust shortly to convince thee of thine
+error, by the help of our invincible forces of the thousand tribes, when
+Mohammed, the Prophet of God, and Allah, the God of the Prophet, shall
+judge the controversy betwixt us. In what remains, we make noble account
+of thee, and of the gifts which thou hast sent us, and of the two
+dwarfs, singular in their deformity as Ysop, and mirthful as the lute of
+Isaack. And in requital of these tokens from the treasure-house of thy
+bounty, behold we have sent thee a Nubian slave, named Zohauk, of whom
+judge not by his complexion, according to the foolish ones of the earth,
+in respect the dark-rinded fruit hath the most exquisite flavour.
+Know that he is strong to execute the will of his master, as Rustan of
+Zablestan; also he is wise to give counsel when thou shalt learn to hold
+communication with him, for the Lord of Speech hath been stricken with
+silence betwixt the ivory walls of his palace. We commend him to thy
+care, hoping the hour may not be distant when he may render thee good
+service. And herewith we bid thee farewell; trusting that our most
+holy Prophet may yet call thee to a sight of the truth, failing which
+illumination, our desire is for the speedy restoration of thy royal
+health, that Allah may judge between thee and us in a plain field of
+battle.”
+
+And the missive was sanctioned by the signature and seal of the Soldan.
+
+Richard surveyed the Nubian in silence as he stood before him, his looks
+bent upon the ground, his arms folded on his bosom, with the appearance
+of a black marble statue of the most exquisite workmanship, waiting
+life from the touch of a Prometheus. The King of England, who, as it was
+emphatically said of his successor Henry the Eighth, loved to look upon
+A MAN, was well pleased with the thews, sinews, and symmetry of him whom
+he now surveyed, and questioned him in the lingua franca, “Art thou a
+pagan?”
+
+The slave shook his head, and raising his finger to his brow, crossed
+himself in token of his Christianity, then resumed his posture of
+motionless humility.
+
+“A Nubian Christian, doubtless,” said Richard, “and mutilated of the
+organ of speech by these heathen dogs?”
+
+The mute again slowly shook his head, in token of negative, pointed with
+his forefinger to Heaven, and then laid it upon his own lips.
+
+“I understand thee,” said Richard; “thou dost suffer under the
+infliction of God, not by the cruelty of man. Canst thou clean an armour
+and belt, and buckle it in time of need?”
+
+The mute nodded, and stepping towards the coat of mail, which hung with
+the shield and helmet of the chivalrous monarch upon the pillar of the
+tent, he handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently to show
+that he fully understood the business of an armour-bearer.
+
+“Thou art an apt, and wilt doubtless be a useful knave. Thou shalt wait
+in my chamber, and on my person,” said the King, “to show how much I
+value the gift of the royal Soldan. If thou hast no tongue, it follows
+thou canst carry no tales, neither provoke me to be sudden by any unfit
+reply.”
+
+The Nubian again prostrated himself till his brow touched the earth,
+then stood erect, at some paces distant, as waiting for his new master's
+commands.
+
+“Nay, thou shalt commence thy office presently,” said Richard, “for I
+see a speck of rust darkening on that shield; and when I shake it in
+the face of Saladin, it should be bright and unsullied as the Soldan's
+honour and mine own.”
+
+A horn was winded without, and presently Sir Henry Neville entered
+with a packet of dispatches. “From England, my lord,” he said, as he
+delivered it.
+
+“From England--our own England!” repeated Richard, in a tone of
+melancholy enthusiasm. “Alas! they little think how hard their Sovereign
+has been beset by sickness and sorrow--faint friends and forward
+enemies.” Then opening the dispatches, he said hastily, “Ha! this comes
+from no peaceful land--they too have their feuds. Neville, begone; I
+must peruse these tidings alone, and at leisure.”
+
+Neville withdrew accordingly, and Richard was soon absorbed in the
+melancholy details which had been conveyed to him from England,
+concerning the factions that were tearing to pieces his native
+dominions--the disunion of his brothers John and Geoffrey, and the
+quarrels of both with the High Justiciary Longchamp, Bishop of Ely--the
+oppressions practised by the nobles upon the peasantry, and rebellion of
+the latter against their masters, which had produced everywhere scenes
+of discord, and in some instances the effusion of blood. Details of
+incidents mortifying to his pride, and derogatory from his authority,
+were intermingled with the earnest advice of his wisest and most
+attached counsellors that he should presently return to England, as
+his presence offered the only hope of saving the Kingdom from all the
+horrors of civil discord, of which France and Scotland were likely to
+avail themselves. Filled with the most painful anxiety, Richard read,
+and again read, the ill-omened letters; compared the intelligence which
+some of them contained with the same facts as differently stated in
+others; and soon became totally insensible to whatever was passing
+around him, although seated, for the sake of coolness, close to the
+entrance of his tent, and having the curtains withdrawn, so that he
+could see and be seen by the guards and others who were stationed
+without.
+
+Deeper in the shadow of the pavilion, and busied with the task his new
+master had imposed, sat the Nubian slave, with his back rather turned
+towards the King. He had finished adjusting and cleaning the hauberk and
+brigandine, and was now busily employed on a broad pavesse, or buckler,
+of unusual size, and covered with steel-plating, which Richard often
+used in reconnoitring, or actually storming fortified places, as a more
+effectual protection against missile weapons than the narrow triangular
+shield used on horseback. This pavesse bore neither the royal lions
+of England, nor any other device, to attract the observation of
+the defenders of the walls against which it was advanced; the care,
+therefore, of the armourer was addressed to causing its surface to shine
+as bright as crystal, in which he seemed to be peculiarly successful.
+Beyond the Nubian, and scarce visible from without, lay the large dog,
+which might be termed his brother slave, and which, as if he felt awed
+by being transferred to a royal owner, was couched close to the side of
+the mute, with head and ears on the ground, and his limbs and tail drawn
+close around and under him.
+
+While the Monarch and his new attendant were thus occupied, another
+actor crept upon the scene, and mingled among the group of English
+yeomen, about a score of whom, respecting the unusually pensive posture
+and close occupation of their Sovereign, were, contrary to their wont,
+keeping a silent guard in front of his tent. It was not, however, more
+vigilant than usual. Some were playing at games of hazard with small
+pebbles, others spoke together in whispers of the approaching day of
+battle, and several lay asleep, their bulky limbs folded in their green
+mantles.
+
+Amid these careless warders glided the puny form of a little old Turk,
+poorly dressed like a marabout or santon of the desert--a sort of
+enthusiasts, who sometimes ventured into the camp of the Crusaders,
+though treated always with contumely, and often with violence. Indeed,
+the luxury and profligate indulgence of the Christian leaders had
+occasioned a motley concourse in their tents of musicians, courtesans,
+Jewish merchants, Copts, Turks, and all the varied refuse of the Eastern
+nations; so that the caftan and turban, though to drive both from
+the Holy Land was the professed object of the expedition, were,
+nevertheless, neither an uncommon nor an alarming sight in the camp of
+the Crusaders. When, however, the little insignificant figure we have
+described approached so nigh as to receive some interruption from the
+warders, he dashed his dusky green turban from his head, showed that his
+beard and eyebrows were shaved like those of a professed buffoon, and
+that the expression of his fantastic and writhen features, as well as
+of his little black eyes, which glittered like jet, was that of a crazed
+imagination.
+
+“Dance, marabout,” cried the soldiers, acquainted with the manners of
+these wandering enthusiasts, “dance, or we will scourge thee with our
+bow-strings till thou spin as never top did under schoolboy's lash.”
+ Thus shouted the reckless warders, as much delighted at having a subject
+to tease as a child when he catches a butterfly, or a schoolboy upon
+discovering a bird's nest.
+
+The marabout, as if happy to do their behests, bounded from the earth,
+and spun his giddy round before them with singular agility, which, when
+contrasted with his slight and wasted figure, and diminutive appearance,
+made him resemble a withered leaf twirled round and round at the
+pleasure of the winter's breeze. His single lock of hair streamed
+upwards from his bald and shaven head, as if some genie upheld him by
+it; and indeed it seemed as if supernatural art were necessary to the
+execution of the wild, whirling dance, in which scarce the tiptoe of
+the performer was seen to touch the ground. Amid the vagaries of his
+performance he flew here and there, from one spot to another, still
+approaching, however, though almost imperceptibly, to the entrance of
+the royal tent; so that, when at length he sunk exhausted on the earth,
+after two or three bounds still higher than those which he had yet
+executed, he was not above thirty yards from the King's person.
+
+“Give him water,” said one yeoman; “they always crave a drink after
+their merry-go-round.”
+
+“Aha, water, sayest thou, Long Allen?” exclaimed another archer, with a
+most scornful emphasis on the despised element; “how wouldst like such
+beverage thyself, after such a morrice dancing?”
+
+“The devil a water-drop he gets here,” said a third. “We will teach
+the light-footed old infidel to be a good Christian, and drink wine of
+Cyprus.”
+
+“Ay, ay,” said a fourth; “and in case he be restive, fetch thou Dick
+Hunter's horn, that he drenches his mare withal.”
+
+A circle was instantly formed around the prostrate and exhausted
+dervise, and while one tall yeoman raised his feeble form from the
+ground, another presented to him a huge flagon of wine. Incapable of
+speech, the old man shook his head, and waved away from him with his
+hand the liquor forbidden by the Prophet. But his tormentors were not
+thus to be appeased.
+
+“The horn, the horn!” exclaimed one. “Little difference between a Turk
+and a Turkish horse, and we will use him conforming.”
+
+“By Saint George, you will choke him!” said Long Allen; “and besides, it
+is a sin to throw away upon a heathen dog as much wine as would serve a
+good Christian for a treble night-cap.”
+
+“Thou knowest not the nature of these Turks and pagans, Long Allen,”
+ replied Henry Woodstall. “I tell thee, man, that this flagon of Cyprus
+will set his brains a-spinning, just in the opposite direction that they
+went whirling in the dancing, and so bring him, as it were, to himself
+again. Choke? He will no more choke on it than Ben's black bitch on the
+pound of butter.”
+
+“And for grudging it,” said Tomalin Blacklees, “why shouldst thou grudge
+the poor paynim devil a drop of drink on earth, since thou knowest he
+is not to have a drop to cool the tip of his tongue through a long
+eternity?”
+
+“That were hard laws, look ye,” said Long Allen, “only for being a Turk,
+as his father was before him. Had he been Christian turned heathen, I
+grant you the hottest corner had been good winter quarters for him.”
+
+“Hold thy peace, Long Allen,” said Henry Woodstall. “I tell thee that
+tongue of thine is not the shortest limb about thee, and I prophesy that
+it will bring thee into disgrace with Father Francis, as once about the
+black-eyed Syrian wench. But here comes the horn. Be active a bit,
+man, wilt thou, and just force open his teeth with the haft of thy
+dudgeon-dagger.”
+
+“Hold, hold--he is conformable,” said Tomalin; “see, see, he signs for
+the goblet--give him room, boys! OOP SEY ES, quoth the Dutchman--down
+it goes like lamb's-wool! Nay, they are true topers when once they
+begin--your Turk never coughs in his cup, or stints in his liquoring.”
+
+In fact, the dervise, or whatever he was, drank--or at least seemed to
+drink--the large flagon to the very bottom at a single pull; and when
+he took it from his lips after the whole contents were exhausted, only
+uttered, with a deep sigh, the words, ALLAH KERIM, or God is merciful.
+There was a laugh among the yeomen who witnessed this pottle-deep
+potation, so obstreperous as to rouse and disturb the King, who, raising
+his finger, said angrily, “How, knaves, no respect, no observance?”
+
+All were at once hushed into silence, well acquainted with the temper of
+Richard, which at some times admitted of much military familiarity, and
+at others exacted the most precise respect, although the latter humour
+was of much more rare occurrence. Hastening to a more reverent distance
+from the royal person, they attempted to drag along with them the
+marabout, who, exhausted apparently by previous fatigue, or overpowered
+by the potent draught he had just swallowed, resisted being moved from
+the spot, both with struggles and groans.
+
+“Leave him still, ye fools,” whispered Long Allen to his mates; “by
+Saint Christopher, you will make our Dickon go beside himself, and we
+shall have his dagger presently fly at our costards. Leave him alone; in
+less than a minute he will sleep like a dormouse.”
+
+At the same moment the Monarch darted another impatient glance to the
+spot, and all retreated in haste, leaving the dervise on the ground,
+unable, as it seemed, to stir a single limb or joint of his body. In a
+moment afterward all was as still and quiet as it had been before the
+intrusion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+     --and wither'd Murder,
+     Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
+     Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
+     With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
+     Moves like a ghost.
+                MACBETH.
+
+For the space of a quarter of an hour, or longer, after the incident
+related, all remained perfectly quiet in the front of the royal
+habitation. The King read and mused in the entrance of his pavilion;
+behind, and with his back turned to the same entrance, the Nubian slave
+still burnished the ample pavesse; in front of all, at a hundred paces
+distant, the yeomen of the guard stood, sat, or lay extended on the
+grass, attentive to their own sports, but pursuing them in silence,
+while on the esplanade betwixt them and the front of the tent lay,
+scarcely to be distinguished from a bundle of rags, the senseless form
+of the marabout.
+
+But the Nubian had the advantage of a mirror from the brilliant
+reflection which the surface of the highly-polished shield now afforded,
+by means of which he beheld, to his alarm and surprise, that the
+marabout raised his head gently from the ground, so as to survey all
+around him, moving with a well-adjusted precaution which seemed entirely
+inconsistent with a state of ebriety. He couched his head instantly, as
+if satisfied he was unobserved, and began, with the slightest possible
+appearance of voluntary effort, to drag himself, as if by chance, ever
+nearer and nearer to the King, but stopping and remaining fixed at
+intervals, like the spider, which, moving towards her object, collapses
+into apparent lifelessness when she thinks she is the subject of
+observation. This species of movement appeared suspicious to the
+Ethiopian, who, on his part, prepared himself, as quietly as possible,
+to interfere, the instant that interference should seem to be necessary.
+
+The marabout, meanwhile, glided on gradually and imperceptibly,
+serpent-like, or rather snail-like, till he was about ten yards distant
+from Richard's person, when, starting on his feet, he sprung forward
+with the bound of a tiger, stood at the King's back in less than an
+instant, and brandished aloft the cangiar, or poniard, which he had
+hidden in his sleeve. Not the presence of his whole army could have
+saved their heroic Monarch; but the motions of the Nubian had been as
+well calculated as those of the enthusiast, and ere the latter could
+strike, the former caught his uplifted arm. Turning his fanatical wrath
+upon what thus unexpectedly interposed betwixt him and his object, the
+Charegite, for such was the seeming marabout, dealt the Nubian a blow
+with the dagger, which, however, only grazed his arm, while the far
+superior strength of the Ethiopian easily dashed him to the ground.
+Aware of what had passed, Richard had now arisen, and with little more
+of surprise, anger, or interest of any kind in his countenance than an
+ordinary man would show in brushing off and crushing an intrusive wasp,
+caught up the stool on which he had been sitting, and exclaiming only,
+“Ha, dog!” dashed almost to pieces the skull of the assassin, who
+uttered twice, once in a loud, and once in a broken tone, the words
+ALLAH ACKBAR!--God is victorious--and expired at the King's feet.
+
+“Ye are careful warders,” said Richard to his archers, in a tone of
+scornful reproach, as, aroused by the bustle of what had passed, in
+terror and tumult they now rushed into his tent; “watchful sentinels ye
+are, to leave me to do such hangman's work with my own hand. Be silent,
+all of you, and cease your senseless clamour!--saw ye never a dead Turk
+before? Here, cast that carrion out of the camp, strike the head from
+the trunk, and stick it on a lance, taking care to turn the face
+to Mecca, that he may the easier tell the foul impostor on whose
+inspiration he came hither how he has sped on his errand.--For thee, my
+swart and silent friend,” he added, turning to the Ethiopian--“but how's
+this? Thou art wounded--and with a poisoned weapon, I warrant me, for
+by force of stab so weak an animal as that could scarce hope to do
+more than raze the lion's hide.--Suck the poison from his wound one of
+you--the venom is harmless on the lips, though fatal when it mingles
+with the blood.”
+
+The yeomen looked on each other confusedly and with hesitation, the
+apprehension of so strange a danger prevailing with those who feared no
+other.
+
+“How now, sirrahs,” continued the King, “are you dainty-lipped, or do
+you fear death, that you daily thus?”
+
+“Not the death of a man,” said Long Allen, to whom the King looked as he
+spoke; “but methinks I would not die like a poisoned rat for the sake
+of a black chattel there, that is bought and sold in a market like a
+Martlemas ox.”
+
+“His Grace speaks to men of sucking poison,” muttered another yeoman,
+“as if he said, 'Go to, swallow a gooseberry!'”
+
+“Nay,” said Richard, “I never bade man do that which I would not do
+myself.”
+
+And without further ceremony, and in spite of the general expostulations
+of those around, and the respectful opposition of the Nubian himself,
+the King of England applied his lips to the wound of the black
+slave, treating with ridicule all remonstrances, and overpowering all
+resistance. He had no sooner intermitted his singular occupation, than
+the Nubian started from him, and casting a scarf over his arm, intimated
+by gestures, as firm in purpose as they were respectful in manner,
+his determination not to permit the Monarch to renew so degrading
+an employment. Long Allen also interposed, saying that, if it were
+necessary to prevent the King engaging again in a treatment of this
+kind, his own lips, tongue, and teeth were at the service of the negro
+(as he called the Ethiopian), and that he would eat him up bodily,
+rather than King Richard's mouth should again approach him.
+
+Neville, who entered with other officers, added his remonstrances.
+
+“Nay, nay, make not a needless halloo about a hart that the hounds have
+lost, or a danger when it is over,” said the King. “The wound will be a
+trifle, for the blood is scarce drawn--an angry cat had dealt a deeper
+scratch. And for me, I have but to take a drachm of orvietan by way of
+precaution, though it is needless.”
+
+ Thus spoke Richard, a little ashamed, perhaps, of his own
+condescension, though sanctioned both by humanity and gratitude. But
+when Neville continued to make remonstrances on the peril to his royal
+person, the King imposed silence on him.
+
+“Peace, I prithee--make no more of it. I did it but to show these
+ignorant, prejudiced knaves how they might help each other when these
+cowardly caitiffs come against us with sarbacanes and poisoned shafts.
+But,” he added, “take thee this Nubian to thy quarters, Neville--I have
+changed my mind touching him--let him be well cared for. But hark in
+thine ear; see that he escapes thee not--there is more in him than
+seems. Let him have all liberty, so that he leave not the camp.--And
+you, ye beef-devouring, wine-swilling English mastiffs, get ye to your
+guard again, and be sure you keep it more warily. Think not you are now
+in your own land of fair play, where men speak before they strike, and
+shake hands ere they cut throats. Danger in our land walks openly, and
+with his blade drawn, and defies the foe whom he means to assault; but
+here he challenges you with a silk glove instead of a steel gauntlet,
+cuts your throat with the feather of a turtle-dove, stabs you with the
+tongue of a priest's brooch, or throttles you with the lace of my lady's
+boddice. Go to--keep your eyes open and your mouths shut--drink less,
+and look sharper about you; or I will place your huge stomachs on such
+short allowance as would pinch the stomach of a patient Scottish man.”
+
+The yeomen, abashed and mortified, withdrew to their post, and Neville
+was beginning to remonstrate with his master upon the risk of passing
+over thus slightly their negligence upon their duty, and the propriety
+of an example in a case so peculiarly aggravated as the permitting one
+so suspicious as the marabout to approach within dagger's length of
+his person, when Richard interrupted him with, “Speak not of it,
+Neville--wouldst thou have me avenge a petty risk to myself more
+severely than the loss of England's banner? It has been stolen--stolen
+by a thief, or delivered up by a traitor, and no blood has been shed
+for it.--My sable friend, thou art an expounder of mysteries, saith the
+illustrious Soldan--now would I give thee thine own weight in gold, if,
+by raising one still blacker than thyself or by what other means thou
+wilt, thou couldst show me the thief who did mine honour that wrong.
+What sayest thou, ha?”
+
+The mute seemed desirous to speak, but uttered only that imperfect sound
+proper to his melancholy condition; then folded his arms, looked on the
+King with an eye of intelligence, and nodded in answer to his question.
+
+“How!” said Richard, with joyful impatience. “Wilt thou undertake to
+make discovery in this matter?”
+
+The Nubian slave repeated the same motion.
+
+“But how shall we understand each other?” said the King. “Canst thou
+write, good fellow?”
+
+The slave again nodded in assent.
+
+“Give him writing-tools,” said the King. “They were readier in my
+father's tent than mine; but they be somewhere about, if this scorching
+climate have not dried up the ink.--Why, this fellow is a jewel--a black
+diamond, Neville.”
+
+“So please you, my liege,” said Neville, “if I might speak my poor mind,
+it were ill dealing in this ware. This man must be a wizard, and wizards
+deal with the Enemy, who hath most interest to sow tares among the
+wheat, and bring dissension into our councils, and--”
+
+“Peace, Neville,” said Richard. “Hello to your northern hound when he is
+close on the haunch of the deer, and hope to recall him, but seek not to
+stop Plantagenet when he hath hope to retrieve his honour.”
+
+The slave, who during this discussion had been writing, in which art he
+seemed skilful, now arose, and pressing what he had written to his brow,
+prostrated himself as usual, ere he delivered it into the King's hands.
+The scroll was in French, although their intercourse had hitherto been
+conducted by Richard in the lingua franca.
+
+“To Richard, the conquering and invincible King of England, this from
+the humblest of his slaves. Mysteries are the sealed caskets of Heaven,
+but wisdom may devise means to open the lock. Were your slave stationed
+where the leaders of the Christian host were made to pass before him
+in order, doubt nothing that if he who did the injury whereof my King
+complains shall be among the number, he may be made manifest in his
+iniquity, though it be hidden under seven veils.”
+
+“Now, by Saint George!” said King Richard, “thou hast spoken most
+opportunely.--Neville, thou knowest that when we muster our troops
+to-morrow the princes have agreed that, to expiate the affront offered
+to England in the theft of her banner, the leaders should pass our new
+standard as it floats on Saint George's Mount, and salute it with formal
+regard. Believe me, the secret traitor will not dare to absent himself
+from an expurgation so solemn, lest his very absence should be matter of
+suspicion. There will we place our sable man of counsel, and if his art
+can detect the villain, leave me to deal with him.”
+
+“My liege,” said Neville, with the frankness of an English baron,
+“beware what work you begin. Here is the concord of our holy league
+unexpectedly renewed--will you, upon such suspicion as a negro slave can
+instil, tear open wounds so lately closed? Or will you use the solemn
+procession, adopted for the reparation of your honour and establishment
+of unanimity amongst the discording princes, as the means of again
+finding out new cause of offence, or reviving ancient quarrels? It were
+scarce too strong to say this were a breach of the declaration your
+Grace made to the assembled Council of the Crusade.”
+
+“Neville,” said the King, sternly interrupting him, “thy zeal makes thee
+presumptuous and unmannerly. Never did I promise to abstain from taking
+whatever means were most promising to discover the infamous author of
+the attack on my honour. Ere I had done so, I would have renounced my
+kingdom, my life. All my declarations were under this necessary and
+absolute qualification;--only, if Austria had stepped forth and owned
+the injury like a man, I proffered, for the sake of Christendom, to have
+forgiven HIM.”
+
+“But,” continued the baron anxiously, “what hope that this juggling
+slave of Saladin will not palter with your Grace?”
+
+“Peace, Neville,” said the King; “thou thinkest thyself mighty wise, and
+art but a fool. Mind thou my charge touching this fellow; there is
+more in him than thy Westmoreland wit can fathom.--And thou, smart and
+silent, prepare to perform the feat thou hast promised, and, by the
+word of a King, thou shalt choose thine own recompense.--Lo, he writes
+again.”
+
+The mute accordingly wrote and delivered to the King, with the same form
+as before, another slip of paper, containing these words, “The will of
+the King is the law to his slave; nor doth it become him to ask guerdon
+for discharge of his devoir.”
+
+“GUERDON and DEVOIR!” said the King, interrupting himself as he read,
+and speaking to Neville in the English tongue with some emphasis on
+the words. “These Eastern people will profit by the Crusaders--they are
+acquiring the language of chivalry! And see, Neville, how discomposed
+that fellow looks! were it not for his colour he would blush. I should
+not think it strange if he understood what I say--they are perilous
+linguists.”
+
+“The poor slave cannot endure your Grace's eye,” said Neville; “it is
+nothing more.”
+
+“Well, but,” continued the King, striking the paper with his finger as
+he proceeded, “this bold scroll proceeds to say that our trusty mute is
+charged with a message from Saladin to the Lady Edith Plantagenet, and
+craves means and opportunity to deliver it. What thinkest thou of a
+request so modest--ha, Neville?”
+
+“I cannot say,” said Neville, “how such freedom may relish with your
+Grace; but the lease of the messenger's neck would be a short one, who
+should carry such a request to the Soldan on the part of your Majesty.”
+
+“Nay, I thank Heaven that I covet none of his sunburnt beauties,” said
+Richard; “and for punishing this fellow for discharging his master's
+errand, and that when he has just saved my life--methinks it were
+something too summary. I'll tell thee, Neville, a secret; for although
+our sable and mute minister be present, he cannot, thou knowest, tell it
+over again, even if he should chance to understand us. I tell thee that,
+for this fortnight past, I have been under a strange spell, and I would
+I were disenchanted. There has no sooner any one done me good service,
+but, lo you, he cancels his interest in me by some deep injury; and,
+on the other hand, he who hath deserved death at my hands for some
+treachery or some insult, is sure to be the very person of all others
+who confers upon me some obligation that overbalances his demerits, and
+renders respite of his sentence a debt due from my honour. Thus, thou
+seest, I am deprived of the best part of my royal function, since I
+can neither punish men nor reward them. Until the influence of this
+disqualifying planet be passed away, I will say nothing concerning the
+request of this our sable attendant, save that it is an unusually bold
+one, and that his best chance of finding grace in our eyes will be to
+endeavour to make the discovery which he proposes to achieve in our
+behalf. Meanwhile, Neville, do thou look well to him, and let him
+be honourably cared for. And hark thee once more,” he said, in a
+low whisper, “seek out yonder hermit of Engaddi, and bring him to
+me forthwith, be he saint or savage, madman or sane. Let me see him
+privately.”
+
+Neville retired from the royal tent, signing to the Nubian to follow
+him, and much surprised at what he had seen and heard, and especially at
+the unusual demeanour of the King. In general, no task was so easy as to
+discover Richard's immediate course of sentiment and feeling, though
+it might, in some cases, be difficult to calculate its duration; for
+no weathercock obeyed the changing wind more readily than the King
+his gusts of passion. But on the present occasion his manner seemed
+unusually constrained and mysterious; nor was it easy to guess whether
+displeasure or kindness predominated in his conduct towards his new
+dependant, or in the looks with which, from time to time, he regarded
+him. The ready service which the King had rendered to counteract the
+bad effects of the Nubian's wound might seem to balance the obligation
+conferred on him by the slave when he intercepted the blow of the
+assassin; but it seemed, as a much longer account remained to be
+arranged between them, that the Monarch was doubtful whether the
+settlement might leave him, upon the whole, debtor or creditor, and
+that, therefore, he assumed in the meantime a neutral demeanour, which
+might suit with either character. As for the Nubian, by whatever means
+he had acquired the art of writing the European languages, the King
+remained convinced that the English tongue at least was unknown to him,
+since, having watched him closely during the last part of the interview,
+he conceived it impossible for any one understanding a conversation,
+of which he was himself the subject, to have so completely avoided the
+appearance of taking an interest in it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     Who's there!--Approach--'tis kindly done--
+     My learned physician and a friend.
+              SIR EUSTACE GREY.
+
+Our narrative retrogrades to a period shortly previous to the incidents
+last mentioned, when, as the reader must remember, the unfortunate
+Knight of the Leopard, bestowed upon the Arabian physician by King
+Richard, rather as a slave than in any other capacity, was exiled
+from the camp of the Crusaders, in whose ranks he had so often and so
+brilliantly distinguished himself. He followed his new master--for so
+he must now term the Hakim--to the Moorish tents which contained his
+retinue and his property, with the stupefied feelings of one who, fallen
+from the summit of a precipice, and escaping unexpectedly with life, is
+just able to drag himself from the fatal spot, but without the power of
+estimating the extent of the damage which he has sustained. Arrived at
+the tent, he threw himself, without speech of any kind, upon a couch of
+dressed buffalo's hide, which was pointed out to him by his conductor,
+and hiding his face betwixt his hands, groaned heavily, as if his heart
+were on the point of bursting. The physician heard him, as he was giving
+orders to his numerous domestics to prepare for their departure the next
+morning before daybreak, and, moved with compassion, interrupted his
+occupation to sit down, cross-legged, by the side of his couch, and
+administer comfort according to the Oriental manner.
+
+“My friend,” he said, “be of good comfort; for what saith the poet--it
+is better that a man should be the servant of a kind master than the
+slave of his own wild passions. Again, be of good courage; because,
+whereas Ysouf Ben Yagoube was sold to a king by his brethren, even to
+Pharaoh, King of Egypt, thy king hath, on the other hand, bestowed thee
+on one who will be to thee as a brother.”
+
+Sir Kenneth made an effort to thank the Hakim, but his heart was too
+full, and the indistinct sounds which accompanied his abortive attempts
+to reply induced the kind physician to desist from his premature
+endeavours at consolation. He left his new domestic, or guest, in
+quiet, to indulge his sorrows, and having commanded all the necessary
+preparations for their departure on the morning, sat down upon the
+carpet of the tent, and indulged himself in a moderate repast. After he
+had thus refreshed himself, similar viands were offered to the Scottish
+knight; but though the slaves let him understand that the next day would
+be far advanced ere they would halt for the purpose of refreshment, Sir
+Kenneth could not overcome the disgust which he felt against swallowing
+any nourishment, and could be prevailed upon to taste nothing, saving a
+draught of cold water.
+
+He was awake long after his Arab host had performed his usual devotions
+and betaken himself to his repose; nor had sleep visited him at the
+hour of midnight, when a movement took place among the domestics, which,
+though attended with no speech, and very little noise, made him aware
+they were loading the camels and preparing for departure. In the course
+of these preparations, the last person who was disturbed, excepting the
+physician himself, was the knight of Scotland, whom, about three in the
+morning, a sort of major-domo, or master of the household, acquainted
+that he must arise. He did so, without further answer, and followed him
+into the moonlight, where stood the camels, most of which were already
+loaded, and one only remained kneeling until its burden should be
+completed.
+
+A little apart from the camels stood a number of horses ready bridled
+and saddled, and the Hakim himself, coming forth, mounted on one of them
+with as much agility as the grave decorum of his character permitted,
+and directed another, which he pointed out, to be led towards Sir
+Kenneth. An English officer was in attendance, to escort them through
+the camp of the Crusaders, and to ensure their leaving it in safety; and
+all was ready for their departure. The pavilion which they had left was,
+in the meanwhile, struck with singular dispatch, and the tent-poles and
+coverings composed the burden of the last camel--when the physician,
+pronouncing solemnly the verse of the Koran, “God be our guide, and
+Mohammed our protector, in the desert as in the watered field,” the
+whole cavalcade was instantly in motion.
+
+In traversing the camp, they were challenged by the various sentinels
+who maintained guard there, and suffered to proceed in silence, or with
+a muttered curse upon their prophet, as they passed the post of some
+more zealous Crusader. At length the last barriers were left behind
+them, and the party formed themselves for the march with military
+precaution. Two or three horsemen advanced in front as a vanguard;
+one or two remained a bow-shot in the rear; and, wherever the ground
+admitted, others were detached to keep an outlook on the flanks. In this
+manner they proceeded onward; while Sir Kenneth, looking back on the
+moonlit camp, might now indeed seem banished, deprived at once of honour
+and of liberty, from the glimmering banners under which he had hoped
+to gain additional renown, and the tented dwellings of chivalry, of
+Christianity, and--of Edith Plantagenet.
+
+
+The Hakim, who rode by his side, observed, in his usual tone of
+sententious consolation, “It is unwise to look back when the journey
+lieth forward;” and as he spoke, the horse of the knight made such a
+perilous stumble as threatened to add a practical moral to the tale.
+
+The knight was compelled by this hint to give more attention to the
+management of his steed, which more than once required the assistance
+and support of the check-bridle, although, in other respects, nothing
+could be more easy at once, and active, than the ambling pace at which
+the animal (which was a mare) proceeded.
+
+“The conditions of that horse,” observed the sententious physician, “are
+like those of human fortune--seeing that, amidst his most swift and easy
+pace, the rider must guard himself against a fall, and that it is when
+prosperity is at the highest that our prudence should be awake and
+vigilant to prevent misfortune.”
+
+The overloaded appetite loathes even the honeycomb, and it is scarce
+a wonder that the knight, mortified and harassed with misfortunes and
+abasement, became something impatient of hearing his misery made, at
+every turn, the ground of proverbs and apothegms, however just and
+apposite.
+
+“Methinks,” he said, rather peevishly, “I wanted no additional
+illustration of the instability of fortune though I would thank thee,
+Sir Hakim, for the choice of a steed for me, would the jade but stumble
+so effectually as at once to break my neck and her own.”
+
+“My brother,” answered the Arab sage, with imperturbable gravity, “thou
+speakest as one of the foolish. Thou sayest in thy heart that the sage
+should have given you, as his guest, the younger and better horse, and
+reserved the old one for himself. But know that the defects of the older
+steed may be compensated by the energies of the young rider, whereas the
+violence of the young horse requires to be moderated by the cold temper
+of the older.”
+
+So spoke the sage; but neither to this observation did Sir Kenneth
+return any answer which could lead to a continuance of their
+conversation, and the physician, wearied, perhaps, of administering
+comfort to one who would not be comforted, signed to one of his retinue.
+
+“Hassan,” he said, “hast thou nothing wherewith to beguile the way?”
+
+Hassan, story-teller and poet by profession, spurred up, upon this
+summons, to exercise his calling. “Lord of the palace of life,” he said,
+addressing the physician, “thou, before whom the angel Azrael spreadeth
+his wings for flight--thou, wiser than Solimaun Ben Daoud, upon whose
+signet was inscribed the REAL NAME which controls the spirits of the
+elements--forbid it, Heaven, that while thou travellest upon the track
+of benevolence, bearing healing and hope wherever thou comest, thine own
+course should be saddened for lack of the tale and of the song. Behold,
+while thy servant is at thy side, he will pour forth the treasures of
+his memory, as the fountain sendeth her stream beside the pathway, for
+the refreshment or him that walketh thereon.”
+
+After this exordium, Hassan uplifted his voice, and began a tale of love
+and magic, intermixed with feats of warlike achievement, and ornamented
+with abundant quotations from the Persian poets, with whose compositions
+the orator seemed familiar. The retinue of the physician, such excepted
+as were necessarily detained in attendance on the camels, thronged up
+to the narrator, and pressed as close as deference for their master
+permitted, to enjoy the delight which the inhabitants of the East have
+ever derived from this species of exhibition.
+
+At another time, notwithstanding his imperfect knowledge of the
+language, Sir Kenneth might have been interested in the recitation,
+which, though dictated by a more extravagant imagination, and
+expressed in more inflated and metaphorical language, bore yet a strong
+resemblance to the romances of chivalry then so fashionable in Europe.
+But as matters stood with him, he was scarcely even sensible that a
+man in the centre of the cavalcade recited and sung, in a low tone, for
+nearly two hours, modulating his voice to the various moods of passion
+introduced into the tale, and receiving, in return, now low murmurs of
+applause, now muttered expressions of wonder, now sighs and tears,
+and sometimes, what it was far more difficult to extract from such an
+audience, a tribute of smiles, and even laughter.
+
+During the recitation, the attention of the exile, however abstracted by
+his own deep sorrow, was occasionally awakened by the low wail of a dog,
+secured in a wicker enclosure suspended on one of the camels, which, as
+an experienced woodsman, he had no hesitation in recognizing to be that
+of his own faithful hound; and from the plaintive tone of the animal, he
+had no doubt that he was sensible of his master's vicinity, and, in his
+way, invoking his assistance for liberty and rescue.
+
+“Alas! poor Roswal,” he said, “thou callest for aid and sympathy upon
+one in stricter bondage than thou thyself art. I will not seem to heed
+thee or return thy affection, since it would serve but to load our
+parting with yet more bitterness.”
+
+Thus passed the hours of night and the space of dim hazy dawn which
+forms the twilight of a Syrian morning. But when the very first line of
+the sun's disk began to rise above the level horizon, and when the very
+first level ray shot glimmering in dew along the surface of the desert,
+which the travellers had now attained, the sonorous voice of El Hakim
+himself overpowered and cut short the narrative of the tale-teller,
+while he caused to resound along the sands the solemn summons, which the
+muezzins thunder at morning from the minaret of every mosque.
+
+“To prayer--to prayer! God is the one God.--To prayer--to prayer!
+Mohammed is the Prophet of God.--To prayer--to prayer! Time is flying
+from you.--To prayer--to prayer! Judgment is drawing nigh to you.”
+
+In an instant each Moslem cast himself from his horse, turned his face
+towards Mecca, and performed with sand an imitation of those ablutions,
+which were elsewhere required to be made with water, while each
+individual, in brief but fervent ejaculations, recommended himself to
+the care, and his sins to the forgiveness, of God and the Prophet.
+
+Even Sir Kenneth, whose reason at once and prejudices were offended by
+seeing his companions in that which he considered as an act of idolatry,
+could not help respecting the sincerity of their misguided zeal, and
+being stimulated by their fervour to apply supplications to Heaven in a
+purer form, wondering, meanwhile, what new-born feelings could teach
+him to accompany in prayer, though with varied invocation, those
+very Saracens, whose heathenish worship he had conceived a crime
+dishonourable to the land in which high miracles had been wrought, and
+where the day-star of redemption had arisen.
+
+The act of devotion, however, though rendered in such strange society,
+burst purely from his natural feelings of religious duty, and had its
+usual effect in composing the spirits which had been long harassed by
+so rapid a succession of calamities. The sincere and earnest approach of
+the Christian to the throne of the Almighty teaches the best lesson of
+patience under affliction; since wherefore should we mock the Deity with
+supplications, when we insult him by murmuring under His decrees?
+or how, while our prayers have in every word admitted the vanity and
+nothingness of the things of time in comparison to those of eternity,
+should we hope to deceive the Searcher of Hearts, by permitting the
+world and worldly passions to reassume the reins even immediately after
+a solemn address to Heaven! But Sir Kenneth was not of these. He felt
+himself comforted and strengthened, and better prepared to execute or
+submit to whatever his destiny might call upon him to do or to suffer.
+
+Meanwhile, the party of Saracens regained their saddles, and continued
+their route, and the tale-teller, Hassan, resumed the thread of his
+narrative; but it was no longer to the same attentive audience. A
+horseman, who had ascended some high ground on the right hand of
+the little column, had returned on a speedy gallop to El Hakim, and
+communicated with him. Four or five more cavaliers had then been
+dispatched, and the little band, which might consist of about twenty or
+thirty persons, began to follow them with their eyes, as men from whose
+gestures, and advance or retreat, they were to augur good or evil.
+Hassan, finding his audience inattentive, or being himself attracted by
+the dubious appearances on the flank, stinted in his song; and the
+march became silent, save when a camel-driver called out to his patient
+charge, or some anxious follower of the Hakim communicated with his next
+neighbour in a hurried and low whisper.
+
+This suspense continued until they had rounded a ridge, composed of
+hillocks of sand, which concealed from their main body the object that
+had created this alarm among their scouts. Sir Kenneth could now see,
+at the distance of a mile or more, a dark object moving rapidly on the
+bosom of the desert, which his experienced eye recognized for a party of
+cavalry, much superior to their own in numbers, and, from the thick and
+frequent flashes which flung back the level beams of the rising sun, it
+was plain that these were Europeans in their complete panoply.
+
+The anxious looks which the horsemen of El Hakim now cast upon their
+leader seemed to indicate deep apprehension; while he, with gravity as
+undisturbed as when he called his followers to prayer, detached two of
+his best-mounted cavaliers, with instructions to approach as closely as
+prudence permitted to these travellers of the desert, and observe
+more minutely their numbers, their character, and, if possible, their
+purpose. The approach of danger, or what was feared as such, was like
+a stimulating draught to one in apathy, and recalled Sir Kenneth to
+himself and his situation.
+
+“What fear you from these Christian horsemen, for such they seem?” he
+said to the Hakim.
+
+“Fear!” said El Hakim, repeating the word disdainfully. “The sage fears
+nothing but Heaven, but ever expects from wicked men the worst which
+they can do.”
+
+“They are Christians,” said Sir Kenneth, “and it is the time of
+truce--why should you fear a breach of faith?”
+
+“They are the priestly soldiers of the Temple,” answered El Hakim,
+“whose vow limits them to know neither truce nor faith with the
+worshippers of Islam. May the Prophet blight them, both root, branch,
+and twig! Their peace is war, and their faith is falsehood. Other
+invaders of Palestine have their times and moods of courtesy. The lion
+Richard will spare when he has conquered, the eagle Philip will close
+his wing when he has stricken a prey, even the Austrian bear will sleep
+when he is gorged; but this horde of ever-hungry wolves know neither
+pause nor satiety in their rapine. Seest thou not that they are
+detaching a party from their main body, and that they take an eastern
+direction? Yon are their pages and squires, whom they train up in their
+accursed mysteries, and whom, as lighter mounted, they send to cut us
+off from our watering-place. But they will be disappointed. I know the
+war of the desert yet better than they.”
+
+He spoke a few words to his principal officer, and his whole demeanour
+and countenance was at once changed from the solemn repose of an Eastern
+sage accustomed more to contemplation than to action, into the prompt
+and proud expression of a gallant soldier whose energies are roused by
+the near approach of a danger which he at once foresees and despises.
+
+To Sir Kenneth's eyes the approaching crisis had a different aspect,
+and when Adonbec said to him, “Thou must tarry close by my side,” he
+answered solemnly in the negative.
+
+“Yonder,” he said, “are my comrades in arms--the men in whose society I
+have vowed to fight or fall. On their banner gleams the sign of our
+most blessed redemption--I cannot fly from the Cross in company with the
+Crescent.”
+
+“Fool!” said the Hakim; “their first action would be to do thee to
+death, were it only to conceal their breach of the truce.”
+
+“Of that I must take my chance,” replied Sir Kenneth; “but I wear not
+the bonds of the infidels an instant longer than I can cast them from
+me.”
+
+“Then will I compel thee to follow me,” said El Hakim.
+
+“Compel!” answered Sir Kenneth angrily. “Wert thou not my benefactor,
+or one who has showed will to be such, and were it not that it is to
+thy confidence I owe the freedom of these hands, which thou mightst have
+loaded with fetters, I would show thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsion
+would be no easy task.”
+
+“Enough, enough,” replied the Arabian physician, “we lose time even when
+it is becoming precious.”
+
+So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill cry, as
+a signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed themselves on the face
+of the desert, in as many different directions as a chaplet of beads
+when the string is broken. Sir Kenneth had no time to note what ensued;
+for, at the same instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed,
+and putting his own to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with the
+suddenness of light, and at a pitch of velocity which almost deprived
+the Scottish knight of the power of respiration, and left him absolutely
+incapable, had he been desirous, to have checked the career of his
+guide. Practised as Sir Kenneth was in horsemanship from his earliest
+youth, the speediest horse he had ever mounted was a tortoise in
+comparison to those of the Arabian sage. They spurned the sand from
+behind them; they seemed to devour the desert before them; miles flew
+away with minutes--and yet their strength seemed unabated, and their
+respiration as free as when they first started upon the wonderful
+race. The motion, too, as easy as it was swift, seemed more like flying
+through the air than riding on the earth, and was attended with no
+unpleasant sensation, save the awe naturally felt by one who is moving
+at such astonishing speed, and the difficulty of breathing occasioned by
+their passing through the air so rapidly.
+
+It was not until after an hour of this portentous motion, and when all
+human pursuit was far, far behind, that the Hakim at length relaxed his
+speed, and, slackening the pace of the horses into a hand-gallop, began,
+in a voice as composed and even as if he had been walking for the last
+hour, a descant upon the excellence of his coursers to the Scot, who,
+breathless, half blind, half deaf, and altogether giddy; from the
+rapidity of this singular ride, hardly comprehended the words which
+flowed so freely from his companion.
+
+“These horses,” he said, “are of the breed called the Winged, equal in
+speed to aught excepting the Borak of the Prophet. They are fed on the
+golden barley of Yemen, mixed with spices and with a small portion of
+dried sheep's flesh. Kings have given provinces to possess them, and
+their age is active as their youth. Thou, Nazarene, art the first, save
+a true believer, that ever had beneath his loins one of this noble
+race, a gift of the Prophet himself to the blessed Ali, his kinsman and
+lieutenant, well called the Lion of God. Time lays his touch so lightly
+on these generous steeds, that the mare on which thou now sittest has
+seen five times five years pass over her, yet retains her pristine speed
+and vigour, only that in the career the support of a bridle, managed by
+a hand more experienced than thine, hath now become necessary. May the
+Prophet be blessed, who hath bestowed on the true believers the means of
+advance and retreat, which causeth their iron-clothed enemies to be
+worn out with their own ponderous weight! How the horses of yonder dog
+Templars must have snorted and blown, when they had toiled fetlock-deep
+in the desert for one-twentieth part of the space which these brave
+steeds have left behind them, without one thick pant, or a drop of
+moisture upon their sleek and velvet coats!”
+
+The Scottish knight, who had now begun to recover his breath and powers
+of attention, could not help acknowledging in his heart the advantage
+possessed by these Eastern warriors in a race of animals, alike proper
+for advance or retreat, and so admirably adapted to the level and sandy
+deserts of Arabia and Syria. But he did not choose to augment the pride
+of the Moslem by acquiescing in his proud claim of superiority, and
+therefore suffered the conversation to drop, and, looking around him,
+could now, at the more moderate pace at which they moved, distinguish
+that he was in a country not unknown to him.
+
+The blighted borders and sullen waters of the Dead Sea, the ragged and
+precipitous chain of mountains arising on the left, the two or three
+palms clustered together, forming the single green speck on the bosom
+of the waste wilderness--objects which, once seen, were scarcely to be
+forgotten--showed to Sir Kenneth that they were approaching the fountain
+called the Diamond of the Desert, which had been the scene of his
+interview on a former occasion with the Saracen Emir Sheerkohf, or
+Ilderim. In a few minutes they checked their horses beside the spring,
+and the Hakim invited Sir Kenneth to descend from horseback and repose
+himself as in a place of safety. They unbridled their steeds, El Hakim
+observing that further care of them was unnecessary, since they would be
+speedily joined by some of the best mounted among his slaves, who would
+do what further was needful.
+
+“Meantime,” he said, spreading some food on the grass, “eat and drink,
+and be not discouraged. Fortune may raise up or abase the ordinary
+mortal, but the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond her
+control.”
+
+The Scottish knight endeavoured to testify his thanks by showing himself
+docile; but though he strove to eat out of complaisance, the singular
+contrast between his present situation and that which he had occupied on
+the same spot when the envoy of princes and the victor in combat,
+came like a cloud over his mind, and fasting, lassitude, and fatigue
+oppressed his bodily powers. El Hakim examined his hurried pulse, his
+red and inflamed eye, his heated hand, and his shortened respiration.
+
+“The mind,” he said, “grows wise by watching, but her sister the body,
+of coarser materials, needs the support of repose. Thou must sleep; and
+that thou mayest do so to refreshment, thou must take a draught mingled
+with this elixir.”
+
+He drew from his bosom a small crystal vial, cased in silver
+filigree-work, and dropped into a little golden drinking-cup a small
+portion of a dark-coloured fluid.
+
+“This,” he said, “is one of those productions which Allah hath sent
+on earth for a blessing, though man's weakness and wickedness have
+sometimes converted it into a curse. It is powerful as the wine-cup of
+the Nazarene to drop the curtain on the sleepless eye, and to relieve
+the burden of the overloaded bosom; but when applied to the purposes of
+indulgence and debauchery, it rends the nerves, destroys the strength,
+weakens the intellect, and undermines life. But fear not thou to use
+its virtues in the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the same
+firebrand with which the madman burneth the tent.” [Some preparation of
+opium seems to be intimated.]
+
+“I have seen too much of thy skill, sage Hakim,” said Sir Kenneth, “to
+debate thine hest;” and swallowed the narcotic, mingled as it was with
+some water from the spring, then wrapped him in the haik, or Arab cloak,
+which had been fastened to his saddle-pommel, and, according to the
+directions of the physician, stretched himself at ease in the shade to
+await the promised repose. Sleep came not at first, but in her stead
+a train of pleasing yet not rousing or awakening sensations. A state
+ensued in which, still conscious of his own identity and his own
+condition, the knight felt enabled to consider them not only without
+alarm and sorrow, but as composedly as he might have viewed the story
+of his misfortunes acted upon a stage--or rather as a disembodied spirit
+might regard the transactions of its past existence. From this state
+of repose, amounting almost to apathy respecting the past, his thoughts
+were carried forward to the future, which, in spite of all that existed
+to overcloud the prospect, glittered with such hues as, under much
+happier auspices, his unstimulated imagination had not been able to
+produce, even in its most exalted state. Liberty, fame, successful love,
+appeared to be the certain and not very distant prospect of the enslaved
+exile, the dishonoured knight, even of the despairing lover who had
+placed his hopes of happiness so far beyond the prospect of chance, in
+her wildest possibilities, serving to countenance his wishes. Gradually
+as the intellectual sight became overclouded, these gay visions became
+obscure, like the dying hues of sunset, until they were at last lost in
+total oblivion; and Sir Kenneth lay extended at the feet of El Hakim, to
+all appearance, but for his deep respiration, as inanimate a corpse as
+if life had actually departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     'Mid these wild scenes Enchantment waves her hand,
+     To change the face of the mysterious land;
+     Till the bewildering scenes around us seem
+     The Vain productions of a feverish dream.
+        ASTOLPHO, A ROMANCE.
+
+When the Knight of the Leopard awoke from his long and profound repose,
+he found himself in circumstances so different from those in which
+he had lain down to sleep, that he doubted whether he was not still
+dreaming, or whether the scene had not been changed by magic. Instead of
+the damp grass, he lay on a couch of more than Oriental luxury; and
+some kind hands had, during his repose, stripped him of the cassock of
+chamois which he wore under his armour, and substituted a night-dress of
+the finest linen and a loose gown of silk. He had been canopied only by
+the palm-trees of the desert, but now he lay beneath a silken pavilion,
+which blazed with the richest colours of the Chinese loom, while a
+slight curtain of gauze, displayed around his couch, was calculated to
+protect his repose from the insects, to which he had, ever since his
+arrival in these climates, been a constant and passive prey. He looked
+around, as if to convince himself that he was actually awake; and all
+that fell beneath his eye partook of the splendour of his dormitory.
+A portable bath of cedar, lined with silver, was ready for use, and
+steamed with the odours which had been used in preparing it. On a small
+stand of ebony beside the couch stood a silver vase, containing sherbet
+of the most exquisite quality, cold as snow, and which the thirst that
+followed the use of the strong narcotic rendered peculiarly delicious.
+Still further to dispel the dregs of intoxication which it had left
+behind, the knight resolved to use the bath, and experienced in doing
+so a delightful refreshment. Having dried himself with napkins of the
+Indian wool, he would willingly have resumed his own coarse garments,
+that he might go forth to see whether the world was as much changed
+without as within the place of his repose. These, however, were
+nowhere to be seen, but in their place he found a Saracen dress of
+rich materials, with sabre and poniard, and all befitting an emir
+of distinction. He was able to suggest no motive to himself for this
+exuberance of care, excepting a suspicion that these attentions were
+intended to shake him in his religious profession--as indeed it was well
+known that the high esteem of the European knowledge and courage made
+the Soldan unbounded in his gifts to those who, having become his
+prisoners, had been induced to take the turban. Sir Kenneth, therefore,
+crossing himself devoutly, resolved to set all such snares at defiance;
+and that he might do so the more firmly, conscientiously determined to
+avail himself as moderately as possible of the attentions and luxuries
+thus liberally heaped upon him. Still, however, he felt his head
+oppressed and sleepy; and aware, too, that his undress was not fit for
+appearing abroad, he reclined upon the couch, and was again locked in
+the arms of slumber.
+
+But this time his rest was not unbroken, for he was awakened by the
+voice of the physician at the door of the tent, inquiring after his
+health, and whether he had rested sufficiently. “May I enter your tent?”
+ he concluded, “for the curtain is drawn before the entrance.”
+
+“The master,” replied Sir Kenneth, determined to show that he was not
+surprised into forgetfulness of his own condition, “need demand no
+permission to enter the tent of the slave.”
+
+“But if I come not as a master?” said El Hakim, still without entering.
+
+“The physician,” answered the knight, “hath free access to the bedside
+of his patient.”
+
+“Neither come I now as a physician,” replied El Hakim; “and therefore I
+still request permission, ere I come under the covering of thy tent.”
+
+“Whoever comes as a friend,” said Sir Kenneth, “and such thou hast
+hitherto shown thyself to me, the habitation of the friend is ever open
+to him.”
+
+“Yet once again,” said the Eastern sage, after the periphrastical manner
+of his countrymen, “supposing that I come not as a friend?”
+
+“Come as thou wilt,” said the Scottish knight, somewhat impatient of
+this circumlocution; “be what thou wilt--thou knowest well it is neither
+in my power nor my inclination to refuse thee entrance.”
+
+“I come, then,” said El Hakim, “as your ancient foe, but a fair and a
+generous one.”
+
+He entered as he spoke; and when he stood before the bedside of
+Sir Kenneth, the voice continued to be that of Adonbec, the Arabian
+physician, but the form, dress, and features were those of Ilderim
+of Kurdistan, called Sheerkohf. Sir Kenneth gazed upon him as if
+he expected the vision to depart, like something created by his
+imagination.
+
+“Doth it so surprise thee,” said Ilderim, “and thou an approved warrior,
+to see that a soldier knows somewhat of the art of healing? I say to
+thee, Nazarene, that an accomplished cavalier should know how to dress
+his steed, as well as how to ride him; how to forge his sword upon the
+stithy, as well as how to use it in battle; how to burnish his arms, as
+well as how to wear them; and, above all, how to cure wounds, as well as
+how to inflict them.”
+
+As he spoke, the Christian knight repeatedly shut his eyes, and while
+they remained closed, the idea of the Hakim, with his long, flowing
+dark robes, high Tartar cap, and grave gestures was present to
+his imagination; but so soon as he opened them, the graceful and
+richly-gemmed turban, the light hauberk of steel rings entwisted with
+silver, which glanced brilliantly as it obeyed every inflection of the
+body, the features freed from their formal expression, less swarthy, and
+no longer shadowed by the mass of hair (now limited to a well-trimmed
+beard), announced the soldier and not the sage.
+
+“Art thou still so much surprised,” said the Emir, “and hast thou walked
+in the world with such little observance, as to wonder that men are not
+always what they seem? Thou thyself--art thou what thou seemest?”
+
+“No, by Saint Andrew!” exclaimed the knight; “for to the whole Christian
+camp I seem a traitor, and I know myself to be a true though an erring
+man.”
+
+“Even so I judged thee,” said Ilderim; “and as we had eaten salt
+together, I deemed myself bound to rescue thee from death and contumely.
+But wherefore lie you still on your couch, since the sun is high in
+the heavens? or are the vestments which my sumpter-camels have afforded
+unworthy of your wearing?”
+
+“Not unworthy, surely, but unfitting for it,” replied the Scot. “Give
+me the dress of a slave, noble Ilderim, and I will don it with pleasure;
+but I cannot brook to wear the habit of the free Eastern warrior with
+the turban of the Moslem.”
+
+“Nazarene,” answered the Emir, “thy nation so easily entertain suspicion
+that it may well render themselves suspected. Have I not told thee that
+Saladin desires no converts saving those whom the holy Prophet shall
+dispose to submit themselves to his law? violence and bribery are
+alike alien to his plan for extending the true faith. Hearken to me,
+my brother. When the blind man was miraculously restored to sight, the
+scales dropped from his eyes at the Divine pleasure. Think'st thou that
+any earthly leech could have removed them? No. Such mediciner might have
+tormented the patient with his instruments, or perhaps soothed him with
+his balsams and cordials, but dark as he was must the darkened man have
+remained; and it is even so with the blindness of the understanding. If
+there be those among the Franks who, for the sake of worldly lucre, have
+assumed the turban of the Prophet, and followed the laws of Islam, with
+their own consciences be the blame. Themselves sought out the bait; it
+was not flung to them by the Soldan. And when they shall hereafter be
+sentenced, as hypocrites, to the lowest gulf of hell, below Christian
+and Jew, magician and idolater, and condemned to eat the fruit of the
+tree Yacoun, which is the heads of demons, to themselves, not to the
+Soldan, shall their guilt and their punishment be attributed. Wherefore
+wear, without doubt or scruple, the vesture prepared for you, since, if
+you proceed to the camp of Saladin, your own native dress will expose
+you to troublesome observation, and perhaps to insult.”
+
+“IF I go to the camp of Saladin?” said Sir Kenneth, repeating the words
+of the Emir; “alas! am I a free agent, and rather must I NOT go wherever
+your pleasure carries me?”
+
+“Thine own will may guide thine own motions,” said the Emir, “as freely
+as the wind which moveth the dust of the desert in what direction it
+chooseth. The noble enemy who met and well-nigh mastered my sword cannot
+become my slave like him who has crouched beneath it. If wealth and
+power would tempt thee to join our people, I could ensure thy possessing
+them; but the man who refused the favours of the Soldan when the axe was
+at his head, will not, I fear, now accept them, when I tell him he has
+his free choice.”
+
+“Complete your generosity, noble Emir,” said Sir Kenneth, “by forbearing
+to show me a mode of requital which conscience forbids me to comply
+with. Permit me rather to express, as bound in courtesy, my gratitude
+for this most chivalrous bounty, this undeserved generosity.”
+
+“Say not undeserved,” replied the Emir Ilderim. “Was it not through thy
+conversation, and thy account of the beauties which grace the court
+of the Melech Ric, that I ventured me thither in disguise, and thereby
+procured a sight the most blessed that I have ever enjoyed--that I ever
+shall enjoy, until the glories of Paradise beam on my eyes?”
+
+“I understand you not,” said Sir Kenneth, colouring alternately, and
+turning pale, as one who felt that the conversation was taking a tone of
+the most painful delicacy.
+
+“Not understand me!” exclaimed the Emir. “If the sight I saw in the tent
+of King Richard escaped thine observation, I will account it duller than
+the edge of a buffoon's wooden falchion. True, thou wert under sentence
+of death at the time; but, in my case, had my head been dropping from
+the trunk, the last strained glances of my eyeballs had distinguished
+with delight such a vision of loveliness, and the head would have rolled
+itself towards the incomparable houris, to kiss with its quivering
+lips the hem of their vestments. Yonder royalty of England, who for
+her superior loveliness deserves to be Queen of the universe--what
+tenderness in her blue eye, what lustre in her tresses of dishevelled
+gold! By the tomb of the Prophet, I scarce think that the houri who
+shall present to me the diamond cup of immortality will deserve so warm
+a caress!”
+
+“Saracen,” said Sir Kenneth sternly, “thou speakest of the wife of
+Richard of England, of whom men think not and speak not as a woman to be
+won, but as a Queen to be revered.”
+
+“I cry you mercy,” said the Saracen. “I had forgotten your superstitious
+veneration for the sex, which you consider rather fit to be wondered at
+and worshipped than wooed and possessed. I warrant, since thou exactest
+such profound respect to yonder tender piece of frailty, whose every
+motion, step, and look bespeaks her very woman, less than absolute
+adoration must not be yielded to her of the dark tresses and nobly
+speaking eye. SHE indeed, I will allow, hath in her noble port and
+majestic mien something at once pure and firm; yet even she, when
+pressed by opportunity and a forward lover, would, I warrant thee, thank
+him in her heart rather for treating her as a mortal than as a goddess.”
+
+“Respect the kinswoman of Coeur de Lion!” said Sir Kenneth, in a tone of
+unrepressed anger.
+
+“Respect her!” answered the Emir in scorn; “by the Caaba, and if I do,
+it shall be rather as the bride of Saladin.”
+
+“The infidel Soldan is unworthy to salute even a spot that has been
+pressed by the foot of Edith Plantagenet!” exclaimed the Christian,
+springing from his couch.
+
+“Ha! what said the Giaour?” exclaimed the Emir, laying his hand on his
+poniard hilt, while his forehead glowed like glancing copper, and the
+muscles of his lips and cheeks wrought till each curl of his beard
+seemed to twist and screw itself, as if alive with instinctive wrath.
+But the Scottish knight, who had stood the lion-anger of Richard, was
+unappalled at the tigerlike mood of the chafed Saracen.
+
+“What I have said,” continued Sir Kenneth, with folded arms and
+dauntless look, “I would, were my hands loose, maintain on foot or
+horseback against all mortals; and would hold it not the most memorable
+deed of my life to support it with my good broadsword against a score
+of these sickles and bodkins,” pointing at the curved sabre and small
+poniard of the Emir.
+
+The Saracen recovered his composure as the Christian spoke, so far as
+to withdraw his hand from his weapon, as if the motion had been without
+meaning, but still continued in deep ire.
+
+“By the sword of the Prophet,” he said, “which is the key both of heaven
+and hell, he little values his own life, brother, who uses the language
+thou dost! Believe me, that were thine hands loose, as thou term'st it,
+one single true believer would find them so much to do that thou wouldst
+soon wish them fettered again in manacles of iron.”
+
+“Sooner would I wish them hewn off by the shoulder-blades!” replied Sir
+Kenneth.
+
+“Well. Thy hands are bound at present,” said the Saracen, in a more
+amicable tone--“bound by thine own gentle sense of courtesy; nor have
+I any present purpose of setting them at liberty. We have proved each
+other's strength and courage ere now, and we may again meet in a fair
+field--and shame befall him who shall be the first to part from his
+foeman! But now we are friends, and I look for aid from thee rather than
+hard terms or defiances.”
+
+“We ARE friends,” repeated the knight; and there was a pause, during
+which the fiery Saracen paced the tent, like the lion, who, after
+violent irritation, is said to take that method of cooling the
+distemperature of his blood, ere he stretches himself to repose in his
+den. The colder European remained unaltered in posture and aspect; yet
+he, doubtless, was also engaged in subduing the angry feelings which had
+been so unexpectedly awakened.
+
+“Let us reason of this calmly,” said the Saracen. “I am a physician, as
+thou knowest, and it is written that he who would have his wound cured
+must not shrink when the leech probes and tests it. Seest thou, I am
+about to lay my finger on the sore. Thou lovest this kinswoman of the
+Melech Ric. Unfold the veil that shrouds thy thoughts--or unfold it not
+if thou wilt, for mine eyes see through its coverings.”
+
+“I LOVED her,” answered Sir Kenneth, after a pause, “as a man loves
+Heaven's grace, and sued for her favour like a sinner for Heaven's
+pardon.”
+
+“And you love her no longer?” said the Saracen.
+
+“Alas,” answered Sir Kenneth, “I am no longer worthy to love her. I pray
+thee cease this discourse--thy words are poniards to me.”
+
+“Pardon me but a moment,” continued Ilderim. “When thou, a poor and
+obscure soldier, didst so boldly and so highly fix thine affection, tell
+me, hadst thou good hope of its issue?”
+
+“Love exists not without hope,” replied the knight; “but mine was as
+nearly allied to despair as that of the sailor swimming for his life,
+who, as he surmounts billow after billow, catches by intervals some
+gleam of the distant beacon, which shows him there is land in sight,
+though his sinking heart and wearied limbs assure him that he shall
+never reach it.”
+
+“And now,” said Ilderim, “these hopes are sunk--that solitary light is
+quenched for ever?”
+
+“For ever,” answered Sir Kenneth, in the tone of an echo from the bosom
+of a ruined sepulchre.
+
+“Methinks,” said the Saracen, “if all thou lackest were some such
+distant meteoric glimpse of happiness as thou hadst formerly, thy
+beacon-light might be rekindled, thy hope fished up from the ocean
+in which it has sunk, and thou thyself, good knight, restored to the
+exercise and amusement of nourishing thy fantastic fashion upon a diet
+as unsubstantial as moonlight; for, if thou stood'st tomorrow fair in
+reputation as ever thou wert, she whom thou lovest will not be less the
+daughter of princes and the elected bride of Saladin.”
+
+“I would it so stood,” said the Scot, “and if I did not--”
+
+He stopped short, like a man who is afraid of boasting under
+circumstances which did not permit his being put to the test. The
+Saracen smiled as he concluded the sentence.
+
+“Thou wouldst challenge the Soldan to single combat?” said he.
+
+“And if I did,” said Sir Kenneth haughtily, “Saladin's would neither be
+the first nor the best turban that I have couched lance at.”
+
+“Ay, but methinks the Soldan might regard it as too unequal a mode of
+perilling the chance of a royal bride and the event of a great war,”
+ said the Emir.
+
+“He may be met with in the front of battle,” said the knight, his eyes
+gleaming with the ideas which such a thought inspired.
+
+“He has been ever found there,” said Ilderim; “nor is it his wont to
+turn his horse's head from any brave encounter. But it was not of the
+Soldan that I meant to speak. In a word, if it will content thee to be
+placed in such reputation as may be attained by detection of the
+thief who stole the Banner of England, I can put thee in a fair way of
+achieving this task--that is, if thou wilt be governed; for what says
+Lokman, 'If the child would walk, the nurse must lead him; if the
+ignorant would understand, the wise must instruct.'”
+
+“And thou art wise, Ilderim,” said the Scot--“wise though a Saracen, and
+generous though an infidel. I have witnessed that thou art both.
+Take, then, the guidance of this matter; and so thou ask nothing of
+me contrary to my loyalty and my Christian faith, I, will obey thee
+punctually. Do what thou hast said, and take my life when it is
+accomplished.”
+
+“Listen thou to me, then,” said the Saracen. “Thy noble hound is now
+recovered, by the blessing of that divine medicine which healeth man and
+beast; and by his sagacity shall those who assailed him be discovered.”
+
+“Ha!” said the knight, “methinks I comprehend thee. I was dull not to
+think of this!”
+
+“But tell me,” added the Emir, “hast thou any followers or retainers in
+the camp by whom the animal may be known?”
+
+“I dismissed,” said Sir Kenneth, “my old attendant, thy patient, with a
+varlet that waited on him, at the time when I expected to suffer death,
+giving him letters for my friends in Scotland; there are none other to
+whom the dog is familiar. But then my own person is well known--my very
+speech will betray me, in a camp where I have played no mean part for
+many months.”
+
+“Both he and thou shalt be disguised, so as to escape even close
+examination. I tell thee,” said the Saracen, “that not thy brother in
+arms--not thy brother in blood--shall discover thee, if thou be guided
+by my counsels. Thou hast seen me do matters more difficult--he that can
+call the dying from the darkness of the shadow of death can easily cast
+a mist before the eyes of the living. But mark me: there is still the
+condition annexed to this service--that thou deliver a letter of Saladin
+to the niece of the Melech Ric, whose name is as difficult to our
+Eastern tongue and lips, as her beauty is delightful to our eyes.”
+
+Sir Kenneth paused before he answered, and the Saracen observing his
+hesitation, demanded of him, “if he feared to undertake this message?”
+
+“Not if there were death in the execution,” said Sir Kenneth. “I do but
+pause to consider whether it consists with my honour to bear the letter
+of the Soldan, or with that of the Lady Edith to receive it from a
+heathen prince.”
+
+“By the head of Mohammed, and by the honour of a soldier--by the tomb
+at Mecca, and by the soul of my father,” said the Emir, “I swear to thee
+that the letter is written in all honour and respect. The song of the
+nightingale will sooner blight the rose-bower she loves than will the
+words of the Soldan offend the ears of the lovely kinswoman of England.”
+
+“Then,” said the knight, “I will bear the Soldan's letter faithfully, as
+if I were his born vassal--understanding, that beyond this simple act
+of service, which I will render with fidelity, from me of all men he can
+least expect mediation or advice in this his strange love-suit.”
+
+“Saladin is noble,” answered the Emir, “and will not spur a generous
+horse to a leap which he cannot achieve. Come with me to my tent,”
+ he added, “and thou shalt be presently equipped with a disguise as
+unsearchable as midnight, so thou mayest walk the camp of the Nazarenes
+as if thou hadst on thy finger the signet of Giaougi.” [Perhaps the same
+with Gyges.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+     A grain of dust
+     Soiling our cup, will make our sense reject
+     Fastidiously the draught which we did thirst for;
+     A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass,
+     Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
+     Even this small cause of anger and disgust
+     Will break the bonds of amity 'mongst princes,
+     And wreck their noblest purposes.
+                  THE CRUSADE.
+
+The reader can now have little doubt who the Ethiopian slave really was,
+with what purpose he had sought Richard's camp, and wherefore and
+with what hope he now stood close to the person of that Monarch, as,
+surrounded by his valiant peers of England and Normandy, Coeur de Lion
+stood on the summit of Saint George's Mount, with the Banner of England
+by his side, borne by the most goodly person in the army, being his own
+natural brother, William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, the
+offspring of Henry the Second's amour with the celebrated Rosamond of
+Woodstock.
+
+From several expressions in the King's conversation with Neville on the
+preceding day, the Nubian was left in anxious doubt whether his disguise
+had not been penetrated, especially as that the King seemed to be aware
+in what manner the agency of the dog was expected to discover the thief
+who stole the banner, although the circumstance of such an animal's
+having been wounded on the occasion had been scarce mentioned in
+Richard's presence. Nevertheless, as the King continued to treat him
+in no other manner than his exterior required, the Nubian remained
+uncertain whether he was or was not discovered, and determined not to
+throw his disguise aside voluntarily.
+
+Meanwhile, the powers of the various Crusading princes, arrayed under
+their royal and princely leaders, swept in long order around the base
+of the little mound; and as those of each different country passed by,
+their commanders advanced a step or two up the hill, and made a signal
+of courtesy to Richard and to the Standard of England, “in sign of
+regard and amity,” as the protocol of the ceremony heedfully expressed
+it, “not of subjection or vassalage.” The spiritual dignitaries, who in
+those days veiled not their bonnets to created being, bestowed on the
+King and his symbol of command their blessing instead of rendering
+obeisance.
+
+Thus the long files marched on, and, diminished as they were by so many
+causes, appeared still an iron host, to whom the conquest of Palestine
+might seem an easy task. The soldiers, inspired by the consciousness of
+united strength, sat erect in their steel saddles; while it seemed that
+the trumpets sounded more cheerfully shrill, and the steeds, refreshed
+by rest and provender, chafed on the bit, and trod the ground more
+proudly. On they passed, troop after troop, banners waving, spears
+glancing, plumes dancing, in long perspective--a host composed of
+different nations, complexions, languages, arms, and appearances, but
+all fired, for the time, with the holy yet romantic purpose of rescuing
+the distressed daughter of Zion from her thraldom, and redeeming the
+sacred earth, which more than mortal had trodden, from the yoke of the
+unbelieving pagan. And it must be owned that if, in other circumstances,
+the species of courtesy rendered to the King of England by so many
+warriors, from whom he claimed no natural allegiance, had in it
+something that might have been thought humiliating, yet the nature and
+cause of the war was so fitted to his pre-eminently chivalrous character
+and renowned feats in arms, that claims which might elsewhere have been
+urged were there forgotten, and the brave did willing homage to the
+bravest, in an expedition where the most undaunted and energetic courage
+was necessary to success.
+
+The good King was seated on horseback about half way up the mount, a
+morion on his head, surmounted by a crown, which left his manly features
+exposed to public view, as, with cool and considerate eye, he perused
+each rank as it passed him, and returned the salutation of the leaders.
+His tunic was of sky-coloured velvet, covered with plates of silver, and
+his hose of crimson silk, slashed with cloth of gold. By his side stood
+the seeming Ethiopian slave, holding the noble dog in a leash, such as
+was used in woodcraft. It was a circumstance which attracted no notice,
+for many of the princes of the Crusade had introduced black slaves
+into their household, in imitation of the barbarous splendour of the
+Saracens. Over the King's head streamed the large folds of the banner,
+and, as he looked to it from time to time, he seemed to regard a
+ceremony, indifferent to himself personally, as important, when
+considered as atoning an indignity offered to the kingdom which he
+ruled. In the background, and on the very summit of the Mount, a wooden
+turret, erected for the occasion, held the Queen Berengaria and the
+principal ladies of the Court. To this the King looked from time to
+time; and then ever and anon his eyes were turned on the Nubian and the
+dog, but only when such leaders approached, as, from circumstances of
+previous ill-will, he suspected of being accessory to the theft of the
+standard, or whom he judged capable of a crime so mean.
+
+Thus, he did not look in that direction when Philip Augustus of France
+approached at the head of his splendid troops of Gallic chivalry---nay,
+he anticipated the motions of the French King, by descending the Mount
+as the latter came up the ascent, so that they met in the middle space,
+and blended their greetings so gracefully that it appeared they met in
+fraternal equality. The sight of the two greatest princes in Europe,
+in rank at once and power, thus publicly avowing their concord, called
+forth bursts of thundering acclaim from the Crusading host at many miles
+distance, and made the roving Arab scouts of the desert alarm the camp
+of Saladin with intelligence that the army of the Christians was in
+motion. Yet who but the King of kings can read the hearts of monarchs?
+Under this smooth show of courtesy, Richard nourished displeasure and
+suspicion against Philip, and Philip meditated withdrawing himself and
+his host from the army of the Cross, and leaving Richard to accomplish
+or fail in the enterprise with his own unassisted forces.
+
+Richard's demeanour was different when the dark-armed knights and
+squires of the Temple chivalry approached--men with countenances bronzed
+to Asiatic blackness by the suns of Palestine, and the admirable state
+of whose horses and appointments far surpassed even that of the choicest
+troops of France and England. The King cast a hasty glance aside; but
+the Nubian stood quiet, and his trusty dog sat at his feet, watching,
+with a sagacious yet pleased look, the ranks which now passed before
+them. The King's look turned again on the chivalrous Templars, as the
+Grand Master, availing himself of his mingled character, bestowed his
+benediction on Richard as a priest, instead of doing him reverence as a
+military leader.
+
+“The misproud and amphibious caitiff puts the monk upon me,” said
+Richard to the Earl of Salisbury. “But, Longsword, we will let it pass.
+A punctilio must not lose Christendom the services of these experienced
+lances, because their victories have rendered them overweening. Lo you,
+here comes our valiant adversary, the Duke of Austria. Mark his manner
+and bearing, Longsword--and thou, Nubian, let the hound have full view
+of him. By Heaven, he brings his buffoons along with him!”
+
+In fact, whether from habit, or, which is more likely, to intimate
+contempt of the ceremonial he was about to comply with, Leopold was
+attended by his SPRUCH-SPRECHER and his jester; and as he advanced
+towards Richard, he whistled in what he wished to be considered as an
+indifferent manner, though his heavy features evinced the sullenness,
+mixed with the fear, with which a truant schoolboy may be seen to
+approach his master. As the reluctant dignitary made, with discomposed
+and sulky look, the obeisance required, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his
+baton, and proclaimed, like a herald, that, in what he was now doing,
+the Archduke of Austria was not to be held derogating from the rank and
+privileges of a sovereign prince; to which the jester answered with a
+sonorous AMEN, which provoked much laughter among the bystanders.
+
+King Richard looked more than once at the Nubian and his dog; but
+the former moved not, nor did the latter strain at the leash, so
+that Richard said to the slave with some scorn, “Thy success in this
+enterprise, my sable friend, even though thou hast brought thy hound's
+sagacity to back thine own, will not, I fear, place thee high in the
+rank of wizards, or much augment thy merits towards our person.”
+
+The Nubian answered, as usual, only by a lowly obeisance.
+
+Meantime the troops of the Marquis of Montserrat next passed in order
+before the King of England. That powerful and wily baron, to make the
+greater display of his forces, had divided them into two bodies. At the
+head of the first, consisting of his vassals and followers, and levied
+from his Syrian possessions, came his brother Enguerrand; and he himself
+followed, leading on a gallant band of twelve hundred Stradiots, a kind
+of light cavalry raised by the Venetians in their Dalmatian possessions,
+and of which they had entrusted the command to the Marquis, with whom
+the republic had many bonds of connection. These Stradiots were clothed
+in a fashion partly European, but partaking chiefly of the Eastern
+fashion. They wore, indeed, short hauberks, but had over them
+party-coloured tunics of rich stuffs, with large wide pantaloons and
+half-boots. On their heads were straight upright caps, similar to those
+of the Greeks; and they carried small round targets, bows and arrows,
+scimitars, and poniards. They were mounted on horses carefully selected,
+and well maintained at the expense of the State of Venice; their saddles
+and appointments resembled those of the Turks, and they rode in the same
+manner, with short stirrups and upon a high seat. These troops were
+of great use in skirmishing with the Arabs, though unable to engage in
+close combat, like the iron-sheathed men-at-arms of Western and Northern
+Europe.
+
+Before this goodly band came Conrade, in the same garb with the
+Stradiots, but of such rich stuff that he seemed to blaze with gold
+and silver, and the milk-white plume fastened in his cap by a clasp of
+diamonds seemed tall enough to sweep the clouds. The noble steed which
+he reined bounded and caracoled, and displayed his spirit and agility
+in a manner which might have troubled a less admirable horseman than
+the Marquis, who gracefully ruled him with the one hand, while the other
+displayed the baton, whose predominancy over the ranks which he led
+seemed equally absolute. Yet his authority over the Stradiots was more
+in show than in substance; for there paced beside him, on an ambling
+palfrey of soberest mood, a little old man, dressed entirely in black,
+without beard or moustaches, and having an appearance altogether mean
+and insignificant when compared with the blaze of splendour around
+him. But this mean-looking old man was one of those deputies whom the
+Venetian government sent into camps to overlook the conduct of the
+generals to whom the leading was consigned, and to maintain that jealous
+system of espial and control which had long distinguished the policy of
+the republic.
+
+Conrade, who, by cultivating Richard's humour, had attained a certain
+degree of favour with him, no sooner was come within his ken than the
+King of England descended a step or two to meet him, exclaiming, at the
+same time, “Ha, Lord Marquis, thou at the head of the fleet Stradiots,
+and thy black shadow attending thee as usual, whether the sun shines or
+not! May not one ask thee whether the rule of the troops remains with
+the shadow or the substance?”
+
+Conrade was commencing his reply with a smile, when Roswal, the noble
+hound, uttering a furious and savage yell, sprung forward. The Nubian,
+at the same time, slipped the leash, and the hound, rushing on, leapt
+upon Conrade's noble charger, and, seizing the Marquis by the throat,
+pulled him down from the saddle. The plumed rider lay rolling on the
+sand, and the frightened horse fled in wild career through the camp.
+
+“Thy hound hath pulled down the right quarry, I warrant him,” said
+the King to the Nubian, “and I vow to Saint George he is a stag of ten
+tynes! Pluck the dog off; lest he throttle him.”
+
+The Ethiopian, accordingly, though not without difficulty, disengaged
+the dog from Conrade, and fastened him up, still highly excited, and
+struggling in the leash. Meanwhile many crowded to the spot, especially
+followers of Conrade and officers of the Stradiots, who, as they
+saw their leader lie gazing wildly on the sky, raised him up amid a
+tumultuary cry of “Cut the slave and his hound to pieces!”
+
+But the voice of Richard, loud and sonorous, was heard clear above all
+other exclamations. “He dies the death who injures the hound! He hath
+but done his duty, after the sagacity with which God and nature have
+endowed the brave animal.--Stand forward for a false traitor, thou
+Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat! I impeach thee of treason.”
+
+Several of the Syrian leaders had now come up, and Conrade--vexation,
+and shame, and confusion struggling with passion in his manner and
+voice--exclaimed, “What means this? With what am I charged? Why this
+base usage and these reproachful terms? Is this the league of concord
+which England renewed but so lately?”
+
+“Are the Princes of the Crusade turned hares or deers in the eyes of
+King Richard that he should slip hounds on them?” said the sepulchral
+voice of the Grand Master of the Templars.
+
+“It must be some singular accident--some fatal mistake,” said Philip of
+France, who rode up at the same moment.
+
+“Some deceit of the Enemy,” said the Archbishop of Tyre.
+
+“A stratagem of the Saracens,” cried Henry of Champagne. “It were well
+to hang up the dog, and put the slave to the torture.”
+
+“Let no man lay hand upon them,” said Richard, “as he loves his own
+life! Conrade, stand forth, if thou darest, and deny the accusation
+which this mute animal hath in his noble instinct brought against thee,
+of injury done to him, and foul scorn to England!”
+
+“I never touched the banner,” said Conrade hastily.
+
+“Thy words betray thee, Conrade!” said Richard, “for how didst thou
+know, save from conscious guilt, that the question is concerning the
+banner?”
+
+“Hast thou then not kept the camp in turmoil on that and no other
+score?” answered Conrade; “and dost thou impute to a prince and an ally
+a crime which, after all, was probably committed by some paltry
+felon for the sake of the gold thread? Or wouldst thou now impeach a
+confederate on the credit of a dog?”
+
+By this time the alarm was becoming general, so that Philip of France
+interposed.
+
+“Princes and nobles,” he said, “you speak in presence of those whose
+swords will soon be at the throats of each other if they hear their
+leaders at such terms together. In the name of Heaven, let us draw off
+each his own troops into their separate quarters, and ourselves meet
+an hour hence in the Pavilion of Council to take some order in this new
+state of confusion.”
+
+“Content,” said King Richard, “though I should have liked to have
+interrogated that caitiff while his gay doublet was yet besmirched with
+sand. But the pleasure of France shall be ours in this matter.”
+
+The leaders separated as was proposed, each prince placing himself at
+the head of his own forces; and then was heard on all sides the crying
+of war-cries and the sounding of gathering-notes upon bugles and
+trumpets, by which the different stragglers were summoned to their
+prince's banner, and the troops were shortly seen in motion, each taking
+different routes through the camp to their own quarters. But although
+any immediate act of violence was thus prevented, yet the accident which
+had taken place dwelt on every mind; and those foreigners who had that
+morning hailed Richard as the worthiest to lead their army, now resumed
+their prejudices against his pride and intolerance, while the English,
+conceiving the honour of their country connected with the quarrel, of
+which various reports had gone about, considered the natives of other
+countries jealous of the fame of England and her King, and disposed to
+undermine it by the meanest arts of intrigue. Many and various were the
+rumours spread upon the occasion, and there was one which averred that
+the Queen and her ladies had been much alarmed by the tumult, and that
+one of them had swooned.
+
+The Council assembled at the appointed hour. Conrade had in the
+meanwhile laid aside his dishonoured dress, and with it the shame and
+confusion which, in spite of his talents and promptitude, had at first
+overwhelmed him, owing to the strangeness of the accident and suddenness
+of the accusation. He was now robed like a prince; and entered the
+council-chamber attended by the Archduke of Austria, the Grand Masters
+both of the Temple and of the Order of Saint John, and several other
+potentates, who made a show of supporting him and defending his cause,
+chiefly perhaps from political motives, or because they themselves
+nourished a personal enmity against Richard.
+
+This appearance of union in favour of Conrade was far from influencing
+the King of England. He entered the Council with his usual indifference
+of manner, and in the same dress in which he had just alighted from
+horseback. He cast a careless and somewhat scornful glance on the
+leaders, who had with studied affectation arranged themselves around
+Conrade as if owning his cause, and in the most direct terms charged
+Conrade of Montserrat with having stolen the Banner of England, and
+wounded the faithful animal who stood in its defence.
+
+Conrade arose boldly to answer, and in despite, as he expressed himself,
+of man and brute, king or dog, avouched his innocence of the crime
+charged.
+
+“Brother of England,” said Philip, who willingly assumed the character
+of moderator of the assembly, “this is an unusual impeachment. We do
+not hear you avouch your own knowledge of this matter, further than your
+belief resting upon the demeanour of this hound towards the Marquis of
+Montserrat. Surely the word of a knight and a prince should bear him out
+against the barking of a cur?”
+
+“Royal brother,” returned Richard, “recollect that the Almighty, who
+gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath
+invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. He forgets
+neither friend nor foe--remembers, and with accuracy, both benefit and
+injury. He hath a share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's
+falsehood. You may bribe a soldier to slay a man with his sword, or a
+witness to take life by false accusation; but you cannot make a hound
+tear his benefactor. He is the friend of man, save when man justly
+incurs his enmity. Dress yonder marquis in what peacock-robes you will,
+disguise his appearance, alter his complexion with drugs and washes,
+hide him amidst a hundred men,--I will yet pawn my sceptre that the
+hound detects him, and expresses his resentment, as you have this day
+beheld. This is no new incident, although a strange one. Murderers
+and robbers have been ere now convicted, and suffered death under such
+evidence, and men have said that the finger of God was in it. In thine
+own land, royal brother, and upon such an occasion, the matter was tried
+by a solemn duel betwixt the man and the dog, as appellant and defendant
+in a challenge of murder. The dog was victorious, the man was punished,
+and the crime was confessed. Credit me, royal brother, that hidden
+crimes have often been brought to light by the testimony even of
+inanimate substances, not to mention animals far inferior in instinctive
+sagacity to the dog, who is the friend and companion of our race.”
+
+“Such a duel there hath indeed been, royal brother,” answered Philip,
+“and that in the reign of one of our predecessors, to whom God be
+gracious. But it was in the olden time, nor can we hold it a precedent
+fitting for this occasion. The defendant in that case was a private
+gentleman of small rank or respect; his offensive weapons were only a
+club, his defensive a leathern jerkin. But we cannot degrade a prince
+to the disgrace of using such rude arms, or to the ignominy of such a
+combat.”
+
+“I never meant that you should,” said King Richard; “it were foul play
+to hazard the good hound's life against that of such a double-faced
+traitor as this Conrade hath proved himself. But there lies our own
+glove; we appeal him to the combat in respect of the evidence we
+brought forth against him. A king, at least, is more than the mate of a
+marquis.”
+
+Conrade made no hasty effort to seize on the pledge which Richard cast
+into the middle of the assembly, and King Philip had time to reply ere
+the marquis made a motion to lift the glove.
+
+“A king,” said he of France, “is as much more than a match for the
+Marquis Conrade as a dog would be less. Royal Richard, this cannot be
+permitted. You are the leader of our expedition--the sword and buckler
+of Christendom.”
+
+“I protest against such a combat,” said the Venetian proveditore, “until
+the King of England shall have repaid the fifty thousand byzants which
+he is indebted to the republic. It is enough to be threatened with loss
+of our debt, should our debtor fall by the hands of the pagans, without
+the additional risk of his being slain in brawls amongst Christians
+concerning dogs and banners.”
+
+“And I,” said William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, “protest
+in my turn against my royal brother perilling his life, which is the
+property of the people of England, in such a cause. Here, noble brother,
+receive back your glove, and think only as if the wind had blown it from
+your hand. Mine shall lie in its stead. A king's son, though with the
+bar sinister on his shield, is at least a match for this marmoset of a
+marquis.”
+
+“Princes and nobles,” said Conrade, “I will not accept of King Richard's
+defiance. He hath been chosen our leader against the Saracens, and if
+his conscience can answer the accusation of provoking an ally to the
+field on a quarrel so frivolous, mine, at least, cannot endure the
+reproach of accepting it. But touching his bastard brother, William of
+Woodstock, or against any other who shall adopt or shall dare to stand
+godfather to this most false charge, I will defend my honour in the
+lists, and prove whosoever impeaches it a false liar.”
+
+“The Marquis of Montserrat,” said the Archbishop of Tyre, “hath spoken
+like a wise and moderate gentleman; and methinks this controversy might,
+without dishonour to any party, end at this point.”
+
+“Methinks it might so terminate,” said the King of France, “provided
+King Richard will recall his accusation as made upon over-slight
+grounds.”
+
+“Philip of France,” answered Coeur de Lion, “my words shall never do my
+thoughts so much injury. I have charged yonder Conrade as a thief,
+who, under cloud of night, stole from its place the emblem of England's
+dignity. I still believe and charge him to be such; and when a day is
+appointed for the combat, doubt not that, since Conrade declines to
+meet us in person, I will find a champion to appear in support of my
+challenge--for thou, William, must not thrust thy long sword into this
+quarrel without our special license.”
+
+“Since my rank makes me arbiter in this most unhappy matter,” said
+Philip of France, “I appoint the fifth day from hence for the decision
+thereof, by way of combat, according to knightly usage--Richard, King of
+England, to appear by his champion as appellant, and Conrade, Marquis of
+Montserrat, in his own person, as defendant. Yet I own I know not where
+to find neutral ground where such a quarrel may be fought out; for it
+must not be in the neighbourhood of this camp, where the soldiers would
+make faction on the different sides.”
+
+“It were well,” said Richard, “to apply to the generosity of the
+royal Saladin, since, heathen as he is, I have never known knight more
+fulfilled of nobleness, or to whose good faith we may so peremptorily
+entrust ourselves. I speak thus for those who may be doubtful of mishap;
+for myself, wherever I see my foe, I make that spot my battle-ground.”
+
+“Be it so,” said Philip; “we will make this matter known to Saladin,
+although it be showing to an enemy the unhappy spirit of discord
+which we would willingly hide from even ourselves, were it possible.
+Meanwhile, I dismiss this assembly, and charge you all, as Christian
+men and noble knights, that ye let this unhappy feud breed no further
+brawling in the camp, but regard it as a thing solemnly referred to the
+judgment of God, to whom each of you should pray that He will dispose
+of victory in the combat according to the truth of the quarrel; and
+therewith may His will be done!”
+
+“Amen, amen!” was answered on all sides; while the Templar whispered the
+Marquis, “Conrade, wilt thou not add a petition to be delivered from the
+power of the dog, as the Psalmist hath it?”
+
+“Peace, thou--!” replied the Marquis; “there is a revealing demon abroad
+which may report, amongst other tidings, how far thou dost carry the
+motto of thy order--'FERIATUR LEO'.”
+
+“Thou wilt stand the brunt of challenge?” said the Templar.
+
+“Doubt me not,” said Conrade. “I would not, indeed, have willingly
+met the iron arm of Richard himself, and I shame not to confess that
+I rejoice to be free of his encounter; but, from his bastard brother
+downward, the man breathes not in his ranks whom I fear to meet.”
+
+“It is well you are so confident,” continued the Templar; “and, in that
+case, the fangs of yonder hound have done more to dissolve this league
+of princes than either thy devices or the dagger of the Charegite. Seest
+thou how, under a brow studiously overclouded, Philip cannot conceal the
+satisfaction which he feels at the prospect of release from the alliance
+which sat so heavy on him? Mark how Henry of Champagne smiles to
+himself, like a sparkling goblet of his own wine; and see the chuckling
+delight of Austria, who thinks his quarrel is about to be avenged
+without risk or trouble of his own. Hush! he approaches.--A most
+grievous chance, most royal Austria, that these breaches in the walls of
+our Zion--”
+
+“If thou meanest this Crusade,” replied the Duke, “I would it were
+crumbled to pieces, and each were safe at home! I speak this in
+confidence.”
+
+“But,” said the Marquis of Montserrat, “to think this disunion should
+be made by the hands of King Richard, for whose pleasure we have been
+contented to endure so much, and to whom we have been as submissive as
+slaves to a master, in hopes that he would use his valour against our
+enemies, instead of exercising it upon our friends!”
+
+“I see not that he is so much more valorous than others,” said the
+Archduke. “I believe, had the noble Marquis met him in the lists, he
+would have had the better; for though the islander deals heavy blows
+with the pole-axe, he is not so very dexterous with the lance. I should
+have cared little to have met him myself on our old quarrel, had the
+weal of Christendom permitted to sovereign princes to breathe themselves
+in the lists; and if thou desirest it, noble Marquis, I will myself be
+your godfather in this combat.”
+
+“And I also,” said the Grand Master.
+
+“Come, then, and take your nooning in our tent, noble sirs,” said the
+Duke, “and we'll speak of this business over some right NIERENSTEIN.”
+
+They entered together accordingly.
+
+“What said our patron and these great folks together?” said Jonas
+Schwanker to his companion, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who had used the
+freedom to press nigh to his master when the Council was dismissed,
+while the jester waited at a more respectful distance.
+
+“Servant of Folly,” said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, “moderate thy curiosity;
+it beseems not that I should tell to thee the counsels of our master.”
+
+“Man of wisdom, you mistake,” answered Jonas. “We are both the constant
+attendants on our patron, and it concerns us alike to know whether thou
+or I--Wisdom or Folly--have the deeper interest in him.”
+
+“He told to the Marquis,” answered the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, “and to the
+Grand Master, that he was aweary of these wars, and would be glad he was
+safe at home.”
+
+“That is a drawn cast, and counts for nothing in the game,” said the
+jester; “it was most wise to think thus, but great folly to tell it to
+others--proceed.”
+
+“Ha, hem!” said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER; “he next said to them that Richard
+was not more valorous than others, or over-dexterous in the tilt-yard.”
+
+“Woodcock of my side,” said Schwanker, “this was egregious folly. What
+next?”
+
+“Nay, I am something oblivious,” replied the man of wisdom--“he invited
+them to a goblet of NIERENSTEIN.”
+
+“That hath a show of wisdom in it,” said Jonas. “Thou mayest mark it to
+thy credit in the meantime; but an he drink too much, as is most likely,
+I will have it pass to mine. Anything more?”
+
+“Nothing worth memory,” answered the orator; “only he wished he had
+taken the occasion to meet Richard in the lists.”
+
+“Out upon it--out upon it!” said Jonas; “this is such dotage of folly
+that I am well-nigh ashamed of winning the game by it. Ne'ertheless,
+fool as he is, we will follow him, most sage SPRUCH-SPRECHER, and have
+our share of the wine of NIERENSTEIN.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     Yet this inconstancy is such,
+     As thou, too, shalt adore;
+     I could not love thee, love so much,
+     Loved I not honour more.
+            MONTROSE'S LINES.
+
+When King Richard returned to his tent, he commanded the Nubian to be
+brought before him. He entered with his usual ceremonial reverence,
+and having prostrated himself, remained standing before the King in the
+attitude of a slave awaiting the orders of his master. It was perhaps
+well for him that the preservation of his character required his eyes
+to be fixed on the ground, since the keen glance with which Richard for
+some time surveyed him in silence would, if fully encountered, have been
+difficult to sustain.
+
+“Thou canst well of woodcraft,” said the King, after a pause, “and hast
+started thy game and brought him to bay as ably as if Tristrem himself
+had taught thee. [A universal tradition ascribed to Sir Tristrem, famous
+for his love of the fair Queen Yseult, the laws concerning the practice
+of woodcraft, or VENERIE, as it was called, being those that related to
+the rules of the chase, which were deemed of much consequence during the
+Middle Ages.] But this is not all--he must be brought down at force. I
+myself would have liked to have levelled my hunting-spear at him. There
+are, it seems, respects which prevent this. Thou art about to return to
+the camp of the Soldan, bearing a letter, requiring of his courtesy to
+appoint neutral ground for the deed of chivalry, and should it consist
+with his pleasure, to concur with us in witnessing it. Now, speaking
+conjecturally, we think thou mightst find in that camp some cavalier
+who, for the love of truth and his own augmentation of honour, will do
+battle with this same traitor of Montserrat.”
+
+The Nubian raised his eyes and fixed them on the King with a look of
+eager ardour; then raised them to Heaven with such solemn gratitude that
+the water soon glistened in them; then bent his head, as affirming what
+Richard desired, and resumed his usual posture of submissive attention.
+
+“It is well,” said the King; “and I see thy desire to oblige me in this
+matter. And herein, I must needs say, lies the excellence of such a
+servant as thou, who hast not speech either to debate our purpose or to
+require explanation of what we have determined. An English serving man
+in thy place had given me his dogged advice to trust the combat
+with some good lance of my household, who, from my brother Longsword
+downwards, are all on fire to do battle in my cause; and a chattering
+Frenchman had made a thousand attempts to discover wherefore I look for
+a champion from the camp of the infidels. But thou, my silent agent,
+canst do mine errand without questioning or comprehending it; with thee
+to hear is to obey.”
+
+A bend of the body and a genuflection were the appropriate answer of the
+Ethiopian to these observations.
+
+“And now to another point,” said the King, and speaking suddenly and
+rapidly--“have you yet seen Edith Plantagenet?”
+
+The mute looked up as in the act of being about to speak--nay, his lips
+had begun to utter a distinct negative--when the abortive attempt died
+away in the imperfect murmurs of the dumb.
+
+“Why, lo you there!” said the King, “the very sound of the name of a
+royal maiden of beauty so surpassing as that of our lovely cousin seems
+to have power enough well-nigh to make the dumb speak. What miracles
+then might her eye work upon such a subject! I will make the experiment,
+friend slave. Thou shalt see this choice beauty of our Court, and do the
+errand of the princely Soldan.”
+
+Again a joyful glance--again a genuflection--but, as he arose, the King
+laid his hand heavily on his shoulder, and proceeded with stern gravity
+thus: “Let me in one thing warn you, my sable envoy. Even if thou
+shouldst feel that the kindly influence of her whom thou art soon to
+behold should loosen the bonds of thy tongue, presently imprisoned,
+as the good Soldan expresses it, within the ivory walls of its castle,
+beware how thou changest thy taciturn character, or speakest a word in
+her presence, even if thy powers of utterance were to be miraculously
+restored. Believe me that I should have thy tongue extracted by
+the roots, and its ivory palace--that is, I presume, its range of
+teeth--drawn out one by one. Wherefore, be wise and silent still.”
+
+The Nubian, so soon as the King had removed his heavy grasp from his
+shoulder, bent his head, and laid his hand on his lips, in token of
+silent obedience.
+
+But Richard again laid his hand on him more gently, and added, “This
+behest we lay on thee as on a slave. Wert thou knight and gentleman,
+we would require thine honour in pledge of thy silence, which is one
+especial condition of our present trust.”
+
+The Ethiopian raised his body proudly, looked full at the King, and laid
+his right hand on his heart.
+
+Richard then summoned his chamberlain.
+
+“Go, Neville,” he said, “with this slave to the tent of our royal
+consort, and say it is our pleasure that he have an audience--a private
+audience--of our cousin Edith. He is charged with a commission to her.
+Thou canst show him the way also, in case he requires thy guidance,
+though thou mayst have observed it is wonderful how familiar he already
+seems to be with the purlieus of our camp.--And thou, too, friend
+Ethiop,” the King continued, “what thou dost do quickly, and return
+hither within the half-hour.”
+
+“I stand discovered,” thought the seeming Nubian, as, with downcast
+looks and folded arms, he followed the hasty stride of Neville towards
+the tent of Queen Berengaria--“I stand undoubtedly discovered and
+unfolded to King Richard; yet I cannot perceive that his resentment is
+hot against me. If I understand his words--and surely it is impossible
+to misinterpret them--he gives me a noble chance of redeeming my honour
+upon the crest of this false Marquis, whose guilt I read in his craven
+eye and quivering lip when the charge was made against him.--Roswal,
+faithfully hast thou served thy master, and most dearly shall thy wrong
+be avenged!--But what is the meaning of my present permission to look
+upon her whom I had despaired ever to see again? And why, or how, can
+the royal Plantagenet consent that I should see his divine kinswoman,
+either as the messenger of the heathen Saladin, or as the guilty exile
+whom he so lately expelled from his camp--his audacious avowal of the
+affection which is his pride being the greatest enhancement of his
+guilt? That Richard should consent to her receiving a letter from an
+infidel lover by the hands of one of such disproportioned rank are
+either of them circumstances equally incredible, and, at the same time,
+inconsistent with each other. But Richard, when unmoved by his heady
+passions, is liberal, generous, and truly noble; and as such I will
+deal with him, and act according to his instructions, direct or implied,
+seeking to know no more than may gradually unfold itself without my
+officious inquiry. To him who has given me so brave an opportunity to
+vindicate my tarnished honour, I owe acquiescence and obedience; and
+painful as it may be, the debt shall be paid. And yet”--thus the proud
+swelling of his heart further suggested--“Coeur de Lion, as he is
+called, might have measured the feelings of others by his own. I urge an
+address to his kinswoman! I, who never spoke word to her when I took a
+royal prize from her hand--when I was accounted not the lowest in feats
+of chivalry among the defenders of the Cross! I approach her when in
+a base disguise, and in a servile habit--and, alas! when my actual
+condition is that of a slave, with a spot of dishonour on that which was
+once my shield! I do this! He little knows me. Yet I thank him for the
+opportunity which may make us all better acquainted with each other.”
+
+As he arrived at this conclusion, they paused before the entrance of the
+Queen's pavilion.
+
+They were of course admitted by the guards, and Neville, leaving the
+Nubian in a small apartment, or antechamber, which was but too well
+remembered by him, passed into that which was used as the Queen's
+presence-chamber. He communicated his royal master's pleasure in a
+low and respectful tone of voice, very different from the bluntness
+of Thomas de Vaux, to whom Richard was everything and the rest of the
+Court, including Berengaria herself, was nothing. A burst of laughter
+followed the communication of his errand.
+
+“And what like is the Nubian slave who comes ambassador on such an
+errand from the Soldan?--a negro, De Neville, is he not?” said a female
+voice, easily recognized for that of Berengaria. “A negro, is he not, De
+Neville, with black skin, a head curled like a ram's, a flat nose, and
+blubber lips--ha, worthy Sir Henry?”
+
+“Let not your Grace forget the shin-bones,” said another voice, “bent
+outwards like the edge of a Saracen scimitar.”
+
+“Rather like the bow of a Cupid, since he comes upon a lover's errand,”
+ said the Queen.--“Gentle Neville, thou art ever prompt to pleasure us
+poor women, who have so little to pass away our idle moments. We must
+see this messenger of love. Turks and Moors have I seen many, but negro
+never.”
+
+“I am created to obey your Grace's commands, so you will bear me out
+with my Sovereign for doing so,” answered the debonair knight. “Yet,
+let me assure your Grace you will see something different from what you
+expect.”
+
+“So much the better--uglier yet than our imaginations can fancy, yet the
+chosen love-messenger of this gallant Soldan!”
+
+“Gracious madam,” said the Lady Calista, “may I implore you would permit
+the good knight to carry this messenger straight to the Lady Edith, to
+whom his credentials are addressed? We have already escaped hardly for
+such a frolic.”
+
+“Escaped?” repeated the Queen scornfully. “Yet thou mayest be right,
+Calista, in thy caution. Let this Nubian, as thou callest him, first do
+his errand to our cousin--besides, he is mute too, is he not?”
+
+“He is, gracious madam,” answered the knight.
+
+“Royal sport have these Eastern ladies,” said Berengaria, “attended by
+those before whom they may say anything, yet who can report nothing.
+Whereas in our camp, as the Prelate of Saint Jude's is wont to say, a
+bird of the air will carry the matter.”
+
+“Because,” said De Neville, “your Grace forgets that you speak within
+canvas walls.”
+
+The voices sunk on this observation, and after a little whispering, the
+English knight again returned to the Ethiopian, and made him a sign
+to follow. He did so, and Neville conducted him to a pavilion, pitched
+somewhat apart from that of the Queen, for the accommodation, it seemed,
+of the Lady Edith and her attendants. One of her Coptic maidens received
+the message communicated by Sir Henry Neville, and in the space of a
+very few minutes the Nubian was ushered into Edith's presence, while
+Neville was left on the outside of the tent. The slave who introduced
+him withdrew on a signal from her mistress, and it was with humiliation,
+not of the posture only but of the very inmost soul, that the
+unfortunate knight, thus strangely disguised, threw himself on one
+knee, with looks bent on the ground and arms folded on his bosom, like a
+criminal who expects his doom. Edith was clad in the same manner as
+when she received King Richard, her long, transparent dark veil hanging
+around her like the shade of a summer night on a beautiful landscape,
+disguising and rendering obscure the beauties which it could not hide.
+She held in her hand a silver lamp, fed with some aromatic spirit, which
+burned with unusual brightness.
+
+When Edith came within a step of the kneeling and motionless slave,
+she held the light towards his face, as if to peruse his features more
+attentively, then turned from him, and placed her lamp so as to throw
+the shadow of his face in profile upon the curtain which hung beside.
+She at length spoke in a voice composed, yet deeply sorrowful,
+
+“Is it you? It is indeed you, brave Knight of the Leopard--gallant Sir
+Kenneth of Scotland; is it indeed you?--thus servilely disguised--thus
+surrounded by a hundred dangers.”
+
+At hearing the tones of his lady's voice thus unexpectedly addressed
+to him, and in a tone of compassion approaching to tenderness, a
+corresponding reply rushed to the knight's lips, and scarce could
+Richard's commands and his own promised silence prevent his answering
+that the sight he saw, the sounds he just heard, were sufficient to
+recompense the slavery of a life, and dangers which threatened that
+life every hour. He did recollect himself, however, and a deep and
+impassioned sigh was his only reply to the high-born Edith's question.
+
+“I see--I know I have guessed right,” continued Edith. “I marked you
+from your first appearance near the platform on which I stood with the
+Queen. I knew, too, your valiant hound. She is no true lady, and
+is unworthy of the service of such a knight as thou art, from whom
+disguises of dress or hue could conceal a faithful servant. Speak, then,
+without fear to Edith Plantagenet. She knows how to grace in adversity
+the good knight who served, honoured, and did deeds of arms in her name,
+when fortune befriended him.--Still silent! Is it fear or shame that
+keeps thee so! Fear should be unknown to thee; and for shame, let it
+remain with those who have wronged thee.”
+
+The knight, in despair at being obliged to play the mute in an interview
+so interesting, could only express his mortification by sighing deeply,
+and laying his finger upon his lips. Edith stepped back, as if somewhat
+displeased.
+
+“What!” she said, “the Asiatic mute in very deed, as well as in attire?
+This I looked not for. Or thou mayest scorn me, perhaps, for thus boldly
+acknowledging that I have heedfully observed the homage thou hast paid
+me? Hold no unworthy thoughts of Edith on that account. She knows well
+the bounds which reserve and modesty prescribe to high-born maidens,
+and she knows when and how far they should give place to gratitude--to
+a sincere desire that it were in her power to repay services and repair
+injuries arising from the devotion which a good knight bore towards her.
+Why fold thy hands together, and wring them with so much passion? Can
+it be,” she added, shrinking back at the idea, “that their cruelty
+has actually deprived thee of speech? Thou shakest thy head. Be it a
+spell--be it obstinacy, I question thee no further, but leave thee to do
+thine errand after thine own fashion. I also can be mute.”
+
+The disguised knight made an action as if at once lamenting his own
+condition and deprecating her displeasure, while at the same time he
+presented to her, wrapped, as usual, in fine silk and cloth of gold, the
+letter of the Soldan. She took it, surveyed it carelessly, then laid it
+aside, and bending her eyes once more on the knight, she said in a low
+tone, “Not even a word to do thine errand to me?”
+
+He pressed both his hands to his brow, as if to intimate the pain which
+he felt at being unable to obey her; but she turned from him in anger.
+
+“Begone!” she said. “I have spoken enough--too much--to one who will not
+waste on me a word in reply. Begone!--and say, if I have wronged thee, I
+have done penance; for if I have been the unhappy means of dragging thee
+down from a station of honour, I have, in this interview, forgotten my
+own worth, and lowered myself in thy eyes and in my own.”
+
+She covered her eyes with her hands, and seemed deeply agitated. Sir
+Kenneth would have approached, but she waved him back.
+
+“Stand off! thou whose soul Heaven hath suited to its new station!
+Aught less dull and fearful than a slavish mute had spoken a word of
+gratitude, were it but to reconcile me to my own degradation. Why pause
+you?--begone!”
+
+The disguised knight almost involuntarily looked towards the letter as
+an apology for protracting his stay. She snatched it up, saying in a
+tone of irony and contempt, “I had forgotten--the dutiful slave waits an
+answer to his message. How's this--from the Soldan!”
+
+She hastily ran over the contents, which were expressed both in Arabic
+and French, and when she had done, she laughed in bitter anger.
+
+“Now this passes imagination!” she said; “no jongleur can show so deft
+a transmutation! His legerdemain can transform zechins and byzants into
+doits and maravedis; but can his art convert a Christian knight, ever
+esteemed among the bravest of the Holy Crusade, into the dust-kissing
+slave of a heathen Soldan--the bearer of a paynim's insolent proposals
+to a Christian maiden--nay, forgetting the laws of honourable chivalry,
+as well as of religion? But it avails not talking to the willing slave
+of a heathen hound. Tell your master, when his scourge shall have found
+thee a tongue, that which thou hast seen me do”--so saying, she threw
+the Soldan's letter on the ground, and placed her foot upon it--“and
+say to him, that Edith Plantagenet scorns the homage of an unchristened
+pagan.”
+
+With these words she was about to shoot from the knight, when, kneeling
+at her feet in bitter agony, he ventured to lay his hand upon her robe
+and oppose her departure.
+
+“Heard'st thou not what I said, dull slave?” she said, turning short
+round on him, and speaking with emphasis. “Tell the heathen Soldan, thy
+master, that I scorn his suit as much as I despise the prostration of a
+worthless renegade to religion and chivalry--to God and to his lady!”
+
+So saying, she burst from him, tore her garment from his grasp, and left
+the tent.
+
+The voice of Neville, at the same time, summoned him from without.
+Exhausted and stupefied by the distress he had undergone during this
+interview, from which he could only have extricated himself by breach
+of the engagement which he had formed with King Richard, the unfortunate
+knight staggered rather than walked after the English baron, till they
+reached the royal pavilion, before which a party of horsemen had just
+dismounted. There were light and motion within the tent, and when
+Neville entered with his disguised attendant, they found the King,
+with several of his nobility, engaged in welcoming those who were newly
+arrived.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+     “The tears I shed must ever fall.
+     I weep not for an absent swain;
+     For time may happier hours recall,
+     And parted lovers meet again.
+
+     “I weep not for the silent dead.
+     Their pains are past, their sorrows o'er;
+     And those that loved their steps must tread,
+     When death shall join to part no more.”
+
+     But worse than absence, worse than death,
+     She wept her lover's sullied fame,
+     And, fired with all the pride of birth,
+     She wept a soldier's injured name.
+            BALLAD.
+
+The frank and bold voice of Richard was heard in joyous gratulation.
+
+“Thomas de Vaux! stout Tom of the Gills! by the head of King Henry, thou
+art welcome to me as ever was flask of wine to a jolly toper! I should
+scarce have known how to order my battle-array, unless I had thy bulky
+form in mine eye as a landmark to form my ranks upon. We shall have
+blows anon, Thomas, if the saints be gracious to us; and had we fought
+in thine absence, I would have looked to hear of thy being found hanging
+upon an elder-tree.”
+
+“I should have borne my disappointment with more Christian patience,
+I trust,” said Thomas de Vaux, “than to have died the death of an
+apostate. But I thank your Grace for my welcome, which is the more
+generous, as it respects a banquet of blows, of which, saving your
+pleasure, you are ever too apt to engross the larger share. But here
+have I brought one to whom your Grace will, I know, give a yet warmer
+welcome.”
+
+The person who now stepped forward to make obeisance to Richard was a
+young man of low stature and slight form. His dress was as modest as his
+figure was unimpressive; but he bore on his bonnet a gold buckle, with a
+gem, the lustre of which could only be rivalled by the brilliancy of
+the eye which the bonnet shaded. It was the only striking feature in his
+countenance; but when once noticed, it ever made a strong impression on
+the spectator. About his neck there hung in a scarf of sky-blue silk a
+WREST as it was called--that is, the key with which a harp is tuned, and
+which was of solid gold.
+
+This personage would have kneeled reverently to Richard, but the Monarch
+raised him in joyful haste, pressed him to his bosom warmly, and kissed
+him on either side of the face.
+
+“Blondel de Nesle!” he exclaimed joyfully--“welcome from Cyprus, my king
+of minstrels!--welcome to the King of England, who rates not his own
+dignity more highly than he does thine. I have been sick, man, and, by
+my soul, I believe it was for lack of thee; for, were I half way to the
+gate of heaven, methinks thy strains could call me back. And what news,
+my gentle master, from the land of the lyre? Anything fresh from the
+TROUVEURS of Provence? Anything from the minstrels of merry Normandy?
+Above all, hast thou thyself been busy? But I need not ask thee--thou
+canst not be idle if thou wouldst; thy noble qualities are like a fire
+burning within, and compel thee to pour thyself out in music and song.”
+
+“Something I have learned, and something I have done, noble King,”
+ answered the celebrated Blondel, with a retiring modesty which all
+Richard's enthusiastic admiration of his skill had been unable to
+banish.
+
+“We will hear thee, man--we will hear thee instantly,” said the King.
+Then, touching Blondel's shoulder kindly, he added, “That is, if thou
+art not fatigued with thy journey; for I would sooner ride my best horse
+to death than injure a note of thy voice.”
+
+“My voice is, as ever, at the service of my royal patron,” said Blondel;
+“but your Majesty,” he added, looking at some papers on the table,
+“seems more importantly engaged, and the hour waxes late.”
+
+“Not a whit, man, not a whit, my dearest Blondel. I did but sketch an
+array of battle against the Saracens, a thing of a moment, almost as
+soon done as the routing of them.”
+
+“Methinks, however,” said Thomas de Vaux, “it were not unfit to inquire
+what soldiers your Grace hath to array. I bring reports on that subject
+from Ascalon.”
+
+“Thou art a mule, Thomas,” said the King--“a very mule for dullness
+and obstinacy! Come, nobles--a hall--a hall--range ye around him! Give
+Blondel the tabouret. Where is his harp-bearer?--or, soft, lend him my
+harp, his own may be damaged by the journey.”
+
+“I would your Grace would take my report,” said Thomas de Vaux. “I have
+ridden far, and have more list to my bed than to have my ears tickled.”
+
+“THY ears tickled!” said the King; “that must be with a woodcock's
+feather, and not with sweet sounds. Hark thee, Thomas, do thine ears
+know the singing of Blondel from the braying of an ass?”
+
+“In faith, my liege,” replied Thomas, “I cannot well say; but setting
+Blondel out of the question, who is a born gentleman, and doubtless of
+high acquirements, I shall never, for the sake of your Grace's question,
+look on a minstrel but I shall think upon an ass.”
+
+“And might not your manners,” said Richard, “have excepted me, who am a
+gentleman born as well as Blondel, and, like him, a guild-brother of the
+joyeuse science?”
+
+“Your Grace should remember,” said De Vaux, smiling, “that 'tis useless
+asking for manners from a mule.”
+
+“Most truly spoken,” said the King; “and an ill-conditioned animal thou
+art. But come hither, master mule, and be unloaded, that thou mayest get
+thee to thy litter, without any music being wasted on thee. Meantime do
+thou, good brother of Salisbury, go to our consort's tent, and tell
+her that Blondel has arrived, with his budget fraught with the newest
+minstrelsy. Bid her come hither instantly, and do thou escort her, and
+see that our cousin, Edith Plantagenet, remain not behind.”
+
+His eye then rested for a moment on the Nubian, with that expression of
+doubtful meaning which his countenance usually displayed when he looked
+at him.
+
+“Ha, our silent and secret messenger returned?--Stand up, slave, behind
+the back of De Neville, and thou shalt hear presently sounds which will
+make thee bless God that He afflicted thee rather with dumbness than
+deafness.”
+
+So saying, he turned from the rest of the company towards De Vaux, and
+plunged instantly into the military details which that baron laid before
+him.
+
+About the time that the Lord of Gilsland had finished his audience, a
+messenger announced that the Queen and her attendants were approaching
+the royal tent.--“A flask of wine, ho!” said the King; “of old King
+Isaac's long-saved Cyprus, which we won when we stormed Famagosta. Fill
+to the stout Lord of Gilsland, gentles--a more careful and faithful
+servant never had any prince.”
+
+“I am glad,” said Thomas de Vaux, “that your Grace finds the mule a
+useful slave, though his voice be less musical than horse-hair or wire.”
+
+“What, thou canst not yet digest that quip of the mule?” said Richard.
+“Wash it down with a brimming flagon, man, or thou wilt choke upon it.
+Why, so--well pulled!--and now I will tell thee, thou art a soldier
+as well as I, and we must brook each other's jests in the hall as each
+other's blows in the tourney, and love each other the harder we hit.
+By my faith, if thou didst not hit me as hard as I did thee in our late
+encounter! thou gavest all thy wit to the thrust. But here lies the
+difference betwixt thee and Blondel. Thou art but my comrade--I might
+say my pupil--in the art of war; Blondel is my master in the science of
+minstrelsy and music. To thee I permit the freedom of intimacy; to him
+I must do reverence, as to my superior in his art. Come, man, be not
+peevish, but remain and hear our glee.”
+
+“To see your Majesty in such cheerful mood,” said the Lord of Gilsland,
+“by my faith, I could remain till Blondel had achieved the great romance
+of King Arthur, which lasts for three days.”
+
+“We will not tax your patience so deeply,” said the King. “But see,
+yonder glare of torches without shows that our consort approaches. Away
+to receive her, man, and win thyself grace in the brightest eyes of
+Christendom. Nay, never stop to adjust thy cloak. See, thou hast let
+Neville come between the wind and the sails of thy galley.”
+
+“He was never before me in the field of battle,” said De Vaux, not
+greatly pleased to see himself anticipated by the more active service of
+the chamberlain.
+
+“No, neither he nor any one went before thee there, my good Tom of the
+Gills,” said the King, “unless it was ourself, now and then.”
+
+“Ay, my liege,” said De Vaux, “and let us do justice to the unfortunate.
+The unhappy Knight of the Leopard hath been before me too, at a season;
+for, look you, he weighs less on horseback, and so--”
+
+“Hush!” said the King, interrupting him in a peremptory tone, “not a
+word of him,” and instantly stepped forward to greet his royal consort;
+and when he had done so, he presented to her Blondel, as king of
+minstrelsy and his master in the gay science. Berengaria, who well knew
+that her royal husband's passion for poetry and music almost equalled
+his appetite for warlike fame, and that Blondel was his especial
+favourite, took anxious care to receive him with all the flattering
+distinctions due to one whom the King delighted to honour. Yet it was
+evident that, though Blondel made suitable returns to the compliments
+showered on him something too abundantly by the royal beauty, he owned
+with deeper reverence and more humble gratitude the simple and graceful
+welcome of Edith, whose kindly greeting appeared to him, perhaps,
+sincere in proportion to its brevity and simplicity.
+
+Both the Queen and her royal husband were aware of this distinction, and
+Richard, seeing his consort somewhat piqued at the preference assigned
+to his cousin, by which perhaps he himself did not feel much gratified,
+said in the hearing of both, “We minstrels, Berengaria, as thou mayest
+see by the bearing of our master Blondel, pay more reverence to a severe
+judge like our kinswoman than to a kindly, partial friend like thyself,
+who is willing to take our worth upon trust.”
+
+Edith was moved by this sarcasm of her royal kinsman, and hesitated
+not to reply that, “To be a harsh and severe judge was not an attribute
+proper to her alone of all the Plantagenets.”
+
+She had perhaps said more, having some touch of the temper of that
+house, which, deriving their name and cognizance from the lowly broom
+(PLANTA GENISTA), assumed as an emblem of humility, were perhaps one
+of the proudest families that ever ruled in England; but her eye, when
+kindling in her reply, suddenly caught those of the Nubian, although he
+endeavoured to conceal himself behind the nobles who were present,
+and she sunk upon a seat, turning so pale that Queen Berengaria deemed
+herself obliged to call for water and essences, and to go through the
+other ceremonies appropriate to a lady's swoon. Richard, who better
+estimated Edith's strength of mind, called to Blondel to assume his seat
+and commence his lay, declaring that minstrelsy was worth every other
+recipe to recall a Plantagenet to life. “Sing us,” he said, “that song
+of the Bloody Vest, of which thou didst formerly give me the argument
+ere I left Cyprus. Thou must be perfect in it by this time, or, as our
+yeomen say, thy bow is broken.”
+
+The anxious eye of the minstrel, however, dwelt on Edith, and it was
+not till he observed her returning colour that he obeyed the repeated
+commands of the King. Then, accompanying his voice with the harp, so as
+to grace, but yet not drown, the sense of what he sung, he chanted in
+a sort of recitative one of those ancient adventures of love and
+knighthood which were wont of yore to win the public attention. So soon
+as he began to prelude, the insignificance of his personal appearance
+seemed to disappear, and his countenance glowed with energy and
+inspiration. His full, manly, mellow voice, so absolutely under command
+of the purest taste, thrilled on every ear and to every heart. Richard,
+rejoiced as after victory, called out the appropriate summons for
+silence, “Listen, lords, in bower and hall”; while, with the zeal of a
+patron at once and a pupil, he arranged the circle around, and hushed
+them into silence; and he himself sat down with an air of expectation
+and interest, not altogether unmixed with the gravity of the professed
+critic. The courtiers turned their eyes on the King, that they might be
+ready to trace and imitate the emotions his features should express, and
+Thomas de Vaux yawned tremendously, as one who submitted unwillingly
+to a wearisome penance. The song of Blondel was of course in the Norman
+language, but the verses which follow express its meaning and its
+manner.
+
+
+                THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+     'Twas near the fair city of Benevent,
+     When the sun was setting on bough and bent,
+     And knights were preparing in bower and tent,
+     On the eve of the Baptist's tournament;
+     When in Lincoln green a stripling gent,
+     Well seeming a page by a princess sent,
+     Wander'd the camp, and, still as he went,
+     Inquired for the Englishman, Thomas a Kent.
+
+     Far hath he far'd, and farther must fare,
+     Till he finds his pavilion nor stately nor rare,--
+     Little save iron and steel was there;
+     And, as lacking the coin to pay armourer's care,
+     With his sinewy arms to the shoulders bare,
+     The good knight with hammer and file did repair
+     The mail that to-morrow must see him wear,
+     For the honour of Saint John and his lady fair.
+
+     “Thus speaks my lady,” the page said he,
+     And the knight bent lowly both head and knee,
+     “She is Benevent's Princess so high in degree,
+     And thou art as lowly as knight may well be--
+     He that would climb so lofty a tree,
+     Or spring such a gulf as divides her from thee,
+     Must dare some high deed, by which all men may see
+     His ambition is back'd by his hie chivalrie.
+
+     “Therefore thus speaks my lady,” the fair page he said,
+     And the knight lowly louted with hand and with head,
+     “Fling aside the good armour in which thou art clad,
+     And don thou this weed of her night-gear instead,
+     For a hauberk of steel, a kirtle of thread;
+     And charge, thus attir'd, in the tournament dread,
+     And fight as thy wont is where most blood is shed,
+     And bring honour away, or remain with the dead.”
+
+Untroubled in his look, and untroubled in his breast, The knight the
+weed hath taken, and reverently hath kiss'd. “Now blessed be the moment,
+the messenger be blest! Much honour'd do I hold me in my lady's high
+behest; And say unto my lady, in this dear night-weed dress'd, To the
+best armed champion I will not veil my crest; But if I live and bear me
+well 'tis her turn to take the test.” Here, gentles, ends the foremost
+fytte of the Lay of the Bloody Vest.
+
+“Thou hast changed the measure upon us unawares in that last couplet, my
+Blondel,” said the King.
+
+“Most true, my lord,” said Blondel. “I rendered the verses from the
+Italian of an old harper whom I met in Cyprus, and not having had time
+either to translate it accurately or commit it to memory, I am fain to
+supply gaps in the music and the verse as I can upon the spur of the
+moment, as you see boors mend a quickset fence with a fagot.”
+
+“Nay, on my faith,” said the King, “I like these rattling, rolling
+Alexandrines. Methinks they come more twangingly off to the music than
+that briefer measure.”
+
+“Both are licensed, as is well known to your Grace,” answered Blondel.
+
+“They are so, Blondel,” said Richard, “yet methinks the scene where
+there is like to be fighting will go best on in these same thundering
+Alexandrines, which sound like the charge of cavalry, while the other
+measure is but like the sidelong amble of a lady's palfrey.”
+
+“It shall be as your Grace pleases,” replied Blondel, and began again to
+prelude.
+
+“Nay, first cherish thy fancy with a cup of fiery Chios wine,” said
+the King. “And hark thee, I would have thee fling away that new-fangled
+restriction of thine, of terminating in accurate and similar rhymes.
+They are a constraint on thy flow of fancy, and make thee resemble a man
+dancing in fetters.”
+
+“The fetters are easily flung off, at least,” said Blondel, again
+sweeping his fingers over the strings, as one who would rather have
+played than listened to criticism.
+
+“But why put them on, man?” continued the King. “Wherefore thrust thy
+genius into iron bracelets? I marvel how you got forward at all. I am
+sure I should not have been able to compose a stanza in yonder hampered
+measure.”
+
+Blondel looked down, and busied himself with the strings of his harp, to
+hide an involuntary smile which crept over his features; but it escaped
+not Richard's observation.
+
+“By my faith, thou laughest at me, Blondel,” he said; “and, in good
+truth, every man deserves it who presumes to play the master when he
+should be the pupil. But we kings get bad habits of self-opinion. Come,
+on with thy lay, dearest Blondel--on after thine own fashion, better
+than aught that we can suggest, though we must needs be talking.”
+
+Blondel resumed the lay; but as extemporaneous composition was familiar
+to him, he failed not to comply with the King's hints, and was perhaps
+not displeased to show with how much ease he could new-model a poem,
+even while in the act of recitation.
+
+
+                   THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+                    FYTTE SECOND.
+
+     The Baptist's fair morrow beheld gallant feats--
+     There was winning of honour and losing of seats;
+     There was hewing with falchions and splintering of staves--
+     The victors won glory, the vanquish'd won graves.
+     Oh, many a knight there fought bravely and well,
+     Yet one was accounted his peers to excel,
+     And 'twas he whose sole armour on body and breast
+     Seem'd the weed of a damsel when bouned for her rest.
+
+     There were some dealt him wounds that were bloody and sore,
+     But others respected his plight, and forbore.
+     “It is some oath of honour,” they said, “and I trow,
+     'Twere unknightly to slay him achieving his vow.”
+      Then the Prince, for his sake, bade the tournament cease--
+     He flung down his warder, the trumpets sung peace;
+     And the judges declare, and competitors yield,
+     That the Knight of the Night-gear was first in the field.
+
+     The feast it was nigh, and the mass it was nigher,
+     When before the fair Princess low looted a squire,
+     And deliver'd a garment unseemly to view,
+     With sword-cut and spear-thrust, all hack'd and pierc'd through;
+     All rent and all tatter'd, all clotted with blood,
+     With foam of the horses, with dust, and with mud;
+     Not the point of that lady's small finger, I ween,
+     Could have rested on spot was unsullied and clean.
+
+     “This token my master, Sir Thomas a Kent,
+     Restores to the Princess of fair Benevent;
+     He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit,
+     He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit;
+     Through life's utmost peril the prize I have won,
+     And now must the faith of my mistress be shown:
+     For she who prompts knights on such danger to run
+     Must avouch his true service in front of the sun.
+
+     “'I restore,' says my master, 'the garment I've worn,
+     And I claim of the Princess to don it in turn;
+     For its stains and its rents she should prize it the more,
+     Since by shame 'tis unsullied, though crimson'd with gore.'”
+      Then deep blush'd the Princess--yet kiss'd she and press'd
+     The blood-spotted robes to her lips and her breast.
+     “Go tell my true knight, church and chamber shall show
+     If I value the blood on this garment or no.”
+
+     And when it was time for the nobles to pass,
+     In solemn procession to minster and mass,
+     The first walk'd the Princess in purple and pall,
+     But the blood-besmear'd night-robe she wore over all;
+     And eke, in the hall, where they all sat at dine,
+     When she knelt to her father and proffer'd the wine,
+     Over all her rich robes and state jewels she wore
+     That wimple unseemly bedabbled with gore.
+
+     Then lords whisper'd ladies, as well you may think,
+     And ladies replied with nod, titter, and wink;
+     And the Prince, who in anger and shame had look'd down,
+     Turn'd at length to his daughter, and spoke with a frown:
+     “Now since thou hast publish'd thy folly and guilt,
+     E'en atone with thy hand for the blood thou hast spilt;
+     Yet sore for your boldness you both will repent,
+     When you wander as exiles from fair Benevent.”
+
+     Then out spoke stout Thomas, in hall where he stood,
+     Exhausted and feeble, but dauntless of mood:
+     “The blood that I lost for this daughter of thine,
+     I pour'd forth as freely as flask gives its wine;
+     And if for my sake she brooks penance and blame,
+     Do not doubt I will save her from suffering and shame;
+     And light will she reck of thy princedom and rent,
+     When I hail her, in England, the Countess of Kent.”
+
+
+A murmur of applause ran through the assembly, following the example
+of Richard himself, who loaded with praises his favourite minstrel, and
+ended by presenting him with a ring of considerable value. The Queen
+hastened to distinguish the favourite by a rich bracelet, and many of
+the nobles who were present followed the royal example.
+
+“Is our cousin Edith,” said the King, “become insensible to the sound of
+the harp she once loved?”
+
+“She thanks Blondel for his lay,” replied Edith, “but doubly the
+kindness of the kinsman who suggested it.”
+
+“Thou art angry, cousin,” said the King; “angry because thou hast heard
+of a woman more wayward than thyself. But you escape me not. I will walk
+a space homeward with you towards the Queen's pavilion. We must have
+conference together ere the night has waned into morning.”
+
+The Queen and her attendants were now on foot, and the other guests
+withdrew from the royal tent. A train with blazing torches, and an
+escort of archers, awaited Berengaria without the pavilion, and she was
+soon on her way homeward. Richard, as he had proposed, walked beside
+his kinswoman, and compelled her to accept of his arm as her support, so
+that they could speak to each other without being overheard.
+
+“What answer, then, am I to return to the noble Soldan?” said Richard.
+“The kings and princes are falling from me, Edith; this new quarrel hath
+alienated them once more. I would do something for the Holy Sepulchre by
+composition, if not by victory; and the chance of my doing this depends,
+alas, on the caprice of a woman. I would lay my single spear in the rest
+against ten of the best lances in Christendom, rather than argue with a
+wilful wench who knows not what is for her own good. What answer, coz,
+am I to return to the Soldan? It must be decisive.”
+
+“Tell him,” said Edith, “that the poorest of the Plantagenets will
+rather wed with misery than with misbelief.”
+
+“Shall I say with slavery, Edith?” said the King. “Methinks that is
+nearer thy thoughts.”
+
+“There is no room,” said Edith, “for the suspicion you so grossly
+insinuate. Slavery of the body might have been pitied, but that of the
+soul is only to be despised. Shame to thee, King of merry England. Thou
+hast enthralled both the limbs and the spirit of a knight, one scarce
+less famed than thyself.”
+
+“Should I not prevent my kinswoman from drinking poison, by sullying
+the vessel which contained it, if I saw no other means of disgusting her
+with the fatal liquor?” replied the King.
+
+“It is thyself,” answered Edith, “that would press me to drink poison,
+because it is proffered in a golden chalice.”
+
+“Edith,” said Richard, “I cannot force thy resolution; but beware you
+shut not the door which Heaven opens. The hermit of Engaddi--he whom
+Popes and Councils have regarded as a prophet--hath read in the stars
+that thy marriage shall reconcile me with a powerful enemy, and that thy
+husband shall be Christian, leaving thus the fairest ground to hope that
+the conversion of the Soldan, and the bringing in of the sons of Ishmael
+to the pale of the church, will be the consequence of thy wedding with
+Saladin. Come, thou must make some sacrifice rather than mar such happy
+prospects.”
+
+“Men may sacrifice rams and goats,” said Edith, “but not honour and
+conscience. I have heard that it was the dishonour of a Christian maiden
+which brought the Saracens into Spain; the shame of another is no likely
+mode of expelling them from Palestine.”
+
+“Dost thou call it shame to become an empress?” said the King.
+
+“I call it shame and dishonour to profane a Christian sacrament by
+entering into it with an infidel whom it cannot bind; and I call it foul
+dishonour that I, the descendant of a Christian princess, should become
+of free will the head of a haram of heathen concubines.”
+
+“Well, kinswoman,” said the King, after a pause, “I must not quarrel
+with thee, though I think thy dependent condition might have dictated
+more compliance.”
+
+“My liege,” replied Edith, “your Grace hath worthily succeeded to all
+the wealth, dignity, and dominion of the House of Plantagenet--do
+not, therefore, begrudge your poor kinswoman some small share of their
+pride.”
+
+“By my faith, wench,” said the King, “thou hast unhorsed me with that
+very word, so we will kiss and be friends. I will presently dispatch
+thy answer to Saladin. But after all, coz, were it not better to
+suspend your answer till you have seen him? Men say he is pre-eminently
+handsome.”
+
+“There is no chance of our meeting, my lord,” said Edith.
+
+“By Saint George, but there is next to a certainty of it,” said the
+King; “for Saladin will doubtless afford us a free field for the
+doing of this new battle of the Standard, and will witness it himself.
+Berengaria is wild to behold it also; and I dare be sworn not a feather
+of you, her companions and attendants, will remain behind--least of all
+thou thyself, fair coz. But come, we have reached the pavilion, and must
+part; not in unkindness thou, oh--nay, thou must seal it with thy lip as
+well as thy hand, sweet Edith--it is my right as a sovereign to kiss my
+pretty vassals.”
+
+He embraced her respectfully and affectionately, and returned through
+the moonlit camp, humming to himself such snatches of Blondel's lay as
+he could recollect.
+
+On his arrival he lost no time in making up his dispatches for Saladin,
+and delivered them to the Nubian, with a charge to set out by peep of
+day on his return to the Soldan.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     We heard the Techir--so these Arabs call
+     Their shout of onset, when, with loud acclaim,
+     They challenge Heaven to give them victory.
+        SIEGE OF DAMASCUS.
+
+On the subsequent morning Richard was invited to a conference by Philip
+of France, in which the latter, with many expressions of his high esteem
+for his brother of England, communicated to him in terms extremely
+courteous, but too explicit to be misunderstood, his positive intention
+to return to Europe, and to the cares of his kingdom, as entirely
+despairing of future success in their undertaking, with their diminished
+forces and civil discords. Richard remonstrated, but in vain; and when
+the conference ended he received without surprise a manifesto from the
+Duke of Austria, and several other princes, announcing a resolution
+similar to that of Philip, and in no modified terms, assigning, for
+their defection from the cause of the Cross, the inordinate ambition and
+arbitrary domination of Richard of England. All hopes of continuing
+the war with any prospect of ultimate success were now abandoned; and
+Richard, while he shed bitter tears over his disappointed hopes of
+glory, was little consoled by the recollection that the failure was
+in some degree to be imputed to the advantages which he had given his
+enemies by his own hasty and imprudent temper.
+
+“They had not dared to have deserted my father thus,” he said to De
+Vaux, in the bitterness of his resentment. “No slanders they could have
+uttered against so wise a king would have been believed in Christendom;
+whereas--fool that I am!--I have not only afforded them a pretext for
+deserting me, but even a colour for casting all the blame of the rupture
+upon my unhappy foibles.”
+
+These thoughts were so deeply galling to the King, that De Vaux was
+rejoiced when the arrival of an ambassador from Saladin turned his
+reflections into a different channel.
+
+This new envoy was an Emir much respected by the Soldan, whose name
+was Abdallah el Hadgi. He derived his descent from the family of the
+Prophet, and the race or tribe of Hashem, in witness of which genealogy
+he wore a green turban of large dimensions. He had also three times
+performed the journey to Mecca, from which he derived his epithet of
+El Hadgi, or the Pilgrim. Notwithstanding these various pretensions to
+sanctity, Abdallah was (for an Arab) a boon companion, who enjoyed
+a merry tale, and laid aside his gravity so far as to quaff a blithe
+flagon when secrecy ensured him against scandal. He was likewise
+a statesman, whose abilities had been used by Saladin in various
+negotiations with the Christian princes, and particularly with Richard,
+to whom El Hadgi was personally known and acceptable. Animated by the
+cheerful acquiescence with which the envoy of Saladin afforded a fair
+field for the combat, a safe conduct for all who might choose to witness
+it, and offered his own person as a guarantee of his fidelity, Richard
+soon forgot his disappointed hopes, and the approaching dissolution of
+the Christian league, in the interesting discussions preceding a combat
+in the lists.
+
+The station called the Diamond of the Desert was assigned for the place
+of conflict, as being nearly at an equal distance betwixt the Christian
+and Saracen camps. It was agreed that Conrade of Montserrat, the
+defendant, with his godfathers, the Archduke of Austria and the Grand
+Master of the Templars, should appear there on the day fixed for the
+combat, with a hundred armed followers, and no more; that Richard of
+England and his brother Salisbury, who supported the accusation, should
+attend with the same number, to protect his champion; and that the
+Soldan should bring with him a guard of five hundred chosen followers,
+a band considered as not more than equal to the two hundred Christian
+lances. Such persons of consideration as either party chose to invite to
+witness the contest were to wear no other weapons than their swords, and
+to come without defensive armour. The Soldan undertook the preparation
+of the lists, and to provide accommodations and refreshments of every
+kind for all who were to assist at the solemnity; and his letters
+expressed with much courtesy the pleasure which he anticipated in the
+prospect of a personal and peaceful meeting with the Melech Ric, and his
+anxious desire to render his reception as agreeable as possible.
+
+All preliminaries being arranged and communicated to the defendant
+and his godfathers, Abdullah the Hadgi was admitted to a more private
+interview, where he heard with delight the strains of Blondel. Having
+first carefully put his green turban out of sight, and assumed a
+Greek cap in its stead, he requited the Norman minstrel's music with a
+drinking song from the Persian, and quaffed a hearty flagon of Cyprus
+wine, to show that his practice matched his principles. On the next day,
+grave and sober as the water-drinker Mirglip, he bent his brow to the
+ground before Saladin's footstool, and rendered to the Soldan an account
+of his embassy.
+
+On the day before that appointed for the combat Conrade and his friends
+set off by daybreak to repair to the place assigned, and Richard left
+the camp at the same hour and for the same purpose; but, as had been
+agreed upon, he took his journey by a different route--a precaution
+which had been judged necessary, to prevent the possibility of a quarrel
+betwixt their armed attendants.
+
+The good King himself was in no humour for quarrelling with any one.
+Nothing could have added to his pleasurable anticipations of a desperate
+and bloody combat in the lists, except his being in his own royal
+person one of the combatants; and he was half in charity again even
+with Conrade of Montserrat. Lightly armed, richly dressed, and gay as
+a bridegroom on the eve of his nuptials, Richard caracoled along by
+the side of Queen Berengaria's litter, pointing out to her the various
+scenes through which they passed, and cheering with tale and song the
+bosom of the inhospitable wilderness. The former route of the Queen's
+pilgrimage to Engaddi had been on the other side of the chain of
+mountains, so that the ladies were strangers to the scenery of the
+desert; and though Berengaria knew her husband's disposition too well
+not to endeavour to seem interested in what he was pleased either to
+say or to sing, she could not help indulging some female fears when she
+found herself in the howling wilderness with so small an escort, which
+seemed almost like a moving speck on the bosom of the plain, and knew
+at the same time they were not so distant from the camp of Saladin,
+but what they might be in a moment surprised and swept off by an
+overpowering host of his fiery-footed cavalry, should the pagan be
+faithless enough to embrace an opportunity thus tempting. But when she
+hinted these suspicions to Richard he repelled them with displeasure and
+disdain. “It were worse than ingratitude,” he said, “to doubt the good
+faith of the generous Soldan.”
+
+Yet the same doubts and fears recurred more than once, not to the timid
+mind of the Queen alone, but to the firmer and more candid soul of Edith
+Plantagenet, who had no such confidence in the faith of the Moslem as
+to render her perfectly at ease when so much in their power; and her
+surprise had been far less than her terror, if the desert around had
+suddenly resounded with the shout of ALLAH HU! and a band of Arab
+cavalry had pounced on them like vultures on their prey. Nor were these
+suspicions lessened when, as evening approached, they were aware of
+a single Arab horseman, distinguished by his turban and long lance,
+hovering on the edge of a small eminence like a hawk poised in the air,
+and who instantly, on the appearance of the royal retinue, darted
+off with the speed of the same bird when it shoots down the wind and
+disappears from the horizon.
+
+“We must be near the station,” said King Richard; “and yonder cavalier
+is one of Saladin's outposts--methinks I hear the noise of the Moorish
+horns and cymbals. Get you into order, my hearts, and form yourselves
+around the ladies soldierlike and firmly.”
+
+As he spoke, each knight, squire, and archer hastily closed in upon his
+appointed ground, and they proceeded in the most compact order, which
+made their numbers appear still smaller. And to say the truth, though
+there might be no fear, there was anxiety as well as curiosity in the
+attention with which they listened to the wild bursts of Moorish music,
+which came ever and anon more distinctly from the quarter in which the
+Arab horseman had been seen to disappear.
+
+De Vaux spoke in a whisper to the King. “Were it not well, my liege, to
+send a page to the top of that sand-bank? Or would it stand with your
+pleasure that I prick forward? Methinks, by all yonder clash and clang,
+if there be no more than five hundred men beyond the sand-hills, half of
+the Soldan's retinue must be drummers and cymbal-tossers. Shall I spur
+on?”
+
+The baron had checked his horse with the bit, and was just about to
+strike him with the spurs when the King exclaimed, “Not for the world.
+Such a caution would express suspicion, and could do little to prevent
+surprise, which, however, I apprehend not.”
+
+They advanced accordingly in close and firm order till they surmounted
+the line of low sand-hills, and came in sight of the appointed station,
+when a splendid, but at the same time a startling, spectacle awaited
+them.
+
+The Diamond of the Desert, so lately a solitary fountain, distinguished
+only amid the waste by solitary groups of palm-trees, was now the centre
+of an encampment, the embroidered flags and gilded ornaments of which
+glittered far and wide, and reflected a thousand rich tints against the
+setting sun. The coverings of the large pavilions were of the gayest
+colours--scarlet, bright yellow, pale blue, and other gaudy and gleaming
+hues--and the tops of their pillars, or tent-poles, were decorated
+with golden pomegranates and small silken flags. But besides these
+distinguished pavilions, there were what Thomas de Vaux considered as
+a portentous number of the ordinary black tents of the Arabs, being
+sufficient, as he conceived, to accommodate, according to the Eastern
+fashion, a host of five thousand men. A number of Arabs and Kurds, fully
+corresponding to the extent of the encampment, were hastily assembling,
+each leading his horse in his hand, and their muster was accompanied by
+an astonishing clamour of their noisy instruments of martial music, by
+which, in all ages, the warfare of the Arabs has been animated.
+
+They soon formed a deep and confused mass of dismounted cavalry in front
+of their encampment, when, at the signal of a shrill cry, which arose
+high over the clangour of the music, each cavalier sprung to his saddle.
+A cloud of dust arising at the moment of this manoeuvre hid from Richard
+and his attendants the camp, the palm-trees, and the distant ridge of
+mountains, as well as the troops whose sudden movement had raised the
+cloud, and, ascending high over their heads, formed itself into the
+fantastic forms of writhed pillars, domes, and minarets. Another shrill
+yell was heard from the bosom of this cloudy tabernacle. It was the
+signal for the cavalry to advance, which they did at full gallop,
+disposing themselves as they came forward so as to come in at once on
+the front, flanks, and rear of Richard's little bodyguard, who were thus
+surrounded, and almost choked by the dense clouds of dust enveloping
+them on each side, through which were seen alternately, and lost, the
+grim forms and wild faces of the Saracens, brandishing and tossing their
+lances in every possible direction with the wildest cries and halloos,
+and frequently only reining up their horses when within a spear's length
+of the Christians, while those in the rear discharged over the heads of
+both parties thick volleys of arrows. One of these struck the litter in
+which the Queen was seated, who loudly screamed, and the red spot was on
+Richard's brow in an instant.
+
+“Ha! Saint George,” he exclaimed, “we must take some order with this
+infidel scum!”
+
+But Edith, whose litter was near, thrust her head out, and with her hand
+holding one of the shafts, exclaimed, “Royal Richard, beware what you
+do! see, these arrows are headless!”
+
+“Noble, sensible wench!” exclaimed Richard; “by Heaven, thou shamest
+us all by thy readiness of thought and eye.--Be not moved, my English
+hearts,” he exclaimed to his followers; “their arrows have no heads--and
+their spears, too, lack the steel points. It is but a wild welcome,
+after their savage fashion, though doubtless they would rejoice to see
+us daunted or disturbed. Move onward, slow and steady.”
+
+The little phalanx moved forward accordingly, accompanied on all sides
+by the Arabs, with the shrillest and most piercing cries, the bowmen,
+meanwhile, displaying their agility by shooting as near the crests of
+the Christians as was possible, without actually hitting them, while the
+lancers charged each other with such rude blows of their blunt weapons
+that more than one of them lost his saddle, and well-nigh his life,
+in this rough sport. All this, though designed to express welcome, had
+rather a doubtful appearance in the eyes of the Europeans.
+
+As they had advanced nearly half way towards the camp, King Richard and
+his suite forming, as it were, the nucleus round which this tumultuary
+body of horsemen howled, whooped, skirmished, and galloped, creating a
+scene of indescribable confusion, another shrill cry was heard, on which
+all these irregulars, who were on the front and upon the flanks of the
+little body of Europeans, wheeled off; and forming themselves into a
+long and deep column, followed with comparative order and silence in
+the rear of Richard's troops. The dust began now to dissipate in their
+front, when there advanced to meet them through that cloudy veil a body
+of cavalry of a different and more regular description, completely armed
+with offensive and defensive weapons, and who might well have served
+as a bodyguard to the proudest of Eastern monarchs. This splendid troop
+consisted of five hundred men and each horse which it contained was
+worth an earl's ransom. The riders were Georgian and Circassian slaves
+in the very prime of life. Their helmets and hauberks were formed of
+steel rings, so bright that they shone like silver; their vestures were
+of the gayest colours, and some of cloth of gold or silver; the sashes
+were twisted with silk and gold, their rich turbans were plumed and
+jewelled, and their sabres and poniards, of Damascene steel, were
+adorned with gold and gems on hilt and scabbard.
+
+This splendid array advanced to the sound of military music, and when
+they met the Christian body they opened their files to the right and
+left, and let them enter between their ranks. Richard now assumed the
+foremost place in his troop, aware that Saladin himself was approaching.
+Nor was it long when, in the centre of his bodyguard, surrounded by his
+domestic officers and those hideous negroes who guard the Eastern
+haram, and whose misshapen forms were rendered yet more frightful by the
+richness of their attire, came the Soldan, with the look and manners of
+one on whose brow Nature had written, This is a King! In his snow-white
+turban, vest, and wide Eastern trousers, wearing a sash of scarlet
+silk, without any other ornament, Saladin might have seemed the
+plainest-dressed man in his own guard. But closer inspection discerned
+in his turban that inestimable gem which was called by the poets the
+Sea of Light; the diamond on which his signet was engraved, and which he
+wore in a ring, was probably worth all the jewels of the English crown;
+and a sapphire which terminated the hilt of his cangiar was not of much
+inferior value. It should be added that, to protect himself from the
+dust, which in the vicinity of the Dead Sea resembles the finest ashes,
+or, perhaps, out of Oriental pride, the Soldan wore a sort of veil
+attached to his turban, which partly obscured the view of his noble
+features. He rode a milk-white Arabian, which bore him as if conscious
+and proud of his noble burden.
+
+There was no need of further introduction. The two heroic monarchs--for
+such they both were--threw themselves at once from horseback, and the
+troops halting and the music suddenly ceasing, they advanced to meet
+each other in profound silence, and after a courteous inclination on
+either side they embraced as brethren and equals. The pomp and display
+upon both sides attracted no further notice--no one saw aught save
+Richard and Saladin, and they too beheld nothing but each other. The
+looks with which Richard surveyed Saladin were, however, more intently
+curious than those which the Soldan fixed upon him; and the Soldan also
+was the first to break silence.
+
+“The Melech Ric is welcome to Saladin as water to this desert. I trust
+he hath no distrust of this numerous array. Excepting the armed slaves
+of my household, those who surround you with eyes of wonder and of
+welcome are--even the humblest of them--the privileged nobles of my
+thousand tribes; for who that could claim a title to be present would
+remain at home when such a Prince was to be seen as Richard, with the
+terrors of whose name, even on the sands of Yemen, the nurse stills her
+child, and the free Arab subdues his restive steed!”
+
+“And these are all nobles of Araby?” said Richard, looking around on
+wild forms with their persons covered with haiks, their countenance
+swart with the sunbeams, their teeth as white as ivory, their black eyes
+glancing with fierce and preternatural lustre from under the shade of
+their turbans, and their dress being in general simple even to meanness.
+
+“They claim such rank,” said Saladin; “but though numerous, they
+are within the conditions of the treaty, and bear no arms but the
+sabre--even the iron of their lances is left behind.”
+
+“I fear,” muttered De Vaux in English, “they have left them where they
+can be soon found. A most flourishing House of Peers, I confess, and
+would find Westminster Hall something too narrow for them.”
+
+“Hush, De Vaux,” said Richard, “I command thee.--Noble Saladin,” he
+said, “suspicion and thou cannot exist on the same ground. Seest thou,”
+ pointing to the litters, “I too have brought some champions with me,
+though armed, perhaps, in breach of agreement; for bright eyes and fair
+features are weapons which cannot be left behind.”
+
+The Soldan, turning to the litters, made an obeisance as lowly as if
+looking towards Mecca, and kissed the sand in token of respect.
+
+“Nay,” said Richard, “they will not fear a closer encounter, brother;
+wilt thou not ride towards their litters, and the curtains will be
+presently withdrawn?”
+
+“That may Allah prohibit!” said Saladin, “since not an Arab looks on who
+would not think it shame to the noble ladies to be seen with their faces
+uncovered.”
+
+“Thou shalt see them, then, in private, brother,” answered Richard.
+
+“To what purpose?” answered Saladin mournfully. “Thy last letter was,
+to the hopes which I had entertained, like water to fire; and wherefore
+should I again light a flame which may indeed consume, but cannot cheer
+me? But will not my brother pass to the tent which his servant hath
+prepared for him? My principal black slave hath taken order for the
+reception of the Princesses, the officers of my household will attend
+your followers, and ourself will be the chamberlain of the royal
+Richard.”
+
+He led the way accordingly to a splendid pavilion, where was everything
+that royal luxury could devise. De Vaux, who was in attendance, then
+removed the chappe (CAPA), or long riding-cloak, which Richard wore, and
+he stood before Saladin in the close dress which showed to advantage the
+strength and symmetry of his person, while it bore a strong contrast
+to the flowing robes which disguised the thin frame. of the Eastern
+monarch. It was Richard's two-handed sword that chiefly attracted
+the attention of the Saracen--a broad, straight blade, the seemingly
+unwieldy length of which extended well-nigh from the shoulder to the
+heel of the wearer.
+
+“Had I not,” said Saladin, “seen this brand flaming in the front of
+battle, like that of Azrael, I had scarce believed that human arm could
+wield it. Might I request to see the Melech Ric strike one blow with it
+in peace, and in pure trial of strength?”
+
+“Willingly, noble Saladin,” answered Richard; and looking around for
+something whereon to exercise his strength, he saw a steel mace held by
+one of the attendants, the handle being of the same metal, and about an
+inch and a half in diameter. This he placed on a block of wood.
+
+The anxiety of De Vaux for his master's honour led him to whisper in
+English, “For the blessed Virgin's sake, beware what you attempt, my
+liege! Your full strength is not as yet returned--give no triumph to the
+infidel.”
+
+“Peace, fool!” said Richard, standing firm on his ground, and casting a
+fierce glance around; “thinkest thou that I can fail in HIS presence?”
+
+The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft to the
+King's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway
+of some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled on the ground in two
+pieces, as a woodsman would sever a sapling with a hedging-bill.
+
+“By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!” said the Soldan,
+critically and accurately examining the iron bar which had been cut
+asunder; and the blade of the sword was so well tempered as to exhibit
+not the least token of having suffered by the feat it had performed. He
+then took the King's hand, and looking on the size and muscular strength
+which it exhibited, laughed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and
+thin, so inferior in brawn and sinew.
+
+“Ay, look well,” said De Vaux in English, “it will be long ere your long
+jackanape's fingers do such a feat with your fine gilded reaping-hook
+there.”
+
+“Silence, De Vaux,” said Richard; “by Our Lady, he understands or
+guesses thy meaning--be not so broad, I pray thee.”
+
+The Soldan, indeed, presently said, “Something I would fain
+attempt--though wherefore should the weak show their inferiority in
+presence of the strong? Yet each land hath its own exercises, and this
+may be new to the Melech Ric.” So saying, he took from the floor a
+cushion of silk and down, and placed it upright on one end. “Can thy
+weapon, my brother, sever that cushion?” he said to King Richard.
+
+“No, surely,” replied the King; “no sword on earth, were it the
+Excalibur of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady
+resistance to the blow.”
+
+“Mark, then,” said Saladin; and tucking up the sleeve of his gown,
+showed his arm, thin indeed and spare, but which constant exercise had
+hardened into a mass consisting of nought but bone, brawn, and sinew. He
+unsheathed his scimitar, a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not
+like the swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue
+colour, marked with ten millions of meandering lines, which showed
+how anxiously the metal had been welded by the armourer. Wielding this
+weapon, apparently so inefficient when compared to that of Richard, the
+Soldan stood resting his weight upon his left foot, which was slightly
+advanced; he balanced himself a little, as if to steady his aim; then
+stepping at once forward, drew the scimitar across the cushion, applying
+the edge so dexterously, and with so little apparent effort, that the
+cushion seemed rather to fall asunder than to be divided by violence.
+
+“It is a juggler's trick,” said De Vaux, darting forward and snatching
+up the portion of the cushion which had been cut off, as if to assure
+himself of the reality of the feat; “there is gramarye in this.”
+
+The Soldan seemed to comprehend him, for he undid the sort of veil
+which he had hitherto worn, laid it double along the edge of his sabre,
+extended the weapon edgeways in the air, and drawing it suddenly through
+the veil, although it hung on the blade entirely loose, severed that
+also into two parts, which floated to different sides of the tent,
+equally displaying the extreme temper and sharpness of the weapon, and
+the exquisite dexterity of him who used it.
+
+“Now, in good faith, my brother,” said Richard, “thou art even matchless
+at the trick of the sword, and right perilous were it to meet thee!
+Still, however, I put some faith in a downright English blow, and what
+we cannot do by sleight we eke out by strength. Nevertheless, in truth
+thou art as expert in inflicting wounds as my sage Hakim in curing them.
+I trust I shall see the learned leech. I have much to thank him for, and
+had brought some small present.”
+
+As he spoke, Saladin exchanged his turban for a Tartar cap. He had no
+sooner done so, than De Vaux opened at once his extended mouth and his
+large, round eyes, and Richard gazed with scarce less astonishment,
+while the Soldan spoke in a grave and altered voice: “The sick man,
+saith the poet, while he is yet infirm, knoweth the physician by his
+step; but when he is recovered, he knoweth not even his face when he
+looks upon him.”
+
+“A miracle!--a miracle!” exclaimed Richard.
+
+“Of Mahound's working, doubtless,” said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+“That I should lose my learned Hakim,” said Richard, “merely by absence
+of his cap and robe, and that I should find him again in my royal
+brother Saladin!”
+
+“Such is oft the fashion of the world,” answered the Soldan; “the
+tattered robe makes not always the dervise.”
+
+“And it was through thy intercession,” said Richard, “that yonder
+Knight of the Leopard was saved from death, and by thy artifice that he
+revisited my camp in disguise?”
+
+“Even so,” replied Saladin. “I was physician enough to know that, unless
+the wounds of his bleeding honour were stanched, the days of his life
+must be few. His disguise was more easily penetrated than I had expected
+from the success of my own.”
+
+“An accident,” said King Richard (probably alluding to the circumstance
+of his applying his lips to the wound of the supposed Nubian), “let me
+first know that his skin was artificially discoloured; and that hint
+once taken, detection became easy, for his form and person are not to be
+forgotten. I confidently expect that he will do battle on the morrow.”
+
+“He is full in preparation, and high in hope,” said the Soldan. “I have
+furnished him with weapons and horse, thinking nobly of him from what I
+have seen under various disguises.”
+
+“Knows he now,” said Richard, “to whom he lies under obligation?”
+
+“He doth,” replied the Saracen. “I was obliged to confess my person when
+I unfolded my purpose.”
+
+“And confessed he aught to you?” said the King of England.
+
+“Nothing explicit,” replied the Soldan; “but from much that passed
+between us, I conceive his love is too highly placed to be happy in its
+issue.”
+
+“And thou knowest that his daring and insolent passion crossed thine own
+wishes?” said Richard.
+
+“I might guess so much,” said Saladin; “but his passion had existed ere
+my wishes had been formed--and, I must now add, is likely to survive
+them. I cannot, in honour, revenge me for my disappointment on him who
+had no hand in it. Or, if this high-born dame loved him better than
+myself, who can say that she did not justice to a knight of her own
+religion, who is full of nobleness?”
+
+“Yet of too mean lineage to mix with the blood of Plantagenet,” said
+Richard haughtily.
+
+“Such may be your maxims in Frangistan,” replied the Soldan. “Our poets
+of the Eastern countries say that a valiant camel-driver is worthy to
+kiss the lip of a fair Queen, when a cowardly prince is not worthy to
+salute the hem of her garment. But with your permission, noble brother,
+I must take leave of thee for the present, to receive the Duke of
+Austria and yonder Nazarene knight, much less worthy of hospitality, but
+who must yet be suitably entreated, not for their sakes, but for mine
+own honour--for what saith the sage Lokman? 'Say not that the food
+is lost unto thee which is given to the stranger; for if his body be
+strengthened and fattened therewithal, not less is thine own worship and
+good name cherished and augmented.'”
+
+The Saracen Monarch departed from King Richard's tent, and having
+indicated to him, rather with signs than with speech, where the pavilion
+of the Queen and her attendants was pitched, he went to receive the
+Marquis of Montserrat and his attendants, for whom, with less
+goodwill, but with equal splendour, the magnificent Soldan had provided
+accommodations. The most ample refreshments, both in the Oriental and
+after the European fashion, were spread before the royal and princely
+guests of Saladin, each in their own separate pavilion; and so attentive
+was the Soldan to the habits and taste of his visitors, that Grecian
+slaves were stationed to present them with the goblet, which is the
+abomination of the sect of Mohammed. Ere Richard had finished his meal,
+the ancient Omrah, who had brought the Soldan's letter to the Christian
+camp, entered with a plan of the ceremonial to be observed on the
+succeeding day of combat. Richard, who knew the taste of his old
+acquaintance, invited him to pledge him in a flagon of wine of Shiraz;
+but Abdallah gave him to understand, with a rueful aspect, that
+self-denial in the present circumstances was a matter in which his
+life was concerned, for that Saladin, tolerant in many respects, both
+observed and enforced by high penalties the laws of the Prophet.
+
+“Nay, then,” said Richard, “if he loves not wine, that lightener of the
+human heart, his conversion is not to be hoped for, and the prediction
+of the mad priest of Engaddi goes like chaff down the wind.”
+
+The King then addressed himself to settle the articles of combat, which
+cost a considerable time, as it was necessary on some points to consult
+with the opposite parties, as well as with the Soldan.
+
+They were at length finally agreed upon, and adjusted by a protocol in
+French and in Arabian, which was subscribed by Saladin as umpire of the
+field, and by Richard and Leopold as guarantees for the two combatants.
+As the Omrah took his final leave of King Richard for the evening, De
+Vaux entered.
+
+“The good knight,” he said, “who is to do battle tomorrow requests to
+know whether he may not to-night pay duty to his royal godfather!”
+
+“Hast thou seen him, De Vaux?” said the King, smiling; “and didst thou
+know an ancient acquaintance?”
+
+“By our Lady of Lanercost,” answered De Vaux, “there are so many
+surprises and changes in this land that my poor brain turns. I scarce
+knew Sir Kenneth of Scotland, till his good hound, that had been for a
+short while under my care, came and fawned on me; and even then I only
+knew the tyke by the depth of his chest, the roundness of his foot,
+and his manner of baying, for the poor gazehound was painted like any
+Venetian courtesan.”
+
+“Thou art better skilled in brutes than men, De Vaux,” said the King.
+
+“I will not deny,” said De Vaux, “I have found them ofttimes the
+honester animals. Also, your Grace is pleased to term me sometimes a
+brute myself; besides that, I serve the Lion, whom all men acknowledge
+the king of brutes.”
+
+“By Saint George, there thou brokest thy lance fairly on my brow,” said
+the King. “I have ever said thou hast a sort of wit, De Vaux; marry, one
+must strike thee with a sledge-hammer ere it can be made to sparkle. But
+to the present gear--is the good knight well armed and equipped?”
+
+“Fully, my liege, and nobly,” answered De Vaux. “I know the armour well;
+it is that which the Venetian commissary offered your highness, just ere
+you became ill, for five hundred byzants.”
+
+“And he hath sold it to the infidel Soldan, I warrant me, for a few
+ducats more, and present payment. These Venetians would sell the
+Sepulchre itself!”
+
+“The armour will never be borne in a nobler cause,” said De Vaux.
+
+“Thanks to the nobleness of the Saracen,” said the King, “not to the
+avarice of the Venetians.”
+
+“I would to God your Grace would be more cautious,” said the anxious
+De Vaux. “Here are we deserted by all our allies, for points of offence
+given to one or another; we cannot hope to prosper upon the land; and we
+have only to quarrel with the amphibious republic, to lose the means of
+retreat by sea!”
+
+“I will take care,” said Richard impatiently; “but school me no more.
+Tell me rather, for it is of interest, hath the knight a confessor?”
+
+“He hath,” answered De Vaux; “the hermit of Engaddi, who erst did
+him that office when preparing for death, attends him on the present
+occasion, the fame of the duel having brought him hither.”
+
+“'Tis well,” said Richard; “and now for the knight's request. Say to
+him, Richard will receive him when the discharge of his devoir beside
+the Diamond of the Desert shall have atoned for his fault beside the
+Mount of Saint George; and as thou passest through the camp, let the
+Queen know I will visit her pavilion--and tell Blondel to meet me
+there.”
+
+De Vaux departed, and in about an hour afterwards, Richard, wrapping his
+mantle around him, and taking his ghittern in his hand, walked in the
+direction of the Queen's pavilion. Several Arabs passed him, but always
+with averted heads and looks fixed upon the earth, though he could
+observe that all gazed earnestly after him when he was past. This led
+him justly to conjecture that his person was known to them; but that
+either the Soldan's commands, or their own Oriental politeness, forbade
+them to seem to notice a sovereign who desired to remain incognito.
+
+When the King reached the pavilion of his Queen he found it guarded by
+those unhappy officials whom Eastern jealousy places around the zenana.
+Blondel was walking before the door, and touched his rote from time to
+time in a manner which made the Africans show their ivory teeth, and
+bear burden with their strange gestures and shrill, unnatural voices.
+
+“What art thou after with this herd of black cattle, Blondel?” said the
+King; “wherefore goest thou not into the tent?”
+
+“Because my trade can neither spare the head nor the fingers,” said
+Blondel, “and these honest blackamoors threatened to cut me joint from
+joint if I pressed forward.”
+
+“Well, enter with me,” said the King, “and I will be thy safeguard.”
+
+The blacks accordingly lowered pikes and swords to King Richard, and
+bent their eyes on the ground, as if unworthy to look upon him. In the
+interior of the pavilion they found Thomas de Vaux in attendance on the
+Queen. While Berengaria welcomed Blondel, King Richard spoke for some
+time secretly and apart with his fair kinswoman.
+
+At length, “Are we still foes, my fair Edith?” he said, in a whisper.
+
+“No, my liege,” said Edith, in a voice just so low as not to interrupt
+the music; “none can bear enmity against King Richard when he deigns to
+show himself, as he really is, generous and noble, as well as valiant
+and honourable.”
+
+So saying, she extended her hand to him. The King kissed it in token of
+reconciliation, and then proceeded.
+
+“You think, my sweet cousin, that my anger in this matter was feigned;
+but you are deceived. The punishment I inflicted upon this knight was
+just; for he had betrayed--no matter for how tempting a bribe, fair
+cousin--the trust committed to him. But I rejoice, perchance as much as
+you, that to-morrow gives him a chance to win the field, and throw
+back the stain which for a time clung to him upon the actual thief and
+traitor. No!--future times may blame Richard for impetuous folly, but
+they shall say that in rendering judgment he was just when he should and
+merciful when he could.”
+
+“Laud not thyself, cousin King,” said Edith. “They may call thy justice
+cruelty, thy mercy caprice.”
+
+“And do not thou pride thyself,” said the King, “as if thy knight,
+who hath not yet buckled on his armour, were unbelting it in
+triumph--Conrade of Montserrat is held a good lance. What if the Scot
+should lose the day?”
+
+“It is impossible!” said Edith firmly. “My own eyes saw yonder Conrade
+tremble and change colour like a base thief; he is guilty, and the trial
+by combat is an appeal to the justice of God. I myself, in such a cause,
+would encounter him without fear.”
+
+“By the mass, I think thou wouldst, wench,” said the King, “and beat him
+to boot, for there never breathed a truer Plantagenet than thou.”
+
+ He paused, and added in a very serious tone, “See that thou
+continue to remember what is due to thy birth.”
+
+“What means that advice, so seriously given at this moment?” said Edith.
+“Am I of such light nature as to forget my name--my condition?”
+
+“I will speak plainly, Edith,” answered the King, “and as to a friend.
+What will this knight be to you, should he come off victor from yonder
+lists?”
+
+“To me?” said Edith, blushing deep with shame and displeasure. “What can
+he be to me more than an honoured knight, worthy of such grace as
+Queen Berengaria might confer on him, had he selected her for his lady,
+instead of a more unworthy choice? The meanest knight may devote himself
+to the service of an empress, but the glory of his choice,” she said
+proudly, “must be his reward.”
+
+“Yet he hath served and suffered much for you,” said the King.
+
+“I have paid his services with honour and applause, and his sufferings
+with tears,” answered Edith. “Had he desired other reward, he would have
+done wisely to have bestowed his affections within his own degree.”
+
+“You would not, then, wear the bloody night-gear for his sake?” said
+King Richard.
+
+“No more,” answered Edith, “than I would have required him to expose his
+life by an action in which there was more madness than honour.”
+
+“Maidens talk ever thus,” said the King; “but when the favoured
+lover presses his suit, she says, with a sigh, her stars had decreed
+otherwise.”
+
+“Your Grace has now, for the second time, threatened me with the
+influence of my horoscope,” Edith replied, with dignity. “Trust me,
+my liege, whatever be the power of the stars, your poor kinswoman will
+never wed either infidel or obscure adventurer. Permit me that I listen
+to the music of Blondel, for the tone of your royal admonitions is
+scarce so grateful to the ear.”
+
+The conclusion of the evening offered nothing worthy of notice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     Heard ye the din of battle bray,
+     Lance to lance, and horse to horse?
+          GRAY.
+
+It had been agreed, on account of the heat of the climate, that the
+judicial combat which was the cause of the present assemblage of various
+nations at the Diamond of the Desert should take place at one hour after
+sunrise. The wide lists, which had been constructed under the inspection
+of the Knight of the Leopard, enclosed a space of hard sand, which was
+one hundred and twenty yards long by forty in width. They extended
+in length from north to south, so as to give both parties the equal
+advantage of the rising sun. Saladin's royal seat was erected on the
+western side of the enclosure, just in the centre, where the combatants
+were expected to meet in mid encounter. Opposed to this was a gallery
+with closed casements, so contrived that the ladies, for whose
+accommodation it was erected, might see the fight without being
+themselves exposed to view. At either extremity of the lists was a
+barrier, which could be opened or shut at pleasure. Thrones had been
+also erected, but the Archduke, perceiving that his was lower than
+King Richard's, refused to occupy it; and Coeur de Lion, who would have
+submitted to much ere any formality should have interfered with the
+combat, readily agreed that the sponsors, as they were called, should
+remain on horseback during the fight. At one extremity of the lists
+were placed the followers of Richard, and opposed to them were those
+who accompanied the defender Conrade. Around the throne destined for
+the Soldan were ranged his splendid Georgian Guards, and the rest of the
+enclosure was occupied by Christian and Mohammedan spectators.
+
+Long before daybreak the lists were surrounded by even a larger number
+of Saracens than Richard had seen on the preceding evening. When the
+first ray of the sun's glorious orb arose above the desert, the sonorous
+call, “To prayer--to prayer!” was poured forth by the Soldan himself,
+and answered by others, whose rank and zeal entitled them to act as
+muezzins. It was a striking spectacle to see them all sink to earth,
+for the purpose of repeating their devotions, with their faces turned
+to Mecca. But when they arose from the ground, the sun's rays, now
+strengthening fast, seemed to confirm the Lord of Gilsland's conjecture
+of the night before. They were flashed back from many a spearhead, for
+the pointless lances of the preceding day were certainly no longer such.
+De Vaux pointed it out to his master, who answered with impatience that
+he had perfect confidence in the good faith of the Soldan; but if De
+Vaux was afraid of his bulky body, he might retire.
+
+Soon after this the noise of timbrels was heard, at the sound of which
+the whole Saracen cavaliers threw themselves from their horses, and
+prostrated themselves, as if for a second morning prayer. This was to
+give an opportunity to the Queen, with Edith and her attendants, to
+pass from the pavilion to the gallery intended for them. Fifty guards of
+Saladin's seraglio escorted them with naked sabres, whose orders were to
+cut to pieces whomsoever, were he prince or peasant, should venture to
+gaze on the ladies as they passed, or even presume to raise his head
+until the cessation of the music should make all men aware that they
+were lodged in their gallery, not to be gazed on by the curious eye.
+
+This superstitious observance of Oriental reverence to the fair sex
+called forth from Queen Berengaria some criticisms very unfavourable
+to Saladin and his country. But their den, as the royal fair called it,
+being securely closed and guarded by their sable attendants, she was
+under the necessity of contenting herself with seeing, and laying aside
+for the present the still more exquisite pleasure of being seen.
+
+Meantime the sponsors of both champions went, as was their duty, to
+see that they were duly armed and prepared for combat. The Archduke of
+Austria was in no hurry to perform this part of the ceremony, having
+had rather an unusually severe debauch upon wine of Shiraz the preceding
+evening. But the Grand Master of the Temple, more deeply concerned
+in the event of the combat, was early before the tent of Conrade
+of Montserrat. To his great surprise, the attendants refused him
+admittance.
+
+“Do you not know me, ye knaves?” said the Grand Master, in great anger.
+
+“We do, most valiant and reverend,” answered Conrade's squire; “but even
+you may not at present enter--the Marquis is about to confess himself.”
+
+“Confess himself!” exclaimed the Templar, in a tone where alarm mingled
+with surprise and scorn--“and to whom, I pray thee?”
+
+“My master bid me be secret,” said the squire; on which the Grand Master
+pushed past him, and entered the tent almost by force.
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat was kneeling at the feet of the hermit of
+Engaddi, and in the act of beginning his confession.
+
+“What means this, Marquis?” said the Grand Master; “up, for shame--or,
+if you must needs confess, am not I here?”
+
+“I have confessed to you too often already,” replied Conrade, with a
+pale cheek and a faltering voice. “For God's sake, Grand Master, begone,
+and let me unfold my conscience to this holy man.”
+
+“In what is he holier than I am?” said the Grand Master.--“Hermit,
+prophet, madman--say, if thou darest, in what thou excellest me?”
+
+“Bold and bad man,” replied the hermit, “know that I am like the
+latticed window, and the divine light passes through to avail others,
+though, alas! it helpeth not me. Thou art like the iron stanchions,
+which neither receive light themselves, nor communicate it to any one.”
+
+“Prate not to me, but depart from this tent,” said the Grand Master;
+“the Marquis shall not confess this morning, unless it be to me, for I
+part not from his side.”
+
+“Is this YOUR pleasure?” said the hermit to Conrade; “for think not I
+will obey that proud man, if you continue to desire my assistance.”
+
+“Alas,” said Conrade irresolutely, “what would you have me say? Farewell
+for a while---we will speak anon.”
+
+“O procrastination!” exclaimed the hermit, “thou art a
+soul-murderer!--Unhappy man, farewell--not for a while, but until we
+shall both meet no matter where. And for thee,” he added, turning to the
+Grand Master, “TREMBLE!”
+
+“Tremble!” replied the Templar contemptuously, “I cannot if I would.”
+
+The hermit heard not his answer, having left the tent.
+
+“Come! to this gear hastily,” said the Grand Master, “since thou wilt
+needs go through the foolery. Hark thee--I think I know most of thy
+frailties by heart, so we may omit the detail, which may be somewhat
+a long one, and begin with the absolution. What signifies counting the
+spots of dirt that we are about to wash from our hands?”
+
+“Knowing what thou art thyself,” said Conrade, “it is blasphemous to
+speak of pardoning another.”
+
+“That is not according to the canon, Lord Marquis,” said the Templar;
+“thou art more scrupulous than orthodox. The absolution of the wicked
+priest is as effectual as if he were himself a saint--otherwise, God
+help the poor penitent! What wounded man inquires whether the surgeon
+that tends his gashes has clean hands or no? Come, shall we to this
+toy?”
+
+“No,” said Conrade, “I will rather die unconfessed than mock the
+sacrament.”
+
+“Come, noble Marquis,” said the Templar, “rouse up your courage, and
+speak not thus. In an hour's time thou shalt stand victorious in the
+lists, or confess thee in thy helmet, like a valiant knight.”
+
+“Alas, Grand Master,” answered Conrade, “all augurs ill for this affair,
+the strange discovery by the instinct of a dog--the revival of this
+Scottish knight, who comes into the lists like a spectre--all betokens
+evil.”
+
+“Pshaw,” said the Templar, “I have seen thee bend thy lance boldly
+against him in sport, and with equal chance of success. Think thou art
+but in a tournament, and who bears him better in the tilt-yard than
+thou?--Come, squires and armourers, your master must be accoutred for
+the field.”
+
+The attendants entered accordingly, and began to arm the Marquis.
+
+“What morning is without?” said Conrade.
+
+“The sun rises dimly,” answered a squire.
+
+“Thou seest, Grand Master,” said Conrade, “nought smiles on us.”
+
+“Thou wilt fight the more coolly, my son,” answered the Templar; “thank
+Heaven, that hath tempered the sun of Palestine to suit thine occasion.”
+
+Thus jested the Grand Master. But his jests had lost their influence on
+the harassed mind of the Marquis, and notwithstanding his attempts to
+seem gay, his gloom communicated itself to the Templar.
+
+“This craven,” he thought, “will lose the day in pure faintness and
+cowardice of heart, which he calls tender conscience. I, whom visions
+and auguries shake not---who am firm in my purpose as the living rock--I
+should have fought the combat myself. Would to God the Scot may strike
+him dead on the spot; it were next best to his winning the victory. But
+come what will, he must have no other confessor than myself--our sins
+are too much in common, and he might confess my share with his own.”
+
+While these thoughts passed through his mind, he continued to assist the
+Marquis in arming, but it was in silence.
+
+The hour at length arrived; the trumpets sounded; the knights rode
+into the lists armed at all points, and mounted like men who were to
+do battle for a kingdom's honour. They wore their visors up, and riding
+around the lists three times, showed themselves to the spectators. Both
+were goodly persons, and both had noble countenances. But there was an
+air of manly confidence on the brow of the Scot--a radiancy of hope,
+which amounted even to cheerfulness; while, although pride and effort
+had recalled much of Conrade's natural courage, there lowered still on
+his brow a cloud of ominous despondence. Even his steed seemed to tread
+less lightly and blithely to the trumpet-sound than the noble Arab which
+was bestrode by Sir Kenneth; and the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his head
+while he observed that, while the challenger rode around the lists in
+the course of the sun--that is, from right to left--the defender made
+the same circuit WIDDERSINS--that is, from left to right--which is in
+most countries held ominous.
+
+A temporary altar was erected just beneath the gallery occupied by the
+Queen, and beside it stood the hermit in the dress of his order as a
+Carmelite friar. Other churchmen were also present. To this altar the
+challenger and defender were successively brought forward, conducted by
+their respective sponsors. Dismounting before it, each knight avouched
+the justice of his cause by a solemn oath on the Evangelists, and prayed
+that his success might be according to the truth or falsehood of what he
+then swore. They also made oath that they came to do battle in knightly
+guise, and with the usual weapons, disclaiming the use of spells,
+charms, or magical devices to incline victory to their side. The
+challenger pronounced his vow with a firm and manly voice, and a bold
+and cheerful countenance. When the ceremony was finished, the Scottish
+Knight looked at the gallery, and bent his head to the earth, as if in
+honour of those invisible beauties which were enclosed within; then,
+loaded with armour as he was, sprung to the saddle without the use of
+the stirrup, and made his courser carry him in a succession of caracoles
+to his station at the eastern extremity of the lists. Conrade also
+presented himself before the altar with boldness enough; but his voice
+as he took the oath sounded hollow, as if drowned in his helmet. The
+lips with which he appealed to Heaven to adjudge victory to the just
+quarrel grew white as they uttered the impious mockery. As he turned
+to remount his horse, the Grand Master approached him closer, as if
+to rectify something about the sitting of his gorget, and whispered,
+“Coward and fool! recall thy senses, and do me this battle bravely,
+else, by Heaven, shouldst thou escape him, thou escapest not ME!”
+
+The savage tone in which this was whispered perhaps completed the
+confusion of the Marquis's nerves, for he stumbled as he made to horse;
+and though he recovered his feet, sprung to the saddle with his usual
+agility, and displayed his address in horsemanship as he assumed his
+position opposite to the challenger's, yet the accident did not escape
+those who were on the watch for omens which might predict the fate of
+the day.
+
+The priests, after a solemn prayer that God would show the rightful
+quarrel, departed from the lists. The trumpets of the challenger then
+rung a flourish, and a herald-at-arms proclaimed at the eastern end of
+the lists--“Here stands a good knight, Sir Kenneth of Scotland, champion
+for the royal King Richard of England, who accuseth Conrade, Marquis of
+Montserrat, of foul treason and dishonour done to the said King.”
+
+When the words Kenneth of Scotland announced the name and character
+of the champion, hitherto scarce generally known, a loud and cheerful
+acclaim burst from the followers of King Richard, and hardly,
+notwithstanding repeated commands of silence, suffered the reply of
+the defendant to be heard. He, of course, avouched his innocence,
+and offered his body for battle. The esquires of the combatants now
+approached, and delivered to each his shield and lance, assisting to
+hang the former around his neck, that his two hands might remain free,
+one for the management of the bridle, the other to direct the lance.
+
+The shield of the Scot displayed his old bearing, the leopard, but
+with the addition of a collar and broken chain, in allusion to his late
+captivity. The shield of the Marquis bore, in reference to his title,
+a serrated and rocky mountain. Each shook his lance aloft, as if to
+ascertain the weight and toughness of the unwieldy weapon, and then laid
+it in the rest. The sponsors, heralds, and squires now retired to the
+barriers, and the combatants sat opposite to each other, face to face,
+with couched lance and closed visor, the human form so completely
+enclosed, that they looked more like statues of molten iron than
+beings of flesh and blood. The silence of suspense was now general.
+Men breathed thicker, and their very souls seemed seated in their eyes;
+while not a sound was to be heard save the snorting and pawing of the
+good steeds, who, sensible of what was about to happen, were impatient
+to dash into career. They stood thus for perhaps three minutes, when,
+at a signal given by the Soldan, a hundred instruments rent the air with
+their brazen clamours, and each champion striking his horse with the
+spurs, and slacking the rein, the horses started into full gallop,
+and the knights met in mid space with a shock like a thunderbolt. The
+victory was not in doubt--no, not one moment. Conrade, indeed, showed
+himself a practised warrior; for he struck his antagonist knightly in
+the midst of his shield, bearing his lance so straight and true that
+it shivered into splinters from the steel spear-head up to the very
+gauntlet. The horse of Sir Kenneth recoiled two or three yards and fell
+on his haunches; but the rider easily raised him with hand and rein.
+But for Conrade there was no recovery. Sir Kenneth's lance had pierced
+through the shield, through a plated corselet of Milan steel, through a
+SECRET, or coat of linked mail, worn beneath the corselet, had wounded
+him deep in the bosom, and borne him from his saddle, leaving the
+truncheon of the lance fixed in his wound. The sponsors, heralds, and
+Saladin himself, descending from his throne, crowded around the wounded
+man; while Sir Kenneth, who had drawn his sword ere yet he discovered
+his antagonist was totally helpless, now commanded him to avow his
+guilt. The helmet was hastily unclosed, and the wounded man, gazing
+wildly on the skies, replied, “What would you more? God hath decided
+justly--I am guilty; but there are worse traitors in the camp than I. In
+pity to my soul, let me have a confessor!”
+
+He revived as he uttered these words.
+
+“The talisman--the powerful remedy, royal brother!” said King Richard to
+Saladin.
+
+“The traitor,” answered the Soldan, “is more fit to be dragged from the
+lists to the gallows by the heels, than to profit by its virtues. And
+some such fate is in his look,” he added, after gazing fixedly upon the
+wounded man; “for though his wound may be cured, yet Azrael's seal is on
+the wretch's brow.”
+
+“Nevertheless,” said Richard, “I pray you do for him what you may, that
+he may at least have time for confession. Slay not soul and body! To him
+one half hour of time may be worth more, by ten thousandfold, than the
+life of the oldest patriarch.”
+
+“My royal brother's wish shall be obeyed,” said Saladin.--“Slaves, bear
+this wounded man to our tent.”
+
+“Do not so,” said the Templar, who had hitherto stood gloomily looking
+on in silence. “The royal Duke of Austria and myself will not permit
+this unhappy Christian prince to be delivered over to the Saracens, that
+they may try their spells upon him. We are his sponsors, and demand that
+he be assigned to our care.”
+
+“That is, you refuse the certain means offered to recover him?” said
+Richard.
+
+“Not so,” said the Grand Master, recollecting himself. “If the Soldan
+useth lawful medicines, he may attend the patient in my tent.”
+
+“Do so, I pray thee, good brother,” said Richard to Saladin, “though the
+permission be ungraciously yielded.--But now to a more glorious work.
+Sound, trumpets--shout, England--in honour of England's champion!”
+
+Drum, clarion, trumpet, and cymbal rung forth at once, and the deep and
+regular shout, which for ages has been the English acclamation, sounded
+amidst the shrill and irregular yells of the Arabs, like the diapason of
+the organ amid the howling of a storm. There was silence at length.
+
+“Brave Knight of the Leopard,” resumed Coeur de Lion, “thou hast shown
+that the Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his spots,
+though clerks quote Scripture for the impossibility. Yet I have more to
+say to you when I have conducted you to the presence of the ladies, the
+best judges and best rewarders of deeds of chivalry.”
+
+The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent.
+
+“And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them. I promise thee our
+Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the opportunity to
+thank her royal host for her most princely reception.”
+
+Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation.
+
+“I must attend the wounded man,” he said. “The leech leaves not his
+patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be summoned to a
+bower like those of Paradise. And further, royal Richard, know that the
+blood of the East flows not so temperately in the presence of beauty as
+that of your land. What saith the Book itself?--Her eye is as the edge
+of the sword of the Prophet, who shall look upon it? He that would not
+be burnt avoideth to tread on hot embers--wise men spread not the flax
+before a flickering torch. He, saith the sage, who hath forfeited a
+treasure, doth not wisely to turn back his head to gaze at it.”
+
+Richard, it may be believed, respected the motives of delicacy which
+flowed from manners so different from his own, and urged his request no
+further.
+
+“At noon,” said the Soldan, as he departed, “I trust ye will all accept
+a collation under the black camel-skin tent of a chief of Kurdistan.”
+
+The same invitation was circulated among the Christians, comprehending
+all those of sufficient importance to be admitted to sit at a feast made
+for princes.
+
+“Hark!” said Richard, “the timbrels announce that our Queen and her
+attendants are leaving their gallery--and see, the turbans sink on the
+ground, as if struck down by a destroying angel. All lie prostrate, as
+if the glance of an Arab's eye could sully the lustre of a lady's
+cheek! Come, we will to the pavilion, and lead our conqueror thither in
+triumph. How I pity that noble Soldan, who knows but of love as it is
+known to those of inferior nature!”
+
+Blondel tuned his harp to his boldest measure, to welcome the
+introduction of the victor into the pavilion of Queen Berengaria. He
+entered, supported on either side by his sponsors, Richard and Thomas
+Longsword, and knelt gracefully down before the Queen, though more than
+half the homage was silently rendered to Edith, who sat on her right
+hand.
+
+“Unarm him, my mistresses,” said the King, whose delight was in the
+execution of such chivalrous usages; “let Beauty honour Chivalry! Undo
+his spurs, Berengaria; Queen though thou be, thou owest him what marks
+of favour thou canst give.--Unlace his helmet, Edith;--by this hand
+thou shalt, wert thou the proudest Plantagenet of the line, and he the
+poorest knight on earth!”
+
+Both ladies obeyed the royal commands--Berengaria with bustling
+assiduity, as anxious to gratify her husband's humour, and Edith
+blushing and growing pale alternately, as, slowly and awkwardly, she
+undid, with Longsword's assistance, the fastenings which secured the
+helmet to the gorget.
+
+“And what expect you from beneath this iron shell?” said Richard, as the
+removal of the casque gave to view the noble countenance of Sir Kenneth,
+his face glowing with recent exertion, and not less so with present
+emotion. “What think ye of him, gallants and beauties?” said Richard.
+“Doth he resemble an Ethiopian slave, or doth he present the face of an
+obscure and nameless adventurer? No, by my good sword! Here terminate
+his various disguises. He hath knelt down before you unknown, save by
+his worth; he arises equally distinguished by birth and by fortune. The
+adventurous knight, Kenneth, arises David, Earl of Huntingdon, Prince
+Royal of Scotland!”
+
+There was a general exclamation of surprise, and Edith dropped from her
+hand the helmet which she had just received.
+
+“Yes, my masters,” said the King, “it is even so. Ye know how Scotland
+deceived us when she proposed to send this valiant Earl, with a bold
+company of her best and noblest, to aid our arms in this conquest of
+Palestine, but failed to comply with her engagements. This noble youth,
+under whom the Scottish Crusaders were to have been arrayed, thought
+foul scorn that his arm should be withheld from the holy warfare,
+and joined us at Sicily with a small train of devoted and faithful
+attendants, which was augmented by many of his countrymen to whom the
+rank of their leader was unknown. The confidants of the Royal Prince had
+all, save one old follower, fallen by death, when his secret, but
+too well kept, had nearly occasioned my cutting off, in a Scottish
+adventurer, one of the noblest hopes of Europe.--Why did you not mention
+your rank, noble Huntingdon, when endangered by my hasty and passionate
+sentence? Was it that you thought Richard capable of abusing the
+advantage I possessed over the heir of a King whom I have so often found
+hostile?”
+
+“I did you not that injustice, royal Richard,” answered the Earl of
+Huntingdon; “but my pride brooked not that I should avow myself Prince
+of Scotland in order to save my life, endangered for default of loyalty.
+And, moreover, I had made my vow to preserve my rank unknown till the
+Crusade should be accomplished; nor did I mention it save IN ARTICULO
+MORTIS, and under the seal of confession, to yonder reverend hermit.”
+
+“It was the knowledge of that secret, then, which made the good man so
+urgent with me to recall my severe sentence?” said Richard. “Well did
+he say that, had this good knight fallen by my mandate, I should have
+wished the deed undone though it had cost me a limb. A limb! I should
+have wished it undone had it cost me my life---since the world would
+have said that Richard had abused the condition in which the heir of
+Scotland had placed himself by his confidence in his generosity.”
+
+“Yet, may we know of your Grace by what strange and happy chance this
+riddle was at length read?” said the Queen Berengaria.
+
+“Letters were brought to us from England,” said the King, “in which
+we learned, among other unpleasant news, that the King of Scotland had
+seized upon three of our nobles, when on a pilgrimage to Saint Ninian,
+and alleged, as a cause, that his heir, being supposed to be fighting in
+the ranks of the Teutonic Knights against the heathen of Borussia, was,
+in fact, in our camp, and in our power; and, therefore, William proposed
+to hold these nobles as hostages for his safety. This gave me the first
+light on the real rank of the Knight of the Leopard; and my suspicions
+were confirmed by De Vaux, who, on his return from Ascalon, brought back
+with him the Earl of Huntingdon's sole attendant, a thick-skulled slave,
+who had gone thirty miles to unfold to De Vaux a secret he should have
+told to me.”
+
+“Old Strauchan must be excused,” said the Lord of Gilsland. “He knew
+from experience that my heart is somewhat softer than if I wrote myself
+Plantagenet.”
+
+“Thy heart soft? thou commodity of old iron and Cumberland flint, that
+thou art!” exclaimed the King.--“It is we Plantagenets who boast soft
+and feeling hearts. Edith,” turning to his cousin with an expression
+which called the blood into her cheek, “give me thy hand, my fair
+cousin, and, Prince of Scotland, thine.”
+
+“Forbear, my lord,” said Edith, hanging back, and endeavouring to hide
+her confusion under an attempt to rally her royal kinsman's credulity.
+“Remember you not that my hand was to be the signal of converting to
+the Christian faith the Saracen and Arab, Saladin and all his turbaned
+host?”
+
+“Ay, but the wind of prophecy hath chopped about, and sits now in
+another corner,” replied Richard.
+
+“Mock not, lest your bonds be made strong,” said the hermit stepping
+forward. “The heavenly host write nothing but truth in their brilliant
+records. It is man's eyes which are too weak to read their characters
+aright. Know, that when Saladin and Kenneth of Scotland slept in my
+grotto, I read in the stars that there rested under my roof a prince,
+the natural foe of Richard, with whom the fate of Edith Plantagenet was
+to be united. Could I doubt that this must be the Soldan, whose rank
+was well known to me, as he often visited my cell to converse on the
+revolutions of the heavenly bodies? Again, the lights of the firmament
+proclaimed that this prince, the husband of Edith Plantagenet, should
+be a Christian; and I--weak and wild interpreter!--argued thence the
+conversion of the noble Saladin, whose good qualities seemed often to
+incline him towards the better faith. The sense of my weakness hath
+humbled me to the dust; but in the dust I have found comfort! I have not
+read aright the fate of others--who can assure me but that I may
+have miscalculated mine own? God will not have us break into His
+council-house, or spy out His hidden mysteries. We must wait His time
+with watching and prayer--with fear and with hope. I came hither the
+stern seer--the proud prophet--skilled, as I thought, to instruct
+princes, and gifted even with supernatural powers, but burdened with
+a weight which I deemed no shoulders but mine could have borne. But
+my bands have been broken! I go hence humble in mine ignorance,
+penitent--and not hopeless.”
+
+With these words he withdrew from the assembly; and it is recorded that
+from that period his frenzy fits seldom occurred, and his penances were
+of a milder character, and accompanied with better hopes of the future.
+So much is there of self-opinion, even in insanity, that the conviction
+of his having entertained and expressed an unfounded prediction with so
+much vehemence seemed to operate like loss of blood on the human frame,
+to modify and lower the fever of the brain.
+
+It is needless to follow into further particulars the conferences at the
+royal tent, or to inquire whether David, Earl of Huntingdon, was as mute
+in the presence of Edith Plantagenet as when he was bound to act under
+the character of an obscure and nameless adventurer. It may be well
+believed that he there expressed with suitable earnestness the passion
+to which he had so often before found it difficult to give words.
+
+The hour of noon now approached, and Saladin waited to receive the
+Princes of Christendom in a tent, which, but for its large size,
+differed little from that of the ordinary shelter of the common Kurdman,
+or Arab; yet beneath its ample and sable covering was prepared a banquet
+after the most gorgeous fashion of the East, extended upon carpets of
+the richest stuffs, with cushions laid for the guests. But we cannot
+stop to describe the cloth of gold and silver--the superb embroidery in
+arabesque--the shawls of Kashmere and the muslins of India, which were
+here unfolded in all their splendour; far less to tell the different
+sweetmeats, ragouts edged with rice coloured in various manners, with
+all the other niceties of Eastern cookery. Lambs roasted whole, and
+game and poultry dressed in pilaus, were piled in vessels of gold, and
+silver, and porcelain, and intermixed with large mazers of sherbet,
+cooled in snow and ice from the caverns of Mount Lebanon. A magnificent
+pile of cushions at the head of the banquet seemed prepared for the
+master of the feast, and such dignitaries as he might call to share that
+place of distinction; while from the roof of the tent in all quarters,
+but over this seat of eminence in particular, waved many a banner and
+pennon, the trophies of battles won and kingdoms overthrown. But amongst
+and above them all, a long lance displayed a shroud, the banner
+of Death, with this impressive inscription--“SALADIN, KING OF
+KINGS--SALADIN, VICTOR OF VICTORS--SALADIN MUST DIE.” Amid these
+preparations, the slaves who had arranged the refreshments stood
+with drooped heads and folded arms, mute and motionless as monumental
+statuary, or as automata, which waited the touch of the artist to put
+them in motion.
+
+Expecting the approach of his princely guests, the Soldan, imbued, as
+most were, with the superstitions of his time, paused over a horoscope
+and corresponding scroll, which had been sent to him by the hermit of
+Engaddi when he departed from the camp.
+
+“Strange and mysterious science,” he muttered to himself, “which,
+pretending to draw the curtain of futurity, misleads those whom it seems
+to guide, and darkens the scene which it pretends to illuminate! Who
+would not have said that I was that enemy most dangerous to Richard,
+whose enmity was to be ended by marriage with his kinswoman? Yet it now
+appears that a union betwixt this gallant Earl and the lady will bring
+about friendship betwixt Richard and Scotland, an enemy more dangerous
+than I, as a wildcat in a chamber is more to be dreaded than a lion
+in a distant desert. But then,” he continued to mutter to
+himself, “the combination intimates that this husband was to be
+Christian.--Christian!” he repeated, after a pause. “That gave the
+insane fanatic star-gazer hopes that I might renounce my faith! But me,
+the faithful follower of our Prophet--me it should have undeceived.
+Lie there, mysterious scroll,” he added, thrusting it under the pile of
+cushions; “strange are thy bodements and fatal, since, even when true in
+themselves, they work upon those who attempt to decipher their meaning
+all the effects of falsehood.--How now! what means this intrusion?”
+
+He spoke to the dwarf Nectabanus, who rushed into the tent fearfully
+agitated, with each strange and disproportioned feature wrenched by
+horror into still more extravagant ugliness--his mouth open, his eyes
+staring, his hands, with their shrivelled and deformed fingers, wildly
+expanded.
+
+“What now?” said the Soldan sternly.
+
+“ACCIPE HOC!” groaned out the dwarf.
+
+“Ha! sayest thou?” answered Saladin.
+
+“ACCIPE HOC!” replied the panic-struck creature, unconscious,
+perhaps, that he repeated the same words as before.
+
+“Hence, I am in no vein for foolery,” said the Emperor.
+
+“Nor am I further fool,” said the dwarf, “than to make my folly help out
+my wits to earn my bread, poor, helpless wretch! Hear, hear me, great
+Soldan!”
+
+“Nay, if thou hast actual wrong to complain of,” said Saladin, “fool or
+wise, thou art entitled to the ear of a King. Retire hither with me;”
+ and he led him into the inner tent.
+
+Whatever their conference related to, it was soon broken off by the
+fanfare of the trumpets announcing the arrival of the various Christian
+princes, whom Saladin welcomed to his tent with a royal courtesy well
+becoming their rank and his own; but chiefly he saluted the young Earl
+of Huntingdon, and generously congratulated him upon prospects which
+seemed to have interfered with and overclouded those which he had
+himself entertained.
+
+“But think not,” said the Soldan, “thou noble youth, that the Prince
+of Scotland is more welcome to Saladin than was Kenneth to the solitary
+Ilderim when they met in the desert, or the distressed Ethiop to the
+Hakim Adonbec. A brave and generous disposition like thine hath a value
+independent of condition and birth, as the cool draught, which I here
+proffer thee, is as delicious from an earthen vessel as from a goblet of
+gold.”
+
+The Earl of Huntingdon made a suitable reply, gratefully acknowledging
+the various important services he had received from the generous Soldan;
+but when he had pledged Saladin in the bowl of sherbet which the Soldan
+had proffered to him, he could not help remarking with a smile, “The
+brave cavalier Ilderim knew not of the formation of ice, but the
+munificent Soldan cools his sherbet with snow.”
+
+“Wouldst thou have an Arab or a Kurdman as wise as a Hakim?” said the
+Soldan. “He who does on a disguise must make the sentiments of his heart
+and the learning of his head accord with the dress which he assumes.
+I desired to see how a brave and single-hearted cavalier of Frangistan
+would conduct himself in debate with such a chief as I then seemed; and
+I questioned the truth of a well-known fact, to know by what arguments
+thou wouldst support thy assertion.”
+
+While they were speaking, the Archduke of Austria, who stood a little
+apart, was struck with the mention of iced sherbet, and took with
+pleasure and some bluntness the deep goblet, as the Earl of Huntingdon
+was about to replace it.
+
+“Most delicious!” he exclaimed, after a deep draught, which the heat of
+the weather, and the feverishness following the debauch of the preceding
+day, had rendered doubly acceptable. He sighed as he handed the cup to
+the Grand Master of the Templars. Saladin made a sign to the dwarf, who
+advanced and pronounced, with a harsh voice, the words, ACCIPE HOC! The
+Templar started, like a steed who sees a lion under a bush beside the
+pathway; yet instantly recovered, and to hide, perhaps, his confusion,
+raised the goblet to his lips. But those lips never touched that
+goblet's rim. The sabre of Saladin left its sheath as lightning leaves
+the cloud. It was waved in the air, and the head of the Grand Master
+rolled to the extremity of the tent, while the trunk remained for a
+second standing, with the goblet still clenched in its grasp, then fell,
+the liquor mingling with the blood that spurted from the veins.
+
+There was a general exclamation of treason, and Austria, nearest to
+whom Saladin stood with the bloody sabre in his hand, started back as
+if apprehensive that his turn was to come next. Richard and others laid
+hand on their swords.
+
+“Fear nothing, noble Austria,” said Saladin, as composedly as if nothing
+had happened,--“nor you, royal England, be wroth at what you have seen.
+Not for his manifold treasons--not for the attempt which, as may
+be vouched by his own squire, he instigated against King Richard's
+life--not that he pursued the Prince of Scotland and myself in the
+desert, reducing us to save our lives by the speed of our horses--not
+that he had stirred up the Maronites to attack us upon this very
+occasion, had I not brought up unexpectedly so many Arabs as rendered
+the scheme abortive--not for any or all of these crimes does he now lie
+there, although each were deserving such a doom--but because, scarce
+half an hour ere he polluted our presence, as the simoom empoisons
+the atmosphere, he poniarded his comrade and accomplice, Conrade of
+Montserrat, lest he should confess the infamous plots in which they had
+both been engaged.”
+
+“How! Conrade murdered?--And by the Grand Master, his sponsor and most
+intimate friend!” exclaimed Richard. “Noble Soldan, I would not doubt
+thee; yet this must be proved, otherwise--”
+
+“There stands the evidence,” said Saladin, pointing to the terrified
+dwarf. “Allah, who sends the fire-fly to illuminate the night season,
+can discover secret crimes by the most contemptible means.”
+
+The Soldan proceeded to tell the dwarf's story, which amounted to this.
+In his foolish curiosity, or, as he partly confessed, with some thoughts
+of pilfering, Nectabanus had strayed into the tent of Conrade, which had
+been deserted by his attendants, some of whom had left the encampment
+to carry the news of his defeat to his brother, and others were availing
+themselves of the means which Saladin had supplied for revelling. The
+wounded man slept under the influence of Saladin's wonderful talisman,
+so that the dwarf had opportunity to pry about at pleasure until he was
+frightened into concealment by the sound of a heavy step. He skulked
+behind a curtain, yet could see the motions, and hear the words, of the
+Grand Master, who entered, and carefully secured the covering of the
+pavilion behind him. His victim started from sleep, and it would appear
+that he instantly suspected the purpose of his old associate, for it was
+in a tone of alarm that he demanded wherefore he disturbed him.
+
+“I come to confess and to absolve thee,” answered the Grand Master.
+
+Of their further speech the terrified dwarf remembered little, save that
+Conrade implored the Grand Master not to break a wounded reed, and that
+the Templar struck him to the heart with a Turkish dagger, with the
+words ACCIPE HOC!--words which long afterwards haunted the terrified
+imagination of the concealed witness.
+
+“I verified the tale,” said Saladin, “by causing the body to be
+examined; and I made this unhappy being, whom Allah hath made the
+discoverer of the crime, repeat in your own presence the words which the
+murderer spoke; and you yourselves saw the effect which they produced
+upon his conscience!”
+
+The Soldan paused, and the King of England broke silence.
+
+“If this be true, as I doubt not, we have witnessed a great act of
+justice, though it bore a different aspect. But wherefore in this
+presence? wherefore with thine own hand?”
+
+“I had designed otherwise,” said Saladin. “But had I not hastened his
+doom, it had been altogether averted, since, if I had permitted him to
+taste of my cup, as he was about to do, how could I, without incurring
+the brand of inhospitality, have done him to death as he deserved? Had
+he murdered my father, and afterwards partaken of my food and my bowl,
+not a hair of his head could have been injured by me. But enough of
+him--let his carcass and his memory be removed from amongst us.”
+
+The body was carried away, and the marks of the slaughter obliterated
+or concealed with such ready dexterity, as showed that the case was not
+altogether so uncommon as to paralyze the assistants and officers of
+Saladin's household.
+
+But the Christian princes felt that the scene which they had beheld
+weighed heavily on their spirits, and although, at the courteous
+invitation of the Soldan, they assumed their seats at the banquet, yet
+it was with the silence of doubt and amazement. The spirits of Richard
+alone surmounted all cause for suspicion or embarrassment. Yet he too
+seemed to ruminate on some proposition, as if he were desirous of making
+it in the most insinuating and acceptable manner which was possible.
+At length he drank off a large bowl of wine, and addressing the Soldan,
+desired to know whether it was not true that he had honoured the Earl of
+Huntingdon with a personal encounter.
+
+Saladin answered with a smile that he had proved his horse and his
+weapons with the heir of Scotland, as cavaliers are wont to do with each
+other when they meet in the desert; and modestly added that, though the
+combat was not entirely decisive, he had not on his part much reason to
+pride himself on the event. The Scot, on the other hand, disclaimed the
+attributed superiority, and wished to assign it to the Soldan.
+
+“Enough of honour thou hast had in the encounter,” said Richard, “and I
+envy thee more for that than for the smiles of Edith Plantagenet, though
+one of them might reward a bloody day's work.--But what say you, noble
+princes? Is it fitting that such a royal ring of chivalry should break
+up without something being done for future times to speak of? What is
+the overthrow and death of a traitor to such a fair garland of honour
+as is here assembled, and which ought not to part without witnessing
+something more worthy of their regard?--How say you, princely Soldan?
+What if we two should now, and before this fair company, decide the
+long-contended question for this land of Palestine, and end at once
+these tedious wars? Yonder are the lists ready, nor can Paynimrie ever
+hope a better champion than thou. I, unless worthier offers, will lay
+down my gauntlet in behalf of Christendom, and in all love and honour we
+will do mortal battle for the possession of Jerusalem.”
+
+There was a deep pause for the Soldan's answer. His cheek and brow
+coloured highly, and it was the opinion of many present that he
+hesitated whether he should accept the challenge. At length he said,
+“Fighting for the Holy City against those whom we regard as idolaters
+and worshippers of stocks and stones and graven images, I might confide
+that Allah would strengthen my arm; or if I fell beneath the sword of
+the Melech Ric, I could not pass to Paradise by a more glorious death.
+But Allah has already given Jerusalem to the true believers, and it
+were a tempting the God of the Prophet to peril, upon my own personal
+strength and skill, that which I hold securely by the superiority of my
+forces.”
+
+“If not for Jerusalem, then,” said Richard, in the tone of one who would
+entreat a favour of an intimate friend, “yet, for the love of honour,
+let us run at least three courses with grinded lances?”
+
+“Even this,” said Saladin, half smiling at Coeur de Lion's affectionate
+earnestness for the combat--“even this I may not lawfully do. The master
+places the shepherd over the flock not for the shepherd's own sake, but
+for the sake of the sheep. Had I a son to hold the sceptre when I fell,
+I might have had the liberty, as I have the will, to brave this bold
+encounter; but your own Scripture saith that when the herdsman is
+smitten, the sheep are scattered.”
+
+“Thou hast had all the fortune,” said Richard, turning to the Earl of
+Huntingdon with a sigh. “I would have given the best year in my life for
+that one half hour beside the Diamond of the Desert!”
+
+The chivalrous extravagance of Richard awakened the spirits of the
+assembly, and when at length they arose to depart Saladin advanced and
+took Coeur de Lion by the hand.
+
+“Noble King of England,” he said, “we now part, never to meet again.
+That your league is dissolved, no more to be reunited, and that
+your native forces are far too few to enable you to prosecute your
+enterprise, is as well known to me as to yourself. I may not yield you
+up that Jerusalem which you so much desire to hold--it is to us, as to
+you, a Holy City. But whatever other terms Richard demands of Saladin
+shall be as willingly yielded as yonder fountain yields its waters. Ay
+and the same should be as frankly afforded by Saladin if Richard stood
+in the desert with but two archers in his train!”
+
+The next day saw Richard's return to his own camp, and in a short
+space afterwards the young Earl of Huntingdon was espoused by Edith
+Plantagenet. The Soldan sent, as a nuptial present on this occasion, the
+celebrated TALISMAN. But though many cures were wrought by means of it
+in Europe, none equalled in success and celebrity those which the Soldan
+achieved. It is still in existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl
+of Huntingdon to a brave knight of Scotland, Sir Simon of the Lee, in
+whose ancient and highly honoured family it is still preserved;
+and although charmed stones have been dismissed from the modern
+Pharmacopoeia, its virtues are still applied to for stopping blood, and
+in cases of canine madness.
+
+Our Story closes here, as the terms on which Richard relinquished his
+conquests are to be found in every history of the period.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Talisman
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2009 [EBook #1377]
+Last Updated: February 27, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALISMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonomous Volunteer, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+ <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+
+
+<p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE TALISMAN
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Sir Walter Scott
+    </h2>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0006m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0006m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0006.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN. </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION. </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0003"> TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. TALE II.&mdash;<b>THE
+        TALISMAN.</b> </a><br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The &ldquo;Betrothed&rdquo; did not greatly please one or two friends, who thought
+      that it did not well correspond to the general title of &ldquo;The Crusaders.&rdquo;
+       They urged, therefore, that, without direct allusion to the manners of the
+      Eastern tribes, and to the romantic conflicts of the period, the title of
+      a &ldquo;Tale of the Crusaders&rdquo; would resemble the playbill, which is said to
+      have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of
+      Denmark being left out. On the other hand, I felt the difficulty of giving
+      a vivid picture of a part of the world with which I was almost totally
+      unacquainted, unless by early recollections of the Arabian Nights'
+      Entertainments; and not only did I labour under the incapacity of
+      ignorance&mdash;in which, as far as regards Eastern manners, I was as
+      thickly wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog&mdash;but my contemporaries
+      were, many of them, as much enlightened upon the subject as if they had
+      been inhabitants of the favoured land of Goshen. The love of travelling
+      had pervaded all ranks, and carried the subjects of Britain into all
+      quarters of the world. Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by its
+      struggles for freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name, where
+      every fountain had its classical legend&mdash;Palestine, endeared to the
+      imagination by yet more sacred remembrances&mdash;had been of late
+      surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers. Had I,
+      therefore, attempted the difficult task of substituting manners of my own
+      invention, instead of the genuine costume of the East, almost every
+      traveller I met who had extended his route beyond what was anciently
+      called &ldquo;The Grand Tour,&rdquo; had acquired a right, by ocular inspection, to
+      chastise me for my presumption. Every member of the Travellers' Club who
+      could pretend to have thrown his shoe over Edom was, by having done so,
+      constituted my lawful critic and corrector. It occurred, therefore, that
+      where the author of Anastasius, as well as he of Hadji Baba, had described
+      the manners and vices of the Eastern nations, not only with fidelity, but
+      with the humour of Le Sage and the ludicrous power of Fielding himself,
+      one who was a perfect stranger to the subject must necessarily produce an
+      unfavourable contrast. The Poet Laureate also, in the charming tale of
+      &ldquo;Thalaba,&rdquo; had shown how extensive might be the researches of a person of
+      acquirements and talent, by dint of investigation alone, into the ancient
+      doctrines, history, and manners of the Eastern countries, in which we are
+      probably to look for the cradle of mankind; Moore, in his &ldquo;Lalla Rookh,&rdquo;
+       had successfully trod the same path; in which, too, Byron, joining ocular
+      experience to extensive reading, had written some of his most attractive
+      poems. In a word, the Eastern themes had been already so successfully
+      handled by those who were acknowledged to be masters of their craft, that
+      I was diffident of making the attempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were powerful objections; nor did they lose force when they became
+      the subject of anxious reflection, although they did not finally prevail.
+      The arguments on the other side were, that though I had no hope of
+      rivalling the contemporaries whom I have mentioned, yet it occurred to me
+      as possible to acquit myself of the task I was engaged in without entering
+      into competition with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The period relating more immediately to the Crusades which I at last fixed
+      upon was that at which the warlike character of Richard I., wild and
+      generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all its extravagant virtues, and its
+      no less absurd errors, was opposed to that of Saladin, in which the
+      Christian and English monarch showed all the cruelty and violence of an
+      Eastern sultan, and Saladin, on the other hand, displayed the deep policy
+      and prudence of a European sovereign, whilst each contended which should
+      excel the other in the knightly qualities of bravery and generosity. This
+      singular contrast afforded, as the author conceived, materials for a work
+      of fiction possessing peculiar interest. One of the inferior characters
+      introduced was a supposed relation of Richard Coeur de Lion&mdash;a
+      violation of the truth of history which gave offence to Mr. Mills, the
+      author of the &ldquo;History of Chivalry and the Crusades,&rdquo; who was not, it may
+      be presumed, aware that romantic fiction naturally includes the power of
+      such invention, which is indeed one of the requisites of the art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince David of Scotland, who was actually in the host, and was the hero
+      of some very romantic adventures on his way home, was also pressed into my
+      service, and constitutes one of my DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true I had already brought upon the field him of the lion heart. But
+      it was in a more private capacity than he was here to be exhibited in the
+      Talisman&mdash;then as a disguised knight, now in the avowed character of
+      a conquering monarch; so that I doubted not a name so dear to Englishmen
+      as that of King Richard I. might contribute to their amusement for more
+      than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had access to all which antiquity believed, whether of reality or fable,
+      on the subject of that magnificent warrior, who was the proudest boast of
+      Europe and their chivalry, and with whose dreadful name the Saracens,
+      according to a historian of their own country, were wont to rebuke their
+      startled horses. &ldquo;Do you think,&rdquo; said they, &ldquo;that King Richard is on the
+      track, that you stray so wildly from it?&rdquo; The most curious register of the
+      history of King Richard is an ancient romance, translated originally from
+      the Norman; and at first certainly having a pretence to be termed a work
+      of chivalry, but latterly becoming stuffed with the most astonishing and
+      monstrous fables. There is perhaps no metrical romance upon record where,
+      along with curious and genuine history, are mingled more absurd and
+      exaggerated incidents. We have placed in the Appendix to this Introduction
+      the passage of the romance in which Richard figures as an ogre, or literal
+      cannibal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A principal incident in the story is that from which the title is derived.
+      Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps most remarkable
+      for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells, periapts, and similar
+      charms, framed, it was said, under the influence of particular planets,
+      and bestowing high medical powers, as well as the means of advancing men's
+      fortunes in various manners. A story of this kind, relating to a Crusader
+      of eminence, is often told in the west of Scotland, and the relic alluded
+      to is still in existence, and even yet held in veneration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee and Gartland made a considerable figure in the
+      reigns of Robert the Bruce and of his son David. He was one of the chief
+      of that band of Scottish chivalry who accompanied James, the Good Lord
+      Douglas, on his expedition to the Holy Land with the heart of King Robert
+      Bruce. Douglas, impatient to get at the Saracens, entered into war with
+      those of Spain, and was killed there. Lockhart proceeded to the Holy Land
+      with such Scottish knights as had escaped the fate of their leader and
+      assisted for some time in the wars against the Saracens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following adventure is said by tradition to have befallen him:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made prisoner in battle an Emir of considerable wealth and consequence.
+      The aged mother of the captive came to the Christian camp, to redeem her
+      son from his state of captivity. Lockhart is said to have fixed the price
+      at which his prisoner should ransom himself; and the lady, pulling out a
+      large embroidered purse, proceeded to tell down the ransom, like a mother
+      who pays little respect to gold in comparison of her son's liberty. In
+      this operation, a pebble inserted in a coin, some say of the Lower Empire,
+      fell out of the purse, and the Saracen matron testified so much haste to
+      recover it as gave the Scottish knight a high idea of its value, when
+      compared with gold or silver. &ldquo;I will not consent,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to grant
+      your son's liberty, unless that amulet be added to his ransom.&rdquo; The lady
+      not only consented to this, but explained to Sir Simon Lockhart the mode
+      in which the talisman was to be used, and the uses to which it might be
+      put. The water in which it was dipped operated as a styptic, as a
+      febrifuge, and possessed other properties as a medical talisman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Simon Lockhart, after much experience of the wonders which it wrought,
+      brought it to his own country, and left it to his heirs, by whom, and by
+      Clydesdale in general, it was, and is still, distinguished by the name of
+      the Lee-penny, from the name of his native seat of Lee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most remarkable part of its history, perhaps, was that it so
+      especially escaped condemnation when the Church of Scotland chose to
+      impeach many other cures which savoured of the miraculous, as occasioned
+      by sorcery, and censured the appeal to them, &ldquo;excepting only that to the
+      amulet, called the Lee-penny, to which it had pleased God to annex certain
+      healing virtues which the Church did not presume to condemn.&rdquo; It still, as
+      has been said, exists, and its powers are sometimes resorted to. Of late,
+      they have been chiefly restricted to the cure of persons bitten by mad
+      dogs; and as the illness in such cases frequently arises from imagination,
+      there can be no reason for doubting that water which has been poured on
+      the Lee-penny furnishes a congenial cure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the tradition concerning the talisman, which the author has taken
+      the liberty to vary in applying it to his own purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considerable liberties have also been taken with the truth of history,
+      both with respect to Conrade of Montserrat's life, as well as his death.
+      That Conrade, however, was reckoned the enemy of Richard is agreed both in
+      history and romance. The general opinion of the terms upon which they
+      stood may be guessed from the proposal of the Saracens that the Marquis of
+      Montserrat should be invested with certain parts of Syria, which they were
+      to yield to the Christians. Richard, according to the romance which bears
+      his name, &ldquo;could no longer repress his fury. The Marquis he said, was a
+      traitor, who had robbed the Knights Hospitallers of sixty thousand pounds,
+      the present of his father Henry; that he was a renegade, whose treachery
+      had occasioned the loss of Acre; and he concluded by a solemn oath, that
+      he would cause him to be drawn to pieces by wild horses, if he should ever
+      venture to pollute the Christian camp by his presence. Philip attempted to
+      intercede in favour of the Marquis, and throwing down his glove, offered
+      to become a pledge for his fidelity to the Christians; but his offer was
+      rejected, and he was obliged to give way to Richard's impetuosity.&rdquo;&mdash;HISTORY
+      OF CHIVALRY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade of Montserrat makes a considerable figure in those wars, and was
+      at length put to death by one of the followers of the Scheik, or Old Man
+      of the Mountain; nor did Richard remain free of the suspicion of having
+      instigated his death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be said, in general, that most of the incidents introduced in the
+      following tale are fictitious, and that reality, where it exists, is only
+      retained in the characters of the piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      While warring in the Holy Land, Richard was seized with an ague.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The best leeches of the camp were unable to effect the cure of the King's
+      disease; but the prayers of the army were more successful. He became
+      convalescent, and the first symptom of his recovery was a violent longing
+      for pork. But pork was not likely to be plentiful in a country whose
+      inhabitants had an abhorrence for swine's flesh; and
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Though his men should be hanged,
+     They ne might, in that countrey,
+     For gold, ne silver, ne no money,
+     No pork find, take, ne get,
+     That King Richard might aught of eat.
+     An old knight with Richard biding,
+     When he heard of that tiding,
+     That the king's wants were swyche,
+     To the steward he spake privyliche&mdash;
+     &ldquo;Our lord the king sore is sick, I wis,
+     After porck he alonged is;
+     Ye may none find to selle;
+     No man be hardy him so to telle!
+     If he did he might die.
+     Now behoves to done as I shall say,
+     Tho' he wete nought of that.
+     Take a Saracen, young and fat;
+     In haste let the thief be slain,
+     Opened, and his skin off flayn;
+     And sodden full hastily,
+     With powder and with spicery,
+     And with saffron of good colour.
+     When the king feels thereof savour,
+     Out of ague if he be went,
+     He shall have thereto good talent.
+     When he has a good taste,
+     And eaten well a good repast,
+     And supped of the BREWIS [Broth] a sup,
+     Slept after and swet a drop,
+     Through Goddis help and my counsail,
+     Soon he shall be fresh and hail.'
+     The sooth to say, at wordes few,
+     Slain and sodden was the heathen shrew.
+     Before the king it was forth brought:
+     Quod his men, 'Lord, we have pork sought;
+     Eates and sups of the brewis SOOTE,[Sweet]
+     Thorough grace of God it shall be your boot.'
+     Before King Richard carff a knight,
+     He ate faster than he carve might.
+     The king ate the flesh and GNEW [Gnawed] the bones,
+     And drank well after for the nonce.
+     And when he had eaten enough,
+     His folk hem turned away, and LOUGH.[Laughed]
+     He lay still and drew in his arm;
+     His chamberlain him wrapped warm.
+     He lay and slept, and swet a stound,
+     And became whole and sound.
+     King Richard clad him and arose,
+     And walked abouten in the close.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      An attack of the Saracens was repelled by Richard in person, the
+      consequence of which is told in the following lines:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;When King Richard had rested a whyle,
+     A knight his arms 'gan unlace,
+     Him to comfort and solace.
+     Him was brought a sop in wine.
+     'The head of that ilke swine,
+     That I of ate!' (the cook he bade,)
+     'For feeble I am, and faint and mad.
+     Of mine evil now I am fear;
+     Serve me therewith at my soupere!'
+     Quod the cook, 'That head I ne have.'
+     Then said the king, 'So God me save,
+     But I see the head of that swine,
+     For sooth, thou shalt lesen thine!'
+     The cook saw none other might be;
+     He fet the head and let him see.
+     He fell on knees, and made a cry&mdash;
+     'Lo, here the head!  my Lord, mercy!'&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The cook had certainly some reason to fear that his master would be struck
+      with horror at the recollection of the dreadful banquet to which he owed
+      his recovery; but his fears were soon dissipated.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The swarte vis [Black face] when the king seeth,
+     His black beard and white teeth,
+     How his lippes grinned wide,
+     'What devil is this?' the king cried,
+     And 'gan to laugh as he were wode.
+     'What!  is Saracen's flesh thus good?
+     That never erst I nought wist!
+     By God's death and his uprist,
+     Shall we never die for default,
+     While we may in any assault,
+     Slee Saracens, the flesh may take,
+     And seethen and roasten and do hem bake,
+     [And] Gnawen her flesh to the bones!
+     Now I have it proved once,
+     For hunger ere I be wo,
+     I and my folk shall eat mo!&rdquo;'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The besieged now offered to surrender, upon conditions of safety to the
+      inhabitants; while all the public treasure, military machines, and arms
+      were delivered to the victors, together with the further ransom of one
+      hundred thousand bezants. After this capitulation, the following
+      extraordinary scene took place. We shall give it in the words of the
+      humorous and amiable George Ellis, the collector and the editor of these
+      Romances:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Though the garrison had faithfully performed the other articles of their
+      contract, they were unable to restore the cross, which was not in their
+      possession, and were therefore treated by the Christians with great
+      cruelty. Daily reports of their sufferings were carried to Saladin; and as
+      many of them were persons of the highest distinction, that monarch, at the
+      solicitation of their friends, dispatched an embassy to King Richard with
+      magnificent presents, which he offered for the ransom of the captives. The
+      ambassadors were persons the most respectable from their age, their rank,
+      and their eloquence. They delivered their message in terms of the utmost
+      humility; and without arraigning the justice of the conqueror in his
+      severe treatment of their countrymen, only solicited a period to that
+      severity, laying at his feet the treasures with which they were entrusted,
+      and pledging themselves and their master for the payment of any further
+      sums which he might demand as the price of mercy.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;King Richard spake with wordes mild.
+     'The gold to take, God me shield!
+     Among you partes [Divide] every charge.
+     I brought in shippes and in barge,
+     More gold and silver with me,
+     Than has your lord, and swilke three.
+     To his treasure have I no need!
+     But for my love I you bid,
+     To meat with me that ye dwell;
+     And afterward I shall you tell.
+     Thorough counsel I shall you answer,
+     What BODE [Message] ye shall to your lord bear.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The invitation was gratefully accepted. Richard, in the meantime, gave
+      secret orders to his marshal that he should repair to the prison, select a
+      certain number of the most distinguished captives, and, after carefully
+      noting their names on a roll of parchment, cause their heads to be
+      instantly struck off; that these heads should be delivered to the cook,
+      with instructions to clear away the hair, and, after boiling them in a
+      cauldron, to distribute them on several platters, one to each guest,
+      observing to fasten on the forehead of each the piece of parchment
+      expressing the name and family of the victim.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;'An hot head bring me beforn,
+     As I were well apayed withall,
+     Eat thereof fast I shall;
+     As it were a tender chick,
+     To see how the others will like.'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This horrible order was punctually executed. At noon the guests were
+      summoned to wash by the music of the waits. The king took his seat
+      attended by the principal officers of his court, at the high table, and
+      the rest of the company were marshalled at a long table below him. On the
+      cloth were placed portions of salt at the usual distances, but neither
+      bread, wine, nor water. The ambassadors, rather surprised at this
+      omission, but still free from apprehension, awaited in silence the arrival
+      of the dinner, which was announced by the sound of pipes, trumpets, and
+      tabours; and beheld, with horror and dismay, the unnatural banquet
+      introduced by the steward and his officers. Yet their sentiments of
+      disgust and abhorrence, and even their fears, were for a time suspended by
+      their curiosity. Their eyes were fixed on the king, who, without the
+      slightest change of countenance, swallowed the morsels as fast as they
+      could be supplied by the knight who carved them.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Every man then poked other;
+     They said, 'This is the devil's brother,
+     That slays our men, and thus hem eats!'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Their attention was then involuntarily fixed on the smoking heads before
+      them. They traced in the swollen and distorted features the resemblance of
+      a friend or near relation, and received from the fatal scroll which
+      accompanied each dish the sad assurance that this resemblance was not
+      imaginary. They sat in torpid silence, anticipating their own fate in that
+      of their countrymen; while their ferocious entertainer, with fury in his
+      eyes, but with courtesy on his lips, insulted them by frequent invitations
+      to merriment. At length this first course was removed, and its place
+      supplied by venison, cranes, and other dainties, accompanied by the
+      richest wines. The king then apologized to them for what had passed, which
+      he attributed to his ignorance of their taste; and assured them of his
+      religious respect for their characters as ambassadors, and of his
+      readiness to grant them a safe-conduct for their return. This boon was all
+      that they now wished to claim; and
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;King Richard spake to an old man,
+     'Wendes home to your Soudan!
+     His melancholy that ye abate;
+     And sayes that ye came too late.
+     Too slowly was your time y-guessed;
+     Ere ye came, the flesh was dressed,
+     That men shoulden serve with me,
+     Thus at noon, and my meynie.
+     Say him, it shall him nought avail,
+     Though he for-bar us our vitail,
+     Bread, wine, fish, flesh, salmon, and conger;
+     Of us none shall die with hunger,
+     While we may wenden to fight,
+     And slay the Saracens downright,
+     Wash the flesh, and roast the head.
+     With 0 [One] Saracen I may well feed
+     Well a nine or a ten
+     Of my good Christian men.
+     King Richard shall warrant,
+     There is no flesh so nourissant
+     Unto an English man,
+     Partridge, plover, heron, ne swan,
+     Cow ne ox, sheep ne swine,
+     As the head of a Sarazyn.
+     There he is fat, and thereto tender,
+     And my men be lean and slender.
+     While any Saracen quick be,
+     Livand now in this Syrie,
+     For meat will we nothing care.
+     Abouten fast we shall rare,
+     And every day we shall eat
+     All as many as we may get.
+     To England will we nought gon,
+     Till they be eaten every one.'&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      ELLIS'S SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH METRICEL ROMANCES.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The reader may be curious to know owing to what circumstances so
+      extraordinary an invention as that which imputed cannibalism to the King
+      of England should have found its way into his history. Mr. James, to whom
+      we owe so much that is curious, seems to have traced the origin of this
+      extraordinary rumour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the army of the cross also was a multitude of men,&rdquo; the same author
+      declares, &ldquo;who made it a profession to be without money. They walked
+      barefoot, carried no arms, and even preceded the beasts of burden in their
+      march, living upon roots and herbs, and presenting a spectacle both
+      disgusting and pitiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Norman, who, according to all accounts, was of noble birth, but who,
+      having lost his horse, continued to follow as a foot soldier, took the
+      strange resolution of putting himself at the head of this race of
+      vagabonds, who willingly received him as their king. Amongst the Saracens
+      these men became well known under the name of THAFURS (which Guibert
+      translates TRUDENTES), and were beheld with great horror from the general
+      persuasion that they fed on the dead bodies of their enemies; a report
+      which was occasionally justified, and which the king of the Thafurs took
+      care to encourage. This respectable monarch was frequently in the habit of
+      stopping his followers, one by one, in a narrow defile, and of causing
+      them to be searched carefully, lest the possession of the least sum of
+      money should render them unworthy of the name of his subjects. If even two
+      sous were found upon any one, he was instantly expelled the society of his
+      tribe, the king bidding him contemptuously buy arms and fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This troop, so far from being cumbersome to the army, was infinitely
+      serviceable, carrying burdens, bringing in forage, provisions, and
+      tribute; working the machines in the sieges; and, above all, spreading
+      consternation among the Turks, who feared death from the lances of the
+      knights less than that further consummation they heard of under the teeth
+      of the Thafurs.&rdquo; [James's &ldquo;History of Chivalry.&rdquo;]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is easy to conceive that an ignorant minstrel, finding the taste and
+      ferocity of the Thafurs commemorated in the historical accounts of the
+      Holy Wars, has ascribed their practices and propensities to the Monarch of
+      England, whose ferocity was considered as an object of exaggeration as
+      legitimate as his valour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. TALE II.&mdash;THE TALISMAN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     They, too, retired
+     To the wilderness, but 'twas with arms.
+         PARADISE REGAINED.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the
+      horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant northern
+      home and joined the host of the Crusaders in Palestine, was pacing slowly
+      along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, or, as
+      it is called, the Lake Asphaltites, where the waves of the Jordan pour
+      themselves into an inland sea, from which there is no discharge of waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The warlike pilgrim had toiled among cliffs and precipices during the
+      earlier part of the morning. More lately, issuing from those rocky and
+      dangerous defiles, he had entered upon that great plain, where the
+      accursed cities provoked, in ancient days, the direct and dreadful
+      vengeance of the Omnipotent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The toil, the thirst, the dangers of the way, were forgotten, as the
+      traveller recalled the fearful catastrophe which had converted into an
+      arid and dismal wilderness the fair and fertile valley of Siddim, once
+      well watered, even as the Garden of the Lord, now a parched and blighted
+      waste, condemned to eternal sterility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing himself, as he viewed the dark mass of rolling waters, in colour
+      as in duality unlike those of any other lake, the traveller shuddered as
+      he remembered that beneath these sluggish waves lay the once proud cities
+      of the plain, whose grave was dug by the thunder of the heavens, or the
+      eruption of subterraneous fire, and whose remains were hid, even by that
+      sea which holds no living fish in its bosom, bears no skiff on its
+      surface, and, as if its own dreadful bed were the only fit receptacle for
+      its sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes, a tribute to the ocean.
+      The whole land around, as in the days of Moses, was &ldquo;brimstone and salt;
+      it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth thereon.&rdquo; The land as
+      well as the lake might be termed dead, as producing nothing having
+      resemblance to vegetation, and even the very air was entirely devoid of
+      its ordinary winged inhabitants, deterred probably by the odour of bitumen
+      and sulphur which the burning sun exhaled from the waters of the lake in
+      steaming clouds, frequently assuming the appearance of waterspouts. Masses
+      of the slimy and sulphureous substance called naphtha, which floated idly
+      on the sluggish and sullen waves, supplied those rolling clouds with new
+      vapours, and afforded awful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost intolerable
+      splendour, and all living nature seemed to have hidden itself from the
+      rays, excepting the solitary figure which moved through the flitting sand
+      at a foot's pace, and appeared the sole breathing thing on the wide
+      surface of the plain. The dress of the rider and the accoutrements of his
+      horse were peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country. A coat of
+      linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel breastplate,
+      had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour; there were also his
+      triangular shield suspended round his neck, and his barred helmet of
+      steel, over which he had a hood and collar of mail, which was drawn around
+      the warrior's shoulders and throat, and filled up the vacancy between the
+      hauberk and the headpiece. His lower limbs were sheathed, like his body,
+      in flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs, while the feet rested in
+      plated shoes, which corresponded with the gauntlets. A long, broad,
+      straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with a handle formed like a cross,
+      corresponded with a stout poniard on the other side. The knight also bore,
+      secured to his saddle, with one end resting on his stirrup, the long
+      steel-headed lance, his own proper weapon, which, as he rode, projected
+      backwards, and displayed its little pennoncelle, to dally with the faint
+      breeze, or drop in the dead calm. To this cumbrous equipment must be added
+      a surcoat of embroidered cloth, much frayed and worn, which was thus far
+      useful that it excluded the burning rays of the sun from the armour, which
+      they would otherwise have rendered intolerable to the wearer. The surcoat
+      bore, in several places, the arms of the owner, although much defaced.
+      These seemed to be a couchant leopard, with the motto, &ldquo;I sleep; wake me
+      not.&rdquo; An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though
+      many a blow had almost effaced the painting. The flat top of his cumbrous
+      cylindrical helmet was unadorned with any crest. In retaining their own
+      unwieldy defensive armour, the Northern Crusaders seemed to set at
+      defiance the nature of the climate and country to which they had come to
+      war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and unwieldy
+      than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated with steel,
+      uniting in front with a species of breastplate, and behind with defensive
+      armour made to cover the loins. Then there was a steel axe, or hammer,
+      called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow. The reins were
+      secured by chain-work, and the front-stall of the bridle was a steel
+      plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the midst a
+      short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the horse like the horn
+      of the fabulous unicorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second nature,
+      both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers, indeed, of the
+      Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere they became inured to
+      the burning climate; but there were others to whom that climate became
+      innocent and even friendly, and among this fortunate number was the
+      solitary horseman who now traversed the border of the Dead Sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength, fitted to
+      wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the meshes had been formed
+      of cobwebs, had endowed him with a constitution as strong as his limbs,
+      and which bade defiance to almost all changes of climate, as well as to
+      fatigue and privations of every kind. His disposition seemed, in some
+      degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as the one
+      possessed great strength and endurance, united with the power of violent
+      exertion, the other, under a calm and undisturbed semblance, had much of
+      the fiery and enthusiastic love of glory which constituted the principal
+      attribute of the renowned Norman line, and had rendered them sovereigns in
+      every corner of Europe where they had drawn their adventurous swords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such tempting
+      rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight during two years'
+      campaign in Palestine had been only temporal fame, and, as he was taught
+      to believe, spiritual privileges. Meantime, his slender stock of money had
+      melted away, the rather that he did not pursue any of the ordinary modes
+      by which the followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit their
+      diminished resources at the expense of the people of Palestine&mdash;he
+      exacted no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
+      when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed himself
+      of any opportunity of enriching himself by the ransom of prisoners of
+      consequence. The small train which had followed him from his native
+      country had been gradually diminished, as the means of maintaining them
+      disappeared, and his only remaining squire was at present on a sick-bed,
+      and unable to attend his master, who travelled, as we have seen, singly
+      and alone. This was of little consequence to the Crusader, who was
+      accustomed to consider his good sword as his safest escort, and devout
+      thoughts as his best companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even on the
+      iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the Sleeping Leopard;
+      and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some distance on his right, he
+      joyfully hailed the sight of two or three palm-trees, which arose beside
+      the well which was assigned for his mid-day station. His good horse, too,
+      which had plodded forward with the steady endurance of his master, now
+      lifted his head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened his pace, as if he
+      snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the place of repose and
+      refreshment. But labour and danger were doomed to intervene ere the horse
+      or horseman reached the desired spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
+      attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed to him as
+      if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated itself
+      from the trees, which partly hid its motions, and advanced towards the
+      knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman, whom his turban,
+      long spear, and green caftan floating in the wind, on his nearer approach
+      showed to be a Saracen cavalier. &ldquo;In the desert,&rdquo; saith an Eastern
+      proverb, &ldquo;no man meets a friend.&rdquo; The Crusader was totally indifferent
+      whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb as if borne on
+      the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe&mdash;perhaps, as a vowed
+      champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred the latter. He
+      disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized it with the right hand,
+      placed it in rest with its point half elevated, gathered up the reins in
+      the left, waked his horse's mettle with the spur, and prepared to
+      encounter the stranger with the calm self-confidence belonging to the
+      victor in many contests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman, managing his
+      steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his body than by any use of
+      the reins, which hung loose in his left hand; so that he was enabled to
+      wield the light, round buckler of the skin of the rhinoceros, ornamented
+      with silver loops, which he wore on his arm, swinging it as if he meant to
+      oppose its slender circle to the formidable thrust of the Western lance.
+      His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that of his
+      antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and brandished
+      at arm's-length above his head. As the cavalier approached his enemy at
+      full career, he seemed to expect that the Knight of the Leopard should put
+      his horse to the gallop to encounter him. But the Christian knight, well
+      acquainted with the customs of Eastern warriors, did not mean to exhaust
+      his good horse by any unnecessary exertion; and, on the contrary, made a
+      dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced to the actual shock, his
+      own weight, and that of his powerful charger, would give him sufficient
+      advantage, without the additional momentum of rapid motion. Equally
+      sensible and apprehensive of such a probable result, the Saracen cavalier,
+      when he had approached towards the Christian within twice the length of
+      his lance, wheeled his steed to the left with inimitable dexterity, and
+      rode twice around his antagonist, who, turning without quitting his
+      ground, and presenting his front constantly to his enemy, frustrated his
+      attempts to attack him on an unguarded point; so that the Saracen,
+      wheeling his horse, was fain to retreat to the distance of a hundred
+      yards. A second time, like a hawk attacking a heron, the heathen renewed
+      the charge, and a second time was fain to retreat without coming to a
+      close struggle. A third time he approached in the same manner, when the
+      Christian knight, desirous to terminate this illusory warfare, in which he
+      might at length have been worn out by the activity of his foeman, suddenly
+      seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and, with a strong hand and
+      unerring aim, hurled it against the head of the Emir, for such and not
+      less his enemy appeared. The Saracen was just aware of the formidable
+      missile in time to interpose his light buckler betwixt the mace and his
+      head; but the violence of the blow forced the buckler down on his turban,
+      and though that defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the
+      Saracen was beaten from his horse. Ere the Christian could avail himself
+      of this mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and, calling on
+      his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat
+      without touching the stirrup, and regained all the advantage of which the
+      Knight of the Leopard hoped to deprive him. But the latter had in the
+      meanwhile recovered his mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who remembered the
+      strength and dexterity with which his antagonist had aimed it, seemed to
+      keep cautiously out of reach of that weapon of which he had so lately felt
+      the force, while he showed his purpose of waging a distant warfare with
+      missile weapons of his own. Planting his long spear in the sand at a
+      distance from the scene of combat, he strung, with great address, a short
+      bow, which he carried at his back; and putting his horse to the gallop,
+      once more described two or three circles of a wider extent than formerly,
+      in the course of which he discharged six arrows at the Christian with such
+      unerring skill that the goodness of his harness alone saved him from being
+      wounded in as many places. The seventh shaft apparently found a less
+      perfect part of the armour, and the Christian dropped heavily from his
+      horse. But what was the surprise of the Saracen, when, dismounting to
+      examine the condition of his prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly
+      within the grasp of the European, who had had recourse to this artifice to
+      bring his enemy within his reach! Even in this deadly grapple the Saracen
+      was saved by his agility and presence of mind. He unloosed the sword-belt,
+      in which the Knight of the Leopard had fixed his hold, and, thus eluding
+      his fatal grasp, mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with
+      the intelligence of a human being, and again rode off. But in the last
+      encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of arrows, both of
+      which were attached to the girdle which he was obliged to abandon. He had
+      also lost his turban in the struggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a truce. He approached
+      the Christian with his right hand extended, but no longer in a menacing
+      attitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is truce betwixt our nations,&rdquo; he said, in the lingua franca
+      commonly used for the purpose of communication with the Crusaders;
+      &ldquo;wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me? Let there be peace
+      betwixt us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am well contented,&rdquo; answered he of the Couchant Leopard; &ldquo;but what
+      security dost thou offer that thou wilt observe the truce?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The word of a follower of the Prophet was never broken,&rdquo; answered the
+      Emir. &ldquo;It is thou, brave Nazarene, from whom I should demand security, did
+      I not know that treason seldom dwells with courage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Crusader felt that the confidence of the Moslem made him ashamed of
+      his own doubts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the cross of my sword,&rdquo; he said, laying his hand on the weapon as he
+      spoke, &ldquo;I will be true companion to thee, Saracen, while our fortune wills
+      that we remain in company together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Mohammed, Prophet of God, and by Allah, God of the Prophet,&rdquo; replied
+      his late foeman, &ldquo;there is not treachery in my heart towards thee. And now
+      wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour of rest is at hand, and the
+      stream had hardly touched my lip when I was called to battle by thy
+      approach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Couchant Leopard yielded a ready and courteous assent;
+      and the late foes, without an angry look or gesture of doubt, rode side by
+      side to the little cluster of palm-trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Times of danger have always, and in a peculiar degree, their seasons of
+      good-will and security; and this was particularly so in the ancient feudal
+      ages, in which, as the manners of the period had assigned war to be the
+      chief and most worthy occupation of mankind, the intervals of peace, or
+      rather of truce, were highly relished by those warriors to whom they were
+      seldom granted, and endeared by the very circumstances which rendered them
+      transitory. It is not worth while preserving any permanent enmity against
+      a foe whom a champion has fought with to-day, and may again stand in
+      bloody opposition to on the next morning. The time and situation afforded
+      so much room for the ebullition of violent passions, that men, unless when
+      peculiarly opposed to each other, or provoked by the recollection of
+      private and individual wrongs, cheerfully enjoyed in each other's society
+      the brief intervals of pacific intercourse which a warlike life admitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The distinction of religions, nay, the fanatical zeal which animated the
+      followers of the Cross and of the Crescent against each other, was much
+      softened by a feeling so natural to generous combatants, and especially
+      cherished by the spirit of chivalry. This last strong impulse had extended
+      itself gradually from the Christians to their mortal enemies the Saracens,
+      both of Spain and of Palestine. The latter were, indeed, no longer the
+      fanatical savages who had burst from the centre of Arabian deserts, with
+      the sabre in one hand and the Koran in the other, to inflict death or the
+      faith of Mohammed, or, at the best, slavery and tribute, upon all who
+      dared to oppose the belief of the prophet of Mecca. These alternatives
+      indeed had been offered to the unwarlike Greeks and Syrians; but in
+      contending with the Western Christians, animated by a zeal as fiery as
+      their own, and possessed of as unconquerable courage, address, and success
+      in arms, the Saracens gradually caught a part of their manners, and
+      especially of those chivalrous observances which were so well calculated
+      to charm the minds of a proud and conquering people. They had their
+      tournaments and games of chivalry; they had even their knights, or some
+      rank analogous; and above all, the Saracens observed their plighted faith
+      with an accuracy which might sometimes put to shame those who owned a
+      better religion. Their truces, whether national or betwixt individuals,
+      were faithfully observed; and thus it was that war, in itself perhaps the
+      greatest of evils, yet gave occasion for display of good faith,
+      generosity, clemency, and even kindly affections, which less frequently
+      occur in more tranquil periods, where the passions of men, experiencing
+      wrongs or entertaining quarrels which cannot be brought to instant
+      decision, are apt to smoulder for a length of time in the bosoms of those
+      who are so unhappy as to be their prey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was under the influence of these milder feelings which soften the
+      horrors of warfare that the Christian and Saracen, who had so lately done
+      their best for each other's mutual destruction, rode at a slow pace
+      towards the fountain of palm-trees to which the Knight of the Couchant
+      Leopard had been tending, when interrupted in mid-passage by his fleet and
+      dangerous adversary. Each was wrapt for some time in his own reflections,
+      and took breath after an encounter which had threatened to be fatal to one
+      or both; and their good horses seemed no less to enjoy the interval of
+      repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That of the Saracen, however, though he had been forced into much the more
+      violent and extended sphere of motion, appeared to have suffered less from
+      fatigue than the charger of the European knight. The sweat hung still
+      clammy on the limbs of the latter, when those of the noble Arab were
+      completely dried by the interval of tranquil exercise, all saving the
+      foam-flakes which were still visible on his bridle and housings. The loose
+      soil on which he trod so much augmented the distress of the Christian's
+      horse, heavily loaded by his own armour and the weight of his rider, that
+      the latter jumped from his saddle, and led his charger along the deep dust
+      of the loamy soil, which was burnt in the sun into a substance more
+      impalpable than the finest sand, and thus gave the faithful horse
+      refreshment at the expense of his own additional toil; for, iron-sheathed
+      as he was, he sunk over the mailed shoes at every step which he placed on
+      a surface so light and unresisting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right,&rdquo; said the Saracen&mdash;and it was the first word that
+      either had spoken since their truce was concluded; &ldquo;your strong horse
+      deserves your care. But what do you in the desert with an animal which
+      sinks over the fetlock at every step as if he would plant each foot deep
+      as the root of a date-tree?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou speakest rightly, Saracen,&rdquo; said the Christian knight, not delighted
+      at the tone with which the infidel criticized his favourite steed&mdash;&ldquo;rightly,
+      according to thy knowledge and observation. But my good horse hath ere now
+      borne me, in mine own land, over as wide a lake as thou seest yonder
+      spread out behind us, yet not wet one hair above his hoof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen looked at him with as much surprise as his manners permitted
+      him to testify, which was only expressed by a slight approach to a
+      disdainful smile, that hardly curled perceptibly the broad, thick
+      moustache which enveloped his upper lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is justly spoken,&rdquo; he said, instantly composing himself to his usual
+      serene gravity; &ldquo;List to a Frank, and hear a fable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art not courteous, misbeliever,&rdquo; replied the Crusader, &ldquo;to doubt the
+      word of a dubbed knight; and were it not that thou speakest in ignorance,
+      and not in malice, our truce had its ending ere it is well begun. Thinkest
+      thou I tell thee an untruth when I say that I, one of five hundred
+      horsemen, armed in complete mail, have ridden&mdash;ay, and ridden for
+      miles, upon water as solid as the crystal, and ten times less brittle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What wouldst thou tell me?&rdquo; answered the Moslem. &ldquo;Yonder inland sea thou
+      dost point at is peculiar in this, that, by the especial curse of God, it
+      suffereth nothing to sink in its waves, but wafts them away, and casts
+      them on its margin; but neither the Dead Sea, nor any of the seven oceans
+      which environ the earth, will endure on their surface the pressure of a
+      horse's foot, more than the Red Sea endured to sustain the advance of
+      Pharaoh and his host.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak truth after your knowledge, Saracen,&rdquo; said the Christian
+      knight; &ldquo;and yet, trust me, I fable not, according to mine. Heat, in this
+      climate, converts the soil into something almost as unstable as water; and
+      in my land cold often converts the water itself into a substance as hard
+      as rock. Let us speak of this no longer, for the thoughts of the calm,
+      clear, blue refulgence of a winter's lake, glimmering to stars and
+      moonbeam, aggravate the horrors of this fiery desert, where, methinks, the
+      very air which we breathe is like the vapour of a fiery furnace seven
+      times heated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen looked on him with some attention, as if to discover in what
+      sense he was to understand words which, to him, must have appeared either
+      to contain something of mystery or of imposition. At length he seemed
+      determined in what manner to receive the language of his new companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;of a nation that loves to laugh, and you make sport
+      with yourselves, and with others, by telling what is impossible, and
+      reporting what never chanced. Thou art one of the knights of France, who
+      hold it for glee and pastime to GAB, as they term it, of exploits that are
+      beyond human power. [Gaber. This French word signified a sort of sport
+      much used among the French chivalry, which consisted in vying with each
+      other in making the most romantic gasconades. The verb and the meaning are
+      retained in Scottish.] I were wrong to challenge, for the time, the
+      privilege of thy speech, since boasting is more natural to thee than
+      truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not of their land, neither of their fashion,&rdquo; said the Knight,
+      &ldquo;which is, as thou well sayest, to GAB of that which they dare not
+      undertake&mdash;or, undertaking, cannot perfect. But in this I have
+      imitated their folly, brave Saracen, that in talking to thee of what thou
+      canst not comprehend, I have, even in speaking most simple truth, fully
+      incurred the character of a braggart in thy eyes; so, I pray you, let my
+      words pass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had now arrived at the knot of palm-trees and the fountain which
+      welled out from beneath their shade in sparkling profusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have spoken of a moment of truce in the midst of war; and this, a spot
+      of beauty in the midst of a sterile desert, was scarce less dear to the
+      imagination. It was a scene which, perhaps, would elsewhere have deserved
+      little notice; but as the single speck, in a boundless horizon, which
+      promised the refreshment of shade and living water, these blessings, held
+      cheap where they are common, rendered the fountain and its neighbourhood a
+      little paradise. Some generous or charitable hand, ere yet the evil days
+      of Palestine began, had walled in and arched over the fountain, to
+      preserve it from being absorbed in the earth, or choked by the flitting
+      clouds of dust with which the least breath of wind covered the desert. The
+      arch was now broken, and partly ruinous; but it still so far projected
+      over and covered in the fountain that it excluded the sun in a great
+      measure from its waters, which, hardly touched by a straggling beam, while
+      all around was blazing, lay in a steady repose, alike delightful to the
+      eye and the imagination. Stealing from under the arch, they were first
+      received in a marble basin, much defaced indeed, but still cheering the
+      eye, by showing that the place was anciently considered as a station, that
+      the hand of man had been there and that man's accommodation had been in
+      some measure attended to. The thirsty and weary traveller was reminded by
+      these signs that others had suffered similar difficulties, reposed in the
+      same spot, and, doubtless, found their way in safety to a more fertile
+      country. Again, the scarce visible current which escaped from the basin
+      served to nourish the few trees which surrounded the fountain, and where
+      it sunk into the ground and disappeared, its refreshing presence was
+      acknowledged by a carpet of velvet verdure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this delightful spot the two warriors halted, and each, after his own
+      fashion, proceeded to relieve his horse from saddle, bit, and rein, and
+      permitted the animals to drink at the basin, ere they refreshed themselves
+      from the fountain head, which arose under the vault. They then suffered
+      the steeds to go loose, confident that their interest, as well as their
+      domesticated habits, would prevent their straying from the pure water and
+      fresh grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Christian and Saracen next sat down together on the turf, and produced
+      each the small allowance of store which they carried for their own
+      refreshment. Yet, ere they severally proceeded to their scanty meal, they
+      eyed each other with that curiosity which the close and doubtful conflict
+      in which they had been so lately engaged was calculated to inspire. Each
+      was desirous to measure the strength, and form some estimate of the
+      character, of an adversary so formidable; and each was compelled to
+      acknowledge that, had he fallen in the conflict, it had been by a noble
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The champions formed a striking contrast to each other in person and
+      features, and might have formed no inaccurate representatives of their
+      different nations. The Frank seemed a powerful man, built after the
+      ancient Gothic cast of form, with light brown hair, which, on the removal
+      of his helmet, was seen to curl thick and profusely over his head. His
+      features had acquired, from the hot climate, a hue much darker than those
+      parts of his neck which were less frequently exposed to view, or than was
+      warranted by his full and well-opened blue eye, the colour of his hair,
+      and of the moustaches which thickly shaded his upper lip, while his chin
+      was carefully divested of beard, after the Norman fashion. His nose was
+      Grecian and well formed; his mouth rather large in proportion, but filled
+      with well-set, strong, and beautifully white teeth; his head small, and
+      set upon the neck with much grace. His age could not exceed thirty, but if
+      the effects of toil and climate were allowed for, might be three or four
+      years under that period. His form was tall, powerful, and athletic, like
+      that of a man whose strength might, in later life, become unwieldy, but
+      which was hitherto united with lightness and activity. His hands, when he
+      withdrew the mailed gloves, were long, fair, and well-proportioned; the
+      wrist-bones peculiarly large and strong; and the arms remarkably
+      well-shaped and brawny. A military hardihood and careless frankness of
+      expression characterized his language and his motions; and his voice had
+      the tone of one more accustomed to command than to obey, and who was in
+      the habit of expressing his sentiments aloud and boldly, whenever he was
+      called upon to announce them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen Emir formed a marked and striking contrast with the Western
+      Crusader. His stature was indeed above the middle size, but he was at
+      least three inches shorter than the European, whose size approached the
+      gigantic. His slender limbs and long, spare hands and arms, though well
+      proportioned to his person, and suited to the style of his countenance,
+      did not at first aspect promise the display of vigour and elasticity which
+      the Emir had lately exhibited. But on looking more closely, his limbs,
+      where exposed to view, seemed divested of all that was fleshy or
+      cumbersome; so that nothing being left but bone, brawn, and sinew, it was
+      a frame fitted for exertion and fatigue, far beyond that of a bulky
+      champion, whose strength and size are counterbalanced by weight, and who
+      is exhausted by his own exertions. The countenance of the Saracen
+      naturally bore a general national resemblance to the Eastern tribe from
+      whom he descended, and was as unlike as possible to the exaggerated terms
+      in which the minstrels of the day were wont to represent the infidel
+      champions, and the fabulous description which a sister art still presents
+      as the Saracen's Head upon signposts. His features were small,
+      well-formed, and delicate, though deeply embrowned by the Eastern sun, and
+      terminated by a flowing and curled black beard, which seemed trimmed with
+      peculiar care. The nose was straight and regular, the eyes keen, deep-set,
+      black, and glowing, and his teeth equalled in beauty the ivory of his
+      deserts. The person and proportions of the Saracen, in short, stretched on
+      the turf near to his powerful antagonist, might have been compared to his
+      sheeny and crescent-formed sabre, with its narrow and light but bright and
+      keen Damascus blade, contrasted with the long and ponderous Gothic
+      war-sword which was flung unbuckled on the same sod. The Emir was in the
+      very flower of his age, and might perhaps have been termed eminently
+      beautiful, but for the narrowness of his forehead and something of too
+      much thinness and sharpness of feature, or at least what might have seemed
+      such in a European estimate of beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The manners of the Eastern warrior were grave, graceful, and decorous;
+      indicating, however, in some particulars, the habitual restraint which men
+      of warm and choleric tempers often set as a guard upon their native
+      impetuosity of disposition, and at the same time a sense of his own
+      dignity, which seemed to impose a certain formality of behaviour in him
+      who entertained it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This haughty feeling of superiority was perhaps equally entertained by his
+      new European acquaintance, but the effect was different; and the same
+      feeling, which dictated to the Christian knight a bold, blunt, and
+      somewhat careless bearing, as one too conscious of his own importance to
+      be anxious about the opinions of others, appeared to prescribe to the
+      Saracen a style of courtesy more studiously and formally observant of
+      ceremony. Both were courteous; but the courtesy of the Christian seemed to
+      flow rather from a good humoured sense of what was due to others; that of
+      the Moslem, from a high feeling of what was to be expected from himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The provision which each had made for his refreshment was simple, but the
+      meal of the Saracen was abstemious. A handful of dates and a morsel of
+      coarse barley-bread sufficed to relieve the hunger of the latter, whose
+      education had habituated them to the fare of the desert, although, since
+      their Syrian conquests, the Arabian simplicity of life frequently gave
+      place to the most unbounded profusion of luxury. A few draughts from the
+      lovely fountain by which they reposed completed his meal. That of the
+      Christian, though coarse, was more genial. Dried hog's flesh, the
+      abomination of the Moslemah, was the chief part of his repast; and his
+      drink, derived from a leathern bottle, contained something better than
+      pure element. He fed with more display of appetite, and drank with more
+      appearance of satisfaction, than the Saracen judged it becoming to show in
+      the performance of a mere bodily function; and, doubtless, the secret
+      contempt which each entertained for the other, as the follower of a false
+      religion, was considerably increased by the marked difference of their
+      diet and manners. But each had found the weight of his opponent's arm, and
+      the mutual respect which the bold struggle had created was sufficient to
+      subdue other and inferior considerations. Yet the Saracen could not help
+      remarking the circumstances which displeased him in the Christian's
+      conduct and manners; and, after he had witnessed for some time in silence
+      the keen appetite which protracted the knight's banquet long after his own
+      was concluded, he thus addressed him:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Valiant Nazarene, is it fitting that one who can fight like a man should
+      feed like a dog or a wolf? Even a misbelieving Jew would shudder at the
+      food which you seem to eat with as much relish as if it were fruit from
+      the trees of Paradise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Valiant Saracen,&rdquo; answered the Christian, looking up with some surprise
+      at the accusation thus unexpectedly brought, &ldquo;know thou that I exercise my
+      Christian freedom in using that which is forbidden to the Jews, being, as
+      they esteem themselves, under the bondage of the old law of Moses. We,
+      Saracen, be it known to thee, have a better warrant for what we do&mdash;Ave
+      Maria!&mdash;be we thankful.&rdquo; And, as if in defiance of his companion's
+      scruples, he concluded a short Latin grace with a long draught from the
+      leathern bottle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, too, you call a part of your liberty,&rdquo; said the Saracen; &ldquo;and as
+      you feed like the brutes, so you degrade yourself to the bestial condition
+      by drinking a poisonous liquor which even they refuse!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know, foolish Saracen,&rdquo; replied the Christian, without hesitation, &ldquo;that
+      thou blasphemest the gifts of God, even with the blasphemy of thy father
+      Ishmael. The juice of the grape is given to him that will use it wisely,
+      as that which cheers the heart of man after toil, refreshes him in
+      sickness, and comforts him in sorrow. He who so enjoyeth it may thank God
+      for his winecup as for his daily bread; and he who abuseth the gift of
+      Heaven is not a greater fool in his intoxication than thou in thine
+      abstinence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The keen eye of the Saracen kindled at this sarcasm, and his hand sought
+      the hilt of his poniard. It was but a momentary thought, however, and died
+      away in the recollection of the powerful champion with whom he had to
+      deal, and the desperate grapple, the impression of which still throbbed in
+      his limbs and veins; and he contented himself with pursuing the contest in
+      colloquy, as more convenient for the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy words&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;O Nazarene, might create anger, did not thy
+      ignorance raise compassion. Seest thou not, O thou more blind than any who
+      asks alms at the door of the Mosque, that the liberty thou dost boast of
+      is restrained even in that which is dearest to man's happiness and to his
+      household; and that thy law, if thou dost practise it, binds thee in
+      marriage to one single mate, be she sick or healthy, be she fruitful or
+      barren, bring she comfort and joy, or clamour and strife, to thy table and
+      to thy bed? This, Nazarene, I do indeed call slavery; whereas, to the
+      faithful, hath the Prophet assigned upon earth the patriarchal privileges
+      of Abraham our father, and of Solomon, the wisest of mankind, having given
+      us here a succession of beauty at our pleasure, and beyond the grave the
+      black-eyed houris of Paradise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by His name that I most reverence in heaven,&rdquo; said the Christian,
+      &ldquo;and by hers whom I most worship on earth, thou art but a blinded and a
+      bewildered infidel!&mdash;That diamond signet which thou wearest on thy
+      finger, thou holdest it, doubtless, as of inestimable value?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Balsora and Bagdad cannot show the like,&rdquo; replied the Saracen; &ldquo;but what
+      avails it to our purpose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much,&rdquo; replied the Frank, &ldquo;as thou shalt thyself confess. Take my war-axe
+      and dash the stone into twenty shivers: would each fragment be as valuable
+      as the original gem, or would they, all collected, bear the tenth part of
+      its estimation?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a child's question,&rdquo; answered the Saracen; &ldquo;the fragments of such
+      a stone would not equal the entire jewel in the degree of hundreds to
+      one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saracen,&rdquo; replied the Christian warrior, &ldquo;the love which a true knight
+      binds on one only, fair and faithful, is the gem entire; the affection
+      thou flingest among thy enslaved wives and half-wedded slaves is
+      worthless, comparatively, as the sparkling shivers of the broken diamond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by the Holy Caaba,&rdquo; said the Emir, &ldquo;thou art a madman who hugs his
+      chain of iron as if it were of gold! Look more closely. This ring of mine
+      would lose half its beauty were not the signet encircled and enchased with
+      these lesser brilliants, which grace it and set it off. The central
+      diamond is man, firm and entire, his value depending on himself alone; and
+      this circle of lesser jewels are women, borrowing his lustre, which he
+      deals out to them as best suits his pleasure or his convenience. Take the
+      central stone from the signet, and the diamond itself remains as valuable
+      as ever, while the lesser gems are comparatively of little value. And this
+      is the true reading of thy parable; for what sayeth the poet Mansour: 'It
+      is the favour of man which giveth beauty and comeliness to woman, as the
+      stream glitters no longer when the sun ceaseth to shine.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saracen,&rdquo; replied the Crusader, &ldquo;thou speakest like one who never saw a
+      woman worthy the affection of a soldier. Believe me, couldst thou look
+      upon those of Europe, to whom, after Heaven, we of the order of knighthood
+      vow fealty and devotion, thou wouldst loathe for ever the poor sensual
+      slaves who form thy haram. The beauty of our fair ones gives point to our
+      spears and edge to our swords; their words are our law; and as soon will a
+      lamp shed lustre when unkindled, as a knight distinguish himself by feats
+      of arms, having no mistress of his affection.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard of this frenzy among the warriors of the West,&rdquo; said the
+      Emir, &ldquo;and have ever accounted it one of the accompanying symptoms of that
+      insanity which brings you hither to obtain possession of an empty
+      sepulchre. But yet, methinks, so highly have the Franks whom I have met
+      with extolled the beauty of their women, I could be well contented to
+      behold with mine own eyes those charms which can transform such brave
+      warriors into the tools of their pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave Saracen,&rdquo; said the Knight, &ldquo;if I were not on a pilgrimage to the
+      Holy Sepulchre, it should be my pride to conduct you, on assurance of
+      safety, to the camp of Richard of England, than whom none knows better how
+      to do honour to a noble foe; and though I be poor and unattended yet have
+      I interest to secure for thee, or any such as thou seemest, not safety
+      only, but respect and esteem. There shouldst thou see several of the
+      fairest beauties of France and Britain form a small circle, the brilliancy
+      of which exceeds ten-thousandfold the lustre of mines of diamonds such as
+      thine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by the corner-stone of the Caaba!&rdquo; said the Saracen, &ldquo;I will accept
+      thy invitation as freely as it is given, if thou wilt postpone thy present
+      intent; and, credit me, brave Nazarene, it were better for thyself to turn
+      back thy horse's head towards the camp of thy people, for to travel
+      towards Jerusalem without a passport is but a wilful casting-away of thy
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a pass,&rdquo; answered the Knight, producing a parchment, &ldquo;Under
+      Saladin's hand and signet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0040m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0040m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0040.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen bent his head to the dust as he recognized the seal and
+      handwriting of the renowned Soldan of Egypt and Syria; and having kissed
+      the paper with profound respect, he pressed it to his forehead, then
+      returned it to the Christian, saying, &ldquo;Rash Frank, thou hast sinned
+      against thine own blood and mine, for not showing this to me when we met.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came with levelled spear,&rdquo; said the Knight. &ldquo;Had a troop of Saracens
+      so assailed me, it might have stood with my honour to have shown the
+      Soldan's pass, but never to one man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet one man,&rdquo; said the Saracen haughtily, &ldquo;was enough to interrupt
+      your journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, brave Moslem,&rdquo; replied the Christian; &ldquo;but there are few such as
+      thou art. Such falcons fly not in flocks; or, if they do, they pounce not
+      in numbers upon one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou dost us but justice,&rdquo; said the Saracen, evidently gratified by the
+      compliment, as he had been touched by the implied scorn of the European's
+      previous boast; &ldquo;from us thou shouldst have had no wrong. But well was it
+      for me that I failed to slay thee, with the safeguard of the king of kings
+      upon thy person. Certain it were, that the cord or the sabre had justly
+      avenged such guilt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to hear that its influence shall be availing to me,&rdquo; said the
+      Knight; &ldquo;for I have heard that the road is infested with robber-tribes,
+      who regard nothing in comparison of an opportunity of plunder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The truth has been told to thee, brave Christian,&rdquo; said the Saracen; &ldquo;but
+      I swear to thee, by the turban of the Prophet, that shouldst thou miscarry
+      in any haunt of such villains, I will myself undertake thy revenge with
+      five thousand horse. I will slay every male of them, and send their women
+      into such distant captivity that the name of their tribe shall never again
+      be heard within five hundred miles of Damascus. I will sow with salt the
+      foundations of their village, and there shall never live thing dwell
+      there, even from that time forward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had rather the trouble which you design for yourself were in revenge of
+      some other more important person than of me, noble Emir,&rdquo; replied the
+      Knight; &ldquo;but my vow is recorded in heaven, for good or for evil, and I
+      must be indebted to you for pointing me out the way to my resting-place
+      for this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That,&rdquo; said the Saracen, &ldquo;must be under the black covering of my father's
+      tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This night,&rdquo; answered the Christian, &ldquo;I must pass in prayer and penitence
+      with a holy man, Theodorick of Engaddi, who dwells amongst these wilds,
+      and spends his life in the service of God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will at least see you safe thither,&rdquo; said the Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be pleasant convoy for me,&rdquo; said the Christian; &ldquo;yet might
+      endanger the future security of the good father; for the cruel hand of
+      your people has been red with the blood of the servants of the Lord, and
+      therefore do we come hither in plate and mail, with sword and lance, to
+      open the road to the Holy Sepulchre, and protect the chosen saints and
+      anchorites who yet dwell in this land of promise and of miracle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nazarene,&rdquo; said the Moslem, &ldquo;in this the Greeks and Syrians have much
+      belied us, seeing we do but after the word of Abubeker Alwakel, the
+      successor of the Prophet, and, after him, the first commander of true
+      believers. 'Go forth,' he said, 'Yezed Ben Sophian,' when he sent that
+      renowned general to take Syria from the infidels; 'quit yourselves like
+      men in battle, but slay neither the aged, the infirm, the women, nor the
+      children. Waste not the land, neither destroy corn and fruit-trees; they
+      are the gifts of Allah. Keep faith when you have made any covenant, even
+      if it be to your own harm. If ye find holy men labouring with their hands,
+      and serving God in the desert, hurt them not, neither destroy their
+      dwellings. But when you find them with shaven crowns, they are of the
+      synagogue of Satan! Smite with the sabre, slay, cease not till they become
+      believers or tributaries.' As the Caliph, companion of the Prophet, hath
+      told us, so have we done, and those whom our justice has smitten are but
+      the priests of Satan. But unto the good men who, without stirring up
+      nation against nation, worship sincerely in the faith of Issa Ben Mariam,
+      we are a shadow and a shield; and such being he whom you seek, even though
+      the light of the Prophet hath not reached him, from me he will only have
+      love, favour, and regard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The anchorite whom I would now visit,&rdquo; said the warlike pilgrim, &ldquo;is, I
+      have heard, no priest; but were he of that anointed and sacred order, I
+      would prove with my good lance, against paynim and infidel&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us not defy each other, brother,&rdquo; interrupted the Saracen; &ldquo;we shall
+      find, either of us, enough of Franks or of Moslemah on whom to exercise
+      both sword and lance. This Theodorick is protected both by Turk and Arab;
+      and, though one of strange conditions at intervals, yet, on the whole, he
+      bears himself so well as the follower of his own prophet, that he merits
+      the protection of him who was sent&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by Our Lady, Saracen,&rdquo; exclaimed the Christian, &ldquo;if thou darest name
+      in the same breath the camel-driver of Mecca with&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An electrical shock of passion thrilled through the form of the Emir; but
+      it was only momentary, and the calmness of his reply had both dignity and
+      reason in it, when he said, &ldquo;Slander not him whom thou knowest not&mdash;the
+      rather that we venerate the founder of thy religion, while we condemn the
+      doctrine which your priests have spun from it. I will myself guide thee to
+      the cavern of the hermit, which, methinks, without my help, thou wouldst
+      find it a hard matter to reach. And, on the way, let us leave to mollahs
+      and to monks to dispute about the divinity of our faith, and speak on
+      themes which belong to youthful warriors&mdash;upon battles, upon
+      beautiful women, upon sharp swords, and upon bright armour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The warriors arose from their place of brief rest and simple refreshment,
+      and courteously aided each other while they carefully replaced and
+      adjusted the harness from which they had relieved for the time their
+      trusty steeds. Each seemed familiar with an employment which at that time
+      was a part of necessary and, indeed, of indispensable duty. Each also
+      seemed to possess, as far as the difference betwixt the animal and
+      rational species admitted, the confidence and affection of the horse which
+      was the constant companion of his travels and his warfare. With the
+      Saracen this familiar intimacy was a part of his early habits; for, in the
+      tents of the Eastern military tribes, the horse of the soldier ranks next
+      to, and almost equal in importance with, his wife and his family; and with
+      the European warrior, circumstances, and indeed necessity, rendered his
+      war-horse scarcely less than his brother in arms. The steeds, therefore,
+      suffered themselves quietly to be taken from their food and liberty, and
+      neighed and snuffled fondly around their masters, while they were
+      adjusting their accoutrements for further travel and additional toil. And
+      each warrior, as he prosecuted his own task, or assisted with courtesy his
+      companion, looked with observant curiosity at the equipments of his
+      fellow-traveller, and noted particularly what struck him as peculiar in
+      the fashion in which he arranged his riding accoutrements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere they remounted to resume their journey, the Christian Knight again
+      moistened his lips and dipped his hands in the living fountain, and said
+      to his pagan associate of the journey, &ldquo;I would I knew the name of this
+      delicious fountain, that I might hold it in my grateful remembrance; for
+      never did water slake more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than I
+      have this day experienced.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is called in the Arabic language,&rdquo; answered the Saracen, &ldquo;by a name
+      which signifies the Diamond of the Desert.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And well is it so named,&rdquo; replied the Christian. &ldquo;My native valley hath a
+      thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I attach hereafter such
+      precious recollection as to this solitary fount, which bestows its liquid
+      treasures where they are not only delightful, but nearly indispensable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say truth,&rdquo; said the Saracen; &ldquo;for the curse is still on yonder sea
+      of death, and neither man nor beast drinks of its waves, nor of the river
+      which feeds without filling it, until this inhospitable desert be passed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They mounted, and pursued their journey across the sandy waste. The ardour
+      of noon was now past, and a light breeze somewhat alleviated the terrors
+      of the desert, though not without bearing on its wings an impalpable dust,
+      which the Saracen little heeded, though his heavily-armed companion felt
+      it as such an annoyance that he hung his iron casque at his saddle-bow,
+      and substituted the light riding-cap, termed in the language of the time a
+      MORTIER, from its resemblance in shape to an ordinary mortar. They rode
+      together for some time in silence, the Saracen performing the part of
+      director and guide of the journey, which he did by observing minute marks
+      and bearings of the distant rocks, to a ridge of which they were gradually
+      approaching. For a little time he seemed absorbed in the task, as a pilot
+      when navigating a vessel through a difficult channel; but they had not
+      proceeded half a league when he seemed secure of his route, and disposed,
+      with more frankness than was usual to his nation, to enter into
+      conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have asked the name,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;of a mute fountain, which hath the
+      semblance, but not the reality, of a living thing. Let me be pardoned to
+      ask the name of the companion with whom I have this day encountered, both
+      in danger and in repose, and which I cannot fancy unknown even here among
+      the deserts of Palestine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not yet worth publishing,&rdquo; said the Christian. &ldquo;Know, however, that
+      among the soldiers of the Cross I am called Kenneth&mdash;Kenneth of the
+      Couching Leopard; at home I have other titles, but they would sound harsh
+      in an Eastern ear. Brave Saracen, let me ask which of the tribes of Arabia
+      claims your descent, and by what name you are known?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Kenneth,&rdquo; said the Moslem, &ldquo;I joy that your name is such as my lips
+      can easily utter. For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my descent from a line
+      neither less wild nor less warlike. Know, Sir Knight of the Leopard, that
+      I am Sheerkohf, the Lion of the Mountain, and that Kurdistan, from which I
+      derive my descent, holds no family more noble than that of Seljook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard,&rdquo; answered the Christian, &ldquo;that your great Soldan claims his
+      blood from the same source?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks to the Prophet that hath so far honoured our mountains as to send
+      from their bosom him whose word is victory,&rdquo; answered the paynim. &ldquo;I am
+      but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria, and yet in my own land
+      something my name may avail. Stranger, with how many men didst thou come
+      on this warfare?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my faith,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;with aid of friends and kinsmen, I was
+      hardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed lances, with maybe some
+      fifty more men, archers and varlets included. Some have deserted my
+      unlucky pennon&mdash;some have fallen in battle&mdash;several have died of
+      disease&mdash;and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing
+      my pilgrimage, lies on the bed of sickness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Christian,&rdquo; said Sheerkohf, &ldquo;here I have five arrows in my quiver, each
+      feathered from the wing of an eagle. When I send one of them to my tents,
+      a thousand warriors mount on horseback&mdash;when I send another, an equal
+      force will arise&mdash;for the five, I can command five thousand men; and
+      if I send my bow, ten thousand mounted riders will shake the desert. And
+      with thy fifty followers thou hast come to invade a land in which I am one
+      of the meanest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by the rood, Saracen,&rdquo; retorted the Western warrior, &ldquo;thou shouldst
+      know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steel glove can crush a whole
+      handful of hornets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, but it must first enclose them within its grasp,&rdquo; said the Saracen,
+      with a smile which might have endangered their new alliance, had he not
+      changed the subject by adding, &ldquo;And is bravery so much esteemed amongst
+      the Christian princes that thou, thus void of means and of men, canst
+      offer, as thou didst of late, to be my protector and security in the camp
+      of thy brethren?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know, Saracen,&rdquo; said the Christian, &ldquo;since such is thy style, that the
+      name of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle him to place
+      himself on the same rank with sovereigns even of the first degree, in so
+      far as regards all but regal authority and dominion. Were Richard of
+      England himself to wound the honour of a knight as poor as I am, he could
+      not, by the law of chivalry, deny him the combat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks I should like to look upon so strange a scene,&rdquo; said the Emir,
+      &ldquo;in which a leathern belt and a pair of spurs put the poorest on a level
+      with the most powerful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must add free blood and a fearless heart,&rdquo; said the Christian; &ldquo;then,
+      perhaps, you will not have spoken untruly of the dignity of knighthood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And mix you as boldly amongst the females of your chiefs and leaders?&rdquo;
+       asked the Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid,&rdquo; said the Knight of the Leopard, &ldquo;that the poorest knight in
+      Christendom should not be free, in all honourable service, to devote his
+      hand and sword, the fame of his actions, and the fixed devotion of his
+      heart, to the fairest princess who ever wore coronet on her brow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a little while since,&rdquo; said the Saracen, &ldquo;and you described love as
+      the highest treasure of the heart&mdash;thine hath undoubtedly been high
+      and nobly bestowed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stranger,&rdquo; answered the Christian, blushing deeply as he spoke, &ldquo;we tell
+      not rashly where it is we have bestowed our choicest treasures. It is
+      enough for thee to know that, as thou sayest, my love is highly and nobly
+      bestowed&mdash;most highly&mdash;most nobly; but if thou wouldst hear of
+      love and broken lances, venture thyself, as thou sayest, to the camp of
+      the Crusaders, and thou wilt find exercise for thine ears, and, if thou
+      wilt, for thy hands too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Eastern warrior, raising himself in his stirrups, and shaking aloft
+      his lance, replied, &ldquo;Hardly, I fear, shall I find one with a crossed
+      shoulder who will exchange with me the cast of the jerrid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not promise for that,&rdquo; replied the Knight; &ldquo;though there be in the
+      camp certain Spaniards, who have right good skill in your Eastern game of
+      hurling the javelin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dogs, and sons of dogs!&rdquo; ejaculated the Saracen; &ldquo;what have these
+      Spaniards to do to come hither to combat the true believers, who, in their
+      own land, are their lords and taskmasters? with them I would mix in no
+      warlike pastime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let not the knights of Leon or Asturias hear you speak thus of them,&rdquo;
+       said the Knight of the Leopard. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; added he, smiling at the
+      recollection of the morning's combat, &ldquo;if, instead of a reed, you were
+      inclined to stand the cast of a battle-axe, there are enough of Western
+      warriors who would gratify your longing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the beard of my father, sir,&rdquo; said the Saracen, with an approach to
+      laughter, &ldquo;the game is too rough for mere sport. I will never shun them in
+      battle, but my head&rdquo; (pressing his hand to his brow) &ldquo;will not, for a
+      while, permit me to seek them in sport.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would you saw the axe of King Richard,&rdquo; answered the Western warrior,
+      &ldquo;to which that which hangs at my saddle-bow weighs but as a feather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We hear much of that island sovereign,&rdquo; said the Saracen. &ldquo;Art thou one
+      of his subjects?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of his followers I am, for this expedition,&rdquo; answered the Knight,
+      &ldquo;and honoured in the service; but not born his subject, although a native
+      of the island in which he reigns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How mean you? &ldquo; said the Eastern soldier; &ldquo;have you then two kings in one
+      poor island?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As thou sayest,&rdquo; said the Scot, for such was Sir Kenneth by birth. &ldquo;It is
+      even so; and yet, although the inhabitants of the two extremities of that
+      island are engaged in frequent war, the country can, as thou seest,
+      furnish forth such a body of men-at-arms as may go far to shake the unholy
+      hold which your master hath laid on the cities of Zion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the beard of Saladin, Nazarene, but that it is a thoughtless and
+      boyish folly, I could laugh at the simplicity of your great Sultan, who
+      comes hither to make conquests of deserts and rocks, and dispute the
+      possession of them with those who have tenfold numbers at command, while
+      he leaves a part of his narrow islet, in which he was born a sovereign, to
+      the dominion of another sceptre than his. Surely, Sir Kenneth, you and the
+      other good men of your country should have submitted yourselves to the
+      dominion of this King Richard ere you left your native land, divided
+      against itself, to set forth on this expedition?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hasty and fierce was Kenneth's answer. &ldquo;No, by the bright light of Heaven!
+      If the King of England had not set forth to the Crusade till he was
+      sovereign of Scotland, the Crescent might, for me, and all true-hearted
+      Scots, glimmer for ever on the walls of Zion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus far he had proceeded, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he
+      muttered, &ldquo;MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA! what have I, a soldier of the Cross, to
+      do with recollection of war betwixt Christian nations!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rapid expression of feeling corrected by the dictates of duty did not
+      escape the Moslem, who, if he did not entirely understand all which it
+      conveyed, saw enough to convince him with the assurance that Christians,
+      as well as Moslemah, had private feelings of personal pique, and national
+      quarrels, which were not entirely reconcilable. But the Saracens were a
+      race, polished, perhaps, to the utmost extent which their religion
+      permitted, and particularly capable of entertaining high ideas of courtesy
+      and politeness; and such sentiments prevented his taking any notice of the
+      inconsistency of Sir Kenneth's feelings in the opposite characters of a
+      Scot and a Crusader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, as they advanced, the scene began to change around them. They
+      were now turning to the eastward, and had reached the range of steep and
+      barren hills which binds in that quarter the naked plain, and varies the
+      surface of the country, without changing its sterile character. Sharp,
+      rocky eminences began to rise around them, and, in a short time, deep
+      declivities and ascents, both formidable in height and difficult from the
+      narrowness of the path, offered to the travellers obstacles of a different
+      kind from those with which they had recently contended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dark caverns and chasms amongst the rocks&mdash;those grottoes so often
+      alluded to in Scripture&mdash;yawned fearfully on either side as they
+      proceeded, and the Scottish knight was informed by the Emir that these
+      were often the refuge of beasts of prey, or of men still more ferocious,
+      who, driven to desperation by the constant war, and the oppression
+      exercised by the soldiery, as well of the Cross as of the Crescent, had
+      become robbers, and spared neither rank nor religion, neither sex nor age,
+      in their depredations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight listened with indifference to the accounts of ravages
+      committed by wild beasts or wicked men, secure as he felt himself in his
+      own valour and personal strength; but he was struck with mysterious dread
+      when he recollected that he was now in the awful wilderness of the forty
+      days' fast, and the scene of the actual personal temptation, wherewith the
+      Evil Principle was permitted to assail the Son of Man. He withdrew his
+      attention gradually from the light and worldly conversation of the infidel
+      warrior beside him, and, however acceptable his gay and gallant bravery
+      would have rendered him as a companion elsewhere, Sir Kenneth felt as if,
+      in those wildernesses the waste and dry places in which the foul spirits
+      were wont to wander when expelled the mortals whose forms they possessed,
+      a bare-footed friar would have been a better associate than the gay but
+      unbelieving paynim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These feelings embarrassed him the rather that the Saracen's spirits
+      appeared to rise with the journey, and because the farther he penetrated
+      into the gloomy recesses of the mountains, the lighter became his
+      conversation, and when he found that unanswered, the louder grew his song.
+      Sir Kenneth knew enough of the Eastern languages to be assured that he
+      chanted sonnets of love, containing all the glowing praises of beauty in
+      which the Oriental poets are so fond of luxuriating, and which, therefore,
+      were peculiarly unfitted for a serious or devotional strain of thought,
+      the feeling best becoming the Wilderness of the Temptation. With
+      inconsistency enough, the Saracen also sung lays in praise of wine, the
+      liquid ruby of the Persian poets; and his gaiety at length became so
+      unsuitable to the Christian knight's contrary train of sentiments, as, but
+      for the promise of amity which they had exchanged, would most likely have
+      made Sir Kenneth take measures to change his note. As it was, the Crusader
+      felt as if he had by his side some gay, licentious fiend, who endeavoured
+      to ensnare his soul, and endanger his immortal salvation, by inspiring
+      loose thoughts of earthly pleasure, and thus polluting his devotion, at a
+      time when his faith as a Christian and his vow as a pilgrim called on him
+      for a serious and penitential state of mind. He was thus greatly
+      perplexed, and undecided how to act; and it was in a tone of hasty
+      displeasure that, at length breaking silence, he interrupted the lay of
+      the celebrated Rudpiki, in which he prefers the mole on his mistress's
+      bosom to all the wealth of Bokhara and Samarcand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saracen,&rdquo; said the Crusader sternly, &ldquo;blinded as thou art, and plunged
+      amidst the errors of a false law, thou shouldst yet comprehend that there
+      are some places more holy than others, and that there are some scenes also
+      in which the Evil One hath more than ordinary power over sinful mortals. I
+      will not tell thee for what awful reason this place&mdash;these rocks&mdash;these
+      caverns with their gloomy arches, leading as it were to the central abyss&mdash;are
+      held an especial haunt of Satan and his angels. It is enough that I have
+      been long warned to beware of this place by wise and holy men, to whom the
+      qualities of the unholy region are well known. Wherefore, Saracen, forbear
+      thy foolish and ill-timed levity, and turn thy thoughts to things more
+      suited to the spot&mdash;although, alas for thee! thy best prayers are but
+      as blasphemy and sin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen listened with some surprise, and then replied, with
+      good-humour and gaiety, only so far repressed as courtesy required, &ldquo;Good
+      Sir Kenneth, methinks you deal unequally by your companion, or else
+      ceremony is but indifferently taught amongst your Western tribes. I took
+      no offence when I saw you gorge hog's flesh and drink wine, and permitted
+      you to enjoy a treat which you called your Christian liberty, only pitying
+      in my heart your foul pastimes. Wherefore, then, shouldst thou take
+      scandal, because I cheer, to the best of my power, a gloomy road with a
+      cheerful verse? What saith the poet, 'Song is like the dews of heaven on
+      the bosom of the desert; it cools the path of the traveller.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Friend Saracen,&rdquo; said the Christian, &ldquo;I blame not the love of minstrelsy
+      and of the GAI SCIENCE; albeit, we yield unto it even too much room in our
+      thoughts when they should be bent on better things. But prayers and holy
+      psalms are better fitting than LAIS of love, or of wine-cups, when men
+      walk in this Valley of the Shadow of Death, full of fiends and demons,
+      whom the prayers of holy men have driven forth from the haunts of humanity
+      to wander amidst scenes as accursed as themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak not thus of the Genii, Christian,&rdquo; answered the Saracen, &ldquo;for know
+      thou speakest to one whose line and nation drew their origin from the
+      immortal race which your sect fear and blaspheme.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I well thought,&rdquo; answered the Crusader, &ldquo;that your blinded race had their
+      descent from the foul fiend, without whose aid you would never have been
+      able to maintain this blessed land of Palestine against so many valiant
+      soldiers of God. I speak not thus of thee in particular, Saracen, but
+      generally of thy people and religion. Strange is it to me, however, not
+      that you should have the descent from the Evil One, but that you should
+      boast of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From whom should the bravest boast of descending, saving from him that is
+      bravest?&rdquo; said the Saracen; &ldquo;from whom should the proudest trace their
+      line so well as from the Dark Spirit, which would rather fall headlong by
+      force than bend the knee by his will? Eblis may be hated, stranger, but he
+      must be feared; and such as Eblis are his descendants of Kurdistan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tales of magic and of necromancy were the learning of the period, and Sir
+      Kenneth heard his companion's confession of diabolical descent without any
+      disbelief, and without much wonder; yet not without a secret shudder at
+      finding himself in this fearful place, in the company of one who avouched
+      himself to belong to such a lineage. Naturally insusceptible, however, of
+      fear, he crossed himself, and stoutly demanded of the Saracen an account
+      of the pedigree which he had boasted. The latter readily complied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know, brave stranger,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that when the cruel Zohauk, one of the
+      descendants of Giamschid, held the throne of Persia, he formed a league
+      with the Powers of Darkness, amidst the secret vaults of Istakhar, vaults
+      which the hands of the elementary spirits had hewn out of the living rock
+      long before Adam himself had an existence. Here he fed, with daily
+      oblations of human blood, two devouring serpents, which had become,
+      according to the poets, a part of himself, and to sustain whom he levied a
+      tax of daily human sacrifices, till the exhausted patience of his subjects
+      caused some to raise up the scimitar of resistance, like the valiant
+      Blacksmith and the victorious Feridoun, by whom the tyrant was at length
+      dethroned, and imprisoned for ever in the dismal caverns of the mountain
+      Damavend. But ere that deliverance had taken place, and whilst the power
+      of the bloodthirsty tyrant was at its height, the band of ravening slaves
+      whom he had sent forth to purvey victims for his daily sacrifice brought
+      to the vaults of the palace of Istakhar seven sisters so beautiful that
+      they seemed seven houris. These seven maidens were the daughters of a
+      sage, who had no treasures save those beauties and his own wisdom. The
+      last was not sufficient to foresee this misfortune, the former seemed
+      ineffectual to prevent it. The eldest exceeded not her twentieth year, the
+      youngest had scarce attained her thirteenth; and so like were they to each
+      other that they could not have been distinguished but for the difference
+      of height, in which they gradually rose in easy gradation above each
+      other, like the ascent which leads to the gates of Paradise. So lovely
+      were these seven sisters when they stood in the darksome vault, disrobed
+      of all clothing saving a cymar of white silk, that their charms moved the
+      hearts of those who were not mortal. Thunder muttered, the earth shook,
+      the wall of the vault was rent, and at the chasm entered one dressed like
+      a hunter, with bow and shafts, and followed by six others, his brethren.
+      They were tall men, and, though dark, yet comely to behold; but their eyes
+      had more the glare of those of the dead than the light which lives under
+      the eyelids of the living. 'Zeineb,' said the leader of the band&mdash;and
+      as he spoke he took the eldest sister by the hand, and his voice was soft,
+      low, and melancholy&mdash;'I am Cothrob, king of the subterranean world,
+      and supreme chief of Ginnistan. I and my brethren are of those who,
+      created out of the pure elementary fire, disdained, even at the command of
+      Omnipotence, to do homage to a clod of earth, because it was called Man.
+      Thou mayest have heard of us as cruel, unrelenting, and persecuting. It is
+      false. We are by nature kind and generous; only vengeful when insulted,
+      only cruel when affronted. We are true to those who trust us; and we have
+      heard the invocations of thy father, the sage Mithrasp, who wisely
+      worships not alone the Origin of Good, but that which is called the Source
+      of Evil. You and your sisters are on the eve of death; but let each give
+      to us one hair from your fair tresses, in token of fealty, and we will
+      carry you many miles from hence to a place of safety, where you may bid
+      defiance to Zohauk and his ministers.' The fear of instant death, saith
+      the poet, is like the rod of the prophet Haroun, which devoured all other
+      rods when transformed into snakes before the King of Pharaoh; and the
+      daughters of the Persian sage were less apt than others to be afraid of
+      the addresses of a spirit. They gave the tribute which Cothrob demanded,
+      and in an instant the sisters were transported to an enchanted castle on
+      the mountains of Tugrut, in Kurdistan, and were never again seen by mortal
+      eye. But in process of time seven youths, distinguished in the war and in
+      the chase, appeared in the environs of the castle of the demons. They were
+      darker, taller, fiercer, and more resolute than any of the scattered
+      inhabitants of the valleys of Kurdistan; and they took to themselves
+      wives, and became fathers of the seven tribes of the Kurdmans, whose
+      valour is known throughout the universe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Christian knight heard with wonder the wild tale, of which Kurdistan
+      still possesses the traces, and, after a moment's thought, replied,
+      &ldquo;Verily, Sir Knight, you have spoken well&mdash;your genealogy may be
+      dreaded and hated, but it cannot be contemned. Neither do I any longer
+      wonder at your obstinacy in a false faith, since, doubtless, it is part of
+      the fiendish disposition which hath descended from your ancestors, those
+      infernal huntsmen, as you have described them, to love falsehood rather
+      than truth; and I no longer marvel that your spirits become high and
+      exalted, and vent themselves in verse and in tunes, when you approach to
+      the places encumbered by the haunting of evil spirits, which must excite
+      in you that joyous feeling which others experience when approaching the
+      land of their human ancestry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my father's beard, I think thou hast the right,&rdquo; said the Saracen,
+      rather amused than offended by the freedom with which the Christian had
+      uttered his reflections; &ldquo;for, though the Prophet (blessed be his name!)
+      hath sown amongst us the seed of a better faith than our ancestors learned
+      in the ghostly halls of Tugrut, yet we are not willing, like other
+      Moslemah, to pass hasty doom on the lofty and powerful elementary spirits
+      from whom we claim our origin. These Genii, according to our belief and
+      hope, are not altogether reprobate, but are still in the way of probation,
+      and may hereafter be punished or rewarded. Leave we this to the mollahs
+      and the imauns. Enough that with us the reverence for these spirits is not
+      altogether effaced by what we have learned from the Koran, and that many
+      of us still sing, in memorial of our fathers' more ancient faith, such
+      verses as these.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he proceeded to chant verses, very ancient in the language and
+      structure, which some have thought derive their source from the
+      worshippers of Arimanes, the Evil Principle.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                AHRIMAN.
+
+     Dark Ahriman, whom Irak still
+     Holds origin of woe and ill!
+     When, bending at thy shrine,
+     We view the world with troubled eye,
+     Where see we 'neath the extended sky,
+     An empire matching thine!
+
+     If the Benigner Power can yield
+     A fountain in the desert field,
+     Where weary pilgrims drink;
+     Thine are the waves that lash the rock,
+     Thine the tornado's deadly shock,
+     Where countless navies sink!
+
+     Or if he bid the soil dispense
+     Balsams to cheer the sinking sense,
+     How few can they deliver
+     From lingering pains, or pang intense,
+     Red Fever, spotted Pestilence,
+     The arrows of thy quiver!
+
+     Chief in Man's bosom sits thy sway,
+     And frequent, while in words we pray
+     Before another throne,
+     Whate'er of specious form be there,
+     The secret meaning of the prayer
+     Is, Ahriman, thine own.
+
+     Say, hast thou feeling, sense, and form,
+     Thunder thy voice, thy garments storm,
+     As Eastern Magi say;
+     With sentient soul of hate and wrath,
+     And wings to sweep thy deadly path,
+     And fangs to tear thy prey?
+
+     Or art thou mix'd in Nature's source,
+     An ever-operating force,
+     Converting good to ill;
+     An evil principle innate,
+     Contending with our better fate,
+     And, oh!  victorious still?
+
+     Howe'er it be, dispute is vain.
+     On all without thou hold'st thy reign,
+     Nor less on all within;
+     Each mortal passion's fierce career,
+     Love, hate, ambition, joy, and fear,
+     Thou goadest into sin.
+
+     Whene'er a sunny gleam appears,
+     To brighten up our vale of tears,
+     Thou art not distant far;
+     'Mid such brief solace of our lives,
+     Thou whett'st our very banquet-knives
+     To tools of death and war.
+
+     Thus, from the moment of our birth,
+     Long as we linger on the earth,
+     Thou rulest the fate of men;
+     Thine are the pangs of life's last hour,
+     And&mdash;who dare answer?&mdash;is thy power,
+     Dark Spirit!  ended THEN?
+
+     [The worthy and learned clergyman by whom this species of
+     hymn has been translated desires, that, for fear of
+     misconception, we should warn the reader to recollect that
+     it is composed by a heathen, to whom the real causes of
+     moral and physical evil are unknown, and who views their
+     predominance in the system of the universe as all must view
+     that appalling fact who have not the benefit of the
+     Christian revelation.  On our own part, we beg to add, that
+     we understand the style of the translator is more
+     paraphrastic than can be approved by those who are
+     acquainted with the singularly curious original.  The
+     translator seems to have despaired of rendering into English
+     verse the flights of Oriental poetry; and, possibly, like
+     many learned and ingenious men, finding it impossible to
+     discover the sense of the original, he may have tacitly
+     substituted his own.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      These verses may perhaps have been the not unnatural effusion of some
+      half-enlightened philosopher, who, in the fabled deity, Arimanes, saw but
+      the prevalence of moral and physical evil; but in the ears of Sir Kenneth
+      of the Leopard they had a different effect, and, sung as they were by one
+      who had just boasted himself a descendant of demons, sounded very like an
+      address of worship to the arch-fiend himself. He weighed within himself
+      whether, on hearing such blasphemy in the very desert where Satan had
+      stood rebuked for demanding homage, taking an abrupt leave of the Saracen
+      was sufficient to testify his abhorrence; or whether he was not rather
+      constrained by his vow as a Crusader to defy the infidel to combat on the
+      spot, and leave him food for the beasts of the wilderness, when his
+      attention was suddenly caught by an unexpected apparition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light was now verging low, yet served the knight still to discern that
+      they two were no longer alone in the desert, but were closely watched by a
+      figure of great height and very thin, which skipped over rocks and bushes
+      with so much agility as, added to the wild and hirsute appearance of the
+      individual, reminded him of the fauns and silvans, whose images he had
+      seen in the ancient temples of Rome. As the single-hearted Scottishman had
+      never for a moment doubted these gods of the ancient Gentiles to be
+      actually devils, so he now hesitated not to believe that the blasphemous
+      hymn of the Saracen had raised up an infernal spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what recks it?&rdquo; said stout Sir Kenneth to himself; &ldquo;down with the
+      fiend and his worshippers!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not, however, think it necessary to give the same warning of
+      defiance to two enemies as he would unquestionably have afforded to one.
+      His hand was upon his mace, and perhaps the unwary Saracen would have been
+      paid for his Persian poetry by having his brains dashed out on the spot,
+      without any reason assigned for it; but the Scottish Knight was spared
+      from committing what would have been a sore blot in his shield of arms.
+      The apparition, on which his eyes had been fixed for some time, had at
+      first appeared to dog their path by concealing itself behind rocks and
+      shrubs, using those advantages of the ground with great address, and
+      surmounting its irregularities with surprising agility. At length, just as
+      the Saracen paused in his song, the figure, which was that of a tall man
+      clothed in goat-skins, sprung into the midst of the path, and seized a
+      rein of the Saracen's bridle in either hand, confronting thus and bearing
+      back the noble horse, which, unable to endure the manner in which this
+      sudden assailant pressed the long-armed bit, and the severe curb, which,
+      according to the Eastern fashion, was a solid ring of iron, reared
+      upright, and finally fell backwards on his master, who, however, avoided
+      the peril of the fall by lightly throwing himself to one side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The assailant then shifted his grasp from the bridle of the horse to the
+      throat of the rider, flung himself above the struggling Saracen, and,
+      despite of his youth and activity kept him undermost, wreathing his long
+      arms above those of his prisoner, who called out angrily, and yet
+      half-laughing at the same time&mdash;&ldquo;Hamako&mdash;fool&mdash;unloose me&mdash;this
+      passes thy privilege&mdash;unloose me, or I will use my dagger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy dagger!&mdash;infidel dog!&rdquo; said the figure in the goat-skins, &ldquo;hold
+      it in thy gripe if thou canst!&rdquo; and in an instant he wrenched the
+      Saracen's weapon out of its owner's hand, and brandished it over his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Help, Nazarene!&rdquo; cried Sheerkohf, now seriously alarmed; &ldquo;help, or the
+      Hamako will slay me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slay thee!&rdquo; replied the dweller of the desert; &ldquo;and well hast thou
+      merited death, for singing thy blasphemous hymns, not only to the praise
+      of thy false prophet, who is the foul fiend's harbinger, but to that of
+      the Author of Evil himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Christian Knight had hitherto looked on as one stupefied, so strangely
+      had this rencontre contradicted, in its progress and event, all that he
+      had previously conjectured. He felt, however, at length, that it touched
+      his honour to interfere in behalf of his discomfited companion, and
+      therefore addressed himself to the victorious figure in the goat-skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whosoe'er thou art,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and whether of good or of evil, know that
+      I am sworn for the time to be true companion to the Saracen whom thou
+      holdest under thee; therefore, I pray thee to let him arise, else I will
+      do battle with thee in his behalf.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a proper quarrel it were,&rdquo; answered the Hamako, &ldquo;for a Crusader to do
+      battle in&mdash;for the sake of an unbaptized dog, to combat one of his
+      own holy faith! Art thou come forth to the wilderness to fight for the
+      Crescent against the Cross? A goodly soldier of God art thou to listen to
+      those who sing the praises of Satan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, while he spoke thus, he arose himself, and, suffering the Saracen to
+      rise also, returned him his cangiar, or poniard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou seest to what a point of peril thy presumption hath brought thee,&rdquo;
+       continued he of the goat-skins, now addressing Sheerkohf, &ldquo;and by what
+      weak means thy practised skill and boasted agility can be foiled, when
+      such is Heaven's pleasure. Wherefore, beware, O Ilderim! for know that,
+      were there not a twinkle in the star of thy nativity which promises for
+      thee something that is good and gracious in Heaven's good time, we two had
+      not parted till I had torn asunder the throat which so lately trilled
+      forth blasphemies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hamako,&rdquo; said the Saracen, without any appearance of resenting the
+      violent language and yet more violent assault to which he had been
+      subjected, &ldquo;I pray thee, good Hamako, to beware how thou dost again urge
+      thy privilege over far; for though, as a good Moslem, I respect those whom
+      Heaven hath deprived of ordinary reason, in order to endow them with the
+      spirit of prophecy, yet I like not other men's hands on the bridle of my
+      horse, neither upon my own person. Speak, therefore, what thou wilt,
+      secure of any resentment from me; but gather so much sense as to apprehend
+      that if thou shalt again proffer me any violence, I will strike thy
+      shagged head from thy meagre shoulders.&mdash;and to thee, friend
+      Kenneth,&rdquo; he added, as he remounted his steed, &ldquo;I must needs say, that in
+      a companion through the desert, I love friendly deeds better than fair
+      words. Of the last thou hast given me enough; but it had been better to
+      have aided me more speedily in my struggle with this Hamako, who had
+      well-nigh taken my life in his frenzy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my faith,&rdquo; said the Knight, &ldquo;I did somewhat fail&mdash;was somewhat
+      tardy in rendering thee instant help; but the strangeness of the
+      assailant, the suddenness of the scene&mdash;it was as if thy wild and
+      wicked lay had raised the devil among us&mdash;and such was my confusion,
+      that two or three minutes elapsed ere I could take to my weapon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art but a cold and considerate friend,&rdquo; said the Saracen; &ldquo;and, had
+      the Hamako been one grain more frantic, thy companion had been slain by
+      thy side, to thy eternal dishonour, without thy stirring a finger in his
+      aid, although thou satest by, mounted, and in arms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my word, Saracen,&rdquo; said the Christian, &ldquo;if thou wilt have it in plain
+      terms, I thought that strange figure was the devil; and being of thy
+      lineage, I knew not what family secret you might be communicating to each
+      other, as you lay lovingly rolling together on the sand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy gibe is no answer, brother Kenneth,&rdquo; said the Saracen; &ldquo;for know,
+      that had my assailant been in very deed the Prince of Darkness, thou wert
+      bound not the less to enter into combat with him in thy comrade's behalf.
+      Know, also, that whatever there may be of foul or of fiendish about the
+      Hamako belongs more to your lineage than to mine&mdash;this Hamako being,
+      in truth, the anchorite whom thou art come hither to visit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This!&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, looking at the athletic yet wasted figure before
+      him&mdash;&ldquo;this! Thou mockest, Saracen&mdash;this cannot be the venerable
+      Theodorick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask himself, if thou wilt not believe me,&rdquo; answered Sheerkohf; and ere
+      the words had left his mouth, the hermit gave evidence in his own behalf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Theodorick of Engaddi,&rdquo; he said&mdash;&ldquo;I am the walker of the desert&mdash;I
+      am friend of the Cross, and flail of all infidels, heretics, and
+      devil-worshippers. Avoid ye, avoid ye! Down with Mahound, Termagaunt, and
+      all their adherents!&rdquo;&mdash;So saying, he pulled from under his shaggy
+      garment a sort of flail or jointed club, bound with iron, which he
+      brandished round his head with singular dexterity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou seest thy saint,&rdquo; said the Saracen, laughing, for the first time, at
+      the unmitigated astonishment with which Sir Kenneth looked on the wild
+      gestures and heard the wayward muttering of Theodorick, who, after
+      swinging his flail in every direction, apparently quite reckless whether
+      it encountered the head of either of his companions, finally showed his
+      own strength, and the soundness of the weapon, by striking into fragments
+      a large stone which lay near him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a madman,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the worse saint,&rdquo; returned the Moslem, speaking according to the
+      well-known Eastern belief, that madmen are under the influence of
+      immediate inspiration. &ldquo;Know, Christian, that when one eye is
+      extinguished, the other becomes more keen; when one hand is cut off, the
+      other becomes more powerful; so, when our reason in human things is
+      disturbed or destroyed, our view heavenward becomes more acute and
+      perfect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the voice of the Saracen was drowned in that of the hermit, who began
+      to hollo aloud in a wild, chanting tone, &ldquo;I am Theodorick of Engaddi&mdash;I
+      am the torch-brand of the desert&mdash;I am the flail of the infidels! The
+      lion and the leopard shall be my comrades, and draw nigh to my cell for
+      shelter; neither shall the goat be afraid of their fangs. I am the torch
+      and the lantern&mdash;Kyrie Eleison!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He closed his song by a short race, and ended that again by three forward
+      bounds, which would have done him great credit in a gymnastic academy, but
+      became his character of hermit so indifferently that the Scottish Knight
+      was altogether confounded and bewildered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen seemed to understand him better. &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that he
+      expects us to follow him to his cell, which, indeed, is our only place of
+      refuge for the night. You are the leopard, from the portrait on your
+      shield; I am the lion, as my name imports; and by the goat, alluding to
+      his garb of goat-skins, he means himself. We must keep him in sight,
+      however, for he is as fleet as a dromedary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, the task was a difficult one, for though the reverend guide
+      stopped from time to time, and waved his hand, as if to encourage them to
+      come on, yet, well acquainted with all the winding dells and passes of the
+      desert, and gifted with uncommon activity, which, perhaps, an unsettled
+      state of mind kept in constant exercise, he led the knights through chasms
+      and along footpaths where even the light-armed Saracen, with his
+      well-trained barb, was in considerable risk, and where the iron-sheathed
+      European and his over-burdened steed found themselves in such imminent
+      peril as the rider would gladly have exchanged for the dangers of a
+      general action. Glad he was when, at length, after this wild race, he
+      beheld the holy man who had led it standing in front of a cavern, with a
+      large torch in his hand, composed of a piece of wood dipped in bitumen,
+      which cast a broad and flickering light, and emitted a strong sulphureous
+      smell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Undeterred by the stifling vapour, the knight threw himself from his horse
+      and entered the cavern, which afforded small appearance of accommodation.
+      The cell was divided into two parts, in the outward of which were an altar
+      of stone and a crucifix made of reeds: this served the anchorite for his
+      chapel. On one side of this outward cave the Christian knight, though not
+      without scruple, arising from religious reverence to the objects around,
+      fastened up his horse, and arranged him for the night, in imitation of the
+      Saracen, who gave him to understand that such was the custom of the place.
+      The hermit, meanwhile, was busied putting his inner apartment in order to
+      receive his guests, and there they soon joined him. At the bottom of the
+      outer cave, a small aperture, closed with a door of rough plank, led into
+      the sleeping apartment of the hermit, which was more commodious. The floor
+      had been brought to a rough level by the labour of the inhabitant, and
+      then strewed with white sand, which he daily sprinkled with water from a
+      small fountain which bubbled out of the rock in one corner, affording in
+      that stifling climate, refreshment alike to the ear and the taste.
+      Mattresses, wrought of twisted flags, lay by the side of the cell; the
+      sides, like the floor, had been roughly brought to shape, and several
+      herbs and flowers were hung around them. Two waxen torches, which the
+      hermit lighted, gave a cheerful air to the place, which was rendered
+      agreeable by its fragrance and coolness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were implements of labour in one corner of the apartment, in another
+      was a niche for a rude statue of the Virgin. A table and two chairs showed
+      that they must be the handiwork of the anchorite, being different in their
+      form from Oriental accommodations. The former was covered, not only with
+      reeds and pulse, but also with dried flesh, which Theodorick assiduously
+      placed in such arrangement as should invite the appetite of his guests.
+      This appearance of courtesy, though mute, and expressed by gestures only,
+      seemed to Sir Kenneth something entirely irreconcilable with his former
+      wild and violent demeanour. The movements of the hermit were now become
+      composed, and apparently it was only a sense of religious humiliation
+      which prevented his features, emaciated as they were by his austere mode
+      of life, from being majestic and noble. He trod his cell as one who seemed
+      born to rule over men, but who had abdicated his empire to become the
+      servant of Heaven. Still, it must be allowed that his gigantic size, the
+      length of his unshaven locks and beard, and the fire of a deep-set and
+      wild eye were rather attributes of a soldier than of a recluse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the Saracen seemed to regard the anchorite with some veneration,
+      while he was thus employed, and he whispered in a low tone to Sir Kenneth,
+      &ldquo;The Hamako is now in his better mind, but he will not speak until we have
+      eaten&mdash;such is his vow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in silence, accordingly, that Theodorick motioned to the Scot to
+      take his place on one of the low chairs, while Sheerkohf placed himself,
+      after the custom of his nation, upon a cushion of mats. The hermit then
+      held up both hands, as if blessing the refreshment which he had placed
+      before his guests, and they proceeded to eat in silence as profound as his
+      own. To the Saracen this gravity was natural; and the Christian imitated
+      his taciturnity, while he employed his thoughts on the singularity of his
+      own situation, and the contrast betwixt the wild, furious gesticulations,
+      loud cries, and fierce actions of Theodorick, when they first met him, and
+      the demure, solemn, decorous assiduity with which he now performed the
+      duties of hospitality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When their meal was ended, the hermit, who had not himself eaten a morsel,
+      removed the fragments from the table, and placing before the Saracen a
+      pitcher of sherbet, assigned to the Scot a flask of wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drink,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;my children&rdquo;&mdash;they were the first words he had
+      spoken&mdash;&ldquo;the gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is
+      remembered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having said this, he retired to the outward cell, probably for performance
+      of his devotions, and left his guests together in the inner apartment;
+      when Sir Kenneth endeavoured, by various questions, to draw from Sheerkohf
+      what that Emir knew concerning his host. He was interested by more than
+      mere curiosity in these inquiries. Difficult as it was to reconcile the
+      outrageous demeanour of the recluse at his first appearance with his
+      present humble and placid behaviour, it seemed yet more impossible to
+      think it consistent with the high consideration in which, according to
+      what Sir Kenneth had learned, this hermit was held by the most enlightened
+      divines of the Christian world. Theodorick, the hermit of Engaddi, had, in
+      that character, been the correspondent of popes and councils; to whom his
+      letters, full of eloquent fervour, had described the miseries imposed by
+      the unbelievers upon the Latin Christians in the Holy Land, in colours
+      scarce inferior to those employed at the Council of Clermont by the Hermit
+      Peter, when he preached the first Crusade. To find, in a person so
+      reverend and so much revered, the frantic gestures of a mad fakir, induced
+      the Christian knight to pause ere he could resolve to communicate to him
+      certain important matters, which he had in charge from some of the leaders
+      of the Crusade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been a main object of Sir Kenneth's pilgrimage, attempted by a
+      route so unusual, to make such communications; but what he had that night
+      seen induced him to pause and reflect ere he proceeded to the execution of
+      his commission. From the Emir he could not extract much information, but
+      the general tenor was as follows:&mdash;That, as he had heard, the hermit
+      had been once a brave and valiant soldier, wise in council and fortunate
+      in battle, which last he could easily believe from the great strength and
+      agility which he had often seen him display; that he had appeared at
+      Jerusalem in the character not of a pilgrim, but in that of one who had
+      devoted himself to dwell for the remainder of his life in the Holy Land.
+      Shortly afterwards, he fixed his residence amid the scenes of desolation
+      where they now found him, respected by the Latins for his austere
+      devotion, and by the Turks and Arabs on account of the symptoms of
+      insanity which he displayed, and which they ascribed to inspiration. It
+      was from them he had the name of Hamako, which expresses such a character
+      in the Turkish language. Sheerkohf himself seemed at a loss how to rank
+      their host. He had been, he said, a wise man, and could often for many
+      hours together speak lessons of virtue or wisdom, without the slightest
+      appearance of inaccuracy. At other times he was wild and violent, but
+      never before had he seen him so mischievously disposed as he had that day
+      appeared to be. His rage was chiefly provoked by any affront to his
+      religion; and there was a story of some wandering Arabs, who had insulted
+      his worship and defaced his altar, and whom he had on that account
+      attacked and slain with the short flail which he carried with him in lieu
+      of all other weapons. This incident had made a great noise, and it was as
+      much the fear of the hermit's iron flail as regard for his character as a
+      Hamako which caused the roving tribes to respect his dwelling and his
+      chapel. His fame had spread so far that Saladin had issued particular
+      orders that he should be spared and protected. He himself, and other
+      Moslem lords of rank, had visited the cell more than once, partly from
+      curiosity, partly that they expected from a man so learned as the
+      Christian Hamako some insight into the secrets of futurity. &ldquo;He had,&rdquo;
+       continued the Saracen, &ldquo;a rashid, or observatory, of great height,
+      contrived to view the heavenly bodies, and particularly the planetary
+      system&mdash;by whose movements and influences, as both Christian and
+      Moslem believed, the course of human events was regulated, and might be
+      predicted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the substance of the Emir Sheerkohf's information, and it left
+      Sir Kenneth in doubt whether the character of insanity arose from the
+      occasional excessive fervour of the hermit's zeal, or whether it was not
+      altogether fictitious, and assumed for the sake of the immunities which it
+      afforded. Yet it seemed that the infidels had carried their complaisance
+      towards him to an uncommon length, considering the fanaticism of the
+      followers of Mohammed, in the midst of whom he was living, though the
+      professed enemy of their faith. He thought also there was more intimacy of
+      acquaintance betwixt the hermit and the Saracen than the words of the
+      latter had induced him to anticipate; and it had not escaped him that the
+      former had called the latter by a name different from that which he
+      himself had assumed. All these considerations authorized caution, if not
+      suspicion. He determined to observe his host closely, and not to be
+      over-hasty in communicating with him on the important charge entrusted to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beware, Saracen,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;methinks our host's imagination wanders as
+      well on the subject of names as upon other matters. Thy name is Sheerkohf,
+      and he called thee but now by another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name, when in the tent of my father,&rdquo; replied the Kurdman, &ldquo;was
+      Ilderim, and by this I am still distinguished by many. In the field, and
+      to soldiers, I am known as the Lion of the Mountain, being the name my
+      good sword hath won for me. But hush, the Hamako comes&mdash;it is to warn
+      us to rest. I know his custom; none must watch him at his vigils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The anchorite accordingly entered, and folding his arms on his bosom as he
+      stood before them, said with a solemn voice, &ldquo;Blessed be His name, who
+      hath appointed the quiet night to follow the busy day, and the calm sleep
+      to refresh the wearied limbs and to compose the troubled spirit!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both warriors replied &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; and, arising from the table, prepared to
+      betake themselves to the couches, which their host indicated by waving his
+      hand, as, making a reverence to each, he again withdrew from the
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Leopard then disarmed himself of his heavy panoply, his
+      Saracen companion kindly assisting him to undo his buckler and clasps,
+      until he remained in the close dress of chamois leather, which knights and
+      men-at-arms used to wear under their harness. The Saracen, if he had
+      admired the strength of his adversary when sheathed in steel, was now no
+      less struck with the accuracy of proportion displayed in his nervous and
+      well-compacted figure. The knight, on the other hand, as, in exchange of
+      courtesy, he assisted the Saracen to disrobe himself of his upper
+      garments, that he might sleep with more convenience, was, on his side, at
+      a loss to conceive how such slender proportions and slimness of figure
+      could be reconciled with the vigour he had displayed in personal contest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each warrior prayed ere he addressed himself to his place of rest. The
+      Moslem turned towards his KEBLAH, the point to which the prayer of each
+      follower of the Prophet was to be addressed, and murmured his heathen
+      orisons; while the Christian, withdrawing from the contamination of the
+      infidel's neighbourhood, placed his huge cross-handled sword upright, and
+      kneeling before it as the sign of salvation, told his rosary with a
+      devotion which was enhanced by the recollection of the scenes through
+      which he had passed, and the dangers from which he had been rescued, in
+      the course of the day. Both warriors, worn by toil and travel, were soon
+      fast asleep, each on his separate pallet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Kenneth the Scot was uncertain how long his senses had been lost in
+      profound repose, when he was roused to recollection by a sense of
+      oppression on his chest, which at first suggested a flirting dream of
+      struggling with a powerful opponent, and at length recalled him fully to
+      his senses. He was about to demand who was there, when, opening his eyes,
+      he beheld the figure of the anchorite, wild and savage-looking as we have
+      described him, standing by his bedside, and pressing his right hand upon
+      his breast, while he held a small silver lamp in the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be silent,&rdquo; said the hermit, as the prostrate knight looked up in
+      surprise; &ldquo;I have that to say to you which yonder infidel must not hear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words he spoke in the French language, and not in the lingua franca,
+      or compound of Eastern and European dialects, which had hitherto been used
+      amongst them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arise,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;put on thy mantle; speak not, but tread lightly,
+      and follow me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth arose, and took his sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It needs not,&rdquo; answered the anchorite, in a whisper; &ldquo;we are going where
+      spiritual arms avail much, and fleshly weapons are but as the reed and the
+      decayed gourd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight deposited his sword by the bedside as before, and, armed only
+      with his dagger, from which in this perilous country he never parted,
+      prepared to attend his mysterious host.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hermit then moved slowly forwards, and was followed by the knight,
+      still under some uncertainty whether the dark form which glided on before
+      to show him the path was not, in fact, the creation of a disturbed dream.
+      They passed, like shadows, into the outer apartment, without disturbing
+      the paynim Emir, who lay still buried in repose. Before the cross and
+      altar, in the outward room, a lamp was still burning, a missal was
+      displayed, and on the floor lay a discipline, or penitential scourge of
+      small cord and wire, the lashes of which were recently stained with blood&mdash;a
+      token, no doubt, of the severe penance of the recluse. Here Theodorick
+      kneeled down, and pointed to the knight to take his place beside him upon
+      the sharp flints, which seemed placed for the purpose of rendering the
+      posture of reverential devotion as uneasy as possible. He read many
+      prayers of the Catholic Church, and chanted, in a low but earnest voice,
+      three of the penitential psalms. These last he intermixed with sighs, and
+      tears, and convulsive throbs, which bore witness how deeply he felt the
+      divine poetry which he recited. The Scottish knight assisted with profound
+      sincerity at these acts of devotion, his opinion of his host beginning, in
+      the meantime, to be so much changed, that he doubted whether, from the
+      severity of his penance and the ardour of his prayers, he ought not to
+      regard him as a saint; and when they arose from the ground, he stood with
+      reverence before him, as a pupil before an honoured master. The hermit
+      was, on his side, silent and abstracted for the space of a few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look into yonder recess, my son,&rdquo; he said, pointing to the farther corner
+      of the cell; &ldquo;there thou wilt find a veil&mdash;bring it hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight obeyed, and in a small aperture cut out of the wall, and
+      secured with a door of wicker, he found the veil inquired for. When he
+      brought it to the light, he discovered that it was torn, and soiled in
+      some places with some dark substance. The anchorite looked at it with a
+      deep but smothered emotion, and ere he could speak to the Scottish knight,
+      was compelled to vent his feelings in a convulsive groan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art now about to look upon the richest treasure that the earth
+      possesses,&rdquo; he at length said; &ldquo;woe is me, that my eyes are unworthy to be
+      lifted towards it! Alas! I am but the vile and despised sign, which points
+      out to the wearied traveller a harbour of rest and security, but must
+      itself remain for ever without doors. In vain have I fled to the very
+      depths of the rocks, and the very bosom of the thirsty desert. Mine enemy
+      hath found me&mdash;even he whom I have denied has pursued me to my
+      fortresses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused again for a moment, and turning to the Scottish knight, said, in
+      a firmer tone of voice, &ldquo;You bring me a greeting from Richard of England?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come from the Council of Christian Princes,&rdquo; said the knight; &ldquo;but the
+      King of England being indisposed, I am not honoured with his Majesty's
+      commands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your token?&rdquo; demanded the recluse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth hesitated. Former suspicions, and the marks of insanity which
+      the hermit had formerly exhibited, rushed suddenly on his thoughts; but
+      how suspect a man whose manners were so saintly? &ldquo;My password,&rdquo; he said at
+      length, &ldquo;is this&mdash;Kings begged of a beggar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right,&rdquo; said the hermit, while he paused. &ldquo;I know you well; but the
+      sentinel upon his post&mdash;and mine is an important one&mdash;challenges
+      friend as well as foe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He then moved forward with the lamp, leading the way into the room which
+      they had left. The Saracen lay on his couch, still fast asleep. The hermit
+      paused by his side, and looked down on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He sleeps,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;in darkness, and must not be awakened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The attitude of the Emir did indeed convey the idea of profound repose.
+      One arm, flung across his body, as he lay with his face half turned to the
+      wall, concealed, with its loose and long sleeve, the greater part of his
+      face; but the high forehead was yet visible. Its nerves, which during his
+      waking hours were so uncommonly active, were now motionless, as if the
+      face had been composed of dark marble, and his long silken eyelashes
+      closed over his piercing and hawklike eyes. The open and relaxed hand, and
+      the deep, regular, and soft breathing, all gave tokens of the most
+      profound repose. The slumberer formed a singular group along with the tall
+      forms of the hermit in his shaggy dress of goat-skins, bearing the lamp,
+      and the knight in his close leathern coat&mdash;the former with an austere
+      expression of ascetic gloom, the latter with anxious curiosity deeply
+      impressed on his manly features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He sleeps soundly,&rdquo; said the hermit, in the same low tone as before; and
+      repeating the words, though he had changed the meaning from that which is
+      literal to a metaphorical sense&mdash;&ldquo;he sleeps in darkness, but there
+      shall be for him a dayspring.&mdash;O Ilderim, thy waking thoughts are yet
+      as vain and wild as those which are wheeling their giddy dance through thy
+      sleeping brain; but the trumpet shall be heard, and the dream shall be
+      dissolved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, and making the knight a sign to follow him, the hermit went
+      towards the altar, and passing behind it, pressed a spring, which, opening
+      without noise, showed a small iron door wrought in the side of the cavern,
+      so as to be almost imperceptible, unless upon the most severe scrutiny.
+      The hermit, ere he ventured fully to open the door, dropped some oil on
+      the hinges, which the lamp supplied. A small staircase, hewn in the rock,
+      was discovered, when the iron door was at length completely opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the veil which I hold,&rdquo; said the hermit, in a melancholy tone, &ldquo;and
+      blind mine eyes; For I may not look on the treasure which thou art
+      presently to behold, without sin and presumption.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without reply, the knight hastily muffled the recluse's head in the veil,
+      and the latter began to ascend the staircase as one too much accustomed to
+      the way to require the use of light, while at the same time he held the
+      lamp to the Scot, who followed him for many steps up the narrow ascent. At
+      length they rested in a small vault of irregular form, in one nook of
+      which the staircase terminated, while in another corner a corresponding
+      stair was seen to continue the ascent. In a third angle was a Gothic door,
+      very rudely ornamented with the usual attributes of clustered columns and
+      carving, and defended by a wicket, strongly guarded with iron, and studded
+      with large nails. To this last point the hermit directed his steps, which
+      seemed to falter as he approached it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put off thy shoes,&rdquo; he said to his attendant; &ldquo;the ground on which thou
+      standest is holy. Banish from thy innermost heart each profane and carnal
+      thought, for to harbour such while in this place were a deadly impiety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight laid aside his shoes as he was commanded, and the hermit stood
+      in the meanwhile as if communing with his soul in secret prayer, and when
+      he again moved, commanded the knight to knock at the wicket three times.
+      He did so. The door opened spontaneously&mdash;at least Sir Kenneth beheld
+      no one&mdash;and his senses were at once assailed by a stream of the
+      purest light, and by a strong and almost oppressive sense of the richest
+      perfumes. He stepped two or three paces back, and it was the space of a
+      minute ere he recovered the dazzling and overpowering effects of the
+      sudden change from darkness to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he entered the apartment in which this brilliant lustre was
+      displayed, he perceived that the light proceeded from a combination of
+      silver lamps, fed with purest oil, and sending forth the richest odours,
+      hanging by silver chains from the roof of a small Gothic chapel, hewn,
+      like most part of the hermit's singular mansion, out of the sound and
+      solid rock. But whereas, in every other place which Sir Kenneth had seen,
+      the labour employed upon the rock had been of the simplest and coarsest
+      description, it had in this chapel employed the invention and the chisels
+      of the most able architects. The groined roofs rose from six columns on
+      each side, carved with the rarest skill; and the manner in which the
+      crossings of the concave arches were bound together, as it were, with
+      appropriate ornaments, were all in the finest tone of the architecture of
+      the age. Corresponding to the line of pillars, there were on each side six
+      richly-wrought niches, each of which contained the image of one of the
+      twelve apostles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the upper and eastern end of the chapel stood the altar, behind which a
+      very rich curtain of Persian silk, embroidered deeply with gold, covered a
+      recess, containing, unquestionably, some image or relic of no ordinary
+      sanctity, in honour of which this singular place of worship had been
+      erected, Under the persuasion that this must be the case, the knight
+      advanced to the shrine, and kneeling down before it, repeated his
+      devotions with fervency, during which his attention was disturbed by the
+      curtain being suddenly raised, or rather pulled aside, how or by whom he
+      saw not; but in the niche which was thus disclosed he beheld a cabinet of
+      silver and ebony, with a double folding-door, the whole formed into the
+      miniature resemblance of a Gothic church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he gazed with anxious curiosity on the shrine, the two folding-doors
+      also flew open, discovering a large piece of wood, on which were blazoned
+      the words, VERA CRUX; at the same time a choir of female voices sung
+      GLORIA PATRI. The instant the strain had ceased, the shrine was closed,
+      and the curtain again drawn, and the knight who knelt at the altar might
+      now continue his devotions undisturbed, in honour of the holy relic which
+      had been just disclosed to his view. He did this under the profound
+      impression of one who had witnessed, with his own eyes, an awful evidence
+      of the truth of his religion; and it was some time ere, concluding his
+      orisons, he arose, and ventured to look around him for the hermit, who had
+      guided him to this sacred and mysterious spot. He beheld him, his head
+      still muffled in the veil which he had himself wrapped around it,
+      crouching, like a rated hound, upon the threshold of the chapel; but,
+      apparently, without venturing to cross it&mdash;the holiest reverence, the
+      most penitential remorse, was expressed by his posture, which seemed that
+      of a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the burden of his inward
+      feelings. It seemed to the Scot that only the sense of the deepest
+      penitence, remorse, and humiliation could have thus prostrated a frame so
+      strong and a spirit so fiery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He approached him as if to speak; but the recluse anticipated his purpose,
+      murmuring in stifled tones, from beneath the fold in which his head was
+      muffled, and which sounded like a voice proceeding from the cerements of a
+      corpse,&mdash;&ldquo;Abide, abide&mdash;happy thou that mayest&mdash;the vision
+      is not yet ended.&rdquo; So saying, he reared himself from the ground, drew back
+      from the threshold on which he had hitherto lain prostrate, and closed the
+      door of the chapel, which, secured by a spring bolt within, the snap of
+      which resounded through the place, appeared so much like a part of the
+      living rock from which the cavern was hewn, that Kenneth could hardly
+      discern where the aperture had been. He was now alone in the lighted
+      chapel which contained the relic to which he had lately rendered his
+      homage, without other arms than his dagger, or other companion than his
+      pious thoughts and dauntless courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncertain what was next to happen, but resolved to abide the course of
+      events, Sir Kenneth paced the solitary chapel till about the time of the
+      earliest cock-crowing. At this dead season, when night and morning met
+      together, he heard, but from what quarter he could not discover, the sound
+      of such a small silver bell as is rung at the elevation of the host in the
+      ceremony, or sacrifice, as it has been called, of the mass. The hour and
+      the place rendered the sound fearfully solemn, and, bold as he was, the
+      knight withdrew himself into the farther nook of the chapel, at the end
+      opposite to the altar, in order to observe, without interruption, the
+      consequences of this unexpected signal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not wait long ere the silken curtain was again withdrawn, and the
+      relic again presented to his view. As he sunk reverentially on his knee,
+      he heard the sound of the lauds, or earliest office of the Catholic
+      Church, sung by female voices, which united together in the performance as
+      they had done in the former service. The knight was soon aware that the
+      voices were no longer stationary in the distance, but approached the
+      chapel and became louder, when a door, imperceptible when closed, like
+      that by which he had himself entered, opened on the other side of the
+      vault, and gave the tones of the choir more room to swell along the ribbed
+      arches of the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and,
+      continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene
+      required, expected the consequence of these preparations. A procession
+      appeared about to issue from the door. First, four beautiful boys, whose
+      arms, necks, and legs were bare, showing the bronze complexion of the
+      East, and contrasting with the snow-white tunics which they wore, entered
+      the chapel by two and two. The first pair bore censers, which they swung
+      from side to side, adding double fragrance to the odours with which the
+      chapel already was impregnated. The second pair scattered flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After these followed, in due and majestic order, the females who composed
+      the choir&mdash;six, who from their black scapularies, and black veils
+      over their white garments, appeared to be professed nuns of the order of
+      Mount Carmel; and as many whose veils, being white, argued them to be
+      novices, or occasional inhabitants in the cloister, who were not as yet
+      bound to it by vows. The former held in their hands large rosaries, while
+      the younger and lighter figures who followed carried each a chaplet of red
+      and white roses. They moved in procession around the chapel, without
+      appearing to take the slightest notice of Kenneth, although passing so
+      near him that their robes almost touched him, while they continued to
+      sing. The knight doubted not that he was in one of those cloisters where
+      the noble Christian maidens had formerly openly devoted themselves to the
+      services of the church. Most of them had been suppressed since the
+      Mohammedans had reconquered Palestine, but many, purchasing connivance by
+      presents, or receiving it from the clemency or contempt of the victors,
+      still continued to observe in private the ritual to which their vows had
+      consecrated them. Yet, though Kenneth knew this to be the case, the
+      solemnity of the place and hour, the surprise at the sudden appearance of
+      these votaresses, and the visionary manner in which they moved past him,
+      had such influence on his imagination that he could scarce conceive that
+      the fair procession which he beheld was formed of creatures of this world,
+      so much did they resemble a choir of supernatural beings, rendering homage
+      to the universal object of adoration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the knight's first idea, as the procession passed him, scarce
+      moving, save just sufficiently to continue their progress; so that, seen
+      by the shadowy and religious light which the lamps shed through the clouds
+      of incense which darkened the apartment, they appeared rather to glide
+      than to walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as a second time, in surrounding the chapel, they passed the spot on
+      which he kneeled, one of the white-stoled maidens, as she glided by him,
+      detached from the chaplet which she carried a rosebud, which dropped from
+      her fingers, perhaps unconsciously, on the foot of Sir Kenneth. The knight
+      started as if a dart had suddenly struck his person; for, when the mind is
+      wound up to a high pitch of feeling and expectation, the slightest
+      incident, if unexpected, gives fire to the train which imagination has
+      already laid. But he suppressed his emotion, recollecting how easily an
+      incident so indifferent might have happened, and that it was only the
+      uniform monotony of the movement of the choristers which made the incident
+      in the slightest degree remarkable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, while the procession, for the third time, surrounded the chapel,
+      the thoughts and the eyes of Kenneth followed exclusively the one among
+      the novices who had dropped the rosebud. Her step, her face, her form were
+      so completely assimilated to the rest of the choristers that it was
+      impossible to perceive the least marks of individuality; and yet Kenneth's
+      heart throbbed like a bird that would burst from its cage, as if to assure
+      him, by its sympathetic suggestions, that the female who held the right
+      file on the second rank of the novices was dearer to him, not only than
+      all the rest that were present, but than the whole sex besides. The
+      romantic passion of love, as it was cherished, and indeed enjoined, by the
+      rules of chivalry, associated well with the no less romantic feelings of
+      devotion; and they might be said much more to enhance than to counteract
+      each other. It was, therefore, with a glow of expectation that had
+      something even of a religious character that Sir Kenneth, his sensations
+      thrilling from his heart to the ends of his fingers, expected some second
+      sign of the presence of one who, he strongly fancied, had already bestowed
+      on him the first. Short as the space was during which the procession again
+      completed a third perambulation of the chapel, it seemed an eternity to
+      Kenneth. At length the form which he had watched with such devoted
+      attention drew nigh. There was no difference betwixt that shrouded figure
+      and the others, with whom it moved in concert and in unison, until, just
+      as she passed for the third time the kneeling Crusader, a part of a little
+      and well-proportioned hand, so beautifully formed as to give the highest
+      idea of the perfect proportions of the form to which it belonged, stole
+      through the folds of the gauze, like a moonbeam through the fleecy cloud
+      of a summer night, and again a rosebud lay at the feet of the Knight of
+      the Leopard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This second intimation could not be accidental&mdash;-it could not be
+      fortuitous, the resemblance of that half-seen but beautiful female hand
+      with one which his lips had once touched, and, while they touched it, had
+      internally sworn allegiance to the lovely owner. Had further proof been
+      wanting, there was the glimmer of that matchless ruby ring on that
+      snow-white finger, whose invaluable worth Kenneth would yet have prized
+      less than the slightest sign which that finger could have made; and,
+      veiled too, as she was, he might see, by chance or by favour, a stray curl
+      of the dark tresses, each hair of which was dearer to him a hundred times
+      than a chain of massive gold. It was the lady of his love! But that she
+      should be here&mdash;in the savage and sequestered desert&mdash;among
+      vestals, who rendered themselves habitants of wilds and of caverns, that
+      they might perform in secret those Christian rites which they dared not
+      assist in openly; that this should be so, in truth and in reality, seemed
+      too incredible&mdash;it must be a dream&mdash;a delusive trance of the
+      imagination. While these thoughts passed through the mind of Kenneth, the
+      same passage, by which the procession had entered the chapel, received
+      them on their return. The young sacristans, the sable nuns, vanished
+      successively through the open door. At length she from whom he had
+      received this double intimation passed also; yet, in passing, turned her
+      head, slightly indeed, but perceptibly, towards the place where he
+      remained fixed as an image. He marked the last wave of her veil&mdash;it
+      was gone&mdash;and a darkness sunk upon his soul, scarce less palpable
+      than that which almost immediately enveloped his external sense; for the
+      last chorister had no sooner crossed the threshold of the door than it
+      shut with a loud sound, and at the same instant the voices of the choir
+      were silent, the lights of the chapel were at once extinguished, and Sir
+      Kenneth remained solitary and in total darkness. But to Kenneth, solitude,
+      and darkness, and the uncertainty of his mysterious situation were as
+      nothing&mdash;he thought not of them&mdash;cared not for them&mdash;cared
+      for nought in the world save the flitting vision which had just glided
+      past him, and the tokens of her favour which she had bestowed. To grope on
+      the floor for the buds which she had dropped&mdash;to press them to his
+      lips, to his bosom, now alternately, now together&mdash;to rivet his lips
+      to the cold stones on which, as near as he could judge, she had so lately
+      stepped&mdash;to play all the extravagances which strong affection
+      suggests and vindicates to those who yield themselves up to it, were but
+      the tokens of passionate love common to all ages. But it was peculiar to
+      the times of chivalry that, in his wildest rapture, the knight imagined of
+      no attempt to follow or to trace the object of such romantic attachment;
+      that he thought of her as of a deity, who, having deigned to show herself
+      for an instant to her devoted worshipper, had again returned to the
+      darkness of her sanctuary&mdash;or as an influential planet, which, having
+      darted in some auspicious minute one favourable ray, wrapped itself again
+      in its veil of mist. The motions of the lady of his love were to him those
+      of a superior being, who was to move without watch or control, rejoice him
+      by her appearance, or depress him by her absence, animate him by her
+      kindness, or drive him to despair by her cruelty&mdash;all at her own free
+      will, and without other importunity or remonstrance than that expressed by
+      the most devoted services of the heart and sword of the champion, whose
+      sole object in life was to fulfil her commands, and, by the splendour of
+      his own achievements, to exalt her fame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the rules of chivalry, and of the love which was its ruling
+      principle. But Sir Kenneth's attachment was rendered romantic by other and
+      still more peculiar circumstances. He had never even heard the sound of
+      his lady's voice, though he had often beheld her beauty with rapture. She
+      moved in a circle which his rank of knighthood permitted him indeed to
+      approach, but not to mingle with; and highly as he stood distinguished for
+      warlike skill and enterprise, still the poor Scottish soldier was
+      compelled to worship his divinity at a distance almost as great as divides
+      the Persian from the sun which he adores. But when was the pride of woman
+      too lofty to overlook the passionate devotion of a lover, however inferior
+      in degree? Her eye had been on him in the tournament, her ear had heard
+      his praises in the report of the battles which were daily fought; and
+      while count, duke, and lord contended for her grace, it flowed,
+      unwillingly perhaps at first, or even unconsciously, towards the poor
+      Knight of the Leopard, who, to support his rank, had little besides his
+      sword. When she looked, and when she listened, the lady saw and heard
+      enough to encourage her in a partiality which had at first crept on her
+      unawares. If a knight's personal beauty was praised, even the most prudish
+      dames of the military court of England would make an exception in favour
+      of the Scottish Kenneth; and it oftentimes happened that, notwithstanding
+      the very considerable largesses which princes and peers bestowed on the
+      minstrels, an impartial spirit of independence would seize the poet, and
+      the harp was swept to the heroism of one who had neither palfreys nor
+      garments to bestow in guerdon of his applause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moments when she listened to the praises of her lover became gradually
+      more and more dear to the high-born Edith, relieving the flattery with
+      which her ear was weary, and presenting to her a subject of secret
+      contemplation, more worthy, as he seemed by general report, than those who
+      surpassed him in rank and in the gifts of fortune. As her attention became
+      constantly, though cautiously, fixed on Sir Kenneth, she grew more and
+      more convinced of his personal devotion to herself and more and more
+      certain in her mind that in Kenneth of Scotland she beheld the fated
+      knight doomed to share with her through weal and woe&mdash;and the
+      prospect looked gloomy and dangerous&mdash;the passionate attachment to
+      which the poets of the age ascribed such universal dominion, and which its
+      manners and morals placed nearly on the same rank with devotion itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us not disguise the truth from our readers. When Edith became aware of
+      the state of her own sentiments, chivalrous as were her sentiments,
+      becoming a maiden not distant from the throne of England&mdash;gratified
+      as her pride must have been with the mute though unceasing homage rendered
+      to her by the knight whom she had distinguished, there were moments when
+      the feelings of the woman, loving and beloved, murmured against the
+      restraints of state and form by which she was surrounded, and when she
+      almost blamed the timidity of her lover, who seemed resolved not to
+      infringe them. The etiquette, to use a modern phrase, of birth and rank,
+      had drawn around her a magical circle, beyond which Sir Kenneth might
+      indeed bow and gaze, but within which he could no more pass than an evoked
+      spirit can transgress the boundaries prescribed by the rod of a powerful
+      enchanter. The thought involuntarily pressed on her that she herself must
+      venture, were it but the point of her fairy foot, beyond the prescribed
+      boundary, if she ever hoped to give a lover so reserved and bashful an
+      opportunity of so slight a favour as but to salute her shoe-tie. There was
+      an example&mdash;the noted precedent of the &ldquo;King's daughter of Hungary,&rdquo;
+       who thus generously encouraged the &ldquo;squire of low degree;&rdquo; and Edith,
+      though of kingly blood, was no king's daughter, any more than her lover
+      was of low degree&mdash;fortune had put no such extreme barrier in
+      obstacle to their affections. Something, however, within the maiden's
+      bosom&mdash;that modest pride which throws fetters even on love itself
+      forbade her, notwithstanding the superiority of her condition, to make
+      those advances, which, in every case, delicacy assigns to the other sex;
+      above all, Sir Kenneth was a knight so gentle and honourable, so highly
+      accomplished, as her imagination at least suggested, together with the
+      strictest feelings of what was due to himself and to her, that however
+      constrained her attitude might be while receiving his adorations, like the
+      image of some deity, who is neither supposed to feel nor to reply to the
+      homage of its votaries, still the idol feared that to step prematurely
+      from her pedestal would be to degrade herself in the eyes of her devoted
+      worshipper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet the devout adorer of an actual idol can even discover signs of
+      approbation in the rigid and immovable features of a marble image; and it
+      is no wonder that something, which could be as favourably interpreted,
+      glanced from the bright eye of the lovely Edith, whose beauty, indeed,
+      consisted rather more in that very power of expression, than an absolute
+      regularity of contour or brilliancy of complexion. Some slight marks of
+      distinction had escaped from her, notwithstanding her own jealous
+      vigilance, else how could Sir Kenneth have so readily and so undoubtingly
+      recognized the lovely hand, of which scarce two fingers were visible from
+      under the veil, or how could he have rested so thoroughly assured that two
+      flowers, successively dropped on the spot, were intended as a recognition
+      on the part of his lady-love? By what train of observation&mdash;by what
+      secret signs, looks, or gestures&mdash;by what instinctive freemasonry of
+      love, this degree of intelligence came to subsist between Edith and her
+      lover, we cannot attempt to trace; for we are old, and such slight
+      vestiges of affection, quickly discovered by younger eyes, defy the power
+      of ours. Enough that such affection did subsist between parties who had
+      never even spoken to one another&mdash;though, on the side of Edith, it
+      was checked by a deep sense of the difficulties and dangers which must
+      necessarily attend the further progress of their attachment; and upon that
+      of the knight by a thousand doubts and fears lest he had overestimated the
+      slight tokens of the lady's notice, varied, as they necessarily were, by
+      long intervals of apparent coldness, during which either the fear of
+      exciting the observation of others, and thus drawing danger upon her
+      lover, or that of sinking in his esteem by seeming too willing to be won,
+      made her behave with indifference, and as if unobservant of his presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This narrative, tedious perhaps, but which the story renders necessary,
+      may serve to explain the state of intelligence, if it deserves so strong a
+      name, betwixt the lovers, when Edith's unexpected appearance in the chapel
+      produced so powerful an effect on the feelings of her knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Their necromantic forms in vain
+     Haunt us on the tented plain;
+     We bid these spectre shapes avaunt,
+     Ashtaroth and Termagaunt.     WARTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The most profound silence, the deepest darkness, continued to brood for
+      more than an hour over the chapel in which we left the Knight of the
+      Leopard still kneeling, alternately expressing thanks to Heaven and
+      gratitude to his lady for the boon which had been vouchsafed to him. His
+      own safety, his own destiny, for which he was at all times little anxious,
+      had not now the weight of a grain of dust in his reflections. He was in
+      the neighbourhood of Lady Edith; he had received tokens of her grace; he
+      was in a place hallowed by relics of the most awful sanctity. A Christian
+      soldier, a devoted lover, could fear nothing, think of nothing, but his
+      duty to Heaven and his devoir to his lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the lapse of the space of time which we have noticed, a shrill whistle,
+      like that with which a falconer calls his hawk, was heard to ring sharply
+      through the vaulted chapel. It was a sound ill suited to the place, and
+      reminded Sir Kenneth how necessary it was he should be upon his guard. He
+      started from his knee, and laid his hand upon his poniard. A creaking
+      sound, as of a screw or pulleys, succeeded, and a light streaming upwards,
+      as from an opening in the floor, showed that a trap-door had been raised
+      or depressed. In less than a minute a long, skinny arm, partly naked,
+      partly clothed in a sleeve of red samite, arose out of the aperture,
+      holding a lamp as high as it could stretch upwards, and the figure to
+      which the arm belonged ascended step by step to the level of the chapel
+      floor. The form and face of the being who thus presented himself were
+      those of a frightful dwarf, with a large head, a cap fantastically adorned
+      with three peacock feathers, a dress of red samite, the richness of which
+      rendered his ugliness more conspicuous, distinguished by gold bracelets
+      and armlets, and a white silk sash, in which he wore a gold-hilted dagger.
+      This singular figure had in his left hand a kind of broom. So soon as he
+      had stepped from the aperture through which he arose, he stood still, and,
+      as if to show himself more distinctly, moved the lamp which he held slowly
+      over his face and person, successively illuminating his wild and fantastic
+      features, and his misshapen but nervous limbs. Though disproportioned in
+      person, the dwarf was not so distorted as to argue any want of strength or
+      activity. While Sir Kenneth gazed on this disagreeable object, the popular
+      creed occurred to his remembrance concerning the gnomes or earthly spirits
+      which make their abode in the caverns of the earth; and so much did this
+      figure correspond with ideas he had formed of their appearance, that he
+      looked on it with disgust, mingled not indeed with fear, but that sort of
+      awe which the presence of a supernatural creature may infuse into the most
+      steady bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dwarf again whistled, and summoned from beneath a companion. This
+      second figure ascended in the same manner as the first; but it was a
+      female arm in this second instance which upheld the lamp from the
+      subterranean vault out of which these presentments arose, and it was a
+      female form, much resembling the first in shape and proportions, which
+      slowly emerged from the floor. Her dress was also of red samite,
+      fantastically cut and flounced, as if she had been dressed for some
+      exhibition of mimes or jugglers; and with the same minuteness which her
+      predecessor had exhibited, she passed the lamp over her face and person,
+      which seemed to rival the male's in ugliness. But with all this most
+      unfavourable exterior, there was one trait in the features of both which
+      argued alertness and intelligence in the most uncommon degree. This arose
+      from the brilliancy of their eyes, which, deep-set beneath black and
+      shaggy brows, gleamed with a lustre which, like that in the eye of the
+      toad, seemed to make some amends for the extreme ugliness of countenance
+      and person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth remained as if spellbound, while this unlovely pair, moving
+      round the chapel close to each other, appeared to perform the duty of
+      sweeping it, like menials; but as they used only one hand, the floor was
+      not much benefited by the exercise, which they plied with such oddity of
+      gestures and manner as befitted their bizarre and fantastic appearance.
+      When they approached near to the knight in the course of their occupation,
+      they ceased to use their brooms; and placing themselves side by side,
+      directly opposite to Sir Kenneth, they again slowly shifted the lights
+      which they held, so as to allow him distinctly to survey features which
+      were not rendered more agreeable by being brought nearer, and to observe
+      the extreme quickness and keenness with which their black and glittering
+      eyes flashed back the light of the lamps. They then turned the gleam of
+      both lights upon the knight, and having accurately surveyed him, turned
+      their faces to each other, and set up a loud, yelling laugh, which
+      resounded in his ears. The sound was so ghastly that Sir Kenneth started
+      at hearing it, and hastily demanded, in the name of God, who they were who
+      profaned that holy place with such antic gestures and elritch
+      exclamations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the dwarf Nectabanus,&rdquo; said the abortion-seeming male, in a voice
+      corresponding to his figure, and resembling the voice of the night-crow
+      more than any sound which is heard by daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am Guenevra, his lady and his love,&rdquo; replied the female, in tones
+      which, being shriller, were yet wilder than those of her companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wherefore are you here?&rdquo; again demanded the knight, scarcely yet assured
+      that they were human beings which he saw before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; replied the male dwarf, with much assumed gravity and dignity,
+      &ldquo;the twelfth Imaum. I am Mohammed Mohadi, the guide and the conductor of
+      the faithful. A hundred horses stand ready saddled for me and my train at
+      the Holy City, and as many at the City of Refuge. I am he who shall bear
+      witness, and this is one of my houris.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou liest!&rdquo; answered the female, interrupting her companion, in tones
+      yet shriller than his own; &ldquo;I am none of thy houris, and thou art no such
+      infidel trash as the Mohammed of whom thou speakest. May my curse rest
+      upon his coffin! I tell thee, thou ass of Issachar, thou art King Arthur
+      of Britain, whom the fairies stole away from the field of Avalon; and I am
+      Dame Guenevra, famed for her beauty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in truth, noble sir,&rdquo; said the male, &ldquo;we are distressed princes,
+      dwelling under the wing of King Guy of Jerusalem, until he was driven out
+      from his own nest by the foul infidels&mdash;Heaven's bolts consume them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said a voice from the side upon which the knight had entered&mdash;&ldquo;hush,
+      fools, and begone; your ministry is ended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dwarfs had no sooner heard the command than, gibbering in discordant
+      whispers to each other, they blew out their lights at once, and left the
+      knight in utter darkness, which, when the pattering of their retiring feet
+      had died away, was soon accompanied by its fittest companion, total
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight felt the departure of these unfortunate creatures a relief. He
+      could not, from their language, manners, and appearance, doubt that they
+      belonged to the degraded class of beings whom deformity of person and
+      weakness of intellect recommended to the painful situation of appendages
+      to great families, where their personal appearance and imbecility were
+      food for merriment to the household. Superior in no respect to the ideas
+      and manners of his time, the Scottish knight might, at another period,
+      have been much amused by the mummery of these poor effigies of humanity;
+      but now their appearance, gesticulations, and language broke the train of
+      deep and solemn feeling with which he was impressed, and he rejoiced in
+      the disappearance of the unhappy objects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes after they had retired, the door at which he had entered
+      opened slowly, and remaining ajar, discovered a faint light arising from a
+      lantern placed upon the threshold. Its doubtful and wavering gleam showed
+      a dark form reclined beside the entrance, but without its precincts,
+      which, on approaching it more nearly, he recognized to be the hermit,
+      crouching in the same humble posture in which he had at first laid himself
+      down, and which, doubtless, he had retained during the whole time of his
+      guest's continuing in the chapel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All is over,&rdquo; said the hermit, as he heard the knight approaching, &ldquo;and
+      the most wretched of earthly sinners, with him who should think himself
+      most honoured and most happy among the race of humanity, must retire from
+      this place. Take the light, and guide me down the descent, for I must not
+      uncover my eyes until I am far from this hallowed spot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight obeyed in silence, for a solemn and yet ecstatic sense
+      of what he had seen had silenced even the eager workings of curiosity. He
+      led the way, with considerable accuracy, through the various secret
+      passages and stairs by which they had ascended, until at length they found
+      themselves in the outward cell of the hermit's cavern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The condemned criminal is restored to his dungeon, reprieved from one
+      miserable day to another, until his awful Judge shall at length appoint
+      the well-deserved sentence to be carried into execution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the hermit spoke these words, he laid aside the veil with which his
+      eyes had been bound, and looked at it with a suppressed and hollow sigh.
+      No sooner had he restored it to the crypt from which he had caused the
+      Scot to bring it, than he said hastily and sternly to his companion;
+      &ldquo;Begone, begone&mdash;to rest, to rest. You may sleep&mdash;you can sleep&mdash;I
+      neither can nor may.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Respecting the profound agitation with which this was spoken, the knight
+      retired into the inner cell; but casting back his eye as he left the
+      exterior grotto, he beheld the anchorite stripping his shoulders with
+      frantic haste of their shaggy mantle, and ere he could shut the frail door
+      which separated the two compartments of the cavern, he heard the clang of
+      the scourge and the groans of the penitent under his self-inflicted
+      penance. A cold shudder came over the knight as he reflected what could be
+      the foulness of the sin, what the depth of the remorse, which, apparently,
+      such severe penance could neither cleanse nor assuage. He told his beads
+      devoutly, and flung himself on his rude couch, after a glance at the still
+      sleeping Moslem, and, wearied by the various scenes of the day and the
+      night, soon slept as sound as infancy. Upon his awaking in the morning, he
+      held certain conferences with the hermit upon matters of importance, and
+      the result of their intercourse induced him to remain for two days longer
+      in the grotto. He was regular, as became a pilgrim, in his devotional
+      exercises, but was not again admitted to the chapel in which he had seen
+      such wonders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Now change the scene&mdash;and let the trumpets sound,
+     For we must rouse the lion from his lair.  OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The scene must change, as our programme has announced, from the mountain
+      wilderness of Jordan to the camp of King Richard of England, then
+      stationed betwixt Jean d'Acre and Ascalon, and containing that army with
+      which he of the lion heart had promised himself a triumphant march to
+      Jerusalem, and in which he would probably have succeeded, if not hindered
+      by the jealousies of the Christian princes engaged in the same enterprise,
+      and the offence taken by them at the uncurbed haughtiness of the English
+      monarch, and Richard's unveiled contempt for his brother sovereigns, who,
+      his equals in rank, were yet far his inferiors in courage, hardihood, and
+      military talents. Such discords, and particularly those betwixt Richard
+      and Philip of France, created disputes and obstacles which impeded every
+      active measure proposed by the heroic though impetuous Richard, while the
+      ranks of the Crusaders were daily thinned, not only by the desertion of
+      individuals, but of entire bands, headed by their respective feudal
+      leaders, who withdrew from a contest in which they had ceased to hope for
+      success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effects of the climate became, as usual, fatal to soldiers from the
+      north, and the more so that the dissolute license of the Crusaders,
+      forming a singular contrast to the principles and purpose of their taking
+      up arms, rendered them more easy victims to the insalubrious influence of
+      burning heat and chilling dews. To these discouraging causes of loss was
+      to be added the sword of the enemy. Saladin, than whom no greater name is
+      recorded in Eastern history, had learned, to his fatal experience, that
+      his light-armed followers were little able to meet in close encounter with
+      the iron-clad Franks, and had been taught, at the same time, to apprehend
+      and dread the adventurous character of his antagonist Richard. But if his
+      armies were more than once routed with great slaughter, his numbers gave
+      the Saracen the advantage in those lighter skirmishes, of which many were
+      inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the army of his assailants decreased, the enterprises of the Sultan
+      became more numerous and more bold in this species of petty warfare. The
+      camp of the Crusaders was surrounded, and almost besieged, by clouds of
+      light cavalry, resembling swarms of wasps, easily crushed when they are
+      once grasped, but furnished with wings to elude superior strength, and
+      stings to inflict harm and mischief. There was perpetual warfare of posts
+      and foragers, in which many valuable lives were lost, without any
+      corresponding object being gained; convoys were intercepted, and
+      communications were cut off. The Crusaders had to purchase the means of
+      sustaining life, by life itself; and water, like that of the well of
+      Bethlehem, longed for by King David, one of its ancient monarchs, was
+      then, as before, only obtained by the expenditure of blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These evils were in a great measure counterbalanced by the stern
+      resolution and restless activity of King Richard, who, with some of his
+      best knights, was ever on horseback, ready to repair to any point where
+      danger occurred, and often not only bringing unexpected succour to the
+      Christians, but discomfiting the infidels when they seemed most secure of
+      victory. But even the iron frame of Coeur de Lion could not support
+      without injury the alternations of the unwholesome climate, joined to
+      ceaseless exertions of body and mind. He became afflicted with one of
+      those slow and wasting fevers peculiar to Asia, and in despite of his
+      great strength and still greater courage, grew first unfit to mount on
+      horseback, and then unable to attend the councils of war which were from
+      time to time held by the Crusaders. It was difficult to say whether this
+      state of personal inactivity was rendered more galling or more endurable
+      to the English monarch by the resolution of the council to engage in a
+      truce of thirty days with the Sultan Saladin; for on the one hand, if he
+      was incensed at the delay which this interposed to the progress of the
+      great enterprise, he was, on the other, somewhat consoled by knowing that
+      others were not acquiring laurels while he remained inactive upon a
+      sick-bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That, however, which Coeur de Lion could least excuse was the general
+      inactivity which prevailed in the camp of the Crusaders so soon as his
+      illness assumed a serious aspect; and the reports which he extracted from
+      his unwilling attendants gave him to understand that the hopes of the host
+      had abated in proportion to his illness, and that the interval of truce
+      was employed, not in recruiting their numbers, reanimating their courage,
+      fostering their spirit of conquest, and preparing for a speedy and
+      determined advance upon the Holy City, which was the object of their
+      expedition, but in securing the camp occupied by their diminished
+      followers with trenches, palisades, and other fortifications, as if
+      preparing rather to repel an attack from a powerful enemy so soon as
+      hostilities should recommence, than to assume the proud character of
+      conquerors and assailants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English king chafed under these reports, like the imprisoned lion
+      viewing his prey from the iron barriers of his cage. Naturally rash and
+      impetuous, the irritability of his temper preyed on itself. He was dreaded
+      by his attendants and even the medical assistants feared to assume the
+      necessary authority which a physician, to do justice to his patient, must
+      needs exercise over him. One faithful baron, who, perhaps, from the
+      congenial nature of his disposition, was devoutly attached to the King's
+      person, dared alone to come between the dragon and his wrath, and quietly,
+      but firmly, maintained a control which no other dared assume over the
+      dangerous invalid, and which Thomas de Multon only exercised because he
+      esteemed his sovereign's life and honour more than he did the degree of
+      favour which he might lose, or even the risk which he might incur, in
+      nursing a patient so intractable, and whose displeasure was so perilous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Thomas was the Lord of Gilsland, in Cumberland, and in an age when
+      surnames and titles were not distinctly attached, as now, to the
+      individuals who bore them, he was called by the Normans the Lord de Vaux;
+      and in English by the Saxons, who clung to their native language, and were
+      proud of the share of Saxon blood in this renowned warrior's veins, he was
+      termed Thomas, or, more familiarly, Thom of the Gills, or Narrow Valleys,
+      from which his extensive domains derived their well-known appellation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This chief had been exercised in almost all the wars, whether waged
+      betwixt England and Scotland, or amongst the various domestic factions
+      which then tore the former country asunder, and in all had been
+      distinguished, as well from his military conduct as his personal prowess.
+      He was, in other respects, a rude soldier, blunt and careless in his
+      bearing, and taciturn&mdash;nay, almost sullen&mdash;in his habits of
+      society, and seeming, at least, to disclaim all knowledge of policy and of
+      courtly art. There were men, however, who pretended to look deeply into
+      character, who asserted that the Lord de Vaux was not less shrewd and
+      aspiring than he was blunt and bold, and who thought that, while he
+      assimilated himself to the king's own character of blunt hardihood, it
+      was, in some degree at least, with an eye to establish his favour, and to
+      gratify his own hopes of deep-laid ambition. But no one cared to thwart
+      his schemes, if such he had, by rivalling him in the dangerous occupation
+      of daily attendance on the sick-bed of a patient whose disease was
+      pronounced infectious, and more especially when it was remembered that the
+      patient was Coeur de Lion, suffering under all the furious impatience of a
+      soldier withheld from battle, and a sovereign sequestered from authority;
+      and the common soldiers, at least in the English army, were generally of
+      opinion that De Vaux attended on the King like comrade upon comrade, in
+      the honest and disinterested frankness of military friendship contracted
+      between the partakers of daily dangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on the decline of a Syrian day that Richard lay on his couch of
+      sickness, loathing it as much in mind as his illness made it irksome to
+      his body. His bright blue eye, which at all times shone with uncommon
+      keenness and splendour, had its vivacity augmented by fever and mental
+      impatience, and glanced from among his curled and unshorn locks of yellow
+      hair as fitfully and as vividly as the last gleams of the sun shoot
+      through the clouds of an approaching thunderstorm, which still, however,
+      are gilded by its beams. His manly features showed the progress of wasting
+      illness, and his beard, neglected and untrimmed, had overgrown both lips
+      and chin. Casting himself from side to side, now clutching towards him the
+      coverings, which at the next moment he flung as impatiently from him, his
+      tossed couch and impatient gestures showed at once the energy and the
+      reckless impatience of a disposition whose natural sphere was that of the
+      most active exertion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beside his couch stood Thomas de Vaux, in face, attitude, and manner the
+      strongest possible contrast to the suffering monarch. His stature
+      approached the gigantic, and his hair in thickness might have resembled
+      that of Samson, though only after the Israelitish champion's locks had
+      passed under the shears of the Philistines, for those of De Vaux were cut
+      short, that they might be enclosed under his helmet. The light of his
+      broad, large hazel eye resembled that of the autumn morn; and it was only
+      perturbed for a moment, when from time to time it was attracted by
+      Richard's vehement marks of agitation and restlessness. His features,
+      though massive like his person, might have been handsome before they were
+      defaced with scars; his upper lip, after the fashion of the Normans, was
+      covered with thick moustaches, which grew so long and luxuriantly as to
+      mingle with his hair, and, like his hair, were dark brown, slightly
+      brindled with grey. His frame seemed of that kind which most readily
+      defies both toil and climate, for he was thin-flanked, broad-chested,
+      long-armed, deep-breathed, and strong-limbed. He had not laid aside his
+      buff-coat, which displayed the cross cut on the shoulder, for more than
+      three nights, enjoying but such momentary repose as the warder of a sick
+      monarch's couch might by snatches indulge. This Baron rarely changed his
+      posture, except to administer to Richard the medicine or refreshments
+      which none of his less favoured attendants could persuade the impatient
+      monarch to take; and there was something affecting in the kindly yet
+      awkward manner in which he discharged offices so strangely contrasted with
+      his blunt and soldierly habits and manners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pavilion in which these personages were, had, as became the time, as
+      well as the personal character of Richard, more of a warlike than a
+      sumptuous or royal character. Weapons offensive and defensive, several of
+      them of strange and newly-invented construction, were scattered about the
+      tented apartment, or disposed upon the pillars which supported it. Skins
+      of animals slain in the chase were stretched on the ground, or extended
+      along the sides of the pavilion; and upon a heap of these silvan spoils
+      lay three ALANS, as they were then called (wolf-greyhounds, that is), of
+      the largest size, and as white as snow. Their faces, marked with many a
+      scar from clutch and fang, showed their share in collecting the trophies
+      upon which they reposed; and their eyes, fixed from time to time with an
+      expressive stretch and yawn upon the bed of Richard, evinced how much they
+      marvelled at and regretted the unwonted inactivity which they were
+      compelled to share. These were but the accompaniments of the soldier and
+      huntsman; but on a small table close by the bed was placed a shield of
+      wrought steel, of triangular form, bearing the three lions passant first
+      assumed by the chivalrous monarch, and before it the golden circlet,
+      resembling much a ducal coronet, only that it was higher in front than
+      behind, which, with the purple velvet and embroidered tiara that lined it,
+      formed then the emblem of England's sovereignty. Beside it, as if prompt
+      for defending the regal symbol, lay a mighty curtal-axe, which would have
+      wearied the arm of any other than Coeur de Lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an outer partition of the pavilion waited two or three officers of the
+      royal household, depressed, anxious for their master's health, and not
+      less so for their own safety, in case of his decease. Their gloomy
+      apprehensions spread themselves to the warders without, who paced about in
+      downcast and silent contemplation, or, resting on their halberds, stood
+      motionless on their post, rather like armed trophies than living warriors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So thou hast no better news to bring me from without, Sir Thomas!&rdquo; said
+      the King, after a long and perturbed silence, spent in the feverish
+      agitation which we have endeavoured to describe. &ldquo;All our knights turned
+      women, and our ladies become devotees, and neither a spark of valour nor
+      of gallantry to enlighten a camp which contains the choicest of Europe's
+      chivalry&mdash;ha!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The truce, my lord,&rdquo; said De Vaux, with the same patience with which he
+      had twenty times repeated the explanation&mdash;&ldquo;the truce prevents us
+      bearing ourselves as men of action; and for the ladies, I am no great
+      reveller, as is well known to your Majesty, and seldom exchange steel and
+      buff for velvet and gold&mdash;but thus far I know, that our choicest
+      beauties are waiting upon the Queen's Majesty and the Princess, to a
+      pilgrimage to the convent of Engaddi, to accomplish their vows for your
+      Highness's deliverance from this trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is it thus,&rdquo; said Richard, with the impatience of indisposition,
+      &ldquo;that royal matrons and maidens should risk themselves, where the dogs who
+      defile the land have as little truth to man as they have faith towards
+      God?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, my lord,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;they have Saladin's word for their safety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, true!&rdquo; replied Richard; &ldquo;and I did the heathen Soldan injustice&mdash;I
+      owe him reparation for it. Would God I were but fit to offer it him upon
+      my body between the two hosts&mdash;Christendom and heathenesse both
+      looking on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Richard spoke, he thrust his right arm out of bed naked to the
+      shoulder, and painfully raising himself in his couch, shook his clenched
+      hand, as if it grasped sword or battle-axe, and was then brandished over
+      the jewelled turban of the Soldan. It was not without a gentle degree of
+      violence, which the King would scarce have endured from another, that De
+      Vaux, in his character of sick-nurse, compelled his royal master to
+      replace himself in the couch, and covered his sinewy arm, neck, and
+      shoulders with the care which a mother bestows upon an impatient child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a rough nurse, though a willing one, De Vaux,&rdquo; said the King,
+      laughing with a bitter expression, while he submitted to the strength
+      which he was unable to resist; &ldquo;methinks a coif would become thy lowering
+      features as well as a child's biggin would beseem mine. We should be a
+      babe and nurse to frighten girls with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have frightened men in our time, my liege,&rdquo; said De Vaux; &ldquo;and, I
+      trust, may live to frighten them again. What is a fever-fit, that we
+      should not endure it patiently, in order to get rid of it easily?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fever-fit!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard impetuously; &ldquo;thou mayest think, and
+      justly, that it is a fever-fit with me; but what is it with all the other
+      Christian princes&mdash;with Philip of France, with that dull Austrian,
+      with him of Montserrat, with the Hospitallers, with the Templars&mdash;what
+      is it with all them? I will tell thee. It is a cold palsy, a dead
+      lethargy, a disease that deprives them of speech and action, a canker that
+      has eaten into the heart of all that is noble, and chivalrous, and
+      virtuous among them&mdash;that has made them false to the noblest vow ever
+      knights were sworn to&mdash;has made them indifferent to their fame, and
+      forgetful of their God!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the love of Heaven, my liege,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;take it less violently&mdash;you
+      will be heard without doors, where such speeches are but too current
+      already among the common soldiery, and engender discord and contention in
+      the Christian host. Bethink you that your illness mars the mainspring of
+      their enterprise; a mangonel will work without screw and lever better than
+      the Christian host without King Richard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou flatterest me, De Vaux,&rdquo; said Richard, and not insensible to the
+      power of praise, he reclined his head on the pillow with a more deliberate
+      attempt to repose than he had yet exhibited. But Thomas de Vaux was no
+      courtier; the phrase which had offered had risen spontaneously to his
+      lips, and he knew not how to pursue the pleasing theme so as to soothe and
+      prolong the vein which he had excited. He was silent, therefore, until,
+      relapsing into his moody contemplations, the King demanded of him sharply,
+      &ldquo;Despardieux! This is smoothly said to soothe a sick man; but does a
+      league of monarchs, an assemblage or nobles, a convocation of all the
+      chivalry of Europe, droop with the sickness of one man, though he chances
+      to be King of England? Why should Richard's illness, or Richard's death,
+      check the march of thirty thousand men as brave as himself? When the
+      master stag is struck down, the herd do not disperse upon his fall; when
+      the falcon strikes the leading crane, another takes the guidance of the
+      phalanx. Why do not the powers assemble and choose some one to whom they
+      may entrust the guidance of the host?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forsooth, and if it please your Majesty,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;I hear
+      consultations have been held among the royal leaders for some such
+      purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, his jealousy awakened, giving his mental
+      irritation another direction, &ldquo;am I forgot by my allies ere I have taken
+      the last sacrament? Do they hold me dead already? But no, no, they are
+      right. And whom do they select as leader of the Christian host?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rank and dignity,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;point to the King of France.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, ay,&rdquo; answered the English monarch, &ldquo;Philip of France and Navarre&mdash;Denis
+      Mountjoie&mdash;his most Christian Majesty! Mouth-filling words these!
+      There is but one risk&mdash;that he might mistake the words EN ARRIERE for
+      EN AVANT, and lead us back to Paris, instead of marching to Jerusalem. His
+      politic head has learned by this time that there is more to be gotten by
+      oppressing his feudatories, and pillaging his allies, than fighting with
+      the Turks for the Holy Sepulchre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They might choose the Archduke of Austria,&rdquo; said De Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! because he is big and burly like thyself, Thomas&mdash;nearly as
+      thick-headed, but without thy indifference to danger and carelessness of
+      offence? I tell thee that Austria has in all that mass of flesh no bolder
+      animation than is afforded by the peevishness of a wasp and the courage of
+      a wren. Out upon him! He a leader of chivalry to deeds of glory! Give him
+      a flagon of Rhenish to drink with his besmirched baaren-hauters and
+      lance-knechts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the Grand Master of the Templars,&rdquo; continued the baron, not
+      sorry to keep his master's attention engaged on other topics than his own
+      illness, though at the expense of the characters of prince and potentate.
+      &ldquo;There is the Grand Master of the Templars,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;undaunted,
+      skilful, brave in battle, and sage in council, having no separate kingdoms
+      of his own to divert his exertions from the recovery of the Holy Land&mdash;what
+      thinks your Majesty of the Master as a general leader of the Christian
+      host?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, Beau-Seant?&rdquo; answered the King. &ldquo;Oh, no exception can be taken to
+      Brother Giles Amaury; he understands the ordering of a battle, and the
+      fighting in front when it begins. But, Sir Thomas, were it fair to take
+      the Holy Land from the heathen Saladin, so full of all the virtues which
+      may distinguish unchristened man, and give it to Giles Amaury, a worse
+      pagan than himself, an idolater, a devil-worshipper, a necromancer, who
+      practises crimes the most dark and unnatural in the vaults and secret
+      places of abomination and darkness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Grand Master of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem is not
+      tainted by fame, either with heresy or magic,&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But is he not a sordid miser?&rdquo; said Richard hastily; &ldquo;has he not been
+      suspected&mdash;ay, more than suspected&mdash;of selling to the infidels
+      those advantages which they would never have won by fair force? Tush, man,
+      better give the army to be made merchandise of by Venetian skippers and
+      Lombardy pedlars, than trust it to the Grand Master of St. John.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I will venture but another guess,&rdquo; said the Baron de Vaux.
+      &ldquo;What say you to the gallant Marquis of Montserrat, so wise, so elegant,
+      such a good man-at-arms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wise?&mdash;cunning, you would say,&rdquo; replied Richard; &ldquo;elegant in a
+      lady's chamber, if you will. Oh, ay, Conrade of Montserrat&mdash;who knows
+      not the popinjay? Politic and versatile, he will change you his purposes
+      as often as the trimmings of his doublet, and you shall never be able to
+      guess the hue of his inmost vestments from their outward colours. A
+      man-at-arms? Ay, a fine figure on horseback, and can bear him well in the
+      tilt-yard, and at the barriers, when swords are blunted at point and edge,
+      and spears are tipped with trenchers of wood instead of steel pikes. Wert
+      thou not with me when I said to that same gay Marquis, 'Here we be, three
+      good Christians, and on yonder plain there pricks a band of some
+      threescore Saracens&mdash;what say you to charge them briskly? There are
+      but twenty unbelieving miscreants to each true knight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recollect the Marquis replied,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;that his limbs were of
+      flesh, not of iron, and that he would rather bear the heart of a man than
+      of a beast, though that beast were the lion, But I see how it is&mdash;we
+      shall end where we began, without hope of praying at the Sepulchre until
+      Heaven shall restore King Richard to health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this grave remark Richard burst out into a hearty fit of laughter, the
+      first which he had for some time indulged in. &ldquo;Why what a thing is
+      conscience,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that through its means even such a thick-witted
+      northern lord as thou canst bring thy sovereign to confess his folly! It
+      is true that, did they not propose themselves as fit to hold my
+      leading-staff, little should I care for plucking the silken trappings off
+      the puppets thou hast shown me in succession. What concerns it me what
+      fine tinsel robes they swagger in, unless when they are named as rivals in
+      the glorious enterprise to which I have vowed myself? Yes, De Vaux, I
+      confess my weakness, and the wilfulness of my ambition. The Christian camp
+      contains, doubtless, many a better knight than Richard of England, and it
+      would be wise and worthy to assign to the best of them the leading of the
+      host. But,&rdquo; continued the warlike monarch, raising himself in his bed, and
+      shaking the cover from his head, while his eyes sparkled as they were wont
+      to do on the eve of battle, &ldquo;were such a knight to plant the banner of the
+      Cross on the Temple of Jerusalem while I was unable to bear my share in
+      the noble task, he should, so soon as I was fit to lay lance in rest,
+      undergo my challenge to mortal combat, for having diminished my fame, and
+      pressed in before to the object of my enterprise. But hark, what trumpets
+      are those at a distance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those of King Philip, as I guess, my liege,&rdquo; said the stout Englishman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art dull of ear, Thomas,&rdquo; said the King, endeavouring to start up;
+      &ldquo;hearest thou not that clash and clang? By Heaven, the Turks are in the
+      camp&mdash;I hear their LELIES.&rdquo; [The war-cries of the Moslemah.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He again endeavoured to get out of bed, and De Vaux was obliged to
+      exercise his own great strength, and also to summon the assistance of the
+      chamberlains from the inner tent, to restrain him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a false traitor, De Vaux,&rdquo; said the incensed monarch, when,
+      breathless and exhausted with struggling, he was compelled to submit to
+      superior strength, and to repose in quiet on his couch. &ldquo;I would I were&mdash;I
+      would I were but strong enough to dash thy brains out with my battle-axe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would you had the strength, my liege,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;and would even
+      take the risk of its being so employed. The odds would be great in favour
+      of Christendom were Thomas Multon dead and Coeur de Lion himself again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine honest faithful servant,&rdquo; said Richard, extending his hand, which
+      the baron reverentially saluted, &ldquo;forgive thy master's impatience of mood.
+      It is this burning fever which chides thee, and not thy kind master,
+      Richard of England. But go, I prithee, and bring me word what strangers
+      are in the camp, for these sounds are not of Christendom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux left the pavilion on the errand assigned, and in his absence,
+      which he had resolved should be brief, he charged the chamberlains, pages,
+      and attendants to redouble their attention on their sovereign, with
+      threats of holding them to responsibility, which rather added to than
+      diminished their timid anxiety in the discharge of their duty; for next,
+      perhaps, to the ire of the monarch himself, they dreaded that of the stern
+      and inexorable Lord of Gilsland. [Sir Thomas Multon of Gilsland.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     There never was a time on the march parts yet,
+     When Scottish with English met,
+     But it was marvel if the red blood ran not
+     As the rain does in the street.
+     &mdash;BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A considerable band of Scottish warriors had joined the Crusaders, and had
+      naturally placed themselves under the command of the English monarch,
+      being, like his native troops, most of them of Saxon and Norman descent,
+      speaking the same languages, possessed, some of them, of English as well
+      as Scottish demesnes, and allied in some cases by blood and intermarriage.
+      The period also preceded that when the grasping ambition of Edward I. gave
+      a deadly and envenomed character to the wars betwixt the two nations&mdash;the
+      English fighting for the subjugation of Scotland, and the Scottish, with
+      all the stern determination and obstinacy which has ever characterized
+      their nation, for the defence of their independence, by the most violent
+      means, under the most disadvantageous circumstances, and at the most
+      extreme hazard. As yet, wars betwixt the two nations, though fierce and
+      frequent, had been conducted on principles of fair hostility, and admitted
+      of those softening shades by which courtesy and the respect for open and
+      generous foemen qualify and mitigate the horrors of war. In time of peace,
+      therefore, and especially when both, as at present, were engaged in war,
+      waged in behalf of a common cause, and rendered dear to them by their
+      ideas of religion, the adventurers of both countries frequently fought
+      side by side, their national emulation serving only to stimulate them to
+      excel each other in their efforts against the common enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The frank and martial character of Richard, who made no distinction
+      betwixt his own subjects and those of William of Scotland, excepting as
+      they bore themselves in the field of battle, tended much to conciliate the
+      troops of both nations. But upon his illness, and the disadvantageous
+      circumstances in which the Crusaders were placed, the national disunion
+      between the various bands united in the Crusade, began to display itself,
+      just as old wounds break out afresh in the human body when under the
+      influence of disease or debility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish and English, equally jealous and high-spirited, and apt to
+      take offence&mdash;the former the more so, because the poorer and the
+      weaker nation&mdash;began to fill up by internal dissension the period
+      when the truce forbade them to wreak their united vengeance on the
+      Saracens. Like the contending Roman chiefs of old, the Scottish would
+      admit no superiority, and their southern neighbours would brook no
+      equality. There were charges and recriminations, and both the common
+      soldiery and their leaders and commanders, who had been good comrades in
+      time of victory, lowered on each other in the period of adversity, as if
+      their union had not been then more essential than ever, not only to the
+      success of their common cause, but to their joint safety. The same
+      disunion had begun to show itself betwixt the French and English, the
+      Italians and the Germans, and even between the Danes and Swedes; but it is
+      only that which divided the two nations whom one island bred, and who
+      seemed more animated against each other for the very reason, that our
+      narrative is principally concerned with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all the English nobles who had followed their King to Palestine, De
+      Vaux was most prejudiced against the Scottish. They were his near
+      neighbours, with whom he had been engaged during his whole life in private
+      or public warfare, and on whom he had inflicted many calamities, while he
+      had sustained at their hands not a few. His love and devotion to the King
+      was like the vivid affection of the old English mastiff to his master,
+      leaving him churlish and inaccessible to all others even towards those to
+      whom he was indifferent&mdash;and rough and dangerous to any against whom
+      he entertained a prejudice. De Vaux had never observed without jealousy
+      and displeasure his King exhibit any mark of courtesy or favour to the
+      wicked, deceitful, and ferocious race born on the other side of a river,
+      or an imaginary line drawn through waste and wilderness; and he even
+      doubted the success of a Crusade in which they were suffered to bear arms,
+      holding them in his secret soul little better than the Saracens whom he
+      came to combat. It may be added that, as being himself a blunt and
+      downright Englishman, unaccustomed to conceal the slightest movement
+      either of love or of dislike, he accounted the fair-spoken courtesy which
+      the Scots had learned, either from imitation of their frequent allies, the
+      French, or which might have arisen from their own proud and reserved
+      character, as a false and astucious mark of the most dangerous designs
+      against their neighbours, over whom he believed, with genuine English
+      confidence, they could, by fair manhood, never obtain any advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, though De Vaux entertained these sentiments concerning his Northern
+      neighbours, and extended them, with little mitigation, even to such as had
+      assumed the Cross, his respect for the King, and a sense of the duty
+      imposed by his vow as a Crusader, prevented him from displaying them
+      otherwise than by regularly shunning all intercourse with his Scottish
+      brethren-at-arms as far as possible, by observing a sullen taciturnity
+      when compelled to meet them occasionally, and by looking scornfully upon
+      them when they encountered on the march and in camp. The Scottish barons
+      and knights were not men to bear his scorn unobserved or unreplied to; and
+      it came to that pass that he was regarded as the determined and active
+      enemy of a nation, whom, after all, he only disliked, and in some sort
+      despised. Nay, it was remarked by close observers that, if he had not
+      towards them the charity of Scripture, which suffereth long, and judges
+      kindly, he was by no means deficient in the subordinate and limited
+      virtue, which alleviates and relieves the wants of others. The wealth of
+      Thomas of Gilsland procured supplies of provisions and medicines, and some
+      of these usually flowed by secret channels into the quarters of the
+      Scottish&mdash;his surly benevolence proceeding on the principle that,
+      next to a man's friend, his foe was of most importance to him, passing
+      over all the intermediate relations as too indifferent to merit even a
+      thought. This explanation is necessary, in order that the reader may fully
+      understand what we are now to detail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thomas de Vaux had not made many steps beyond the entrance of the royal
+      pavilion when he was aware of what the far more acute ear of the English
+      monarch&mdash;no mean proficient in the art of minstrelsy&mdash;had
+      instantly discovered, that the musical strains, namely, which had reached
+      their ears, were produced by the pipes, shalms, and kettle-drums of the
+      Saracens; and at the bottom of an avenue of tents, which formed a broad
+      access to the pavilion of Richard, he could see a crowd of idle soldiers
+      assembled around the spot from which the music was heard, almost in the
+      centre of the camp; and he saw, with great surprise, mingled amid the
+      helmets of various forms worn by the Crusaders of different nations, white
+      turbans and long pikes, announcing the presence of armed Saracens, and the
+      huge deformed heads of several camels or dromedaries, overlooking the
+      multitude by aid of their long, disproportioned necks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wondering, and displeased at a sight so unexpected and singular&mdash;for
+      it was customary to leave all flags of truce and other communications from
+      the enemy at an appointed place without the barriers&mdash;the baron
+      looked eagerly round for some one of whom he might inquire the cause of
+      this alarming novelty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first person whom he met advancing to him he set down at once, by his
+      grave and haughty step, as a Spaniard or a Scot; and presently after
+      muttered to himself, &ldquo;And a Scot it is&mdash;he of the Leopard. I have
+      seen him fight indifferently well, for one of his country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Loath to ask even a passing question, he was about to pass Sir Kenneth,
+      with that sullen and lowering port which seems to say, &ldquo;I know thee, but I
+      will hold no communication with thee.&rdquo; But his purpose was defeated by the
+      Northern Knight, who moved forward directly to him, and accosting him with
+      formal courtesy, said, &ldquo;My Lord de Vaux of Gilsland, I have in charge to
+      speak with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; returned the English baron, &ldquo;with me? But say your pleasure, so it
+      be shortly spoken&mdash;I am on the King's errand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine touches King Richard yet more nearly,&rdquo; answered Sir Kenneth; &ldquo;I
+      bring him, I trust, health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord of Gilsland measured the Scot with incredulous eyes, and replied,
+      &ldquo;Thou art no leech, I think, Sir Scot; I had as soon thought of your
+      bringing the King of England wealth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth, though displeased with the manner of the baron's reply,
+      answered calmly, &ldquo;Health to Richard is glory and wealth to Christendom.&mdash;But
+      my time presses; I pray you, may I see the King?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely not, fair sir,&rdquo; said the baron, &ldquo;until your errand be told more
+      distinctly. The sick chambers of princes open not to all who inquire, like
+      a northern hostelry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said Kenneth, &ldquo;the cross which I wear in common with yourself,
+      and the importance of what I have to tell, must, for the present, cause me
+      to pass over a bearing which else I were unapt to endure. In plain
+      language, then, I bring with me a Moorish physician, who undertakes to
+      work a cure on King Richard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Moorish physician!&rdquo; said De Vaux; &ldquo;and who will warrant that he brings
+      not poisons instead of remedies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His own life, my lord&mdash;his head, which he offers as a guarantee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have known many a resolute ruffian,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;who valued his own
+      life as little as it deserved, and would troop to the gallows as merrily
+      as if the hangman were his partner in a dance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But thus it is, my lord,&rdquo; replied the Scot. &ldquo;Saladin, to whom none will
+      deny the credit of a generous and valiant enemy, hath sent this leech
+      hither with an honourable retinue and guard, befitting the high estimation
+      in which El Hakim [The Physician] is held by the Soldan, and with fruits
+      and refreshments for the King's private chamber, and such message as may
+      pass betwixt honourable enemies, praying him to be recovered of his fever,
+      that he may be the fitter to receive a visit from the Soldan, with his
+      naked scimitar in his hand, and a hundred thousand cavaliers at his back.
+      Will it please you, who are of the King's secret council, to cause these
+      camels to be discharged of their burdens, and some order taken as to the
+      reception of the learned physician?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonderful!&rdquo; said De Vaux, as speaking to himself.&mdash;&ldquo;And who will
+      vouch for the honour of Saladin, in a case when bad faith would rid him at
+      once of his most powerful adversary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I myself,&rdquo; replied Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;will be his guarantee, with honour,
+      life, and fortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strange!&rdquo; again ejaculated De Vaux; &ldquo;the North vouches for the South&mdash;the
+      Scot for the Turk! May I crave of you, Sir Knight, how you became
+      concerned in this affair?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been absent on a pilgrimage, in the course of which,&rdquo; replied Sir
+      Kenneth &ldquo;I had a message to discharge towards the holy hermit of Engaddi.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I not be entrusted with it, Sir Kenneth, and with the answer of the
+      holy man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may not be, my lord,&rdquo; answered the Scot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am of the secret council of England,&rdquo; said the Englishman haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To which land I owe no allegiance,&rdquo; said Kenneth. &ldquo;Though I have
+      voluntarily followed in this war the personal fortunes of England's
+      sovereign, I was dispatched by the General Council of the kings, princes,
+      and supreme leaders of the army of the Blessed Cross, and to them only I
+      render my errand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! sayest thou?&rdquo; said the proud Baron de Vaux. &ldquo;But know, messenger of
+      the kings and princes as thou mayest be, no leech shall approach the
+      sick-bed of Richard of England without the consent of him of Gilsland; and
+      they will come on evil errand who dare to intrude themselves against it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was turning loftily away, when the Scot, placing himself closer, and
+      more opposite to him, asked, in a calm voice, yet not without expressing
+      his share of pride, whether the Lord of Gilsland esteemed him a gentleman
+      and a good knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All Scots are ennobled by their birthright,&rdquo; answered Thomas de Vaux,
+      something ironically; but sensible of his own injustice, and perceiving
+      that Kenneth's colour rose, he added, &ldquo;For a good knight it were sin to
+      doubt you, in one at least who has seen you well and bravely discharge
+      your devoir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then,&rdquo; said the Scottish knight, satisfied with the frankness of
+      the last admission, &ldquo;and let me swear to you, Thomas of Gilsland, that, as
+      I am true Scottish man, which I hold a privilege equal to my ancient
+      gentry, and as sure as I am a belted knight, and come hither to acquire
+      LOS [Los&mdash;laus, praise, or renown] and fame in this mortal life, and
+      forgiveness of my sins in that which is to come&mdash;so truly, and by the
+      blessed Cross which I wear, do I protest unto you that I desire but the
+      safety of Richard Coeur de Lion, in recommending the ministry of this
+      Moslem physician.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Englishman was struck with the solemnity of the obtestation, and
+      answered with more cordiality than he had yet exhibited, &ldquo;Tell me, Sir
+      Knight of the Leopard, granting (which I do not doubt) that thou art
+      thyself satisfied in this matter, shall I do well, in a land where the art
+      of poisoning is as general as that of cooking, to bring this unknown
+      physician to practise with his drugs on a health so valuable to
+      Christendom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; replied the Scot, &ldquo;thus only can I reply&mdash;that my squire,
+      the only one of my retinue whom war and disease had left in attendance on
+      me, has been of late suffering dangerously under this same fever, which,
+      in valiant King Richard, has disabled the principal limb of our holy
+      enterprise. This leech, this El Hakim, hath ministered remedies to him not
+      two hours since, and already he hath fallen into a refreshing sleep. That
+      he can cure the disorder, which has proved so fatal, I nothing doubt; that
+      he hath the purpose to do it is, I think, warranted by his mission from
+      the royal Soldan, who is true-hearted and loyal, so far as a blinded
+      infidel may be called so; and for his eventual success, the certainty of
+      reward in case of succeeding, and punishment in case of voluntary failure,
+      may be a sufficient guarantee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Englishman listened with downcast looks, as one who doubted, yet was
+      not unwilling to receive conviction. At length he looked up and said, &ldquo;May
+      I see your sick squire, fair sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight hesitated and coloured, yet answered at last,
+      &ldquo;Willingly, my Lord of Gilsland. But you must remember, when you see my
+      poor quarter, that the nobles and knights of Scotland feed not so high,
+      sleep not so soft, and care not for the magnificence of lodgment which is
+      Proper to their southern neighbours. I am POORLY lodged, my Lord of
+      Gilsland,&rdquo; he added, with a haughty emphasis on the word, while, with some
+      unwillingness, he led the way to his temporary place of abode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever were the prejudices of De Vaux against the nation of his new
+      acquaintance, and though we undertake not to deny that some of these were
+      excited by its proverbial poverty, he had too much nobleness of
+      disposition to enjoy the mortification of a brave individual thus
+      compelled to make known wants which his pride would gladly have concealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shame to the soldier of the Cross,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;who thinks of worldly
+      splendour, or of luxurious accommodation, when pressing forward to the
+      conquest of the Holy City. Fare as hard as we may, we shall yet be better
+      than the host of martyrs and of saints, who, having trod these scenes
+      before us, now hold golden lamps and evergreen palms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the most metaphorical speech which Thomas of Gilsland was ever
+      known to utter, the rather, perhaps (as will sometimes happen), that it
+      did not entirely express his own sentiments, being somewhat a lover of
+      good cheer and splendid accommodation. By this time they reached the place
+      of the camp where the Knight of the Leopard had assumed his abode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Appearances here did indeed promise no breach of the laws of
+      mortification, to which the Crusaders, according to the opinion expressed
+      by him of Gilsland, ought to subject themselves. A space of ground, large
+      enough to accommodate perhaps thirty tents, according to the Crusaders'
+      rules of castrametation, was partly vacant&mdash;because, in ostentation,
+      the knight had demanded ground to the extent of his original retinue&mdash;partly
+      occupied by a few miserable huts, hastily constructed of boughs, and
+      covered with palm-leaves. These habitations seemed entirely deserted, and
+      several of them were ruinous. The central hut, which represented the
+      pavilion of the leader, was distinguished by his swallow-tailed pennon,
+      placed on the point of a spear, from which its long folds dropped
+      motionless to the ground, as if sickening under the scorching rays of the
+      Asiatic sun. But no pages or squires&mdash;not even a solitary warder&mdash;was
+      placed by the emblem of feudal power and knightly degree. If its
+      reputation defended it not from insult, it had no other guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth cast a melancholy look around him, but suppressing his
+      feelings, entered the hut, making a sign to the Baron of Gilsland to
+      follow. He also cast around a glance of examination, which implied pity
+      not altogether unmingled with contempt, to which, perhaps, it is as nearly
+      akin as it is said to be to love. He then stooped his lofty crest, and
+      entered a lowly hut, which his bulky form seemed almost entirely to fill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interior of the hut was chiefly occupied by two beds. One was empty,
+      but composed of collected leaves, and spread with an antelope's hide. It
+      seemed, from the articles of armour laid beside it, and from a crucifix of
+      silver, carefully and reverentially disposed at the head, to be the couch
+      of the knight himself. The other contained the invalid, of whom Sir
+      Kenneth had spoken, a strong-built and harsh-featured man, past, as his
+      looks betokened, the middle age of life. His couch was trimmed more softly
+      than his master's, and it was plain that the more courtly garments of the
+      latter, the loose robe in which the knights showed themselves on pacific
+      occasions, and the other little spare articles of dress and adornment, had
+      been applied by Sir Kenneth to the accommodation of his sick domestic. In
+      an outward part of the hut, which yet was within the range of the English
+      baron's eye, a boy, rudely attired with buskins of deer's hide, a blue cap
+      or bonnet, and a doublet, whose original finery was much tarnished, sat on
+      his knees by a chafing-dish filled with charcoal, cooking upon a plate of
+      iron the cakes of barley-bread, which were then, and still are, a
+      favourite food with the Scottish people. Part of an antelope was suspended
+      against one of the main props of the hut. Nor was it difficult to know how
+      it had been procured; for a large stag greyhound, nobler in size and
+      appearance than those even which guarded King Richard's sick-bed, lay
+      eyeing the process of baking the cake. The sagacious animal, on their
+      first entrance, uttered a stifled growl, which sounded from his deep chest
+      like distant thunder. But he saw his master, and acknowledged his presence
+      by wagging his tail and couching his head, abstaining from more tumultuous
+      or noisy greeting, as if his noble instinct had taught him the propriety
+      of silence in a sick man's chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beside the couch sat on a cushion, also composed of skins, the Moorish
+      physician of whom Sir Kenneth had spoken, cross-legged, after the Eastern
+      fashion. The imperfect light showed little of him, save that the lower
+      part of his face was covered with a long, black beard, which descended
+      over his breast; that he wore a high TOLPACH, a Tartar cap of the lamb's
+      wool manufactured at Astracan, bearing the same dusky colour; and that his
+      ample caftan, or Turkish robe, was also of a dark hue. Two piercing eyes,
+      which gleamed with unusual lustre, were the only lineaments of his visage
+      that could be discerned amid the darkness in which he was enveloped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English lord stood silent with a sort of reverential awe; for
+      notwithstanding the roughness of his general bearing, a scene of distress
+      and poverty, firmly endured without complaint or murmur, would at any time
+      have claimed more reverence from Thomas de Vaux than would all the
+      splendid formalities of a royal presence-chamber, unless that
+      presence-chamber were King Richard's own. Nothing was for a time heard but
+      the heavy and regular breathings of the invalid, who seemed in profound
+      repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He hath not slept for six nights before,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;as I am
+      assured by the youth, his attendant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble Scot,&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux, grasping the Scottish knight's hand,
+      with a pressure which had more of cordiality than he permitted his words
+      to utter, &ldquo;this gear must be amended. Your esquire is but too evil fed and
+      looked to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the latter part of this speech he naturally raised his voice to its
+      usual decided tone, The sick man was disturbed in his slumbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My master,&rdquo; he said, murmuring as in a dream, &ldquo;noble Sir Kenneth, taste
+      not, to you as to me, the waters of the Clyde cold and refreshing after
+      the brackish springs of Palestine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He dreams of his native land, and is happy in his slumbers,&rdquo; whispered
+      Sir Kenneth to De Vaux; but had scarce uttered the words, when the
+      physician, arising from the place which he had taken near the couch of the
+      sick, and laying the hand of the patient, whose pulse he had been
+      carefully watching, quietly upon the couch, came to the two knights, and
+      taking them each by the arm, while he intimated to them to remain silent,
+      led them to the front of the hut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the name of Issa Ben Mariam,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;whom we honour as you, though
+      not with the same blinded superstition, disturb not the effect of the
+      blessed medicine of which he hath partaken. To awaken him now is death or
+      deprivation of reason; but return at the hour when the muezzin calls from
+      the minaret to evening prayer in the mosque, and if left undisturbed until
+      then, I promise you this same Frankish soldier shall be able, without
+      prejudice to his health, to hold some brief converse with you on any
+      matters on which either, and especially his master, may have to question
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The knights retreated before the authoritative commands of the leech, who
+      seemed fully to comprehend the importance of the Eastern proverb that the
+      sick chamber of the patient is the kingdom of the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They paused, and remained standing together at the door of the hut&mdash;Sir
+      Kenneth with the air of one who expected his visitor to say farewell, and
+      De Vaux as if he had something on his mind which prevented him from doing
+      so. The hound, however, had pressed out of the tent after them, and now
+      thrust his long, rough countenance into the hand of his master, as if
+      modestly soliciting some mark of his kindness. He had no sooner received
+      the notice which he desired, in the shape of a kind word and slight
+      caress, than, eager to acknowledge his gratitude and joy for his master's
+      return, he flew off at full speed, galloping in full career, and with
+      outstretched tail, here and there, about and around, cross-ways and
+      endlong, through the decayed huts and the esplanade we have described, but
+      never transgressing those precincts which his sagacity knew were protected
+      by his master's pennon. After a few gambols of this kind, the dog, coming
+      close up to his master, laid at once aside his frolicsome mood, relapsed
+      into his usual gravity and slowness of gesture and deportment, and looked
+      as if he were ashamed that anything should have moved him to depart so far
+      out of his sober self-control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both knights looked on with pleasure; for Sir Kenneth was justly proud of
+      his noble hound, and the northern English baron was, of course, an admirer
+      of the chase, and a judge of the animal's merits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A right able dog,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think, fair sir, King Richard hath not an
+      ALAN which may match him, if he be as stanch as he is swift. But let me
+      pray you&mdash;speaking in all honour and kindness&mdash;have you not
+      heard the proclamation that no one under the rank of earl shall keep
+      hunting dogs within King Richard's camp without the royal license, which,
+      I think, Sir Kenneth, hath not been issued to you? I speak as Master of
+      the Horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I answer as a free Scottish knight,&rdquo; said Kenneth sternly. &ldquo;For the
+      present I follow the banner of England, but I cannot remember that I have
+      ever subjected myself to the forest-laws of that kingdom, nor have I such
+      respect for them as would incline me to do so. When the trumpet sounds to
+      arms, my foot is in the stirrup as soon as any&mdash;when it clangs for
+      the charge, my lance has not yet been the last laid in the rest. But for
+      my hours of liberty or of idleness King Richard has no title to bar my
+      recreation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;it is a folly to disobey the King's
+      ordinance; so, with your good leave, I, as having authority in that
+      matter, will send you a protection for my friend here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you,&rdquo; said the Scot coldly; &ldquo;but he knows my allotted quarters,
+      and within these I can protect him myself.&mdash;And yet,&rdquo; he said,
+      suddenly changing his manner, &ldquo;this is but a cold return for a well-meant
+      kindness. I thank you, my lord, most heartily. The King's equerries or
+      prickers might find Roswal at disadvantage, and do him some injury, which
+      I should not, perhaps, be slow in returning, and so ill might come of it.
+      You have seen so much of my house-keeping, my lord,&rdquo; he added, with a
+      smile, &ldquo;that I need not shame to say that Roswal is our principal
+      purveyor, and well I hope our Lion Richard will not be like the lion in
+      the minstrel fable, that went a-hunting, and kept the whole booty to
+      himself. I cannot think he would grudge a poor gentleman, who follows him
+      faithfully, his hour of sport and his morsel of game, more especially when
+      other food is hard enough to come by.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my faith, you do the King no more than justice; and yet,&rdquo; said the
+      baron, &ldquo;there is something in these words, vert and venison, that turns
+      the very brains of our Norman princes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have heard of late,&rdquo; said the Scot, &ldquo;by minstrels and pilgrims, that
+      your outlawed yeomen have formed great bands in the shires of York and
+      Nottingham, having at their head a most stout archer, called Robin Hood,
+      with his lieutenant, Little John. Methinks it were better that Richard
+      relaxed his forest-code in England, than endeavour to enforce it in the
+      Holy Land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wild work, Sir Kenneth,&rdquo; replied De Vaux, shrugging his shoulders, as one
+      who would avoid a perilous or unpleasing topic&mdash;&ldquo;a mad world, sir. I
+      must now bid you adieu, having presently to return to the King's pavilion.
+      At vespers I will again, with your leave, visit your quarters, and speak
+      with this same infidel physician. I would, in the meantime, were it no
+      offence, willingly send you what would somewhat mend your cheer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, sir,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;but it needs not. Roswal hath
+      already stocked my larder for two weeks, since the sun of Palestine, if it
+      brings diseases, serves also to dry venison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two warriors parted much better friends than they had met; but ere
+      they separated, Thomas de Vaux informed himself at more length of the
+      circumstances attending the mission of the Eastern physician, and received
+      from the Scottish knight the credentials which he had brought to King
+      Richard on the part of Saladin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
+     Is more than armies to the common weal.
+       POPE'S ILLIAD.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a strange tale, Sir Thomas,&rdquo; said the sick monarch, when he had
+      heard the report of the trusty Baron of Gilsland. &ldquo;Art thou sure this
+      Scottish man is a tall man and true?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot say, my lord,&rdquo; replied the jealous Borderer. &ldquo;I live a little
+      too near the Scots to gather much truth among them, having found them ever
+      fair and false. But this man's bearing is that of a true man, were he a
+      devil as well as a Scot; that I must needs say for him in conscience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for his carriage as a knight, how sayest thou, De Vaux?&rdquo; demanded the
+      King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is your Majesty's business more than mine to note men's bearings; and
+      I warrant you have noted the manner in which this man of the Leopard hath
+      borne himself. He hath been full well spoken of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And justly, Thomas,&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;We have ourselves witnessed him. It
+      is indeed our purpose in placing ourselves ever in the front of battle, to
+      see how our liegemen and followers acquit themselves, and not from a
+      desire to accumulate vainglory to ourselves, as some have supposed. We
+      know the vanity of the praise of man, which is but a vapour, and buckle on
+      our armour for other purposes than to win it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux was alarmed when he heard the King make a declaration so
+      inconsistent with his nature, and believed at first that nothing short of
+      the approach of death could have brought him to speak in depreciating
+      terms of military renown, which was the very breath of his nostrils. But
+      recollecting he had met the royal confessor in the outer pavilion, he was
+      shrewd enough to place this temporary self-abasement to the effect of the
+      reverend man's lesson, and suffered the King to proceed without reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; continued Richard, &ldquo;I have indeed marked the manner in which this
+      knight does his devoir. My leading-staff were not worth a fool's bauble
+      had he escaped my notice; and he had ere now tasted of our bounty, but
+      that I have also marked his overweening and audacious presumption.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My liege,&rdquo; said the Baron of Gilsland, observing the King's countenance
+      change, &ldquo;I fear I have transgressed your pleasure in lending some
+      countenance to his transgression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, De Multon, thou?&rdquo; said the King, contracting his brows, and speaking
+      in a tone of angry surprise. &ldquo;Thou countenance his insolence? It cannot
+      be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, your Majesty will pardon me to remind you that I have by mine office
+      right to grant liberty to men of gentle blood to keep them a hound or two
+      within camp, just to cherish the noble art of venerie; and besides, it
+      were a sin to have maimed or harmed a thing so noble as this gentleman's
+      dog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he, then, a dog so handsome?&rdquo; said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A most perfect creature of Heaven,&rdquo; said the baron, who was an enthusiast
+      in field-sports&mdash;&ldquo;of the noblest Northern breed&mdash;deep in the
+      chest, strong in the stern&mdash;black colour, and brindled on the breast
+      and legs, not spotted with white, but just shaded into grey&mdash;strength
+      to pull down a bull, swiftness to cote an antelope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King laughed at his enthusiasm. &ldquo;Well, thou hast given him leave to
+      keep the hound, so there is an end of it. Be not, however, liberal of your
+      licenses among those knights adventurers who have no prince or leader to
+      depend upon; they are ungovernable, and leave no game in Palestine.&mdash;But
+      to this piece of learned heathenesse&mdash;sayest thou the Scot met him in
+      the desert?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my liege; the Scot's tale runs thus. He was dispatched to the old
+      hermit of Engaddi, of whom men talk so much&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Sdeath and hell!&rdquo; said Richard, starting up. &ldquo;By whom dispatched, and
+      for what? Who dared send any one thither, when our Queen was in the
+      Convent of Engaddi, upon her pilgrimage for our recovery?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Council of the Crusade sent him, my lord,&rdquo; answered the Baron de
+      Vaux; &ldquo;for what purpose, he declined to account to me. I think it is
+      scarce known in the camp that your royal consort is on a pilgrimage; and
+      even the princes may not have been aware, as the Queen has been
+      sequestered from company since your love prohibited her attendance in case
+      of infection.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it shall be looked into,&rdquo; said Richard. &ldquo;So this Scottish man, this
+      envoy, met with a wandering physician at the grotto of Engaddi&mdash;ha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so my liege,&rdquo; replied De Vaux? &ldquo;but he met, I think, near that place,
+      with a Saracen Emir with whom he had some MELEE in the way of proof of
+      valour, and finding him worthy to bear brave men company, they went
+      together, as errant knights are wont, to the grotto of Engaddi.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here De Vaux stopped, for he was not one of those who can tell a long
+      story in a sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did they there meet the physician?&rdquo; demanded the King impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my liege,&rdquo; replied De Vaux; &ldquo;but the Saracen, learning your Majesty's
+      grievous illness, undertook that Saladin should send his own physician to
+      you, and with many assurances of his eminent skill; and he came to the
+      grotto accordingly, after the Scottish knight had tarried a day for him
+      and more. He is attended as if he were a prince, with drums and atabals,
+      and servants on horse and foot, and brings with him letters of credence
+      from Saladin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have they been examined by Giacomo Loredani?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I showed them to the interpreter ere bringing them hither, and behold
+      their contents in English.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard took a scroll, in which were inscribed these words: The blessing
+      of Allah and his Prophet Mohammed [&ldquo;Out upon the hound!&rdquo; said Richard,
+      spitting in contempt, by way of interjection], Saladin, king of kings,
+      Saldan of Egypt and of Syria, the light and refuge of the earth, to the
+      great Melech Ric, Richard of England, greeting. Whereas, we have been
+      informed that the hand of sickness hath been heavy upon thee, our royal
+      brother, and that thou hast with thee only such Nazarene and Jewish
+      mediciners as work without the blessing of Allah and our holy Prophet
+      [&ldquo;Confusion on his head!&rdquo; again muttered the English monarch], we have
+      therefore sent to tend and wait upon thee at this time the physician to
+      our own person, Adonbec el Hakim, before whose face the angel Azrael [The
+      Angel of Death.] spreads his wings and departs from the sick chamber; who
+      knows the virtues of herbs and stones, the path of the sun, moon, and
+      stars, and can save man from all that is not written on his forehead. And
+      this we do, praying you heartily to honour and make use of his skill; not
+      only that we may do service to thy worth and valour, which is the glory of
+      all the nations of Frangistan, but that we may bring the controversy which
+      is at present between us to an end, either by honourable agreement, or by
+      open trial thereof with our weapons, in a fair field&mdash;seeing that it
+      neither becomes thy place and courage to die the death of a slave who hath
+      been overwrought by his taskmaster, nor befits it our fame that a brave
+      adversary be snatched from our weapon by such a disease. And, therefore,
+      may the holy&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold, hold,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;I will have no more of his dog of a prophet!
+      It makes me sick to think the valiant and worthy Soldan should believe in
+      a dead dog. Yes, I will see his physician. I will put myself into the
+      charge of this Hakim&mdash;I will repay the noble Soldan his generosity&mdash;I
+      will meet Saladin in the field, as he so worthily proposes, and he shall
+      have no cause to term Richard of England ungrateful. I will strike him to
+      the earth with my battle-axe&mdash;I will convert him to Holy Church with
+      such blows as he has rarely endured. He shall recant his errors before my
+      good cross-handled sword, and I will have him baptized on the
+      battle-field, from my own helmet, though the cleansing waters were mixed
+      with the blood of us both.&mdash;Haste, De Vaux, why dost thou delay a
+      conclusion so pleasing? Fetch the Hakim hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said the baron, who perhaps saw some accession of fever in this
+      overflow of confidence, &ldquo;bethink you, the Soldan is a pagan, and that you
+      are his most formidable enemy&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For which reason he is the more bound to do me service in this matter,
+      lest a paltry fever end the quarrel betwixt two such kings. I tell thee he
+      loves me as I love him&mdash;as noble adversaries ever love each other. By
+      my honour, it were sin to doubt his good faith!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, my lord, it were well to wait the issue of these medicines
+      upon the Scottish squire,&rdquo; said the Lord of Gilsland. &ldquo;My own life depends
+      upon it, for worthy were I to die like a dog did I proceed rashly in this
+      matter, and make shipwreck of the weal of Christendom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never knew thee before hesitate for fear of life,&rdquo; said Richard
+      upbraidingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor would I now, my liege,&rdquo; replied the stout-hearted baron, &ldquo;save that
+      yours lies at pledge as well as my own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, thou suspicious mortal,&rdquo; answered Richard, &ldquo;begone then, and watch
+      the progress of this remedy. I could almost wish it might either cure or
+      kill me, for I am weary of lying here like an ox dying of the murrain,
+      when tambours are beating, horses stamping, and trumpets sounding
+      without.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron hastily departed, resolved, however, to communicate his errand
+      to some churchman, as he felt something burdened in conscience at the idea
+      of his master being attended by an unbeliever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archbishop of Tyre was the first to whom he confided his doubts,
+      knowing his interest with his master, Richard, who both loved and honoured
+      that sagacious prelate. The bishop heard the doubts which De Vaux stated,
+      with that acuteness of intelligence which distinguishes the Roman Catholic
+      clergy. The religious scruples of De Vaux he treated with as much
+      lightness as propriety permitted him to exhibit on such a subject to a
+      layman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mediciners,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;like the medicines which they employed, were often
+      useful, though the one were by birth or manners the vilest of humanity, as
+      the others are, in many cases, extracted from the basest materials. Men
+      may use the assistance of pagans and infidels,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;in their
+      need, and there is reason to think that one cause of their being permitted
+      to remain on earth is that they might minister to the convenience of true
+      Christians. Thus we lawfully make slaves of heathen captives. Again,&rdquo;
+       proceeded the prelate, &ldquo;there is no doubt that the primitive Christians
+      used the services of the unconverted heathen. Thus in the ship of
+      Alexandria, in which the blessed Apostle Paul sailed to Italy, the sailors
+      were doubtless pagans; yet what said the holy saint when their ministry
+      was needful?&mdash;'NISI HI IN NAVI MANSERINT, VOS SALVI FIERI NON
+      POTESTIS'&mdash;Unless these men abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
+      Again, Jews are infidels to Christianity, as well as Mohammedans. But
+      there are few physicians in the camp excepting Jews, and such are employed
+      without scandal or scruple. Therefore, Mohammedans may be used for their
+      service in that capacity&mdash;QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This reasoning entirely removed the scruples of Thomas de Vaux, who was
+      particularly moved by the Latin quotation, as he did not understand a word
+      of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the bishop proceeded with far less fluency when he considered the
+      possibility of the Saracen's acting with bad faith; and here he came not
+      to a speedy decision. The baron showed him the letters of credence. He
+      read and re-read them, and compared the original with the translation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a dish choicely cooked,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to the palate of King Richard,
+      and I cannot but have my suspicions of the wily Saracen. They are curious
+      in the art of poisons, and can so temper them that they shall be weeks in
+      acting upon the party, during which time the perpetrator has leisure to
+      escape. They can impregnate cloth and leather, nay, even paper and
+      parchment, with the most subtle venom. Our Lady forgive me! And wherefore,
+      knowing this, hold I these letters of credence so close to my face? Take
+      them, Sir Thomas&mdash;take them speedily!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he gave them at arm's-length, and with some appearance of haste, to
+      the baron. &ldquo;But come, my Lord de Vaux,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;wend we to the tent
+      of this sick squire, where we shall learn whether this Hakim hath really
+      the art of curing which he professeth, ere we consider whether there be
+      safety in permitting him to exercise his art upon King Richard.&mdash;Yet,
+      hold! let me first take my pouncet-box, for these fevers spread like an
+      infection. I would advise you to use dried rosemary steeped in vinegar, my
+      lord. I, too, know something of the healing art.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank your reverend lordship,&rdquo; replied Thomas of Gilsland; &ldquo;but had I
+      been accessible to the fever, I had caught it long since by the bed of my
+      master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bishop of Tyre blushed, for he had rather avoided the presence of the
+      sick monarch; and he bid the baron lead on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they paused before the wretched hut in which Kenneth of the Leopard and
+      his follower abode, the bishop said to De Vaux, &ldquo;Now, of a surety, my
+      lord, these Scottish Knights have worse care of their followers than we of
+      our dogs. Here is a knight, valiant, they say, in battle, and thought
+      fitting to be graced with charges of weight in time of truce, whose
+      esquire of the body is lodged worse than in the worst dog-kennel in
+      England. What say you of your neighbours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That a master doth well enough for his servant when he lodgeth him in no
+      worse dwelling than his own,&rdquo; said De Vaux, and entered the hut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bishop followed, not without evident reluctance; for though he lacked
+      not courage in some respects, yet it was tempered with a strong and lively
+      regard for his own safety. He recollected, however, the necessity there
+      was for judging personally of the skill of the Arabian physician, and
+      entered the hut with a stateliness of manner calculated, as he thought, to
+      impose respect on the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate was, indeed, a striking and commanding figure. In his youth he
+      had been eminently handsome, and even in age was unwilling to appear less
+      so. His episcopal dress was of the richest fashion, trimmed with costly
+      fur, and surrounded by a cope of curious needlework. The rings on his
+      fingers were worth a goodly barony, and the hood which he wore, though now
+      unclasped and thrown back for heat, had studs of pure gold to fasten it
+      around his throat and under his chin when he so inclined. His long beard,
+      now silvered with age, descended over his breast. One of two youthful
+      acolytes who attended him created an artificial shade, peculiar then to
+      the East, by bearing over his head an umbrella of palmetto leaves, while
+      the other refreshed his reverend master by agitating a fan of
+      peacock-feathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Bishop of Tyre entered the hut of the Scottish knight, the master
+      was absent, and the Moorish physician, whom he had come to see, sat in the
+      very posture in which De Vaux had left him several hours before,
+      cross-legged upon a mat made of twisted leaves, by the side of the
+      patient, who appeared in deep slumber, and whose pulse he felt from time
+      to time. The bishop remained standing before him in silence for two or
+      three minutes, as if expecting some honourable salutation, or at least
+      that the Saracen would seem struck with the dignity of his appearance. But
+      Adonbec el Hakim took no notice of him beyond a passing glance, and when
+      the prelate at length saluted him in the lingua franca current in the
+      country, he only replied by the ordinary Oriental greeting, &ldquo;SALAM ALICUM&mdash;Peace
+      be with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Art thou a physician, infidel?&rdquo; said the bishop, somewhat mortified at
+      this cold reception. &ldquo;I would speak with thee on that art.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If thou knewest aught of medicine,&rdquo; answered El Hakim, &ldquo;thou wouldst be
+      aware that physicians hold no counsel or debate in the sick chamber of
+      their patient. Hear,&rdquo; he added, as the low growling of the staghound was
+      heard from the inner hut, &ldquo;even the dog might teach thee reason, Ulemat.
+      His instinct teaches him to suppress his barking in the sick man's
+      hearing. Come without the tent,&rdquo; said he, rising and leading the way, &ldquo;if
+      thou hast ought to say with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the plainness of the Saracen leech's dress, and his
+      inferiority of size when contrasted with the tall prelate and gigantic
+      English baron, there was something striking in his manner and countenance,
+      which prevented the Bishop of Tyre from expressing strongly the
+      displeasure he felt at this unceremonious rebuke. When without the hut, he
+      gazed upon Adonbec in silence for several minutes before he could fix on
+      the best manner to renew the conversation. No locks were seen under the
+      high bonnet of the Arabian, which hid also part of a brow that seemed
+      lofty and expanded, smooth, and free from wrinkles, as were his cheeks,
+      where they were seen under the shade of his long beard. We have elsewhere
+      noticed the piercing quality of his dark eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate, struck with his apparent youth, at length broke a pause,
+      which the other seemed in no haste to interrupt, by demanding of the
+      Arabian how old he was?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The years of ordinary men,&rdquo; said the Saracen, &ldquo;are counted by their
+      wrinkles; those of sages by their studies. I dare not call myself older
+      than a hundred revolutions of the Hegira.&rdquo; [Meaning that his attainments
+      were those which might have been made in a hundred years.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Baron of Gilsland, who took this for a literal assertion that he was a
+      century old, looked doubtfully upon the prelate, who, though he better
+      understood the meaning of El Hakim, answered his glance by mysteriously
+      shaking his head. He resumed an air of importance when he again
+      authoritatively demanded what evidence Adonbec could produce of his
+      medical proficiency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye have the word of the mighty Saladin,&rdquo; said the sage, touching his cap
+      in sign of reverence&mdash;&ldquo;a word which was never broken towards friend
+      or foe. What, Nazarene, wouldst thou demand more?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would have ocular proof of thy skill,&rdquo; said the baron, &ldquo;and without it
+      thou approachest not to the couch of King Richard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The praise of the physician,&rdquo; said the Arabian, &ldquo;is in the recovery of
+      his patient. Behold this sergeant, whose blood has been dried up by the
+      fever which has whitened your camp with skeletons, and against which the
+      art of your Nazarene leeches hath been like a silken doublet against a
+      lance of steel. Look at his fingers and arms, wasted like the claws and
+      shanks of the crane. Death had this morning his clutch on him; but had
+      Azrael been on one side of the couch, I being on the other, his soul
+      should not have been left from his body. Disturb me not with further
+      questions, but await the critical minute, and behold in silent wonder the
+      marvellous event.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician had then recourse to his astrolabe, the oracle of Eastern
+      science, and watching with grave precision until the precise time of the
+      evening prayer had arrived, he sunk on his knees, with his face turned to
+      Mecca, and recited the petitions which close the Moslemah's day of toil.
+      The bishop and the English baron looked on each other, meanwhile, with
+      symptoms of contempt and indignation, but neither judged it fit to
+      interrupt El Hakim in his devotions, unholy as they considered them to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arab arose from the earth, on which he had prostrated himself, and
+      walking into the hut where the patient lay extended, he drew a sponge from
+      a small silver box, dipped perhaps in some aromatic distillation, for when
+      he put it to the sleeper's nose, he sneezed, awoke, and looked wildly
+      around. He was a ghastly spectacle as he sat up almost naked on his couch,
+      the bones and cartilages as visible through the surface of his skin as if
+      they had never been clothed with flesh. His face was long, and furrowed
+      with wrinkles; but his eye, though it wandered at first, became gradually
+      more settled. He seemed to be aware of the presence of his dignified
+      visitors, for he attempted feebly to pull the covering from his head in
+      token of reverence, as he inquired, in a subdued and submissive voice, for
+      his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know us, vassal?&rdquo; said the Lord of Gilsland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not perfectly, my lord,&rdquo; replied the squire faintly. &ldquo;My sleep has been
+      long and full of dreams. Yet I know that you are a great English lord, as
+      seemeth by the red cross, and this a holy prelate, whose blessing I crave
+      on me a poor sinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast it&mdash;BENEDICTIO DOMINI SIT VOBISCUM,&rdquo; said the prelate,
+      making the sign of the cross, but without approaching nearer to the
+      patient's bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your eyes witness,&rdquo; said the Arabian, &ldquo;the fever hath been subdued. He
+      speaks with calmness and recollection&mdash;his pulse beats composedly as
+      yours&mdash;try its pulsations yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate declined the experiment; but Thomas of Gilsland, more
+      determined on making the trial, did so, and satisfied himself that the
+      fever was indeed gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is most wonderful,&rdquo; said the knight, looking to the bishop; &ldquo;the man
+      is assuredly cured. I must conduct this mediciner presently to King
+      Richard's tent. What thinks your reverence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay, let me finish one cure ere I commence another,&rdquo; said the Arab; &ldquo;I
+      will pass with you when I have given my patient the second cup of this
+      most holy elixir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying he pulled out a silver cup, and filling it with water from a
+      gourd which stood by the bedside, he next drew forth a small silken bag
+      made of network, twisted with silver, the contents of which the bystanders
+      could not discover, and immersing it in the cup, continued to watch it in
+      silence during the space of five minutes. It seemed to the spectators as
+      if some effervescence took place during the operation; but if so, it
+      instantly subsided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drink,&rdquo; said the physician to the sick man&mdash;&ldquo;sleep, and awaken free
+      from malady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And with this simple-seeming draught thou wilt undertake to cure a
+      monarch?&rdquo; said the Bishop of Tyre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have cured a beggar, as you may behold,&rdquo; replied the sage. &ldquo;Are the
+      Kings of Frangistan made of other clay than the meanest of their
+      subjects?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us have him presently to the King,&rdquo; said the Baron of Gilsland. &ldquo;He
+      hath shown that he possesses the secret which may restore his health. If
+      he fails to exercise it, I will put himself past the power of medicine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were about to leave the hut, the sick man, raising his voice as
+      much as his weakness permitted, exclaimed, &ldquo;Reverend father, noble knight,
+      and you, kind leech, if you would have me sleep and recover, tell me in
+      charity what is become of my dear master?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is upon a distant expedition, friend,&rdquo; replied the prelate&mdash;&ldquo;on
+      an honourable embassy, which may detain him for some days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said the Baron of Gilsland, &ldquo;why deceive the poor fellow?&mdash;Friend,
+      thy master has returned to the camp, and you will presently see him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The invalid held up, as if in thankfulness, his wasted hands to Heaven,
+      and resisting no longer the soporiferous operation of the elixir, sunk
+      down in a gentle sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a better physician than I, Sir Thomas,&rdquo; said the prelate&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      soothing falsehood is fitter for a sick-room than an unpleasing truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How mean you, my reverend lord?&rdquo; said De Vaux hastily. &ldquo;Think you I would
+      tell a falsehood to save the lives of a dozen such as he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said,&rdquo; replied the bishop, with manifest symptoms of alarm&mdash;&ldquo;you
+      said the esquire's master was returned&mdash;he, I mean, of the Couchant
+      Leopard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he IS returned,&rdquo; said De Vaux. &ldquo;I spoke with him but a few hours
+      since. This learned leech came in his company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holy Virgin! why told you not of his return to me?&rdquo; said the bishop, in
+      evident perturbation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not say that this same Knight of the Leopard had returned in
+      company with the physician? I thought I had,&rdquo; replied De Vaux carelessly.
+      &ldquo;But what signified his return to the skill of the physician, or the cure
+      of his Majesty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much, Sir Thomas&mdash;it signified much,&rdquo; said the bishop, clenching his
+      hands, pressing his foot against the earth, and giving signs of
+      impatience, as if in an involuntary manner. &ldquo;But where can he be gone now,
+      this same knight? God be with us&mdash;here may be some fatal errors!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yonder serf in the outer space,&rdquo; said De Vaux, not without wonder at the
+      bishop's emotion, &ldquo;can probably tell us whither his master has gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad was summoned, and in a language nearly incomprehensible to them,
+      gave them at length to understand that an officer had summoned his master
+      to the royal tent some time before their arrival at that of his master.
+      The anxiety of the bishop appeared to rise to the highest, and became
+      evident to De Vaux, though, neither an acute observer nor of a suspicious
+      temper. But with his anxiety seemed to increase his wish to keep it
+      subdued and unobserved. He took a hasty leave of De Vaux, who looked after
+      him with astonishment, and after shrugging his shoulders in silent wonder,
+      proceeded to conduct the Arabian physician to the tent of King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     This is the prince of leeches; fever, plague,
+     Cold rheum, and hot podagra, do but look on him,
+     And quit their grasp upon the tortured sinews.
+        ANONYMOUS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Baron of Gilsland walked with slow step and an anxious countenance
+      towards the royal pavilion. He had much diffidence of his own capacity,
+      except in a field of battle, and conscious of no very acute intellect, was
+      usually contented to wonder at circumstances which a man of livelier
+      imagination would have endeavoured to investigate and understand, or at
+      least would have made the subject of speculation. But it seemed very
+      extraordinary, even to him, that the attention of the bishop should have
+      been at once abstracted from all reflection on the marvellous cure which
+      they had witnessed, and upon the probability it afforded of Richard being
+      restored to health, by what seemed a very trivial piece of information
+      announcing the motions of a beggardly Scottish knight, than whom Thomas of
+      Gilsland knew nothing within the circle of gentle blood more unimportant
+      or contemptible; and despite his usual habit of passively beholding
+      passing events, the baron's spirit toiled with unwonted attempts to form
+      conjectures on the cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the idea occurred at once to him that the whole might be a
+      conspiracy against King Richard, formed within the camp of the allies, and
+      to which the bishop, who was by some represented as a politic and
+      unscrupulous person, was not unlikely to have been accessory. It was true
+      that, in his own opinion, there existed no character so perfect as that of
+      his master; for Richard being the flower of chivalry, and the chief of
+      Christian leaders, and obeying in all points the commands of Holy Church,
+      De Vaux's ideas of perfection went no further. Still, he knew that,
+      however unworthily, it had been always his master's fate to draw as much
+      reproach and dislike as honour and attachment from the display of his
+      great qualities; and that in the very camp, and amongst those princes
+      bound by oath to the Crusade, were many who would have sacrificed all hope
+      of victory over the Saracens to the pleasure of ruining, or at least of
+      humbling, Richard of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wherefore,&rdquo; said the baron to himself, &ldquo;it is in no sense impossible that
+      this El Hakim, with this his cure, or seeming cure, wrought on the body of
+      the Scottish squire, may mean nothing but a trick, to which he of the
+      Leopard may be accessory, and wherein the Bishop of Tyre, prelate as he
+      is, may have some share.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This hypothesis, indeed, could not be so easily reconciled with the alarm
+      manifested by the bishop on learning that, contrary to his expectation,
+      the Scottish knight had suddenly returned to the Crusaders' camp. But De
+      Vaux was influenced only by his general prejudices, which dictated to him
+      the assured belief that a wily Italian priest, a false-hearted Scot, and
+      an infidel physician, formed a set of ingredients from which all evil, and
+      no good, was likely to be extracted. He resolved, however, to lay his
+      scruples bluntly before the King, of whose judgment he had nearly as high
+      an opinion as of his valour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, events had taken place very contrary to the suppositions which
+      Thomas de Vaux had entertained. Scarce had he left the royal pavilion,
+      when, betwixt the impatience of the fever, and that which was natural to
+      his disposition, Richard began to murmur at his delay, and express an
+      earnest desire for his return. He had seen enough to try to reason himself
+      out of this irritation, which greatly increased his bodily malady. He
+      wearied his attendants by demanding from them amusements, and the breviary
+      of the priest, the romance of the clerk, even the harp of his favourite
+      minstrel, were had recourse to in vain. At length, some two hours before
+      sundown, and long, therefore, ere he could expect a satisfactory account
+      of the process of the cure which the Moor or Arabian had undertaken, he
+      sent, as we have already heard, a messenger commanding the attendance of
+      the Knight of the Leopard, determined to soothe his impatience by
+      obtaining from Sir Kenneth a more particular account of the cause of his
+      absence from the camp, and the circumstances of his meeting with this
+      celebrated physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight, thus summoned, entered the royal presence as one who
+      was no stranger to such scenes. He was scarcely known to the King of
+      England, even by sight, although, tenacious of his rank, as devout in the
+      adoration of the lady of his secret heart, he had never been absent on
+      those occasions when the munificence and hospitality of England opened the
+      Court of its monarch to all who held a certain rank in chivalry. The King
+      gazed fixedly on Sir Kenneth approaching his bedside, while the knight
+      bent his knee for a moment, then arose, and stood before him in a posture
+      of deference, but not of subservience or humility, as became an officer in
+      the presence of his sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy name,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;is Kenneth of the Leopard&mdash;from whom
+      hadst thou degree of knighthood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I took it from the sword of William the Lion, King of Scotland,&rdquo; replied
+      the Scot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A weapon,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;well worthy to confer honour; nor has it been
+      laid on an undeserving shoulder. We have seen thee bear thyself knightly
+      and valiantly in press of battle, when most need there was; and thou hadst
+      not been yet to learn that thy deserts were known to us, but that thy
+      presumption in other points has been such that thy services can challenge
+      no better reward than that of pardon for thy transgression. What sayest
+      thou&mdash;ha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kenneth attempted to speak, but was unable to express himself distinctly;
+      the consciousness of his too ambitious love, and the keen, falcon glance
+      with which Coeur de Lion seemed to penetrate his inmost soul, combining to
+      disconcert him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;although soldiers should obey command, and
+      vassals be respectful towards their superiors, we might forgive a brave
+      knight greater offence than the keeping a simple hound, though it were
+      contrary to our express public ordinance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard kept his eye fixed on the Scot's face, beheld and beholding,
+      smiling inwardly at the relief produced by the turn he had given to his
+      general accusation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So please you, my lord,&rdquo; said the Scot, &ldquo;your majesty must be good to us
+      poor gentlemen of Scotland in this matter. We are far from home, scant of
+      revenues, and cannot support ourselves as your wealthy nobles, who have
+      credit of the Lombards. The Saracens shall feel our blows the harder that
+      we eat a piece of dried venison from time to time with our herbs and
+      barley-cakes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It skills not asking my leave,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;since Thomas de Vaux, who
+      doth, like all around me, that which is fittest in his own eyes, hath
+      already given thee permission for hunting and hawking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For hunting only, and please you,&rdquo; said the Scot. &ldquo;But if it please your
+      Majesty to indulge me with the privilege of hawking also, and you list to
+      trust me with a falcon on fist, I trust I could supply your royal mess
+      with some choice waterfowl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dread me, if thou hadst but the falcon,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;thou wouldst
+      scarce wait for the permission. I wot well it is said abroad that we of
+      the line of Anjou resent offence against our forest-laws as highly as we
+      would do treason against our crown. To brave and worthy men, however, we
+      could pardon either misdemeanour.&mdash;But enough of this. I desire to
+      know of you, Sir Knight, wherefore, and by whose authority, you took this
+      recent journey to the wilderness of the Dead Sea and Engaddi?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By order,&rdquo; replied the knight, &ldquo;of the Council of Princes of the Holy
+      Crusade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how dared any one to give such an order, when I&mdash;not the least,
+      surely, in the league&mdash;was unacquainted with it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not my part, please your highness,&rdquo; said the Scot, &ldquo;to inquire
+      into such particulars. I am a soldier of the Cross&mdash;serving,
+      doubtless, for the present, under your highness's banner, and proud of the
+      permission to do so, but still one who hath taken on him the holy symbol
+      for the rights of Christianity and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, and
+      bound, therefore, to obey without question the orders of the princes and
+      chiefs by whom the blessed enterprise is directed. That indisposition
+      should seclude, I trust for but a short time, your highness from their
+      councils, in which you hold so potential a voice, I must lament with all
+      Christendom; but, as a soldier, I must obey those on whom the lawful right
+      of command devolves, or set but an evil example in the Christian camp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou sayest well,&rdquo; said King Richard; &ldquo;and the blame rests not with thee,
+      but with those with whom, when it shall please Heaven to raise me from
+      this accursed bed of pain and inactivity, I hope to reckon roundly. What
+      was the purport of thy message?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks, and please your highness,&rdquo; replied Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;that were best
+      asked of those who sent me, and who can render the reasons of mine errand;
+      whereas I can only tell its outward form and purport.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Palter not with me, Sir Scot&mdash;it were ill for thy safety,&rdquo; said the
+      irritable monarch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My safety, my lord,&rdquo; replied the knight firmly, &ldquo;I cast behind me as a
+      regardless thing when I vowed myself to this enterprise, looking rather to
+      my immortal welfare than to that which concerns my earthly body.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the mass,&rdquo; said King Richard, &ldquo;thou art a brave fellow! Hark thee, Sir
+      Knight, I love the Scottish people; they are hardy, though dogged and
+      stubborn, and, I think, true men in the main, though the necessity of
+      state has sometimes constrained them to be dissemblers. I deserve some
+      love at their hand, for I have voluntarily done what they could not by
+      arms have extorted from me any more than from my predecessors, I have
+      re-established the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, which lay in pledge
+      to England; I have restored your ancient boundaries; and, finally, I have
+      renounced a claim to homage upon the crown of England, which I thought
+      unjustly forced on you. I have endeavoured to make honourable and
+      independent friends, where former kings of England attempted only to
+      compel unwilling and rebellious vassals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All this you have done, my Lord King,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, bowing&mdash;&ldquo;all
+      this you have done, by your royal treaty with our sovereign at Canterbury.
+      Therefore have you me, and many better Scottish men, making war against
+      the infidels, under your banners, who would else have been ravaging your
+      frontiers in England. If their numbers are now few, it is because their
+      lives have been freely waged and wasted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grant it true,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;and for the good offices I have done
+      your land I require you to remember that, as a principal member of the
+      Christian league, I have a right to know the negotiations of my
+      confederates. Do me, therefore, the justice to tell me what I have a title
+      to be acquainted with, and which I am certain to know more truly from you
+      than from others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said the Scot, &ldquo;thus conjured, I will speak the truth; for I
+      well believe that your purposes towards the principal object of our
+      expedition are single-hearted and honest, and it is more than I dare
+      warrant for others of the Holy League. Be pleased, therefore, to know my
+      charge was to propose, through the medium of the hermit of Engaddi&mdash;a
+      holy man, respected and protected by Saladin himself&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A continuation of the truce, I doubt not,&rdquo; said Richard, hastily
+      interrupting him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, by Saint Andrew, my liege,&rdquo; said the Scottish knight; &ldquo;but the
+      establishment of a lasting peace, and the withdrawing our armies from
+      Palestine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saint George!&rdquo; said Richard, in astonishment. &ldquo;Ill as I have justly
+      thought of them, I could not have dreamed they would have humbled
+      themselves to such dishonour. Speak, Sir Kenneth, with what will did you
+      carry such a message?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With right good will, my lord,&rdquo; said Kenneth; &ldquo;because, when we had lost
+      our noble leader, under whose guidance alone I hoped for victory, I saw
+      none who could succeed him likely to lead us to conquest, and I accounted
+      it well in such circumstances to avoid defeat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And on what conditions was this hopeful peace to be contracted?&rdquo; said
+      King Richard, painfully suppressing the passion with which his heart was
+      almost bursting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These were not entrusted to me, my lord,&rdquo; answered the Knight of the
+      Couchant Leopard. &ldquo;I delivered them sealed to the hermit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for what hold you this reverend hermit&mdash;for fool, madman,
+      traitor, or saint?&rdquo; said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His folly, sire,&rdquo; replied the shrewd Scottish man, &ldquo;I hold to be assumed
+      to win favour and reverence from the Paynimrie, who regard madmen as the
+      inspired of Heaven&mdash;at least it seemed to me as exhibited only
+      occasionally, and not as mixing, like natural folly, with the general
+      tenor of his mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shrewdly replied,&rdquo; said the monarch, throwing himself back on his couch,
+      from which he had half-raised himself. &ldquo;Now of his penitence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His penitence,&rdquo; continued Kenneth, &ldquo;appears to me sincere, and the fruits
+      of remorse for some dreadful crime, for which he seems, in his own
+      opinion, condemned to reprobation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for his policy?&rdquo; said King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks, my lord,&rdquo; said the Scottish knight, &ldquo;he despairs of the
+      security of Palestine, as of his own salvation, by any means short of a
+      miracle&mdash;at least, since the arm of Richard of England hath ceased to
+      strike for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, therefore, the coward policy of this hermit is like that of these
+      miserable princes, who, forgetful of their knighthood and their faith, are
+      only resolved and determined when the question is retreat, and rather than
+      go forward against an armed Saracen, would trample in their flight over a
+      dying ally!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Might I so far presume, my Lord King,&rdquo; said the Scottish knight, &ldquo;this
+      discourse but heats your disease, the enemy from which Christendom dreads
+      more evil than from armed hosts of infidels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The countenance of King Richard was, indeed, more flushed, and his action
+      became more feverishly vehement, as, with clenched hand, extended arm, and
+      flashing eyes, he seemed at once to suffer under bodily pain, and at the
+      same time under vexation of mind, while his high spirit led him to speak
+      on, as if in contempt of both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can flatter, Sir Knight,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but you escape me not. I must
+      know more from you than you have yet told me. Saw you my royal consort
+      when at Engaddi?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To my knowledge&mdash;no, my lord,&rdquo; replied Sir Kenneth, with
+      considerable perturbation, for he remembered the midnight procession in
+      the chapel of the rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ask you,&rdquo; said the King, in a sterner voice, &ldquo;whether you were not in
+      the chapel of the Carmelite nuns at Engaddi, and there saw Berengaria,
+      Queen of England, and the ladies of her Court, who went thither on
+      pilgrimage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;I will speak the truth as in the
+      confessional. In a subterranean chapel, to which the anchorite conducted
+      me, I beheld a choir of ladies do homage to a relic of the highest
+      sanctity; but as I saw not their faces, nor heard their voices, unless in
+      the hymns which they chanted, I cannot tell whether the Queen of England
+      was of the bevy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And was there no one of these ladies known to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth stood silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ask you,&rdquo; said Richard, raising himself on his elbow, &ldquo;as a knight and
+      a gentleman&mdash;and I shall know by your answer how you value either
+      character&mdash;did you, or did you not, know any lady amongst that band
+      of worshippers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said Kenneth, not without much hesitation, &ldquo;I might guess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I also may guess,&rdquo; said the King, frowning sternly; &ldquo;but it is
+      enough. Leopard as you are, Sir Knight, beware tempting the lion's paw.
+      Hark ye&mdash;to become enamoured of the moon would be but an act of
+      folly; but to leap from the battlements of a lofty tower, in the wild hope
+      of coming within her sphere, were self-destructive madness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment some bustling was heard in the outer apartment, and the
+      King, hastily changing to his more natural manner, said, &ldquo;Enough&mdash;begone&mdash;speed
+      to De Vaux, and send him hither with the Arabian physician. My life for
+      the faith of the Soldan! Would he but abjure his false law, I would aid
+      him with my sword to drive this scum of French and Austrians from his
+      dominions, and think Palestine as well ruled by him as when her kings were
+      anointed by the decree of Heaven itself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Leopard retired, and presently afterwards the
+      chamberlain announced a deputation from the Council, who had come to wait
+      on the Majesty of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well they allow that I am living yet,&rdquo; was his reply. &ldquo;Who are the
+      reverend ambassadors?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Grand Master of the Templars and the Marquis of Montserrat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our brother of France loves not sick-beds,&rdquo; said Richard; &ldquo;yet, had
+      Philip been ill, I had stood by his couch long since.&mdash;Jocelyn, lay
+      me the couch more fairly&mdash;it is tumbled like a stormy sea. Reach me
+      yonder steel mirror&mdash;pass a comb through my hair and beard. They
+      look, indeed, liker a lion's mane than a Christian man's locks. Bring
+      water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said the trembling chamberlain, &ldquo;the leeches say that cold
+      water may be fatal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the foul fiend with the leeches!&rdquo; replied the monarch; &ldquo;if they cannot
+      cure me, think you I will allow them to torment me?&mdash;There, then,&rdquo; he
+      said, after having made his ablutions, &ldquo;admit the worshipful envoys; they
+      will now, I think, scarcely see that disease has made Richard negligent of
+      his person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The celebrated Master of the Templars was a tall, thin, war-worn man, with
+      a slow yet penetrating eye, and a brow on which a thousand dark intrigues
+      had stamped a portion of their obscurity. At the head of that singular
+      body, to whom their order was everything, and their individuality nothing&mdash;seeking
+      the advancement of its power, even at the hazard of that very religion
+      which the fraternity were originally associated to protect&mdash;accused
+      of heresy and witchcraft, although by their character Christian priests&mdash;suspected
+      of secret league with the Soldan, though by oath devoted to the protection
+      of the Holy Temple, or its recovery&mdash;the whole order, and the whole
+      personal character of its commander, or Grand Master, was a riddle, at the
+      exposition of which most men shuddered. The Grand Master was dressed in
+      his white robes of solemnity, and he bore the ABACUS, a mystic staff of
+      office, the peculiar form of which has given rise to such singular
+      conjectures and commentaries, leading to suspicions that this celebrated
+      fraternity of Christian knights were embodied under the foulest symbols of
+      paganism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade of Montserrat had a much more pleasing exterior than the dark and
+      mysterious priest-soldier by whom he was accompanied. He was a handsome
+      man, of middle age, or something past that term, bold in the field,
+      sagacious in council, gay and gallant in times of festivity; but, on the
+      other hand, he was generally accused of versatility, of a narrow and
+      selfish ambition, of a desire to extend his own principality, without
+      regard to the weal of the Latin kingdom of Palestine, and of seeking his
+      own interest, by private negotiations with Saladin, to the prejudice of
+      the Christian leaguers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the usual salutations had been made by these dignitaries, and
+      courteously returned by King Richard, the Marquis of Montserrat commenced
+      an explanation of the motives of their visit, sent, as he said they were,
+      by the anxious kings and princes who composed the Council of the
+      Crusaders, &ldquo;to inquire into the health of their magnanimous ally, the
+      valiant King of England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know the importance in which the princes of the Council hold our
+      health,&rdquo; replied the English King; &ldquo;and are well aware how much they must
+      have suffered by suppressing all curiosity concerning it for fourteen
+      days, for fear, doubtless, of aggravating our disorder, by showing their
+      anxiety regarding the event.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The flow of the Marquis's eloquence being checked, and he himself thrown
+      into some confusion by this reply, his more austere companion took up the
+      thread of the conversation, and with as much dry and brief gravity as was
+      consistent with the presence which he addressed, informed the King that
+      they came from the Council, to pray, in the name of Christendom, &ldquo;that he
+      would not suffer his health to be tampered with by an infidel physician,
+      said to be dispatched by Saladin, until the Council had taken measures to
+      remove or confirm the suspicion which they at present conceived did attach
+      itself to the mission of such a person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grand Master of the Holy and Valiant Order of Knights Templars, and you,
+      most noble Marquis of Montserrat,&rdquo; replied Richard, &ldquo;if it please you to
+      retire into the adjoining pavilion, you shall presently see what account
+      we make of the tender remonstrances of our royal and princely colleagues
+      in this religious warfare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis and Grand Master retired accordingly; nor had they been many
+      minutes in the outward pavilion when the Eastern physician arrived,
+      accompanied by the Baron of Gilsland and Kenneth of Scotland. The baron,
+      however, was a little later of entering the tent than the other two,
+      stopping, perchance, to issue some orders to the warders without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Arabian physician entered, he made his obeisance, after the
+      Oriental fashion, to the Marquis and Grand Master, whose dignity was
+      apparent, both from their appearance and their bearing. The Grand Master
+      returned the salutation with an expression of disdainful coldness, the
+      Marquis with the popular courtesy which he habitually practised to men of
+      every rank and nation. There was a pause, for the Scottish knight, waiting
+      for the arrival of De Vaux, presumed not, of his own authority, to enter
+      the tent of the King of England; and during this interval the Grand Master
+      sternly demanded of the Moslem, &ldquo;Infidel, hast thou the courage to
+      practise thine art upon the person of an anointed sovereign of the
+      Christian host?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sun of Allah,&rdquo; answered the sage, &ldquo;shines on the Nazarene as well as
+      on the true believer, and His servant dare make no distinction betwixt
+      them when called on to exercise the art of healing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Misbelieving Hakim,&rdquo; said the Grand Master, &ldquo;or whatsoever they call thee
+      for an unbaptized slave of darkness, dost thou well know that thou shalt
+      be torn asunder by wild horses should King Richard die under thy charge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That were hard justice,&rdquo; answered the physician, &ldquo;seeing that I can but
+      use human means, and that the issue is written in the book of light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, reverend and valiant Grand Master,&rdquo; said the Marquis of Montserrat,
+      &ldquo;consider that this learned man is not acquainted with our Christian
+      order, adopted in the fear of God, and for the safety of His anointed.&mdash;Be
+      it known to thee, grave physician, whose skill we doubt not, that your
+      wisest course is to repair to the presence of the illustrious Council of
+      our Holy League, and there to give account and reckoning to such wise and
+      learned leeches as they shall nominate, concerning your means of process
+      and cure of this illustrious patient; so shall you escape all the danger
+      which, rashly taking such a high matter upon your sole answer, you may
+      else most likely incur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lords,&rdquo; said El Hakim, &ldquo;I understand you well. But knowledge hath its
+      champions as well as your military art&mdash;nay, hath sometimes had its
+      martyrs as well as religion. I have the command of my sovereign, the
+      Soldan Saladin, to heal this Nazarene King, and, with the blessing of the
+      Prophet, I will obey his commands. If I fail, ye wear swords thirsting for
+      the blood of the faithful, and I proffer my body to your weapons. But I
+      will not reason with one uncircumcised upon the virtue of the medicines of
+      which I have obtained knowledge through the grace of the Prophet, and I
+      pray you interpose no delay between me and my office.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who talks of delay?&rdquo; said the Baron de Vaux, hastily entering the tent;
+      &ldquo;we have had but too much already. I salute you, my Lord of Montserrat,
+      and you, valiant Grand Master. But I must presently pass with this learned
+      physician to the bedside of my master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said the Marquis, in Norman-French, or the language of Ouie, as
+      it was then called, &ldquo;are you well advised that we came to expostulate, on
+      the part of the Council of the Monarchs and Princes of the Crusade,
+      against the risk of permitting an infidel and Eastern physician to tamper
+      with a health so valuable as that of your master, King Richard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble Lord Marquis,&rdquo; replied the Englishman bluntly, &ldquo;I can neither use
+      many words, nor do I delight in listening to them; moreover, I am much
+      more ready to believe what my eyes have seen than what my ears have heard.
+      I am satisfied that this heathen can cure the sickness of King Richard,
+      and I believe and trust he will labour to do so. Time is precious. If
+      Mohammed&mdash;may God's curse be on him! stood at the door of the tent,
+      with such fair purpose as this Adonbec el Hakim entertains, I would hold
+      it sin to delay him for a minute. So, give ye God'en, my lords.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, but,&rdquo; said Conrade of Montserrat, &ldquo;the King himself said we should
+      be present when this same physician dealt upon him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron whispered the chamberlain, probably to know whether the Marquis
+      spoke truly, and then replied, &ldquo;My lords, if you will hold your patience,
+      you are welcome to enter with us; but if you interrupt, by action or
+      threat, this accomplished physician in his duty, be it known that, without
+      respect to your high quality, I will enforce your absence from Richard's
+      tent; for know, I am so well satisfied of the virtue of this man's
+      medicines, that were Richard himself to refuse them, by our Lady of
+      Lanercost, I think I could find in my heart to force him to take the means
+      of his cure whether he would or no.&mdash;Move onward, El Hakim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The last word was spoken in the lingua franca, and instantly obeyed by the
+      physician. The Grand Master looked grimly on the unceremonious old
+      soldier, but, on exchanging a glance with the Marquis, smoothed his
+      frowning brow as well as he could, and both followed De Vaux and the
+      Arabian into the inner tent, where Richard lay expecting them, with that
+      impatience with which the sick man watches the step of his physician. Sir
+      Kenneth, whose attendance seemed neither asked nor prohibited, felt
+      himself, by the circumstances in which he stood, entitled to follow these
+      high dignitaries; but, conscious of his inferior power and rank, remained
+      aloof during the scene which took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, when they entered his apartment, immediately exclaimed, &ldquo;So ho! a
+      goodly fellowship come to see Richard take his leap in the dark. My noble
+      allies, I greet you as the representatives of our assembled league;
+      Richard will again be amongst you in his former fashion, or ye shall bear
+      to the grave what is left of him.&mdash;De Vaux, lives he or dies he, thou
+      hast the thanks of thy prince. There is yet another&mdash;but this fever
+      hath wasted my eyesight. What, the bold Scot, who would climb heaven
+      without a ladder! He is welcome too.&mdash;Come, Sir Hakim, to the work,
+      to the work!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician, who had already informed himself of the various symptoms of
+      the King's illness, now felt his pulse for a long time, and with deep
+      attention, while all around stood silent, and in breathless expectation.
+      The sage next filled a cup with spring water, and dipped into it the small
+      red purse, which, as formerly, he took from his bosom. When he seemed to
+      think it sufficiently medicated, he was about to offer it to the
+      sovereign, who prevented him by saying, &ldquo;Hold an instant. Thou hast felt
+      my pulse&mdash;let me lay my finger on thine. I too, as becomes a good
+      knight, know something of thine art.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arabian yielded his hand without hesitation, and his long, slender
+      dark fingers were for an instant enclosed, and almost buried, in the large
+      enfoldment of King Richard's hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His blood beats calm as an infant's,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;so throbs not
+      theirs who poison princes. De Vaux, whether we live or die, dismiss this
+      Hakim with honour and safety.&mdash;Commend us, friend, to the noble
+      Saladin. Should I die, it is without doubt of his faith; should I live, it
+      will be to thank him as a warrior would desire to be thanked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He then raised himself in bed, took the cup in his hand, and turning to
+      the Marquis and the Grand Master&mdash;&ldquo;Mark what I say, and let my royal
+      brethren pledge me in Cyprus wine, 'To the immortal honour of the first
+      Crusader who shall strike lance or sword on the gate of Jerusalem; and to
+      the shame and eternal infamy of whomsoever shall turn back from the plough
+      on which he hath laid his hand!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drained the cup to the bottom, resigned it to the Arabian, and sunk
+      back, as if exhausted, upon the cushions which were arranged to receive
+      him. The physician then, with silent but expressive signs, directed that
+      all should leave the tent excepting himself and De Vaux, whom no
+      remonstrance could induce to withdraw. The apartment was cleared
+      accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     And now I will unclasp a secret book,
+     And, to your quick-conceiving discontent,
+     I'll read you matter deep and dangerous.
+       HENRY IV., PART I.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis of Montserrat and the Grand Master of the Knights Templars
+      stood together in the front of the royal pavilion, within which this
+      singular scene had passed, and beheld a strong guard of bills and bows
+      drawn out to form a circle around it, and keep at distance all which might
+      disturb the sleeping monarch. The soldiers wore the downcast, silent, and
+      sullen looks with which they trail their arms at a funeral, and stepped
+      with such caution that you could not hear a buckler ring or a sword
+      clatter, though so many men in armour were moving around the tent. They
+      lowered their weapons in deep reverence as the dignitaries passed through
+      their files, but with the same profound silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a change of cheer among these island dogs,&rdquo; said the Grand
+      Master to Conrade, when they had passed Richard's guards. &ldquo;What hoarse
+      tumult and revel used to be before this pavilion!&mdash;nought but
+      pitching the bar, hurling the ball, wrestling, roaring of songs,
+      clattering of wine pots, and quaffing of flagons among these burly yeomen,
+      as if they were holding some country wake, with a Maypole in the midst of
+      them instead of a royal standard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mastiffs are a faithful race,&rdquo; said Conrade; &ldquo;and the King their Master
+      has won their love by being ready to wrestle, brawl, or revel amongst the
+      foremost of them, whenever the humour seized him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is totally compounded of humours,&rdquo; said the Grand Master. &ldquo;Marked you
+      the pledge he gave us! instead of a prayer, over his grace-cup yonder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He would have felt it a grace-cup, and a well-spiced one too,&rdquo; said the
+      Marquis, &ldquo;were Saladin like any other Turk that ever wore turban, or
+      turned him to Mecca at call of the muezzin. But he affects faith, and
+      honour, and generosity, as if it were for an unbaptized dog like him to
+      practise the virtuous bearing of a Christian knight. It is said he hath
+      applied to Richard to be admitted within the pale of chivalry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Saint Bernard!&rdquo; exclaimed the Grand Master, &ldquo;it were time then to
+      throw off our belts and spurs, Sir Conrade, deface our armorial bearings,
+      and renounce our burgonets, if the highest honour of Christianity were
+      conferred on an unchristened Turk of tenpence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You rate the Soldan cheap,&rdquo; replied the Marquis; &ldquo;yet though he be a
+      likely man, I have seen a better heathen sold for forty pence at the
+      bagnio.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were now near their horses, which stood at some distance from the
+      royal tent, prancing among the gallant train of esquires and pages by whom
+      they were attended, when Conrade, after a moment's pause, proposed that
+      they should enjoy the coolness of the evening breeze which had arisen,
+      and, dismissing their steeds and attendants, walk homewards to their own
+      quarters through the lines of the extended Christian camp. The Grand
+      Master assented, and they proceeded to walk together accordingly,
+      avoiding, as if by mutual consent, the more inhabited parts of the canvas
+      city, and tracing the broad esplanade which lay between the tents and the
+      external defences, where they could converse in private, and unmarked,
+      save by the sentinels as they passed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They spoke for a time upon the military points and preparations for
+      defence; but this sort of discourse, in which neither seemed to take
+      interest, at length died away, and there was a long pause, which
+      terminated by the Marquis of Montserrat stopping short, like a man who has
+      formed a sudden resolution, and gazing for some moments on the dark,
+      inflexible countenance of the Grand Master, he at length addressed him
+      thus: &ldquo;Might it consist with your valour and sanctity, reverend Sir Giles
+      Amaury, I would pray you for once to lay aside the dark visor which you
+      wear, and to converse with a friend barefaced.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar half smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are light-coloured masks,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;as well as dark visors, and
+      the one conceals the natural features as completely as the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so,&rdquo; said the Marquis, putting his hand to his chin, and
+      withdrawing it with the action of one who unmasks himself; &ldquo;there lies my
+      disguise. And now, what think you, as touching the interests of your own
+      order, of the prospects of this Crusade?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is tearing the veil from my thoughts rather than exposing your own,&rdquo;
+       said the Grand Master; &ldquo;yet I will reply with a parable told to me by a
+      santon of the desert. 'A certain farmer prayed to Heaven for rain, and
+      murmured when it fell not at his need. To punish his impatience, Allah,'
+      said the santon, 'sent the Euphrates upon his farm, and he was destroyed,
+      with all his possessions, even by the granting of his own wishes.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most truly spoken,&rdquo; said the Marquis Conrade. &ldquo;Would that the ocean had
+      swallowed up nineteen parts of the armaments of these Western princes!
+      What remained would better have served the purpose of the Christian nobles
+      of Palestine, the wretched remnant of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. Left
+      to ourselves, we might have bent to the storm; or, moderately supported
+      with money and troops, we might have compelled Saladin to respect our
+      valour, and grant us peace and protection on easy terms. But from the
+      extremity of danger with which this powerful Crusade threatens the Soldan,
+      we cannot suppose, should it pass over, that the Saracen will suffer any
+      one of us to hold possessions or principalities in Syria, far less permit
+      the existence of the Christian military fraternities, from whom they have
+      experienced so much mischief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, but,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;these adventurous Crusaders may succeed, and
+      again plant the Cross on the bulwarks of Zion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what will that advantage either the Order of the Templars, or Conrade
+      of Montserrat?&rdquo; said the Marquis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You it may advantage,&rdquo; replied the Grand Master. &ldquo;Conrade of Montserrat
+      might become Conrade King of Jerusalem.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That sounds like something,&rdquo; said the Marquis, &ldquo;and yet it rings but
+      hollow. Godfrey of Bouillon might well choose the crown of thorns for his
+      emblem. Grand Master, I will confess to you I have caught some attachment
+      to the Eastern form of government&mdash;a pure and simple monarchy should
+      consist but of king and subjects. Such is the simple and primitive
+      structure&mdash;a shepherd and his flock. All this internal chain of
+      feudal dependance is artificial and sophisticated; and I would rather hold
+      the baton of my poor marquisate with a firm gripe, and wield it after my
+      pleasure, than the sceptre of a monarch, to be in effect restrained and
+      curbed by the will of as many proud feudal barons as hold land under the
+      Assizes of Jerusalem. [The Assises de Jerusalem were the digest of feudal
+      law, composed by Godfrey of Boulogne, for the government of the Latin
+      kingdom of Palestine, when reconquered from the Saracens. &ldquo;It was composed
+      with advice of the patriarch and barons, the clergy and laity, and is,&rdquo;
+       says the historian Gibbon, &ldquo;a precious monument of feudatory
+      jurisprudence, founded upon those principles of freedom which were
+      essential to the system.&rdquo;] A king should tread freely, Grand Master, and
+      should not be controlled by here a ditch, and there a fence-here a feudal
+      privilege, and there a mail-clad baron with his sword in his hand to
+      maintain it. To sum the whole, I am aware that Guy de Lusignan's claims to
+      the throne would be preferred to mine, if Richard recovers, and has aught
+      to say in the choice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough,&rdquo; said the Grand Master; &ldquo;thou hast indeed convinced me of thy
+      sincerity. Others may hold the same opinions, but few, save Conrade of
+      Montserrat, dared frankly avow that he desires not the restitution of the
+      kingdom of Jerusalem, but rather prefers being master of a portion of its
+      fragments&mdash;like the barbarous islanders, who labour not for the
+      deliverance of a goodly vessel from the billows, expecting rather to
+      enrich themselves at the expense of the wreck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou wilt not betray my counsel?&rdquo; said Conrade, looking sharply and
+      suspiciously. &ldquo;Know, for certain, that my tongue shall never wrong my
+      head, nor my hand forsake the defence of either. Impeach me if thou wilt&mdash;I
+      am prepared to defend myself in the lists against the best Templar who
+      ever laid lance in rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet thou start'st somewhat suddenly for so bold a steed,&rdquo; said the Grand
+      Master. &ldquo;However, I swear to thee by the Holy Temple, which our Order is
+      sworn to defend, that I will keep counsel with thee as a true comrade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By which Temple?&rdquo; said the Marquis of Montserrat, whose love of sarcasm
+      often outran his policy and discretion; &ldquo;swearest thou by that on the hill
+      of Zion, which was built by King Solomon, or by that symbolical,
+      emblematical edifice, which is said to be spoken of in the councils held
+      in the vaults of your Preceptories, as something which infers the
+      aggrandizement of thy valiant and venerable Order?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar scowled upon him with an eye of death, but answered calmly,
+      &ldquo;By whatever Temple I swear, be assured, Lord Marquis, my oath is sacred.
+      I would I knew how to bind THEE by one of equal obligation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will swear truth to thee,&rdquo; said the Marquis, laughing, &ldquo;by the earl's
+      coronet, which I hope to convert, ere these wars are over, into something
+      better. It feels cold on my brow, that same slight coronal; a duke's cap
+      of maintenance were a better protection against such a night-breeze as now
+      blows, and a king's crown more preferable still, being lined with
+      comfortable ermine and velvet. In a word, our interests bind us together;
+      for think not, Lord Grand Master, that, were these allied princes to
+      regain Jerusalem, and place a king of their own choosing there, they would
+      suffer your Order, any more than my poor marquisate, to retain the
+      independence which we now hold. No, by Our Lady! In such case, the proud
+      Knights of Saint John must again spread plasters and dress plague sores in
+      the hospitals; and you, most puissant and venerable Knights of the Temple,
+      must return to your condition of simple men-at-arms, sleep three on a
+      pallet, and mount two upon one horse, as your present seal still expresses
+      to have been your ancient most simple custom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rank, privileges, and opulence of our Order prevent so much
+      degradation as you threaten,&rdquo; said the Templar haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are your bane,&rdquo; said Conrade of Montserrat; &ldquo;and you, as well as I,
+      reverend Grand Master, know that, were the allied princes to be successful
+      in Palestine, it would be their first point of policy to abate the
+      independence of your Order, which, but for the protection of our holy
+      father the Pope, and the necessity of employing your valour in the
+      conquest of Palestine, you would long since have experienced. Give them
+      complete success, and you will be flung aside, as the splinters of a
+      broken lance are tossed out of the tilt-yard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be truth in what you say,&rdquo; said the Templar, darkly smiling.
+      &ldquo;But what were our hopes should the allies withdraw their forces, and
+      leave Palestine in the grasp of Saladin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great and assured,&rdquo; replied Conrade. &ldquo;The Soldan would give large
+      provinces to maintain at his behest a body of well-appointed Frankish
+      lances. In Egypt, in Persia, a hundred such auxiliaries, joined to his own
+      light cavalry, would turn the battle against the most fearful odds. This
+      dependence would be but for a time&mdash;perhaps during the life of this
+      enterprising Soldan; but in the East empires arise like mushrooms. Suppose
+      him dead, and us strengthened with a constant succession of fiery and
+      adventurous spirits from Europe, what might we not hope to achieve,
+      uncontrolled by these monarchs, whose dignity throws us at present into
+      the shade&mdash;and, were they to remain here, and succeed in this
+      expedition, would willingly consign us for ever to degradation and
+      dependence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say well, my Lord Marquis,&rdquo; said the Grand Master, &ldquo;and your words
+      find an echo in my bosom. Yet must we be cautious&mdash;Philip of France
+      is wise as well as valiant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, and will be therefore the more easily diverted from an expedition
+      to which, in a moment of enthusiasm, or urged by his nobles, he rashly
+      bound himself. He is jealous of King Richard, his natural enemy, and longs
+      to return to prosecute plans of ambition nearer to Paris than Palestine.
+      Any fair pretence will serve him for withdrawing from a scene in which he
+      is aware he is wasting the force of his kingdom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Duke of Austria?&rdquo; said the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, touching the Duke,&rdquo; returned Conrade, &ldquo;his self-conceit and folly
+      lead him to the same conclusions as do Philip's policy and wisdom. He
+      conceives himself, God help the while, ungratefully treated, because men's
+      mouths&mdash;even those of his own MINNE-SINGERS [The German minstrels
+      were so termed.]&mdash;are filled with the praises of King Richard, whom
+      he fears and hates, and in whose harm he would rejoice, like those unbred,
+      dastardly curs, who, if the foremost of the pack is hurt by the gripe of
+      the wolf, are much more likely to assail the sufferer from behind than to
+      come to his assistance. But wherefore tell I this to thee, save to show
+      that I am in sincerity in desiring that this league be broken up, and the
+      country freed of these great monarchs with their hosts? And thou well
+      knowest, and hast thyself seen, how all the princes of influence and
+      power, one alone excepted, are eager to enter into treaty with the
+      Soldan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I acknowledge it,&rdquo; said the Templar; &ldquo;he were blind that had not seen
+      this in their last deliberations. But lift yet thy mask an inch higher,
+      and tell me thy real reason for pressing upon the Council that Northern
+      Englishman, or Scot, or whatever you call yonder Knight of the Leopard, to
+      carry their proposals for a treaty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a policy in it,&rdquo; replied the Italian. &ldquo;His character of native
+      of Britain was sufficient to meet what Saladin required, who knew him to
+      belong to the band of Richard; while his character of Scot, and certain
+      other personal grudges which I wot of, rendered it most unlikely that our
+      envoy should, on his return, hold any communication with the sick-bed of
+      Richard, to whom his presence was ever unacceptable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, too finespun policy,&rdquo; said the Grand Master; &ldquo;trust me, that Italian
+      spiders' webs will never bind this unshorn Samson of the Isle&mdash;well
+      if you can do it with new cords, and those of the toughest. See you not
+      that the envoy whom you have selected so carefully hath brought us, in
+      this physician, the means of restoring the lion-hearted, bull-necked
+      Englishman to prosecute his Crusading enterprise. And so soon as he is
+      able once more to rush on, which of the princes dare hold back? They must
+      follow him for very shame, although they would march under the banner of
+      Satan as soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be content,&rdquo; said Conrade of Montserrat; &ldquo;ere this physician, if he work
+      by anything short of miraculous agency, can accomplish Richard's cure, it
+      may be possible to put some open rupture betwixt the Frenchman&mdash;at
+      least the Austrian&mdash;and his allies of England, so that the breach
+      shall be irreconcilable; and Richard may arise from his bed, perhaps to
+      command his own native troops, but never again, by his sole energy, to
+      wield the force of the whole Crusade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a willing archer,&rdquo; said the Templar; &ldquo;but, Conrade of
+      Montserrat, thy bow is over-slack to carry an arrow to the mark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He then stopped short, cast a suspicious glance to see that no one
+      overheard him, and taking Conrade by the hand, pressed it eagerly as he
+      looked the Italian in the face, and repeated slowly, &ldquo;Richard arise from
+      his bed, sayest thou? Conrade, he must never arise!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis of Montserrat started. &ldquo;What! spoke you of Richard of England&mdash;of
+      Coeur de Lion&mdash;the champion of Christendom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His cheek turned pale and his knees trembled as he spoke. The Templar
+      looked at him, with his iron visage contorted into a smile of contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowest thou what thou look'st like, Sir Conrade, at this moment? Not
+      like the politic and valiant Marquis of Montserrat, not like him who would
+      direct the Council of Princes and determine the fate of empires&mdash;but
+      like a novice, who, stumbling upon a conjuration in his master's book of
+      gramarye, has raised the devil when he least thought of it, and now stands
+      terrified at the spirit which appears before him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grant you,&rdquo; said Conrade, recovering himself, &ldquo;that&mdash;unless some
+      other sure road could be discovered&mdash;thou hast hinted at that which
+      leads most direct to our purpose. But, blessed Mary! we shall become the
+      curse of all Europe, the malediction of every one, from the Pope on his
+      throne to the very beggar at the church gate, who, ragged and leprous, in
+      the last extremity of human wretchedness, shall bless himself that he is
+      neither Giles Amaury nor Conrade of Montserrat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If thou takest it thus,&rdquo; said the Grand Master, with the same composure
+      which characterized him all through this remarkable dialogue, &ldquo;let us hold
+      there has nothing passed between us&mdash;that we have spoken in our sleep&mdash;have
+      awakened, and the vision is gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It never can depart,&rdquo; answered Conrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Visions of ducal crowns and kingly diadems are, indeed, somewhat
+      tenacious of their place in the imagination,&rdquo; replied the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; answered Conrade, &ldquo;let me but first try to break peace between
+      Austria and England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They parted. Conrade remained standing still upon the spot, and watching
+      the flowing white cloak of the Templar as he stalked slowly away, and
+      gradually disappeared amid the fast-sinking darkness of the Oriental
+      night. Proud, ambitious, unscrupulous, and politic, the Marquis of
+      Montserrat was yet not cruel by nature. He was a voluptuary and an
+      epicurean, and, like many who profess this character, was averse, even
+      upon selfish motives, from inflicting pain or witnessing acts of cruelty;
+      and he retained also a general sense of respect for his own reputation,
+      which sometimes supplies the want of the better principle by which
+      reputation is to be maintained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have,&rdquo; he said, as his eyes still watched the point at which he had
+      seen the last slight wave of the Templar's mantle&mdash;&ldquo;I have, in truth,
+      raised the devil with a vengeance! Who would have thought this stern,
+      ascetic Grand Master, whose whole fortune and misfortune is merged in that
+      of his order, would be willing to do more for its advancement than I who
+      labour for my own interest? To check this wild Crusade was my motive,
+      indeed, but I durst not think on the ready mode which this determined
+      priest has dared to suggest. Yet it is the surest&mdash;perhaps even the
+      safest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the Marquis's meditations, when his muttered soliloquy was
+      broken by a voice from a little distance, which proclaimed with the
+      emphatic tone of a herald, &ldquo;Remember the Holy Sepulchre!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The exhortation was echoed from post to post, for it was the duty of the
+      sentinels to raise this cry from time to time upon their periodical watch,
+      that the host of the Crusaders might always have in their remembrance the
+      purpose of their being in arms. But though Conrade was familiar with the
+      custom, and had heard the warning voice on all former occasions as a
+      matter of habit, yet it came at the present moment so strongly in contact
+      with his own train of thought, that it seemed a voice from Heaven warning
+      him against the iniquity which his heart meditated. He looked around
+      anxiously, as if, like the patriarch of old, though from very different
+      circumstances, he was expecting some ram caught in a thicket some
+      substitution for the sacrifice which his comrade proposed to offer, not to
+      the Supreme Being, but to the Moloch of their own ambition. As he looked,
+      the broad folds of the ensign of England, heavily distending itself to the
+      failing night-breeze, caught his eye. It was displayed upon an artificial
+      mound, nearly in the midst of the camp, which perhaps of old some Hebrew
+      chief or champion had chosen as a memorial of his place of rest. If so,
+      the name was now forgotten, and the Crusaders had christened it Saint
+      George's Mount, because from that commanding height the banner of England
+      was supereminently displayed, as if an emblem of sovereignty over the many
+      distinguished, noble, and even royal ensigns, which floated in lower
+      situations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quick intellect like that of Conrade catches ideas from the glance of a
+      moment. A single look on the standard seemed to dispel the uncertainty of
+      mind which had affected him. He walked to his pavilion with the hasty and
+      determined step of one who has adopted a plan which he is resolved to
+      achieve, dismissed the almost princely train who waited to attend him,
+      and, as he committed himself to his couch, muttered his amended
+      resolution, that the milder means are to be tried before the more
+      desperate are resorted to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I sit at the board of the Archduke of Austria. We
+      will see what can be done to advance our purpose before prosecuting the
+      dark suggestions of this Templar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     One thing is certain in our Northern land&mdash;
+     Allow that birth or valour, wealth or wit,
+     Give each precedence to their possessor,
+     Envy, that follows on such eminence,
+     As comes the lyme-hound on the roebuck's trace,
+     Shall pull them down each one.
+              SIR DAVID LINDSAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Leopold, Grand Duke of Austria, was the first possessor of that noble
+      country to whom the princely rank belonged. He had been raised to the
+      ducal sway in the German Empire on account of his near relationship to the
+      Emperor, Henry the Stern, and held under his government the finest
+      provinces which are watered by the Danube. His character has been stained
+      in history on account of one action of violence and perfidy, which arose
+      out of these very transactions in the Holy Land; and yet the shame of
+      having made Richard a prisoner when he returned through his dominions;
+      unattended and in disguise, was not one which flowed from Leopold's
+      natural disposition. He was rather a weak and a vain than an ambitious or
+      tyrannical prince. His mental powers resembled the qualities of his
+      person. He was tall, strong, and handsome, with a complexion in which red
+      and white were strongly contrasted, and had long flowing locks of fair
+      hair. But there was an awkwardness in his gait which seemed as if his size
+      was not animated by energy sufficient to put in motion such a mass; and in
+      the same manner, wearing the richest dresses, it always seemed as if they
+      became him not. As a prince, he appeared too little familiar with his own
+      dignity; and being often at a loss how to assert his authority when the
+      occasion demanded it, he frequently thought himself obliged to recover, by
+      acts and expressions of ill-timed violence, the ground which might have
+      been easily and gracefully maintained by a little more presence of mind in
+      the beginning of the controversy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not only were these deficiencies visible to others, but the Archduke
+      himself could not but sometimes entertain a painful consciousness that he
+      was not altogether fit to maintain and assert the high rank which he had
+      acquired; and to this was joined the strong, and sometimes the just,
+      suspicion that others esteemed him lightly accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he first joined the Crusade, with a most princely attendance, Leopold
+      had desired much to enjoy the friendship and intimacy of Richard, and had
+      made such advances towards cultivating his regard as the King of England
+      ought, in policy, to have received and answered. But the Archduke, though
+      not deficient in bravery, was so infinitely inferior to Coeur de Lion in
+      that ardour of mind which wooed danger as a bride, that the King very soon
+      held him in a certain degree of contempt. Richard, also, as a Norman
+      prince, a people with whom temperance was habitual, despised the
+      inclination of the German for the pleasures of the table, and particularly
+      his liberal indulgence in the use of wine. For these, and other personal
+      reasons, the King of England very soon looked upon the Austrian Prince
+      with feelings of contempt, which he was at no pains to conceal or modify,
+      and which, therefore, were speedily remarked, and returned with deep
+      hatred, by the suspicious Leopold. The discord between them was fanned by
+      the secret and politic arts of Philip of France, one of the most sagacious
+      monarchs of the time, who, dreading the fiery and overbearing character of
+      Richard, considering him as his natural rival, and feeling offended,
+      moreover, at the dictatorial manner in which he, a vassal of France for
+      his Continental domains, conducted himself towards his liege lord,
+      endeavoured to strengthen his own party, and weaken that of Richard, by
+      uniting the Crusading princes of inferior degree in resistance to what he
+      termed the usurping authority of the King of England. Such was the state
+      of politics and opinions entertained by the Archduke of Austria, when
+      Conrade of Montserrat resolved upon employing his jealousy of England as
+      the means of dissolving, or loosening at least, the league of the
+      Crusaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time which he chose for his visit was noon; and the pretence, to
+      present the Archduke with some choice Cyprus wine which had lately fallen
+      into his hands, and discuss its comparative merits with those of Hungary
+      and of the Rhine. An intimation of his purpose was, of course, answered by
+      a courteous invitation to partake of the Archducal meal, and every effort
+      was used to render it fitting the splendour of a sovereign prince. Yet the
+      refined taste of the Italian saw more cumbrous profusion than elegance or
+      splendour in the display of provisions under which the board groaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Germans, though still possessing the martial and frank character of
+      their ancestors&mdash;who subdued the Roman Empire&mdash;had retained
+      withal no slight tinge of their barbarism. The practices and principles of
+      chivalry were not carried to such a nice pitch amongst them as amongst the
+      French and English knights, nor were they strict observers of the
+      prescribed rules of society, which among those nations were supposed to
+      express the height of civilization. Sitting at the table of the Archduke,
+      Conrade was at once stunned and amused with the clang of Teutonic sounds
+      assaulting his ears on all sides, notwithstanding the solemnity of a
+      princely banquet. Their dress seemed equally fantastic to him, many of the
+      Austrian nobles retaining their long beards, and almost all of them
+      wearing short jerkins of various colours, cut, and flourished, and fringed
+      in a manner not common in Western Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Numbers of dependants, old and young, attended in the pavilion, mingled at
+      times in the conversation, received from their masters the relics of the
+      entertainment, and devoured them as they stood behind the backs of the
+      company. Jesters, dwarfs, and minstrels were there in unusual numbers, and
+      more noisy and intrusive than they were permitted to be in better
+      regulated society. As they were allowed to share freely in the wine, which
+      flowed round in large quantities, their licensed tumult was the more
+      excessive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this while, and in the midst of a clamour and confusion which would
+      better have become a German tavern during a fair than the tent of a
+      sovereign prince, the Archduke was waited upon with a minuteness of form
+      and observance which showed how anxious he was to maintain rigidly the
+      state and character to which his elevation had entitled him. He was served
+      on the knee, and only by pages of noble blood, fed upon plate of silver,
+      and drank his Tokay and Rhenish wines from a cup of gold. His ducal mantle
+      was splendidly adorned with ermine, his coronet might have equalled in
+      value a royal crown, and his feet, cased in velvet shoes (the length of
+      which, peaks included, might be two feet), rested upon a footstool of
+      solid silver. But it served partly to intimate the character of the man,
+      that, although desirous to show attention to the Marquis of Montserrat,
+      whom he had courteously placed at his right hand, he gave much more of his
+      attention to his SPRUCH-SPRECHER&mdash;that is, his man of conversation,
+      or SAYER-OF-SAYINGS&mdash;who stood behind the Duke's right shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This personage was well attired in a cloak and doublet of black velvet,
+      the last of which was decorated with various silver and gold coins
+      stitched upon it, in memory of the munificent princes who had conferred
+      them, and bearing a short staff to which also bunches of silver coins were
+      attached by rings, which he jingled by way of attracting attention when he
+      was about to say anything which he judged worthy of it. This person's
+      capacity in the household of the Archduke was somewhat betwixt that of a
+      minstrel and a counsellor. He was by turns a flatterer, a poet, and an
+      orator; and those who desired to be well with the Duke generally studied
+      to gain the good-will of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lest too much of this officer's wisdom should become tiresome, the Duke's
+      other shoulder was occupied by his HOFF-NARR, or court-jester, called
+      Jonas Schwanker, who made almost as much noise with his fool's cap, bells,
+      and bauble, as did the orator, or man of talk, with his jingling baton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two personages threw out grave and comic nonsense alternately; while
+      their master, laughing or applauding them himself, yet carefully watched
+      the countenance of his noble guest, to discern what impressions so
+      accomplished a cavalier received from this display of Austrian eloquence
+      and wit. It is hard to say whether the man of wisdom or the man of folly
+      contributed most to the amusement of the party, or stood highest in the
+      estimation of their princely master; but the sallies of both seemed
+      excellently well received. Sometimes they became rivals for the
+      conversation, and clanged their flappers in emulation of each other with a
+      most alarming contention; but, in general, they seemed on such good terms,
+      and so accustomed to support each other's play, that the SPRUCH-SPRECHER
+      often condescended to follow up the jester's witticisms with an
+      explanation, to render them more obvious to the capacity of the audience,
+      so that his wisdom became a sort of commentary on the buffoon's folly. And
+      sometimes, in requital, the HOFF-NARR, with a pithy jest, wound up the
+      conclusion of the orator's tedious harangue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever his real sentiments might be, Conrade took especial care that his
+      countenance should express nothing but satisfaction with what he heard,
+      and smiled or applauded as zealously, to all appearance, as the Archduke
+      himself at the solemn folly of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the gibbering wit
+      of the fool. In fact, he watched carefully until the one or other should
+      introduce some topic favourable to the purpose which was uppermost in his
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not long ere the King of England was brought on the carpet by the
+      jester, who had been accustomed to consider Dickon of the Broom (which
+      irreverent epithet he substituted for Richard Plantagenet) as a subject of
+      mirth, acceptable and inexhaustible. The orator, indeed, was silent, and
+      it was only when applied to by Conrade that he observed, &ldquo;The GENISTA, or
+      broom-plant, was an emblem of humility; and it would be well when those
+      who wore it would remember the warning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The allusion to the illustrious badge of Plantagenet was thus rendered
+      sufficiently manifest, and Jonas Schwanker observed that they who humbled
+      themselves had been exalted with a vengeance. &ldquo;Honour unto whom honour is
+      due,&rdquo; answered the Marquis of Montserrat. &ldquo;We have all had some part in
+      these marches and battles, and methinks other princes might share a little
+      in the renown which Richard of England engrosses amongst minstrels and
+      MINNE-SINGERS. Has no one of the joyeuse science here present a song in
+      praise of the royal Archduke of Austria, our princely entertainer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Three minstrels emulously stepped forward with voice and harp. Two were
+      silenced with difficulty by the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who seemed to act as
+      master of the revels, and a hearing was at length procured for the poet
+      preferred, who sung, in high German, stanzas which may be thus translated:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What brave chief shall head the forces, Where the red-cross legions
+      gather? Best of horsemen, best of horses, Highest head and fairest
+      feather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the orator, jingling his staff, interrupted the bard to intimate to
+      the party&mdash;what they might not have inferred from the description&mdash;that
+      their royal host was the party indicated, and a full-crowned goblet went
+      round to the acclamation, HOCH LEBE DER HERZOG LEOPOLD! Another stanza
+      followed:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask not Austria why, 'midst princes, Still her banner rises highest; Ask
+      as well the strong-wing'd eagle, Why to heaven he soars the highest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The eagle,&rdquo; said the expounder of dark sayings, &ldquo;is the cognizance of our
+      noble lord the Archduke&mdash;of his royal Grace, I would say&mdash;and
+      the eagle flies the highest and nearest to the sun of all the feathered
+      creation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lion hath taken a spring above the eagle,&rdquo; said Conrade carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archduke reddened, and fixed his eyes on the speaker, while the
+      SPRUCH-SPRECHER answered, after a minute's consideration, &ldquo;The Lord
+      Marquis will pardon me&mdash;a lion cannot fly above an eagle, because no
+      lion hath got wings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Except the lion of Saint Mark,&rdquo; responded the jester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the Venetian's banner,&rdquo; said the Duke; &ldquo;but assuredly that
+      amphibious race, half nobles, half merchants, will not dare to place their
+      rank in comparison with ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, it was not of the Venetian lion that I spoke,&rdquo; said the Marquis of
+      Montserrat, &ldquo;but of the three lions passant of England. Formerly, it is
+      said, they were leopards; but now they are become lions at all points, and
+      must take precedence of beast, fish, or fowl, or woe worth the
+      gainstander.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mean you seriously, my lord?&rdquo; said the Austrian, now considerably flushed
+      with wine. &ldquo;Think you that Richard of England asserts any pre-eminence
+      over the free sovereigns who have been his voluntary allies in this
+      Crusade?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know not but from circumstances,&rdquo; answered Conrade. &ldquo;Yonder hangs his
+      banner alone in the midst of our camp, as if he were king and
+      generalissimo of our whole Christian army.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you endure this so patiently, and speak of it so coldly?&rdquo; said the
+      Archduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, my lord,&rdquo; answered Conrade, &ldquo;it cannot concern the poor Marquis of
+      Montserrat to contend against an injury patiently submitted to by such
+      potent princes as Philip of France and Leopold of Austria. What dishonour
+      you are pleased to submit to cannot be a disgrace to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leopold closed his fist, and struck on the table with violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told Philip of this,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have often told him that it was
+      our duty to protect the inferior princes against the usurpation of this
+      islander; but he answers me ever with cold respects of their relations
+      together as suzerain and vassal, and that it were impolitic in him to make
+      an open breach at this time and period.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The world knows that Philip is wise,&rdquo; said Conrade, &ldquo;and will judge his
+      submission to be policy. Yours, my lord, you can yourself alone account
+      for; but I doubt not you have deep reasons for submitting to English
+      domination.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I submit!&rdquo; said Leopold indignantly&mdash;&ldquo;I, the Archduke of Austria, so
+      important and vital a limb of the Holy Roman Empire&mdash;I submit myself
+      to this king of half an island, this grandson of a Norman bastard! No, by
+      Heaven! The camp and all Christendom shall see that I know how to right
+      myself, and whether I yield ground one inch to the English bandog.&mdash;Up,
+      my lieges and merry men; up and follow me! We will&mdash;and that without
+      losing one instant&mdash;place the eagle of Austria where she shall float
+      as high as ever floated the cognizance of king or kaiser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he started from his seat, and amidst the tumultuous cheering of
+      his guests and followers, made for the door of the pavilion, and seized
+      his own banner, which stood pitched before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, my lord,&rdquo; said Conrade, affecting to interfere, &ldquo;it will blemish
+      your wisdom to make an affray in the camp at this hour; and perhaps it is
+      better to submit to the usurpation of England a little longer than to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not an hour, not a moment longer,&rdquo; vociferated the Duke; and with the
+      banner in his hand, and followed by his shouting guests and attendants,
+      marched hastily to the central mount, from which the banner of England
+      floated, and laid his hand on the standard-spear, as if to pluck it from
+      the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My master, my dear master!&rdquo; said Jonas Schwanker, throwing his arms about
+      the Duke, &ldquo;take heed&mdash;lions have teeth&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And eagles have claws,&rdquo; said the Duke, not relinquishing his hold on the
+      banner-staff, yet hesitating to pull it from the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The speaker of sentences, notwithstanding such was his occupation, had
+      nevertheless some intervals of sound sense. He clashed his staff loudly,
+      and Leopold, as if by habit, turned his head towards his man of counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The eagle is king among the fowls of the air,&rdquo; said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER,
+      &ldquo;as is the lion among the beasts of the field&mdash;each has his dominion,
+      separated as wide as England and Germany. Do thou, noble eagle, no
+      dishonour to the princely lion, but let your banners remain floating in
+      peace side by side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leopold withdrew his hand from the banner-spear, and looked round for
+      Conrade of Montserrat, but he saw him not; for the Marquis, so soon as he
+      saw the mischief afoot, had withdrawn himself from the crowd, taking care,
+      in the first place, to express before several neutral persons his regret
+      that the Archduke should have chosen the hours after dinner to avenge any
+      wrong of which he might think he had a right to complain. Not seeing his
+      guest, to whom he wished more particularly to have addressed himself, the
+      Archduke said aloud that, having no wish to breed dissension in the army
+      of the Cross, he did but vindicate his own privileges and right to stand
+      upon an equality with the King of England, without desiring, as he might
+      have done, to advance his banner&mdash;which he derived from emperors, his
+      progenitors&mdash;above that of a mere descendant of the Counts of Anjou;
+      and in the meantime he commanded a cask of wine to be brought hither and
+      pierced, for regaling the bystanders, who, with tuck of drum and sound of
+      music, quaffed many a carouse round the Austrian standard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This disorderly scene was not acted without a degree of noise, which
+      alarmed the whole camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The critical hour had arrived at which the physician, according to the
+      rules of his art, had predicted that his royal patient might be awakened
+      with safety, and the sponge had been applied for that purpose; and the
+      leech had not made many observations ere he assured the Baron of Gilsland
+      that the fever had entirely left his sovereign, and that, such was the
+      happy strength of his constitution, it would not be even necessary, as in
+      most cases, to give a second dose of the powerful medicine. Richard
+      himself seemed to be of the same opinion, for, sitting up and rubbing his
+      eyes, he demanded of De Vaux what present sum of money was in the royal
+      coffers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron could not exactly inform him of the amount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It matters not,&rdquo; said Richard; &ldquo;be it greater or smaller, bestow it all
+      on this learned leech, who hath, I trust, given me back again to the
+      service of the Crusade. If it be less than a thousand byzants, let him
+      have jewels to make it up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sell not the wisdom with which Allah has endowed me,&rdquo; answered the
+      Arabian physician; &ldquo;and be it known to you, great Prince, that the divine
+      medicine of which you have partaken would lose its effects in my unworthy
+      hands did I exchange its virtues either for gold or diamonds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Physician refuseth a gratuity!&rdquo; said De Vaux to himself. &ldquo;This is
+      more extraordinary than his being a hundred years old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thomas de Vaux,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;thou knowest no courage but what belongs
+      to the sword, no bounty and virtue but what are used in chivalry. I tell
+      thee that this Moor, in his independence, might set an example to them who
+      account themselves the flower of knighthood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is reward enough for me,&rdquo; said the Moor, folding his arms on his
+      bosom, and maintaining an attitude at once respectful and dignified, &ldquo;that
+      so great a king as the Melech Ric [Richard was thus called by the Eastern
+      nations.] should thus speak of his servant.&mdash;But now let me pray you
+      again to compose yourself on your couch; for though I think there needs no
+      further repetition of the divine draught, yet injury might ensue from any
+      too early exertion ere your strength be entirely restored.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must obey thee, Hakim,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;yet believe me, my bosom feels
+      so free from the wasting fire which for so many days hath scorched it,
+      that I care not how soon I expose it to a brave man's lance.&mdash;But
+      hark! what mean these shouts, and that distant music, in the camp? Go,
+      Thomas de Vaux, and make inquiry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the Archduke Leopold,&rdquo; said De Vaux, returning after a minute's
+      absence, &ldquo;who makes with his pot-companions some procession through the
+      camp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drunken fool!&rdquo; exclaimed King Richard; &ldquo;can he not keep his brutal
+      inebriety within the veil of his pavilion, that he must needs show his
+      shame to all Christendom?&mdash;What say you, Sir Marquis?&rdquo; he added,
+      addressing himself to Conrade of Montserrat, who at that moment entered
+      the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thus much, honoured Prince,&rdquo; answered the Marquis, &ldquo;that I delight to see
+      your Majesty so well, and so far recovered; and that is a long speech for
+      any one to make who has partaken of the Duke of Austria's hospitality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! you have been dining with the Teutonic wine-skin!&rdquo; said the
+      monarch. &ldquo;And what frolic has he found out to cause all this disturbance?
+      Truly, Sir Conrade, I have still held you so good a reveller that I wonder
+      at your quitting the game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux, who had got a little behind the King, now exerted himself by look
+      and sign to make the Marquis understand that he should say nothing to
+      Richard of what was passing without. But Conrade understood not, or heeded
+      not, the prohibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What the Archduke does,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is of little consequence to any one,
+      least of all to himself, since he probably knows not what he is acting;
+      yet, to say truth, it is a gambol I should not like to share in, since he
+      is pulling down the banner of England from Saint George's Mount, in the
+      centre of the camp yonder, and displaying his own in its stead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;WHAT sayest thou?&rdquo; exclaimed the King, in a tone which might have waked
+      the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said the Marquis, &ldquo;let it not chafe your Highness that a fool
+      should act according to his folly&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak not to me,&rdquo; said Richard, springing from his couch, and casting on
+      his clothes with a dispatch which seemed marvellous&mdash;&ldquo;Speak not to
+      me, Lord Marquis!&mdash;De Multon, I command thee speak not a word to me&mdash;he
+      that breathes but a syllable is no friend to Richard Plantagenet.&mdash;Hakim,
+      be silent, I charge thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this while the King was hastily clothing himself, and, with the last
+      word, snatched his sword from the pillar of the tent, and without any
+      other weapon, or calling any attendance, he rushed out of his pavilion.
+      Conrade, holding up his hands as if in astonishment, seemed willing to
+      enter into conversation with De Vaux; but Sir Thomas pushed rudely past
+      him, and calling to one of the royal equerries, said hastily, &ldquo;Fly to Lord
+      Salisbury's quarters, and let him get his men together and follow me
+      instantly to Saint George's Mount. Tell him the King's fever has left his
+      blood and settled in his brain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Imperfectly heard, and still more imperfectly comprehended, by the
+      startled attendant whom De Vaux addressed thus hastily, the equerry and
+      his fellow-servants of the royal chamber rushed hastily into the tents of
+      the neighbouring nobility, and quickly spread an alarm, as general as the
+      cause seemed vague, through the whole British forces. The English
+      soldiers, waked in alarm from that noonday rest which the heat of the
+      climate had taught them to enjoy as a luxury, hastily asked each other the
+      cause of the tumult, and without waiting an answer, supplied by the force
+      of their own fancy the want of information. Some said the Saracens were in
+      the camp, some that the King's life was attempted, some that he had died
+      of the fever the preceding night, many that he was assassinated by the
+      Duke of Austria. The nobles and officers, at an equal loss with the common
+      men to ascertain the real cause of the disorder, laboured only to get
+      their followers under arms and under authority, lest their rashness should
+      occasion some great misfortune to the Crusading army. The English trumpets
+      sounded loud, shrill, and continuously. The alarm-cry of &ldquo;Bows and bills,
+      bows and bills!&rdquo; was heard from quarter to quarter, again and again
+      shouted, and again and again answered by the presence of the ready
+      warriors, and their national invocation, &ldquo;Saint George for merry England!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The alarm went through the nearest quarter of the camp, and men of all the
+      various nations assembled, where, perhaps, every people in Christendom had
+      their representatives, flew to arms, and drew together under circumstances
+      of general confusion, of which they knew neither the cause nor the object.
+      It was, however, lucky, amid a scene so threatening, that the Earl of
+      Salisbury, while he hurried after De Vaux's summons with a few only of the
+      readiest English men-at-arms, directed the rest of the English host to be
+      drawn up and kept under arms, to advance to Richard's succour if necessity
+      should require, but in fit array and under due command, and not with the
+      tumultuary haste which their own alarm and zeal for the King's safety
+      might have dictated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, without regarding for one instant the shouts, the cries,
+      the tumult which began to thicken around him, Richard, with his dress in
+      the last disorder, and his sheathed blade under his arm, pursued his way
+      with the utmost speed, followed only by De Vaux and one or two household
+      servants, to Saint George's Mount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He outsped even the alarm which his impetuosity only had excited, and
+      passed the quarter of his own gallant troops of Normandy, Poitou, Gascony,
+      and Anjou before the disturbance had reached them, although the noise
+      accompanying the German revel had induced many of the soldiery to get on
+      foot to listen. The handful of Scots were also quartered in the vicinity,
+      nor had they been disturbed by the uproar. But the King's person and his
+      haste were both remarked by the Knight of the Leopard, who, aware that
+      danger must be afoot, and hastening to share in it, snatched his shield
+      and sword, and united himself to De Vaux, who with some difficulty kept
+      pace with his impatient and fiery master. De Vaux answered a look of
+      curiosity, which the Scottish knight directed towards him, with a shrug of
+      his broad shoulders, and they continued, side by side, to pursue Richard's
+      steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King was soon at the foot of Saint George's Mount, the sides as well
+      as platform of which were now surrounded and crowded, partly by those
+      belonging to the Duke of Austria's retinue, who were celebrating, with
+      shouts of jubilee, the act which they considered as an assertion of
+      national honour; partly by bystanders of different nations, whom dislike
+      to the English, or mere curiosity, had assembled together to witness the
+      end of these extraordinary proceedings. Through this disorderly troop
+      Richard burst his way, like a goodly ship under full sail, which cleaves
+      her forcible passage through the rolling billows, and heeds not that they
+      unite after her passage and roar upon her stern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The summit of the eminence was a small level space, on which were pitched
+      the rival banners, surrounded still by the Archduke's friends and retinue.
+      In the midst of the circle was Leopold himself, still contemplating with
+      self-satisfaction the deed he had done, and still listening to the shouts
+      of applause which his partisans bestowed with no sparing breath. While he
+      was in this state of self-gratulation, Richard burst into the circle,
+      attended, indeed, only by two men, but in his own headlong energies an
+      irresistible host.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who has dared,&rdquo; he said, laying his hands upon the Austrian standard, and
+      speaking in a voice like the sound which precedes an earthquake&mdash;&ldquo;Who
+      has dared to place this paltry rag beside the banner of England?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archduke wanted not personal courage, and it was impossible he could
+      hear this question without reply. Yet so much was he troubled and
+      surprised by the unexpected arrival of Richard, and affected by the
+      general awe inspired by his ardent and unyielding character, that the
+      demand was twice repeated, in a tone which seemed to challenge heaven and
+      earth, ere the Archduke replied, with such firmness as he could command,
+      &ldquo;It was I, Leopold of Austria.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then shall Leopold of Austria,&rdquo; replied Richard, &ldquo;presentry see the rate
+      at which his banner and his pretensions are held by Richard of England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he pulled up the standard-spear, splintered it to pieces, threw
+      the banner itself on the ground, and placed his foot upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thus,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I trample on the banner of Austria. Is there a knight
+      among your Teutonic chivalry dare impeach my deed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a momentary silence; but there are no braver men than the
+      Germans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I,&rdquo; and &ldquo;I,&rdquo; and &ldquo;I,&rdquo; was heard from several knights of the Duke's
+      followers; and he himself added his voice to those which accepted the King
+      of England's defiance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do we dally thus?&rdquo; said the Earl Wallenrode, a gigantic warrior from
+      the frontiers of Hungary. &ldquo;Brethren and noble gentlemen, this man's foot
+      is on the honour of your country&mdash;let us rescue it from violation,
+      and down with the pride of England!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he drew his sword, and struck at the King a blow which might
+      have proved fatal, had not the Scot intercepted and caught it upon his
+      shield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have sworn,&rdquo; said King Richard&mdash;and his voice was heard above all
+      the tumult, which now waxed wild and loud&mdash;&ldquo;never to strike one whose
+      shoulder bears the cross; therefore live, Wallenrode&mdash;but live to
+      remember Richard of England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, he grasped the tall Hungarian round the waist, and, unmatched
+      in wrestling, as in other military exercises, hurled him backwards with
+      such violence that the mass flew as if discharged from a military engine,
+      not only through the ring of spectators who witnessed the extraordinary
+      scene, but over the edge of the mount itself, down the steep side of which
+      Wallenrode rolled headlong, until, pitching at length upon his shoulder,
+      he dislocated the bone, and lay like one dead. This almost supernatural
+      display of strength did not encourage either the Duke or any of his
+      followers to renew a personal contest so inauspiciously commenced. Those
+      who stood farthest back did, indeed, clash their swords, and cry out, &ldquo;Cut
+      the island mastiff to pieces!&rdquo; but those who were nearer veiled, perhaps,
+      their personal fears under an affected regard for order, and cried, for
+      the most part, &ldquo;Peace! Peace! the peace of the Cross&mdash;the peace of
+      Holy Church and our Father the Pope!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These various cries of the assailants, contradicting each other, showed
+      their irresolution; while Richard, his foot still on the archducal banner,
+      glared round him with an eye that seemed to seek an enemy, and from which
+      the angry nobles shrunk appalled, as from the threatened grasp of a lion.
+      De Vaux and the Knight of the Leopard kept their places beside him; and
+      though the swords which they held were still sheathed, it was plain that
+      they were prompt to protect Richard's person to the very last, and their
+      size and remarkable strength plainly showed the defence would be a
+      desperate one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and
+      partisans brandished, and bows already bended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment King Philip of France, attended by one or two of his
+      nobles, came on the platform to inquire the cause of the disturbance, and
+      made gestures of surprise at finding the King of England raised from his
+      sick-bed, and confronting their common ally, the Duke of Austria, in such
+      a menacing and insulting posture. Richard himself blushed at being
+      discovered by Philip, whose sagacity he respected as much as he disliked
+      his person, in an attitude neither becoming his character as a monarch,
+      nor as a Crusader; and it was observed that he withdrew his foot, as if
+      accidentally, from the dishonoured banner, and exchanged his look of
+      violent emotion for one of affected composure and indifference. Leopold
+      also struggled to attain some degree of calmness, mortified as he was by
+      having been seen by Philip in the act of passively submitting to the
+      insults of the fiery King of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Possessed of many of those royal qualities for which he was termed by his
+      subjects the August, Philip might be termed the Ulysses, as Richard was
+      indisputably the Achilles, of the Crusade. The King of France was
+      sagacious, wise, deliberate in council, steady and calm in action, seeing
+      clearly, and steadily pursuing, the measures most for the interest of his
+      kingdom&mdash;dignified and royal in his deportment, brave in person, but
+      a politician rather than a warrior. The Crusade would have been no choice
+      of his own; but the spirit was contagious, and the expedition was enforced
+      upon him by the church, and by the unanimous wish of his nobility. In any
+      other situation, or in a milder age, his character might have stood higher
+      than that of the adventurous Coeur de Lion. But in the Crusade, itself an
+      undertaking wholly irrational, sound reason was the quality of all others
+      least estimated, and the chivalric valour which both the age and the
+      enterprise demanded was considered as debased if mingled with the least
+      touch of discretion. So that the merit of Philip, compared with that of
+      his haughty rival, showed like the clear but minute flame of a lamp placed
+      near the glare of a huge, blazing torch, which, not possessing half the
+      utility, makes ten times more impression on the eye. Philip felt his
+      inferiority in public opinion with the pain natural to a high-spirited
+      prince; and it cannot be wondered at if he took such opportunities as
+      offered for placing his own character in more advantageous contrast with
+      that of his rival. The present seemed one of those occasions in which
+      prudence and calmness might reasonably expect to triumph over obstinacy
+      and impetuous violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What means this unseemly broil betwixt the sworn brethren of the Cross&mdash;the
+      royal Majesty of England and the princely Duke Leopold? How is it possible
+      that those who are the chiefs and pillars of this holy expedition&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A truce with thy remonstrance, France,&rdquo; said Richard, enraged inwardly at
+      finding himself placed on a sort of equality with Leopold, yet not knowing
+      how to resent it. &ldquo;This duke, or prince, or pillar, if you will, hath been
+      insolent, and I have chastised him&mdash;that is all. Here is a coil,
+      forsooth, because of spurning a hound!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Majesty of France,&rdquo; said the Duke, &ldquo;I appeal to you and every sovereign
+      prince against the foul indignity which I have sustained. This King of
+      England hath pulled down my banner-torn and trampled on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he had the audacity to plant it beside mine,&rdquo; said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My rank as thine equal entitled me,&rdquo; replied the Duke, emboldened by the
+      presence of Philip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assert such equality for thy person,&rdquo; said King Richard, &ldquo;and, by Saint
+      George, I will treat thy person as I did thy broidered kerchief there, fit
+      but for the meanest use to which kerchief may be put.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, but patience, brother of England,&rdquo; said Philip, &ldquo;and I will
+      presently show Austria that he is wrong in this matter.&mdash;Do not
+      think, noble Duke,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;that, in permitting the standard of
+      England to occupy the highest point in our camp, we, the independent
+      sovereigns of the Crusade, acknowledge any inferiority to the royal
+      Richard. It were inconsistent to think so, since even the Oriflamme itself&mdash;the
+      great banner of France, to which the royal Richard himself, in respect of
+      his French possessions, is but a vassal&mdash;holds for the present an
+      inferior place to the Lions of England. But as sworn brethren of the
+      Cross, military pilgrims, who, laying aside the pomp and pride of this
+      world, are hewing with our swords the way to the Holy Sepulchre, I myself,
+      and the other princes, have renounced to King Richard, from respect to his
+      high renown and great feats of arms, that precedence which elsewhere, and
+      upon other motives, would not have been yielded. I am satisfied that, when
+      your royal grace of Austria shall have considered this, you will express
+      sorrow for having placed your banner on this spot, and that the royal
+      Majesty of England will then give satisfaction for the insult he has
+      offered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the jester had both retired to a safe distance
+      when matters seemed coming to blows; but returned when words, their own
+      commodity, seemed again about to become the order of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man of proverbs was so delighted with Philip's politic speech that he
+      clashed his baton at the conclusion, by way of emphasis, and forgot the
+      presence in which he was, so far as to say aloud that he himself had never
+      said a wiser thing in his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so,&rdquo; whispered Jonas Schwanker, &ldquo;but we shall be whipped if you
+      speak so loud.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duke answered sullenly that he would refer his quarrel to the General
+      Council of the Crusade&mdash;a motion which Philip highly applauded, as
+      qualified to take away a scandal most harmful to Christendom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, retaining the same careless attitude, listened to Philip until
+      his oratory seemed exhausted, and then said aloud, &ldquo;I am drowsy&mdash;this
+      fever hangs about me still. Brother of France, thou art acquainted with my
+      humour, and that I have at all times but few words to spare. Know,
+      therefore, at once, I will submit a matter touching the honour of England
+      neither to Prince, Pope, nor Council. Here stands my banner&mdash;whatsoever
+      pennon shall be reared within three butts' length of it&mdash;ay, were it
+      the Oriflamme, of which you were, I think, but now speaking&mdash;shall be
+      treated as that dishonoured rag; nor will I yield other satisfaction than
+      that which these poor limbs can render in the lists to any bold challenge&mdash;ay,
+      were it against five champions instead of one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said the jester, whispering his companion, &ldquo;that is as complete a
+      piece of folly as if I myself had said it; but yet, I think, there may be
+      in this matter a greater fool than Richard yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who may that be?&rdquo; asked the man of wisdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Philip,&rdquo; said the jester, &ldquo;or our own Royal Duke, should either accept
+      the challenge. But oh, most sage SPRUCH-SPECHER, what excellent kings
+      wouldst thou and I have made, since those on whose heads these crowns have
+      fallen can play the proverb-monger and the fool as completely as
+      ourselves!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While these worthies plied their offices apart, Philip answered calmly to
+      the almost injurious defiance of Richard, &ldquo;I came not hither to awaken
+      fresh quarrels, contrary to the oath we have sworn, and the holy cause in
+      which we have engaged. I part from my brother of England as brothers
+      should part, and the only strife between the Lions of England and the
+      Lilies of France shall be which shall be carried deepest into the ranks of
+      the infidels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a bargain, my royal brother,&rdquo; said Richard, stretching out his hand
+      with all the frankness which belonged to his rash but generous
+      disposition; &ldquo;and soon may we have the opportunity to try this gallant and
+      fraternal wager.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let this noble Duke also partake in the friendship of this happy moment,&rdquo;
+       said Philip; and the Duke approached half-sullenly, half-willing to enter
+      into some accommodation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think not of fools, nor of their folly,&rdquo; said Richard carelessly; and
+      the Archduke, turning his back on him, withdrew from the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard looked after him as he retired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a sort of glow-worm courage,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that shows only by
+      night. I must not leave this banner unguarded in darkness; by daylight the
+      look of the Lions will alone defend it. Here, Thomas of Gilsland, I give
+      thee the charge of the standard&mdash;watch over the honour of England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her safety is yet more dear to me,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;and the life of
+      Richard is the safety of England. I must have your Highness back to your
+      tent, and that without further tarriance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a rough and peremptory nurse, De Vaux,&rdquo; said the king, smiling;
+      and then added, addressing Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;Valiant Scot, I owe thee a boon,
+      and I will pay it richly. There stands the banner of England! Watch it as
+      novice does his armour on the night before he is dubbed. Stir not from it
+      three spears' length, and defend it with thy body against injury or
+      insult. Sound thy bugle if thou art assailed by more than three at once.
+      Dost thou undertake the charge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Willingly,&rdquo; said Kenneth; &ldquo;and will discharge it upon penalty of my head.
+      I will but arm me, and return hither instantly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Kings of France and England then took formal leave of each other,
+      hiding, under an appearance of courtesy, the grounds of complaint which
+      either had against the other&mdash;Richard against Philip, for what he
+      deemed an officious interference betwixt him and Austria, and Philip
+      against Coeur de Lion, for the disrespectful manner in which his mediation
+      had been received. Those whom this disturbance had assembled now drew off
+      in different directions, leaving the contested mount in the same solitude
+      which had subsisted till interrupted by the Austrian bravado. Men judged
+      of the events of the day according to their partialities, and while the
+      English charged the Austrian with having afforded the first ground of
+      quarrel, those of other nations concurred in casting the greater blame
+      upon the insular haughtiness and assuming character of Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou seest,&rdquo; said the Marquis of Montserrat to the Grand Master of the
+      Templars, &ldquo;that subtle courses are more effective than violence. I have
+      unloosed the bonds which held together this bunch of sceptres and lances&mdash;thou
+      wilt see them shortly fall asunder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would have called thy plan a good one,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;had there
+      been but one man of courage among yonder cold-blooded Austrians to sever
+      the bonds of which you speak with his sword. A knot that is unloosed may
+      again be fastened, but not so the cord which has been cut to pieces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Tis woman that seduces all mankind.
+        GAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the days of chivalry, a dangerous post or a perilous adventure was a
+      reward frequently assigned to military bravery as a compensation for its
+      former trials; just as, in ascending a precipice, the surmounting one crag
+      only lifts the climber to points yet more dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was midnight, and the moon rode clear and high in heaven, when Kenneth
+      of Scotland stood upon his watch on Saint George's Mount, beside the
+      banner of England, a solitary sentinel, to protect the emblem of that
+      nation against the insults which might be meditated among the thousands
+      whom Richard's pride had made his enemies. High thoughts rolled, one after
+      each other, upon the mind of the warrior. It seemed to him as if he had
+      gained some favour in the eyes of the chivalrous monarch, who till now had
+      not seemed to distinguish him among the crowds of brave men whom his
+      renown had assembled under his banner, and Sir Kenneth little recked that
+      the display of royal regard consisted in placing him upon a post so
+      perilous. The devotion of his ambitious and high-placed affection inflamed
+      his military enthusiasm. Hopeless as that attachment was in almost any
+      conceivable circumstances, those which had lately occurred had, in some
+      degree, diminished the distance between Edith and himself. He upon whom
+      Richard had conferred the distinction of guarding his banner was no longer
+      an adventurer of slight note, but placed within the regard of a princess,
+      although he was as far as ever from her level. An unknown and obscure fate
+      could not now be his. If he was surprised and slain on the post which had
+      been assigned him, his death&mdash;and he resolved it should be glorious&mdash;must
+      deserve the praises as well as call down the vengeance of Coeur de Lion,
+      and be followed by the regrets, and even the tears, of the high-born
+      beauties of the English Court. He had now no longer reason to fear that he
+      should die as a fool dieth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth had full leisure to enjoy these and similar high-souled
+      thoughts, fostered by that wild spirit of chivalry, which, amid its most
+      extravagant and fantastic flights, was still pure from all selfish alloy&mdash;generous,
+      devoted, and perhaps only thus far censurable, that it proposed objects
+      and courses of action inconsistent with the frailties and imperfections of
+      man. All nature around him slept in calm moon-shine or in deep shadow. The
+      long rows of tents and pavilions, glimmering or darkening as they lay in
+      the moonlight or in the shade, were still and silent as the streets of a
+      deserted city. Beside the banner-staff lay the large staghound already
+      mentioned, the sole companion of Kenneth's watch, on whose vigilance he
+      trusted for early warning of the approach of any hostile footstep. The
+      noble animal seemed to understand the purpose of their watch; for he
+      looked from time to time at the rich folds of the heavy pennon, and, when
+      the cry of the sentinels came from the distant lines and defences of the
+      camp, he answered them with one deep and reiterated bark, as if to affirm
+      that he too was vigilant in his duty. From time to time, also, he lowered
+      his lofty head, and wagged his tail, as his master passed and repassed him
+      in the short turns which he took upon his post; or, when the knight stood
+      silent and abstracted leaning on his lance, and looking up towards heaven,
+      his faithful attendant ventured sometimes, in the phrase of romance, &ldquo;to
+      disturb his thoughts,&rdquo; and awaken him from his reverie, by thrusting his
+      large rough snout into the knight's gauntleted hand, to solicit a
+      transitory caress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus passed two hours of the knight's watch without anything remarkable
+      occurring. At length, and upon a sudden, the gallant staghound bayed
+      furiously, and seemed about to dash forward where the shadow lay the
+      darkest, yet waited, as if in the slips, till he should know the pleasure
+      of his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who goes there?&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, aware that there was something
+      creeping forward on the shadowy side of the mount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the name of Merlin and Maugis,&rdquo; answered a hoarse, disagreeable voice,
+      &ldquo;tie up your fourfooted demon there, or I come not at you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who art thou that would approach my post?&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, bending
+      his eyes as keenly as he could on some object, which he could just observe
+      at the bottom of the ascent, without being able to distinguish its form.
+      &ldquo;Beware&mdash;I am here for death and life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take up thy long-fanged Sathanas,&rdquo; said the voice, &ldquo;or I will conjure him
+      with a bolt from my arblast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time was heard the sound of a spring or check, as when a
+      crossbow is bent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unbend thy arblast, and come into the moonlight,&rdquo; said the Scot, &ldquo;or, by
+      Saint Andrew, I will pin thee to the earth, be what or whom thou wilt!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0073m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0073m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0073.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he poised his long lance by the middle, and, fixing his eye
+      upon the object, which seemed to move, he brandished the weapon, as if
+      meditating to cast it from his hand&mdash;a use of the weapon sometimes,
+      though rarely, resorted to when a missile was necessary. But Sir Kenneth
+      was ashamed of his purpose, and grounded his weapon, when there stepped
+      from the shadow into the moonlight, like an actor entering upon the stage,
+      a stunted, decrepit creature, whom, by his fantastic dress and deformity,
+      he recognized, even at some distance, for the male of the two dwarfs whom
+      he had seen in the chapel at Engaddi. Recollecting, at the same moment,
+      the other and far different visions of that extraordinary night, he gave
+      his dog a signal, which he instantly understood, and, returning to the
+      standard, laid himself down beside it with a stifled growl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little, distorted miniature of humanity, assured of his safety from an
+      enemy so formidable, came panting up the ascent, which the shortness of
+      his legs rendered laborious, and, when he arrived on the platform at the
+      top, shifted to his left hand the little crossbow, which was just such a
+      toy as children at that period were permitted to shoot small birds with,
+      and, assuming an attitude of great dignity, gracefully extended his right
+      hand to Sir Kenneth, in an attitude as if he expected he would salute it.
+      But such a result not following, he demanded, in a sharp and angry tone of
+      voice, &ldquo;Soldier, wherefore renderest thou not to Nectabanus the homage due
+      to his dignity? Or is it possible that thou canst have forgotten him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Nectabanus,&rdquo; answered the knight, willing to soothe the creature's
+      humour, &ldquo;that were difficult for any one who has ever looked upon thee.
+      Pardon me, however, that, being a soldier upon my post, with my lance in
+      my hand, I may not give to one of thy puissance the advantage of coming
+      within my guard, or of mastering my weapon. Suffice it that I reverence
+      thy dignity, and submit myself to thee as humbly as a man-at-arms in my
+      place may.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall suffice,&rdquo; said Nectabanus, &ldquo;so that you presently attend me to
+      the presence of those who have sent me hither to summon you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great sir,&rdquo; replied the knight, &ldquo;neither in this can I gratify thee, for
+      my orders are to abide by this banner till daybreak&mdash;so I pray you to
+      hold me excused in that matter also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he resumed his walk upon the platform; but the dwarf did not
+      suffer him so easily to escape from his importunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look you,&rdquo; he said, placing himself before Sir Kenneth, so as to
+      interrupt his way, &ldquo;either obey me, Sir Knight, as in duty bound, or I
+      will lay the command upon thee, in the name of one whose beauty could call
+      down the genii from their sphere, and whose grandeur could command the
+      immortal race when they had descended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A wild and improbable conjecture arose in the knight's mind, but he
+      repelled it. It was impossible, he thought, that the lady of his love
+      should have sent him such a message by such a messenger; yet his voice
+      trembled as he said, &ldquo;Go to, Nectabanus. Tell me at once, and as a true
+      man, whether this sublime lady of whom thou speakest be other than the
+      houri with whose assistance I beheld thee sweeping the chapel at Engaddi?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How! presumptuous Knight,&rdquo; replied the dwarf, &ldquo;think'st thou the mistress
+      of our own royal affections, the sharer of our greatness, and the partner
+      of our comeliness, would demean herself by laying charge on such a vassal
+      as thou? No; highly as thou art honoured, thou hast not yet deserved the
+      notice of Queen Guenevra, the lovely bride of Arthur, from whose high seat
+      even princes seem but pigmies. But look thou here, and as thou knowest or
+      disownest this token, so obey or refuse her commands who hath deigned to
+      impose them on thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he placed in the knight's hand a ruby ring, which, even in the
+      moonlight, he had no difficulty to recognize as that which usually graced
+      the finger of the high-born lady to whose service he had devoted himself.
+      Could he have doubted the truth of the token, he would have been convinced
+      by the small knot of carnation-coloured ribbon which was fastened to the
+      ring. This was his lady's favourite colour, and more than once had he
+      himself, assuming it for that of his own liveries, caused the carnation to
+      triumph over all other hues in the lists and in the battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth was struck nearly mute by seeing such a token in such hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the name of all that is sacred, from whom didst thou receive this
+      witness?&rdquo; said the knight. &ldquo;Bring, if thou canst, thy wavering
+      understanding to a right settlement for a minute or two, and tell me the
+      person by whom thou art sent, and the real purpose of thy message, and
+      take heed what thou sayest, for this is no subject for buffoonery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fond and foolish Knight,&rdquo; said the dwarf, &ldquo;wouldst thou know more of this
+      matter than that thou art honoured with commands from a princess,
+      delivered to thee by a king? We list not to parley with thee further than
+      to command thee, in the name and by the power of that ring, to follow us
+      to her who is the owner of the ring. Every minute that thou tarriest is a
+      crime against thy allegiance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Nectabanus, bethink thyself,&rdquo; said the knight. &ldquo;Can my lady know
+      where and upon what duty I am this night engaged? Is she aware that my
+      life&mdash;pshaw, why should I speak of life&mdash;but that my honour
+      depends on my guarding this banner till daybreak; and can it be her wish
+      that I should leave it even to pay homage to her? It is impossible&mdash;the
+      princess is pleased to be merry with her servant in sending him such a
+      message; and I must think so the rather that she hath chosen such a
+      messenger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, keep your belief,&rdquo; said Nectabanus, turning round as if to leave the
+      platform; &ldquo;it is little to me whether you be traitor or true man to this
+      royal lady&mdash;so fare thee well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay, stay&mdash;I entreat you stay,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth. &ldquo;Answer me but
+      one question: is the lady who sent thee near to this place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What signifies it?&rdquo; said the dwarf. &ldquo;Ought fidelity to reckon furlongs,
+      or miles, or leagues&mdash;like the poor courier, who is paid for his
+      labour by the distance which he traverses? Nevertheless, thou soul of
+      suspicion, I tell thee, the fair owner of the ring now sent to so unworthy
+      a vassal, in whom there is neither truth nor courage, is not more distant
+      from this place than this arblast can send a bolt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight gazed again on that ring, as if to ascertain that there was no
+      possible falsehood in the token. &ldquo;Tell me,&rdquo; he said to the dwarf, &ldquo;is my
+      presence required for any length of time?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Time!&rdquo; answered Nectabanus, in his flighty manner; &ldquo;what call you time? I
+      see it not&mdash;I feel it not&mdash;it is but a shadowy name&mdash;a
+      succession of breathings measured forth by night by the clank of a bell,
+      by day by a shadow crossing along a dial-stone. Knowest thou not a true
+      knight's time should only be reckoned by the deeds that he performs in
+      behalf of God and his lady?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The words of truth, though in the mouth of folly,&rdquo; said the knight. &ldquo;And
+      doth my lady really summon me to some deed of action, in her name and for
+      her sake?&mdash;and may it not be postponed for even the few hours till
+      daybreak?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She requires thy presence instantly,&rdquo; said the dwarf, &ldquo;and without the
+      loss of so much time as would be told by ten grains of the sandglass.
+      Hearken, thou cold-blooded and suspicious knight, these are her very words&mdash;Tell
+      him that the hand which dropped roses can bestow laurels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This allusion to their meeting in the chapel of Engaddi sent a thousand
+      recollections through Sir Kenneth's brain, and convinced him that the
+      message delivered by the dwarf was genuine. The rosebuds, withered as they
+      were, were still treasured under his cuirass, and nearest to his heart. He
+      paused, and could not resolve to forego an opportunity, the only one which
+      might ever offer, to gain grace in her eyes whom he had installed as
+      sovereign of his affections. The dwarf, in the meantime, augmented his
+      confusion by insisting either that he must return the ring or instantly
+      attend him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold, hold, yet a moment hold,&rdquo; said the knight, and proceeded to mutter
+      to himself, &ldquo;Am I either the subject or slave of King Richard, more than
+      as a free knight sworn to the service of the Crusade? And whom have I come
+      hither to honour with lance and sword? Our holy cause and my transcendent
+      lady!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ring! the ring!&rdquo; exclaimed the dwarf impatiently; &ldquo;false and slothful
+      knight, return the ring, which thou art unworthy to touch or to look
+      upon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A moment, a moment, good Nectabanus,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth; &ldquo;disturb not my
+      thoughts.&mdash;What if the Saracens were just now to attack our lines?
+      Should I stay here like a sworn vassal of England, watching that her
+      king's pride suffered no humiliation; or should I speed to the breach, and
+      fight for the Cross? To the breach, assuredly; and next to the cause of
+      God come the commands of my liege lady. And yet, Coeur de Lion's behest&mdash;my
+      own promise! Nectabanus, I conjure thee once more to say, are you to
+      conduct me far from hence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But to yonder pavilion; and, since you must needs know,&rdquo; replied
+      Nectabanus, &ldquo;the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its
+      roof, and which is worth a king's ransom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can return in an instant,&rdquo; said the knight, shutting his eyes
+      desperately to all further consequences, &ldquo;I can hear from thence the bay
+      of my dog if any one approaches the standard. I will throw myself at my
+      lady's feet, and pray her leave to return to conclude my watch.&mdash;Here,
+      Roswal&rdquo; (calling his hound, and throwing down his mantle by the side of
+      the standard-spear), &ldquo;watch thou here, and let no one approach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The majestic dog looked in his master's face, as if to be sure that he
+      understood his charge, then sat down beside the mantle, with ears erect
+      and head raised, like a sentinel, understanding perfectly the purpose for
+      which he was stationed there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now, good Nectabanus,&rdquo; said the knight, &ldquo;let us hasten to obey the
+      commands thou hast brought.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haste he that will,&rdquo; said the dwarf sullenly; &ldquo;thou hast not been in
+      haste to obey my summons, nor can I walk fast enough to follow your long
+      strides&mdash;you do not walk like a man, but bound like an ostrich in the
+      desert.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There were but two ways of conquering the obstinacy of Nectabanus, who, as
+      he spoke, diminished his walk into a snail's pace. For bribes Sir Kenneth
+      had no means&mdash;for soothing no time; so in his impatience he snatched
+      the dwarf up from the ground, and bearing him along, notwithstanding his
+      entreaties and his fear, reached nearly to the pavilion pointed out as
+      that of the Queen. In approaching it, however, the Scot observed there was
+      a small guard of soldiers sitting on the ground, who had been concealed
+      from him by the intervening tents. Wondering that the clash of his own
+      armour had not yet attracted their attention, and supposing that his
+      motions might, on the present occasion, require to be conducted with
+      secrecy, he placed the little panting guide upon the ground to recover his
+      breath, and point out what was next to be done. Nectabanus was both
+      frightened and angry; but he had felt himself as completely in the power
+      of the robust knight as an owl in the claws of an eagle, and therefore
+      cared not to provoke him to any further display of his strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made no complaints, therefore, of the usage he had received; but,
+      turning amongst the labyrinth of tents, he led the knight in silence to
+      the opposite side of the pavilion, which thus screened them from the
+      observation of the warders, who seemed either too negligent or too sleepy
+      to discharge their duty with much accuracy. Arrived there, the dwarf
+      raised the under part of the canvas from the ground, and made signs to Sir
+      Kenneth that he should introduce himself to the inside of the tent, by
+      creeping under it. The knight hesitated. There seemed an indecorum in thus
+      privately introducing himself into a pavilion pitched, doubtless, for the
+      accommodation of noble ladies; but he recalled to remembrance the assured
+      tokens which the dwarf had exhibited, and concluded that it was not for
+      him to dispute his lady's pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stooped accordingly, crept beneath the canvas enclosure of the tent,
+      and heard the dwarf whisper from without, &ldquo;Remain here until I call thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     You talk of Gaiety and Innocence!
+     The moment when the fatal fruit was eaten,
+     They parted ne'er to meet again; and Malice
+     Has ever since been playmate to light Gaiety,
+     From the first moment when the smiling infant
+     Destroys the flower or butterfly he toys with,
+     To the last chuckle of the dying miser,
+     Who on his deathbed laughs his last to hear
+     His wealthy neighbour has become a bankrupt.
+         OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth was left for some minutes alone and in darkness. Here was
+      another interruption which must prolong his absence from his post, and he
+      began almost to repent the facility with which he had been induced to quit
+      it. But to return without seeing the Lady Edith was now not to be thought
+      of. He had committed a breach of military discipline, and was determined
+      at least to prove the reality of the seductive expectations which had
+      tempted him to do so. Meanwhile his situation was unpleasant. There was no
+      light to show him into what sort of apartment he had been led&mdash;the
+      Lady Edith was in immediate attendance on the Queen of England&mdash;and
+      the discovery of his having introduced himself thus furtively into the
+      royal pavilion might, were it discovered; lead to much and dangerous
+      suspicion. While he gave way to these unpleasant reflections, and began
+      almost to wish that he could achieve his retreat unobserved, he heard a
+      noise of female voices, laughing, whispering, and speaking, in an
+      adjoining apartment, from which, as the sounds gave him reason to judge,
+      he could only be separated by a canvas partition. Lamps were burning, as
+      he might perceive by the shadowy light which extended itself even to his
+      side of the veil which divided the tent, and he could see shades of
+      several figures sitting and moving in the adjoining apartment. It cannot
+      be termed discourtesy in Sir Kenneth that, situated as he was, he
+      overheard a conversation in which he found himself deeply interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call her&mdash;call her, for Our Lady's sake,&rdquo; said the voice of one of
+      these laughing invisibles. &ldquo;Nectabanus, thou shalt be made ambassador to
+      Prester John's court, to show them how wisely thou canst discharge thee of
+      a mission.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrill tone of the dwarf was heard, yet so much subdued that Sir
+      Kenneth could not understand what he said, except that he spoke something
+      of the means of merriment given to the guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how shall we rid us of the spirit which Nectabanus hath raised, my
+      maidens?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear me, royal madam,&rdquo; said another voice. &ldquo;If the sage and princely
+      Nectabanus be not over-jealous of his most transcendent bride and empress,
+      let us send her to get us rid of this insolent knight-errant, who can be
+      so easily persuaded that high-born dames may need the use of his insolent
+      and overweening valour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It were but justice, methinks,&rdquo; replied another, &ldquo;that the Princess
+      Guenever should dismiss, by her courtesy, him whom her husband's wisdom
+      has been able to entice hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struck to the heart with shame and resentment at what he had heard, Sir
+      Kenneth was about to attempt his escape from the tent at all hazards, when
+      what followed arrested his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, truly,&rdquo; said the first speaker, &ldquo;our cousin Edith must first learn
+      how this vaunted wight hath conducted himself, and we must reserve the
+      power of giving her ocular proof that he hath failed in his duty. It may
+      be a lesson will do good upon her; for, credit me, Calista, I have
+      sometimes thought she has let this Northern adventurer sit nearer her
+      heart than prudence would sanction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the other voices was then heard to mutter something of the Lady
+      Edith's prudence and wisdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prudence, wench!&rdquo; was the reply. &ldquo;It is mere pride, and the desire to be
+      thought more rigid than any of us. Nay, I will not quit my advantage. You
+      know well that when she has us at fault no one can, in a civil way, lay
+      your error before you more precisely than can my Lady Edith. But here she
+      comes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A figure, as if entering the apartment, cast upon the partition a shade,
+      which glided along slowly until it mixed with those which already clouded
+      it. Despite of the bitter disappointment which he had experienced&mdash;despite
+      the insult and injury with which it seemed he had been visited by the
+      malice, or, at best, by the idle humour of Queen Berengaria (for he
+      already concluded that she who spoke loudest, and in a commanding tone,
+      was the wife of Richard), the knight felt something so soothing to his
+      feelings in learning that Edith had been no partner to the fraud practised
+      on him, and so interesting to his curiosity in the scene which was about
+      to take place, that, instead of prosecuting his more prudent purpose of an
+      instant retreat, he looked anxiously, on the contrary, for some rent or
+      crevice by means of which he might be made eye as well as ear witness to
+      what was to go forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; said he to himself, &ldquo;the Queen, who hath been pleased for an
+      idle frolic to endanger my reputation, and perhaps my life, cannot
+      complain if I avail myself of the chance which fortune seems willing to
+      afford me to obtain knowledge of her further intentions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed, in the meanwhile, as if Edith were waiting for the commands of
+      the Queen, and as if the other were reluctant to speak for fear of being
+      unable to command her laughter and that of her companions; for Sir Kenneth
+      could only distinguish a sound as of suppressed tittering and merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Majesty,&rdquo; said Edith at last, &ldquo;seems in a merry mood, though,
+      methinks, the hour of night prompts a sleepy one. I was well disposed
+      bedward when I had your Majesty's commands to attend you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not long delay you, cousin, from your repose,&rdquo; said the Queen,
+      &ldquo;though I fear you will sleep less soundly when I tell you your wager is
+      lost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, royal madam,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;this, surely, is dwelling on a jest which
+      has rather been worn out, I laid no wager, however it was your Majesty's
+      pleasure to suppose, or to insist, that I did so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, now, despite our pilgrimage, Satan is strong with you, my gentle
+      cousin, and prompts thee to leasing. Can you deny that you gaged your ruby
+      ring against my golden bracelet that yonder Knight of the Libbard, or how
+      call you him, could not be seduced from his post?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Majesty is too great for me to gainsay you,&rdquo; replied Edith, &ldquo;but
+      these ladies can, if they will, bear me witness that it was your Highness
+      who proposed such a wager, and took the ring from my finger, even while I
+      was declaring that I did not think it maidenly to gage anything on such a
+      subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, but, my Lady Edith,&rdquo; said another voice, &ldquo;you must needs grant,
+      under your favour, that you expressed yourself very confident of the
+      valour of that same Knight of the Leopard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I did, minion,&rdquo; said Edith angrily, &ldquo;is that a good reason why
+      thou shouldst put in thy word to flatter her Majesty's humour? I spoke of
+      that knight but as all men speak who have seen him in the field, and had
+      no more interest in defending than thou in detracting from him. In a camp,
+      what can women speak of save soldiers and deeds of arms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The noble Lady Edith,&rdquo; said a third voice, &ldquo;hath never forgiven Calista
+      and me, since we told your Majesty that she dropped two rosebuds in the
+      chapel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your Majesty,&rdquo; said Edith, in a tone which Sir Kenneth could judge to
+      be that of respectful remonstrance, &ldquo;have no other commands for me than to
+      hear the gibes of your waiting-women, I must crave your permission to
+      withdraw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence, Florise,&rdquo; said the Queen, &ldquo;and let not our indulgence lead you
+      to forget the difference betwixt yourself and the kinswoman of England.&mdash;But
+      you, my dear cousin,&rdquo; she continued, resuming her tone of raillery, &ldquo;how
+      can you, who are so good-natured, begrudge us poor wretches a few minutes'
+      laughing, when we have had so many days devoted to weeping and gnashing of
+      teeth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great be your mirth, royal lady,&rdquo; said Edith; &ldquo;yet would I be content not
+      to smile for the rest of my life, rather than&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped, apparently out of respect; but Sir Kenneth could hear that
+      she was in much agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me,&rdquo; said Berengaria, a thoughtless but good-humoured princess of
+      the House of Navarre; &ldquo;but what is the great offence, after all? A young
+      knight has been wiled hither&mdash;has stolen, or has been stolen, from
+      his post, which no one will disturb in his absence&mdash;for the sake of a
+      fair lady; for, to do your champion justice, sweet one, the wisdom of
+      Nectabanus could conjure him hither in no name but yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious Heaven! your Majesty does not say so?&rdquo; said Edith, in a voice of
+      alarm quite different from the agitation she had previously evinced,&mdash;&ldquo;you
+      cannot say so consistently with respect for your own honour and for mine,
+      your husband's kinswoman! Say you were jesting with me, my royal mistress,
+      and forgive me that I could, even for a moment, think it possible you
+      could be in earnest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lady Edith,&rdquo; said the Queen, in a displeased tone of voice, &ldquo;regrets
+      the ring we have won of her. We will restore the pledge to you, gentle
+      cousin; only you must not grudge us in turn a little triumph over the
+      wisdom which has been so often spread over us, as a banner over a host.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A triumph!&rdquo; exclaimed Edith indignantly&mdash;&ldquo;a triumph! The triumph
+      will be with the infidel, when he hears that the Queen of England can make
+      the reputation of her husband's kinswoman the subject of a light frolic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are angry, fair cousin, at losing your favourite ring,&rdquo; said the
+      Queen. &ldquo;Come, since you grudge to pay your wager, we will renounce our
+      right; it was your name and that pledge brought him hither, and we care
+      not for the bait after the fish is caught.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; replied Edith impatiently, &ldquo;you know well that your Grace could
+      not wish for anything of mine but it becomes instantly yours. But I would
+      give a bushel of rubies ere ring or name of mine had been used to bring a
+      brave man into a fault, and perhaps to disgrace and punishment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it is for the safety of our true knight that we fear!&rdquo; said the
+      Queen. &ldquo;You rate our power too low, fair cousin, when you speak of a life
+      being lost for a frolic of ours. O Lady Edith, others have influence on
+      the iron breasts of warriors as well as you&mdash;the heart even of a lion
+      is made of flesh, not of stone; and, believe me, I have interest enough
+      with Richard to save this knight, in whose fate Lady Edith is so deeply
+      concerned, from the penalty of disobeying his royal commands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the love of the blessed Cross, most royal lady,&rdquo; said Edith&mdash;and
+      Sir Kenneth, with feelings which it were hard to unravel, heard her
+      prostrate herself at the Queen's feet&mdash;&ldquo;for the love of our blessed
+      Lady, and of every holy saint in the calendar, beware what you do! You
+      know not King Richard&mdash;you have been but shortly wedded to him. Your
+      breath might as well combat the west wind when it is wildest, as your
+      words persuade my royal kinsman to pardon a military offence. Oh, for
+      God's sake, dismiss this gentleman, if indeed you have lured him hither! I
+      could almost be content to rest with the shame of having invited him, did
+      I know that he was returned again where his duty calls him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arise, cousin, arise,&rdquo; said Queen Berengaria, &ldquo;and be assured all will be
+      better than you think. Rise, dear Edith. I am sorry I have played my
+      foolery with a knight in whom you take such deep interest. Nay, wring not
+      thy hands; I will believe thou carest not for him&mdash;believe anything
+      rather than see thee look so wretchedly miserable. I tell thee I will take
+      the blame on myself with King Richard in behalf of thy fair Northern
+      friend&mdash;thine acquaintance, I would say, since thou own'st him not as
+      a friend. Nay, look not so reproachfully. We will send Nectabanus to
+      dismiss this Knight of the Standard to his post; and we ourselves will
+      grace him on some future day, to make amends for his wild-goose chase. He
+      is, I warrant, but lying perdu in some neighbouring tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my crown of lilies, and my sceptre of a specially good water-reed,&rdquo;
+       said Nectabanus, &ldquo;your Majesty is mistaken, He is nearer at hand than you
+      wot&mdash;he lieth ensconced there behind that canvas partition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And within hearing of each word we have said!&rdquo; exclaimed the Queen, in
+      her turn violently surprised and agitated. &ldquo;Out, monster of folly and
+      malignity!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she uttered these words, Nectabanus fled from the pavilion with a yell
+      of such a nature as leaves it still doubtful whether Berengaria had
+      confined her rebuke to words, or added some more emphatic expression of
+      her displeasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can now be done?&rdquo; said the Queen to Edith, in a whisper of
+      undisguised uneasiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That which must,&rdquo; said Edith firmly. &ldquo;We must see this gentleman and
+      place ourselves in his mercy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she began hastily to undo a curtain, which at one place covered
+      an entrance or communication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Heaven's sake, forbear&mdash;consider,&rdquo; said the Queen&mdash;&ldquo;my
+      apartment&mdash;our dress&mdash;the hour&mdash;my honour!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But ere she could detail her remonstrances, the curtain fell, and there
+      was no division any longer betwixt the armed knight and the party of
+      ladies. The warmth of an Eastern night occasioned the undress of Queen
+      Berengaria and her household to be rather more simple and unstudied than
+      their station, and the presence of a male spectator of rank, required.
+      This the Queen remembered, and with a loud shriek fled from the apartment
+      where Sir Kenneth was disclosed to view in a compartment of the ample
+      pavilion, now no longer separated from that in which they stood. The grief
+      and agitation of the Lady Edith, as well as the deep interest she felt in
+      a hasty explanation with the Scottish knight, perhaps occasioned her
+      forgetting that her locks were more dishevelled and her person less
+      heedfully covered than was the wont of high-born damsels, in an age which
+      was not, after all, the most prudish or scrupulous period of the ancient
+      time. A thin, loose garment of pink-coloured silk made the principal part
+      of her vestments, with Oriental slippers, into which she had hastily
+      thrust her bare feet, and a scarf hurriedly and loosely thrown about her
+      shoulders. Her head had no other covering than the veil of rich and
+      dishevelled locks falling round it on every side, that half hid a
+      countenance which a mingled sense of modesty and of resentment, and other
+      deep and agitated feelings, had covered with crimson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But although Edith felt her situation with all that delicacy which is her
+      sex's greatest charm, it did not seem that for a moment she placed her own
+      bashfulness in comparison with the duty which, as she thought, she owed to
+      him who had been led into error and danger on her account. She drew,
+      indeed, her scarf more closely over her neck and bosom, and she hastily
+      laid from her hand a lamp which shed too much lustre over her figure; but,
+      while Sir Kenneth stood motionless on the same spot in which he was first
+      discovered, she rather stepped towards than retired from him, as she
+      exclaimed, &ldquo;Hasten to your post, valiant knight!&mdash;you are deceived in
+      being trained hither&mdash;ask no questions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I need ask none,&rdquo; said the knight, sinking upon one knee, with the
+      reverential devotion of a saint at the altar, and bending his eyes on the
+      ground, lest his looks should increase the lady's embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard all?&rdquo; said Edith impatiently. &ldquo;Gracious saints! then
+      wherefore wait you here, when each minute that passes is loaded with
+      dishonour!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard that I am dishonoured, lady, and I have heard it from you,&rdquo;
+       answered Kenneth. &ldquo;What reck I how soon punishment follows? I have but one
+      petition to you; and then I seek, among the sabres of the infidels,
+      whether dishonour may not be washed out with blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not so, neither,&rdquo; said the lady. &ldquo;Be wise&mdash;dally not here; all
+      may yet be well, if you will but use dispatch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wait but for your forgiveness,&rdquo; said the knight, still kneeling, &ldquo;for
+      my presumption in believing that my poor services could have been required
+      or valued by you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do forgive you&mdash;oh, I have nothing to forgive! have been the means
+      of injuring you. But oh, begone! I will forgive&mdash;I will value you&mdash;that
+      is, as I value every brave Crusader&mdash;if you will but begone!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Receive, first, this precious yet fatal pledge,&rdquo; said the knight,
+      tendering the ring to Edith, who now showed gestures of impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, no &ldquo; she said, declining to receive it. &ldquo;Keep it&mdash;keep it as
+      a mark of my regard&mdash;my regret, I would say. Oh, begone, if not for
+      your own sake, for mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost recompensed for the loss even of honour, which her voice had
+      denounced to him, by the interest which she seemed to testify in his
+      safety, Sir Kenneth rose from his knee, and, casting a momentary glance on
+      Edith, bowed low, and seemed about to withdraw. At the same instant, that
+      maidenly bashfulness, which the energy of Edith's feelings had till then
+      triumphed over, became conqueror in its turn, and she hastened from the
+      apartment, extinguishing her lamp as she went, and leaving, in Sir
+      Kenneth's thoughts, both mental and natural gloom behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She must be obeyed, was the first distinct idea which waked him from his
+      reverie, and he hastened to the place by which he had entered the
+      pavilion. To pass under the canvas in the manner he had entered required
+      time and attention, and he made a readier aperture by slitting the canvas
+      wall with his poniard. When in the free air, he felt rather stupefied and
+      overpowered by a conflict of sensations, than able to ascertain what was
+      the real import of the whole. He was obliged to spur himself to action by
+      recollecting that the commands of the Lady Edith had required haste. Even
+      then, engaged as he was amongst tent-ropes and tents, he was compelled to
+      move with caution until he should regain the path or avenue, aside from
+      which the dwarf had led him, in order to escape the observation of the
+      guards before the Queen's pavilion; and he was obliged also to move
+      slowly, and with precaution, to avoid giving an alarm, either by falling
+      or by the clashing of his armour. A thin cloud had obscured the moon, too,
+      at the very instant of his leaving the tent, and Sir Kenneth had to
+      struggle with this inconvenience at a moment when the dizziness of his
+      head and the fullness of his heart scarce left him powers of intelligence
+      sufficient to direct his motions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at once sounds came upon his ear which instantly recalled him to the
+      full energy of his faculties. These proceeded from the Mount of Saint
+      George. He heard first a single, fierce, angry, and savage bark, which was
+      immediately followed by a yell of agony. No deer ever bounded with a
+      wilder start at the voice of Roswal than did Sir Kenneth at what he feared
+      was the death-cry of that noble hound, from whom no ordinary injury could
+      have extracted even the slightest acknowledgment of pain. He surmounted
+      the space which divided him from the avenue, and, having attained it,
+      began to run towards the mount, although loaded with his mail, faster than
+      most men could have accompanied him even if unarmed, relaxed not his pace
+      for the steep sides of the artificial mound, and in a few minutes stood on
+      the platform upon its summit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon broke forth at this moment, and showed him that the Standard of
+      England was vanished, that the spear on which it had floated lay broken on
+      the ground, and beside it was his faithful hound, apparently in the
+      agonies of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     All my long arrear of honour lost,
+     Heap'd up in youth, and hoarded up for age.
+     Hath Honour's fountain then suck'd up the stream?
+     He hath&mdash;and hooting boys may barefoot pass,
+     And gather pebbles from the naked ford!
+          DON SEBASTIAN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      After a torrent of afflicting sensations, by which he was at first almost
+      stunned and confounded, Sir Kenneth's first thought was to look for the
+      authors of this violation of the English banner; but in no direction could
+      he see traces of them. His next, which to some persons, but scarce to any
+      who have made intimate acquaintances among the canine race, may appear
+      strange, was to examine the condition of his faithful Roswal, mortally
+      wounded, as it seemed, in discharging the duty which his master had been
+      seduced to abandon. He caressed the dying animal, who, faithful to the
+      last, seemed to forget his own pain in the satisfaction he received from
+      his master's presence, and continued wagging his tail and licking his
+      hand, even while by low moanings he expressed that his agony was increased
+      by the attempts which Sir Kenneth made to withdraw from the wound the
+      fragment of the lance or javelin with which it had been inflicted; then
+      redoubled his feeble endearments, as if fearing he had offended his master
+      by showing a sense of the pain to which his interference had subjected
+      him. There was something in the display of the dying creature's attachment
+      which mixed as a bitter ingredient with the sense of disgrace and
+      desolation by which Sir Kenneth was oppressed. His only friend seemed
+      removed from him, just when he had incurred the contempt and hatred of all
+      besides. The knight's strength of mind gave way to a burst of agonized
+      distress, and he groaned and wept aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he thus indulged his grief, a clear and solemn voice, close beside
+      him, pronounced these words in the sonorous tone of the readers of the
+      mosque, and in the lingua franca mutually understood by Christians and
+      Saracens:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adversity is like the period of the former and of the latter rain&mdash;cold,
+      comfortless, unfriendly to man and to animal; yet from that season have
+      their birth the flower and the fruit, the date, the rose, and the
+      pomegranate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth of the Leopard turned towards the speaker, and beheld the
+      Arabian physician, who, approaching unheard, had seated himself a little
+      behind him cross-legged, and uttered with gravity, yet not without a tone
+      of sympathy, the moral sentences of consolation with which the Koran and
+      its commentators supplied him; for, in the East, wisdom is held to consist
+      less in a display of the sage's own inventive talents, than in his ready
+      memory and happy application of and reference to &ldquo;that which is written.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ashamed at being surprised in a womanlike expression of sorrow, Sir
+      Kenneth dashed his tears indignantly aside, and again busied himself with
+      his dying favourite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poet hath said,&rdquo; continued the Arab, without noticing the knight's
+      averted looks and sullen deportment, &ldquo;the ox for the field, and the camel
+      for the desert. Were not the hand of the leech fitter than that of the
+      soldier to cure wounds, though less able to inflict them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This patient, Hakim, is beyond thy help,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth; &ldquo;and,
+      besides, he is, by thy law, an unclean animal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where Allah hath deigned to bestow life, and a sense of pain and
+      pleasure,&rdquo; said the physician, &ldquo;it were sinful pride should the sage, whom
+      He has enlightened, refuse to prolong existence or assuage agony. To the
+      sage, the cure of a miserable groom, of a poor dog and of a conquering
+      monarch, are events of little distinction. Let me examine this wounded
+      animal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth acceded in silence, and the physician inspected and handled
+      Roswal's wound with as much care and attention as if he had been a human
+      being. He then took forth a case of instruments, and, by the judicious and
+      skilful application of pincers, withdrew from the wounded shoulder the
+      fragment of the weapon, and stopped with styptics and bandages the
+      effusion of blood which followed; the creature all the while suffering him
+      patiently to perform these kind offices, as if he had been aware of his
+      kind intentions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The animal may be cured,&rdquo; said El Hakim, addressing himself to Sir
+      Kenneth, &ldquo;if you will permit me to carry him to my tent, and treat him
+      with the care which the nobleness of his nature deserves. For know, that
+      thy servant Adonbec is no less skilful in the race and pedigree and
+      distinctions of good dogs and of noble steeds than in the diseases which
+      afflict the human race.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take him with you,&rdquo; said the knight. &ldquo;I bestow him on you freely, if he
+      recovers. I owe thee a reward for attendance on my squire, and have
+      nothing else to pay it with. For myself, I will never again wind bugle or
+      halloo to hound!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arabian made no reply, but gave a signal with a clapping of his hands,
+      which was instantly answered by the appearance of two black slaves. He
+      gave them his orders in Arabic, received the answer that &ldquo;to hear was to
+      obey,&rdquo; when, taking the animal in their arms, they removed him, without
+      much resistance on his part; for though his eyes turned to his master, he
+      was too weak to struggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fare thee well, Roswal, then,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth&mdash;&ldquo;fare thee well, my
+      last and only friend&mdash;thou art too noble a possession to be retained
+      by one such as I must in future call myself!&mdash;I would,&rdquo; he said, as
+      the slaves retired, &ldquo;that, dying as he is, I could exchange conditions
+      with that noble animal!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is written,&rdquo; answered the Arabian, although the exclamation had not
+      been addressed to him, &ldquo;that all creatures are fashioned for the service
+      of man; and the master of the earth speaketh folly when he would exchange,
+      in his impatience, his hopes here and to come for the servile condition of
+      an inferior being.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A dog who dies in discharging his duty,&rdquo; said the knight sternly, &ldquo;is
+      better than a man who survives the desertion of it. Leave me, Hakim; thou
+      hast, on this side of miracle, the most wonderful science which man ever
+      possessed, but the wounds of the spirit are beyond thy power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not if the patient will explain his calamity, and be guided by the
+      physician,&rdquo; said Adonbec el Hakim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know, then,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;since thou art so importunate, that last
+      night the Banner of England was displayed from this mound&mdash;I was its
+      appointed guardian&mdash;morning is now breaking&mdash;there lies the
+      broken banner-spear, the standard itself is lost, and here sit I a living
+      man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How!&rdquo; said El Hakim, examining him; &ldquo;thy armour is whole&mdash;there is
+      no blood on thy weapons, and report speaks thee one unlikely to return
+      thus from fight. Thou hast been trained from thy post&mdash;ay, trained by
+      the rosy cheek and black eye of one of those houris, to whom you Nazarenes
+      vow rather such service as is due to Allah, than such love as may lawfully
+      be rendered to forms of clay like our own. It has been thus assuredly; for
+      so hath man ever fallen, even since the days of Sultan Adam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if it were so, physician,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth sullenly, &ldquo;what remedy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowledge is the parent of power,&rdquo; said El Hakim, &ldquo;as valour supplies
+      strength. Listen to me. Man is not as a tree, bound to one spot of earth;
+      nor is he framed to cling to one bare rock, like the scarce animated
+      shell-fish. Thine own Christian writings command thee, when persecuted in
+      one city, to flee to another; and we Moslem also know that Mohammed, the
+      Prophet of Allah, driven forth from the holy city of Mecca, found his
+      refuge and his helpmates at Medina.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what does this concern me?&rdquo; said the Scot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much,&rdquo; answered the physician. &ldquo;Even the sage flies the tempest which he
+      cannot control. Use thy speed, therefore, and fly from the vengeance of
+      Richard to the shadow of Saladin's victorious banner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might indeed hide my dishonour,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth ironically, &ldquo;in a
+      camp of infidel heathens, where the very phrase is unknown. But had I not
+      better partake more fully in their reproach? Does not thy advice stretch
+      so far as to recommend me to take the turban? Methinks I want but apostasy
+      to consummate my infamy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blaspheme not, Nazarene,&rdquo; said the physician sternly. &ldquo;Saladin makes no
+      converts to the law of the Prophet, save those on whom its precepts shall
+      work conviction. Open thine eyes to the light, and the great Soldan, whose
+      liberality is as boundless as his power, may bestow on thee a kingdom;
+      remain blinded if thou will, and, being one whose second life is doomed to
+      misery, Saladin will yet, for this span of present time, make thee rich
+      and happy. But fear not that thy brows shall be bound with the turban,
+      save at thine own free choice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My choice were rather,&rdquo; said the knight, &ldquo;that my writhen features should
+      blacken, as they are like to do, in this evening's setting sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet thou art not wise, Nazarene,&rdquo; said El Hakim, &ldquo;to reject this fair
+      offer; for I have power with Saladin, and can raise thee high in his
+      grace. Look you, my son&mdash;this Crusade, as you call your wild
+      enterprise, is like a large dromond [The largest sort of vessels then
+      known were termed dromond's, or dromedaries.] parting asunder in the
+      waves. Thou thyself hast borne terms of truce from the kings and princes,
+      whose force is here assembled, to the mighty Soldan, and knewest not,
+      perchance, the full tenor of thine own errand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew not, and I care not,&rdquo; said the knight impatiently. &ldquo;What avails it
+      to me that I have been of late the envoy of princes, when, ere night, I
+      shall be a gibbeted and dishonoured corpse?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I speak that it may not be so with thee,&rdquo; said the physician.
+      &ldquo;Saladin is courted on all sides. The combined princes of this league
+      formed against him have made such proposals of composition and peace, as,
+      in other circumstances, it might have become his honour to have granted to
+      them. Others have made private offers, on their own separate account, to
+      disjoin their forces from the camp of the Kings of Frangistan, and even to
+      lend their arms to the defence of the standard of the Prophet. But Saladin
+      will not be served by such treacherous and interested defection. The king
+      of kings will treat only with the Lion King. Saladin will hold treaty with
+      none but the Melech Ric, and with him he will treat like a prince, or
+      fight like a champion. To Richard he will yield such conditions of his
+      free liberality as the swords of all Europe could never compel from him by
+      force or terror. He will permit a free pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and all
+      the places where the Nazarenes list to worship; nay, he will so far share
+      even his empire with his brother Richard, that he will allow Christian
+      garrisons in the six strongest cities of Palestine, and one in Jerusalem
+      itself, and suffer them to be under the immediate command of the officers
+      of Richard, who, he consents, shall bear the name of King Guardian of
+      Jerusalem. Yet further, strange and incredible as you may think it, know,
+      Sir Knight&mdash;for to your honour I can commit even that almost
+      incredible secret&mdash;know that Saladin will put a sacred seal on this
+      happy union betwixt the bravest and noblest of Frangistan and Asia, by
+      raising to the rank of his royal spouse a Christian damsel, allied in
+      blood to King Richard, and known by the name of the Lady Edith of
+      Plantagenet.&rdquo; [This may appear so extraordinary and improbable a
+      proposition that it is necessary to say such a one was actually made. The
+      historians, however, substitute the widowed Queen of Naples, sister of
+      Richard, for the bride, and Saladin's brother for the bridegroom. They
+      appear to have been ignorant of the existence of Edith of Plantagenet.&mdash;See
+      MILL'S History of the Crusades, vol. ii., p. 61.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha!&mdash;sayest thou?&rdquo; exclaimed Sir Kenneth, who, listening with
+      indifference and apathy to the preceding part of El Hakim's speech, was
+      touched by this last communication, as the thrill of a nerve, unexpectedly
+      jarred, will awaken the sensation of agony, even in the torpor of palsy.
+      Then, moderating his tone, by dint of much effort he restrained his
+      indignation, and, veiling it under the appearance of contemptuous doubt,
+      he prosecuted the conversation, in order to get as much knowledge as
+      possible of the plot, as he deemed it, against the honour and happiness of
+      her whom he loved not the less that his passion had ruined, apparently,
+      his fortunes, at once, and his honour.&mdash;&ldquo;And what Christian,&rdquo; he
+      said, With tolerable calmness, &ldquo;would sanction a union so unnatural as
+      that of a Christian maiden with an unbelieving Saracen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art but an ignorant, bigoted Nazarene,&rdquo; said the Hakim. &ldquo;Seest thou
+      not how the Mohammedan princes daily intermarry with the noble Nazarene
+      maidens in Spain, without scandal either to Moor or Christian? And the
+      noble Soldan will, in his full confidence in the blood of Richard, permit
+      the English maid the freedom which your Frankish manners have assigned to
+      women. He will allow her the free exercise of her religion, seeing that,
+      in very truth, it signifies but little to which faith females are
+      addicted; and he will assign her such place and rank over all the women of
+      his zenana, that she shall be in every respect his sole and absolute
+      queen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;darest thou think, Moslem, that Richard would
+      give his kinswoman&mdash;a high-born and virtuous princess&mdash;to be, at
+      best, the foremost concubine in the haram of a misbeliever? Know, Hakim,
+      the meanest free Christian noble would scorn, on his child's behalf, such
+      splendid ignominy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0236m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0236m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0236.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou errest,&rdquo; said the Hakim. &ldquo;Philip of France, and Henry of Champagne,
+      and others of Richard's principal allies, have heard the proposal without
+      starting, and have promised, as far as they may, to forward an alliance
+      that may end these wasteful wars; and the wise arch-priest of Tyre hath
+      undertaken to break the proposal to Richard, not doubting that he shall be
+      able to bring the plan to good issue. The Soldan's wisdom hath as yet kept
+      his proposition secret from others, such as he of Montserrat, and the
+      Master of the Templars, because he knows they seek to thrive by Richard's
+      death or disgrace, not by his life or honour. Up, therefore, Sir Knight,
+      and to horse. I will give thee a scroll which shall advance thee highly
+      with the Soldan; and deem not that you are leaving your country, or her
+      cause, or her religion, since the interest of the two monarchs will
+      speedily be the same. To Saladin thy counsel will be most acceptable,
+      since thou canst make him aware of much concerning the marriages of the
+      Christians, the treatment of their wives, and other points of their laws
+      and usages, which, in the course of such treaty, it much concerns him that
+      he should know. The right hand of the Soldan grasps the treasures of the
+      East, and it is the fountain or generosity. Or, if thou desirest it,
+      Saladin, when allied with England, can have but little difficulty to
+      obtain from Richard, not only thy pardon and restoration to favour, but an
+      honourable command in the troops which may be left of the King of
+      England's host, to maintain their joint government in Palestine. Up, then,
+      and mount&mdash;there lies a plain path before thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hakim,&rdquo; said the Scottish knight, &ldquo;thou art a man of peace; also thou
+      hast saved the life of Richard of England&mdash;and, moreover, of my own
+      poor esquire, Strauchan. I have, therefore, heard to an end a matter
+      which, being propounded by another Moslem than thyself, I would have cut
+      short with a blow of my dagger! Hakim, in return for thy kindness, I
+      advise thee to see that the Saracen who shall propose to Richard a union
+      betwixt the blood of Plantagenet and that of his accursed race do put on a
+      helmet which is capable to endure such a blow of a battle-axe as that
+      which struck down the gate of Acre. Certes, he will be otherwise placed
+      beyond the reach even of thy skill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art, then, wilfully determined not to fly to the Saracen host?&rdquo; said
+      the physician. &ldquo;Yet, remember, thou stayest to certain destruction; and
+      the writings of thy law, as well as ours, prohibit man from breaking into
+      the tabernacle of his own life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid!&rdquo; replied the Scot, crossing himself; &ldquo;but we are also
+      forbidden to avoid the punishment which our crimes have deserved. And
+      since so poor are thy thoughts of fidelity, Hakim, it grudges me that I
+      have bestowed my good hound on thee, for, should he live, he will have a
+      master ignorant of his value.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A gift that is begrudged is already recalled,&rdquo; said El Hakim; &ldquo;only we
+      physicians are sworn not to send away a patient uncured. If the dog
+      recover, he is once more yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to, Hakim,&rdquo; answered Sir Kenneth; &ldquo;men speak not of hawk and hound
+      when there is but an hour of day-breaking betwixt them and death. Leave me
+      to recollect my sins, and reconcile myself to Heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I leave thee in thine obstinacy,&rdquo; said the physician; &ldquo;the mist hides the
+      precipice from those who are doomed to fall over it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He withdrew slowly, turning from time to time his head, as if to observe
+      whether the devoted knight might not recall him either by word or signal.
+      At last his turbaned figure was lost among the labyrinth of tents which
+      lay extended beneath, whitening in the pale light of the dawning, before
+      which the moonbeam had now faded away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But although the physician Adonbec's words had not made that impression
+      upon Kenneth which the sage desired, they had inspired the Scot with a
+      motive for desiring life, which, dishonoured as he conceived himself to
+      be, he was before willing to part from as from a sullied vestment no
+      longer becoming his wear. Much that had passed betwixt himself and the
+      hermit, besides what he had observed between the anchorite and Sheerkohf
+      (or Ilderim), he now recalled to recollection, and tended to confirm what
+      the Hakim had told him of the secret article of the treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reverend impostor!&rdquo; he exclaimed to himself; &ldquo;the hoary hypocrite! He
+      spoke of the unbelieving husband converted by the believing wife; and what
+      do I know but that the traitor exhibited to the Saracen, accursed of God,
+      the beauties of Edith Plantagenet, that the hound might judge if the
+      princely Christian lady were fit to be admitted into the haram of a
+      misbeliever? If I had yonder infidel Ilderim, or whatsoever he is called,
+      again in the gripe with which I once held him fast as ever hound held
+      hare, never again should HE at least come on errand disgraceful to the
+      honour of Christian king or noble and virtuous maiden. But I&mdash;my
+      hours are fast dwindling into minutes&mdash;yet, while I have life and
+      breath, something must be done, and speedily.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused for a few minutes, threw from him his helmet, then strode down
+      the hill, and took the road to King Richard's pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The feather'd songster, chanticleer,
+     Had wound his bugle-horn,
+     And told the early villager
+     The coming of the morn.
+     King Edward saw the ruddy streaks
+     Of light eclipse the grey,
+     And heard the raven's croaking throat
+     Proclaim the fated day.
+     &ldquo;Thou'rt right,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;for, by the God
+     That sits enthron'd on high,
+     Charles Baldwin, and his fellows twain,
+     This day shall surely die.&rdquo;
+                    CHATTERTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the evening on which Sir Kenneth assumed his post, Richard, after the
+      stormy event which disturbed its tranquillity, had retired to rest in the
+      plenitude of confidence inspired by his unbounded courage and the
+      superiority which he had displayed in carrying the point he aimed at in
+      presence of the whole Christian host and its leaders, many of whom, he was
+      aware, regarded in their secret souls the disgrace of the Austrian Duke as
+      a triumph over themselves; so that his pride felt gratified, that in
+      prostrating one enemy he had mortified a hundred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another monarch would have doubled his guards on the evening after such a
+      scene, and kept at least a part of his troops under arms. But Coeur de
+      Lion dismissed, upon the occasion, even his ordinary watch, and assigned
+      to his soldiers a donative of wine to celebrate his recovery, and to drink
+      to the Banner of Saint George; and his quarter of the camp would have
+      assumed a character totally devoid of vigilance and military preparation,
+      but that Sir Thomas de Vaux, the Earl of Salisbury, and other nobles, took
+      precautions to preserve order and discipline among the revellers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician attended the King from his retiring to bed till midnight was
+      past, and twice administered medicine to him during that period, always
+      previously observing the quarter of heaven occupied by the full moon,
+      whose influences he declared to be most sovereign, or most baleful, to the
+      effect of his drugs. It was three hours after midnight ere El Hakim
+      withdrew from the royal tent, to one which had been pitched for himself
+      and his retinue. In his way thither he visited the tent of Sir Kenneth of
+      the Leopard, in order to see the condition of his first patient in the
+      Christian camp, old Strauchan, as the knight's esquire was named.
+      Inquiring there for Sir Kenneth himself, El Hakim learned on what duty he
+      was employed, and probably this information led him to Saint George's
+      Mount, where he found him whom he sought in the disastrous circumstances
+      alluded to in the last chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was about the hour of sunrise, when a slow, armed tread was heard
+      approaching the King's pavilion; and ere De Vaux, who slumbered beside his
+      master's bed as lightly as ever sleep sat upon the eyes of a watch-dog,
+      had time to do more than arise and say, &ldquo;Who comes?&rdquo; the Knight of the
+      Leopard entered the tent, with a deep and devoted gloom seated upon his
+      manly features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whence this bold intrusion, Sir Knight?&rdquo; said De Vaux sternly, yet in a
+      tone which respected his master's slumbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold! De Vaux,&rdquo; said Richard, awaking on the instant; &ldquo;Sir Kenneth cometh
+      like a good soldier to render an account of his guard. To such the
+      general's tent is ever accessible.&rdquo; Then rising from his slumbering
+      posture, and leaning on his elbow, he fixed his large bright eye upon the
+      warrior&mdash;&ldquo;Speak, Sir Scot; thou comest to tell me of a vigilant,
+      safe, and honourable watch, dost thou not? The rustling of the folds of
+      the Banner of England were enough to guard it, even without the body of
+      such a knight as men hold thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As men will hold me no more,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth. &ldquo;My watch hath neither
+      been vigilant, safe, nor honourable. The Banner of England has been
+      carried off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou alive to tell it!&rdquo; said Richard, in a tone of derisive
+      incredulity. &ldquo;Away, it cannot be. There is not even a scratch on thy face.
+      Why dost thou stand thus mute? Speak the truth&mdash;it is ill jesting
+      with a king; yet I will forgive thee if thou hast lied.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lied, Sir King!&rdquo; returned the unfortunate knight, with fierce emphasis,
+      and one glance of fire from his eye, bright and transient as the flash
+      from the cold and stony flint. &ldquo;But this also must be endured. I have
+      spoken the truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By God and by Saint George!&rdquo; said the King, bursting into fury, which,
+      however, he instantly checked. &ldquo;De Vaux, go view the spot. This fever has
+      disturbed his brain. This cannot be. The man's courage is proof. It CANNOT
+      be! Go speedily&mdash;or send, if thou wilt not go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King was interrupted by Sir Henry Neville, who came, breathless, to
+      say that the banner was gone, and the knight who guarded it overpowered,
+      and most probably murdered, as there was a pool of blood where the
+      banner-spear lay shivered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But whom do I see here?&rdquo; said Neville, his eyes suddenly resting upon Sir
+      Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A traitor,&rdquo; said the King, starting to his feet, and seizing the
+      curtal-axe, which was ever near his bed&mdash;&ldquo;a traitor! whom thou shalt
+      see die a traitor's death.&rdquo; And he drew back the weapon as in act to
+      strike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colourless, but firm as a marble statue, the Scot stood before him, with
+      his bare head uncovered by any protection, his eyes cast down to the
+      earth, his lips scarcely moving, yet muttering probably in prayer.
+      Opposite to him, and within the due reach for a blow, stood King Richard,
+      his large person wrapt in the folds of his camiscia, or ample gown of
+      linen, except where the violence of his action had flung the covering from
+      his right arm, shoulder, and a part of his breast, leaving to view a
+      specimen of a frame which might have merited his Saxon predecessor's
+      epithet of Ironside. He stood for an instant, prompt to strike; then
+      sinking the head of the weapon towards the ground, he exclaimed, &ldquo;But
+      there was blood, Neville&mdash;there was blood upon the place. Hark thee,
+      Sir Scot&mdash;brave thou wert once, for I have seen thee fight. Say thou
+      hast slain two of the thieves in defence of the Standard&mdash;say but one&mdash;say
+      thou hast struck but a good blow in our behalf, and get thee out of the
+      camp with thy life and thy infamy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have called me liar, my Lord King,&rdquo; replied Kenneth firmly; &ldquo;and
+      therein, at least, you have done me wrong. Know that there was no blood
+      shed in defence of the Standard save that of a poor hound, which, more
+      faithful than his master, defended the charge which he deserted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by Saint George!&rdquo; said Richard, again heaving up his arm. But De
+      Vaux threw himself between the King and the object of his vengeance, and
+      spoke with the blunt truth of his character, &ldquo;My liege, this must not be&mdash;here,
+      nor by your hand. It is enough of folly for one night and day to have
+      entrusted your banner to a Scot. Said I not they were ever fair and
+      false?&rdquo; [Such were the terms in which the English used to speak of their
+      poor northern neighbours, forgetting that their own encroachments upon the
+      independence of Scotland obliged the weaker nation to defend themselves by
+      policy as well as force. The disgrace must be divided between Edward I.
+      and Edward III., who enforced their domination over a free country, and
+      the Scots, who were compelled to take compulsory oaths, without any
+      purpose of keeping them.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou didst, De Vaux; thou wast right, and I confess it,&rdquo; said Richard. &ldquo;I
+      should have known him better&mdash;I should have remembered how the fox
+      William deceived me touching this Crusade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;William of Scotland never deceived; but
+      circumstances prevented his bringing his forces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, shameless!&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;thou sulliest the name of a prince,
+      even by speaking it.&mdash;And yet, De Vaux, it is strange,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;to
+      see the bearing of the man. Coward or traitor he must be, yet he abode the
+      blow of Richard Plantagenet as our arm had been raised to lay knighthood
+      on his shoulder. Had he shown the slightest sign of fear, had but a joint
+      trembled or an eyelid quivered, I had shattered his head like a crystal
+      goblet. But I cannot strike where there is neither fear nor resistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said Kenneth&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; replied Richard, interrupting him, &ldquo;hast thou found thy speech? Ask
+      grace from Heaven, but none from me; for England is dishonoured through
+      thy fault, and wert thou mine own and only brother, there is no pardon for
+      thy fault.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I speak not to demand grace of mortal man,&rdquo; said the Scot; &ldquo;it is in your
+      Grace's pleasure to give or refuse me time for Christian shrift&mdash;if
+      man denies it, may God grant me the absolution which I would otherwise ask
+      of His church! But whether I die on the instant, or half an hour hence, I
+      equally beseech your Grace for one moment's opportunity to speak that to
+      your royal person which highly concerns your fame as a Christian king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say on,&rdquo; said the King, making no doubt that he was about to hear some
+      confession concerning the loss of the Banner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I have to speak,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;touches the royalty of England,
+      and must be said to no ears but thine own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begone with yourselves, sirs,&rdquo; said the King to Neville and De Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first obeyed, but the latter would not stir from the King's presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you said I was in the right,&rdquo; replied De Vaux to his sovereign, &ldquo;I
+      will be treated as one should be who hath been found to be right&mdash;that
+      is, I will have my own will. I leave you not with this false Scot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How! De Vaux,&rdquo; said Richard angrily, and stamping slightly, &ldquo;darest thou
+      not venture our person with one traitor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is in vain you frown and stamp, my lord,&rdquo; said De Vaux; &ldquo;I venture not
+      a sick man with a sound one, a naked man with one armed in proof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It matters not,&rdquo; said the Scottish knight; &ldquo;I seek no excuse to put off
+      time. I will speak in presence of the Lord of Gilsland. He is good lord
+      and true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But half an hour since,&rdquo; said De Vaux, with a groan, implying a mixture
+      of sorrow and vexation, &ldquo;and I had said as much for thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is treason around you, King of England,&rdquo; continued Sir Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may well be as thou sayest,&rdquo; replied Richard; &ldquo;I have a pregnant
+      example.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Treason that will injure thee more deeply than the loss of a hundred
+      banners in a pitched field. The&mdash;the&mdash;&rdquo; Sir Kenneth hesitated,
+      and at length continued, in a lower tone, &ldquo;The Lady Edith&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; said the King, drawing himself suddenly into a state of haughty
+      attention, and fixing his eye firmly on the supposed criminal; &ldquo;what of
+      her? what of her? What has she to do with this matter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said the Scot, &ldquo;there is a scheme on foot to disgrace your
+      royal lineage, by bestowing the hand of the Lady Edith on the Saracen
+      Soldan, and thereby to purchase a peace most dishonourable to Christendom,
+      by an alliance most shameful to England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This communication had precisely the contrary effect from that which Sir
+      Kenneth expected. Richard Plantagenet was one of those who, in Iago's
+      words, would not serve God because it was the devil who bade him; advice
+      or information often affected him less according to its real import, than
+      through the tinge which it took from the supposed character and views of
+      those by whom it was communicated. Unfortunately, the mention of his
+      relative's name renewed his recollection of what he had considered as
+      extreme presumption in the Knight of the Leopard, even when he stood high
+      in the roll of chivalry, but which, in his present condition, appeared an
+      insult sufficient to drive the fiery monarch into a frenzy of passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;infamous and audacious! By Heaven, I will have thy
+      tongue torn out with hot pincers, for mentioning the very name of a noble
+      Christian damsel! Know, degenerate traitor, that I was already aware to
+      what height thou hadst dared to raise thine eyes, and endured it, though
+      it were insolence, even when thou hadst cheated us&mdash;for thou art all
+      a deceit&mdash;into holding thee as of some name and fame. But now, with
+      lips blistered with the confession of thine own dishonour&mdash;that thou
+      shouldst NOW dare to name our noble kinswoman as one in whose fate thou
+      hast part or interest! What is it to thee if she marry Saracen or
+      Christian? What is it to thee if, in a camp where princes turn cowards by
+      day and robbers by night&mdash;where brave knights turn to paltry
+      deserters and traitors&mdash;what is it, I say, to thee, or any one, if I
+      should please to ally myself to truth and to valour, in the person of
+      Saladin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little to me, indeed, to whom all the world will soon be as nothing,&rdquo;
+       answered Sir Kenneth boldly; &ldquo;but were I now stretched on the rack, I
+      would tell thee that what I have said is much to thine own conscience and
+      thine own fame. I tell thee, Sir King, that if thou dost but in thought
+      entertain the purpose of wedding thy kinswoman, the Lady Edith&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name her not&mdash;and for an instant think not of her,&rdquo; said the King,
+      again straining the curtal-axe in his gripe, until the muscles started
+      above his brawny arm, like cordage formed by the ivy around the limb of an
+      oak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not name&mdash;not think of her!&rdquo; answered Sir Kenneth, his spirits,
+      stunned as they were by self-depression, beginning to recover their
+      elasticity from this species of controversy. &ldquo;Now, by the Cross, on which
+      I place my hope, her name shall be the last word in my mouth, her image
+      the last thought in my mind. Try thy boasted strength on this bare brow,
+      and see if thou canst prevent my purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will drive me mad!&rdquo; said Richard, who, in his despite, was once more
+      staggered in his purpose by the dauntless determination of the criminal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere Thomas of Gilsland could reply, some bustle was heard without, and the
+      arrival of the Queen was announced from the outer part of the pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Detain her&mdash;detain her, Neville,&rdquo; cried the King; &ldquo;this is no sight
+      for women.&mdash;Fie, that I have suffered such a paltry traitor to chafe
+      me thus!&mdash;Away with him, De Vaux,&rdquo; he whispered, &ldquo;through the back
+      entrance of our tent; coop him up close, and answer for his safe custody
+      with your life. And hark ye&mdash;he is presently to die&mdash;let him
+      have a ghostly father&mdash;we would not kill soul and body. And stay&mdash;hark
+      thee&mdash;we will not have him dishonoured&mdash;he shall die knightlike,
+      in his belt and spurs; for if his treachery be as black as hell, his
+      boldness may match that of the devil himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux, right glad, if the truth may be guessed, that the scene ended
+      without Richard's descending to the unkingly act of himself slaying an
+      unresisting prisoner, made haste to remove Sir Kenneth by a private issue
+      to a separate tent, where he was disarmed, and put in fetters for
+      security. De Vaux looked on with a steady and melancholy attention, while
+      the provost's officers, to whom Sir Kenneth was now committed, took these
+      severe precautions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were ended, he said solemnly to the unhappy criminal, &ldquo;It is
+      King Richard's pleasure that you die undegraded&mdash;without mutilation
+      of your body, or shame to your arms&mdash;and that your head be severed
+      from the trunk by the sword of the executioner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is kind,&rdquo; said the knight, in a low and rather submissive tone of
+      voice, as one who received an unexpected favour; &ldquo;my family will not then
+      hear the worst of the tale. Oh, my father&mdash;my father!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This muttered invocation did not escape the blunt but kindly-natured
+      Englishman, and he brushed the back of his large hand over his rough
+      features ere he could proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Richard of England's further pleasure,&rdquo; he said at length, &ldquo;that
+      you have speech with a holy man; and I have met on the passage hither with
+      a Carmelite friar, who may fit you for your passage. He waits without,
+      until you are in a frame of mind to receive him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be instantly,&rdquo; said the knight. &ldquo;In this also Richard is kind. I
+      cannot be more fit to see the good father at any time than now; for life
+      and I have taken farewell, as two travellers who have arrived at the
+      crossway, where their roads separate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; said De Vaux slowly and solemnly; &ldquo;for it irks me somewhat
+      to say that which sums my message. It is King Richard's pleasure that you
+      prepare for instant death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God's pleasure and the King's be done,&rdquo; replied the knight patiently. &ldquo;I
+      neither contest the justice of the sentence, nor desire delay of the
+      execution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux began to leave the tent, but very slowly&mdash;paused at the door,
+      and looked back at the Scot, from whose aspect thoughts of the world
+      seemed banished, as if he was composing himself into deep devotion. The
+      feelings of the stout English baron were in general none of the most
+      acute, and yet, on the present occasion, his sympathy overpowered him in
+      an unusual manner. He came hastily back to the bundle of reeds on which
+      the captive lay, took one of his fettered hands, and said, with as much
+      softness as his rough voice was capable of expressing, &ldquo;Sir Kenneth, thou
+      art yet young&mdash;thou hast a father. My Ralph, whom I left training his
+      little galloway nag on the banks of the Irthing, may one day attain thy
+      years, and, but for last night, would to God I saw his youth bear such
+      promise as thine! Can nothing be said or done in thy behalf?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; was the melancholy answer. &ldquo;I have deserted my charge&mdash;the
+      banner entrusted to me is lost. When the headsman and block are prepared,
+      the head and trunk are ready to part company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, then, God have mercy!&rdquo; said De Vaux. &ldquo;Yet would I rather than my
+      best horse I had taken that watch myself. There is mystery in it, young
+      man, as a plain man may descry, though he cannot see through it.
+      Cowardice? Pshaw! No coward ever fought as I have seen thee do. Treachery?
+      I cannot think traitors die in their treason so calmly. Thou hast been
+      trained from thy post by some deep guile&mdash;some well-devised stratagem&mdash;the
+      cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look
+      of some merry one has taken thine eye. Never blush for it; we have all
+      been led aside by such gear. Come, I pray thee, make a clean conscience of
+      it to me, instead of the priest. Richard is merciful when his mood is
+      abated. Hast thou nothing to entrust to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate knight turned his face from the kind warrior, and
+      answered, &ldquo;NOTHING.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And De Vaux, who had exhausted his topics of persuasion, arose and left
+      the tent, with folded arms, and in melancholy deeper than he thought the
+      occasion merited&mdash;even angry with himself to find that so simple a
+      matter as the death of a Scottish man could affect him so nearly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet,&rdquo; as he said to himself, &ldquo;though the rough-footed knaves be our
+      enemies in Cumberland, in Palestine one almost considers them as
+      brethren.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Tis not her sense, for sure in that
+     There's nothing more than common;
+     And all her wit is only chat,
+     Like any other woman.
+        SONG.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The high-born Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre, and the
+      Queen-Consort of the heroic Richard, was accounted one of the most
+      beautiful women of the period. Her form was slight, though exquisitely
+      moulded. She was graced with a complexion not common in her country, a
+      profusion of fair hair, and features so extremely juvenile as to make her
+      look several years younger than she really was, though in reality she was
+      not above one-and-twenty. Perhaps it was under the consciousness of this
+      extremely juvenile appearance that she affected, or at least practised, a
+      little childish petulance and wilfulness of manner, not unbefitting, she
+      might suppose, a youthful bride, whose rank and age gave her a right to
+      have her fantasies indulged and attended to. She was by nature perfectly
+      good-humoured, and if her due share of admiration and homage (in her
+      opinion a very large one) was duly resigned to her, no one could possess
+      better temper or a more friendly disposition; but then, like all despots,
+      the more power that was voluntarily yielded to her, the more she desired
+      to extend her sway. Sometimes, even when all her ambition was gratified,
+      she chose to be a little out of health, and a little out of spirits; and
+      physicians had to toil their wits to invent names for imaginary maladies,
+      while her ladies racked their imagination for new games, new head-gear,
+      and new court-scandal, to pass away those unpleasant hours, during which
+      their own situation was scarce to be greatly envied. Their most frequent
+      resource for diverting this malady was some trick or piece of mischief
+      practised upon each other; and the good Queen, in the buoyancy of her
+      reviving spirits, was, to speak truth, rather too indifferent whether the
+      frolics thus practised were entirely befitting her own dignity, or whether
+      the pain which those suffered upon whom they were inflicted was not beyond
+      the proportion of pleasure which she herself derived from them. She was
+      confident in her husband's favour, in her high rank, and in her supposed
+      power to make good whatever such pranks might cost others. In a word, she
+      gambolled with the freedom of a young lioness, who is unconscious of the
+      weight of her own paws when laid on those whom she sports with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen Berengaria loved her husband passionately, but she feared the
+      loftiness and roughness of his character; and as she felt herself not to
+      be his match in intellect, was not much pleased to see that he would often
+      talk with Edith Plantagenet in preference to herself, simply because he
+      found more amusement in her conversation, a more comprehensive
+      understanding, and a more noble cast of thoughts and sentiments, than his
+      beautiful consort exhibited. Berengaria did not hate Edith on this
+      account, far less meditate her any harm; for, allowing for some
+      selfishness, her character was, on the whole, innocent and generous. But
+      the ladies of her train, sharpsighted in such matters, had for some time
+      discovered that a poignant jest at the expense of the Lady Edith was a
+      specific for relieving her Grace of England's low spirits, and the
+      discovery saved their imagination much toil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something ungenerous in this, because the Lady Edith was
+      understood to be an orphan; and though she was called Plantagenet, and the
+      fair Maid of Anjou, and admitted by Richard to certain privileges only
+      granted to the royal family, and held her place in the circle accordingly,
+      yet few knew, and none acquainted with the Court of England ventured to
+      ask, in what exact degree of relationship she stood to Coeur de Lion. She
+      had come with Eleanor, the celebrated Queen Mother of England, and joined
+      Richard at Messina, as one of the ladies destined to attend on Berengaria,
+      whose nuptials then approached. Richard treated his kinswoman with much
+      respectful observance, and the Queen made her her most constant attendant,
+      and, even in despite of the petty jealousy which we have observed, treated
+      her, generally, with suitable respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies of the household had, for a long time, no further advantage
+      over Edith than might be afforded by an opportunity of censuring a less
+      artfully disposed head attire or an unbecoming robe; for the lady was
+      judged to be inferior in these mysteries. The silent devotion of the
+      Scottish knight did not, indeed, pass unnoticed; his liveries, his
+      cognizances, his feats of arms, his mottoes and devices, were nearly
+      watched, and occasionally made the subject of a passing jest. But then
+      came the pilgrimage of the Queen and her ladies to Engaddi, a journey
+      which the Queen had undertaken under a vow for the recovery of her
+      husband's health, and which she had been encouraged to carry into effect
+      by the Archbishop of Tyre for a political purpose. It was then, and in the
+      chapel at that holy place, connected from above with a Carmelite nunnery,
+      from beneath with the cell of the anchorite, that one of the Queen's
+      attendants remarked that secret sign of intelligence which Edith had made
+      to her lover, and failed not instantly to communicate it to her Majesty.
+      The Queen returned from her pilgrimage enriched with this admirable recipe
+      against dullness or ennui; and her train was at the same time augmented by
+      a present of two wretched dwarfs from the dethroned Queen of Jerusalem, as
+      deformed and as crazy (the excellence of that unhappy species) as any
+      Queen could have desired. One of Berengaria's idle amusements had been to
+      try the effect of the sudden appearance of such ghastly and fantastic
+      forms on the nerves of the Knight when left alone in the chapel; but the
+      jest had been lost by the composure of the Scot and the interference of
+      the anchorite. She had now tried another, of which the consequences
+      promised to be more serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies again met after Sir Kenneth had retired from the tent, and the
+      Queen, at first little moved by Edith's angry expostulations, only replied
+      to her by upbraiding her prudery, and by indulging her wit at the expense
+      of the garb, nation, and, above all the poverty of the Knight of the
+      Leopard, in which she displayed a good deal of playful malice, mingled
+      with some humour, until Edith was compelled to carry her anxiety to her
+      separate apartment. But when, in the morning, a female whom Edith had
+      entrusted to make inquiry brought word that the Standard was missing, and
+      its champion vanished, she burst into the Queen's apartment, and implored
+      her to rise and proceed to the King's tent without delay, and use her
+      powerful mediation to prevent the evil consequences of her jest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, frightened in her turn, cast, as is usual, the blame of her own
+      folly on those around her, and endeavoured to comfort Edith's grief, and
+      appease her displeasure, by a thousand inconsistent arguments. She was
+      sure no harm had chanced&mdash;the knight was sleeping, she fancied, after
+      his night-watch. What though, for fear of the King's displeasure, he had
+      deserted with the Standard&mdash;it was but a piece of silk, and he but a
+      needy adventurer; or if he was put under warding for a time, she would
+      soon get the King to pardon him&mdash;it was but waiting to let Richard's
+      mood pass away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus she continued talking thick and fast, and heaping together all sorts
+      of inconsistencies, with the vain expectation of persuading both Edith and
+      herself that no harm could come of a frolic which in her heart she now
+      bitterly repented. But while Edith in vain strove to intercept this
+      torrent of idle talk, she caught the eye of one of the ladies who entered
+      the Queen's apartment. There was death in her look of affright and horror,
+      and Edith, at the first glance of her countenance, had sunk at once on the
+      earth, had not strong necessity and her own elevation of character enabled
+      her to maintain at least external composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; she said to the Queen, &ldquo;lose not another word in speaking, but
+      save life&mdash;if, indeed,&rdquo; she added, her voice choking as she said it,
+      &ldquo;life may yet be saved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may, it may,&rdquo; answered the Lady Calista. &ldquo;I have just heard that he
+      has been brought before the King. It is not yet over&mdash;but,&rdquo; she
+      added, bursting into a vehement flood of weeping, in which personal
+      apprehensions had some share, &ldquo;it will soon, unless some course be taken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will vow a golden candlestick to the Holy Sepulchre, a shrine of silver
+      to our Lady of Engaddi, a pall, worth one hundred byzants, to Saint Thomas
+      of Orthez,&rdquo; said the Queen in extremity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up, up, madam!&rdquo; said Edith; &ldquo;call on the saints if you list, but be your
+      own best saint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, madam,&rdquo; said the terrified attendant, &ldquo;the Lady Edith speaks
+      truth. Up, madam, and let us to King Richard's tent and beg the poor
+      gentleman's life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go&mdash;I will go instantly,&rdquo; said the Queen, rising and
+      trembling excessively; while her women, in as great confusion as herself,
+      were unable to render her those duties which were indispensable to her
+      levee. Calm, composed, only pale as death, Edith ministered to the Queen
+      with her own hand, and alone supplied the deficiencies of her numerous
+      attendants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you wait, wenches!&rdquo; said the Queen, not able even then to forget
+      frivolous distinctions. &ldquo;Suffer ye the Lady Edith to do the duties of your
+      attendance? Seest thou, Edith, they can do nothing; I shall never be
+      attired in time. We will send for the Archbishop of Tyre, and employ him
+      as a mediator.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, no!&rdquo; exclaimed Edith. &ldquo;Go yourself madam; you have done the evil,
+      do you confer the remedy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go&mdash;I will go,&rdquo; said the Queen; &ldquo;but if Richard be in his
+      mood, I dare not speak to him&mdash;he will kill me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet go, gracious madam,&rdquo; said the Lady Calista, who best knew her
+      mistress's temper; &ldquo;not a lion, in his fury, could look upon such a face
+      and form, and retain so much as an angry thought, far less a love-true
+      knight like the royal Richard, to whom your slightest word would be a
+      command.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dost thou think so, Calista?&rdquo; said the Queen. &ldquo;Ah, thou little knowest
+      yet I will go. But see you here, what means this? You have bedizened me in
+      green, a colour he detests. Lo you! let me have a blue robe, and&mdash;search
+      for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of Cyprus's ransom; it
+      is either in the steel casket, or somewhere else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, and a man's life at stake!&rdquo; said Edith indignantly; &ldquo;it passes
+      human patience. Remain at your ease, madam; I will go to King Richard. I
+      am a party interested. I will know if the honour of a poor maiden of his
+      blood is to be so far tampered with that her name shall be abused to train
+      a brave gentleman from his duty, bring him within the compass of death and
+      infamy, and make, at the same time, the glory of England a laughing-stock
+      to the whole Christian army.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this unexpected burst of passion, Berengaria listened with an almost
+      stupefied look of fear and wonder. But as Edith was about to leave the
+      tent, she exclaimed, though faintly, &ldquo;Stop her, stop her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must indeed stop, noble Lady Edith,&rdquo; said Calista, taking her arm
+      gently; &ldquo;and you, royal madam, I am sure, will go, and without further
+      dallying. If the Lady Edith goes alone to the King, he will be dreadfully
+      incensed, nor will it be one life that will stay his fury.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go&mdash;I will go,&rdquo; said the Queen, yielding to necessity; and
+      Edith reluctantly halted to wait her movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were now as speedy as she could have desired. The Queen hastily
+      wrapped herself in a large loose mantle, which covered all inaccuracies of
+      the toilet. In this guise, attended by Edith and her women, and preceded
+      and followed by a few officers and men-at-arms, she hastened to the tent
+      of her lionlike husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Were every hair upon his head a life,
+     And every life were to be supplicated
+     By numbers equal to those hairs quadrupled,
+     Life after life should out like waning stars
+     Before the daybreak&mdash;or as festive lamps,
+     Which have lent lustre to the midnight revel,
+     Each after each are quench'd when guests depart!
+          OLD PLAY
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The entrance of Queen Berengaria into the interior of Richard's pavilion
+      was withstood&mdash;in the most respectful and reverential manner indeed,
+      but still withstood&mdash;by the chamberlains who watched in the outer
+      tent. She could hear the stern command of the King from within,
+      prohibiting their entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; said the Queen, appealing to Edith, as if she had exhausted all
+      means of intercession in her power; &ldquo;I knew it&mdash;the King will not
+      receive us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time, they heard Richard speak to some one within:&mdash;&ldquo;Go,
+      speed thine office quickly, sirrah, for in that consists thy mercy&mdash;ten
+      byzants if thou dealest on him at one blow. And hark thee, villain,
+      observe if his cheek loses colour, or his eye falters; mark me the
+      smallest twitch of the features, or wink of the eyelid. I love to know how
+      brave souls meet death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he sees my blade waved aloft without shrinking, he is the first ever
+      did so,&rdquo; answered a harsh, deep voice, which a sense of unusual awe had
+      softened into a sound much lower than its usual coarse tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edith could remain silent no longer. &ldquo;If your Grace,&rdquo; she said to the
+      Queen, &ldquo;make not your own way, I make it for you; or if not for your
+      Majesty, for myself at least.&mdash;Chamberlain, the Queen demands to see
+      King Richard&mdash;the wife to speak with her husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble lady,&rdquo; said the officer, lowering his wand of office, &ldquo;it grieves
+      me to gainsay you, but his Majesty is busied on matters of life and
+      death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we seek also to speak with him on matters of life and death,&rdquo; said
+      Edith. &ldquo;I will make entrance for your Grace.&rdquo; And putting aside the
+      chamberlain with one hand, she laid hold on the curtain with the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not gainsay her Majesty's pleasure,&rdquo; said the chamberlain,
+      yielding to the vehemence of the fair petitioner; and as he gave way, the
+      Queen found herself obliged to enter the apartment of Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Monarch was lying on his couch, and at some distance, as awaiting his
+      further commands, stood a man whose profession it was not difficult to
+      conjecture. He was clothed in a jerkin of red cloth, which reached scantly
+      below the shoulders, leaving the arms bare from about half way above the
+      elbow; and as an upper garment, he wore, when about as at present to
+      betake himself to his dreadful office, a coat or tabard without sleeves,
+      something like that of a herald, made of dressed bull's hide, and stained
+      in the front with many a broad spot and speckle of dull crimson. The
+      jerkin, and the tabard over it, reached the knee; and the nether stocks,
+      or covering of the legs, were of the same leather which composed the
+      tabard. A cap of rough shag served to hide the upper part of a visage
+      which, like that of a screech owl, seemed desirous to conceal itself from
+      light, the lower part of the face being obscured by a huge red beard,
+      mingling with shaggy locks of the same colour. What features were seen
+      were stern and misanthropical. The man's figure was short, strongly made,
+      with a neck like a bull, very broad shoulders, arms of great and
+      disproportioned length, a huge square trunk, and thick bandy legs. This
+      truculent official leant on a sword, the blade of which was nearly four
+      feet and a half in length, while the handle of twenty inches, surrounded
+      by a ring of lead plummets to counterpoise the weight of such a blade,
+      rose considerably above the man's head as he rested his arm upon its hilt,
+      waiting for King Richard's further directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the sudden entrance of the ladies, Richard, who was then lying on his
+      couch with his face towards the entrance, and resting on his elbow as he
+      spoke to his grisly attendant, flung himself hastily, as if displeased and
+      surprised, to the other side, turning his back to the Queen and the
+      females of her train, and drawing around him the covering of his couch,
+      which, by his own choice, or more probably the flattering selection of his
+      chamberlains, consisted of two large lions' skins, dressed in Venice with
+      such admirable skill that they seemed softer than the hide of the deer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Berengaria, such as we have described her, knew well&mdash;what woman
+      knows not?&mdash;her own road to victory. After a hurried glance of
+      undisguised and unaffected terror at the ghastly companion of her
+      husband's secret counsels, she rushed at once to the side of Richard's
+      couch, dropped on her knees, flung her mantle from her shoulders, showing,
+      as they hung down at their full length, her beautiful golden tresses, and
+      while her countenance seemed like the sun bursting through a cloud, yet
+      bearing on its pallid front traces that its splendours have been obscured,
+      she seized upon the right hand of the King, which, as he assumed his
+      wonted posture, had been employed in dragging the covering of his couch,
+      and gradually pulling it to her with a force which was resisted, though
+      but faintly, she possessed herself of that arm, the prop of Christendom
+      and the dread of Heathenesse, and imprisoning its strength in both her
+      little fairy hands, she bent upon it her brow, and united to it her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What needs this, Berengaria?&rdquo; said Richard, his head still averted, but
+      his hand remaining under her control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send away that man, his look kills me!&rdquo; muttered Berengaria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begone, sirrah,&rdquo; said Richard, still without looking round, &ldquo;What wait'st
+      thou for? art thou fit to look on these ladies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Highness's pleasure touching the head,&rdquo; said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out with thee, dog!&rdquo; answered Richard&mdash;&ldquo;a Christian burial!&rdquo; The man
+      disappeared, after casting a look upon the beautiful Queen, in her
+      deranged dress and natural loveliness, with a smile of admiration more
+      hideous in its expression than even his usual scowl of cynical hatred
+      against humanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, foolish wench, what wishest thou?&rdquo; said Richard, turning slowly
+      and half reluctantly round to his royal suppliant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was not in nature for any one, far less an admirer of beauty like
+      Richard, to whom it stood only in the second rank to glory, to look
+      without emotion on the countenance and the tremor of a creature so
+      beautiful as Berengaria, or to feel, without sympathy, that her lips, her
+      brow, were on his hand, and that it was wetted by her tears. By degrees,
+      he turned on her his manly countenance, with the softest expression of
+      which his large blue eye, which so often gleamed with insufferable light,
+      was capable. Caressing her fair head, and mingling his large fingers in
+      her beautiful and dishevelled locks, he raised and tenderly kissed the
+      cherub countenance which seemed desirous to hide itself in his hand. The
+      robust form, the broad, noble brow and majestic looks, the naked arm and
+      shoulder, the lions' skins among which he lay, and the fair, fragile
+      feminine creature that kneeled by his side, might have served for a model
+      of Hercules reconciling himself, after a quarrel, to his wife Dejanira.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, once more, what seeks the lady of my heart in her knight's pavilion
+      at this early and unwonted hour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon, my most gracious liege&mdash;pardon!&rdquo; said the Queen, whose fears
+      began again to unfit her for the duty of intercessor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon&mdash;for what?&rdquo; asked the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First, for entering your royal presence too boldly and unadvisedly&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;THOU too boldly!&mdash;the sun might as well ask pardon because his rays
+      entered the windows of some wretch's dungeon. But I was busied with work
+      unfit for thee to witness, my gentle one; and I was unwilling, besides,
+      that thou shouldst risk thy precious health where sickness had been so
+      lately rife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But thou art now well?&rdquo; said the Queen, still delaying the communication
+      which she feared to make.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well enough to break a lance on the bold crest of that champion who shall
+      refuse to acknowledge thee the fairest dame in Christendom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou wilt not then refuse me one boon&mdash;only one&mdash;only a poor
+      life?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha!&mdash;proceed,&rdquo; said King Richard, bending his brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This unhappy Scottish knight&mdash;&rdquo; murmured the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak not of him, madam,&rdquo; exclaimed Richard sternly; &ldquo;he dies&mdash;his
+      doom is fixed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, my royal liege and love, 'tis but a silken banner neglected.
+      Berengaria will give thee another broidered with her own hand, and rich as
+      ever dallied with the wind. Every pearl I have shall go to bedeck it, and
+      with every pearl I will drop a tear of thankfulness to my generous
+      knight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou knowest not what thou sayest,&rdquo; said the King, interrupting her in
+      anger. &ldquo;Pearls! can all the pearls of the East atone for a speck upon
+      England's honour&mdash;all the tears that ever woman's eye wept wash away
+      a stain on Richard's fame? Go to, madam, know your place, and your time,
+      and your sphere. At present we have duties in which you cannot be our
+      partner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hearest, Edith,&rdquo; whispered the Queen; &ldquo;we shall but incense him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so,&rdquo; said Edith, stepping forward.&mdash;&ldquo;My lord, I, your poor
+      kinswoman, crave you for justice rather than mercy; and to the cry of
+      justice the ears of a monarch should be open at every time, place, and
+      circumstance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! our cousin Edith?&rdquo; said Richard, rising and sitting upright on the
+      side of his couch, covered with his long camiscia. &ldquo;She speaks ever
+      kinglike, and kinglike will I answer her, so she bring no request unworthy
+      herself or me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The beauty of Edith was of a more intellectual and less voluptuous cast
+      than that of the Queen; but impatience and anxiety had given her
+      countenance a glow which it sometimes wanted, and her mien had a character
+      of energetic dignity that imposed silence for a moment even on Richard
+      himself, who, to judge by his looks, would willingly have interrupted her.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0006m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0006m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0006.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;this good knight, whose blood you are about to
+      spill, hath done, in his time, service to Christendom. He has fallen from
+      his duty through a snare set for him in mere folly and idleness of spirit.
+      A message sent to him in the name of one who&mdash;why should I not speak
+      it?&mdash;it was in my own&mdash;induced him for an instant to leave his
+      post. And what knight in the Christian camp might not have thus far
+      transgressed at command of a maiden, who, poor howsoever in other
+      qualities, hath yet the blood of Plantagenet in her veins?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you saw him, then, cousin?&rdquo; replied the King, biting his lips to keep
+      down his passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did, my liege,&rdquo; said Edith. &ldquo;It is no time to explain wherefore. I am
+      here neither to exculpate myself nor to blame others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where did you do him such a grace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the tent of her Majesty the Queen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of our royal consort!&rdquo; said Richard. &ldquo;Now by Heaven, by Saint George of
+      England, and every other saint that treads its crystal floor, this is too
+      audacious! I have noticed and overlooked this warrior's insolent
+      admiration of one so far above him, and I grudged him not that one of my
+      blood should shed from her high-born sphere such influence as the sun
+      bestows on the world beneath. But, heaven and earth! that you should have
+      admitted him to an audience by night, in the very tent of our royal
+      consort!&mdash;and dare to offer this as an excuse for his disobedience
+      and desertion! By my father's soul, Edith, thou shalt rue this thy life
+      long in a monastery!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My liege,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;your greatness licenses tyranny. My honour, Lord
+      King, is as little touched as yours, and my Lady the Queen can prove it if
+      she think fit. But I have already said I am not here to excuse myself or
+      inculpate others. I ask you but to extend to one, whose fault was
+      committed under strong temptation, that mercy, which even you yourself,
+      Lord King, must one day supplicate at a higher tribunal, and for faults,
+      perhaps, less venial.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can this be Edith Plantagenet?&rdquo; said the King bitterly&mdash;&ldquo;Edith
+      Plantagenet, the wise and the noble? Or is it some lovesick woman who
+      cares not for her own fame in comparison of the life of her paramour? Now,
+      by King Henry's soul! little hinders but I order thy minion's skull to be
+      brought from the gibbet, and fixed as a perpetual ornament by the crucifix
+      in thy cell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if thou dost send it from the gibbet to be placed for ever in my
+      sight,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;I will say it is a relic of a good knight, cruelly
+      and unworthily done to death by&rdquo; (she checked herself)&mdash;&ldquo;by one of
+      whom I shall only say, he should have known better how to reward chivalry.
+      Minion callest thou him?&rdquo; she continued, with increasing vehemence. &ldquo;He
+      was indeed my lover, and a most true one; but never sought he grace from
+      me by look or word&mdash;contented with such humble observance as men pay
+      to the saints. And the good&mdash;the valiant&mdash;the faithful must die
+      for this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, peace, peace, for pity's sake,&rdquo; whispered the Queen, &ldquo;you do but
+      offend him more!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I care not,&rdquo; said Edith; &ldquo;the spotless virgin fears not the raging lion.
+      Let him work his will on this worthy knight. Edith, for whom he dies, will
+      know how to weep his memory. To me no one shall speak more of politic
+      alliances to be sanctioned with this poor hand. I could not&mdash;I would
+      not&mdash;have been his bride living&mdash;our degrees were too distant.
+      But death unites the high and the low&mdash;I am henceforward the spouse
+      of the grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King was about to answer with much anger, when a Carmelite monk
+      entered the apartment hastily, his head and person muffled in the long
+      mantle and hood of striped cloth of the coarsest texture which
+      distinguished his order, and, flinging himself on his knees before the
+      King, conjured him, by every holy word and sign, to stop the execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by both sword and sceptre,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;the world is leagued to
+      drive me mad!&mdash;fools, women, and monks cross me at every step. How
+      comes he to live still?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My gracious liege,&rdquo; said the monk, &ldquo;I entreated of the Lord of Gilsland
+      to stay the execution until I had thrown myself at your royal&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he was wilful enough to grant thy request,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;but it is
+      of a piece with his wonted obstinacy. And what is it thou hast to say?
+      Speak, in the fiend's name!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord, there is a weighty secret, but it rests under the seal of
+      confession. I dare not tell or even whisper it; but I swear to thee by my
+      holy order, by the habit which I wear, by the blessed Elias, our founder,
+      even him who was translated without suffering the ordinary pangs of
+      mortality, that this youth hath divulged to me a secret, which, if I might
+      confide it to thee, would utterly turn thee from thy bloody purpose in
+      regard to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good father,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;that I reverence the church, let the arms
+      which I now wear for her sake bear witness. Give me to know this secret,
+      and I will do what shall seem fitting in the matter. But I am no blind
+      Bayard, to take a leap in the dark under the stroke of a pair of priestly
+      spurs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said the holy man, throwing back his cowl and upper vesture,
+      and discovering under the latter a garment of goatskin, and from beneath
+      the former a visage so wildly wasted by climate, fast, and penance, as to
+      resemble rather the apparition of an animated skeleton than a human face,
+      &ldquo;for twenty years have I macerated this miserable body in the caverns of
+      Engaddi, doing penance for a great crime. Think you I, who am dead to the
+      world, would contrive a falsehood to endanger my own soul; or that one,
+      bound by the most sacred oaths to the contrary&mdash;one such as I, who
+      have but one longing wish connected with earth, to wit, the rebuilding of
+      our Christian Zion&mdash;would betray the secrets of the confessional?
+      Both are alike abhorrent to my very soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So,&rdquo; answered the King, &ldquo;thou art that hermit of whom men speak so much?
+      Thou art, I confess, like enough to those spirits which walk in dry
+      places; but Richard fears no hobgoblins. And thou art he, too, as I
+      bethink me, to whom the Christian princes sent this very criminal to open
+      a communication with the Soldan, even while I, who ought to have been
+      first consulted, lay on my sick-bed? Thou and they may content themselves&mdash;I
+      will not put my neck into the loop of a Carmelite's girdle. And, for your
+      envoy, he shall die the rather and the sooner that thou dost entreat for
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now God be gracious to thee, Lord King!&rdquo; said the hermit, with much
+      emotion; &ldquo;thou art setting that mischief on foot which thou wilt hereafter
+      wish thou hadst stopped, though it had cost thee a limb. Rash, blinded
+      man, yet forbear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away, away,&rdquo; cried the King, stamping; &ldquo;the sun has risen on the
+      dishonour of England, and it is not yet avenged.&mdash;Ladies and priest,
+      withdraw, if you would not hear orders which would displease you; for, by
+      St. George, I swear&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swear NOT!&rdquo; said the voice of one who had just then entered the pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! my learned Hakim,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;come, I hope, to tax our
+      generosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come to request instant speech with you&mdash;instant&mdash;and
+      touching matters of deep interest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First look on my wife, Hakim, and let her know in you the preserver of
+      her husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not for me,&rdquo; said the physician, folding his arms with an air of
+      Oriental modesty and reverence, and bending his eyes on the ground&mdash;&ldquo;it
+      is not for me to look upon beauty unveiled, and armed in its splendours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Retire, then, Berengaria,&rdquo; said the Monarch; &ldquo;and, Edith, do you retire
+      also;&mdash;nay, renew not your importunities! This I give to them that
+      the execution shall not be till high noon. Go and be pacified&mdash;dearest
+      Berengaria, begone.&mdash;Edith,&rdquo; he added, with a glance which struck
+      terror even into the courageous soul of his kinswoman, &ldquo;go, if you are
+      wise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The females withdrew, or rather hurried from the tent, rank and ceremony
+      forgotten, much like a flock of wild-fowl huddled together, against whom
+      the falcon has made a recent stoop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They returned from thence to the Queen's pavilion to indulge in regrets
+      and recriminations, equally unavailing. Edith was the only one who seemed
+      to disdain these ordinary channels of sorrow. Without a sigh, without a
+      tear, without a word of upbraiding, she attended upon the Queen, whose
+      weak temperament showed her sorrow in violent hysterical ecstasies and
+      passionate hypochondriacal effusions, in the course of which Edith
+      sedulously and even affectionately attended her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is impossible she can have loved this knight,&rdquo; said Florise to
+      Calista, her senior in attendance upon the Queen's person. &ldquo;We have been
+      mistaken; she is but sorry for his fate, as for a stranger who has come to
+      trouble on her account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, hush,&rdquo; answered her more experienced and more observant comrade;
+      &ldquo;she is of that proud house of Plantagenet who never own that a hurt
+      grieves them. While they have themselves been bleeding to death, under a
+      mortal wound, they have been known to bind up the scratches sustained by
+      their more faint-hearted comrades. Florise, we have done frightfully
+      wrong, and, for my own part, I would buy with every jewel I have that our
+      fatal jest had remained unacted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     This work desires a planetary intelligence
+     Of Jupiter and Sol; and those great spirits
+     Are proud, fantastical. It asks great charges
+     To entice them from the guiding of their spheres,
+     To wait on mortals.
+            ALBUMAZAR.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The hermit followed the ladies from the pavilion of Richard, as shadow
+      follows a beam of sunshine when the clouds are driving over the face of
+      the sun. But he turned on the threshold, and held up his hand towards the
+      King in a warning, or almost a menacing posture, as he said, &ldquo;Woe to him
+      who rejects the counsel of the church, and betaketh himself to the foul
+      divan of the infidel! King Richard, I do not yet shake the dust from my
+      feet and depart from thy encampment; the sword falls not&mdash;but it
+      hangs but by a hair. Haughty monarch, we shall meet again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so, haughty priest,&rdquo; returned Richard, &ldquo;prouder in thy goatskins
+      than princes in purple and fine linen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hermit vanished from the tent, and the King continued, addressing the
+      Arabian, &ldquo;Do the dervises of the East, wise Hakim, use such familiarity
+      with their princes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dervise,&rdquo; replied Adonbec, &ldquo;should be either a sage or a madman;
+      there is no middle course for him who wears the khirkhah, [Literally, the
+      torn robe. The habit of the dervises is so called.] who watches by night,
+      and fasts by day. Hence hath he either wisdom enough to bear himself
+      discreetly in the presence of princes; or else, having no reason bestowed
+      on him, he is not responsible for his own actions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks our monks have adopted chiefly the latter character,&rdquo; said
+      Richard. &ldquo;But to the matter. In what can I pleasure you, my learned
+      physician?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great King,&rdquo; said El Hakim, making his profound Oriental obeisance, &ldquo;let
+      thy servant speak one word, and yet live. I would remind thee that thou
+      owest&mdash;not to me, their humble instrument&mdash;but to the
+      Intelligences, whose benefits I dispense to mortals, a life&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I warrant me thou wouldst have another in requital, ha?&rdquo; interrupted
+      the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such is my humble prayer,&rdquo; said the Hakim, &ldquo;to the great Melech Ric&mdash;even
+      the life of this good knight, who is doomed to die, and but for such fault
+      as was committed by the Sultan Adam, surnamed Aboulbeschar, or the father
+      of all men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thy wisdom might remind thee, Hakim, that Adam died for it,&rdquo; said the
+      King, somewhat sternly, and then began to pace the narrow space of his
+      tent with some emotion, and to talk to himself. &ldquo;Why, God-a-mercy, I knew
+      what he desired as soon as ever he entered the pavilion! Here is one poor
+      life justly condemned to extinction, and I, a king and a soldier, who have
+      slain thousands by my command, and scores with my own hand, am to have no
+      power over it, although the honour of my arms, of my house, of my very
+      Queen, hath been attainted by the culprit. By Saint George, it makes me
+      laugh! By Saint Louis, it reminds me of Blondel's tale of an enchanted
+      castle, where the destined knight was withstood successively in his
+      purpose of entrance by forms and figures the most dissimilar, but all
+      hostile to his undertaking! No sooner one sunk than another appeared! Wife&mdash;kinswoman&mdash;hermit&mdash;Hakim-each
+      appears in the lists as soon as the other is defeated! Why, this is a
+      single knight fighting against the whole MELEE of the tournament&mdash;ha!
+      ha! ha!&rdquo; And Richard laughed aloud; for he had, in fact, begun to change
+      his mood, his resentment being usually too violent to be of long
+      endurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician meanwhile looked on him with a countenance of surprise, not
+      unmingled with contempt; for the Eastern people make no allowance for
+      these mercurial changes in the temper, and consider open laughter, upon
+      almost any account, as derogatory to the dignity of man, and becoming only
+      to women and children. At length the sage addressed the King when he saw
+      him more composed:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A doom of death should not issue from laughing lips. Let thy servant hope
+      that thou hast granted him this man's life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the freedom of a thousand captives instead,&rdquo; said Richard; &ldquo;restore
+      so many of thy countrymen to their tents and families, and I will give the
+      warrant instantly. This man's life can avail thee nothing, and it is
+      forfeited.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All our lives are forfeited,&rdquo; said the Hakim, putting his hand to his
+      cap. &ldquo;But the great Creditor is merciful, and exacts not the pledge
+      rigorously nor untimely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou canst show me,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;no special interest thou hast to
+      become intercessor betwixt me and the execution of justice, to which I am
+      sworn as a crowned king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art sworn to the dealing forth mercy as well as justice,&rdquo; said El
+      Hakim; &ldquo;but what thou seekest, great King, is the execution of thine own
+      will. And for the concern I have in this request, know that many a man's
+      life depends upon thy granting this boon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Explain thy words,&rdquo; said Richard; &ldquo;but think not to impose upon me by
+      false pretexts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it far from thy servant!&rdquo; said Adonbec. &ldquo;Know, then, that the medicine
+      to which thou, Sir King, and many one besides, owe their recovery, is a
+      talisman, composed under certain aspects of the heavens, when the Divine
+      Intelligences are most propitious. I am but the poor administrator of its
+      virtues. I dip it in a cup of water, observe the fitting hour to
+      administer it to the patient, and the potency of the draught works the
+      cure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A most rare medicine,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;and a commodious! and, as it may
+      be carried in the leech's purse, would save the whole caravan of camels
+      which they require to convey drugs and physic stuff; I marvel there is any
+      other in use.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is written,&rdquo; answered the Hakim, with imperturbable gravity, &ldquo;'Abuse
+      not the steed which hath borne thee from the battle.' Know that such
+      talismans might indeed be framed, but rare has been the number of adepts
+      who have dared to undertake the application of their virtue. Severe
+      restrictions, painful observances, fasts, and penance, are necessary on
+      the part of the sage who uses this mode of cure; and if, through neglect
+      of these preparations, by his love of ease, or his indulgence of sensual
+      appetite, he omits to cure at least twelve persons within the course of
+      each moon, the virtue of the divine gift departs from the amulet, and both
+      the last patient and the physician will be exposed to speedy misfortune,
+      neither will they survive the year. I require yet one life to make up the
+      appointed number.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go out into the camp, good Hakim, where thou wilt find a-many,&rdquo; said the
+      King, &ldquo;and do not seek to rob my headsman of HIS patients; it is
+      unbecoming a mediciner of thine eminence to interfere with the practice of
+      another. Besides, I cannot see how delivering a criminal from the death he
+      deserves should go to make up thy tale of miraculous cures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When thou canst show why a draught of cold water should have cured thee
+      when the most precious drugs failed,&rdquo; said the Hakim, &ldquo;thou mayest reason
+      on the other mysteries attendant on this matter. For myself, I am
+      inefficient to the great work, having this morning touched an unclean
+      animal. Ask, therefore, no further questions; it is enough that, by
+      sparing this man's life at my request, you will deliver yourself, great
+      King, and thy servant, from a great danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark thee, Adonbec,&rdquo; replied the King, &ldquo;I have no objection that leeches
+      should wrap their words in mist, and pretend to derive knowledge from the
+      stars; but when you bid Richard Plantagenet fear that a danger will fall
+      upon HIM from some idle omen, or omitted ceremonial, you speak to no
+      ignorant Saxon, or doting old woman, who foregoes her purpose because a
+      hare crosses the path, a raven croaks, or a cat sneezes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot hinder your doubt of my words,&rdquo; said Adonbec; &ldquo;but yet let my
+      Lord the King grant that truth is on the tongue of his servant&mdash;will
+      he think it just to deprive the world, and every wretch who may suffer by
+      the pains which so lately reduced him to that couch, of the benefit of
+      this most virtuous talisman, rather than extend his forgiveness to one
+      poor criminal? Bethink you, Lord King, that, though thou canst slay
+      thousands, thou canst not restore one man to health. Kings have the power
+      of Satan to torment, sages that of Allah to heal&mdash;beware how thou
+      hinderest the good to humanity which thou canst not thyself render. Thou
+      canst cut off the head, but not cure the aching tooth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is over-insolent,&rdquo; said the King, hardening himself, as the Hakim
+      assumed a more lofty and almost a commanding tone. &ldquo;We took thee for our
+      leech, not for our counsellor or conscience-keeper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is it thus the most renowned Prince of Frangistan repays benefit done
+      to his royal person?&rdquo; said El Hakim, exchanging the humble and stooping
+      posture in which he had hitherto solicited the King, for an attitude lofty
+      and commanding. &ldquo;Know, then,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that: through every court of
+      Europe and Asia&mdash;to Moslem and Nazarene&mdash;to knight and lady&mdash;wherever
+      harp is heard and sword worn&mdash;wherever honour is loved and infamy
+      detested&mdash;to every quarter of the world&mdash;will I denounce thee,
+      Melech Ric, as thankless and ungenerous; and even the lands&mdash;if there
+      be any such&mdash;that never heard of thy renown shall yet be acquainted
+      with thy shame!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are these terms to me, vile infidel?&rdquo; said Richard, striding up to him in
+      fury. &ldquo;Art weary of thy life?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strike!&rdquo; said El Hakim; &ldquo;thine own deed shall then paint thee more
+      worthless than could my words, though each had a hornet's sting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard turned fiercely from him, folded his arms, traversed the tent as
+      before, and then exclaimed, &ldquo;Thankless and ungenerous!&mdash;as well be
+      termed coward and infidel! Hakim, thou hast chosen thy boon; and though I
+      had rather thou hadst asked my crown jewels, yet I may not, kinglike,
+      refuse thee. Take this Scot, therefore, to thy keeping; the provost will
+      deliver him to thee on this warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He hastily traced one or two lines, and gave them to the physician. &ldquo;Use
+      him as thy bond-slave, to be disposed of as thou wilt&mdash;only, let him
+      beware how he comes before the eyes of Richard. Hark thee&mdash;thou art
+      wise&mdash;he hath been over-bold among those in whose fair looks and weak
+      judgments we trust our honour, as you of the East lodge your treasures in
+      caskets of silver wire, as fine and as frail as the web of a gossamer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy servant understands the words of the King,&rdquo; said the sage, at once
+      resuming the reverent style of address in which he had commenced. &ldquo;When
+      the rich carpet is soiled, the fool pointeth to the stain&mdash;the wise
+      man covers it with his mantle. I have heard my lord's pleasure, and to
+      hear is to obey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;let him consult his own safety, and never
+      appear in my presence more. Is there aught else in which I may do thee
+      pleasure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bounty of the King hath filled my cup to the brim,&rdquo; said the sage&mdash;&ldquo;yea,
+      it hath been abundant as the fountain which sprung up amid the camp of the
+      descendants of Israel when the rock was stricken by the rod of Moussa Ben
+      Amram.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, but,&rdquo; said the King, smiling, &ldquo;it required, as in the desert, a hard
+      blow on the rock ere it yielded its treasures. I would that I knew
+      something to pleasure thee, which I might yield as freely as the natural
+      fountain sends forth its waters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me touch that victorious hand,&rdquo; said the sage, &ldquo;in token that if
+      Adonbec el Hakim should hereafter demand a boon of Richard of England, he
+      may do so, yet plead his command.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast hand and glove upon it, man,&rdquo; replied Richard; &ldquo;only, if thou
+      couldst consistently make up thy tale of patients without craving me to
+      deliver from punishment those who have deserved it, I would more willingly
+      discharge my debt in some other form.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May thy days be multiplied!&rdquo; answered the Hakim, and withdrew from the
+      apartment after the usual deep obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard gazed after him as he departed, like one but half-satisfied
+      with what had passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strange pertinacity,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;in this Hakim, and a wonderful chance to
+      interfere between that audacious Scot and the chastisement he has merited
+      so richly. Yet let him live! there is one brave man the more in the world.
+      And now for the Austrian. Ho! is the Baron of Gilsland there without?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Thomas de Vaux thus summoned, his bulky form speedily darkened the
+      opening of the pavilion, while behind him glided as a spectre,
+      unannounced, yet unopposed, the savage form of the hermit of Engaddi,
+      wrapped in his goatskin mantle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, without noticing his presence, called in a loud tone to the
+      baron, &ldquo;Sir Thomas de Vaux, of Lanercost and Gilsland, take trumpet and
+      herald, and go instantly to the tent of him whom they call Archduke of
+      Austria, and see that it be when the press of his knights and vassals is
+      greatest around him, as is likely at this hour, for the German boar
+      breakfasts ere he hears mass&mdash;enter his presence with as little
+      reverence as thou mayest, and impeach him, on the part of Richard of
+      England, that he hath this night, by his own hand, or that of others,
+      stolen from its staff the Banner of England. Wherefore say to him our
+      pleasure that within an hour from the time of my speaking he restore the
+      said banner with all reverence&mdash;he himself and his principal barons
+      waiting the whilst with heads uncovered, and without their robes of
+      honour. And that, moreover, he pitch beside it, on the one hand, his own
+      Banner of Austria reversed, as that which hath been dishonoured by theft
+      and felony, and on the other, a lance, bearing the bloody head of him who
+      was his nearest counsellor, or assistant, in this base injury. And say,
+      that such our behests being punctually discharged we will, for the sake of
+      our vow and the weal of the Holy Land, forgive his other forfeits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how if the Duke of Austria deny all accession to this act of wrong
+      and of felony?&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him,&rdquo; replied the King, &ldquo;we will prove it upon his body&mdash;ay,
+      were he backed with his two bravest champions. Knightlike will we prove
+      it, on foot or on horse, in the desert or in the field, time, place, and
+      arms all at his own choice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bethink you of the peace of God and the church, my liege lord,&rdquo; said the
+      Baron of Gilsland, &ldquo;among those princes engaged in this holy Crusade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bethink you how to execute my commands, my liege vassal,&rdquo; answered
+      Richard impatiently. &ldquo;Methinks men expect to turn our purpose by their
+      breath, as boys blow feathers to and fro. Peace of the church! Who, I
+      prithee, minds it? The peace of the church, among Crusaders, implies war
+      with the Saracens, with whom the princes have made truce; and the one ends
+      with the other. And besides, see you not how every prince of them is
+      seeking his own several ends? I will seek mine also&mdash;and that is
+      honour. For honour I came hither; and if I may not win it upon the
+      Saracens, at least I will not lose a jot from any respect to this paltry
+      Duke, though he were bulwarked and buttressed by every prince in the
+      Crusade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux turned to obey the King's mandate, shrugging his shoulders at the
+      same time, the bluntness of his nature being unable to conceal that its
+      tenor went against his judgment. But the hermit of Engaddi stepped
+      forward, and assumed the air of one charged with higher commands than
+      those of a mere earthly potentate. Indeed, his dress of shaggy skins, his
+      uncombed and untrimmed hair and beard, his lean, wild, and contorted
+      features, and the almost insane fire which gleamed from under his bushy
+      eyebrows, made him approach nearly to our idea of some seer of Scripture,
+      who, charged with high mission to the sinful Kings of Judah or Israel,
+      descended from the rocks and caverns in which he dwelt in abstracted
+      solitude, to abash earthly tyrants in the midst of their pride, by
+      discharging on them the blighting denunciations of Divine Majesty, even as
+      the cloud discharges the lightnings with which it is fraught on the
+      pinnacles and towers of castles and palaces. In the midst of his most
+      wayward mood, Richard respected the church and its ministers; and though
+      offended at the intrusion of the hermit into his tent, he greeted him with
+      respect&mdash;at the same time, however, making a sign to Sir Thomas de
+      Vaux to hasten on his message.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the hermit prohibited the baron, by gesture, look, and word, to stir a
+      yard on such an errand; and holding up his bare arm, from which the
+      goatskin mantle fell back in the violence of his action, he waved it
+      aloft, meagre with famine, and wealed with the blows of the discipline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the name of God, and of the most holy Father, the vicegerent of the
+      Christian Church upon earth, I prohibit this most profane, bloodthirsty,
+      and brutal defiance betwixt two Christian princes, whose shoulders are
+      signed with the blessed mark under which they swore brotherhood. Woe to
+      him by whom it is broken!&mdash;Richard of England, recall the most
+      unhallowed message thou hast given to that baron. Danger and death are
+      nigh thee!&mdash;the dagger is glancing at thy very throat!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Danger and death are playmates to Richard,&rdquo; answered the Monarch proudly;
+      &ldquo;and he hath braved too many swords to fear a dagger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Danger and death are near,&rdquo; replied the seer, and sinking his voice to a
+      hollow, unearthly tone, he added, &ldquo;And after death the judgment!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good and holy father,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;I reverence thy person and thy
+      sanctity&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Reverence not me!&rdquo; interrupted the hermit; &ldquo;reverence sooner the vilest
+      insect that crawls by the shores of the Dead Sea, and feeds upon its
+      accursed slime. But reverence Him whose commands I speak&mdash;reverence
+      Him whose sepulchre you have vowed to rescue&mdash;revere the oath of
+      concord which you have sworn, and break not the silver cord of union and
+      fidelity with which you have bound yourself to your princely
+      confederates.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good father,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;you of the church seem to me to presume
+      somewhat, if a layman may say so much, upon the dignity of your holy
+      character. Without challenging your right to take charge of our
+      conscience, methinks you might leave us the charge of our own honour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presume!&rdquo; repeated the hermit. &ldquo;Is it for me to presume, royal Richard,
+      who am but the bell obeying the hand of the sexton&mdash;but the senseless
+      and worthless trumpet carrying the command of him who sounds it? See, on
+      my knees I throw myself before thee, imploring thee to have mercy on
+      Christendom, on England, and on thyself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rise, rise,&rdquo; said Richard, compelling him to stand up; &ldquo;it beseems not
+      that knees which are so frequently bended to the Deity should press the
+      ground in honour of man. What danger awaits us, reverend father? and when
+      stood the power of England so low that the noisy bluster of this new-made
+      Duke's displeasure should alarm her or her monarch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have looked forth from my mountain turret upon the starry host of
+      heaven, as each in his midnight circuit uttered wisdom to another, and
+      knowledge to the few who can understand their voice. There sits an enemy
+      in thy House of Life, Lord King, malign at once to thy fame and thy
+      prosperity&mdash;an emanation of Saturn, menacing thee with instant and
+      bloody peril, and which, but thou yield thy proud will to the rule of thy
+      duty, will presently crush thee even in thy pride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away, away&mdash;this is heathen science,&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;Christians
+      practise it not&mdash;wise men believe it not. Old man, thou dotest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dote not, Richard,&rdquo; answered the hermit&mdash;&ldquo;I am not so happy. I
+      know my condition, and that some portion of reason is yet permitted me,
+      not for my own use, but that of the Church and the advancement of the
+      Cross. I am the blind man who holds a torch to others, though it yields no
+      light to himself. Ask me touching what concerns the weal of Christendom,
+      and of this Crusade, and I will speak with thee as the wisest counsellor
+      on whose tongue persuasion ever sat. Speak to me of my own wretched being,
+      and my words shall be those of the maniac outcast which I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not break the bands of unity asunder among the princes of the
+      Crusade,&rdquo; said Richard, with a mitigated tone and manner; &ldquo;but what
+      atonement can they render me for the injustice and insult which I have
+      sustained?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even of that I am prepared and commissioned to speak by the Council,
+      which, meeting hastily at the summons of Philip of France, have taken
+      measures for that effect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strange,&rdquo; replied Richard, &ldquo;that others should treat of what is due to
+      the wounded majesty of England!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are willing to anticipate your demands, if it be possible,&rdquo; answered
+      the hermit. &ldquo;In a body, they consent that the Banner of England be
+      replaced on Saint George's Mount; and they lay under ban and condemnation
+      the audacious criminal, or criminals, by whom it was outraged, and will
+      announce a princely reward to any who shall denounce the delinquent's
+      guilt, and give his flesh to the wolves and ravens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Austria,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;upon whom rest such strong presumptions that
+      he was the author of the deed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To prevent discord in the host,&rdquo; replied the hermit, &ldquo;Austria will clear
+      himself of the suspicion by submitting to whatsoever ordeal the Patriarch
+      of Jerusalem shall impose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will he clear himself by the trial by combat?&rdquo; said King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His oath prohibits it,&rdquo; said the hermit; &ldquo;and, moreover, the Council of
+      the Princes&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will neither authorize battle against the Saracens,&rdquo; interrupted Richard,
+      &ldquo;nor against any one else. But it is enough, father&mdash;thou hast shown
+      me the folly of proceeding as I designed in this matter. You shall sooner
+      light your torch in a puddle of rain than bring a spark out of a
+      cold-blooded coward. There is no honour to be gained on Austria, and so
+      let him pass. I will have him perjure himself, however; I will insist on
+      the ordeal. How I shall laugh to hear his clumsy fingers hiss, as he
+      grasps the red-hot globe of iron! Ay, or his huge mouth riven, and his
+      gullet swelling to suffocation, as he endeavours to swallow the
+      consecrated bread!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, Richard,&rdquo; said the hermit&mdash;&ldquo;oh, peace, for shame, if not for
+      charity! Who shall praise or honour princes who insult and calumniate each
+      other? Alas! that a creature so noble as thou art&mdash;so accomplished in
+      princely thoughts and princely daring&mdash;so fitted to honour
+      Christendom by thy actions, and, in thy calmer mood, to rule her by thy
+      wisdom, should yet have the brute and wild fury of the lion mingled with
+      the dignity and courage of that king of the forest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained an instant musing with his eyes fixed on the ground, and then
+      proceeded&mdash;&ldquo;But Heaven, that knows our imperfect nature, accepts of
+      our imperfect obedience, and hath delayed, though not averted, the bloody
+      end of thy daring life. The destroying angel hath stood still, as of old
+      by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and the blade is drawn in
+      his hand, by which, at no distant date, Richard, the lion-hearted, shall
+      be as low as the meanest peasant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must it, then, be so soon?&rdquo; said Richard. &ldquo;Yet, even so be it. May my
+      course be bright, if it be but brief!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! noble King,&rdquo; said the solitary, and it seemed as if a tear
+      (unwonted guest) were gathering in his dry and glazened eye, &ldquo;short and
+      melancholy, marked with mortification, and calamity, and captivity, is the
+      span that divides thee from the grave which yawns for thee&mdash;a grave
+      in which thou shalt be laid without lineage to succeed thee&mdash;without
+      the tears of a people, exhausted by thy ceaseless wars, to lament thee&mdash;without
+      having extended the knowledge of thy subjects&mdash;without having done
+      aught to enlarge their happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not without renown, monk&mdash;not without the tears of the lady of
+      my love! These consolations, which thou canst neither know nor estimate,
+      await upon Richard to his grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;DO I not know, CAN I not estimate the value of minstrel's praise and of
+      lady's love?&rdquo; retorted the hermit, in a tone which for a moment seemed to
+      emulate the enthusiasm of Richard himself. &ldquo;King of England,&rdquo; he
+      continued, extending his emaciated arm, &ldquo;the blood which boils in thy blue
+      veins is not more noble than that which stagnates in mine. Few and cold as
+      the drops are, they still are of the blood of the royal Lusignan&mdash;of
+      the heroic and sainted Godfrey. I am&mdash;that is, I was when in the
+      world&mdash;Alberick Mortemar&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whose deeds,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;have so often filled Fame's trumpet! Is it
+      so?&mdash;can it be so? Could such a light as thine fall from the horizon
+      of chivalry, and yet men be uncertain where its embers had alighted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seek a fallen star,&rdquo; said the hermit, &ldquo;and thou shalt only light on some
+      foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a
+      moment an appearance of splendour. Richard, if I thought that rending the
+      bloody veil from my horrible fate could make thy proud heart stoop to the
+      discipline of the church, I could find in my heart to tell thee a tale,
+      which I have hitherto kept gnawing at my vitals in concealment, like the
+      self-devoted youth of heathenesse. Listen, then, Richard, and may the
+      grief and despair which cannot avail this wretched remnant of what was
+      once a man be powerful as an example to so noble, yet so wild, a being as
+      thou art! Yes&mdash;I will&mdash;I WILL tear open the long-hidden wounds,
+      although in thy very presence they should bleed to death!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard, upon whom the history of Alberick of Mortemar had made a
+      deep impression in his early years, when minstrels were regaling his
+      father's halls with legends of the Holy Land, listened with respect to the
+      outlines of a tale, which, darkly and imperfectly sketched, indicated
+      sufficiently the cause of the partial insanity of this singular and most
+      unhappy being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I need not,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;tell thee that I was noble in birth, high in
+      fortune, strong in arms, wise in counsel. All these I was. But while the
+      noblest ladies in Palestine strove which should wind garlands for my
+      helmet, my love was fixed&mdash;unalterably and devotedly fixed&mdash;on a
+      maiden of low degree. Her father, an ancient soldier of the Cross, saw our
+      passion, and knowing the difference betwixt us, saw no other refuge for
+      his daughter's honour than to place her within the shadow of the cloister.
+      I returned from a distant expedition, loaded with spoils and honour, to
+      find my happiness was destroyed for ever! I too sought the cloister; and
+      Satan, who had marked me for his own, breathed into my heart a vapour of
+      spiritual pride, which could only have had its source in his own infernal
+      regions. I had risen as high in the church as before in the state. I was,
+      forsooth, the wise, the self-sufficient, the impeccable!&mdash;I was the
+      counsellor of councils&mdash;I was the director of prelates. How should I
+      stumble?&mdash;wherefore should I fear temptation? Alas! I became
+      confessor to a sisterhood, and amongst that sisterhood I found the
+      long-loved&mdash;the long-lost. Spare me further confession!&mdash;A
+      fallen nun, whose guilt was avenged by self-murder, sleeps soundly in the
+      vaults of Engaddi; while, above her very grave, gibbers, moans, and roars
+      a creature to whom but so much reason is left as may suffice to render him
+      completely sensible to his fate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unhappy man!&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;I wonder no longer at thy misery. How didst
+      thou escape the doom which the canons denounce against thy offence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask one who is yet in the gall of worldly bitterness,&rdquo; said the hermit,
+      &ldquo;and he will speak of a life spared for personal respects, and from
+      consideration to high birth. But, Richard, I tell thee that Providence
+      hath preserved me to lift me on high as a light and beacon, whose ashes,
+      when this earthly fuel is burnt out, must yet be flung into Tophet.
+      Withered and shrunk as this poor form is, it is yet animated with two
+      spirits&mdash;one active, shrewd, and piercing, to advocate the cause of
+      the Church of Jerusalem; one mean, abject, and despairing, fluctuating
+      between madness and misery, to mourn over my own wretchedness, and to
+      guard holy relics on which it would be most sinful for me even to cast my
+      eye. Pity me not!&mdash;it is but sin to pity the loss of such an abject;
+      pity me not, but profit by my example. Thou standest on the highest, and,
+      therefore, on the most dangerous pinnacle occupied by any Christian
+      prince. Thou art proud of heart, loose of life, bloody of hand. Put from
+      thee the sins which are to thee as daughters&mdash;though they be dear to
+      the sinful Adam, expel these adopted furies from thy breast&mdash;thy
+      pride, thy luxury, thy bloodthirstiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He raves,&rdquo; said Richard, turning from the solitary to De Vaux, as one who
+      felt some pain from a sarcasm which yet he could not resent; then turned
+      him calmly, and somewhat scornfully, to the anchoret, as he replied, &ldquo;Thou
+      hast found a fair bevy of daughters, reverend father, to one who hath been
+      but few months married; but since I must put them from my roof, it were
+      but like a father to provide them with suitable matches. Therefore, I will
+      part with my pride to the noble canons of the church&mdash;my luxury, as
+      thou callest it, to the monks of the rule&mdash;and my bloodthirstiness to
+      the Knights of the Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O heart of steel, and hand of iron,&rdquo; said the anchoret, &ldquo;upon whom
+      example, as well as advice, is alike thrown away! Yet shalt thou be spared
+      for a season, in case it so be thou shouldst turn, and do that which is
+      acceptable in the sight of Heaven. For me I must return to my place. Kyrie
+      Eleison! I am he through whom the rays of heavenly grace dart like those
+      of the sun through a burning-glass, concentrating them on other objects,
+      until they kindle and blaze, while the glass itself remains cold and
+      uninfluenced. Kyrie Eleison!&mdash;the poor must be called, for the rich
+      have refused the banquet&mdash;Kyrie Eleison!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he burst from the tent, uttering loud cries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A mad priest!&rdquo; said Richard, from whose mind the frantic exclamations of
+      the hermit had partly obliterated the impression produced by the detail of
+      his personal history and misfortunes. &ldquo;After him, De Vaux, and see he
+      comes to no harm; for, Crusaders as we are, a juggler hath more reverence
+      amongst our varlets than a priest or a saint, and they may, perchance, put
+      some scorn upon him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight obeyed, and Richard presently gave way to the thoughts which
+      the wild prophecy of the monk had inspired. &ldquo;To die early&mdash;without
+      lineage&mdash;without lamentation! A heavy sentence, and well that it is
+      not passed by a more competent judge. Yet the Saracens, who are
+      accomplished in mystical knowledge, will often maintain that He, in whose
+      eyes the wisdom of the sage is but as folly, inspires wisdom and prophecy
+      into the seeming folly of the madman. Yonder hermit is said to read the
+      stars, too, an art generally practised in these lands, where the heavenly
+      host was of yore the object of idolatry. I would I had asked him touching
+      the loss of my banner; for not the blessed Tishbite, the founder of his
+      order, could seem more wildly rapt out of himself, or speak with a tongue
+      more resembling that of a prophet.&mdash;How now, De Vaux, what news of
+      the mad priest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mad priest, call you him, my lord?&rdquo; answered De Vaux. &ldquo;Methinks he
+      resembles more the blessed Baptist himself, just issued from the
+      wilderness. He has placed himself on one of the military engines, and from
+      thence he preaches to the soldiers as never man preached since the time of
+      Peter the Hermit. The camp, alarmed by his cries, crowd around him in
+      thousands; and breaking off every now and then from the main thread of his
+      discourse, he addresses the several nations, each in their own language,
+      and presses upon each the arguments best qualified to urge them to
+      perseverance in the delivery of Palestine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By this light, a noble hermit!&rdquo; said King Richard. &ldquo;But what else could
+      come from the blood of Godfrey? HE despair of safety, because he hath in
+      former days lived PAR AMOURS? I will have the Pope send him an ample
+      remission, and I would not less willingly be intercessor had his BELLE
+      AMIE been an abbess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the Archbishop of Tyre craved audience, for the purpose of
+      requesting Richard's attendance, should his health permit, on a secret
+      conclave of the chiefs of the Crusade, and to explain to him the military
+      and political incidents which had occurred during his illness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Must we then sheathe our still victorious sword;
+     Turn back our forward step, which ever trod
+     O'er foemen's necks the onward path of glory;
+     Unclasp the mail, which with a solemn vow,
+     In God's own house, we hung upon our shoulders&mdash;
+     That vow, as unaccomplish'd as the promise
+     Which village nurses make to still their children,
+     And after think no more of?
+           THE CRUSADE, A TRAGEDY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Archbishop of Tyre was an emissary well chosen to communicate to
+      Richard tidings, which from another voice the lion-hearted King would not
+      have brooked to hear without the most unbounded explosions of resentment.
+      Even this sagacious and reverend prelate found difficulty in inducing him
+      to listen to news which destroyed all his hopes of gaining back the Holy
+      Sepulchre by force of arms, and acquiring the renown which the universal
+      all-hail of Christendom was ready to confer upon him as the Champion of
+      the Cross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, by the Archbishop's report, it appeared that Saladin was assembling
+      all the force of his hundred tribes, and that the monarchs of Europe,
+      already disgusted from various motives with the expedition, which had
+      proved so hazardous, and was daily growing more so, had resolved to
+      abandon their purpose. In this they were countenanced by the example of
+      Philip of France, who, with many protestations of regard, and assurances
+      that he would first see his brother of England in safety, declared his
+      intention to return to Europe. His great vassal, the Earl of Champagne,
+      had adopted the same resolution; and it could not excite surprise that
+      Leopold of Austria, affronted as he had been by Richard, was glad to
+      embrace an opportunity of deserting a cause in which his haughty opponent
+      was to be considered as chief. Others announced the same purpose; so that
+      it was plain that the King of England was to be left, if he chose to
+      remain, supported only by such volunteers as might, under such depressing
+      circumstances, join themselves to the English army, and by the doubtful
+      aid of Conrade of Montserrat and the military orders of the Temple and of
+      Saint John, who, though they were sworn to wage battle against the
+      Saracens, were at least equally jealous of any European monarch achieving
+      the conquest of Palestine, where, with shortsighted and selfish policy,
+      they proposed to establish independent dominions of their own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It needed not many arguments to show Richard the truth of his situation;
+      and indeed, after his first burst of passion, he sat him calmly down, and
+      with gloomy looks, head depressed, and arms folded on his bosom, listened
+      to the Archbishop's reasoning on the impossibility of his carrying on the
+      Crusade when deserted by his companions. Nay, he forbore interruption,
+      even when the prelate ventured, in measured terms, to hint that Richard's
+      own impetuosity had been one main cause of disgusting the princes with the
+      expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;CONFITEOR,&rdquo; answered Richard, with a dejected look, and something of a
+      melancholy smile&mdash;&ldquo;I confess, reverend father, that I ought on some
+      accounts to sing CULPA MEA. But is it not hard that my frailties of temper
+      should be visited with such a penance&mdash;that, for a burst or two of
+      natural passion, I should be doomed to see fade before me ungathered such
+      a rich harvest of glory to God and honour to chivalry? But it shall NOT
+      fade. By the soul of the Conqueror, I will plant the Cross on the towers
+      of Jerusalem, or it shall be planted over Richard's grave!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou mayest do it,&rdquo; said the prelate, &ldquo;yet not another drop of Christian
+      blood be shed in the quarrel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you speak of compromise, Lord Prelate; but the blood of the infidel
+      hounds must also cease to flow,&rdquo; said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There will be glory enough,&rdquo; replied the Archbishop, &ldquo;in having extorted
+      from Saladin, by force of arms, and by the respect inspired by your fame,
+      such conditions as at once restore the Holy Sepulchre, open the Holy Land
+      to pilgrims, secure their safety by strong fortresses, and, stronger than
+      all, assure the safety of the Holy City, by conferring on Richard the
+      title of King Guardian of Jerusalem.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How!&rdquo; said Richard, his eyes sparkling with unusual light. &ldquo;I&mdash;I&mdash;I
+      the King Guardian of the Holy City! Victory itself, but that it is
+      victory, could not gain more&mdash;scarce so much, when won with unwilling
+      and disunited forces. But Saladin still proposes to retain his interest in
+      the Holy Land?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As a joint sovereign, the sworn ally,&rdquo; replied the prelate, &ldquo;of the
+      mighty Richard&mdash;his relative, if it may be permitted, by marriage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By marriage!&rdquo; said Richard, surprised, yet less so than the prelate had
+      expected. &ldquo;Ha!&mdash;ay&mdash;Edith Plantagenet. Did I dream this? or did
+      some one tell me? My head is still weak from this fever, and has been
+      agitated. Was it the Scot, or the Hakim, or yonder holy hermit, that
+      hinted such a wild bargain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hermit of Engaddi, most likely,&rdquo; said the Archbishop, &ldquo;for he hath
+      toiled much in this matter; and since the discontent of the princes has
+      became apparent, and a separation of their forces unavoidable, he hath had
+      many consultations, both with Christian and pagan, for arranging such a
+      pacification as may give to Christendom, at least in part, the objects of
+      this holy warfare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My kinswoman to an infidel&mdash;ha!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, as his eyes
+      began to sparkle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate hastened to avert his wrath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Pope's consent must doubtless be first attained, and the holy hermit,
+      who is well known at Rome, will treat with the holy Father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&mdash;without our consent first given?&rdquo; said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely no,&rdquo; said the Bishop, in a quieting and insinuating tone of voice&mdash;&ldquo;only
+      with and under your especial sanction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My sanction to marry my kinswoman to an infidel!&rdquo; said Richard; yet he
+      spoke rather in a tone of doubt than as distinctly reprobating the measure
+      proposed. &ldquo;Could I have dreamed of such a composition when I leaped upon
+      the Syrian shore from the prow of my galley, even as a lion springs on his
+      prey! And now&mdash;But proceed&mdash;I will hear with patience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Equally delighted and surprised to find his task so much easier than he
+      had apprehended, the Archbishop hastened to pour forth before Richard the
+      instances of such alliances in Spain&mdash;not without countenance from
+      the Holy See; the incalculable advantages which all Christendom would
+      derive from the union of Richard and Saladin by a bond so sacred; and,
+      above all, he spoke with great vehemence and unction on the probability
+      that Saladin would, in case of the proposed alliance, exchange his false
+      faith for the true one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hath the Soldan shown any disposition to become Christian?&rdquo; said Richard.
+      &ldquo;If so, the king lives not on earth to whom I would grant the hand of a
+      kinswoman, ay, or sister, sooner than to my noble Saladin&mdash;ay, though
+      the one came to lay crown and sceptre at her feet, and the other had
+      nothing to offer but his good sword and better heart!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saladin hath heard our Christian teachers,&rdquo; said the Bishop, somewhat
+      evasively&mdash;&ldquo;my unworthy self, and others&mdash;and as he listens with
+      patience, and replies with calmness, it can hardly be but that he be
+      snatched as a brand from the burning. MAGNA EST VERITAS, ET PREVALEBIT!
+      moreover, the hermit of Engaddi, few of whose words have fallen fruitless
+      to the ground, is possessed fully with the belief that there is a calling
+      of the Saracens and the other heathen approaching, to which this marriage
+      shall be matter of induction. He readeth the course of the stars; and
+      dwelling, with maceration of the flesh, in those divine places which the
+      saints have trodden of old, the spirit of Elijah the Tishbite, the founder
+      of his blessed order, hath been with him as it was with the prophet
+      Elisha, the son of Shaphat, when he spread his mantle over him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard listened to the Prelate's reasoning with a downcast brow and
+      a troubled look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot tell,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;How, it is with me, but methinks these cold
+      counsels of the Princes of Christendom have infected me too with a
+      lethargy of spirit. The time hath been that, had a layman proposed such
+      alliance to me, I had struck him to earth&mdash;if a churchman, I had spit
+      at him as a renegade and priest of Baal; yet now this counsel sounds not
+      so strange in mine ear. For why should I not seek for brotherhood and
+      alliance with a Saracen, brave, just, generous&mdash;who loves and honours
+      a worthy foe, as if he were a friend&mdash;whilst the Princes of
+      Christendom shrink from the side of their allies, and forsake the cause of
+      Heaven and good knighthood? But I will possess my patience, and will not
+      think of them. Only one attempt will I make to keep this gallant
+      brotherhood together, if it be possible; and if I fail, Lord Archbishop,
+      we will speak together of thy counsel, which, as now, I neither accept nor
+      altogether reject. Wend we to the Council, my lord&mdash;the hour calls
+      us. Thou sayest Richard is hasty and proud&mdash;thou shalt see him humble
+      himself like the lowly broom-plant from which he derives his surname.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With the assistance of those of his privy chamber, the King then hastily
+      robed himself in a doublet and mantle of a dark and uniform colour; and
+      without any mark of regal dignity, excepting a ring of gold upon his head,
+      he hastened with the Archbishop of Tyre to attend the Council, which
+      waited but his presence to commence its sitting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pavilion of the Council was an ample tent, having before it the large
+      Banner of the Cross displayed, and another, on which was portrayed a
+      female kneeling, with dishevelled hair and disordered dress, meant to
+      represent the desolate and distressed Church of Jerusalem, and bearing the
+      motto, AFFLICTAE SPONSAE NE OBLIVISCARIS. Warders, carefully selected,
+      kept every one at a distance from the neighbourhood of this tent, lest the
+      debates, which were sometimes of a loud and stormy character, should reach
+      other ears than those they were designed for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, therefore, the princes of the Crusade were assembled awaiting
+      Richard's arrival. And even the brief delay which was thus interposed was
+      turned to his disadvantage by his enemies, various instances being
+      circulated of his pride and undue assumption of superiority, of which even
+      the necessity of the present short pause was quoted as an instance. Men
+      strove to fortify each other in their evil opinion of the King of England,
+      and vindicated the offence which each had taken, by putting the most
+      severe construction upon circumstances the most trifling; and all this,
+      perhaps, because they were conscious of an instinctive reverence for the
+      heroic monarch, which it would require more than ordinary efforts to
+      overcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had settled, accordingly, that they should receive him on his
+      entrance with slight notice, and no more respect than was exactly
+      necessary to keep within the bounds of cold ceremonial. But when they
+      beheld that noble form, that princely countenance, somewhat pale from his
+      late illness&mdash;the eye which had been called by minstrels the bright
+      star of battle and victory&mdash;when his feats, almost surpassing human
+      strength and valour, rushed on their recollection, the Council of Princes
+      simultaneously arose&mdash;even the jealous King of France and the sullen
+      and offended Duke of Austria&mdash;arose with one consent, and the
+      assembled princes burst forth with one voice in the acclamation, &ldquo;God save
+      King Richard of England! Long life to the valiant Lion's-heart!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a countenance frank and open as the summer sun when it rises, Richard
+      distributed his thanks around, and congratulated himself on being once
+      more among his royal brethren of the Crusade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some brief words he desired to say,&rdquo; such was his address to the
+      assembly, &ldquo;though on a subject so unworthy as himself, even at the risk of
+      delaying for a few minutes their consultations for the weal of Christendom
+      and the advancement of their holy enterprise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The assembled princes resumed their seats, and there was a profound
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This day,&rdquo; continued the King of England, &ldquo;is a high festival of the
+      church, and it well becomes Christian men, at such a tide, to reconcile
+      themselves with their brethren, and confess their faults to each other.
+      Noble princes and fathers of this holy expedition, Richard is a soldier&mdash;his
+      hand is ever readier than his tongue&mdash;and his tongue is but too much
+      used to the rough language of his trade. But do not, for Plantagenet's
+      hasty speeches and ill-considered actions, forsake the noble cause of the
+      redemption of Palestine&mdash;do not throw away earthly renown and eternal
+      salvation, to be won here if ever they can be won by man, because the act
+      of a soldier may have been hasty, and his speech as hard as the iron which
+      he has worn from childhood. Is Richard in default to any of you, Richard
+      will make compensation both by word and action.&mdash;Noble brother of
+      France, have I been so unlucky as to offend you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Majesty of France has no atonement to seek from that of England,&rdquo;
+       answered Philip, with kingly dignity, accepting, at the same time, the
+      offered hand of Richard; &ldquo;and whatever opinion I may adopt concerning the
+      prosecution of this enterprise will depend on reasons arising out of the
+      state of my own kingdom&mdash;certainly on no jealousy or disgust at my
+      royal and most valorous brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Austria,&rdquo; said Richard, walking up to the Archduke, with a mixture of
+      frankness and dignity, while Leopold arose from his seat, as if
+      involuntarily, and with the action of an automaton, whose motions depended
+      upon some external impulse&mdash;&ldquo;Austria thinks he hath reason to be
+      offended with England; England, that he hath cause to complain of Austria.
+      Let them exchange forgiveness, that the peace of Europe and the concord of
+      this host may remain unbroken. We are now joint supporters of a more
+      glorious banner than ever blazed before an earthly prince, even the Banner
+      of Salvation. Let not, therefore, strife be betwixt us for the symbol of
+      our more worldly dignities; but let Leopold restore the pennon of England,
+      if he has it in his power, and Richard will say, though from no motive
+      save his love for Holy Church, that he repents him of the hasty mood in
+      which he did insult the standard of Austria.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archduke stood still, sullen and discontented, with his eyes fixed on
+      the floor, and his countenance lowering with smothered displeasure, which
+      awe, mingled with awkwardness, prevented his giving vent to in words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Patriarch of Jerusalem hastened to break the embarrassing silence, and
+      to bear witness for the Archduke of Austria that he had exculpated
+      himself, by a solemn oath, from all knowledge, direct or indirect, of the
+      aggression done to the Banner of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we have done the noble Archduke the greater wrong,&rdquo; said Richard;
+      &ldquo;and craving his pardon for imputing to him an outrage so cowardly, we
+      extend our hand to him in token of renewed peace and amity. But how is
+      this? Austria refuses our uncovered hand, as he formerly refused our
+      mailed glove? What! are we neither to be his mate in peace nor his
+      antagonist in war? Well, let it be so. We will take the slight esteem in
+      which he holds us as a penance for aught which we may have done against
+      him in heat of blood, and will therefore hold the account between us
+      cleared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he turned from the Archduke with an air rather of dignity than
+      scorn, leaving the Austrian apparently as much relieved by the removal of
+      his eye as is a sullen and truant schoolboy when the glance of his severe
+      pedagogue is withdrawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble Earl of Champagne&mdash;princely Marquis of Montserrat&mdash;valiant
+      Grand Master of the Templars&mdash;I am here a penitent in the
+      confessional. Do any of you bring a charge or claim amends from me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know not on what we could ground any,&rdquo; said the smooth-tongued Conrade,
+      &ldquo;unless it were that the King of England carries off from his poor
+      brothers of the war all the fame which they might have hoped to gain in
+      the expedition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My charge, if I am called on to make one,&rdquo; said the Master of the
+      Templars, &ldquo;is graver and deeper than that of the Marquis of Montserrat. It
+      may be thought ill to beseem a military monk such as I to raise his voice
+      where so many noble princes remain silent; but it concerns our whole host,
+      and not least this noble King of England, that he should hear from some
+      one to his face those charges which there are enow to bring against him in
+      his absence. We laud and honour the courage and high achievements of the
+      King of England; but we feel aggrieved that he should on all occasions
+      seize and maintain a precedence and superiority over us, which it becomes
+      not independent princes to submit to. Much we might yield of our free will
+      to his bravery, his zeal, his wealth, and his power; but he who snatches
+      all as matter of right, and leaves nothing to grant out of courtesy and
+      favour, degrades us from allies into retainers and vassals, and sullies in
+      the eyes of our soldiers and subjects the lustre of our authority, which
+      is no longer independently exercised. Since the royal Richard has asked
+      the truth from us, he must neither be surprised nor angry when he hears
+      one, to whom worldly pomp is prohibited, and secular authority is nothing,
+      saving so far as it advances the prosperity of God's Temple, and the
+      prostration of the lion which goeth about seeking whom he may devour&mdash;when
+      he hears, I say, such a one as I tell him the truth in reply to his
+      question; which truth, even while I speak it, is, I know, confirmed by the
+      heart of every one who hears me, however respect may stifle their voices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard coloured very highly while the Grand Master was making this direct
+      and unvarnished attack upon his conduct, and the murmur of assent which
+      followed it showed plainly that almost all who were present acquiesced in
+      the justice of the accusation. Incensed, and at the same time mortified,
+      he yet foresaw that to give way to his headlong resentment would be to
+      give the cold and wary accuser the advantage over him which it was the
+      Templar's principal object to obtain. He therefore, with a strong effort,
+      remained silent till he had repeated a pater noster, being the course
+      which his confessor had enjoined him to pursue when anger was likely to
+      obtain dominion over him. The King then spoke with composure, though not
+      without an embittered tone, especially at the outset:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is it even so? And are our brethren at such pains to note the
+      infirmities of our natural temper, and the rough precipitance of our zeal,
+      which may sometimes have urged us to issue commands when there was little
+      time to hold council? I could not have thought that offences, casual and
+      unpremeditated like mine, could find such deep root in the hearts of my
+      allies in this most holy cause; that for my sake they should withdraw
+      their hands from the plough when the furrow was near the end&mdash;for my
+      sake turn aside from the direct path to Jerusalem, which their swords have
+      opened. I vainly thought that my small services might have outweighed my
+      rash errors&mdash;that if it were remembered that I pressed to the van in
+      an assault, it would not be forgotten that I was ever the last in the
+      retreat&mdash;that, if I elevated my banner upon conquered fields of
+      battle, it was all the advantage that I sought, while others were dividing
+      the spoil. I may have called the conquered city by my name, but it was to
+      others that I yielded the dominion. If I have been headstrong in urging
+      bold counsels, I have not, methinks, spared my own blood or my people's in
+      carrying them into as bold execution; or if I have, in the hurry of march
+      or battle, assumed a command over the soldiers of others, such have been
+      ever treated as my own when my wealth purchased the provisions and
+      medicines which their own sovereigns could not procure. But it shames me
+      to remind you of what all but myself seem to have forgotten. Let us rather
+      look forward to our future measures; and believe me, brethren,&rdquo; he
+      continued, his face kindling with eagerness, &ldquo;you shall not find the
+      pride, or the wrath, or the ambition of Richard a stumbling-block of
+      offence in the path to which religion and glory summon you as with the
+      trumpet of an archangel. Oh, no, no! never would I survive the thought
+      that my frailties and infirmities had been the means to sever this goodly
+      fellowship of assembled princes. I would cut off my left hand with my
+      right, could my doing so attest my sincerity. I will yield up,
+      voluntarily, all right to command in the host&mdash;even mine own liege
+      subjects. They shall be led by such sovereigns as you may nominate; and
+      their King, ever but too apt to exchange the leader's baton for the
+      adventurer's lance, will serve under the banner of Beau-Seant among the
+      Templars&mdash;ay, or under that of Austria, if Austria will name a brave
+      man to lead his forces. Or if ye are yourselves a-weary of this war, and
+      feel your armour chafe your tender bodies, leave but with Richard some ten
+      or fifteen thousand of your soldiers to work out the accomplishment of
+      your vow; and when Zion is won,&rdquo; he exclaimed, waving his hand aloft, as
+      if displaying the standard of the Cross over Jerusalem&mdash;&ldquo;when Zion is
+      won, we will write upon her gates, NOT the name of Richard Plantagenet,
+      but of those generous princes who entrusted him with the means of
+      conquest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rough eloquence and determined expression of the military monarch at
+      once roused the drooping spirits of the Crusaders, reanimated their
+      devotion, and, fixing their attention on the principal object of the
+      expedition, made most of them who were present blush for having been moved
+      by such petty subjects of complaint as had before engrossed them. Eye
+      caught fire from eye, voice lent courage to voice. They resumed, as with
+      one accord, the war-cry with which the sermon of Peter the Hermit was
+      echoed back, and shouted aloud, &ldquo;Lead us on, gallant Lion's-heart; none so
+      worthy to lead where brave men follow. Lead us on&mdash;to Jerusalem&mdash;to
+      Jerusalem! It is the will of God&mdash;it is the will of God! Blessed is
+      he who shall lend an arm to its fulfilment!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The shout, so suddenly and generally raised, was heard beyond the ring of
+      sentinels who guarded the pavilion of Council, and spread among the
+      soldiers of the host, who, inactive and dispirited by disease and climate,
+      had begun, like their leaders, to droop in resolution; but the
+      reappearance of Richard in renewed vigour, and the well-known shout which
+      echoed from the assembly of the princes, at once rekindled their
+      enthusiasm, and thousands and tens of thousands answered with the same
+      shout of &ldquo;Zion, Zion! War, war! Instant battle with the infidels! It is
+      the will of God&mdash;it is the will of God!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The acclamations from without increased in their turn the enthusiasm which
+      prevailed within the pavilion. Those who did not actually catch the flame
+      were afraid&mdash;at least for the time&mdash;to seem colder than others.
+      There was no more speech except of a proud advance towards Jerusalem upon
+      the expiry of the truce, and the measures to be taken in the meantime for
+      supplying and recruiting the army. The Council broke up, all apparently
+      filled with the same enthusiastic purpose&mdash;which, however, soon faded
+      in the bosom of most, and never had an existence in that of others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the latter class were the Marquis Conrade and the Grand Master of the
+      Templars, who retired together to their quarters ill at ease, and
+      malcontent with the events of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ever told it to thee,&rdquo; said the latter, with the cold, sardonic
+      expression peculiar to him, &ldquo;that Richard would burst through the flimsy
+      wiles you spread for him, as would a lion through a spider's web. Thou
+      seest he has but to speak, and his breath agitates these fickle fools as
+      easily as the whirlwind catcheth scattered straws, and sweeps them
+      together, or disperses them at its pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When the blast has passed away,&rdquo; said Conrade, &ldquo;the straws, which it made
+      dance to its pipe, will settle to earth again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But knowest thou not besides,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;that it seems, if this
+      new purpose of conquest shall be abandoned and pass away, and each mighty
+      prince shall again be left to such guidance as his own scanty brain can
+      supply, Richard may yet probably become King of Jerusalem by compact, and
+      establish those terms of treaty with the Soldan which thou thyself
+      thought'st him so likely to spurn at?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by Mahound and Termagaunt, for Christian oaths are out of fashion,&rdquo;
+       said Conrade, &ldquo;sayest thou the proud King of England would unite his blood
+      with a heathen Soldan? My policy threw in that ingredient to make the
+      whole treaty an abomination to him. As bad for us that he become our
+      master by an agreement, as by victory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy policy hath ill calculated Richard's digestion,&rdquo; answered the
+      Templar; &ldquo;I know his mind by a whisper from the Archbishop. And then thy
+      master-stroke respecting yonder banner&mdash;it has passed off with no
+      more respect than two cubits of embroidered silk merited. Marquis Conrade,
+      thy wit begins to halt; I will trust thy finespun measures no longer, but
+      will try my own. Knowest thou not the people whom the Saracens call
+      Charegites?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; answered the Marquis; &ldquo;they are desperate and besotted
+      enthusiasts, who devote their lives to the advancement of religion&mdash;-somewhat
+      like Templars, only they are never known to pause in the race of their
+      calling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jest not,&rdquo; answered the scowling monk. &ldquo;Know that one of these men has
+      set down in his bloody vow the name of the Island Emperor yonder, to be
+      hewn down as the chief enemy of the Moslem faith.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A most judicious paynim,&rdquo; said Conrade. &ldquo;May Mohammed send him his
+      paradise for a reward!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was taken in the camp by one of our squires, and in private
+      examination frankly avowed his fixed and determined purpose to me,&rdquo; said
+      the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now the heavens pardon them who prevented the purpose of this most
+      judicious Charegite!&rdquo; answered Conrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is my prisoner,&rdquo; added the Templar, &ldquo;and secluded from speech with
+      others, as thou mayest suppose; but prisons have been broken&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chains left unlocked, and captives have escaped,&rdquo; answered the Marquis.
+      &ldquo;It is an ancient saying, no sure dungeon but the grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When loose, he resumes his quest,&rdquo; continued the military priest; &ldquo;for it
+      is the nature of this sort of blood hound never to quit the suit of the
+      prey he has once scented.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say no more of it,&rdquo; said the Marquis; &ldquo;I see thy policy&mdash;it is
+      dreadful, but the emergency is imminent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only told thee of it,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;that thou mayest keep thyself
+      on thy guard; for the uproar will be dreadful, and there is no knowing on
+      whom the English may vent their rage. Ay, and there is another risk. My
+      page knows the counsels of this Charegite,&rdquo; he continued; &ldquo;and, moreover,
+      he is a peevish, self-willed fool, whom I would I were rid of, as he
+      thwarts me by presuming to see with his own eyes, not mine. But our holy
+      order gives me power to put a remedy to such inconvenience. Or stay&mdash;the
+      Saracen may find a good dagger in his cell, and I warrant you he uses it
+      as he breaks forth, which will be of a surety so soon as the page enters
+      with his food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will give the affair a colour,&rdquo; said Conrade; &ldquo;and yet&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;YET and BUT,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;are words for fools; wise men neither
+      hesitate nor retract&mdash;they resolve and they execute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     When beauty leads the lion in her toils,
+     Such are her charms, he dare not raise his mane,
+     Far less expand the terror of his fangs.
+     So great Alcides made his club a distaff,
+     And spun to please fair Omphale.
+               ANONYMOUS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Richard, the unsuspicious object of the dark treachery detailed in the
+      closing part of the last chapter, having effected, for the present at
+      least, the triumphant union of the Crusading princes in a resolution to
+      prosecute the war with vigour, had it next at heart to establish
+      tranquillity in his own family; and, now that he could judge more
+      temperately, to inquire distinctly into the circumstances leading to the
+      loss of his banner, and the nature and the extent of the connection
+      betwixt his kinswoman Edith and the banished adventurer from Scotland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, the Queen and her household were startled with a visit from
+      Sir Thomas de Vaux, requesting the present attendance of the Lady Calista
+      of Montfaucon, the Queen's principal bower-woman, upon King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What am I to say, madam?&rdquo; said the trembling attendant to the Queen, &ldquo;He
+      will slay us all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, fear not, madam,&rdquo; said De Vaux. &ldquo;His Majesty hath spared the life of
+      the Scottish knight, who was the chief offender, and bestowed him upon the
+      Moorish physician. He will not be severe upon a lady, though faulty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Devise some cunning tale, wench,&rdquo; said Berengaria. &ldquo;My husband hath too
+      little time to make inquiry into the truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell the tale as it really happened,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;lest I tell it for
+      thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With humble permission of her Majesty,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;I would say Lady
+      Edith adviseth well; for although King Richard is pleased to believe what
+      it pleases your Grace to tell him, yet I doubt his having the same
+      deference for the Lady Calista, and in this especial matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord of Gilsland is right,&rdquo; said the Lady Calista, much agitated at
+      the thoughts of the investigation which was to take place; &ldquo;and besides,
+      if I had presence of mind enough to forge a plausible story, beshrew me if
+      I think I should have the courage to tell it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In this candid humour, the Lady Calista was conducted by De Vaux to the
+      King, and made, as she had proposed, a full confession of the decoy by
+      which the unfortunate Knight of the Leopard had been induced to desert his
+      post; exculpating the Lady Edith, who, she was aware, would not fail to
+      exculpate herself, and laying the full burden on the Queen, her mistress,
+      whose share of the frolic, she well knew, would appear the most venial in
+      the eyes of Coeur de Lion. In truth, Richard was a fond, almost a uxorious
+      husband. The first burst of his wrath had long since passed away, and he
+      was not disposed severely to censure what could not now be amended. The
+      wily Lady Calista, accustomed from her earliest childhood to fathom the
+      intrigues of a court, and watch the indications of a sovereign's will,
+      hastened back to the Queen with the speed of a lapwing, charged with the
+      King's commands that she should expect a speedy visit from him; to which
+      the bower-lady added a commentary founded on her own observation, tending
+      to show that Richard meant just to preserve so much severity as might
+      bring his royal consort to repent of her frolic, and then to extend to her
+      and all concerned his gracious pardon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sits the wind in that corner, wench?&rdquo; said the Queen, much relieved by
+      this intelligence. &ldquo;Believe me that, great commander as he is, Richard
+      will find it hard to circumvent us in this matter, and that, as the
+      Pyrenean shepherds are wont to say in my native Navarre, Many a one comes
+      for wool, and goes back shorn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having possessed herself of all the information which Calista could
+      communicate, the royal Berengaria arrayed herself in her most becoming
+      dress, and awaited with confidence the arrival of the heroic Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He arrived, and found himself in the situation of a prince entering an
+      offending province, in the confidence that his business will only be to
+      inflict rebuke, and receive submission, when he unexpectedly finds it in a
+      state of complete defiance and insurrection. Berengaria well knew the
+      power of her charms and the extent of Richard's affection, and felt
+      assured that she could make her own terms good, now that the first
+      tremendous explosion of his anger had expended itself without mischief.
+      Far from listening to the King's intended rebuke, as what the levity of
+      her conduct had justly deserved, she extenuated, nay, defended as a
+      harmless frolic, that which she was accused of. She denied, indeed, with
+      many a pretty form of negation, that she had directed Nectabanus
+      absolutely to entice the knight farther than the brink of the Mount on
+      which he kept watch&mdash;and, indeed, this was so far true, that she had
+      not designed Sir Kenneth to be introduced into her tent&mdash;and then,
+      eloquent in urging her own defence, the Queen was far more so in pressing
+      upon Richard the charge of unkindness, in refusing her so poor a boon as
+      the life of an unfortunate knight, who, by her thoughtless prank, had been
+      brought within the danger of martial law. She wept and sobbed while she
+      enlarged on her husband's obduracy on this score, as a rigour which had
+      threatened to make her unhappy for life, whenever she should reflect that
+      she had given, unthinkingly, the remote cause for such a tragedy. The
+      vision of the slaughtered victim would have haunted her dreams&mdash;nay,
+      for aught she knew, since such things often happened, his actual spectre
+      might have stood by her waking couch. To all this misery of the mind was
+      she exposed by the severity of one who, while he pretended to dote upon
+      her slightest glance, would not forego one act of poor revenge, though the
+      issue was to render her miserable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this flow of female eloquence was accompanied with the usual arguments
+      of tears and sighs, and uttered with such tone and action as seemed to
+      show that the Queen's resentment arose neither from pride nor sullenness,
+      but from feelings hurt at finding her consequence with her husband less
+      than she had expected to possess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good King Richard was considerably embarrassed. He tried in vain to
+      reason with one whose very jealousy of his affection rendered her
+      incapable of listening to argument, nor could he bring himself to use the
+      restraint of lawful authority to a creature so beautiful in the midst of
+      her unreasonable displeasure. He was therefore reduced to the defensive,
+      endeavoured gently to chide her suspicions and soothe her displeasure, and
+      recalled to her mind that she need not look back upon the past with
+      recollections either of remorse or supernatural fear, since Sir Kenneth
+      was alive and well, and had been bestowed by him upon the great Arabian
+      physician, who, doubtless, of all men, knew best how to keep him living.
+      But this seemed the unkindest cut of all, and the Queen's sorrow was
+      renewed at the idea of a Saracen&mdash;a mediciner&mdash;obtaining a boon
+      for which, with bare head and on bended knee, she had petitioned her
+      husband in vain. At this new charge Richard's patience began rather to
+      give way, and he said, in a serious tone of voice, &ldquo;Berengaria, the
+      physician saved my life. If it is of value in your eyes, you will not
+      grudge him a higher recompense than the only one I could prevail on him to
+      accept.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen was satisfied she had urged her coquettish displeasure to the
+      verge of safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Richard,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;why brought you not that sage to me, that
+      England's Queen might show how she esteemed him who could save from
+      extinction the lamp of chivalry, the glory of England, and the light of
+      poor Berengaria's life and hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a word, the matrimonial dispute was ended; but, that some penalty might
+      be paid to justice, both King and Queen accorded in laying the whole blame
+      on the agent Nectabanus, who (the Queen being by this time well weary of
+      the poor dwarf's humour) was, with his royal consort Guenevra, sentenced
+      to be banished from the Court; and the unlucky dwarf only escaped a
+      supplementary whipping, from the Queen's assurances that he had already
+      sustained personal chastisement. It was decreed further that, as an envoy
+      was shortly to be dispatched to Saladin, acquainting him with the
+      resolution of the Council to resume hostilities so soon as the truce was
+      ended, and as Richard proposed to send a valuable present to the Soldan,
+      in acknowledgment of the high benefit he had derived from the services of
+      El Hakim, the two unhappy creatures should be added to it as curiosities,
+      which, from their extremely grotesque appearance, and the shattered state
+      of their intellect, were gifts that might well pass between sovereign and
+      sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard had that day yet another female encounter to sustain; but he
+      advanced to it with comparative indifference, for Edith, though beautiful
+      and highly esteemed by her royal relative&mdash;nay, although she had from
+      his unjust suspicions actually sustained the injury of which Berengaria
+      only affected to complain&mdash;still was neither Richard's wife nor
+      mistress, and he feared her reproaches less, although founded in reason,
+      than those of the Queen, though unjust and fantastical. Having requested
+      to speak with her apart, he was ushered into her apartment, adjoining that
+      of the Queen, whose two female Coptish slaves remained on their knees in
+      the most remote corner during the interview. A thin black veil extended
+      its ample folds over the tall and graceful form of the high-born maiden,
+      and she wore not upon her person any female ornament of what kind soever.
+      She arose and made a low reverence when Richard entered, resumed her seat
+      at his command, and, when he sat down beside her, waited, without uttering
+      a syllable, until he should communicate his pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, whose custom it was to be familiar with Edith, as their
+      relationship authorized, felt this reception chilling, and opened the
+      conversation with some embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our fair cousin,&rdquo; he at length said, &ldquo;is angry with us; and we own that
+      strong circumstances have induced us, without cause, to suspect her of
+      conduct alien to what we have ever known in her course of life. But while
+      we walk in this misty valley of humanity, men will mistake shadows for
+      substances. Can my fair cousin not forgive her somewhat vehement kinsman
+      Richard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can refuse forgiveness to RICHARD,&rdquo; answered Edith, &ldquo;provided Richard
+      can obtain pardon of the KING?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, my kinswoman,&rdquo; replied Coeur de Lion, &ldquo;this is all too solemn. By
+      Our Lady, such a melancholy countenance, and this ample sable veil, might
+      make men think thou wert a new-made widow, or had lost a betrothed lover,
+      at least. Cheer up! Thou hast heard, doubtless, that there is no real
+      cause for woe; why, then, keep up the form of mourning?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the departed honour of Plantagenet&mdash;for the glory which hath
+      left my father's house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard frowned. &ldquo;Departed honour! glory which hath left our house!&rdquo; he
+      repeated angrily. &ldquo;But my cousin Edith is privileged. I have judged her
+      too hastily; she has therefore a right to deem of me too harshly. But tell
+      me at least in what I have faulted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plantagenet,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;should have either pardoned an offence, or
+      punished it. It misbecomes him to assign free men, Christians, and brave
+      knights, to the fetters of the infidels. It becomes him not to compromise
+      and barter, or to grunt life under the forfeiture of liberty. To have
+      doomed the unfortunate to death might have been severity, but had a show
+      of justice; to condemn him to slavery and exile was barefaced tyranny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see, my fair cousin,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;you are of those pretty ones who
+      think an absent lover as bad as none, or as a dead one. Be patient; half a
+      score of light horsemen may yet follow and redeem the error, if thy
+      gallant have in keeping any secret which might render his death more
+      convenient than his banishment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace with thy scurrile jests!&rdquo; answered Edith, colouring deeply. &ldquo;Think,
+      rather, that for the indulgence of thy mood thou hast lopped from this
+      great enterprise one goodly limb, deprived the Cross of one of its most
+      brave supporters, and placed a servant of the true God in the hands of the
+      heathen; hast given, too, to minds as suspicious as thou hast shown thine
+      own in this matter, some right to say that Richard Coeur de Lion banished
+      the bravest soldier in his camp lest his name in battle might match his
+      own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;I!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, now indeed greatly moved&mdash;&ldquo;am I one
+      to be jealous of renown? I would he were here to profess such an equality!
+      I would waive my rank and my crown, and meet him, manlike, in the lists,
+      that it might appear whether Richard Plantagenet had room to fear or to
+      envy the prowess of mortal man. Come, Edith, thou think'st not as thou
+      sayest. Let not anger or grief for the absence of thy lover make thee
+      unjust to thy kinsman, who, notwithstanding all thy techiness, values thy
+      good report as high as that of any one living.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The absence of my lover?&rdquo; said the Lady Edith, &ldquo;But yes, he may be well
+      termed my lover, who hath paid so dear for the title. Unworthy as I might
+      be of such homage, I was to him like a light, leading him forward in the
+      noble path of chivalry; but that I forgot my rank, or that he presumed
+      beyond his, is false, were a king to speak it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My fair cousin,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;do not put words in my mouth which I have
+      not spoken. I said not you had graced this man beyond the favour which a
+      good knight may earn, even from a princess, whatever be his native
+      condition. But, by Our Lady, I know something of this love-gear. It begins
+      with mute respect and distant reverence; but when opportunities occur,
+      familiarity increases, and so&mdash;But it skills not talking with one who
+      thinks herself wiser than all the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My kinsman's counsels I willingly listen to, when they are such,&rdquo; said
+      Edith, &ldquo;as convey no insult to my rank and character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kings, my fair cousin, do not counsel, but rather command,&rdquo; said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Soldans do indeed command,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;but it is because they have
+      slaves to govern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, you might learn to lay aside this scorn of Soldanrie, when you hold
+      so high of a Scot,&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;I hold Saladin to be truer to his word
+      than this William of Scotland, who must needs be called a Lion, forsooth;
+      he hath foully faulted towards me in failing to send the auxiliary aid he
+      promised. Let me tell thee, Edith, thou mayest live to prefer a true Turk
+      to a false Scot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;never!&rdquo; answered Edith&mdash;&ldquo;not should Richard himself embrace
+      the false religion, which he crossed the seas to expel from Palestine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou wilt have the last word,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;and thou shalt have it.
+      Even think of me what thou wilt, pretty Edith. I shall not forget that we
+      are near and dear cousins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he took his leave in fair fashion, but very little satisfied
+      with the result of his visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the fourth day after Sir Kenneth had been dismissed from the camp,
+      and King Richard sat in his pavilion, enjoying an evening breeze from the
+      west, which, with unusual coolness on her wings, seemed breathed from
+      merry England for the refreshment of her adventurous Monarch, as he was
+      gradually recovering the full strength which was necessary to carry on his
+      gigantic projects. There was no one with him, De Vaux having been sent to
+      Ascalon to bring up reinforcements and supplies of military munition, and
+      most of his other attendants being occupied in different departments, all
+      preparing for the re-opening of hostilities, and for a grand preparatory
+      review of the army of the Crusaders, which was to take place the next day.
+      The King sat listening to the busy hum among the soldiery, the clatter
+      from the forges, where horseshoes were preparing, and from the tents of
+      the armourers, who were repairing harness. The voice of the soldiers, too,
+      as they passed and repassed, was loud and cheerful, carrying with its very
+      tone an assurance of high and excited courage, and an omen of approaching
+      victory. While Richard's ear drank in these sounds with delight, and while
+      he yielded himself to the visions of conquest and of glory which they
+      suggested, an equerry told him that a messenger from Saladin waited
+      without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admit him instantly,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;and with due honour, Josceline.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The English knight accordingly introduced a person, apparently of no
+      higher rank than a Nubian slave, whose appearance was nevertheless highly
+      interesting. He was of superb stature and nobly formed, and his commanding
+      features, although almost jet-black, showed nothing of negro descent. He
+      wore over his coal-black locks a milk-white turban, and over his shoulders
+      a short mantle of the same colour, open in front and at the sleeves, under
+      which appeared a doublet of dressed leopard's skin reaching within a
+      handbreadth of the knee. The rest of his muscular limbs, both legs and
+      arms, were bare, excepting that he had sandals on his feet, and wore a
+      collar and bracelets of silver. A straight broadsword, with a handle of
+      box-wood and a sheath covered with snakeskin, was suspended from his
+      waist. In his right hand he held a short javelin, with a broad, bright
+      steel head, of a span in length, and in his left he led by a leash of
+      twisted silk and gold a large and noble staghound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The messenger prostrated himself, at the same time partially uncovering
+      his shoulders, in sign of humiliation, and having touched the earth with
+      his forehead, arose so far as to rest on one knee, while he delivered to
+      the King a silken napkin, enclosing another of cloth of gold, within which
+      was a letter from Saladin in the original Arabic, with a translation into
+      Norman-English, which may be modernized thus:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saladin, King of Kings, to Melech Ric, the Lion of England. Whereas, we
+      are informed by thy last message that thou hast chosen war rather than
+      peace, and our enmity rather than our friendship, we account thee as one
+      blinded in this matter, and trust shortly to convince thee of thine error,
+      by the help of our invincible forces of the thousand tribes, when
+      Mohammed, the Prophet of God, and Allah, the God of the Prophet, shall
+      judge the controversy betwixt us. In what remains, we make noble account
+      of thee, and of the gifts which thou hast sent us, and of the two dwarfs,
+      singular in their deformity as Ysop, and mirthful as the lute of Isaack.
+      And in requital of these tokens from the treasure-house of thy bounty,
+      behold we have sent thee a Nubian slave, named Zohauk, of whom judge not
+      by his complexion, according to the foolish ones of the earth, in respect
+      the dark-rinded fruit hath the most exquisite flavour. Know that he is
+      strong to execute the will of his master, as Rustan of Zablestan; also he
+      is wise to give counsel when thou shalt learn to hold communication with
+      him, for the Lord of Speech hath been stricken with silence betwixt the
+      ivory walls of his palace. We commend him to thy care, hoping the hour may
+      not be distant when he may render thee good service. And herewith we bid
+      thee farewell; trusting that our most holy Prophet may yet call thee to a
+      sight of the truth, failing which illumination, our desire is for the
+      speedy restoration of thy royal health, that Allah may judge between thee
+      and us in a plain field of battle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the missive was sanctioned by the signature and seal of the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard surveyed the Nubian in silence as he stood before him, his looks
+      bent upon the ground, his arms folded on his bosom, with the appearance of
+      a black marble statue of the most exquisite workmanship, waiting life from
+      the touch of a Prometheus. The King of England, who, as it was
+      emphatically said of his successor Henry the Eighth, loved to look upon A
+      MAN, was well pleased with the thews, sinews, and symmetry of him whom he
+      now surveyed, and questioned him in the lingua franca, &ldquo;Art thou a pagan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave shook his head, and raising his finger to his brow, crossed
+      himself in token of his Christianity, then resumed his posture of
+      motionless humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Nubian Christian, doubtless,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;and mutilated of the organ
+      of speech by these heathen dogs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute again slowly shook his head, in token of negative, pointed with
+      his forefinger to Heaven, and then laid it upon his own lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand thee,&rdquo; said Richard; &ldquo;thou dost suffer under the infliction
+      of God, not by the cruelty of man. Canst thou clean an armour and belt,
+      and buckle it in time of need?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute nodded, and stepping towards the coat of mail, which hung with
+      the shield and helmet of the chivalrous monarch upon the pillar of the
+      tent, he handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently to show
+      that he fully understood the business of an armour-bearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art an apt, and wilt doubtless be a useful knave. Thou shalt wait in
+      my chamber, and on my person,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;to show how much I value
+      the gift of the royal Soldan. If thou hast no tongue, it follows thou
+      canst carry no tales, neither provoke me to be sudden by any unfit reply.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian again prostrated himself till his brow touched the earth, then
+      stood erect, at some paces distant, as waiting for his new master's
+      commands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, thou shalt commence thy office presently,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;for I see
+      a speck of rust darkening on that shield; and when I shake it in the face
+      of Saladin, it should be bright and unsullied as the Soldan's honour and
+      mine own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A horn was winded without, and presently Sir Henry Neville entered with a
+      packet of dispatches. &ldquo;From England, my lord,&rdquo; he said, as he delivered
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From England&mdash;our own England!&rdquo; repeated Richard, in a tone of
+      melancholy enthusiasm. &ldquo;Alas! they little think how hard their Sovereign
+      has been beset by sickness and sorrow&mdash;faint friends and forward
+      enemies.&rdquo; Then opening the dispatches, he said hastily, &ldquo;Ha! this comes
+      from no peaceful land&mdash;they too have their feuds. Neville, begone; I
+      must peruse these tidings alone, and at leisure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neville withdrew accordingly, and Richard was soon absorbed in the
+      melancholy details which had been conveyed to him from England, concerning
+      the factions that were tearing to pieces his native dominions&mdash;the
+      disunion of his brothers John and Geoffrey, and the quarrels of both with
+      the High Justiciary Longchamp, Bishop of Ely&mdash;the oppressions
+      practised by the nobles upon the peasantry, and rebellion of the latter
+      against their masters, which had produced everywhere scenes of discord,
+      and in some instances the effusion of blood. Details of incidents
+      mortifying to his pride, and derogatory from his authority, were
+      intermingled with the earnest advice of his wisest and most attached
+      counsellors that he should presently return to England, as his presence
+      offered the only hope of saving the Kingdom from all the horrors of civil
+      discord, of which France and Scotland were likely to avail themselves.
+      Filled with the most painful anxiety, Richard read, and again read, the
+      ill-omened letters; compared the intelligence which some of them contained
+      with the same facts as differently stated in others; and soon became
+      totally insensible to whatever was passing around him, although seated,
+      for the sake of coolness, close to the entrance of his tent, and having
+      the curtains withdrawn, so that he could see and be seen by the guards and
+      others who were stationed without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deeper in the shadow of the pavilion, and busied with the task his new
+      master had imposed, sat the Nubian slave, with his back rather turned
+      towards the King. He had finished adjusting and cleaning the hauberk and
+      brigandine, and was now busily employed on a broad pavesse, or buckler, of
+      unusual size, and covered with steel-plating, which Richard often used in
+      reconnoitring, or actually storming fortified places, as a more effectual
+      protection against missile weapons than the narrow triangular shield used
+      on horseback. This pavesse bore neither the royal lions of England, nor
+      any other device, to attract the observation of the defenders of the walls
+      against which it was advanced; the care, therefore, of the armourer was
+      addressed to causing its surface to shine as bright as crystal, in which
+      he seemed to be peculiarly successful. Beyond the Nubian, and scarce
+      visible from without, lay the large dog, which might be termed his brother
+      slave, and which, as if he felt awed by being transferred to a royal
+      owner, was couched close to the side of the mute, with head and ears on
+      the ground, and his limbs and tail drawn close around and under him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Monarch and his new attendant were thus occupied, another actor
+      crept upon the scene, and mingled among the group of English yeomen, about
+      a score of whom, respecting the unusually pensive posture and close
+      occupation of their Sovereign, were, contrary to their wont, keeping a
+      silent guard in front of his tent. It was not, however, more vigilant than
+      usual. Some were playing at games of hazard with small pebbles, others
+      spoke together in whispers of the approaching day of battle, and several
+      lay asleep, their bulky limbs folded in their green mantles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amid these careless warders glided the puny form of a little old Turk,
+      poorly dressed like a marabout or santon of the desert&mdash;a sort of
+      enthusiasts, who sometimes ventured into the camp of the Crusaders, though
+      treated always with contumely, and often with violence. Indeed, the luxury
+      and profligate indulgence of the Christian leaders had occasioned a motley
+      concourse in their tents of musicians, courtesans, Jewish merchants,
+      Copts, Turks, and all the varied refuse of the Eastern nations; so that
+      the caftan and turban, though to drive both from the Holy Land was the
+      professed object of the expedition, were, nevertheless, neither an
+      uncommon nor an alarming sight in the camp of the Crusaders. When,
+      however, the little insignificant figure we have described approached so
+      nigh as to receive some interruption from the warders, he dashed his dusky
+      green turban from his head, showed that his beard and eyebrows were shaved
+      like those of a professed buffoon, and that the expression of his
+      fantastic and writhen features, as well as of his little black eyes, which
+      glittered like jet, was that of a crazed imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dance, marabout,&rdquo; cried the soldiers, acquainted with the manners of
+      these wandering enthusiasts, &ldquo;dance, or we will scourge thee with our
+      bow-strings till thou spin as never top did under schoolboy's lash.&rdquo; Thus
+      shouted the reckless warders, as much delighted at having a subject to
+      tease as a child when he catches a butterfly, or a schoolboy upon
+      discovering a bird's nest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marabout, as if happy to do their behests, bounded from the earth, and
+      spun his giddy round before them with singular agility, which, when
+      contrasted with his slight and wasted figure, and diminutive appearance,
+      made him resemble a withered leaf twirled round and round at the pleasure
+      of the winter's breeze. His single lock of hair streamed upwards from his
+      bald and shaven head, as if some genie upheld him by it; and indeed it
+      seemed as if supernatural art were necessary to the execution of the wild,
+      whirling dance, in which scarce the tiptoe of the performer was seen to
+      touch the ground. Amid the vagaries of his performance he flew here and
+      there, from one spot to another, still approaching, however, though almost
+      imperceptibly, to the entrance of the royal tent; so that, when at length
+      he sunk exhausted on the earth, after two or three bounds still higher
+      than those which he had yet executed, he was not above thirty yards from
+      the King's person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give him water,&rdquo; said one yeoman; &ldquo;they always crave a drink after their
+      merry-go-round.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aha, water, sayest thou, Long Allen?&rdquo; exclaimed another archer, with a
+      most scornful emphasis on the despised element; &ldquo;how wouldst like such
+      beverage thyself, after such a morrice dancing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil a water-drop he gets here,&rdquo; said a third. &ldquo;We will teach the
+      light-footed old infidel to be a good Christian, and drink wine of
+      Cyprus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay,&rdquo; said a fourth; &ldquo;and in case he be restive, fetch thou Dick
+      Hunter's horn, that he drenches his mare withal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A circle was instantly formed around the prostrate and exhausted dervise,
+      and while one tall yeoman raised his feeble form from the ground, another
+      presented to him a huge flagon of wine. Incapable of speech, the old man
+      shook his head, and waved away from him with his hand the liquor forbidden
+      by the Prophet. But his tormentors were not thus to be appeased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The horn, the horn!&rdquo; exclaimed one. &ldquo;Little difference between a Turk and
+      a Turkish horse, and we will use him conforming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Saint George, you will choke him!&rdquo; said Long Allen; &ldquo;and besides, it
+      is a sin to throw away upon a heathen dog as much wine as would serve a
+      good Christian for a treble night-cap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou knowest not the nature of these Turks and pagans, Long Allen,&rdquo;
+       replied Henry Woodstall. &ldquo;I tell thee, man, that this flagon of Cyprus
+      will set his brains a-spinning, just in the opposite direction that they
+      went whirling in the dancing, and so bring him, as it were, to himself
+      again. Choke? He will no more choke on it than Ben's black bitch on the
+      pound of butter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for grudging it,&rdquo; said Tomalin Blacklees, &ldquo;why shouldst thou grudge
+      the poor paynim devil a drop of drink on earth, since thou knowest he is
+      not to have a drop to cool the tip of his tongue through a long eternity?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That were hard laws, look ye,&rdquo; said Long Allen, &ldquo;only for being a Turk,
+      as his father was before him. Had he been Christian turned heathen, I
+      grant you the hottest corner had been good winter quarters for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold thy peace, Long Allen,&rdquo; said Henry Woodstall. &ldquo;I tell thee that
+      tongue of thine is not the shortest limb about thee, and I prophesy that
+      it will bring thee into disgrace with Father Francis, as once about the
+      black-eyed Syrian wench. But here comes the horn. Be active a bit, man,
+      wilt thou, and just force open his teeth with the haft of thy
+      dudgeon-dagger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold, hold&mdash;he is conformable,&rdquo; said Tomalin; &ldquo;see, see, he signs
+      for the goblet&mdash;give him room, boys! OOP SEY ES, quoth the Dutchman&mdash;down
+      it goes like lamb's-wool! Nay, they are true topers when once they begin&mdash;your
+      Turk never coughs in his cup, or stints in his liquoring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, the dervise, or whatever he was, drank&mdash;or at least seemed
+      to drink&mdash;the large flagon to the very bottom at a single pull; and
+      when he took it from his lips after the whole contents were exhausted,
+      only uttered, with a deep sigh, the words, ALLAH KERIM, or God is
+      merciful. There was a laugh among the yeomen who witnessed this
+      pottle-deep potation, so obstreperous as to rouse and disturb the King,
+      who, raising his finger, said angrily, &ldquo;How, knaves, no respect, no
+      observance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All were at once hushed into silence, well acquainted with the temper of
+      Richard, which at some times admitted of much military familiarity, and at
+      others exacted the most precise respect, although the latter humour was of
+      much more rare occurrence. Hastening to a more reverent distance from the
+      royal person, they attempted to drag along with them the marabout, who,
+      exhausted apparently by previous fatigue, or overpowered by the potent
+      draught he had just swallowed, resisted being moved from the spot, both
+      with struggles and groans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave him still, ye fools,&rdquo; whispered Long Allen to his mates; &ldquo;by Saint
+      Christopher, you will make our Dickon go beside himself, and we shall have
+      his dagger presently fly at our costards. Leave him alone; in less than a
+      minute he will sleep like a dormouse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same moment the Monarch darted another impatient glance to the
+      spot, and all retreated in haste, leaving the dervise on the ground,
+      unable, as it seemed, to stir a single limb or joint of his body. In a
+      moment afterward all was as still and quiet as it had been before the
+      intrusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &mdash;and wither'd Murder,
+     Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
+     Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
+     With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
+     Moves like a ghost.
+                MACBETH.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      For the space of a quarter of an hour, or longer, after the incident
+      related, all remained perfectly quiet in the front of the royal
+      habitation. The King read and mused in the entrance of his pavilion;
+      behind, and with his back turned to the same entrance, the Nubian slave
+      still burnished the ample pavesse; in front of all, at a hundred paces
+      distant, the yeomen of the guard stood, sat, or lay extended on the grass,
+      attentive to their own sports, but pursuing them in silence, while on the
+      esplanade betwixt them and the front of the tent lay, scarcely to be
+      distinguished from a bundle of rags, the senseless form of the marabout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Nubian had the advantage of a mirror from the brilliant reflection
+      which the surface of the highly-polished shield now afforded, by means of
+      which he beheld, to his alarm and surprise, that the marabout raised his
+      head gently from the ground, so as to survey all around him, moving with a
+      well-adjusted precaution which seemed entirely inconsistent with a state
+      of ebriety. He couched his head instantly, as if satisfied he was
+      unobserved, and began, with the slightest possible appearance of voluntary
+      effort, to drag himself, as if by chance, ever nearer and nearer to the
+      King, but stopping and remaining fixed at intervals, like the spider,
+      which, moving towards her object, collapses into apparent lifelessness
+      when she thinks she is the subject of observation. This species of
+      movement appeared suspicious to the Ethiopian, who, on his part, prepared
+      himself, as quietly as possible, to interfere, the instant that
+      interference should seem to be necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marabout, meanwhile, glided on gradually and imperceptibly,
+      serpent-like, or rather snail-like, till he was about ten yards distant
+      from Richard's person, when, starting on his feet, he sprung forward with
+      the bound of a tiger, stood at the King's back in less than an instant,
+      and brandished aloft the cangiar, or poniard, which he had hidden in his
+      sleeve. Not the presence of his whole army could have saved their heroic
+      Monarch; but the motions of the Nubian had been as well calculated as
+      those of the enthusiast, and ere the latter could strike, the former
+      caught his uplifted arm. Turning his fanatical wrath upon what thus
+      unexpectedly interposed betwixt him and his object, the Charegite, for
+      such was the seeming marabout, dealt the Nubian a blow with the dagger,
+      which, however, only grazed his arm, while the far superior strength of
+      the Ethiopian easily dashed him to the ground. Aware of what had passed,
+      Richard had now arisen, and with little more of surprise, anger, or
+      interest of any kind in his countenance than an ordinary man would show in
+      brushing off and crushing an intrusive wasp, caught up the stool on which
+      he had been sitting, and exclaiming only, &ldquo;Ha, dog!&rdquo; dashed almost to
+      pieces the skull of the assassin, who uttered twice, once in a loud, and
+      once in a broken tone, the words ALLAH ACKBAR!&mdash;God is victorious&mdash;and
+      expired at the King's feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye are careful warders,&rdquo; said Richard to his archers, in a tone of
+      scornful reproach, as, aroused by the bustle of what had passed, in terror
+      and tumult they now rushed into his tent; &ldquo;watchful sentinels ye are, to
+      leave me to do such hangman's work with my own hand. Be silent, all of
+      you, and cease your senseless clamour!&mdash;saw ye never a dead Turk
+      before? Here, cast that carrion out of the camp, strike the head from the
+      trunk, and stick it on a lance, taking care to turn the face to Mecca,
+      that he may the easier tell the foul impostor on whose inspiration he came
+      hither how he has sped on his errand.&mdash;For thee, my swart and silent
+      friend,&rdquo; he added, turning to the Ethiopian&mdash;&ldquo;but how's this? Thou
+      art wounded&mdash;and with a poisoned weapon, I warrant me, for by force
+      of stab so weak an animal as that could scarce hope to do more than raze
+      the lion's hide.&mdash;Suck the poison from his wound one of you&mdash;the
+      venom is harmless on the lips, though fatal when it mingles with the
+      blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The yeomen looked on each other confusedly and with hesitation, the
+      apprehension of so strange a danger prevailing with those who feared no
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How now, sirrahs,&rdquo; continued the King, &ldquo;are you dainty-lipped, or do you
+      fear death, that you daily thus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the death of a man,&rdquo; said Long Allen, to whom the King looked as he
+      spoke; &ldquo;but methinks I would not die like a poisoned rat for the sake of a
+      black chattel there, that is bought and sold in a market like a Martlemas
+      ox.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His Grace speaks to men of sucking poison,&rdquo; muttered another yeoman, &ldquo;as
+      if he said, 'Go to, swallow a gooseberry!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;I never bade man do that which I would not do
+      myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And without further ceremony, and in spite of the general expostulations
+      of those around, and the respectful opposition of the Nubian himself, the
+      King of England applied his lips to the wound of the black slave, treating
+      with ridicule all remonstrances, and overpowering all resistance. He had
+      no sooner intermitted his singular occupation, than the Nubian started
+      from him, and casting a scarf over his arm, intimated by gestures, as firm
+      in purpose as they were respectful in manner, his determination not to
+      permit the Monarch to renew so degrading an employment. Long Allen also
+      interposed, saying that, if it were necessary to prevent the King engaging
+      again in a treatment of this kind, his own lips, tongue, and teeth were at
+      the service of the negro (as he called the Ethiopian), and that he would
+      eat him up bodily, rather than King Richard's mouth should again approach
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neville, who entered with other officers, added his remonstrances.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+&ldquo;Nay, nay, make not a needless halloo about a hart that the hounds have
+lost, or a danger when it is over,&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;The wound will be a
+trifle, for the blood is scarce drawn&mdash;an angry cat had dealt a deeper
+scratch. And for me, I have but to take a drachm of orvietan by way of
+precaution, though it is needless.&rdquo;
+
+ Thus spoke Richard, a little ashamed, perhaps, of his own
+condescension, though sanctioned both by humanity and gratitude. But
+when Neville continued to make remonstrances on the peril to his royal
+person, the King imposed silence on him.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, I prithee&mdash;make no more of it. I did it but to show these
+      ignorant, prejudiced knaves how they might help each other when these
+      cowardly caitiffs come against us with sarbacanes and poisoned shafts.
+      But,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;take thee this Nubian to thy quarters, Neville&mdash;I
+      have changed my mind touching him&mdash;let him be well cared for. But
+      hark in thine ear; see that he escapes thee not&mdash;there is more in him
+      than seems. Let him have all liberty, so that he leave not the camp.&mdash;And
+      you, ye beef-devouring, wine-swilling English mastiffs, get ye to your
+      guard again, and be sure you keep it more warily. Think not you are now in
+      your own land of fair play, where men speak before they strike, and shake
+      hands ere they cut throats. Danger in our land walks openly, and with his
+      blade drawn, and defies the foe whom he means to assault; but here he
+      challenges you with a silk glove instead of a steel gauntlet, cuts your
+      throat with the feather of a turtle-dove, stabs you with the tongue of a
+      priest's brooch, or throttles you with the lace of my lady's boddice. Go
+      to&mdash;keep your eyes open and your mouths shut&mdash;drink less, and
+      look sharper about you; or I will place your huge stomachs on such short
+      allowance as would pinch the stomach of a patient Scottish man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The yeomen, abashed and mortified, withdrew to their post, and Neville was
+      beginning to remonstrate with his master upon the risk of passing over
+      thus slightly their negligence upon their duty, and the propriety of an
+      example in a case so peculiarly aggravated as the permitting one so
+      suspicious as the marabout to approach within dagger's length of his
+      person, when Richard interrupted him with, &ldquo;Speak not of it, Neville&mdash;wouldst
+      thou have me avenge a petty risk to myself more severely than the loss of
+      England's banner? It has been stolen&mdash;stolen by a thief, or delivered
+      up by a traitor, and no blood has been shed for it.&mdash;My sable friend,
+      thou art an expounder of mysteries, saith the illustrious Soldan&mdash;now
+      would I give thee thine own weight in gold, if, by raising one still
+      blacker than thyself or by what other means thou wilt, thou couldst show
+      me the thief who did mine honour that wrong. What sayest thou, ha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute seemed desirous to speak, but uttered only that imperfect sound
+      proper to his melancholy condition; then folded his arms, looked on the
+      King with an eye of intelligence, and nodded in answer to his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How!&rdquo; said Richard, with joyful impatience. &ldquo;Wilt thou undertake to make
+      discovery in this matter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian slave repeated the same motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how shall we understand each other?&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;Canst thou
+      write, good fellow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave again nodded in assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give him writing-tools,&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;They were readier in my father's
+      tent than mine; but they be somewhere about, if this scorching climate
+      have not dried up the ink.&mdash;Why, this fellow is a jewel&mdash;a black
+      diamond, Neville.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So please you, my liege,&rdquo; said Neville, &ldquo;if I might speak my poor mind,
+      it were ill dealing in this ware. This man must be a wizard, and wizards
+      deal with the Enemy, who hath most interest to sow tares among the wheat,
+      and bring dissension into our councils, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, Neville,&rdquo; said Richard. &ldquo;Hello to your northern hound when he is
+      close on the haunch of the deer, and hope to recall him, but seek not to
+      stop Plantagenet when he hath hope to retrieve his honour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave, who during this discussion had been writing, in which art he
+      seemed skilful, now arose, and pressing what he had written to his brow,
+      prostrated himself as usual, ere he delivered it into the King's hands.
+      The scroll was in French, although their intercourse had hitherto been
+      conducted by Richard in the lingua franca.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Richard, the conquering and invincible King of England, this from the
+      humblest of his slaves. Mysteries are the sealed caskets of Heaven, but
+      wisdom may devise means to open the lock. Were your slave stationed where
+      the leaders of the Christian host were made to pass before him in order,
+      doubt nothing that if he who did the injury whereof my King complains
+      shall be among the number, he may be made manifest in his iniquity, though
+      it be hidden under seven veils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, by Saint George!&rdquo; said King Richard, &ldquo;thou hast spoken most
+      opportunely.&mdash;Neville, thou knowest that when we muster our troops
+      to-morrow the princes have agreed that, to expiate the affront offered to
+      England in the theft of her banner, the leaders should pass our new
+      standard as it floats on Saint George's Mount, and salute it with formal
+      regard. Believe me, the secret traitor will not dare to absent himself
+      from an expurgation so solemn, lest his very absence should be matter of
+      suspicion. There will we place our sable man of counsel, and if his art
+      can detect the villain, leave me to deal with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My liege,&rdquo; said Neville, with the frankness of an English baron, &ldquo;beware
+      what work you begin. Here is the concord of our holy league unexpectedly
+      renewed&mdash;will you, upon such suspicion as a negro slave can instil,
+      tear open wounds so lately closed? Or will you use the solemn procession,
+      adopted for the reparation of your honour and establishment of unanimity
+      amongst the discording princes, as the means of again finding out new
+      cause of offence, or reviving ancient quarrels? It were scarce too strong
+      to say this were a breach of the declaration your Grace made to the
+      assembled Council of the Crusade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neville,&rdquo; said the King, sternly interrupting him, &ldquo;thy zeal makes thee
+      presumptuous and unmannerly. Never did I promise to abstain from taking
+      whatever means were most promising to discover the infamous author of the
+      attack on my honour. Ere I had done so, I would have renounced my kingdom,
+      my life. All my declarations were under this necessary and absolute
+      qualification;&mdash;only, if Austria had stepped forth and owned the
+      injury like a man, I proffered, for the sake of Christendom, to have
+      forgiven HIM.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; continued the baron anxiously, &ldquo;what hope that this juggling slave
+      of Saladin will not palter with your Grace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, Neville,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;thou thinkest thyself mighty wise, and
+      art but a fool. Mind thou my charge touching this fellow; there is more in
+      him than thy Westmoreland wit can fathom.&mdash;And thou, smart and
+      silent, prepare to perform the feat thou hast promised, and, by the word
+      of a King, thou shalt choose thine own recompense.&mdash;Lo, he writes
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute accordingly wrote and delivered to the King, with the same form
+      as before, another slip of paper, containing these words, &ldquo;The will of the
+      King is the law to his slave; nor doth it become him to ask guerdon for
+      discharge of his devoir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;GUERDON and DEVOIR!&rdquo; said the King, interrupting himself as he read, and
+      speaking to Neville in the English tongue with some emphasis on the words.
+      &ldquo;These Eastern people will profit by the Crusaders&mdash;they are
+      acquiring the language of chivalry! And see, Neville, how discomposed that
+      fellow looks! were it not for his colour he would blush. I should not
+      think it strange if he understood what I say&mdash;they are perilous
+      linguists.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor slave cannot endure your Grace's eye,&rdquo; said Neville; &ldquo;it is
+      nothing more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but,&rdquo; continued the King, striking the paper with his finger as he
+      proceeded, &ldquo;this bold scroll proceeds to say that our trusty mute is
+      charged with a message from Saladin to the Lady Edith Plantagenet, and
+      craves means and opportunity to deliver it. What thinkest thou of a
+      request so modest&mdash;ha, Neville?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot say,&rdquo; said Neville, &ldquo;how such freedom may relish with your
+      Grace; but the lease of the messenger's neck would be a short one, who
+      should carry such a request to the Soldan on the part of your Majesty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I thank Heaven that I covet none of his sunburnt beauties,&rdquo; said
+      Richard; &ldquo;and for punishing this fellow for discharging his master's
+      errand, and that when he has just saved my life&mdash;methinks it were
+      something too summary. I'll tell thee, Neville, a secret; for although our
+      sable and mute minister be present, he cannot, thou knowest, tell it over
+      again, even if he should chance to understand us. I tell thee that, for
+      this fortnight past, I have been under a strange spell, and I would I were
+      disenchanted. There has no sooner any one done me good service, but, lo
+      you, he cancels his interest in me by some deep injury; and, on the other
+      hand, he who hath deserved death at my hands for some treachery or some
+      insult, is sure to be the very person of all others who confers upon me
+      some obligation that overbalances his demerits, and renders respite of his
+      sentence a debt due from my honour. Thus, thou seest, I am deprived of the
+      best part of my royal function, since I can neither punish men nor reward
+      them. Until the influence of this disqualifying planet be passed away, I
+      will say nothing concerning the request of this our sable attendant, save
+      that it is an unusually bold one, and that his best chance of finding
+      grace in our eyes will be to endeavour to make the discovery which he
+      proposes to achieve in our behalf. Meanwhile, Neville, do thou look well
+      to him, and let him be honourably cared for. And hark thee once more,&rdquo; he
+      said, in a low whisper, &ldquo;seek out yonder hermit of Engaddi, and bring him
+      to me forthwith, be he saint or savage, madman or sane. Let me see him
+      privately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neville retired from the royal tent, signing to the Nubian to follow him,
+      and much surprised at what he had seen and heard, and especially at the
+      unusual demeanour of the King. In general, no task was so easy as to
+      discover Richard's immediate course of sentiment and feeling, though it
+      might, in some cases, be difficult to calculate its duration; for no
+      weathercock obeyed the changing wind more readily than the King his gusts
+      of passion. But on the present occasion his manner seemed unusually
+      constrained and mysterious; nor was it easy to guess whether displeasure
+      or kindness predominated in his conduct towards his new dependant, or in
+      the looks with which, from time to time, he regarded him. The ready
+      service which the King had rendered to counteract the bad effects of the
+      Nubian's wound might seem to balance the obligation conferred on him by
+      the slave when he intercepted the blow of the assassin; but it seemed, as
+      a much longer account remained to be arranged between them, that the
+      Monarch was doubtful whether the settlement might leave him, upon the
+      whole, debtor or creditor, and that, therefore, he assumed in the meantime
+      a neutral demeanour, which might suit with either character. As for the
+      Nubian, by whatever means he had acquired the art of writing the European
+      languages, the King remained convinced that the English tongue at least
+      was unknown to him, since, having watched him closely during the last part
+      of the interview, he conceived it impossible for any one understanding a
+      conversation, of which he was himself the subject, to have so completely
+      avoided the appearance of taking an interest in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Who's there!&mdash;Approach&mdash;'tis kindly done&mdash;
+     My learned physician and a friend.
+              SIR EUSTACE GREY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Our narrative retrogrades to a period shortly previous to the incidents
+      last mentioned, when, as the reader must remember, the unfortunate Knight
+      of the Leopard, bestowed upon the Arabian physician by King Richard,
+      rather as a slave than in any other capacity, was exiled from the camp of
+      the Crusaders, in whose ranks he had so often and so brilliantly
+      distinguished himself. He followed his new master&mdash;for so he must now
+      term the Hakim&mdash;to the Moorish tents which contained his retinue and
+      his property, with the stupefied feelings of one who, fallen from the
+      summit of a precipice, and escaping unexpectedly with life, is just able
+      to drag himself from the fatal spot, but without the power of estimating
+      the extent of the damage which he has sustained. Arrived at the tent, he
+      threw himself, without speech of any kind, upon a couch of dressed
+      buffalo's hide, which was pointed out to him by his conductor, and hiding
+      his face betwixt his hands, groaned heavily, as if his heart were on the
+      point of bursting. The physician heard him, as he was giving orders to his
+      numerous domestics to prepare for their departure the next morning before
+      daybreak, and, moved with compassion, interrupted his occupation to sit
+      down, cross-legged, by the side of his couch, and administer comfort
+      according to the Oriental manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;be of good comfort; for what saith the poet&mdash;it
+      is better that a man should be the servant of a kind master than the slave
+      of his own wild passions. Again, be of good courage; because, whereas
+      Ysouf Ben Yagoube was sold to a king by his brethren, even to Pharaoh,
+      King of Egypt, thy king hath, on the other hand, bestowed thee on one who
+      will be to thee as a brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth made an effort to thank the Hakim, but his heart was too full,
+      and the indistinct sounds which accompanied his abortive attempts to reply
+      induced the kind physician to desist from his premature endeavours at
+      consolation. He left his new domestic, or guest, in quiet, to indulge his
+      sorrows, and having commanded all the necessary preparations for their
+      departure on the morning, sat down upon the carpet of the tent, and
+      indulged himself in a moderate repast. After he had thus refreshed
+      himself, similar viands were offered to the Scottish knight; but though
+      the slaves let him understand that the next day would be far advanced ere
+      they would halt for the purpose of refreshment, Sir Kenneth could not
+      overcome the disgust which he felt against swallowing any nourishment, and
+      could be prevailed upon to taste nothing, saving a draught of cold water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was awake long after his Arab host had performed his usual devotions
+      and betaken himself to his repose; nor had sleep visited him at the hour
+      of midnight, when a movement took place among the domestics, which, though
+      attended with no speech, and very little noise, made him aware they were
+      loading the camels and preparing for departure. In the course of these
+      preparations, the last person who was disturbed, excepting the physician
+      himself, was the knight of Scotland, whom, about three in the morning, a
+      sort of major-domo, or master of the household, acquainted that he must
+      arise. He did so, without further answer, and followed him into the
+      moonlight, where stood the camels, most of which were already loaded, and
+      one only remained kneeling until its burden should be completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little apart from the camels stood a number of horses ready bridled and
+      saddled, and the Hakim himself, coming forth, mounted on one of them with
+      as much agility as the grave decorum of his character permitted, and
+      directed another, which he pointed out, to be led towards Sir Kenneth. An
+      English officer was in attendance, to escort them through the camp of the
+      Crusaders, and to ensure their leaving it in safety; and all was ready for
+      their departure. The pavilion which they had left was, in the meanwhile,
+      struck with singular dispatch, and the tent-poles and coverings composed
+      the burden of the last camel&mdash;when the physician, pronouncing
+      solemnly the verse of the Koran, &ldquo;God be our guide, and Mohammed our
+      protector, in the desert as in the watered field,&rdquo; the whole cavalcade was
+      instantly in motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In traversing the camp, they were challenged by the various sentinels who
+      maintained guard there, and suffered to proceed in silence, or with a
+      muttered curse upon their prophet, as they passed the post of some more
+      zealous Crusader. At length the last barriers were left behind them, and
+      the party formed themselves for the march with military precaution. Two or
+      three horsemen advanced in front as a vanguard; one or two remained a
+      bow-shot in the rear; and, wherever the ground admitted, others were
+      detached to keep an outlook on the flanks. In this manner they proceeded
+      onward; while Sir Kenneth, looking back on the moonlit camp, might now
+      indeed seem banished, deprived at once of honour and of liberty, from the
+      glimmering banners under which he had hoped to gain additional renown, and
+      the tented dwellings of chivalry, of Christianity, and&mdash;of Edith
+      Plantagenet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hakim, who rode by his side, observed, in his usual tone of
+      sententious consolation, &ldquo;It is unwise to look back when the journey lieth
+      forward;&rdquo; and as he spoke, the horse of the knight made such a perilous
+      stumble as threatened to add a practical moral to the tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight was compelled by this hint to give more attention to the
+      management of his steed, which more than once required the assistance and
+      support of the check-bridle, although, in other respects, nothing could be
+      more easy at once, and active, than the ambling pace at which the animal
+      (which was a mare) proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The conditions of that horse,&rdquo; observed the sententious physician, &ldquo;are
+      like those of human fortune&mdash;seeing that, amidst his most swift and
+      easy pace, the rider must guard himself against a fall, and that it is
+      when prosperity is at the highest that our prudence should be awake and
+      vigilant to prevent misfortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The overloaded appetite loathes even the honeycomb, and it is scarce a
+      wonder that the knight, mortified and harassed with misfortunes and
+      abasement, became something impatient of hearing his misery made, at every
+      turn, the ground of proverbs and apothegms, however just and apposite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks,&rdquo; he said, rather peevishly, &ldquo;I wanted no additional
+      illustration of the instability of fortune though I would thank thee, Sir
+      Hakim, for the choice of a steed for me, would the jade but stumble so
+      effectually as at once to break my neck and her own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother,&rdquo; answered the Arab sage, with imperturbable gravity, &ldquo;thou
+      speakest as one of the foolish. Thou sayest in thy heart that the sage
+      should have given you, as his guest, the younger and better horse, and
+      reserved the old one for himself. But know that the defects of the older
+      steed may be compensated by the energies of the young rider, whereas the
+      violence of the young horse requires to be moderated by the cold temper of
+      the older.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So spoke the sage; but neither to this observation did Sir Kenneth return
+      any answer which could lead to a continuance of their conversation, and
+      the physician, wearied, perhaps, of administering comfort to one who would
+      not be comforted, signed to one of his retinue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hassan,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;hast thou nothing wherewith to beguile the way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hassan, story-teller and poet by profession, spurred up, upon this
+      summons, to exercise his calling. &ldquo;Lord of the palace of life,&rdquo; he said,
+      addressing the physician, &ldquo;thou, before whom the angel Azrael spreadeth
+      his wings for flight&mdash;thou, wiser than Solimaun Ben Daoud, upon whose
+      signet was inscribed the REAL NAME which controls the spirits of the
+      elements&mdash;forbid it, Heaven, that while thou travellest upon the
+      track of benevolence, bearing healing and hope wherever thou comest, thine
+      own course should be saddened for lack of the tale and of the song.
+      Behold, while thy servant is at thy side, he will pour forth the treasures
+      of his memory, as the fountain sendeth her stream beside the pathway, for
+      the refreshment or him that walketh thereon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this exordium, Hassan uplifted his voice, and began a tale of love
+      and magic, intermixed with feats of warlike achievement, and ornamented
+      with abundant quotations from the Persian poets, with whose compositions
+      the orator seemed familiar. The retinue of the physician, such excepted as
+      were necessarily detained in attendance on the camels, thronged up to the
+      narrator, and pressed as close as deference for their master permitted, to
+      enjoy the delight which the inhabitants of the East have ever derived from
+      this species of exhibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At another time, notwithstanding his imperfect knowledge of the language,
+      Sir Kenneth might have been interested in the recitation, which, though
+      dictated by a more extravagant imagination, and expressed in more inflated
+      and metaphorical language, bore yet a strong resemblance to the romances
+      of chivalry then so fashionable in Europe. But as matters stood with him,
+      he was scarcely even sensible that a man in the centre of the cavalcade
+      recited and sung, in a low tone, for nearly two hours, modulating his
+      voice to the various moods of passion introduced into the tale, and
+      receiving, in return, now low murmurs of applause, now muttered
+      expressions of wonder, now sighs and tears, and sometimes, what it was far
+      more difficult to extract from such an audience, a tribute of smiles, and
+      even laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the recitation, the attention of the exile, however abstracted by
+      his own deep sorrow, was occasionally awakened by the low wail of a dog,
+      secured in a wicker enclosure suspended on one of the camels, which, as an
+      experienced woodsman, he had no hesitation in recognizing to be that of
+      his own faithful hound; and from the plaintive tone of the animal, he had
+      no doubt that he was sensible of his master's vicinity, and, in his way,
+      invoking his assistance for liberty and rescue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! poor Roswal,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;thou callest for aid and sympathy upon one
+      in stricter bondage than thou thyself art. I will not seem to heed thee or
+      return thy affection, since it would serve but to load our parting with
+      yet more bitterness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus passed the hours of night and the space of dim hazy dawn which forms
+      the twilight of a Syrian morning. But when the very first line of the
+      sun's disk began to rise above the level horizon, and when the very first
+      level ray shot glimmering in dew along the surface of the desert, which
+      the travellers had now attained, the sonorous voice of El Hakim himself
+      overpowered and cut short the narrative of the tale-teller, while he
+      caused to resound along the sands the solemn summons, which the muezzins
+      thunder at morning from the minaret of every mosque.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To prayer&mdash;to prayer! God is the one God.&mdash;To prayer&mdash;to
+      prayer! Mohammed is the Prophet of God.&mdash;To prayer&mdash;to prayer!
+      Time is flying from you.&mdash;To prayer&mdash;to prayer! Judgment is
+      drawing nigh to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant each Moslem cast himself from his horse, turned his face
+      towards Mecca, and performed with sand an imitation of those ablutions,
+      which were elsewhere required to be made with water, while each
+      individual, in brief but fervent ejaculations, recommended himself to the
+      care, and his sins to the forgiveness, of God and the Prophet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Sir Kenneth, whose reason at once and prejudices were offended by
+      seeing his companions in that which he considered as an act of idolatry,
+      could not help respecting the sincerity of their misguided zeal, and being
+      stimulated by their fervour to apply supplications to Heaven in a purer
+      form, wondering, meanwhile, what new-born feelings could teach him to
+      accompany in prayer, though with varied invocation, those very Saracens,
+      whose heathenish worship he had conceived a crime dishonourable to the
+      land in which high miracles had been wrought, and where the day-star of
+      redemption had arisen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The act of devotion, however, though rendered in such strange society,
+      burst purely from his natural feelings of religious duty, and had its
+      usual effect in composing the spirits which had been long harassed by so
+      rapid a succession of calamities. The sincere and earnest approach of the
+      Christian to the throne of the Almighty teaches the best lesson of
+      patience under affliction; since wherefore should we mock the Deity with
+      supplications, when we insult him by murmuring under His decrees? or how,
+      while our prayers have in every word admitted the vanity and nothingness
+      of the things of time in comparison to those of eternity, should we hope
+      to deceive the Searcher of Hearts, by permitting the world and worldly
+      passions to reassume the reins even immediately after a solemn address to
+      Heaven! But Sir Kenneth was not of these. He felt himself comforted and
+      strengthened, and better prepared to execute or submit to whatever his
+      destiny might call upon him to do or to suffer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, the party of Saracens regained their saddles, and continued
+      their route, and the tale-teller, Hassan, resumed the thread of his
+      narrative; but it was no longer to the same attentive audience. A
+      horseman, who had ascended some high ground on the right hand of the
+      little column, had returned on a speedy gallop to El Hakim, and
+      communicated with him. Four or five more cavaliers had then been
+      dispatched, and the little band, which might consist of about twenty or
+      thirty persons, began to follow them with their eyes, as men from whose
+      gestures, and advance or retreat, they were to augur good or evil. Hassan,
+      finding his audience inattentive, or being himself attracted by the
+      dubious appearances on the flank, stinted in his song; and the march
+      became silent, save when a camel-driver called out to his patient charge,
+      or some anxious follower of the Hakim communicated with his next neighbour
+      in a hurried and low whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This suspense continued until they had rounded a ridge, composed of
+      hillocks of sand, which concealed from their main body the object that had
+      created this alarm among their scouts. Sir Kenneth could now see, at the
+      distance of a mile or more, a dark object moving rapidly on the bosom of
+      the desert, which his experienced eye recognized for a party of cavalry,
+      much superior to their own in numbers, and, from the thick and frequent
+      flashes which flung back the level beams of the rising sun, it was plain
+      that these were Europeans in their complete panoply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxious looks which the horsemen of El Hakim now cast upon their
+      leader seemed to indicate deep apprehension; while he, with gravity as
+      undisturbed as when he called his followers to prayer, detached two of his
+      best-mounted cavaliers, with instructions to approach as closely as
+      prudence permitted to these travellers of the desert, and observe more
+      minutely their numbers, their character, and, if possible, their purpose.
+      The approach of danger, or what was feared as such, was like a stimulating
+      draught to one in apathy, and recalled Sir Kenneth to himself and his
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What fear you from these Christian horsemen, for such they seem?&rdquo; he said
+      to the Hakim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear!&rdquo; said El Hakim, repeating the word disdainfully. &ldquo;The sage fears
+      nothing but Heaven, but ever expects from wicked men the worst which they
+      can do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are Christians,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;and it is the time of truce&mdash;why
+      should you fear a breach of faith?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are the priestly soldiers of the Temple,&rdquo; answered El Hakim, &ldquo;whose
+      vow limits them to know neither truce nor faith with the worshippers of
+      Islam. May the Prophet blight them, both root, branch, and twig! Their
+      peace is war, and their faith is falsehood. Other invaders of Palestine
+      have their times and moods of courtesy. The lion Richard will spare when
+      he has conquered, the eagle Philip will close his wing when he has
+      stricken a prey, even the Austrian bear will sleep when he is gorged; but
+      this horde of ever-hungry wolves know neither pause nor satiety in their
+      rapine. Seest thou not that they are detaching a party from their main
+      body, and that they take an eastern direction? Yon are their pages and
+      squires, whom they train up in their accursed mysteries, and whom, as
+      lighter mounted, they send to cut us off from our watering-place. But they
+      will be disappointed. I know the war of the desert yet better than they.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke a few words to his principal officer, and his whole demeanour and
+      countenance was at once changed from the solemn repose of an Eastern sage
+      accustomed more to contemplation than to action, into the prompt and proud
+      expression of a gallant soldier whose energies are roused by the near
+      approach of a danger which he at once foresees and despises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Sir Kenneth's eyes the approaching crisis had a different aspect, and
+      when Adonbec said to him, &ldquo;Thou must tarry close by my side,&rdquo; he answered
+      solemnly in the negative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yonder,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;are my comrades in arms&mdash;the men in whose society
+      I have vowed to fight or fall. On their banner gleams the sign of our most
+      blessed redemption&mdash;I cannot fly from the Cross in company with the
+      Crescent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool!&rdquo; said the Hakim; &ldquo;their first action would be to do thee to death,
+      were it only to conceal their breach of the truce.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of that I must take my chance,&rdquo; replied Sir Kenneth; &ldquo;but I wear not the
+      bonds of the infidels an instant longer than I can cast them from me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then will I compel thee to follow me,&rdquo; said El Hakim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Compel!&rdquo; answered Sir Kenneth angrily. &ldquo;Wert thou not my benefactor, or
+      one who has showed will to be such, and were it not that it is to thy
+      confidence I owe the freedom of these hands, which thou mightst have
+      loaded with fetters, I would show thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsion
+      would be no easy task.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough, enough,&rdquo; replied the Arabian physician, &ldquo;we lose time even when
+      it is becoming precious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill cry, as a
+      signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed themselves on the face of
+      the desert, in as many different directions as a chaplet of beads when the
+      string is broken. Sir Kenneth had no time to note what ensued; for, at the
+      same instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed, and putting his own
+      to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with the suddenness of light, and
+      at a pitch of velocity which almost deprived the Scottish knight of the
+      power of respiration, and left him absolutely incapable, had he been
+      desirous, to have checked the career of his guide. Practised as Sir
+      Kenneth was in horsemanship from his earliest youth, the speediest horse
+      he had ever mounted was a tortoise in comparison to those of the Arabian
+      sage. They spurned the sand from behind them; they seemed to devour the
+      desert before them; miles flew away with minutes&mdash;and yet their
+      strength seemed unabated, and their respiration as free as when they first
+      started upon the wonderful race. The motion, too, as easy as it was swift,
+      seemed more like flying through the air than riding on the earth, and was
+      attended with no unpleasant sensation, save the awe naturally felt by one
+      who is moving at such astonishing speed, and the difficulty of breathing
+      occasioned by their passing through the air so rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not until after an hour of this portentous motion, and when all
+      human pursuit was far, far behind, that the Hakim at length relaxed his
+      speed, and, slackening the pace of the horses into a hand-gallop, began,
+      in a voice as composed and even as if he had been walking for the last
+      hour, a descant upon the excellence of his coursers to the Scot, who,
+      breathless, half blind, half deaf, and altogether giddy; from the rapidity
+      of this singular ride, hardly comprehended the words which flowed so
+      freely from his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These horses,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;are of the breed called the Winged, equal in
+      speed to aught excepting the Borak of the Prophet. They are fed on the
+      golden barley of Yemen, mixed with spices and with a small portion of
+      dried sheep's flesh. Kings have given provinces to possess them, and their
+      age is active as their youth. Thou, Nazarene, art the first, save a true
+      believer, that ever had beneath his loins one of this noble race, a gift
+      of the Prophet himself to the blessed Ali, his kinsman and lieutenant,
+      well called the Lion of God. Time lays his touch so lightly on these
+      generous steeds, that the mare on which thou now sittest has seen five
+      times five years pass over her, yet retains her pristine speed and vigour,
+      only that in the career the support of a bridle, managed by a hand more
+      experienced than thine, hath now become necessary. May the Prophet be
+      blessed, who hath bestowed on the true believers the means of advance and
+      retreat, which causeth their iron-clothed enemies to be worn out with
+      their own ponderous weight! How the horses of yonder dog Templars must
+      have snorted and blown, when they had toiled fetlock-deep in the desert
+      for one-twentieth part of the space which these brave steeds have left
+      behind them, without one thick pant, or a drop of moisture upon their
+      sleek and velvet coats!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight, who had now begun to recover his breath and powers of
+      attention, could not help acknowledging in his heart the advantage
+      possessed by these Eastern warriors in a race of animals, alike proper for
+      advance or retreat, and so admirably adapted to the level and sandy
+      deserts of Arabia and Syria. But he did not choose to augment the pride of
+      the Moslem by acquiescing in his proud claim of superiority, and therefore
+      suffered the conversation to drop, and, looking around him, could now, at
+      the more moderate pace at which they moved, distinguish that he was in a
+      country not unknown to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blighted borders and sullen waters of the Dead Sea, the ragged and
+      precipitous chain of mountains arising on the left, the two or three palms
+      clustered together, forming the single green speck on the bosom of the
+      waste wilderness&mdash;objects which, once seen, were scarcely to be
+      forgotten&mdash;showed to Sir Kenneth that they were approaching the
+      fountain called the Diamond of the Desert, which had been the scene of his
+      interview on a former occasion with the Saracen Emir Sheerkohf, or
+      Ilderim. In a few minutes they checked their horses beside the spring, and
+      the Hakim invited Sir Kenneth to descend from horseback and repose himself
+      as in a place of safety. They unbridled their steeds, El Hakim observing
+      that further care of them was unnecessary, since they would be speedily
+      joined by some of the best mounted among his slaves, who would do what
+      further was needful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meantime,&rdquo; he said, spreading some food on the grass, &ldquo;eat and drink, and
+      be not discouraged. Fortune may raise up or abase the ordinary mortal, but
+      the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond her control.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight endeavoured to testify his thanks by showing himself
+      docile; but though he strove to eat out of complaisance, the singular
+      contrast between his present situation and that which he had occupied on
+      the same spot when the envoy of princes and the victor in combat, came
+      like a cloud over his mind, and fasting, lassitude, and fatigue oppressed
+      his bodily powers. El Hakim examined his hurried pulse, his red and
+      inflamed eye, his heated hand, and his shortened respiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mind,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;grows wise by watching, but her sister the body, of
+      coarser materials, needs the support of repose. Thou must sleep; and that
+      thou mayest do so to refreshment, thou must take a draught mingled with
+      this elixir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew from his bosom a small crystal vial, cased in silver
+      filigree-work, and dropped into a little golden drinking-cup a small
+      portion of a dark-coloured fluid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is one of those productions which Allah hath sent on
+      earth for a blessing, though man's weakness and wickedness have sometimes
+      converted it into a curse. It is powerful as the wine-cup of the Nazarene
+      to drop the curtain on the sleepless eye, and to relieve the burden of the
+      overloaded bosom; but when applied to the purposes of indulgence and
+      debauchery, it rends the nerves, destroys the strength, weakens the
+      intellect, and undermines life. But fear not thou to use its virtues in
+      the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the same firebrand with
+      which the madman burneth the tent.&rdquo; [Some preparation of opium seems to be
+      intimated.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen too much of thy skill, sage Hakim,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;to
+      debate thine hest;&rdquo; and swallowed the narcotic, mingled as it was with
+      some water from the spring, then wrapped him in the haik, or Arab cloak,
+      which had been fastened to his saddle-pommel, and, according to the
+      directions of the physician, stretched himself at ease in the shade to
+      await the promised repose. Sleep came not at first, but in her stead a
+      train of pleasing yet not rousing or awakening sensations. A state ensued
+      in which, still conscious of his own identity and his own condition, the
+      knight felt enabled to consider them not only without alarm and sorrow,
+      but as composedly as he might have viewed the story of his misfortunes
+      acted upon a stage&mdash;or rather as a disembodied spirit might regard
+      the transactions of its past existence. From this state of repose,
+      amounting almost to apathy respecting the past, his thoughts were carried
+      forward to the future, which, in spite of all that existed to overcloud
+      the prospect, glittered with such hues as, under much happier auspices,
+      his unstimulated imagination had not been able to produce, even in its
+      most exalted state. Liberty, fame, successful love, appeared to be the
+      certain and not very distant prospect of the enslaved exile, the
+      dishonoured knight, even of the despairing lover who had placed his hopes
+      of happiness so far beyond the prospect of chance, in her wildest
+      possibilities, serving to countenance his wishes. Gradually as the
+      intellectual sight became overclouded, these gay visions became obscure,
+      like the dying hues of sunset, until they were at last lost in total
+      oblivion; and Sir Kenneth lay extended at the feet of El Hakim, to all
+      appearance, but for his deep respiration, as inanimate a corpse as if life
+      had actually departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Mid these wild scenes Enchantment waves her hand,
+     To change the face of the mysterious land;
+     Till the bewildering scenes around us seem
+     The Vain productions of a feverish dream.
+        ASTOLPHO, A ROMANCE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When the Knight of the Leopard awoke from his long and profound repose, he
+      found himself in circumstances so different from those in which he had
+      lain down to sleep, that he doubted whether he was not still dreaming, or
+      whether the scene had not been changed by magic. Instead of the damp
+      grass, he lay on a couch of more than Oriental luxury; and some kind hands
+      had, during his repose, stripped him of the cassock of chamois which he
+      wore under his armour, and substituted a night-dress of the finest linen
+      and a loose gown of silk. He had been canopied only by the palm-trees of
+      the desert, but now he lay beneath a silken pavilion, which blazed with
+      the richest colours of the Chinese loom, while a slight curtain of gauze,
+      displayed around his couch, was calculated to protect his repose from the
+      insects, to which he had, ever since his arrival in these climates, been a
+      constant and passive prey. He looked around, as if to convince himself
+      that he was actually awake; and all that fell beneath his eye partook of
+      the splendour of his dormitory. A portable bath of cedar, lined with
+      silver, was ready for use, and steamed with the odours which had been used
+      in preparing it. On a small stand of ebony beside the couch stood a silver
+      vase, containing sherbet of the most exquisite quality, cold as snow, and
+      which the thirst that followed the use of the strong narcotic rendered
+      peculiarly delicious. Still further to dispel the dregs of intoxication
+      which it had left behind, the knight resolved to use the bath, and
+      experienced in doing so a delightful refreshment. Having dried himself
+      with napkins of the Indian wool, he would willingly have resumed his own
+      coarse garments, that he might go forth to see whether the world was as
+      much changed without as within the place of his repose. These, however,
+      were nowhere to be seen, but in their place he found a Saracen dress of
+      rich materials, with sabre and poniard, and all befitting an emir of
+      distinction. He was able to suggest no motive to himself for this
+      exuberance of care, excepting a suspicion that these attentions were
+      intended to shake him in his religious profession&mdash;as indeed it was
+      well known that the high esteem of the European knowledge and courage made
+      the Soldan unbounded in his gifts to those who, having become his
+      prisoners, had been induced to take the turban. Sir Kenneth, therefore,
+      crossing himself devoutly, resolved to set all such snares at defiance;
+      and that he might do so the more firmly, conscientiously determined to
+      avail himself as moderately as possible of the attentions and luxuries
+      thus liberally heaped upon him. Still, however, he felt his head oppressed
+      and sleepy; and aware, too, that his undress was not fit for appearing
+      abroad, he reclined upon the couch, and was again locked in the arms of
+      slumber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this time his rest was not unbroken, for he was awakened by the voice
+      of the physician at the door of the tent, inquiring after his health, and
+      whether he had rested sufficiently. &ldquo;May I enter your tent?&rdquo; he concluded,
+      &ldquo;for the curtain is drawn before the entrance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The master,&rdquo; replied Sir Kenneth, determined to show that he was not
+      surprised into forgetfulness of his own condition, &ldquo;need demand no
+      permission to enter the tent of the slave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if I come not as a master?&rdquo; said El Hakim, still without entering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The physician,&rdquo; answered the knight, &ldquo;hath free access to the bedside of
+      his patient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither come I now as a physician,&rdquo; replied El Hakim; &ldquo;and therefore I
+      still request permission, ere I come under the covering of thy tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoever comes as a friend,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;and such thou hast
+      hitherto shown thyself to me, the habitation of the friend is ever open to
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet once again,&rdquo; said the Eastern sage, after the periphrastical manner
+      of his countrymen, &ldquo;supposing that I come not as a friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come as thou wilt,&rdquo; said the Scottish knight, somewhat impatient of this
+      circumlocution; &ldquo;be what thou wilt&mdash;thou knowest well it is neither
+      in my power nor my inclination to refuse thee entrance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come, then,&rdquo; said El Hakim, &ldquo;as your ancient foe, but a fair and a
+      generous one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He entered as he spoke; and when he stood before the bedside of Sir
+      Kenneth, the voice continued to be that of Adonbec, the Arabian physician,
+      but the form, dress, and features were those of Ilderim of Kurdistan,
+      called Sheerkohf. Sir Kenneth gazed upon him as if he expected the vision
+      to depart, like something created by his imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doth it so surprise thee,&rdquo; said Ilderim, &ldquo;and thou an approved warrior,
+      to see that a soldier knows somewhat of the art of healing? I say to thee,
+      Nazarene, that an accomplished cavalier should know how to dress his
+      steed, as well as how to ride him; how to forge his sword upon the stithy,
+      as well as how to use it in battle; how to burnish his arms, as well as
+      how to wear them; and, above all, how to cure wounds, as well as how to
+      inflict them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the Christian knight repeatedly shut his eyes, and while they
+      remained closed, the idea of the Hakim, with his long, flowing dark robes,
+      high Tartar cap, and grave gestures was present to his imagination; but so
+      soon as he opened them, the graceful and richly-gemmed turban, the light
+      hauberk of steel rings entwisted with silver, which glanced brilliantly as
+      it obeyed every inflection of the body, the features freed from their
+      formal expression, less swarthy, and no longer shadowed by the mass of
+      hair (now limited to a well-trimmed beard), announced the soldier and not
+      the sage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Art thou still so much surprised,&rdquo; said the Emir, &ldquo;and hast thou walked
+      in the world with such little observance, as to wonder that men are not
+      always what they seem? Thou thyself&mdash;art thou what thou seemest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, by Saint Andrew!&rdquo; exclaimed the knight; &ldquo;for to the whole Christian
+      camp I seem a traitor, and I know myself to be a true though an erring
+      man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even so I judged thee,&rdquo; said Ilderim; &ldquo;and as we had eaten salt together,
+      I deemed myself bound to rescue thee from death and contumely. But
+      wherefore lie you still on your couch, since the sun is high in the
+      heavens? or are the vestments which my sumpter-camels have afforded
+      unworthy of your wearing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not unworthy, surely, but unfitting for it,&rdquo; replied the Scot. &ldquo;Give me
+      the dress of a slave, noble Ilderim, and I will don it with pleasure; but
+      I cannot brook to wear the habit of the free Eastern warrior with the
+      turban of the Moslem.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nazarene,&rdquo; answered the Emir, &ldquo;thy nation so easily entertain suspicion
+      that it may well render themselves suspected. Have I not told thee that
+      Saladin desires no converts saving those whom the holy Prophet shall
+      dispose to submit themselves to his law? violence and bribery are alike
+      alien to his plan for extending the true faith. Hearken to me, my brother.
+      When the blind man was miraculously restored to sight, the scales dropped
+      from his eyes at the Divine pleasure. Think'st thou that any earthly leech
+      could have removed them? No. Such mediciner might have tormented the
+      patient with his instruments, or perhaps soothed him with his balsams and
+      cordials, but dark as he was must the darkened man have remained; and it
+      is even so with the blindness of the understanding. If there be those
+      among the Franks who, for the sake of worldly lucre, have assumed the
+      turban of the Prophet, and followed the laws of Islam, with their own
+      consciences be the blame. Themselves sought out the bait; it was not flung
+      to them by the Soldan. And when they shall hereafter be sentenced, as
+      hypocrites, to the lowest gulf of hell, below Christian and Jew, magician
+      and idolater, and condemned to eat the fruit of the tree Yacoun, which is
+      the heads of demons, to themselves, not to the Soldan, shall their guilt
+      and their punishment be attributed. Wherefore wear, without doubt or
+      scruple, the vesture prepared for you, since, if you proceed to the camp
+      of Saladin, your own native dress will expose you to troublesome
+      observation, and perhaps to insult.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;IF I go to the camp of Saladin?&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, repeating the words of
+      the Emir; &ldquo;alas! am I a free agent, and rather must I NOT go wherever your
+      pleasure carries me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thine own will may guide thine own motions,&rdquo; said the Emir, &ldquo;as freely as
+      the wind which moveth the dust of the desert in what direction it
+      chooseth. The noble enemy who met and well-nigh mastered my sword cannot
+      become my slave like him who has crouched beneath it. If wealth and power
+      would tempt thee to join our people, I could ensure thy possessing them;
+      but the man who refused the favours of the Soldan when the axe was at his
+      head, will not, I fear, now accept them, when I tell him he has his free
+      choice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Complete your generosity, noble Emir,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;by forbearing
+      to show me a mode of requital which conscience forbids me to comply with.
+      Permit me rather to express, as bound in courtesy, my gratitude for this
+      most chivalrous bounty, this undeserved generosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say not undeserved,&rdquo; replied the Emir Ilderim. &ldquo;Was it not through thy
+      conversation, and thy account of the beauties which grace the court of the
+      Melech Ric, that I ventured me thither in disguise, and thereby procured a
+      sight the most blessed that I have ever enjoyed&mdash;that I ever shall
+      enjoy, until the glories of Paradise beam on my eyes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you not,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, colouring alternately, and
+      turning pale, as one who felt that the conversation was taking a tone of
+      the most painful delicacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not understand me!&rdquo; exclaimed the Emir. &ldquo;If the sight I saw in the tent
+      of King Richard escaped thine observation, I will account it duller than
+      the edge of a buffoon's wooden falchion. True, thou wert under sentence of
+      death at the time; but, in my case, had my head been dropping from the
+      trunk, the last strained glances of my eyeballs had distinguished with
+      delight such a vision of loveliness, and the head would have rolled itself
+      towards the incomparable houris, to kiss with its quivering lips the hem
+      of their vestments. Yonder royalty of England, who for her superior
+      loveliness deserves to be Queen of the universe&mdash;what tenderness in
+      her blue eye, what lustre in her tresses of dishevelled gold! By the tomb
+      of the Prophet, I scarce think that the houri who shall present to me the
+      diamond cup of immortality will deserve so warm a caress!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saracen,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth sternly, &ldquo;thou speakest of the wife of Richard
+      of England, of whom men think not and speak not as a woman to be won, but
+      as a Queen to be revered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cry you mercy,&rdquo; said the Saracen. &ldquo;I had forgotten your superstitious
+      veneration for the sex, which you consider rather fit to be wondered at
+      and worshipped than wooed and possessed. I warrant, since thou exactest
+      such profound respect to yonder tender piece of frailty, whose every
+      motion, step, and look bespeaks her very woman, less than absolute
+      adoration must not be yielded to her of the dark tresses and nobly
+      speaking eye. SHE indeed, I will allow, hath in her noble port and
+      majestic mien something at once pure and firm; yet even she, when pressed
+      by opportunity and a forward lover, would, I warrant thee, thank him in
+      her heart rather for treating her as a mortal than as a goddess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Respect the kinswoman of Coeur de Lion!&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, in a tone of
+      unrepressed anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Respect her!&rdquo; answered the Emir in scorn; &ldquo;by the Caaba, and if I do, it
+      shall be rather as the bride of Saladin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The infidel Soldan is unworthy to salute even a spot that has been
+      pressed by the foot of Edith Plantagenet!&rdquo; exclaimed the Christian,
+      springing from his couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! what said the Giaour?&rdquo; exclaimed the Emir, laying his hand on his
+      poniard hilt, while his forehead glowed like glancing copper, and the
+      muscles of his lips and cheeks wrought till each curl of his beard seemed
+      to twist and screw itself, as if alive with instinctive wrath. But the
+      Scottish knight, who had stood the lion-anger of Richard, was unappalled
+      at the tigerlike mood of the chafed Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I have said,&rdquo; continued Sir Kenneth, with folded arms and dauntless
+      look, &ldquo;I would, were my hands loose, maintain on foot or horseback against
+      all mortals; and would hold it not the most memorable deed of my life to
+      support it with my good broadsword against a score of these sickles and
+      bodkins,&rdquo; pointing at the curved sabre and small poniard of the Emir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen recovered his composure as the Christian spoke, so far as to
+      withdraw his hand from his weapon, as if the motion had been without
+      meaning, but still continued in deep ire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the sword of the Prophet,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;which is the key both of heaven
+      and hell, he little values his own life, brother, who uses the language
+      thou dost! Believe me, that were thine hands loose, as thou term'st it,
+      one single true believer would find them so much to do that thou wouldst
+      soon wish them fettered again in manacles of iron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sooner would I wish them hewn off by the shoulder-blades!&rdquo; replied Sir
+      Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well. Thy hands are bound at present,&rdquo; said the Saracen, in a more
+      amicable tone&mdash;&ldquo;bound by thine own gentle sense of courtesy; nor have
+      I any present purpose of setting them at liberty. We have proved each
+      other's strength and courage ere now, and we may again meet in a fair
+      field&mdash;and shame befall him who shall be the first to part from his
+      foeman! But now we are friends, and I look for aid from thee rather than
+      hard terms or defiances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We ARE friends,&rdquo; repeated the knight; and there was a pause, during which
+      the fiery Saracen paced the tent, like the lion, who, after violent
+      irritation, is said to take that method of cooling the distemperature of
+      his blood, ere he stretches himself to repose in his den. The colder
+      European remained unaltered in posture and aspect; yet he, doubtless, was
+      also engaged in subduing the angry feelings which had been so unexpectedly
+      awakened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us reason of this calmly,&rdquo; said the Saracen. &ldquo;I am a physician, as
+      thou knowest, and it is written that he who would have his wound cured
+      must not shrink when the leech probes and tests it. Seest thou, I am about
+      to lay my finger on the sore. Thou lovest this kinswoman of the Melech
+      Ric. Unfold the veil that shrouds thy thoughts&mdash;or unfold it not if
+      thou wilt, for mine eyes see through its coverings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I LOVED her,&rdquo; answered Sir Kenneth, after a pause, &ldquo;as a man loves
+      Heaven's grace, and sued for her favour like a sinner for Heaven's
+      pardon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you love her no longer?&rdquo; said the Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas,&rdquo; answered Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;I am no longer worthy to love her. I pray
+      thee cease this discourse&mdash;thy words are poniards to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me but a moment,&rdquo; continued Ilderim. &ldquo;When thou, a poor and
+      obscure soldier, didst so boldly and so highly fix thine affection, tell
+      me, hadst thou good hope of its issue?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love exists not without hope,&rdquo; replied the knight; &ldquo;but mine was as
+      nearly allied to despair as that of the sailor swimming for his life, who,
+      as he surmounts billow after billow, catches by intervals some gleam of
+      the distant beacon, which shows him there is land in sight, though his
+      sinking heart and wearied limbs assure him that he shall never reach it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said Ilderim, &ldquo;these hopes are sunk&mdash;that solitary light
+      is quenched for ever?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For ever,&rdquo; answered Sir Kenneth, in the tone of an echo from the bosom of
+      a ruined sepulchre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks,&rdquo; said the Saracen, &ldquo;if all thou lackest were some such distant
+      meteoric glimpse of happiness as thou hadst formerly, thy beacon-light
+      might be rekindled, thy hope fished up from the ocean in which it has
+      sunk, and thou thyself, good knight, restored to the exercise and
+      amusement of nourishing thy fantastic fashion upon a diet as unsubstantial
+      as moonlight; for, if thou stood'st tomorrow fair in reputation as ever
+      thou wert, she whom thou lovest will not be less the daughter of princes
+      and the elected bride of Saladin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would it so stood,&rdquo; said the Scot, &ldquo;and if I did not&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped short, like a man who is afraid of boasting under circumstances
+      which did not permit his being put to the test. The Saracen smiled as he
+      concluded the sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou wouldst challenge the Soldan to single combat?&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I did,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth haughtily, &ldquo;Saladin's would neither be
+      the first nor the best turban that I have couched lance at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, but methinks the Soldan might regard it as too unequal a mode of
+      perilling the chance of a royal bride and the event of a great war,&rdquo; said
+      the Emir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may be met with in the front of battle,&rdquo; said the knight, his eyes
+      gleaming with the ideas which such a thought inspired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has been ever found there,&rdquo; said Ilderim; &ldquo;nor is it his wont to turn
+      his horse's head from any brave encounter. But it was not of the Soldan
+      that I meant to speak. In a word, if it will content thee to be placed in
+      such reputation as may be attained by detection of the thief who stole the
+      Banner of England, I can put thee in a fair way of achieving this task&mdash;that
+      is, if thou wilt be governed; for what says Lokman, 'If the child would
+      walk, the nurse must lead him; if the ignorant would understand, the wise
+      must instruct.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou art wise, Ilderim,&rdquo; said the Scot&mdash;&ldquo;wise though a Saracen,
+      and generous though an infidel. I have witnessed that thou art both. Take,
+      then, the guidance of this matter; and so thou ask nothing of me contrary
+      to my loyalty and my Christian faith, I, will obey thee punctually. Do
+      what thou hast said, and take my life when it is accomplished.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen thou to me, then,&rdquo; said the Saracen. &ldquo;Thy noble hound is now
+      recovered, by the blessing of that divine medicine which healeth man and
+      beast; and by his sagacity shall those who assailed him be discovered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; said the knight, &ldquo;methinks I comprehend thee. I was dull not to
+      think of this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But tell me,&rdquo; added the Emir, &ldquo;hast thou any followers or retainers in
+      the camp by whom the animal may be known?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dismissed,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth, &ldquo;my old attendant, thy patient, with a
+      varlet that waited on him, at the time when I expected to suffer death,
+      giving him letters for my friends in Scotland; there are none other to
+      whom the dog is familiar. But then my own person is well known&mdash;my
+      very speech will betray me, in a camp where I have played no mean part for
+      many months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both he and thou shalt be disguised, so as to escape even close
+      examination. I tell thee,&rdquo; said the Saracen, &ldquo;that not thy brother in arms&mdash;not
+      thy brother in blood&mdash;shall discover thee, if thou be guided by my
+      counsels. Thou hast seen me do matters more difficult&mdash;he that can
+      call the dying from the darkness of the shadow of death can easily cast a
+      mist before the eyes of the living. But mark me: there is still the
+      condition annexed to this service&mdash;that thou deliver a letter of
+      Saladin to the niece of the Melech Ric, whose name is as difficult to our
+      Eastern tongue and lips, as her beauty is delightful to our eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth paused before he answered, and the Saracen observing his
+      hesitation, demanded of him, &ldquo;if he feared to undertake this message?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not if there were death in the execution,&rdquo; said Sir Kenneth. &ldquo;I do but
+      pause to consider whether it consists with my honour to bear the letter of
+      the Soldan, or with that of the Lady Edith to receive it from a heathen
+      prince.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0368m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0368m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0368.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the head of Mohammed, and by the honour of a soldier&mdash;by the tomb
+      at Mecca, and by the soul of my father,&rdquo; said the Emir, &ldquo;I swear to thee
+      that the letter is written in all honour and respect. The song of the
+      nightingale will sooner blight the rose-bower she loves than will the
+      words of the Soldan offend the ears of the lovely kinswoman of England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the knight, &ldquo;I will bear the Soldan's letter faithfully, as
+      if I were his born vassal&mdash;understanding, that beyond this simple act
+      of service, which I will render with fidelity, from me of all men he can
+      least expect mediation or advice in this his strange love-suit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saladin is noble,&rdquo; answered the Emir, &ldquo;and will not spur a generous horse
+      to a leap which he cannot achieve. Come with me to my tent,&rdquo; he added,
+      &ldquo;and thou shalt be presently equipped with a disguise as unsearchable as
+      midnight, so thou mayest walk the camp of the Nazarenes as if thou hadst
+      on thy finger the signet of Giaougi.&rdquo; [Perhaps the same with Gyges.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     A grain of dust
+     Soiling our cup, will make our sense reject
+     Fastidiously the draught which we did thirst for;
+     A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass,
+     Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
+     Even this small cause of anger and disgust
+     Will break the bonds of amity 'mongst princes,
+     And wreck their noblest purposes.
+                  THE CRUSADE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The reader can now have little doubt who the Ethiopian slave really was,
+      with what purpose he had sought Richard's camp, and wherefore and with
+      what hope he now stood close to the person of that Monarch, as, surrounded
+      by his valiant peers of England and Normandy, Coeur de Lion stood on the
+      summit of Saint George's Mount, with the Banner of England by his side,
+      borne by the most goodly person in the army, being his own natural
+      brother, William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, the offspring of
+      Henry the Second's amour with the celebrated Rosamond of Woodstock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From several expressions in the King's conversation with Neville on the
+      preceding day, the Nubian was left in anxious doubt whether his disguise
+      had not been penetrated, especially as that the King seemed to be aware in
+      what manner the agency of the dog was expected to discover the thief who
+      stole the banner, although the circumstance of such an animal's having
+      been wounded on the occasion had been scarce mentioned in Richard's
+      presence. Nevertheless, as the King continued to treat him in no other
+      manner than his exterior required, the Nubian remained uncertain whether
+      he was or was not discovered, and determined not to throw his disguise
+      aside voluntarily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, the powers of the various Crusading princes, arrayed under
+      their royal and princely leaders, swept in long order around the base of
+      the little mound; and as those of each different country passed by, their
+      commanders advanced a step or two up the hill, and made a signal of
+      courtesy to Richard and to the Standard of England, &ldquo;in sign of regard and
+      amity,&rdquo; as the protocol of the ceremony heedfully expressed it, &ldquo;not of
+      subjection or vassalage.&rdquo; The spiritual dignitaries, who in those days
+      veiled not their bonnets to created being, bestowed on the King and his
+      symbol of command their blessing instead of rendering obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus the long files marched on, and, diminished as they were by so many
+      causes, appeared still an iron host, to whom the conquest of Palestine
+      might seem an easy task. The soldiers, inspired by the consciousness of
+      united strength, sat erect in their steel saddles; while it seemed that
+      the trumpets sounded more cheerfully shrill, and the steeds, refreshed by
+      rest and provender, chafed on the bit, and trod the ground more proudly.
+      On they passed, troop after troop, banners waving, spears glancing, plumes
+      dancing, in long perspective&mdash;a host composed of different nations,
+      complexions, languages, arms, and appearances, but all fired, for the
+      time, with the holy yet romantic purpose of rescuing the distressed
+      daughter of Zion from her thraldom, and redeeming the sacred earth, which
+      more than mortal had trodden, from the yoke of the unbelieving pagan. And
+      it must be owned that if, in other circumstances, the species of courtesy
+      rendered to the King of England by so many warriors, from whom he claimed
+      no natural allegiance, had in it something that might have been thought
+      humiliating, yet the nature and cause of the war was so fitted to his
+      pre-eminently chivalrous character and renowned feats in arms, that claims
+      which might elsewhere have been urged were there forgotten, and the brave
+      did willing homage to the bravest, in an expedition where the most
+      undaunted and energetic courage was necessary to success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good King was seated on horseback about half way up the mount, a
+      morion on his head, surmounted by a crown, which left his manly features
+      exposed to public view, as, with cool and considerate eye, he perused each
+      rank as it passed him, and returned the salutation of the leaders. His
+      tunic was of sky-coloured velvet, covered with plates of silver, and his
+      hose of crimson silk, slashed with cloth of gold. By his side stood the
+      seeming Ethiopian slave, holding the noble dog in a leash, such as was
+      used in woodcraft. It was a circumstance which attracted no notice, for
+      many of the princes of the Crusade had introduced black slaves into their
+      household, in imitation of the barbarous splendour of the Saracens. Over
+      the King's head streamed the large folds of the banner, and, as he looked
+      to it from time to time, he seemed to regard a ceremony, indifferent to
+      himself personally, as important, when considered as atoning an indignity
+      offered to the kingdom which he ruled. In the background, and on the very
+      summit of the Mount, a wooden turret, erected for the occasion, held the
+      Queen Berengaria and the principal ladies of the Court. To this the King
+      looked from time to time; and then ever and anon his eyes were turned on
+      the Nubian and the dog, but only when such leaders approached, as, from
+      circumstances of previous ill-will, he suspected of being accessory to the
+      theft of the standard, or whom he judged capable of a crime so mean.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0269m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0269m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0269.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Thus, he did not look in that direction when Philip Augustus of France
+      approached at the head of his splendid troops of Gallic chivalry&mdash;-nay,
+      he anticipated the motions of the French King, by descending the Mount as
+      the latter came up the ascent, so that they met in the middle space, and
+      blended their greetings so gracefully that it appeared they met in
+      fraternal equality. The sight of the two greatest princes in Europe, in
+      rank at once and power, thus publicly avowing their concord, called forth
+      bursts of thundering acclaim from the Crusading host at many miles
+      distance, and made the roving Arab scouts of the desert alarm the camp of
+      Saladin with intelligence that the army of the Christians was in motion.
+      Yet who but the King of kings can read the hearts of monarchs? Under this
+      smooth show of courtesy, Richard nourished displeasure and suspicion
+      against Philip, and Philip meditated withdrawing himself and his host from
+      the army of the Cross, and leaving Richard to accomplish or fail in the
+      enterprise with his own unassisted forces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard's demeanour was different when the dark-armed knights and squires
+      of the Temple chivalry approached&mdash;men with countenances bronzed to
+      Asiatic blackness by the suns of Palestine, and the admirable state of
+      whose horses and appointments far surpassed even that of the choicest
+      troops of France and England. The King cast a hasty glance aside; but the
+      Nubian stood quiet, and his trusty dog sat at his feet, watching, with a
+      sagacious yet pleased look, the ranks which now passed before them. The
+      King's look turned again on the chivalrous Templars, as the Grand Master,
+      availing himself of his mingled character, bestowed his benediction on
+      Richard as a priest, instead of doing him reverence as a military leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The misproud and amphibious caitiff puts the monk upon me,&rdquo; said Richard
+      to the Earl of Salisbury. &ldquo;But, Longsword, we will let it pass. A
+      punctilio must not lose Christendom the services of these experienced
+      lances, because their victories have rendered them overweening. Lo you,
+      here comes our valiant adversary, the Duke of Austria. Mark his manner and
+      bearing, Longsword&mdash;and thou, Nubian, let the hound have full view of
+      him. By Heaven, he brings his buffoons along with him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, whether from habit, or, which is more likely, to intimate
+      contempt of the ceremonial he was about to comply with, Leopold was
+      attended by his SPRUCH-SPRECHER and his jester; and as he advanced towards
+      Richard, he whistled in what he wished to be considered as an indifferent
+      manner, though his heavy features evinced the sullenness, mixed with the
+      fear, with which a truant schoolboy may be seen to approach his master. As
+      the reluctant dignitary made, with discomposed and sulky look, the
+      obeisance required, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his baton, and proclaimed,
+      like a herald, that, in what he was now doing, the Archduke of Austria was
+      not to be held derogating from the rank and privileges of a sovereign
+      prince; to which the jester answered with a sonorous AMEN, which provoked
+      much laughter among the bystanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard looked more than once at the Nubian and his dog; but the
+      former moved not, nor did the latter strain at the leash, so that Richard
+      said to the slave with some scorn, &ldquo;Thy success in this enterprise, my
+      sable friend, even though thou hast brought thy hound's sagacity to back
+      thine own, will not, I fear, place thee high in the rank of wizards, or
+      much augment thy merits towards our person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian answered, as usual, only by a lowly obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime the troops of the Marquis of Montserrat next passed in order
+      before the King of England. That powerful and wily baron, to make the
+      greater display of his forces, had divided them into two bodies. At the
+      head of the first, consisting of his vassals and followers, and levied
+      from his Syrian possessions, came his brother Enguerrand; and he himself
+      followed, leading on a gallant band of twelve hundred Stradiots, a kind of
+      light cavalry raised by the Venetians in their Dalmatian possessions, and
+      of which they had entrusted the command to the Marquis, with whom the
+      republic had many bonds of connection. These Stradiots were clothed in a
+      fashion partly European, but partaking chiefly of the Eastern fashion.
+      They wore, indeed, short hauberks, but had over them party-coloured tunics
+      of rich stuffs, with large wide pantaloons and half-boots. On their heads
+      were straight upright caps, similar to those of the Greeks; and they
+      carried small round targets, bows and arrows, scimitars, and poniards.
+      They were mounted on horses carefully selected, and well maintained at the
+      expense of the State of Venice; their saddles and appointments resembled
+      those of the Turks, and they rode in the same manner, with short stirrups
+      and upon a high seat. These troops were of great use in skirmishing with
+      the Arabs, though unable to engage in close combat, like the iron-sheathed
+      men-at-arms of Western and Northern Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before this goodly band came Conrade, in the same garb with the Stradiots,
+      but of such rich stuff that he seemed to blaze with gold and silver, and
+      the milk-white plume fastened in his cap by a clasp of diamonds seemed
+      tall enough to sweep the clouds. The noble steed which he reined bounded
+      and caracoled, and displayed his spirit and agility in a manner which
+      might have troubled a less admirable horseman than the Marquis, who
+      gracefully ruled him with the one hand, while the other displayed the
+      baton, whose predominancy over the ranks which he led seemed equally
+      absolute. Yet his authority over the Stradiots was more in show than in
+      substance; for there paced beside him, on an ambling palfrey of soberest
+      mood, a little old man, dressed entirely in black, without beard or
+      moustaches, and having an appearance altogether mean and insignificant
+      when compared with the blaze of splendour around him. But this
+      mean-looking old man was one of those deputies whom the Venetian
+      government sent into camps to overlook the conduct of the generals to whom
+      the leading was consigned, and to maintain that jealous system of espial
+      and control which had long distinguished the policy of the republic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade, who, by cultivating Richard's humour, had attained a certain
+      degree of favour with him, no sooner was come within his ken than the King
+      of England descended a step or two to meet him, exclaiming, at the same
+      time, &ldquo;Ha, Lord Marquis, thou at the head of the fleet Stradiots, and thy
+      black shadow attending thee as usual, whether the sun shines or not! May
+      not one ask thee whether the rule of the troops remains with the shadow or
+      the substance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade was commencing his reply with a smile, when Roswal, the noble
+      hound, uttering a furious and savage yell, sprung forward. The Nubian, at
+      the same time, slipped the leash, and the hound, rushing on, leapt upon
+      Conrade's noble charger, and, seizing the Marquis by the throat, pulled
+      him down from the saddle. The plumed rider lay rolling on the sand, and
+      the frightened horse fled in wild career through the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy hound hath pulled down the right quarry, I warrant him,&rdquo; said the
+      King to the Nubian, &ldquo;and I vow to Saint George he is a stag of ten tynes!
+      Pluck the dog off; lest he throttle him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ethiopian, accordingly, though not without difficulty, disengaged the
+      dog from Conrade, and fastened him up, still highly excited, and
+      struggling in the leash. Meanwhile many crowded to the spot, especially
+      followers of Conrade and officers of the Stradiots, who, as they saw their
+      leader lie gazing wildly on the sky, raised him up amid a tumultuary cry
+      of &ldquo;Cut the slave and his hound to pieces!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the voice of Richard, loud and sonorous, was heard clear above all
+      other exclamations. &ldquo;He dies the death who injures the hound! He hath but
+      done his duty, after the sagacity with which God and nature have endowed
+      the brave animal.&mdash;Stand forward for a false traitor, thou Conrade,
+      Marquis of Montserrat! I impeach thee of treason.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Several of the Syrian leaders had now come up, and Conrade&mdash;vexation,
+      and shame, and confusion struggling with passion in his manner and voice&mdash;exclaimed,
+      &ldquo;What means this? With what am I charged? Why this base usage and these
+      reproachful terms? Is this the league of concord which England renewed but
+      so lately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are the Princes of the Crusade turned hares or deers in the eyes of King
+      Richard that he should slip hounds on them?&rdquo; said the sepulchral voice of
+      the Grand Master of the Templars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be some singular accident&mdash;some fatal mistake,&rdquo; said Philip
+      of France, who rode up at the same moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some deceit of the Enemy,&rdquo; said the Archbishop of Tyre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A stratagem of the Saracens,&rdquo; cried Henry of Champagne. &ldquo;It were well to
+      hang up the dog, and put the slave to the torture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let no man lay hand upon them,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;as he loves his own life!
+      Conrade, stand forth, if thou darest, and deny the accusation which this
+      mute animal hath in his noble instinct brought against thee, of injury
+      done to him, and foul scorn to England!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never touched the banner,&rdquo; said Conrade hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy words betray thee, Conrade!&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;for how didst thou know,
+      save from conscious guilt, that the question is concerning the banner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hast thou then not kept the camp in turmoil on that and no other score?&rdquo;
+       answered Conrade; &ldquo;and dost thou impute to a prince and an ally a crime
+      which, after all, was probably committed by some paltry felon for the sake
+      of the gold thread? Or wouldst thou now impeach a confederate on the
+      credit of a dog?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the alarm was becoming general, so that Philip of France
+      interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Princes and nobles,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you speak in presence of those whose
+      swords will soon be at the throats of each other if they hear their
+      leaders at such terms together. In the name of Heaven, let us draw off
+      each his own troops into their separate quarters, and ourselves meet an
+      hour hence in the Pavilion of Council to take some order in this new state
+      of confusion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Content,&rdquo; said King Richard, &ldquo;though I should have liked to have
+      interrogated that caitiff while his gay doublet was yet besmirched with
+      sand. But the pleasure of France shall be ours in this matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The leaders separated as was proposed, each prince placing himself at the
+      head of his own forces; and then was heard on all sides the crying of
+      war-cries and the sounding of gathering-notes upon bugles and trumpets, by
+      which the different stragglers were summoned to their prince's banner, and
+      the troops were shortly seen in motion, each taking different routes
+      through the camp to their own quarters. But although any immediate act of
+      violence was thus prevented, yet the accident which had taken place dwelt
+      on every mind; and those foreigners who had that morning hailed Richard as
+      the worthiest to lead their army, now resumed their prejudices against his
+      pride and intolerance, while the English, conceiving the honour of their
+      country connected with the quarrel, of which various reports had gone
+      about, considered the natives of other countries jealous of the fame of
+      England and her King, and disposed to undermine it by the meanest arts of
+      intrigue. Many and various were the rumours spread upon the occasion, and
+      there was one which averred that the Queen and her ladies had been much
+      alarmed by the tumult, and that one of them had swooned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Council assembled at the appointed hour. Conrade had in the meanwhile
+      laid aside his dishonoured dress, and with it the shame and confusion
+      which, in spite of his talents and promptitude, had at first overwhelmed
+      him, owing to the strangeness of the accident and suddenness of the
+      accusation. He was now robed like a prince; and entered the
+      council-chamber attended by the Archduke of Austria, the Grand Masters
+      both of the Temple and of the Order of Saint John, and several other
+      potentates, who made a show of supporting him and defending his cause,
+      chiefly perhaps from political motives, or because they themselves
+      nourished a personal enmity against Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This appearance of union in favour of Conrade was far from influencing the
+      King of England. He entered the Council with his usual indifference of
+      manner, and in the same dress in which he had just alighted from
+      horseback. He cast a careless and somewhat scornful glance on the leaders,
+      who had with studied affectation arranged themselves around Conrade as if
+      owning his cause, and in the most direct terms charged Conrade of
+      Montserrat with having stolen the Banner of England, and wounded the
+      faithful animal who stood in its defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade arose boldly to answer, and in despite, as he expressed himself,
+      of man and brute, king or dog, avouched his innocence of the crime
+      charged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother of England,&rdquo; said Philip, who willingly assumed the character of
+      moderator of the assembly, &ldquo;this is an unusual impeachment. We do not hear
+      you avouch your own knowledge of this matter, further than your belief
+      resting upon the demeanour of this hound towards the Marquis of
+      Montserrat. Surely the word of a knight and a prince should bear him out
+      against the barking of a cur?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Royal brother,&rdquo; returned Richard, &ldquo;recollect that the Almighty, who gave
+      the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him
+      with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. He forgets neither friend nor
+      foe&mdash;remembers, and with accuracy, both benefit and injury. He hath a
+      share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's falsehood. You may
+      bribe a soldier to slay a man with his sword, or a witness to take life by
+      false accusation; but you cannot make a hound tear his benefactor. He is
+      the friend of man, save when man justly incurs his enmity. Dress yonder
+      marquis in what peacock-robes you will, disguise his appearance, alter his
+      complexion with drugs and washes, hide him amidst a hundred men,&mdash;I
+      will yet pawn my sceptre that the hound detects him, and expresses his
+      resentment, as you have this day beheld. This is no new incident, although
+      a strange one. Murderers and robbers have been ere now convicted, and
+      suffered death under such evidence, and men have said that the finger of
+      God was in it. In thine own land, royal brother, and upon such an
+      occasion, the matter was tried by a solemn duel betwixt the man and the
+      dog, as appellant and defendant in a challenge of murder. The dog was
+      victorious, the man was punished, and the crime was confessed. Credit me,
+      royal brother, that hidden crimes have often been brought to light by the
+      testimony even of inanimate substances, not to mention animals far
+      inferior in instinctive sagacity to the dog, who is the friend and
+      companion of our race.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such a duel there hath indeed been, royal brother,&rdquo; answered Philip, &ldquo;and
+      that in the reign of one of our predecessors, to whom God be gracious. But
+      it was in the olden time, nor can we hold it a precedent fitting for this
+      occasion. The defendant in that case was a private gentleman of small rank
+      or respect; his offensive weapons were only a club, his defensive a
+      leathern jerkin. But we cannot degrade a prince to the disgrace of using
+      such rude arms, or to the ignominy of such a combat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never meant that you should,&rdquo; said King Richard; &ldquo;it were foul play to
+      hazard the good hound's life against that of such a double-faced traitor
+      as this Conrade hath proved himself. But there lies our own glove; we
+      appeal him to the combat in respect of the evidence we brought forth
+      against him. A king, at least, is more than the mate of a marquis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade made no hasty effort to seize on the pledge which Richard cast
+      into the middle of the assembly, and King Philip had time to reply ere the
+      marquis made a motion to lift the glove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A king,&rdquo; said he of France, &ldquo;is as much more than a match for the Marquis
+      Conrade as a dog would be less. Royal Richard, this cannot be permitted.
+      You are the leader of our expedition&mdash;the sword and buckler of
+      Christendom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I protest against such a combat,&rdquo; said the Venetian proveditore, &ldquo;until
+      the King of England shall have repaid the fifty thousand byzants which he
+      is indebted to the republic. It is enough to be threatened with loss of
+      our debt, should our debtor fall by the hands of the pagans, without the
+      additional risk of his being slain in brawls amongst Christians concerning
+      dogs and banners.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I,&rdquo; said William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, &ldquo;protest in
+      my turn against my royal brother perilling his life, which is the property
+      of the people of England, in such a cause. Here, noble brother, receive
+      back your glove, and think only as if the wind had blown it from your
+      hand. Mine shall lie in its stead. A king's son, though with the bar
+      sinister on his shield, is at least a match for this marmoset of a
+      marquis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Princes and nobles,&rdquo; said Conrade, &ldquo;I will not accept of King Richard's
+      defiance. He hath been chosen our leader against the Saracens, and if his
+      conscience can answer the accusation of provoking an ally to the field on
+      a quarrel so frivolous, mine, at least, cannot endure the reproach of
+      accepting it. But touching his bastard brother, William of Woodstock, or
+      against any other who shall adopt or shall dare to stand godfather to this
+      most false charge, I will defend my honour in the lists, and prove
+      whosoever impeaches it a false liar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Marquis of Montserrat,&rdquo; said the Archbishop of Tyre, &ldquo;hath spoken
+      like a wise and moderate gentleman; and methinks this controversy might,
+      without dishonour to any party, end at this point.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks it might so terminate,&rdquo; said the King of France, &ldquo;provided King
+      Richard will recall his accusation as made upon over-slight grounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Philip of France,&rdquo; answered Coeur de Lion, &ldquo;my words shall never do my
+      thoughts so much injury. I have charged yonder Conrade as a thief, who,
+      under cloud of night, stole from its place the emblem of England's
+      dignity. I still believe and charge him to be such; and when a day is
+      appointed for the combat, doubt not that, since Conrade declines to meet
+      us in person, I will find a champion to appear in support of my challenge&mdash;for
+      thou, William, must not thrust thy long sword into this quarrel without
+      our special license.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since my rank makes me arbiter in this most unhappy matter,&rdquo; said Philip
+      of France, &ldquo;I appoint the fifth day from hence for the decision thereof,
+      by way of combat, according to knightly usage&mdash;Richard, King of
+      England, to appear by his champion as appellant, and Conrade, Marquis of
+      Montserrat, in his own person, as defendant. Yet I own I know not where to
+      find neutral ground where such a quarrel may be fought out; for it must
+      not be in the neighbourhood of this camp, where the soldiers would make
+      faction on the different sides.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It were well,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;to apply to the generosity of the royal
+      Saladin, since, heathen as he is, I have never known knight more fulfilled
+      of nobleness, or to whose good faith we may so peremptorily entrust
+      ourselves. I speak thus for those who may be doubtful of mishap; for
+      myself, wherever I see my foe, I make that spot my battle-ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so,&rdquo; said Philip; &ldquo;we will make this matter known to Saladin,
+      although it be showing to an enemy the unhappy spirit of discord which we
+      would willingly hide from even ourselves, were it possible. Meanwhile, I
+      dismiss this assembly, and charge you all, as Christian men and noble
+      knights, that ye let this unhappy feud breed no further brawling in the
+      camp, but regard it as a thing solemnly referred to the judgment of God,
+      to whom each of you should pray that He will dispose of victory in the
+      combat according to the truth of the quarrel; and therewith may His will
+      be done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen, amen!&rdquo; was answered on all sides; while the Templar whispered the
+      Marquis, &ldquo;Conrade, wilt thou not add a petition to be delivered from the
+      power of the dog, as the Psalmist hath it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, thou&mdash;!&rdquo; replied the Marquis; &ldquo;there is a revealing demon
+      abroad which may report, amongst other tidings, how far thou dost carry
+      the motto of thy order&mdash;'FERIATUR LEO'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou wilt stand the brunt of challenge?&rdquo; said the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubt me not,&rdquo; said Conrade. &ldquo;I would not, indeed, have willingly met the
+      iron arm of Richard himself, and I shame not to confess that I rejoice to
+      be free of his encounter; but, from his bastard brother downward, the man
+      breathes not in his ranks whom I fear to meet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well you are so confident,&rdquo; continued the Templar; &ldquo;and, in that
+      case, the fangs of yonder hound have done more to dissolve this league of
+      princes than either thy devices or the dagger of the Charegite. Seest thou
+      how, under a brow studiously overclouded, Philip cannot conceal the
+      satisfaction which he feels at the prospect of release from the alliance
+      which sat so heavy on him? Mark how Henry of Champagne smiles to himself,
+      like a sparkling goblet of his own wine; and see the chuckling delight of
+      Austria, who thinks his quarrel is about to be avenged without risk or
+      trouble of his own. Hush! he approaches.&mdash;A most grievous chance,
+      most royal Austria, that these breaches in the walls of our Zion&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If thou meanest this Crusade,&rdquo; replied the Duke, &ldquo;I would it were
+      crumbled to pieces, and each were safe at home! I speak this in
+      confidence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the Marquis of Montserrat, &ldquo;to think this disunion should be
+      made by the hands of King Richard, for whose pleasure we have been
+      contented to endure so much, and to whom we have been as submissive as
+      slaves to a master, in hopes that he would use his valour against our
+      enemies, instead of exercising it upon our friends!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see not that he is so much more valorous than others,&rdquo; said the
+      Archduke. &ldquo;I believe, had the noble Marquis met him in the lists, he would
+      have had the better; for though the islander deals heavy blows with the
+      pole-axe, he is not so very dexterous with the lance. I should have cared
+      little to have met him myself on our old quarrel, had the weal of
+      Christendom permitted to sovereign princes to breathe themselves in the
+      lists; and if thou desirest it, noble Marquis, I will myself be your
+      godfather in this combat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I also,&rdquo; said the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, then, and take your nooning in our tent, noble sirs,&rdquo; said the
+      Duke, &ldquo;and we'll speak of this business over some right NIERENSTEIN.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered together accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What said our patron and these great folks together?&rdquo; said Jonas
+      Schwanker to his companion, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who had used the freedom
+      to press nigh to his master when the Council was dismissed, while the
+      jester waited at a more respectful distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Servant of Folly,&rdquo; said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, &ldquo;moderate thy curiosity; it
+      beseems not that I should tell to thee the counsels of our master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Man of wisdom, you mistake,&rdquo; answered Jonas. &ldquo;We are both the constant
+      attendants on our patron, and it concerns us alike to know whether thou or
+      I&mdash;Wisdom or Folly&mdash;have the deeper interest in him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He told to the Marquis,&rdquo; answered the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, &ldquo;and to the Grand
+      Master, that he was aweary of these wars, and would be glad he was safe at
+      home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a drawn cast, and counts for nothing in the game,&rdquo; said the
+      jester; &ldquo;it was most wise to think thus, but great folly to tell it to
+      others&mdash;proceed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, hem!&rdquo; said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER; &ldquo;he next said to them that Richard
+      was not more valorous than others, or over-dexterous in the tilt-yard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Woodcock of my side,&rdquo; said Schwanker, &ldquo;this was egregious folly. What
+      next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I am something oblivious,&rdquo; replied the man of wisdom&mdash;&ldquo;he
+      invited them to a goblet of NIERENSTEIN.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That hath a show of wisdom in it,&rdquo; said Jonas. &ldquo;Thou mayest mark it to
+      thy credit in the meantime; but an he drink too much, as is most likely, I
+      will have it pass to mine. Anything more?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing worth memory,&rdquo; answered the orator; &ldquo;only he wished he had taken
+      the occasion to meet Richard in the lists.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out upon it&mdash;out upon it!&rdquo; said Jonas; &ldquo;this is such dotage of folly
+      that I am well-nigh ashamed of winning the game by it. Ne'ertheless, fool
+      as he is, we will follow him, most sage SPRUCH-SPRECHER, and have our
+      share of the wine of NIERENSTEIN.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Yet this inconstancy is such,
+     As thou, too, shalt adore;
+     I could not love thee, love so much,
+     Loved I not honour more.
+            MONTROSE'S LINES.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When King Richard returned to his tent, he commanded the Nubian to be
+      brought before him. He entered with his usual ceremonial reverence, and
+      having prostrated himself, remained standing before the King in the
+      attitude of a slave awaiting the orders of his master. It was perhaps well
+      for him that the preservation of his character required his eyes to be
+      fixed on the ground, since the keen glance with which Richard for some
+      time surveyed him in silence would, if fully encountered, have been
+      difficult to sustain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou canst well of woodcraft,&rdquo; said the King, after a pause, &ldquo;and hast
+      started thy game and brought him to bay as ably as if Tristrem himself had
+      taught thee. [A universal tradition ascribed to Sir Tristrem, famous for
+      his love of the fair Queen Yseult, the laws concerning the practice of
+      woodcraft, or VENERIE, as it was called, being those that related to the
+      rules of the chase, which were deemed of much consequence during the
+      Middle Ages.] But this is not all&mdash;he must be brought down at force.
+      I myself would have liked to have levelled my hunting-spear at him. There
+      are, it seems, respects which prevent this. Thou art about to return to
+      the camp of the Soldan, bearing a letter, requiring of his courtesy to
+      appoint neutral ground for the deed of chivalry, and should it consist
+      with his pleasure, to concur with us in witnessing it. Now, speaking
+      conjecturally, we think thou mightst find in that camp some cavalier who,
+      for the love of truth and his own augmentation of honour, will do battle
+      with this same traitor of Montserrat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian raised his eyes and fixed them on the King with a look of eager
+      ardour; then raised them to Heaven with such solemn gratitude that the
+      water soon glistened in them; then bent his head, as affirming what
+      Richard desired, and resumed his usual posture of submissive attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;and I see thy desire to oblige me in this
+      matter. And herein, I must needs say, lies the excellence of such a
+      servant as thou, who hast not speech either to debate our purpose or to
+      require explanation of what we have determined. An English serving man in
+      thy place had given me his dogged advice to trust the combat with some
+      good lance of my household, who, from my brother Longsword downwards, are
+      all on fire to do battle in my cause; and a chattering Frenchman had made
+      a thousand attempts to discover wherefore I look for a champion from the
+      camp of the infidels. But thou, my silent agent, canst do mine errand
+      without questioning or comprehending it; with thee to hear is to obey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A bend of the body and a genuflection were the appropriate answer of the
+      Ethiopian to these observations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now to another point,&rdquo; said the King, and speaking suddenly and
+      rapidly&mdash;&ldquo;have you yet seen Edith Plantagenet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute looked up as in the act of being about to speak&mdash;nay, his
+      lips had begun to utter a distinct negative&mdash;when the abortive
+      attempt died away in the imperfect murmurs of the dumb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, lo you there!&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;the very sound of the name of a royal
+      maiden of beauty so surpassing as that of our lovely cousin seems to have
+      power enough well-nigh to make the dumb speak. What miracles then might
+      her eye work upon such a subject! I will make the experiment, friend
+      slave. Thou shalt see this choice beauty of our Court, and do the errand
+      of the princely Soldan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again a joyful glance&mdash;again a genuflection&mdash;but, as he arose,
+      the King laid his hand heavily on his shoulder, and proceeded with stern
+      gravity thus: &ldquo;Let me in one thing warn you, my sable envoy. Even if thou
+      shouldst feel that the kindly influence of her whom thou art soon to
+      behold should loosen the bonds of thy tongue, presently imprisoned, as the
+      good Soldan expresses it, within the ivory walls of its castle, beware how
+      thou changest thy taciturn character, or speakest a word in her presence,
+      even if thy powers of utterance were to be miraculously restored. Believe
+      me that I should have thy tongue extracted by the roots, and its ivory
+      palace&mdash;that is, I presume, its range of teeth&mdash;drawn out one by
+      one. Wherefore, be wise and silent still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian, so soon as the King had removed his heavy grasp from his
+      shoulder, bent his head, and laid his hand on his lips, in token of silent
+      obedience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Richard again laid his hand on him more gently, and added, &ldquo;This
+      behest we lay on thee as on a slave. Wert thou knight and gentleman, we
+      would require thine honour in pledge of thy silence, which is one especial
+      condition of our present trust.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ethiopian raised his body proudly, looked full at the King, and laid
+      his right hand on his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard then summoned his chamberlain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, Neville,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;with this slave to the tent of our royal consort,
+      and say it is our pleasure that he have an audience&mdash;a private
+      audience&mdash;of our cousin Edith. He is charged with a commission to
+      her. Thou canst show him the way also, in case he requires thy guidance,
+      though thou mayst have observed it is wonderful how familiar he already
+      seems to be with the purlieus of our camp.&mdash;And thou, too, friend
+      Ethiop,&rdquo; the King continued, &ldquo;what thou dost do quickly, and return hither
+      within the half-hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I stand discovered,&rdquo; thought the seeming Nubian, as, with downcast looks
+      and folded arms, he followed the hasty stride of Neville towards the tent
+      of Queen Berengaria&mdash;&ldquo;I stand undoubtedly discovered and unfolded to
+      King Richard; yet I cannot perceive that his resentment is hot against me.
+      If I understand his words&mdash;and surely it is impossible to
+      misinterpret them&mdash;he gives me a noble chance of redeeming my honour
+      upon the crest of this false Marquis, whose guilt I read in his craven eye
+      and quivering lip when the charge was made against him.&mdash;Roswal,
+      faithfully hast thou served thy master, and most dearly shall thy wrong be
+      avenged!&mdash;But what is the meaning of my present permission to look
+      upon her whom I had despaired ever to see again? And why, or how, can the
+      royal Plantagenet consent that I should see his divine kinswoman, either
+      as the messenger of the heathen Saladin, or as the guilty exile whom he so
+      lately expelled from his camp&mdash;his audacious avowal of the affection
+      which is his pride being the greatest enhancement of his guilt? That
+      Richard should consent to her receiving a letter from an infidel lover by
+      the hands of one of such disproportioned rank are either of them
+      circumstances equally incredible, and, at the same time, inconsistent with
+      each other. But Richard, when unmoved by his heady passions, is liberal,
+      generous, and truly noble; and as such I will deal with him, and act
+      according to his instructions, direct or implied, seeking to know no more
+      than may gradually unfold itself without my officious inquiry. To him who
+      has given me so brave an opportunity to vindicate my tarnished honour, I
+      owe acquiescence and obedience; and painful as it may be, the debt shall
+      be paid. And yet&rdquo;&mdash;thus the proud swelling of his heart further
+      suggested&mdash;&ldquo;Coeur de Lion, as he is called, might have measured the
+      feelings of others by his own. I urge an address to his kinswoman! I, who
+      never spoke word to her when I took a royal prize from her hand&mdash;when
+      I was accounted not the lowest in feats of chivalry among the defenders of
+      the Cross! I approach her when in a base disguise, and in a servile habit&mdash;and,
+      alas! when my actual condition is that of a slave, with a spot of
+      dishonour on that which was once my shield! I do this! He little knows me.
+      Yet I thank him for the opportunity which may make us all better
+      acquainted with each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he arrived at this conclusion, they paused before the entrance of the
+      Queen's pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were of course admitted by the guards, and Neville, leaving the
+      Nubian in a small apartment, or antechamber, which was but too well
+      remembered by him, passed into that which was used as the Queen's
+      presence-chamber. He communicated his royal master's pleasure in a low and
+      respectful tone of voice, very different from the bluntness of Thomas de
+      Vaux, to whom Richard was everything and the rest of the Court, including
+      Berengaria herself, was nothing. A burst of laughter followed the
+      communication of his errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what like is the Nubian slave who comes ambassador on such an errand
+      from the Soldan?&mdash;a negro, De Neville, is he not?&rdquo; said a female
+      voice, easily recognized for that of Berengaria. &ldquo;A negro, is he not, De
+      Neville, with black skin, a head curled like a ram's, a flat nose, and
+      blubber lips&mdash;ha, worthy Sir Henry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let not your Grace forget the shin-bones,&rdquo; said another voice, &ldquo;bent
+      outwards like the edge of a Saracen scimitar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rather like the bow of a Cupid, since he comes upon a lover's errand,&rdquo;
+       said the Queen.&mdash;&ldquo;Gentle Neville, thou art ever prompt to pleasure us
+      poor women, who have so little to pass away our idle moments. We must see
+      this messenger of love. Turks and Moors have I seen many, but negro
+      never.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am created to obey your Grace's commands, so you will bear me out with
+      my Sovereign for doing so,&rdquo; answered the debonair knight. &ldquo;Yet, let me
+      assure your Grace you will see something different from what you expect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better&mdash;uglier yet than our imaginations can fancy, yet
+      the chosen love-messenger of this gallant Soldan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious madam,&rdquo; said the Lady Calista, &ldquo;may I implore you would permit
+      the good knight to carry this messenger straight to the Lady Edith, to
+      whom his credentials are addressed? We have already escaped hardly for
+      such a frolic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Escaped?&rdquo; repeated the Queen scornfully. &ldquo;Yet thou mayest be right,
+      Calista, in thy caution. Let this Nubian, as thou callest him, first do
+      his errand to our cousin&mdash;besides, he is mute too, is he not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is, gracious madam,&rdquo; answered the knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Royal sport have these Eastern ladies,&rdquo; said Berengaria, &ldquo;attended by
+      those before whom they may say anything, yet who can report nothing.
+      Whereas in our camp, as the Prelate of Saint Jude's is wont to say, a bird
+      of the air will carry the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because,&rdquo; said De Neville, &ldquo;your Grace forgets that you speak within
+      canvas walls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voices sunk on this observation, and after a little whispering, the
+      English knight again returned to the Ethiopian, and made him a sign to
+      follow. He did so, and Neville conducted him to a pavilion, pitched
+      somewhat apart from that of the Queen, for the accommodation, it seemed,
+      of the Lady Edith and her attendants. One of her Coptic maidens received
+      the message communicated by Sir Henry Neville, and in the space of a very
+      few minutes the Nubian was ushered into Edith's presence, while Neville
+      was left on the outside of the tent. The slave who introduced him withdrew
+      on a signal from her mistress, and it was with humiliation, not of the
+      posture only but of the very inmost soul, that the unfortunate knight,
+      thus strangely disguised, threw himself on one knee, with looks bent on
+      the ground and arms folded on his bosom, like a criminal who expects his
+      doom. Edith was clad in the same manner as when she received King Richard,
+      her long, transparent dark veil hanging around her like the shade of a
+      summer night on a beautiful landscape, disguising and rendering obscure
+      the beauties which it could not hide. She held in her hand a silver lamp,
+      fed with some aromatic spirit, which burned with unusual brightness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Edith came within a step of the kneeling and motionless slave, she
+      held the light towards his face, as if to peruse his features more
+      attentively, then turned from him, and placed her lamp so as to throw the
+      shadow of his face in profile upon the curtain which hung beside. She at
+      length spoke in a voice composed, yet deeply sorrowful,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it you? It is indeed you, brave Knight of the Leopard&mdash;gallant
+      Sir Kenneth of Scotland; is it indeed you?&mdash;thus servilely disguised&mdash;thus
+      surrounded by a hundred dangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At hearing the tones of his lady's voice thus unexpectedly addressed to
+      him, and in a tone of compassion approaching to tenderness, a
+      corresponding reply rushed to the knight's lips, and scarce could
+      Richard's commands and his own promised silence prevent his answering that
+      the sight he saw, the sounds he just heard, were sufficient to recompense
+      the slavery of a life, and dangers which threatened that life every hour.
+      He did recollect himself, however, and a deep and impassioned sigh was his
+      only reply to the high-born Edith's question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see&mdash;I know I have guessed right,&rdquo; continued Edith. &ldquo;I marked you
+      from your first appearance near the platform on which I stood with the
+      Queen. I knew, too, your valiant hound. She is no true lady, and is
+      unworthy of the service of such a knight as thou art, from whom disguises
+      of dress or hue could conceal a faithful servant. Speak, then, without
+      fear to Edith Plantagenet. She knows how to grace in adversity the good
+      knight who served, honoured, and did deeds of arms in her name, when
+      fortune befriended him.&mdash;Still silent! Is it fear or shame that keeps
+      thee so! Fear should be unknown to thee; and for shame, let it remain with
+      those who have wronged thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight, in despair at being obliged to play the mute in an interview
+      so interesting, could only express his mortification by sighing deeply,
+      and laying his finger upon his lips. Edith stepped back, as if somewhat
+      displeased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;the Asiatic mute in very deed, as well as in attire?
+      This I looked not for. Or thou mayest scorn me, perhaps, for thus boldly
+      acknowledging that I have heedfully observed the homage thou hast paid me?
+      Hold no unworthy thoughts of Edith on that account. She knows well the
+      bounds which reserve and modesty prescribe to high-born maidens, and she
+      knows when and how far they should give place to gratitude&mdash;to a
+      sincere desire that it were in her power to repay services and repair
+      injuries arising from the devotion which a good knight bore towards her.
+      Why fold thy hands together, and wring them with so much passion? Can it
+      be,&rdquo; she added, shrinking back at the idea, &ldquo;that their cruelty has
+      actually deprived thee of speech? Thou shakest thy head. Be it a spell&mdash;be
+      it obstinacy, I question thee no further, but leave thee to do thine
+      errand after thine own fashion. I also can be mute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The disguised knight made an action as if at once lamenting his own
+      condition and deprecating her displeasure, while at the same time he
+      presented to her, wrapped, as usual, in fine silk and cloth of gold, the
+      letter of the Soldan. She took it, surveyed it carelessly, then laid it
+      aside, and bending her eyes once more on the knight, she said in a low
+      tone, &ldquo;Not even a word to do thine errand to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He pressed both his hands to his brow, as if to intimate the pain which he
+      felt at being unable to obey her; but she turned from him in anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begone!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I have spoken enough&mdash;too much&mdash;to one who
+      will not waste on me a word in reply. Begone!&mdash;and say, if I have
+      wronged thee, I have done penance; for if I have been the unhappy means of
+      dragging thee down from a station of honour, I have, in this interview,
+      forgotten my own worth, and lowered myself in thy eyes and in my own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She covered her eyes with her hands, and seemed deeply agitated. Sir
+      Kenneth would have approached, but she waved him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand off! thou whose soul Heaven hath suited to its new station! Aught
+      less dull and fearful than a slavish mute had spoken a word of gratitude,
+      were it but to reconcile me to my own degradation. Why pause you?&mdash;begone!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The disguised knight almost involuntarily looked towards the letter as an
+      apology for protracting his stay. She snatched it up, saying in a tone of
+      irony and contempt, &ldquo;I had forgotten&mdash;the dutiful slave waits an
+      answer to his message. How's this&mdash;from the Soldan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She hastily ran over the contents, which were expressed both in Arabic and
+      French, and when she had done, she laughed in bitter anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now this passes imagination!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;no jongleur can show so deft a
+      transmutation! His legerdemain can transform zechins and byzants into
+      doits and maravedis; but can his art convert a Christian knight, ever
+      esteemed among the bravest of the Holy Crusade, into the dust-kissing
+      slave of a heathen Soldan&mdash;the bearer of a paynim's insolent
+      proposals to a Christian maiden&mdash;nay, forgetting the laws of
+      honourable chivalry, as well as of religion? But it avails not talking to
+      the willing slave of a heathen hound. Tell your master, when his scourge
+      shall have found thee a tongue, that which thou hast seen me do&rdquo;&mdash;so
+      saying, she threw the Soldan's letter on the ground, and placed her foot
+      upon it&mdash;&ldquo;and say to him, that Edith Plantagenet scorns the homage of
+      an unchristened pagan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words she was about to shoot from the knight, when, kneeling at
+      her feet in bitter agony, he ventured to lay his hand upon her robe and
+      oppose her departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heard'st thou not what I said, dull slave?&rdquo; she said, turning short round
+      on him, and speaking with emphasis. &ldquo;Tell the heathen Soldan, thy master,
+      that I scorn his suit as much as I despise the prostration of a worthless
+      renegade to religion and chivalry&mdash;to God and to his lady!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she burst from him, tore her garment from his grasp, and left
+      the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice of Neville, at the same time, summoned him from without.
+      Exhausted and stupefied by the distress he had undergone during this
+      interview, from which he could only have extricated himself by breach of
+      the engagement which he had formed with King Richard, the unfortunate
+      knight staggered rather than walked after the English baron, till they
+      reached the royal pavilion, before which a party of horsemen had just
+      dismounted. There were light and motion within the tent, and when Neville
+      entered with his disguised attendant, they found the King, with several of
+      his nobility, engaged in welcoming those who were newly arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The tears I shed must ever fall.
+     I weep not for an absent swain;
+     For time may happier hours recall,
+     And parted lovers meet again.
+
+     &ldquo;I weep not for the silent dead.
+     Their pains are past, their sorrows o'er;
+     And those that loved their steps must tread,
+     When death shall join to part no more.&rdquo;
+
+     But worse than absence, worse than death,
+     She wept her lover's sullied fame,
+     And, fired with all the pride of birth,
+     She wept a soldier's injured name.
+            BALLAD.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The frank and bold voice of Richard was heard in joyous gratulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thomas de Vaux! stout Tom of the Gills! by the head of King Henry, thou
+      art welcome to me as ever was flask of wine to a jolly toper! I should
+      scarce have known how to order my battle-array, unless I had thy bulky
+      form in mine eye as a landmark to form my ranks upon. We shall have blows
+      anon, Thomas, if the saints be gracious to us; and had we fought in thine
+      absence, I would have looked to hear of thy being found hanging upon an
+      elder-tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have borne my disappointment with more Christian patience, I
+      trust,&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux, &ldquo;than to have died the death of an apostate.
+      But I thank your Grace for my welcome, which is the more generous, as it
+      respects a banquet of blows, of which, saving your pleasure, you are ever
+      too apt to engross the larger share. But here have I brought one to whom
+      your Grace will, I know, give a yet warmer welcome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The person who now stepped forward to make obeisance to Richard was a
+      young man of low stature and slight form. His dress was as modest as his
+      figure was unimpressive; but he bore on his bonnet a gold buckle, with a
+      gem, the lustre of which could only be rivalled by the brilliancy of the
+      eye which the bonnet shaded. It was the only striking feature in his
+      countenance; but when once noticed, it ever made a strong impression on
+      the spectator. About his neck there hung in a scarf of sky-blue silk a
+      WREST as it was called&mdash;that is, the key with which a harp is tuned,
+      and which was of solid gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This personage would have kneeled reverently to Richard, but the Monarch
+      raised him in joyful haste, pressed him to his bosom warmly, and kissed
+      him on either side of the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blondel de Nesle!&rdquo; he exclaimed joyfully&mdash;&ldquo;welcome from Cyprus, my
+      king of minstrels!&mdash;welcome to the King of England, who rates not his
+      own dignity more highly than he does thine. I have been sick, man, and, by
+      my soul, I believe it was for lack of thee; for, were I half way to the
+      gate of heaven, methinks thy strains could call me back. And what news, my
+      gentle master, from the land of the lyre? Anything fresh from the
+      TROUVEURS of Provence? Anything from the minstrels of merry Normandy?
+      Above all, hast thou thyself been busy? But I need not ask thee&mdash;thou
+      canst not be idle if thou wouldst; thy noble qualities are like a fire
+      burning within, and compel thee to pour thyself out in music and song.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something I have learned, and something I have done, noble King,&rdquo;
+       answered the celebrated Blondel, with a retiring modesty which all
+      Richard's enthusiastic admiration of his skill had been unable to banish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will hear thee, man&mdash;we will hear thee instantly,&rdquo; said the King.
+      Then, touching Blondel's shoulder kindly, he added, &ldquo;That is, if thou art
+      not fatigued with thy journey; for I would sooner ride my best horse to
+      death than injure a note of thy voice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My voice is, as ever, at the service of my royal patron,&rdquo; said Blondel;
+      &ldquo;but your Majesty,&rdquo; he added, looking at some papers on the table, &ldquo;seems
+      more importantly engaged, and the hour waxes late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a whit, man, not a whit, my dearest Blondel. I did but sketch an
+      array of battle against the Saracens, a thing of a moment, almost as soon
+      done as the routing of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Methinks, however,&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux, &ldquo;it were not unfit to inquire
+      what soldiers your Grace hath to array. I bring reports on that subject
+      from Ascalon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a mule, Thomas,&rdquo; said the King&mdash;&ldquo;a very mule for dullness
+      and obstinacy! Come, nobles&mdash;a hall&mdash;a hall&mdash;range ye
+      around him! Give Blondel the tabouret. Where is his harp-bearer?&mdash;or,
+      soft, lend him my harp, his own may be damaged by the journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would your Grace would take my report,&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux. &ldquo;I have
+      ridden far, and have more list to my bed than to have my ears tickled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;THY ears tickled!&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;that must be with a woodcock's
+      feather, and not with sweet sounds. Hark thee, Thomas, do thine ears know
+      the singing of Blondel from the braying of an ass?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In faith, my liege,&rdquo; replied Thomas, &ldquo;I cannot well say; but setting
+      Blondel out of the question, who is a born gentleman, and doubtless of
+      high acquirements, I shall never, for the sake of your Grace's question,
+      look on a minstrel but I shall think upon an ass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And might not your manners,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;have excepted me, who am a
+      gentleman born as well as Blondel, and, like him, a guild-brother of the
+      joyeuse science?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Grace should remember,&rdquo; said De Vaux, smiling, &ldquo;that 'tis useless
+      asking for manners from a mule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most truly spoken,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;and an ill-conditioned animal thou
+      art. But come hither, master mule, and be unloaded, that thou mayest get
+      thee to thy litter, without any music being wasted on thee. Meantime do
+      thou, good brother of Salisbury, go to our consort's tent, and tell her
+      that Blondel has arrived, with his budget fraught with the newest
+      minstrelsy. Bid her come hither instantly, and do thou escort her, and see
+      that our cousin, Edith Plantagenet, remain not behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His eye then rested for a moment on the Nubian, with that expression of
+      doubtful meaning which his countenance usually displayed when he looked at
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, our silent and secret messenger returned?&mdash;Stand up, slave,
+      behind the back of De Neville, and thou shalt hear presently sounds which
+      will make thee bless God that He afflicted thee rather with dumbness than
+      deafness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he turned from the rest of the company towards De Vaux, and
+      plunged instantly into the military details which that baron laid before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About the time that the Lord of Gilsland had finished his audience, a
+      messenger announced that the Queen and her attendants were approaching the
+      royal tent.&mdash;&ldquo;A flask of wine, ho!&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;of old King
+      Isaac's long-saved Cyprus, which we won when we stormed Famagosta. Fill to
+      the stout Lord of Gilsland, gentles&mdash;a more careful and faithful
+      servant never had any prince.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad,&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux, &ldquo;that your Grace finds the mule a useful
+      slave, though his voice be less musical than horse-hair or wire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, thou canst not yet digest that quip of the mule?&rdquo; said Richard.
+      &ldquo;Wash it down with a brimming flagon, man, or thou wilt choke upon it.
+      Why, so&mdash;well pulled!&mdash;and now I will tell thee, thou art a
+      soldier as well as I, and we must brook each other's jests in the hall as
+      each other's blows in the tourney, and love each other the harder we hit.
+      By my faith, if thou didst not hit me as hard as I did thee in our late
+      encounter! thou gavest all thy wit to the thrust. But here lies the
+      difference betwixt thee and Blondel. Thou art but my comrade&mdash;I might
+      say my pupil&mdash;in the art of war; Blondel is my master in the science
+      of minstrelsy and music. To thee I permit the freedom of intimacy; to him
+      I must do reverence, as to my superior in his art. Come, man, be not
+      peevish, but remain and hear our glee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see your Majesty in such cheerful mood,&rdquo; said the Lord of Gilsland,
+      &ldquo;by my faith, I could remain till Blondel had achieved the great romance
+      of King Arthur, which lasts for three days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will not tax your patience so deeply,&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;But see, yonder
+      glare of torches without shows that our consort approaches. Away to
+      receive her, man, and win thyself grace in the brightest eyes of
+      Christendom. Nay, never stop to adjust thy cloak. See, thou hast let
+      Neville come between the wind and the sails of thy galley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was never before me in the field of battle,&rdquo; said De Vaux, not greatly
+      pleased to see himself anticipated by the more active service of the
+      chamberlain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, neither he nor any one went before thee there, my good Tom of the
+      Gills,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;unless it was ourself, now and then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, my liege,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;and let us do justice to the unfortunate.
+      The unhappy Knight of the Leopard hath been before me too, at a season;
+      for, look you, he weighs less on horseback, and so&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; said the King, interrupting him in a peremptory tone, &ldquo;not a word
+      of him,&rdquo; and instantly stepped forward to greet his royal consort; and
+      when he had done so, he presented to her Blondel, as king of minstrelsy
+      and his master in the gay science. Berengaria, who well knew that her
+      royal husband's passion for poetry and music almost equalled his appetite
+      for warlike fame, and that Blondel was his especial favourite, took
+      anxious care to receive him with all the flattering distinctions due to
+      one whom the King delighted to honour. Yet it was evident that, though
+      Blondel made suitable returns to the compliments showered on him something
+      too abundantly by the royal beauty, he owned with deeper reverence and
+      more humble gratitude the simple and graceful welcome of Edith, whose
+      kindly greeting appeared to him, perhaps, sincere in proportion to its
+      brevity and simplicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the Queen and her royal husband were aware of this distinction, and
+      Richard, seeing his consort somewhat piqued at the preference assigned to
+      his cousin, by which perhaps he himself did not feel much gratified, said
+      in the hearing of both, &ldquo;We minstrels, Berengaria, as thou mayest see by
+      the bearing of our master Blondel, pay more reverence to a severe judge
+      like our kinswoman than to a kindly, partial friend like thyself, who is
+      willing to take our worth upon trust.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Edith was moved by this sarcasm of her royal kinsman, and hesitated not to
+      reply that, &ldquo;To be a harsh and severe judge was not an attribute proper to
+      her alone of all the Plantagenets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had perhaps said more, having some touch of the temper of that house,
+      which, deriving their name and cognizance from the lowly broom (PLANTA
+      GENISTA), assumed as an emblem of humility, were perhaps one of the
+      proudest families that ever ruled in England; but her eye, when kindling
+      in her reply, suddenly caught those of the Nubian, although he endeavoured
+      to conceal himself behind the nobles who were present, and she sunk upon a
+      seat, turning so pale that Queen Berengaria deemed herself obliged to call
+      for water and essences, and to go through the other ceremonies appropriate
+      to a lady's swoon. Richard, who better estimated Edith's strength of mind,
+      called to Blondel to assume his seat and commence his lay, declaring that
+      minstrelsy was worth every other recipe to recall a Plantagenet to life.
+      &ldquo;Sing us,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that song of the Bloody Vest, of which thou didst
+      formerly give me the argument ere I left Cyprus. Thou must be perfect in
+      it by this time, or, as our yeomen say, thy bow is broken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+      <img src="images/0401m.jpg" style="width:100%;"  alt="0401m " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0401.jpg" style="width:100%;" ><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The anxious eye of the minstrel, however, dwelt on Edith, and it was not
+      till he observed her returning colour that he obeyed the repeated commands
+      of the King. Then, accompanying his voice with the harp, so as to grace,
+      but yet not drown, the sense of what he sung, he chanted in a sort of
+      recitative one of those ancient adventures of love and knighthood which
+      were wont of yore to win the public attention. So soon as he began to
+      prelude, the insignificance of his personal appearance seemed to
+      disappear, and his countenance glowed with energy and inspiration. His
+      full, manly, mellow voice, so absolutely under command of the purest
+      taste, thrilled on every ear and to every heart. Richard, rejoiced as
+      after victory, called out the appropriate summons for silence, &ldquo;Listen,
+      lords, in bower and hall&rdquo;; while, with the zeal of a patron at once and a
+      pupil, he arranged the circle around, and hushed them into silence; and he
+      himself sat down with an air of expectation and interest, not altogether
+      unmixed with the gravity of the professed critic. The courtiers turned
+      their eyes on the King, that they might be ready to trace and imitate the
+      emotions his features should express, and Thomas de Vaux yawned
+      tremendously, as one who submitted unwillingly to a wearisome penance. The
+      song of Blondel was of course in the Norman language, but the verses which
+      follow express its meaning and its manner.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+     'Twas near the fair city of Benevent,
+     When the sun was setting on bough and bent,
+     And knights were preparing in bower and tent,
+     On the eve of the Baptist's tournament;
+     When in Lincoln green a stripling gent,
+     Well seeming a page by a princess sent,
+     Wander'd the camp, and, still as he went,
+     Inquired for the Englishman, Thomas a Kent.
+
+     Far hath he far'd, and farther must fare,
+     Till he finds his pavilion nor stately nor rare,&mdash;
+     Little save iron and steel was there;
+     And, as lacking the coin to pay armourer's care,
+     With his sinewy arms to the shoulders bare,
+     The good knight with hammer and file did repair
+     The mail that to-morrow must see him wear,
+     For the honour of Saint John and his lady fair.
+
+     &ldquo;Thus speaks my lady,&rdquo; the page said he,
+     And the knight bent lowly both head and knee,
+     &ldquo;She is Benevent's Princess so high in degree,
+     And thou art as lowly as knight may well be&mdash;
+     He that would climb so lofty a tree,
+     Or spring such a gulf as divides her from thee,
+     Must dare some high deed, by which all men may see
+     His ambition is back'd by his hie chivalrie.
+
+     &ldquo;Therefore thus speaks my lady,&rdquo; the fair page he said,
+     And the knight lowly louted with hand and with head,
+     &ldquo;Fling aside the good armour in which thou art clad,
+     And don thou this weed of her night-gear instead,
+     For a hauberk of steel, a kirtle of thread;
+     And charge, thus attir'd, in the tournament dread,
+     And fight as thy wont is where most blood is shed,
+     And bring honour away, or remain with the dead.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Untroubled in his look, and untroubled in his breast, The knight the weed
+      hath taken, and reverently hath kiss'd. &ldquo;Now blessed be the moment, the
+      messenger be blest! Much honour'd do I hold me in my lady's high behest;
+      And say unto my lady, in this dear night-weed dress'd, To the best armed
+      champion I will not veil my crest; But if I live and bear me well 'tis her
+      turn to take the test.&rdquo; Here, gentles, ends the foremost fytte of the Lay
+      of the Bloody Vest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast changed the measure upon us unawares in that last couplet, my
+      Blondel,&rdquo; said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most true, my lord,&rdquo; said Blondel. &ldquo;I rendered the verses from the
+      Italian of an old harper whom I met in Cyprus, and not having had time
+      either to translate it accurately or commit it to memory, I am fain to
+      supply gaps in the music and the verse as I can upon the spur of the
+      moment, as you see boors mend a quickset fence with a fagot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, on my faith,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;I like these rattling, rolling
+      Alexandrines. Methinks they come more twangingly off to the music than
+      that briefer measure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both are licensed, as is well known to your Grace,&rdquo; answered Blondel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are so, Blondel,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;yet methinks the scene where there
+      is like to be fighting will go best on in these same thundering
+      Alexandrines, which sound like the charge of cavalry, while the other
+      measure is but like the sidelong amble of a lady's palfrey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be as your Grace pleases,&rdquo; replied Blondel, and began again to
+      prelude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, first cherish thy fancy with a cup of fiery Chios wine,&rdquo; said the
+      King. &ldquo;And hark thee, I would have thee fling away that new-fangled
+      restriction of thine, of terminating in accurate and similar rhymes. They
+      are a constraint on thy flow of fancy, and make thee resemble a man
+      dancing in fetters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fetters are easily flung off, at least,&rdquo; said Blondel, again sweeping
+      his fingers over the strings, as one who would rather have played than
+      listened to criticism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why put them on, man?&rdquo; continued the King. &ldquo;Wherefore thrust thy
+      genius into iron bracelets? I marvel how you got forward at all. I am sure
+      I should not have been able to compose a stanza in yonder hampered
+      measure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Blondel looked down, and busied himself with the strings of his harp, to
+      hide an involuntary smile which crept over his features; but it escaped
+      not Richard's observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my faith, thou laughest at me, Blondel,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;and, in good truth,
+      every man deserves it who presumes to play the master when he should be
+      the pupil. But we kings get bad habits of self-opinion. Come, on with thy
+      lay, dearest Blondel&mdash;on after thine own fashion, better than aught
+      that we can suggest, though we must needs be talking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Blondel resumed the lay; but as extemporaneous composition was familiar to
+      him, he failed not to comply with the King's hints, and was perhaps not
+      displeased to show with how much ease he could new-model a poem, even
+      while in the act of recitation.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                   THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+                    FYTTE SECOND.
+
+     The Baptist's fair morrow beheld gallant feats&mdash;
+     There was winning of honour and losing of seats;
+     There was hewing with falchions and splintering of staves&mdash;
+     The victors won glory, the vanquish'd won graves.
+     Oh, many a knight there fought bravely and well,
+     Yet one was accounted his peers to excel,
+     And 'twas he whose sole armour on body and breast
+     Seem'd the weed of a damsel when bouned for her rest.
+
+     There were some dealt him wounds that were bloody and sore,
+     But others respected his plight, and forbore.
+     &ldquo;It is some oath of honour,&rdquo; they said, &ldquo;and I trow,
+     'Twere unknightly to slay him achieving his vow.&rdquo;
+      Then the Prince, for his sake, bade the tournament cease&mdash;
+     He flung down his warder, the trumpets sung peace;
+     And the judges declare, and competitors yield,
+     That the Knight of the Night-gear was first in the field.
+
+     The feast it was nigh, and the mass it was nigher,
+     When before the fair Princess low looted a squire,
+     And deliver'd a garment unseemly to view,
+     With sword-cut and spear-thrust, all hack'd and pierc'd through;
+     All rent and all tatter'd, all clotted with blood,
+     With foam of the horses, with dust, and with mud;
+     Not the point of that lady's small finger, I ween,
+     Could have rested on spot was unsullied and clean.
+
+     &ldquo;This token my master, Sir Thomas a Kent,
+     Restores to the Princess of fair Benevent;
+     He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit,
+     He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit;
+     Through life's utmost peril the prize I have won,
+     And now must the faith of my mistress be shown:
+     For she who prompts knights on such danger to run
+     Must avouch his true service in front of the sun.
+
+     &ldquo;'I restore,' says my master, 'the garment I've worn,
+     And I claim of the Princess to don it in turn;
+     For its stains and its rents she should prize it the more,
+     Since by shame 'tis unsullied, though crimson'd with gore.'&rdquo;
+      Then deep blush'd the Princess&mdash;yet kiss'd she and press'd
+     The blood-spotted robes to her lips and her breast.
+     &ldquo;Go tell my true knight, church and chamber shall show
+     If I value the blood on this garment or no.&rdquo;
+
+     And when it was time for the nobles to pass,
+     In solemn procession to minster and mass,
+     The first walk'd the Princess in purple and pall,
+     But the blood-besmear'd night-robe she wore over all;
+     And eke, in the hall, where they all sat at dine,
+     When she knelt to her father and proffer'd the wine,
+     Over all her rich robes and state jewels she wore
+     That wimple unseemly bedabbled with gore.
+
+     Then lords whisper'd ladies, as well you may think,
+     And ladies replied with nod, titter, and wink;
+     And the Prince, who in anger and shame had look'd down,
+     Turn'd at length to his daughter, and spoke with a frown:
+     &ldquo;Now since thou hast publish'd thy folly and guilt,
+     E'en atone with thy hand for the blood thou hast spilt;
+     Yet sore for your boldness you both will repent,
+     When you wander as exiles from fair Benevent.&rdquo;
+
+     Then out spoke stout Thomas, in hall where he stood,
+     Exhausted and feeble, but dauntless of mood:
+     &ldquo;The blood that I lost for this daughter of thine,
+     I pour'd forth as freely as flask gives its wine;
+     And if for my sake she brooks penance and blame,
+     Do not doubt I will save her from suffering and shame;
+     And light will she reck of thy princedom and rent,
+     When I hail her, in England, the Countess of Kent.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      A murmur of applause ran through the assembly, following the example of
+      Richard himself, who loaded with praises his favourite minstrel, and ended
+      by presenting him with a ring of considerable value. The Queen hastened to
+      distinguish the favourite by a rich bracelet, and many of the nobles who
+      were present followed the royal example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is our cousin Edith,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;become insensible to the sound of
+      the harp she once loved?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She thanks Blondel for his lay,&rdquo; replied Edith, &ldquo;but doubly the kindness
+      of the kinsman who suggested it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art angry, cousin,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;angry because thou hast heard of
+      a woman more wayward than thyself. But you escape me not. I will walk a
+      space homeward with you towards the Queen's pavilion. We must have
+      conference together ere the night has waned into morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen and her attendants were now on foot, and the other guests
+      withdrew from the royal tent. A train with blazing torches, and an escort
+      of archers, awaited Berengaria without the pavilion, and she was soon on
+      her way homeward. Richard, as he had proposed, walked beside his
+      kinswoman, and compelled her to accept of his arm as her support, so that
+      they could speak to each other without being overheard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What answer, then, am I to return to the noble Soldan?&rdquo; said Richard.
+      &ldquo;The kings and princes are falling from me, Edith; this new quarrel hath
+      alienated them once more. I would do something for the Holy Sepulchre by
+      composition, if not by victory; and the chance of my doing this depends,
+      alas, on the caprice of a woman. I would lay my single spear in the rest
+      against ten of the best lances in Christendom, rather than argue with a
+      wilful wench who knows not what is for her own good. What answer, coz, am
+      I to return to the Soldan? It must be decisive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;that the poorest of the Plantagenets will rather
+      wed with misery than with misbelief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I say with slavery, Edith?&rdquo; said the King. &ldquo;Methinks that is nearer
+      thy thoughts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no room,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;for the suspicion you so grossly
+      insinuate. Slavery of the body might have been pitied, but that of the
+      soul is only to be despised. Shame to thee, King of merry England. Thou
+      hast enthralled both the limbs and the spirit of a knight, one scarce less
+      famed than thyself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Should I not prevent my kinswoman from drinking poison, by sullying the
+      vessel which contained it, if I saw no other means of disgusting her with
+      the fatal liquor?&rdquo; replied the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is thyself,&rdquo; answered Edith, &ldquo;that would press me to drink poison,
+      because it is proffered in a golden chalice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Edith,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;I cannot force thy resolution; but beware you shut
+      not the door which Heaven opens. The hermit of Engaddi&mdash;he whom Popes
+      and Councils have regarded as a prophet&mdash;hath read in the stars that
+      thy marriage shall reconcile me with a powerful enemy, and that thy
+      husband shall be Christian, leaving thus the fairest ground to hope that
+      the conversion of the Soldan, and the bringing in of the sons of Ishmael
+      to the pale of the church, will be the consequence of thy wedding with
+      Saladin. Come, thou must make some sacrifice rather than mar such happy
+      prospects.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men may sacrifice rams and goats,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;but not honour and
+      conscience. I have heard that it was the dishonour of a Christian maiden
+      which brought the Saracens into Spain; the shame of another is no likely
+      mode of expelling them from Palestine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dost thou call it shame to become an empress?&rdquo; said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I call it shame and dishonour to profane a Christian sacrament by
+      entering into it with an infidel whom it cannot bind; and I call it foul
+      dishonour that I, the descendant of a Christian princess, should become of
+      free will the head of a haram of heathen concubines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, kinswoman,&rdquo; said the King, after a pause, &ldquo;I must not quarrel with
+      thee, though I think thy dependent condition might have dictated more
+      compliance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My liege,&rdquo; replied Edith, &ldquo;your Grace hath worthily succeeded to all the
+      wealth, dignity, and dominion of the House of Plantagenet&mdash;do not,
+      therefore, begrudge your poor kinswoman some small share of their pride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my faith, wench,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;thou hast unhorsed me with that very
+      word, so we will kiss and be friends. I will presently dispatch thy answer
+      to Saladin. But after all, coz, were it not better to suspend your answer
+      till you have seen him? Men say he is pre-eminently handsome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no chance of our meeting, my lord,&rdquo; said Edith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Saint George, but there is next to a certainty of it,&rdquo; said the King;
+      &ldquo;for Saladin will doubtless afford us a free field for the doing of this
+      new battle of the Standard, and will witness it himself. Berengaria is
+      wild to behold it also; and I dare be sworn not a feather of you, her
+      companions and attendants, will remain behind&mdash;least of all thou
+      thyself, fair coz. But come, we have reached the pavilion, and must part;
+      not in unkindness thou, oh&mdash;nay, thou must seal it with thy lip as
+      well as thy hand, sweet Edith&mdash;it is my right as a sovereign to kiss
+      my pretty vassals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He embraced her respectfully and affectionately, and returned through the
+      moonlit camp, humming to himself such snatches of Blondel's lay as he
+      could recollect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his arrival he lost no time in making up his dispatches for Saladin,
+      and delivered them to the Nubian, with a charge to set out by peep of day
+      on his return to the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     We heard the Techir&mdash;so these Arabs call
+     Their shout of onset, when, with loud acclaim,
+     They challenge Heaven to give them victory.
+        SIEGE OF DAMASCUS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the subsequent morning Richard was invited to a conference by Philip of
+      France, in which the latter, with many expressions of his high esteem for
+      his brother of England, communicated to him in terms extremely courteous,
+      but too explicit to be misunderstood, his positive intention to return to
+      Europe, and to the cares of his kingdom, as entirely despairing of future
+      success in their undertaking, with their diminished forces and civil
+      discords. Richard remonstrated, but in vain; and when the conference ended
+      he received without surprise a manifesto from the Duke of Austria, and
+      several other princes, announcing a resolution similar to that of Philip,
+      and in no modified terms, assigning, for their defection from the cause of
+      the Cross, the inordinate ambition and arbitrary domination of Richard of
+      England. All hopes of continuing the war with any prospect of ultimate
+      success were now abandoned; and Richard, while he shed bitter tears over
+      his disappointed hopes of glory, was little consoled by the recollection
+      that the failure was in some degree to be imputed to the advantages which
+      he had given his enemies by his own hasty and imprudent temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They had not dared to have deserted my father thus,&rdquo; he said to De Vaux,
+      in the bitterness of his resentment. &ldquo;No slanders they could have uttered
+      against so wise a king would have been believed in Christendom; whereas&mdash;fool
+      that I am!&mdash;I have not only afforded them a pretext for deserting me,
+      but even a colour for casting all the blame of the rupture upon my unhappy
+      foibles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These thoughts were so deeply galling to the King, that De Vaux was
+      rejoiced when the arrival of an ambassador from Saladin turned his
+      reflections into a different channel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This new envoy was an Emir much respected by the Soldan, whose name was
+      Abdallah el Hadgi. He derived his descent from the family of the Prophet,
+      and the race or tribe of Hashem, in witness of which genealogy he wore a
+      green turban of large dimensions. He had also three times performed the
+      journey to Mecca, from which he derived his epithet of El Hadgi, or the
+      Pilgrim. Notwithstanding these various pretensions to sanctity, Abdallah
+      was (for an Arab) a boon companion, who enjoyed a merry tale, and laid
+      aside his gravity so far as to quaff a blithe flagon when secrecy ensured
+      him against scandal. He was likewise a statesman, whose abilities had been
+      used by Saladin in various negotiations with the Christian princes, and
+      particularly with Richard, to whom El Hadgi was personally known and
+      acceptable. Animated by the cheerful acquiescence with which the envoy of
+      Saladin afforded a fair field for the combat, a safe conduct for all who
+      might choose to witness it, and offered his own person as a guarantee of
+      his fidelity, Richard soon forgot his disappointed hopes, and the
+      approaching dissolution of the Christian league, in the interesting
+      discussions preceding a combat in the lists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The station called the Diamond of the Desert was assigned for the place of
+      conflict, as being nearly at an equal distance betwixt the Christian and
+      Saracen camps. It was agreed that Conrade of Montserrat, the defendant,
+      with his godfathers, the Archduke of Austria and the Grand Master of the
+      Templars, should appear there on the day fixed for the combat, with a
+      hundred armed followers, and no more; that Richard of England and his
+      brother Salisbury, who supported the accusation, should attend with the
+      same number, to protect his champion; and that the Soldan should bring
+      with him a guard of five hundred chosen followers, a band considered as
+      not more than equal to the two hundred Christian lances. Such persons of
+      consideration as either party chose to invite to witness the contest were
+      to wear no other weapons than their swords, and to come without defensive
+      armour. The Soldan undertook the preparation of the lists, and to provide
+      accommodations and refreshments of every kind for all who were to assist
+      at the solemnity; and his letters expressed with much courtesy the
+      pleasure which he anticipated in the prospect of a personal and peaceful
+      meeting with the Melech Ric, and his anxious desire to render his
+      reception as agreeable as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All preliminaries being arranged and communicated to the defendant and his
+      godfathers, Abdullah the Hadgi was admitted to a more private interview,
+      where he heard with delight the strains of Blondel. Having first carefully
+      put his green turban out of sight, and assumed a Greek cap in its stead,
+      he requited the Norman minstrel's music with a drinking song from the
+      Persian, and quaffed a hearty flagon of Cyprus wine, to show that his
+      practice matched his principles. On the next day, grave and sober as the
+      water-drinker Mirglip, he bent his brow to the ground before Saladin's
+      footstool, and rendered to the Soldan an account of his embassy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the day before that appointed for the combat Conrade and his friends
+      set off by daybreak to repair to the place assigned, and Richard left the
+      camp at the same hour and for the same purpose; but, as had been agreed
+      upon, he took his journey by a different route&mdash;a precaution which
+      had been judged necessary, to prevent the possibility of a quarrel betwixt
+      their armed attendants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good King himself was in no humour for quarrelling with any one.
+      Nothing could have added to his pleasurable anticipations of a desperate
+      and bloody combat in the lists, except his being in his own royal person
+      one of the combatants; and he was half in charity again even with Conrade
+      of Montserrat. Lightly armed, richly dressed, and gay as a bridegroom on
+      the eve of his nuptials, Richard caracoled along by the side of Queen
+      Berengaria's litter, pointing out to her the various scenes through which
+      they passed, and cheering with tale and song the bosom of the inhospitable
+      wilderness. The former route of the Queen's pilgrimage to Engaddi had been
+      on the other side of the chain of mountains, so that the ladies were
+      strangers to the scenery of the desert; and though Berengaria knew her
+      husband's disposition too well not to endeavour to seem interested in what
+      he was pleased either to say or to sing, she could not help indulging some
+      female fears when she found herself in the howling wilderness with so
+      small an escort, which seemed almost like a moving speck on the bosom of
+      the plain, and knew at the same time they were not so distant from the
+      camp of Saladin, but what they might be in a moment surprised and swept
+      off by an overpowering host of his fiery-footed cavalry, should the pagan
+      be faithless enough to embrace an opportunity thus tempting. But when she
+      hinted these suspicions to Richard he repelled them with displeasure and
+      disdain. &ldquo;It were worse than ingratitude,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to doubt the good
+      faith of the generous Soldan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet the same doubts and fears recurred more than once, not to the timid
+      mind of the Queen alone, but to the firmer and more candid soul of Edith
+      Plantagenet, who had no such confidence in the faith of the Moslem as to
+      render her perfectly at ease when so much in their power; and her surprise
+      had been far less than her terror, if the desert around had suddenly
+      resounded with the shout of ALLAH HU! and a band of Arab cavalry had
+      pounced on them like vultures on their prey. Nor were these suspicions
+      lessened when, as evening approached, they were aware of a single Arab
+      horseman, distinguished by his turban and long lance, hovering on the edge
+      of a small eminence like a hawk poised in the air, and who instantly, on
+      the appearance of the royal retinue, darted off with the speed of the same
+      bird when it shoots down the wind and disappears from the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must be near the station,&rdquo; said King Richard; &ldquo;and yonder cavalier is
+      one of Saladin's outposts&mdash;methinks I hear the noise of the Moorish
+      horns and cymbals. Get you into order, my hearts, and form yourselves
+      around the ladies soldierlike and firmly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, each knight, squire, and archer hastily closed in upon his
+      appointed ground, and they proceeded in the most compact order, which made
+      their numbers appear still smaller. And to say the truth, though there
+      might be no fear, there was anxiety as well as curiosity in the attention
+      with which they listened to the wild bursts of Moorish music, which came
+      ever and anon more distinctly from the quarter in which the Arab horseman
+      had been seen to disappear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux spoke in a whisper to the King. &ldquo;Were it not well, my liege, to
+      send a page to the top of that sand-bank? Or would it stand with your
+      pleasure that I prick forward? Methinks, by all yonder clash and clang, if
+      there be no more than five hundred men beyond the sand-hills, half of the
+      Soldan's retinue must be drummers and cymbal-tossers. Shall I spur on?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron had checked his horse with the bit, and was just about to strike
+      him with the spurs when the King exclaimed, &ldquo;Not for the world. Such a
+      caution would express suspicion, and could do little to prevent surprise,
+      which, however, I apprehend not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They advanced accordingly in close and firm order till they surmounted the
+      line of low sand-hills, and came in sight of the appointed station, when a
+      splendid, but at the same time a startling, spectacle awaited them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Diamond of the Desert, so lately a solitary fountain, distinguished
+      only amid the waste by solitary groups of palm-trees, was now the centre
+      of an encampment, the embroidered flags and gilded ornaments of which
+      glittered far and wide, and reflected a thousand rich tints against the
+      setting sun. The coverings of the large pavilions were of the gayest
+      colours&mdash;scarlet, bright yellow, pale blue, and other gaudy and
+      gleaming hues&mdash;and the tops of their pillars, or tent-poles, were
+      decorated with golden pomegranates and small silken flags. But besides
+      these distinguished pavilions, there were what Thomas de Vaux considered
+      as a portentous number of the ordinary black tents of the Arabs, being
+      sufficient, as he conceived, to accommodate, according to the Eastern
+      fashion, a host of five thousand men. A number of Arabs and Kurds, fully
+      corresponding to the extent of the encampment, were hastily assembling,
+      each leading his horse in his hand, and their muster was accompanied by an
+      astonishing clamour of their noisy instruments of martial music, by which,
+      in all ages, the warfare of the Arabs has been animated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They soon formed a deep and confused mass of dismounted cavalry in front
+      of their encampment, when, at the signal of a shrill cry, which arose high
+      over the clangour of the music, each cavalier sprung to his saddle. A
+      cloud of dust arising at the moment of this manoeuvre hid from Richard and
+      his attendants the camp, the palm-trees, and the distant ridge of
+      mountains, as well as the troops whose sudden movement had raised the
+      cloud, and, ascending high over their heads, formed itself into the
+      fantastic forms of writhed pillars, domes, and minarets. Another shrill
+      yell was heard from the bosom of this cloudy tabernacle. It was the signal
+      for the cavalry to advance, which they did at full gallop, disposing
+      themselves as they came forward so as to come in at once on the front,
+      flanks, and rear of Richard's little bodyguard, who were thus surrounded,
+      and almost choked by the dense clouds of dust enveloping them on each
+      side, through which were seen alternately, and lost, the grim forms and
+      wild faces of the Saracens, brandishing and tossing their lances in every
+      possible direction with the wildest cries and halloos, and frequently only
+      reining up their horses when within a spear's length of the Christians,
+      while those in the rear discharged over the heads of both parties thick
+      volleys of arrows. One of these struck the litter in which the Queen was
+      seated, who loudly screamed, and the red spot was on Richard's brow in an
+      instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! Saint George,&rdquo; he exclaimed, &ldquo;we must take some order with this
+      infidel scum!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Edith, whose litter was near, thrust her head out, and with her hand
+      holding one of the shafts, exclaimed, &ldquo;Royal Richard, beware what you do!
+      see, these arrows are headless!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble, sensible wench!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard; &ldquo;by Heaven, thou shamest us
+      all by thy readiness of thought and eye.&mdash;Be not moved, my English
+      hearts,&rdquo; he exclaimed to his followers; &ldquo;their arrows have no heads&mdash;and
+      their spears, too, lack the steel points. It is but a wild welcome, after
+      their savage fashion, though doubtless they would rejoice to see us
+      daunted or disturbed. Move onward, slow and steady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little phalanx moved forward accordingly, accompanied on all sides by
+      the Arabs, with the shrillest and most piercing cries, the bowmen,
+      meanwhile, displaying their agility by shooting as near the crests of the
+      Christians as was possible, without actually hitting them, while the
+      lancers charged each other with such rude blows of their blunt weapons
+      that more than one of them lost his saddle, and well-nigh his life, in
+      this rough sport. All this, though designed to express welcome, had rather
+      a doubtful appearance in the eyes of the Europeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they had advanced nearly half way towards the camp, King Richard and
+      his suite forming, as it were, the nucleus round which this tumultuary
+      body of horsemen howled, whooped, skirmished, and galloped, creating a
+      scene of indescribable confusion, another shrill cry was heard, on which
+      all these irregulars, who were on the front and upon the flanks of the
+      little body of Europeans, wheeled off; and forming themselves into a long
+      and deep column, followed with comparative order and silence in the rear
+      of Richard's troops. The dust began now to dissipate in their front, when
+      there advanced to meet them through that cloudy veil a body of cavalry of
+      a different and more regular description, completely armed with offensive
+      and defensive weapons, and who might well have served as a bodyguard to
+      the proudest of Eastern monarchs. This splendid troop consisted of five
+      hundred men and each horse which it contained was worth an earl's ransom.
+      The riders were Georgian and Circassian slaves in the very prime of life.
+      Their helmets and hauberks were formed of steel rings, so bright that they
+      shone like silver; their vestures were of the gayest colours, and some of
+      cloth of gold or silver; the sashes were twisted with silk and gold, their
+      rich turbans were plumed and jewelled, and their sabres and poniards, of
+      Damascene steel, were adorned with gold and gems on hilt and scabbard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This splendid array advanced to the sound of military music, and when they
+      met the Christian body they opened their files to the right and left, and
+      let them enter between their ranks. Richard now assumed the foremost place
+      in his troop, aware that Saladin himself was approaching. Nor was it long
+      when, in the centre of his bodyguard, surrounded by his domestic officers
+      and those hideous negroes who guard the Eastern haram, and whose misshapen
+      forms were rendered yet more frightful by the richness of their attire,
+      came the Soldan, with the look and manners of one on whose brow Nature had
+      written, This is a King! In his snow-white turban, vest, and wide Eastern
+      trousers, wearing a sash of scarlet silk, without any other ornament,
+      Saladin might have seemed the plainest-dressed man in his own guard. But
+      closer inspection discerned in his turban that inestimable gem which was
+      called by the poets the Sea of Light; the diamond on which his signet was
+      engraved, and which he wore in a ring, was probably worth all the jewels
+      of the English crown; and a sapphire which terminated the hilt of his
+      cangiar was not of much inferior value. It should be added that, to
+      protect himself from the dust, which in the vicinity of the Dead Sea
+      resembles the finest ashes, or, perhaps, out of Oriental pride, the Soldan
+      wore a sort of veil attached to his turban, which partly obscured the view
+      of his noble features. He rode a milk-white Arabian, which bore him as if
+      conscious and proud of his noble burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no need of further introduction. The two heroic monarchs&mdash;for
+      such they both were&mdash;threw themselves at once from horseback, and the
+      troops halting and the music suddenly ceasing, they advanced to meet each
+      other in profound silence, and after a courteous inclination on either
+      side they embraced as brethren and equals. The pomp and display upon both
+      sides attracted no further notice&mdash;no one saw aught save Richard and
+      Saladin, and they too beheld nothing but each other. The looks with which
+      Richard surveyed Saladin were, however, more intently curious than those
+      which the Soldan fixed upon him; and the Soldan also was the first to
+      break silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Melech Ric is welcome to Saladin as water to this desert. I trust he
+      hath no distrust of this numerous array. Excepting the armed slaves of my
+      household, those who surround you with eyes of wonder and of welcome are&mdash;even
+      the humblest of them&mdash;the privileged nobles of my thousand tribes;
+      for who that could claim a title to be present would remain at home when
+      such a Prince was to be seen as Richard, with the terrors of whose name,
+      even on the sands of Yemen, the nurse stills her child, and the free Arab
+      subdues his restive steed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And these are all nobles of Araby?&rdquo; said Richard, looking around on wild
+      forms with their persons covered with haiks, their countenance swart with
+      the sunbeams, their teeth as white as ivory, their black eyes glancing
+      with fierce and preternatural lustre from under the shade of their
+      turbans, and their dress being in general simple even to meanness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They claim such rank,&rdquo; said Saladin; &ldquo;but though numerous, they are
+      within the conditions of the treaty, and bear no arms but the sabre&mdash;even
+      the iron of their lances is left behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear,&rdquo; muttered De Vaux in English, &ldquo;they have left them where they can
+      be soon found. A most flourishing House of Peers, I confess, and would
+      find Westminster Hall something too narrow for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, De Vaux,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;I command thee.&mdash;Noble Saladin,&rdquo; he
+      said, &ldquo;suspicion and thou cannot exist on the same ground. Seest thou,&rdquo;
+       pointing to the litters, &ldquo;I too have brought some champions with me,
+      though armed, perhaps, in breach of agreement; for bright eyes and fair
+      features are weapons which cannot be left behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan, turning to the litters, made an obeisance as lowly as if
+      looking towards Mecca, and kissed the sand in token of respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;they will not fear a closer encounter, brother; wilt
+      thou not ride towards their litters, and the curtains will be presently
+      withdrawn?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may Allah prohibit!&rdquo; said Saladin, &ldquo;since not an Arab looks on who
+      would not think it shame to the noble ladies to be seen with their faces
+      uncovered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou shalt see them, then, in private, brother,&rdquo; answered Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To what purpose?&rdquo; answered Saladin mournfully. &ldquo;Thy last letter was, to
+      the hopes which I had entertained, like water to fire; and wherefore
+      should I again light a flame which may indeed consume, but cannot cheer
+      me? But will not my brother pass to the tent which his servant hath
+      prepared for him? My principal black slave hath taken order for the
+      reception of the Princesses, the officers of my household will attend your
+      followers, and ourself will be the chamberlain of the royal Richard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He led the way accordingly to a splendid pavilion, where was everything
+      that royal luxury could devise. De Vaux, who was in attendance, then
+      removed the chappe (CAPA), or long riding-cloak, which Richard wore, and
+      he stood before Saladin in the close dress which showed to advantage the
+      strength and symmetry of his person, while it bore a strong contrast to
+      the flowing robes which disguised the thin frame. of the Eastern monarch.
+      It was Richard's two-handed sword that chiefly attracted the attention of
+      the Saracen&mdash;a broad, straight blade, the seemingly unwieldy length
+      of which extended well-nigh from the shoulder to the heel of the wearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had I not,&rdquo; said Saladin, &ldquo;seen this brand flaming in the front of
+      battle, like that of Azrael, I had scarce believed that human arm could
+      wield it. Might I request to see the Melech Ric strike one blow with it in
+      peace, and in pure trial of strength?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Willingly, noble Saladin,&rdquo; answered Richard; and looking around for
+      something whereon to exercise his strength, he saw a steel mace held by
+      one of the attendants, the handle being of the same metal, and about an
+      inch and a half in diameter. This he placed on a block of wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxiety of De Vaux for his master's honour led him to whisper in
+      English, &ldquo;For the blessed Virgin's sake, beware what you attempt, my
+      liege! Your full strength is not as yet returned&mdash;give no triumph to
+      the infidel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, fool!&rdquo; said Richard, standing firm on his ground, and casting a
+      fierce glance around; &ldquo;thinkest thou that I can fail in HIS presence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft to the
+      King's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway of
+      some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled on the ground in two
+      pieces, as a woodsman would sever a sapling with a hedging-bill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!&rdquo; said the Soldan,
+      critically and accurately examining the iron bar which had been cut
+      asunder; and the blade of the sword was so well tempered as to exhibit not
+      the least token of having suffered by the feat it had performed. He then
+      took the King's hand, and looking on the size and muscular strength which
+      it exhibited, laughed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and thin, so
+      inferior in brawn and sinew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, look well,&rdquo; said De Vaux in English, &ldquo;it will be long ere your long
+      jackanape's fingers do such a feat with your fine gilded reaping-hook
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence, De Vaux,&rdquo; said Richard; &ldquo;by Our Lady, he understands or guesses
+      thy meaning&mdash;be not so broad, I pray thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan, indeed, presently said, &ldquo;Something I would fain attempt&mdash;though
+      wherefore should the weak show their inferiority in presence of the
+      strong? Yet each land hath its own exercises, and this may be new to the
+      Melech Ric.&rdquo; So saying, he took from the floor a cushion of silk and down,
+      and placed it upright on one end. &ldquo;Can thy weapon, my brother, sever that
+      cushion?&rdquo; he said to King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, surely,&rdquo; replied the King; &ldquo;no sword on earth, were it the Excalibur
+      of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady resistance to the
+      blow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mark, then,&rdquo; said Saladin; and tucking up the sleeve of his gown, showed
+      his arm, thin indeed and spare, but which constant exercise had hardened
+      into a mass consisting of nought but bone, brawn, and sinew. He unsheathed
+      his scimitar, a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not like the
+      swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue colour,
+      marked with ten millions of meandering lines, which showed how anxiously
+      the metal had been welded by the armourer. Wielding this weapon,
+      apparently so inefficient when compared to that of Richard, the Soldan
+      stood resting his weight upon his left foot, which was slightly advanced;
+      he balanced himself a little, as if to steady his aim; then stepping at
+      once forward, drew the scimitar across the cushion, applying the edge so
+      dexterously, and with so little apparent effort, that the cushion seemed
+      rather to fall asunder than to be divided by violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a juggler's trick,&rdquo; said De Vaux, darting forward and snatching up
+      the portion of the cushion which had been cut off, as if to assure himself
+      of the reality of the feat; &ldquo;there is gramarye in this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan seemed to comprehend him, for he undid the sort of veil which
+      he had hitherto worn, laid it double along the edge of his sabre, extended
+      the weapon edgeways in the air, and drawing it suddenly through the veil,
+      although it hung on the blade entirely loose, severed that also into two
+      parts, which floated to different sides of the tent, equally displaying
+      the extreme temper and sharpness of the weapon, and the exquisite
+      dexterity of him who used it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, in good faith, my brother,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;thou art even matchless
+      at the trick of the sword, and right perilous were it to meet thee! Still,
+      however, I put some faith in a downright English blow, and what we cannot
+      do by sleight we eke out by strength. Nevertheless, in truth thou art as
+      expert in inflicting wounds as my sage Hakim in curing them. I trust I
+      shall see the learned leech. I have much to thank him for, and had brought
+      some small present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, Saladin exchanged his turban for a Tartar cap. He had no
+      sooner done so, than De Vaux opened at once his extended mouth and his
+      large, round eyes, and Richard gazed with scarce less astonishment, while
+      the Soldan spoke in a grave and altered voice: &ldquo;The sick man, saith the
+      poet, while he is yet infirm, knoweth the physician by his step; but when
+      he is recovered, he knoweth not even his face when he looks upon him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A miracle!&mdash;a miracle!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of Mahound's working, doubtless,&rdquo; said Thomas de Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I should lose my learned Hakim,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;merely by absence of
+      his cap and robe, and that I should find him again in my royal brother
+      Saladin!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such is oft the fashion of the world,&rdquo; answered the Soldan; &ldquo;the tattered
+      robe makes not always the dervise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it was through thy intercession,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;that yonder Knight
+      of the Leopard was saved from death, and by thy artifice that he revisited
+      my camp in disguise?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even so,&rdquo; replied Saladin. &ldquo;I was physician enough to know that, unless
+      the wounds of his bleeding honour were stanched, the days of his life must
+      be few. His disguise was more easily penetrated than I had expected from
+      the success of my own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An accident,&rdquo; said King Richard (probably alluding to the circumstance of
+      his applying his lips to the wound of the supposed Nubian), &ldquo;let me first
+      know that his skin was artificially discoloured; and that hint once taken,
+      detection became easy, for his form and person are not to be forgotten. I
+      confidently expect that he will do battle on the morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is full in preparation, and high in hope,&rdquo; said the Soldan. &ldquo;I have
+      furnished him with weapons and horse, thinking nobly of him from what I
+      have seen under various disguises.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knows he now,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;to whom he lies under obligation?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He doth,&rdquo; replied the Saracen. &ldquo;I was obliged to confess my person when I
+      unfolded my purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And confessed he aught to you?&rdquo; said the King of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing explicit,&rdquo; replied the Soldan; &ldquo;but from much that passed between
+      us, I conceive his love is too highly placed to be happy in its issue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou knowest that his daring and insolent passion crossed thine own
+      wishes?&rdquo; said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might guess so much,&rdquo; said Saladin; &ldquo;but his passion had existed ere my
+      wishes had been formed&mdash;and, I must now add, is likely to survive
+      them. I cannot, in honour, revenge me for my disappointment on him who had
+      no hand in it. Or, if this high-born dame loved him better than myself,
+      who can say that she did not justice to a knight of her own religion, who
+      is full of nobleness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet of too mean lineage to mix with the blood of Plantagenet,&rdquo; said
+      Richard haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such may be your maxims in Frangistan,&rdquo; replied the Soldan. &ldquo;Our poets of
+      the Eastern countries say that a valiant camel-driver is worthy to kiss
+      the lip of a fair Queen, when a cowardly prince is not worthy to salute
+      the hem of her garment. But with your permission, noble brother, I must
+      take leave of thee for the present, to receive the Duke of Austria and
+      yonder Nazarene knight, much less worthy of hospitality, but who must yet
+      be suitably entreated, not for their sakes, but for mine own honour&mdash;for
+      what saith the sage Lokman? 'Say not that the food is lost unto thee which
+      is given to the stranger; for if his body be strengthened and fattened
+      therewithal, not less is thine own worship and good name cherished and
+      augmented.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen Monarch departed from King Richard's tent, and having
+      indicated to him, rather with signs than with speech, where the pavilion
+      of the Queen and her attendants was pitched, he went to receive the
+      Marquis of Montserrat and his attendants, for whom, with less goodwill,
+      but with equal splendour, the magnificent Soldan had provided
+      accommodations. The most ample refreshments, both in the Oriental and
+      after the European fashion, were spread before the royal and princely
+      guests of Saladin, each in their own separate pavilion; and so attentive
+      was the Soldan to the habits and taste of his visitors, that Grecian
+      slaves were stationed to present them with the goblet, which is the
+      abomination of the sect of Mohammed. Ere Richard had finished his meal,
+      the ancient Omrah, who had brought the Soldan's letter to the Christian
+      camp, entered with a plan of the ceremonial to be observed on the
+      succeeding day of combat. Richard, who knew the taste of his old
+      acquaintance, invited him to pledge him in a flagon of wine of Shiraz; but
+      Abdallah gave him to understand, with a rueful aspect, that self-denial in
+      the present circumstances was a matter in which his life was concerned,
+      for that Saladin, tolerant in many respects, both observed and enforced by
+      high penalties the laws of the Prophet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, then,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;if he loves not wine, that lightener of the
+      human heart, his conversion is not to be hoped for, and the prediction of
+      the mad priest of Engaddi goes like chaff down the wind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King then addressed himself to settle the articles of combat, which
+      cost a considerable time, as it was necessary on some points to consult
+      with the opposite parties, as well as with the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were at length finally agreed upon, and adjusted by a protocol in
+      French and in Arabian, which was subscribed by Saladin as umpire of the
+      field, and by Richard and Leopold as guarantees for the two combatants. As
+      the Omrah took his final leave of King Richard for the evening, De Vaux
+      entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The good knight,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;who is to do battle tomorrow requests to know
+      whether he may not to-night pay duty to his royal godfather!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hast thou seen him, De Vaux?&rdquo; said the King, smiling; &ldquo;and didst thou
+      know an ancient acquaintance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By our Lady of Lanercost,&rdquo; answered De Vaux, &ldquo;there are so many surprises
+      and changes in this land that my poor brain turns. I scarce knew Sir
+      Kenneth of Scotland, till his good hound, that had been for a short while
+      under my care, came and fawned on me; and even then I only knew the tyke
+      by the depth of his chest, the roundness of his foot, and his manner of
+      baying, for the poor gazehound was painted like any Venetian courtesan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art better skilled in brutes than men, De Vaux,&rdquo; said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not deny,&rdquo; said De Vaux, &ldquo;I have found them ofttimes the honester
+      animals. Also, your Grace is pleased to term me sometimes a brute myself;
+      besides that, I serve the Lion, whom all men acknowledge the king of
+      brutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Saint George, there thou brokest thy lance fairly on my brow,&rdquo; said
+      the King. &ldquo;I have ever said thou hast a sort of wit, De Vaux; marry, one
+      must strike thee with a sledge-hammer ere it can be made to sparkle. But
+      to the present gear&mdash;is the good knight well armed and equipped?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fully, my liege, and nobly,&rdquo; answered De Vaux. &ldquo;I know the armour well;
+      it is that which the Venetian commissary offered your highness, just ere
+      you became ill, for five hundred byzants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he hath sold it to the infidel Soldan, I warrant me, for a few ducats
+      more, and present payment. These Venetians would sell the Sepulchre
+      itself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The armour will never be borne in a nobler cause,&rdquo; said De Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks to the nobleness of the Saracen,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;not to the
+      avarice of the Venetians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would to God your Grace would be more cautious,&rdquo; said the anxious De
+      Vaux. &ldquo;Here are we deserted by all our allies, for points of offence given
+      to one or another; we cannot hope to prosper upon the land; and we have
+      only to quarrel with the amphibious republic, to lose the means of retreat
+      by sea!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will take care,&rdquo; said Richard impatiently; &ldquo;but school me no more. Tell
+      me rather, for it is of interest, hath the knight a confessor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He hath,&rdquo; answered De Vaux; &ldquo;the hermit of Engaddi, who erst did him that
+      office when preparing for death, attends him on the present occasion, the
+      fame of the duel having brought him hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis well,&rdquo; said Richard; &ldquo;and now for the knight's request. Say to him,
+      Richard will receive him when the discharge of his devoir beside the
+      Diamond of the Desert shall have atoned for his fault beside the Mount of
+      Saint George; and as thou passest through the camp, let the Queen know I
+      will visit her pavilion&mdash;and tell Blondel to meet me there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux departed, and in about an hour afterwards, Richard, wrapping his
+      mantle around him, and taking his ghittern in his hand, walked in the
+      direction of the Queen's pavilion. Several Arabs passed him, but always
+      with averted heads and looks fixed upon the earth, though he could observe
+      that all gazed earnestly after him when he was past. This led him justly
+      to conjecture that his person was known to them; but that either the
+      Soldan's commands, or their own Oriental politeness, forbade them to seem
+      to notice a sovereign who desired to remain incognito.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the King reached the pavilion of his Queen he found it guarded by
+      those unhappy officials whom Eastern jealousy places around the zenana.
+      Blondel was walking before the door, and touched his rote from time to
+      time in a manner which made the Africans show their ivory teeth, and bear
+      burden with their strange gestures and shrill, unnatural voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What art thou after with this herd of black cattle, Blondel?&rdquo; said the
+      King; &ldquo;wherefore goest thou not into the tent?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because my trade can neither spare the head nor the fingers,&rdquo; said
+      Blondel, &ldquo;and these honest blackamoors threatened to cut me joint from
+      joint if I pressed forward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, enter with me,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;and I will be thy safeguard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The blacks accordingly lowered pikes and swords to King Richard, and bent
+      their eyes on the ground, as if unworthy to look upon him. In the interior
+      of the pavilion they found Thomas de Vaux in attendance on the Queen.
+      While Berengaria welcomed Blondel, King Richard spoke for some time
+      secretly and apart with his fair kinswoman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, &ldquo;Are we still foes, my fair Edith?&rdquo; he said, in a whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my liege,&rdquo; said Edith, in a voice just so low as not to interrupt the
+      music; &ldquo;none can bear enmity against King Richard when he deigns to show
+      himself, as he really is, generous and noble, as well as valiant and
+      honourable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she extended her hand to him. The King kissed it in token of
+      reconciliation, and then proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think, my sweet cousin, that my anger in this matter was feigned; but
+      you are deceived. The punishment I inflicted upon this knight was just;
+      for he had betrayed&mdash;no matter for how tempting a bribe, fair cousin&mdash;the
+      trust committed to him. But I rejoice, perchance as much as you, that
+      to-morrow gives him a chance to win the field, and throw back the stain
+      which for a time clung to him upon the actual thief and traitor. No!&mdash;future
+      times may blame Richard for impetuous folly, but they shall say that in
+      rendering judgment he was just when he should and merciful when he could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Laud not thyself, cousin King,&rdquo; said Edith. &ldquo;They may call thy justice
+      cruelty, thy mercy caprice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do not thou pride thyself,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;as if thy knight, who
+      hath not yet buckled on his armour, were unbelting it in triumph&mdash;Conrade
+      of Montserrat is held a good lance. What if the Scot should lose the day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is impossible!&rdquo; said Edith firmly. &ldquo;My own eyes saw yonder Conrade
+      tremble and change colour like a base thief; he is guilty, and the trial
+      by combat is an appeal to the justice of God. I myself, in such a cause,
+      would encounter him without fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+&ldquo;By the mass, I think thou wouldst, wench,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;and beat him
+to boot, for there never breathed a truer Plantagenet than thou.&rdquo;
+
+ He paused, and added in a very serious tone, &ldquo;See that thou
+continue to remember what is due to thy birth.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What means that advice, so seriously given at this moment?&rdquo; said Edith.
+      &ldquo;Am I of such light nature as to forget my name&mdash;my condition?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will speak plainly, Edith,&rdquo; answered the King, &ldquo;and as to a friend.
+      What will this knight be to you, should he come off victor from yonder
+      lists?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me?&rdquo; said Edith, blushing deep with shame and displeasure. &ldquo;What can
+      he be to me more than an honoured knight, worthy of such grace as Queen
+      Berengaria might confer on him, had he selected her for his lady, instead
+      of a more unworthy choice? The meanest knight may devote himself to the
+      service of an empress, but the glory of his choice,&rdquo; she said proudly,
+      &ldquo;must be his reward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet he hath served and suffered much for you,&rdquo; said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have paid his services with honour and applause, and his sufferings
+      with tears,&rdquo; answered Edith. &ldquo;Had he desired other reward, he would have
+      done wisely to have bestowed his affections within his own degree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would not, then, wear the bloody night-gear for his sake?&rdquo; said King
+      Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more,&rdquo; answered Edith, &ldquo;than I would have required him to expose his
+      life by an action in which there was more madness than honour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maidens talk ever thus,&rdquo; said the King; &ldquo;but when the favoured lover
+      presses his suit, she says, with a sigh, her stars had decreed otherwise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Grace has now, for the second time, threatened me with the influence
+      of my horoscope,&rdquo; Edith replied, with dignity. &ldquo;Trust me, my liege,
+      whatever be the power of the stars, your poor kinswoman will never wed
+      either infidel or obscure adventurer. Permit me that I listen to the music
+      of Blondel, for the tone of your royal admonitions is scarce so grateful
+      to the ear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The conclusion of the evening offered nothing worthy of notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Heard ye the din of battle bray,
+     Lance to lance, and horse to horse?
+          GRAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It had been agreed, on account of the heat of the climate, that the
+      judicial combat which was the cause of the present assemblage of various
+      nations at the Diamond of the Desert should take place at one hour after
+      sunrise. The wide lists, which had been constructed under the inspection
+      of the Knight of the Leopard, enclosed a space of hard sand, which was one
+      hundred and twenty yards long by forty in width. They extended in length
+      from north to south, so as to give both parties the equal advantage of the
+      rising sun. Saladin's royal seat was erected on the western side of the
+      enclosure, just in the centre, where the combatants were expected to meet
+      in mid encounter. Opposed to this was a gallery with closed casements, so
+      contrived that the ladies, for whose accommodation it was erected, might
+      see the fight without being themselves exposed to view. At either
+      extremity of the lists was a barrier, which could be opened or shut at
+      pleasure. Thrones had been also erected, but the Archduke, perceiving that
+      his was lower than King Richard's, refused to occupy it; and Coeur de
+      Lion, who would have submitted to much ere any formality should have
+      interfered with the combat, readily agreed that the sponsors, as they were
+      called, should remain on horseback during the fight. At one extremity of
+      the lists were placed the followers of Richard, and opposed to them were
+      those who accompanied the defender Conrade. Around the throne destined for
+      the Soldan were ranged his splendid Georgian Guards, and the rest of the
+      enclosure was occupied by Christian and Mohammedan spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long before daybreak the lists were surrounded by even a larger number of
+      Saracens than Richard had seen on the preceding evening. When the first
+      ray of the sun's glorious orb arose above the desert, the sonorous call,
+      &ldquo;To prayer&mdash;to prayer!&rdquo; was poured forth by the Soldan himself, and
+      answered by others, whose rank and zeal entitled them to act as muezzins.
+      It was a striking spectacle to see them all sink to earth, for the purpose
+      of repeating their devotions, with their faces turned to Mecca. But when
+      they arose from the ground, the sun's rays, now strengthening fast, seemed
+      to confirm the Lord of Gilsland's conjecture of the night before. They
+      were flashed back from many a spearhead, for the pointless lances of the
+      preceding day were certainly no longer such. De Vaux pointed it out to his
+      master, who answered with impatience that he had perfect confidence in the
+      good faith of the Soldan; but if De Vaux was afraid of his bulky body, he
+      might retire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this the noise of timbrels was heard, at the sound of which the
+      whole Saracen cavaliers threw themselves from their horses, and prostrated
+      themselves, as if for a second morning prayer. This was to give an
+      opportunity to the Queen, with Edith and her attendants, to pass from the
+      pavilion to the gallery intended for them. Fifty guards of Saladin's
+      seraglio escorted them with naked sabres, whose orders were to cut to
+      pieces whomsoever, were he prince or peasant, should venture to gaze on
+      the ladies as they passed, or even presume to raise his head until the
+      cessation of the music should make all men aware that they were lodged in
+      their gallery, not to be gazed on by the curious eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This superstitious observance of Oriental reverence to the fair sex called
+      forth from Queen Berengaria some criticisms very unfavourable to Saladin
+      and his country. But their den, as the royal fair called it, being
+      securely closed and guarded by their sable attendants, she was under the
+      necessity of contenting herself with seeing, and laying aside for the
+      present the still more exquisite pleasure of being seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime the sponsors of both champions went, as was their duty, to see
+      that they were duly armed and prepared for combat. The Archduke of Austria
+      was in no hurry to perform this part of the ceremony, having had rather an
+      unusually severe debauch upon wine of Shiraz the preceding evening. But
+      the Grand Master of the Temple, more deeply concerned in the event of the
+      combat, was early before the tent of Conrade of Montserrat. To his great
+      surprise, the attendants refused him admittance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you not know me, ye knaves?&rdquo; said the Grand Master, in great anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do, most valiant and reverend,&rdquo; answered Conrade's squire; &ldquo;but even
+      you may not at present enter&mdash;the Marquis is about to confess
+      himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confess himself!&rdquo; exclaimed the Templar, in a tone where alarm mingled
+      with surprise and scorn&mdash;&ldquo;and to whom, I pray thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My master bid me be secret,&rdquo; said the squire; on which the Grand Master
+      pushed past him, and entered the tent almost by force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis of Montserrat was kneeling at the feet of the hermit of
+      Engaddi, and in the act of beginning his confession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What means this, Marquis?&rdquo; said the Grand Master; &ldquo;up, for shame&mdash;or,
+      if you must needs confess, am not I here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have confessed to you too often already,&rdquo; replied Conrade, with a pale
+      cheek and a faltering voice. &ldquo;For God's sake, Grand Master, begone, and
+      let me unfold my conscience to this holy man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what is he holier than I am?&rdquo; said the Grand Master.&mdash;&ldquo;Hermit,
+      prophet, madman&mdash;say, if thou darest, in what thou excellest me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bold and bad man,&rdquo; replied the hermit, &ldquo;know that I am like the latticed
+      window, and the divine light passes through to avail others, though, alas!
+      it helpeth not me. Thou art like the iron stanchions, which neither
+      receive light themselves, nor communicate it to any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prate not to me, but depart from this tent,&rdquo; said the Grand Master; &ldquo;the
+      Marquis shall not confess this morning, unless it be to me, for I part not
+      from his side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this YOUR pleasure?&rdquo; said the hermit to Conrade; &ldquo;for think not I will
+      obey that proud man, if you continue to desire my assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas,&rdquo; said Conrade irresolutely, &ldquo;what would you have me say? Farewell
+      for a while&mdash;-we will speak anon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O procrastination!&rdquo; exclaimed the hermit, &ldquo;thou art a soul-murderer!&mdash;Unhappy
+      man, farewell&mdash;not for a while, but until we shall both meet no
+      matter where. And for thee,&rdquo; he added, turning to the Grand Master,
+      &ldquo;TREMBLE!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tremble!&rdquo; replied the Templar contemptuously, &ldquo;I cannot if I would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hermit heard not his answer, having left the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come! to this gear hastily,&rdquo; said the Grand Master, &ldquo;since thou wilt
+      needs go through the foolery. Hark thee&mdash;I think I know most of thy
+      frailties by heart, so we may omit the detail, which may be somewhat a
+      long one, and begin with the absolution. What signifies counting the spots
+      of dirt that we are about to wash from our hands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowing what thou art thyself,&rdquo; said Conrade, &ldquo;it is blasphemous to speak
+      of pardoning another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is not according to the canon, Lord Marquis,&rdquo; said the Templar;
+      &ldquo;thou art more scrupulous than orthodox. The absolution of the wicked
+      priest is as effectual as if he were himself a saint&mdash;otherwise, God
+      help the poor penitent! What wounded man inquires whether the surgeon that
+      tends his gashes has clean hands or no? Come, shall we to this toy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Conrade, &ldquo;I will rather die unconfessed than mock the
+      sacrament.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, noble Marquis,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;rouse up your courage, and speak
+      not thus. In an hour's time thou shalt stand victorious in the lists, or
+      confess thee in thy helmet, like a valiant knight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas, Grand Master,&rdquo; answered Conrade, &ldquo;all augurs ill for this affair,
+      the strange discovery by the instinct of a dog&mdash;the revival of this
+      Scottish knight, who comes into the lists like a spectre&mdash;all
+      betokens evil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pshaw,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;I have seen thee bend thy lance boldly against
+      him in sport, and with equal chance of success. Think thou art but in a
+      tournament, and who bears him better in the tilt-yard than thou?&mdash;Come,
+      squires and armourers, your master must be accoutred for the field.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The attendants entered accordingly, and began to arm the Marquis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What morning is without?&rdquo; said Conrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sun rises dimly,&rdquo; answered a squire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou seest, Grand Master,&rdquo; said Conrade, &ldquo;nought smiles on us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou wilt fight the more coolly, my son,&rdquo; answered the Templar; &ldquo;thank
+      Heaven, that hath tempered the sun of Palestine to suit thine occasion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus jested the Grand Master. But his jests had lost their influence on
+      the harassed mind of the Marquis, and notwithstanding his attempts to seem
+      gay, his gloom communicated itself to the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This craven,&rdquo; he thought, &ldquo;will lose the day in pure faintness and
+      cowardice of heart, which he calls tender conscience. I, whom visions and
+      auguries shake not&mdash;-who am firm in my purpose as the living rock&mdash;I
+      should have fought the combat myself. Would to God the Scot may strike him
+      dead on the spot; it were next best to his winning the victory. But come
+      what will, he must have no other confessor than myself&mdash;our sins are
+      too much in common, and he might confess my share with his own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While these thoughts passed through his mind, he continued to assist the
+      Marquis in arming, but it was in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour at length arrived; the trumpets sounded; the knights rode into
+      the lists armed at all points, and mounted like men who were to do battle
+      for a kingdom's honour. They wore their visors up, and riding around the
+      lists three times, showed themselves to the spectators. Both were goodly
+      persons, and both had noble countenances. But there was an air of manly
+      confidence on the brow of the Scot&mdash;a radiancy of hope, which
+      amounted even to cheerfulness; while, although pride and effort had
+      recalled much of Conrade's natural courage, there lowered still on his
+      brow a cloud of ominous despondence. Even his steed seemed to tread less
+      lightly and blithely to the trumpet-sound than the noble Arab which was
+      bestrode by Sir Kenneth; and the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his head while he
+      observed that, while the challenger rode around the lists in the course of
+      the sun&mdash;that is, from right to left&mdash;the defender made the same
+      circuit WIDDERSINS&mdash;that is, from left to right&mdash;which is in
+      most countries held ominous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A temporary altar was erected just beneath the gallery occupied by the
+      Queen, and beside it stood the hermit in the dress of his order as a
+      Carmelite friar. Other churchmen were also present. To this altar the
+      challenger and defender were successively brought forward, conducted by
+      their respective sponsors. Dismounting before it, each knight avouched the
+      justice of his cause by a solemn oath on the Evangelists, and prayed that
+      his success might be according to the truth or falsehood of what he then
+      swore. They also made oath that they came to do battle in knightly guise,
+      and with the usual weapons, disclaiming the use of spells, charms, or
+      magical devices to incline victory to their side. The challenger
+      pronounced his vow with a firm and manly voice, and a bold and cheerful
+      countenance. When the ceremony was finished, the Scottish Knight looked at
+      the gallery, and bent his head to the earth, as if in honour of those
+      invisible beauties which were enclosed within; then, loaded with armour as
+      he was, sprung to the saddle without the use of the stirrup, and made his
+      courser carry him in a succession of caracoles to his station at the
+      eastern extremity of the lists. Conrade also presented himself before the
+      altar with boldness enough; but his voice as he took the oath sounded
+      hollow, as if drowned in his helmet. The lips with which he appealed to
+      Heaven to adjudge victory to the just quarrel grew white as they uttered
+      the impious mockery. As he turned to remount his horse, the Grand Master
+      approached him closer, as if to rectify something about the sitting of his
+      gorget, and whispered, &ldquo;Coward and fool! recall thy senses, and do me this
+      battle bravely, else, by Heaven, shouldst thou escape him, thou escapest
+      not ME!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The savage tone in which this was whispered perhaps completed the
+      confusion of the Marquis's nerves, for he stumbled as he made to horse;
+      and though he recovered his feet, sprung to the saddle with his usual
+      agility, and displayed his address in horsemanship as he assumed his
+      position opposite to the challenger's, yet the accident did not escape
+      those who were on the watch for omens which might predict the fate of the
+      day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The priests, after a solemn prayer that God would show the rightful
+      quarrel, departed from the lists. The trumpets of the challenger then rung
+      a flourish, and a herald-at-arms proclaimed at the eastern end of the
+      lists&mdash;&ldquo;Here stands a good knight, Sir Kenneth of Scotland, champion
+      for the royal King Richard of England, who accuseth Conrade, Marquis of
+      Montserrat, of foul treason and dishonour done to the said King.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the words Kenneth of Scotland announced the name and character of the
+      champion, hitherto scarce generally known, a loud and cheerful acclaim
+      burst from the followers of King Richard, and hardly, notwithstanding
+      repeated commands of silence, suffered the reply of the defendant to be
+      heard. He, of course, avouched his innocence, and offered his body for
+      battle. The esquires of the combatants now approached, and delivered to
+      each his shield and lance, assisting to hang the former around his neck,
+      that his two hands might remain free, one for the management of the
+      bridle, the other to direct the lance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shield of the Scot displayed his old bearing, the leopard, but with
+      the addition of a collar and broken chain, in allusion to his late
+      captivity. The shield of the Marquis bore, in reference to his title, a
+      serrated and rocky mountain. Each shook his lance aloft, as if to
+      ascertain the weight and toughness of the unwieldy weapon, and then laid
+      it in the rest. The sponsors, heralds, and squires now retired to the
+      barriers, and the combatants sat opposite to each other, face to face,
+      with couched lance and closed visor, the human form so completely
+      enclosed, that they looked more like statues of molten iron than beings of
+      flesh and blood. The silence of suspense was now general. Men breathed
+      thicker, and their very souls seemed seated in their eyes; while not a
+      sound was to be heard save the snorting and pawing of the good steeds,
+      who, sensible of what was about to happen, were impatient to dash into
+      career. They stood thus for perhaps three minutes, when, at a signal given
+      by the Soldan, a hundred instruments rent the air with their brazen
+      clamours, and each champion striking his horse with the spurs, and
+      slacking the rein, the horses started into full gallop, and the knights
+      met in mid space with a shock like a thunderbolt. The victory was not in
+      doubt&mdash;no, not one moment. Conrade, indeed, showed himself a
+      practised warrior; for he struck his antagonist knightly in the midst of
+      his shield, bearing his lance so straight and true that it shivered into
+      splinters from the steel spear-head up to the very gauntlet. The horse of
+      Sir Kenneth recoiled two or three yards and fell on his haunches; but the
+      rider easily raised him with hand and rein. But for Conrade there was no
+      recovery. Sir Kenneth's lance had pierced through the shield, through a
+      plated corselet of Milan steel, through a SECRET, or coat of linked mail,
+      worn beneath the corselet, had wounded him deep in the bosom, and borne
+      him from his saddle, leaving the truncheon of the lance fixed in his
+      wound. The sponsors, heralds, and Saladin himself, descending from his
+      throne, crowded around the wounded man; while Sir Kenneth, who had drawn
+      his sword ere yet he discovered his antagonist was totally helpless, now
+      commanded him to avow his guilt. The helmet was hastily unclosed, and the
+      wounded man, gazing wildly on the skies, replied, &ldquo;What would you more?
+      God hath decided justly&mdash;I am guilty; but there are worse traitors in
+      the camp than I. In pity to my soul, let me have a confessor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He revived as he uttered these words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The talisman&mdash;the powerful remedy, royal brother!&rdquo; said King Richard
+      to Saladin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The traitor,&rdquo; answered the Soldan, &ldquo;is more fit to be dragged from the
+      lists to the gallows by the heels, than to profit by its virtues. And some
+      such fate is in his look,&rdquo; he added, after gazing fixedly upon the wounded
+      man; &ldquo;for though his wound may be cured, yet Azrael's seal is on the
+      wretch's brow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;I pray you do for him what you may, that he
+      may at least have time for confession. Slay not soul and body! To him one
+      half hour of time may be worth more, by ten thousandfold, than the life of
+      the oldest patriarch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My royal brother's wish shall be obeyed,&rdquo; said Saladin.&mdash;&ldquo;Slaves,
+      bear this wounded man to our tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not so,&rdquo; said the Templar, who had hitherto stood gloomily looking on
+      in silence. &ldquo;The royal Duke of Austria and myself will not permit this
+      unhappy Christian prince to be delivered over to the Saracens, that they
+      may try their spells upon him. We are his sponsors, and demand that he be
+      assigned to our care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is, you refuse the certain means offered to recover him?&rdquo; said
+      Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so,&rdquo; said the Grand Master, recollecting himself. &ldquo;If the Soldan
+      useth lawful medicines, he may attend the patient in my tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do so, I pray thee, good brother,&rdquo; said Richard to Saladin, &ldquo;though the
+      permission be ungraciously yielded.&mdash;But now to a more glorious work.
+      Sound, trumpets&mdash;shout, England&mdash;in honour of England's
+      champion!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Drum, clarion, trumpet, and cymbal rung forth at once, and the deep and
+      regular shout, which for ages has been the English acclamation, sounded
+      amidst the shrill and irregular yells of the Arabs, like the diapason of
+      the organ amid the howling of a storm. There was silence at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave Knight of the Leopard,&rdquo; resumed Coeur de Lion, &ldquo;thou hast shown
+      that the Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his spots, though
+      clerks quote Scripture for the impossibility. Yet I have more to say to
+      you when I have conducted you to the presence of the ladies, the best
+      judges and best rewarders of deeds of chivalry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them. I promise thee our
+      Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the opportunity to
+      thank her royal host for her most princely reception.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must attend the wounded man,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The leech leaves not his
+      patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be summoned to a
+      bower like those of Paradise. And further, royal Richard, know that the
+      blood of the East flows not so temperately in the presence of beauty as
+      that of your land. What saith the Book itself?&mdash;Her eye is as the
+      edge of the sword of the Prophet, who shall look upon it? He that would
+      not be burnt avoideth to tread on hot embers&mdash;wise men spread not the
+      flax before a flickering torch. He, saith the sage, who hath forfeited a
+      treasure, doth not wisely to turn back his head to gaze at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, it may be believed, respected the motives of delicacy which
+      flowed from manners so different from his own, and urged his request no
+      further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At noon,&rdquo; said the Soldan, as he departed, &ldquo;I trust ye will all accept a
+      collation under the black camel-skin tent of a chief of Kurdistan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The same invitation was circulated among the Christians, comprehending all
+      those of sufficient importance to be admitted to sit at a feast made for
+      princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark!&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;the timbrels announce that our Queen and her
+      attendants are leaving their gallery&mdash;and see, the turbans sink on
+      the ground, as if struck down by a destroying angel. All lie prostrate, as
+      if the glance of an Arab's eye could sully the lustre of a lady's cheek!
+      Come, we will to the pavilion, and lead our conqueror thither in triumph.
+      How I pity that noble Soldan, who knows but of love as it is known to
+      those of inferior nature!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Blondel tuned his harp to his boldest measure, to welcome the introduction
+      of the victor into the pavilion of Queen Berengaria. He entered, supported
+      on either side by his sponsors, Richard and Thomas Longsword, and knelt
+      gracefully down before the Queen, though more than half the homage was
+      silently rendered to Edith, who sat on her right hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unarm him, my mistresses,&rdquo; said the King, whose delight was in the
+      execution of such chivalrous usages; &ldquo;let Beauty honour Chivalry! Undo his
+      spurs, Berengaria; Queen though thou be, thou owest him what marks of
+      favour thou canst give.&mdash;Unlace his helmet, Edith;&mdash;by this hand
+      thou shalt, wert thou the proudest Plantagenet of the line, and he the
+      poorest knight on earth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both ladies obeyed the royal commands&mdash;Berengaria with bustling
+      assiduity, as anxious to gratify her husband's humour, and Edith blushing
+      and growing pale alternately, as, slowly and awkwardly, she undid, with
+      Longsword's assistance, the fastenings which secured the helmet to the
+      gorget.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what expect you from beneath this iron shell?&rdquo; said Richard, as the
+      removal of the casque gave to view the noble countenance of Sir Kenneth,
+      his face glowing with recent exertion, and not less so with present
+      emotion. &ldquo;What think ye of him, gallants and beauties?&rdquo; said Richard.
+      &ldquo;Doth he resemble an Ethiopian slave, or doth he present the face of an
+      obscure and nameless adventurer? No, by my good sword! Here terminate his
+      various disguises. He hath knelt down before you unknown, save by his
+      worth; he arises equally distinguished by birth and by fortune. The
+      adventurous knight, Kenneth, arises David, Earl of Huntingdon, Prince
+      Royal of Scotland!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general exclamation of surprise, and Edith dropped from her
+      hand the helmet which she had just received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my masters,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;it is even so. Ye know how Scotland
+      deceived us when she proposed to send this valiant Earl, with a bold
+      company of her best and noblest, to aid our arms in this conquest of
+      Palestine, but failed to comply with her engagements. This noble youth,
+      under whom the Scottish Crusaders were to have been arrayed, thought foul
+      scorn that his arm should be withheld from the holy warfare, and joined us
+      at Sicily with a small train of devoted and faithful attendants, which was
+      augmented by many of his countrymen to whom the rank of their leader was
+      unknown. The confidants of the Royal Prince had all, save one old
+      follower, fallen by death, when his secret, but too well kept, had nearly
+      occasioned my cutting off, in a Scottish adventurer, one of the noblest
+      hopes of Europe.&mdash;Why did you not mention your rank, noble
+      Huntingdon, when endangered by my hasty and passionate sentence? Was it
+      that you thought Richard capable of abusing the advantage I possessed over
+      the heir of a King whom I have so often found hostile?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did you not that injustice, royal Richard,&rdquo; answered the Earl of
+      Huntingdon; &ldquo;but my pride brooked not that I should avow myself Prince of
+      Scotland in order to save my life, endangered for default of loyalty. And,
+      moreover, I had made my vow to preserve my rank unknown till the Crusade
+      should be accomplished; nor did I mention it save IN ARTICULO MORTIS, and
+      under the seal of confession, to yonder reverend hermit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the knowledge of that secret, then, which made the good man so
+      urgent with me to recall my severe sentence?&rdquo; said Richard. &ldquo;Well did he
+      say that, had this good knight fallen by my mandate, I should have wished
+      the deed undone though it had cost me a limb. A limb! I should have wished
+      it undone had it cost me my life&mdash;-since the world would have said
+      that Richard had abused the condition in which the heir of Scotland had
+      placed himself by his confidence in his generosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet, may we know of your Grace by what strange and happy chance this
+      riddle was at length read?&rdquo; said the Queen Berengaria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Letters were brought to us from England,&rdquo; said the King, &ldquo;in which we
+      learned, among other unpleasant news, that the King of Scotland had seized
+      upon three of our nobles, when on a pilgrimage to Saint Ninian, and
+      alleged, as a cause, that his heir, being supposed to be fighting in the
+      ranks of the Teutonic Knights against the heathen of Borussia, was, in
+      fact, in our camp, and in our power; and, therefore, William proposed to
+      hold these nobles as hostages for his safety. This gave me the first light
+      on the real rank of the Knight of the Leopard; and my suspicions were
+      confirmed by De Vaux, who, on his return from Ascalon, brought back with
+      him the Earl of Huntingdon's sole attendant, a thick-skulled slave, who
+      had gone thirty miles to unfold to De Vaux a secret he should have told to
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old Strauchan must be excused,&rdquo; said the Lord of Gilsland. &ldquo;He knew from
+      experience that my heart is somewhat softer than if I wrote myself
+      Plantagenet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy heart soft? thou commodity of old iron and Cumberland flint, that
+      thou art!&rdquo; exclaimed the King.&mdash;&ldquo;It is we Plantagenets who boast soft
+      and feeling hearts. Edith,&rdquo; turning to his cousin with an expression which
+      called the blood into her cheek, &ldquo;give me thy hand, my fair cousin, and,
+      Prince of Scotland, thine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forbear, my lord,&rdquo; said Edith, hanging back, and endeavouring to hide her
+      confusion under an attempt to rally her royal kinsman's credulity.
+      &ldquo;Remember you not that my hand was to be the signal of converting to the
+      Christian faith the Saracen and Arab, Saladin and all his turbaned host?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, but the wind of prophecy hath chopped about, and sits now in another
+      corner,&rdquo; replied Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mock not, lest your bonds be made strong,&rdquo; said the hermit stepping
+      forward. &ldquo;The heavenly host write nothing but truth in their brilliant
+      records. It is man's eyes which are too weak to read their characters
+      aright. Know, that when Saladin and Kenneth of Scotland slept in my
+      grotto, I read in the stars that there rested under my roof a prince, the
+      natural foe of Richard, with whom the fate of Edith Plantagenet was to be
+      united. Could I doubt that this must be the Soldan, whose rank was well
+      known to me, as he often visited my cell to converse on the revolutions of
+      the heavenly bodies? Again, the lights of the firmament proclaimed that
+      this prince, the husband of Edith Plantagenet, should be a Christian; and
+      I&mdash;weak and wild interpreter!&mdash;argued thence the conversion of
+      the noble Saladin, whose good qualities seemed often to incline him
+      towards the better faith. The sense of my weakness hath humbled me to the
+      dust; but in the dust I have found comfort! I have not read aright the
+      fate of others&mdash;who can assure me but that I may have miscalculated
+      mine own? God will not have us break into His council-house, or spy out
+      His hidden mysteries. We must wait His time with watching and prayer&mdash;with
+      fear and with hope. I came hither the stern seer&mdash;the proud prophet&mdash;skilled,
+      as I thought, to instruct princes, and gifted even with supernatural
+      powers, but burdened with a weight which I deemed no shoulders but mine
+      could have borne. But my bands have been broken! I go hence humble in mine
+      ignorance, penitent&mdash;and not hopeless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words he withdrew from the assembly; and it is recorded that
+      from that period his frenzy fits seldom occurred, and his penances were of
+      a milder character, and accompanied with better hopes of the future. So
+      much is there of self-opinion, even in insanity, that the conviction of
+      his having entertained and expressed an unfounded prediction with so much
+      vehemence seemed to operate like loss of blood on the human frame, to
+      modify and lower the fever of the brain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is needless to follow into further particulars the conferences at the
+      royal tent, or to inquire whether David, Earl of Huntingdon, was as mute
+      in the presence of Edith Plantagenet as when he was bound to act under the
+      character of an obscure and nameless adventurer. It may be well believed
+      that he there expressed with suitable earnestness the passion to which he
+      had so often before found it difficult to give words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour of noon now approached, and Saladin waited to receive the Princes
+      of Christendom in a tent, which, but for its large size, differed little
+      from that of the ordinary shelter of the common Kurdman, or Arab; yet
+      beneath its ample and sable covering was prepared a banquet after the most
+      gorgeous fashion of the East, extended upon carpets of the richest stuffs,
+      with cushions laid for the guests. But we cannot stop to describe the
+      cloth of gold and silver&mdash;the superb embroidery in arabesque&mdash;the
+      shawls of Kashmere and the muslins of India, which were here unfolded in
+      all their splendour; far less to tell the different sweetmeats, ragouts
+      edged with rice coloured in various manners, with all the other niceties
+      of Eastern cookery. Lambs roasted whole, and game and poultry dressed in
+      pilaus, were piled in vessels of gold, and silver, and porcelain, and
+      intermixed with large mazers of sherbet, cooled in snow and ice from the
+      caverns of Mount Lebanon. A magnificent pile of cushions at the head of
+      the banquet seemed prepared for the master of the feast, and such
+      dignitaries as he might call to share that place of distinction; while
+      from the roof of the tent in all quarters, but over this seat of eminence
+      in particular, waved many a banner and pennon, the trophies of battles won
+      and kingdoms overthrown. But amongst and above them all, a long lance
+      displayed a shroud, the banner of Death, with this impressive inscription&mdash;&ldquo;SALADIN,
+      KING OF KINGS&mdash;SALADIN, VICTOR OF VICTORS&mdash;SALADIN MUST DIE.&rdquo;
+       Amid these preparations, the slaves who had arranged the refreshments
+      stood with drooped heads and folded arms, mute and motionless as
+      monumental statuary, or as automata, which waited the touch of the artist
+      to put them in motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Expecting the approach of his princely guests, the Soldan, imbued, as most
+      were, with the superstitions of his time, paused over a horoscope and
+      corresponding scroll, which had been sent to him by the hermit of Engaddi
+      when he departed from the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strange and mysterious science,&rdquo; he muttered to himself, &ldquo;which,
+      pretending to draw the curtain of futurity, misleads those whom it seems
+      to guide, and darkens the scene which it pretends to illuminate! Who would
+      not have said that I was that enemy most dangerous to Richard, whose
+      enmity was to be ended by marriage with his kinswoman? Yet it now appears
+      that a union betwixt this gallant Earl and the lady will bring about
+      friendship betwixt Richard and Scotland, an enemy more dangerous than I,
+      as a wildcat in a chamber is more to be dreaded than a lion in a distant
+      desert. But then,&rdquo; he continued to mutter to himself, &ldquo;the combination
+      intimates that this husband was to be Christian.&mdash;Christian!&rdquo; he
+      repeated, after a pause. &ldquo;That gave the insane fanatic star-gazer hopes
+      that I might renounce my faith! But me, the faithful follower of our
+      Prophet&mdash;me it should have undeceived. Lie there, mysterious scroll,&rdquo;
+       he added, thrusting it under the pile of cushions; &ldquo;strange are thy
+      bodements and fatal, since, even when true in themselves, they work upon
+      those who attempt to decipher their meaning all the effects of falsehood.&mdash;How
+      now! what means this intrusion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke to the dwarf Nectabanus, who rushed into the tent fearfully
+      agitated, with each strange and disproportioned feature wrenched by horror
+      into still more extravagant ugliness&mdash;his mouth open, his eyes
+      staring, his hands, with their shrivelled and deformed fingers, wildly
+      expanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What now?&rdquo; said the Soldan sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;ACCIPE HOC!&rdquo; groaned out the dwarf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! sayest thou?&rdquo; answered Saladin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;ACCIPE HOC!&rdquo; replied the panic-struck creature, unconscious, perhaps,
+      that he repeated the same words as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hence, I am in no vein for foolery,&rdquo; said the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor am I further fool,&rdquo; said the dwarf, &ldquo;than to make my folly help out
+      my wits to earn my bread, poor, helpless wretch! Hear, hear me, great
+      Soldan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, if thou hast actual wrong to complain of,&rdquo; said Saladin, &ldquo;fool or
+      wise, thou art entitled to the ear of a King. Retire hither with me;&rdquo; and
+      he led him into the inner tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever their conference related to, it was soon broken off by the
+      fanfare of the trumpets announcing the arrival of the various Christian
+      princes, whom Saladin welcomed to his tent with a royal courtesy well
+      becoming their rank and his own; but chiefly he saluted the young Earl of
+      Huntingdon, and generously congratulated him upon prospects which seemed
+      to have interfered with and overclouded those which he had himself
+      entertained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But think not,&rdquo; said the Soldan, &ldquo;thou noble youth, that the Prince of
+      Scotland is more welcome to Saladin than was Kenneth to the solitary
+      Ilderim when they met in the desert, or the distressed Ethiop to the Hakim
+      Adonbec. A brave and generous disposition like thine hath a value
+      independent of condition and birth, as the cool draught, which I here
+      proffer thee, is as delicious from an earthen vessel as from a goblet of
+      gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of Huntingdon made a suitable reply, gratefully acknowledging the
+      various important services he had received from the generous Soldan; but
+      when he had pledged Saladin in the bowl of sherbet which the Soldan had
+      proffered to him, he could not help remarking with a smile, &ldquo;The brave
+      cavalier Ilderim knew not of the formation of ice, but the munificent
+      Soldan cools his sherbet with snow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldst thou have an Arab or a Kurdman as wise as a Hakim?&rdquo; said the
+      Soldan. &ldquo;He who does on a disguise must make the sentiments of his heart
+      and the learning of his head accord with the dress which he assumes. I
+      desired to see how a brave and single-hearted cavalier of Frangistan would
+      conduct himself in debate with such a chief as I then seemed; and I
+      questioned the truth of a well-known fact, to know by what arguments thou
+      wouldst support thy assertion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were speaking, the Archduke of Austria, who stood a little
+      apart, was struck with the mention of iced sherbet, and took with pleasure
+      and some bluntness the deep goblet, as the Earl of Huntingdon was about to
+      replace it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most delicious!&rdquo; he exclaimed, after a deep draught, which the heat of
+      the weather, and the feverishness following the debauch of the preceding
+      day, had rendered doubly acceptable. He sighed as he handed the cup to the
+      Grand Master of the Templars. Saladin made a sign to the dwarf, who
+      advanced and pronounced, with a harsh voice, the words, ACCIPE HOC! The
+      Templar started, like a steed who sees a lion under a bush beside the
+      pathway; yet instantly recovered, and to hide, perhaps, his confusion,
+      raised the goblet to his lips. But those lips never touched that goblet's
+      rim. The sabre of Saladin left its sheath as lightning leaves the cloud.
+      It was waved in the air, and the head of the Grand Master rolled to the
+      extremity of the tent, while the trunk remained for a second standing,
+      with the goblet still clenched in its grasp, then fell, the liquor
+      mingling with the blood that spurted from the veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general exclamation of treason, and Austria, nearest to whom
+      Saladin stood with the bloody sabre in his hand, started back as if
+      apprehensive that his turn was to come next. Richard and others laid hand
+      on their swords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear nothing, noble Austria,&rdquo; said Saladin, as composedly as if nothing
+      had happened,&mdash;&ldquo;nor you, royal England, be wroth at what you have
+      seen. Not for his manifold treasons&mdash;not for the attempt which, as
+      may be vouched by his own squire, he instigated against King Richard's
+      life&mdash;not that he pursued the Prince of Scotland and myself in the
+      desert, reducing us to save our lives by the speed of our horses&mdash;not
+      that he had stirred up the Maronites to attack us upon this very occasion,
+      had I not brought up unexpectedly so many Arabs as rendered the scheme
+      abortive&mdash;not for any or all of these crimes does he now lie there,
+      although each were deserving such a doom&mdash;but because, scarce half an
+      hour ere he polluted our presence, as the simoom empoisons the atmosphere,
+      he poniarded his comrade and accomplice, Conrade of Montserrat, lest he
+      should confess the infamous plots in which they had both been engaged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How! Conrade murdered?&mdash;And by the Grand Master, his sponsor and
+      most intimate friend!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard. &ldquo;Noble Soldan, I would not doubt
+      thee; yet this must be proved, otherwise&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There stands the evidence,&rdquo; said Saladin, pointing to the terrified
+      dwarf. &ldquo;Allah, who sends the fire-fly to illuminate the night season, can
+      discover secret crimes by the most contemptible means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan proceeded to tell the dwarf's story, which amounted to this. In
+      his foolish curiosity, or, as he partly confessed, with some thoughts of
+      pilfering, Nectabanus had strayed into the tent of Conrade, which had been
+      deserted by his attendants, some of whom had left the encampment to carry
+      the news of his defeat to his brother, and others were availing themselves
+      of the means which Saladin had supplied for revelling. The wounded man
+      slept under the influence of Saladin's wonderful talisman, so that the
+      dwarf had opportunity to pry about at pleasure until he was frightened
+      into concealment by the sound of a heavy step. He skulked behind a
+      curtain, yet could see the motions, and hear the words, of the Grand
+      Master, who entered, and carefully secured the covering of the pavilion
+      behind him. His victim started from sleep, and it would appear that he
+      instantly suspected the purpose of his old associate, for it was in a tone
+      of alarm that he demanded wherefore he disturbed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come to confess and to absolve thee,&rdquo; answered the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of their further speech the terrified dwarf remembered little, save that
+      Conrade implored the Grand Master not to break a wounded reed, and that
+      the Templar struck him to the heart with a Turkish dagger, with the words
+      ACCIPE HOC!&mdash;words which long afterwards haunted the terrified
+      imagination of the concealed witness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I verified the tale,&rdquo; said Saladin, &ldquo;by causing the body to be examined;
+      and I made this unhappy being, whom Allah hath made the discoverer of the
+      crime, repeat in your own presence the words which the murderer spoke; and
+      you yourselves saw the effect which they produced upon his conscience!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan paused, and the King of England broke silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this be true, as I doubt not, we have witnessed a great act of
+      justice, though it bore a different aspect. But wherefore in this
+      presence? wherefore with thine own hand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had designed otherwise,&rdquo; said Saladin. &ldquo;But had I not hastened his
+      doom, it had been altogether averted, since, if I had permitted him to
+      taste of my cup, as he was about to do, how could I, without incurring the
+      brand of inhospitality, have done him to death as he deserved? Had he
+      murdered my father, and afterwards partaken of my food and my bowl, not a
+      hair of his head could have been injured by me. But enough of him&mdash;let
+      his carcass and his memory be removed from amongst us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The body was carried away, and the marks of the slaughter obliterated or
+      concealed with such ready dexterity, as showed that the case was not
+      altogether so uncommon as to paralyze the assistants and officers of
+      Saladin's household.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Christian princes felt that the scene which they had beheld
+      weighed heavily on their spirits, and although, at the courteous
+      invitation of the Soldan, they assumed their seats at the banquet, yet it
+      was with the silence of doubt and amazement. The spirits of Richard alone
+      surmounted all cause for suspicion or embarrassment. Yet he too seemed to
+      ruminate on some proposition, as if he were desirous of making it in the
+      most insinuating and acceptable manner which was possible. At length he
+      drank off a large bowl of wine, and addressing the Soldan, desired to know
+      whether it was not true that he had honoured the Earl of Huntingdon with a
+      personal encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Saladin answered with a smile that he had proved his horse and his weapons
+      with the heir of Scotland, as cavaliers are wont to do with each other
+      when they meet in the desert; and modestly added that, though the combat
+      was not entirely decisive, he had not on his part much reason to pride
+      himself on the event. The Scot, on the other hand, disclaimed the
+      attributed superiority, and wished to assign it to the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough of honour thou hast had in the encounter,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;and I
+      envy thee more for that than for the smiles of Edith Plantagenet, though
+      one of them might reward a bloody day's work.&mdash;But what say you,
+      noble princes? Is it fitting that such a royal ring of chivalry should
+      break up without something being done for future times to speak of? What
+      is the overthrow and death of a traitor to such a fair garland of honour
+      as is here assembled, and which ought not to part without witnessing
+      something more worthy of their regard?&mdash;How say you, princely Soldan?
+      What if we two should now, and before this fair company, decide the
+      long-contended question for this land of Palestine, and end at once these
+      tedious wars? Yonder are the lists ready, nor can Paynimrie ever hope a
+      better champion than thou. I, unless worthier offers, will lay down my
+      gauntlet in behalf of Christendom, and in all love and honour we will do
+      mortal battle for the possession of Jerusalem.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a deep pause for the Soldan's answer. His cheek and brow
+      coloured highly, and it was the opinion of many present that he hesitated
+      whether he should accept the challenge. At length he said, &ldquo;Fighting for
+      the Holy City against those whom we regard as idolaters and worshippers of
+      stocks and stones and graven images, I might confide that Allah would
+      strengthen my arm; or if I fell beneath the sword of the Melech Ric, I
+      could not pass to Paradise by a more glorious death. But Allah has already
+      given Jerusalem to the true believers, and it were a tempting the God of
+      the Prophet to peril, upon my own personal strength and skill, that which
+      I hold securely by the superiority of my forces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If not for Jerusalem, then,&rdquo; said Richard, in the tone of one who would
+      entreat a favour of an intimate friend, &ldquo;yet, for the love of honour, let
+      us run at least three courses with grinded lances?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even this,&rdquo; said Saladin, half smiling at Coeur de Lion's affectionate
+      earnestness for the combat&mdash;&ldquo;even this I may not lawfully do. The
+      master places the shepherd over the flock not for the shepherd's own sake,
+      but for the sake of the sheep. Had I a son to hold the sceptre when I
+      fell, I might have had the liberty, as I have the will, to brave this bold
+      encounter; but your own Scripture saith that when the herdsman is smitten,
+      the sheep are scattered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast had all the fortune,&rdquo; said Richard, turning to the Earl of
+      Huntingdon with a sigh. &ldquo;I would have given the best year in my life for
+      that one half hour beside the Diamond of the Desert!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The chivalrous extravagance of Richard awakened the spirits of the
+      assembly, and when at length they arose to depart Saladin advanced and
+      took Coeur de Lion by the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble King of England,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we now part, never to meet again. That
+      your league is dissolved, no more to be reunited, and that your native
+      forces are far too few to enable you to prosecute your enterprise, is as
+      well known to me as to yourself. I may not yield you up that Jerusalem
+      which you so much desire to hold&mdash;it is to us, as to you, a Holy
+      City. But whatever other terms Richard demands of Saladin shall be as
+      willingly yielded as yonder fountain yields its waters. Ay and the same
+      should be as frankly afforded by Saladin if Richard stood in the desert
+      with but two archers in his train!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day saw Richard's return to his own camp, and in a short space
+      afterwards the young Earl of Huntingdon was espoused by Edith Plantagenet.
+      The Soldan sent, as a nuptial present on this occasion, the celebrated
+      TALISMAN. But though many cures were wrought by means of it in Europe,
+      none equalled in success and celebrity those which the Soldan achieved. It
+      is still in existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl of Huntingdon to
+      a brave knight of Scotland, Sir Simon of the Lee, in whose ancient and
+      highly honoured family it is still preserved; and although charmed stones
+      have been dismissed from the modern Pharmacopoeia, its virtues are still
+      applied to for stopping blood, and in cases of canine madness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our Story closes here, as the terms on which Richard relinquished his
+      conquests are to be found in every history of the period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Talisman
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: July, 1998  [Etext #1377]
+Posting Date: 8, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALISMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonomous Volunteer
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TALISMAN
+
+By Sir Walter Scott
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN.
+
+The "Betrothed" did not greatly please one or two friends, who thought
+that it did not well correspond to the general title of "The Crusaders."
+They urged, therefore, that, without direct allusion to the manners of
+the Eastern tribes, and to the romantic conflicts of the period, the
+title of a "Tale of the Crusaders" would resemble the playbill, which
+is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of
+the Prince of Denmark being left out. On the other hand, I felt the
+difficulty of giving a vivid picture of a part of the world with which
+I was almost totally unacquainted, unless by early recollections of
+the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and not only did I labour under the
+incapacity of ignorance--in which, as far as regards Eastern manners, I
+was as thickly wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog--but my contemporaries
+were, many of them, as much enlightened upon the subject as if they had
+been inhabitants of the favoured land of Goshen. The love of travelling
+had pervaded all ranks, and carried the subjects of Britain into all
+quarters of the world. Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by
+its struggles for freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name,
+where every fountain had its classical legend--Palestine, endeared
+to the imagination by yet more sacred remembrances--had been of late
+surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers. Had I,
+therefore, attempted the difficult task of substituting manners of my
+own invention, instead of the genuine costume of the East, almost every
+traveller I met who had extended his route beyond what was anciently
+called "The Grand Tour," had acquired a right, by ocular inspection, to
+chastise me for my presumption. Every member of the Travellers' Club who
+could pretend to have thrown his shoe over Edom was, by having done so,
+constituted my lawful critic and corrector. It occurred, therefore,
+that where the author of Anastasius, as well as he of Hadji Baba, had
+described the manners and vices of the Eastern nations, not only with
+fidelity, but with the humour of Le Sage and the ludicrous power of
+Fielding himself, one who was a perfect stranger to the subject must
+necessarily produce an unfavourable contrast. The Poet Laureate also,
+in the charming tale of "Thalaba," had shown how extensive might be
+the researches of a person of acquirements and talent, by dint of
+investigation alone, into the ancient doctrines, history, and manners of
+the Eastern countries, in which we are probably to look for the cradle
+of mankind; Moore, in his "Lalla Rookh," had successfully trod the
+same path; in which, too, Byron, joining ocular experience to extensive
+reading, had written some of his most attractive poems. In a word, the
+Eastern themes had been already so successfully handled by those who
+were acknowledged to be masters of their craft, that I was diffident of
+making the attempt.
+
+These were powerful objections; nor did they lose force when they
+became the subject of anxious reflection, although they did not finally
+prevail. The arguments on the other side were, that though I had no hope
+of rivalling the contemporaries whom I have mentioned, yet it occurred
+to me as possible to acquit myself of the task I was engaged in without
+entering into competition with them.
+
+The period relating more immediately to the Crusades which I at last
+fixed upon was that at which the warlike character of Richard I., wild
+and generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all its extravagant virtues,
+and its no less absurd errors, was opposed to that of Saladin, in which
+the Christian and English monarch showed all the cruelty and violence
+of an Eastern sultan, and Saladin, on the other hand, displayed the deep
+policy and prudence of a European sovereign, whilst each contended
+which should excel the other in the knightly qualities of bravery and
+generosity. This singular contrast afforded, as the author conceived,
+materials for a work of fiction possessing peculiar interest. One of the
+inferior characters introduced was a supposed relation of Richard Coeur
+de Lion--a violation of the truth of history which gave offence to Mr.
+Mills, the author of the "History of Chivalry and the Crusades," who was
+not, it may be presumed, aware that romantic fiction naturally includes
+the power of such invention, which is indeed one of the requisites of
+the art.
+
+Prince David of Scotland, who was actually in the host, and was the hero
+of some very romantic adventures on his way home, was also pressed into
+my service, and constitutes one of my DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
+
+It is true I had already brought upon the field him of the lion heart.
+But it was in a more private capacity than he was here to be exhibited
+in the Talisman--then as a disguised knight, now in the avowed character
+of a conquering monarch; so that I doubted not a name so dear to
+Englishmen as that of King Richard I. might contribute to their
+amusement for more than once.
+
+I had access to all which antiquity believed, whether of reality or
+fable, on the subject of that magnificent warrior, who was the proudest
+boast of Europe and their chivalry, and with whose dreadful name the
+Saracens, according to a historian of their own country, were wont to
+rebuke their startled horses. "Do you think," said they, "that King
+Richard is on the track, that you stray so wildly from it?" The most
+curious register of the history of King Richard is an ancient romance,
+translated originally from the Norman; and at first certainly having a
+pretence to be termed a work of chivalry, but latterly becoming stuffed
+with the most astonishing and monstrous fables. There is perhaps no
+metrical romance upon record where, along with curious and genuine
+history, are mingled more absurd and exaggerated incidents. We have
+placed in the Appendix to this Introduction the passage of the romance
+in which Richard figures as an ogre, or literal cannibal.
+
+A principal incident in the story is that from which the title is
+derived. Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps most
+remarkable for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells, periapts,
+and similar charms, framed, it was said, under the influence of
+particular planets, and bestowing high medical powers, as well as the
+means of advancing men's fortunes in various manners. A story of this
+kind, relating to a Crusader of eminence, is often told in the west of
+Scotland, and the relic alluded to is still in existence, and even yet
+held in veneration.
+
+Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee and Gartland made a considerable figure in the
+reigns of Robert the Bruce and of his son David. He was one of the chief
+of that band of Scottish chivalry who accompanied James, the Good Lord
+Douglas, on his expedition to the Holy Land with the heart of King
+Robert Bruce. Douglas, impatient to get at the Saracens, entered into
+war with those of Spain, and was killed there. Lockhart proceeded to the
+Holy Land with such Scottish knights as had escaped the fate of their
+leader and assisted for some time in the wars against the Saracens.
+
+The following adventure is said by tradition to have befallen him:--
+
+He made prisoner in battle an Emir of considerable wealth and
+consequence. The aged mother of the captive came to the Christian camp,
+to redeem her son from his state of captivity. Lockhart is said to have
+fixed the price at which his prisoner should ransom himself; and the
+lady, pulling out a large embroidered purse, proceeded to tell down the
+ransom, like a mother who pays little respect to gold in comparison of
+her son's liberty. In this operation, a pebble inserted in a coin, some
+say of the Lower Empire, fell out of the purse, and the Saracen matron
+testified so much haste to recover it as gave the Scottish knight a
+high idea of its value, when compared with gold or silver. "I will not
+consent," he said, "to grant your son's liberty, unless that amulet be
+added to his ransom." The lady not only consented to this, but explained
+to Sir Simon Lockhart the mode in which the talisman was to be used,
+and the uses to which it might be put. The water in which it was dipped
+operated as a styptic, as a febrifuge, and possessed other properties as
+a medical talisman.
+
+Sir Simon Lockhart, after much experience of the wonders which it
+wrought, brought it to his own country, and left it to his heirs, by
+whom, and by Clydesdale in general, it was, and is still, distinguished
+by the name of the Lee-penny, from the name of his native seat of Lee.
+
+The most remarkable part of its history, perhaps, was that it so
+especially escaped condemnation when the Church of Scotland chose to
+impeach many other cures which savoured of the miraculous, as occasioned
+by sorcery, and censured the appeal to them, "excepting only that to
+the amulet, called the Lee-penny, to which it had pleased God to annex
+certain healing virtues which the Church did not presume to condemn." It
+still, as has been said, exists, and its powers are sometimes resorted
+to. Of late, they have been chiefly restricted to the cure of persons
+bitten by mad dogs; and as the illness in such cases frequently arises
+from imagination, there can be no reason for doubting that water which
+has been poured on the Lee-penny furnishes a congenial cure.
+
+Such is the tradition concerning the talisman, which the author has
+taken the liberty to vary in applying it to his own purposes.
+
+Considerable liberties have also been taken with the truth of history,
+both with respect to Conrade of Montserrat's life, as well as his death.
+That Conrade, however, was reckoned the enemy of Richard is agreed both
+in history and romance. The general opinion of the terms upon which they
+stood may be guessed from the proposal of the Saracens that the Marquis
+of Montserrat should be invested with certain parts of Syria, which they
+were to yield to the Christians. Richard, according to the romance which
+bears his name, "could no longer repress his fury. The Marquis he said,
+was a traitor, who had robbed the Knights Hospitallers of sixty thousand
+pounds, the present of his father Henry; that he was a renegade, whose
+treachery had occasioned the loss of Acre; and he concluded by a solemn
+oath, that he would cause him to be drawn to pieces by wild horses, if
+he should ever venture to pollute the Christian camp by his presence.
+Philip attempted to intercede in favour of the Marquis, and throwing
+down his glove, offered to become a pledge for his fidelity to the
+Christians; but his offer was rejected, and he was obliged to give way
+to Richard's impetuosity."--HISTORY OF CHIVALRY.
+
+Conrade of Montserrat makes a considerable figure in those wars, and was
+at length put to death by one of the followers of the Scheik, or Old Man
+of the Mountain; nor did Richard remain free of the suspicion of having
+instigated his death.
+
+It may be said, in general, that most of the incidents introduced in
+the following tale are fictitious, and that reality, where it exists, is
+only retained in the characters of the piece.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.
+
+While warring in the Holy Land, Richard was seized with an ague.
+
+The best leeches of the camp were unable to effect the cure of the
+King's disease; but the prayers of the army were more successful. He
+became convalescent, and the first symptom of his recovery was a violent
+longing for pork. But pork was not likely to be plentiful in a country
+whose inhabitants had an abhorrence for swine's flesh; and
+
+     "Though his men should be hanged,
+     They ne might, in that countrey,
+     For gold, ne silver, ne no money,
+     No pork find, take, ne get,
+     That King Richard might aught of eat.
+     An old knight with Richard biding,
+     When he heard of that tiding,
+     That the king's wants were swyche,
+     To the steward he spake privyliche--
+     "Our lord the king sore is sick, I wis,
+     After porck he alonged is;
+     Ye may none find to selle;
+     No man be hardy him so to telle!
+     If he did he might die.
+     Now behoves to done as I shall say,
+     Tho' he wete nought of that.
+     Take a Saracen, young and fat;
+     In haste let the thief be slain,
+     Opened, and his skin off flayn;
+     And sodden full hastily,
+     With powder and with spicery,
+     And with saffron of good colour.
+     When the king feels thereof savour,
+     Out of ague if he be went,
+     He shall have thereto good talent.
+     When he has a good taste,
+     And eaten well a good repast,
+     And supped of the BREWIS [Broth] a sup,
+     Slept after and swet a drop,
+     Through Goddis help and my counsail,
+     Soon he shall be fresh and hail.'
+     The sooth to say, at wordes few,
+     Slain and sodden was the heathen shrew.
+     Before the king it was forth brought:
+     Quod his men, 'Lord, we have pork sought;
+     Eates and sups of the brewis SOOTE,[Sweet]
+     Thorough grace of God it shall be your boot.'
+     Before King Richard carff a knight,
+     He ate faster than he carve might.
+     The king ate the flesh and GNEW [Gnawed] the bones,
+     And drank well after for the nonce.
+     And when he had eaten enough,
+     His folk hem turned away, and LOUGH.[Laughed]
+     He lay still and drew in his arm;
+     His chamberlain him wrapped warm.
+     He lay and slept, and swet a stound,
+     And became whole and sound.
+     King Richard clad him and arose,
+     And walked abouten in the close."
+
+An attack of the Saracens was repelled by Richard in person, the
+consequence of which is told in the following lines:--
+
+     "When King Richard had rested a whyle,
+     A knight his arms 'gan unlace,
+     Him to comfort and solace.
+     Him was brought a sop in wine.
+     'The head of that ilke swine,
+     That I of ate!' (the cook he bade,)
+     'For feeble I am, and faint and mad.
+     Of mine evil now I am fear;
+     Serve me therewith at my soupere!'
+     Quod the cook, 'That head I ne have.'
+     Then said the king, 'So God me save,
+     But I see the head of that swine,
+     For sooth, thou shalt lesen thine!'
+     The cook saw none other might be;
+     He fet the head and let him see.
+     He fell on knees, and made a cry--
+     'Lo, here the head!  my Lord, mercy!'"
+
+The cook had certainly some reason to fear that his master would be
+struck with horror at the recollection of the dreadful banquet to which
+he owed his recovery; but his fears were soon dissipated.
+
+     "The swarte vis [Black face] when the king seeth,
+     His black beard and white teeth,
+     How his lippes grinned wide,
+     'What devil is this?' the king cried,
+     And 'gan to laugh as he were wode.
+     'What!  is Saracen's flesh thus good?
+     That never erst I nought wist!
+     By God's death and his uprist,
+     Shall we never die for default,
+     While we may in any assault,
+     Slee Saracens, the flesh may take,
+     And seethen and roasten and do hem bake,
+     [And] Gnawen her flesh to the bones!
+     Now I have it proved once,
+     For hunger ere I be wo,
+     I and my folk shall eat mo!"'
+
+The besieged now offered to surrender, upon conditions of safety to the
+inhabitants; while all the public treasure, military machines, and arms
+were delivered to the victors, together with the further ransom of
+one hundred thousand bezants. After this capitulation, the following
+extraordinary scene took place. We shall give it in the words of the
+humorous and amiable George Ellis, the collector and the editor of these
+Romances:--
+
+"Though the garrison had faithfully performed the other articles of
+their contract, they were unable to restore the cross, which was not
+in their possession, and were therefore treated by the Christians
+with great cruelty. Daily reports of their sufferings were carried to
+Saladin; and as many of them were persons of the highest distinction,
+that monarch, at the solicitation of their friends, dispatched an
+embassy to King Richard with magnificent presents, which he offered
+for the ransom of the captives. The ambassadors were persons the most
+respectable from their age, their rank, and their eloquence. They
+delivered their message in terms of the utmost humility; and without
+arraigning the justice of the conqueror in his severe treatment of their
+countrymen, only solicited a period to that severity, laying at his feet
+the treasures with which they were entrusted, and pledging themselves
+and their master for the payment of any further sums which he might
+demand as the price of mercy.
+
+     "King Richard spake with wordes mild.
+     'The gold to take, God me shield!
+     Among you partes [Divide] every charge.
+     I brought in shippes and in barge,
+     More gold and silver with me,
+     Than has your lord, and swilke three.
+     To his treasure have I no need!
+     But for my love I you bid,
+     To meat with me that ye dwell;
+     And afterward I shall you tell.
+     Thorough counsel I shall you answer,
+     What BODE [Message] ye shall to your lord bear.
+
+"The invitation was gratefully accepted. Richard, in the meantime, gave
+secret orders to his marshal that he should repair to the prison,
+select a certain number of the most distinguished captives, and, after
+carefully noting their names on a roll of parchment, cause their heads
+to be instantly struck off; that these heads should be delivered to the
+cook, with instructions to clear away the hair, and, after boiling
+them in a cauldron, to distribute them on several platters, one to
+each guest, observing to fasten on the forehead of each the piece of
+parchment expressing the name and family of the victim.
+
+     "'An hot head bring me beforn,
+     As I were well apayed withall,
+     Eat thereof fast I shall;
+     As it were a tender chick,
+     To see how the others will like.'
+
+"This horrible order was punctually executed. At noon the guests were
+summoned to wash by the music of the waits. The king took his seat
+attended by the principal officers of his court, at the high table, and
+the rest of the company were marshalled at a long table below him.
+On the cloth were placed portions of salt at the usual distances, but
+neither bread, wine, nor water. The ambassadors, rather surprised at
+this omission, but still free from apprehension, awaited in silence
+the arrival of the dinner, which was announced by the sound of pipes,
+trumpets, and tabours; and beheld, with horror and dismay, the unnatural
+banquet introduced by the steward and his officers. Yet their sentiments
+of disgust and abhorrence, and even their fears, were for a time
+suspended by their curiosity. Their eyes were fixed on the king, who,
+without the slightest change of countenance, swallowed the morsels as
+fast as they could be supplied by the knight who carved them.
+
+     "Every man then poked other;
+     They said, 'This is the devil's brother,
+     That slays our men, and thus hem eats!'
+
+"Their attention was then involuntarily fixed on the smoking heads
+before them. They traced in the swollen and distorted features the
+resemblance of a friend or near relation, and received from the
+fatal scroll which accompanied each dish the sad assurance that this
+resemblance was not imaginary. They sat in torpid silence, anticipating
+their own fate in that of their countrymen; while their ferocious
+entertainer, with fury in his eyes, but with courtesy on his lips,
+insulted them by frequent invitations to merriment. At length this first
+course was removed, and its place supplied by venison, cranes, and other
+dainties, accompanied by the richest wines. The king then apologized to
+them for what had passed, which he attributed to his ignorance of their
+taste; and assured them of his religious respect for their characters as
+ambassadors, and of his readiness to grant them a safe-conduct for their
+return. This boon was all that they now wished to claim; and
+
+     "King Richard spake to an old man,
+     'Wendes home to your Soudan!
+     His melancholy that ye abate;
+     And sayes that ye came too late.
+     Too slowly was your time y-guessed;
+     Ere ye came, the flesh was dressed,
+     That men shoulden serve with me,
+     Thus at noon, and my meynie.
+     Say him, it shall him nought avail,
+     Though he for-bar us our vitail,
+     Bread, wine, fish, flesh, salmon, and conger;
+     Of us none shall die with hunger,
+     While we may wenden to fight,
+     And slay the Saracens downright,
+     Wash the flesh, and roast the head.
+     With 0 [One] Saracen I may well feed
+     Well a nine or a ten
+     Of my good Christian men.
+     King Richard shall warrant,
+     There is no flesh so nourissant
+     Unto an English man,
+     Partridge, plover, heron, ne swan,
+     Cow ne ox, sheep ne swine,
+     As the head of a Sarazyn.
+     There he is fat, and thereto tender,
+     And my men be lean and slender.
+     While any Saracen quick be,
+     Livand now in this Syrie,
+     For meat will we nothing care.
+     Abouten fast we shall rare,
+     And every day we shall eat
+     All as many as we may get.
+     To England will we nought gon,
+     Till they be eaten every one.'"
+
+
+      ELLIS'S SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH METRICEL ROMANCES.
+
+The reader may be curious to know owing to what circumstances so
+extraordinary an invention as that which imputed cannibalism to the King
+of England should have found its way into his history. Mr. James, to
+whom we owe so much that is curious, seems to have traced the origin of
+this extraordinary rumour.
+
+"With the army of the cross also was a multitude of men," the same
+author declares, "who made it a profession to be without money. They
+walked barefoot, carried no arms, and even preceded the beasts of burden
+in their march, living upon roots and herbs, and presenting a spectacle
+both disgusting and pitiable.
+
+"A Norman, who, according to all accounts, was of noble birth, but who,
+having lost his horse, continued to follow as a foot soldier, took
+the strange resolution of putting himself at the head of this race
+of vagabonds, who willingly received him as their king. Amongst the
+Saracens these men became well known under the name of THAFURS (which
+Guibert translates TRUDENTES), and were beheld with great horror
+from the general persuasion that they fed on the dead bodies of their
+enemies; a report which was occasionally justified, and which the king
+of the Thafurs took care to encourage. This respectable monarch was
+frequently in the habit of stopping his followers, one by one, in a
+narrow defile, and of causing them to be searched carefully, lest the
+possession of the least sum of money should render them unworthy of the
+name of his subjects. If even two sous were found upon any one, he
+was instantly expelled the society of his tribe, the king bidding him
+contemptuously buy arms and fight.
+
+"This troop, so far from being cumbersome to the army, was infinitely
+serviceable, carrying burdens, bringing in forage, provisions, and
+tribute; working the machines in the sieges; and, above all, spreading
+consternation among the Turks, who feared death from the lances of the
+knights less than that further consummation they heard of under the
+teeth of the Thafurs." [James's "History of Chivalry."]
+
+It is easy to conceive that an ignorant minstrel, finding the taste and
+ferocity of the Thafurs commemorated in the historical accounts of the
+Holy Wars, has ascribed their practices and propensities to the Monarch
+of England, whose ferocity was considered as an object of exaggeration
+as legitimate as his valour.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832.
+
+
+
+
+
+TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. TALE II.--THE TALISMAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     They, too, retired
+     To the wilderness, but 'twas with arms.
+         PARADISE REGAINED.
+
+The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in
+the horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant
+northern home and joined the host of the Crusaders in Palestine, was
+pacing slowly along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the
+Dead Sea, or, as it is called, the Lake Asphaltites, where the waves of
+the Jordan pour themselves into an inland sea, from which there is no
+discharge of waters.
+
+The warlike pilgrim had toiled among cliffs and precipices during the
+earlier part of the morning. More lately, issuing from those rocky
+and dangerous defiles, he had entered upon that great plain, where
+the accursed cities provoked, in ancient days, the direct and dreadful
+vengeance of the Omnipotent.
+
+The toil, the thirst, the dangers of the way, were forgotten, as the
+traveller recalled the fearful catastrophe which had converted into an
+arid and dismal wilderness the fair and fertile valley of Siddim, once
+well watered, even as the Garden of the Lord, now a parched and blighted
+waste, condemned to eternal sterility.
+
+Crossing himself, as he viewed the dark mass of rolling waters, in
+colour as in duality unlike those of any other lake, the traveller
+shuddered as he remembered that beneath these sluggish waves lay the
+once proud cities of the plain, whose grave was dug by the thunder of
+the heavens, or the eruption of subterraneous fire, and whose remains
+were hid, even by that sea which holds no living fish in its bosom,
+bears no skiff on its surface, and, as if its own dreadful bed were the
+only fit receptacle for its sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes,
+a tribute to the ocean. The whole land around, as in the days of Moses,
+was "brimstone and salt; it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass
+groweth thereon." The land as well as the lake might be termed dead, as
+producing nothing having resemblance to vegetation, and even the very
+air was entirely devoid of its ordinary winged inhabitants, deterred
+probably by the odour of bitumen and sulphur which the burning sun
+exhaled from the waters of the lake in steaming clouds, frequently
+assuming the appearance of waterspouts. Masses of the slimy and
+sulphureous substance called naphtha, which floated idly on the sluggish
+and sullen waves, supplied those rolling clouds with new vapours, and
+afforded awful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic history.
+
+Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost intolerable
+splendour, and all living nature seemed to have hidden itself from the
+rays, excepting the solitary figure which moved through the flitting
+sand at a foot's pace, and appeared the sole breathing thing on the wide
+surface of the plain. The dress of the rider and the accoutrements of
+his horse were peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country. A
+coat of linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel
+breastplate, had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour; there
+were also his triangular shield suspended round his neck, and his barred
+helmet of steel, over which he had a hood and collar of mail, which
+was drawn around the warrior's shoulders and throat, and filled up the
+vacancy between the hauberk and the headpiece. His lower limbs were
+sheathed, like his body, in flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs,
+while the feet rested in plated shoes, which corresponded with the
+gauntlets. A long, broad, straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with
+a handle formed like a cross, corresponded with a stout poniard on the
+other side. The knight also bore, secured to his saddle, with one end
+resting on his stirrup, the long steel-headed lance, his own proper
+weapon, which, as he rode, projected backwards, and displayed its little
+pennoncelle, to dally with the faint breeze, or drop in the dead calm.
+To this cumbrous equipment must be added a surcoat of embroidered cloth,
+much frayed and worn, which was thus far useful that it excluded the
+burning rays of the sun from the armour, which they would otherwise have
+rendered intolerable to the wearer. The surcoat bore, in several places,
+the arms of the owner, although much defaced. These seemed to be a
+couchant leopard, with the motto, "I sleep; wake me not." An outline of
+the same device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had
+almost effaced the painting. The flat top of his cumbrous cylindrical
+helmet was unadorned with any crest. In retaining their own unwieldy
+defensive armour, the Northern Crusaders seemed to set at defiance the
+nature of the climate and country to which they had come to war.
+
+The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and unwieldy
+than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated with
+steel, uniting in front with a species of breastplate, and behind with
+defensive armour made to cover the loins. Then there was a steel axe,
+or hammer, called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow. The
+reins were secured by chain-work, and the front-stall of the bridle was
+a steel plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the
+midst a short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the horse
+like the horn of the fabulous unicorn.
+
+But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second
+nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers, indeed,
+of the Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere they became
+inured to the burning climate; but there were others to whom that
+climate became innocent and even friendly, and among this fortunate
+number was the solitary horseman who now traversed the border of the
+Dead Sea.
+
+Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength, fitted
+to wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the meshes had been
+formed of cobwebs, had endowed him with a constitution as strong as his
+limbs, and which bade defiance to almost all changes of climate, as well
+as to fatigue and privations of every kind. His disposition seemed, in
+some degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as
+the one possessed great strength and endurance, united with the power of
+violent exertion, the other, under a calm and undisturbed semblance, had
+much of the fiery and enthusiastic love of glory which constituted the
+principal attribute of the renowned Norman line, and had rendered
+them sovereigns in every corner of Europe where they had drawn their
+adventurous swords.
+
+It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such tempting
+rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight during two years'
+campaign in Palestine had been only temporal fame, and, as he was taught
+to believe, spiritual privileges. Meantime, his slender stock of money
+had melted away, the rather that he did not pursue any of the ordinary
+modes by which the followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit
+their diminished resources at the expense of the people of Palestine--he
+exacted no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
+when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed
+himself of any opportunity of enriching himself by the ransom of
+prisoners of consequence. The small train which had followed him from
+his native country had been gradually diminished, as the means of
+maintaining them disappeared, and his only remaining squire was at
+present on a sick-bed, and unable to attend his master, who travelled,
+as we have seen, singly and alone. This was of little consequence to the
+Crusader, who was accustomed to consider his good sword as his safest
+escort, and devout thoughts as his best companion.
+
+Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even on
+the iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the Sleeping
+Leopard; and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some distance on his
+right, he joyfully hailed the sight of two or three palm-trees, which
+arose beside the well which was assigned for his mid-day station. His
+good horse, too, which had plodded forward with the steady endurance of
+his master, now lifted his head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened
+his pace, as if he snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the
+place of repose and refreshment. But labour and danger were doomed to
+intervene ere the horse or horseman reached the desired spot.
+
+As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
+attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed to him
+as if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated
+itself from the trees, which partly hid its motions, and advanced
+towards the knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman,
+whom his turban, long spear, and green caftan floating in the wind, on
+his nearer approach showed to be a Saracen cavalier. "In the desert,"
+saith an Eastern proverb, "no man meets a friend." The Crusader was
+totally indifferent whether the infidel, who now approached on his
+gallant barb as if borne on the wings of an eagle, came as friend or
+foe--perhaps, as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might rather have
+preferred the latter. He disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized
+it with the right hand, placed it in rest with its point half elevated,
+gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's mettle with
+the spur, and prepared to encounter the stranger with the calm
+self-confidence belonging to the victor in many contests.
+
+The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman, managing
+his steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his body than by any
+use of the reins, which hung loose in his left hand; so that he was
+enabled to wield the light, round buckler of the skin of the rhinoceros,
+ornamented with silver loops, which he wore on his arm, swinging it as
+if he meant to oppose its slender circle to the formidable thrust of the
+Western lance. His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that
+of his antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and
+brandished at arm's-length above his head. As the cavalier approached
+his enemy at full career, he seemed to expect that the Knight of the
+Leopard should put his horse to the gallop to encounter him. But the
+Christian knight, well acquainted with the customs of Eastern warriors,
+did not mean to exhaust his good horse by any unnecessary exertion; and,
+on the contrary, made a dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced
+to the actual shock, his own weight, and that of his powerful charger,
+would give him sufficient advantage, without the additional momentum
+of rapid motion. Equally sensible and apprehensive of such a probable
+result, the Saracen cavalier, when he had approached towards the
+Christian within twice the length of his lance, wheeled his steed to the
+left with inimitable dexterity, and rode twice around his antagonist,
+who, turning without quitting his ground, and presenting his front
+constantly to his enemy, frustrated his attempts to attack him on an
+unguarded point; so that the Saracen, wheeling his horse, was fain to
+retreat to the distance of a hundred yards. A second time, like a hawk
+attacking a heron, the heathen renewed the charge, and a second time
+was fain to retreat without coming to a close struggle. A third time he
+approached in the same manner, when the Christian knight, desirous to
+terminate this illusory warfare, in which he might at length have been
+worn out by the activity of his foeman, suddenly seized the mace which
+hung at his saddle-bow, and, with a strong hand and unerring aim,
+hurled it against the head of the Emir, for such and not less his enemy
+appeared. The Saracen was just aware of the formidable missile in time
+to interpose his light buckler betwixt the mace and his head; but the
+violence of the blow forced the buckler down on his turban, and though
+that defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the Saracen was
+beaten from his horse. Ere the Christian could avail himself of this
+mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and, calling on his
+steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat
+without touching the stirrup, and regained all the advantage of which
+the Knight of the Leopard hoped to deprive him. But the latter had
+in the meanwhile recovered his mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who
+remembered the strength and dexterity with which his antagonist had
+aimed it, seemed to keep cautiously out of reach of that weapon of which
+he had so lately felt the force, while he showed his purpose of waging a
+distant warfare with missile weapons of his own. Planting his long spear
+in the sand at a distance from the scene of combat, he strung, with
+great address, a short bow, which he carried at his back; and putting
+his horse to the gallop, once more described two or three circles of
+a wider extent than formerly, in the course of which he discharged six
+arrows at the Christian with such unerring skill that the goodness of
+his harness alone saved him from being wounded in as many places. The
+seventh shaft apparently found a less perfect part of the armour, and
+the Christian dropped heavily from his horse. But what was the surprise
+of the Saracen, when, dismounting to examine the condition of his
+prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly within the grasp of the
+European, who had had recourse to this artifice to bring his enemy
+within his reach! Even in this deadly grapple the Saracen was saved by
+his agility and presence of mind. He unloosed the sword-belt, in which
+the Knight of the Leopard had fixed his hold, and, thus eluding his
+fatal grasp, mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with
+the intelligence of a human being, and again rode off. But in the last
+encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of arrows, both
+of which were attached to the girdle which he was obliged to abandon. He
+had also lost his turban in the struggle.
+
+These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a truce. He
+approached the Christian with his right hand extended, but no longer in
+a menacing attitude.
+
+"There is truce betwixt our nations," he said, in the lingua franca
+commonly used for the purpose of communication with the Crusaders;
+"wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me? Let there be peace
+betwixt us."
+
+"I am well contented," answered he of the Couchant Leopard; "but what
+security dost thou offer that thou wilt observe the truce?"
+
+"The word of a follower of the Prophet was never broken," answered the
+Emir. "It is thou, brave Nazarene, from whom I should demand security,
+did I not know that treason seldom dwells with courage."
+
+The Crusader felt that the confidence of the Moslem made him ashamed of
+his own doubts.
+
+"By the cross of my sword," he said, laying his hand on the weapon as
+he spoke, "I will be true companion to thee, Saracen, while our fortune
+wills that we remain in company together."
+
+"By Mohammed, Prophet of God, and by Allah, God of the Prophet," replied
+his late foeman, "there is not treachery in my heart towards thee. And
+now wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour of rest is at hand, and
+the stream had hardly touched my lip when I was called to battle by thy
+approach."
+
+The Knight of the Couchant Leopard yielded a ready and courteous assent;
+and the late foes, without an angry look or gesture of doubt, rode side
+by side to the little cluster of palm-trees.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Times of danger have always, and in a peculiar degree, their seasons
+of good-will and security; and this was particularly so in the ancient
+feudal ages, in which, as the manners of the period had assigned war
+to be the chief and most worthy occupation of mankind, the intervals
+of peace, or rather of truce, were highly relished by those warriors to
+whom they were seldom granted, and endeared by the very circumstances
+which rendered them transitory. It is not worth while preserving any
+permanent enmity against a foe whom a champion has fought with to-day,
+and may again stand in bloody opposition to on the next morning. The
+time and situation afforded so much room for the ebullition of violent
+passions, that men, unless when peculiarly opposed to each other,
+or provoked by the recollection of private and individual wrongs,
+cheerfully enjoyed in each other's society the brief intervals of
+pacific intercourse which a warlike life admitted.
+
+The distinction of religions, nay, the fanatical zeal which animated the
+followers of the Cross and of the Crescent against each other, was much
+softened by a feeling so natural to generous combatants, and especially
+cherished by the spirit of chivalry. This last strong impulse had
+extended itself gradually from the Christians to their mortal enemies
+the Saracens, both of Spain and of Palestine. The latter were, indeed,
+no longer the fanatical savages who had burst from the centre of Arabian
+deserts, with the sabre in one hand and the Koran in the other, to
+inflict death or the faith of Mohammed, or, at the best, slavery and
+tribute, upon all who dared to oppose the belief of the prophet of
+Mecca. These alternatives indeed had been offered to the unwarlike
+Greeks and Syrians; but in contending with the Western Christians,
+animated by a zeal as fiery as their own, and possessed of as
+unconquerable courage, address, and success in arms, the Saracens
+gradually caught a part of their manners, and especially of those
+chivalrous observances which were so well calculated to charm the minds
+of a proud and conquering people. They had their tournaments and games
+of chivalry; they had even their knights, or some rank analogous; and
+above all, the Saracens observed their plighted faith with an accuracy
+which might sometimes put to shame those who owned a better religion.
+Their truces, whether national or betwixt individuals, were faithfully
+observed; and thus it was that war, in itself perhaps the greatest
+of evils, yet gave occasion for display of good faith, generosity,
+clemency, and even kindly affections, which less frequently occur in
+more tranquil periods, where the passions of men, experiencing wrongs or
+entertaining quarrels which cannot be brought to instant decision, are
+apt to smoulder for a length of time in the bosoms of those who are so
+unhappy as to be their prey.
+
+It was under the influence of these milder feelings which soften the
+horrors of warfare that the Christian and Saracen, who had so lately
+done their best for each other's mutual destruction, rode at a slow pace
+towards the fountain of palm-trees to which the Knight of the Couchant
+Leopard had been tending, when interrupted in mid-passage by his
+fleet and dangerous adversary. Each was wrapt for some time in his own
+reflections, and took breath after an encounter which had threatened to
+be fatal to one or both; and their good horses seemed no less to enjoy
+the interval of repose.
+
+That of the Saracen, however, though he had been forced into much the
+more violent and extended sphere of motion, appeared to have suffered
+less from fatigue than the charger of the European knight. The sweat
+hung still clammy on the limbs of the latter, when those of the noble
+Arab were completely dried by the interval of tranquil exercise, all
+saving the foam-flakes which were still visible on his bridle and
+housings. The loose soil on which he trod so much augmented the distress
+of the Christian's horse, heavily loaded by his own armour and the
+weight of his rider, that the latter jumped from his saddle, and led his
+charger along the deep dust of the loamy soil, which was burnt in the
+sun into a substance more impalpable than the finest sand, and thus
+gave the faithful horse refreshment at the expense of his own additional
+toil; for, iron-sheathed as he was, he sunk over the mailed shoes at
+every step which he placed on a surface so light and unresisting.
+
+"You are right," said the Saracen--and it was the first word that either
+had spoken since their truce was concluded; "your strong horse deserves
+your care. But what do you in the desert with an animal which sinks over
+the fetlock at every step as if he would plant each foot deep as the
+root of a date-tree?"
+
+"Thou speakest rightly, Saracen," said the Christian knight, not
+delighted at the tone with which the infidel criticized his favourite
+steed--"rightly, according to thy knowledge and observation. But my good
+horse hath ere now borne me, in mine own land, over as wide a lake as
+thou seest yonder spread out behind us, yet not wet one hair above his
+hoof."
+
+The Saracen looked at him with as much surprise as his manners permitted
+him to testify, which was only expressed by a slight approach to a
+disdainful smile, that hardly curled perceptibly the broad, thick
+moustache which enveloped his upper lip.
+
+"It is justly spoken," he said, instantly composing himself to his usual
+serene gravity; "List to a Frank, and hear a fable."
+
+"Thou art not courteous, misbeliever," replied the Crusader, "to doubt
+the word of a dubbed knight; and were it not that thou speakest in
+ignorance, and not in malice, our truce had its ending ere it is well
+begun. Thinkest thou I tell thee an untruth when I say that I, one of
+five hundred horsemen, armed in complete mail, have ridden--ay, and
+ridden for miles, upon water as solid as the crystal, and ten times less
+brittle?"
+
+"What wouldst thou tell me?" answered the Moslem. "Yonder inland sea
+thou dost point at is peculiar in this, that, by the especial curse of
+God, it suffereth nothing to sink in its waves, but wafts them away, and
+casts them on its margin; but neither the Dead Sea, nor any of the
+seven oceans which environ the earth, will endure on their surface the
+pressure of a horse's foot, more than the Red Sea endured to sustain the
+advance of Pharaoh and his host."
+
+"You speak truth after your knowledge, Saracen," said the Christian
+knight; "and yet, trust me, I fable not, according to mine. Heat, in
+this climate, converts the soil into something almost as unstable
+as water; and in my land cold often converts the water itself into
+a substance as hard as rock. Let us speak of this no longer, for
+the thoughts of the calm, clear, blue refulgence of a winter's lake,
+glimmering to stars and moonbeam, aggravate the horrors of this fiery
+desert, where, methinks, the very air which we breathe is like the
+vapour of a fiery furnace seven times heated."
+
+The Saracen looked on him with some attention, as if to discover in
+what sense he was to understand words which, to him, must have appeared
+either to contain something of mystery or of imposition. At length he
+seemed determined in what manner to receive the language of his new
+companion.
+
+"You are," he said, "of a nation that loves to laugh, and you make sport
+with yourselves, and with others, by telling what is impossible, and
+reporting what never chanced. Thou art one of the knights of France, who
+hold it for glee and pastime to GAB, as they term it, of exploits that
+are beyond human power. [Gaber. This French word signified a sort of
+sport much used among the French chivalry, which consisted in vying
+with each other in making the most romantic gasconades. The verb and the
+meaning are retained in Scottish.] I were wrong to challenge, for the
+time, the privilege of thy speech, since boasting is more natural to
+thee than truth."
+
+"I am not of their land, neither of their fashion," said the Knight,
+"which is, as thou well sayest, to GAB of that which they dare not
+undertake--or, undertaking, cannot perfect. But in this I have imitated
+their folly, brave Saracen, that in talking to thee of what thou canst
+not comprehend, I have, even in speaking most simple truth, fully
+incurred the character of a braggart in thy eyes; so, I pray you, let my
+words pass."
+
+They had now arrived at the knot of palm-trees and the fountain which
+welled out from beneath their shade in sparkling profusion.
+
+We have spoken of a moment of truce in the midst of war; and this, a
+spot of beauty in the midst of a sterile desert, was scarce less dear
+to the imagination. It was a scene which, perhaps, would elsewhere have
+deserved little notice; but as the single speck, in a boundless
+horizon, which promised the refreshment of shade and living water, these
+blessings, held cheap where they are common, rendered the fountain and
+its neighbourhood a little paradise. Some generous or charitable hand,
+ere yet the evil days of Palestine began, had walled in and arched over
+the fountain, to preserve it from being absorbed in the earth, or choked
+by the flitting clouds of dust with which the least breath of wind
+covered the desert. The arch was now broken, and partly ruinous; but it
+still so far projected over and covered in the fountain that it excluded
+the sun in a great measure from its waters, which, hardly touched by a
+straggling beam, while all around was blazing, lay in a steady repose,
+alike delightful to the eye and the imagination. Stealing from under the
+arch, they were first received in a marble basin, much defaced indeed,
+but still cheering the eye, by showing that the place was anciently
+considered as a station, that the hand of man had been there and that
+man's accommodation had been in some measure attended to. The thirsty
+and weary traveller was reminded by these signs that others had suffered
+similar difficulties, reposed in the same spot, and, doubtless, found
+their way in safety to a more fertile country. Again, the scarce visible
+current which escaped from the basin served to nourish the few trees
+which surrounded the fountain, and where it sunk into the ground and
+disappeared, its refreshing presence was acknowledged by a carpet of
+velvet verdure.
+
+In this delightful spot the two warriors halted, and each, after his own
+fashion, proceeded to relieve his horse from saddle, bit, and rein,
+and permitted the animals to drink at the basin, ere they refreshed
+themselves from the fountain head, which arose under the vault. They
+then suffered the steeds to go loose, confident that their interest, as
+well as their domesticated habits, would prevent their straying from the
+pure water and fresh grass.
+
+Christian and Saracen next sat down together on the turf, and produced
+each the small allowance of store which they carried for their own
+refreshment. Yet, ere they severally proceeded to their scanty meal,
+they eyed each other with that curiosity which the close and doubtful
+conflict in which they had been so lately engaged was calculated to
+inspire. Each was desirous to measure the strength, and form some
+estimate of the character, of an adversary so formidable; and each was
+compelled to acknowledge that, had he fallen in the conflict, it had
+been by a noble hand.
+
+The champions formed a striking contrast to each other in person and
+features, and might have formed no inaccurate representatives of their
+different nations. The Frank seemed a powerful man, built after the
+ancient Gothic cast of form, with light brown hair, which, on the
+removal of his helmet, was seen to curl thick and profusely over his
+head. His features had acquired, from the hot climate, a hue much darker
+than those parts of his neck which were less frequently exposed to view,
+or than was warranted by his full and well-opened blue eye, the colour
+of his hair, and of the moustaches which thickly shaded his upper
+lip, while his chin was carefully divested of beard, after the Norman
+fashion. His nose was Grecian and well formed; his mouth rather large
+in proportion, but filled with well-set, strong, and beautifully white
+teeth; his head small, and set upon the neck with much grace. His age
+could not exceed thirty, but if the effects of toil and climate were
+allowed for, might be three or four years under that period. His form
+was tall, powerful, and athletic, like that of a man whose strength
+might, in later life, become unwieldy, but which was hitherto united
+with lightness and activity. His hands, when he withdrew the mailed
+gloves, were long, fair, and well-proportioned; the wrist-bones
+peculiarly large and strong; and the arms remarkably well-shaped and
+brawny. A military hardihood and careless frankness of expression
+characterized his language and his motions; and his voice had the tone
+of one more accustomed to command than to obey, and who was in the habit
+of expressing his sentiments aloud and boldly, whenever he was called
+upon to announce them.
+
+The Saracen Emir formed a marked and striking contrast with the Western
+Crusader. His stature was indeed above the middle size, but he was at
+least three inches shorter than the European, whose size approached the
+gigantic. His slender limbs and long, spare hands and arms, though well
+proportioned to his person, and suited to the style of his countenance,
+did not at first aspect promise the display of vigour and elasticity
+which the Emir had lately exhibited. But on looking more closely, his
+limbs, where exposed to view, seemed divested of all that was fleshy or
+cumbersome; so that nothing being left but bone, brawn, and sinew, it
+was a frame fitted for exertion and fatigue, far beyond that of a bulky
+champion, whose strength and size are counterbalanced by weight, and
+who is exhausted by his own exertions. The countenance of the Saracen
+naturally bore a general national resemblance to the Eastern tribe from
+whom he descended, and was as unlike as possible to the exaggerated
+terms in which the minstrels of the day were wont to represent the
+infidel champions, and the fabulous description which a sister art still
+presents as the Saracen's Head upon signposts. His features were small,
+well-formed, and delicate, though deeply embrowned by the Eastern sun,
+and terminated by a flowing and curled black beard, which seemed trimmed
+with peculiar care. The nose was straight and regular, the eyes keen,
+deep-set, black, and glowing, and his teeth equalled in beauty the ivory
+of his deserts. The person and proportions of the Saracen, in short,
+stretched on the turf near to his powerful antagonist, might have been
+compared to his sheeny and crescent-formed sabre, with its narrow and
+light but bright and keen Damascus blade, contrasted with the long and
+ponderous Gothic war-sword which was flung unbuckled on the same sod.
+The Emir was in the very flower of his age, and might perhaps have been
+termed eminently beautiful, but for the narrowness of his forehead and
+something of too much thinness and sharpness of feature, or at least
+what might have seemed such in a European estimate of beauty.
+
+The manners of the Eastern warrior were grave, graceful, and decorous;
+indicating, however, in some particulars, the habitual restraint which
+men of warm and choleric tempers often set as a guard upon their native
+impetuosity of disposition, and at the same time a sense of his own
+dignity, which seemed to impose a certain formality of behaviour in him
+who entertained it.
+
+This haughty feeling of superiority was perhaps equally entertained by
+his new European acquaintance, but the effect was different; and the
+same feeling, which dictated to the Christian knight a bold, blunt, and
+somewhat careless bearing, as one too conscious of his own importance
+to be anxious about the opinions of others, appeared to prescribe to the
+Saracen a style of courtesy more studiously and formally observant of
+ceremony. Both were courteous; but the courtesy of the Christian seemed
+to flow rather from a good humoured sense of what was due to others;
+that of the Moslem, from a high feeling of what was to be expected from
+himself.
+
+The provision which each had made for his refreshment was simple, but
+the meal of the Saracen was abstemious. A handful of dates and a morsel
+of coarse barley-bread sufficed to relieve the hunger of the latter,
+whose education had habituated them to the fare of the desert, although,
+since their Syrian conquests, the Arabian simplicity of life frequently
+gave place to the most unbounded profusion of luxury. A few draughts
+from the lovely fountain by which they reposed completed his meal. That
+of the Christian, though coarse, was more genial. Dried hog's flesh, the
+abomination of the Moslemah, was the chief part of his repast; and his
+drink, derived from a leathern bottle, contained something better than
+pure element. He fed with more display of appetite, and drank with more
+appearance of satisfaction, than the Saracen judged it becoming to show
+in the performance of a mere bodily function; and, doubtless, the secret
+contempt which each entertained for the other, as the follower of a
+false religion, was considerably increased by the marked difference of
+their diet and manners. But each had found the weight of his opponent's
+arm, and the mutual respect which the bold struggle had created was
+sufficient to subdue other and inferior considerations. Yet the Saracen
+could not help remarking the circumstances which displeased him in the
+Christian's conduct and manners; and, after he had witnessed for some
+time in silence the keen appetite which protracted the knight's banquet
+long after his own was concluded, he thus addressed him:--
+
+"Valiant Nazarene, is it fitting that one who can fight like a man
+should feed like a dog or a wolf? Even a misbelieving Jew would shudder
+at the food which you seem to eat with as much relish as if it were
+fruit from the trees of Paradise."
+
+"Valiant Saracen," answered the Christian, looking up with some surprise
+at the accusation thus unexpectedly brought, "know thou that I exercise
+my Christian freedom in using that which is forbidden to the Jews,
+being, as they esteem themselves, under the bondage of the old law of
+Moses. We, Saracen, be it known to thee, have a better warrant for
+what we do--Ave Maria!--be we thankful." And, as if in defiance of
+his companion's scruples, he concluded a short Latin grace with a long
+draught from the leathern bottle.
+
+"That, too, you call a part of your liberty," said the Saracen; "and
+as you feed like the brutes, so you degrade yourself to the bestial
+condition by drinking a poisonous liquor which even they refuse!"
+
+"Know, foolish Saracen," replied the Christian, without hesitation,
+"that thou blasphemest the gifts of God, even with the blasphemy of thy
+father Ishmael. The juice of the grape is given to him that will use it
+wisely, as that which cheers the heart of man after toil, refreshes him
+in sickness, and comforts him in sorrow. He who so enjoyeth it may thank
+God for his winecup as for his daily bread; and he who abuseth the gift
+of Heaven is not a greater fool in his intoxication than thou in thine
+abstinence."
+
+The keen eye of the Saracen kindled at this sarcasm, and his hand sought
+the hilt of his poniard. It was but a momentary thought, however, and
+died away in the recollection of the powerful champion with whom he
+had to deal, and the desperate grapple, the impression of which still
+throbbed in his limbs and veins; and he contented himself with pursuing
+the contest in colloquy, as more convenient for the time.
+
+"Thy words" he said, "O Nazarene, might create anger, did not thy
+ignorance raise compassion. Seest thou not, O thou more blind than any
+who asks alms at the door of the Mosque, that the liberty thou dost
+boast of is restrained even in that which is dearest to man's happiness
+and to his household; and that thy law, if thou dost practise it, binds
+thee in marriage to one single mate, be she sick or healthy, be she
+fruitful or barren, bring she comfort and joy, or clamour and strife,
+to thy table and to thy bed? This, Nazarene, I do indeed call slavery;
+whereas, to the faithful, hath the Prophet assigned upon earth the
+patriarchal privileges of Abraham our father, and of Solomon, the wisest
+of mankind, having given us here a succession of beauty at our pleasure,
+and beyond the grave the black-eyed houris of Paradise."
+
+"Now, by His name that I most reverence in heaven," said the Christian,
+"and by hers whom I most worship on earth, thou art but a blinded and
+a bewildered infidel!--That diamond signet which thou wearest on thy
+finger, thou holdest it, doubtless, as of inestimable value?"
+
+"Balsora and Bagdad cannot show the like," replied the Saracen; "but
+what avails it to our purpose?"
+
+"Much," replied the Frank, "as thou shalt thyself confess. Take my
+war-axe and dash the stone into twenty shivers: would each fragment be
+as valuable as the original gem, or would they, all collected, bear the
+tenth part of its estimation?"
+
+"That is a child's question," answered the Saracen; "the fragments of
+such a stone would not equal the entire jewel in the degree of hundreds
+to one."
+
+"Saracen," replied the Christian warrior, "the love which a true knight
+binds on one only, fair and faithful, is the gem entire; the affection
+thou flingest among thy enslaved wives and half-wedded slaves is
+worthless, comparatively, as the sparkling shivers of the broken
+diamond."
+
+"Now, by the Holy Caaba," said the Emir, "thou art a madman who hugs
+his chain of iron as if it were of gold! Look more closely. This ring
+of mine would lose half its beauty were not the signet encircled and
+enchased with these lesser brilliants, which grace it and set it off.
+The central diamond is man, firm and entire, his value depending on
+himself alone; and this circle of lesser jewels are women, borrowing
+his lustre, which he deals out to them as best suits his pleasure or
+his convenience. Take the central stone from the signet, and the
+diamond itself remains as valuable as ever, while the lesser gems are
+comparatively of little value. And this is the true reading of thy
+parable; for what sayeth the poet Mansour: 'It is the favour of man
+which giveth beauty and comeliness to woman, as the stream glitters no
+longer when the sun ceaseth to shine.'"
+
+"Saracen," replied the Crusader, "thou speakest like one who never saw
+a woman worthy the affection of a soldier. Believe me, couldst thou
+look upon those of Europe, to whom, after Heaven, we of the order of
+knighthood vow fealty and devotion, thou wouldst loathe for ever the
+poor sensual slaves who form thy haram. The beauty of our fair ones
+gives point to our spears and edge to our swords; their words are our
+law; and as soon will a lamp shed lustre when unkindled, as a knight
+distinguish himself by feats of arms, having no mistress of his
+affection."
+
+"I have heard of this frenzy among the warriors of the West," said the
+Emir, "and have ever accounted it one of the accompanying symptoms of
+that insanity which brings you hither to obtain possession of an empty
+sepulchre. But yet, methinks, so highly have the Franks whom I have met
+with extolled the beauty of their women, I could be well contented to
+behold with mine own eyes those charms which can transform such brave
+warriors into the tools of their pleasure."
+
+"Brave Saracen," said the Knight, "if I were not on a pilgrimage to the
+Holy Sepulchre, it should be my pride to conduct you, on assurance of
+safety, to the camp of Richard of England, than whom none knows better
+how to do honour to a noble foe; and though I be poor and unattended
+yet have I interest to secure for thee, or any such as thou seemest, not
+safety only, but respect and esteem. There shouldst thou see several
+of the fairest beauties of France and Britain form a small circle, the
+brilliancy of which exceeds ten-thousandfold the lustre of mines of
+diamonds such as thine."
+
+"Now, by the corner-stone of the Caaba!" said the Saracen, "I will
+accept thy invitation as freely as it is given, if thou wilt postpone
+thy present intent; and, credit me, brave Nazarene, it were better for
+thyself to turn back thy horse's head towards the camp of thy people,
+for to travel towards Jerusalem without a passport is but a wilful
+casting-away of thy life."
+
+"I have a pass," answered the Knight, producing a parchment, "Under
+Saladin's hand and signet."
+
+The Saracen bent his head to the dust as he recognized the seal and
+handwriting of the renowned Soldan of Egypt and Syria; and having kissed
+the paper with profound respect, he pressed it to his forehead, then
+returned it to the Christian, saying, "Rash Frank, thou hast sinned
+against thine own blood and mine, for not showing this to me when we
+met."
+
+"You came with levelled spear," said the Knight. "Had a troop of
+Saracens so assailed me, it might have stood with my honour to have
+shown the Soldan's pass, but never to one man."
+
+"And yet one man," said the Saracen haughtily, "was enough to interrupt
+your journey."
+
+"True, brave Moslem," replied the Christian; "but there are few such as
+thou art. Such falcons fly not in flocks; or, if they do, they pounce
+not in numbers upon one."
+
+"Thou dost us but justice," said the Saracen, evidently gratified by
+the compliment, as he had been touched by the implied scorn of the
+European's previous boast; "from us thou shouldst have had no wrong. But
+well was it for me that I failed to slay thee, with the safeguard of
+the king of kings upon thy person. Certain it were, that the cord or the
+sabre had justly avenged such guilt."
+
+"I am glad to hear that its influence shall be availing to me," said the
+Knight; "for I have heard that the road is infested with robber-tribes,
+who regard nothing in comparison of an opportunity of plunder."
+
+"The truth has been told to thee, brave Christian," said the Saracen;
+"but I swear to thee, by the turban of the Prophet, that shouldst thou
+miscarry in any haunt of such villains, I will myself undertake thy
+revenge with five thousand horse. I will slay every male of them, and
+send their women into such distant captivity that the name of their
+tribe shall never again be heard within five hundred miles of Damascus.
+I will sow with salt the foundations of their village, and there shall
+never live thing dwell there, even from that time forward."
+
+"I had rather the trouble which you design for yourself were in revenge
+of some other more important person than of me, noble Emir," replied the
+Knight; "but my vow is recorded in heaven, for good or for evil, and I
+must be indebted to you for pointing me out the way to my resting-place
+for this evening."
+
+"That," said the Saracen, "must be under the black covering of my
+father's tent."
+
+"This night," answered the Christian, "I must pass in prayer and
+penitence with a holy man, Theodorick of Engaddi, who dwells amongst
+these wilds, and spends his life in the service of God."
+
+"I will at least see you safe thither," said the Saracen.
+
+"That would be pleasant convoy for me," said the Christian; "yet might
+endanger the future security of the good father; for the cruel hand of
+your people has been red with the blood of the servants of the Lord, and
+therefore do we come hither in plate and mail, with sword and lance, to
+open the road to the Holy Sepulchre, and protect the chosen saints and
+anchorites who yet dwell in this land of promise and of miracle."
+
+"Nazarene," said the Moslem, "in this the Greeks and Syrians have much
+belied us, seeing we do but after the word of Abubeker Alwakel, the
+successor of the Prophet, and, after him, the first commander of true
+believers. 'Go forth,' he said, 'Yezed Ben Sophian,' when he sent that
+renowned general to take Syria from the infidels; 'quit yourselves like
+men in battle, but slay neither the aged, the infirm, the women, nor the
+children. Waste not the land, neither destroy corn and fruit-trees; they
+are the gifts of Allah. Keep faith when you have made any covenant,
+even if it be to your own harm. If ye find holy men labouring with their
+hands, and serving God in the desert, hurt them not, neither destroy
+their dwellings. But when you find them with shaven crowns, they are of
+the synagogue of Satan! Smite with the sabre, slay, cease not till
+they become believers or tributaries.' As the Caliph, companion of the
+Prophet, hath told us, so have we done, and those whom our justice has
+smitten are but the priests of Satan. But unto the good men who, without
+stirring up nation against nation, worship sincerely in the faith of
+Issa Ben Mariam, we are a shadow and a shield; and such being he whom
+you seek, even though the light of the Prophet hath not reached him,
+from me he will only have love, favour, and regard."
+
+"The anchorite whom I would now visit," said the warlike pilgrim, "is, I
+have heard, no priest; but were he of that anointed and sacred order, I
+would prove with my good lance, against paynim and infidel--"
+
+"Let us not defy each other, brother," interrupted the Saracen; "we
+shall find, either of us, enough of Franks or of Moslemah on whom to
+exercise both sword and lance. This Theodorick is protected both by Turk
+and Arab; and, though one of strange conditions at intervals, yet, on
+the whole, he bears himself so well as the follower of his own prophet,
+that he merits the protection of him who was sent--"
+
+"Now, by Our Lady, Saracen," exclaimed the Christian, "if thou darest
+name in the same breath the camel-driver of Mecca with--"
+
+An electrical shock of passion thrilled through the form of the Emir;
+but it was only momentary, and the calmness of his reply had both
+dignity and reason in it, when he said, "Slander not him whom thou
+knowest not--the rather that we venerate the founder of thy religion,
+while we condemn the doctrine which your priests have spun from it. I
+will myself guide thee to the cavern of the hermit, which, methinks,
+without my help, thou wouldst find it a hard matter to reach. And,
+on the way, let us leave to mollahs and to monks to dispute about the
+divinity of our faith, and speak on themes which belong to youthful
+warriors--upon battles, upon beautiful women, upon sharp swords, and
+upon bright armour."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The warriors arose from their place of brief rest and simple
+refreshment, and courteously aided each other while they carefully
+replaced and adjusted the harness from which they had relieved for the
+time their trusty steeds. Each seemed familiar with an employment which
+at that time was a part of necessary and, indeed, of indispensable duty.
+Each also seemed to possess, as far as the difference betwixt the animal
+and rational species admitted, the confidence and affection of the horse
+which was the constant companion of his travels and his warfare. With
+the Saracen this familiar intimacy was a part of his early habits; for,
+in the tents of the Eastern military tribes, the horse of the soldier
+ranks next to, and almost equal in importance with, his wife and
+his family; and with the European warrior, circumstances, and indeed
+necessity, rendered his war-horse scarcely less than his brother in
+arms. The steeds, therefore, suffered themselves quietly to be taken
+from their food and liberty, and neighed and snuffled fondly around
+their masters, while they were adjusting their accoutrements for further
+travel and additional toil. And each warrior, as he prosecuted his own
+task, or assisted with courtesy his companion, looked with observant
+curiosity at the equipments of his fellow-traveller, and noted
+particularly what struck him as peculiar in the fashion in which he
+arranged his riding accoutrements.
+
+Ere they remounted to resume their journey, the Christian Knight again
+moistened his lips and dipped his hands in the living fountain, and said
+to his pagan associate of the journey, "I would I knew the name of this
+delicious fountain, that I might hold it in my grateful remembrance; for
+never did water slake more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than I
+have this day experienced."
+
+"It is called in the Arabic language," answered the Saracen, "by a name
+which signifies the Diamond of the Desert."
+
+"And well is it so named," replied the Christian. "My native valley hath
+a thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I attach hereafter
+such precious recollection as to this solitary fount, which bestows
+its liquid treasures where they are not only delightful, but nearly
+indispensable."
+
+"You say truth," said the Saracen; "for the curse is still on yonder
+sea of death, and neither man nor beast drinks of its waves, nor of the
+river which feeds without filling it, until this inhospitable desert be
+passed."
+
+They mounted, and pursued their journey across the sandy waste. The
+ardour of noon was now past, and a light breeze somewhat alleviated
+the terrors of the desert, though not without bearing on its wings
+an impalpable dust, which the Saracen little heeded, though his
+heavily-armed companion felt it as such an annoyance that he hung his
+iron casque at his saddle-bow, and substituted the light riding-cap,
+termed in the language of the time a MORTIER, from its resemblance
+in shape to an ordinary mortar. They rode together for some time in
+silence, the Saracen performing the part of director and guide of the
+journey, which he did by observing minute marks and bearings of the
+distant rocks, to a ridge of which they were gradually approaching. For
+a little time he seemed absorbed in the task, as a pilot when navigating
+a vessel through a difficult channel; but they had not proceeded half
+a league when he seemed secure of his route, and disposed, with more
+frankness than was usual to his nation, to enter into conversation.
+
+"You have asked the name," he said, "of a mute fountain, which hath the
+semblance, but not the reality, of a living thing. Let me be pardoned
+to ask the name of the companion with whom I have this day encountered,
+both in danger and in repose, and which I cannot fancy unknown even here
+among the deserts of Palestine?"
+
+"It is not yet worth publishing," said the Christian. "Know, however,
+that among the soldiers of the Cross I am called Kenneth--Kenneth of
+the Couching Leopard; at home I have other titles, but they would sound
+harsh in an Eastern ear. Brave Saracen, let me ask which of the tribes
+of Arabia claims your descent, and by what name you are known?"
+
+"Sir Kenneth," said the Moslem, "I joy that your name is such as my lips
+can easily utter. For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my descent from
+a line neither less wild nor less warlike. Know, Sir Knight of the
+Leopard, that I am Sheerkohf, the Lion of the Mountain, and that
+Kurdistan, from which I derive my descent, holds no family more noble
+than that of Seljook."
+
+"I have heard," answered the Christian, "that your great Soldan claims
+his blood from the same source?"
+
+"Thanks to the Prophet that hath so far honoured our mountains as to
+send from their bosom him whose word is victory," answered the paynim.
+"I am but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria, and yet in my
+own land something my name may avail. Stranger, with how many men didst
+thou come on this warfare?"
+
+"By my faith," said Sir Kenneth, "with aid of friends and kinsmen, I was
+hardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed lances, with maybe
+some fifty more men, archers and varlets included. Some have deserted
+my unlucky pennon--some have fallen in battle--several have died of
+disease--and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing my
+pilgrimage, lies on the bed of sickness."
+
+"Christian," said Sheerkohf, "here I have five arrows in my quiver,
+each feathered from the wing of an eagle. When I send one of them to my
+tents, a thousand warriors mount on horseback--when I send another, an
+equal force will arise--for the five, I can command five thousand men;
+and if I send my bow, ten thousand mounted riders will shake the desert.
+And with thy fifty followers thou hast come to invade a land in which I
+am one of the meanest!"
+
+"Now, by the rood, Saracen," retorted the Western warrior, "thou
+shouldst know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steel glove can crush
+a whole handful of hornets."
+
+"Ay, but it must first enclose them within its grasp," said the Saracen,
+with a smile which might have endangered their new alliance, had he not
+changed the subject by adding, "And is bravery so much esteemed amongst
+the Christian princes that thou, thus void of means and of men, canst
+offer, as thou didst of late, to be my protector and security in the
+camp of thy brethren?"
+
+"Know, Saracen," said the Christian, "since such is thy style, that the
+name of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle him to place
+himself on the same rank with sovereigns even of the first degree, in
+so far as regards all but regal authority and dominion. Were Richard
+of England himself to wound the honour of a knight as poor as I am, he
+could not, by the law of chivalry, deny him the combat."
+
+"Methinks I should like to look upon so strange a scene," said the Emir,
+"in which a leathern belt and a pair of spurs put the poorest on a level
+with the most powerful."
+
+"You must add free blood and a fearless heart," said the Christian;
+"then, perhaps, you will not have spoken untruly of the dignity of
+knighthood."
+
+"And mix you as boldly amongst the females of your chiefs and leaders?"
+asked the Saracen.
+
+"God forbid," said the Knight of the Leopard, "that the poorest knight
+in Christendom should not be free, in all honourable service, to devote
+his hand and sword, the fame of his actions, and the fixed devotion of
+his heart, to the fairest princess who ever wore coronet on her brow!"
+
+"But a little while since," said the Saracen, "and you described love as
+the highest treasure of the heart--thine hath undoubtedly been high and
+nobly bestowed?"
+
+"Stranger," answered the Christian, blushing deeply as he spoke, "we
+tell not rashly where it is we have bestowed our choicest treasures. It
+is enough for thee to know that, as thou sayest, my love is highly and
+nobly bestowed--most highly--most nobly; but if thou wouldst hear of
+love and broken lances, venture thyself, as thou sayest, to the camp of
+the Crusaders, and thou wilt find exercise for thine ears, and, if thou
+wilt, for thy hands too."
+
+The Eastern warrior, raising himself in his stirrups, and shaking aloft
+his lance, replied, "Hardly, I fear, shall I find one with a crossed
+shoulder who will exchange with me the cast of the jerrid."
+
+"I will not promise for that," replied the Knight; "though there be in
+the camp certain Spaniards, who have right good skill in your Eastern
+game of hurling the javelin."
+
+"Dogs, and sons of dogs!" ejaculated the Saracen; "what have these
+Spaniards to do to come hither to combat the true believers, who, in
+their own land, are their lords and taskmasters? with them I would mix
+in no warlike pastime."
+
+"Let not the knights of Leon or Asturias hear you speak thus of them,"
+said the Knight of the Leopard. "But," added he, smiling at the
+recollection of the morning's combat, "if, instead of a reed, you were
+inclined to stand the cast of a battle-axe, there are enough of Western
+warriors who would gratify your longing."
+
+"By the beard of my father, sir," said the Saracen, with an approach to
+laughter, "the game is too rough for mere sport. I will never shun them
+in battle, but my head" (pressing his hand to his brow) "will not, for a
+while, permit me to seek them in sport."
+
+"I would you saw the axe of King Richard," answered the Western warrior,
+"to which that which hangs at my saddle-bow weighs but as a feather."
+
+"We hear much of that island sovereign," said the Saracen. "Art thou one
+of his subjects?"
+
+"One of his followers I am, for this expedition," answered the Knight,
+"and honoured in the service; but not born his subject, although a
+native of the island in which he reigns."
+
+"How mean you? " said the Eastern soldier; "have you then two kings in
+one poor island?"
+
+"As thou sayest," said the Scot, for such was Sir Kenneth by birth. "It
+is even so; and yet, although the inhabitants of the two extremities of
+that island are engaged in frequent war, the country can, as thou seest,
+furnish forth such a body of men-at-arms as may go far to shake the
+unholy hold which your master hath laid on the cities of Zion."
+
+"By the beard of Saladin, Nazarene, but that it is a thoughtless and
+boyish folly, I could laugh at the simplicity of your great Sultan, who
+comes hither to make conquests of deserts and rocks, and dispute the
+possession of them with those who have tenfold numbers at command, while
+he leaves a part of his narrow islet, in which he was born a sovereign,
+to the dominion of another sceptre than his. Surely, Sir Kenneth, you
+and the other good men of your country should have submitted yourselves
+to the dominion of this King Richard ere you left your native land,
+divided against itself, to set forth on this expedition?"
+
+Hasty and fierce was Kenneth's answer. "No, by the bright light of
+Heaven! If the King of England had not set forth to the Crusade till
+he was sovereign of Scotland, the Crescent might, for me, and all
+true-hearted Scots, glimmer for ever on the walls of Zion."
+
+Thus far he had proceeded, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he
+muttered, "MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA! what have I, a soldier of the Cross, to
+do with recollection of war betwixt Christian nations!"
+
+The rapid expression of feeling corrected by the dictates of duty did
+not escape the Moslem, who, if he did not entirely understand all
+which it conveyed, saw enough to convince him with the assurance that
+Christians, as well as Moslemah, had private feelings of personal pique,
+and national quarrels, which were not entirely reconcilable. But the
+Saracens were a race, polished, perhaps, to the utmost extent which
+their religion permitted, and particularly capable of entertaining high
+ideas of courtesy and politeness; and such sentiments prevented his
+taking any notice of the inconsistency of Sir Kenneth's feelings in the
+opposite characters of a Scot and a Crusader.
+
+Meanwhile, as they advanced, the scene began to change around them. They
+were now turning to the eastward, and had reached the range of steep and
+barren hills which binds in that quarter the naked plain, and varies the
+surface of the country, without changing its sterile character. Sharp,
+rocky eminences began to rise around them, and, in a short time, deep
+declivities and ascents, both formidable in height and difficult from
+the narrowness of the path, offered to the travellers obstacles of a
+different kind from those with which they had recently contended.
+
+Dark caverns and chasms amongst the rocks--those grottoes so often
+alluded to in Scripture--yawned fearfully on either side as they
+proceeded, and the Scottish knight was informed by the Emir that these
+were often the refuge of beasts of prey, or of men still more ferocious,
+who, driven to desperation by the constant war, and the oppression
+exercised by the soldiery, as well of the Cross as of the Crescent, had
+become robbers, and spared neither rank nor religion, neither sex nor
+age, in their depredations.
+
+The Scottish knight listened with indifference to the accounts of
+ravages committed by wild beasts or wicked men, secure as he felt
+himself in his own valour and personal strength; but he was struck
+with mysterious dread when he recollected that he was now in the awful
+wilderness of the forty days' fast, and the scene of the actual personal
+temptation, wherewith the Evil Principle was permitted to assail the Son
+of Man. He withdrew his attention gradually from the light and worldly
+conversation of the infidel warrior beside him, and, however acceptable
+his gay and gallant bravery would have rendered him as a companion
+elsewhere, Sir Kenneth felt as if, in those wildernesses the waste and
+dry places in which the foul spirits were wont to wander when expelled
+the mortals whose forms they possessed, a bare-footed friar would have
+been a better associate than the gay but unbelieving paynim.
+
+These feelings embarrassed him the rather that the Saracen's spirits
+appeared to rise with the journey, and because the farther he penetrated
+into the gloomy recesses of the mountains, the lighter became his
+conversation, and when he found that unanswered, the louder grew his
+song. Sir Kenneth knew enough of the Eastern languages to be assured
+that he chanted sonnets of love, containing all the glowing praises
+of beauty in which the Oriental poets are so fond of luxuriating, and
+which, therefore, were peculiarly unfitted for a serious or devotional
+strain of thought, the feeling best becoming the Wilderness of the
+Temptation. With inconsistency enough, the Saracen also sung lays in
+praise of wine, the liquid ruby of the Persian poets; and his gaiety at
+length became so unsuitable to the Christian knight's contrary train of
+sentiments, as, but for the promise of amity which they had exchanged,
+would most likely have made Sir Kenneth take measures to change his
+note. As it was, the Crusader felt as if he had by his side some gay,
+licentious fiend, who endeavoured to ensnare his soul, and endanger his
+immortal salvation, by inspiring loose thoughts of earthly pleasure, and
+thus polluting his devotion, at a time when his faith as a Christian and
+his vow as a pilgrim called on him for a serious and penitential state
+of mind. He was thus greatly perplexed, and undecided how to act; and it
+was in a tone of hasty displeasure that, at length breaking silence, he
+interrupted the lay of the celebrated Rudpiki, in which he prefers the
+mole on his mistress's bosom to all the wealth of Bokhara and Samarcand.
+
+"Saracen," said the Crusader sternly, "blinded as thou art, and plunged
+amidst the errors of a false law, thou shouldst yet comprehend that
+there are some places more holy than others, and that there are some
+scenes also in which the Evil One hath more than ordinary power
+over sinful mortals. I will not tell thee for what awful reason this
+place--these rocks--these caverns with their gloomy arches, leading as
+it were to the central abyss--are held an especial haunt of Satan and
+his angels. It is enough that I have been long warned to beware of this
+place by wise and holy men, to whom the qualities of the unholy region
+are well known. Wherefore, Saracen, forbear thy foolish and
+ill-timed levity, and turn thy thoughts to things more suited to the
+spot--although, alas for thee! thy best prayers are but as blasphemy and
+sin."
+
+The Saracen listened with some surprise, and then replied, with
+good-humour and gaiety, only so far repressed as courtesy required,
+"Good Sir Kenneth, methinks you deal unequally by your companion, or
+else ceremony is but indifferently taught amongst your Western tribes.
+I took no offence when I saw you gorge hog's flesh and drink wine, and
+permitted you to enjoy a treat which you called your Christian liberty,
+only pitying in my heart your foul pastimes. Wherefore, then, shouldst
+thou take scandal, because I cheer, to the best of my power, a gloomy
+road with a cheerful verse? What saith the poet, 'Song is like the
+dews of heaven on the bosom of the desert; it cools the path of the
+traveller.'"
+
+"Friend Saracen," said the Christian, "I blame not the love of
+minstrelsy and of the GAI SCIENCE; albeit, we yield unto it even too
+much room in our thoughts when they should be bent on better things.
+But prayers and holy psalms are better fitting than LAIS of love, or of
+wine-cups, when men walk in this Valley of the Shadow of Death, full of
+fiends and demons, whom the prayers of holy men have driven forth
+from the haunts of humanity to wander amidst scenes as accursed as
+themselves."
+
+"Speak not thus of the Genii, Christian," answered the Saracen, "for
+know thou speakest to one whose line and nation drew their origin from
+the immortal race which your sect fear and blaspheme."
+
+"I well thought," answered the Crusader, "that your blinded race had
+their descent from the foul fiend, without whose aid you would never
+have been able to maintain this blessed land of Palestine against so
+many valiant soldiers of God. I speak not thus of thee in particular,
+Saracen, but generally of thy people and religion. Strange is it to me,
+however, not that you should have the descent from the Evil One, but
+that you should boast of it."
+
+"From whom should the bravest boast of descending, saving from him that
+is bravest?" said the Saracen; "from whom should the proudest trace
+their line so well as from the Dark Spirit, which would rather fall
+headlong by force than bend the knee by his will? Eblis may be hated,
+stranger, but he must be feared; and such as Eblis are his descendants
+of Kurdistan."
+
+Tales of magic and of necromancy were the learning of the period, and
+Sir Kenneth heard his companion's confession of diabolical descent
+without any disbelief, and without much wonder; yet not without a secret
+shudder at finding himself in this fearful place, in the company of
+one who avouched himself to belong to such a lineage. Naturally
+insusceptible, however, of fear, he crossed himself, and stoutly
+demanded of the Saracen an account of the pedigree which he had boasted.
+The latter readily complied.
+
+"Know, brave stranger," he said, "that when the cruel Zohauk, one of the
+descendants of Giamschid, held the throne of Persia, he formed a league
+with the Powers of Darkness, amidst the secret vaults of Istakhar,
+vaults which the hands of the elementary spirits had hewn out of the
+living rock long before Adam himself had an existence. Here he fed,
+with daily oblations of human blood, two devouring serpents, which had
+become, according to the poets, a part of himself, and to sustain whom
+he levied a tax of daily human sacrifices, till the exhausted patience
+of his subjects caused some to raise up the scimitar of resistance, like
+the valiant Blacksmith and the victorious Feridoun, by whom the tyrant
+was at length dethroned, and imprisoned for ever in the dismal caverns
+of the mountain Damavend. But ere that deliverance had taken place, and
+whilst the power of the bloodthirsty tyrant was at its height, the band
+of ravening slaves whom he had sent forth to purvey victims for his
+daily sacrifice brought to the vaults of the palace of Istakhar seven
+sisters so beautiful that they seemed seven houris. These seven maidens
+were the daughters of a sage, who had no treasures save those beauties
+and his own wisdom. The last was not sufficient to foresee this
+misfortune, the former seemed ineffectual to prevent it. The eldest
+exceeded not her twentieth year, the youngest had scarce attained her
+thirteenth; and so like were they to each other that they could not
+have been distinguished but for the difference of height, in which they
+gradually rose in easy gradation above each other, like the ascent which
+leads to the gates of Paradise. So lovely were these seven sisters when
+they stood in the darksome vault, disrobed of all clothing saving a
+cymar of white silk, that their charms moved the hearts of those who
+were not mortal. Thunder muttered, the earth shook, the wall of the
+vault was rent, and at the chasm entered one dressed like a hunter, with
+bow and shafts, and followed by six others, his brethren. They were tall
+men, and, though dark, yet comely to behold; but their eyes had more the
+glare of those of the dead than the light which lives under the eyelids
+of the living. 'Zeineb,' said the leader of the band--and as he spoke
+he took the eldest sister by the hand, and his voice was soft, low, and
+melancholy--'I am Cothrob, king of the subterranean world, and supreme
+chief of Ginnistan. I and my brethren are of those who, created out of
+the pure elementary fire, disdained, even at the command of Omnipotence,
+to do homage to a clod of earth, because it was called Man. Thou mayest
+have heard of us as cruel, unrelenting, and persecuting. It is false. We
+are by nature kind and generous; only vengeful when insulted, only cruel
+when affronted. We are true to those who trust us; and we have heard the
+invocations of thy father, the sage Mithrasp, who wisely worships not
+alone the Origin of Good, but that which is called the Source of Evil.
+You and your sisters are on the eve of death; but let each give to us
+one hair from your fair tresses, in token of fealty, and we will carry
+you many miles from hence to a place of safety, where you may bid
+defiance to Zohauk and his ministers.' The fear of instant death, saith
+the poet, is like the rod of the prophet Haroun, which devoured all
+other rods when transformed into snakes before the King of Pharaoh; and
+the daughters of the Persian sage were less apt than others to be
+afraid of the addresses of a spirit. They gave the tribute which Cothrob
+demanded, and in an instant the sisters were transported to an enchanted
+castle on the mountains of Tugrut, in Kurdistan, and were never again
+seen by mortal eye. But in process of time seven youths, distinguished
+in the war and in the chase, appeared in the environs of the castle of
+the demons. They were darker, taller, fiercer, and more resolute than
+any of the scattered inhabitants of the valleys of Kurdistan; and they
+took to themselves wives, and became fathers of the seven tribes of the
+Kurdmans, whose valour is known throughout the universe."
+
+The Christian knight heard with wonder the wild tale, of which Kurdistan
+still possesses the traces, and, after a moment's thought, replied,
+"Verily, Sir Knight, you have spoken well--your genealogy may be dreaded
+and hated, but it cannot be contemned. Neither do I any longer wonder
+at your obstinacy in a false faith, since, doubtless, it is part of the
+fiendish disposition which hath descended from your ancestors, those
+infernal huntsmen, as you have described them, to love falsehood rather
+than truth; and I no longer marvel that your spirits become high and
+exalted, and vent themselves in verse and in tunes, when you approach to
+the places encumbered by the haunting of evil spirits, which must excite
+in you that joyous feeling which others experience when approaching the
+land of their human ancestry."
+
+"By my father's beard, I think thou hast the right," said the Saracen,
+rather amused than offended by the freedom with which the Christian had
+uttered his reflections; "for, though the Prophet (blessed be his name!)
+hath sown amongst us the seed of a better faith than our ancestors
+learned in the ghostly halls of Tugrut, yet we are not willing, like
+other Moslemah, to pass hasty doom on the lofty and powerful elementary
+spirits from whom we claim our origin. These Genii, according to our
+belief and hope, are not altogether reprobate, but are still in the way
+of probation, and may hereafter be punished or rewarded. Leave we this
+to the mollahs and the imauns. Enough that with us the reverence for
+these spirits is not altogether effaced by what we have learned from the
+Koran, and that many of us still sing, in memorial of our fathers' more
+ancient faith, such verses as these."
+
+So saying, he proceeded to chant verses, very ancient in the language
+and structure, which some have thought derive their source from the
+worshippers of Arimanes, the Evil Principle.
+
+
+                AHRIMAN.
+
+     Dark Ahriman, whom Irak still
+     Holds origin of woe and ill!
+     When, bending at thy shrine,
+     We view the world with troubled eye,
+     Where see we 'neath the extended sky,
+     An empire matching thine!
+
+     If the Benigner Power can yield
+     A fountain in the desert field,
+     Where weary pilgrims drink;
+     Thine are the waves that lash the rock,
+     Thine the tornado's deadly shock,
+     Where countless navies sink!
+
+     Or if he bid the soil dispense
+     Balsams to cheer the sinking sense,
+     How few can they deliver
+     From lingering pains, or pang intense,
+     Red Fever, spotted Pestilence,
+     The arrows of thy quiver!
+
+     Chief in Man's bosom sits thy sway,
+     And frequent, while in words we pray
+     Before another throne,
+     Whate'er of specious form be there,
+     The secret meaning of the prayer
+     Is, Ahriman, thine own.
+
+     Say, hast thou feeling, sense, and form,
+     Thunder thy voice, thy garments storm,
+     As Eastern Magi say;
+     With sentient soul of hate and wrath,
+     And wings to sweep thy deadly path,
+     And fangs to tear thy prey?
+
+     Or art thou mix'd in Nature's source,
+     An ever-operating force,
+     Converting good to ill;
+     An evil principle innate,
+     Contending with our better fate,
+     And, oh!  victorious still?
+
+     Howe'er it be, dispute is vain.
+     On all without thou hold'st thy reign,
+     Nor less on all within;
+     Each mortal passion's fierce career,
+     Love, hate, ambition, joy, and fear,
+     Thou goadest into sin.
+
+     Whene'er a sunny gleam appears,
+     To brighten up our vale of tears,
+     Thou art not distant far;
+     'Mid such brief solace of our lives,
+     Thou whett'st our very banquet-knives
+     To tools of death and war.
+
+     Thus, from the moment of our birth,
+     Long as we linger on the earth,
+     Thou rulest the fate of men;
+     Thine are the pangs of life's last hour,
+     And--who dare answer?--is thy power,
+     Dark Spirit!  ended THEN?
+
+     [The worthy and learned clergyman by whom this species of
+     hymn has been translated desires, that, for fear of
+     misconception, we should warn the reader to recollect that
+     it is composed by a heathen, to whom the real causes of
+     moral and physical evil are unknown, and who views their
+     predominance in the system of the universe as all must view
+     that appalling fact who have not the benefit of the
+     Christian revelation.  On our own part, we beg to add, that
+     we understand the style of the translator is more
+     paraphrastic than can be approved by those who are
+     acquainted with the singularly curious original.  The
+     translator seems to have despaired of rendering into English
+     verse the flights of Oriental poetry; and, possibly, like
+     many learned and ingenious men, finding it impossible to
+     discover the sense of the original, he may have tacitly
+     substituted his own.]
+
+These verses may perhaps have been the not unnatural effusion of some
+half-enlightened philosopher, who, in the fabled deity, Arimanes, saw
+but the prevalence of moral and physical evil; but in the ears of Sir
+Kenneth of the Leopard they had a different effect, and, sung as they
+were by one who had just boasted himself a descendant of demons, sounded
+very like an address of worship to the arch-fiend himself. He weighed
+within himself whether, on hearing such blasphemy in the very desert
+where Satan had stood rebuked for demanding homage, taking an abrupt
+leave of the Saracen was sufficient to testify his abhorrence; or
+whether he was not rather constrained by his vow as a Crusader to defy
+the infidel to combat on the spot, and leave him food for the beasts of
+the wilderness, when his attention was suddenly caught by an unexpected
+apparition.
+
+The light was now verging low, yet served the knight still to discern
+that they two were no longer alone in the desert, but were closely
+watched by a figure of great height and very thin, which skipped over
+rocks and bushes with so much agility as, added to the wild and hirsute
+appearance of the individual, reminded him of the fauns and silvans,
+whose images he had seen in the ancient temples of Rome. As the
+single-hearted Scottishman had never for a moment doubted these gods of
+the ancient Gentiles to be actually devils, so he now hesitated not
+to believe that the blasphemous hymn of the Saracen had raised up an
+infernal spirit.
+
+"But what recks it?" said stout Sir Kenneth to himself; "down with the
+fiend and his worshippers!"
+
+He did not, however, think it necessary to give the same warning of
+defiance to two enemies as he would unquestionably have afforded to one.
+His hand was upon his mace, and perhaps the unwary Saracen would have
+been paid for his Persian poetry by having his brains dashed out on the
+spot, without any reason assigned for it; but the Scottish Knight was
+spared from committing what would have been a sore blot in his shield
+of arms. The apparition, on which his eyes had been fixed for some time,
+had at first appeared to dog their path by concealing itself behind
+rocks and shrubs, using those advantages of the ground with great
+address, and surmounting its irregularities with surprising agility. At
+length, just as the Saracen paused in his song, the figure, which was
+that of a tall man clothed in goat-skins, sprung into the midst of
+the path, and seized a rein of the Saracen's bridle in either hand,
+confronting thus and bearing back the noble horse, which, unable to
+endure the manner in which this sudden assailant pressed the long-armed
+bit, and the severe curb, which, according to the Eastern fashion, was
+a solid ring of iron, reared upright, and finally fell backwards on his
+master, who, however, avoided the peril of the fall by lightly throwing
+himself to one side.
+
+The assailant then shifted his grasp from the bridle of the horse to the
+throat of the rider, flung himself above the struggling Saracen, and,
+despite of his youth and activity kept him undermost, wreathing his
+long arms above those of his prisoner, who called out angrily, and yet
+half-laughing at the same time--"Hamako--fool--unloose me--this passes
+thy privilege--unloose me, or I will use my dagger."
+
+"Thy dagger!--infidel dog!" said the figure in the goat-skins, "hold it
+in thy gripe if thou canst!" and in an instant he wrenched the Saracen's
+weapon out of its owner's hand, and brandished it over his head.
+
+"Help, Nazarene!" cried Sheerkohf, now seriously alarmed; "help, or the
+Hamako will slay me."
+
+"Slay thee!" replied the dweller of the desert; "and well hast thou
+merited death, for singing thy blasphemous hymns, not only to the praise
+of thy false prophet, who is the foul fiend's harbinger, but to that of
+the Author of Evil himself."
+
+The Christian Knight had hitherto looked on as one stupefied, so
+strangely had this rencontre contradicted, in its progress and event,
+all that he had previously conjectured. He felt, however, at length,
+that it touched his honour to interfere in behalf of his discomfited
+companion, and therefore addressed himself to the victorious figure in
+the goat-skins.
+
+"Whosoe'er thou art," he said, "and whether of good or of evil, know
+that I am sworn for the time to be true companion to the Saracen whom
+thou holdest under thee; therefore, I pray thee to let him arise, else I
+will do battle with thee in his behalf."
+
+"And a proper quarrel it were," answered the Hamako, "for a Crusader to
+do battle in--for the sake of an unbaptized dog, to combat one of his
+own holy faith! Art thou come forth to the wilderness to fight for the
+Crescent against the Cross? A goodly soldier of God art thou to listen
+to those who sing the praises of Satan!"
+
+Yet, while he spoke thus, he arose himself, and, suffering the Saracen
+to rise also, returned him his cangiar, or poniard.
+
+"Thou seest to what a point of peril thy presumption hath brought thee,"
+continued he of the goat-skins, now addressing Sheerkohf, "and by what
+weak means thy practised skill and boasted agility can be foiled, when
+such is Heaven's pleasure. Wherefore, beware, O Ilderim! for know that,
+were there not a twinkle in the star of thy nativity which promises for
+thee something that is good and gracious in Heaven's good time, we
+two had not parted till I had torn asunder the throat which so lately
+trilled forth blasphemies."
+
+"Hamako," said the Saracen, without any appearance of resenting the
+violent language and yet more violent assault to which he had been
+subjected, "I pray thee, good Hamako, to beware how thou dost again urge
+thy privilege over far; for though, as a good Moslem, I respect those
+whom Heaven hath deprived of ordinary reason, in order to endow them
+with the spirit of prophecy, yet I like not other men's hands on the
+bridle of my horse, neither upon my own person. Speak, therefore, what
+thou wilt, secure of any resentment from me; but gather so much sense
+as to apprehend that if thou shalt again proffer me any violence, I will
+strike thy shagged head from thy meagre shoulders.--and to thee, friend
+Kenneth," he added, as he remounted his steed, "I must needs say, that
+in a companion through the desert, I love friendly deeds better than
+fair words. Of the last thou hast given me enough; but it had been
+better to have aided me more speedily in my struggle with this Hamako,
+who had well-nigh taken my life in his frenzy."
+
+"By my faith," said the Knight, "I did somewhat fail--was somewhat tardy
+in rendering thee instant help; but the strangeness of the assailant,
+the suddenness of the scene--it was as if thy wild and wicked lay had
+raised the devil among us--and such was my confusion, that two or three
+minutes elapsed ere I could take to my weapon."
+
+"Thou art but a cold and considerate friend," said the Saracen; "and,
+had the Hamako been one grain more frantic, thy companion had been slain
+by thy side, to thy eternal dishonour, without thy stirring a finger in
+his aid, although thou satest by, mounted, and in arms."
+
+"By my word, Saracen," said the Christian, "if thou wilt have it in
+plain terms, I thought that strange figure was the devil; and being of
+thy lineage, I knew not what family secret you might be communicating to
+each other, as you lay lovingly rolling together on the sand."
+
+"Thy gibe is no answer, brother Kenneth," said the Saracen; "for know,
+that had my assailant been in very deed the Prince of Darkness, thou
+wert bound not the less to enter into combat with him in thy comrade's
+behalf. Know, also, that whatever there may be of foul or of fiendish
+about the Hamako belongs more to your lineage than to mine--this Hamako
+being, in truth, the anchorite whom thou art come hither to visit."
+
+"This!" said Sir Kenneth, looking at the athletic yet wasted figure
+before him--"this! Thou mockest, Saracen--this cannot be the venerable
+Theodorick!"
+
+"Ask himself, if thou wilt not believe me," answered Sheerkohf; and
+ere the words had left his mouth, the hermit gave evidence in his own
+behalf.
+
+"I am Theodorick of Engaddi," he said--"I am the walker of the desert--I
+am friend of the Cross, and flail of all infidels, heretics, and
+devil-worshippers. Avoid ye, avoid ye! Down with Mahound, Termagaunt,
+and all their adherents!"--So saying, he pulled from under his shaggy
+garment a sort of flail or jointed club, bound with iron, which he
+brandished round his head with singular dexterity.
+
+"Thou seest thy saint," said the Saracen, laughing, for the first time,
+at the unmitigated astonishment with which Sir Kenneth looked on the
+wild gestures and heard the wayward muttering of Theodorick, who, after
+swinging his flail in every direction, apparently quite reckless whether
+it encountered the head of either of his companions, finally showed
+his own strength, and the soundness of the weapon, by striking into
+fragments a large stone which lay near him.
+
+"This is a madman," said Sir Kenneth.
+
+"Not the worse saint," returned the Moslem, speaking according to
+the well-known Eastern belief, that madmen are under the influence
+of immediate inspiration. "Know, Christian, that when one eye is
+extinguished, the other becomes more keen; when one hand is cut off,
+the other becomes more powerful; so, when our reason in human things
+is disturbed or destroyed, our view heavenward becomes more acute and
+perfect."
+
+Here the voice of the Saracen was drowned in that of the hermit, who
+began to hollo aloud in a wild, chanting tone, "I am Theodorick of
+Engaddi--I am the torch-brand of the desert--I am the flail of the
+infidels! The lion and the leopard shall be my comrades, and draw nigh
+to my cell for shelter; neither shall the goat be afraid of their fangs.
+I am the torch and the lantern--Kyrie Eleison!"
+
+He closed his song by a short race, and ended that again by three
+forward bounds, which would have done him great credit in a gymnastic
+academy, but became his character of hermit so indifferently that the
+Scottish Knight was altogether confounded and bewildered.
+
+The Saracen seemed to understand him better. "You see," he said, "that
+he expects us to follow him to his cell, which, indeed, is our only
+place of refuge for the night. You are the leopard, from the portrait
+on your shield; I am the lion, as my name imports; and by the goat,
+alluding to his garb of goat-skins, he means himself. We must keep him
+in sight, however, for he is as fleet as a dromedary."
+
+In fact, the task was a difficult one, for though the reverend guide
+stopped from time to time, and waved his hand, as if to encourage them
+to come on, yet, well acquainted with all the winding dells and passes
+of the desert, and gifted with uncommon activity, which, perhaps, an
+unsettled state of mind kept in constant exercise, he led the knights
+through chasms and along footpaths where even the light-armed Saracen,
+with his well-trained barb, was in considerable risk, and where the
+iron-sheathed European and his over-burdened steed found themselves in
+such imminent peril as the rider would gladly have exchanged for the
+dangers of a general action. Glad he was when, at length, after this
+wild race, he beheld the holy man who had led it standing in front of
+a cavern, with a large torch in his hand, composed of a piece of wood
+dipped in bitumen, which cast a broad and flickering light, and emitted
+a strong sulphureous smell.
+
+Undeterred by the stifling vapour, the knight threw himself from
+his horse and entered the cavern, which afforded small appearance of
+accommodation. The cell was divided into two parts, in the outward of
+which were an altar of stone and a crucifix made of reeds: this served
+the anchorite for his chapel. On one side of this outward cave the
+Christian knight, though not without scruple, arising from religious
+reverence to the objects around, fastened up his horse, and arranged him
+for the night, in imitation of the Saracen, who gave him to understand
+that such was the custom of the place. The hermit, meanwhile, was busied
+putting his inner apartment in order to receive his guests, and there
+they soon joined him. At the bottom of the outer cave, a small aperture,
+closed with a door of rough plank, led into the sleeping apartment of
+the hermit, which was more commodious. The floor had been brought to a
+rough level by the labour of the inhabitant, and then strewed with white
+sand, which he daily sprinkled with water from a small fountain which
+bubbled out of the rock in one corner, affording in that stifling
+climate, refreshment alike to the ear and the taste. Mattresses, wrought
+of twisted flags, lay by the side of the cell; the sides, like the
+floor, had been roughly brought to shape, and several herbs and flowers
+were hung around them. Two waxen torches, which the hermit lighted,
+gave a cheerful air to the place, which was rendered agreeable by its
+fragrance and coolness.
+
+There were implements of labour in one corner of the apartment, in
+another was a niche for a rude statue of the Virgin. A table and two
+chairs showed that they must be the handiwork of the anchorite, being
+different in their form from Oriental accommodations. The former was
+covered, not only with reeds and pulse, but also with dried flesh, which
+Theodorick assiduously placed in such arrangement as should invite the
+appetite of his guests. This appearance of courtesy, though mute, and
+expressed by gestures only, seemed to Sir Kenneth something entirely
+irreconcilable with his former wild and violent demeanour. The movements
+of the hermit were now become composed, and apparently it was only a
+sense of religious humiliation which prevented his features, emaciated
+as they were by his austere mode of life, from being majestic and noble.
+He trod his cell as one who seemed born to rule over men, but who had
+abdicated his empire to become the servant of Heaven. Still, it must
+be allowed that his gigantic size, the length of his unshaven locks and
+beard, and the fire of a deep-set and wild eye were rather attributes of
+a soldier than of a recluse.
+
+Even the Saracen seemed to regard the anchorite with some veneration,
+while he was thus employed, and he whispered in a low tone to Sir
+Kenneth, "The Hamako is now in his better mind, but he will not speak
+until we have eaten--such is his vow."
+
+It was in silence, accordingly, that Theodorick motioned to the Scot to
+take his place on one of the low chairs, while Sheerkohf placed himself,
+after the custom of his nation, upon a cushion of mats. The hermit then
+held up both hands, as if blessing the refreshment which he had placed
+before his guests, and they proceeded to eat in silence as profound
+as his own. To the Saracen this gravity was natural; and the Christian
+imitated his taciturnity, while he employed his thoughts on the
+singularity of his own situation, and the contrast betwixt the wild,
+furious gesticulations, loud cries, and fierce actions of Theodorick,
+when they first met him, and the demure, solemn, decorous assiduity with
+which he now performed the duties of hospitality.
+
+When their meal was ended, the hermit, who had not himself eaten a
+morsel, removed the fragments from the table, and placing before the
+Saracen a pitcher of sherbet, assigned to the Scot a flask of wine.
+
+"Drink," he said, "my children"--they were the first words he had
+spoken--"the gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is
+remembered."
+
+Having said this, he retired to the outward cell, probably for
+performance of his devotions, and left his guests together in the inner
+apartment; when Sir Kenneth endeavoured, by various questions, to
+draw from Sheerkohf what that Emir knew concerning his host. He was
+interested by more than mere curiosity in these inquiries. Difficult as
+it was to reconcile the outrageous demeanour of the recluse at his first
+appearance with his present humble and placid behaviour, it seemed yet
+more impossible to think it consistent with the high consideration in
+which, according to what Sir Kenneth had learned, this hermit was held
+by the most enlightened divines of the Christian world. Theodorick, the
+hermit of Engaddi, had, in that character, been the correspondent of
+popes and councils; to whom his letters, full of eloquent fervour,
+had described the miseries imposed by the unbelievers upon the Latin
+Christians in the Holy Land, in colours scarce inferior to those
+employed at the Council of Clermont by the Hermit Peter, when he
+preached the first Crusade. To find, in a person so reverend and so
+much revered, the frantic gestures of a mad fakir, induced the Christian
+knight to pause ere he could resolve to communicate to him certain
+important matters, which he had in charge from some of the leaders of
+the Crusade.
+
+It had been a main object of Sir Kenneth's pilgrimage, attempted by
+a route so unusual, to make such communications; but what he had that
+night seen induced him to pause and reflect ere he proceeded to the
+execution of his commission. From the Emir he could not extract much
+information, but the general tenor was as follows:--That, as he had
+heard, the hermit had been once a brave and valiant soldier, wise in
+council and fortunate in battle, which last he could easily believe from
+the great strength and agility which he had often seen him display; that
+he had appeared at Jerusalem in the character not of a pilgrim, but in
+that of one who had devoted himself to dwell for the remainder of his
+life in the Holy Land. Shortly afterwards, he fixed his residence amid
+the scenes of desolation where they now found him, respected by the
+Latins for his austere devotion, and by the Turks and Arabs on account
+of the symptoms of insanity which he displayed, and which they ascribed
+to inspiration. It was from them he had the name of Hamako, which
+expresses such a character in the Turkish language. Sheerkohf himself
+seemed at a loss how to rank their host. He had been, he said, a wise
+man, and could often for many hours together speak lessons of virtue or
+wisdom, without the slightest appearance of inaccuracy. At other
+times he was wild and violent, but never before had he seen him so
+mischievously disposed as he had that day appeared to be. His rage was
+chiefly provoked by any affront to his religion; and there was a story
+of some wandering Arabs, who had insulted his worship and defaced his
+altar, and whom he had on that account attacked and slain with the
+short flail which he carried with him in lieu of all other weapons.
+This incident had made a great noise, and it was as much the fear of the
+hermit's iron flail as regard for his character as a Hamako which caused
+the roving tribes to respect his dwelling and his chapel. His fame had
+spread so far that Saladin had issued particular orders that he should
+be spared and protected. He himself, and other Moslem lords of rank, had
+visited the cell more than once, partly from curiosity, partly that they
+expected from a man so learned as the Christian Hamako some insight into
+the secrets of futurity. "He had," continued the Saracen, "a rashid, or
+observatory, of great height, contrived to view the heavenly bodies, and
+particularly the planetary system--by whose movements and influences,
+as both Christian and Moslem believed, the course of human events was
+regulated, and might be predicted."
+
+This was the substance of the Emir Sheerkohf's information, and it left
+Sir Kenneth in doubt whether the character of insanity arose from the
+occasional excessive fervour of the hermit's zeal, or whether it was not
+altogether fictitious, and assumed for the sake of the immunities
+which it afforded. Yet it seemed that the infidels had carried their
+complaisance towards him to an uncommon length, considering the
+fanaticism of the followers of Mohammed, in the midst of whom he was
+living, though the professed enemy of their faith. He thought also there
+was more intimacy of acquaintance betwixt the hermit and the Saracen
+than the words of the latter had induced him to anticipate; and it
+had not escaped him that the former had called the latter by a
+name different from that which he himself had assumed. All these
+considerations authorized caution, if not suspicion. He determined to
+observe his host closely, and not to be over-hasty in communicating with
+him on the important charge entrusted to him.
+
+"Beware, Saracen," he said; "methinks our host's imagination wanders
+as well on the subject of names as upon other matters. Thy name is
+Sheerkohf, and he called thee but now by another."
+
+"My name, when in the tent of my father," replied the Kurdman, "was
+Ilderim, and by this I am still distinguished by many. In the field, and
+to soldiers, I am known as the Lion of the Mountain, being the name my
+good sword hath won for me. But hush, the Hamako comes--it is to warn us
+to rest. I know his custom; none must watch him at his vigils."
+
+The anchorite accordingly entered, and folding his arms on his bosom as
+he stood before them, said with a solemn voice, "Blessed be His name,
+who hath appointed the quiet night to follow the busy day, and the calm
+sleep to refresh the wearied limbs and to compose the troubled spirit!"
+
+Both warriors replied "Amen!" and, arising from the table, prepared to
+betake themselves to the couches, which their host indicated by waving
+his hand, as, making a reverence to each, he again withdrew from the
+apartment.
+
+The Knight of the Leopard then disarmed himself of his heavy panoply,
+his Saracen companion kindly assisting him to undo his buckler and
+clasps, until he remained in the close dress of chamois leather, which
+knights and men-at-arms used to wear under their harness. The Saracen,
+if he had admired the strength of his adversary when sheathed in steel,
+was now no less struck with the accuracy of proportion displayed in his
+nervous and well-compacted figure. The knight, on the other hand, as, in
+exchange of courtesy, he assisted the Saracen to disrobe himself of his
+upper garments, that he might sleep with more convenience, was, on his
+side, at a loss to conceive how such slender proportions and slimness of
+figure could be reconciled with the vigour he had displayed in personal
+contest.
+
+Each warrior prayed ere he addressed himself to his place of rest. The
+Moslem turned towards his KEBLAH, the point to which the prayer of each
+follower of the Prophet was to be addressed, and murmured his heathen
+orisons; while the Christian, withdrawing from the contamination of the
+infidel's neighbourhood, placed his huge cross-handled sword upright,
+and kneeling before it as the sign of salvation, told his rosary with
+a devotion which was enhanced by the recollection of the scenes through
+which he had passed, and the dangers from which he had been rescued, in
+the course of the day. Both warriors, worn by toil and travel, were soon
+fast asleep, each on his separate pallet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Kenneth the Scot was uncertain how long his senses had been lost in
+profound repose, when he was roused to recollection by a sense of
+oppression on his chest, which at first suggested a flirting dream of
+struggling with a powerful opponent, and at length recalled him fully
+to his senses. He was about to demand who was there, when, opening his
+eyes, he beheld the figure of the anchorite, wild and savage-looking as
+we have described him, standing by his bedside, and pressing his right
+hand upon his breast, while he held a small silver lamp in the other.
+
+"Be silent," said the hermit, as the prostrate knight looked up in
+surprise; "I have that to say to you which yonder infidel must not
+hear."
+
+These words he spoke in the French language, and not in the lingua
+franca, or compound of Eastern and European dialects, which had hitherto
+been used amongst them.
+
+"Arise," he continued, "put on thy mantle; speak not, but tread lightly,
+and follow me."
+
+Sir Kenneth arose, and took his sword.
+
+"It needs not," answered the anchorite, in a whisper; "we are going
+where spiritual arms avail much, and fleshly weapons are but as the reed
+and the decayed gourd."
+
+The knight deposited his sword by the bedside as before, and, armed only
+with his dagger, from which in this perilous country he never parted,
+prepared to attend his mysterious host.
+
+The hermit then moved slowly forwards, and was followed by the knight,
+still under some uncertainty whether the dark form which glided
+on before to show him the path was not, in fact, the creation of a
+disturbed dream. They passed, like shadows, into the outer apartment,
+without disturbing the paynim Emir, who lay still buried in repose.
+Before the cross and altar, in the outward room, a lamp was still
+burning, a missal was displayed, and on the floor lay a discipline, or
+penitential scourge of small cord and wire, the lashes of which were
+recently stained with blood--a token, no doubt, of the severe penance of
+the recluse. Here Theodorick kneeled down, and pointed to the knight to
+take his place beside him upon the sharp flints, which seemed placed for
+the purpose of rendering the posture of reverential devotion as uneasy
+as possible. He read many prayers of the Catholic Church, and chanted,
+in a low but earnest voice, three of the penitential psalms. These last
+he intermixed with sighs, and tears, and convulsive throbs, which bore
+witness how deeply he felt the divine poetry which he recited. The
+Scottish knight assisted with profound sincerity at these acts of
+devotion, his opinion of his host beginning, in the meantime, to be so
+much changed, that he doubted whether, from the severity of his penance
+and the ardour of his prayers, he ought not to regard him as a saint;
+and when they arose from the ground, he stood with reverence before
+him, as a pupil before an honoured master. The hermit was, on his side,
+silent and abstracted for the space of a few minutes.
+
+"Look into yonder recess, my son," he said, pointing to the farther
+corner of the cell; "there thou wilt find a veil--bring it hither."
+
+The knight obeyed, and in a small aperture cut out of the wall, and
+secured with a door of wicker, he found the veil inquired for. When he
+brought it to the light, he discovered that it was torn, and soiled in
+some places with some dark substance. The anchorite looked at it with
+a deep but smothered emotion, and ere he could speak to the Scottish
+knight, was compelled to vent his feelings in a convulsive groan.
+
+"Thou art now about to look upon the richest treasure that the earth
+possesses," he at length said; "woe is me, that my eyes are unworthy to
+be lifted towards it! Alas! I am but the vile and despised sign, which
+points out to the wearied traveller a harbour of rest and security, but
+must itself remain for ever without doors. In vain have I fled to the
+very depths of the rocks, and the very bosom of the thirsty desert. Mine
+enemy hath found me--even he whom I have denied has pursued me to my
+fortresses."
+
+He paused again for a moment, and turning to the Scottish knight, said,
+in a firmer tone of voice, "You bring me a greeting from Richard of
+England?"
+
+"I come from the Council of Christian Princes," said the knight;
+"but the King of England being indisposed, I am not honoured with his
+Majesty's commands."
+
+"Your token?" demanded the recluse.
+
+Sir Kenneth hesitated. Former suspicions, and the marks of insanity
+which the hermit had formerly exhibited, rushed suddenly on his
+thoughts; but how suspect a man whose manners were so saintly? "My
+password," he said at length, "is this--Kings begged of a beggar."
+
+"It is right," said the hermit, while he paused. "I know you well; but
+the sentinel upon his post--and mine is an important one--challenges
+friend as well as foe."
+
+He then moved forward with the lamp, leading the way into the room which
+they had left. The Saracen lay on his couch, still fast asleep. The
+hermit paused by his side, and looked down on him.
+
+"He sleeps," he said, "in darkness, and must not be awakened."
+
+The attitude of the Emir did indeed convey the idea of profound repose.
+One arm, flung across his body, as he lay with his face half turned to
+the wall, concealed, with its loose and long sleeve, the greater part
+of his face; but the high forehead was yet visible. Its nerves, which
+during his waking hours were so uncommonly active, were now motionless,
+as if the face had been composed of dark marble, and his long silken
+eyelashes closed over his piercing and hawklike eyes. The open and
+relaxed hand, and the deep, regular, and soft breathing, all gave tokens
+of the most profound repose. The slumberer formed a singular group along
+with the tall forms of the hermit in his shaggy dress of goat-skins,
+bearing the lamp, and the knight in his close leathern coat--the former
+with an austere expression of ascetic gloom, the latter with anxious
+curiosity deeply impressed on his manly features.
+
+"He sleeps soundly," said the hermit, in the same low tone as before;
+and repeating the words, though he had changed the meaning from that
+which is literal to a metaphorical sense--"he sleeps in darkness, but
+there shall be for him a dayspring.--O Ilderim, thy waking thoughts
+are yet as vain and wild as those which are wheeling their giddy dance
+through thy sleeping brain; but the trumpet shall be heard, and the
+dream shall be dissolved."
+
+So saying, and making the knight a sign to follow him, the hermit went
+towards the altar, and passing behind it, pressed a spring, which,
+opening without noise, showed a small iron door wrought in the side
+of the cavern, so as to be almost imperceptible, unless upon the most
+severe scrutiny. The hermit, ere he ventured fully to open the door,
+dropped some oil on the hinges, which the lamp supplied. A small
+staircase, hewn in the rock, was discovered, when the iron door was at
+length completely opened.
+
+"Take the veil which I hold," said the hermit, in a melancholy tone,
+"and blind mine eyes; For I may not look on the treasure which thou art
+presently to behold, without sin and presumption."
+
+Without reply, the knight hastily muffled the recluse's head in the
+veil, and the latter began to ascend the staircase as one too much
+accustomed to the way to require the use of light, while at the same
+time he held the lamp to the Scot, who followed him for many steps up
+the narrow ascent. At length they rested in a small vault of irregular
+form, in one nook of which the staircase terminated, while in another
+corner a corresponding stair was seen to continue the ascent. In a
+third angle was a Gothic door, very rudely ornamented with the usual
+attributes of clustered columns and carving, and defended by a wicket,
+strongly guarded with iron, and studded with large nails. To this
+last point the hermit directed his steps, which seemed to falter as he
+approached it.
+
+"Put off thy shoes," he said to his attendant; "the ground on which
+thou standest is holy. Banish from thy innermost heart each profane and
+carnal thought, for to harbour such while in this place were a deadly
+impiety."
+
+The knight laid aside his shoes as he was commanded, and the hermit
+stood in the meanwhile as if communing with his soul in secret prayer,
+and when he again moved, commanded the knight to knock at the wicket
+three times. He did so. The door opened spontaneously--at least Sir
+Kenneth beheld no one--and his senses were at once assailed by a stream
+of the purest light, and by a strong and almost oppressive sense of the
+richest perfumes. He stepped two or three paces back, and it was the
+space of a minute ere he recovered the dazzling and overpowering effects
+of the sudden change from darkness to light.
+
+When he entered the apartment in which this brilliant lustre was
+displayed, he perceived that the light proceeded from a combination of
+silver lamps, fed with purest oil, and sending forth the richest odours,
+hanging by silver chains from the roof of a small Gothic chapel, hewn,
+like most part of the hermit's singular mansion, out of the sound and
+solid rock. But whereas, in every other place which Sir Kenneth had
+seen, the labour employed upon the rock had been of the simplest and
+coarsest description, it had in this chapel employed the invention and
+the chisels of the most able architects. The groined roofs rose from six
+columns on each side, carved with the rarest skill; and the manner in
+which the crossings of the concave arches were bound together, as it
+were, with appropriate ornaments, were all in the finest tone of the
+architecture of the age. Corresponding to the line of pillars, there
+were on each side six richly-wrought niches, each of which contained the
+image of one of the twelve apostles.
+
+At the upper and eastern end of the chapel stood the altar, behind
+which a very rich curtain of Persian silk, embroidered deeply with gold,
+covered a recess, containing, unquestionably, some image or relic of no
+ordinary sanctity, in honour of which this singular place of worship
+had been erected, Under the persuasion that this must be the case, the
+knight advanced to the shrine, and kneeling down before it, repeated his
+devotions with fervency, during which his attention was disturbed by the
+curtain being suddenly raised, or rather pulled aside, how or by whom he
+saw not; but in the niche which was thus disclosed he beheld a cabinet
+of silver and ebony, with a double folding-door, the whole formed into
+the miniature resemblance of a Gothic church.
+
+As he gazed with anxious curiosity on the shrine, the two folding-doors
+also flew open, discovering a large piece of wood, on which were
+blazoned the words, VERA CRUX; at the same time a choir of female voices
+sung GLORIA PATRI. The instant the strain had ceased, the shrine was
+closed, and the curtain again drawn, and the knight who knelt at the
+altar might now continue his devotions undisturbed, in honour of the
+holy relic which had been just disclosed to his view. He did this under
+the profound impression of one who had witnessed, with his own eyes, an
+awful evidence of the truth of his religion; and it was some time ere,
+concluding his orisons, he arose, and ventured to look around him for
+the hermit, who had guided him to this sacred and mysterious spot. He
+beheld him, his head still muffled in the veil which he had himself
+wrapped around it, crouching, like a rated hound, upon the threshold of
+the chapel; but, apparently, without venturing to cross it--the holiest
+reverence, the most penitential remorse, was expressed by his posture,
+which seemed that of a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the
+burden of his inward feelings. It seemed to the Scot that only the
+sense of the deepest penitence, remorse, and humiliation could have thus
+prostrated a frame so strong and a spirit so fiery.
+
+He approached him as if to speak; but the recluse anticipated his
+purpose, murmuring in stifled tones, from beneath the fold in which his
+head was muffled, and which sounded like a voice proceeding from the
+cerements of a corpse,--"Abide, abide--happy thou that mayest--the
+vision is not yet ended." So saying, he reared himself from the ground,
+drew back from the threshold on which he had hitherto lain prostrate,
+and closed the door of the chapel, which, secured by a spring bolt
+within, the snap of which resounded through the place, appeared so much
+like a part of the living rock from which the cavern was hewn, that
+Kenneth could hardly discern where the aperture had been. He was now
+alone in the lighted chapel which contained the relic to which he had
+lately rendered his homage, without other arms than his dagger, or other
+companion than his pious thoughts and dauntless courage.
+
+Uncertain what was next to happen, but resolved to abide the course of
+events, Sir Kenneth paced the solitary chapel till about the time of the
+earliest cock-crowing. At this dead season, when night and morning met
+together, he heard, but from what quarter he could not discover, the
+sound of such a small silver bell as is rung at the elevation of the
+host in the ceremony, or sacrifice, as it has been called, of the mass.
+The hour and the place rendered the sound fearfully solemn, and, bold as
+he was, the knight withdrew himself into the farther nook of the
+chapel, at the end opposite to the altar, in order to observe, without
+interruption, the consequences of this unexpected signal.
+
+He did not wait long ere the silken curtain was again withdrawn, and the
+relic again presented to his view. As he sunk reverentially on his knee,
+he heard the sound of the lauds, or earliest office of the Catholic
+Church, sung by female voices, which united together in the performance
+as they had done in the former service. The knight was soon aware that
+the voices were no longer stationary in the distance, but approached the
+chapel and became louder, when a door, imperceptible when closed, like
+that by which he had himself entered, opened on the other side of the
+vault, and gave the tones of the choir more room to swell along the
+ribbed arches of the roof.
+
+The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and,
+continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and
+scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations. A
+procession appeared about to issue from the door. First, four beautiful
+boys, whose arms, necks, and legs were bare, showing the bronze
+complexion of the East, and contrasting with the snow-white tunics
+which they wore, entered the chapel by two and two. The first pair bore
+censers, which they swung from side to side, adding double fragrance
+to the odours with which the chapel already was impregnated. The second
+pair scattered flowers.
+
+After these followed, in due and majestic order, the females who
+composed the choir--six, who from their black scapularies, and black
+veils over their white garments, appeared to be professed nuns of the
+order of Mount Carmel; and as many whose veils, being white, argued them
+to be novices, or occasional inhabitants in the cloister, who were
+not as yet bound to it by vows. The former held in their hands large
+rosaries, while the younger and lighter figures who followed carried
+each a chaplet of red and white roses. They moved in procession around
+the chapel, without appearing to take the slightest notice of Kenneth,
+although passing so near him that their robes almost touched him, while
+they continued to sing. The knight doubted not that he was in one of
+those cloisters where the noble Christian maidens had formerly openly
+devoted themselves to the services of the church. Most of them had been
+suppressed since the Mohammedans had reconquered Palestine, but many,
+purchasing connivance by presents, or receiving it from the clemency
+or contempt of the victors, still continued to observe in private the
+ritual to which their vows had consecrated them. Yet, though Kenneth
+knew this to be the case, the solemnity of the place and hour, the
+surprise at the sudden appearance of these votaresses, and the
+visionary manner in which they moved past him, had such influence on his
+imagination that he could scarce conceive that the fair procession
+which he beheld was formed of creatures of this world, so much did
+they resemble a choir of supernatural beings, rendering homage to the
+universal object of adoration.
+
+Such was the knight's first idea, as the procession passed him, scarce
+moving, save just sufficiently to continue their progress; so that,
+seen by the shadowy and religious light which the lamps shed through the
+clouds of incense which darkened the apartment, they appeared rather to
+glide than to walk.
+
+But as a second time, in surrounding the chapel, they passed the spot on
+which he kneeled, one of the white-stoled maidens, as she glided by him,
+detached from the chaplet which she carried a rosebud, which dropped
+from her fingers, perhaps unconsciously, on the foot of Sir Kenneth. The
+knight started as if a dart had suddenly struck his person; for, when
+the mind is wound up to a high pitch of feeling and expectation,
+the slightest incident, if unexpected, gives fire to the train
+which imagination has already laid. But he suppressed his emotion,
+recollecting how easily an incident so indifferent might have happened,
+and that it was only the uniform monotony of the movement of the
+choristers which made the incident in the slightest degree remarkable.
+
+Still, while the procession, for the third time, surrounded the chapel,
+the thoughts and the eyes of Kenneth followed exclusively the one among
+the novices who had dropped the rosebud. Her step, her face, her form
+were so completely assimilated to the rest of the choristers that it
+was impossible to perceive the least marks of individuality; and yet
+Kenneth's heart throbbed like a bird that would burst from its cage, as
+if to assure him, by its sympathetic suggestions, that the female who
+held the right file on the second rank of the novices was dearer to him,
+not only than all the rest that were present, but than the whole sex
+besides. The romantic passion of love, as it was cherished, and indeed
+enjoined, by the rules of chivalry, associated well with the no less
+romantic feelings of devotion; and they might be said much more to
+enhance than to counteract each other. It was, therefore, with a glow
+of expectation that had something even of a religious character that
+Sir Kenneth, his sensations thrilling from his heart to the ends of
+his fingers, expected some second sign of the presence of one who, he
+strongly fancied, had already bestowed on him the first. Short as
+the space was during which the procession again completed a third
+perambulation of the chapel, it seemed an eternity to Kenneth. At length
+the form which he had watched with such devoted attention drew nigh.
+There was no difference betwixt that shrouded figure and the others,
+with whom it moved in concert and in unison, until, just as she passed
+for the third time the kneeling Crusader, a part of a little and
+well-proportioned hand, so beautifully formed as to give the highest
+idea of the perfect proportions of the form to which it belonged, stole
+through the folds of the gauze, like a moonbeam through the fleecy cloud
+of a summer night, and again a rosebud lay at the feet of the Knight of
+the Leopard.
+
+This second intimation could not be accidental---it could not be
+fortuitous, the resemblance of that half-seen but beautiful female hand
+with one which his lips had once touched, and, while they touched it,
+had internally sworn allegiance to the lovely owner. Had further proof
+been wanting, there was the glimmer of that matchless ruby ring on that
+snow-white finger, whose invaluable worth Kenneth would yet have prized
+less than the slightest sign which that finger could have made; and,
+veiled too, as she was, he might see, by chance or by favour, a stray
+curl of the dark tresses, each hair of which was dearer to him a hundred
+times than a chain of massive gold. It was the lady of his love! But
+that she should be here--in the savage and sequestered desert--among
+vestals, who rendered themselves habitants of wilds and of caverns, that
+they might perform in secret those Christian rites which they dared
+not assist in openly; that this should be so, in truth and in reality,
+seemed too incredible--it must be a dream--a delusive trance of the
+imagination. While these thoughts passed through the mind of Kenneth,
+the same passage, by which the procession had entered the chapel,
+received them on their return. The young sacristans, the sable nuns,
+vanished successively through the open door. At length she from whom he
+had received this double intimation passed also; yet, in passing, turned
+her head, slightly indeed, but perceptibly, towards the place where he
+remained fixed as an image. He marked the last wave of her veil--it was
+gone--and a darkness sunk upon his soul, scarce less palpable than that
+which almost immediately enveloped his external sense; for the last
+chorister had no sooner crossed the threshold of the door than it shut
+with a loud sound, and at the same instant the voices of the choir were
+silent, the lights of the chapel were at once extinguished, and Sir
+Kenneth remained solitary and in total darkness. But to Kenneth,
+solitude, and darkness, and the uncertainty of his mysterious situation
+were as nothing--he thought not of them--cared not for them--cared for
+nought in the world save the flitting vision which had just glided past
+him, and the tokens of her favour which she had bestowed. To grope on
+the floor for the buds which she had dropped--to press them to his lips,
+to his bosom, now alternately, now together--to rivet his lips to the
+cold stones on which, as near as he could judge, she had so lately
+stepped--to play all the extravagances which strong affection suggests
+and vindicates to those who yield themselves up to it, were but the
+tokens of passionate love common to all ages. But it was peculiar to the
+times of chivalry that, in his wildest rapture, the knight imagined of
+no attempt to follow or to trace the object of such romantic attachment;
+that he thought of her as of a deity, who, having deigned to show
+herself for an instant to her devoted worshipper, had again returned
+to the darkness of her sanctuary--or as an influential planet, which,
+having darted in some auspicious minute one favourable ray, wrapped
+itself again in its veil of mist. The motions of the lady of his love
+were to him those of a superior being, who was to move without watch or
+control, rejoice him by her appearance, or depress him by her absence,
+animate him by her kindness, or drive him to despair by her cruelty--all
+at her own free will, and without other importunity or remonstrance than
+that expressed by the most devoted services of the heart and sword of
+the champion, whose sole object in life was to fulfil her commands, and,
+by the splendour of his own achievements, to exalt her fame.
+
+Such were the rules of chivalry, and of the love which was its ruling
+principle. But Sir Kenneth's attachment was rendered romantic by other
+and still more peculiar circumstances. He had never even heard the sound
+of his lady's voice, though he had often beheld her beauty with rapture.
+She moved in a circle which his rank of knighthood permitted him
+indeed to approach, but not to mingle with; and highly as he stood
+distinguished for warlike skill and enterprise, still the poor Scottish
+soldier was compelled to worship his divinity at a distance almost as
+great as divides the Persian from the sun which he adores. But when was
+the pride of woman too lofty to overlook the passionate devotion of
+a lover, however inferior in degree? Her eye had been on him in the
+tournament, her ear had heard his praises in the report of the battles
+which were daily fought; and while count, duke, and lord contended
+for her grace, it flowed, unwillingly perhaps at first, or even
+unconsciously, towards the poor Knight of the Leopard, who, to support
+his rank, had little besides his sword. When she looked, and when she
+listened, the lady saw and heard enough to encourage her in a partiality
+which had at first crept on her unawares. If a knight's personal beauty
+was praised, even the most prudish dames of the military court of
+England would make an exception in favour of the Scottish Kenneth;
+and it oftentimes happened that, notwithstanding the very considerable
+largesses which princes and peers bestowed on the minstrels, an
+impartial spirit of independence would seize the poet, and the harp was
+swept to the heroism of one who had neither palfreys nor garments to
+bestow in guerdon of his applause.
+
+The moments when she listened to the praises of her lover became
+gradually more and more dear to the high-born Edith, relieving the
+flattery with which her ear was weary, and presenting to her a subject
+of secret contemplation, more worthy, as he seemed by general report,
+than those who surpassed him in rank and in the gifts of fortune. As her
+attention became constantly, though cautiously, fixed on Sir Kenneth,
+she grew more and more convinced of his personal devotion to herself and
+more and more certain in her mind that in Kenneth of Scotland she beheld
+the fated knight doomed to share with her through weal and woe--and the
+prospect looked gloomy and dangerous--the passionate attachment to which
+the poets of the age ascribed such universal dominion, and which its
+manners and morals placed nearly on the same rank with devotion itself.
+
+Let us not disguise the truth from our readers. When Edith became aware
+of the state of her own sentiments, chivalrous as were her sentiments,
+becoming a maiden not distant from the throne of England--gratified as
+her pride must have been with the mute though unceasing homage rendered
+to her by the knight whom she had distinguished, there were moments
+when the feelings of the woman, loving and beloved, murmured against the
+restraints of state and form by which she was surrounded, and when she
+almost blamed the timidity of her lover, who seemed resolved not to
+infringe them. The etiquette, to use a modern phrase, of birth and rank,
+had drawn around her a magical circle, beyond which Sir Kenneth might
+indeed bow and gaze, but within which he could no more pass than an
+evoked spirit can transgress the boundaries prescribed by the rod of a
+powerful enchanter. The thought involuntarily pressed on her that she
+herself must venture, were it but the point of her fairy foot, beyond
+the prescribed boundary, if she ever hoped to give a lover so reserved
+and bashful an opportunity of so slight a favour as but to salute her
+shoe-tie. There was an example--the noted precedent of the "King's
+daughter of Hungary," who thus generously encouraged the "squire of low
+degree;" and Edith, though of kingly blood, was no king's daughter, any
+more than her lover was of low degree--fortune had put no such extreme
+barrier in obstacle to their affections. Something, however, within
+the maiden's bosom--that modest pride which throws fetters even on love
+itself forbade her, notwithstanding the superiority of her condition, to
+make those advances, which, in every case, delicacy assigns to the other
+sex; above all, Sir Kenneth was a knight so gentle and honourable, so
+highly accomplished, as her imagination at least suggested, together
+with the strictest feelings of what was due to himself and to her,
+that however constrained her attitude might be while receiving his
+adorations, like the image of some deity, who is neither supposed to
+feel nor to reply to the homage of its votaries, still the idol feared
+that to step prematurely from her pedestal would be to degrade herself
+in the eyes of her devoted worshipper.
+
+Yet the devout adorer of an actual idol can even discover signs of
+approbation in the rigid and immovable features of a marble image;
+and it is no wonder that something, which could be as favourably
+interpreted, glanced from the bright eye of the lovely Edith, whose
+beauty, indeed, consisted rather more in that very power of expression,
+than an absolute regularity of contour or brilliancy of complexion. Some
+slight marks of distinction had escaped from her, notwithstanding her
+own jealous vigilance, else how could Sir Kenneth have so readily and
+so undoubtingly recognized the lovely hand, of which scarce two fingers
+were visible from under the veil, or how could he have rested so
+thoroughly assured that two flowers, successively dropped on the spot,
+were intended as a recognition on the part of his lady-love? By what
+train of observation--by what secret signs, looks, or gestures--by what
+instinctive freemasonry of love, this degree of intelligence came to
+subsist between Edith and her lover, we cannot attempt to trace; for we
+are old, and such slight vestiges of affection, quickly discovered by
+younger eyes, defy the power of ours. Enough that such affection
+did subsist between parties who had never even spoken to one
+another--though, on the side of Edith, it was checked by a deep sense of
+the difficulties and dangers which must necessarily attend the further
+progress of their attachment; and upon that of the knight by a thousand
+doubts and fears lest he had overestimated the slight tokens of the
+lady's notice, varied, as they necessarily were, by long intervals
+of apparent coldness, during which either the fear of exciting the
+observation of others, and thus drawing danger upon her lover, or that
+of sinking in his esteem by seeming too willing to be won, made her
+behave with indifference, and as if unobservant of his presence.
+
+This narrative, tedious perhaps, but which the story renders necessary,
+may serve to explain the state of intelligence, if it deserves so strong
+a name, betwixt the lovers, when Edith's unexpected appearance in the
+chapel produced so powerful an effect on the feelings of her knight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     Their necromantic forms in vain
+     Haunt us on the tented plain;
+     We bid these spectre shapes avaunt,
+     Ashtaroth and Termagaunt.     WARTON.
+
+The most profound silence, the deepest darkness, continued to brood for
+more than an hour over the chapel in which we left the Knight of the
+Leopard still kneeling, alternately expressing thanks to Heaven and
+gratitude to his lady for the boon which had been vouchsafed to him.
+His own safety, his own destiny, for which he was at all times little
+anxious, had not now the weight of a grain of dust in his reflections.
+He was in the neighbourhood of Lady Edith; he had received tokens of her
+grace; he was in a place hallowed by relics of the most awful sanctity.
+A Christian soldier, a devoted lover, could fear nothing, think of
+nothing, but his duty to Heaven and his devoir to his lady.
+
+At the lapse of the space of time which we have noticed, a shrill
+whistle, like that with which a falconer calls his hawk, was heard to
+ring sharply through the vaulted chapel. It was a sound ill suited to
+the place, and reminded Sir Kenneth how necessary it was he should be
+upon his guard. He started from his knee, and laid his hand upon his
+poniard. A creaking sound, as of a screw or pulleys, succeeded, and a
+light streaming upwards, as from an opening in the floor, showed that
+a trap-door had been raised or depressed. In less than a minute a long,
+skinny arm, partly naked, partly clothed in a sleeve of red samite,
+arose out of the aperture, holding a lamp as high as it could stretch
+upwards, and the figure to which the arm belonged ascended step by step
+to the level of the chapel floor. The form and face of the being who
+thus presented himself were those of a frightful dwarf, with a large
+head, a cap fantastically adorned with three peacock feathers, a
+dress of red samite, the richness of which rendered his ugliness more
+conspicuous, distinguished by gold bracelets and armlets, and a white
+silk sash, in which he wore a gold-hilted dagger. This singular figure
+had in his left hand a kind of broom. So soon as he had stepped from
+the aperture through which he arose, he stood still, and, as if to show
+himself more distinctly, moved the lamp which he held slowly over
+his face and person, successively illuminating his wild and fantastic
+features, and his misshapen but nervous limbs. Though disproportioned in
+person, the dwarf was not so distorted as to argue any want of strength
+or activity. While Sir Kenneth gazed on this disagreeable object, the
+popular creed occurred to his remembrance concerning the gnomes or
+earthly spirits which make their abode in the caverns of the earth; and
+so much did this figure correspond with ideas he had formed of their
+appearance, that he looked on it with disgust, mingled not indeed with
+fear, but that sort of awe which the presence of a supernatural creature
+may infuse into the most steady bosom.
+
+The dwarf again whistled, and summoned from beneath a companion. This
+second figure ascended in the same manner as the first; but it was
+a female arm in this second instance which upheld the lamp from the
+subterranean vault out of which these presentments arose, and it was a
+female form, much resembling the first in shape and proportions,
+which slowly emerged from the floor. Her dress was also of red samite,
+fantastically cut and flounced, as if she had been dressed for some
+exhibition of mimes or jugglers; and with the same minuteness which her
+predecessor had exhibited, she passed the lamp over her face and person,
+which seemed to rival the male's in ugliness. But with all this most
+unfavourable exterior, there was one trait in the features of both which
+argued alertness and intelligence in the most uncommon degree. This
+arose from the brilliancy of their eyes, which, deep-set beneath black
+and shaggy brows, gleamed with a lustre which, like that in the eye
+of the toad, seemed to make some amends for the extreme ugliness of
+countenance and person.
+
+Sir Kenneth remained as if spellbound, while this unlovely pair, moving
+round the chapel close to each other, appeared to perform the duty of
+sweeping it, like menials; but as they used only one hand, the floor was
+not much benefited by the exercise, which they plied with such oddity of
+gestures and manner as befitted their bizarre and fantastic appearance.
+When they approached near to the knight in the course of their
+occupation, they ceased to use their brooms; and placing themselves side
+by side, directly opposite to Sir Kenneth, they again slowly shifted the
+lights which they held, so as to allow him distinctly to survey features
+which were not rendered more agreeable by being brought nearer, and to
+observe the extreme quickness and keenness with which their black and
+glittering eyes flashed back the light of the lamps. They then turned
+the gleam of both lights upon the knight, and having accurately surveyed
+him, turned their faces to each other, and set up a loud, yelling laugh,
+which resounded in his ears. The sound was so ghastly that Sir Kenneth
+started at hearing it, and hastily demanded, in the name of God, who
+they were who profaned that holy place with such antic gestures and
+elritch exclamations.
+
+"I am the dwarf Nectabanus," said the abortion-seeming male, in a voice
+corresponding to his figure, and resembling the voice of the night-crow
+more than any sound which is heard by daylight.
+
+"And I am Guenevra, his lady and his love," replied the female, in tones
+which, being shriller, were yet wilder than those of her companion.
+
+"Wherefore are you here?" again demanded the knight, scarcely yet
+assured that they were human beings which he saw before him.
+
+"I am," replied the male dwarf, with much assumed gravity and dignity,
+"the twelfth Imaum. I am Mohammed Mohadi, the guide and the conductor of
+the faithful. A hundred horses stand ready saddled for me and my train
+at the Holy City, and as many at the City of Refuge. I am he who shall
+bear witness, and this is one of my houris."
+
+"Thou liest!" answered the female, interrupting her companion, in tones
+yet shriller than his own; "I am none of thy houris, and thou art no
+such infidel trash as the Mohammed of whom thou speakest. May my curse
+rest upon his coffin! I tell thee, thou ass of Issachar, thou art King
+Arthur of Britain, whom the fairies stole away from the field of Avalon;
+and I am Dame Guenevra, famed for her beauty."
+
+"But in truth, noble sir," said the male, "we are distressed princes,
+dwelling under the wing of King Guy of Jerusalem, until he was driven
+out from his own nest by the foul infidels--Heaven's bolts consume
+them!"
+
+"Hush," said a voice from the side upon which the knight had
+entered--"hush, fools, and begone; your ministry is ended."
+
+The dwarfs had no sooner heard the command than, gibbering in discordant
+whispers to each other, they blew out their lights at once, and left the
+knight in utter darkness, which, when the pattering of their retiring
+feet had died away, was soon accompanied by its fittest companion, total
+silence.
+
+The knight felt the departure of these unfortunate creatures a relief.
+He could not, from their language, manners, and appearance, doubt that
+they belonged to the degraded class of beings whom deformity of person
+and weakness of intellect recommended to the painful situation of
+appendages to great families, where their personal appearance and
+imbecility were food for merriment to the household. Superior in no
+respect to the ideas and manners of his time, the Scottish knight might,
+at another period, have been much amused by the mummery of these poor
+effigies of humanity; but now their appearance, gesticulations, and
+language broke the train of deep and solemn feeling with which he was
+impressed, and he rejoiced in the disappearance of the unhappy objects.
+
+A few minutes after they had retired, the door at which he had entered
+opened slowly, and remaining ajar, discovered a faint light arising from
+a lantern placed upon the threshold. Its doubtful and wavering gleam
+showed a dark form reclined beside the entrance, but without its
+precincts, which, on approaching it more nearly, he recognized to be the
+hermit, crouching in the same humble posture in which he had at first
+laid himself down, and which, doubtless, he had retained during the
+whole time of his guest's continuing in the chapel.
+
+"All is over," said the hermit, as he heard the knight approaching, "and
+the most wretched of earthly sinners, with him who should think himself
+most honoured and most happy among the race of humanity, must retire
+from this place. Take the light, and guide me down the descent, for I
+must not uncover my eyes until I am far from this hallowed spot."
+
+The Scottish knight obeyed in silence, for a solemn and yet ecstatic
+sense of what he had seen had silenced even the eager workings of
+curiosity. He led the way, with considerable accuracy, through the
+various secret passages and stairs by which they had ascended, until at
+length they found themselves in the outward cell of the hermit's cavern.
+
+"The condemned criminal is restored to his dungeon, reprieved from one
+miserable day to another, until his awful Judge shall at length appoint
+the well-deserved sentence to be carried into execution."
+
+As the hermit spoke these words, he laid aside the veil with which his
+eyes had been bound, and looked at it with a suppressed and hollow sigh.
+No sooner had he restored it to the crypt from which he had caused the
+Scot to bring it, than he said hastily and sternly to his companion;
+"Begone, begone--to rest, to rest. You may sleep--you can sleep--I
+neither can nor may."
+
+Respecting the profound agitation with which this was spoken, the knight
+retired into the inner cell; but casting back his eye as he left the
+exterior grotto, he beheld the anchorite stripping his shoulders with
+frantic haste of their shaggy mantle, and ere he could shut the frail
+door which separated the two compartments of the cavern, he heard
+the clang of the scourge and the groans of the penitent under his
+self-inflicted penance. A cold shudder came over the knight as he
+reflected what could be the foulness of the sin, what the depth of the
+remorse, which, apparently, such severe penance could neither cleanse
+nor assuage. He told his beads devoutly, and flung himself on his rude
+couch, after a glance at the still sleeping Moslem, and, wearied by the
+various scenes of the day and the night, soon slept as sound as infancy.
+Upon his awaking in the morning, he held certain conferences with the
+hermit upon matters of importance, and the result of their intercourse
+induced him to remain for two days longer in the grotto. He was regular,
+as became a pilgrim, in his devotional exercises, but was not again
+admitted to the chapel in which he had seen such wonders.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     Now change the scene--and let the trumpets sound,
+     For we must rouse the lion from his lair.  OLD PLAY.
+
+The scene must change, as our programme has announced, from the mountain
+wilderness of Jordan to the camp of King Richard of England, then
+stationed betwixt Jean d'Acre and Ascalon, and containing that army with
+which he of the lion heart had promised himself a triumphant march
+to Jerusalem, and in which he would probably have succeeded, if not
+hindered by the jealousies of the Christian princes engaged in the same
+enterprise, and the offence taken by them at the uncurbed haughtiness
+of the English monarch, and Richard's unveiled contempt for his brother
+sovereigns, who, his equals in rank, were yet far his inferiors
+in courage, hardihood, and military talents. Such discords, and
+particularly those betwixt Richard and Philip of France, created
+disputes and obstacles which impeded every active measure proposed by
+the heroic though impetuous Richard, while the ranks of the Crusaders
+were daily thinned, not only by the desertion of individuals, but of
+entire bands, headed by their respective feudal leaders, who withdrew
+from a contest in which they had ceased to hope for success.
+
+The effects of the climate became, as usual, fatal to soldiers from
+the north, and the more so that the dissolute license of the Crusaders,
+forming a singular contrast to the principles and purpose of their
+taking up arms, rendered them more easy victims to the insalubrious
+influence of burning heat and chilling dews. To these discouraging
+causes of loss was to be added the sword of the enemy. Saladin, than
+whom no greater name is recorded in Eastern history, had learned, to
+his fatal experience, that his light-armed followers were little able to
+meet in close encounter with the iron-clad Franks, and had been taught,
+at the same time, to apprehend and dread the adventurous character of
+his antagonist Richard. But if his armies were more than once routed
+with great slaughter, his numbers gave the Saracen the advantage in
+those lighter skirmishes, of which many were inevitable.
+
+As the army of his assailants decreased, the enterprises of the Sultan
+became more numerous and more bold in this species of petty warfare. The
+camp of the Crusaders was surrounded, and almost besieged, by clouds of
+light cavalry, resembling swarms of wasps, easily crushed when they are
+once grasped, but furnished with wings to elude superior strength, and
+stings to inflict harm and mischief. There was perpetual warfare of
+posts and foragers, in which many valuable lives were lost, without
+any corresponding object being gained; convoys were intercepted, and
+communications were cut off. The Crusaders had to purchase the means
+of sustaining life, by life itself; and water, like that of the well of
+Bethlehem, longed for by King David, one of its ancient monarchs, was
+then, as before, only obtained by the expenditure of blood.
+
+These evils were in a great measure counterbalanced by the stern
+resolution and restless activity of King Richard, who, with some of his
+best knights, was ever on horseback, ready to repair to any point where
+danger occurred, and often not only bringing unexpected succour to the
+Christians, but discomfiting the infidels when they seemed most secure
+of victory. But even the iron frame of Coeur de Lion could not support
+without injury the alternations of the unwholesome climate, joined to
+ceaseless exertions of body and mind. He became afflicted with one of
+those slow and wasting fevers peculiar to Asia, and in despite of his
+great strength and still greater courage, grew first unfit to mount on
+horseback, and then unable to attend the councils of war which were from
+time to time held by the Crusaders. It was difficult to say whether this
+state of personal inactivity was rendered more galling or more endurable
+to the English monarch by the resolution of the council to engage in a
+truce of thirty days with the Sultan Saladin; for on the one hand, if he
+was incensed at the delay which this interposed to the progress of the
+great enterprise, he was, on the other, somewhat consoled by knowing
+that others were not acquiring laurels while he remained inactive upon a
+sick-bed.
+
+That, however, which Coeur de Lion could least excuse was the general
+inactivity which prevailed in the camp of the Crusaders so soon as his
+illness assumed a serious aspect; and the reports which he extracted
+from his unwilling attendants gave him to understand that the hopes of
+the host had abated in proportion to his illness, and that the interval
+of truce was employed, not in recruiting their numbers, reanimating
+their courage, fostering their spirit of conquest, and preparing for a
+speedy and determined advance upon the Holy City, which was the
+object of their expedition, but in securing the camp occupied by their
+diminished followers with trenches, palisades, and other fortifications,
+as if preparing rather to repel an attack from a powerful enemy so soon
+as hostilities should recommence, than to assume the proud character of
+conquerors and assailants.
+
+The English king chafed under these reports, like the imprisoned lion
+viewing his prey from the iron barriers of his cage. Naturally rash
+and impetuous, the irritability of his temper preyed on itself. He was
+dreaded by his attendants and even the medical assistants feared to
+assume the necessary authority which a physician, to do justice to his
+patient, must needs exercise over him. One faithful baron, who, perhaps,
+from the congenial nature of his disposition, was devoutly attached to
+the King's person, dared alone to come between the dragon and his wrath,
+and quietly, but firmly, maintained a control which no other dared
+assume over the dangerous invalid, and which Thomas de Multon only
+exercised because he esteemed his sovereign's life and honour more than
+he did the degree of favour which he might lose, or even the risk
+which he might incur, in nursing a patient so intractable, and whose
+displeasure was so perilous.
+
+Sir Thomas was the Lord of Gilsland, in Cumberland, and in an age
+when surnames and titles were not distinctly attached, as now, to the
+individuals who bore them, he was called by the Normans the Lord de
+Vaux; and in English by the Saxons, who clung to their native language,
+and were proud of the share of Saxon blood in this renowned warrior's
+veins, he was termed Thomas, or, more familiarly, Thom of the Gills,
+or Narrow Valleys, from which his extensive domains derived their
+well-known appellation.
+
+This chief had been exercised in almost all the wars, whether waged
+betwixt England and Scotland, or amongst the various domestic factions
+which then tore the former country asunder, and in all had been
+distinguished, as well from his military conduct as his personal
+prowess. He was, in other respects, a rude soldier, blunt and careless
+in his bearing, and taciturn--nay, almost sullen--in his habits of
+society, and seeming, at least, to disclaim all knowledge of policy and
+of courtly art. There were men, however, who pretended to look deeply
+into character, who asserted that the Lord de Vaux was not less shrewd
+and aspiring than he was blunt and bold, and who thought that, while he
+assimilated himself to the king's own character of blunt hardihood, it
+was, in some degree at least, with an eye to establish his favour, and
+to gratify his own hopes of deep-laid ambition. But no one cared to
+thwart his schemes, if such he had, by rivalling him in the dangerous
+occupation of daily attendance on the sick-bed of a patient whose
+disease was pronounced infectious, and more especially when it was
+remembered that the patient was Coeur de Lion, suffering under all the
+furious impatience of a soldier withheld from battle, and a sovereign
+sequestered from authority; and the common soldiers, at least in the
+English army, were generally of opinion that De Vaux attended on
+the King like comrade upon comrade, in the honest and disinterested
+frankness of military friendship contracted between the partakers of
+daily dangers.
+
+It was on the decline of a Syrian day that Richard lay on his couch of
+sickness, loathing it as much in mind as his illness made it irksome to
+his body. His bright blue eye, which at all times shone with uncommon
+keenness and splendour, had its vivacity augmented by fever and mental
+impatience, and glanced from among his curled and unshorn locks of
+yellow hair as fitfully and as vividly as the last gleams of the sun
+shoot through the clouds of an approaching thunderstorm, which still,
+however, are gilded by its beams. His manly features showed the
+progress of wasting illness, and his beard, neglected and untrimmed,
+had overgrown both lips and chin. Casting himself from side to side, now
+clutching towards him the coverings, which at the next moment he flung
+as impatiently from him, his tossed couch and impatient gestures showed
+at once the energy and the reckless impatience of a disposition whose
+natural sphere was that of the most active exertion.
+
+Beside his couch stood Thomas de Vaux, in face, attitude, and manner
+the strongest possible contrast to the suffering monarch. His stature
+approached the gigantic, and his hair in thickness might have resembled
+that of Samson, though only after the Israelitish champion's locks had
+passed under the shears of the Philistines, for those of De Vaux were
+cut short, that they might be enclosed under his helmet. The light of
+his broad, large hazel eye resembled that of the autumn morn; and it was
+only perturbed for a moment, when from time to time it was attracted by
+Richard's vehement marks of agitation and restlessness. His features,
+though massive like his person, might have been handsome before they
+were defaced with scars; his upper lip, after the fashion of the
+Normans, was covered with thick moustaches, which grew so long and
+luxuriantly as to mingle with his hair, and, like his hair, were dark
+brown, slightly brindled with grey. His frame seemed of that kind which
+most readily defies both toil and climate, for he was thin-flanked,
+broad-chested, long-armed, deep-breathed, and strong-limbed. He had not
+laid aside his buff-coat, which displayed the cross cut on the shoulder,
+for more than three nights, enjoying but such momentary repose as the
+warder of a sick monarch's couch might by snatches indulge. This Baron
+rarely changed his posture, except to administer to Richard the medicine
+or refreshments which none of his less favoured attendants could
+persuade the impatient monarch to take; and there was something
+affecting in the kindly yet awkward manner in which he discharged
+offices so strangely contrasted with his blunt and soldierly habits and
+manners.
+
+The pavilion in which these personages were, had, as became the time,
+as well as the personal character of Richard, more of a warlike than a
+sumptuous or royal character. Weapons offensive and defensive, several
+of them of strange and newly-invented construction, were scattered about
+the tented apartment, or disposed upon the pillars which supported it.
+Skins of animals slain in the chase were stretched on the ground, or
+extended along the sides of the pavilion; and upon a heap of
+these silvan spoils lay three ALANS, as they were then called
+(wolf-greyhounds, that is), of the largest size, and as white as snow.
+Their faces, marked with many a scar from clutch and fang, showed their
+share in collecting the trophies upon which they reposed; and their
+eyes, fixed from time to time with an expressive stretch and yawn upon
+the bed of Richard, evinced how much they marvelled at and regretted the
+unwonted inactivity which they were compelled to share. These were but
+the accompaniments of the soldier and huntsman; but on a small table
+close by the bed was placed a shield of wrought steel, of triangular
+form, bearing the three lions passant first assumed by the chivalrous
+monarch, and before it the golden circlet, resembling much a ducal
+coronet, only that it was higher in front than behind, which, with
+the purple velvet and embroidered tiara that lined it, formed then the
+emblem of England's sovereignty. Beside it, as if prompt for defending
+the regal symbol, lay a mighty curtal-axe, which would have wearied the
+arm of any other than Coeur de Lion.
+
+In an outer partition of the pavilion waited two or three officers of
+the royal household, depressed, anxious for their master's health, and
+not less so for their own safety, in case of his decease. Their gloomy
+apprehensions spread themselves to the warders without, who paced about
+in downcast and silent contemplation, or, resting on their halberds,
+stood motionless on their post, rather like armed trophies than living
+warriors.
+
+"So thou hast no better news to bring me from without, Sir Thomas!"
+said the King, after a long and perturbed silence, spent in the feverish
+agitation which we have endeavoured to describe. "All our knights turned
+women, and our ladies become devotees, and neither a spark of valour nor
+of gallantry to enlighten a camp which contains the choicest of Europe's
+chivalry--ha!"
+
+"The truce, my lord," said De Vaux, with the same patience with which
+he had twenty times repeated the explanation--"the truce prevents us
+bearing ourselves as men of action; and for the ladies, I am no great
+reveller, as is well known to your Majesty, and seldom exchange steel
+and buff for velvet and gold--but thus far I know, that our choicest
+beauties are waiting upon the Queen's Majesty and the Princess, to a
+pilgrimage to the convent of Engaddi, to accomplish their vows for your
+Highness's deliverance from this trouble."
+
+"And is it thus," said Richard, with the impatience of indisposition,
+"that royal matrons and maidens should risk themselves, where the dogs
+who defile the land have as little truth to man as they have faith
+towards God?"
+
+"Nay, my lord," said De Vaux, "they have Saladin's word for their
+safety."
+
+"True, true!" replied Richard; "and I did the heathen Soldan
+injustice--I owe him reparation for it. Would God I were but fit
+to offer it him upon my body between the two hosts--Christendom and
+heathenesse both looking on!"
+
+As Richard spoke, he thrust his right arm out of bed naked to the
+shoulder, and painfully raising himself in his couch, shook his clenched
+hand, as if it grasped sword or battle-axe, and was then brandished over
+the jewelled turban of the Soldan. It was not without a gentle degree of
+violence, which the King would scarce have endured from another, that
+De Vaux, in his character of sick-nurse, compelled his royal master
+to replace himself in the couch, and covered his sinewy arm, neck, and
+shoulders with the care which a mother bestows upon an impatient child.
+
+"Thou art a rough nurse, though a willing one, De Vaux," said the King,
+laughing with a bitter expression, while he submitted to the strength
+which he was unable to resist; "methinks a coif would become thy
+lowering features as well as a child's biggin would beseem mine. We
+should be a babe and nurse to frighten girls with."
+
+"We have frightened men in our time, my liege," said De Vaux; "and, I
+trust, may live to frighten them again. What is a fever-fit, that we
+should not endure it patiently, in order to get rid of it easily?"
+
+"Fever-fit!" exclaimed Richard impetuously; "thou mayest think, and
+justly, that it is a fever-fit with me; but what is it with all the
+other Christian princes--with Philip of France, with that dull Austrian,
+with him of Montserrat, with the Hospitallers, with the Templars--what
+is it with all them? I will tell thee. It is a cold palsy, a dead
+lethargy, a disease that deprives them of speech and action, a canker
+that has eaten into the heart of all that is noble, and chivalrous, and
+virtuous among them--that has made them false to the noblest vow ever
+knights were sworn to--has made them indifferent to their fame, and
+forgetful of their God!"
+
+"For the love of Heaven, my liege," said De Vaux, "take it less
+violently--you will be heard without doors, where such speeches are but
+too current already among the common soldiery, and engender discord and
+contention in the Christian host. Bethink you that your illness mars the
+mainspring of their enterprise; a mangonel will work without screw and
+lever better than the Christian host without King Richard."
+
+"Thou flatterest me, De Vaux," said Richard, and not insensible to
+the power of praise, he reclined his head on the pillow with a more
+deliberate attempt to repose than he had yet exhibited. But Thomas
+de Vaux was no courtier; the phrase which had offered had risen
+spontaneously to his lips, and he knew not how to pursue the pleasing
+theme so as to soothe and prolong the vein which he had excited. He was
+silent, therefore, until, relapsing into his moody contemplations, the
+King demanded of him sharply, "Despardieux! This is smoothly said to
+soothe a sick man; but does a league of monarchs, an assemblage or
+nobles, a convocation of all the chivalry of Europe, droop with the
+sickness of one man, though he chances to be King of England? Why
+should Richard's illness, or Richard's death, check the march of thirty
+thousand men as brave as himself? When the master stag is struck down,
+the herd do not disperse upon his fall; when the falcon strikes the
+leading crane, another takes the guidance of the phalanx. Why do not
+the powers assemble and choose some one to whom they may entrust the
+guidance of the host?"
+
+"Forsooth, and if it please your Majesty," said De Vaux, "I hear
+consultations have been held among the royal leaders for some such
+purpose."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Richard, his jealousy awakened, giving his mental
+irritation another direction, "am I forgot by my allies ere I have taken
+the last sacrament? Do they hold me dead already? But no, no, they are
+right. And whom do they select as leader of the Christian host?"
+
+"Rank and dignity," said De Vaux, "point to the King of France."
+
+"Oh, ay," answered the English monarch, "Philip of France and
+Navarre--Denis Mountjoie--his most Christian Majesty! Mouth-filling
+words these! There is but one risk--that he might mistake the words EN
+ARRIERE for EN AVANT, and lead us back to Paris, instead of marching to
+Jerusalem. His politic head has learned by this time that there is more
+to be gotten by oppressing his feudatories, and pillaging his allies,
+than fighting with the Turks for the Holy Sepulchre."
+
+"They might choose the Archduke of Austria," said De Vaux.
+
+"What! because he is big and burly like thyself, Thomas--nearly as
+thick-headed, but without thy indifference to danger and carelessness
+of offence? I tell thee that Austria has in all that mass of flesh no
+bolder animation than is afforded by the peevishness of a wasp and the
+courage of a wren. Out upon him! He a leader of chivalry to deeds
+of glory! Give him a flagon of Rhenish to drink with his besmirched
+baaren-hauters and lance-knechts."
+
+"There is the Grand Master of the Templars," continued the baron, not
+sorry to keep his master's attention engaged on other topics than his
+own illness, though at the expense of the characters of prince and
+potentate. "There is the Grand Master of the Templars," he continued,
+"undaunted, skilful, brave in battle, and sage in council, having no
+separate kingdoms of his own to divert his exertions from the recovery
+of the Holy Land--what thinks your Majesty of the Master as a general
+leader of the Christian host?"
+
+"Ha, Beau-Seant?" answered the King. "Oh, no exception can be taken to
+Brother Giles Amaury; he understands the ordering of a battle, and the
+fighting in front when it begins. But, Sir Thomas, were it fair to take
+the Holy Land from the heathen Saladin, so full of all the virtues which
+may distinguish unchristened man, and give it to Giles Amaury, a worse
+pagan than himself, an idolater, a devil-worshipper, a necromancer, who
+practises crimes the most dark and unnatural in the vaults and secret
+places of abomination and darkness?"
+
+"The Grand Master of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem is not
+tainted by fame, either with heresy or magic," said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+"But is he not a sordid miser?" said Richard hastily; "has he not been
+suspected--ay, more than suspected--of selling to the infidels those
+advantages which they would never have won by fair force? Tush, man,
+better give the army to be made merchandise of by Venetian skippers and
+Lombardy pedlars, than trust it to the Grand Master of St. John."
+
+"Well, then, I will venture but another guess," said the Baron de Vaux.
+"What say you to the gallant Marquis of Montserrat, so wise, so elegant,
+such a good man-at-arms?"
+
+"Wise?--cunning, you would say," replied Richard; "elegant in a lady's
+chamber, if you will. Oh, ay, Conrade of Montserrat--who knows not the
+popinjay? Politic and versatile, he will change you his purposes as
+often as the trimmings of his doublet, and you shall never be able to
+guess the hue of his inmost vestments from their outward colours. A
+man-at-arms? Ay, a fine figure on horseback, and can bear him well in
+the tilt-yard, and at the barriers, when swords are blunted at point
+and edge, and spears are tipped with trenchers of wood instead of steel
+pikes. Wert thou not with me when I said to that same gay Marquis, 'Here
+we be, three good Christians, and on yonder plain there pricks a band of
+some threescore Saracens--what say you to charge them briskly? There are
+but twenty unbelieving miscreants to each true knight."
+
+"I recollect the Marquis replied," said De Vaux, "that his limbs were
+of flesh, not of iron, and that he would rather bear the heart of a
+man than of a beast, though that beast were the lion, But I see how
+it is--we shall end where we began, without hope of praying at the
+Sepulchre until Heaven shall restore King Richard to health."
+
+At this grave remark Richard burst out into a hearty fit of laughter,
+the first which he had for some time indulged in. "Why what a thing is
+conscience," he said, "that through its means even such a thick-witted
+northern lord as thou canst bring thy sovereign to confess his folly!
+It is true that, did they not propose themselves as fit to hold my
+leading-staff, little should I care for plucking the silken trappings
+off the puppets thou hast shown me in succession. What concerns it me
+what fine tinsel robes they swagger in, unless when they are named as
+rivals in the glorious enterprise to which I have vowed myself? Yes,
+De Vaux, I confess my weakness, and the wilfulness of my ambition. The
+Christian camp contains, doubtless, many a better knight than Richard of
+England, and it would be wise and worthy to assign to the best of them
+the leading of the host. But," continued the warlike monarch, raising
+himself in his bed, and shaking the cover from his head, while his eyes
+sparkled as they were wont to do on the eve of battle, "were such a
+knight to plant the banner of the Cross on the Temple of Jerusalem while
+I was unable to bear my share in the noble task, he should, so soon as I
+was fit to lay lance in rest, undergo my challenge to mortal combat,
+for having diminished my fame, and pressed in before to the object of my
+enterprise. But hark, what trumpets are those at a distance?"
+
+"Those of King Philip, as I guess, my liege," said the stout Englishman.
+
+"Thou art dull of ear, Thomas," said the King, endeavouring to start up;
+"hearest thou not that clash and clang? By Heaven, the Turks are in the
+camp--I hear their LELIES." [The war-cries of the Moslemah.]
+
+He again endeavoured to get out of bed, and De Vaux was obliged to
+exercise his own great strength, and also to summon the assistance of
+the chamberlains from the inner tent, to restrain him.
+
+"Thou art a false traitor, De Vaux," said the incensed monarch, when,
+breathless and exhausted with struggling, he was compelled to submit
+to superior strength, and to repose in quiet on his couch. "I would I
+were--I would I were but strong enough to dash thy brains out with my
+battle-axe!"
+
+"I would you had the strength, my liege," said De Vaux, "and would
+even take the risk of its being so employed. The odds would be great in
+favour of Christendom were Thomas Multon dead and Coeur de Lion himself
+again."
+
+"Mine honest faithful servant," said Richard, extending his hand, which
+the baron reverentially saluted, "forgive thy master's impatience of
+mood. It is this burning fever which chides thee, and not thy kind
+master, Richard of England. But go, I prithee, and bring me word what
+strangers are in the camp, for these sounds are not of Christendom."
+
+De Vaux left the pavilion on the errand assigned, and in his absence,
+which he had resolved should be brief, he charged the chamberlains,
+pages, and attendants to redouble their attention on their sovereign,
+with threats of holding them to responsibility, which rather added to
+than diminished their timid anxiety in the discharge of their duty; for
+next, perhaps, to the ire of the monarch himself, they dreaded that
+of the stern and inexorable Lord of Gilsland. [Sir Thomas Multon of
+Gilsland.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     There never was a time on the march parts yet,
+     When Scottish with English met,
+     But it was marvel if the red blood ran not
+     As the rain does in the street.
+     --BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
+
+A considerable band of Scottish warriors had joined the Crusaders,
+and had naturally placed themselves under the command of the English
+monarch, being, like his native troops, most of them of Saxon and
+Norman descent, speaking the same languages, possessed, some of them, of
+English as well as Scottish demesnes, and allied in some cases by blood
+and intermarriage. The period also preceded that when the grasping
+ambition of Edward I. gave a deadly and envenomed character to the wars
+betwixt the two nations--the English fighting for the subjugation
+of Scotland, and the Scottish, with all the stern determination and
+obstinacy which has ever characterized their nation, for the defence
+of their independence, by the most violent means, under the most
+disadvantageous circumstances, and at the most extreme hazard. As yet,
+wars betwixt the two nations, though fierce and frequent, had been
+conducted on principles of fair hostility, and admitted of those
+softening shades by which courtesy and the respect for open and generous
+foemen qualify and mitigate the horrors of war. In time of peace,
+therefore, and especially when both, as at present, were engaged in war,
+waged in behalf of a common cause, and rendered dear to them by their
+ideas of religion, the adventurers of both countries frequently fought
+side by side, their national emulation serving only to stimulate them to
+excel each other in their efforts against the common enemy.
+
+The frank and martial character of Richard, who made no distinction
+betwixt his own subjects and those of William of Scotland, excepting as
+they bore themselves in the field of battle, tended much to
+conciliate the troops of both nations. But upon his illness, and the
+disadvantageous circumstances in which the Crusaders were placed, the
+national disunion between the various bands united in the Crusade, began
+to display itself, just as old wounds break out afresh in the human body
+when under the influence of disease or debility.
+
+The Scottish and English, equally jealous and high-spirited, and apt to
+take offence--the former the more so, because the poorer and the weaker
+nation--began to fill up by internal dissension the period when the
+truce forbade them to wreak their united vengeance on the Saracens.
+Like the contending Roman chiefs of old, the Scottish would admit no
+superiority, and their southern neighbours would brook no equality.
+There were charges and recriminations, and both the common soldiery
+and their leaders and commanders, who had been good comrades in time of
+victory, lowered on each other in the period of adversity, as if their
+union had not been then more essential than ever, not only to the
+success of their common cause, but to their joint safety. The same
+disunion had begun to show itself betwixt the French and English, the
+Italians and the Germans, and even between the Danes and Swedes; but it
+is only that which divided the two nations whom one island bred, and who
+seemed more animated against each other for the very reason, that our
+narrative is principally concerned with.
+
+Of all the English nobles who had followed their King to Palestine,
+De Vaux was most prejudiced against the Scottish. They were his near
+neighbours, with whom he had been engaged during his whole life in
+private or public warfare, and on whom he had inflicted many calamities,
+while he had sustained at their hands not a few. His love and devotion
+to the King was like the vivid affection of the old English mastiff to
+his master, leaving him churlish and inaccessible to all others even
+towards those to whom he was indifferent--and rough and dangerous to
+any against whom he entertained a prejudice. De Vaux had never observed
+without jealousy and displeasure his King exhibit any mark of courtesy
+or favour to the wicked, deceitful, and ferocious race born on the
+other side of a river, or an imaginary line drawn through waste and
+wilderness; and he even doubted the success of a Crusade in which they
+were suffered to bear arms, holding them in his secret soul little
+better than the Saracens whom he came to combat. It may be added that,
+as being himself a blunt and downright Englishman, unaccustomed
+to conceal the slightest movement either of love or of dislike, he
+accounted the fair-spoken courtesy which the Scots had learned, either
+from imitation of their frequent allies, the French, or which might
+have arisen from their own proud and reserved character, as a false and
+astucious mark of the most dangerous designs against their neighbours,
+over whom he believed, with genuine English confidence, they could, by
+fair manhood, never obtain any advantage.
+
+Yet, though De Vaux entertained these sentiments concerning his Northern
+neighbours, and extended them, with little mitigation, even to such as
+had assumed the Cross, his respect for the King, and a sense of the duty
+imposed by his vow as a Crusader, prevented him from displaying them
+otherwise than by regularly shunning all intercourse with his Scottish
+brethren-at-arms as far as possible, by observing a sullen taciturnity
+when compelled to meet them occasionally, and by looking scornfully upon
+them when they encountered on the march and in camp. The Scottish barons
+and knights were not men to bear his scorn unobserved or unreplied to;
+and it came to that pass that he was regarded as the determined and
+active enemy of a nation, whom, after all, he only disliked, and in some
+sort despised. Nay, it was remarked by close observers that, if he had
+not towards them the charity of Scripture, which suffereth long, and
+judges kindly, he was by no means deficient in the subordinate and
+limited virtue, which alleviates and relieves the wants of others.
+The wealth of Thomas of Gilsland procured supplies of provisions and
+medicines, and some of these usually flowed by secret channels into
+the quarters of the Scottish--his surly benevolence proceeding on the
+principle that, next to a man's friend, his foe was of most importance
+to him, passing over all the intermediate relations as too indifferent
+to merit even a thought. This explanation is necessary, in order that
+the reader may fully understand what we are now to detail.
+
+Thomas de Vaux had not made many steps beyond the entrance of the royal
+pavilion when he was aware of what the far more acute ear of the English
+monarch--no mean proficient in the art of minstrelsy--had instantly
+discovered, that the musical strains, namely, which had reached their
+ears, were produced by the pipes, shalms, and kettle-drums of the
+Saracens; and at the bottom of an avenue of tents, which formed a broad
+access to the pavilion of Richard, he could see a crowd of idle soldiers
+assembled around the spot from which the music was heard, almost in the
+centre of the camp; and he saw, with great surprise, mingled amid the
+helmets of various forms worn by the Crusaders of different nations,
+white turbans and long pikes, announcing the presence of armed
+Saracens, and the huge deformed heads of several camels or dromedaries,
+overlooking the multitude by aid of their long, disproportioned necks.
+
+Wondering, and displeased at a sight so unexpected and singular--for it
+was customary to leave all flags of truce and other communications from
+the enemy at an appointed place without the barriers--the baron looked
+eagerly round for some one of whom he might inquire the cause of this
+alarming novelty.
+
+The first person whom he met advancing to him he set down at once, by
+his grave and haughty step, as a Spaniard or a Scot; and presently after
+muttered to himself, "And a Scot it is--he of the Leopard. I have seen
+him fight indifferently well, for one of his country."
+
+Loath to ask even a passing question, he was about to pass Sir Kenneth,
+with that sullen and lowering port which seems to say, "I know thee, but
+I will hold no communication with thee." But his purpose was defeated
+by the Northern Knight, who moved forward directly to him, and accosting
+him with formal courtesy, said, "My Lord de Vaux of Gilsland, I have in
+charge to speak with you."
+
+"Ha!" returned the English baron, "with me? But say your pleasure, so it
+be shortly spoken--I am on the King's errand."
+
+"Mine touches King Richard yet more nearly," answered Sir Kenneth; "I
+bring him, I trust, health."
+
+The Lord of Gilsland measured the Scot with incredulous eyes, and
+replied, "Thou art no leech, I think, Sir Scot; I had as soon thought of
+your bringing the King of England wealth."
+
+Sir Kenneth, though displeased with the manner of the baron's
+reply, answered calmly, "Health to Richard is glory and wealth to
+Christendom.--But my time presses; I pray you, may I see the King?"
+
+"Surely not, fair sir," said the baron, "until your errand be told more
+distinctly. The sick chambers of princes open not to all who inquire,
+like a northern hostelry."
+
+"My lord," said Kenneth, "the cross which I wear in common with
+yourself, and the importance of what I have to tell, must, for the
+present, cause me to pass over a bearing which else I were unapt to
+endure. In plain language, then, I bring with me a Moorish physician,
+who undertakes to work a cure on King Richard."
+
+"A Moorish physician!" said De Vaux; "and who will warrant that he
+brings not poisons instead of remedies?"
+
+"His own life, my lord--his head, which he offers as a guarantee."
+
+"I have known many a resolute ruffian," said De Vaux, "who valued his
+own life as little as it deserved, and would troop to the gallows as
+merrily as if the hangman were his partner in a dance."
+
+"But thus it is, my lord," replied the Scot. "Saladin, to whom none will
+deny the credit of a generous and valiant enemy, hath sent this
+leech hither with an honourable retinue and guard, befitting the high
+estimation in which El Hakim [The Physician] is held by the Soldan, and
+with fruits and refreshments for the King's private chamber, and such
+message as may pass betwixt honourable enemies, praying him to be
+recovered of his fever, that he may be the fitter to receive a visit
+from the Soldan, with his naked scimitar in his hand, and a hundred
+thousand cavaliers at his back. Will it please you, who are of the
+King's secret council, to cause these camels to be discharged of
+their burdens, and some order taken as to the reception of the learned
+physician?"
+
+"Wonderful!" said De Vaux, as speaking to himself.--"And who will vouch
+for the honour of Saladin, in a case when bad faith would rid him at
+once of his most powerful adversary?"
+
+"I myself," replied Sir Kenneth, "will be his guarantee, with honour,
+life, and fortune."
+
+"Strange!" again ejaculated De Vaux; "the North vouches for the
+South--the Scot for the Turk! May I crave of you, Sir Knight, how you
+became concerned in this affair?"
+
+"I have been absent on a pilgrimage, in the course of which," replied
+Sir Kenneth "I had a message to discharge towards the holy hermit of
+Engaddi."
+
+"May I not be entrusted with it, Sir Kenneth, and with the answer of the
+holy man?"
+
+"It may not be, my lord," answered the Scot.
+
+"I am of the secret council of England," said the Englishman haughtily.
+
+"To which land I owe no allegiance," said Kenneth. "Though I have
+voluntarily followed in this war the personal fortunes of England's
+sovereign, I was dispatched by the General Council of the kings,
+princes, and supreme leaders of the army of the Blessed Cross, and to
+them only I render my errand."
+
+"Ha! sayest thou?" said the proud Baron de Vaux. "But know, messenger
+of the kings and princes as thou mayest be, no leech shall approach the
+sick-bed of Richard of England without the consent of him of Gilsland;
+and they will come on evil errand who dare to intrude themselves against
+it."
+
+He was turning loftily away, when the Scot, placing himself closer, and
+more opposite to him, asked, in a calm voice, yet not without expressing
+his share of pride, whether the Lord of Gilsland esteemed him a
+gentleman and a good knight.
+
+"All Scots are ennobled by their birthright," answered Thomas de Vaux,
+something ironically; but sensible of his own injustice, and perceiving
+that Kenneth's colour rose, he added, "For a good knight it were sin to
+doubt you, in one at least who has seen you well and bravely discharge
+your devoir."
+
+"Well, then," said the Scottish knight, satisfied with the frankness of
+the last admission, "and let me swear to you, Thomas of Gilsland, that,
+as I am true Scottish man, which I hold a privilege equal to my ancient
+gentry, and as sure as I am a belted knight, and come hither to acquire
+LOS [Los--laus, praise, or renown] and fame in this mortal life, and
+forgiveness of my sins in that which is to come--so truly, and by the
+blessed Cross which I wear, do I protest unto you that I desire but the
+safety of Richard Coeur de Lion, in recommending the ministry of this
+Moslem physician."
+
+The Englishman was struck with the solemnity of the obtestation, and
+answered with more cordiality than he had yet exhibited, "Tell me, Sir
+Knight of the Leopard, granting (which I do not doubt) that thou art
+thyself satisfied in this matter, shall I do well, in a land where the
+art of poisoning is as general as that of cooking, to bring this
+unknown physician to practise with his drugs on a health so valuable to
+Christendom?"
+
+"My lord," replied the Scot, "thus only can I reply--that my squire, the
+only one of my retinue whom war and disease had left in attendance on
+me, has been of late suffering dangerously under this same fever, which,
+in valiant King Richard, has disabled the principal limb of our holy
+enterprise. This leech, this El Hakim, hath ministered remedies to him
+not two hours since, and already he hath fallen into a refreshing sleep.
+That he can cure the disorder, which has proved so fatal, I nothing
+doubt; that he hath the purpose to do it is, I think, warranted by his
+mission from the royal Soldan, who is true-hearted and loyal, so far as
+a blinded infidel may be called so; and for his eventual success, the
+certainty of reward in case of succeeding, and punishment in case of
+voluntary failure, may be a sufficient guarantee."
+
+The Englishman listened with downcast looks, as one who doubted, yet was
+not unwilling to receive conviction. At length he looked up and said,
+"May I see your sick squire, fair sir?"
+
+The Scottish knight hesitated and coloured, yet answered at last,
+"Willingly, my Lord of Gilsland. But you must remember, when you see my
+poor quarter, that the nobles and knights of Scotland feed not so high,
+sleep not so soft, and care not for the magnificence of lodgment which
+is Proper to their southern neighbours. I am POORLY lodged, my Lord of
+Gilsland," he added, with a haughty emphasis on the word, while, with
+some unwillingness, he led the way to his temporary place of abode.
+
+Whatever were the prejudices of De Vaux against the nation of his new
+acquaintance, and though we undertake not to deny that some of these
+were excited by its proverbial poverty, he had too much nobleness
+of disposition to enjoy the mortification of a brave individual
+thus compelled to make known wants which his pride would gladly have
+concealed.
+
+"Shame to the soldier of the Cross," he said, "who thinks of worldly
+splendour, or of luxurious accommodation, when pressing forward to
+the conquest of the Holy City. Fare as hard as we may, we shall yet be
+better than the host of martyrs and of saints, who, having trod these
+scenes before us, now hold golden lamps and evergreen palms."
+
+This was the most metaphorical speech which Thomas of Gilsland was ever
+known to utter, the rather, perhaps (as will sometimes happen), that it
+did not entirely express his own sentiments, being somewhat a lover of
+good cheer and splendid accommodation. By this time they reached the
+place of the camp where the Knight of the Leopard had assumed his abode.
+
+Appearances here did indeed promise no breach of the laws of
+mortification, to which the Crusaders, according to the opinion
+expressed by him of Gilsland, ought to subject themselves. A space of
+ground, large enough to accommodate perhaps thirty tents, according to
+the Crusaders' rules of castrametation, was partly vacant--because,
+in ostentation, the knight had demanded ground to the extent of his
+original retinue--partly occupied by a few miserable huts, hastily
+constructed of boughs, and covered with palm-leaves. These habitations
+seemed entirely deserted, and several of them were ruinous. The central
+hut, which represented the pavilion of the leader, was distinguished by
+his swallow-tailed pennon, placed on the point of a spear, from which
+its long folds dropped motionless to the ground, as if sickening under
+the scorching rays of the Asiatic sun. But no pages or squires--not even
+a solitary warder--was placed by the emblem of feudal power and knightly
+degree. If its reputation defended it not from insult, it had no other
+guard.
+
+Sir Kenneth cast a melancholy look around him, but suppressing his
+feelings, entered the hut, making a sign to the Baron of Gilsland to
+follow. He also cast around a glance of examination, which implied pity
+not altogether unmingled with contempt, to which, perhaps, it is as
+nearly akin as it is said to be to love. He then stooped his lofty
+crest, and entered a lowly hut, which his bulky form seemed almost
+entirely to fill.
+
+The interior of the hut was chiefly occupied by two beds. One was empty,
+but composed of collected leaves, and spread with an antelope's hide. It
+seemed, from the articles of armour laid beside it, and from a crucifix
+of silver, carefully and reverentially disposed at the head, to be the
+couch of the knight himself. The other contained the invalid, of whom
+Sir Kenneth had spoken, a strong-built and harsh-featured man, past, as
+his looks betokened, the middle age of life. His couch was trimmed
+more softly than his master's, and it was plain that the more courtly
+garments of the latter, the loose robe in which the knights showed
+themselves on pacific occasions, and the other little spare articles
+of dress and adornment, had been applied by Sir Kenneth to the
+accommodation of his sick domestic. In an outward part of the hut,
+which yet was within the range of the English baron's eye, a boy,
+rudely attired with buskins of deer's hide, a blue cap or bonnet, and a
+doublet, whose original finery was much tarnished, sat on his knees by
+a chafing-dish filled with charcoal, cooking upon a plate of iron the
+cakes of barley-bread, which were then, and still are, a favourite food
+with the Scottish people. Part of an antelope was suspended against one
+of the main props of the hut. Nor was it difficult to know how it had
+been procured; for a large stag greyhound, nobler in size and appearance
+than those even which guarded King Richard's sick-bed, lay eyeing
+the process of baking the cake. The sagacious animal, on their first
+entrance, uttered a stifled growl, which sounded from his deep chest
+like distant thunder. But he saw his master, and acknowledged his
+presence by wagging his tail and couching his head, abstaining from more
+tumultuous or noisy greeting, as if his noble instinct had taught him
+the propriety of silence in a sick man's chamber.
+
+Beside the couch sat on a cushion, also composed of skins, the Moorish
+physician of whom Sir Kenneth had spoken, cross-legged, after the
+Eastern fashion. The imperfect light showed little of him, save that
+the lower part of his face was covered with a long, black beard, which
+descended over his breast; that he wore a high TOLPACH, a Tartar cap of
+the lamb's wool manufactured at Astracan, bearing the same dusky colour;
+and that his ample caftan, or Turkish robe, was also of a dark hue.
+Two piercing eyes, which gleamed with unusual lustre, were the only
+lineaments of his visage that could be discerned amid the darkness in
+which he was enveloped.
+
+The English lord stood silent with a sort of reverential awe; for
+notwithstanding the roughness of his general bearing, a scene of
+distress and poverty, firmly endured without complaint or murmur, would
+at any time have claimed more reverence from Thomas de Vaux than would
+all the splendid formalities of a royal presence-chamber, unless that
+presence-chamber were King Richard's own. Nothing was for a time heard
+but the heavy and regular breathings of the invalid, who seemed in
+profound repose.
+
+"He hath not slept for six nights before," said Sir Kenneth, "as I am
+assured by the youth, his attendant."
+
+"Noble Scot," said Thomas de Vaux, grasping the Scottish knight's hand,
+with a pressure which had more of cordiality than he permitted his words
+to utter, "this gear must be amended. Your esquire is but too evil fed
+and looked to."
+
+In the latter part of this speech he naturally raised his voice to its
+usual decided tone, The sick man was disturbed in his slumbers.
+
+"My master," he said, murmuring as in a dream, "noble Sir Kenneth, taste
+not, to you as to me, the waters of the Clyde cold and refreshing after
+the brackish springs of Palestine?"
+
+"He dreams of his native land, and is happy in his slumbers," whispered
+Sir Kenneth to De Vaux; but had scarce uttered the words, when the
+physician, arising from the place which he had taken near the couch of
+the sick, and laying the hand of the patient, whose pulse he had been
+carefully watching, quietly upon the couch, came to the two knights,
+and taking them each by the arm, while he intimated to them to remain
+silent, led them to the front of the hut.
+
+"In the name of Issa Ben Mariam," he said, "whom we honour as you,
+though not with the same blinded superstition, disturb not the effect
+of the blessed medicine of which he hath partaken. To awaken him now is
+death or deprivation of reason; but return at the hour when the muezzin
+calls from the minaret to evening prayer in the mosque, and if left
+undisturbed until then, I promise you this same Frankish soldier shall
+be able, without prejudice to his health, to hold some brief converse
+with you on any matters on which either, and especially his master, may
+have to question him."
+
+The knights retreated before the authoritative commands of the leech,
+who seemed fully to comprehend the importance of the Eastern proverb
+that the sick chamber of the patient is the kingdom of the physician.
+
+They paused, and remained standing together at the door of the hut--Sir
+Kenneth with the air of one who expected his visitor to say farewell,
+and De Vaux as if he had something on his mind which prevented him from
+doing so. The hound, however, had pressed out of the tent after them,
+and now thrust his long, rough countenance into the hand of his master,
+as if modestly soliciting some mark of his kindness. He had no sooner
+received the notice which he desired, in the shape of a kind word and
+slight caress, than, eager to acknowledge his gratitude and joy for his
+master's return, he flew off at full speed, galloping in full career,
+and with outstretched tail, here and there, about and around, cross-ways
+and endlong, through the decayed huts and the esplanade we have
+described, but never transgressing those precincts which his sagacity
+knew were protected by his master's pennon. After a few gambols of this
+kind, the dog, coming close up to his master, laid at once aside his
+frolicsome mood, relapsed into his usual gravity and slowness of gesture
+and deportment, and looked as if he were ashamed that anything should
+have moved him to depart so far out of his sober self-control.
+
+Both knights looked on with pleasure; for Sir Kenneth was justly proud
+of his noble hound, and the northern English baron was, of course, an
+admirer of the chase, and a judge of the animal's merits.
+
+"A right able dog," he said. "I think, fair sir, King Richard hath not
+an ALAN which may match him, if he be as stanch as he is swift. But let
+me pray you--speaking in all honour and kindness--have you not heard the
+proclamation that no one under the rank of earl shall keep hunting dogs
+within King Richard's camp without the royal license, which, I think,
+Sir Kenneth, hath not been issued to you? I speak as Master of the
+Horse."
+
+"And I answer as a free Scottish knight," said Kenneth sternly. "For
+the present I follow the banner of England, but I cannot remember that I
+have ever subjected myself to the forest-laws of that kingdom, nor have
+I such respect for them as would incline me to do so. When the trumpet
+sounds to arms, my foot is in the stirrup as soon as any--when it clangs
+for the charge, my lance has not yet been the last laid in the rest. But
+for my hours of liberty or of idleness King Richard has no title to bar
+my recreation."
+
+"Nevertheless," said De Vaux, "it is a folly to disobey the King's
+ordinance; so, with your good leave, I, as having authority in that
+matter, will send you a protection for my friend here."
+
+"I thank you," said the Scot coldly; "but he knows my allotted quarters,
+and within these I can protect him myself.--And yet," he said, suddenly
+changing his manner, "this is but a cold return for a well-meant
+kindness. I thank you, my lord, most heartily. The King's equerries
+or prickers might find Roswal at disadvantage, and do him some injury,
+which I should not, perhaps, be slow in returning, and so ill might come
+of it. You have seen so much of my house-keeping, my lord," he added,
+with a smile, "that I need not shame to say that Roswal is our principal
+purveyor, and well I hope our Lion Richard will not be like the lion
+in the minstrel fable, that went a-hunting, and kept the whole booty to
+himself. I cannot think he would grudge a poor gentleman, who follows
+him faithfully, his hour of sport and his morsel of game, more
+especially when other food is hard enough to come by."
+
+"By my faith, you do the King no more than justice; and yet," said the
+baron, "there is something in these words, vert and venison, that turns
+the very brains of our Norman princes."
+
+"We have heard of late," said the Scot, "by minstrels and pilgrims, that
+your outlawed yeomen have formed great bands in the shires of York and
+Nottingham, having at their head a most stout archer, called Robin Hood,
+with his lieutenant, Little John. Methinks it were better that Richard
+relaxed his forest-code in England, than endeavour to enforce it in the
+Holy Land."
+
+"Wild work, Sir Kenneth," replied De Vaux, shrugging his shoulders, as
+one who would avoid a perilous or unpleasing topic--"a mad world, sir.
+I must now bid you adieu, having presently to return to the King's
+pavilion. At vespers I will again, with your leave, visit your quarters,
+and speak with this same infidel physician. I would, in the meantime,
+were it no offence, willingly send you what would somewhat mend your
+cheer."
+
+"I thank you, sir," said Sir Kenneth, "but it needs not. Roswal hath
+already stocked my larder for two weeks, since the sun of Palestine, if
+it brings diseases, serves also to dry venison."
+
+The two warriors parted much better friends than they had met; but ere
+they separated, Thomas de Vaux informed himself at more length of
+the circumstances attending the mission of the Eastern physician, and
+received from the Scottish knight the credentials which he had brought
+to King Richard on the part of Saladin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
+     Is more than armies to the common weal.
+       POPE'S ILLIAD.
+
+
+"This is a strange tale, Sir Thomas," said the sick monarch, when he had
+heard the report of the trusty Baron of Gilsland. "Art thou sure this
+Scottish man is a tall man and true?"
+
+"I cannot say, my lord," replied the jealous Borderer. "I live a little
+too near the Scots to gather much truth among them, having found them
+ever fair and false. But this man's bearing is that of a true man,
+were he a devil as well as a Scot; that I must needs say for him in
+conscience."
+
+"And for his carriage as a knight, how sayest thou, De Vaux?" demanded
+the King.
+
+"It is your Majesty's business more than mine to note men's bearings;
+and I warrant you have noted the manner in which this man of the Leopard
+hath borne himself. He hath been full well spoken of."
+
+"And justly, Thomas," said the King. "We have ourselves witnessed him.
+It is indeed our purpose in placing ourselves ever in the front of
+battle, to see how our liegemen and followers acquit themselves, and
+not from a desire to accumulate vainglory to ourselves, as some have
+supposed. We know the vanity of the praise of man, which is but a
+vapour, and buckle on our armour for other purposes than to win it."
+
+De Vaux was alarmed when he heard the King make a declaration so
+inconsistent with his nature, and believed at first that nothing short
+of the approach of death could have brought him to speak in depreciating
+terms of military renown, which was the very breath of his nostrils. But
+recollecting he had met the royal confessor in the outer pavilion, he
+was shrewd enough to place this temporary self-abasement to the effect
+of the reverend man's lesson, and suffered the King to proceed without
+reply.
+
+"Yes," continued Richard, "I have indeed marked the manner in which this
+knight does his devoir. My leading-staff were not worth a fool's bauble
+had he escaped my notice; and he had ere now tasted of our bounty, but
+that I have also marked his overweening and audacious presumption."
+
+"My liege," said the Baron of Gilsland, observing the King's countenance
+change, "I fear I have transgressed your pleasure in lending some
+countenance to his transgression."
+
+"How, De Multon, thou?" said the King, contracting his brows, and
+speaking in a tone of angry surprise. "Thou countenance his insolence?
+It cannot be."
+
+"Nay, your Majesty will pardon me to remind you that I have by mine
+office right to grant liberty to men of gentle blood to keep them a
+hound or two within camp, just to cherish the noble art of venerie; and
+besides, it were a sin to have maimed or harmed a thing so noble as this
+gentleman's dog."
+
+"Has he, then, a dog so handsome?" said the King.
+
+"A most perfect creature of Heaven," said the baron, who was an
+enthusiast in field-sports--"of the noblest Northern breed--deep in the
+chest, strong in the stern--black colour, and brindled on the breast
+and legs, not spotted with white, but just shaded into grey--strength to
+pull down a bull, swiftness to cote an antelope."
+
+The King laughed at his enthusiasm. "Well, thou hast given him leave to
+keep the hound, so there is an end of it. Be not, however, liberal of
+your licenses among those knights adventurers who have no prince or
+leader to depend upon; they are ungovernable, and leave no game in
+Palestine.--But to this piece of learned heathenesse--sayest thou the
+Scot met him in the desert?"
+
+"No, my liege; the Scot's tale runs thus. He was dispatched to the old
+hermit of Engaddi, of whom men talk so much--"
+
+"'Sdeath and hell!" said Richard, starting up. "By whom dispatched,
+and for what? Who dared send any one thither, when our Queen was in the
+Convent of Engaddi, upon her pilgrimage for our recovery?"
+
+"The Council of the Crusade sent him, my lord," answered the Baron de
+Vaux; "for what purpose, he declined to account to me. I think it is
+scarce known in the camp that your royal consort is on a pilgrimage;
+and even the princes may not have been aware, as the Queen has been
+sequestered from company since your love prohibited her attendance in
+case of infection."
+
+"Well, it shall be looked into," said Richard. "So this Scottish
+man, this envoy, met with a wandering physician at the grotto of
+Engaddi--ha?"
+
+"Not so my liege," replied De Vaux? "but he met, I think, near that
+place, with a Saracen Emir with whom he had some MELEE in the way of
+proof of valour, and finding him worthy to bear brave men company, they
+went together, as errant knights are wont, to the grotto of Engaddi."
+
+Here De Vaux stopped, for he was not one of those who can tell a long
+story in a sentence.
+
+"And did they there meet the physician?" demanded the King impatiently.
+
+"No, my liege," replied De Vaux; "but the Saracen, learning your
+Majesty's grievous illness, undertook that Saladin should send his own
+physician to you, and with many assurances of his eminent skill; and he
+came to the grotto accordingly, after the Scottish knight had tarried a
+day for him and more. He is attended as if he were a prince, with drums
+and atabals, and servants on horse and foot, and brings with him letters
+of credence from Saladin."
+
+"Have they been examined by Giacomo Loredani?"
+
+"I showed them to the interpreter ere bringing them hither, and behold
+their contents in English."
+
+Richard took a scroll, in which were inscribed these words: The blessing
+of Allah and his Prophet Mohammed ["Out upon the hound!" said Richard,
+spitting in contempt, by way of interjection], Saladin, king of kings,
+Saldan of Egypt and of Syria, the light and refuge of the earth, to the
+great Melech Ric, Richard of England, greeting. Whereas, we have been
+informed that the hand of sickness hath been heavy upon thee, our royal
+brother, and that thou hast with thee only such Nazarene and Jewish
+mediciners as work without the blessing of Allah and our holy Prophet
+["Confusion on his head!" again muttered the English monarch], we have
+therefore sent to tend and wait upon thee at this time the physician
+to our own person, Adonbec el Hakim, before whose face the angel Azrael
+[The Angel of Death.] spreads his wings and departs from the sick
+chamber; who knows the virtues of herbs and stones, the path of the sun,
+moon, and stars, and can save man from all that is not written on his
+forehead. And this we do, praying you heartily to honour and make use
+of his skill; not only that we may do service to thy worth and valour,
+which is the glory of all the nations of Frangistan, but that we may
+bring the controversy which is at present between us to an end, either
+by honourable agreement, or by open trial thereof with our weapons, in a
+fair field--seeing that it neither becomes thy place and courage to die
+the death of a slave who hath been overwrought by his taskmaster, nor
+befits it our fame that a brave adversary be snatched from our weapon by
+such a disease. And, therefore, may the holy--"
+
+"Hold, hold," said Richard, "I will have no more of his dog of a
+prophet! It makes me sick to think the valiant and worthy Soldan should
+believe in a dead dog. Yes, I will see his physician. I will put
+myself into the charge of this Hakim--I will repay the noble Soldan
+his generosity--I will meet Saladin in the field, as he so worthily
+proposes, and he shall have no cause to term Richard of England
+ungrateful. I will strike him to the earth with my battle-axe--I will
+convert him to Holy Church with such blows as he has rarely endured. He
+shall recant his errors before my good cross-handled sword, and I will
+have him baptized on the battle-field, from my own helmet, though the
+cleansing waters were mixed with the blood of us both.--Haste, De Vaux,
+why dost thou delay a conclusion so pleasing? Fetch the Hakim hither."
+
+"My lord," said the baron, who perhaps saw some accession of fever in
+this overflow of confidence, "bethink you, the Soldan is a pagan, and
+that you are his most formidable enemy--"
+
+"For which reason he is the more bound to do me service in this matter,
+lest a paltry fever end the quarrel betwixt two such kings. I tell thee
+he loves me as I love him--as noble adversaries ever love each other. By
+my honour, it were sin to doubt his good faith!"
+
+"Nevertheless, my lord, it were well to wait the issue of these
+medicines upon the Scottish squire," said the Lord of Gilsland. "My own
+life depends upon it, for worthy were I to die like a dog did I proceed
+rashly in this matter, and make shipwreck of the weal of Christendom."
+
+"I never knew thee before hesitate for fear of life," said Richard
+upbraidingly.
+
+"Nor would I now, my liege," replied the stout-hearted baron, "save that
+yours lies at pledge as well as my own."
+
+"Well, thou suspicious mortal," answered Richard, "begone then, and
+watch the progress of this remedy. I could almost wish it might either
+cure or kill me, for I am weary of lying here like an ox dying of
+the murrain, when tambours are beating, horses stamping, and trumpets
+sounding without."
+
+The baron hastily departed, resolved, however, to communicate his errand
+to some churchman, as he felt something burdened in conscience at the
+idea of his master being attended by an unbeliever.
+
+The Archbishop of Tyre was the first to whom he confided his doubts,
+knowing his interest with his master, Richard, who both loved and
+honoured that sagacious prelate. The bishop heard the doubts which De
+Vaux stated, with that acuteness of intelligence which distinguishes the
+Roman Catholic clergy. The religious scruples of De Vaux he treated
+with as much lightness as propriety permitted him to exhibit on such a
+subject to a layman.
+
+"Mediciners," he said, "like the medicines which they employed, were
+often useful, though the one were by birth or manners the vilest of
+humanity, as the others are, in many cases, extracted from the basest
+materials. Men may use the assistance of pagans and infidels," he
+continued, "in their need, and there is reason to think that one cause
+of their being permitted to remain on earth is that they might minister
+to the convenience of true Christians. Thus we lawfully make slaves of
+heathen captives. Again," proceeded the prelate, "there is no doubt that
+the primitive Christians used the services of the unconverted heathen.
+Thus in the ship of Alexandria, in which the blessed Apostle Paul sailed
+to Italy, the sailors were doubtless pagans; yet what said the holy
+saint when their ministry was needful?--'NISI HI IN NAVI MANSERINT, VOS
+SALVI FIERI NON POTESTIS'--Unless these men abide in the ship, ye
+cannot be saved. Again, Jews are infidels to Christianity, as well as
+Mohammedans. But there are few physicians in the camp excepting Jews,
+and such are employed without scandal or scruple. Therefore,
+Mohammedans may be used for their service in that capacity--QUOD ERAT
+DEMONSTRANDUM."
+
+This reasoning entirely removed the scruples of Thomas de Vaux, who was
+particularly moved by the Latin quotation, as he did not understand a
+word of it.
+
+But the bishop proceeded with far less fluency when he considered the
+possibility of the Saracen's acting with bad faith; and here he came not
+to a speedy decision. The baron showed him the letters of credence. He
+read and re-read them, and compared the original with the translation.
+
+"It is a dish choicely cooked," he said, "to the palate of King Richard,
+and I cannot but have my suspicions of the wily Saracen. They are
+curious in the art of poisons, and can so temper them that they shall
+be weeks in acting upon the party, during which time the perpetrator
+has leisure to escape. They can impregnate cloth and leather, nay, even
+paper and parchment, with the most subtle venom. Our Lady forgive me!
+And wherefore, knowing this, hold I these letters of credence so close
+to my face? Take them, Sir Thomas--take them speedily!"
+
+Here he gave them at arm's-length, and with some appearance of haste,
+to the baron. "But come, my Lord de Vaux," he continued, "wend we to the
+tent of this sick squire, where we shall learn whether this Hakim hath
+really the art of curing which he professeth, ere we consider whether
+there be safety in permitting him to exercise his art upon King
+Richard.--Yet, hold! let me first take my pouncet-box, for these fevers
+spread like an infection. I would advise you to use dried rosemary
+steeped in vinegar, my lord. I, too, know something of the healing art."
+
+"I thank your reverend lordship," replied Thomas of Gilsland; "but had
+I been accessible to the fever, I had caught it long since by the bed of
+my master."
+
+The Bishop of Tyre blushed, for he had rather avoided the presence of
+the sick monarch; and he bid the baron lead on.
+
+As they paused before the wretched hut in which Kenneth of the Leopard
+and his follower abode, the bishop said to De Vaux, "Now, of a surety,
+my lord, these Scottish Knights have worse care of their followers than
+we of our dogs. Here is a knight, valiant, they say, in battle, and
+thought fitting to be graced with charges of weight in time of truce,
+whose esquire of the body is lodged worse than in the worst dog-kennel
+in England. What say you of your neighbours?"
+
+"That a master doth well enough for his servant when he lodgeth him in
+no worse dwelling than his own," said De Vaux, and entered the hut.
+
+The bishop followed, not without evident reluctance; for though he
+lacked not courage in some respects, yet it was tempered with a strong
+and lively regard for his own safety. He recollected, however, the
+necessity there was for judging personally of the skill of the Arabian
+physician, and entered the hut with a stateliness of manner calculated,
+as he thought, to impose respect on the stranger.
+
+The prelate was, indeed, a striking and commanding figure. In his youth
+he had been eminently handsome, and even in age was unwilling to appear
+less so. His episcopal dress was of the richest fashion, trimmed with
+costly fur, and surrounded by a cope of curious needlework. The rings
+on his fingers were worth a goodly barony, and the hood which he wore,
+though now unclasped and thrown back for heat, had studs of pure gold to
+fasten it around his throat and under his chin when he so inclined. His
+long beard, now silvered with age, descended over his breast. One of two
+youthful acolytes who attended him created an artificial shade, peculiar
+then to the East, by bearing over his head an umbrella of palmetto
+leaves, while the other refreshed his reverend master by agitating a fan
+of peacock-feathers.
+
+When the Bishop of Tyre entered the hut of the Scottish knight, the
+master was absent, and the Moorish physician, whom he had come to see,
+sat in the very posture in which De Vaux had left him several hours
+before, cross-legged upon a mat made of twisted leaves, by the side of
+the patient, who appeared in deep slumber, and whose pulse he felt from
+time to time. The bishop remained standing before him in silence for
+two or three minutes, as if expecting some honourable salutation, or
+at least that the Saracen would seem struck with the dignity of his
+appearance. But Adonbec el Hakim took no notice of him beyond a passing
+glance, and when the prelate at length saluted him in the lingua
+franca current in the country, he only replied by the ordinary Oriental
+greeting, "SALAM ALICUM--Peace be with you."
+
+"Art thou a physician, infidel?" said the bishop, somewhat mortified at
+this cold reception. "I would speak with thee on that art."
+
+"If thou knewest aught of medicine," answered El Hakim, "thou wouldst be
+aware that physicians hold no counsel or debate in the sick chamber of
+their patient. Hear," he added, as the low growling of the staghound was
+heard from the inner hut, "even the dog might teach thee reason, Ulemat.
+His instinct teaches him to suppress his barking in the sick man's
+hearing. Come without the tent," said he, rising and leading the way,
+"if thou hast ought to say with me."
+
+Notwithstanding the plainness of the Saracen leech's dress, and his
+inferiority of size when contrasted with the tall prelate and
+gigantic English baron, there was something striking in his manner and
+countenance, which prevented the Bishop of Tyre from expressing strongly
+the displeasure he felt at this unceremonious rebuke. When without the
+hut, he gazed upon Adonbec in silence for several minutes before he
+could fix on the best manner to renew the conversation. No locks were
+seen under the high bonnet of the Arabian, which hid also part of a brow
+that seemed lofty and expanded, smooth, and free from wrinkles, as were
+his cheeks, where they were seen under the shade of his long beard. We
+have elsewhere noticed the piercing quality of his dark eyes.
+
+The prelate, struck with his apparent youth, at length broke a pause,
+which the other seemed in no haste to interrupt, by demanding of the
+Arabian how old he was?
+
+"The years of ordinary men," said the Saracen, "are counted by their
+wrinkles; those of sages by their studies. I dare not call myself older
+than a hundred revolutions of the Hegira." [Meaning that his attainments
+were those which might have been made in a hundred years.]
+
+The Baron of Gilsland, who took this for a literal assertion that he was
+a century old, looked doubtfully upon the prelate, who, though he better
+understood the meaning of El Hakim, answered his glance by mysteriously
+shaking his head. He resumed an air of importance when he again
+authoritatively demanded what evidence Adonbec could produce of his
+medical proficiency.
+
+"Ye have the word of the mighty Saladin," said the sage, touching his
+cap in sign of reverence--"a word which was never broken towards friend
+or foe. What, Nazarene, wouldst thou demand more?"
+
+"I would have ocular proof of thy skill," said the baron, "and without
+it thou approachest not to the couch of King Richard."
+
+"The praise of the physician," said the Arabian, "is in the recovery of
+his patient. Behold this sergeant, whose blood has been dried up by the
+fever which has whitened your camp with skeletons, and against which the
+art of your Nazarene leeches hath been like a silken doublet against a
+lance of steel. Look at his fingers and arms, wasted like the claws and
+shanks of the crane. Death had this morning his clutch on him; but had
+Azrael been on one side of the couch, I being on the other, his soul
+should not have been left from his body. Disturb me not with further
+questions, but await the critical minute, and behold in silent wonder
+the marvellous event."
+
+The physician had then recourse to his astrolabe, the oracle of Eastern
+science, and watching with grave precision until the precise time of the
+evening prayer had arrived, he sunk on his knees, with his face turned
+to Mecca, and recited the petitions which close the Moslemah's day of
+toil. The bishop and the English baron looked on each other, meanwhile,
+with symptoms of contempt and indignation, but neither judged it fit to
+interrupt El Hakim in his devotions, unholy as they considered them to
+be.
+
+The Arab arose from the earth, on which he had prostrated himself, and
+walking into the hut where the patient lay extended, he drew a sponge
+from a small silver box, dipped perhaps in some aromatic distillation,
+for when he put it to the sleeper's nose, he sneezed, awoke, and looked
+wildly around. He was a ghastly spectacle as he sat up almost naked on
+his couch, the bones and cartilages as visible through the surface of
+his skin as if they had never been clothed with flesh. His face was
+long, and furrowed with wrinkles; but his eye, though it wandered at
+first, became gradually more settled. He seemed to be aware of the
+presence of his dignified visitors, for he attempted feebly to pull
+the covering from his head in token of reverence, as he inquired, in a
+subdued and submissive voice, for his master.
+
+"Do you know us, vassal?" said the Lord of Gilsland.
+
+"Not perfectly, my lord," replied the squire faintly. "My sleep has been
+long and full of dreams. Yet I know that you are a great English lord,
+as seemeth by the red cross, and this a holy prelate, whose blessing I
+crave on me a poor sinner."
+
+"Thou hast it--BENEDICTIO DOMINI SIT VOBISCUM," said the prelate, making
+the sign of the cross, but without approaching nearer to the patient's
+bed.
+
+"Your eyes witness," said the Arabian, "the fever hath been subdued.
+He speaks with calmness and recollection--his pulse beats composedly as
+yours--try its pulsations yourself."
+
+The prelate declined the experiment; but Thomas of Gilsland, more
+determined on making the trial, did so, and satisfied himself that the
+fever was indeed gone.
+
+"This is most wonderful," said the knight, looking to the bishop; "the
+man is assuredly cured. I must conduct this mediciner presently to King
+Richard's tent. What thinks your reverence?"
+
+"Stay, let me finish one cure ere I commence another," said the Arab; "I
+will pass with you when I have given my patient the second cup of this
+most holy elixir."
+
+So saying he pulled out a silver cup, and filling it with water from a
+gourd which stood by the bedside, he next drew forth a small silken
+bag made of network, twisted with silver, the contents of which the
+bystanders could not discover, and immersing it in the cup, continued to
+watch it in silence during the space of five minutes. It seemed to the
+spectators as if some effervescence took place during the operation; but
+if so, it instantly subsided.
+
+"Drink," said the physician to the sick man--"sleep, and awaken free
+from malady."
+
+"And with this simple-seeming draught thou wilt undertake to cure a
+monarch?" said the Bishop of Tyre.
+
+"I have cured a beggar, as you may behold," replied the sage. "Are
+the Kings of Frangistan made of other clay than the meanest of their
+subjects?"
+
+"Let us have him presently to the King," said the Baron of Gilsland. "He
+hath shown that he possesses the secret which may restore his health. If
+he fails to exercise it, I will put himself past the power of medicine."
+
+As they were about to leave the hut, the sick man, raising his voice
+as much as his weakness permitted, exclaimed, "Reverend father, noble
+knight, and you, kind leech, if you would have me sleep and recover,
+tell me in charity what is become of my dear master?"
+
+"He is upon a distant expedition, friend," replied the prelate--"on an
+honourable embassy, which may detain him for some days."
+
+"Nay," said the Baron of Gilsland, "why deceive the poor
+fellow?--Friend, thy master has returned to the camp, and you will
+presently see him."
+
+The invalid held up, as if in thankfulness, his wasted hands to Heaven,
+and resisting no longer the soporiferous operation of the elixir, sunk
+down in a gentle sleep.
+
+"You are a better physician than I, Sir Thomas," said the prelate--"a
+soothing falsehood is fitter for a sick-room than an unpleasing truth."
+
+"How mean you, my reverend lord?" said De Vaux hastily. "Think you I
+would tell a falsehood to save the lives of a dozen such as he?"
+
+"You said," replied the bishop, with manifest symptoms of alarm--"you
+said the esquire's master was returned--he, I mean, of the Couchant
+Leopard."
+
+"And he IS returned," said De Vaux. "I spoke with him but a few hours
+since. This learned leech came in his company."
+
+"Holy Virgin! why told you not of his return to me?" said the bishop, in
+evident perturbation.
+
+"Did I not say that this same Knight of the Leopard had returned
+in company with the physician? I thought I had," replied De Vaux
+carelessly. "But what signified his return to the skill of the
+physician, or the cure of his Majesty?"
+
+"Much, Sir Thomas--it signified much," said the bishop, clenching
+his hands, pressing his foot against the earth, and giving signs of
+impatience, as if in an involuntary manner. "But where can he be gone
+now, this same knight? God be with us--here may be some fatal errors!"
+
+"Yonder serf in the outer space," said De Vaux, not without wonder
+at the bishop's emotion, "can probably tell us whither his master has
+gone."
+
+The lad was summoned, and in a language nearly incomprehensible to
+them, gave them at length to understand that an officer had summoned his
+master to the royal tent some time before their arrival at that of his
+master. The anxiety of the bishop appeared to rise to the highest, and
+became evident to De Vaux, though, neither an acute observer nor of a
+suspicious temper. But with his anxiety seemed to increase his wish to
+keep it subdued and unobserved. He took a hasty leave of De Vaux, who
+looked after him with astonishment, and after shrugging his shoulders in
+silent wonder, proceeded to conduct the Arabian physician to the tent of
+King Richard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     This is the prince of leeches; fever, plague,
+     Cold rheum, and hot podagra, do but look on him,
+     And quit their grasp upon the tortured sinews.
+        ANONYMOUS.
+
+The Baron of Gilsland walked with slow step and an anxious countenance
+towards the royal pavilion. He had much diffidence of his own capacity,
+except in a field of battle, and conscious of no very acute intellect,
+was usually contented to wonder at circumstances which a man of livelier
+imagination would have endeavoured to investigate and understand, or
+at least would have made the subject of speculation. But it seemed very
+extraordinary, even to him, that the attention of the bishop should have
+been at once abstracted from all reflection on the marvellous cure which
+they had witnessed, and upon the probability it afforded of Richard
+being restored to health, by what seemed a very trivial piece of
+information announcing the motions of a beggardly Scottish knight, than
+whom Thomas of Gilsland knew nothing within the circle of gentle
+blood more unimportant or contemptible; and despite his usual habit
+of passively beholding passing events, the baron's spirit toiled with
+unwonted attempts to form conjectures on the cause.
+
+At length the idea occurred at once to him that the whole might be a
+conspiracy against King Richard, formed within the camp of the allies,
+and to which the bishop, who was by some represented as a politic and
+unscrupulous person, was not unlikely to have been accessory. It was
+true that, in his own opinion, there existed no character so perfect as
+that of his master; for Richard being the flower of chivalry, and the
+chief of Christian leaders, and obeying in all points the commands of
+Holy Church, De Vaux's ideas of perfection went no further. Still, he
+knew that, however unworthily, it had been always his master's fate
+to draw as much reproach and dislike as honour and attachment from the
+display of his great qualities; and that in the very camp, and amongst
+those princes bound by oath to the Crusade, were many who would have
+sacrificed all hope of victory over the Saracens to the pleasure of
+ruining, or at least of humbling, Richard of England.
+
+"Wherefore," said the baron to himself, "it is in no sense impossible
+that this El Hakim, with this his cure, or seeming cure, wrought on the
+body of the Scottish squire, may mean nothing but a trick, to which he
+of the Leopard may be accessory, and wherein the Bishop of Tyre, prelate
+as he is, may have some share."
+
+This hypothesis, indeed, could not be so easily reconciled with the
+alarm manifested by the bishop on learning that, contrary to his
+expectation, the Scottish knight had suddenly returned to the Crusaders'
+camp. But De Vaux was influenced only by his general prejudices,
+which dictated to him the assured belief that a wily Italian priest,
+a false-hearted Scot, and an infidel physician, formed a set of
+ingredients from which all evil, and no good, was likely to be
+extracted. He resolved, however, to lay his scruples bluntly before
+the King, of whose judgment he had nearly as high an opinion as of his
+valour.
+
+Meantime, events had taken place very contrary to the suppositions which
+Thomas de Vaux had entertained. Scarce had he left the royal pavilion,
+when, betwixt the impatience of the fever, and that which was natural
+to his disposition, Richard began to murmur at his delay, and express
+an earnest desire for his return. He had seen enough to try to reason
+himself out of this irritation, which greatly increased his bodily
+malady. He wearied his attendants by demanding from them amusements, and
+the breviary of the priest, the romance of the clerk, even the harp of
+his favourite minstrel, were had recourse to in vain. At length, some
+two hours before sundown, and long, therefore, ere he could expect
+a satisfactory account of the process of the cure which the Moor or
+Arabian had undertaken, he sent, as we have already heard, a messenger
+commanding the attendance of the Knight of the Leopard, determined to
+soothe his impatience by obtaining from Sir Kenneth a more particular
+account of the cause of his absence from the camp, and the circumstances
+of his meeting with this celebrated physician.
+
+The Scottish knight, thus summoned, entered the royal presence as one
+who was no stranger to such scenes. He was scarcely known to the King
+of England, even by sight, although, tenacious of his rank, as devout in
+the adoration of the lady of his secret heart, he had never been absent
+on those occasions when the munificence and hospitality of England
+opened the Court of its monarch to all who held a certain rank in
+chivalry. The King gazed fixedly on Sir Kenneth approaching his bedside,
+while the knight bent his knee for a moment, then arose, and stood
+before him in a posture of deference, but not of subservience or
+humility, as became an officer in the presence of his sovereign.
+
+"Thy name," said the King, "is Kenneth of the Leopard--from whom hadst
+thou degree of knighthood?"
+
+"I took it from the sword of William the Lion, King of Scotland,"
+replied the Scot.
+
+"A weapon," said the King, "well worthy to confer honour; nor has it
+been laid on an undeserving shoulder. We have seen thee bear thyself
+knightly and valiantly in press of battle, when most need there was; and
+thou hadst not been yet to learn that thy deserts were known to us, but
+that thy presumption in other points has been such that thy services can
+challenge no better reward than that of pardon for thy transgression.
+What sayest thou--ha?"
+
+Kenneth attempted to speak, but was unable to express himself
+distinctly; the consciousness of his too ambitious love, and the keen,
+falcon glance with which Coeur de Lion seemed to penetrate his inmost
+soul, combining to disconcert him.
+
+"And yet," said the King, "although soldiers should obey command, and
+vassals be respectful towards their superiors, we might forgive a brave
+knight greater offence than the keeping a simple hound, though it were
+contrary to our express public ordinance."
+
+Richard kept his eye fixed on the Scot's face, beheld and beholding,
+smiling inwardly at the relief produced by the turn he had given to his
+general accusation.
+
+"So please you, my lord," said the Scot, "your majesty must be good
+to us poor gentlemen of Scotland in this matter. We are far from home,
+scant of revenues, and cannot support ourselves as your wealthy nobles,
+who have credit of the Lombards. The Saracens shall feel our blows the
+harder that we eat a piece of dried venison from time to time with our
+herbs and barley-cakes."
+
+"It skills not asking my leave," said Richard, "since Thomas de Vaux,
+who doth, like all around me, that which is fittest in his own eyes,
+hath already given thee permission for hunting and hawking."
+
+"For hunting only, and please you," said the Scot. "But if it please
+your Majesty to indulge me with the privilege of hawking also, and you
+list to trust me with a falcon on fist, I trust I could supply your
+royal mess with some choice waterfowl."
+
+"I dread me, if thou hadst but the falcon," said the King, "thou wouldst
+scarce wait for the permission. I wot well it is said abroad that we of
+the line of Anjou resent offence against our forest-laws as highly as we
+would do treason against our crown. To brave and worthy men, however, we
+could pardon either misdemeanour.--But enough of this. I desire to know
+of you, Sir Knight, wherefore, and by whose authority, you took this
+recent journey to the wilderness of the Dead Sea and Engaddi?"
+
+"By order," replied the knight, "of the Council of Princes of the Holy
+Crusade."
+
+"And how dared any one to give such an order, when I--not the least,
+surely, in the league--was unacquainted with it?"
+
+"It was not my part, please your highness," said the Scot, "to inquire
+into such particulars. I am a soldier of the Cross--serving, doubtless,
+for the present, under your highness's banner, and proud of the
+permission to do so, but still one who hath taken on him the holy symbol
+for the rights of Christianity and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre,
+and bound, therefore, to obey without question the orders of the
+princes and chiefs by whom the blessed enterprise is directed. That
+indisposition should seclude, I trust for but a short time, your
+highness from their councils, in which you hold so potential a voice, I
+must lament with all Christendom; but, as a soldier, I must obey those
+on whom the lawful right of command devolves, or set but an evil example
+in the Christian camp."
+
+"Thou sayest well," said King Richard; "and the blame rests not with
+thee, but with those with whom, when it shall please Heaven to raise me
+from this accursed bed of pain and inactivity, I hope to reckon roundly.
+What was the purport of thy message?"
+
+"Methinks, and please your highness," replied Sir Kenneth, "that were
+best asked of those who sent me, and who can render the reasons of mine
+errand; whereas I can only tell its outward form and purport."
+
+"Palter not with me, Sir Scot--it were ill for thy safety," said the
+irritable monarch.
+
+"My safety, my lord," replied the knight firmly, "I cast behind me as a
+regardless thing when I vowed myself to this enterprise, looking rather
+to my immortal welfare than to that which concerns my earthly body."
+
+"By the mass," said King Richard, "thou art a brave fellow! Hark thee,
+Sir Knight, I love the Scottish people; they are hardy, though dogged
+and stubborn, and, I think, true men in the main, though the necessity
+of state has sometimes constrained them to be dissemblers. I deserve
+some love at their hand, for I have voluntarily done what they could not
+by arms have extorted from me any more than from my predecessors, I
+have re-established the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, which lay
+in pledge to England; I have restored your ancient boundaries; and,
+finally, I have renounced a claim to homage upon the crown of England,
+which I thought unjustly forced on you. I have endeavoured to make
+honourable and independent friends, where former kings of England
+attempted only to compel unwilling and rebellious vassals."
+
+"All this you have done, my Lord King," said Sir Kenneth, bowing--"all
+this you have done, by your royal treaty with our sovereign at
+Canterbury. Therefore have you me, and many better Scottish men, making
+war against the infidels, under your banners, who would else have been
+ravaging your frontiers in England. If their numbers are now few, it is
+because their lives have been freely waged and wasted."
+
+"I grant it true," said the King; "and for the good offices I have done
+your land I require you to remember that, as a principal member of
+the Christian league, I have a right to know the negotiations of my
+confederates. Do me, therefore, the justice to tell me what I have a
+title to be acquainted with, and which I am certain to know more truly
+from you than from others."
+
+"My lord," said the Scot, "thus conjured, I will speak the truth; for
+I well believe that your purposes towards the principal object of our
+expedition are single-hearted and honest, and it is more than I dare
+warrant for others of the Holy League. Be pleased, therefore, to know
+my charge was to propose, through the medium of the hermit of Engaddi--a
+holy man, respected and protected by Saladin himself--"
+
+"A continuation of the truce, I doubt not," said Richard, hastily
+interrupting him.
+
+"No, by Saint Andrew, my liege," said the Scottish knight; "but the
+establishment of a lasting peace, and the withdrawing our armies from
+Palestine."
+
+"Saint George!" said Richard, in astonishment. "Ill as I have justly
+thought of them, I could not have dreamed they would have humbled
+themselves to such dishonour. Speak, Sir Kenneth, with what will did you
+carry such a message?"
+
+"With right good will, my lord," said Kenneth; "because, when we had
+lost our noble leader, under whose guidance alone I hoped for victory,
+I saw none who could succeed him likely to lead us to conquest, and I
+accounted it well in such circumstances to avoid defeat."
+
+"And on what conditions was this hopeful peace to be contracted?" said
+King Richard, painfully suppressing the passion with which his heart was
+almost bursting.
+
+"These were not entrusted to me, my lord," answered the Knight of the
+Couchant Leopard. "I delivered them sealed to the hermit."
+
+"And for what hold you this reverend hermit--for fool, madman, traitor,
+or saint?" said Richard.
+
+"His folly, sire," replied the shrewd Scottish man, "I hold to be
+assumed to win favour and reverence from the Paynimrie, who regard
+madmen as the inspired of Heaven--at least it seemed to me as exhibited
+only occasionally, and not as mixing, like natural folly, with the
+general tenor of his mind."
+
+"Shrewdly replied," said the monarch, throwing himself back on his
+couch, from which he had half-raised himself. "Now of his penitence?"
+
+"His penitence," continued Kenneth, "appears to me sincere, and the
+fruits of remorse for some dreadful crime, for which he seems, in his
+own opinion, condemned to reprobation."
+
+"And for his policy?" said King Richard.
+
+"Methinks, my lord," said the Scottish knight, "he despairs of the
+security of Palestine, as of his own salvation, by any means short of
+a miracle--at least, since the arm of Richard of England hath ceased to
+strike for it."
+
+"And, therefore, the coward policy of this hermit is like that of these
+miserable princes, who, forgetful of their knighthood and their faith,
+are only resolved and determined when the question is retreat, and
+rather than go forward against an armed Saracen, would trample in their
+flight over a dying ally!"
+
+"Might I so far presume, my Lord King," said the Scottish knight, "this
+discourse but heats your disease, the enemy from which Christendom
+dreads more evil than from armed hosts of infidels."
+
+The countenance of King Richard was, indeed, more flushed, and his
+action became more feverishly vehement, as, with clenched hand, extended
+arm, and flashing eyes, he seemed at once to suffer under bodily pain,
+and at the same time under vexation of mind, while his high spirit led
+him to speak on, as if in contempt of both.
+
+"You can flatter, Sir Knight," he said, "but you escape me not. I must
+know more from you than you have yet told me. Saw you my royal consort
+when at Engaddi?"
+
+"To my knowledge--no, my lord," replied Sir Kenneth, with considerable
+perturbation, for he remembered the midnight procession in the chapel of
+the rocks.
+
+"I ask you," said the King, in a sterner voice, "whether you were not in
+the chapel of the Carmelite nuns at Engaddi, and there saw Berengaria,
+Queen of England, and the ladies of her Court, who went thither on
+pilgrimage?"
+
+"My lord," said Sir Kenneth, "I will speak the truth as in the
+confessional. In a subterranean chapel, to which the anchorite conducted
+me, I beheld a choir of ladies do homage to a relic of the highest
+sanctity; but as I saw not their faces, nor heard their voices, unless
+in the hymns which they chanted, I cannot tell whether the Queen of
+England was of the bevy."
+
+"And was there no one of these ladies known to you?"
+
+Sir Kenneth stood silent.
+
+"I ask you," said Richard, raising himself on his elbow, "as a knight
+and a gentleman--and I shall know by your answer how you value either
+character--did you, or did you not, know any lady amongst that band of
+worshippers?"
+
+"My lord," said Kenneth, not without much hesitation, "I might guess."
+
+"And I also may guess," said the King, frowning sternly; "but it is
+enough. Leopard as you are, Sir Knight, beware tempting the lion's paw.
+Hark ye--to become enamoured of the moon would be but an act of folly;
+but to leap from the battlements of a lofty tower, in the wild hope of
+coming within her sphere, were self-destructive madness."
+
+At this moment some bustling was heard in the outer apartment, and
+the King, hastily changing to his more natural manner, said,
+"Enough--begone--speed to De Vaux, and send him hither with the Arabian
+physician. My life for the faith of the Soldan! Would he but abjure his
+false law, I would aid him with my sword to drive this scum of French
+and Austrians from his dominions, and think Palestine as well ruled by
+him as when her kings were anointed by the decree of Heaven itself."
+
+The Knight of the Leopard retired, and presently afterwards the
+chamberlain announced a deputation from the Council, who had come to
+wait on the Majesty of England.
+
+"It is well they allow that I am living yet," was his reply. "Who are
+the reverend ambassadors?"
+
+"The Grand Master of the Templars and the Marquis of Montserrat."
+
+"Our brother of France loves not sick-beds," said Richard; "yet, had
+Philip been ill, I had stood by his couch long since.--Jocelyn, lay me
+the couch more fairly--it is tumbled like a stormy sea. Reach me yonder
+steel mirror--pass a comb through my hair and beard. They look, indeed,
+liker a lion's mane than a Christian man's locks. Bring water."
+
+"My lord," said the trembling chamberlain, "the leeches say that cold
+water may be fatal."
+
+"To the foul fiend with the leeches!" replied the monarch; "if they
+cannot cure me, think you I will allow them to torment me?--There,
+then," he said, after having made his ablutions, "admit the worshipful
+envoys; they will now, I think, scarcely see that disease has made
+Richard negligent of his person."
+
+The celebrated Master of the Templars was a tall, thin, war-worn man,
+with a slow yet penetrating eye, and a brow on which a thousand dark
+intrigues had stamped a portion of their obscurity. At the head of
+that singular body, to whom their order was everything, and their
+individuality nothing--seeking the advancement of its power, even at
+the hazard of that very religion which the fraternity were originally
+associated to protect--accused of heresy and witchcraft, although by
+their character Christian priests--suspected of secret league with the
+Soldan, though by oath devoted to the protection of the Holy Temple, or
+its recovery--the whole order, and the whole personal character of its
+commander, or Grand Master, was a riddle, at the exposition of which
+most men shuddered. The Grand Master was dressed in his white robes
+of solemnity, and he bore the ABACUS, a mystic staff of office, the
+peculiar form of which has given rise to such singular conjectures and
+commentaries, leading to suspicions that this celebrated fraternity of
+Christian knights were embodied under the foulest symbols of paganism.
+
+Conrade of Montserrat had a much more pleasing exterior than the dark
+and mysterious priest-soldier by whom he was accompanied. He was a
+handsome man, of middle age, or something past that term, bold in the
+field, sagacious in council, gay and gallant in times of festivity; but,
+on the other hand, he was generally accused of versatility, of a narrow
+and selfish ambition, of a desire to extend his own principality,
+without regard to the weal of the Latin kingdom of Palestine, and of
+seeking his own interest, by private negotiations with Saladin, to the
+prejudice of the Christian leaguers.
+
+When the usual salutations had been made by these dignitaries, and
+courteously returned by King Richard, the Marquis of Montserrat
+commenced an explanation of the motives of their visit, sent, as he said
+they were, by the anxious kings and princes who composed the Council of
+the Crusaders, "to inquire into the health of their magnanimous ally,
+the valiant King of England."
+
+"We know the importance in which the princes of the Council hold our
+health," replied the English King; "and are well aware how much they
+must have suffered by suppressing all curiosity concerning it for
+fourteen days, for fear, doubtless, of aggravating our disorder, by
+showing their anxiety regarding the event."
+
+The flow of the Marquis's eloquence being checked, and he himself thrown
+into some confusion by this reply, his more austere companion took up
+the thread of the conversation, and with as much dry and brief gravity
+as was consistent with the presence which he addressed, informed
+the King that they came from the Council, to pray, in the name of
+Christendom, "that he would not suffer his health to be tampered with
+by an infidel physician, said to be dispatched by Saladin, until the
+Council had taken measures to remove or confirm the suspicion which they
+at present conceived did attach itself to the mission of such a person."
+
+"Grand Master of the Holy and Valiant Order of Knights Templars, and
+you, most noble Marquis of Montserrat," replied Richard, "if it please
+you to retire into the adjoining pavilion, you shall presently see what
+account we make of the tender remonstrances of our royal and princely
+colleagues in this religious warfare."
+
+The Marquis and Grand Master retired accordingly; nor had they been
+many minutes in the outward pavilion when the Eastern physician arrived,
+accompanied by the Baron of Gilsland and Kenneth of Scotland. The baron,
+however, was a little later of entering the tent than the other two,
+stopping, perchance, to issue some orders to the warders without.
+
+As the Arabian physician entered, he made his obeisance, after the
+Oriental fashion, to the Marquis and Grand Master, whose dignity was
+apparent, both from their appearance and their bearing. The Grand Master
+returned the salutation with an expression of disdainful coldness, the
+Marquis with the popular courtesy which he habitually practised to men
+of every rank and nation. There was a pause, for the Scottish knight,
+waiting for the arrival of De Vaux, presumed not, of his own authority,
+to enter the tent of the King of England; and during this interval the
+Grand Master sternly demanded of the Moslem, "Infidel, hast thou the
+courage to practise thine art upon the person of an anointed sovereign
+of the Christian host?"
+
+"The sun of Allah," answered the sage, "shines on the Nazarene as
+well as on the true believer, and His servant dare make no distinction
+betwixt them when called on to exercise the art of healing."
+
+"Misbelieving Hakim," said the Grand Master, "or whatsoever they call
+thee for an unbaptized slave of darkness, dost thou well know that thou
+shalt be torn asunder by wild horses should King Richard die under thy
+charge?"
+
+"That were hard justice," answered the physician, "seeing that I can but
+use human means, and that the issue is written in the book of light."
+
+"Nay, reverend and valiant Grand Master," said the Marquis of
+Montserrat, "consider that this learned man is not acquainted with our
+Christian order, adopted in the fear of God, and for the safety of His
+anointed.--Be it known to thee, grave physician, whose skill we doubt
+not, that your wisest course is to repair to the presence of the
+illustrious Council of our Holy League, and there to give account and
+reckoning to such wise and learned leeches as they shall nominate,
+concerning your means of process and cure of this illustrious patient;
+so shall you escape all the danger which, rashly taking such a high
+matter upon your sole answer, you may else most likely incur."
+
+"My lords," said El Hakim, "I understand you well. But knowledge hath
+its champions as well as your military art--nay, hath sometimes had its
+martyrs as well as religion. I have the command of my sovereign, the
+Soldan Saladin, to heal this Nazarene King, and, with the blessing
+of the Prophet, I will obey his commands. If I fail, ye wear swords
+thirsting for the blood of the faithful, and I proffer my body to your
+weapons. But I will not reason with one uncircumcised upon the virtue
+of the medicines of which I have obtained knowledge through the grace
+of the Prophet, and I pray you interpose no delay between me and my
+office."
+
+"Who talks of delay?" said the Baron de Vaux, hastily entering the tent;
+"we have had but too much already. I salute you, my Lord of Montserrat,
+and you, valiant Grand Master. But I must presently pass with this
+learned physician to the bedside of my master."
+
+"My lord," said the Marquis, in Norman-French, or the language of
+Ouie, as it was then called, "are you well advised that we came to
+expostulate, on the part of the Council of the Monarchs and Princes
+of the Crusade, against the risk of permitting an infidel and Eastern
+physician to tamper with a health so valuable as that of your master,
+King Richard?"
+
+"Noble Lord Marquis," replied the Englishman bluntly, "I can neither use
+many words, nor do I delight in listening to them; moreover, I am much
+more ready to believe what my eyes have seen than what my ears have
+heard. I am satisfied that this heathen can cure the sickness of King
+Richard, and I believe and trust he will labour to do so. Time is
+precious. If Mohammed--may God's curse be on him! stood at the door of
+the tent, with such fair purpose as this Adonbec el Hakim entertains,
+I would hold it sin to delay him for a minute. So, give ye God'en, my
+lords."
+
+"Nay, but," said Conrade of Montserrat, "the King himself said we should
+be present when this same physician dealt upon him."
+
+The baron whispered the chamberlain, probably to know whether the
+Marquis spoke truly, and then replied, "My lords, if you will hold your
+patience, you are welcome to enter with us; but if you interrupt, by
+action or threat, this accomplished physician in his duty, be it known
+that, without respect to your high quality, I will enforce your absence
+from Richard's tent; for know, I am so well satisfied of the virtue of
+this man's medicines, that were Richard himself to refuse them, by our
+Lady of Lanercost, I think I could find in my heart to force him to take
+the means of his cure whether he would or no.--Move onward, El Hakim."
+
+The last word was spoken in the lingua franca, and instantly obeyed by
+the physician. The Grand Master looked grimly on the unceremonious old
+soldier, but, on exchanging a glance with the Marquis, smoothed his
+frowning brow as well as he could, and both followed De Vaux and the
+Arabian into the inner tent, where Richard lay expecting them, with that
+impatience with which the sick man watches the step of his physician.
+Sir Kenneth, whose attendance seemed neither asked nor prohibited, felt
+himself, by the circumstances in which he stood, entitled to follow
+these high dignitaries; but, conscious of his inferior power and rank,
+remained aloof during the scene which took place.
+
+Richard, when they entered his apartment, immediately exclaimed, "So ho!
+a goodly fellowship come to see Richard take his leap in the dark.
+My noble allies, I greet you as the representatives of our assembled
+league; Richard will again be amongst you in his former fashion, or ye
+shall bear to the grave what is left of him.--De Vaux, lives he or dies
+he, thou hast the thanks of thy prince. There is yet another--but this
+fever hath wasted my eyesight. What, the bold Scot, who would climb
+heaven without a ladder! He is welcome too.--Come, Sir Hakim, to the
+work, to the work!"
+
+The physician, who had already informed himself of the various symptoms
+of the King's illness, now felt his pulse for a long time, and with deep
+attention, while all around stood silent, and in breathless expectation.
+The sage next filled a cup with spring water, and dipped into it the
+small red purse, which, as formerly, he took from his bosom. When he
+seemed to think it sufficiently medicated, he was about to offer it to
+the sovereign, who prevented him by saying, "Hold an instant. Thou hast
+felt my pulse--let me lay my finger on thine. I too, as becomes a good
+knight, know something of thine art."
+
+The Arabian yielded his hand without hesitation, and his long, slender
+dark fingers were for an instant enclosed, and almost buried, in the
+large enfoldment of King Richard's hand.
+
+"His blood beats calm as an infant's," said the King; "so throbs not
+theirs who poison princes. De Vaux, whether we live or die, dismiss this
+Hakim with honour and safety.--Commend us, friend, to the noble Saladin.
+Should I die, it is without doubt of his faith; should I live, it will
+be to thank him as a warrior would desire to be thanked."
+
+He then raised himself in bed, took the cup in his hand, and turning
+to the Marquis and the Grand Master--"Mark what I say, and let my royal
+brethren pledge me in Cyprus wine, 'To the immortal honour of the first
+Crusader who shall strike lance or sword on the gate of Jerusalem; and
+to the shame and eternal infamy of whomsoever shall turn back from the
+plough on which he hath laid his hand!'"
+
+He drained the cup to the bottom, resigned it to the Arabian, and sunk
+back, as if exhausted, upon the cushions which were arranged to receive
+him. The physician then, with silent but expressive signs, directed
+that all should leave the tent excepting himself and De Vaux, whom
+no remonstrance could induce to withdraw. The apartment was cleared
+accordingly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     And now I will unclasp a secret book,
+     And, to your quick-conceiving discontent,
+     I'll read you matter deep and dangerous.
+       HENRY IV., PART I.
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat and the Grand Master of the Knights Templars
+stood together in the front of the royal pavilion, within which this
+singular scene had passed, and beheld a strong guard of bills and bows
+drawn out to form a circle around it, and keep at distance all which
+might disturb the sleeping monarch. The soldiers wore the downcast,
+silent, and sullen looks with which they trail their arms at a funeral,
+and stepped with such caution that you could not hear a buckler ring
+or a sword clatter, though so many men in armour were moving around the
+tent. They lowered their weapons in deep reverence as the dignitaries
+passed through their files, but with the same profound silence.
+
+"There is a change of cheer among these island dogs," said the Grand
+Master to Conrade, when they had passed Richard's guards. "What hoarse
+tumult and revel used to be before this pavilion!--nought but pitching
+the bar, hurling the ball, wrestling, roaring of songs, clattering of
+wine pots, and quaffing of flagons among these burly yeomen, as if they
+were holding some country wake, with a Maypole in the midst of them
+instead of a royal standard."
+
+"Mastiffs are a faithful race," said Conrade; "and the King their Master
+has won their love by being ready to wrestle, brawl, or revel amongst
+the foremost of them, whenever the humour seized him."
+
+"He is totally compounded of humours," said the Grand Master. "Marked
+you the pledge he gave us! instead of a prayer, over his grace-cup
+yonder."
+
+"He would have felt it a grace-cup, and a well-spiced one too," said
+the Marquis, "were Saladin like any other Turk that ever wore turban,
+or turned him to Mecca at call of the muezzin. But he affects faith, and
+honour, and generosity, as if it were for an unbaptized dog like him to
+practise the virtuous bearing of a Christian knight. It is said he hath
+applied to Richard to be admitted within the pale of chivalry."
+
+"By Saint Bernard!" exclaimed the Grand Master, "it were time then
+to throw off our belts and spurs, Sir Conrade, deface our armorial
+bearings, and renounce our burgonets, if the highest honour of
+Christianity were conferred on an unchristened Turk of tenpence."
+
+"You rate the Soldan cheap," replied the Marquis; "yet though he be a
+likely man, I have seen a better heathen sold for forty pence at the
+bagnio."
+
+They were now near their horses, which stood at some distance from the
+royal tent, prancing among the gallant train of esquires and pages by
+whom they were attended, when Conrade, after a moment's pause, proposed
+that they should enjoy the coolness of the evening breeze which had
+arisen, and, dismissing their steeds and attendants, walk homewards to
+their own quarters through the lines of the extended Christian camp. The
+Grand Master assented, and they proceeded to walk together accordingly,
+avoiding, as if by mutual consent, the more inhabited parts of the
+canvas city, and tracing the broad esplanade which lay between the tents
+and the external defences, where they could converse in private, and
+unmarked, save by the sentinels as they passed them.
+
+They spoke for a time upon the military points and preparations for
+defence; but this sort of discourse, in which neither seemed to take
+interest, at length died away, and there was a long pause, which
+terminated by the Marquis of Montserrat stopping short, like a man who
+has formed a sudden resolution, and gazing for some moments on the dark,
+inflexible countenance of the Grand Master, he at length addressed him
+thus: "Might it consist with your valour and sanctity, reverend Sir
+Giles Amaury, I would pray you for once to lay aside the dark visor
+which you wear, and to converse with a friend barefaced."
+
+The Templar half smiled.
+
+"There are light-coloured masks," he said, "as well as dark visors, and
+the one conceals the natural features as completely as the other."
+
+"Be it so," said the Marquis, putting his hand to his chin, and
+withdrawing it with the action of one who unmasks himself; "there lies
+my disguise. And now, what think you, as touching the interests of your
+own order, of the prospects of this Crusade?"
+
+"This is tearing the veil from my thoughts rather than exposing your
+own," said the Grand Master; "yet I will reply with a parable told to me
+by a santon of the desert. 'A certain farmer prayed to Heaven for rain,
+and murmured when it fell not at his need. To punish his impatience,
+Allah,' said the santon, 'sent the Euphrates upon his farm, and he was
+destroyed, with all his possessions, even by the granting of his own
+wishes.'"
+
+"Most truly spoken," said the Marquis Conrade. "Would that the ocean had
+swallowed up nineteen parts of the armaments of these Western princes!
+What remained would better have served the purpose of the Christian
+nobles of Palestine, the wretched remnant of the Latin kingdom of
+Jerusalem. Left to ourselves, we might have bent to the storm; or,
+moderately supported with money and troops, we might have compelled
+Saladin to respect our valour, and grant us peace and protection on easy
+terms. But from the extremity of danger with which this powerful Crusade
+threatens the Soldan, we cannot suppose, should it pass over, that the
+Saracen will suffer any one of us to hold possessions or principalities
+in Syria, far less permit the existence of the Christian military
+fraternities, from whom they have experienced so much mischief."
+
+"Ay, but," said the Templar, "these adventurous Crusaders may succeed,
+and again plant the Cross on the bulwarks of Zion."
+
+"And what will that advantage either the Order of the Templars, or
+Conrade of Montserrat?" said the Marquis.
+
+"You it may advantage," replied the Grand Master. "Conrade of Montserrat
+might become Conrade King of Jerusalem."
+
+"That sounds like something," said the Marquis, "and yet it rings but
+hollow. Godfrey of Bouillon might well choose the crown of thorns for
+his emblem. Grand Master, I will confess to you I have caught some
+attachment to the Eastern form of government--a pure and simple
+monarchy should consist but of king and subjects. Such is the simple and
+primitive structure--a shepherd and his flock. All this internal chain
+of feudal dependance is artificial and sophisticated; and I would rather
+hold the baton of my poor marquisate with a firm gripe, and wield
+it after my pleasure, than the sceptre of a monarch, to be in effect
+restrained and curbed by the will of as many proud feudal barons as hold
+land under the Assizes of Jerusalem. [The Assises de Jerusalem were
+the digest of feudal law, composed by Godfrey of Boulogne, for the
+government of the Latin kingdom of Palestine, when reconquered from the
+Saracens. "It was composed with advice of the patriarch and barons,
+the clergy and laity, and is," says the historian Gibbon, "a precious
+monument of feudatory jurisprudence, founded upon those principles
+of freedom which were essential to the system."] A king should tread
+freely, Grand Master, and should not be controlled by here a ditch, and
+there a fence-here a feudal privilege, and there a mail-clad baron with
+his sword in his hand to maintain it. To sum the whole, I am aware that
+Guy de Lusignan's claims to the throne would be preferred to mine, if
+Richard recovers, and has aught to say in the choice."
+
+"Enough," said the Grand Master; "thou hast indeed convinced me of thy
+sincerity. Others may hold the same opinions, but few, save Conrade of
+Montserrat, dared frankly avow that he desires not the restitution of
+the kingdom of Jerusalem, but rather prefers being master of a portion
+of its fragments--like the barbarous islanders, who labour not for the
+deliverance of a goodly vessel from the billows, expecting rather to
+enrich themselves at the expense of the wreck."
+
+"Thou wilt not betray my counsel?" said Conrade, looking sharply and
+suspiciously. "Know, for certain, that my tongue shall never wrong my
+head, nor my hand forsake the defence of either. Impeach me if thou
+wilt--I am prepared to defend myself in the lists against the best
+Templar who ever laid lance in rest."
+
+"Yet thou start'st somewhat suddenly for so bold a steed," said the
+Grand Master. "However, I swear to thee by the Holy Temple, which our
+Order is sworn to defend, that I will keep counsel with thee as a true
+comrade."
+
+"By which Temple?" said the Marquis of Montserrat, whose love of sarcasm
+often outran his policy and discretion; "swearest thou by that on the
+hill of Zion, which was built by King Solomon, or by that symbolical,
+emblematical edifice, which is said to be spoken of in the councils
+held in the vaults of your Preceptories, as something which infers the
+aggrandizement of thy valiant and venerable Order?"
+
+The Templar scowled upon him with an eye of death, but answered calmly,
+"By whatever Temple I swear, be assured, Lord Marquis, my oath is
+sacred. I would I knew how to bind THEE by one of equal obligation."
+
+"I will swear truth to thee," said the Marquis, laughing, "by the
+earl's coronet, which I hope to convert, ere these wars are over, into
+something better. It feels cold on my brow, that same slight coronal;
+a duke's cap of maintenance were a better protection against such a
+night-breeze as now blows, and a king's crown more preferable still,
+being lined with comfortable ermine and velvet. In a word, our interests
+bind us together; for think not, Lord Grand Master, that, were these
+allied princes to regain Jerusalem, and place a king of their own
+choosing there, they would suffer your Order, any more than my poor
+marquisate, to retain the independence which we now hold. No, by Our
+Lady! In such case, the proud Knights of Saint John must again spread
+plasters and dress plague sores in the hospitals; and you, most puissant
+and venerable Knights of the Temple, must return to your condition of
+simple men-at-arms, sleep three on a pallet, and mount two upon one
+horse, as your present seal still expresses to have been your ancient
+most simple custom."
+
+"The rank, privileges, and opulence of our Order prevent so much
+degradation as you threaten," said the Templar haughtily.
+
+"These are your bane," said Conrade of Montserrat; "and you, as well
+as I, reverend Grand Master, know that, were the allied princes to be
+successful in Palestine, it would be their first point of policy to
+abate the independence of your Order, which, but for the protection of
+our holy father the Pope, and the necessity of employing your valour in
+the conquest of Palestine, you would long since have experienced. Give
+them complete success, and you will be flung aside, as the splinters of
+a broken lance are tossed out of the tilt-yard."
+
+"There may be truth in what you say," said the Templar, darkly smiling.
+"But what were our hopes should the allies withdraw their forces, and
+leave Palestine in the grasp of Saladin?"
+
+"Great and assured," replied Conrade. "The Soldan would give large
+provinces to maintain at his behest a body of well-appointed Frankish
+lances. In Egypt, in Persia, a hundred such auxiliaries, joined to his
+own light cavalry, would turn the battle against the most fearful odds.
+This dependence would be but for a time--perhaps during the life of
+this enterprising Soldan; but in the East empires arise like mushrooms.
+Suppose him dead, and us strengthened with a constant succession of
+fiery and adventurous spirits from Europe, what might we not hope to
+achieve, uncontrolled by these monarchs, whose dignity throws us at
+present into the shade--and, were they to remain here, and succeed in
+this expedition, would willingly consign us for ever to degradation and
+dependence?"
+
+"You say well, my Lord Marquis," said the Grand Master, "and your words
+find an echo in my bosom. Yet must we be cautious--Philip of France is
+wise as well as valiant."
+
+"True, and will be therefore the more easily diverted from an expedition
+to which, in a moment of enthusiasm, or urged by his nobles, he rashly
+bound himself. He is jealous of King Richard, his natural enemy, and
+longs to return to prosecute plans of ambition nearer to Paris than
+Palestine. Any fair pretence will serve him for withdrawing from a scene
+in which he is aware he is wasting the force of his kingdom."
+
+"And the Duke of Austria?" said the Templar.
+
+"Oh, touching the Duke," returned Conrade, "his self-conceit and folly
+lead him to the same conclusions as do Philip's policy and wisdom. He
+conceives himself, God help the while, ungratefully treated, because
+men's mouths--even those of his own MINNE-SINGERS [The German minstrels
+were so termed.]--are filled with the praises of King Richard, whom he
+fears and hates, and in whose harm he would rejoice, like those unbred,
+dastardly curs, who, if the foremost of the pack is hurt by the gripe of
+the wolf, are much more likely to assail the sufferer from behind than
+to come to his assistance. But wherefore tell I this to thee, save to
+show that I am in sincerity in desiring that this league be broken up,
+and the country freed of these great monarchs with their hosts? And thou
+well knowest, and hast thyself seen, how all the princes of influence
+and power, one alone excepted, are eager to enter into treaty with the
+Soldan."
+
+"I acknowledge it," said the Templar; "he were blind that had not seen
+this in their last deliberations. But lift yet thy mask an inch higher,
+and tell me thy real reason for pressing upon the Council that Northern
+Englishman, or Scot, or whatever you call yonder Knight of the Leopard,
+to carry their proposals for a treaty?"
+
+"There was a policy in it," replied the Italian. "His character of
+native of Britain was sufficient to meet what Saladin required, who knew
+him to belong to the band of Richard; while his character of Scot, and
+certain other personal grudges which I wot of, rendered it most unlikely
+that our envoy should, on his return, hold any communication with the
+sick-bed of Richard, to whom his presence was ever unacceptable."
+
+"Oh, too finespun policy," said the Grand Master; "trust me, that
+Italian spiders' webs will never bind this unshorn Samson of the
+Isle--well if you can do it with new cords, and those of the toughest.
+See you not that the envoy whom you have selected so carefully hath
+brought us, in this physician, the means of restoring the lion-hearted,
+bull-necked Englishman to prosecute his Crusading enterprise. And so
+soon as he is able once more to rush on, which of the princes dare hold
+back? They must follow him for very shame, although they would march
+under the banner of Satan as soon."
+
+"Be content," said Conrade of Montserrat; "ere this physician, if he
+work by anything short of miraculous agency, can accomplish Richard's
+cure, it may be possible to put some open rupture betwixt the
+Frenchman--at least the Austrian--and his allies of England, so that
+the breach shall be irreconcilable; and Richard may arise from his bed,
+perhaps to command his own native troops, but never again, by his sole
+energy, to wield the force of the whole Crusade."
+
+"Thou art a willing archer," said the Templar; "but, Conrade of
+Montserrat, thy bow is over-slack to carry an arrow to the mark."
+
+He then stopped short, cast a suspicious glance to see that no one
+overheard him, and taking Conrade by the hand, pressed it eagerly as he
+looked the Italian in the face, and repeated slowly, "Richard arise from
+his bed, sayest thou? Conrade, he must never arise!"
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat started. "What! spoke you of Richard of
+England--of Coeur de Lion--the champion of Christendom?"
+
+His cheek turned pale and his knees trembled as he spoke. The Templar
+looked at him, with his iron visage contorted into a smile of contempt.
+
+"Knowest thou what thou look'st like, Sir Conrade, at this moment? Not
+like the politic and valiant Marquis of Montserrat, not like him
+who would direct the Council of Princes and determine the fate of
+empires--but like a novice, who, stumbling upon a conjuration in his
+master's book of gramarye, has raised the devil when he least thought of
+it, and now stands terrified at the spirit which appears before him."
+
+"I grant you," said Conrade, recovering himself, "that--unless some
+other sure road could be discovered--thou hast hinted at that which
+leads most direct to our purpose. But, blessed Mary! we shall become the
+curse of all Europe, the malediction of every one, from the Pope on his
+throne to the very beggar at the church gate, who, ragged and leprous,
+in the last extremity of human wretchedness, shall bless himself that he
+is neither Giles Amaury nor Conrade of Montserrat."
+
+"If thou takest it thus," said the Grand Master, with the same composure
+which characterized him all through this remarkable dialogue, "let us
+hold there has nothing passed between us--that we have spoken in our
+sleep--have awakened, and the vision is gone."
+
+"It never can depart," answered Conrade.
+
+"Visions of ducal crowns and kingly diadems are, indeed, somewhat
+tenacious of their place in the imagination," replied the Grand Master.
+
+"Well," answered Conrade, "let me but first try to break peace between
+Austria and England."
+
+They parted. Conrade remained standing still upon the spot, and watching
+the flowing white cloak of the Templar as he stalked slowly away, and
+gradually disappeared amid the fast-sinking darkness of the Oriental
+night. Proud, ambitious, unscrupulous, and politic, the Marquis of
+Montserrat was yet not cruel by nature. He was a voluptuary and an
+epicurean, and, like many who profess this character, was averse,
+even upon selfish motives, from inflicting pain or witnessing acts of
+cruelty; and he retained also a general sense of respect for his own
+reputation, which sometimes supplies the want of the better principle by
+which reputation is to be maintained.
+
+"I have," he said, as his eyes still watched the point at which he had
+seen the last slight wave of the Templar's mantle--"I have, in truth,
+raised the devil with a vengeance! Who would have thought this stern,
+ascetic Grand Master, whose whole fortune and misfortune is merged in
+that of his order, would be willing to do more for its advancement than
+I who labour for my own interest? To check this wild Crusade was my
+motive, indeed, but I durst not think on the ready mode which this
+determined priest has dared to suggest. Yet it is the surest--perhaps
+even the safest."
+
+Such were the Marquis's meditations, when his muttered soliloquy was
+broken by a voice from a little distance, which proclaimed with the
+emphatic tone of a herald, "Remember the Holy Sepulchre!"
+
+The exhortation was echoed from post to post, for it was the duty of
+the sentinels to raise this cry from time to time upon their periodical
+watch, that the host of the Crusaders might always have in their
+remembrance the purpose of their being in arms. But though Conrade was
+familiar with the custom, and had heard the warning voice on all former
+occasions as a matter of habit, yet it came at the present moment so
+strongly in contact with his own train of thought, that it seemed a
+voice from Heaven warning him against the iniquity which his heart
+meditated. He looked around anxiously, as if, like the patriarch of
+old, though from very different circumstances, he was expecting some
+ram caught in a thicket some substitution for the sacrifice which his
+comrade proposed to offer, not to the Supreme Being, but to the Moloch
+of their own ambition. As he looked, the broad folds of the ensign of
+England, heavily distending itself to the failing night-breeze, caught
+his eye. It was displayed upon an artificial mound, nearly in the midst
+of the camp, which perhaps of old some Hebrew chief or champion had
+chosen as a memorial of his place of rest. If so, the name was now
+forgotten, and the Crusaders had christened it Saint George's
+Mount, because from that commanding height the banner of England was
+supereminently displayed, as if an emblem of sovereignty over the many
+distinguished, noble, and even royal ensigns, which floated in lower
+situations.
+
+A quick intellect like that of Conrade catches ideas from the glance of
+a moment. A single look on the standard seemed to dispel the uncertainty
+of mind which had affected him. He walked to his pavilion with the hasty
+and determined step of one who has adopted a plan which he is resolved
+to achieve, dismissed the almost princely train who waited to attend
+him, and, as he committed himself to his couch, muttered his amended
+resolution, that the milder means are to be tried before the more
+desperate are resorted to.
+
+"To-morrow," he said, "I sit at the board of the Archduke of Austria. We
+will see what can be done to advance our purpose before prosecuting the
+dark suggestions of this Templar."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     One thing is certain in our Northern land--
+     Allow that birth or valour, wealth or wit,
+     Give each precedence to their possessor,
+     Envy, that follows on such eminence,
+     As comes the lyme-hound on the roebuck's trace,
+     Shall pull them down each one.
+              SIR DAVID LINDSAY.
+
+Leopold, Grand Duke of Austria, was the first possessor of that noble
+country to whom the princely rank belonged. He had been raised to the
+ducal sway in the German Empire on account of his near relationship to
+the Emperor, Henry the Stern, and held under his government the finest
+provinces which are watered by the Danube. His character has been
+stained in history on account of one action of violence and perfidy,
+which arose out of these very transactions in the Holy Land; and yet
+the shame of having made Richard a prisoner when he returned through
+his dominions; unattended and in disguise, was not one which flowed from
+Leopold's natural disposition. He was rather a weak and a vain than
+an ambitious or tyrannical prince. His mental powers resembled the
+qualities of his person. He was tall, strong, and handsome, with a
+complexion in which red and white were strongly contrasted, and had long
+flowing locks of fair hair. But there was an awkwardness in his gait
+which seemed as if his size was not animated by energy sufficient to
+put in motion such a mass; and in the same manner, wearing the richest
+dresses, it always seemed as if they became him not. As a prince, he
+appeared too little familiar with his own dignity; and being often at
+a loss how to assert his authority when the occasion demanded it, he
+frequently thought himself obliged to recover, by acts and expressions
+of ill-timed violence, the ground which might have been easily and
+gracefully maintained by a little more presence of mind in the beginning
+of the controversy.
+
+Not only were these deficiencies visible to others, but the Archduke
+himself could not but sometimes entertain a painful consciousness that
+he was not altogether fit to maintain and assert the high rank which he
+had acquired; and to this was joined the strong, and sometimes the just,
+suspicion that others esteemed him lightly accordingly.
+
+When he first joined the Crusade, with a most princely attendance,
+Leopold had desired much to enjoy the friendship and intimacy of
+Richard, and had made such advances towards cultivating his regard as
+the King of England ought, in policy, to have received and answered.
+But the Archduke, though not deficient in bravery, was so infinitely
+inferior to Coeur de Lion in that ardour of mind which wooed danger as a
+bride, that the King very soon held him in a certain degree of contempt.
+Richard, also, as a Norman prince, a people with whom temperance was
+habitual, despised the inclination of the German for the pleasures of
+the table, and particularly his liberal indulgence in the use of wine.
+For these, and other personal reasons, the King of England very soon
+looked upon the Austrian Prince with feelings of contempt, which he was
+at no pains to conceal or modify, and which, therefore, were speedily
+remarked, and returned with deep hatred, by the suspicious Leopold. The
+discord between them was fanned by the secret and politic arts of Philip
+of France, one of the most sagacious monarchs of the time, who, dreading
+the fiery and overbearing character of Richard, considering him as his
+natural rival, and feeling offended, moreover, at the dictatorial manner
+in which he, a vassal of France for his Continental domains, conducted
+himself towards his liege lord, endeavoured to strengthen his own party,
+and weaken that of Richard, by uniting the Crusading princes of inferior
+degree in resistance to what he termed the usurping authority of the
+King of England. Such was the state of politics and opinions entertained
+by the Archduke of Austria, when Conrade of Montserrat resolved upon
+employing his jealousy of England as the means of dissolving, or
+loosening at least, the league of the Crusaders.
+
+The time which he chose for his visit was noon; and the pretence, to
+present the Archduke with some choice Cyprus wine which had lately
+fallen into his hands, and discuss its comparative merits with those of
+Hungary and of the Rhine. An intimation of his purpose was, of course,
+answered by a courteous invitation to partake of the Archducal meal, and
+every effort was used to render it fitting the splendour of a sovereign
+prince. Yet the refined taste of the Italian saw more cumbrous profusion
+than elegance or splendour in the display of provisions under which the
+board groaned.
+
+The Germans, though still possessing the martial and frank character of
+their ancestors--who subdued the Roman Empire--had retained withal
+no slight tinge of their barbarism. The practices and principles of
+chivalry were not carried to such a nice pitch amongst them as amongst
+the French and English knights, nor were they strict observers of the
+prescribed rules of society, which among those nations were supposed
+to express the height of civilization. Sitting at the table of the
+Archduke, Conrade was at once stunned and amused with the clang of
+Teutonic sounds assaulting his ears on all sides, notwithstanding the
+solemnity of a princely banquet. Their dress seemed equally fantastic to
+him, many of the Austrian nobles retaining their long beards, and
+almost all of them wearing short jerkins of various colours, cut, and
+flourished, and fringed in a manner not common in Western Europe.
+
+Numbers of dependants, old and young, attended in the pavilion, mingled
+at times in the conversation, received from their masters the relics of
+the entertainment, and devoured them as they stood behind the backs
+of the company. Jesters, dwarfs, and minstrels were there in unusual
+numbers, and more noisy and intrusive than they were permitted to be in
+better regulated society. As they were allowed to share freely in the
+wine, which flowed round in large quantities, their licensed tumult was
+the more excessive.
+
+All this while, and in the midst of a clamour and confusion which would
+better have become a German tavern during a fair than the tent of a
+sovereign prince, the Archduke was waited upon with a minuteness of form
+and observance which showed how anxious he was to maintain rigidly the
+state and character to which his elevation had entitled him. He was
+served on the knee, and only by pages of noble blood, fed upon plate of
+silver, and drank his Tokay and Rhenish wines from a cup of gold. His
+ducal mantle was splendidly adorned with ermine, his coronet might have
+equalled in value a royal crown, and his feet, cased in velvet shoes
+(the length of which, peaks included, might be two feet), rested upon
+a footstool of solid silver. But it served partly to intimate the
+character of the man, that, although desirous to show attention to the
+Marquis of Montserrat, whom he had courteously placed at his right hand,
+he gave much more of his attention to his SPRUCH-SPRECHER--that is, his
+man of conversation, or SAYER-OF-SAYINGS--who stood behind the Duke's
+right shoulder.
+
+This personage was well attired in a cloak and doublet of black velvet,
+the last of which was decorated with various silver and gold coins
+stitched upon it, in memory of the munificent princes who had conferred
+them, and bearing a short staff to which also bunches of silver coins
+were attached by rings, which he jingled by way of attracting attention
+when he was about to say anything which he judged worthy of it. This
+person's capacity in the household of the Archduke was somewhat betwixt
+that of a minstrel and a counsellor. He was by turns a flatterer, a
+poet, and an orator; and those who desired to be well with the Duke
+generally studied to gain the good-will of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER.
+
+Lest too much of this officer's wisdom should become tiresome, the
+Duke's other shoulder was occupied by his HOFF-NARR, or court-jester,
+called Jonas Schwanker, who made almost as much noise with his fool's
+cap, bells, and bauble, as did the orator, or man of talk, with his
+jingling baton.
+
+These two personages threw out grave and comic nonsense alternately;
+while their master, laughing or applauding them himself, yet carefully
+watched the countenance of his noble guest, to discern what impressions
+so accomplished a cavalier received from this display of Austrian
+eloquence and wit. It is hard to say whether the man of wisdom or the
+man of folly contributed most to the amusement of the party, or stood
+highest in the estimation of their princely master; but the sallies of
+both seemed excellently well received. Sometimes they became rivals for
+the conversation, and clanged their flappers in emulation of each other
+with a most alarming contention; but, in general, they seemed on such
+good terms, and so accustomed to support each other's play, that the
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER often condescended to follow up the jester's witticisms
+with an explanation, to render them more obvious to the capacity of
+the audience, so that his wisdom became a sort of commentary on the
+buffoon's folly. And sometimes, in requital, the HOFF-NARR, with a pithy
+jest, wound up the conclusion of the orator's tedious harangue.
+
+Whatever his real sentiments might be, Conrade took especial care that
+his countenance should express nothing but satisfaction with what he
+heard, and smiled or applauded as zealously, to all appearance, as the
+Archduke himself at the solemn folly of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the
+gibbering wit of the fool. In fact, he watched carefully until the one
+or other should introduce some topic favourable to the purpose which was
+uppermost in his mind.
+
+It was not long ere the King of England was brought on the carpet by the
+jester, who had been accustomed to consider Dickon of the Broom (which
+irreverent epithet he substituted for Richard Plantagenet) as a subject
+of mirth, acceptable and inexhaustible. The orator, indeed, was silent,
+and it was only when applied to by Conrade that he observed, "The
+GENISTA, or broom-plant, was an emblem of humility; and it would be well
+when those who wore it would remember the warning."
+
+The allusion to the illustrious badge of Plantagenet was thus rendered
+sufficiently manifest, and Jonas Schwanker observed that they who
+humbled themselves had been exalted with a vengeance. "Honour unto whom
+honour is due," answered the Marquis of Montserrat. "We have all had
+some part in these marches and battles, and methinks other princes might
+share a little in the renown which Richard of England engrosses amongst
+minstrels and MINNE-SINGERS. Has no one of the joyeuse science here
+present a song in praise of the royal Archduke of Austria, our princely
+entertainer?"
+
+Three minstrels emulously stepped forward with voice and harp. Two were
+silenced with difficulty by the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who seemed to act as
+master of the revels, and a hearing was at length procured for the
+poet preferred, who sung, in high German, stanzas which may be thus
+translated:--
+
+"What brave chief shall head the forces, Where the red-cross legions
+gather? Best of horsemen, best of horses, Highest head and fairest
+feather."
+
+Here the orator, jingling his staff, interrupted the bard to intimate to
+the party--what they might not have inferred from the description--that
+their royal host was the party indicated, and a full-crowned goblet went
+round to the acclamation, HOCH LEBE DER HERZOG LEOPOLD! Another stanza
+followed:--
+
+"Ask not Austria why, 'midst princes, Still her banner rises highest;
+Ask as well the strong-wing'd eagle, Why to heaven he soars the
+highest."
+
+"The eagle," said the expounder of dark sayings, "is the cognizance of
+our noble lord the Archduke--of his royal Grace, I would say--and the
+eagle flies the highest and nearest to the sun of all the feathered
+creation."
+
+"The lion hath taken a spring above the eagle," said Conrade carelessly.
+
+The Archduke reddened, and fixed his eyes on the speaker, while the
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER answered, after a minute's consideration, "The Lord
+Marquis will pardon me--a lion cannot fly above an eagle, because no
+lion hath got wings."
+
+"Except the lion of Saint Mark," responded the jester.
+
+"That is the Venetian's banner," said the Duke; "but assuredly that
+amphibious race, half nobles, half merchants, will not dare to place
+their rank in comparison with ours."
+
+"Nay, it was not of the Venetian lion that I spoke," said the Marquis of
+Montserrat, "but of the three lions passant of England. Formerly, it is
+said, they were leopards; but now they are become lions at all points,
+and must take precedence of beast, fish, or fowl, or woe worth the
+gainstander."
+
+"Mean you seriously, my lord?" said the Austrian, now considerably
+flushed with wine. "Think you that Richard of England asserts any
+pre-eminence over the free sovereigns who have been his voluntary allies
+in this Crusade?"
+
+"I know not but from circumstances," answered Conrade. "Yonder hangs
+his banner alone in the midst of our camp, as if he were king and
+generalissimo of our whole Christian army."
+
+"And do you endure this so patiently, and speak of it so coldly?" said
+the Archduke.
+
+"Nay, my lord," answered Conrade, "it cannot concern the poor Marquis of
+Montserrat to contend against an injury patiently submitted to by
+such potent princes as Philip of France and Leopold of Austria. What
+dishonour you are pleased to submit to cannot be a disgrace to me."
+
+Leopold closed his fist, and struck on the table with violence.
+
+"I have told Philip of this," he said. "I have often told him that it
+was our duty to protect the inferior princes against the usurpation
+of this islander; but he answers me ever with cold respects of their
+relations together as suzerain and vassal, and that it were impolitic in
+him to make an open breach at this time and period."
+
+"The world knows that Philip is wise," said Conrade, "and will judge his
+submission to be policy. Yours, my lord, you can yourself alone account
+for; but I doubt not you have deep reasons for submitting to English
+domination."
+
+"I submit!" said Leopold indignantly--"I, the Archduke of Austria, so
+important and vital a limb of the Holy Roman Empire--I submit myself to
+this king of half an island, this grandson of a Norman bastard! No, by
+Heaven! The camp and all Christendom shall see that I know how to right
+myself, and whether I yield ground one inch to the English bandog.--Up,
+my lieges and merry men; up and follow me! We will--and that without
+losing one instant--place the eagle of Austria where she shall float as
+high as ever floated the cognizance of king or kaiser."
+
+With that he started from his seat, and amidst the tumultuous cheering
+of his guests and followers, made for the door of the pavilion, and
+seized his own banner, which stood pitched before it.
+
+"Nay, my lord," said Conrade, affecting to interfere, "it will blemish
+your wisdom to make an affray in the camp at this hour; and perhaps it
+is better to submit to the usurpation of England a little longer than
+to--"
+
+"Not an hour, not a moment longer," vociferated the Duke; and with the
+banner in his hand, and followed by his shouting guests and attendants,
+marched hastily to the central mount, from which the banner of England
+floated, and laid his hand on the standard-spear, as if to pluck it from
+the ground.
+
+"My master, my dear master!" said Jonas Schwanker, throwing his arms
+about the Duke, "take heed--lions have teeth--"
+
+"And eagles have claws," said the Duke, not relinquishing his hold on
+the banner-staff, yet hesitating to pull it from the ground.
+
+The speaker of sentences, notwithstanding such was his occupation, had
+nevertheless some intervals of sound sense. He clashed his staff loudly,
+and Leopold, as if by habit, turned his head towards his man of counsel.
+
+"The eagle is king among the fowls of the air," said the
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER, "as is the lion among the beasts of the field--each has
+his dominion, separated as wide as England and Germany. Do thou, noble
+eagle, no dishonour to the princely lion, but let your banners remain
+floating in peace side by side."
+
+Leopold withdrew his hand from the banner-spear, and looked round for
+Conrade of Montserrat, but he saw him not; for the Marquis, so soon as
+he saw the mischief afoot, had withdrawn himself from the crowd, taking
+care, in the first place, to express before several neutral persons his
+regret that the Archduke should have chosen the hours after dinner to
+avenge any wrong of which he might think he had a right to complain. Not
+seeing his guest, to whom he wished more particularly to have addressed
+himself, the Archduke said aloud that, having no wish to breed
+dissension in the army of the Cross, he did but vindicate his own
+privileges and right to stand upon an equality with the King of England,
+without desiring, as he might have done, to advance his banner--which he
+derived from emperors, his progenitors--above that of a mere descendant
+of the Counts of Anjou; and in the meantime he commanded a cask of wine
+to be brought hither and pierced, for regaling the bystanders, who,
+with tuck of drum and sound of music, quaffed many a carouse round the
+Austrian standard.
+
+This disorderly scene was not acted without a degree of noise, which
+alarmed the whole camp.
+
+The critical hour had arrived at which the physician, according to the
+rules of his art, had predicted that his royal patient might be awakened
+with safety, and the sponge had been applied for that purpose; and
+the leech had not made many observations ere he assured the Baron of
+Gilsland that the fever had entirely left his sovereign, and that,
+such was the happy strength of his constitution, it would not be even
+necessary, as in most cases, to give a second dose of the powerful
+medicine. Richard himself seemed to be of the same opinion, for, sitting
+up and rubbing his eyes, he demanded of De Vaux what present sum of
+money was in the royal coffers.
+
+The baron could not exactly inform him of the amount.
+
+"It matters not," said Richard; "be it greater or smaller, bestow it
+all on this learned leech, who hath, I trust, given me back again to the
+service of the Crusade. If it be less than a thousand byzants, let him
+have jewels to make it up."
+
+"I sell not the wisdom with which Allah has endowed me," answered the
+Arabian physician; "and be it known to you, great Prince, that the
+divine medicine of which you have partaken would lose its effects in my
+unworthy hands did I exchange its virtues either for gold or diamonds."
+
+"The Physician refuseth a gratuity!" said De Vaux to himself. "This is
+more extraordinary than his being a hundred years old."
+
+"Thomas de Vaux," said Richard, "thou knowest no courage but what
+belongs to the sword, no bounty and virtue but what are used in
+chivalry. I tell thee that this Moor, in his independence, might set an
+example to them who account themselves the flower of knighthood."
+
+"It is reward enough for me," said the Moor, folding his arms on his
+bosom, and maintaining an attitude at once respectful and dignified,
+"that so great a king as the Melech Ric [Richard was thus called by the
+Eastern nations.] should thus speak of his servant.--But now let me pray
+you again to compose yourself on your couch; for though I think there
+needs no further repetition of the divine draught, yet injury might
+ensue from any too early exertion ere your strength be entirely
+restored."
+
+"I must obey thee, Hakim," said the King; "yet believe me, my bosom
+feels so free from the wasting fire which for so many days hath scorched
+it, that I care not how soon I expose it to a brave man's lance.--But
+hark! what mean these shouts, and that distant music, in the camp? Go,
+Thomas de Vaux, and make inquiry."
+
+"It is the Archduke Leopold," said De Vaux, returning after a minute's
+absence, "who makes with his pot-companions some procession through the
+camp."
+
+"The drunken fool!" exclaimed King Richard; "can he not keep his brutal
+inebriety within the veil of his pavilion, that he must needs show
+his shame to all Christendom?--What say you, Sir Marquis?" he added,
+addressing himself to Conrade of Montserrat, who at that moment entered
+the tent.
+
+"Thus much, honoured Prince," answered the Marquis, "that I delight
+to see your Majesty so well, and so far recovered; and that is a long
+speech for any one to make who has partaken of the Duke of Austria's
+hospitality."
+
+"What! you have been dining with the Teutonic wine-skin!" said
+the monarch. "And what frolic has he found out to cause all this
+disturbance? Truly, Sir Conrade, I have still held you so good a
+reveller that I wonder at your quitting the game."
+
+De Vaux, who had got a little behind the King, now exerted himself by
+look and sign to make the Marquis understand that he should say nothing
+to Richard of what was passing without. But Conrade understood not, or
+heeded not, the prohibition.
+
+"What the Archduke does," he said, "is of little consequence to any one,
+least of all to himself, since he probably knows not what he is acting;
+yet, to say truth, it is a gambol I should not like to share in, since
+he is pulling down the banner of England from Saint George's Mount, in
+the centre of the camp yonder, and displaying his own in its stead."
+
+"WHAT sayest thou?" exclaimed the King, in a tone which might have waked
+the dead.
+
+"Nay," said the Marquis, "let it not chafe your Highness that a fool
+should act according to his folly--"
+
+"Speak not to me," said Richard, springing from his couch, and casting
+on his clothes with a dispatch which seemed marvellous--"Speak not to
+me, Lord Marquis!--De Multon, I command thee speak not a word to
+me--he that breathes but a syllable is no friend to Richard
+Plantagenet.--Hakim, be silent, I charge thee!"
+
+All this while the King was hastily clothing himself, and, with the last
+word, snatched his sword from the pillar of the tent, and without any
+other weapon, or calling any attendance, he rushed out of his pavilion.
+Conrade, holding up his hands as if in astonishment, seemed willing to
+enter into conversation with De Vaux; but Sir Thomas pushed rudely past
+him, and calling to one of the royal equerries, said hastily, "Fly to
+Lord Salisbury's quarters, and let him get his men together and follow
+me instantly to Saint George's Mount. Tell him the King's fever has left
+his blood and settled in his brain."
+
+Imperfectly heard, and still more imperfectly comprehended, by the
+startled attendant whom De Vaux addressed thus hastily, the equerry and
+his fellow-servants of the royal chamber rushed hastily into the tents
+of the neighbouring nobility, and quickly spread an alarm, as general
+as the cause seemed vague, through the whole British forces. The English
+soldiers, waked in alarm from that noonday rest which the heat of the
+climate had taught them to enjoy as a luxury, hastily asked each other
+the cause of the tumult, and without waiting an answer, supplied by the
+force of their own fancy the want of information. Some said the Saracens
+were in the camp, some that the King's life was attempted, some that he
+had died of the fever the preceding night, many that he was assassinated
+by the Duke of Austria. The nobles and officers, at an equal loss with
+the common men to ascertain the real cause of the disorder, laboured
+only to get their followers under arms and under authority, lest their
+rashness should occasion some great misfortune to the Crusading army.
+The English trumpets sounded loud, shrill, and continuously. The
+alarm-cry of "Bows and bills, bows and bills!" was heard from quarter
+to quarter, again and again shouted, and again and again answered by the
+presence of the ready warriors, and their national invocation, "Saint
+George for merry England!"
+
+The alarm went through the nearest quarter of the camp, and men of
+all the various nations assembled, where, perhaps, every people in
+Christendom had their representatives, flew to arms, and drew together
+under circumstances of general confusion, of which they knew neither
+the cause nor the object. It was, however, lucky, amid a scene so
+threatening, that the Earl of Salisbury, while he hurried after De
+Vaux's summons with a few only of the readiest English men-at-arms,
+directed the rest of the English host to be drawn up and kept under
+arms, to advance to Richard's succour if necessity should require, but
+in fit array and under due command, and not with the tumultuary
+haste which their own alarm and zeal for the King's safety might have
+dictated.
+
+In the meanwhile, without regarding for one instant the shouts, the
+cries, the tumult which began to thicken around him, Richard, with
+his dress in the last disorder, and his sheathed blade under his arm,
+pursued his way with the utmost speed, followed only by De Vaux and one
+or two household servants, to Saint George's Mount.
+
+He outsped even the alarm which his impetuosity only had excited,
+and passed the quarter of his own gallant troops of Normandy, Poitou,
+Gascony, and Anjou before the disturbance had reached them, although the
+noise accompanying the German revel had induced many of the soldiery to
+get on foot to listen. The handful of Scots were also quartered in the
+vicinity, nor had they been disturbed by the uproar. But the King's
+person and his haste were both remarked by the Knight of the Leopard,
+who, aware that danger must be afoot, and hastening to share in it,
+snatched his shield and sword, and united himself to De Vaux, who with
+some difficulty kept pace with his impatient and fiery master. De Vaux
+answered a look of curiosity, which the Scottish knight directed towards
+him, with a shrug of his broad shoulders, and they continued, side by
+side, to pursue Richard's steps.
+
+The King was soon at the foot of Saint George's Mount, the sides as well
+as platform of which were now surrounded and crowded, partly by those
+belonging to the Duke of Austria's retinue, who were celebrating, with
+shouts of jubilee, the act which they considered as an assertion of
+national honour; partly by bystanders of different nations, whom dislike
+to the English, or mere curiosity, had assembled together to witness the
+end of these extraordinary proceedings. Through this disorderly troop
+Richard burst his way, like a goodly ship under full sail, which cleaves
+her forcible passage through the rolling billows, and heeds not that
+they unite after her passage and roar upon her stern.
+
+The summit of the eminence was a small level space, on which were
+pitched the rival banners, surrounded still by the Archduke's friends
+and retinue. In the midst of the circle was Leopold himself, still
+contemplating with self-satisfaction the deed he had done, and still
+listening to the shouts of applause which his partisans bestowed with no
+sparing breath. While he was in this state of self-gratulation, Richard
+burst into the circle, attended, indeed, only by two men, but in his own
+headlong energies an irresistible host.
+
+"Who has dared," he said, laying his hands upon the Austrian
+standard, and speaking in a voice like the sound which precedes an
+earthquake--"Who has dared to place this paltry rag beside the banner of
+England?"
+
+The Archduke wanted not personal courage, and it was impossible he
+could hear this question without reply. Yet so much was he troubled
+and surprised by the unexpected arrival of Richard, and affected by the
+general awe inspired by his ardent and unyielding character, that the
+demand was twice repeated, in a tone which seemed to challenge heaven
+and earth, ere the Archduke replied, with such firmness as he could
+command, "It was I, Leopold of Austria."
+
+"Then shall Leopold of Austria," replied Richard, "presentry see the
+rate at which his banner and his pretensions are held by Richard of
+England."
+
+So saying, he pulled up the standard-spear, splintered it to pieces,
+threw the banner itself on the ground, and placed his foot upon it.
+
+"Thus," said he, "I trample on the banner of Austria. Is there a knight
+among your Teutonic chivalry dare impeach my deed?"
+
+There was a momentary silence; but there are no braver men than the
+Germans.
+
+"I," and "I," and "I," was heard from several knights of the Duke"s
+followers; and he himself added his voice to those which accepted the
+King of England's defiance.
+
+"Why do we dally thus?" said the Earl Wallenrode, a gigantic warrior
+from the frontiers of Hungary. "Brethren and noble gentlemen, this man's
+foot is on the honour of your country--let us rescue it from violation,
+and down with the pride of England!"
+
+So saying, he drew his sword, and struck at the King a blow which might
+have proved fatal, had not the Scot intercepted and caught it upon his
+shield.
+
+"I have sworn," said King Richard--and his voice was heard above all
+the tumult, which now waxed wild and loud--"never to strike one whose
+shoulder bears the cross; therefore live, Wallenrode--but live to
+remember Richard of England."
+
+As he spoke, he grasped the tall Hungarian round the waist, and,
+unmatched in wrestling, as in other military exercises, hurled him
+backwards with such violence that the mass flew as if discharged from a
+military engine, not only through the ring of spectators who witnessed
+the extraordinary scene, but over the edge of the mount itself, down
+the steep side of which Wallenrode rolled headlong, until, pitching at
+length upon his shoulder, he dislocated the bone, and lay like one dead.
+This almost supernatural display of strength did not encourage either
+the Duke or any of his followers to renew a personal contest so
+inauspiciously commenced. Those who stood farthest back did, indeed,
+clash their swords, and cry out, "Cut the island mastiff to pieces!"
+but those who were nearer veiled, perhaps, their personal fears under an
+affected regard for order, and cried, for the most part, "Peace! Peace!
+the peace of the Cross--the peace of Holy Church and our Father the
+Pope!"
+
+These various cries of the assailants, contradicting each other, showed
+their irresolution; while Richard, his foot still on the archducal
+banner, glared round him with an eye that seemed to seek an enemy, and
+from which the angry nobles shrunk appalled, as from the threatened
+grasp of a lion. De Vaux and the Knight of the Leopard kept their places
+beside him; and though the swords which they held were still sheathed,
+it was plain that they were prompt to protect Richard's person to the
+very last, and their size and remarkable strength plainly showed the
+defence would be a desperate one.
+
+Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and
+partisans brandished, and bows already bended.
+
+At this moment King Philip of France, attended by one or two of his
+nobles, came on the platform to inquire the cause of the disturbance,
+and made gestures of surprise at finding the King of England raised from
+his sick-bed, and confronting their common ally, the Duke of Austria, in
+such a menacing and insulting posture. Richard himself blushed at being
+discovered by Philip, whose sagacity he respected as much as he disliked
+his person, in an attitude neither becoming his character as a monarch,
+nor as a Crusader; and it was observed that he withdrew his foot, as
+if accidentally, from the dishonoured banner, and exchanged his look of
+violent emotion for one of affected composure and indifference. Leopold
+also struggled to attain some degree of calmness, mortified as he was
+by having been seen by Philip in the act of passively submitting to the
+insults of the fiery King of England.
+
+Possessed of many of those royal qualities for which he was termed by
+his subjects the August, Philip might be termed the Ulysses, as Richard
+was indisputably the Achilles, of the Crusade. The King of France was
+sagacious, wise, deliberate in council, steady and calm in action,
+seeing clearly, and steadily pursuing, the measures most for the
+interest of his kingdom--dignified and royal in his deportment, brave in
+person, but a politician rather than a warrior. The Crusade would
+have been no choice of his own; but the spirit was contagious, and the
+expedition was enforced upon him by the church, and by the unanimous
+wish of his nobility. In any other situation, or in a milder age, his
+character might have stood higher than that of the adventurous Coeur de
+Lion. But in the Crusade, itself an undertaking wholly irrational, sound
+reason was the quality of all others least estimated, and the chivalric
+valour which both the age and the enterprise demanded was considered as
+debased if mingled with the least touch of discretion. So that the merit
+of Philip, compared with that of his haughty rival, showed like the
+clear but minute flame of a lamp placed near the glare of a huge,
+blazing torch, which, not possessing half the utility, makes ten times
+more impression on the eye. Philip felt his inferiority in public
+opinion with the pain natural to a high-spirited prince; and it cannot
+be wondered at if he took such opportunities as offered for placing his
+own character in more advantageous contrast with that of his rival. The
+present seemed one of those occasions in which prudence and calmness
+might reasonably expect to triumph over obstinacy and impetuous
+violence.
+
+"What means this unseemly broil betwixt the sworn brethren of the
+Cross--the royal Majesty of England and the princely Duke Leopold? How
+is it possible that those who are the chiefs and pillars of this holy
+expedition--"
+
+"A truce with thy remonstrance, France," said Richard, enraged inwardly
+at finding himself placed on a sort of equality with Leopold, yet not
+knowing how to resent it. "This duke, or prince, or pillar, if you will,
+hath been insolent, and I have chastised him--that is all. Here is a
+coil, forsooth, because of spurning a hound!"
+
+"Majesty of France," said the Duke, "I appeal to you and every sovereign
+prince against the foul indignity which I have sustained. This King of
+England hath pulled down my banner-torn and trampled on it."
+
+"Because he had the audacity to plant it beside mine," said Richard.
+
+"My rank as thine equal entitled me," replied the Duke, emboldened by
+the presence of Philip.
+
+"Assert such equality for thy person," said King Richard, "and, by Saint
+George, I will treat thy person as I did thy broidered kerchief there,
+fit but for the meanest use to which kerchief may be put."
+
+"Nay, but patience, brother of England," said Philip, "and I will
+presently show Austria that he is wrong in this matter.--Do not think,
+noble Duke," he continued, "that, in permitting the standard of England
+to occupy the highest point in our camp, we, the independent sovereigns
+of the Crusade, acknowledge any inferiority to the royal Richard. It
+were inconsistent to think so, since even the Oriflamme itself--the
+great banner of France, to which the royal Richard himself, in respect
+of his French possessions, is but a vassal--holds for the present an
+inferior place to the Lions of England. But as sworn brethren of the
+Cross, military pilgrims, who, laying aside the pomp and pride of this
+world, are hewing with our swords the way to the Holy Sepulchre, I
+myself, and the other princes, have renounced to King Richard, from
+respect to his high renown and great feats of arms, that precedence
+which elsewhere, and upon other motives, would not have been yielded.
+I am satisfied that, when your royal grace of Austria shall have
+considered this, you will express sorrow for having placed your banner
+on this spot, and that the royal Majesty of England will then give
+satisfaction for the insult he has offered."
+
+The SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the jester had both retired to a safe distance
+when matters seemed coming to blows; but returned when words, their own
+commodity, seemed again about to become the order of the day.
+
+The man of proverbs was so delighted with Philip's politic speech that
+he clashed his baton at the conclusion, by way of emphasis, and forgot
+the presence in which he was, so far as to say aloud that he himself had
+never said a wiser thing in his life.
+
+"It may be so," whispered Jonas Schwanker, "but we shall be whipped if
+you speak so loud."
+
+The Duke answered sullenly that he would refer his quarrel to the
+General Council of the Crusade--a motion which Philip highly applauded,
+as qualified to take away a scandal most harmful to Christendom.
+
+Richard, retaining the same careless attitude, listened to Philip until
+his oratory seemed exhausted, and then said aloud, "I am drowsy--this
+fever hangs about me still. Brother of France, thou art acquainted with
+my humour, and that I have at all times but few words to spare. Know,
+therefore, at once, I will submit a matter touching the honour
+of England neither to Prince, Pope, nor Council. Here stands my
+banner--whatsoever pennon shall be reared within three butts' length
+of it--ay, were it the Oriflamme, of which you were, I think, but now
+speaking--shall be treated as that dishonoured rag; nor will I yield
+other satisfaction than that which these poor limbs can render in the
+lists to any bold challenge--ay, were it against five champions instead
+of one."
+
+"Now," said the jester, whispering his companion, "that is as complete
+a piece of folly as if I myself had said it; but yet, I think, there may
+be in this matter a greater fool than Richard yet."
+
+"And who may that be?" asked the man of wisdom.
+
+"Philip," said the jester, "or our own Royal Duke, should either accept
+the challenge. But oh, most sage SPRUCH-SPECHER, what excellent kings
+wouldst thou and I have made, since those on whose heads these crowns
+have fallen can play the proverb-monger and the fool as completely as
+ourselves!"
+
+While these worthies plied their offices apart, Philip answered calmly
+to the almost injurious defiance of Richard, "I came not hither to
+awaken fresh quarrels, contrary to the oath we have sworn, and the holy
+cause in which we have engaged. I part from my brother of England as
+brothers should part, and the only strife between the Lions of England
+and the Lilies of France shall be which shall be carried deepest into
+the ranks of the infidels."
+
+"It is a bargain, my royal brother," said Richard, stretching out his
+hand with all the frankness which belonged to his rash but generous
+disposition; "and soon may we have the opportunity to try this gallant
+and fraternal wager."
+
+"Let this noble Duke also partake in the friendship of this happy
+moment," said Philip; and the Duke approached half-sullenly,
+half-willing to enter into some accommodation.
+
+"I think not of fools, nor of their folly," said Richard carelessly; and
+the Archduke, turning his back on him, withdrew from the ground.
+
+Richard looked after him as he retired.
+
+"There is a sort of glow-worm courage," he said, "that shows only by
+night. I must not leave this banner unguarded in darkness; by daylight
+the look of the Lions will alone defend it. Here, Thomas of Gilsland, I
+give thee the charge of the standard--watch over the honour of England."
+
+"Her safety is yet more dear to me," said De Vaux, "and the life of
+Richard is the safety of England. I must have your Highness back to your
+tent, and that without further tarriance."
+
+"Thou art a rough and peremptory nurse, De Vaux," said the king,
+smiling; and then added, addressing Sir Kenneth, "Valiant Scot, I
+owe thee a boon, and I will pay it richly. There stands the banner of
+England! Watch it as novice does his armour on the night before he is
+dubbed. Stir not from it three spears' length, and defend it with thy
+body against injury or insult. Sound thy bugle if thou art assailed by
+more than three at once. Dost thou undertake the charge?"
+
+"Willingly," said Kenneth; "and will discharge it upon penalty of my
+head. I will but arm me, and return hither instantly."
+
+The Kings of France and England then took formal leave of each other,
+hiding, under an appearance of courtesy, the grounds of complaint which
+either had against the other--Richard against Philip, for what he deemed
+an officious interference betwixt him and Austria, and Philip against
+Coeur de Lion, for the disrespectful manner in which his mediation had
+been received. Those whom this disturbance had assembled now drew off in
+different directions, leaving the contested mount in the same solitude
+which had subsisted till interrupted by the Austrian bravado. Men judged
+of the events of the day according to their partialities, and while the
+English charged the Austrian with having afforded the first ground of
+quarrel, those of other nations concurred in casting the greater blame
+upon the insular haughtiness and assuming character of Richard.
+
+"Thou seest," said the Marquis of Montserrat to the Grand Master of the
+Templars, "that subtle courses are more effective than violence. I
+have unloosed the bonds which held together this bunch of sceptres and
+lances--thou wilt see them shortly fall asunder."
+
+"I would have called thy plan a good one," said the Templar, "had there
+been but one man of courage among yonder cold-blooded Austrians to sever
+the bonds of which you speak with his sword. A knot that is unloosed may
+again be fastened, but not so the cord which has been cut to pieces."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     'Tis woman that seduces all mankind.
+        GAY.
+
+In the days of chivalry, a dangerous post or a perilous adventure was a
+reward frequently assigned to military bravery as a compensation for its
+former trials; just as, in ascending a precipice, the surmounting one
+crag only lifts the climber to points yet more dangerous.
+
+It was midnight, and the moon rode clear and high in heaven, when
+Kenneth of Scotland stood upon his watch on Saint George's Mount, beside
+the banner of England, a solitary sentinel, to protect the emblem of
+that nation against the insults which might be meditated among the
+thousands whom Richard's pride had made his enemies. High thoughts
+rolled, one after each other, upon the mind of the warrior. It seemed
+to him as if he had gained some favour in the eyes of the chivalrous
+monarch, who till now had not seemed to distinguish him among the crowds
+of brave men whom his renown had assembled under his banner, and Sir
+Kenneth little recked that the display of royal regard consisted in
+placing him upon a post so perilous. The devotion of his ambitious and
+high-placed affection inflamed his military enthusiasm. Hopeless as that
+attachment was in almost any conceivable circumstances, those which had
+lately occurred had, in some degree, diminished the distance between
+Edith and himself. He upon whom Richard had conferred the distinction
+of guarding his banner was no longer an adventurer of slight note, but
+placed within the regard of a princess, although he was as far as ever
+from her level. An unknown and obscure fate could not now be his. If
+he was surprised and slain on the post which had been assigned him, his
+death--and he resolved it should be glorious--must deserve the praises
+as well as call down the vengeance of Coeur de Lion, and be followed
+by the regrets, and even the tears, of the high-born beauties of the
+English Court. He had now no longer reason to fear that he should die as
+a fool dieth.
+
+Sir Kenneth had full leisure to enjoy these and similar high-souled
+thoughts, fostered by that wild spirit of chivalry, which, amid its
+most extravagant and fantastic flights, was still pure from all selfish
+alloy--generous, devoted, and perhaps only thus far censurable, that it
+proposed objects and courses of action inconsistent with the frailties
+and imperfections of man. All nature around him slept in calm moon-shine
+or in deep shadow. The long rows of tents and pavilions, glimmering or
+darkening as they lay in the moonlight or in the shade, were still and
+silent as the streets of a deserted city. Beside the banner-staff lay
+the large staghound already mentioned, the sole companion of Kenneth's
+watch, on whose vigilance he trusted for early warning of the approach
+of any hostile footstep. The noble animal seemed to understand the
+purpose of their watch; for he looked from time to time at the rich
+folds of the heavy pennon, and, when the cry of the sentinels came from
+the distant lines and defences of the camp, he answered them with one
+deep and reiterated bark, as if to affirm that he too was vigilant in
+his duty. From time to time, also, he lowered his lofty head, and wagged
+his tail, as his master passed and repassed him in the short turns which
+he took upon his post; or, when the knight stood silent and abstracted
+leaning on his lance, and looking up towards heaven, his faithful
+attendant ventured sometimes, in the phrase of romance, "to disturb his
+thoughts," and awaken him from his reverie, by thrusting his large rough
+snout into the knight's gauntleted hand, to solicit a transitory caress.
+
+Thus passed two hours of the knight's watch without anything remarkable
+occurring. At length, and upon a sudden, the gallant staghound bayed
+furiously, and seemed about to dash forward where the shadow lay
+the darkest, yet waited, as if in the slips, till he should know the
+pleasure of his master.
+
+"Who goes there?" said Sir Kenneth, aware that there was something
+creeping forward on the shadowy side of the mount.
+
+"In the name of Merlin and Maugis," answered a hoarse, disagreeable
+voice, "tie up your fourfooted demon there, or I come not at you."
+
+"And who art thou that would approach my post?" said Sir Kenneth,
+bending his eyes as keenly as he could on some object, which he
+could just observe at the bottom of the ascent, without being able to
+distinguish its form. "Beware--I am here for death and life."
+
+"Take up thy long-fanged Sathanas," said the voice, "or I will conjure
+him with a bolt from my arblast."
+
+At the same time was heard the sound of a spring or check, as when a
+crossbow is bent.
+
+"Unbend thy arblast, and come into the moonlight," said the Scot, "or,
+by Saint Andrew, I will pin thee to the earth, be what or whom thou
+wilt!"
+
+As he spoke he poised his long lance by the middle, and, fixing his eye
+upon the object, which seemed to move, he brandished the weapon, as
+if meditating to cast it from his hand--a use of the weapon sometimes,
+though rarely, resorted to when a missile was necessary. But Sir Kenneth
+was ashamed of his purpose, and grounded his weapon, when there stepped
+from the shadow into the moonlight, like an actor entering upon the
+stage, a stunted, decrepit creature, whom, by his fantastic dress and
+deformity, he recognized, even at some distance, for the male of the two
+dwarfs whom he had seen in the chapel at Engaddi. Recollecting, at the
+same moment, the other and far different visions of that extraordinary
+night, he gave his dog a signal, which he instantly understood, and,
+returning to the standard, laid himself down beside it with a stifled
+growl.
+
+The little, distorted miniature of humanity, assured of his safety from
+an enemy so formidable, came panting up the ascent, which the shortness
+of his legs rendered laborious, and, when he arrived on the platform at
+the top, shifted to his left hand the little crossbow, which was just
+such a toy as children at that period were permitted to shoot small
+birds with, and, assuming an attitude of great dignity, gracefully
+extended his right hand to Sir Kenneth, in an attitude as if he expected
+he would salute it. But such a result not following, he demanded, in a
+sharp and angry tone of voice, "Soldier, wherefore renderest thou not
+to Nectabanus the homage due to his dignity? Or is it possible that thou
+canst have forgotten him?"
+
+"Great Nectabanus," answered the knight, willing to soothe the
+creature's humour, "that were difficult for any one who has ever looked
+upon thee. Pardon me, however, that, being a soldier upon my post,
+with my lance in my hand, I may not give to one of thy puissance the
+advantage of coming within my guard, or of mastering my weapon. Suffice
+it that I reverence thy dignity, and submit myself to thee as humbly as
+a man-at-arms in my place may."
+
+"It shall suffice," said Nectabanus, "so that you presently attend me to
+the presence of those who have sent me hither to summon you."
+
+"Great sir," replied the knight, "neither in this can I gratify thee,
+for my orders are to abide by this banner till daybreak--so I pray you
+to hold me excused in that matter also."
+
+So saying, he resumed his walk upon the platform; but the dwarf did not
+suffer him so easily to escape from his importunity.
+
+"Look you," he said, placing himself before Sir Kenneth, so as to
+interrupt his way, "either obey me, Sir Knight, as in duty bound, or I
+will lay the command upon thee, in the name of one whose beauty could
+call down the genii from their sphere, and whose grandeur could command
+the immortal race when they had descended."
+
+A wild and improbable conjecture arose in the knight's mind, but he
+repelled it. It was impossible, he thought, that the lady of his love
+should have sent him such a message by such a messenger; yet his voice
+trembled as he said, "Go to, Nectabanus. Tell me at once, and as a true
+man, whether this sublime lady of whom thou speakest be other than
+the houri with whose assistance I beheld thee sweeping the chapel at
+Engaddi?"
+
+"How! presumptuous Knight," replied the dwarf, "think'st thou the
+mistress of our own royal affections, the sharer of our greatness, and
+the partner of our comeliness, would demean herself by laying charge on
+such a vassal as thou? No; highly as thou art honoured, thou hast not
+yet deserved the notice of Queen Guenevra, the lovely bride of Arthur,
+from whose high seat even princes seem but pigmies. But look thou here,
+and as thou knowest or disownest this token, so obey or refuse her
+commands who hath deigned to impose them on thee."
+
+So saying, he placed in the knight's hand a ruby ring, which, even in
+the moonlight, he had no difficulty to recognize as that which usually
+graced the finger of the high-born lady to whose service he had devoted
+himself. Could he have doubted the truth of the token, he would have
+been convinced by the small knot of carnation-coloured ribbon which was
+fastened to the ring. This was his lady's favourite colour, and more
+than once had he himself, assuming it for that of his own liveries,
+caused the carnation to triumph over all other hues in the lists and in
+the battle.
+
+Sir Kenneth was struck nearly mute by seeing such a token in such hands.
+
+"In the name of all that is sacred, from whom didst thou receive
+this witness?" said the knight. "Bring, if thou canst, thy wavering
+understanding to a right settlement for a minute or two, and tell me the
+person by whom thou art sent, and the real purpose of thy message, and
+take heed what thou sayest, for this is no subject for buffoonery."
+
+"Fond and foolish Knight," said the dwarf, "wouldst thou know more of
+this matter than that thou art honoured with commands from a princess,
+delivered to thee by a king? We list not to parley with thee further
+than to command thee, in the name and by the power of that ring, to
+follow us to her who is the owner of the ring. Every minute that thou
+tarriest is a crime against thy allegiance."
+
+"Good Nectabanus, bethink thyself," said the knight. "Can my lady know
+where and upon what duty I am this night engaged? Is she aware that my
+life--pshaw, why should I speak of life--but that my honour depends on
+my guarding this banner till daybreak; and can it be her wish that
+I should leave it even to pay homage to her? It is impossible--the
+princess is pleased to be merry with her servant in sending him such
+a message; and I must think so the rather that she hath chosen such a
+messenger."
+
+"Oh, keep your belief," said Nectabanus, turning round as if to leave
+the platform; "it is little to me whether you be traitor or true man to
+this royal lady--so fare thee well."
+
+"Stay, stay--I entreat you stay," said Sir Kenneth. "Answer me but one
+question: is the lady who sent thee near to this place?"
+
+"What signifies it?" said the dwarf. "Ought fidelity to reckon furlongs,
+or miles, or leagues--like the poor courier, who is paid for his
+labour by the distance which he traverses? Nevertheless, thou soul
+of suspicion, I tell thee, the fair owner of the ring now sent to so
+unworthy a vassal, in whom there is neither truth nor courage, is not
+more distant from this place than this arblast can send a bolt."
+
+The knight gazed again on that ring, as if to ascertain that there was
+no possible falsehood in the token. "Tell me," he said to the dwarf, "is
+my presence required for any length of time?"
+
+"Time!" answered Nectabanus, in his flighty manner; "what call you time?
+I see it not--I feel it not--it is but a shadowy name--a succession of
+breathings measured forth by night by the clank of a bell, by day by
+a shadow crossing along a dial-stone. Knowest thou not a true knight's
+time should only be reckoned by the deeds that he performs in behalf of
+God and his lady?"
+
+"The words of truth, though in the mouth of folly," said the knight.
+"And doth my lady really summon me to some deed of action, in her name
+and for her sake?--and may it not be postponed for even the few hours
+till daybreak?"
+
+"She requires thy presence instantly," said the dwarf, "and without the
+loss of so much time as would be told by ten grains of the sandglass.
+Hearken, thou cold-blooded and suspicious knight, these are her very
+words--Tell him that the hand which dropped roses can bestow laurels."
+
+This allusion to their meeting in the chapel of Engaddi sent a thousand
+recollections through Sir Kenneth's brain, and convinced him that the
+message delivered by the dwarf was genuine. The rosebuds, withered as
+they were, were still treasured under his cuirass, and nearest to his
+heart. He paused, and could not resolve to forego an opportunity, the
+only one which might ever offer, to gain grace in her eyes whom he had
+installed as sovereign of his affections. The dwarf, in the meantime,
+augmented his confusion by insisting either that he must return the ring
+or instantly attend him.
+
+"Hold, hold, yet a moment hold," said the knight, and proceeded to
+mutter to himself, "Am I either the subject or slave of King Richard,
+more than as a free knight sworn to the service of the Crusade? And whom
+have I come hither to honour with lance and sword? Our holy cause and my
+transcendent lady!"
+
+"The ring! the ring!" exclaimed the dwarf impatiently; "false and
+slothful knight, return the ring, which thou art unworthy to touch or to
+look upon."
+
+"A moment, a moment, good Nectabanus," said Sir Kenneth; "disturb not
+my thoughts.--What if the Saracens were just now to attack our lines?
+Should I stay here like a sworn vassal of England, watching that her
+king's pride suffered no humiliation; or should I speed to the breach,
+and fight for the Cross? To the breach, assuredly; and next to the cause
+of God come the commands of my liege lady. And yet, Coeur de Lion's
+behest--my own promise! Nectabanus, I conjure thee once more to say, are
+you to conduct me far from hence?"
+
+"But to yonder pavilion; and, since you must needs know," replied
+Nectabanus, "the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its
+roof, and which is worth a king's ransom."
+
+"I can return in an instant," said the knight, shutting his eyes
+desperately to all further consequences, "I can hear from thence the bay
+of my dog if any one approaches the standard. I will throw myself at my
+lady's feet, and pray her leave to return to conclude my watch.--Here,
+Roswal" (calling his hound, and throwing down his mantle by the side of
+the standard-spear), "watch thou here, and let no one approach."
+
+The majestic dog looked in his master's face, as if to be sure that he
+understood his charge, then sat down beside the mantle, with ears erect
+and head raised, like a sentinel, understanding perfectly the purpose
+for which he was stationed there.
+
+"Come now, good Nectabanus," said the knight, "let us hasten to obey the
+commands thou hast brought."
+
+"Haste he that will," said the dwarf sullenly; "thou hast not been in
+haste to obey my summons, nor can I walk fast enough to follow your long
+strides--you do not walk like a man, but bound like an ostrich in the
+desert."
+
+There were but two ways of conquering the obstinacy of Nectabanus, who,
+as he spoke, diminished his walk into a snail's pace. For bribes Sir
+Kenneth had no means--for soothing no time; so in his impatience
+he snatched the dwarf up from the ground, and bearing him along,
+notwithstanding his entreaties and his fear, reached nearly to the
+pavilion pointed out as that of the Queen. In approaching it, however,
+the Scot observed there was a small guard of soldiers sitting on the
+ground, who had been concealed from him by the intervening tents.
+Wondering that the clash of his own armour had not yet attracted
+their attention, and supposing that his motions might, on the present
+occasion, require to be conducted with secrecy, he placed the little
+panting guide upon the ground to recover his breath, and point out what
+was next to be done. Nectabanus was both frightened and angry; but he
+had felt himself as completely in the power of the robust knight as an
+owl in the claws of an eagle, and therefore cared not to provoke him to
+any further display of his strength.
+
+He made no complaints, therefore, of the usage he had received; but,
+turning amongst the labyrinth of tents, he led the knight in silence
+to the opposite side of the pavilion, which thus screened them from
+the observation of the warders, who seemed either too negligent or too
+sleepy to discharge their duty with much accuracy. Arrived there, the
+dwarf raised the under part of the canvas from the ground, and made
+signs to Sir Kenneth that he should introduce himself to the inside of
+the tent, by creeping under it. The knight hesitated. There seemed an
+indecorum in thus privately introducing himself into a pavilion pitched,
+doubtless, for the accommodation of noble ladies; but he recalled
+to remembrance the assured tokens which the dwarf had exhibited, and
+concluded that it was not for him to dispute his lady's pleasure.
+
+He stooped accordingly, crept beneath the canvas enclosure of the tent,
+and heard the dwarf whisper from without, "Remain here until I call
+thee."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     You talk of Gaiety and Innocence!
+     The moment when the fatal fruit was eaten,
+     They parted ne'er to meet again; and Malice
+     Has ever since been playmate to light Gaiety,
+     From the first moment when the smiling infant
+     Destroys the flower or butterfly he toys with,
+     To the last chuckle of the dying miser,
+     Who on his deathbed laughs his last to hear
+     His wealthy neighbour has become a bankrupt.
+         OLD PLAY.
+
+Sir Kenneth was left for some minutes alone and in darkness. Here was
+another interruption which must prolong his absence from his post, and
+he began almost to repent the facility with which he had been induced to
+quit it. But to return without seeing the Lady Edith was now not to be
+thought of. He had committed a breach of military discipline, and was
+determined at least to prove the reality of the seductive expectations
+which had tempted him to do so. Meanwhile his situation was unpleasant.
+There was no light to show him into what sort of apartment he had
+been led--the Lady Edith was in immediate attendance on the Queen
+of England--and the discovery of his having introduced himself thus
+furtively into the royal pavilion might, were it discovered; lead to
+much and dangerous suspicion. While he gave way to these unpleasant
+reflections, and began almost to wish that he could achieve his retreat
+unobserved, he heard a noise of female voices, laughing, whispering, and
+speaking, in an adjoining apartment, from which, as the sounds gave him
+reason to judge, he could only be separated by a canvas partition. Lamps
+were burning, as he might perceive by the shadowy light which extended
+itself even to his side of the veil which divided the tent, and he
+could see shades of several figures sitting and moving in the adjoining
+apartment. It cannot be termed discourtesy in Sir Kenneth that, situated
+as he was, he overheard a conversation in which he found himself deeply
+interested.
+
+"Call her--call her, for Our Lady's sake," said the voice of one of
+these laughing invisibles. "Nectabanus, thou shalt be made ambassador to
+Prester John's court, to show them how wisely thou canst discharge thee
+of a mission."
+
+The shrill tone of the dwarf was heard, yet so much subdued that
+Sir Kenneth could not understand what he said, except that he spoke
+something of the means of merriment given to the guard.
+
+"But how shall we rid us of the spirit which Nectabanus hath raised, my
+maidens?"
+
+"Hear me, royal madam," said another voice. "If the sage and princely
+Nectabanus be not over-jealous of his most transcendent bride and
+empress, let us send her to get us rid of this insolent knight-errant,
+who can be so easily persuaded that high-born dames may need the use of
+his insolent and overweening valour."
+
+"It were but justice, methinks," replied another, "that the Princess
+Guenever should dismiss, by her courtesy, him whom her husband's wisdom
+has been able to entice hither."
+
+Struck to the heart with shame and resentment at what he had heard, Sir
+Kenneth was about to attempt his escape from the tent at all hazards,
+when what followed arrested his purpose.
+
+"Nay, truly," said the first speaker, "our cousin Edith must first learn
+how this vaunted wight hath conducted himself, and we must reserve the
+power of giving her ocular proof that he hath failed in his duty. It
+may be a lesson will do good upon her; for, credit me, Calista, I have
+sometimes thought she has let this Northern adventurer sit nearer her
+heart than prudence would sanction."
+
+One of the other voices was then heard to mutter something of the Lady
+Edith's prudence and wisdom.
+
+"Prudence, wench!" was the reply. "It is mere pride, and the desire to
+be thought more rigid than any of us. Nay, I will not quit my advantage.
+You know well that when she has us at fault no one can, in a civil way,
+lay your error before you more precisely than can my Lady Edith. But
+here she comes."
+
+A figure, as if entering the apartment, cast upon the partition a
+shade, which glided along slowly until it mixed with those which
+already clouded it. Despite of the bitter disappointment which he had
+experienced--despite the insult and injury with which it seemed he had
+been visited by the malice, or, at best, by the idle humour of Queen
+Berengaria (for he already concluded that she who spoke loudest, and in
+a commanding tone, was the wife of Richard), the knight felt something
+so soothing to his feelings in learning that Edith had been no partner
+to the fraud practised on him, and so interesting to his curiosity in
+the scene which was about to take place, that, instead of prosecuting
+his more prudent purpose of an instant retreat, he looked anxiously,
+on the contrary, for some rent or crevice by means of which he might be
+made eye as well as ear witness to what was to go forward.
+
+"Surely," said he to himself, "the Queen, who hath been pleased for
+an idle frolic to endanger my reputation, and perhaps my life, cannot
+complain if I avail myself of the chance which fortune seems willing to
+afford me to obtain knowledge of her further intentions."
+
+It seemed, in the meanwhile, as if Edith were waiting for the commands
+of the Queen, and as if the other were reluctant to speak for fear of
+being unable to command her laughter and that of her companions; for Sir
+Kenneth could only distinguish a sound as of suppressed tittering and
+merriment.
+
+"Your Majesty," said Edith at last, "seems in a merry mood, though,
+methinks, the hour of night prompts a sleepy one. I was well disposed
+bedward when I had your Majesty's commands to attend you."
+
+"I will not long delay you, cousin, from your repose," said the Queen,
+"though I fear you will sleep less soundly when I tell you your wager is
+lost."
+
+"Nay, royal madam," said Edith, "this, surely, is dwelling on a jest
+which has rather been worn out, I laid no wager, however it was your
+Majesty's pleasure to suppose, or to insist, that I did so."
+
+"Nay, now, despite our pilgrimage, Satan is strong with you, my gentle
+cousin, and prompts thee to leasing. Can you deny that you gaged your
+ruby ring against my golden bracelet that yonder Knight of the Libbard,
+or how call you him, could not be seduced from his post?"
+
+"Your Majesty is too great for me to gainsay you," replied Edith,
+"but these ladies can, if they will, bear me witness that it was your
+Highness who proposed such a wager, and took the ring from my finger,
+even while I was declaring that I did not think it maidenly to gage
+anything on such a subject."
+
+"Nay, but, my Lady Edith," said another voice, "you must needs grant,
+under your favour, that you expressed yourself very confident of the
+valour of that same Knight of the Leopard."
+
+"And if I did, minion," said Edith angrily, "is that a good reason why
+thou shouldst put in thy word to flatter her Majesty's humour? I spoke
+of that knight but as all men speak who have seen him in the field, and
+had no more interest in defending than thou in detracting from him. In a
+camp, what can women speak of save soldiers and deeds of arms?"
+
+"The noble Lady Edith," said a third voice, "hath never forgiven Calista
+and me, since we told your Majesty that she dropped two rosebuds in the
+chapel."
+
+"If your Majesty," said Edith, in a tone which Sir Kenneth could judge
+to be that of respectful remonstrance, "have no other commands for
+me than to hear the gibes of your waiting-women, I must crave your
+permission to withdraw."
+
+"Silence, Florise," said the Queen, "and let not our indulgence lead
+you to forget the difference betwixt yourself and the kinswoman of
+England.--But you, my dear cousin," she continued, resuming her tone
+of raillery, "how can you, who are so good-natured, begrudge us poor
+wretches a few minutes' laughing, when we have had so many days devoted
+to weeping and gnashing of teeth?"
+
+"Great be your mirth, royal lady," said Edith; "yet would I be content
+not to smile for the rest of my life, rather than--"
+
+She stopped, apparently out of respect; but Sir Kenneth could hear that
+she was in much agitation.
+
+"Forgive me," said Berengaria, a thoughtless but good-humoured princess
+of the House of Navarre; "but what is the great offence, after all? A
+young knight has been wiled hither--has stolen, or has been stolen, from
+his post, which no one will disturb in his absence--for the sake of a
+fair lady; for, to do your champion justice, sweet one, the wisdom of
+Nectabanus could conjure him hither in no name but yours."
+
+"Gracious Heaven! your Majesty does not say so?" said Edith, in a
+voice of alarm quite different from the agitation she had previously
+evinced,--"you cannot say so consistently with respect for your own
+honour and for mine, your husband's kinswoman! Say you were jesting with
+me, my royal mistress, and forgive me that I could, even for a moment,
+think it possible you could be in earnest!"
+
+"The Lady Edith," said the Queen, in a displeased tone of voice,
+"regrets the ring we have won of her. We will restore the pledge to you,
+gentle cousin; only you must not grudge us in turn a little triumph over
+the wisdom which has been so often spread over us, as a banner over a
+host."
+
+"A triumph!" exclaimed Edith indignantly--"a triumph! The triumph will
+be with the infidel, when he hears that the Queen of England can
+make the reputation of her husband's kinswoman the subject of a light
+frolic."
+
+"You are angry, fair cousin, at losing your favourite ring," said the
+Queen. "Come, since you grudge to pay your wager, we will renounce our
+right; it was your name and that pledge brought him hither, and we care
+not for the bait after the fish is caught."
+
+"Madam," replied Edith impatiently, "you know well that your Grace could
+not wish for anything of mine but it becomes instantly yours. But I
+would give a bushel of rubies ere ring or name of mine had been used to
+bring a brave man into a fault, and perhaps to disgrace and punishment."
+
+"Oh, it is for the safety of our true knight that we fear!" said the
+Queen. "You rate our power too low, fair cousin, when you speak of
+a life being lost for a frolic of ours. O Lady Edith, others have
+influence on the iron breasts of warriors as well as you--the heart
+even of a lion is made of flesh, not of stone; and, believe me, I have
+interest enough with Richard to save this knight, in whose fate Lady
+Edith is so deeply concerned, from the penalty of disobeying his royal
+commands."
+
+"For the love of the blessed Cross, most royal lady," said Edith--and
+Sir Kenneth, with feelings which it were hard to unravel, heard her
+prostrate herself at the Queen's feet--"for the love of our blessed
+Lady, and of every holy saint in the calendar, beware what you do! You
+know not King Richard--you have been but shortly wedded to him. Your
+breath might as well combat the west wind when it is wildest, as your
+words persuade my royal kinsman to pardon a military offence. Oh, for
+God's sake, dismiss this gentleman, if indeed you have lured him hither!
+I could almost be content to rest with the shame of having invited him,
+did I know that he was returned again where his duty calls him!"
+
+"Arise, cousin, arise," said Queen Berengaria, "and be assured all will
+be better than you think. Rise, dear Edith. I am sorry I have played my
+foolery with a knight in whom you take such deep interest. Nay, wring
+not thy hands; I will believe thou carest not for him--believe anything
+rather than see thee look so wretchedly miserable. I tell thee I
+will take the blame on myself with King Richard in behalf of thy fair
+Northern friend--thine acquaintance, I would say, since thou own'st him
+not as a friend. Nay, look not so reproachfully. We will send Nectabanus
+to dismiss this Knight of the Standard to his post; and we ourselves
+will grace him on some future day, to make amends for his wild-goose
+chase. He is, I warrant, but lying perdu in some neighbouring tent."
+
+"By my crown of lilies, and my sceptre of a specially good water-reed,"
+said Nectabanus, "your Majesty is mistaken, He is nearer at hand than
+you wot--he lieth ensconced there behind that canvas partition."
+
+"And within hearing of each word we have said!" exclaimed the Queen, in
+her turn violently surprised and agitated. "Out, monster of folly and
+malignity!"
+
+As she uttered these words, Nectabanus fled from the pavilion with a
+yell of such a nature as leaves it still doubtful whether Berengaria had
+confined her rebuke to words, or added some more emphatic expression of
+her displeasure.
+
+"What can now be done?" said the Queen to Edith, in a whisper of
+undisguised uneasiness.
+
+"That which must," said Edith firmly. "We must see this gentleman and
+place ourselves in his mercy."
+
+So saying, she began hastily to undo a curtain, which at one place
+covered an entrance or communication.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, forbear--consider," said the Queen--"my
+apartment--our dress--the hour--my honour!"
+
+But ere she could detail her remonstrances, the curtain fell, and there
+was no division any longer betwixt the armed knight and the party of
+ladies. The warmth of an Eastern night occasioned the undress of Queen
+Berengaria and her household to be rather more simple and unstudied than
+their station, and the presence of a male spectator of rank, required.
+This the Queen remembered, and with a loud shriek fled from the
+apartment where Sir Kenneth was disclosed to view in a compartment of
+the ample pavilion, now no longer separated from that in which they
+stood. The grief and agitation of the Lady Edith, as well as the deep
+interest she felt in a hasty explanation with the Scottish knight,
+perhaps occasioned her forgetting that her locks were more dishevelled
+and her person less heedfully covered than was the wont of high-born
+damsels, in an age which was not, after all, the most prudish or
+scrupulous period of the ancient time. A thin, loose garment of
+pink-coloured silk made the principal part of her vestments, with
+Oriental slippers, into which she had hastily thrust her bare feet, and
+a scarf hurriedly and loosely thrown about her shoulders. Her head had
+no other covering than the veil of rich and dishevelled locks falling
+round it on every side, that half hid a countenance which a mingled
+sense of modesty and of resentment, and other deep and agitated
+feelings, had covered with crimson.
+
+But although Edith felt her situation with all that delicacy which is
+her sex's greatest charm, it did not seem that for a moment she placed
+her own bashfulness in comparison with the duty which, as she thought,
+she owed to him who had been led into error and danger on her account.
+She drew, indeed, her scarf more closely over her neck and bosom, and
+she hastily laid from her hand a lamp which shed too much lustre over
+her figure; but, while Sir Kenneth stood motionless on the same spot in
+which he was first discovered, she rather stepped towards than retired
+from him, as she exclaimed, "Hasten to your post, valiant knight!--you
+are deceived in being trained hither--ask no questions."
+
+"I need ask none," said the knight, sinking upon one knee, with the
+reverential devotion of a saint at the altar, and bending his eyes on
+the ground, lest his looks should increase the lady's embarrassment.
+
+"Have you heard all?" said Edith impatiently. "Gracious saints! then
+wherefore wait you here, when each minute that passes is loaded with
+dishonour!"
+
+"I have heard that I am dishonoured, lady, and I have heard it from
+you," answered Kenneth. "What reck I how soon punishment follows? I
+have but one petition to you; and then I seek, among the sabres of the
+infidels, whether dishonour may not be washed out with blood."
+
+"Do not so, neither," said the lady. "Be wise--dally not here; all may
+yet be well, if you will but use dispatch."
+
+"I wait but for your forgiveness," said the knight, still kneeling,
+"for my presumption in believing that my poor services could have been
+required or valued by you."
+
+"I do forgive you--oh, I have nothing to forgive! have been the means of
+injuring you. But oh, begone! I will forgive--I will value you--that is,
+as I value every brave Crusader--if you will but begone!"
+
+"Receive, first, this precious yet fatal pledge," said the knight,
+tendering the ring to Edith, who now showed gestures of impatience.
+
+"Oh, no, no " she said, declining to receive it. "Keep it--keep it as a
+mark of my regard--my regret, I would say. Oh, begone, if not for your
+own sake, for mine!"
+
+Almost recompensed for the loss even of honour, which her voice had
+denounced to him, by the interest which she seemed to testify in his
+safety, Sir Kenneth rose from his knee, and, casting a momentary glance
+on Edith, bowed low, and seemed about to withdraw. At the same instant,
+that maidenly bashfulness, which the energy of Edith's feelings had till
+then triumphed over, became conqueror in its turn, and she hastened from
+the apartment, extinguishing her lamp as she went, and leaving, in Sir
+Kenneth's thoughts, both mental and natural gloom behind her.
+
+She must be obeyed, was the first distinct idea which waked him from
+his reverie, and he hastened to the place by which he had entered the
+pavilion. To pass under the canvas in the manner he had entered required
+time and attention, and he made a readier aperture by slitting the
+canvas wall with his poniard. When in the free air, he felt rather
+stupefied and overpowered by a conflict of sensations, than able to
+ascertain what was the real import of the whole. He was obliged to spur
+himself to action by recollecting that the commands of the Lady Edith
+had required haste. Even then, engaged as he was amongst tent-ropes and
+tents, he was compelled to move with caution until he should regain
+the path or avenue, aside from which the dwarf had led him, in order to
+escape the observation of the guards before the Queen's pavilion; and he
+was obliged also to move slowly, and with precaution, to avoid giving an
+alarm, either by falling or by the clashing of his armour. A thin cloud
+had obscured the moon, too, at the very instant of his leaving the tent,
+and Sir Kenneth had to struggle with this inconvenience at a moment when
+the dizziness of his head and the fullness of his heart scarce left him
+powers of intelligence sufficient to direct his motions.
+
+But at once sounds came upon his ear which instantly recalled him to the
+full energy of his faculties. These proceeded from the Mount of Saint
+George. He heard first a single, fierce, angry, and savage bark, which
+was immediately followed by a yell of agony. No deer ever bounded with
+a wilder start at the voice of Roswal than did Sir Kenneth at what he
+feared was the death-cry of that noble hound, from whom no ordinary
+injury could have extracted even the slightest acknowledgment of pain.
+He surmounted the space which divided him from the avenue, and, having
+attained it, began to run towards the mount, although loaded with his
+mail, faster than most men could have accompanied him even if unarmed,
+relaxed not his pace for the steep sides of the artificial mound, and in
+a few minutes stood on the platform upon its summit.
+
+The moon broke forth at this moment, and showed him that the Standard of
+England was vanished, that the spear on which it had floated lay broken
+on the ground, and beside it was his faithful hound, apparently in the
+agonies of death.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     All my long arrear of honour lost,
+     Heap'd up in youth, and hoarded up for age.
+     Hath Honour's fountain then suck'd up the stream?
+     He hath--and hooting boys may barefoot pass,
+     And gather pebbles from the naked ford!
+          DON SEBASTIAN.
+
+After a torrent of afflicting sensations, by which he was at first
+almost stunned and confounded, Sir Kenneth's first thought was to look
+for the authors of this violation of the English banner; but in no
+direction could he see traces of them. His next, which to some persons,
+but scarce to any who have made intimate acquaintances among the canine
+race, may appear strange, was to examine the condition of his faithful
+Roswal, mortally wounded, as it seemed, in discharging the duty which
+his master had been seduced to abandon. He caressed the dying animal,
+who, faithful to the last, seemed to forget his own pain in the
+satisfaction he received from his master's presence, and continued
+wagging his tail and licking his hand, even while by low moanings he
+expressed that his agony was increased by the attempts which Sir Kenneth
+made to withdraw from the wound the fragment of the lance or javelin
+with which it had been inflicted; then redoubled his feeble endearments,
+as if fearing he had offended his master by showing a sense of the pain
+to which his interference had subjected him. There was something in
+the display of the dying creature's attachment which mixed as a bitter
+ingredient with the sense of disgrace and desolation by which Sir
+Kenneth was oppressed. His only friend seemed removed from him, just
+when he had incurred the contempt and hatred of all besides. The
+knight's strength of mind gave way to a burst of agonized distress, and
+he groaned and wept aloud.
+
+While he thus indulged his grief, a clear and solemn voice, close beside
+him, pronounced these words in the sonorous tone of the readers of the
+mosque, and in the lingua franca mutually understood by Christians and
+Saracens:--
+
+"Adversity is like the period of the former and of the latter
+rain--cold, comfortless, unfriendly to man and to animal; yet from that
+season have their birth the flower and the fruit, the date, the rose,
+and the pomegranate."
+
+Sir Kenneth of the Leopard turned towards the speaker, and beheld the
+Arabian physician, who, approaching unheard, had seated himself a little
+behind him cross-legged, and uttered with gravity, yet not without a
+tone of sympathy, the moral sentences of consolation with which the
+Koran and its commentators supplied him; for, in the East, wisdom is
+held to consist less in a display of the sage's own inventive talents,
+than in his ready memory and happy application of and reference to "that
+which is written."
+
+Ashamed at being surprised in a womanlike expression of sorrow, Sir
+Kenneth dashed his tears indignantly aside, and again busied himself
+with his dying favourite.
+
+"The poet hath said," continued the Arab, without noticing the knight's
+averted looks and sullen deportment, "the ox for the field, and the
+camel for the desert. Were not the hand of the leech fitter than that of
+the soldier to cure wounds, though less able to inflict them?"
+
+"This patient, Hakim, is beyond thy help," said Sir Kenneth; "and,
+besides, he is, by thy law, an unclean animal."
+
+"Where Allah hath deigned to bestow life, and a sense of pain and
+pleasure," said the physician, "it were sinful pride should the sage,
+whom He has enlightened, refuse to prolong existence or assuage agony.
+To the sage, the cure of a miserable groom, of a poor dog and of a
+conquering monarch, are events of little distinction. Let me examine
+this wounded animal."
+
+Sir Kenneth acceded in silence, and the physician inspected and handled
+Roswal's wound with as much care and attention as if he had been a human
+being. He then took forth a case of instruments, and, by the judicious
+and skilful application of pincers, withdrew from the wounded shoulder
+the fragment of the weapon, and stopped with styptics and bandages the
+effusion of blood which followed; the creature all the while suffering
+him patiently to perform these kind offices, as if he had been aware of
+his kind intentions.
+
+"The animal may be cured," said El Hakim, addressing himself to Sir
+Kenneth, "if you will permit me to carry him to my tent, and treat him
+with the care which the nobleness of his nature deserves. For know,
+that thy servant Adonbec is no less skilful in the race and pedigree and
+distinctions of good dogs and of noble steeds than in the diseases which
+afflict the human race."
+
+"Take him with you," said the knight. "I bestow him on you freely, if
+he recovers. I owe thee a reward for attendance on my squire, and have
+nothing else to pay it with. For myself, I will never again wind bugle
+or halloo to hound!"
+
+The Arabian made no reply, but gave a signal with a clapping of his
+hands, which was instantly answered by the appearance of two black
+slaves. He gave them his orders in Arabic, received the answer that "to
+hear was to obey," when, taking the animal in their arms, they removed
+him, without much resistance on his part; for though his eyes turned to
+his master, he was too weak to struggle.
+
+"Fare thee well, Roswal, then," said Sir Kenneth--"fare thee well, my
+last and only friend--thou art too noble a possession to be retained
+by one such as I must in future call myself!--I would," he said, as the
+slaves retired, "that, dying as he is, I could exchange conditions with
+that noble animal!"
+
+"It is written," answered the Arabian, although the exclamation had not
+been addressed to him, "that all creatures are fashioned for the
+service of man; and the master of the earth speaketh folly when he would
+exchange, in his impatience, his hopes here and to come for the servile
+condition of an inferior being."
+
+"A dog who dies in discharging his duty," said the knight sternly, "is
+better than a man who survives the desertion of it. Leave me, Hakim;
+thou hast, on this side of miracle, the most wonderful science which man
+ever possessed, but the wounds of the spirit are beyond thy power."
+
+"Not if the patient will explain his calamity, and be guided by the
+physician," said Adonbec el Hakim.
+
+"Know, then," said Sir Kenneth, "since thou art so importunate, that
+last night the Banner of England was displayed from this mound--I was
+its appointed guardian--morning is now breaking--there lies the broken
+banner-spear, the standard itself is lost, and here sit I a living man!"
+
+"How!" said El Hakim, examining him; "thy armour is whole--there is no
+blood on thy weapons, and report speaks thee one unlikely to return thus
+from fight. Thou hast been trained from thy post--ay, trained by the
+rosy cheek and black eye of one of those houris, to whom you Nazarenes
+vow rather such service as is due to Allah, than such love as may
+lawfully be rendered to forms of clay like our own. It has been thus
+assuredly; for so hath man ever fallen, even since the days of Sultan
+Adam."
+
+"And if it were so, physician," said Sir Kenneth sullenly, "what
+remedy?"
+
+"Knowledge is the parent of power," said El Hakim, "as valour supplies
+strength. Listen to me. Man is not as a tree, bound to one spot of
+earth; nor is he framed to cling to one bare rock, like the scarce
+animated shell-fish. Thine own Christian writings command thee, when
+persecuted in one city, to flee to another; and we Moslem also know
+that Mohammed, the Prophet of Allah, driven forth from the holy city of
+Mecca, found his refuge and his helpmates at Medina."
+
+"And what does this concern me?" said the Scot.
+
+"Much," answered the physician. "Even the sage flies the tempest which
+he cannot control. Use thy speed, therefore, and fly from the vengeance
+of Richard to the shadow of Saladin's victorious banner."
+
+"I might indeed hide my dishonour," said Sir Kenneth ironically, "in a
+camp of infidel heathens, where the very phrase is unknown. But had I
+not better partake more fully in their reproach? Does not thy advice
+stretch so far as to recommend me to take the turban? Methinks I want
+but apostasy to consummate my infamy."
+
+"Blaspheme not, Nazarene," said the physician sternly. "Saladin makes
+no converts to the law of the Prophet, save those on whom its precepts
+shall work conviction. Open thine eyes to the light, and the great
+Soldan, whose liberality is as boundless as his power, may bestow on
+thee a kingdom; remain blinded if thou will, and, being one whose second
+life is doomed to misery, Saladin will yet, for this span of present
+time, make thee rich and happy. But fear not that thy brows shall be
+bound with the turban, save at thine own free choice."
+
+"My choice were rather," said the knight, "that my writhen features
+should blacken, as they are like to do, in this evening's setting sun."
+
+"Yet thou art not wise, Nazarene," said El Hakim, "to reject this fair
+offer; for I have power with Saladin, and can raise thee high in his
+grace. Look you, my son--this Crusade, as you call your wild enterprise,
+is like a large dromond [The largest sort of vessels then known were
+termed dromond's, or dromedaries.] parting asunder in the waves. Thou
+thyself hast borne terms of truce from the kings and princes, whose
+force is here assembled, to the mighty Soldan, and knewest not,
+perchance, the full tenor of thine own errand."
+
+"I knew not, and I care not," said the knight impatiently. "What avails
+it to me that I have been of late the envoy of princes, when, ere night,
+I shall be a gibbeted and dishonoured corpse?"
+
+"Nay, I speak that it may not be so with thee," said the physician.
+"Saladin is courted on all sides. The combined princes of this league
+formed against him have made such proposals of composition and peace,
+as, in other circumstances, it might have become his honour to have
+granted to them. Others have made private offers, on their own
+separate account, to disjoin their forces from the camp of the Kings of
+Frangistan, and even to lend their arms to the defence of the standard
+of the Prophet. But Saladin will not be served by such treacherous and
+interested defection. The king of kings will treat only with the Lion
+King. Saladin will hold treaty with none but the Melech Ric, and with
+him he will treat like a prince, or fight like a champion. To Richard he
+will yield such conditions of his free liberality as the swords of all
+Europe could never compel from him by force or terror. He will permit
+a free pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and all the places where the Nazarenes
+list to worship; nay, he will so far share even his empire with his
+brother Richard, that he will allow Christian garrisons in the six
+strongest cities of Palestine, and one in Jerusalem itself, and suffer
+them to be under the immediate command of the officers of Richard, who,
+he consents, shall bear the name of King Guardian of Jerusalem.
+Yet further, strange and incredible as you may think it, know, Sir
+Knight--for to your honour I can commit even that almost incredible
+secret--know that Saladin will put a sacred seal on this happy union
+betwixt the bravest and noblest of Frangistan and Asia, by raising to
+the rank of his royal spouse a Christian damsel, allied in blood to King
+Richard, and known by the name of the Lady Edith of Plantagenet." [This
+may appear so extraordinary and improbable a proposition that it is
+necessary to say such a one was actually made. The historians, however,
+substitute the widowed Queen of Naples, sister of Richard, for the
+bride, and Saladin's brother for the bridegroom. They appear to have
+been ignorant of the existence of Edith of Plantagenet.--See MILL'S
+History of the Crusades, vol. ii., p. 61.]
+
+"Ha!--sayest thou?" exclaimed Sir Kenneth, who, listening with
+indifference and apathy to the preceding part of El Hakim's speech,
+was touched by this last communication, as the thrill of a nerve,
+unexpectedly jarred, will awaken the sensation of agony, even in the
+torpor of palsy. Then, moderating his tone, by dint of much effort he
+restrained his indignation, and, veiling it under the appearance of
+contemptuous doubt, he prosecuted the conversation, in order to get as
+much knowledge as possible of the plot, as he deemed it, against the
+honour and happiness of her whom he loved not the less that his passion
+had ruined, apparently, his fortunes, at once, and his honour.--"And
+what Christian," he said, With tolerable calmness, "would sanction a
+union so unnatural as that of a Christian maiden with an unbelieving
+Saracen?"
+
+"Thou art but an ignorant, bigoted Nazarene," said the Hakim. "Seest
+thou not how the Mohammedan princes daily intermarry with the noble
+Nazarene maidens in Spain, without scandal either to Moor or Christian?
+And the noble Soldan will, in his full confidence in the blood of
+Richard, permit the English maid the freedom which your Frankish manners
+have assigned to women. He will allow her the free exercise of her
+religion, seeing that, in very truth, it signifies but little to which
+faith females are addicted; and he will assign her such place and rank
+over all the women of his zenana, that she shall be in every respect his
+sole and absolute queen."
+
+"What!" said Sir Kenneth, "darest thou think, Moslem, that Richard would
+give his kinswoman--a high-born and virtuous princess--to be, at best,
+the foremost concubine in the haram of a misbeliever? Know, Hakim, the
+meanest free Christian noble would scorn, on his child's behalf, such
+splendid ignominy."
+
+"Thou errest," said the Hakim. "Philip of France, and Henry of
+Champagne, and others of Richard's principal allies, have heard the
+proposal without starting, and have promised, as far as they may, to
+forward an alliance that may end these wasteful wars; and the wise
+arch-priest of Tyre hath undertaken to break the proposal to Richard,
+not doubting that he shall be able to bring the plan to good issue. The
+Soldan's wisdom hath as yet kept his proposition secret from others,
+such as he of Montserrat, and the Master of the Templars, because he
+knows they seek to thrive by Richard's death or disgrace, not by his
+life or honour. Up, therefore, Sir Knight, and to horse. I will give
+thee a scroll which shall advance thee highly with the Soldan; and deem
+not that you are leaving your country, or her cause, or her religion,
+since the interest of the two monarchs will speedily be the same. To
+Saladin thy counsel will be most acceptable, since thou canst make him
+aware of much concerning the marriages of the Christians, the treatment
+of their wives, and other points of their laws and usages, which, in
+the course of such treaty, it much concerns him that he should know. The
+right hand of the Soldan grasps the treasures of the East, and it is the
+fountain or generosity. Or, if thou desirest it, Saladin, when allied
+with England, can have but little difficulty to obtain from Richard, not
+only thy pardon and restoration to favour, but an honourable command in
+the troops which may be left of the King of England's host, to maintain
+their joint government in Palestine. Up, then, and mount--there lies a
+plain path before thee."
+
+"Hakim," said the Scottish knight, "thou art a man of peace; also thou
+hast saved the life of Richard of England--and, moreover, of my own poor
+esquire, Strauchan. I have, therefore, heard to an end a matter which,
+being propounded by another Moslem than thyself, I would have cut short
+with a blow of my dagger! Hakim, in return for thy kindness, I advise
+thee to see that the Saracen who shall propose to Richard a union
+betwixt the blood of Plantagenet and that of his accursed race do put on
+a helmet which is capable to endure such a blow of a battle-axe as that
+which struck down the gate of Acre. Certes, he will be otherwise placed
+beyond the reach even of thy skill."
+
+"Thou art, then, wilfully determined not to fly to the Saracen host?"
+said the physician. "Yet, remember, thou stayest to certain destruction;
+and the writings of thy law, as well as ours, prohibit man from breaking
+into the tabernacle of his own life."
+
+"God forbid!" replied the Scot, crossing himself; "but we are also
+forbidden to avoid the punishment which our crimes have deserved. And
+since so poor are thy thoughts of fidelity, Hakim, it grudges me that I
+have bestowed my good hound on thee, for, should he live, he will have a
+master ignorant of his value."
+
+"A gift that is begrudged is already recalled," said El Hakim; "only
+we physicians are sworn not to send away a patient uncured. If the dog
+recover, he is once more yours."
+
+"Go to, Hakim," answered Sir Kenneth; "men speak not of hawk and hound
+when there is but an hour of day-breaking betwixt them and death. Leave
+me to recollect my sins, and reconcile myself to Heaven."
+
+"I leave thee in thine obstinacy," said the physician; "the mist hides
+the precipice from those who are doomed to fall over it."
+
+He withdrew slowly, turning from time to time his head, as if to observe
+whether the devoted knight might not recall him either by word or
+signal. At last his turbaned figure was lost among the labyrinth of
+tents which lay extended beneath, whitening in the pale light of the
+dawning, before which the moonbeam had now faded away.
+
+But although the physician Adonbec's words had not made that impression
+upon Kenneth which the sage desired, they had inspired the Scot with a
+motive for desiring life, which, dishonoured as he conceived himself
+to be, he was before willing to part from as from a sullied vestment no
+longer becoming his wear. Much that had passed betwixt himself and the
+hermit, besides what he had observed between the anchorite and Sheerkohf
+(or Ilderim), he now recalled to recollection, and tended to confirm
+what the Hakim had told him of the secret article of the treaty.
+
+"The reverend impostor!" he exclaimed to himself; "the hoary hypocrite!
+He spoke of the unbelieving husband converted by the believing wife; and
+what do I know but that the traitor exhibited to the Saracen, accursed
+of God, the beauties of Edith Plantagenet, that the hound might judge if
+the princely Christian lady were fit to be admitted into the haram of
+a misbeliever? If I had yonder infidel Ilderim, or whatsoever he is
+called, again in the gripe with which I once held him fast as ever hound
+held hare, never again should HE at least come on errand disgraceful
+to the honour of Christian king or noble and virtuous maiden. But
+I--my hours are fast dwindling into minutes--yet, while I have life and
+breath, something must be done, and speedily."
+
+He paused for a few minutes, threw from him his helmet, then strode down
+the hill, and took the road to King Richard's pavilion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     The feather'd songster, chanticleer,
+     Had wound his bugle-horn,
+     And told the early villager
+     The coming of the morn.
+     King Edward saw the ruddy streaks
+     Of light eclipse the grey,
+     And heard the raven's croaking throat
+     Proclaim the fated day.
+     "Thou'rt right," he said, "for, by the God
+     That sits enthron'd on high,
+     Charles Baldwin, and his fellows twain,
+     This day shall surely die."
+                   CHATTERTON.
+
+On the evening on which Sir Kenneth assumed his post, Richard, after the
+stormy event which disturbed its tranquillity, had retired to rest in
+the plenitude of confidence inspired by his unbounded courage and the
+superiority which he had displayed in carrying the point he aimed at in
+presence of the whole Christian host and its leaders, many of whom, he
+was aware, regarded in their secret souls the disgrace of the Austrian
+Duke as a triumph over themselves; so that his pride felt gratified,
+that in prostrating one enemy he had mortified a hundred.
+
+Another monarch would have doubled his guards on the evening after such
+a scene, and kept at least a part of his troops under arms. But Coeur de
+Lion dismissed, upon the occasion, even his ordinary watch, and assigned
+to his soldiers a donative of wine to celebrate his recovery, and to
+drink to the Banner of Saint George; and his quarter of the camp would
+have assumed a character totally devoid of vigilance and military
+preparation, but that Sir Thomas de Vaux, the Earl of Salisbury, and
+other nobles, took precautions to preserve order and discipline among
+the revellers.
+
+The physician attended the King from his retiring to bed till midnight
+was past, and twice administered medicine to him during that period,
+always previously observing the quarter of heaven occupied by the
+full moon, whose influences he declared to be most sovereign, or most
+baleful, to the effect of his drugs. It was three hours after midnight
+ere El Hakim withdrew from the royal tent, to one which had been pitched
+for himself and his retinue. In his way thither he visited the tent of
+Sir Kenneth of the Leopard, in order to see the condition of his first
+patient in the Christian camp, old Strauchan, as the knight's esquire
+was named. Inquiring there for Sir Kenneth himself, El Hakim learned
+on what duty he was employed, and probably this information led him
+to Saint George's Mount, where he found him whom he sought in the
+disastrous circumstances alluded to in the last chapter.
+
+It was about the hour of sunrise, when a slow, armed tread was heard
+approaching the King's pavilion; and ere De Vaux, who slumbered beside
+his master's bed as lightly as ever sleep sat upon the eyes of a
+watch-dog, had time to do more than arise and say, "Who comes?" the
+Knight of the Leopard entered the tent, with a deep and devoted gloom
+seated upon his manly features.
+
+"Whence this bold intrusion, Sir Knight?" said De Vaux sternly, yet in a
+tone which respected his master's slumbers.
+
+"Hold! De Vaux," said Richard, awaking on the instant; "Sir Kenneth
+cometh like a good soldier to render an account of his guard. To such
+the general's tent is ever accessible." Then rising from his slumbering
+posture, and leaning on his elbow, he fixed his large bright eye upon
+the warrior--"Speak, Sir Scot; thou comest to tell me of a vigilant,
+safe, and honourable watch, dost thou not? The rustling of the folds of
+the Banner of England were enough to guard it, even without the body of
+such a knight as men hold thee."
+
+"As men will hold me no more," said Sir Kenneth. "My watch hath neither
+been vigilant, safe, nor honourable. The Banner of England has been
+carried off."
+
+"And thou alive to tell it!" said Richard, in a tone of derisive
+incredulity. "Away, it cannot be. There is not even a scratch on thy
+face. Why dost thou stand thus mute? Speak the truth--it is ill jesting
+with a king; yet I will forgive thee if thou hast lied."
+
+"Lied, Sir King!" returned the unfortunate knight, with fierce emphasis,
+and one glance of fire from his eye, bright and transient as the flash
+from the cold and stony flint. "But this also must be endured. I have
+spoken the truth."
+
+"By God and by Saint George!" said the King, bursting into fury, which,
+however, he instantly checked. "De Vaux, go view the spot. This fever
+has disturbed his brain. This cannot be. The man's courage is proof. It
+CANNOT be! Go speedily--or send, if thou wilt not go."
+
+The King was interrupted by Sir Henry Neville, who came, breathless, to
+say that the banner was gone, and the knight who guarded it overpowered,
+and most probably murdered, as there was a pool of blood where the
+banner-spear lay shivered.
+
+"But whom do I see here?" said Neville, his eyes suddenly resting upon
+Sir Kenneth.
+
+"A traitor," said the King, starting to his feet, and seizing the
+curtal-axe, which was ever near his bed--"a traitor! whom thou shalt see
+die a traitor's death." And he drew back the weapon as in act to strike.
+
+Colourless, but firm as a marble statue, the Scot stood before him, with
+his bare head uncovered by any protection, his eyes cast down to the
+earth, his lips scarcely moving, yet muttering probably in prayer.
+Opposite to him, and within the due reach for a blow, stood King
+Richard, his large person wrapt in the folds of his camiscia, or ample
+gown of linen, except where the violence of his action had flung the
+covering from his right arm, shoulder, and a part of his breast,
+leaving to view a specimen of a frame which might have merited his Saxon
+predecessor's epithet of Ironside. He stood for an instant, prompt
+to strike; then sinking the head of the weapon towards the ground,
+he exclaimed, "But there was blood, Neville--there was blood upon the
+place. Hark thee, Sir Scot--brave thou wert once, for I have seen
+thee fight. Say thou hast slain two of the thieves in defence of the
+Standard--say but one--say thou hast struck but a good blow in our
+behalf, and get thee out of the camp with thy life and thy infamy!"
+
+"You have called me liar, my Lord King," replied Kenneth firmly; "and
+therein, at least, you have done me wrong. Know that there was no blood
+shed in defence of the Standard save that of a poor hound, which, more
+faithful than his master, defended the charge which he deserted."
+
+"Now, by Saint George!" said Richard, again heaving up his arm. But De
+Vaux threw himself between the King and the object of his vengeance, and
+spoke with the blunt truth of his character, "My liege, this must not
+be--here, nor by your hand. It is enough of folly for one night and day
+to have entrusted your banner to a Scot. Said I not they were ever fair
+and false?" [Such were the terms in which the English used to speak of
+their poor northern neighbours, forgetting that their own encroachments
+upon the independence of Scotland obliged the weaker nation to defend
+themselves by policy as well as force. The disgrace must be divided
+between Edward I. and Edward III., who enforced their domination over
+a free country, and the Scots, who were compelled to take compulsory
+oaths, without any purpose of keeping them.]
+
+"Thou didst, De Vaux; thou wast right, and I confess it," said Richard.
+"I should have known him better--I should have remembered how the fox
+William deceived me touching this Crusade."
+
+"My lord," said Sir Kenneth, "William of Scotland never deceived; but
+circumstances prevented his bringing his forces."
+
+"Peace, shameless!" said the King; "thou sulliest the name of a prince,
+even by speaking it.--And yet, De Vaux, it is strange," he added, "to
+see the bearing of the man. Coward or traitor he must be, yet he abode
+the blow of Richard Plantagenet as our arm had been raised to lay
+knighthood on his shoulder. Had he shown the slightest sign of fear,
+had but a joint trembled or an eyelid quivered, I had shattered his head
+like a crystal goblet. But I cannot strike where there is neither fear
+nor resistance."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"My lord," said Kenneth--
+
+"Ha!" replied Richard, interrupting him, "hast thou found thy speech?
+Ask grace from Heaven, but none from me; for England is dishonoured
+through thy fault, and wert thou mine own and only brother, there is no
+pardon for thy fault."
+
+"I speak not to demand grace of mortal man," said the Scot; "it is in
+your Grace's pleasure to give or refuse me time for Christian shrift--if
+man denies it, may God grant me the absolution which I would otherwise
+ask of His church! But whether I die on the instant, or half an hour
+hence, I equally beseech your Grace for one moment's opportunity to
+speak that to your royal person which highly concerns your fame as a
+Christian king."
+
+"Say on," said the King, making no doubt that he was about to hear some
+confession concerning the loss of the Banner.
+
+"What I have to speak," said Sir Kenneth, "touches the royalty of
+England, and must be said to no ears but thine own."
+
+"Begone with yourselves, sirs," said the King to Neville and De Vaux.
+
+The first obeyed, but the latter would not stir from the King's
+presence.
+
+"If you said I was in the right," replied De Vaux to his sovereign, "I
+will be treated as one should be who hath been found to be right--that
+is, I will have my own will. I leave you not with this false Scot."
+
+"How! De Vaux," said Richard angrily, and stamping slightly, "darest
+thou not venture our person with one traitor?"
+
+"It is in vain you frown and stamp, my lord," said De Vaux; "I venture
+not a sick man with a sound one, a naked man with one armed in proof."
+
+"It matters not," said the Scottish knight; "I seek no excuse to put off
+time. I will speak in presence of the Lord of Gilsland. He is good lord
+and true."
+
+"But half an hour since," said De Vaux, with a groan, implying a mixture
+of sorrow and vexation, "and I had said as much for thee!"
+
+"There is treason around you, King of England," continued Sir Kenneth.
+
+"It may well be as thou sayest," replied Richard; "I have a pregnant
+example."
+
+"Treason that will injure thee more deeply than the loss of a hundred
+banners in a pitched field. The--the--" Sir Kenneth hesitated, and at
+length continued, in a lower tone, "The Lady Edith--"
+
+"Ha!" said the King, drawing himself suddenly into a state of haughty
+attention, and fixing his eye firmly on the supposed criminal; "what of
+her? what of her? What has she to do with this matter?"
+
+"My lord," said the Scot, "there is a scheme on foot to disgrace your
+royal lineage, by bestowing the hand of the Lady Edith on the
+Saracen Soldan, and thereby to purchase a peace most dishonourable to
+Christendom, by an alliance most shameful to England."
+
+This communication had precisely the contrary effect from that which Sir
+Kenneth expected. Richard Plantagenet was one of those who, in Iago's
+words, would not serve God because it was the devil who bade him; advice
+or information often affected him less according to its real import,
+than through the tinge which it took from the supposed character and
+views of those by whom it was communicated. Unfortunately, the
+mention of his relative's name renewed his recollection of what he had
+considered as extreme presumption in the Knight of the Leopard, even
+when he stood high in the roll of chivalry, but which, in his present
+condition, appeared an insult sufficient to drive the fiery monarch into
+a frenzy of passion.
+
+"Silence," he said, "infamous and audacious! By Heaven, I will have
+thy tongue torn out with hot pincers, for mentioning the very name of
+a noble Christian damsel! Know, degenerate traitor, that I was already
+aware to what height thou hadst dared to raise thine eyes, and endured
+it, though it were insolence, even when thou hadst cheated us--for thou
+art all a deceit--into holding thee as of some name and fame. But now,
+with lips blistered with the confession of thine own dishonour--that
+thou shouldst NOW dare to name our noble kinswoman as one in whose fate
+thou hast part or interest! What is it to thee if she marry Saracen or
+Christian? What is it to thee if, in a camp where princes turn cowards
+by day and robbers by night--where brave knights turn to paltry
+deserters and traitors--what is it, I say, to thee, or any one, if I
+should please to ally myself to truth and to valour, in the person of
+Saladin?"
+
+"Little to me, indeed, to whom all the world will soon be as nothing,"
+answered Sir Kenneth boldly; "but were I now stretched on the rack, I
+would tell thee that what I have said is much to thine own conscience
+and thine own fame. I tell thee, Sir King, that if thou dost but
+in thought entertain the purpose of wedding thy kinswoman, the Lady
+Edith--"
+
+"Name her not--and for an instant think not of her," said the King,
+again straining the curtal-axe in his gripe, until the muscles started
+above his brawny arm, like cordage formed by the ivy around the limb of
+an oak.
+
+"Not name--not think of her!" answered Sir Kenneth, his spirits, stunned
+as they were by self-depression, beginning to recover their elasticity
+from this species of controversy. "Now, by the Cross, on which I place
+my hope, her name shall be the last word in my mouth, her image the last
+thought in my mind. Try thy boasted strength on this bare brow, and see
+if thou canst prevent my purpose."
+
+"He will drive me mad!" said Richard, who, in his despite, was once more
+staggered in his purpose by the dauntless determination of the criminal.
+
+Ere Thomas of Gilsland could reply, some bustle was heard without,
+and the arrival of the Queen was announced from the outer part of the
+pavilion.
+
+"Detain her--detain her, Neville," cried the King; "this is no sight
+for women.--Fie, that I have suffered such a paltry traitor to chafe me
+thus!--Away with him, De Vaux," he whispered, "through the back entrance
+of our tent; coop him up close, and answer for his safe custody with
+your life. And hark ye--he is presently to die--let him have a ghostly
+father--we would not kill soul and body. And stay--hark thee--we will
+not have him dishonoured--he shall die knightlike, in his belt and
+spurs; for if his treachery be as black as hell, his boldness may match
+that of the devil himself."
+
+De Vaux, right glad, if the truth may be guessed, that the scene ended
+without Richard's descending to the unkingly act of himself slaying
+an unresisting prisoner, made haste to remove Sir Kenneth by a private
+issue to a separate tent, where he was disarmed, and put in fetters
+for security. De Vaux looked on with a steady and melancholy attention,
+while the provost's officers, to whom Sir Kenneth was now committed,
+took these severe precautions.
+
+When they were ended, he said solemnly to the unhappy criminal, "It is
+King Richard's pleasure that you die undegraded--without mutilation of
+your body, or shame to your arms--and that your head be severed from the
+trunk by the sword of the executioner."
+
+"It is kind," said the knight, in a low and rather submissive tone of
+voice, as one who received an unexpected favour; "my family will not
+then hear the worst of the tale. Oh, my father--my father!"
+
+This muttered invocation did not escape the blunt but kindly-natured
+Englishman, and he brushed the back of his large hand over his rough
+features ere he could proceed.
+
+"It is Richard of England's further pleasure," he said at length, "that
+you have speech with a holy man; and I have met on the passage hither
+with a Carmelite friar, who may fit you for your passage. He waits
+without, until you are in a frame of mind to receive him."
+
+"Let it be instantly," said the knight. "In this also Richard is kind. I
+cannot be more fit to see the good father at any time than now; for life
+and I have taken farewell, as two travellers who have arrived at the
+crossway, where their roads separate."
+
+"It is well," said De Vaux slowly and solemnly; "for it irks me somewhat
+to say that which sums my message. It is King Richard's pleasure that
+you prepare for instant death."
+
+"God's pleasure and the King's be done," replied the knight patiently.
+"I neither contest the justice of the sentence, nor desire delay of the
+execution."
+
+De Vaux began to leave the tent, but very slowly--paused at the door,
+and looked back at the Scot, from whose aspect thoughts of the world
+seemed banished, as if he was composing himself into deep devotion. The
+feelings of the stout English baron were in general none of the most
+acute, and yet, on the present occasion, his sympathy overpowered him in
+an unusual manner. He came hastily back to the bundle of reeds on which
+the captive lay, took one of his fettered hands, and said, with as much
+softness as his rough voice was capable of expressing, "Sir Kenneth,
+thou art yet young--thou hast a father. My Ralph, whom I left training
+his little galloway nag on the banks of the Irthing, may one day attain
+thy years, and, but for last night, would to God I saw his youth bear
+such promise as thine! Can nothing be said or done in thy behalf?"
+
+"Nothing," was the melancholy answer. "I have deserted my charge--the
+banner entrusted to me is lost. When the headsman and block are
+prepared, the head and trunk are ready to part company."
+
+"Nay, then, God have mercy!" said De Vaux. "Yet would I rather than my
+best horse I had taken that watch myself. There is mystery in it,
+young man, as a plain man may descry, though he cannot see through
+it. Cowardice? Pshaw! No coward ever fought as I have seen thee do.
+Treachery? I cannot think traitors die in their treason so calmly. Thou
+hast been trained from thy post by some deep guile--some well-devised
+stratagem--the cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or
+the laughful look of some merry one has taken thine eye. Never blush for
+it; we have all been led aside by such gear. Come, I pray thee, make a
+clean conscience of it to me, instead of the priest. Richard is merciful
+when his mood is abated. Hast thou nothing to entrust to me?"
+
+The unfortunate knight turned his face from the kind warrior, and
+answered, "NOTHING."
+
+And De Vaux, who had exhausted his topics of persuasion, arose and left
+the tent, with folded arms, and in melancholy deeper than he thought
+the occasion merited--even angry with himself to find that so simple a
+matter as the death of a Scottish man could affect him so nearly.
+
+"Yet," as he said to himself, "though the rough-footed knaves be
+our enemies in Cumberland, in Palestine one almost considers them as
+brethren."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     'Tis not her sense, for sure in that
+     There's nothing more than common;
+     And all her wit is only chat,
+     Like any other woman.
+        SONG.
+
+The high-born Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre, and
+the Queen-Consort of the heroic Richard, was accounted one of the most
+beautiful women of the period. Her form was slight, though exquisitely
+moulded. She was graced with a complexion not common in her country, a
+profusion of fair hair, and features so extremely juvenile as to make
+her look several years younger than she really was, though in reality
+she was not above one-and-twenty. Perhaps it was under the consciousness
+of this extremely juvenile appearance that she affected, or at least
+practised, a little childish petulance and wilfulness of manner, not
+unbefitting, she might suppose, a youthful bride, whose rank and age
+gave her a right to have her fantasies indulged and attended to. She was
+by nature perfectly good-humoured, and if her due share of admiration
+and homage (in her opinion a very large one) was duly resigned to her,
+no one could possess better temper or a more friendly disposition; but
+then, like all despots, the more power that was voluntarily yielded to
+her, the more she desired to extend her sway. Sometimes, even when all
+her ambition was gratified, she chose to be a little out of health, and
+a little out of spirits; and physicians had to toil their wits to invent
+names for imaginary maladies, while her ladies racked their imagination
+for new games, new head-gear, and new court-scandal, to pass away those
+unpleasant hours, during which their own situation was scarce to be
+greatly envied. Their most frequent resource for diverting this malady
+was some trick or piece of mischief practised upon each other; and
+the good Queen, in the buoyancy of her reviving spirits, was, to speak
+truth, rather too indifferent whether the frolics thus practised were
+entirely befitting her own dignity, or whether the pain which those
+suffered upon whom they were inflicted was not beyond the proportion of
+pleasure which she herself derived from them. She was confident in her
+husband's favour, in her high rank, and in her supposed power to make
+good whatever such pranks might cost others. In a word, she gambolled
+with the freedom of a young lioness, who is unconscious of the weight of
+her own paws when laid on those whom she sports with.
+
+The Queen Berengaria loved her husband passionately, but she feared the
+loftiness and roughness of his character; and as she felt herself not
+to be his match in intellect, was not much pleased to see that he would
+often talk with Edith Plantagenet in preference to herself,
+simply because he found more amusement in her conversation, a more
+comprehensive understanding, and a more noble cast of thoughts and
+sentiments, than his beautiful consort exhibited. Berengaria did
+not hate Edith on this account, far less meditate her any harm; for,
+allowing for some selfishness, her character was, on the whole, innocent
+and generous. But the ladies of her train, sharpsighted in such matters,
+had for some time discovered that a poignant jest at the expense of
+the Lady Edith was a specific for relieving her Grace of England's low
+spirits, and the discovery saved their imagination much toil.
+
+There was something ungenerous in this, because the Lady Edith was
+understood to be an orphan; and though she was called Plantagenet, and
+the fair Maid of Anjou, and admitted by Richard to certain privileges
+only granted to the royal family, and held her place in the circle
+accordingly, yet few knew, and none acquainted with the Court of England
+ventured to ask, in what exact degree of relationship she stood to
+Coeur de Lion. She had come with Eleanor, the celebrated Queen Mother of
+England, and joined Richard at Messina, as one of the ladies destined
+to attend on Berengaria, whose nuptials then approached. Richard treated
+his kinswoman with much respectful observance, and the Queen made her
+her most constant attendant, and, even in despite of the petty jealousy
+which we have observed, treated her, generally, with suitable respect.
+
+The ladies of the household had, for a long time, no further advantage
+over Edith than might be afforded by an opportunity of censuring a less
+artfully disposed head attire or an unbecoming robe; for the lady was
+judged to be inferior in these mysteries. The silent devotion of the
+Scottish knight did not, indeed, pass unnoticed; his liveries, his
+cognizances, his feats of arms, his mottoes and devices, were nearly
+watched, and occasionally made the subject of a passing jest. But then
+came the pilgrimage of the Queen and her ladies to Engaddi, a journey
+which the Queen had undertaken under a vow for the recovery of her
+husband's health, and which she had been encouraged to carry into effect
+by the Archbishop of Tyre for a political purpose. It was then, and in
+the chapel at that holy place, connected from above with a Carmelite
+nunnery, from beneath with the cell of the anchorite, that one of the
+Queen's attendants remarked that secret sign of intelligence which Edith
+had made to her lover, and failed not instantly to communicate it to
+her Majesty. The Queen returned from her pilgrimage enriched with this
+admirable recipe against dullness or ennui; and her train was at
+the same time augmented by a present of two wretched dwarfs from the
+dethroned Queen of Jerusalem, as deformed and as crazy (the excellence
+of that unhappy species) as any Queen could have desired. One of
+Berengaria's idle amusements had been to try the effect of the sudden
+appearance of such ghastly and fantastic forms on the nerves of the
+Knight when left alone in the chapel; but the jest had been lost by the
+composure of the Scot and the interference of the anchorite. She had now
+tried another, of which the consequences promised to be more serious.
+
+The ladies again met after Sir Kenneth had retired from the tent, and
+the Queen, at first little moved by Edith's angry expostulations, only
+replied to her by upbraiding her prudery, and by indulging her wit
+at the expense of the garb, nation, and, above all the poverty of the
+Knight of the Leopard, in which she displayed a good deal of playful
+malice, mingled with some humour, until Edith was compelled to carry her
+anxiety to her separate apartment. But when, in the morning, a female
+whom Edith had entrusted to make inquiry brought word that the Standard
+was missing, and its champion vanished, she burst into the Queen's
+apartment, and implored her to rise and proceed to the King's tent
+without delay, and use her powerful mediation to prevent the evil
+consequences of her jest.
+
+The Queen, frightened in her turn, cast, as is usual, the blame of her
+own folly on those around her, and endeavoured to comfort Edith's grief,
+and appease her displeasure, by a thousand inconsistent arguments. She
+was sure no harm had chanced--the knight was sleeping, she fancied,
+after his night-watch. What though, for fear of the King's displeasure,
+he had deserted with the Standard--it was but a piece of silk, and he
+but a needy adventurer; or if he was put under warding for a time,
+she would soon get the King to pardon him--it was but waiting to let
+Richard's mood pass away.
+
+Thus she continued talking thick and fast, and heaping together all
+sorts of inconsistencies, with the vain expectation of persuading both
+Edith and herself that no harm could come of a frolic which in her heart
+she now bitterly repented. But while Edith in vain strove to intercept
+this torrent of idle talk, she caught the eye of one of the ladies who
+entered the Queen's apartment. There was death in her look of affright
+and horror, and Edith, at the first glance of her countenance, had sunk
+at once on the earth, had not strong necessity and her own elevation of
+character enabled her to maintain at least external composure.
+
+"Madam," she said to the Queen, "lose not another word in speaking, but
+save life--if, indeed," she added, her voice choking as she said it,
+"life may yet be saved."
+
+"It may, it may," answered the Lady Calista. "I have just heard that he
+has been brought before the King. It is not yet over--but," she
+added, bursting into a vehement flood of weeping, in which personal
+apprehensions had some share, "it will soon, unless some course be
+taken."
+
+"I will vow a golden candlestick to the Holy Sepulchre, a shrine of
+silver to our Lady of Engaddi, a pall, worth one hundred byzants, to
+Saint Thomas of Orthez," said the Queen in extremity.
+
+"Up, up, madam!" said Edith; "call on the saints if you list, but be
+your own best saint."
+
+"Indeed, madam," said the terrified attendant, "the Lady Edith speaks
+truth. Up, madam, and let us to King Richard's tent and beg the poor
+gentleman's life."
+
+"I will go--I will go instantly," said the Queen, rising and trembling
+excessively; while her women, in as great confusion as herself, were
+unable to render her those duties which were indispensable to her levee.
+Calm, composed, only pale as death, Edith ministered to the Queen
+with her own hand, and alone supplied the deficiencies of her numerous
+attendants.
+
+"How you wait, wenches!" said the Queen, not able even then to forget
+frivolous distinctions. "Suffer ye the Lady Edith to do the duties of
+your attendance? Seest thou, Edith, they can do nothing; I shall never
+be attired in time. We will send for the Archbishop of Tyre, and employ
+him as a mediator."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Edith. "Go yourself madam; you have done the
+evil, do you confer the remedy."
+
+"I will go--I will go," said the Queen; "but if Richard be in his mood,
+I dare not speak to him--he will kill me!"
+
+"Yet go, gracious madam," said the Lady Calista, who best knew her
+mistress's temper; "not a lion, in his fury, could look upon such a face
+and form, and retain so much as an angry thought, far less a love-true
+knight like the royal Richard, to whom your slightest word would be a
+command."
+
+"Dost thou think so, Calista?" said the Queen. "Ah, thou little knowest
+yet I will go. But see you here, what means this? You have bedizened
+me in green, a colour he detests. Lo you! let me have a blue robe,
+and--search for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of
+Cyprus's ransom; it is either in the steel casket, or somewhere else."
+
+"This, and a man's life at stake!" said Edith indignantly; "it passes
+human patience. Remain at your ease, madam; I will go to King Richard. I
+am a party interested. I will know if the honour of a poor maiden of
+his blood is to be so far tampered with that her name shall be abused to
+train a brave gentleman from his duty, bring him within the compass of
+death and infamy, and make, at the same time, the glory of England a
+laughing-stock to the whole Christian army."
+
+At this unexpected burst of passion, Berengaria listened with an almost
+stupefied look of fear and wonder. But as Edith was about to leave the
+tent, she exclaimed, though faintly, "Stop her, stop her!"
+
+"You must indeed stop, noble Lady Edith," said Calista, taking her arm
+gently; "and you, royal madam, I am sure, will go, and without
+further dallying. If the Lady Edith goes alone to the King, he will be
+dreadfully incensed, nor will it be one life that will stay his fury."
+
+"I will go--I will go," said the Queen, yielding to necessity; and Edith
+reluctantly halted to wait her movements.
+
+They were now as speedy as she could have desired. The Queen hastily
+wrapped herself in a large loose mantle, which covered all inaccuracies
+of the toilet. In this guise, attended by Edith and her women, and
+preceded and followed by a few officers and men-at-arms, she hastened to
+the tent of her lionlike husband.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     Were every hair upon his head a life,
+     And every life were to be supplicated
+     By numbers equal to those hairs quadrupled,
+     Life after life should out like waning stars
+     Before the daybreak--or as festive lamps,
+     Which have lent lustre to the midnight revel,
+     Each after each are quench'd when guests depart!
+          OLD PLAY
+
+
+The entrance of Queen Berengaria into the interior of Richard's pavilion
+was withstood--in the most respectful and reverential manner indeed, but
+still withstood--by the chamberlains who watched in the outer tent. She
+could hear the stern command of the King from within, prohibiting their
+entrance.
+
+"You see," said the Queen, appealing to Edith, as if she had exhausted
+all means of intercession in her power; "I knew it--the King will not
+receive us."
+
+At the same time, they heard Richard speak to some one within:--"Go,
+speed thine office quickly, sirrah, for in that consists thy mercy--ten
+byzants if thou dealest on him at one blow. And hark thee, villain,
+observe if his cheek loses colour, or his eye falters; mark me the
+smallest twitch of the features, or wink of the eyelid. I love to know
+how brave souls meet death."
+
+"If he sees my blade waved aloft without shrinking, he is the first ever
+did so," answered a harsh, deep voice, which a sense of unusual awe had
+softened into a sound much lower than its usual coarse tones.
+
+Edith could remain silent no longer. "If your Grace," she said to the
+Queen, "make not your own way, I make it for you; or if not for your
+Majesty, for myself at least.--Chamberlain, the Queen demands to see
+King Richard--the wife to speak with her husband."
+
+"Noble lady," said the officer, lowering his wand of office, "it grieves
+me to gainsay you, but his Majesty is busied on matters of life and
+death."
+
+"And we seek also to speak with him on matters of life and death," said
+Edith. "I will make entrance for your Grace." And putting aside the
+chamberlain with one hand, she laid hold on the curtain with the other.
+
+"I dare not gainsay her Majesty's pleasure," said the chamberlain,
+yielding to the vehemence of the fair petitioner; and as he gave way,
+the Queen found herself obliged to enter the apartment of Richard.
+
+The Monarch was lying on his couch, and at some distance, as awaiting
+his further commands, stood a man whose profession it was not difficult
+to conjecture. He was clothed in a jerkin of red cloth, which reached
+scantly below the shoulders, leaving the arms bare from about half way
+above the elbow; and as an upper garment, he wore, when about as at
+present to betake himself to his dreadful office, a coat or tabard
+without sleeves, something like that of a herald, made of dressed bull's
+hide, and stained in the front with many a broad spot and speckle of
+dull crimson. The jerkin, and the tabard over it, reached the knee; and
+the nether stocks, or covering of the legs, were of the same leather
+which composed the tabard. A cap of rough shag served to hide the upper
+part of a visage which, like that of a screech owl, seemed desirous to
+conceal itself from light, the lower part of the face being obscured by
+a huge red beard, mingling with shaggy locks of the same colour. What
+features were seen were stern and misanthropical. The man's figure was
+short, strongly made, with a neck like a bull, very broad shoulders,
+arms of great and disproportioned length, a huge square trunk, and thick
+bandy legs. This truculent official leant on a sword, the blade of which
+was nearly four feet and a half in length, while the handle of twenty
+inches, surrounded by a ring of lead plummets to counterpoise the weight
+of such a blade, rose considerably above the man's head as he rested his
+arm upon its hilt, waiting for King Richard's further directions.
+
+On the sudden entrance of the ladies, Richard, who was then lying on his
+couch with his face towards the entrance, and resting on his elbow as he
+spoke to his grisly attendant, flung himself hastily, as if displeased
+and surprised, to the other side, turning his back to the Queen and the
+females of her train, and drawing around him the covering of his couch,
+which, by his own choice, or more probably the flattering selection of
+his chamberlains, consisted of two large lions' skins, dressed in Venice
+with such admirable skill that they seemed softer than the hide of the
+deer.
+
+Berengaria, such as we have described her, knew well--what woman knows
+not?--her own road to victory. After a hurried glance of undisguised
+and unaffected terror at the ghastly companion of her husband's secret
+counsels, she rushed at once to the side of Richard's couch, dropped on
+her knees, flung her mantle from her shoulders, showing, as they hung
+down at their full length, her beautiful golden tresses, and while her
+countenance seemed like the sun bursting through a cloud, yet bearing
+on its pallid front traces that its splendours have been obscured, she
+seized upon the right hand of the King, which, as he assumed his wonted
+posture, had been employed in dragging the covering of his couch, and
+gradually pulling it to her with a force which was resisted, though but
+faintly, she possessed herself of that arm, the prop of Christendom
+and the dread of Heathenesse, and imprisoning its strength in both her
+little fairy hands, she bent upon it her brow, and united to it her
+lips.
+
+"What needs this, Berengaria?" said Richard, his head still averted, but
+his hand remaining under her control.
+
+"Send away that man, his look kills me!" muttered Berengaria.
+
+"Begone, sirrah," said Richard, still without looking round, "What
+wait'st thou for? art thou fit to look on these ladies?"
+
+"Your Highness's pleasure touching the head," said the man.
+
+"Out with thee, dog!" answered Richard--"a Christian burial!" The man
+disappeared, after casting a look upon the beautiful Queen, in her
+deranged dress and natural loveliness, with a smile of admiration more
+hideous in its expression than even his usual scowl of cynical hatred
+against humanity.
+
+"And now, foolish wench, what wishest thou?" said Richard, turning
+slowly and half reluctantly round to his royal suppliant.
+
+But it was not in nature for any one, far less an admirer of beauty
+like Richard, to whom it stood only in the second rank to glory, to
+look without emotion on the countenance and the tremor of a creature so
+beautiful as Berengaria, or to feel, without sympathy, that her lips,
+her brow, were on his hand, and that it was wetted by her tears. By
+degrees, he turned on her his manly countenance, with the softest
+expression of which his large blue eye, which so often gleamed with
+insufferable light, was capable. Caressing her fair head, and mingling
+his large fingers in her beautiful and dishevelled locks, he raised and
+tenderly kissed the cherub countenance which seemed desirous to hide
+itself in his hand. The robust form, the broad, noble brow and majestic
+looks, the naked arm and shoulder, the lions' skins among which he lay,
+and the fair, fragile feminine creature that kneeled by his side,
+might have served for a model of Hercules reconciling himself, after a
+quarrel, to his wife Dejanira.
+
+"And, once more, what seeks the lady of my heart in her knight's
+pavilion at this early and unwonted hour?"
+
+"Pardon, my most gracious liege--pardon!" said the Queen, whose fears
+began again to unfit her for the duty of intercessor.
+
+"Pardon--for what?" asked the King.
+
+"First, for entering your royal presence too boldly and unadvisedly--"
+
+She stopped.
+
+"THOU too boldly!--the sun might as well ask pardon because his rays
+entered the windows of some wretch's dungeon. But I was busied with work
+unfit for thee to witness, my gentle one; and I was unwilling, besides,
+that thou shouldst risk thy precious health where sickness had been so
+lately rife."
+
+"But thou art now well?" said the Queen, still delaying the
+communication which she feared to make.
+
+"Well enough to break a lance on the bold crest of that champion who
+shall refuse to acknowledge thee the fairest dame in Christendom."
+
+"Thou wilt not then refuse me one boon--only one--only a poor life?"
+
+"Ha!--proceed," said King Richard, bending his brows.
+
+"This unhappy Scottish knight--" murmured the Queen.
+
+"Speak not of him, madam," exclaimed Richard sternly; "he dies--his doom
+is fixed."
+
+"Nay, my royal liege and love, 'tis but a silken banner neglected.
+Berengaria will give thee another broidered with her own hand, and rich
+as ever dallied with the wind. Every pearl I have shall go to bedeck it,
+and with every pearl I will drop a tear of thankfulness to my generous
+knight."
+
+"Thou knowest not what thou sayest," said the King, interrupting her in
+anger. "Pearls! can all the pearls of the East atone for a speck upon
+England's honour--all the tears that ever woman's eye wept wash away a
+stain on Richard's fame? Go to, madam, know your place, and your time,
+and your sphere. At present we have duties in which you cannot be our
+partner."
+
+"Thou hearest, Edith," whispered the Queen; "we shall but incense him."
+
+"Be it so," said Edith, stepping forward.--"My lord, I, your poor
+kinswoman, crave you for justice rather than mercy; and to the cry of
+justice the ears of a monarch should be open at every time, place, and
+circumstance."
+
+"Ha! our cousin Edith?" said Richard, rising and sitting upright on
+the side of his couch, covered with his long camiscia. "She speaks
+ever kinglike, and kinglike will I answer her, so she bring no request
+unworthy herself or me."
+
+The beauty of Edith was of a more intellectual and less voluptuous
+cast than that of the Queen; but impatience and anxiety had given
+her countenance a glow which it sometimes wanted, and her mien had a
+character of energetic dignity that imposed silence for a moment even
+on Richard himself, who, to judge by his looks, would willingly have
+interrupted her.
+
+"My lord," she said, "this good knight, whose blood you are about to
+spill, hath done, in his time, service to Christendom. He has fallen
+from his duty through a snare set for him in mere folly and idleness of
+spirit. A message sent to him in the name of one who--why should I not
+speak it?--it was in my own--induced him for an instant to leave his
+post. And what knight in the Christian camp might not have thus far
+transgressed at command of a maiden, who, poor howsoever in other
+qualities, hath yet the blood of Plantagenet in her veins?"
+
+"And you saw him, then, cousin?" replied the King, biting his lips to
+keep down his passion.
+
+"I did, my liege," said Edith. "It is no time to explain wherefore. I am
+here neither to exculpate myself nor to blame others."
+
+"And where did you do him such a grace?"
+
+"In the tent of her Majesty the Queen."
+
+"Of our royal consort!" said Richard. "Now by Heaven, by Saint George
+of England, and every other saint that treads its crystal floor, this
+is too audacious! I have noticed and overlooked this warrior's insolent
+admiration of one so far above him, and I grudged him not that one of
+my blood should shed from her high-born sphere such influence as the
+sun bestows on the world beneath. But, heaven and earth! that you should
+have admitted him to an audience by night, in the very tent of our royal
+consort!--and dare to offer this as an excuse for his disobedience and
+desertion! By my father's soul, Edith, thou shalt rue this thy life long
+in a monastery!"
+
+"My liege," said Edith, "your greatness licenses tyranny. My honour,
+Lord King, is as little touched as yours, and my Lady the Queen can
+prove it if she think fit. But I have already said I am not here to
+excuse myself or inculpate others. I ask you but to extend to one, whose
+fault was committed under strong temptation, that mercy, which even you
+yourself, Lord King, must one day supplicate at a higher tribunal, and
+for faults, perhaps, less venial."
+
+"Can this be Edith Plantagenet?" said the King bitterly--"Edith
+Plantagenet, the wise and the noble? Or is it some lovesick woman who
+cares not for her own fame in comparison of the life of her paramour?
+Now, by King Henry's soul! little hinders but I order thy minion's skull
+to be brought from the gibbet, and fixed as a perpetual ornament by the
+crucifix in thy cell!"
+
+"And if thou dost send it from the gibbet to be placed for ever in my
+sight," said Edith, "I will say it is a relic of a good knight, cruelly
+and unworthily done to death by" (she checked herself)--"by one of whom
+I shall only say, he should have known better how to reward chivalry.
+Minion callest thou him?" she continued, with increasing vehemence. "He
+was indeed my lover, and a most true one; but never sought he grace from
+me by look or word--contented with such humble observance as men pay to
+the saints. And the good--the valiant--the faithful must die for this!"
+
+"Oh, peace, peace, for pity's sake," whispered the Queen, "you do but
+offend him more!"
+
+"I care not," said Edith; "the spotless virgin fears not the raging
+lion. Let him work his will on this worthy knight. Edith, for whom he
+dies, will know how to weep his memory. To me no one shall speak more of
+politic alliances to be sanctioned with this poor hand. I could not--I
+would not--have been his bride living--our degrees were too distant. But
+death unites the high and the low--I am henceforward the spouse of the
+grave."
+
+The King was about to answer with much anger, when a Carmelite monk
+entered the apartment hastily, his head and person muffled in the
+long mantle and hood of striped cloth of the coarsest texture which
+distinguished his order, and, flinging himself on his knees before the
+King, conjured him, by every holy word and sign, to stop the execution.
+
+"Now, by both sword and sceptre," said Richard, "the world is leagued to
+drive me mad!--fools, women, and monks cross me at every step. How comes
+he to live still?"
+
+"My gracious liege," said the monk, "I entreated of the Lord of Gilsland
+to stay the execution until I had thrown myself at your royal--"
+
+"And he was wilful enough to grant thy request," said the King; "but
+it is of a piece with his wonted obstinacy. And what is it thou hast to
+say? Speak, in the fiend's name!"
+
+"My lord, there is a weighty secret, but it rests under the seal of
+confession. I dare not tell or even whisper it; but I swear to thee
+by my holy order, by the habit which I wear, by the blessed Elias, our
+founder, even him who was translated without suffering the ordinary
+pangs of mortality, that this youth hath divulged to me a secret, which,
+if I might confide it to thee, would utterly turn thee from thy bloody
+purpose in regard to him."
+
+"Good father," said Richard, "that I reverence the church, let the arms
+which I now wear for her sake bear witness. Give me to know this secret,
+and I will do what shall seem fitting in the matter. But I am no
+blind Bayard, to take a leap in the dark under the stroke of a pair of
+priestly spurs."
+
+"My lord," said the holy man, throwing back his cowl and upper vesture,
+and discovering under the latter a garment of goatskin, and from beneath
+the former a visage so wildly wasted by climate, fast, and penance, as
+to resemble rather the apparition of an animated skeleton than a human
+face, "for twenty years have I macerated this miserable body in the
+caverns of Engaddi, doing penance for a great crime. Think you I, who am
+dead to the world, would contrive a falsehood to endanger my own soul;
+or that one, bound by the most sacred oaths to the contrary--one such
+as I, who have but one longing wish connected with earth, to wit,
+the rebuilding of our Christian Zion--would betray the secrets of the
+confessional? Both are alike abhorrent to my very soul."
+
+"So," answered the King, "thou art that hermit of whom men speak so
+much? Thou art, I confess, like enough to those spirits which walk in
+dry places; but Richard fears no hobgoblins. And thou art he, too, as
+I bethink me, to whom the Christian princes sent this very criminal to
+open a communication with the Soldan, even while I, who ought to have
+been first consulted, lay on my sick-bed? Thou and they may content
+themselves--I will not put my neck into the loop of a Carmelite's
+girdle. And, for your envoy, he shall die the rather and the sooner that
+thou dost entreat for him."
+
+"Now God be gracious to thee, Lord King!" said the hermit, with much
+emotion; "thou art setting that mischief on foot which thou wilt
+hereafter wish thou hadst stopped, though it had cost thee a limb. Rash,
+blinded man, yet forbear!"
+
+"Away, away," cried the King, stamping; "the sun has risen on the
+dishonour of England, and it is not yet avenged.--Ladies and priest,
+withdraw, if you would not hear orders which would displease you; for,
+by St. George, I swear--"
+
+"Swear NOT!" said the voice of one who had just then entered the
+pavilion.
+
+"Ha! my learned Hakim," said the King, "come, I hope, to tax our
+generosity."
+
+"I come to request instant speech with you--instant--and touching
+matters of deep interest."
+
+"First look on my wife, Hakim, and let her know in you the preserver of
+her husband."
+
+"It is not for me," said the physician, folding his arms with an air of
+Oriental modesty and reverence, and bending his eyes on the ground--"it
+is not for me to look upon beauty unveiled, and armed in its
+splendours."
+
+"Retire, then, Berengaria," said the Monarch; "and, Edith, do you retire
+also;--nay, renew not your importunities! This I give to them that
+the execution shall not be till high noon. Go and be pacified--dearest
+Berengaria, begone.--Edith," he added, with a glance which struck terror
+even into the courageous soul of his kinswoman, "go, if you are wise."
+
+The females withdrew, or rather hurried from the tent, rank and ceremony
+forgotten, much like a flock of wild-fowl huddled together, against whom
+the falcon has made a recent stoop.
+
+They returned from thence to the Queen's pavilion to indulge in regrets
+and recriminations, equally unavailing. Edith was the only one who
+seemed to disdain these ordinary channels of sorrow. Without a sigh,
+without a tear, without a word of upbraiding, she attended upon the
+Queen, whose weak temperament showed her sorrow in violent hysterical
+ecstasies and passionate hypochondriacal effusions, in the course of
+which Edith sedulously and even affectionately attended her.
+
+"It is impossible she can have loved this knight," said Florise to
+Calista, her senior in attendance upon the Queen's person. "We have been
+mistaken; she is but sorry for his fate, as for a stranger who has come
+to trouble on her account."
+
+"Hush, hush," answered her more experienced and more observant comrade;
+"she is of that proud house of Plantagenet who never own that a hurt
+grieves them. While they have themselves been bleeding to death, under a
+mortal wound, they have been known to bind up the scratches sustained
+by their more faint-hearted comrades. Florise, we have done frightfully
+wrong, and, for my own part, I would buy with every jewel I have that
+our fatal jest had remained unacted."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     This work desires a planetary intelligence
+     Of Jupiter and Sol; and those great spirits
+     Are proud, fantastical. It asks great charges
+     To entice them from the guiding of their spheres,
+     To wait on mortals.
+            ALBUMAZAR.
+
+The hermit followed the ladies from the pavilion of Richard, as shadow
+follows a beam of sunshine when the clouds are driving over the face of
+the sun. But he turned on the threshold, and held up his hand towards
+the King in a warning, or almost a menacing posture, as he said, "Woe to
+him who rejects the counsel of the church, and betaketh himself to the
+foul divan of the infidel! King Richard, I do not yet shake the dust
+from my feet and depart from thy encampment; the sword falls not--but it
+hangs but by a hair. Haughty monarch, we shall meet again."
+
+"Be it so, haughty priest," returned Richard, "prouder in thy goatskins
+than princes in purple and fine linen."
+
+The hermit vanished from the tent, and the King continued, addressing
+the Arabian, "Do the dervises of the East, wise Hakim, use such
+familiarity with their princes?"
+
+"The dervise," replied Adonbec, "should be either a sage or a madman;
+there is no middle course for him who wears the khirkhah, [Literally,
+the torn robe. The habit of the dervises is so called.] who watches
+by night, and fasts by day. Hence hath he either wisdom enough to bear
+himself discreetly in the presence of princes; or else, having no reason
+bestowed on him, he is not responsible for his own actions."
+
+"Methinks our monks have adopted chiefly the latter character," said
+Richard. "But to the matter. In what can I pleasure you, my learned
+physician?"
+
+"Great King," said El Hakim, making his profound Oriental obeisance,
+"let thy servant speak one word, and yet live. I would remind thee
+that thou owest--not to me, their humble instrument--but to the
+Intelligences, whose benefits I dispense to mortals, a life--"
+
+"And I warrant me thou wouldst have another in requital, ha?"
+interrupted the King.
+
+"Such is my humble prayer," said the Hakim, "to the great Melech
+Ric--even the life of this good knight, who is doomed to die, and
+but for such fault as was committed by the Sultan Adam, surnamed
+Aboulbeschar, or the father of all men."
+
+"And thy wisdom might remind thee, Hakim, that Adam died for it," said
+the King, somewhat sternly, and then began to pace the narrow space of
+his tent with some emotion, and to talk to himself. "Why, God-a-mercy,
+I knew what he desired as soon as ever he entered the pavilion! Here
+is one poor life justly condemned to extinction, and I, a king and a
+soldier, who have slain thousands by my command, and scores with my own
+hand, am to have no power over it, although the honour of my arms, of
+my house, of my very Queen, hath been attainted by the culprit. By Saint
+George, it makes me laugh! By Saint Louis, it reminds me of Blondel's
+tale of an enchanted castle, where the destined knight was withstood
+successively in his purpose of entrance by forms and figures the most
+dissimilar, but all hostile to his undertaking! No sooner one sunk than
+another appeared! Wife--kinswoman--hermit--Hakim-each appears in the
+lists as soon as the other is defeated! Why, this is a single knight
+fighting against the whole MELEE of the tournament--ha! ha! ha!" And
+Richard laughed aloud; for he had, in fact, begun to change his mood,
+his resentment being usually too violent to be of long endurance.
+
+The physician meanwhile looked on him with a countenance of surprise,
+not unmingled with contempt; for the Eastern people make no allowance
+for these mercurial changes in the temper, and consider open laughter,
+upon almost any account, as derogatory to the dignity of man, and
+becoming only to women and children. At length the sage addressed the
+King when he saw him more composed:--
+
+"A doom of death should not issue from laughing lips. Let thy servant
+hope that thou hast granted him this man's life."
+
+"Take the freedom of a thousand captives instead," said Richard;
+"restore so many of thy countrymen to their tents and families, and I
+will give the warrant instantly. This man's life can avail thee nothing,
+and it is forfeited."
+
+"All our lives are forfeited," said the Hakim, putting his hand to his
+cap. "But the great Creditor is merciful, and exacts not the pledge
+rigorously nor untimely."
+
+"Thou canst show me," said Richard, "no special interest thou hast to
+become intercessor betwixt me and the execution of justice, to which I
+am sworn as a crowned king."
+
+"Thou art sworn to the dealing forth mercy as well as justice," said El
+Hakim; "but what thou seekest, great King, is the execution of thine own
+will. And for the concern I have in this request, know that many a man's
+life depends upon thy granting this boon."
+
+"Explain thy words," said Richard; "but think not to impose upon me by
+false pretexts."
+
+"Be it far from thy servant!" said Adonbec. "Know, then, that the
+medicine to which thou, Sir King, and many one besides, owe their
+recovery, is a talisman, composed under certain aspects of the heavens,
+when the Divine Intelligences are most propitious. I am but the poor
+administrator of its virtues. I dip it in a cup of water, observe the
+fitting hour to administer it to the patient, and the potency of the
+draught works the cure."
+
+"A most rare medicine," said the King, "and a commodious! and, as it may
+be carried in the leech's purse, would save the whole caravan of camels
+which they require to convey drugs and physic stuff; I marvel there is
+any other in use."
+
+"It is written," answered the Hakim, with imperturbable gravity, "'Abuse
+not the steed which hath borne thee from the battle.' Know that such
+talismans might indeed be framed, but rare has been the number of adepts
+who have dared to undertake the application of their virtue. Severe
+restrictions, painful observances, fasts, and penance, are necessary on
+the part of the sage who uses this mode of cure; and if, through neglect
+of these preparations, by his love of ease, or his indulgence of sensual
+appetite, he omits to cure at least twelve persons within the course of
+each moon, the virtue of the divine gift departs from the amulet,
+and both the last patient and the physician will be exposed to speedy
+misfortune, neither will they survive the year. I require yet one life
+to make up the appointed number."
+
+"Go out into the camp, good Hakim, where thou wilt find a-many," said
+the King, "and do not seek to rob my headsman of HIS patients; it is
+unbecoming a mediciner of thine eminence to interfere with the practice
+of another. Besides, I cannot see how delivering a criminal from the
+death he deserves should go to make up thy tale of miraculous cures."
+
+"When thou canst show why a draught of cold water should have cured
+thee when the most precious drugs failed," said the Hakim, "thou mayest
+reason on the other mysteries attendant on this matter. For myself, I
+am inefficient to the great work, having this morning touched an unclean
+animal. Ask, therefore, no further questions; it is enough that, by
+sparing this man's life at my request, you will deliver yourself, great
+King, and thy servant, from a great danger."
+
+"Hark thee, Adonbec," replied the King, "I have no objection that
+leeches should wrap their words in mist, and pretend to derive knowledge
+from the stars; but when you bid Richard Plantagenet fear that a danger
+will fall upon HIM from some idle omen, or omitted ceremonial, you speak
+to no ignorant Saxon, or doting old woman, who foregoes her purpose
+because a hare crosses the path, a raven croaks, or a cat sneezes."
+
+"I cannot hinder your doubt of my words," said Adonbec; "but yet let my
+Lord the King grant that truth is on the tongue of his servant--will he
+think it just to deprive the world, and every wretch who may suffer by
+the pains which so lately reduced him to that couch, of the benefit of
+this most virtuous talisman, rather than extend his forgiveness to one
+poor criminal? Bethink you, Lord King, that, though thou canst slay
+thousands, thou canst not restore one man to health. Kings have the
+power of Satan to torment, sages that of Allah to heal--beware how thou
+hinderest the good to humanity which thou canst not thyself render. Thou
+canst cut off the head, but not cure the aching tooth."
+
+"This is over-insolent," said the King, hardening himself, as the Hakim
+assumed a more lofty and almost a commanding tone. "We took thee for our
+leech, not for our counsellor or conscience-keeper."
+
+"And is it thus the most renowned Prince of Frangistan repays benefit
+done to his royal person?" said El Hakim, exchanging the humble and
+stooping posture in which he had hitherto solicited the King, for an
+attitude lofty and commanding. "Know, then," he said, "that: through
+every court of Europe and Asia--to Moslem and Nazarene--to knight and
+lady--wherever harp is heard and sword worn--wherever honour is loved
+and infamy detested--to every quarter of the world--will I denounce
+thee, Melech Ric, as thankless and ungenerous; and even the lands--if
+there be any such--that never heard of thy renown shall yet be
+acquainted with thy shame!"
+
+"Are these terms to me, vile infidel?" said Richard, striding up to him
+in fury. "Art weary of thy life?"
+
+"Strike!" said El Hakim; "thine own deed shall then paint thee more
+worthless than could my words, though each had a hornet's sting."
+
+Richard turned fiercely from him, folded his arms, traversed the tent
+as before, and then exclaimed, "Thankless and ungenerous!--as well be
+termed coward and infidel! Hakim, thou hast chosen thy boon; and though
+I had rather thou hadst asked my crown jewels, yet I may not, kinglike,
+refuse thee. Take this Scot, therefore, to thy keeping; the provost will
+deliver him to thee on this warrant."
+
+He hastily traced one or two lines, and gave them to the physician. "Use
+him as thy bond-slave, to be disposed of as thou wilt--only, let him
+beware how he comes before the eyes of Richard. Hark thee--thou art
+wise--he hath been over-bold among those in whose fair looks and weak
+judgments we trust our honour, as you of the East lodge your treasures
+in caskets of silver wire, as fine and as frail as the web of a
+gossamer."
+
+"Thy servant understands the words of the King," said the sage, at once
+resuming the reverent style of address in which he had commenced. "When
+the rich carpet is soiled, the fool pointeth to the stain--the wise man
+covers it with his mantle. I have heard my lord's pleasure, and to hear
+is to obey."
+
+"It is well," said the King; "let him consult his own safety, and never
+appear in my presence more. Is there aught else in which I may do thee
+pleasure?"
+
+"The bounty of the King hath filled my cup to the brim," said the
+sage--"yea, it hath been abundant as the fountain which sprung up amid
+the camp of the descendants of Israel when the rock was stricken by the
+rod of Moussa Ben Amram."
+
+"Ay, but," said the King, smiling, "it required, as in the desert, a
+hard blow on the rock ere it yielded its treasures. I would that I knew
+something to pleasure thee, which I might yield as freely as the natural
+fountain sends forth its waters."
+
+"Let me touch that victorious hand," said the sage, "in token that if
+Adonbec el Hakim should hereafter demand a boon of Richard of England,
+he may do so, yet plead his command."
+
+"Thou hast hand and glove upon it, man," replied Richard; "only, if thou
+couldst consistently make up thy tale of patients without craving me
+to deliver from punishment those who have deserved it, I would more
+willingly discharge my debt in some other form."
+
+"May thy days be multiplied!" answered the Hakim, and withdrew from the
+apartment after the usual deep obeisance.
+
+King Richard gazed after him as he departed, like one but half-satisfied
+with what had passed.
+
+"Strange pertinacity," he said, "in this Hakim, and a wonderful chance
+to interfere between that audacious Scot and the chastisement he has
+merited so richly. Yet let him live! there is one brave man the more in
+the world. And now for the Austrian. Ho! is the Baron of Gilsland there
+without?"
+
+Sir Thomas de Vaux thus summoned, his bulky form speedily darkened
+the opening of the pavilion, while behind him glided as a spectre,
+unannounced, yet unopposed, the savage form of the hermit of Engaddi,
+wrapped in his goatskin mantle.
+
+Richard, without noticing his presence, called in a loud tone to the
+baron, "Sir Thomas de Vaux, of Lanercost and Gilsland, take trumpet and
+herald, and go instantly to the tent of him whom they call Archduke of
+Austria, and see that it be when the press of his knights and vassals
+is greatest around him, as is likely at this hour, for the German
+boar breakfasts ere he hears mass--enter his presence with as little
+reverence as thou mayest, and impeach him, on the part of Richard of
+England, that he hath this night, by his own hand, or that of others,
+stolen from its staff the Banner of England. Wherefore say to him our
+pleasure that within an hour from the time of my speaking he restore
+the said banner with all reverence--he himself and his principal barons
+waiting the whilst with heads uncovered, and without their robes of
+honour. And that, moreover, he pitch beside it, on the one hand, his own
+Banner of Austria reversed, as that which hath been dishonoured by theft
+and felony, and on the other, a lance, bearing the bloody head of him
+who was his nearest counsellor, or assistant, in this base injury. And
+say, that such our behests being punctually discharged we will, for
+the sake of our vow and the weal of the Holy Land, forgive his other
+forfeits."
+
+"And how if the Duke of Austria deny all accession to this act of wrong
+and of felony?" said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+"Tell him," replied the King, "we will prove it upon his body--ay, were
+he backed with his two bravest champions. Knightlike will we prove it,
+on foot or on horse, in the desert or in the field, time, place, and
+arms all at his own choice."
+
+"Bethink you of the peace of God and the church, my liege lord,"
+said the Baron of Gilsland, "among those princes engaged in this holy
+Crusade."
+
+"Bethink you how to execute my commands, my liege vassal," answered
+Richard impatiently. "Methinks men expect to turn our purpose by their
+breath, as boys blow feathers to and fro. Peace of the church! Who, I
+prithee, minds it? The peace of the church, among Crusaders, implies war
+with the Saracens, with whom the princes have made truce; and the one
+ends with the other. And besides, see you not how every prince of them
+is seeking his own several ends? I will seek mine also--and that is
+honour. For honour I came hither; and if I may not win it upon the
+Saracens, at least I will not lose a jot from any respect to this paltry
+Duke, though he were bulwarked and buttressed by every prince in the
+Crusade."
+
+De Vaux turned to obey the King's mandate, shrugging his shoulders at
+the same time, the bluntness of his nature being unable to conceal that
+its tenor went against his judgment. But the hermit of Engaddi stepped
+forward, and assumed the air of one charged with higher commands than
+those of a mere earthly potentate. Indeed, his dress of shaggy skins,
+his uncombed and untrimmed hair and beard, his lean, wild, and contorted
+features, and the almost insane fire which gleamed from under his
+bushy eyebrows, made him approach nearly to our idea of some seer of
+Scripture, who, charged with high mission to the sinful Kings of Judah
+or Israel, descended from the rocks and caverns in which he dwelt in
+abstracted solitude, to abash earthly tyrants in the midst of their
+pride, by discharging on them the blighting denunciations of Divine
+Majesty, even as the cloud discharges the lightnings with which it is
+fraught on the pinnacles and towers of castles and palaces. In the
+midst of his most wayward mood, Richard respected the church and its
+ministers; and though offended at the intrusion of the hermit into his
+tent, he greeted him with respect--at the same time, however, making a
+sign to Sir Thomas de Vaux to hasten on his message.
+
+But the hermit prohibited the baron, by gesture, look, and word, to stir
+a yard on such an errand; and holding up his bare arm, from which the
+goatskin mantle fell back in the violence of his action, he waved it
+aloft, meagre with famine, and wealed with the blows of the discipline.
+
+"In the name of God, and of the most holy Father, the vicegerent of the
+Christian Church upon earth, I prohibit this most profane, bloodthirsty,
+and brutal defiance betwixt two Christian princes, whose shoulders are
+signed with the blessed mark under which they swore brotherhood. Woe
+to him by whom it is broken!--Richard of England, recall the most
+unhallowed message thou hast given to that baron. Danger and death are
+nigh thee!--the dagger is glancing at thy very throat!--"
+
+"Danger and death are playmates to Richard," answered the Monarch
+proudly; "and he hath braved too many swords to fear a dagger."
+
+"Danger and death are near," replied the seer, and sinking his voice to
+a hollow, unearthly tone, he added, "And after death the judgment!"
+
+"Good and holy father," said Richard, "I reverence thy person and thy
+sanctity--"
+
+"Reverence not me!" interrupted the hermit; "reverence sooner the vilest
+insect that crawls by the shores of the Dead Sea, and feeds upon its
+accursed slime. But reverence Him whose commands I speak--reverence Him
+whose sepulchre you have vowed to rescue--revere the oath of concord
+which you have sworn, and break not the silver cord of union
+and fidelity with which you have bound yourself to your princely
+confederates."
+
+"Good father," said the King, "you of the church seem to me to presume
+somewhat, if a layman may say so much, upon the dignity of your
+holy character. Without challenging your right to take charge of our
+conscience, methinks you might leave us the charge of our own honour."
+
+"Presume!" repeated the hermit. "Is it for me to presume, royal Richard,
+who am but the bell obeying the hand of the sexton--but the senseless
+and worthless trumpet carrying the command of him who sounds it? See,
+on my knees I throw myself before thee, imploring thee to have mercy on
+Christendom, on England, and on thyself!"
+
+"Rise, rise," said Richard, compelling him to stand up; "it beseems not
+that knees which are so frequently bended to the Deity should press the
+ground in honour of man. What danger awaits us, reverend father? and
+when stood the power of England so low that the noisy bluster of this
+new-made Duke's displeasure should alarm her or her monarch?"
+
+"I have looked forth from my mountain turret upon the starry host of
+heaven, as each in his midnight circuit uttered wisdom to another, and
+knowledge to the few who can understand their voice. There sits an enemy
+in thy House of Life, Lord King, malign at once to thy fame and thy
+prosperity--an emanation of Saturn, menacing thee with instant and
+bloody peril, and which, but thou yield thy proud will to the rule of
+thy duty, will presently crush thee even in thy pride."
+
+"Away, away--this is heathen science," said the King. "Christians
+practise it not--wise men believe it not. Old man, thou dotest."
+
+"I dote not, Richard," answered the hermit--"I am not so happy. I know
+my condition, and that some portion of reason is yet permitted me, not
+for my own use, but that of the Church and the advancement of the Cross.
+I am the blind man who holds a torch to others, though it yields no
+light to himself. Ask me touching what concerns the weal of Christendom,
+and of this Crusade, and I will speak with thee as the wisest counsellor
+on whose tongue persuasion ever sat. Speak to me of my own wretched
+being, and my words shall be those of the maniac outcast which I am."
+
+"I would not break the bands of unity asunder among the princes of the
+Crusade," said Richard, with a mitigated tone and manner; "but what
+atonement can they render me for the injustice and insult which I have
+sustained?"
+
+"Even of that I am prepared and commissioned to speak by the Council,
+which, meeting hastily at the summons of Philip of France, have taken
+measures for that effect."
+
+"Strange," replied Richard, "that others should treat of what is due to
+the wounded majesty of England!"
+
+"They are willing to anticipate your demands, if it be possible,"
+answered the hermit. "In a body, they consent that the Banner of
+England be replaced on Saint George's Mount; and they lay under ban
+and condemnation the audacious criminal, or criminals, by whom it was
+outraged, and will announce a princely reward to any who shall denounce
+the delinquent's guilt, and give his flesh to the wolves and ravens."
+
+"And Austria," said Richard, "upon whom rest such strong presumptions
+that he was the author of the deed?"
+
+"To prevent discord in the host," replied the hermit, "Austria will
+clear himself of the suspicion by submitting to whatsoever ordeal the
+Patriarch of Jerusalem shall impose."
+
+"Will he clear himself by the trial by combat?" said King Richard.
+
+"His oath prohibits it," said the hermit; "and, moreover, the Council of
+the Princes--"
+
+"Will neither authorize battle against the Saracens," interrupted
+Richard, "nor against any one else. But it is enough, father--thou hast
+shown me the folly of proceeding as I designed in this matter. You shall
+sooner light your torch in a puddle of rain than bring a spark out of a
+cold-blooded coward. There is no honour to be gained on Austria, and so
+let him pass. I will have him perjure himself, however; I will insist
+on the ordeal. How I shall laugh to hear his clumsy fingers hiss, as he
+grasps the red-hot globe of iron! Ay, or his huge mouth riven, and
+his gullet swelling to suffocation, as he endeavours to swallow the
+consecrated bread!"
+
+"Peace, Richard," said the hermit--"oh, peace, for shame, if not for
+charity! Who shall praise or honour princes who insult and calumniate
+each other? Alas! that a creature so noble as thou art--so accomplished
+in princely thoughts and princely daring--so fitted to honour
+Christendom by thy actions, and, in thy calmer mood, to rule her by thy
+wisdom, should yet have the brute and wild fury of the lion mingled with
+the dignity and courage of that king of the forest!"
+
+He remained an instant musing with his eyes fixed on the ground, and
+then proceeded--"But Heaven, that knows our imperfect nature, accepts
+of our imperfect obedience, and hath delayed, though not averted, the
+bloody end of thy daring life. The destroying angel hath stood still, as
+of old by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and the blade
+is drawn in his hand, by which, at no distant date, Richard, the
+lion-hearted, shall be as low as the meanest peasant."
+
+"Must it, then, be so soon?" said Richard. "Yet, even so be it. May my
+course be bright, if it be but brief!"
+
+"Alas! noble King," said the solitary, and it seemed as if a tear
+(unwonted guest) were gathering in his dry and glazened eye, "short and
+melancholy, marked with mortification, and calamity, and captivity, is
+the span that divides thee from the grave which yawns for thee--a grave
+in which thou shalt be laid without lineage to succeed thee--without
+the tears of a people, exhausted by thy ceaseless wars, to lament
+thee--without having extended the knowledge of thy subjects--without
+having done aught to enlarge their happiness."
+
+"But not without renown, monk--not without the tears of the lady of my
+love! These consolations, which thou canst neither know nor estimate,
+await upon Richard to his grave."
+
+"DO I not know, CAN I not estimate the value of minstrel's praise and of
+lady's love?" retorted the hermit, in a tone which for a moment seemed
+to emulate the enthusiasm of Richard himself. "King of England," he
+continued, extending his emaciated arm, "the blood which boils in thy
+blue veins is not more noble than that which stagnates in mine. Few
+and cold as the drops are, they still are of the blood of the royal
+Lusignan--of the heroic and sainted Godfrey. I am--that is, I was when
+in the world--Alberick Mortemar--"
+
+"Whose deeds," said Richard, "have so often filled Fame's trumpet! Is it
+so?--can it be so? Could such a light as thine fall from the horizon of
+chivalry, and yet men be uncertain where its embers had alighted?"
+
+"Seek a fallen star," said the hermit, "and thou shalt only light on
+some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for
+a moment an appearance of splendour. Richard, if I thought that rending
+the bloody veil from my horrible fate could make thy proud heart stoop
+to the discipline of the church, I could find in my heart to tell thee
+a tale, which I have hitherto kept gnawing at my vitals in concealment,
+like the self-devoted youth of heathenesse. Listen, then, Richard, and
+may the grief and despair which cannot avail this wretched remnant of
+what was once a man be powerful as an example to so noble, yet so wild,
+a being as thou art! Yes--I will--I WILL tear open the long-hidden
+wounds, although in thy very presence they should bleed to death!"
+
+King Richard, upon whom the history of Alberick of Mortemar had made
+a deep impression in his early years, when minstrels were regaling his
+father's halls with legends of the Holy Land, listened with respect
+to the outlines of a tale, which, darkly and imperfectly sketched,
+indicated sufficiently the cause of the partial insanity of this
+singular and most unhappy being.
+
+"I need not," he said, "tell thee that I was noble in birth, high in
+fortune, strong in arms, wise in counsel. All these I was. But while
+the noblest ladies in Palestine strove which should wind garlands for my
+helmet, my love was fixed--unalterably and devotedly fixed--on a maiden
+of low degree. Her father, an ancient soldier of the Cross, saw our
+passion, and knowing the difference betwixt us, saw no other refuge
+for his daughter's honour than to place her within the shadow of the
+cloister. I returned from a distant expedition, loaded with spoils and
+honour, to find my happiness was destroyed for ever! I too sought the
+cloister; and Satan, who had marked me for his own, breathed into my
+heart a vapour of spiritual pride, which could only have had its source
+in his own infernal regions. I had risen as high in the church as
+before in the state. I was, forsooth, the wise, the self-sufficient,
+the impeccable!--I was the counsellor of councils--I was the director
+of prelates. How should I stumble?--wherefore should I fear temptation?
+Alas! I became confessor to a sisterhood, and amongst that sisterhood
+I found the long-loved--the long-lost. Spare me further confession!--A
+fallen nun, whose guilt was avenged by self-murder, sleeps soundly in
+the vaults of Engaddi; while, above her very grave, gibbers, moans, and
+roars a creature to whom but so much reason is left as may suffice to
+render him completely sensible to his fate!"
+
+"Unhappy man!" said Richard, "I wonder no longer at thy misery. How
+didst thou escape the doom which the canons denounce against thy
+offence?"
+
+"Ask one who is yet in the gall of worldly bitterness," said the hermit,
+"and he will speak of a life spared for personal respects, and from
+consideration to high birth. But, Richard, I tell thee that Providence
+hath preserved me to lift me on high as a light and beacon, whose ashes,
+when this earthly fuel is burnt out, must yet be flung into Tophet.
+Withered and shrunk as this poor form is, it is yet animated with two
+spirits--one active, shrewd, and piercing, to advocate the cause of
+the Church of Jerusalem; one mean, abject, and despairing, fluctuating
+between madness and misery, to mourn over my own wretchedness, and to
+guard holy relics on which it would be most sinful for me even to cast
+my eye. Pity me not!--it is but sin to pity the loss of such an abject;
+pity me not, but profit by my example. Thou standest on the highest,
+and, therefore, on the most dangerous pinnacle occupied by any Christian
+prince. Thou art proud of heart, loose of life, bloody of hand. Put from
+thee the sins which are to thee as daughters--though they be dear to the
+sinful Adam, expel these adopted furies from thy breast--thy pride, thy
+luxury, thy bloodthirstiness."
+
+"He raves," said Richard, turning from the solitary to De Vaux, as one
+who felt some pain from a sarcasm which yet he could not resent; then
+turned him calmly, and somewhat scornfully, to the anchoret, as he
+replied, "Thou hast found a fair bevy of daughters, reverend father, to
+one who hath been but few months married; but since I must put them
+from my roof, it were but like a father to provide them with suitable
+matches. Therefore, I will part with my pride to the noble canons of the
+church--my luxury, as thou callest it, to the monks of the rule--and my
+bloodthirstiness to the Knights of the Temple."
+
+"O heart of steel, and hand of iron," said the anchoret, "upon whom
+example, as well as advice, is alike thrown away! Yet shalt thou be
+spared for a season, in case it so be thou shouldst turn, and do that
+which is acceptable in the sight of Heaven. For me I must return to my
+place. Kyrie Eleison! I am he through whom the rays of heavenly grace
+dart like those of the sun through a burning-glass, concentrating them
+on other objects, until they kindle and blaze, while the glass itself
+remains cold and uninfluenced. Kyrie Eleison!--the poor must be called,
+for the rich have refused the banquet--Kyrie Eleison!"
+
+So saying, he burst from the tent, uttering loud cries.
+
+"A mad priest!" said Richard, from whose mind the frantic exclamations
+of the hermit had partly obliterated the impression produced by the
+detail of his personal history and misfortunes. "After him, De Vaux, and
+see he comes to no harm; for, Crusaders as we are, a juggler hath more
+reverence amongst our varlets than a priest or a saint, and they may,
+perchance, put some scorn upon him."
+
+The knight obeyed, and Richard presently gave way to the thoughts which
+the wild prophecy of the monk had inspired. "To die early--without
+lineage--without lamentation! A heavy sentence, and well that it is not
+passed by a more competent judge. Yet the Saracens, who are accomplished
+in mystical knowledge, will often maintain that He, in whose eyes the
+wisdom of the sage is but as folly, inspires wisdom and prophecy into
+the seeming folly of the madman. Yonder hermit is said to read the
+stars, too, an art generally practised in these lands, where the
+heavenly host was of yore the object of idolatry. I would I had asked
+him touching the loss of my banner; for not the blessed Tishbite, the
+founder of his order, could seem more wildly rapt out of himself, or
+speak with a tongue more resembling that of a prophet.--How now, De
+Vaux, what news of the mad priest?"
+
+"Mad priest, call you him, my lord?" answered De Vaux. "Methinks
+he resembles more the blessed Baptist himself, just issued from the
+wilderness. He has placed himself on one of the military engines, and
+from thence he preaches to the soldiers as never man preached since the
+time of Peter the Hermit. The camp, alarmed by his cries, crowd around
+him in thousands; and breaking off every now and then from the main
+thread of his discourse, he addresses the several nations, each in their
+own language, and presses upon each the arguments best qualified to urge
+them to perseverance in the delivery of Palestine."
+
+"By this light, a noble hermit!" said King Richard. "But what else could
+come from the blood of Godfrey? HE despair of safety, because he hath
+in former days lived PAR AMOURS? I will have the Pope send him an ample
+remission, and I would not less willingly be intercessor had his BELLE
+AMIE been an abbess."
+
+As he spoke, the Archbishop of Tyre craved audience, for the purpose of
+requesting Richard's attendance, should his health permit, on a secret
+conclave of the chiefs of the Crusade, and to explain to him the
+military and political incidents which had occurred during his illness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     Must we then sheathe our still victorious sword;
+     Turn back our forward step, which ever trod
+     O'er foemen's necks the onward path of glory;
+     Unclasp the mail, which with a solemn vow,
+     In God's own house, we hung upon our shoulders--
+     That vow, as unaccomplish'd as the promise
+     Which village nurses make to still their children,
+     And after think no more of?
+           THE CRUSADE, A TRAGEDY.
+
+The Archbishop of Tyre was an emissary well chosen to communicate to
+Richard tidings, which from another voice the lion-hearted King would
+not have brooked to hear without the most unbounded explosions of
+resentment. Even this sagacious and reverend prelate found difficulty in
+inducing him to listen to news which destroyed all his hopes of gaining
+back the Holy Sepulchre by force of arms, and acquiring the renown which
+the universal all-hail of Christendom was ready to confer upon him as
+the Champion of the Cross.
+
+But, by the Archbishop's report, it appeared that Saladin was assembling
+all the force of his hundred tribes, and that the monarchs of Europe,
+already disgusted from various motives with the expedition, which had
+proved so hazardous, and was daily growing more so, had resolved to
+abandon their purpose. In this they were countenanced by the example of
+Philip of France, who, with many protestations of regard, and assurances
+that he would first see his brother of England in safety, declared his
+intention to return to Europe. His great vassal, the Earl of Champagne,
+had adopted the same resolution; and it could not excite surprise that
+Leopold of Austria, affronted as he had been by Richard, was glad
+to embrace an opportunity of deserting a cause in which his haughty
+opponent was to be considered as chief. Others announced the same
+purpose; so that it was plain that the King of England was to be left,
+if he chose to remain, supported only by such volunteers as might, under
+such depressing circumstances, join themselves to the English army, and
+by the doubtful aid of Conrade of Montserrat and the military orders of
+the Temple and of Saint John, who, though they were sworn to wage battle
+against the Saracens, were at least equally jealous of any European
+monarch achieving the conquest of Palestine, where, with shortsighted
+and selfish policy, they proposed to establish independent dominions of
+their own.
+
+It needed not many arguments to show Richard the truth of his situation;
+and indeed, after his first burst of passion, he sat him calmly down,
+and with gloomy looks, head depressed, and arms folded on his bosom,
+listened to the Archbishop's reasoning on the impossibility of his
+carrying on the Crusade when deserted by his companions. Nay, he forbore
+interruption, even when the prelate ventured, in measured terms, to hint
+that Richard's own impetuosity had been one main cause of disgusting the
+princes with the expedition.
+
+"CONFITEOR," answered Richard, with a dejected look, and something of
+a melancholy smile--"I confess, reverend father, that I ought on some
+accounts to sing CULPA MEA. But is it not hard that my frailties of
+temper should be visited with such a penance--that, for a burst or two
+of natural passion, I should be doomed to see fade before me ungathered
+such a rich harvest of glory to God and honour to chivalry? But it shall
+NOT fade. By the soul of the Conqueror, I will plant the Cross on the
+towers of Jerusalem, or it shall be planted over Richard's grave!"
+
+"Thou mayest do it," said the prelate, "yet not another drop of
+Christian blood be shed in the quarrel."
+
+"Ah, you speak of compromise, Lord Prelate; but the blood of the infidel
+hounds must also cease to flow," said Richard.
+
+"There will be glory enough," replied the Archbishop, "in having
+extorted from Saladin, by force of arms, and by the respect inspired by
+your fame, such conditions as at once restore the Holy Sepulchre, open
+the Holy Land to pilgrims, secure their safety by strong fortresses,
+and, stronger than all, assure the safety of the Holy City, by
+conferring on Richard the title of King Guardian of Jerusalem."
+
+"How!" said Richard, his eyes sparkling with unusual light. "I--I--I the
+King Guardian of the Holy City! Victory itself, but that it is victory,
+could not gain more--scarce so much, when won with unwilling and
+disunited forces. But Saladin still proposes to retain his interest in
+the Holy Land?"
+
+"As a joint sovereign, the sworn ally," replied the prelate, "of the
+mighty Richard--his relative, if it may be permitted, by marriage."
+
+"By marriage!" said Richard, surprised, yet less so than the prelate had
+expected. "Ha!--ay--Edith Plantagenet. Did I dream this? or did some one
+tell me? My head is still weak from this fever, and has been agitated.
+Was it the Scot, or the Hakim, or yonder holy hermit, that hinted such a
+wild bargain?"
+
+"The hermit of Engaddi, most likely," said the Archbishop, "for he hath
+toiled much in this matter; and since the discontent of the princes has
+became apparent, and a separation of their forces unavoidable, he hath
+had many consultations, both with Christian and pagan, for arranging
+such a pacification as may give to Christendom, at least in part, the
+objects of this holy warfare."
+
+"My kinswoman to an infidel--ha!" exclaimed Richard, as his eyes began
+to sparkle.
+
+The prelate hastened to avert his wrath.
+
+"The Pope's consent must doubtless be first attained, and the holy
+hermit, who is well known at Rome, will treat with the holy Father."
+
+"How?--without our consent first given?" said the King.
+
+"Surely no," said the Bishop, in a quieting and insinuating tone of
+voice--"only with and under your especial sanction."
+
+"My sanction to marry my kinswoman to an infidel!" said Richard; yet
+he spoke rather in a tone of doubt than as distinctly reprobating the
+measure proposed. "Could I have dreamed of such a composition when I
+leaped upon the Syrian shore from the prow of my galley, even as a lion
+springs on his prey! And now--But proceed--I will hear with patience."
+
+Equally delighted and surprised to find his task so much easier than he
+had apprehended, the Archbishop hastened to pour forth before Richard
+the instances of such alliances in Spain--not without countenance from
+the Holy See; the incalculable advantages which all Christendom would
+derive from the union of Richard and Saladin by a bond so sacred; and,
+above all, he spoke with great vehemence and unction on the probability
+that Saladin would, in case of the proposed alliance, exchange his false
+faith for the true one.
+
+"Hath the Soldan shown any disposition to become Christian?" said
+Richard. "If so, the king lives not on earth to whom I would grant the
+hand of a kinswoman, ay, or sister, sooner than to my noble Saladin--ay,
+though the one came to lay crown and sceptre at her feet, and the other
+had nothing to offer but his good sword and better heart!"
+
+"Saladin hath heard our Christian teachers," said the Bishop, somewhat
+evasively--"my unworthy self, and others--and as he listens with
+patience, and replies with calmness, it can hardly be but that he be
+snatched as a brand from the burning. MAGNA EST VERITAS, ET PREVALEBIT!
+moreover, the hermit of Engaddi, few of whose words have fallen
+fruitless to the ground, is possessed fully with the belief that there
+is a calling of the Saracens and the other heathen approaching, to which
+this marriage shall be matter of induction. He readeth the course of
+the stars; and dwelling, with maceration of the flesh, in those divine
+places which the saints have trodden of old, the spirit of Elijah the
+Tishbite, the founder of his blessed order, hath been with him as it was
+with the prophet Elisha, the son of Shaphat, when he spread his mantle
+over him."
+
+King Richard listened to the Prelate's reasoning with a downcast brow
+and a troubled look.
+
+"I cannot tell," he said, "How, it is with me, but methinks these cold
+counsels of the Princes of Christendom have infected me too with a
+lethargy of spirit. The time hath been that, had a layman proposed such
+alliance to me, I had struck him to earth--if a churchman, I had spit at
+him as a renegade and priest of Baal; yet now this counsel sounds not
+so strange in mine ear. For why should I not seek for brotherhood and
+alliance with a Saracen, brave, just, generous--who loves and honours
+a worthy foe, as if he were a friend--whilst the Princes of Christendom
+shrink from the side of their allies, and forsake the cause of Heaven
+and good knighthood? But I will possess my patience, and will not think
+of them. Only one attempt will I make to keep this gallant brotherhood
+together, if it be possible; and if I fail, Lord Archbishop, we will
+speak together of thy counsel, which, as now, I neither accept nor
+altogether reject. Wend we to the Council, my lord--the hour calls
+us. Thou sayest Richard is hasty and proud--thou shalt see him humble
+himself like the lowly broom-plant from which he derives his surname."
+
+With the assistance of those of his privy chamber, the King then hastily
+robed himself in a doublet and mantle of a dark and uniform colour; and
+without any mark of regal dignity, excepting a ring of gold upon his
+head, he hastened with the Archbishop of Tyre to attend the Council,
+which waited but his presence to commence its sitting.
+
+The pavilion of the Council was an ample tent, having before it the
+large Banner of the Cross displayed, and another, on which was portrayed
+a female kneeling, with dishevelled hair and disordered dress, meant to
+represent the desolate and distressed Church of Jerusalem, and bearing
+the motto, AFFLICTAE SPONSAE NE OBLIVISCARIS. Warders, carefully
+selected, kept every one at a distance from the neighbourhood of this
+tent, lest the debates, which were sometimes of a loud and stormy
+character, should reach other ears than those they were designed for.
+
+Here, therefore, the princes of the Crusade were assembled awaiting
+Richard's arrival. And even the brief delay which was thus interposed
+was turned to his disadvantage by his enemies, various instances being
+circulated of his pride and undue assumption of superiority, of which
+even the necessity of the present short pause was quoted as an instance.
+Men strove to fortify each other in their evil opinion of the King of
+England, and vindicated the offence which each had taken, by putting the
+most severe construction upon circumstances the most trifling; and all
+this, perhaps, because they were conscious of an instinctive reverence
+for the heroic monarch, which it would require more than ordinary
+efforts to overcome.
+
+They had settled, accordingly, that they should receive him on his
+entrance with slight notice, and no more respect than was exactly
+necessary to keep within the bounds of cold ceremonial. But when they
+beheld that noble form, that princely countenance, somewhat pale from
+his late illness--the eye which had been called by minstrels the bright
+star of battle and victory--when his feats, almost surpassing human
+strength and valour, rushed on their recollection, the Council of
+Princes simultaneously arose--even the jealous King of France and the
+sullen and offended Duke of Austria--arose with one consent, and the
+assembled princes burst forth with one voice in the acclamation, "God
+save King Richard of England! Long life to the valiant Lion's-heart!"
+
+With a countenance frank and open as the summer sun when it rises,
+Richard distributed his thanks around, and congratulated himself on
+being once more among his royal brethren of the Crusade.
+
+"Some brief words he desired to say," such was his address to the
+assembly, "though on a subject so unworthy as himself, even at the
+risk of delaying for a few minutes their consultations for the weal of
+Christendom and the advancement of their holy enterprise."
+
+The assembled princes resumed their seats, and there was a profound
+silence.
+
+"This day," continued the King of England, "is a high festival of the
+church, and it well becomes Christian men, at such a tide, to reconcile
+themselves with their brethren, and confess their faults to each
+other. Noble princes and fathers of this holy expedition, Richard is a
+soldier--his hand is ever readier than his tongue--and his tongue is
+but too much used to the rough language of his trade. But do not, for
+Plantagenet's hasty speeches and ill-considered actions, forsake the
+noble cause of the redemption of Palestine--do not throw away earthly
+renown and eternal salvation, to be won here if ever they can be won by
+man, because the act of a soldier may have been hasty, and his speech as
+hard as the iron which he has worn from childhood. Is Richard in
+default to any of you, Richard will make compensation both by word and
+action.--Noble brother of France, have I been so unlucky as to offend
+you?"
+
+"The Majesty of France has no atonement to seek from that of England,"
+answered Philip, with kingly dignity, accepting, at the same time, the
+offered hand of Richard; "and whatever opinion I may adopt concerning
+the prosecution of this enterprise will depend on reasons arising out of
+the state of my own kingdom--certainly on no jealousy or disgust at my
+royal and most valorous brother."
+
+"Austria," said Richard, walking up to the Archduke, with a mixture
+of frankness and dignity, while Leopold arose from his seat, as if
+involuntarily, and with the action of an automaton, whose motions
+depended upon some external impulse--"Austria thinks he hath reason to
+be offended with England; England, that he hath cause to complain of
+Austria. Let them exchange forgiveness, that the peace of Europe and the
+concord of this host may remain unbroken. We are now joint supporters of
+a more glorious banner than ever blazed before an earthly prince, even
+the Banner of Salvation. Let not, therefore, strife be betwixt us for
+the symbol of our more worldly dignities; but let Leopold restore the
+pennon of England, if he has it in his power, and Richard will say,
+though from no motive save his love for Holy Church, that he repents him
+of the hasty mood in which he did insult the standard of Austria."
+
+The Archduke stood still, sullen and discontented, with his eyes fixed
+on the floor, and his countenance lowering with smothered displeasure,
+which awe, mingled with awkwardness, prevented his giving vent to in
+words.
+
+The Patriarch of Jerusalem hastened to break the embarrassing silence,
+and to bear witness for the Archduke of Austria that he had exculpated
+himself, by a solemn oath, from all knowledge, direct or indirect, of
+the aggression done to the Banner of England.
+
+"Then we have done the noble Archduke the greater wrong," said Richard;
+"and craving his pardon for imputing to him an outrage so cowardly, we
+extend our hand to him in token of renewed peace and amity. But how is
+this? Austria refuses our uncovered hand, as he formerly refused our
+mailed glove? What! are we neither to be his mate in peace nor his
+antagonist in war? Well, let it be so. We will take the slight esteem in
+which he holds us as a penance for aught which we may have done against
+him in heat of blood, and will therefore hold the account between us
+cleared."
+
+So saying, he turned from the Archduke with an air rather of dignity
+than scorn, leaving the Austrian apparently as much relieved by the
+removal of his eye as is a sullen and truant schoolboy when the glance
+of his severe pedagogue is withdrawn.
+
+"Noble Earl of Champagne--princely Marquis of Montserrat--valiant Grand
+Master of the Templars--I am here a penitent in the confessional. Do any
+of you bring a charge or claim amends from me?"
+
+"I know not on what we could ground any," said the smooth-tongued
+Conrade, "unless it were that the King of England carries off from his
+poor brothers of the war all the fame which they might have hoped to
+gain in the expedition."
+
+"My charge, if I am called on to make one," said the Master of the
+Templars, "is graver and deeper than that of the Marquis of Montserrat.
+It may be thought ill to beseem a military monk such as I to raise his
+voice where so many noble princes remain silent; but it concerns our
+whole host, and not least this noble King of England, that he should
+hear from some one to his face those charges which there are enow to
+bring against him in his absence. We laud and honour the courage and
+high achievements of the King of England; but we feel aggrieved that he
+should on all occasions seize and maintain a precedence and superiority
+over us, which it becomes not independent princes to submit to. Much we
+might yield of our free will to his bravery, his zeal, his wealth,
+and his power; but he who snatches all as matter of right, and leaves
+nothing to grant out of courtesy and favour, degrades us from allies
+into retainers and vassals, and sullies in the eyes of our soldiers and
+subjects the lustre of our authority, which is no longer independently
+exercised. Since the royal Richard has asked the truth from us, he must
+neither be surprised nor angry when he hears one, to whom worldly pomp
+is prohibited, and secular authority is nothing, saving so far as it
+advances the prosperity of God's Temple, and the prostration of the lion
+which goeth about seeking whom he may devour--when he hears, I say, such
+a one as I tell him the truth in reply to his question; which truth,
+even while I speak it, is, I know, confirmed by the heart of every one
+who hears me, however respect may stifle their voices."
+
+Richard coloured very highly while the Grand Master was making this
+direct and unvarnished attack upon his conduct, and the murmur of
+assent which followed it showed plainly that almost all who were present
+acquiesced in the justice of the accusation. Incensed, and at the
+same time mortified, he yet foresaw that to give way to his headlong
+resentment would be to give the cold and wary accuser the advantage over
+him which it was the Templar's principal object to obtain. He therefore,
+with a strong effort, remained silent till he had repeated a pater
+noster, being the course which his confessor had enjoined him to pursue
+when anger was likely to obtain dominion over him. The King then spoke
+with composure, though not without an embittered tone, especially at the
+outset:--
+
+"And is it even so? And are our brethren at such pains to note the
+infirmities of our natural temper, and the rough precipitance of our
+zeal, which may sometimes have urged us to issue commands when there
+was little time to hold council? I could not have thought that offences,
+casual and unpremeditated like mine, could find such deep root in the
+hearts of my allies in this most holy cause; that for my sake they
+should withdraw their hands from the plough when the furrow was near
+the end--for my sake turn aside from the direct path to Jerusalem, which
+their swords have opened. I vainly thought that my small services
+might have outweighed my rash errors--that if it were remembered that I
+pressed to the van in an assault, it would not be forgotten that I
+was ever the last in the retreat--that, if I elevated my banner upon
+conquered fields of battle, it was all the advantage that I sought,
+while others were dividing the spoil. I may have called the conquered
+city by my name, but it was to others that I yielded the dominion. If
+I have been headstrong in urging bold counsels, I have not, methinks,
+spared my own blood or my people's in carrying them into as bold
+execution; or if I have, in the hurry of march or battle, assumed a
+command over the soldiers of others, such have been ever treated as my
+own when my wealth purchased the provisions and medicines which their
+own sovereigns could not procure. But it shames me to remind you of what
+all but myself seem to have forgotten. Let us rather look forward to
+our future measures; and believe me, brethren," he continued, his face
+kindling with eagerness, "you shall not find the pride, or the wrath,
+or the ambition of Richard a stumbling-block of offence in the path to
+which religion and glory summon you as with the trumpet of an archangel.
+Oh, no, no! never would I survive the thought that my frailties and
+infirmities had been the means to sever this goodly fellowship of
+assembled princes. I would cut off my left hand with my right, could my
+doing so attest my sincerity. I will yield up, voluntarily, all right to
+command in the host--even mine own liege subjects. They shall be led by
+such sovereigns as you may nominate; and their King, ever but too apt to
+exchange the leader's baton for the adventurer's lance, will serve
+under the banner of Beau-Seant among the Templars--ay, or under that of
+Austria, if Austria will name a brave man to lead his forces. Or if
+ye are yourselves a-weary of this war, and feel your armour chafe your
+tender bodies, leave but with Richard some ten or fifteen thousand of
+your soldiers to work out the accomplishment of your vow; and when
+Zion is won," he exclaimed, waving his hand aloft, as if displaying the
+standard of the Cross over Jerusalem--"when Zion is won, we will write
+upon her gates, NOT the name of Richard Plantagenet, but of those
+generous princes who entrusted him with the means of conquest!"
+
+The rough eloquence and determined expression of the military monarch
+at once roused the drooping spirits of the Crusaders, reanimated their
+devotion, and, fixing their attention on the principal object of the
+expedition, made most of them who were present blush for having been
+moved by such petty subjects of complaint as had before engrossed them.
+Eye caught fire from eye, voice lent courage to voice. They resumed, as
+with one accord, the war-cry with which the sermon of Peter the Hermit
+was echoed back, and shouted aloud, "Lead us on, gallant Lion's-heart;
+none so worthy to lead where brave men follow. Lead us on--to
+Jerusalem--to Jerusalem! It is the will of God--it is the will of God!
+Blessed is he who shall lend an arm to its fulfilment!"
+
+The shout, so suddenly and generally raised, was heard beyond the ring
+of sentinels who guarded the pavilion of Council, and spread among
+the soldiers of the host, who, inactive and dispirited by disease and
+climate, had begun, like their leaders, to droop in resolution; but
+the reappearance of Richard in renewed vigour, and the well-known shout
+which echoed from the assembly of the princes, at once rekindled their
+enthusiasm, and thousands and tens of thousands answered with the same
+shout of "Zion, Zion! War, war! Instant battle with the infidels! It is
+the will of God--it is the will of God!"
+
+The acclamations from without increased in their turn the enthusiasm
+which prevailed within the pavilion. Those who did not actually catch
+the flame were afraid--at least for the time--to seem colder than
+others. There was no more speech except of a proud advance towards
+Jerusalem upon the expiry of the truce, and the measures to be taken in
+the meantime for supplying and recruiting the army. The Council broke
+up, all apparently filled with the same enthusiastic purpose--which,
+however, soon faded in the bosom of most, and never had an existence in
+that of others.
+
+Of the latter class were the Marquis Conrade and the Grand Master of
+the Templars, who retired together to their quarters ill at ease, and
+malcontent with the events of the day.
+
+"I ever told it to thee," said the latter, with the cold, sardonic
+expression peculiar to him, "that Richard would burst through the flimsy
+wiles you spread for him, as would a lion through a spider's web. Thou
+seest he has but to speak, and his breath agitates these fickle fools
+as easily as the whirlwind catcheth scattered straws, and sweeps them
+together, or disperses them at its pleasure."
+
+"When the blast has passed away," said Conrade, "the straws, which it
+made dance to its pipe, will settle to earth again."
+
+"But knowest thou not besides," said the Templar, "that it seems, if
+this new purpose of conquest shall be abandoned and pass away, and each
+mighty prince shall again be left to such guidance as his own scanty
+brain can supply, Richard may yet probably become King of Jerusalem by
+compact, and establish those terms of treaty with the Soldan which thou
+thyself thought'st him so likely to spurn at?"
+
+"Now, by Mahound and Termagaunt, for Christian oaths are out of
+fashion," said Conrade, "sayest thou the proud King of England
+would unite his blood with a heathen Soldan? My policy threw in that
+ingredient to make the whole treaty an abomination to him. As bad for us
+that he become our master by an agreement, as by victory."
+
+"Thy policy hath ill calculated Richard's digestion," answered the
+Templar; "I know his mind by a whisper from the Archbishop. And then thy
+master-stroke respecting yonder banner--it has passed off with no more
+respect than two cubits of embroidered silk merited. Marquis Conrade,
+thy wit begins to halt; I will trust thy finespun measures no longer,
+but will try my own. Knowest thou not the people whom the Saracens call
+Charegites?"
+
+"Surely," answered the Marquis; "they are desperate and besotted
+enthusiasts, who devote their lives to the advancement of
+religion---somewhat like Templars, only they are never known to pause in
+the race of their calling."
+
+"Jest not," answered the scowling monk. "Know that one of these men has
+set down in his bloody vow the name of the Island Emperor yonder, to be
+hewn down as the chief enemy of the Moslem faith."
+
+"A most judicious paynim," said Conrade. "May Mohammed send him his
+paradise for a reward!"
+
+"He was taken in the camp by one of our squires, and in private
+examination frankly avowed his fixed and determined purpose to me," said
+the Grand Master.
+
+"Now the heavens pardon them who prevented the purpose of this most
+judicious Charegite!" answered Conrade.
+
+"He is my prisoner," added the Templar, "and secluded from speech with
+others, as thou mayest suppose; but prisons have been broken--"
+
+"Chains left unlocked, and captives have escaped," answered the Marquis.
+"It is an ancient saying, no sure dungeon but the grave."
+
+"When loose, he resumes his quest," continued the military priest; "for
+it is the nature of this sort of blood hound never to quit the suit of
+the prey he has once scented."
+
+"Say no more of it," said the Marquis; "I see thy policy--it is
+dreadful, but the emergency is imminent."
+
+"I only told thee of it," said the Templar, "that thou mayest keep
+thyself on thy guard; for the uproar will be dreadful, and there is
+no knowing on whom the English may vent their rage. Ay, and there
+is another risk. My page knows the counsels of this Charegite," he
+continued; "and, moreover, he is a peevish, self-willed fool, whom I
+would I were rid of, as he thwarts me by presuming to see with his own
+eyes, not mine. But our holy order gives me power to put a remedy to
+such inconvenience. Or stay--the Saracen may find a good dagger in his
+cell, and I warrant you he uses it as he breaks forth, which will be of
+a surety so soon as the page enters with his food."
+
+"It will give the affair a colour," said Conrade; "and yet--"
+
+"YET and BUT," said the Templar, "are words for fools; wise men neither
+hesitate nor retract--they resolve and they execute."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     When beauty leads the lion in her toils,
+     Such are her charms, he dare not raise his mane,
+     Far less expand the terror of his fangs.
+     So great Alcides made his club a distaff,
+     And spun to please fair Omphale.
+               ANONYMOUS.
+
+Richard, the unsuspicious object of the dark treachery detailed in the
+closing part of the last chapter, having effected, for the present at
+least, the triumphant union of the Crusading princes in a resolution
+to prosecute the war with vigour, had it next at heart to establish
+tranquillity in his own family; and, now that he could judge more
+temperately, to inquire distinctly into the circumstances leading to
+the loss of his banner, and the nature and the extent of the connection
+betwixt his kinswoman Edith and the banished adventurer from Scotland.
+
+Accordingly, the Queen and her household were startled with a visit
+from Sir Thomas de Vaux, requesting the present attendance of the Lady
+Calista of Montfaucon, the Queen's principal bower-woman, upon King
+Richard.
+
+"What am I to say, madam?" said the trembling attendant to the Queen,
+"He will slay us all."
+
+"Nay, fear not, madam," said De Vaux. "His Majesty hath spared the life
+of the Scottish knight, who was the chief offender, and bestowed him
+upon the Moorish physician. He will not be severe upon a lady, though
+faulty."
+
+"Devise some cunning tale, wench," said Berengaria. "My husband hath too
+little time to make inquiry into the truth."
+
+"Tell the tale as it really happened," said Edith, "lest I tell it for
+thee."
+
+"With humble permission of her Majesty," said De Vaux, "I would say Lady
+Edith adviseth well; for although King Richard is pleased to believe
+what it pleases your Grace to tell him, yet I doubt his having the same
+deference for the Lady Calista, and in this especial matter."
+
+"The Lord of Gilsland is right," said the Lady Calista, much agitated at
+the thoughts of the investigation which was to take place; "and besides,
+if I had presence of mind enough to forge a plausible story, beshrew me
+if I think I should have the courage to tell it."
+
+In this candid humour, the Lady Calista was conducted by De Vaux to the
+King, and made, as she had proposed, a full confession of the decoy by
+which the unfortunate Knight of the Leopard had been induced to desert
+his post; exculpating the Lady Edith, who, she was aware, would not
+fail to exculpate herself, and laying the full burden on the Queen, her
+mistress, whose share of the frolic, she well knew, would appear the
+most venial in the eyes of Coeur de Lion. In truth, Richard was a fond,
+almost a uxorious husband. The first burst of his wrath had long since
+passed away, and he was not disposed severely to censure what could
+not now be amended. The wily Lady Calista, accustomed from her earliest
+childhood to fathom the intrigues of a court, and watch the indications
+of a sovereign's will, hastened back to the Queen with the speed of
+a lapwing, charged with the King's commands that she should expect
+a speedy visit from him; to which the bower-lady added a commentary
+founded on her own observation, tending to show that Richard meant just
+to preserve so much severity as might bring his royal consort to repent
+of her frolic, and then to extend to her and all concerned his gracious
+pardon.
+
+"Sits the wind in that corner, wench?" said the Queen, much relieved by
+this intelligence. "Believe me that, great commander as he is, Richard
+will find it hard to circumvent us in this matter, and that, as the
+Pyrenean shepherds are wont to say in my native Navarre, Many a one
+comes for wool, and goes back shorn."
+
+Having possessed herself of all the information which Calista could
+communicate, the royal Berengaria arrayed herself in her most becoming
+dress, and awaited with confidence the arrival of the heroic Richard.
+
+He arrived, and found himself in the situation of a prince entering an
+offending province, in the confidence that his business will only be to
+inflict rebuke, and receive submission, when he unexpectedly finds it in
+a state of complete defiance and insurrection. Berengaria well knew
+the power of her charms and the extent of Richard's affection, and
+felt assured that she could make her own terms good, now that the first
+tremendous explosion of his anger had expended itself without mischief.
+Far from listening to the King's intended rebuke, as what the levity
+of her conduct had justly deserved, she extenuated, nay, defended as a
+harmless frolic, that which she was accused of. She denied, indeed,
+with many a pretty form of negation, that she had directed Nectabanus
+absolutely to entice the knight farther than the brink of the Mount on
+which he kept watch--and, indeed, this was so far true, that she had not
+designed Sir Kenneth to be introduced into her tent--and then, eloquent
+in urging her own defence, the Queen was far more so in pressing upon
+Richard the charge of unkindness, in refusing her so poor a boon as the
+life of an unfortunate knight, who, by her thoughtless prank, had been
+brought within the danger of martial law. She wept and sobbed while she
+enlarged on her husband's obduracy on this score, as a rigour which had
+threatened to make her unhappy for life, whenever she should reflect
+that she had given, unthinkingly, the remote cause for such a tragedy.
+The vision of the slaughtered victim would have haunted her dreams--nay,
+for aught she knew, since such things often happened, his actual spectre
+might have stood by her waking couch. To all this misery of the mind was
+she exposed by the severity of one who, while he pretended to dote upon
+her slightest glance, would not forego one act of poor revenge, though
+the issue was to render her miserable.
+
+All this flow of female eloquence was accompanied with the usual
+arguments of tears and sighs, and uttered with such tone and action as
+seemed to show that the Queen's resentment arose neither from pride nor
+sullenness, but from feelings hurt at finding her consequence with her
+husband less than she had expected to possess.
+
+The good King Richard was considerably embarrassed. He tried in vain
+to reason with one whose very jealousy of his affection rendered her
+incapable of listening to argument, nor could he bring himself to use
+the restraint of lawful authority to a creature so beautiful in the
+midst of her unreasonable displeasure. He was therefore reduced to the
+defensive, endeavoured gently to chide her suspicions and soothe her
+displeasure, and recalled to her mind that she need not look back upon
+the past with recollections either of remorse or supernatural fear,
+since Sir Kenneth was alive and well, and had been bestowed by him upon
+the great Arabian physician, who, doubtless, of all men, knew best how
+to keep him living. But this seemed the unkindest cut of all, and
+the Queen's sorrow was renewed at the idea of a Saracen--a
+mediciner--obtaining a boon for which, with bare head and on bended
+knee, she had petitioned her husband in vain. At this new charge
+Richard's patience began rather to give way, and he said, in a serious
+tone of voice, "Berengaria, the physician saved my life. If it is of
+value in your eyes, you will not grudge him a higher recompense than the
+only one I could prevail on him to accept."
+
+The Queen was satisfied she had urged her coquettish displeasure to the
+verge of safety.
+
+"My Richard," she said, "why brought you not that sage to me, that
+England's Queen might show how she esteemed him who could save from
+extinction the lamp of chivalry, the glory of England, and the light of
+poor Berengaria's life and hope?"
+
+In a word, the matrimonial dispute was ended; but, that some penalty
+might be paid to justice, both King and Queen accorded in laying the
+whole blame on the agent Nectabanus, who (the Queen being by this time
+well weary of the poor dwarf's humour) was, with his royal consort
+Guenevra, sentenced to be banished from the Court; and the unlucky dwarf
+only escaped a supplementary whipping, from the Queen's assurances that
+he had already sustained personal chastisement. It was decreed further
+that, as an envoy was shortly to be dispatched to Saladin, acquainting
+him with the resolution of the Council to resume hostilities so soon as
+the truce was ended, and as Richard proposed to send a valuable present
+to the Soldan, in acknowledgment of the high benefit he had derived from
+the services of El Hakim, the two unhappy creatures should be added to
+it as curiosities, which, from their extremely grotesque appearance, and
+the shattered state of their intellect, were gifts that might well pass
+between sovereign and sovereign.
+
+Richard had that day yet another female encounter to sustain; but
+he advanced to it with comparative indifference, for Edith, though
+beautiful and highly esteemed by her royal relative--nay, although she
+had from his unjust suspicions actually sustained the injury of which
+Berengaria only affected to complain--still was neither Richard's wife
+nor mistress, and he feared her reproaches less, although founded in
+reason, than those of the Queen, though unjust and fantastical. Having
+requested to speak with her apart, he was ushered into her apartment,
+adjoining that of the Queen, whose two female Coptish slaves remained on
+their knees in the most remote corner during the interview. A thin black
+veil extended its ample folds over the tall and graceful form of the
+high-born maiden, and she wore not upon her person any female ornament
+of what kind soever. She arose and made a low reverence when Richard
+entered, resumed her seat at his command, and, when he sat down beside
+her, waited, without uttering a syllable, until he should communicate
+his pleasure.
+
+Richard, whose custom it was to be familiar with Edith, as their
+relationship authorized, felt this reception chilling, and opened the
+conversation with some embarrassment.
+
+"Our fair cousin," he at length said, "is angry with us; and we own that
+strong circumstances have induced us, without cause, to suspect her
+of conduct alien to what we have ever known in her course of life. But
+while we walk in this misty valley of humanity, men will mistake shadows
+for substances. Can my fair cousin not forgive her somewhat vehement
+kinsman Richard?"
+
+"Who can refuse forgiveness to RICHARD," answered Edith, "provided
+Richard can obtain pardon of the KING?"
+
+"Come, my kinswoman," replied Coeur de Lion, "this is all too solemn.
+By Our Lady, such a melancholy countenance, and this ample sable veil,
+might make men think thou wert a new-made widow, or had lost a betrothed
+lover, at least. Cheer up! Thou hast heard, doubtless, that there is no
+real cause for woe; why, then, keep up the form of mourning?"
+
+"For the departed honour of Plantagenet--for the glory which hath left
+my father's house."
+
+Richard frowned. "Departed honour! glory which hath left our house!" he
+repeated angrily. "But my cousin Edith is privileged. I have judged her
+too hastily; she has therefore a right to deem of me too harshly. But
+tell me at least in what I have faulted."
+
+"Plantagenet," said Edith, "should have either pardoned an offence, or
+punished it. It misbecomes him to assign free men, Christians, and
+brave knights, to the fetters of the infidels. It becomes him not to
+compromise and barter, or to grunt life under the forfeiture of liberty.
+To have doomed the unfortunate to death might have been severity, but
+had a show of justice; to condemn him to slavery and exile was barefaced
+tyranny."
+
+"I see, my fair cousin," said Richard, "you are of those pretty ones who
+think an absent lover as bad as none, or as a dead one. Be patient; half
+a score of light horsemen may yet follow and redeem the error, if thy
+gallant have in keeping any secret which might render his death more
+convenient than his banishment."
+
+"Peace with thy scurrile jests!" answered Edith, colouring deeply.
+"Think, rather, that for the indulgence of thy mood thou hast lopped
+from this great enterprise one goodly limb, deprived the Cross of one of
+its most brave supporters, and placed a servant of the true God in the
+hands of the heathen; hast given, too, to minds as suspicious as thou
+hast shown thine own in this matter, some right to say that Richard
+Coeur de Lion banished the bravest soldier in his camp lest his name in
+battle might match his own."
+
+"I--I!" exclaimed Richard, now indeed greatly moved--"am I one to be
+jealous of renown? I would he were here to profess such an equality! I
+would waive my rank and my crown, and meet him, manlike, in the lists,
+that it might appear whether Richard Plantagenet had room to fear or to
+envy the prowess of mortal man. Come, Edith, thou think'st not as thou
+sayest. Let not anger or grief for the absence of thy lover make thee
+unjust to thy kinsman, who, notwithstanding all thy techiness, values
+thy good report as high as that of any one living."
+
+"The absence of my lover?" said the Lady Edith, "But yes, he may be
+well termed my lover, who hath paid so dear for the title. Unworthy as I
+might be of such homage, I was to him like a light, leading him forward
+in the noble path of chivalry; but that I forgot my rank, or that he
+presumed beyond his, is false, were a king to speak it."
+
+"My fair cousin," said Richard, "do not put words in my mouth which I
+have not spoken. I said not you had graced this man beyond the favour
+which a good knight may earn, even from a princess, whatever be his
+native condition. But, by Our Lady, I know something of this
+love-gear. It begins with mute respect and distant reverence; but when
+opportunities occur, familiarity increases, and so--But it skills not
+talking with one who thinks herself wiser than all the world."
+
+"My kinsman's counsels I willingly listen to, when they are such," said
+Edith, "as convey no insult to my rank and character."
+
+"Kings, my fair cousin, do not counsel, but rather command," said
+Richard.
+
+"Soldans do indeed command," said Edith, "but it is because they have
+slaves to govern."
+
+"Come, you might learn to lay aside this scorn of Soldanrie, when you
+hold so high of a Scot," said the King. "I hold Saladin to be truer to
+his word than this William of Scotland, who must needs be called a
+Lion, forsooth; he hath foully faulted towards me in failing to send the
+auxiliary aid he promised. Let me tell thee, Edith, thou mayest live to
+prefer a true Turk to a false Scot."
+
+"No--never!" answered Edith--"not should Richard himself embrace the
+false religion, which he crossed the seas to expel from Palestine."
+
+"Thou wilt have the last word," said Richard, "and thou shalt have it.
+Even think of me what thou wilt, pretty Edith. I shall not forget that
+we are near and dear cousins."
+
+So saying, he took his leave in fair fashion, but very little satisfied
+with the result of his visit.
+
+It was the fourth day after Sir Kenneth had been dismissed from the
+camp, and King Richard sat in his pavilion, enjoying an evening breeze
+from the west, which, with unusual coolness on her wings, seemed
+breathed from merry England for the refreshment of her adventurous
+Monarch, as he was gradually recovering the full strength which was
+necessary to carry on his gigantic projects. There was no one with
+him, De Vaux having been sent to Ascalon to bring up reinforcements and
+supplies of military munition, and most of his other attendants being
+occupied in different departments, all preparing for the re-opening
+of hostilities, and for a grand preparatory review of the army of the
+Crusaders, which was to take place the next day. The King sat listening
+to the busy hum among the soldiery, the clatter from the forges, where
+horseshoes were preparing, and from the tents of the armourers, who were
+repairing harness. The voice of the soldiers, too, as they passed
+and repassed, was loud and cheerful, carrying with its very tone an
+assurance of high and excited courage, and an omen of approaching
+victory. While Richard's ear drank in these sounds with delight, and
+while he yielded himself to the visions of conquest and of glory which
+they suggested, an equerry told him that a messenger from Saladin waited
+without.
+
+"Admit him instantly," said the King, "and with due honour, Josceline."
+
+The English knight accordingly introduced a person, apparently of no
+higher rank than a Nubian slave, whose appearance was nevertheless
+highly interesting. He was of superb stature and nobly formed, and his
+commanding features, although almost jet-black, showed nothing of negro
+descent. He wore over his coal-black locks a milk-white turban, and over
+his shoulders a short mantle of the same colour, open in front and at
+the sleeves, under which appeared a doublet of dressed leopard's skin
+reaching within a handbreadth of the knee. The rest of his muscular
+limbs, both legs and arms, were bare, excepting that he had sandals
+on his feet, and wore a collar and bracelets of silver. A straight
+broadsword, with a handle of box-wood and a sheath covered with
+snakeskin, was suspended from his waist. In his right hand he held a
+short javelin, with a broad, bright steel head, of a span in length, and
+in his left he led by a leash of twisted silk and gold a large and noble
+staghound.
+
+The messenger prostrated himself, at the same time partially uncovering
+his shoulders, in sign of humiliation, and having touched the earth with
+his forehead, arose so far as to rest on one knee, while he delivered
+to the King a silken napkin, enclosing another of cloth of gold,
+within which was a letter from Saladin in the original Arabic, with a
+translation into Norman-English, which may be modernized thus:--
+
+"Saladin, King of Kings, to Melech Ric, the Lion of England. Whereas, we
+are informed by thy last message that thou hast chosen war rather than
+peace, and our enmity rather than our friendship, we account thee as
+one blinded in this matter, and trust shortly to convince thee of thine
+error, by the help of our invincible forces of the thousand tribes, when
+Mohammed, the Prophet of God, and Allah, the God of the Prophet, shall
+judge the controversy betwixt us. In what remains, we make noble account
+of thee, and of the gifts which thou hast sent us, and of the two
+dwarfs, singular in their deformity as Ysop, and mirthful as the lute of
+Isaack. And in requital of these tokens from the treasure-house of thy
+bounty, behold we have sent thee a Nubian slave, named Zohauk, of whom
+judge not by his complexion, according to the foolish ones of the earth,
+in respect the dark-rinded fruit hath the most exquisite flavour.
+Know that he is strong to execute the will of his master, as Rustan of
+Zablestan; also he is wise to give counsel when thou shalt learn to hold
+communication with him, for the Lord of Speech hath been stricken with
+silence betwixt the ivory walls of his palace. We commend him to thy
+care, hoping the hour may not be distant when he may render thee good
+service. And herewith we bid thee farewell; trusting that our most
+holy Prophet may yet call thee to a sight of the truth, failing which
+illumination, our desire is for the speedy restoration of thy royal
+health, that Allah may judge between thee and us in a plain field of
+battle."
+
+And the missive was sanctioned by the signature and seal of the Soldan.
+
+Richard surveyed the Nubian in silence as he stood before him, his looks
+bent upon the ground, his arms folded on his bosom, with the appearance
+of a black marble statue of the most exquisite workmanship, waiting
+life from the touch of a Prometheus. The King of England, who, as it was
+emphatically said of his successor Henry the Eighth, loved to look upon
+A MAN, was well pleased with the thews, sinews, and symmetry of him whom
+he now surveyed, and questioned him in the lingua franca, "Art thou a
+pagan?"
+
+The slave shook his head, and raising his finger to his brow, crossed
+himself in token of his Christianity, then resumed his posture of
+motionless humility.
+
+"A Nubian Christian, doubtless," said Richard, "and mutilated of the
+organ of speech by these heathen dogs?"
+
+The mute again slowly shook his head, in token of negative, pointed with
+his forefinger to Heaven, and then laid it upon his own lips.
+
+"I understand thee," said Richard; "thou dost suffer under the
+infliction of God, not by the cruelty of man. Canst thou clean an armour
+and belt, and buckle it in time of need?"
+
+The mute nodded, and stepping towards the coat of mail, which hung with
+the shield and helmet of the chivalrous monarch upon the pillar of the
+tent, he handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently to show
+that he fully understood the business of an armour-bearer.
+
+"Thou art an apt, and wilt doubtless be a useful knave. Thou shalt wait
+in my chamber, and on my person," said the King, "to show how much I
+value the gift of the royal Soldan. If thou hast no tongue, it follows
+thou canst carry no tales, neither provoke me to be sudden by any unfit
+reply."
+
+The Nubian again prostrated himself till his brow touched the earth,
+then stood erect, at some paces distant, as waiting for his new master's
+commands.
+
+"Nay, thou shalt commence thy office presently," said Richard, "for I
+see a speck of rust darkening on that shield; and when I shake it in
+the face of Saladin, it should be bright and unsullied as the Soldan's
+honour and mine own."
+
+A horn was winded without, and presently Sir Henry Neville entered
+with a packet of dispatches. "From England, my lord," he said, as he
+delivered it.
+
+"From England--our own England!" repeated Richard, in a tone of
+melancholy enthusiasm. "Alas! they little think how hard their Sovereign
+has been beset by sickness and sorrow--faint friends and forward
+enemies." Then opening the dispatches, he said hastily, "Ha! this comes
+from no peaceful land--they too have their feuds. Neville, begone; I
+must peruse these tidings alone, and at leisure."
+
+Neville withdrew accordingly, and Richard was soon absorbed in the
+melancholy details which had been conveyed to him from England,
+concerning the factions that were tearing to pieces his native
+dominions--the disunion of his brothers John and Geoffrey, and the
+quarrels of both with the High Justiciary Longchamp, Bishop of Ely--the
+oppressions practised by the nobles upon the peasantry, and rebellion of
+the latter against their masters, which had produced everywhere scenes
+of discord, and in some instances the effusion of blood. Details of
+incidents mortifying to his pride, and derogatory from his authority,
+were intermingled with the earnest advice of his wisest and most
+attached counsellors that he should presently return to England, as
+his presence offered the only hope of saving the Kingdom from all the
+horrors of civil discord, of which France and Scotland were likely to
+avail themselves. Filled with the most painful anxiety, Richard read,
+and again read, the ill-omened letters; compared the intelligence which
+some of them contained with the same facts as differently stated in
+others; and soon became totally insensible to whatever was passing
+around him, although seated, for the sake of coolness, close to the
+entrance of his tent, and having the curtains withdrawn, so that he
+could see and be seen by the guards and others who were stationed
+without.
+
+Deeper in the shadow of the pavilion, and busied with the task his new
+master had imposed, sat the Nubian slave, with his back rather turned
+towards the King. He had finished adjusting and cleaning the hauberk and
+brigandine, and was now busily employed on a broad pavesse, or buckler,
+of unusual size, and covered with steel-plating, which Richard often
+used in reconnoitring, or actually storming fortified places, as a more
+effectual protection against missile weapons than the narrow triangular
+shield used on horseback. This pavesse bore neither the royal lions
+of England, nor any other device, to attract the observation of
+the defenders of the walls against which it was advanced; the care,
+therefore, of the armourer was addressed to causing its surface to shine
+as bright as crystal, in which he seemed to be peculiarly successful.
+Beyond the Nubian, and scarce visible from without, lay the large dog,
+which might be termed his brother slave, and which, as if he felt awed
+by being transferred to a royal owner, was couched close to the side of
+the mute, with head and ears on the ground, and his limbs and tail drawn
+close around and under him.
+
+While the Monarch and his new attendant were thus occupied, another
+actor crept upon the scene, and mingled among the group of English
+yeomen, about a score of whom, respecting the unusually pensive posture
+and close occupation of their Sovereign, were, contrary to their wont,
+keeping a silent guard in front of his tent. It was not, however, more
+vigilant than usual. Some were playing at games of hazard with small
+pebbles, others spoke together in whispers of the approaching day of
+battle, and several lay asleep, their bulky limbs folded in their green
+mantles.
+
+Amid these careless warders glided the puny form of a little old Turk,
+poorly dressed like a marabout or santon of the desert--a sort of
+enthusiasts, who sometimes ventured into the camp of the Crusaders,
+though treated always with contumely, and often with violence. Indeed,
+the luxury and profligate indulgence of the Christian leaders had
+occasioned a motley concourse in their tents of musicians, courtesans,
+Jewish merchants, Copts, Turks, and all the varied refuse of the Eastern
+nations; so that the caftan and turban, though to drive both from
+the Holy Land was the professed object of the expedition, were,
+nevertheless, neither an uncommon nor an alarming sight in the camp of
+the Crusaders. When, however, the little insignificant figure we have
+described approached so nigh as to receive some interruption from the
+warders, he dashed his dusky green turban from his head, showed that his
+beard and eyebrows were shaved like those of a professed buffoon, and
+that the expression of his fantastic and writhen features, as well as
+of his little black eyes, which glittered like jet, was that of a crazed
+imagination.
+
+"Dance, marabout," cried the soldiers, acquainted with the manners of
+these wandering enthusiasts, "dance, or we will scourge thee with our
+bow-strings till thou spin as never top did under schoolboy's lash."
+Thus shouted the reckless warders, as much delighted at having a subject
+to tease as a child when he catches a butterfly, or a schoolboy upon
+discovering a bird's nest.
+
+The marabout, as if happy to do their behests, bounded from the earth,
+and spun his giddy round before them with singular agility, which, when
+contrasted with his slight and wasted figure, and diminutive appearance,
+made him resemble a withered leaf twirled round and round at the
+pleasure of the winter's breeze. His single lock of hair streamed
+upwards from his bald and shaven head, as if some genie upheld him by
+it; and indeed it seemed as if supernatural art were necessary to the
+execution of the wild, whirling dance, in which scarce the tiptoe of
+the performer was seen to touch the ground. Amid the vagaries of his
+performance he flew here and there, from one spot to another, still
+approaching, however, though almost imperceptibly, to the entrance of
+the royal tent; so that, when at length he sunk exhausted on the earth,
+after two or three bounds still higher than those which he had yet
+executed, he was not above thirty yards from the King's person.
+
+"Give him water," said one yeoman; "they always crave a drink after
+their merry-go-round."
+
+"Aha, water, sayest thou, Long Allen?" exclaimed another archer, with a
+most scornful emphasis on the despised element; "how wouldst like such
+beverage thyself, after such a morrice dancing?"
+
+"The devil a water-drop he gets here," said a third. "We will teach
+the light-footed old infidel to be a good Christian, and drink wine of
+Cyprus."
+
+"Ay, ay," said a fourth; "and in case he be restive, fetch thou Dick
+Hunter's horn, that he drenches his mare withal."
+
+A circle was instantly formed around the prostrate and exhausted
+dervise, and while one tall yeoman raised his feeble form from the
+ground, another presented to him a huge flagon of wine. Incapable of
+speech, the old man shook his head, and waved away from him with his
+hand the liquor forbidden by the Prophet. But his tormentors were not
+thus to be appeased.
+
+"The horn, the horn!" exclaimed one. "Little difference between a Turk
+and a Turkish horse, and we will use him conforming."
+
+"By Saint George, you will choke him!" said Long Allen; "and besides, it
+is a sin to throw away upon a heathen dog as much wine as would serve a
+good Christian for a treble night-cap."
+
+"Thou knowest not the nature of these Turks and pagans, Long Allen,"
+replied Henry Woodstall. "I tell thee, man, that this flagon of Cyprus
+will set his brains a-spinning, just in the opposite direction that they
+went whirling in the dancing, and so bring him, as it were, to himself
+again. Choke? He will no more choke on it than Ben's black bitch on the
+pound of butter."
+
+"And for grudging it," said Tomalin Blacklees, "why shouldst thou grudge
+the poor paynim devil a drop of drink on earth, since thou knowest he
+is not to have a drop to cool the tip of his tongue through a long
+eternity?"
+
+"That were hard laws, look ye," said Long Allen, "only for being a Turk,
+as his father was before him. Had he been Christian turned heathen, I
+grant you the hottest corner had been good winter quarters for him."
+
+"Hold thy peace, Long Allen," said Henry Woodstall. "I tell thee that
+tongue of thine is not the shortest limb about thee, and I prophesy that
+it will bring thee into disgrace with Father Francis, as once about the
+black-eyed Syrian wench. But here comes the horn. Be active a bit,
+man, wilt thou, and just force open his teeth with the haft of thy
+dudgeon-dagger."
+
+"Hold, hold--he is conformable," said Tomalin; "see, see, he signs for
+the goblet--give him room, boys! OOP SEY ES, quoth the Dutchman--down
+it goes like lamb's-wool! Nay, they are true topers when once they
+begin--your Turk never coughs in his cup, or stints in his liquoring."
+
+In fact, the dervise, or whatever he was, drank--or at least seemed to
+drink--the large flagon to the very bottom at a single pull; and when
+he took it from his lips after the whole contents were exhausted, only
+uttered, with a deep sigh, the words, ALLAH KERIM, or God is merciful.
+There was a laugh among the yeomen who witnessed this pottle-deep
+potation, so obstreperous as to rouse and disturb the King, who, raising
+his finger, said angrily, "How, knaves, no respect, no observance?"
+
+All were at once hushed into silence, well acquainted with the temper of
+Richard, which at some times admitted of much military familiarity, and
+at others exacted the most precise respect, although the latter humour
+was of much more rare occurrence. Hastening to a more reverent distance
+from the royal person, they attempted to drag along with them the
+marabout, who, exhausted apparently by previous fatigue, or overpowered
+by the potent draught he had just swallowed, resisted being moved from
+the spot, both with struggles and groans.
+
+"Leave him still, ye fools," whispered Long Allen to his mates; "by
+Saint Christopher, you will make our Dickon go beside himself, and we
+shall have his dagger presently fly at our costards. Leave him alone; in
+less than a minute he will sleep like a dormouse."
+
+At the same moment the Monarch darted another impatient glance to the
+spot, and all retreated in haste, leaving the dervise on the ground,
+unable, as it seemed, to stir a single limb or joint of his body. In a
+moment afterward all was as still and quiet as it had been before the
+intrusion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+     --and wither'd Murder,
+     Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
+     Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
+     With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
+     Moves like a ghost.
+                MACBETH.
+
+For the space of a quarter of an hour, or longer, after the incident
+related, all remained perfectly quiet in the front of the royal
+habitation. The King read and mused in the entrance of his pavilion;
+behind, and with his back turned to the same entrance, the Nubian slave
+still burnished the ample pavesse; in front of all, at a hundred paces
+distant, the yeomen of the guard stood, sat, or lay extended on the
+grass, attentive to their own sports, but pursuing them in silence,
+while on the esplanade betwixt them and the front of the tent lay,
+scarcely to be distinguished from a bundle of rags, the senseless form
+of the marabout.
+
+But the Nubian had the advantage of a mirror from the brilliant
+reflection which the surface of the highly-polished shield now afforded,
+by means of which he beheld, to his alarm and surprise, that the
+marabout raised his head gently from the ground, so as to survey all
+around him, moving with a well-adjusted precaution which seemed entirely
+inconsistent with a state of ebriety. He couched his head instantly, as
+if satisfied he was unobserved, and began, with the slightest possible
+appearance of voluntary effort, to drag himself, as if by chance, ever
+nearer and nearer to the King, but stopping and remaining fixed at
+intervals, like the spider, which, moving towards her object, collapses
+into apparent lifelessness when she thinks she is the subject of
+observation. This species of movement appeared suspicious to the
+Ethiopian, who, on his part, prepared himself, as quietly as possible,
+to interfere, the instant that interference should seem to be necessary.
+
+The marabout, meanwhile, glided on gradually and imperceptibly,
+serpent-like, or rather snail-like, till he was about ten yards distant
+from Richard's person, when, starting on his feet, he sprung forward
+with the bound of a tiger, stood at the King's back in less than an
+instant, and brandished aloft the cangiar, or poniard, which he had
+hidden in his sleeve. Not the presence of his whole army could have
+saved their heroic Monarch; but the motions of the Nubian had been as
+well calculated as those of the enthusiast, and ere the latter could
+strike, the former caught his uplifted arm. Turning his fanatical wrath
+upon what thus unexpectedly interposed betwixt him and his object, the
+Charegite, for such was the seeming marabout, dealt the Nubian a blow
+with the dagger, which, however, only grazed his arm, while the far
+superior strength of the Ethiopian easily dashed him to the ground.
+Aware of what had passed, Richard had now arisen, and with little more
+of surprise, anger, or interest of any kind in his countenance than an
+ordinary man would show in brushing off and crushing an intrusive wasp,
+caught up the stool on which he had been sitting, and exclaiming only,
+"Ha, dog!" dashed almost to pieces the skull of the assassin, who
+uttered twice, once in a loud, and once in a broken tone, the words
+ALLAH ACKBAR!--God is victorious--and expired at the King's feet.
+
+"Ye are careful warders," said Richard to his archers, in a tone of
+scornful reproach, as, aroused by the bustle of what had passed, in
+terror and tumult they now rushed into his tent; "watchful sentinels ye
+are, to leave me to do such hangman's work with my own hand. Be silent,
+all of you, and cease your senseless clamour!--saw ye never a dead Turk
+before? Here, cast that carrion out of the camp, strike the head from
+the trunk, and stick it on a lance, taking care to turn the face
+to Mecca, that he may the easier tell the foul impostor on whose
+inspiration he came hither how he has sped on his errand.--For thee, my
+swart and silent friend," he added, turning to the Ethiopian--"but how's
+this? Thou art wounded--and with a poisoned weapon, I warrant me, for
+by force of stab so weak an animal as that could scarce hope to do
+more than raze the lion's hide.--Suck the poison from his wound one of
+you--the venom is harmless on the lips, though fatal when it mingles
+with the blood."
+
+The yeomen looked on each other confusedly and with hesitation, the
+apprehension of so strange a danger prevailing with those who feared no
+other.
+
+"How now, sirrahs," continued the King, "are you dainty-lipped, or do
+you fear death, that you daily thus?"
+
+"Not the death of a man," said Long Allen, to whom the King looked as he
+spoke; "but methinks I would not die like a poisoned rat for the sake
+of a black chattel there, that is bought and sold in a market like a
+Martlemas ox."
+
+"His Grace speaks to men of sucking poison," muttered another yeoman,
+"as if he said, 'Go to, swallow a gooseberry!'"
+
+"Nay," said Richard, "I never bade man do that which I would not do
+myself."
+
+And without further ceremony, and in spite of the general expostulations
+of those around, and the respectful opposition of the Nubian himself,
+the King of England applied his lips to the wound of the black
+slave, treating with ridicule all remonstrances, and overpowering all
+resistance. He had no sooner intermitted his singular occupation, than
+the Nubian started from him, and casting a scarf over his arm, intimated
+by gestures, as firm in purpose as they were respectful in manner,
+his determination not to permit the Monarch to renew so degrading
+an employment. Long Allen also interposed, saying that, if it were
+necessary to prevent the King engaging again in a treatment of this
+kind, his own lips, tongue, and teeth were at the service of the negro
+(as he called the Ethiopian), and that he would eat him up bodily,
+rather than King Richard's mouth should again approach him.
+
+Neville, who entered with other officers, added his remonstrances.
+
+"Nay, nay, make not a needless halloo about a hart that the hounds have
+lost, or a danger when it is over," said the King. "The wound will be a
+trifle, for the blood is scarce drawn--an angry cat had dealt a deeper
+scratch. And for me, I have but to take a drachm of orvietan by way of
+precaution, though it is needless."
+
+ Thus spoke Richard, a little ashamed, perhaps, of his own
+condescension, though sanctioned both by humanity and gratitude. But
+when Neville continued to make remonstrances on the peril to his royal
+person, the King imposed silence on him.
+
+"Peace, I prithee--make no more of it. I did it but to show these
+ignorant, prejudiced knaves how they might help each other when these
+cowardly caitiffs come against us with sarbacanes and poisoned shafts.
+But," he added, "take thee this Nubian to thy quarters, Neville--I have
+changed my mind touching him--let him be well cared for. But hark in
+thine ear; see that he escapes thee not--there is more in him than
+seems. Let him have all liberty, so that he leave not the camp.--And
+you, ye beef-devouring, wine-swilling English mastiffs, get ye to your
+guard again, and be sure you keep it more warily. Think not you are now
+in your own land of fair play, where men speak before they strike, and
+shake hands ere they cut throats. Danger in our land walks openly, and
+with his blade drawn, and defies the foe whom he means to assault; but
+here he challenges you with a silk glove instead of a steel gauntlet,
+cuts your throat with the feather of a turtle-dove, stabs you with the
+tongue of a priest's brooch, or throttles you with the lace of my lady's
+boddice. Go to--keep your eyes open and your mouths shut--drink less,
+and look sharper about you; or I will place your huge stomachs on such
+short allowance as would pinch the stomach of a patient Scottish man."
+
+The yeomen, abashed and mortified, withdrew to their post, and Neville
+was beginning to remonstrate with his master upon the risk of passing
+over thus slightly their negligence upon their duty, and the propriety
+of an example in a case so peculiarly aggravated as the permitting one
+so suspicious as the marabout to approach within dagger's length of
+his person, when Richard interrupted him with, "Speak not of it,
+Neville--wouldst thou have me avenge a petty risk to myself more
+severely than the loss of England's banner? It has been stolen--stolen
+by a thief, or delivered up by a traitor, and no blood has been shed
+for it.--My sable friend, thou art an expounder of mysteries, saith the
+illustrious Soldan--now would I give thee thine own weight in gold, if,
+by raising one still blacker than thyself or by what other means thou
+wilt, thou couldst show me the thief who did mine honour that wrong.
+What sayest thou, ha?"
+
+The mute seemed desirous to speak, but uttered only that imperfect sound
+proper to his melancholy condition; then folded his arms, looked on the
+King with an eye of intelligence, and nodded in answer to his question.
+
+"How!" said Richard, with joyful impatience. "Wilt thou undertake to
+make discovery in this matter?"
+
+The Nubian slave repeated the same motion.
+
+"But how shall we understand each other?" said the King. "Canst thou
+write, good fellow?"
+
+The slave again nodded in assent.
+
+"Give him writing-tools," said the King. "They were readier in my
+father's tent than mine; but they be somewhere about, if this scorching
+climate have not dried up the ink.--Why, this fellow is a jewel--a black
+diamond, Neville."
+
+"So please you, my liege," said Neville, "if I might speak my poor mind,
+it were ill dealing in this ware. This man must be a wizard, and wizards
+deal with the Enemy, who hath most interest to sow tares among the
+wheat, and bring dissension into our councils, and--"
+
+"Peace, Neville," said Richard. "Hello to your northern hound when he is
+close on the haunch of the deer, and hope to recall him, but seek not to
+stop Plantagenet when he hath hope to retrieve his honour."
+
+The slave, who during this discussion had been writing, in which art he
+seemed skilful, now arose, and pressing what he had written to his brow,
+prostrated himself as usual, ere he delivered it into the King's hands.
+The scroll was in French, although their intercourse had hitherto been
+conducted by Richard in the lingua franca.
+
+"To Richard, the conquering and invincible King of England, this from
+the humblest of his slaves. Mysteries are the sealed caskets of Heaven,
+but wisdom may devise means to open the lock. Were your slave stationed
+where the leaders of the Christian host were made to pass before him
+in order, doubt nothing that if he who did the injury whereof my King
+complains shall be among the number, he may be made manifest in his
+iniquity, though it be hidden under seven veils."
+
+"Now, by Saint George!" said King Richard, "thou hast spoken most
+opportunely.--Neville, thou knowest that when we muster our troops
+to-morrow the princes have agreed that, to expiate the affront offered
+to England in the theft of her banner, the leaders should pass our new
+standard as it floats on Saint George's Mount, and salute it with formal
+regard. Believe me, the secret traitor will not dare to absent himself
+from an expurgation so solemn, lest his very absence should be matter of
+suspicion. There will we place our sable man of counsel, and if his art
+can detect the villain, leave me to deal with him."
+
+"My liege," said Neville, with the frankness of an English baron,
+"beware what work you begin. Here is the concord of our holy league
+unexpectedly renewed--will you, upon such suspicion as a negro slave can
+instil, tear open wounds so lately closed? Or will you use the solemn
+procession, adopted for the reparation of your honour and establishment
+of unanimity amongst the discording princes, as the means of again
+finding out new cause of offence, or reviving ancient quarrels? It were
+scarce too strong to say this were a breach of the declaration your
+Grace made to the assembled Council of the Crusade."
+
+"Neville," said the King, sternly interrupting him, "thy zeal makes thee
+presumptuous and unmannerly. Never did I promise to abstain from taking
+whatever means were most promising to discover the infamous author of
+the attack on my honour. Ere I had done so, I would have renounced my
+kingdom, my life. All my declarations were under this necessary and
+absolute qualification;--only, if Austria had stepped forth and owned
+the injury like a man, I proffered, for the sake of Christendom, to have
+forgiven HIM."
+
+"But," continued the baron anxiously, "what hope that this juggling
+slave of Saladin will not palter with your Grace?"
+
+"Peace, Neville," said the King; "thou thinkest thyself mighty wise, and
+art but a fool. Mind thou my charge touching this fellow; there is
+more in him than thy Westmoreland wit can fathom.--And thou, smart and
+silent, prepare to perform the feat thou hast promised, and, by the
+word of a King, thou shalt choose thine own recompense.--Lo, he writes
+again."
+
+The mute accordingly wrote and delivered to the King, with the same form
+as before, another slip of paper, containing these words, "The will of
+the King is the law to his slave; nor doth it become him to ask guerdon
+for discharge of his devoir."
+
+"GUERDON and DEVOIR!" said the King, interrupting himself as he read,
+and speaking to Neville in the English tongue with some emphasis on
+the words. "These Eastern people will profit by the Crusaders--they are
+acquiring the language of chivalry! And see, Neville, how discomposed
+that fellow looks! were it not for his colour he would blush. I should
+not think it strange if he understood what I say--they are perilous
+linguists."
+
+"The poor slave cannot endure your Grace's eye," said Neville; "it is
+nothing more."
+
+"Well, but," continued the King, striking the paper with his finger as
+he proceeded, "this bold scroll proceeds to say that our trusty mute is
+charged with a message from Saladin to the Lady Edith Plantagenet, and
+craves means and opportunity to deliver it. What thinkest thou of a
+request so modest--ha, Neville?"
+
+"I cannot say," said Neville, "how such freedom may relish with your
+Grace; but the lease of the messenger's neck would be a short one, who
+should carry such a request to the Soldan on the part of your Majesty."
+
+"Nay, I thank Heaven that I covet none of his sunburnt beauties," said
+Richard; "and for punishing this fellow for discharging his master's
+errand, and that when he has just saved my life--methinks it were
+something too summary. I'll tell thee, Neville, a secret; for although
+our sable and mute minister be present, he cannot, thou knowest, tell it
+over again, even if he should chance to understand us. I tell thee that,
+for this fortnight past, I have been under a strange spell, and I would
+I were disenchanted. There has no sooner any one done me good service,
+but, lo you, he cancels his interest in me by some deep injury; and,
+on the other hand, he who hath deserved death at my hands for some
+treachery or some insult, is sure to be the very person of all others
+who confers upon me some obligation that overbalances his demerits, and
+renders respite of his sentence a debt due from my honour. Thus, thou
+seest, I am deprived of the best part of my royal function, since I
+can neither punish men nor reward them. Until the influence of this
+disqualifying planet be passed away, I will say nothing concerning the
+request of this our sable attendant, save that it is an unusually bold
+one, and that his best chance of finding grace in our eyes will be to
+endeavour to make the discovery which he proposes to achieve in our
+behalf. Meanwhile, Neville, do thou look well to him, and let him
+be honourably cared for. And hark thee once more," he said, in a
+low whisper, "seek out yonder hermit of Engaddi, and bring him to
+me forthwith, be he saint or savage, madman or sane. Let me see him
+privately."
+
+Neville retired from the royal tent, signing to the Nubian to follow
+him, and much surprised at what he had seen and heard, and especially at
+the unusual demeanour of the King. In general, no task was so easy as to
+discover Richard's immediate course of sentiment and feeling, though
+it might, in some cases, be difficult to calculate its duration; for
+no weathercock obeyed the changing wind more readily than the King
+his gusts of passion. But on the present occasion his manner seemed
+unusually constrained and mysterious; nor was it easy to guess whether
+displeasure or kindness predominated in his conduct towards his new
+dependant, or in the looks with which, from time to time, he regarded
+him. The ready service which the King had rendered to counteract the
+bad effects of the Nubian's wound might seem to balance the obligation
+conferred on him by the slave when he intercepted the blow of the
+assassin; but it seemed, as a much longer account remained to be
+arranged between them, that the Monarch was doubtful whether the
+settlement might leave him, upon the whole, debtor or creditor, and
+that, therefore, he assumed in the meantime a neutral demeanour, which
+might suit with either character. As for the Nubian, by whatever means
+he had acquired the art of writing the European languages, the King
+remained convinced that the English tongue at least was unknown to him,
+since, having watched him closely during the last part of the interview,
+he conceived it impossible for any one understanding a conversation,
+of which he was himself the subject, to have so completely avoided the
+appearance of taking an interest in it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     Who's there!--Approach--'tis kindly done--
+     My learned physician and a friend.
+              SIR EUSTACE GREY.
+
+Our narrative retrogrades to a period shortly previous to the incidents
+last mentioned, when, as the reader must remember, the unfortunate
+Knight of the Leopard, bestowed upon the Arabian physician by King
+Richard, rather as a slave than in any other capacity, was exiled
+from the camp of the Crusaders, in whose ranks he had so often and so
+brilliantly distinguished himself. He followed his new master--for so
+he must now term the Hakim--to the Moorish tents which contained his
+retinue and his property, with the stupefied feelings of one who, fallen
+from the summit of a precipice, and escaping unexpectedly with life, is
+just able to drag himself from the fatal spot, but without the power of
+estimating the extent of the damage which he has sustained. Arrived at
+the tent, he threw himself, without speech of any kind, upon a couch of
+dressed buffalo's hide, which was pointed out to him by his conductor,
+and hiding his face betwixt his hands, groaned heavily, as if his heart
+were on the point of bursting. The physician heard him, as he was giving
+orders to his numerous domestics to prepare for their departure the next
+morning before daybreak, and, moved with compassion, interrupted his
+occupation to sit down, cross-legged, by the side of his couch, and
+administer comfort according to the Oriental manner.
+
+"My friend," he said, "be of good comfort; for what saith the poet--it
+is better that a man should be the servant of a kind master than the
+slave of his own wild passions. Again, be of good courage; because,
+whereas Ysouf Ben Yagoube was sold to a king by his brethren, even to
+Pharaoh, King of Egypt, thy king hath, on the other hand, bestowed thee
+on one who will be to thee as a brother."
+
+Sir Kenneth made an effort to thank the Hakim, but his heart was too
+full, and the indistinct sounds which accompanied his abortive attempts
+to reply induced the kind physician to desist from his premature
+endeavours at consolation. He left his new domestic, or guest, in
+quiet, to indulge his sorrows, and having commanded all the necessary
+preparations for their departure on the morning, sat down upon the
+carpet of the tent, and indulged himself in a moderate repast. After he
+had thus refreshed himself, similar viands were offered to the Scottish
+knight; but though the slaves let him understand that the next day would
+be far advanced ere they would halt for the purpose of refreshment, Sir
+Kenneth could not overcome the disgust which he felt against swallowing
+any nourishment, and could be prevailed upon to taste nothing, saving a
+draught of cold water.
+
+He was awake long after his Arab host had performed his usual devotions
+and betaken himself to his repose; nor had sleep visited him at the
+hour of midnight, when a movement took place among the domestics, which,
+though attended with no speech, and very little noise, made him aware
+they were loading the camels and preparing for departure. In the course
+of these preparations, the last person who was disturbed, excepting the
+physician himself, was the knight of Scotland, whom, about three in the
+morning, a sort of major-domo, or master of the household, acquainted
+that he must arise. He did so, without further answer, and followed him
+into the moonlight, where stood the camels, most of which were already
+loaded, and one only remained kneeling until its burden should be
+completed.
+
+A little apart from the camels stood a number of horses ready bridled
+and saddled, and the Hakim himself, coming forth, mounted on one of them
+with as much agility as the grave decorum of his character permitted,
+and directed another, which he pointed out, to be led towards Sir
+Kenneth. An English officer was in attendance, to escort them through
+the camp of the Crusaders, and to ensure their leaving it in safety; and
+all was ready for their departure. The pavilion which they had left was,
+in the meanwhile, struck with singular dispatch, and the tent-poles and
+coverings composed the burden of the last camel--when the physician,
+pronouncing solemnly the verse of the Koran, "God be our guide, and
+Mohammed our protector, in the desert as in the watered field," the
+whole cavalcade was instantly in motion.
+
+In traversing the camp, they were challenged by the various sentinels
+who maintained guard there, and suffered to proceed in silence, or with
+a muttered curse upon their prophet, as they passed the post of some
+more zealous Crusader. At length the last barriers were left behind
+them, and the party formed themselves for the march with military
+precaution. Two or three horsemen advanced in front as a vanguard;
+one or two remained a bow-shot in the rear; and, wherever the ground
+admitted, others were detached to keep an outlook on the flanks. In this
+manner they proceeded onward; while Sir Kenneth, looking back on the
+moonlit camp, might now indeed seem banished, deprived at once of honour
+and of liberty, from the glimmering banners under which he had hoped
+to gain additional renown, and the tented dwellings of chivalry, of
+Christianity, and--of Edith Plantagenet.
+
+
+The Hakim, who rode by his side, observed, in his usual tone of
+sententious consolation, "It is unwise to look back when the journey
+lieth forward;" and as he spoke, the horse of the knight made such a
+perilous stumble as threatened to add a practical moral to the tale.
+
+The knight was compelled by this hint to give more attention to the
+management of his steed, which more than once required the assistance
+and support of the check-bridle, although, in other respects, nothing
+could be more easy at once, and active, than the ambling pace at which
+the animal (which was a mare) proceeded.
+
+"The conditions of that horse," observed the sententious physician, "are
+like those of human fortune--seeing that, amidst his most swift and easy
+pace, the rider must guard himself against a fall, and that it is when
+prosperity is at the highest that our prudence should be awake and
+vigilant to prevent misfortune."
+
+The overloaded appetite loathes even the honeycomb, and it is scarce
+a wonder that the knight, mortified and harassed with misfortunes and
+abasement, became something impatient of hearing his misery made, at
+every turn, the ground of proverbs and apothegms, however just and
+apposite.
+
+"Methinks," he said, rather peevishly, "I wanted no additional
+illustration of the instability of fortune though I would thank thee,
+Sir Hakim, for the choice of a steed for me, would the jade but stumble
+so effectually as at once to break my neck and her own."
+
+"My brother," answered the Arab sage, with imperturbable gravity, "thou
+speakest as one of the foolish. Thou sayest in thy heart that the sage
+should have given you, as his guest, the younger and better horse, and
+reserved the old one for himself. But know that the defects of the older
+steed may be compensated by the energies of the young rider, whereas the
+violence of the young horse requires to be moderated by the cold temper
+of the older."
+
+So spoke the sage; but neither to this observation did Sir Kenneth
+return any answer which could lead to a continuance of their
+conversation, and the physician, wearied, perhaps, of administering
+comfort to one who would not be comforted, signed to one of his retinue.
+
+"Hassan," he said, "hast thou nothing wherewith to beguile the way?"
+
+Hassan, story-teller and poet by profession, spurred up, upon this
+summons, to exercise his calling. "Lord of the palace of life," he said,
+addressing the physician, "thou, before whom the angel Azrael spreadeth
+his wings for flight--thou, wiser than Solimaun Ben Daoud, upon whose
+signet was inscribed the REAL NAME which controls the spirits of the
+elements--forbid it, Heaven, that while thou travellest upon the track
+of benevolence, bearing healing and hope wherever thou comest, thine own
+course should be saddened for lack of the tale and of the song. Behold,
+while thy servant is at thy side, he will pour forth the treasures of
+his memory, as the fountain sendeth her stream beside the pathway, for
+the refreshment or him that walketh thereon."
+
+After this exordium, Hassan uplifted his voice, and began a tale of love
+and magic, intermixed with feats of warlike achievement, and ornamented
+with abundant quotations from the Persian poets, with whose compositions
+the orator seemed familiar. The retinue of the physician, such excepted
+as were necessarily detained in attendance on the camels, thronged up
+to the narrator, and pressed as close as deference for their master
+permitted, to enjoy the delight which the inhabitants of the East have
+ever derived from this species of exhibition.
+
+At another time, notwithstanding his imperfect knowledge of the
+language, Sir Kenneth might have been interested in the recitation,
+which, though dictated by a more extravagant imagination, and
+expressed in more inflated and metaphorical language, bore yet a strong
+resemblance to the romances of chivalry then so fashionable in Europe.
+But as matters stood with him, he was scarcely even sensible that a
+man in the centre of the cavalcade recited and sung, in a low tone, for
+nearly two hours, modulating his voice to the various moods of passion
+introduced into the tale, and receiving, in return, now low murmurs of
+applause, now muttered expressions of wonder, now sighs and tears,
+and sometimes, what it was far more difficult to extract from such an
+audience, a tribute of smiles, and even laughter.
+
+During the recitation, the attention of the exile, however abstracted by
+his own deep sorrow, was occasionally awakened by the low wail of a dog,
+secured in a wicker enclosure suspended on one of the camels, which, as
+an experienced woodsman, he had no hesitation in recognizing to be that
+of his own faithful hound; and from the plaintive tone of the animal, he
+had no doubt that he was sensible of his master's vicinity, and, in his
+way, invoking his assistance for liberty and rescue.
+
+"Alas! poor Roswal," he said, "thou callest for aid and sympathy upon
+one in stricter bondage than thou thyself art. I will not seem to heed
+thee or return thy affection, since it would serve but to load our
+parting with yet more bitterness."
+
+Thus passed the hours of night and the space of dim hazy dawn which
+forms the twilight of a Syrian morning. But when the very first line of
+the sun's disk began to rise above the level horizon, and when the very
+first level ray shot glimmering in dew along the surface of the desert,
+which the travellers had now attained, the sonorous voice of El Hakim
+himself overpowered and cut short the narrative of the tale-teller,
+while he caused to resound along the sands the solemn summons, which the
+muezzins thunder at morning from the minaret of every mosque.
+
+"To prayer--to prayer! God is the one God.--To prayer--to prayer!
+Mohammed is the Prophet of God.--To prayer--to prayer! Time is flying
+from you.--To prayer--to prayer! Judgment is drawing nigh to you."
+
+In an instant each Moslem cast himself from his horse, turned his face
+towards Mecca, and performed with sand an imitation of those ablutions,
+which were elsewhere required to be made with water, while each
+individual, in brief but fervent ejaculations, recommended himself to
+the care, and his sins to the forgiveness, of God and the Prophet.
+
+Even Sir Kenneth, whose reason at once and prejudices were offended by
+seeing his companions in that which he considered as an act of idolatry,
+could not help respecting the sincerity of their misguided zeal, and
+being stimulated by their fervour to apply supplications to Heaven in a
+purer form, wondering, meanwhile, what new-born feelings could teach
+him to accompany in prayer, though with varied invocation, those
+very Saracens, whose heathenish worship he had conceived a crime
+dishonourable to the land in which high miracles had been wrought, and
+where the day-star of redemption had arisen.
+
+The act of devotion, however, though rendered in such strange society,
+burst purely from his natural feelings of religious duty, and had its
+usual effect in composing the spirits which had been long harassed by
+so rapid a succession of calamities. The sincere and earnest approach of
+the Christian to the throne of the Almighty teaches the best lesson of
+patience under affliction; since wherefore should we mock the Deity with
+supplications, when we insult him by murmuring under His decrees?
+or how, while our prayers have in every word admitted the vanity and
+nothingness of the things of time in comparison to those of eternity,
+should we hope to deceive the Searcher of Hearts, by permitting the
+world and worldly passions to reassume the reins even immediately after
+a solemn address to Heaven! But Sir Kenneth was not of these. He felt
+himself comforted and strengthened, and better prepared to execute or
+submit to whatever his destiny might call upon him to do or to suffer.
+
+Meanwhile, the party of Saracens regained their saddles, and continued
+their route, and the tale-teller, Hassan, resumed the thread of his
+narrative; but it was no longer to the same attentive audience. A
+horseman, who had ascended some high ground on the right hand of
+the little column, had returned on a speedy gallop to El Hakim, and
+communicated with him. Four or five more cavaliers had then been
+dispatched, and the little band, which might consist of about twenty or
+thirty persons, began to follow them with their eyes, as men from whose
+gestures, and advance or retreat, they were to augur good or evil.
+Hassan, finding his audience inattentive, or being himself attracted by
+the dubious appearances on the flank, stinted in his song; and the
+march became silent, save when a camel-driver called out to his patient
+charge, or some anxious follower of the Hakim communicated with his next
+neighbour in a hurried and low whisper.
+
+This suspense continued until they had rounded a ridge, composed of
+hillocks of sand, which concealed from their main body the object that
+had created this alarm among their scouts. Sir Kenneth could now see,
+at the distance of a mile or more, a dark object moving rapidly on the
+bosom of the desert, which his experienced eye recognized for a party of
+cavalry, much superior to their own in numbers, and, from the thick and
+frequent flashes which flung back the level beams of the rising sun, it
+was plain that these were Europeans in their complete panoply.
+
+The anxious looks which the horsemen of El Hakim now cast upon their
+leader seemed to indicate deep apprehension; while he, with gravity as
+undisturbed as when he called his followers to prayer, detached two of
+his best-mounted cavaliers, with instructions to approach as closely as
+prudence permitted to these travellers of the desert, and observe
+more minutely their numbers, their character, and, if possible, their
+purpose. The approach of danger, or what was feared as such, was like
+a stimulating draught to one in apathy, and recalled Sir Kenneth to
+himself and his situation.
+
+"What fear you from these Christian horsemen, for such they seem?" he
+said to the Hakim.
+
+"Fear!" said El Hakim, repeating the word disdainfully. "The sage fears
+nothing but Heaven, but ever expects from wicked men the worst which
+they can do."
+
+"They are Christians," said Sir Kenneth, "and it is the time of
+truce--why should you fear a breach of faith?"
+
+"They are the priestly soldiers of the Temple," answered El Hakim,
+"whose vow limits them to know neither truce nor faith with the
+worshippers of Islam. May the Prophet blight them, both root, branch,
+and twig! Their peace is war, and their faith is falsehood. Other
+invaders of Palestine have their times and moods of courtesy. The lion
+Richard will spare when he has conquered, the eagle Philip will close
+his wing when he has stricken a prey, even the Austrian bear will sleep
+when he is gorged; but this horde of ever-hungry wolves know neither
+pause nor satiety in their rapine. Seest thou not that they are
+detaching a party from their main body, and that they take an eastern
+direction? Yon are their pages and squires, whom they train up in their
+accursed mysteries, and whom, as lighter mounted, they send to cut us
+off from our watering-place. But they will be disappointed. I know the
+war of the desert yet better than they."
+
+He spoke a few words to his principal officer, and his whole demeanour
+and countenance was at once changed from the solemn repose of an Eastern
+sage accustomed more to contemplation than to action, into the prompt
+and proud expression of a gallant soldier whose energies are roused by
+the near approach of a danger which he at once foresees and despises.
+
+To Sir Kenneth's eyes the approaching crisis had a different aspect,
+and when Adonbec said to him, "Thou must tarry close by my side," he
+answered solemnly in the negative.
+
+"Yonder," he said, "are my comrades in arms--the men in whose society I
+have vowed to fight or fall. On their banner gleams the sign of our
+most blessed redemption--I cannot fly from the Cross in company with the
+Crescent."
+
+"Fool!" said the Hakim; "their first action would be to do thee to
+death, were it only to conceal their breach of the truce."
+
+"Of that I must take my chance," replied Sir Kenneth; "but I wear not
+the bonds of the infidels an instant longer than I can cast them from
+me."
+
+"Then will I compel thee to follow me," said El Hakim.
+
+"Compel!" answered Sir Kenneth angrily. "Wert thou not my benefactor,
+or one who has showed will to be such, and were it not that it is to
+thy confidence I owe the freedom of these hands, which thou mightst have
+loaded with fetters, I would show thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsion
+would be no easy task."
+
+"Enough, enough," replied the Arabian physician, "we lose time even when
+it is becoming precious."
+
+So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill cry, as
+a signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed themselves on the face
+of the desert, in as many different directions as a chaplet of beads
+when the string is broken. Sir Kenneth had no time to note what ensued;
+for, at the same instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed,
+and putting his own to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with the
+suddenness of light, and at a pitch of velocity which almost deprived
+the Scottish knight of the power of respiration, and left him absolutely
+incapable, had he been desirous, to have checked the career of his
+guide. Practised as Sir Kenneth was in horsemanship from his earliest
+youth, the speediest horse he had ever mounted was a tortoise in
+comparison to those of the Arabian sage. They spurned the sand from
+behind them; they seemed to devour the desert before them; miles flew
+away with minutes--and yet their strength seemed unabated, and their
+respiration as free as when they first started upon the wonderful
+race. The motion, too, as easy as it was swift, seemed more like flying
+through the air than riding on the earth, and was attended with no
+unpleasant sensation, save the awe naturally felt by one who is moving
+at such astonishing speed, and the difficulty of breathing occasioned by
+their passing through the air so rapidly.
+
+It was not until after an hour of this portentous motion, and when all
+human pursuit was far, far behind, that the Hakim at length relaxed his
+speed, and, slackening the pace of the horses into a hand-gallop, began,
+in a voice as composed and even as if he had been walking for the last
+hour, a descant upon the excellence of his coursers to the Scot, who,
+breathless, half blind, half deaf, and altogether giddy; from the
+rapidity of this singular ride, hardly comprehended the words which
+flowed so freely from his companion.
+
+"These horses," he said, "are of the breed called the Winged, equal in
+speed to aught excepting the Borak of the Prophet. They are fed on the
+golden barley of Yemen, mixed with spices and with a small portion of
+dried sheep's flesh. Kings have given provinces to possess them, and
+their age is active as their youth. Thou, Nazarene, art the first, save
+a true believer, that ever had beneath his loins one of this noble
+race, a gift of the Prophet himself to the blessed Ali, his kinsman and
+lieutenant, well called the Lion of God. Time lays his touch so lightly
+on these generous steeds, that the mare on which thou now sittest has
+seen five times five years pass over her, yet retains her pristine speed
+and vigour, only that in the career the support of a bridle, managed by
+a hand more experienced than thine, hath now become necessary. May the
+Prophet be blessed, who hath bestowed on the true believers the means of
+advance and retreat, which causeth their iron-clothed enemies to be
+worn out with their own ponderous weight! How the horses of yonder dog
+Templars must have snorted and blown, when they had toiled fetlock-deep
+in the desert for one-twentieth part of the space which these brave
+steeds have left behind them, without one thick pant, or a drop of
+moisture upon their sleek and velvet coats!"
+
+The Scottish knight, who had now begun to recover his breath and powers
+of attention, could not help acknowledging in his heart the advantage
+possessed by these Eastern warriors in a race of animals, alike proper
+for advance or retreat, and so admirably adapted to the level and sandy
+deserts of Arabia and Syria. But he did not choose to augment the pride
+of the Moslem by acquiescing in his proud claim of superiority, and
+therefore suffered the conversation to drop, and, looking around him,
+could now, at the more moderate pace at which they moved, distinguish
+that he was in a country not unknown to him.
+
+The blighted borders and sullen waters of the Dead Sea, the ragged and
+precipitous chain of mountains arising on the left, the two or three
+palms clustered together, forming the single green speck on the bosom
+of the waste wilderness--objects which, once seen, were scarcely to be
+forgotten--showed to Sir Kenneth that they were approaching the fountain
+called the Diamond of the Desert, which had been the scene of his
+interview on a former occasion with the Saracen Emir Sheerkohf, or
+Ilderim. In a few minutes they checked their horses beside the spring,
+and the Hakim invited Sir Kenneth to descend from horseback and repose
+himself as in a place of safety. They unbridled their steeds, El Hakim
+observing that further care of them was unnecessary, since they would be
+speedily joined by some of the best mounted among his slaves, who would
+do what further was needful.
+
+"Meantime," he said, spreading some food on the grass, "eat and drink,
+and be not discouraged. Fortune may raise up or abase the ordinary
+mortal, but the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond her
+control."
+
+The Scottish knight endeavoured to testify his thanks by showing himself
+docile; but though he strove to eat out of complaisance, the singular
+contrast between his present situation and that which he had occupied on
+the same spot when the envoy of princes and the victor in combat,
+came like a cloud over his mind, and fasting, lassitude, and fatigue
+oppressed his bodily powers. El Hakim examined his hurried pulse, his
+red and inflamed eye, his heated hand, and his shortened respiration.
+
+"The mind," he said, "grows wise by watching, but her sister the body,
+of coarser materials, needs the support of repose. Thou must sleep; and
+that thou mayest do so to refreshment, thou must take a draught mingled
+with this elixir."
+
+He drew from his bosom a small crystal vial, cased in silver
+filigree-work, and dropped into a little golden drinking-cup a small
+portion of a dark-coloured fluid.
+
+"This," he said, "is one of those productions which Allah hath sent
+on earth for a blessing, though man's weakness and wickedness have
+sometimes converted it into a curse. It is powerful as the wine-cup of
+the Nazarene to drop the curtain on the sleepless eye, and to relieve
+the burden of the overloaded bosom; but when applied to the purposes of
+indulgence and debauchery, it rends the nerves, destroys the strength,
+weakens the intellect, and undermines life. But fear not thou to use
+its virtues in the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the same
+firebrand with which the madman burneth the tent." [Some preparation of
+opium seems to be intimated.]
+
+"I have seen too much of thy skill, sage Hakim," said Sir Kenneth, "to
+debate thine hest;" and swallowed the narcotic, mingled as it was with
+some water from the spring, then wrapped him in the haik, or Arab cloak,
+which had been fastened to his saddle-pommel, and, according to the
+directions of the physician, stretched himself at ease in the shade to
+await the promised repose. Sleep came not at first, but in her stead
+a train of pleasing yet not rousing or awakening sensations. A state
+ensued in which, still conscious of his own identity and his own
+condition, the knight felt enabled to consider them not only without
+alarm and sorrow, but as composedly as he might have viewed the story
+of his misfortunes acted upon a stage--or rather as a disembodied spirit
+might regard the transactions of its past existence. From this state
+of repose, amounting almost to apathy respecting the past, his thoughts
+were carried forward to the future, which, in spite of all that existed
+to overcloud the prospect, glittered with such hues as, under much
+happier auspices, his unstimulated imagination had not been able to
+produce, even in its most exalted state. Liberty, fame, successful love,
+appeared to be the certain and not very distant prospect of the enslaved
+exile, the dishonoured knight, even of the despairing lover who had
+placed his hopes of happiness so far beyond the prospect of chance, in
+her wildest possibilities, serving to countenance his wishes. Gradually
+as the intellectual sight became overclouded, these gay visions became
+obscure, like the dying hues of sunset, until they were at last lost in
+total oblivion; and Sir Kenneth lay extended at the feet of El Hakim, to
+all appearance, but for his deep respiration, as inanimate a corpse as
+if life had actually departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     'Mid these wild scenes Enchantment waves her hand,
+     To change the face of the mysterious land;
+     Till the bewildering scenes around us seem
+     The Vain productions of a feverish dream.
+        ASTOLPHO, A ROMANCE.
+
+When the Knight of the Leopard awoke from his long and profound repose,
+he found himself in circumstances so different from those in which
+he had lain down to sleep, that he doubted whether he was not still
+dreaming, or whether the scene had not been changed by magic. Instead of
+the damp grass, he lay on a couch of more than Oriental luxury; and
+some kind hands had, during his repose, stripped him of the cassock of
+chamois which he wore under his armour, and substituted a night-dress of
+the finest linen and a loose gown of silk. He had been canopied only by
+the palm-trees of the desert, but now he lay beneath a silken pavilion,
+which blazed with the richest colours of the Chinese loom, while a
+slight curtain of gauze, displayed around his couch, was calculated to
+protect his repose from the insects, to which he had, ever since his
+arrival in these climates, been a constant and passive prey. He looked
+around, as if to convince himself that he was actually awake; and all
+that fell beneath his eye partook of the splendour of his dormitory.
+A portable bath of cedar, lined with silver, was ready for use, and
+steamed with the odours which had been used in preparing it. On a small
+stand of ebony beside the couch stood a silver vase, containing sherbet
+of the most exquisite quality, cold as snow, and which the thirst that
+followed the use of the strong narcotic rendered peculiarly delicious.
+Still further to dispel the dregs of intoxication which it had left
+behind, the knight resolved to use the bath, and experienced in doing
+so a delightful refreshment. Having dried himself with napkins of the
+Indian wool, he would willingly have resumed his own coarse garments,
+that he might go forth to see whether the world was as much changed
+without as within the place of his repose. These, however, were
+nowhere to be seen, but in their place he found a Saracen dress of
+rich materials, with sabre and poniard, and all befitting an emir
+of distinction. He was able to suggest no motive to himself for this
+exuberance of care, excepting a suspicion that these attentions were
+intended to shake him in his religious profession--as indeed it was well
+known that the high esteem of the European knowledge and courage made
+the Soldan unbounded in his gifts to those who, having become his
+prisoners, had been induced to take the turban. Sir Kenneth, therefore,
+crossing himself devoutly, resolved to set all such snares at defiance;
+and that he might do so the more firmly, conscientiously determined to
+avail himself as moderately as possible of the attentions and luxuries
+thus liberally heaped upon him. Still, however, he felt his head
+oppressed and sleepy; and aware, too, that his undress was not fit for
+appearing abroad, he reclined upon the couch, and was again locked in
+the arms of slumber.
+
+But this time his rest was not unbroken, for he was awakened by the
+voice of the physician at the door of the tent, inquiring after his
+health, and whether he had rested sufficiently. "May I enter your tent?"
+he concluded, "for the curtain is drawn before the entrance."
+
+"The master," replied Sir Kenneth, determined to show that he was not
+surprised into forgetfulness of his own condition, "need demand no
+permission to enter the tent of the slave."
+
+"But if I come not as a master?" said El Hakim, still without entering.
+
+"The physician," answered the knight, "hath free access to the bedside
+of his patient."
+
+"Neither come I now as a physician," replied El Hakim; "and therefore I
+still request permission, ere I come under the covering of thy tent."
+
+"Whoever comes as a friend," said Sir Kenneth, "and such thou hast
+hitherto shown thyself to me, the habitation of the friend is ever open
+to him."
+
+"Yet once again," said the Eastern sage, after the periphrastical manner
+of his countrymen, "supposing that I come not as a friend?"
+
+"Come as thou wilt," said the Scottish knight, somewhat impatient of
+this circumlocution; "be what thou wilt--thou knowest well it is neither
+in my power nor my inclination to refuse thee entrance."
+
+"I come, then," said El Hakim, "as your ancient foe, but a fair and a
+generous one."
+
+He entered as he spoke; and when he stood before the bedside of
+Sir Kenneth, the voice continued to be that of Adonbec, the Arabian
+physician, but the form, dress, and features were those of Ilderim
+of Kurdistan, called Sheerkohf. Sir Kenneth gazed upon him as if
+he expected the vision to depart, like something created by his
+imagination.
+
+"Doth it so surprise thee," said Ilderim, "and thou an approved warrior,
+to see that a soldier knows somewhat of the art of healing? I say to
+thee, Nazarene, that an accomplished cavalier should know how to dress
+his steed, as well as how to ride him; how to forge his sword upon the
+stithy, as well as how to use it in battle; how to burnish his arms, as
+well as how to wear them; and, above all, how to cure wounds, as well as
+how to inflict them."
+
+As he spoke, the Christian knight repeatedly shut his eyes, and while
+they remained closed, the idea of the Hakim, with his long, flowing
+dark robes, high Tartar cap, and grave gestures was present to
+his imagination; but so soon as he opened them, the graceful and
+richly-gemmed turban, the light hauberk of steel rings entwisted with
+silver, which glanced brilliantly as it obeyed every inflection of the
+body, the features freed from their formal expression, less swarthy, and
+no longer shadowed by the mass of hair (now limited to a well-trimmed
+beard), announced the soldier and not the sage.
+
+"Art thou still so much surprised," said the Emir, "and hast thou walked
+in the world with such little observance, as to wonder that men are not
+always what they seem? Thou thyself--art thou what thou seemest?"
+
+"No, by Saint Andrew!" exclaimed the knight; "for to the whole Christian
+camp I seem a traitor, and I know myself to be a true though an erring
+man."
+
+"Even so I judged thee," said Ilderim; "and as we had eaten salt
+together, I deemed myself bound to rescue thee from death and contumely.
+But wherefore lie you still on your couch, since the sun is high in
+the heavens? or are the vestments which my sumpter-camels have afforded
+unworthy of your wearing?"
+
+"Not unworthy, surely, but unfitting for it," replied the Scot. "Give
+me the dress of a slave, noble Ilderim, and I will don it with pleasure;
+but I cannot brook to wear the habit of the free Eastern warrior with
+the turban of the Moslem."
+
+"Nazarene," answered the Emir, "thy nation so easily entertain suspicion
+that it may well render themselves suspected. Have I not told thee that
+Saladin desires no converts saving those whom the holy Prophet shall
+dispose to submit themselves to his law? violence and bribery are
+alike alien to his plan for extending the true faith. Hearken to me,
+my brother. When the blind man was miraculously restored to sight, the
+scales dropped from his eyes at the Divine pleasure. Think'st thou that
+any earthly leech could have removed them? No. Such mediciner might have
+tormented the patient with his instruments, or perhaps soothed him with
+his balsams and cordials, but dark as he was must the darkened man have
+remained; and it is even so with the blindness of the understanding. If
+there be those among the Franks who, for the sake of worldly lucre, have
+assumed the turban of the Prophet, and followed the laws of Islam, with
+their own consciences be the blame. Themselves sought out the bait; it
+was not flung to them by the Soldan. And when they shall hereafter be
+sentenced, as hypocrites, to the lowest gulf of hell, below Christian
+and Jew, magician and idolater, and condemned to eat the fruit of the
+tree Yacoun, which is the heads of demons, to themselves, not to the
+Soldan, shall their guilt and their punishment be attributed. Wherefore
+wear, without doubt or scruple, the vesture prepared for you, since, if
+you proceed to the camp of Saladin, your own native dress will expose
+you to troublesome observation, and perhaps to insult."
+
+"IF I go to the camp of Saladin?" said Sir Kenneth, repeating the words
+of the Emir; "alas! am I a free agent, and rather must I NOT go wherever
+your pleasure carries me?"
+
+"Thine own will may guide thine own motions," said the Emir, "as freely
+as the wind which moveth the dust of the desert in what direction it
+chooseth. The noble enemy who met and well-nigh mastered my sword cannot
+become my slave like him who has crouched beneath it. If wealth and
+power would tempt thee to join our people, I could ensure thy possessing
+them; but the man who refused the favours of the Soldan when the axe was
+at his head, will not, I fear, now accept them, when I tell him he has
+his free choice."
+
+"Complete your generosity, noble Emir," said Sir Kenneth, "by forbearing
+to show me a mode of requital which conscience forbids me to comply
+with. Permit me rather to express, as bound in courtesy, my gratitude
+for this most chivalrous bounty, this undeserved generosity."
+
+"Say not undeserved," replied the Emir Ilderim. "Was it not through thy
+conversation, and thy account of the beauties which grace the court
+of the Melech Ric, that I ventured me thither in disguise, and thereby
+procured a sight the most blessed that I have ever enjoyed--that I ever
+shall enjoy, until the glories of Paradise beam on my eyes?"
+
+"I understand you not," said Sir Kenneth, colouring alternately, and
+turning pale, as one who felt that the conversation was taking a tone of
+the most painful delicacy.
+
+"Not understand me!" exclaimed the Emir. "If the sight I saw in the tent
+of King Richard escaped thine observation, I will account it duller than
+the edge of a buffoon's wooden falchion. True, thou wert under sentence
+of death at the time; but, in my case, had my head been dropping from
+the trunk, the last strained glances of my eyeballs had distinguished
+with delight such a vision of loveliness, and the head would have rolled
+itself towards the incomparable houris, to kiss with its quivering
+lips the hem of their vestments. Yonder royalty of England, who for
+her superior loveliness deserves to be Queen of the universe--what
+tenderness in her blue eye, what lustre in her tresses of dishevelled
+gold! By the tomb of the Prophet, I scarce think that the houri who
+shall present to me the diamond cup of immortality will deserve so warm
+a caress!"
+
+"Saracen," said Sir Kenneth sternly, "thou speakest of the wife of
+Richard of England, of whom men think not and speak not as a woman to be
+won, but as a Queen to be revered."
+
+"I cry you mercy," said the Saracen. "I had forgotten your superstitious
+veneration for the sex, which you consider rather fit to be wondered at
+and worshipped than wooed and possessed. I warrant, since thou exactest
+such profound respect to yonder tender piece of frailty, whose every
+motion, step, and look bespeaks her very woman, less than absolute
+adoration must not be yielded to her of the dark tresses and nobly
+speaking eye. SHE indeed, I will allow, hath in her noble port and
+majestic mien something at once pure and firm; yet even she, when
+pressed by opportunity and a forward lover, would, I warrant thee, thank
+him in her heart rather for treating her as a mortal than as a goddess."
+
+"Respect the kinswoman of Coeur de Lion!" said Sir Kenneth, in a tone of
+unrepressed anger.
+
+"Respect her!" answered the Emir in scorn; "by the Caaba, and if I do,
+it shall be rather as the bride of Saladin."
+
+"The infidel Soldan is unworthy to salute even a spot that has been
+pressed by the foot of Edith Plantagenet!" exclaimed the Christian,
+springing from his couch.
+
+"Ha! what said the Giaour?" exclaimed the Emir, laying his hand on his
+poniard hilt, while his forehead glowed like glancing copper, and the
+muscles of his lips and cheeks wrought till each curl of his beard
+seemed to twist and screw itself, as if alive with instinctive wrath.
+But the Scottish knight, who had stood the lion-anger of Richard, was
+unappalled at the tigerlike mood of the chafed Saracen.
+
+"What I have said," continued Sir Kenneth, with folded arms and
+dauntless look, "I would, were my hands loose, maintain on foot or
+horseback against all mortals; and would hold it not the most memorable
+deed of my life to support it with my good broadsword against a score
+of these sickles and bodkins," pointing at the curved sabre and small
+poniard of the Emir.
+
+The Saracen recovered his composure as the Christian spoke, so far as
+to withdraw his hand from his weapon, as if the motion had been without
+meaning, but still continued in deep ire.
+
+"By the sword of the Prophet," he said, "which is the key both of heaven
+and hell, he little values his own life, brother, who uses the language
+thou dost! Believe me, that were thine hands loose, as thou term'st it,
+one single true believer would find them so much to do that thou wouldst
+soon wish them fettered again in manacles of iron."
+
+"Sooner would I wish them hewn off by the shoulder-blades!" replied Sir
+Kenneth.
+
+"Well. Thy hands are bound at present," said the Saracen, in a more
+amicable tone--"bound by thine own gentle sense of courtesy; nor have
+I any present purpose of setting them at liberty. We have proved each
+other's strength and courage ere now, and we may again meet in a fair
+field--and shame befall him who shall be the first to part from his
+foeman! But now we are friends, and I look for aid from thee rather than
+hard terms or defiances."
+
+"We ARE friends," repeated the knight; and there was a pause, during
+which the fiery Saracen paced the tent, like the lion, who, after
+violent irritation, is said to take that method of cooling the
+distemperature of his blood, ere he stretches himself to repose in his
+den. The colder European remained unaltered in posture and aspect; yet
+he, doubtless, was also engaged in subduing the angry feelings which had
+been so unexpectedly awakened.
+
+"Let us reason of this calmly," said the Saracen. "I am a physician, as
+thou knowest, and it is written that he who would have his wound cured
+must not shrink when the leech probes and tests it. Seest thou, I am
+about to lay my finger on the sore. Thou lovest this kinswoman of the
+Melech Ric. Unfold the veil that shrouds thy thoughts--or unfold it not
+if thou wilt, for mine eyes see through its coverings."
+
+"I LOVED her," answered Sir Kenneth, after a pause, "as a man loves
+Heaven's grace, and sued for her favour like a sinner for Heaven's
+pardon."
+
+"And you love her no longer?" said the Saracen.
+
+"Alas," answered Sir Kenneth, "I am no longer worthy to love her. I pray
+thee cease this discourse--thy words are poniards to me."
+
+"Pardon me but a moment," continued Ilderim. "When thou, a poor and
+obscure soldier, didst so boldly and so highly fix thine affection, tell
+me, hadst thou good hope of its issue?"
+
+"Love exists not without hope," replied the knight; "but mine was as
+nearly allied to despair as that of the sailor swimming for his life,
+who, as he surmounts billow after billow, catches by intervals some
+gleam of the distant beacon, which shows him there is land in sight,
+though his sinking heart and wearied limbs assure him that he shall
+never reach it."
+
+"And now," said Ilderim, "these hopes are sunk--that solitary light is
+quenched for ever?"
+
+"For ever," answered Sir Kenneth, in the tone of an echo from the bosom
+of a ruined sepulchre.
+
+"Methinks," said the Saracen, "if all thou lackest were some such
+distant meteoric glimpse of happiness as thou hadst formerly, thy
+beacon-light might be rekindled, thy hope fished up from the ocean
+in which it has sunk, and thou thyself, good knight, restored to the
+exercise and amusement of nourishing thy fantastic fashion upon a diet
+as unsubstantial as moonlight; for, if thou stood'st tomorrow fair in
+reputation as ever thou wert, she whom thou lovest will not be less the
+daughter of princes and the elected bride of Saladin."
+
+"I would it so stood," said the Scot, "and if I did not--"
+
+He stopped short, like a man who is afraid of boasting under
+circumstances which did not permit his being put to the test. The
+Saracen smiled as he concluded the sentence.
+
+"Thou wouldst challenge the Soldan to single combat?" said he.
+
+"And if I did," said Sir Kenneth haughtily, "Saladin's would neither be
+the first nor the best turban that I have couched lance at."
+
+"Ay, but methinks the Soldan might regard it as too unequal a mode of
+perilling the chance of a royal bride and the event of a great war,"
+said the Emir.
+
+"He may be met with in the front of battle," said the knight, his eyes
+gleaming with the ideas which such a thought inspired.
+
+"He has been ever found there," said Ilderim; "nor is it his wont to
+turn his horse's head from any brave encounter. But it was not of the
+Soldan that I meant to speak. In a word, if it will content thee to be
+placed in such reputation as may be attained by detection of the
+thief who stole the Banner of England, I can put thee in a fair way of
+achieving this task--that is, if thou wilt be governed; for what says
+Lokman, 'If the child would walk, the nurse must lead him; if the
+ignorant would understand, the wise must instruct.'"
+
+"And thou art wise, Ilderim," said the Scot--"wise though a Saracen, and
+generous though an infidel. I have witnessed that thou art both.
+Take, then, the guidance of this matter; and so thou ask nothing of
+me contrary to my loyalty and my Christian faith, I, will obey thee
+punctually. Do what thou hast said, and take my life when it is
+accomplished."
+
+"Listen thou to me, then," said the Saracen. "Thy noble hound is now
+recovered, by the blessing of that divine medicine which healeth man and
+beast; and by his sagacity shall those who assailed him be discovered."
+
+"Ha!" said the knight, "methinks I comprehend thee. I was dull not to
+think of this!"
+
+"But tell me," added the Emir, "hast thou any followers or retainers in
+the camp by whom the animal may be known?"
+
+"I dismissed," said Sir Kenneth, "my old attendant, thy patient, with a
+varlet that waited on him, at the time when I expected to suffer death,
+giving him letters for my friends in Scotland; there are none other to
+whom the dog is familiar. But then my own person is well known--my very
+speech will betray me, in a camp where I have played no mean part for
+many months."
+
+"Both he and thou shalt be disguised, so as to escape even close
+examination. I tell thee," said the Saracen, "that not thy brother in
+arms--not thy brother in blood--shall discover thee, if thou be guided
+by my counsels. Thou hast seen me do matters more difficult--he that can
+call the dying from the darkness of the shadow of death can easily cast
+a mist before the eyes of the living. But mark me: there is still the
+condition annexed to this service--that thou deliver a letter of Saladin
+to the niece of the Melech Ric, whose name is as difficult to our
+Eastern tongue and lips, as her beauty is delightful to our eyes."
+
+Sir Kenneth paused before he answered, and the Saracen observing his
+hesitation, demanded of him, "if he feared to undertake this message?"
+
+"Not if there were death in the execution," said Sir Kenneth. "I do but
+pause to consider whether it consists with my honour to bear the letter
+of the Soldan, or with that of the Lady Edith to receive it from a
+heathen prince."
+
+"By the head of Mohammed, and by the honour of a soldier--by the tomb
+at Mecca, and by the soul of my father," said the Emir, "I swear to thee
+that the letter is written in all honour and respect. The song of the
+nightingale will sooner blight the rose-bower she loves than will the
+words of the Soldan offend the ears of the lovely kinswoman of England."
+
+"Then," said the knight, "I will bear the Soldan's letter faithfully, as
+if I were his born vassal--understanding, that beyond this simple act
+of service, which I will render with fidelity, from me of all men he can
+least expect mediation or advice in this his strange love-suit."
+
+"Saladin is noble," answered the Emir, "and will not spur a generous
+horse to a leap which he cannot achieve. Come with me to my tent,"
+he added, "and thou shalt be presently equipped with a disguise as
+unsearchable as midnight, so thou mayest walk the camp of the Nazarenes
+as if thou hadst on thy finger the signet of Giaougi." [Perhaps the same
+with Gyges.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+     A grain of dust
+     Soiling our cup, will make our sense reject
+     Fastidiously the draught which we did thirst for;
+     A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass,
+     Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
+     Even this small cause of anger and disgust
+     Will break the bonds of amity 'mongst princes,
+     And wreck their noblest purposes.
+                  THE CRUSADE.
+
+The reader can now have little doubt who the Ethiopian slave really was,
+with what purpose he had sought Richard's camp, and wherefore and
+with what hope he now stood close to the person of that Monarch, as,
+surrounded by his valiant peers of England and Normandy, Coeur de Lion
+stood on the summit of Saint George's Mount, with the Banner of England
+by his side, borne by the most goodly person in the army, being his own
+natural brother, William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, the
+offspring of Henry the Second's amour with the celebrated Rosamond of
+Woodstock.
+
+From several expressions in the King's conversation with Neville on the
+preceding day, the Nubian was left in anxious doubt whether his disguise
+had not been penetrated, especially as that the King seemed to be aware
+in what manner the agency of the dog was expected to discover the thief
+who stole the banner, although the circumstance of such an animal's
+having been wounded on the occasion had been scarce mentioned in
+Richard's presence. Nevertheless, as the King continued to treat him
+in no other manner than his exterior required, the Nubian remained
+uncertain whether he was or was not discovered, and determined not to
+throw his disguise aside voluntarily.
+
+Meanwhile, the powers of the various Crusading princes, arrayed under
+their royal and princely leaders, swept in long order around the base
+of the little mound; and as those of each different country passed by,
+their commanders advanced a step or two up the hill, and made a signal
+of courtesy to Richard and to the Standard of England, "in sign of
+regard and amity," as the protocol of the ceremony heedfully expressed
+it, "not of subjection or vassalage." The spiritual dignitaries, who in
+those days veiled not their bonnets to created being, bestowed on the
+King and his symbol of command their blessing instead of rendering
+obeisance.
+
+Thus the long files marched on, and, diminished as they were by so many
+causes, appeared still an iron host, to whom the conquest of Palestine
+might seem an easy task. The soldiers, inspired by the consciousness of
+united strength, sat erect in their steel saddles; while it seemed that
+the trumpets sounded more cheerfully shrill, and the steeds, refreshed
+by rest and provender, chafed on the bit, and trod the ground more
+proudly. On they passed, troop after troop, banners waving, spears
+glancing, plumes dancing, in long perspective--a host composed of
+different nations, complexions, languages, arms, and appearances, but
+all fired, for the time, with the holy yet romantic purpose of rescuing
+the distressed daughter of Zion from her thraldom, and redeeming the
+sacred earth, which more than mortal had trodden, from the yoke of the
+unbelieving pagan. And it must be owned that if, in other circumstances,
+the species of courtesy rendered to the King of England by so many
+warriors, from whom he claimed no natural allegiance, had in it
+something that might have been thought humiliating, yet the nature and
+cause of the war was so fitted to his pre-eminently chivalrous character
+and renowned feats in arms, that claims which might elsewhere have been
+urged were there forgotten, and the brave did willing homage to the
+bravest, in an expedition where the most undaunted and energetic courage
+was necessary to success.
+
+The good King was seated on horseback about half way up the mount, a
+morion on his head, surmounted by a crown, which left his manly features
+exposed to public view, as, with cool and considerate eye, he perused
+each rank as it passed him, and returned the salutation of the leaders.
+His tunic was of sky-coloured velvet, covered with plates of silver, and
+his hose of crimson silk, slashed with cloth of gold. By his side stood
+the seeming Ethiopian slave, holding the noble dog in a leash, such as
+was used in woodcraft. It was a circumstance which attracted no notice,
+for many of the princes of the Crusade had introduced black slaves
+into their household, in imitation of the barbarous splendour of the
+Saracens. Over the King's head streamed the large folds of the banner,
+and, as he looked to it from time to time, he seemed to regard a
+ceremony, indifferent to himself personally, as important, when
+considered as atoning an indignity offered to the kingdom which he
+ruled. In the background, and on the very summit of the Mount, a wooden
+turret, erected for the occasion, held the Queen Berengaria and the
+principal ladies of the Court. To this the King looked from time to
+time; and then ever and anon his eyes were turned on the Nubian and the
+dog, but only when such leaders approached, as, from circumstances of
+previous ill-will, he suspected of being accessory to the theft of the
+standard, or whom he judged capable of a crime so mean.
+
+Thus, he did not look in that direction when Philip Augustus of France
+approached at the head of his splendid troops of Gallic chivalry---nay,
+he anticipated the motions of the French King, by descending the Mount
+as the latter came up the ascent, so that they met in the middle space,
+and blended their greetings so gracefully that it appeared they met in
+fraternal equality. The sight of the two greatest princes in Europe,
+in rank at once and power, thus publicly avowing their concord, called
+forth bursts of thundering acclaim from the Crusading host at many miles
+distance, and made the roving Arab scouts of the desert alarm the camp
+of Saladin with intelligence that the army of the Christians was in
+motion. Yet who but the King of kings can read the hearts of monarchs?
+Under this smooth show of courtesy, Richard nourished displeasure and
+suspicion against Philip, and Philip meditated withdrawing himself and
+his host from the army of the Cross, and leaving Richard to accomplish
+or fail in the enterprise with his own unassisted forces.
+
+Richard's demeanour was different when the dark-armed knights and
+squires of the Temple chivalry approached--men with countenances bronzed
+to Asiatic blackness by the suns of Palestine, and the admirable state
+of whose horses and appointments far surpassed even that of the choicest
+troops of France and England. The King cast a hasty glance aside; but
+the Nubian stood quiet, and his trusty dog sat at his feet, watching,
+with a sagacious yet pleased look, the ranks which now passed before
+them. The King's look turned again on the chivalrous Templars, as the
+Grand Master, availing himself of his mingled character, bestowed his
+benediction on Richard as a priest, instead of doing him reverence as a
+military leader.
+
+"The misproud and amphibious caitiff puts the monk upon me," said
+Richard to the Earl of Salisbury. "But, Longsword, we will let it pass.
+A punctilio must not lose Christendom the services of these experienced
+lances, because their victories have rendered them overweening. Lo you,
+here comes our valiant adversary, the Duke of Austria. Mark his manner
+and bearing, Longsword--and thou, Nubian, let the hound have full view
+of him. By Heaven, he brings his buffoons along with him!"
+
+In fact, whether from habit, or, which is more likely, to intimate
+contempt of the ceremonial he was about to comply with, Leopold was
+attended by his SPRUCH-SPRECHER and his jester; and as he advanced
+towards Richard, he whistled in what he wished to be considered as an
+indifferent manner, though his heavy features evinced the sullenness,
+mixed with the fear, with which a truant schoolboy may be seen to
+approach his master. As the reluctant dignitary made, with discomposed
+and sulky look, the obeisance required, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his
+baton, and proclaimed, like a herald, that, in what he was now doing,
+the Archduke of Austria was not to be held derogating from the rank and
+privileges of a sovereign prince; to which the jester answered with a
+sonorous AMEN, which provoked much laughter among the bystanders.
+
+King Richard looked more than once at the Nubian and his dog; but
+the former moved not, nor did the latter strain at the leash, so
+that Richard said to the slave with some scorn, "Thy success in this
+enterprise, my sable friend, even though thou hast brought thy hound's
+sagacity to back thine own, will not, I fear, place thee high in the
+rank of wizards, or much augment thy merits towards our person."
+
+The Nubian answered, as usual, only by a lowly obeisance.
+
+Meantime the troops of the Marquis of Montserrat next passed in order
+before the King of England. That powerful and wily baron, to make the
+greater display of his forces, had divided them into two bodies. At the
+head of the first, consisting of his vassals and followers, and levied
+from his Syrian possessions, came his brother Enguerrand; and he himself
+followed, leading on a gallant band of twelve hundred Stradiots, a kind
+of light cavalry raised by the Venetians in their Dalmatian possessions,
+and of which they had entrusted the command to the Marquis, with whom
+the republic had many bonds of connection. These Stradiots were clothed
+in a fashion partly European, but partaking chiefly of the Eastern
+fashion. They wore, indeed, short hauberks, but had over them
+party-coloured tunics of rich stuffs, with large wide pantaloons and
+half-boots. On their heads were straight upright caps, similar to those
+of the Greeks; and they carried small round targets, bows and arrows,
+scimitars, and poniards. They were mounted on horses carefully selected,
+and well maintained at the expense of the State of Venice; their saddles
+and appointments resembled those of the Turks, and they rode in the same
+manner, with short stirrups and upon a high seat. These troops were
+of great use in skirmishing with the Arabs, though unable to engage in
+close combat, like the iron-sheathed men-at-arms of Western and Northern
+Europe.
+
+Before this goodly band came Conrade, in the same garb with the
+Stradiots, but of such rich stuff that he seemed to blaze with gold
+and silver, and the milk-white plume fastened in his cap by a clasp of
+diamonds seemed tall enough to sweep the clouds. The noble steed which
+he reined bounded and caracoled, and displayed his spirit and agility
+in a manner which might have troubled a less admirable horseman than
+the Marquis, who gracefully ruled him with the one hand, while the other
+displayed the baton, whose predominancy over the ranks which he led
+seemed equally absolute. Yet his authority over the Stradiots was more
+in show than in substance; for there paced beside him, on an ambling
+palfrey of soberest mood, a little old man, dressed entirely in black,
+without beard or moustaches, and having an appearance altogether mean
+and insignificant when compared with the blaze of splendour around
+him. But this mean-looking old man was one of those deputies whom the
+Venetian government sent into camps to overlook the conduct of the
+generals to whom the leading was consigned, and to maintain that jealous
+system of espial and control which had long distinguished the policy of
+the republic.
+
+Conrade, who, by cultivating Richard's humour, had attained a certain
+degree of favour with him, no sooner was come within his ken than the
+King of England descended a step or two to meet him, exclaiming, at the
+same time, "Ha, Lord Marquis, thou at the head of the fleet Stradiots,
+and thy black shadow attending thee as usual, whether the sun shines or
+not! May not one ask thee whether the rule of the troops remains with
+the shadow or the substance?"
+
+Conrade was commencing his reply with a smile, when Roswal, the noble
+hound, uttering a furious and savage yell, sprung forward. The Nubian,
+at the same time, slipped the leash, and the hound, rushing on, leapt
+upon Conrade's noble charger, and, seizing the Marquis by the throat,
+pulled him down from the saddle. The plumed rider lay rolling on the
+sand, and the frightened horse fled in wild career through the camp.
+
+"Thy hound hath pulled down the right quarry, I warrant him," said
+the King to the Nubian, "and I vow to Saint George he is a stag of ten
+tynes! Pluck the dog off; lest he throttle him."
+
+The Ethiopian, accordingly, though not without difficulty, disengaged
+the dog from Conrade, and fastened him up, still highly excited, and
+struggling in the leash. Meanwhile many crowded to the spot, especially
+followers of Conrade and officers of the Stradiots, who, as they
+saw their leader lie gazing wildly on the sky, raised him up amid a
+tumultuary cry of "Cut the slave and his hound to pieces!"
+
+But the voice of Richard, loud and sonorous, was heard clear above all
+other exclamations. "He dies the death who injures the hound! He hath
+but done his duty, after the sagacity with which God and nature have
+endowed the brave animal.--Stand forward for a false traitor, thou
+Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat! I impeach thee of treason."
+
+Several of the Syrian leaders had now come up, and Conrade--vexation,
+and shame, and confusion struggling with passion in his manner and
+voice--exclaimed, "What means this? With what am I charged? Why this
+base usage and these reproachful terms? Is this the league of concord
+which England renewed but so lately?"
+
+"Are the Princes of the Crusade turned hares or deers in the eyes of
+King Richard that he should slip hounds on them?" said the sepulchral
+voice of the Grand Master of the Templars.
+
+"It must be some singular accident--some fatal mistake," said Philip of
+France, who rode up at the same moment.
+
+"Some deceit of the Enemy," said the Archbishop of Tyre.
+
+"A stratagem of the Saracens," cried Henry of Champagne. "It were well
+to hang up the dog, and put the slave to the torture."
+
+"Let no man lay hand upon them," said Richard, "as he loves his own
+life! Conrade, stand forth, if thou darest, and deny the accusation
+which this mute animal hath in his noble instinct brought against thee,
+of injury done to him, and foul scorn to England!"
+
+"I never touched the banner," said Conrade hastily.
+
+"Thy words betray thee, Conrade!" said Richard, "for how didst thou
+know, save from conscious guilt, that the question is concerning the
+banner?"
+
+"Hast thou then not kept the camp in turmoil on that and no other
+score?" answered Conrade; "and dost thou impute to a prince and an ally
+a crime which, after all, was probably committed by some paltry
+felon for the sake of the gold thread? Or wouldst thou now impeach a
+confederate on the credit of a dog?"
+
+By this time the alarm was becoming general, so that Philip of France
+interposed.
+
+"Princes and nobles," he said, "you speak in presence of those whose
+swords will soon be at the throats of each other if they hear their
+leaders at such terms together. In the name of Heaven, let us draw off
+each his own troops into their separate quarters, and ourselves meet
+an hour hence in the Pavilion of Council to take some order in this new
+state of confusion."
+
+"Content," said King Richard, "though I should have liked to have
+interrogated that caitiff while his gay doublet was yet besmirched with
+sand. But the pleasure of France shall be ours in this matter."
+
+The leaders separated as was proposed, each prince placing himself at
+the head of his own forces; and then was heard on all sides the crying
+of war-cries and the sounding of gathering-notes upon bugles and
+trumpets, by which the different stragglers were summoned to their
+prince's banner, and the troops were shortly seen in motion, each taking
+different routes through the camp to their own quarters. But although
+any immediate act of violence was thus prevented, yet the accident which
+had taken place dwelt on every mind; and those foreigners who had that
+morning hailed Richard as the worthiest to lead their army, now resumed
+their prejudices against his pride and intolerance, while the English,
+conceiving the honour of their country connected with the quarrel, of
+which various reports had gone about, considered the natives of other
+countries jealous of the fame of England and her King, and disposed to
+undermine it by the meanest arts of intrigue. Many and various were the
+rumours spread upon the occasion, and there was one which averred that
+the Queen and her ladies had been much alarmed by the tumult, and that
+one of them had swooned.
+
+The Council assembled at the appointed hour. Conrade had in the
+meanwhile laid aside his dishonoured dress, and with it the shame and
+confusion which, in spite of his talents and promptitude, had at first
+overwhelmed him, owing to the strangeness of the accident and suddenness
+of the accusation. He was now robed like a prince; and entered the
+council-chamber attended by the Archduke of Austria, the Grand Masters
+both of the Temple and of the Order of Saint John, and several other
+potentates, who made a show of supporting him and defending his cause,
+chiefly perhaps from political motives, or because they themselves
+nourished a personal enmity against Richard.
+
+This appearance of union in favour of Conrade was far from influencing
+the King of England. He entered the Council with his usual indifference
+of manner, and in the same dress in which he had just alighted from
+horseback. He cast a careless and somewhat scornful glance on the
+leaders, who had with studied affectation arranged themselves around
+Conrade as if owning his cause, and in the most direct terms charged
+Conrade of Montserrat with having stolen the Banner of England, and
+wounded the faithful animal who stood in its defence.
+
+Conrade arose boldly to answer, and in despite, as he expressed himself,
+of man and brute, king or dog, avouched his innocence of the crime
+charged.
+
+"Brother of England," said Philip, who willingly assumed the character
+of moderator of the assembly, "this is an unusual impeachment. We do
+not hear you avouch your own knowledge of this matter, further than your
+belief resting upon the demeanour of this hound towards the Marquis of
+Montserrat. Surely the word of a knight and a prince should bear him out
+against the barking of a cur?"
+
+"Royal brother," returned Richard, "recollect that the Almighty, who
+gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath
+invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. He forgets
+neither friend nor foe--remembers, and with accuracy, both benefit and
+injury. He hath a share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's
+falsehood. You may bribe a soldier to slay a man with his sword, or a
+witness to take life by false accusation; but you cannot make a hound
+tear his benefactor. He is the friend of man, save when man justly
+incurs his enmity. Dress yonder marquis in what peacock-robes you will,
+disguise his appearance, alter his complexion with drugs and washes,
+hide him amidst a hundred men,--I will yet pawn my sceptre that the
+hound detects him, and expresses his resentment, as you have this day
+beheld. This is no new incident, although a strange one. Murderers
+and robbers have been ere now convicted, and suffered death under such
+evidence, and men have said that the finger of God was in it. In thine
+own land, royal brother, and upon such an occasion, the matter was tried
+by a solemn duel betwixt the man and the dog, as appellant and defendant
+in a challenge of murder. The dog was victorious, the man was punished,
+and the crime was confessed. Credit me, royal brother, that hidden
+crimes have often been brought to light by the testimony even of
+inanimate substances, not to mention animals far inferior in instinctive
+sagacity to the dog, who is the friend and companion of our race."
+
+"Such a duel there hath indeed been, royal brother," answered Philip,
+"and that in the reign of one of our predecessors, to whom God be
+gracious. But it was in the olden time, nor can we hold it a precedent
+fitting for this occasion. The defendant in that case was a private
+gentleman of small rank or respect; his offensive weapons were only a
+club, his defensive a leathern jerkin. But we cannot degrade a prince
+to the disgrace of using such rude arms, or to the ignominy of such a
+combat."
+
+"I never meant that you should," said King Richard; "it were foul play
+to hazard the good hound's life against that of such a double-faced
+traitor as this Conrade hath proved himself. But there lies our own
+glove; we appeal him to the combat in respect of the evidence we
+brought forth against him. A king, at least, is more than the mate of a
+marquis."
+
+Conrade made no hasty effort to seize on the pledge which Richard cast
+into the middle of the assembly, and King Philip had time to reply ere
+the marquis made a motion to lift the glove.
+
+"A king," said he of France, "is as much more than a match for the
+Marquis Conrade as a dog would be less. Royal Richard, this cannot be
+permitted. You are the leader of our expedition--the sword and buckler
+of Christendom."
+
+"I protest against such a combat," said the Venetian proveditore, "until
+the King of England shall have repaid the fifty thousand byzants which
+he is indebted to the republic. It is enough to be threatened with loss
+of our debt, should our debtor fall by the hands of the pagans, without
+the additional risk of his being slain in brawls amongst Christians
+concerning dogs and banners."
+
+"And I," said William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, "protest
+in my turn against my royal brother perilling his life, which is the
+property of the people of England, in such a cause. Here, noble brother,
+receive back your glove, and think only as if the wind had blown it from
+your hand. Mine shall lie in its stead. A king's son, though with the
+bar sinister on his shield, is at least a match for this marmoset of a
+marquis."
+
+"Princes and nobles," said Conrade, "I will not accept of King Richard's
+defiance. He hath been chosen our leader against the Saracens, and if
+his conscience can answer the accusation of provoking an ally to the
+field on a quarrel so frivolous, mine, at least, cannot endure the
+reproach of accepting it. But touching his bastard brother, William of
+Woodstock, or against any other who shall adopt or shall dare to stand
+godfather to this most false charge, I will defend my honour in the
+lists, and prove whosoever impeaches it a false liar."
+
+"The Marquis of Montserrat," said the Archbishop of Tyre, "hath spoken
+like a wise and moderate gentleman; and methinks this controversy might,
+without dishonour to any party, end at this point."
+
+"Methinks it might so terminate," said the King of France, "provided
+King Richard will recall his accusation as made upon over-slight
+grounds."
+
+"Philip of France," answered Coeur de Lion, "my words shall never do my
+thoughts so much injury. I have charged yonder Conrade as a thief,
+who, under cloud of night, stole from its place the emblem of England's
+dignity. I still believe and charge him to be such; and when a day is
+appointed for the combat, doubt not that, since Conrade declines to
+meet us in person, I will find a champion to appear in support of my
+challenge--for thou, William, must not thrust thy long sword into this
+quarrel without our special license."
+
+"Since my rank makes me arbiter in this most unhappy matter," said
+Philip of France, "I appoint the fifth day from hence for the decision
+thereof, by way of combat, according to knightly usage--Richard, King of
+England, to appear by his champion as appellant, and Conrade, Marquis of
+Montserrat, in his own person, as defendant. Yet I own I know not where
+to find neutral ground where such a quarrel may be fought out; for it
+must not be in the neighbourhood of this camp, where the soldiers would
+make faction on the different sides."
+
+"It were well," said Richard, "to apply to the generosity of the
+royal Saladin, since, heathen as he is, I have never known knight more
+fulfilled of nobleness, or to whose good faith we may so peremptorily
+entrust ourselves. I speak thus for those who may be doubtful of mishap;
+for myself, wherever I see my foe, I make that spot my battle-ground."
+
+"Be it so," said Philip; "we will make this matter known to Saladin,
+although it be showing to an enemy the unhappy spirit of discord
+which we would willingly hide from even ourselves, were it possible.
+Meanwhile, I dismiss this assembly, and charge you all, as Christian
+men and noble knights, that ye let this unhappy feud breed no further
+brawling in the camp, but regard it as a thing solemnly referred to the
+judgment of God, to whom each of you should pray that He will dispose
+of victory in the combat according to the truth of the quarrel; and
+therewith may His will be done!"
+
+"Amen, amen!" was answered on all sides; while the Templar whispered the
+Marquis, "Conrade, wilt thou not add a petition to be delivered from the
+power of the dog, as the Psalmist hath it?"
+
+"Peace, thou--!" replied the Marquis; "there is a revealing demon abroad
+which may report, amongst other tidings, how far thou dost carry the
+motto of thy order--'FERIATUR LEO'."
+
+"Thou wilt stand the brunt of challenge?" said the Templar.
+
+"Doubt me not," said Conrade. "I would not, indeed, have willingly
+met the iron arm of Richard himself, and I shame not to confess that
+I rejoice to be free of his encounter; but, from his bastard brother
+downward, the man breathes not in his ranks whom I fear to meet."
+
+"It is well you are so confident," continued the Templar; "and, in that
+case, the fangs of yonder hound have done more to dissolve this league
+of princes than either thy devices or the dagger of the Charegite. Seest
+thou how, under a brow studiously overclouded, Philip cannot conceal the
+satisfaction which he feels at the prospect of release from the alliance
+which sat so heavy on him? Mark how Henry of Champagne smiles to
+himself, like a sparkling goblet of his own wine; and see the chuckling
+delight of Austria, who thinks his quarrel is about to be avenged
+without risk or trouble of his own. Hush! he approaches.--A most
+grievous chance, most royal Austria, that these breaches in the walls of
+our Zion--"
+
+"If thou meanest this Crusade," replied the Duke, "I would it were
+crumbled to pieces, and each were safe at home! I speak this in
+confidence."
+
+"But," said the Marquis of Montserrat, "to think this disunion should
+be made by the hands of King Richard, for whose pleasure we have been
+contented to endure so much, and to whom we have been as submissive as
+slaves to a master, in hopes that he would use his valour against our
+enemies, instead of exercising it upon our friends!"
+
+"I see not that he is so much more valorous than others," said the
+Archduke. "I believe, had the noble Marquis met him in the lists, he
+would have had the better; for though the islander deals heavy blows
+with the pole-axe, he is not so very dexterous with the lance. I should
+have cared little to have met him myself on our old quarrel, had the
+weal of Christendom permitted to sovereign princes to breathe themselves
+in the lists; and if thou desirest it, noble Marquis, I will myself be
+your godfather in this combat."
+
+"And I also," said the Grand Master.
+
+"Come, then, and take your nooning in our tent, noble sirs," said the
+Duke, "and we'll speak of this business over some right NIERENSTEIN."
+
+They entered together accordingly.
+
+"What said our patron and these great folks together?" said Jonas
+Schwanker to his companion, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who had used the
+freedom to press nigh to his master when the Council was dismissed,
+while the jester waited at a more respectful distance.
+
+"Servant of Folly," said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, "moderate thy curiosity;
+it beseems not that I should tell to thee the counsels of our master."
+
+"Man of wisdom, you mistake," answered Jonas. "We are both the constant
+attendants on our patron, and it concerns us alike to know whether thou
+or I--Wisdom or Folly--have the deeper interest in him."
+
+"He told to the Marquis," answered the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, "and to the
+Grand Master, that he was aweary of these wars, and would be glad he was
+safe at home."
+
+"That is a drawn cast, and counts for nothing in the game," said the
+jester; "it was most wise to think thus, but great folly to tell it to
+others--proceed."
+
+"Ha, hem!" said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER; "he next said to them that Richard
+was not more valorous than others, or over-dexterous in the tilt-yard."
+
+"Woodcock of my side," said Schwanker, "this was egregious folly. What
+next?"
+
+"Nay, I am something oblivious," replied the man of wisdom--"he invited
+them to a goblet of NIERENSTEIN."
+
+"That hath a show of wisdom in it," said Jonas. "Thou mayest mark it to
+thy credit in the meantime; but an he drink too much, as is most likely,
+I will have it pass to mine. Anything more?"
+
+"Nothing worth memory," answered the orator; "only he wished he had
+taken the occasion to meet Richard in the lists."
+
+"Out upon it--out upon it!" said Jonas; "this is such dotage of folly
+that I am well-nigh ashamed of winning the game by it. Ne'ertheless,
+fool as he is, we will follow him, most sage SPRUCH-SPRECHER, and have
+our share of the wine of NIERENSTEIN."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     Yet this inconstancy is such,
+     As thou, too, shalt adore;
+     I could not love thee, love so much,
+     Loved I not honour more.
+            MONTROSE'S LINES.
+
+When King Richard returned to his tent, he commanded the Nubian to be
+brought before him. He entered with his usual ceremonial reverence,
+and having prostrated himself, remained standing before the King in the
+attitude of a slave awaiting the orders of his master. It was perhaps
+well for him that the preservation of his character required his eyes
+to be fixed on the ground, since the keen glance with which Richard for
+some time surveyed him in silence would, if fully encountered, have been
+difficult to sustain.
+
+"Thou canst well of woodcraft," said the King, after a pause, "and hast
+started thy game and brought him to bay as ably as if Tristrem himself
+had taught thee. [A universal tradition ascribed to Sir Tristrem, famous
+for his love of the fair Queen Yseult, the laws concerning the practice
+of woodcraft, or VENERIE, as it was called, being those that related to
+the rules of the chase, which were deemed of much consequence during the
+Middle Ages.] But this is not all--he must be brought down at force. I
+myself would have liked to have levelled my hunting-spear at him. There
+are, it seems, respects which prevent this. Thou art about to return to
+the camp of the Soldan, bearing a letter, requiring of his courtesy to
+appoint neutral ground for the deed of chivalry, and should it consist
+with his pleasure, to concur with us in witnessing it. Now, speaking
+conjecturally, we think thou mightst find in that camp some cavalier
+who, for the love of truth and his own augmentation of honour, will do
+battle with this same traitor of Montserrat."
+
+The Nubian raised his eyes and fixed them on the King with a look of
+eager ardour; then raised them to Heaven with such solemn gratitude that
+the water soon glistened in them; then bent his head, as affirming what
+Richard desired, and resumed his usual posture of submissive attention.
+
+"It is well," said the King; "and I see thy desire to oblige me in this
+matter. And herein, I must needs say, lies the excellence of such a
+servant as thou, who hast not speech either to debate our purpose or to
+require explanation of what we have determined. An English serving man
+in thy place had given me his dogged advice to trust the combat
+with some good lance of my household, who, from my brother Longsword
+downwards, are all on fire to do battle in my cause; and a chattering
+Frenchman had made a thousand attempts to discover wherefore I look for
+a champion from the camp of the infidels. But thou, my silent agent,
+canst do mine errand without questioning or comprehending it; with thee
+to hear is to obey."
+
+A bend of the body and a genuflection were the appropriate answer of the
+Ethiopian to these observations.
+
+"And now to another point," said the King, and speaking suddenly and
+rapidly--"have you yet seen Edith Plantagenet?"
+
+The mute looked up as in the act of being about to speak--nay, his lips
+had begun to utter a distinct negative--when the abortive attempt died
+away in the imperfect murmurs of the dumb.
+
+"Why, lo you there!" said the King, "the very sound of the name of a
+royal maiden of beauty so surpassing as that of our lovely cousin seems
+to have power enough well-nigh to make the dumb speak. What miracles
+then might her eye work upon such a subject! I will make the experiment,
+friend slave. Thou shalt see this choice beauty of our Court, and do the
+errand of the princely Soldan."
+
+Again a joyful glance--again a genuflection--but, as he arose, the King
+laid his hand heavily on his shoulder, and proceeded with stern gravity
+thus: "Let me in one thing warn you, my sable envoy. Even if thou
+shouldst feel that the kindly influence of her whom thou art soon to
+behold should loosen the bonds of thy tongue, presently imprisoned,
+as the good Soldan expresses it, within the ivory walls of its castle,
+beware how thou changest thy taciturn character, or speakest a word in
+her presence, even if thy powers of utterance were to be miraculously
+restored. Believe me that I should have thy tongue extracted by
+the roots, and its ivory palace--that is, I presume, its range of
+teeth--drawn out one by one. Wherefore, be wise and silent still."
+
+The Nubian, so soon as the King had removed his heavy grasp from his
+shoulder, bent his head, and laid his hand on his lips, in token of
+silent obedience.
+
+But Richard again laid his hand on him more gently, and added, "This
+behest we lay on thee as on a slave. Wert thou knight and gentleman,
+we would require thine honour in pledge of thy silence, which is one
+especial condition of our present trust."
+
+The Ethiopian raised his body proudly, looked full at the King, and laid
+his right hand on his heart.
+
+Richard then summoned his chamberlain.
+
+"Go, Neville," he said, "with this slave to the tent of our royal
+consort, and say it is our pleasure that he have an audience--a private
+audience--of our cousin Edith. He is charged with a commission to her.
+Thou canst show him the way also, in case he requires thy guidance,
+though thou mayst have observed it is wonderful how familiar he already
+seems to be with the purlieus of our camp.--And thou, too, friend
+Ethiop," the King continued, "what thou dost do quickly, and return
+hither within the half-hour."
+
+"I stand discovered," thought the seeming Nubian, as, with downcast
+looks and folded arms, he followed the hasty stride of Neville towards
+the tent of Queen Berengaria--"I stand undoubtedly discovered and
+unfolded to King Richard; yet I cannot perceive that his resentment is
+hot against me. If I understand his words--and surely it is impossible
+to misinterpret them--he gives me a noble chance of redeeming my honour
+upon the crest of this false Marquis, whose guilt I read in his craven
+eye and quivering lip when the charge was made against him.--Roswal,
+faithfully hast thou served thy master, and most dearly shall thy wrong
+be avenged!--But what is the meaning of my present permission to look
+upon her whom I had despaired ever to see again? And why, or how, can
+the royal Plantagenet consent that I should see his divine kinswoman,
+either as the messenger of the heathen Saladin, or as the guilty exile
+whom he so lately expelled from his camp--his audacious avowal of the
+affection which is his pride being the greatest enhancement of his
+guilt? That Richard should consent to her receiving a letter from an
+infidel lover by the hands of one of such disproportioned rank are
+either of them circumstances equally incredible, and, at the same time,
+inconsistent with each other. But Richard, when unmoved by his heady
+passions, is liberal, generous, and truly noble; and as such I will
+deal with him, and act according to his instructions, direct or implied,
+seeking to know no more than may gradually unfold itself without my
+officious inquiry. To him who has given me so brave an opportunity to
+vindicate my tarnished honour, I owe acquiescence and obedience; and
+painful as it may be, the debt shall be paid. And yet"--thus the proud
+swelling of his heart further suggested--"Coeur de Lion, as he is
+called, might have measured the feelings of others by his own. I urge an
+address to his kinswoman! I, who never spoke word to her when I took a
+royal prize from her hand--when I was accounted not the lowest in feats
+of chivalry among the defenders of the Cross! I approach her when in
+a base disguise, and in a servile habit--and, alas! when my actual
+condition is that of a slave, with a spot of dishonour on that which was
+once my shield! I do this! He little knows me. Yet I thank him for the
+opportunity which may make us all better acquainted with each other."
+
+As he arrived at this conclusion, they paused before the entrance of the
+Queen's pavilion.
+
+They were of course admitted by the guards, and Neville, leaving the
+Nubian in a small apartment, or antechamber, which was but too well
+remembered by him, passed into that which was used as the Queen's
+presence-chamber. He communicated his royal master's pleasure in a
+low and respectful tone of voice, very different from the bluntness
+of Thomas de Vaux, to whom Richard was everything and the rest of the
+Court, including Berengaria herself, was nothing. A burst of laughter
+followed the communication of his errand.
+
+"And what like is the Nubian slave who comes ambassador on such an
+errand from the Soldan?--a negro, De Neville, is he not?" said a female
+voice, easily recognized for that of Berengaria. "A negro, is he not, De
+Neville, with black skin, a head curled like a ram's, a flat nose, and
+blubber lips--ha, worthy Sir Henry?"
+
+"Let not your Grace forget the shin-bones," said another voice, "bent
+outwards like the edge of a Saracen scimitar."
+
+"Rather like the bow of a Cupid, since he comes upon a lover's errand,"
+said the Queen.--"Gentle Neville, thou art ever prompt to pleasure us
+poor women, who have so little to pass away our idle moments. We must
+see this messenger of love. Turks and Moors have I seen many, but negro
+never."
+
+"I am created to obey your Grace's commands, so you will bear me out
+with my Sovereign for doing so," answered the debonair knight. "Yet,
+let me assure your Grace you will see something different from what you
+expect."
+
+"So much the better--uglier yet than our imaginations can fancy, yet the
+chosen love-messenger of this gallant Soldan!"
+
+"Gracious madam," said the Lady Calista, "may I implore you would permit
+the good knight to carry this messenger straight to the Lady Edith, to
+whom his credentials are addressed? We have already escaped hardly for
+such a frolic."
+
+"Escaped?" repeated the Queen scornfully. "Yet thou mayest be right,
+Calista, in thy caution. Let this Nubian, as thou callest him, first do
+his errand to our cousin--besides, he is mute too, is he not?"
+
+"He is, gracious madam," answered the knight.
+
+"Royal sport have these Eastern ladies," said Berengaria, "attended by
+those before whom they may say anything, yet who can report nothing.
+Whereas in our camp, as the Prelate of Saint Jude's is wont to say, a
+bird of the air will carry the matter."
+
+"Because," said De Neville, "your Grace forgets that you speak within
+canvas walls."
+
+The voices sunk on this observation, and after a little whispering, the
+English knight again returned to the Ethiopian, and made him a sign
+to follow. He did so, and Neville conducted him to a pavilion, pitched
+somewhat apart from that of the Queen, for the accommodation, it seemed,
+of the Lady Edith and her attendants. One of her Coptic maidens received
+the message communicated by Sir Henry Neville, and in the space of a
+very few minutes the Nubian was ushered into Edith's presence, while
+Neville was left on the outside of the tent. The slave who introduced
+him withdrew on a signal from her mistress, and it was with humiliation,
+not of the posture only but of the very inmost soul, that the
+unfortunate knight, thus strangely disguised, threw himself on one
+knee, with looks bent on the ground and arms folded on his bosom, like a
+criminal who expects his doom. Edith was clad in the same manner as
+when she received King Richard, her long, transparent dark veil hanging
+around her like the shade of a summer night on a beautiful landscape,
+disguising and rendering obscure the beauties which it could not hide.
+She held in her hand a silver lamp, fed with some aromatic spirit, which
+burned with unusual brightness.
+
+When Edith came within a step of the kneeling and motionless slave,
+she held the light towards his face, as if to peruse his features more
+attentively, then turned from him, and placed her lamp so as to throw
+the shadow of his face in profile upon the curtain which hung beside.
+She at length spoke in a voice composed, yet deeply sorrowful,
+
+"Is it you? It is indeed you, brave Knight of the Leopard--gallant Sir
+Kenneth of Scotland; is it indeed you?--thus servilely disguised--thus
+surrounded by a hundred dangers."
+
+At hearing the tones of his lady's voice thus unexpectedly addressed
+to him, and in a tone of compassion approaching to tenderness, a
+corresponding reply rushed to the knight's lips, and scarce could
+Richard's commands and his own promised silence prevent his answering
+that the sight he saw, the sounds he just heard, were sufficient to
+recompense the slavery of a life, and dangers which threatened that
+life every hour. He did recollect himself, however, and a deep and
+impassioned sigh was his only reply to the high-born Edith's question.
+
+"I see--I know I have guessed right," continued Edith. "I marked you
+from your first appearance near the platform on which I stood with the
+Queen. I knew, too, your valiant hound. She is no true lady, and
+is unworthy of the service of such a knight as thou art, from whom
+disguises of dress or hue could conceal a faithful servant. Speak, then,
+without fear to Edith Plantagenet. She knows how to grace in adversity
+the good knight who served, honoured, and did deeds of arms in her name,
+when fortune befriended him.--Still silent! Is it fear or shame that
+keeps thee so! Fear should be unknown to thee; and for shame, let it
+remain with those who have wronged thee."
+
+The knight, in despair at being obliged to play the mute in an interview
+so interesting, could only express his mortification by sighing deeply,
+and laying his finger upon his lips. Edith stepped back, as if somewhat
+displeased.
+
+"What!" she said, "the Asiatic mute in very deed, as well as in attire?
+This I looked not for. Or thou mayest scorn me, perhaps, for thus boldly
+acknowledging that I have heedfully observed the homage thou hast paid
+me? Hold no unworthy thoughts of Edith on that account. She knows well
+the bounds which reserve and modesty prescribe to high-born maidens,
+and she knows when and how far they should give place to gratitude--to
+a sincere desire that it were in her power to repay services and repair
+injuries arising from the devotion which a good knight bore towards her.
+Why fold thy hands together, and wring them with so much passion? Can
+it be," she added, shrinking back at the idea, "that their cruelty
+has actually deprived thee of speech? Thou shakest thy head. Be it a
+spell--be it obstinacy, I question thee no further, but leave thee to do
+thine errand after thine own fashion. I also can be mute."
+
+The disguised knight made an action as if at once lamenting his own
+condition and deprecating her displeasure, while at the same time he
+presented to her, wrapped, as usual, in fine silk and cloth of gold, the
+letter of the Soldan. She took it, surveyed it carelessly, then laid it
+aside, and bending her eyes once more on the knight, she said in a low
+tone, "Not even a word to do thine errand to me?"
+
+He pressed both his hands to his brow, as if to intimate the pain which
+he felt at being unable to obey her; but she turned from him in anger.
+
+"Begone!" she said. "I have spoken enough--too much--to one who will not
+waste on me a word in reply. Begone!--and say, if I have wronged thee, I
+have done penance; for if I have been the unhappy means of dragging thee
+down from a station of honour, I have, in this interview, forgotten my
+own worth, and lowered myself in thy eyes and in my own."
+
+She covered her eyes with her hands, and seemed deeply agitated. Sir
+Kenneth would have approached, but she waved him back.
+
+"Stand off! thou whose soul Heaven hath suited to its new station!
+Aught less dull and fearful than a slavish mute had spoken a word of
+gratitude, were it but to reconcile me to my own degradation. Why pause
+you?--begone!"
+
+The disguised knight almost involuntarily looked towards the letter as
+an apology for protracting his stay. She snatched it up, saying in a
+tone of irony and contempt, "I had forgotten--the dutiful slave waits an
+answer to his message. How's this--from the Soldan!"
+
+She hastily ran over the contents, which were expressed both in Arabic
+and French, and when she had done, she laughed in bitter anger.
+
+"Now this passes imagination!" she said; "no jongleur can show so deft
+a transmutation! His legerdemain can transform zechins and byzants into
+doits and maravedis; but can his art convert a Christian knight, ever
+esteemed among the bravest of the Holy Crusade, into the dust-kissing
+slave of a heathen Soldan--the bearer of a paynim's insolent proposals
+to a Christian maiden--nay, forgetting the laws of honourable chivalry,
+as well as of religion? But it avails not talking to the willing slave
+of a heathen hound. Tell your master, when his scourge shall have found
+thee a tongue, that which thou hast seen me do"--so saying, she threw
+the Soldan's letter on the ground, and placed her foot upon it--"and
+say to him, that Edith Plantagenet scorns the homage of an unchristened
+pagan."
+
+With these words she was about to shoot from the knight, when, kneeling
+at her feet in bitter agony, he ventured to lay his hand upon her robe
+and oppose her departure.
+
+"Heard'st thou not what I said, dull slave?" she said, turning short
+round on him, and speaking with emphasis. "Tell the heathen Soldan, thy
+master, that I scorn his suit as much as I despise the prostration of a
+worthless renegade to religion and chivalry--to God and to his lady!"
+
+So saying, she burst from him, tore her garment from his grasp, and left
+the tent.
+
+The voice of Neville, at the same time, summoned him from without.
+Exhausted and stupefied by the distress he had undergone during this
+interview, from which he could only have extricated himself by breach
+of the engagement which he had formed with King Richard, the unfortunate
+knight staggered rather than walked after the English baron, till they
+reached the royal pavilion, before which a party of horsemen had just
+dismounted. There were light and motion within the tent, and when
+Neville entered with his disguised attendant, they found the King,
+with several of his nobility, engaged in welcoming those who were newly
+arrived.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+     "The tears I shed must ever fall.
+     I weep not for an absent swain;
+     For time may happier hours recall,
+     And parted lovers meet again.
+
+     "I weep not for the silent dead.
+     Their pains are past, their sorrows o'er;
+     And those that loved their steps must tread,
+     When death shall join to part no more."
+
+     But worse than absence, worse than death,
+     She wept her lover's sullied fame,
+     And, fired with all the pride of birth,
+     She wept a soldier's injured name.
+            BALLAD.
+
+The frank and bold voice of Richard was heard in joyous gratulation.
+
+"Thomas de Vaux! stout Tom of the Gills! by the head of King Henry, thou
+art welcome to me as ever was flask of wine to a jolly toper! I should
+scarce have known how to order my battle-array, unless I had thy bulky
+form in mine eye as a landmark to form my ranks upon. We shall have
+blows anon, Thomas, if the saints be gracious to us; and had we fought
+in thine absence, I would have looked to hear of thy being found hanging
+upon an elder-tree."
+
+"I should have borne my disappointment with more Christian patience,
+I trust," said Thomas de Vaux, "than to have died the death of an
+apostate. But I thank your Grace for my welcome, which is the more
+generous, as it respects a banquet of blows, of which, saving your
+pleasure, you are ever too apt to engross the larger share. But here
+have I brought one to whom your Grace will, I know, give a yet warmer
+welcome."
+
+The person who now stepped forward to make obeisance to Richard was a
+young man of low stature and slight form. His dress was as modest as his
+figure was unimpressive; but he bore on his bonnet a gold buckle, with a
+gem, the lustre of which could only be rivalled by the brilliancy of
+the eye which the bonnet shaded. It was the only striking feature in his
+countenance; but when once noticed, it ever made a strong impression on
+the spectator. About his neck there hung in a scarf of sky-blue silk a
+WREST as it was called--that is, the key with which a harp is tuned, and
+which was of solid gold.
+
+This personage would have kneeled reverently to Richard, but the Monarch
+raised him in joyful haste, pressed him to his bosom warmly, and kissed
+him on either side of the face.
+
+"Blondel de Nesle!" he exclaimed joyfully--"welcome from Cyprus, my king
+of minstrels!--welcome to the King of England, who rates not his own
+dignity more highly than he does thine. I have been sick, man, and, by
+my soul, I believe it was for lack of thee; for, were I half way to the
+gate of heaven, methinks thy strains could call me back. And what news,
+my gentle master, from the land of the lyre? Anything fresh from the
+TROUVEURS of Provence? Anything from the minstrels of merry Normandy?
+Above all, hast thou thyself been busy? But I need not ask thee--thou
+canst not be idle if thou wouldst; thy noble qualities are like a fire
+burning within, and compel thee to pour thyself out in music and song."
+
+"Something I have learned, and something I have done, noble King,"
+answered the celebrated Blondel, with a retiring modesty which all
+Richard's enthusiastic admiration of his skill had been unable to
+banish.
+
+"We will hear thee, man--we will hear thee instantly," said the King.
+Then, touching Blondel's shoulder kindly, he added, "That is, if thou
+art not fatigued with thy journey; for I would sooner ride my best horse
+to death than injure a note of thy voice."
+
+"My voice is, as ever, at the service of my royal patron," said Blondel;
+"but your Majesty," he added, looking at some papers on the table,
+"seems more importantly engaged, and the hour waxes late."
+
+"Not a whit, man, not a whit, my dearest Blondel. I did but sketch an
+array of battle against the Saracens, a thing of a moment, almost as
+soon done as the routing of them."
+
+"Methinks, however," said Thomas de Vaux, "it were not unfit to inquire
+what soldiers your Grace hath to array. I bring reports on that subject
+from Ascalon."
+
+"Thou art a mule, Thomas," said the King--"a very mule for dullness
+and obstinacy! Come, nobles--a hall--a hall--range ye around him! Give
+Blondel the tabouret. Where is his harp-bearer?--or, soft, lend him my
+harp, his own may be damaged by the journey."
+
+"I would your Grace would take my report," said Thomas de Vaux. "I have
+ridden far, and have more list to my bed than to have my ears tickled."
+
+"THY ears tickled!" said the King; "that must be with a woodcock's
+feather, and not with sweet sounds. Hark thee, Thomas, do thine ears
+know the singing of Blondel from the braying of an ass?"
+
+"In faith, my liege," replied Thomas, "I cannot well say; but setting
+Blondel out of the question, who is a born gentleman, and doubtless of
+high acquirements, I shall never, for the sake of your Grace's question,
+look on a minstrel but I shall think upon an ass."
+
+"And might not your manners," said Richard, "have excepted me, who am a
+gentleman born as well as Blondel, and, like him, a guild-brother of the
+joyeuse science?"
+
+"Your Grace should remember," said De Vaux, smiling, "that 'tis useless
+asking for manners from a mule."
+
+"Most truly spoken," said the King; "and an ill-conditioned animal thou
+art. But come hither, master mule, and be unloaded, that thou mayest get
+thee to thy litter, without any music being wasted on thee. Meantime do
+thou, good brother of Salisbury, go to our consort's tent, and tell
+her that Blondel has arrived, with his budget fraught with the newest
+minstrelsy. Bid her come hither instantly, and do thou escort her, and
+see that our cousin, Edith Plantagenet, remain not behind."
+
+His eye then rested for a moment on the Nubian, with that expression of
+doubtful meaning which his countenance usually displayed when he looked
+at him.
+
+"Ha, our silent and secret messenger returned?--Stand up, slave, behind
+the back of De Neville, and thou shalt hear presently sounds which will
+make thee bless God that He afflicted thee rather with dumbness than
+deafness."
+
+So saying, he turned from the rest of the company towards De Vaux, and
+plunged instantly into the military details which that baron laid before
+him.
+
+About the time that the Lord of Gilsland had finished his audience, a
+messenger announced that the Queen and her attendants were approaching
+the royal tent.--"A flask of wine, ho!" said the King; "of old King
+Isaac's long-saved Cyprus, which we won when we stormed Famagosta. Fill
+to the stout Lord of Gilsland, gentles--a more careful and faithful
+servant never had any prince."
+
+"I am glad," said Thomas de Vaux, "that your Grace finds the mule a
+useful slave, though his voice be less musical than horse-hair or wire."
+
+"What, thou canst not yet digest that quip of the mule?" said Richard.
+"Wash it down with a brimming flagon, man, or thou wilt choke upon it.
+Why, so--well pulled!--and now I will tell thee, thou art a soldier
+as well as I, and we must brook each other's jests in the hall as each
+other's blows in the tourney, and love each other the harder we hit.
+By my faith, if thou didst not hit me as hard as I did thee in our late
+encounter! thou gavest all thy wit to the thrust. But here lies the
+difference betwixt thee and Blondel. Thou art but my comrade--I might
+say my pupil--in the art of war; Blondel is my master in the science of
+minstrelsy and music. To thee I permit the freedom of intimacy; to him
+I must do reverence, as to my superior in his art. Come, man, be not
+peevish, but remain and hear our glee."
+
+"To see your Majesty in such cheerful mood," said the Lord of Gilsland,
+"by my faith, I could remain till Blondel had achieved the great romance
+of King Arthur, which lasts for three days."
+
+"We will not tax your patience so deeply," said the King. "But see,
+yonder glare of torches without shows that our consort approaches. Away
+to receive her, man, and win thyself grace in the brightest eyes of
+Christendom. Nay, never stop to adjust thy cloak. See, thou hast let
+Neville come between the wind and the sails of thy galley."
+
+"He was never before me in the field of battle," said De Vaux, not
+greatly pleased to see himself anticipated by the more active service of
+the chamberlain.
+
+"No, neither he nor any one went before thee there, my good Tom of the
+Gills," said the King, "unless it was ourself, now and then."
+
+"Ay, my liege," said De Vaux, "and let us do justice to the unfortunate.
+The unhappy Knight of the Leopard hath been before me too, at a season;
+for, look you, he weighs less on horseback, and so--"
+
+"Hush!" said the King, interrupting him in a peremptory tone, "not a
+word of him," and instantly stepped forward to greet his royal consort;
+and when he had done so, he presented to her Blondel, as king of
+minstrelsy and his master in the gay science. Berengaria, who well knew
+that her royal husband's passion for poetry and music almost equalled
+his appetite for warlike fame, and that Blondel was his especial
+favourite, took anxious care to receive him with all the flattering
+distinctions due to one whom the King delighted to honour. Yet it was
+evident that, though Blondel made suitable returns to the compliments
+showered on him something too abundantly by the royal beauty, he owned
+with deeper reverence and more humble gratitude the simple and graceful
+welcome of Edith, whose kindly greeting appeared to him, perhaps,
+sincere in proportion to its brevity and simplicity.
+
+Both the Queen and her royal husband were aware of this distinction, and
+Richard, seeing his consort somewhat piqued at the preference assigned
+to his cousin, by which perhaps he himself did not feel much gratified,
+said in the hearing of both, "We minstrels, Berengaria, as thou mayest
+see by the bearing of our master Blondel, pay more reverence to a severe
+judge like our kinswoman than to a kindly, partial friend like thyself,
+who is willing to take our worth upon trust."
+
+Edith was moved by this sarcasm of her royal kinsman, and hesitated
+not to reply that, "To be a harsh and severe judge was not an attribute
+proper to her alone of all the Plantagenets."
+
+She had perhaps said more, having some touch of the temper of that
+house, which, deriving their name and cognizance from the lowly broom
+(PLANTA GENISTA), assumed as an emblem of humility, were perhaps one
+of the proudest families that ever ruled in England; but her eye, when
+kindling in her reply, suddenly caught those of the Nubian, although he
+endeavoured to conceal himself behind the nobles who were present,
+and she sunk upon a seat, turning so pale that Queen Berengaria deemed
+herself obliged to call for water and essences, and to go through the
+other ceremonies appropriate to a lady's swoon. Richard, who better
+estimated Edith's strength of mind, called to Blondel to assume his seat
+and commence his lay, declaring that minstrelsy was worth every other
+recipe to recall a Plantagenet to life. "Sing us," he said, "that song
+of the Bloody Vest, of which thou didst formerly give me the argument
+ere I left Cyprus. Thou must be perfect in it by this time, or, as our
+yeomen say, thy bow is broken."
+
+The anxious eye of the minstrel, however, dwelt on Edith, and it was
+not till he observed her returning colour that he obeyed the repeated
+commands of the King. Then, accompanying his voice with the harp, so as
+to grace, but yet not drown, the sense of what he sung, he chanted in
+a sort of recitative one of those ancient adventures of love and
+knighthood which were wont of yore to win the public attention. So soon
+as he began to prelude, the insignificance of his personal appearance
+seemed to disappear, and his countenance glowed with energy and
+inspiration. His full, manly, mellow voice, so absolutely under command
+of the purest taste, thrilled on every ear and to every heart. Richard,
+rejoiced as after victory, called out the appropriate summons for
+silence, "Listen, lords, in bower and hall"; while, with the zeal of a
+patron at once and a pupil, he arranged the circle around, and hushed
+them into silence; and he himself sat down with an air of expectation
+and interest, not altogether unmixed with the gravity of the professed
+critic. The courtiers turned their eyes on the King, that they might be
+ready to trace and imitate the emotions his features should express, and
+Thomas de Vaux yawned tremendously, as one who submitted unwillingly
+to a wearisome penance. The song of Blondel was of course in the Norman
+language, but the verses which follow express its meaning and its
+manner.
+
+
+                THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+     'Twas near the fair city of Benevent,
+     When the sun was setting on bough and bent,
+     And knights were preparing in bower and tent,
+     On the eve of the Baptist's tournament;
+     When in Lincoln green a stripling gent,
+     Well seeming a page by a princess sent,
+     Wander'd the camp, and, still as he went,
+     Inquired for the Englishman, Thomas a Kent.
+
+     Far hath he far'd, and farther must fare,
+     Till he finds his pavilion nor stately nor rare,--
+     Little save iron and steel was there;
+     And, as lacking the coin to pay armourer's care,
+     With his sinewy arms to the shoulders bare,
+     The good knight with hammer and file did repair
+     The mail that to-morrow must see him wear,
+     For the honour of Saint John and his lady fair.
+
+     "Thus speaks my lady," the page said he,
+     And the knight bent lowly both head and knee,
+     "She is Benevent's Princess so high in degree,
+     And thou art as lowly as knight may well be--
+     He that would climb so lofty a tree,
+     Or spring such a gulf as divides her from thee,
+     Must dare some high deed, by which all men may see
+     His ambition is back'd by his hie chivalrie.
+
+     "Therefore thus speaks my lady," the fair page he said,
+     And the knight lowly louted with hand and with head,
+     "Fling aside the good armour in which thou art clad,
+     And don thou this weed of her night-gear instead,
+     For a hauberk of steel, a kirtle of thread;
+     And charge, thus attir'd, in the tournament dread,
+     And fight as thy wont is where most blood is shed,
+     And bring honour away, or remain with the dead."
+
+Untroubled in his look, and untroubled in his breast, The knight the
+weed hath taken, and reverently hath kiss'd. "Now blessed be the moment,
+the messenger be blest! Much honour'd do I hold me in my lady's high
+behest; And say unto my lady, in this dear night-weed dress'd, To the
+best armed champion I will not veil my crest; But if I live and bear me
+well 'tis her turn to take the test." Here, gentles, ends the foremost
+fytte of the Lay of the Bloody Vest.
+
+"Thou hast changed the measure upon us unawares in that last couplet, my
+Blondel," said the King.
+
+"Most true, my lord," said Blondel. "I rendered the verses from the
+Italian of an old harper whom I met in Cyprus, and not having had time
+either to translate it accurately or commit it to memory, I am fain to
+supply gaps in the music and the verse as I can upon the spur of the
+moment, as you see boors mend a quickset fence with a fagot."
+
+"Nay, on my faith," said the King, "I like these rattling, rolling
+Alexandrines. Methinks they come more twangingly off to the music than
+that briefer measure."
+
+"Both are licensed, as is well known to your Grace," answered Blondel.
+
+"They are so, Blondel," said Richard, "yet methinks the scene where
+there is like to be fighting will go best on in these same thundering
+Alexandrines, which sound like the charge of cavalry, while the other
+measure is but like the sidelong amble of a lady's palfrey."
+
+"It shall be as your Grace pleases," replied Blondel, and began again to
+prelude.
+
+"Nay, first cherish thy fancy with a cup of fiery Chios wine," said
+the King. "And hark thee, I would have thee fling away that new-fangled
+restriction of thine, of terminating in accurate and similar rhymes.
+They are a constraint on thy flow of fancy, and make thee resemble a man
+dancing in fetters."
+
+"The fetters are easily flung off, at least," said Blondel, again
+sweeping his fingers over the strings, as one who would rather have
+played than listened to criticism.
+
+"But why put them on, man?" continued the King. "Wherefore thrust thy
+genius into iron bracelets? I marvel how you got forward at all. I am
+sure I should not have been able to compose a stanza in yonder hampered
+measure."
+
+Blondel looked down, and busied himself with the strings of his harp, to
+hide an involuntary smile which crept over his features; but it escaped
+not Richard's observation.
+
+"By my faith, thou laughest at me, Blondel," he said; "and, in good
+truth, every man deserves it who presumes to play the master when he
+should be the pupil. But we kings get bad habits of self-opinion. Come,
+on with thy lay, dearest Blondel--on after thine own fashion, better
+than aught that we can suggest, though we must needs be talking."
+
+Blondel resumed the lay; but as extemporaneous composition was familiar
+to him, he failed not to comply with the King's hints, and was perhaps
+not displeased to show with how much ease he could new-model a poem,
+even while in the act of recitation.
+
+
+                   THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+                    FYTTE SECOND.
+
+     The Baptist's fair morrow beheld gallant feats--
+     There was winning of honour and losing of seats;
+     There was hewing with falchions and splintering of staves--
+     The victors won glory, the vanquish'd won graves.
+     Oh, many a knight there fought bravely and well,
+     Yet one was accounted his peers to excel,
+     And 'twas he whose sole armour on body and breast
+     Seem'd the weed of a damsel when bouned for her rest.
+
+     There were some dealt him wounds that were bloody and sore,
+     But others respected his plight, and forbore.
+     "It is some oath of honour," they said, "and I trow,
+     'Twere unknightly to slay him achieving his vow."
+     Then the Prince, for his sake, bade the tournament cease--
+     He flung down his warder, the trumpets sung peace;
+     And the judges declare, and competitors yield,
+     That the Knight of the Night-gear was first in the field.
+
+     The feast it was nigh, and the mass it was nigher,
+     When before the fair Princess low looted a squire,
+     And deliver'd a garment unseemly to view,
+     With sword-cut and spear-thrust, all hack'd and pierc'd through;
+     All rent and all tatter'd, all clotted with blood,
+     With foam of the horses, with dust, and with mud;
+     Not the point of that lady's small finger, I ween,
+     Could have rested on spot was unsullied and clean.
+
+     "This token my master, Sir Thomas a Kent,
+     Restores to the Princess of fair Benevent;
+     He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit,
+     He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit;
+     Through life's utmost peril the prize I have won,
+     And now must the faith of my mistress be shown:
+     For she who prompts knights on such danger to run
+     Must avouch his true service in front of the sun.
+
+     "'I restore,' says my master, 'the garment I've worn,
+     And I claim of the Princess to don it in turn;
+     For its stains and its rents she should prize it the more,
+     Since by shame 'tis unsullied, though crimson'd with gore.'"
+     Then deep blush'd the Princess--yet kiss'd she and press'd
+     The blood-spotted robes to her lips and her breast.
+     "Go tell my true knight, church and chamber shall show
+     If I value the blood on this garment or no."
+
+     And when it was time for the nobles to pass,
+     In solemn procession to minster and mass,
+     The first walk'd the Princess in purple and pall,
+     But the blood-besmear'd night-robe she wore over all;
+     And eke, in the hall, where they all sat at dine,
+     When she knelt to her father and proffer'd the wine,
+     Over all her rich robes and state jewels she wore
+     That wimple unseemly bedabbled with gore.
+
+     Then lords whisper'd ladies, as well you may think,
+     And ladies replied with nod, titter, and wink;
+     And the Prince, who in anger and shame had look'd down,
+     Turn'd at length to his daughter, and spoke with a frown:
+     "Now since thou hast publish'd thy folly and guilt,
+     E'en atone with thy hand for the blood thou hast spilt;
+     Yet sore for your boldness you both will repent,
+     When you wander as exiles from fair Benevent."
+
+     Then out spoke stout Thomas, in hall where he stood,
+     Exhausted and feeble, but dauntless of mood:
+     "The blood that I lost for this daughter of thine,
+     I pour'd forth as freely as flask gives its wine;
+     And if for my sake she brooks penance and blame,
+     Do not doubt I will save her from suffering and shame;
+     And light will she reck of thy princedom and rent,
+     When I hail her, in England, the Countess of Kent."
+
+
+A murmur of applause ran through the assembly, following the example
+of Richard himself, who loaded with praises his favourite minstrel, and
+ended by presenting him with a ring of considerable value. The Queen
+hastened to distinguish the favourite by a rich bracelet, and many of
+the nobles who were present followed the royal example.
+
+"Is our cousin Edith," said the King, "become insensible to the sound of
+the harp she once loved?"
+
+"She thanks Blondel for his lay," replied Edith, "but doubly the
+kindness of the kinsman who suggested it."
+
+"Thou art angry, cousin," said the King; "angry because thou hast heard
+of a woman more wayward than thyself. But you escape me not. I will walk
+a space homeward with you towards the Queen's pavilion. We must have
+conference together ere the night has waned into morning."
+
+The Queen and her attendants were now on foot, and the other guests
+withdrew from the royal tent. A train with blazing torches, and an
+escort of archers, awaited Berengaria without the pavilion, and she was
+soon on her way homeward. Richard, as he had proposed, walked beside
+his kinswoman, and compelled her to accept of his arm as her support, so
+that they could speak to each other without being overheard.
+
+"What answer, then, am I to return to the noble Soldan?" said Richard.
+"The kings and princes are falling from me, Edith; this new quarrel hath
+alienated them once more. I would do something for the Holy Sepulchre by
+composition, if not by victory; and the chance of my doing this depends,
+alas, on the caprice of a woman. I would lay my single spear in the rest
+against ten of the best lances in Christendom, rather than argue with a
+wilful wench who knows not what is for her own good. What answer, coz,
+am I to return to the Soldan? It must be decisive."
+
+"Tell him," said Edith, "that the poorest of the Plantagenets will
+rather wed with misery than with misbelief."
+
+"Shall I say with slavery, Edith?" said the King. "Methinks that is
+nearer thy thoughts."
+
+"There is no room," said Edith, "for the suspicion you so grossly
+insinuate. Slavery of the body might have been pitied, but that of the
+soul is only to be despised. Shame to thee, King of merry England. Thou
+hast enthralled both the limbs and the spirit of a knight, one scarce
+less famed than thyself."
+
+"Should I not prevent my kinswoman from drinking poison, by sullying
+the vessel which contained it, if I saw no other means of disgusting her
+with the fatal liquor?" replied the King.
+
+"It is thyself," answered Edith, "that would press me to drink poison,
+because it is proffered in a golden chalice."
+
+"Edith," said Richard, "I cannot force thy resolution; but beware you
+shut not the door which Heaven opens. The hermit of Engaddi--he whom
+Popes and Councils have regarded as a prophet--hath read in the stars
+that thy marriage shall reconcile me with a powerful enemy, and that thy
+husband shall be Christian, leaving thus the fairest ground to hope that
+the conversion of the Soldan, and the bringing in of the sons of Ishmael
+to the pale of the church, will be the consequence of thy wedding with
+Saladin. Come, thou must make some sacrifice rather than mar such happy
+prospects."
+
+"Men may sacrifice rams and goats," said Edith, "but not honour and
+conscience. I have heard that it was the dishonour of a Christian maiden
+which brought the Saracens into Spain; the shame of another is no likely
+mode of expelling them from Palestine."
+
+"Dost thou call it shame to become an empress?" said the King.
+
+"I call it shame and dishonour to profane a Christian sacrament by
+entering into it with an infidel whom it cannot bind; and I call it foul
+dishonour that I, the descendant of a Christian princess, should become
+of free will the head of a haram of heathen concubines."
+
+"Well, kinswoman," said the King, after a pause, "I must not quarrel
+with thee, though I think thy dependent condition might have dictated
+more compliance."
+
+"My liege," replied Edith, "your Grace hath worthily succeeded to all
+the wealth, dignity, and dominion of the House of Plantagenet--do
+not, therefore, begrudge your poor kinswoman some small share of their
+pride."
+
+"By my faith, wench," said the King, "thou hast unhorsed me with that
+very word, so we will kiss and be friends. I will presently dispatch
+thy answer to Saladin. But after all, coz, were it not better to
+suspend your answer till you have seen him? Men say he is pre-eminently
+handsome."
+
+"There is no chance of our meeting, my lord," said Edith.
+
+"By Saint George, but there is next to a certainty of it," said the
+King; "for Saladin will doubtless afford us a free field for the
+doing of this new battle of the Standard, and will witness it himself.
+Berengaria is wild to behold it also; and I dare be sworn not a feather
+of you, her companions and attendants, will remain behind--least of all
+thou thyself, fair coz. But come, we have reached the pavilion, and must
+part; not in unkindness thou, oh--nay, thou must seal it with thy lip as
+well as thy hand, sweet Edith--it is my right as a sovereign to kiss my
+pretty vassals."
+
+He embraced her respectfully and affectionately, and returned through
+the moonlit camp, humming to himself such snatches of Blondel's lay as
+he could recollect.
+
+On his arrival he lost no time in making up his dispatches for Saladin,
+and delivered them to the Nubian, with a charge to set out by peep of
+day on his return to the Soldan.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     We heard the Techir--so these Arabs call
+     Their shout of onset, when, with loud acclaim,
+     They challenge Heaven to give them victory.
+        SIEGE OF DAMASCUS.
+
+On the subsequent morning Richard was invited to a conference by Philip
+of France, in which the latter, with many expressions of his high esteem
+for his brother of England, communicated to him in terms extremely
+courteous, but too explicit to be misunderstood, his positive intention
+to return to Europe, and to the cares of his kingdom, as entirely
+despairing of future success in their undertaking, with their diminished
+forces and civil discords. Richard remonstrated, but in vain; and when
+the conference ended he received without surprise a manifesto from the
+Duke of Austria, and several other princes, announcing a resolution
+similar to that of Philip, and in no modified terms, assigning, for
+their defection from the cause of the Cross, the inordinate ambition and
+arbitrary domination of Richard of England. All hopes of continuing
+the war with any prospect of ultimate success were now abandoned; and
+Richard, while he shed bitter tears over his disappointed hopes of
+glory, was little consoled by the recollection that the failure was
+in some degree to be imputed to the advantages which he had given his
+enemies by his own hasty and imprudent temper.
+
+"They had not dared to have deserted my father thus," he said to De
+Vaux, in the bitterness of his resentment. "No slanders they could have
+uttered against so wise a king would have been believed in Christendom;
+whereas--fool that I am!--I have not only afforded them a pretext for
+deserting me, but even a colour for casting all the blame of the rupture
+upon my unhappy foibles."
+
+These thoughts were so deeply galling to the King, that De Vaux was
+rejoiced when the arrival of an ambassador from Saladin turned his
+reflections into a different channel.
+
+This new envoy was an Emir much respected by the Soldan, whose name
+was Abdallah el Hadgi. He derived his descent from the family of the
+Prophet, and the race or tribe of Hashem, in witness of which genealogy
+he wore a green turban of large dimensions. He had also three times
+performed the journey to Mecca, from which he derived his epithet of
+El Hadgi, or the Pilgrim. Notwithstanding these various pretensions to
+sanctity, Abdallah was (for an Arab) a boon companion, who enjoyed
+a merry tale, and laid aside his gravity so far as to quaff a blithe
+flagon when secrecy ensured him against scandal. He was likewise
+a statesman, whose abilities had been used by Saladin in various
+negotiations with the Christian princes, and particularly with Richard,
+to whom El Hadgi was personally known and acceptable. Animated by the
+cheerful acquiescence with which the envoy of Saladin afforded a fair
+field for the combat, a safe conduct for all who might choose to witness
+it, and offered his own person as a guarantee of his fidelity, Richard
+soon forgot his disappointed hopes, and the approaching dissolution of
+the Christian league, in the interesting discussions preceding a combat
+in the lists.
+
+The station called the Diamond of the Desert was assigned for the place
+of conflict, as being nearly at an equal distance betwixt the Christian
+and Saracen camps. It was agreed that Conrade of Montserrat, the
+defendant, with his godfathers, the Archduke of Austria and the Grand
+Master of the Templars, should appear there on the day fixed for the
+combat, with a hundred armed followers, and no more; that Richard of
+England and his brother Salisbury, who supported the accusation, should
+attend with the same number, to protect his champion; and that the
+Soldan should bring with him a guard of five hundred chosen followers,
+a band considered as not more than equal to the two hundred Christian
+lances. Such persons of consideration as either party chose to invite to
+witness the contest were to wear no other weapons than their swords, and
+to come without defensive armour. The Soldan undertook the preparation
+of the lists, and to provide accommodations and refreshments of every
+kind for all who were to assist at the solemnity; and his letters
+expressed with much courtesy the pleasure which he anticipated in the
+prospect of a personal and peaceful meeting with the Melech Ric, and his
+anxious desire to render his reception as agreeable as possible.
+
+All preliminaries being arranged and communicated to the defendant
+and his godfathers, Abdullah the Hadgi was admitted to a more private
+interview, where he heard with delight the strains of Blondel. Having
+first carefully put his green turban out of sight, and assumed a
+Greek cap in its stead, he requited the Norman minstrel's music with a
+drinking song from the Persian, and quaffed a hearty flagon of Cyprus
+wine, to show that his practice matched his principles. On the next day,
+grave and sober as the water-drinker Mirglip, he bent his brow to the
+ground before Saladin's footstool, and rendered to the Soldan an account
+of his embassy.
+
+On the day before that appointed for the combat Conrade and his friends
+set off by daybreak to repair to the place assigned, and Richard left
+the camp at the same hour and for the same purpose; but, as had been
+agreed upon, he took his journey by a different route--a precaution
+which had been judged necessary, to prevent the possibility of a quarrel
+betwixt their armed attendants.
+
+The good King himself was in no humour for quarrelling with any one.
+Nothing could have added to his pleasurable anticipations of a desperate
+and bloody combat in the lists, except his being in his own royal
+person one of the combatants; and he was half in charity again even
+with Conrade of Montserrat. Lightly armed, richly dressed, and gay as
+a bridegroom on the eve of his nuptials, Richard caracoled along by
+the side of Queen Berengaria's litter, pointing out to her the various
+scenes through which they passed, and cheering with tale and song the
+bosom of the inhospitable wilderness. The former route of the Queen's
+pilgrimage to Engaddi had been on the other side of the chain of
+mountains, so that the ladies were strangers to the scenery of the
+desert; and though Berengaria knew her husband's disposition too well
+not to endeavour to seem interested in what he was pleased either to
+say or to sing, she could not help indulging some female fears when she
+found herself in the howling wilderness with so small an escort, which
+seemed almost like a moving speck on the bosom of the plain, and knew
+at the same time they were not so distant from the camp of Saladin,
+but what they might be in a moment surprised and swept off by an
+overpowering host of his fiery-footed cavalry, should the pagan be
+faithless enough to embrace an opportunity thus tempting. But when she
+hinted these suspicions to Richard he repelled them with displeasure and
+disdain. "It were worse than ingratitude," he said, "to doubt the good
+faith of the generous Soldan."
+
+Yet the same doubts and fears recurred more than once, not to the timid
+mind of the Queen alone, but to the firmer and more candid soul of Edith
+Plantagenet, who had no such confidence in the faith of the Moslem as
+to render her perfectly at ease when so much in their power; and her
+surprise had been far less than her terror, if the desert around had
+suddenly resounded with the shout of ALLAH HU! and a band of Arab
+cavalry had pounced on them like vultures on their prey. Nor were these
+suspicions lessened when, as evening approached, they were aware of
+a single Arab horseman, distinguished by his turban and long lance,
+hovering on the edge of a small eminence like a hawk poised in the air,
+and who instantly, on the appearance of the royal retinue, darted
+off with the speed of the same bird when it shoots down the wind and
+disappears from the horizon.
+
+"We must be near the station," said King Richard; "and yonder cavalier
+is one of Saladin's outposts--methinks I hear the noise of the Moorish
+horns and cymbals. Get you into order, my hearts, and form yourselves
+around the ladies soldierlike and firmly."
+
+As he spoke, each knight, squire, and archer hastily closed in upon his
+appointed ground, and they proceeded in the most compact order, which
+made their numbers appear still smaller. And to say the truth, though
+there might be no fear, there was anxiety as well as curiosity in the
+attention with which they listened to the wild bursts of Moorish music,
+which came ever and anon more distinctly from the quarter in which the
+Arab horseman had been seen to disappear.
+
+De Vaux spoke in a whisper to the King. "Were it not well, my liege, to
+send a page to the top of that sand-bank? Or would it stand with your
+pleasure that I prick forward? Methinks, by all yonder clash and clang,
+if there be no more than five hundred men beyond the sand-hills, half of
+the Soldan's retinue must be drummers and cymbal-tossers. Shall I spur
+on?"
+
+The baron had checked his horse with the bit, and was just about to
+strike him with the spurs when the King exclaimed, "Not for the world.
+Such a caution would express suspicion, and could do little to prevent
+surprise, which, however, I apprehend not."
+
+They advanced accordingly in close and firm order till they surmounted
+the line of low sand-hills, and came in sight of the appointed station,
+when a splendid, but at the same time a startling, spectacle awaited
+them.
+
+The Diamond of the Desert, so lately a solitary fountain, distinguished
+only amid the waste by solitary groups of palm-trees, was now the centre
+of an encampment, the embroidered flags and gilded ornaments of which
+glittered far and wide, and reflected a thousand rich tints against the
+setting sun. The coverings of the large pavilions were of the gayest
+colours--scarlet, bright yellow, pale blue, and other gaudy and gleaming
+hues--and the tops of their pillars, or tent-poles, were decorated
+with golden pomegranates and small silken flags. But besides these
+distinguished pavilions, there were what Thomas de Vaux considered as
+a portentous number of the ordinary black tents of the Arabs, being
+sufficient, as he conceived, to accommodate, according to the Eastern
+fashion, a host of five thousand men. A number of Arabs and Kurds, fully
+corresponding to the extent of the encampment, were hastily assembling,
+each leading his horse in his hand, and their muster was accompanied by
+an astonishing clamour of their noisy instruments of martial music, by
+which, in all ages, the warfare of the Arabs has been animated.
+
+They soon formed a deep and confused mass of dismounted cavalry in front
+of their encampment, when, at the signal of a shrill cry, which arose
+high over the clangour of the music, each cavalier sprung to his saddle.
+A cloud of dust arising at the moment of this manoeuvre hid from Richard
+and his attendants the camp, the palm-trees, and the distant ridge of
+mountains, as well as the troops whose sudden movement had raised the
+cloud, and, ascending high over their heads, formed itself into the
+fantastic forms of writhed pillars, domes, and minarets. Another shrill
+yell was heard from the bosom of this cloudy tabernacle. It was the
+signal for the cavalry to advance, which they did at full gallop,
+disposing themselves as they came forward so as to come in at once on
+the front, flanks, and rear of Richard's little bodyguard, who were thus
+surrounded, and almost choked by the dense clouds of dust enveloping
+them on each side, through which were seen alternately, and lost, the
+grim forms and wild faces of the Saracens, brandishing and tossing their
+lances in every possible direction with the wildest cries and halloos,
+and frequently only reining up their horses when within a spear's length
+of the Christians, while those in the rear discharged over the heads of
+both parties thick volleys of arrows. One of these struck the litter in
+which the Queen was seated, who loudly screamed, and the red spot was on
+Richard's brow in an instant.
+
+"Ha! Saint George," he exclaimed, "we must take some order with this
+infidel scum!"
+
+But Edith, whose litter was near, thrust her head out, and with her hand
+holding one of the shafts, exclaimed, "Royal Richard, beware what you
+do! see, these arrows are headless!"
+
+"Noble, sensible wench!" exclaimed Richard; "by Heaven, thou shamest
+us all by thy readiness of thought and eye.--Be not moved, my English
+hearts," he exclaimed to his followers; "their arrows have no heads--and
+their spears, too, lack the steel points. It is but a wild welcome,
+after their savage fashion, though doubtless they would rejoice to see
+us daunted or disturbed. Move onward, slow and steady."
+
+The little phalanx moved forward accordingly, accompanied on all sides
+by the Arabs, with the shrillest and most piercing cries, the bowmen,
+meanwhile, displaying their agility by shooting as near the crests of
+the Christians as was possible, without actually hitting them, while the
+lancers charged each other with such rude blows of their blunt weapons
+that more than one of them lost his saddle, and well-nigh his life,
+in this rough sport. All this, though designed to express welcome, had
+rather a doubtful appearance in the eyes of the Europeans.
+
+As they had advanced nearly half way towards the camp, King Richard and
+his suite forming, as it were, the nucleus round which this tumultuary
+body of horsemen howled, whooped, skirmished, and galloped, creating a
+scene of indescribable confusion, another shrill cry was heard, on which
+all these irregulars, who were on the front and upon the flanks of the
+little body of Europeans, wheeled off; and forming themselves into a
+long and deep column, followed with comparative order and silence in
+the rear of Richard's troops. The dust began now to dissipate in their
+front, when there advanced to meet them through that cloudy veil a body
+of cavalry of a different and more regular description, completely armed
+with offensive and defensive weapons, and who might well have served
+as a bodyguard to the proudest of Eastern monarchs. This splendid troop
+consisted of five hundred men and each horse which it contained was
+worth an earl's ransom. The riders were Georgian and Circassian slaves
+in the very prime of life. Their helmets and hauberks were formed of
+steel rings, so bright that they shone like silver; their vestures were
+of the gayest colours, and some of cloth of gold or silver; the sashes
+were twisted with silk and gold, their rich turbans were plumed and
+jewelled, and their sabres and poniards, of Damascene steel, were
+adorned with gold and gems on hilt and scabbard.
+
+This splendid array advanced to the sound of military music, and when
+they met the Christian body they opened their files to the right and
+left, and let them enter between their ranks. Richard now assumed the
+foremost place in his troop, aware that Saladin himself was approaching.
+Nor was it long when, in the centre of his bodyguard, surrounded by his
+domestic officers and those hideous negroes who guard the Eastern
+haram, and whose misshapen forms were rendered yet more frightful by the
+richness of their attire, came the Soldan, with the look and manners of
+one on whose brow Nature had written, This is a King! In his snow-white
+turban, vest, and wide Eastern trousers, wearing a sash of scarlet
+silk, without any other ornament, Saladin might have seemed the
+plainest-dressed man in his own guard. But closer inspection discerned
+in his turban that inestimable gem which was called by the poets the
+Sea of Light; the diamond on which his signet was engraved, and which he
+wore in a ring, was probably worth all the jewels of the English crown;
+and a sapphire which terminated the hilt of his cangiar was not of much
+inferior value. It should be added that, to protect himself from the
+dust, which in the vicinity of the Dead Sea resembles the finest ashes,
+or, perhaps, out of Oriental pride, the Soldan wore a sort of veil
+attached to his turban, which partly obscured the view of his noble
+features. He rode a milk-white Arabian, which bore him as if conscious
+and proud of his noble burden.
+
+There was no need of further introduction. The two heroic monarchs--for
+such they both were--threw themselves at once from horseback, and the
+troops halting and the music suddenly ceasing, they advanced to meet
+each other in profound silence, and after a courteous inclination on
+either side they embraced as brethren and equals. The pomp and display
+upon both sides attracted no further notice--no one saw aught save
+Richard and Saladin, and they too beheld nothing but each other. The
+looks with which Richard surveyed Saladin were, however, more intently
+curious than those which the Soldan fixed upon him; and the Soldan also
+was the first to break silence.
+
+"The Melech Ric is welcome to Saladin as water to this desert. I trust
+he hath no distrust of this numerous array. Excepting the armed slaves
+of my household, those who surround you with eyes of wonder and of
+welcome are--even the humblest of them--the privileged nobles of my
+thousand tribes; for who that could claim a title to be present would
+remain at home when such a Prince was to be seen as Richard, with the
+terrors of whose name, even on the sands of Yemen, the nurse stills her
+child, and the free Arab subdues his restive steed!"
+
+"And these are all nobles of Araby?" said Richard, looking around on
+wild forms with their persons covered with haiks, their countenance
+swart with the sunbeams, their teeth as white as ivory, their black eyes
+glancing with fierce and preternatural lustre from under the shade of
+their turbans, and their dress being in general simple even to meanness.
+
+"They claim such rank," said Saladin; "but though numerous, they
+are within the conditions of the treaty, and bear no arms but the
+sabre--even the iron of their lances is left behind."
+
+"I fear," muttered De Vaux in English, "they have left them where they
+can be soon found. A most flourishing House of Peers, I confess, and
+would find Westminster Hall something too narrow for them."
+
+"Hush, De Vaux," said Richard, "I command thee.--Noble Saladin," he
+said, "suspicion and thou cannot exist on the same ground. Seest thou,"
+pointing to the litters, "I too have brought some champions with me,
+though armed, perhaps, in breach of agreement; for bright eyes and fair
+features are weapons which cannot be left behind."
+
+The Soldan, turning to the litters, made an obeisance as lowly as if
+looking towards Mecca, and kissed the sand in token of respect.
+
+"Nay," said Richard, "they will not fear a closer encounter, brother;
+wilt thou not ride towards their litters, and the curtains will be
+presently withdrawn?"
+
+"That may Allah prohibit!" said Saladin, "since not an Arab looks on who
+would not think it shame to the noble ladies to be seen with their faces
+uncovered."
+
+"Thou shalt see them, then, in private, brother," answered Richard.
+
+"To what purpose?" answered Saladin mournfully. "Thy last letter was,
+to the hopes which I had entertained, like water to fire; and wherefore
+should I again light a flame which may indeed consume, but cannot cheer
+me? But will not my brother pass to the tent which his servant hath
+prepared for him? My principal black slave hath taken order for the
+reception of the Princesses, the officers of my household will attend
+your followers, and ourself will be the chamberlain of the royal
+Richard."
+
+He led the way accordingly to a splendid pavilion, where was everything
+that royal luxury could devise. De Vaux, who was in attendance, then
+removed the chappe (CAPA), or long riding-cloak, which Richard wore, and
+he stood before Saladin in the close dress which showed to advantage the
+strength and symmetry of his person, while it bore a strong contrast
+to the flowing robes which disguised the thin frame. of the Eastern
+monarch. It was Richard's two-handed sword that chiefly attracted
+the attention of the Saracen--a broad, straight blade, the seemingly
+unwieldy length of which extended well-nigh from the shoulder to the
+heel of the wearer.
+
+"Had I not," said Saladin, "seen this brand flaming in the front of
+battle, like that of Azrael, I had scarce believed that human arm could
+wield it. Might I request to see the Melech Ric strike one blow with it
+in peace, and in pure trial of strength?"
+
+"Willingly, noble Saladin," answered Richard; and looking around for
+something whereon to exercise his strength, he saw a steel mace held by
+one of the attendants, the handle being of the same metal, and about an
+inch and a half in diameter. This he placed on a block of wood.
+
+The anxiety of De Vaux for his master's honour led him to whisper in
+English, "For the blessed Virgin's sake, beware what you attempt, my
+liege! Your full strength is not as yet returned--give no triumph to the
+infidel."
+
+"Peace, fool!" said Richard, standing firm on his ground, and casting a
+fierce glance around; "thinkest thou that I can fail in HIS presence?"
+
+The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft to the
+King's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway
+of some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled on the ground in two
+pieces, as a woodsman would sever a sapling with a hedging-bill.
+
+"By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!" said the Soldan,
+critically and accurately examining the iron bar which had been cut
+asunder; and the blade of the sword was so well tempered as to exhibit
+not the least token of having suffered by the feat it had performed. He
+then took the King's hand, and looking on the size and muscular strength
+which it exhibited, laughed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and
+thin, so inferior in brawn and sinew.
+
+"Ay, look well," said De Vaux in English, "it will be long ere your long
+jackanape's fingers do such a feat with your fine gilded reaping-hook
+there."
+
+"Silence, De Vaux," said Richard; "by Our Lady, he understands or
+guesses thy meaning--be not so broad, I pray thee."
+
+The Soldan, indeed, presently said, "Something I would fain
+attempt--though wherefore should the weak show their inferiority in
+presence of the strong? Yet each land hath its own exercises, and this
+may be new to the Melech Ric." So saying, he took from the floor a
+cushion of silk and down, and placed it upright on one end. "Can thy
+weapon, my brother, sever that cushion?" he said to King Richard.
+
+"No, surely," replied the King; "no sword on earth, were it the
+Excalibur of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady
+resistance to the blow."
+
+"Mark, then," said Saladin; and tucking up the sleeve of his gown,
+showed his arm, thin indeed and spare, but which constant exercise had
+hardened into a mass consisting of nought but bone, brawn, and sinew. He
+unsheathed his scimitar, a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not
+like the swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue
+colour, marked with ten millions of meandering lines, which showed
+how anxiously the metal had been welded by the armourer. Wielding this
+weapon, apparently so inefficient when compared to that of Richard, the
+Soldan stood resting his weight upon his left foot, which was slightly
+advanced; he balanced himself a little, as if to steady his aim; then
+stepping at once forward, drew the scimitar across the cushion, applying
+the edge so dexterously, and with so little apparent effort, that the
+cushion seemed rather to fall asunder than to be divided by violence.
+
+"It is a juggler's trick," said De Vaux, darting forward and snatching
+up the portion of the cushion which had been cut off, as if to assure
+himself of the reality of the feat; "there is gramarye in this."
+
+The Soldan seemed to comprehend him, for he undid the sort of veil
+which he had hitherto worn, laid it double along the edge of his sabre,
+extended the weapon edgeways in the air, and drawing it suddenly through
+the veil, although it hung on the blade entirely loose, severed that
+also into two parts, which floated to different sides of the tent,
+equally displaying the extreme temper and sharpness of the weapon, and
+the exquisite dexterity of him who used it.
+
+"Now, in good faith, my brother," said Richard, "thou art even matchless
+at the trick of the sword, and right perilous were it to meet thee!
+Still, however, I put some faith in a downright English blow, and what
+we cannot do by sleight we eke out by strength. Nevertheless, in truth
+thou art as expert in inflicting wounds as my sage Hakim in curing them.
+I trust I shall see the learned leech. I have much to thank him for, and
+had brought some small present."
+
+As he spoke, Saladin exchanged his turban for a Tartar cap. He had no
+sooner done so, than De Vaux opened at once his extended mouth and his
+large, round eyes, and Richard gazed with scarce less astonishment,
+while the Soldan spoke in a grave and altered voice: "The sick man,
+saith the poet, while he is yet infirm, knoweth the physician by his
+step; but when he is recovered, he knoweth not even his face when he
+looks upon him."
+
+"A miracle!--a miracle!" exclaimed Richard.
+
+"Of Mahound's working, doubtless," said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+"That I should lose my learned Hakim," said Richard, "merely by absence
+of his cap and robe, and that I should find him again in my royal
+brother Saladin!"
+
+"Such is oft the fashion of the world," answered the Soldan; "the
+tattered robe makes not always the dervise."
+
+"And it was through thy intercession," said Richard, "that yonder
+Knight of the Leopard was saved from death, and by thy artifice that he
+revisited my camp in disguise?"
+
+"Even so," replied Saladin. "I was physician enough to know that, unless
+the wounds of his bleeding honour were stanched, the days of his life
+must be few. His disguise was more easily penetrated than I had expected
+from the success of my own."
+
+"An accident," said King Richard (probably alluding to the circumstance
+of his applying his lips to the wound of the supposed Nubian), "let me
+first know that his skin was artificially discoloured; and that hint
+once taken, detection became easy, for his form and person are not to be
+forgotten. I confidently expect that he will do battle on the morrow."
+
+"He is full in preparation, and high in hope," said the Soldan. "I have
+furnished him with weapons and horse, thinking nobly of him from what I
+have seen under various disguises."
+
+"Knows he now," said Richard, "to whom he lies under obligation?"
+
+"He doth," replied the Saracen. "I was obliged to confess my person when
+I unfolded my purpose."
+
+"And confessed he aught to you?" said the King of England.
+
+"Nothing explicit," replied the Soldan; "but from much that passed
+between us, I conceive his love is too highly placed to be happy in its
+issue."
+
+"And thou knowest that his daring and insolent passion crossed thine own
+wishes?" said Richard.
+
+"I might guess so much," said Saladin; "but his passion had existed ere
+my wishes had been formed--and, I must now add, is likely to survive
+them. I cannot, in honour, revenge me for my disappointment on him who
+had no hand in it. Or, if this high-born dame loved him better than
+myself, who can say that she did not justice to a knight of her own
+religion, who is full of nobleness?"
+
+"Yet of too mean lineage to mix with the blood of Plantagenet," said
+Richard haughtily.
+
+"Such may be your maxims in Frangistan," replied the Soldan. "Our poets
+of the Eastern countries say that a valiant camel-driver is worthy to
+kiss the lip of a fair Queen, when a cowardly prince is not worthy to
+salute the hem of her garment. But with your permission, noble brother,
+I must take leave of thee for the present, to receive the Duke of
+Austria and yonder Nazarene knight, much less worthy of hospitality, but
+who must yet be suitably entreated, not for their sakes, but for mine
+own honour--for what saith the sage Lokman? 'Say not that the food
+is lost unto thee which is given to the stranger; for if his body be
+strengthened and fattened therewithal, not less is thine own worship and
+good name cherished and augmented.'"
+
+The Saracen Monarch departed from King Richard's tent, and having
+indicated to him, rather with signs than with speech, where the pavilion
+of the Queen and her attendants was pitched, he went to receive the
+Marquis of Montserrat and his attendants, for whom, with less
+goodwill, but with equal splendour, the magnificent Soldan had provided
+accommodations. The most ample refreshments, both in the Oriental and
+after the European fashion, were spread before the royal and princely
+guests of Saladin, each in their own separate pavilion; and so attentive
+was the Soldan to the habits and taste of his visitors, that Grecian
+slaves were stationed to present them with the goblet, which is the
+abomination of the sect of Mohammed. Ere Richard had finished his meal,
+the ancient Omrah, who had brought the Soldan's letter to the Christian
+camp, entered with a plan of the ceremonial to be observed on the
+succeeding day of combat. Richard, who knew the taste of his old
+acquaintance, invited him to pledge him in a flagon of wine of Shiraz;
+but Abdallah gave him to understand, with a rueful aspect, that
+self-denial in the present circumstances was a matter in which his
+life was concerned, for that Saladin, tolerant in many respects, both
+observed and enforced by high penalties the laws of the Prophet.
+
+"Nay, then," said Richard, "if he loves not wine, that lightener of the
+human heart, his conversion is not to be hoped for, and the prediction
+of the mad priest of Engaddi goes like chaff down the wind."
+
+The King then addressed himself to settle the articles of combat, which
+cost a considerable time, as it was necessary on some points to consult
+with the opposite parties, as well as with the Soldan.
+
+They were at length finally agreed upon, and adjusted by a protocol in
+French and in Arabian, which was subscribed by Saladin as umpire of the
+field, and by Richard and Leopold as guarantees for the two combatants.
+As the Omrah took his final leave of King Richard for the evening, De
+Vaux entered.
+
+"The good knight," he said, "who is to do battle tomorrow requests to
+know whether he may not to-night pay duty to his royal godfather!"
+
+"Hast thou seen him, De Vaux?" said the King, smiling; "and didst thou
+know an ancient acquaintance?"
+
+"By our Lady of Lanercost," answered De Vaux, "there are so many
+surprises and changes in this land that my poor brain turns. I scarce
+knew Sir Kenneth of Scotland, till his good hound, that had been for a
+short while under my care, came and fawned on me; and even then I only
+knew the tyke by the depth of his chest, the roundness of his foot,
+and his manner of baying, for the poor gazehound was painted like any
+Venetian courtesan."
+
+"Thou art better skilled in brutes than men, De Vaux," said the King.
+
+"I will not deny," said De Vaux, "I have found them ofttimes the
+honester animals. Also, your Grace is pleased to term me sometimes a
+brute myself; besides that, I serve the Lion, whom all men acknowledge
+the king of brutes."
+
+"By Saint George, there thou brokest thy lance fairly on my brow," said
+the King. "I have ever said thou hast a sort of wit, De Vaux; marry, one
+must strike thee with a sledge-hammer ere it can be made to sparkle. But
+to the present gear--is the good knight well armed and equipped?"
+
+"Fully, my liege, and nobly," answered De Vaux. "I know the armour well;
+it is that which the Venetian commissary offered your highness, just ere
+you became ill, for five hundred byzants."
+
+"And he hath sold it to the infidel Soldan, I warrant me, for a few
+ducats more, and present payment. These Venetians would sell the
+Sepulchre itself!"
+
+"The armour will never be borne in a nobler cause," said De Vaux.
+
+"Thanks to the nobleness of the Saracen," said the King, "not to the
+avarice of the Venetians."
+
+"I would to God your Grace would be more cautious," said the anxious
+De Vaux. "Here are we deserted by all our allies, for points of offence
+given to one or another; we cannot hope to prosper upon the land; and we
+have only to quarrel with the amphibious republic, to lose the means of
+retreat by sea!"
+
+"I will take care," said Richard impatiently; "but school me no more.
+Tell me rather, for it is of interest, hath the knight a confessor?"
+
+"He hath," answered De Vaux; "the hermit of Engaddi, who erst did
+him that office when preparing for death, attends him on the present
+occasion, the fame of the duel having brought him hither."
+
+"'Tis well," said Richard; "and now for the knight's request. Say to
+him, Richard will receive him when the discharge of his devoir beside
+the Diamond of the Desert shall have atoned for his fault beside the
+Mount of Saint George; and as thou passest through the camp, let the
+Queen know I will visit her pavilion--and tell Blondel to meet me
+there."
+
+De Vaux departed, and in about an hour afterwards, Richard, wrapping his
+mantle around him, and taking his ghittern in his hand, walked in the
+direction of the Queen's pavilion. Several Arabs passed him, but always
+with averted heads and looks fixed upon the earth, though he could
+observe that all gazed earnestly after him when he was past. This led
+him justly to conjecture that his person was known to them; but that
+either the Soldan's commands, or their own Oriental politeness, forbade
+them to seem to notice a sovereign who desired to remain incognito.
+
+When the King reached the pavilion of his Queen he found it guarded by
+those unhappy officials whom Eastern jealousy places around the zenana.
+Blondel was walking before the door, and touched his rote from time to
+time in a manner which made the Africans show their ivory teeth, and
+bear burden with their strange gestures and shrill, unnatural voices.
+
+"What art thou after with this herd of black cattle, Blondel?" said the
+King; "wherefore goest thou not into the tent?"
+
+"Because my trade can neither spare the head nor the fingers," said
+Blondel, "and these honest blackamoors threatened to cut me joint from
+joint if I pressed forward."
+
+"Well, enter with me," said the King, "and I will be thy safeguard."
+
+The blacks accordingly lowered pikes and swords to King Richard, and
+bent their eyes on the ground, as if unworthy to look upon him. In the
+interior of the pavilion they found Thomas de Vaux in attendance on the
+Queen. While Berengaria welcomed Blondel, King Richard spoke for some
+time secretly and apart with his fair kinswoman.
+
+At length, "Are we still foes, my fair Edith?" he said, in a whisper.
+
+"No, my liege," said Edith, in a voice just so low as not to interrupt
+the music; "none can bear enmity against King Richard when he deigns to
+show himself, as he really is, generous and noble, as well as valiant
+and honourable."
+
+So saying, she extended her hand to him. The King kissed it in token of
+reconciliation, and then proceeded.
+
+"You think, my sweet cousin, that my anger in this matter was feigned;
+but you are deceived. The punishment I inflicted upon this knight was
+just; for he had betrayed--no matter for how tempting a bribe, fair
+cousin--the trust committed to him. But I rejoice, perchance as much as
+you, that to-morrow gives him a chance to win the field, and throw
+back the stain which for a time clung to him upon the actual thief and
+traitor. No!--future times may blame Richard for impetuous folly, but
+they shall say that in rendering judgment he was just when he should and
+merciful when he could."
+
+"Laud not thyself, cousin King," said Edith. "They may call thy justice
+cruelty, thy mercy caprice."
+
+"And do not thou pride thyself," said the King, "as if thy knight,
+who hath not yet buckled on his armour, were unbelting it in
+triumph--Conrade of Montserrat is held a good lance. What if the Scot
+should lose the day?"
+
+"It is impossible!" said Edith firmly. "My own eyes saw yonder Conrade
+tremble and change colour like a base thief; he is guilty, and the trial
+by combat is an appeal to the justice of God. I myself, in such a cause,
+would encounter him without fear."
+
+"By the mass, I think thou wouldst, wench," said the King, "and beat him
+to boot, for there never breathed a truer Plantagenet than thou."
+
+ He paused, and added in a very serious tone, "See that thou
+continue to remember what is due to thy birth."
+
+"What means that advice, so seriously given at this moment?" said Edith.
+"Am I of such light nature as to forget my name--my condition?"
+
+"I will speak plainly, Edith," answered the King, "and as to a friend.
+What will this knight be to you, should he come off victor from yonder
+lists?"
+
+"To me?" said Edith, blushing deep with shame and displeasure. "What can
+he be to me more than an honoured knight, worthy of such grace as
+Queen Berengaria might confer on him, had he selected her for his lady,
+instead of a more unworthy choice? The meanest knight may devote himself
+to the service of an empress, but the glory of his choice," she said
+proudly, "must be his reward."
+
+"Yet he hath served and suffered much for you," said the King.
+
+"I have paid his services with honour and applause, and his sufferings
+with tears," answered Edith. "Had he desired other reward, he would have
+done wisely to have bestowed his affections within his own degree."
+
+"You would not, then, wear the bloody night-gear for his sake?" said
+King Richard.
+
+"No more," answered Edith, "than I would have required him to expose his
+life by an action in which there was more madness than honour."
+
+"Maidens talk ever thus," said the King; "but when the favoured
+lover presses his suit, she says, with a sigh, her stars had decreed
+otherwise."
+
+"Your Grace has now, for the second time, threatened me with the
+influence of my horoscope," Edith replied, with dignity. "Trust me,
+my liege, whatever be the power of the stars, your poor kinswoman will
+never wed either infidel or obscure adventurer. Permit me that I listen
+to the music of Blondel, for the tone of your royal admonitions is
+scarce so grateful to the ear."
+
+The conclusion of the evening offered nothing worthy of notice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     Heard ye the din of battle bray,
+     Lance to lance, and horse to horse?
+          GRAY.
+
+It had been agreed, on account of the heat of the climate, that the
+judicial combat which was the cause of the present assemblage of various
+nations at the Diamond of the Desert should take place at one hour after
+sunrise. The wide lists, which had been constructed under the inspection
+of the Knight of the Leopard, enclosed a space of hard sand, which was
+one hundred and twenty yards long by forty in width. They extended
+in length from north to south, so as to give both parties the equal
+advantage of the rising sun. Saladin's royal seat was erected on the
+western side of the enclosure, just in the centre, where the combatants
+were expected to meet in mid encounter. Opposed to this was a gallery
+with closed casements, so contrived that the ladies, for whose
+accommodation it was erected, might see the fight without being
+themselves exposed to view. At either extremity of the lists was a
+barrier, which could be opened or shut at pleasure. Thrones had been
+also erected, but the Archduke, perceiving that his was lower than
+King Richard's, refused to occupy it; and Coeur de Lion, who would have
+submitted to much ere any formality should have interfered with the
+combat, readily agreed that the sponsors, as they were called, should
+remain on horseback during the fight. At one extremity of the lists
+were placed the followers of Richard, and opposed to them were those
+who accompanied the defender Conrade. Around the throne destined for
+the Soldan were ranged his splendid Georgian Guards, and the rest of the
+enclosure was occupied by Christian and Mohammedan spectators.
+
+Long before daybreak the lists were surrounded by even a larger number
+of Saracens than Richard had seen on the preceding evening. When the
+first ray of the sun's glorious orb arose above the desert, the sonorous
+call, "To prayer--to prayer!" was poured forth by the Soldan himself,
+and answered by others, whose rank and zeal entitled them to act as
+muezzins. It was a striking spectacle to see them all sink to earth,
+for the purpose of repeating their devotions, with their faces turned
+to Mecca. But when they arose from the ground, the sun's rays, now
+strengthening fast, seemed to confirm the Lord of Gilsland's conjecture
+of the night before. They were flashed back from many a spearhead, for
+the pointless lances of the preceding day were certainly no longer such.
+De Vaux pointed it out to his master, who answered with impatience that
+he had perfect confidence in the good faith of the Soldan; but if De
+Vaux was afraid of his bulky body, he might retire.
+
+Soon after this the noise of timbrels was heard, at the sound of which
+the whole Saracen cavaliers threw themselves from their horses, and
+prostrated themselves, as if for a second morning prayer. This was to
+give an opportunity to the Queen, with Edith and her attendants, to
+pass from the pavilion to the gallery intended for them. Fifty guards of
+Saladin's seraglio escorted them with naked sabres, whose orders were to
+cut to pieces whomsoever, were he prince or peasant, should venture to
+gaze on the ladies as they passed, or even presume to raise his head
+until the cessation of the music should make all men aware that they
+were lodged in their gallery, not to be gazed on by the curious eye.
+
+This superstitious observance of Oriental reverence to the fair sex
+called forth from Queen Berengaria some criticisms very unfavourable
+to Saladin and his country. But their den, as the royal fair called it,
+being securely closed and guarded by their sable attendants, she was
+under the necessity of contenting herself with seeing, and laying aside
+for the present the still more exquisite pleasure of being seen.
+
+Meantime the sponsors of both champions went, as was their duty, to
+see that they were duly armed and prepared for combat. The Archduke of
+Austria was in no hurry to perform this part of the ceremony, having
+had rather an unusually severe debauch upon wine of Shiraz the preceding
+evening. But the Grand Master of the Temple, more deeply concerned
+in the event of the combat, was early before the tent of Conrade
+of Montserrat. To his great surprise, the attendants refused him
+admittance.
+
+"Do you not know me, ye knaves?" said the Grand Master, in great anger.
+
+"We do, most valiant and reverend," answered Conrade's squire; "but even
+you may not at present enter--the Marquis is about to confess himself."
+
+"Confess himself!" exclaimed the Templar, in a tone where alarm mingled
+with surprise and scorn--"and to whom, I pray thee?"
+
+"My master bid me be secret," said the squire; on which the Grand Master
+pushed past him, and entered the tent almost by force.
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat was kneeling at the feet of the hermit of
+Engaddi, and in the act of beginning his confession.
+
+"What means this, Marquis?" said the Grand Master; "up, for shame--or,
+if you must needs confess, am not I here?"
+
+"I have confessed to you too often already," replied Conrade, with a
+pale cheek and a faltering voice. "For God's sake, Grand Master, begone,
+and let me unfold my conscience to this holy man."
+
+"In what is he holier than I am?" said the Grand Master.--"Hermit,
+prophet, madman--say, if thou darest, in what thou excellest me?"
+
+"Bold and bad man," replied the hermit, "know that I am like the
+latticed window, and the divine light passes through to avail others,
+though, alas! it helpeth not me. Thou art like the iron stanchions,
+which neither receive light themselves, nor communicate it to any one."
+
+"Prate not to me, but depart from this tent," said the Grand Master;
+"the Marquis shall not confess this morning, unless it be to me, for I
+part not from his side."
+
+"Is this YOUR pleasure?" said the hermit to Conrade; "for think not I
+will obey that proud man, if you continue to desire my assistance."
+
+"Alas," said Conrade irresolutely, "what would you have me say? Farewell
+for a while---we will speak anon."
+
+"O procrastination!" exclaimed the hermit, "thou art a
+soul-murderer!--Unhappy man, farewell--not for a while, but until we
+shall both meet no matter where. And for thee," he added, turning to the
+Grand Master, "TREMBLE!"
+
+"Tremble!" replied the Templar contemptuously, "I cannot if I would."
+
+The hermit heard not his answer, having left the tent.
+
+"Come! to this gear hastily," said the Grand Master, "since thou wilt
+needs go through the foolery. Hark thee--I think I know most of thy
+frailties by heart, so we may omit the detail, which may be somewhat
+a long one, and begin with the absolution. What signifies counting the
+spots of dirt that we are about to wash from our hands?"
+
+"Knowing what thou art thyself," said Conrade, "it is blasphemous to
+speak of pardoning another."
+
+"That is not according to the canon, Lord Marquis," said the Templar;
+"thou art more scrupulous than orthodox. The absolution of the wicked
+priest is as effectual as if he were himself a saint--otherwise, God
+help the poor penitent! What wounded man inquires whether the surgeon
+that tends his gashes has clean hands or no? Come, shall we to this
+toy?"
+
+"No," said Conrade, "I will rather die unconfessed than mock the
+sacrament."
+
+"Come, noble Marquis," said the Templar, "rouse up your courage, and
+speak not thus. In an hour's time thou shalt stand victorious in the
+lists, or confess thee in thy helmet, like a valiant knight."
+
+"Alas, Grand Master," answered Conrade, "all augurs ill for this affair,
+the strange discovery by the instinct of a dog--the revival of this
+Scottish knight, who comes into the lists like a spectre--all betokens
+evil."
+
+"Pshaw," said the Templar, "I have seen thee bend thy lance boldly
+against him in sport, and with equal chance of success. Think thou art
+but in a tournament, and who bears him better in the tilt-yard than
+thou?--Come, squires and armourers, your master must be accoutred for
+the field."
+
+The attendants entered accordingly, and began to arm the Marquis.
+
+"What morning is without?" said Conrade.
+
+"The sun rises dimly," answered a squire.
+
+"Thou seest, Grand Master," said Conrade, "nought smiles on us."
+
+"Thou wilt fight the more coolly, my son," answered the Templar; "thank
+Heaven, that hath tempered the sun of Palestine to suit thine occasion."
+
+Thus jested the Grand Master. But his jests had lost their influence on
+the harassed mind of the Marquis, and notwithstanding his attempts to
+seem gay, his gloom communicated itself to the Templar.
+
+"This craven," he thought, "will lose the day in pure faintness and
+cowardice of heart, which he calls tender conscience. I, whom visions
+and auguries shake not---who am firm in my purpose as the living rock--I
+should have fought the combat myself. Would to God the Scot may strike
+him dead on the spot; it were next best to his winning the victory. But
+come what will, he must have no other confessor than myself--our sins
+are too much in common, and he might confess my share with his own."
+
+While these thoughts passed through his mind, he continued to assist the
+Marquis in arming, but it was in silence.
+
+The hour at length arrived; the trumpets sounded; the knights rode
+into the lists armed at all points, and mounted like men who were to
+do battle for a kingdom's honour. They wore their visors up, and riding
+around the lists three times, showed themselves to the spectators. Both
+were goodly persons, and both had noble countenances. But there was an
+air of manly confidence on the brow of the Scot--a radiancy of hope,
+which amounted even to cheerfulness; while, although pride and effort
+had recalled much of Conrade's natural courage, there lowered still on
+his brow a cloud of ominous despondence. Even his steed seemed to tread
+less lightly and blithely to the trumpet-sound than the noble Arab which
+was bestrode by Sir Kenneth; and the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his head
+while he observed that, while the challenger rode around the lists in
+the course of the sun--that is, from right to left--the defender made
+the same circuit WIDDERSINS--that is, from left to right--which is in
+most countries held ominous.
+
+A temporary altar was erected just beneath the gallery occupied by the
+Queen, and beside it stood the hermit in the dress of his order as a
+Carmelite friar. Other churchmen were also present. To this altar the
+challenger and defender were successively brought forward, conducted by
+their respective sponsors. Dismounting before it, each knight avouched
+the justice of his cause by a solemn oath on the Evangelists, and prayed
+that his success might be according to the truth or falsehood of what he
+then swore. They also made oath that they came to do battle in knightly
+guise, and with the usual weapons, disclaiming the use of spells,
+charms, or magical devices to incline victory to their side. The
+challenger pronounced his vow with a firm and manly voice, and a bold
+and cheerful countenance. When the ceremony was finished, the Scottish
+Knight looked at the gallery, and bent his head to the earth, as if in
+honour of those invisible beauties which were enclosed within; then,
+loaded with armour as he was, sprung to the saddle without the use of
+the stirrup, and made his courser carry him in a succession of caracoles
+to his station at the eastern extremity of the lists. Conrade also
+presented himself before the altar with boldness enough; but his voice
+as he took the oath sounded hollow, as if drowned in his helmet. The
+lips with which he appealed to Heaven to adjudge victory to the just
+quarrel grew white as they uttered the impious mockery. As he turned
+to remount his horse, the Grand Master approached him closer, as if
+to rectify something about the sitting of his gorget, and whispered,
+"Coward and fool! recall thy senses, and do me this battle bravely,
+else, by Heaven, shouldst thou escape him, thou escapest not ME!"
+
+The savage tone in which this was whispered perhaps completed the
+confusion of the Marquis's nerves, for he stumbled as he made to horse;
+and though he recovered his feet, sprung to the saddle with his usual
+agility, and displayed his address in horsemanship as he assumed his
+position opposite to the challenger's, yet the accident did not escape
+those who were on the watch for omens which might predict the fate of
+the day.
+
+The priests, after a solemn prayer that God would show the rightful
+quarrel, departed from the lists. The trumpets of the challenger then
+rung a flourish, and a herald-at-arms proclaimed at the eastern end of
+the lists--"Here stands a good knight, Sir Kenneth of Scotland, champion
+for the royal King Richard of England, who accuseth Conrade, Marquis of
+Montserrat, of foul treason and dishonour done to the said King."
+
+When the words Kenneth of Scotland announced the name and character
+of the champion, hitherto scarce generally known, a loud and cheerful
+acclaim burst from the followers of King Richard, and hardly,
+notwithstanding repeated commands of silence, suffered the reply of
+the defendant to be heard. He, of course, avouched his innocence,
+and offered his body for battle. The esquires of the combatants now
+approached, and delivered to each his shield and lance, assisting to
+hang the former around his neck, that his two hands might remain free,
+one for the management of the bridle, the other to direct the lance.
+
+The shield of the Scot displayed his old bearing, the leopard, but
+with the addition of a collar and broken chain, in allusion to his late
+captivity. The shield of the Marquis bore, in reference to his title,
+a serrated and rocky mountain. Each shook his lance aloft, as if to
+ascertain the weight and toughness of the unwieldy weapon, and then laid
+it in the rest. The sponsors, heralds, and squires now retired to the
+barriers, and the combatants sat opposite to each other, face to face,
+with couched lance and closed visor, the human form so completely
+enclosed, that they looked more like statues of molten iron than
+beings of flesh and blood. The silence of suspense was now general.
+Men breathed thicker, and their very souls seemed seated in their eyes;
+while not a sound was to be heard save the snorting and pawing of the
+good steeds, who, sensible of what was about to happen, were impatient
+to dash into career. They stood thus for perhaps three minutes, when,
+at a signal given by the Soldan, a hundred instruments rent the air with
+their brazen clamours, and each champion striking his horse with the
+spurs, and slacking the rein, the horses started into full gallop,
+and the knights met in mid space with a shock like a thunderbolt. The
+victory was not in doubt--no, not one moment. Conrade, indeed, showed
+himself a practised warrior; for he struck his antagonist knightly in
+the midst of his shield, bearing his lance so straight and true that
+it shivered into splinters from the steel spear-head up to the very
+gauntlet. The horse of Sir Kenneth recoiled two or three yards and fell
+on his haunches; but the rider easily raised him with hand and rein.
+But for Conrade there was no recovery. Sir Kenneth's lance had pierced
+through the shield, through a plated corselet of Milan steel, through a
+SECRET, or coat of linked mail, worn beneath the corselet, had wounded
+him deep in the bosom, and borne him from his saddle, leaving the
+truncheon of the lance fixed in his wound. The sponsors, heralds, and
+Saladin himself, descending from his throne, crowded around the wounded
+man; while Sir Kenneth, who had drawn his sword ere yet he discovered
+his antagonist was totally helpless, now commanded him to avow his
+guilt. The helmet was hastily unclosed, and the wounded man, gazing
+wildly on the skies, replied, "What would you more? God hath decided
+justly--I am guilty; but there are worse traitors in the camp than I. In
+pity to my soul, let me have a confessor!"
+
+He revived as he uttered these words.
+
+"The talisman--the powerful remedy, royal brother!" said King Richard to
+Saladin.
+
+"The traitor," answered the Soldan, "is more fit to be dragged from the
+lists to the gallows by the heels, than to profit by its virtues. And
+some such fate is in his look," he added, after gazing fixedly upon the
+wounded man; "for though his wound may be cured, yet Azrael's seal is on
+the wretch's brow."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Richard, "I pray you do for him what you may, that
+he may at least have time for confession. Slay not soul and body! To him
+one half hour of time may be worth more, by ten thousandfold, than the
+life of the oldest patriarch."
+
+"My royal brother's wish shall be obeyed," said Saladin.--"Slaves, bear
+this wounded man to our tent."
+
+"Do not so," said the Templar, who had hitherto stood gloomily looking
+on in silence. "The royal Duke of Austria and myself will not permit
+this unhappy Christian prince to be delivered over to the Saracens, that
+they may try their spells upon him. We are his sponsors, and demand that
+he be assigned to our care."
+
+"That is, you refuse the certain means offered to recover him?" said
+Richard.
+
+"Not so," said the Grand Master, recollecting himself. "If the Soldan
+useth lawful medicines, he may attend the patient in my tent."
+
+"Do so, I pray thee, good brother," said Richard to Saladin, "though the
+permission be ungraciously yielded.--But now to a more glorious work.
+Sound, trumpets--shout, England--in honour of England's champion!"
+
+Drum, clarion, trumpet, and cymbal rung forth at once, and the deep and
+regular shout, which for ages has been the English acclamation, sounded
+amidst the shrill and irregular yells of the Arabs, like the diapason of
+the organ amid the howling of a storm. There was silence at length.
+
+"Brave Knight of the Leopard," resumed Coeur de Lion, "thou hast shown
+that the Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his spots,
+though clerks quote Scripture for the impossibility. Yet I have more to
+say to you when I have conducted you to the presence of the ladies, the
+best judges and best rewarders of deeds of chivalry."
+
+The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent.
+
+"And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them. I promise thee our
+Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the opportunity to
+thank her royal host for her most princely reception."
+
+Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation.
+
+"I must attend the wounded man," he said. "The leech leaves not his
+patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be summoned to a
+bower like those of Paradise. And further, royal Richard, know that the
+blood of the East flows not so temperately in the presence of beauty as
+that of your land. What saith the Book itself?--Her eye is as the edge
+of the sword of the Prophet, who shall look upon it? He that would not
+be burnt avoideth to tread on hot embers--wise men spread not the flax
+before a flickering torch. He, saith the sage, who hath forfeited a
+treasure, doth not wisely to turn back his head to gaze at it."
+
+Richard, it may be believed, respected the motives of delicacy which
+flowed from manners so different from his own, and urged his request no
+further.
+
+"At noon," said the Soldan, as he departed, "I trust ye will all accept
+a collation under the black camel-skin tent of a chief of Kurdistan."
+
+The same invitation was circulated among the Christians, comprehending
+all those of sufficient importance to be admitted to sit at a feast made
+for princes.
+
+"Hark!" said Richard, "the timbrels announce that our Queen and her
+attendants are leaving their gallery--and see, the turbans sink on the
+ground, as if struck down by a destroying angel. All lie prostrate, as
+if the glance of an Arab's eye could sully the lustre of a lady's
+cheek! Come, we will to the pavilion, and lead our conqueror thither in
+triumph. How I pity that noble Soldan, who knows but of love as it is
+known to those of inferior nature!"
+
+Blondel tuned his harp to his boldest measure, to welcome the
+introduction of the victor into the pavilion of Queen Berengaria. He
+entered, supported on either side by his sponsors, Richard and Thomas
+Longsword, and knelt gracefully down before the Queen, though more than
+half the homage was silently rendered to Edith, who sat on her right
+hand.
+
+"Unarm him, my mistresses," said the King, whose delight was in the
+execution of such chivalrous usages; "let Beauty honour Chivalry! Undo
+his spurs, Berengaria; Queen though thou be, thou owest him what marks
+of favour thou canst give.--Unlace his helmet, Edith;--by this hand
+thou shalt, wert thou the proudest Plantagenet of the line, and he the
+poorest knight on earth!"
+
+Both ladies obeyed the royal commands--Berengaria with bustling
+assiduity, as anxious to gratify her husband's humour, and Edith
+blushing and growing pale alternately, as, slowly and awkwardly, she
+undid, with Longsword's assistance, the fastenings which secured the
+helmet to the gorget.
+
+"And what expect you from beneath this iron shell?" said Richard, as the
+removal of the casque gave to view the noble countenance of Sir Kenneth,
+his face glowing with recent exertion, and not less so with present
+emotion. "What think ye of him, gallants and beauties?" said Richard.
+"Doth he resemble an Ethiopian slave, or doth he present the face of an
+obscure and nameless adventurer? No, by my good sword! Here terminate
+his various disguises. He hath knelt down before you unknown, save by
+his worth; he arises equally distinguished by birth and by fortune. The
+adventurous knight, Kenneth, arises David, Earl of Huntingdon, Prince
+Royal of Scotland!"
+
+There was a general exclamation of surprise, and Edith dropped from her
+hand the helmet which she had just received.
+
+"Yes, my masters," said the King, "it is even so. Ye know how Scotland
+deceived us when she proposed to send this valiant Earl, with a bold
+company of her best and noblest, to aid our arms in this conquest of
+Palestine, but failed to comply with her engagements. This noble youth,
+under whom the Scottish Crusaders were to have been arrayed, thought
+foul scorn that his arm should be withheld from the holy warfare,
+and joined us at Sicily with a small train of devoted and faithful
+attendants, which was augmented by many of his countrymen to whom the
+rank of their leader was unknown. The confidants of the Royal Prince had
+all, save one old follower, fallen by death, when his secret, but
+too well kept, had nearly occasioned my cutting off, in a Scottish
+adventurer, one of the noblest hopes of Europe.--Why did you not mention
+your rank, noble Huntingdon, when endangered by my hasty and passionate
+sentence? Was it that you thought Richard capable of abusing the
+advantage I possessed over the heir of a King whom I have so often found
+hostile?"
+
+"I did you not that injustice, royal Richard," answered the Earl of
+Huntingdon; "but my pride brooked not that I should avow myself Prince
+of Scotland in order to save my life, endangered for default of loyalty.
+And, moreover, I had made my vow to preserve my rank unknown till the
+Crusade should be accomplished; nor did I mention it save IN ARTICULO
+MORTIS, and under the seal of confession, to yonder reverend hermit."
+
+"It was the knowledge of that secret, then, which made the good man so
+urgent with me to recall my severe sentence?" said Richard. "Well did
+he say that, had this good knight fallen by my mandate, I should have
+wished the deed undone though it had cost me a limb. A limb! I should
+have wished it undone had it cost me my life---since the world would
+have said that Richard had abused the condition in which the heir of
+Scotland had placed himself by his confidence in his generosity."
+
+"Yet, may we know of your Grace by what strange and happy chance this
+riddle was at length read?" said the Queen Berengaria.
+
+"Letters were brought to us from England," said the King, "in which
+we learned, among other unpleasant news, that the King of Scotland had
+seized upon three of our nobles, when on a pilgrimage to Saint Ninian,
+and alleged, as a cause, that his heir, being supposed to be fighting in
+the ranks of the Teutonic Knights against the heathen of Borussia, was,
+in fact, in our camp, and in our power; and, therefore, William proposed
+to hold these nobles as hostages for his safety. This gave me the first
+light on the real rank of the Knight of the Leopard; and my suspicions
+were confirmed by De Vaux, who, on his return from Ascalon, brought back
+with him the Earl of Huntingdon's sole attendant, a thick-skulled slave,
+who had gone thirty miles to unfold to De Vaux a secret he should have
+told to me."
+
+"Old Strauchan must be excused," said the Lord of Gilsland. "He knew
+from experience that my heart is somewhat softer than if I wrote myself
+Plantagenet."
+
+"Thy heart soft? thou commodity of old iron and Cumberland flint, that
+thou art!" exclaimed the King.--"It is we Plantagenets who boast soft
+and feeling hearts. Edith," turning to his cousin with an expression
+which called the blood into her cheek, "give me thy hand, my fair
+cousin, and, Prince of Scotland, thine."
+
+"Forbear, my lord," said Edith, hanging back, and endeavouring to hide
+her confusion under an attempt to rally her royal kinsman's credulity.
+"Remember you not that my hand was to be the signal of converting to
+the Christian faith the Saracen and Arab, Saladin and all his turbaned
+host?"
+
+"Ay, but the wind of prophecy hath chopped about, and sits now in
+another corner," replied Richard.
+
+"Mock not, lest your bonds be made strong," said the hermit stepping
+forward. "The heavenly host write nothing but truth in their brilliant
+records. It is man's eyes which are too weak to read their characters
+aright. Know, that when Saladin and Kenneth of Scotland slept in my
+grotto, I read in the stars that there rested under my roof a prince,
+the natural foe of Richard, with whom the fate of Edith Plantagenet was
+to be united. Could I doubt that this must be the Soldan, whose rank
+was well known to me, as he often visited my cell to converse on the
+revolutions of the heavenly bodies? Again, the lights of the firmament
+proclaimed that this prince, the husband of Edith Plantagenet, should
+be a Christian; and I--weak and wild interpreter!--argued thence the
+conversion of the noble Saladin, whose good qualities seemed often to
+incline him towards the better faith. The sense of my weakness hath
+humbled me to the dust; but in the dust I have found comfort! I have not
+read aright the fate of others--who can assure me but that I may
+have miscalculated mine own? God will not have us break into His
+council-house, or spy out His hidden mysteries. We must wait His time
+with watching and prayer--with fear and with hope. I came hither the
+stern seer--the proud prophet--skilled, as I thought, to instruct
+princes, and gifted even with supernatural powers, but burdened with
+a weight which I deemed no shoulders but mine could have borne. But
+my bands have been broken! I go hence humble in mine ignorance,
+penitent--and not hopeless."
+
+With these words he withdrew from the assembly; and it is recorded that
+from that period his frenzy fits seldom occurred, and his penances were
+of a milder character, and accompanied with better hopes of the future.
+So much is there of self-opinion, even in insanity, that the conviction
+of his having entertained and expressed an unfounded prediction with so
+much vehemence seemed to operate like loss of blood on the human frame,
+to modify and lower the fever of the brain.
+
+It is needless to follow into further particulars the conferences at the
+royal tent, or to inquire whether David, Earl of Huntingdon, was as mute
+in the presence of Edith Plantagenet as when he was bound to act under
+the character of an obscure and nameless adventurer. It may be well
+believed that he there expressed with suitable earnestness the passion
+to which he had so often before found it difficult to give words.
+
+The hour of noon now approached, and Saladin waited to receive the
+Princes of Christendom in a tent, which, but for its large size,
+differed little from that of the ordinary shelter of the common Kurdman,
+or Arab; yet beneath its ample and sable covering was prepared a banquet
+after the most gorgeous fashion of the East, extended upon carpets of
+the richest stuffs, with cushions laid for the guests. But we cannot
+stop to describe the cloth of gold and silver--the superb embroidery in
+arabesque--the shawls of Kashmere and the muslins of India, which were
+here unfolded in all their splendour; far less to tell the different
+sweetmeats, ragouts edged with rice coloured in various manners, with
+all the other niceties of Eastern cookery. Lambs roasted whole, and
+game and poultry dressed in pilaus, were piled in vessels of gold, and
+silver, and porcelain, and intermixed with large mazers of sherbet,
+cooled in snow and ice from the caverns of Mount Lebanon. A magnificent
+pile of cushions at the head of the banquet seemed prepared for the
+master of the feast, and such dignitaries as he might call to share that
+place of distinction; while from the roof of the tent in all quarters,
+but over this seat of eminence in particular, waved many a banner and
+pennon, the trophies of battles won and kingdoms overthrown. But amongst
+and above them all, a long lance displayed a shroud, the banner
+of Death, with this impressive inscription--"SALADIN, KING OF
+KINGS--SALADIN, VICTOR OF VICTORS--SALADIN MUST DIE." Amid these
+preparations, the slaves who had arranged the refreshments stood
+with drooped heads and folded arms, mute and motionless as monumental
+statuary, or as automata, which waited the touch of the artist to put
+them in motion.
+
+Expecting the approach of his princely guests, the Soldan, imbued, as
+most were, with the superstitions of his time, paused over a horoscope
+and corresponding scroll, which had been sent to him by the hermit of
+Engaddi when he departed from the camp.
+
+"Strange and mysterious science," he muttered to himself, "which,
+pretending to draw the curtain of futurity, misleads those whom it seems
+to guide, and darkens the scene which it pretends to illuminate! Who
+would not have said that I was that enemy most dangerous to Richard,
+whose enmity was to be ended by marriage with his kinswoman? Yet it now
+appears that a union betwixt this gallant Earl and the lady will bring
+about friendship betwixt Richard and Scotland, an enemy more dangerous
+than I, as a wildcat in a chamber is more to be dreaded than a lion
+in a distant desert. But then," he continued to mutter to
+himself, "the combination intimates that this husband was to be
+Christian.--Christian!" he repeated, after a pause. "That gave the
+insane fanatic star-gazer hopes that I might renounce my faith! But me,
+the faithful follower of our Prophet--me it should have undeceived.
+Lie there, mysterious scroll," he added, thrusting it under the pile of
+cushions; "strange are thy bodements and fatal, since, even when true in
+themselves, they work upon those who attempt to decipher their meaning
+all the effects of falsehood.--How now! what means this intrusion?"
+
+He spoke to the dwarf Nectabanus, who rushed into the tent fearfully
+agitated, with each strange and disproportioned feature wrenched by
+horror into still more extravagant ugliness--his mouth open, his eyes
+staring, his hands, with their shrivelled and deformed fingers, wildly
+expanded.
+
+"What now?" said the Soldan sternly.
+
+"ACCIPE HOC!" groaned out the dwarf.
+
+"Ha! sayest thou?" answered Saladin.
+
+"ACCIPE HOC!" replied the panic-struck creature, unconscious,
+perhaps, that he repeated the same words as before.
+
+"Hence, I am in no vein for foolery," said the Emperor.
+
+"Nor am I further fool," said the dwarf, "than to make my folly help out
+my wits to earn my bread, poor, helpless wretch! Hear, hear me, great
+Soldan!"
+
+"Nay, if thou hast actual wrong to complain of," said Saladin, "fool or
+wise, thou art entitled to the ear of a King. Retire hither with me;"
+and he led him into the inner tent.
+
+Whatever their conference related to, it was soon broken off by the
+fanfare of the trumpets announcing the arrival of the various Christian
+princes, whom Saladin welcomed to his tent with a royal courtesy well
+becoming their rank and his own; but chiefly he saluted the young Earl
+of Huntingdon, and generously congratulated him upon prospects which
+seemed to have interfered with and overclouded those which he had
+himself entertained.
+
+"But think not," said the Soldan, "thou noble youth, that the Prince
+of Scotland is more welcome to Saladin than was Kenneth to the solitary
+Ilderim when they met in the desert, or the distressed Ethiop to the
+Hakim Adonbec. A brave and generous disposition like thine hath a value
+independent of condition and birth, as the cool draught, which I here
+proffer thee, is as delicious from an earthen vessel as from a goblet of
+gold."
+
+The Earl of Huntingdon made a suitable reply, gratefully acknowledging
+the various important services he had received from the generous Soldan;
+but when he had pledged Saladin in the bowl of sherbet which the Soldan
+had proffered to him, he could not help remarking with a smile, "The
+brave cavalier Ilderim knew not of the formation of ice, but the
+munificent Soldan cools his sherbet with snow."
+
+"Wouldst thou have an Arab or a Kurdman as wise as a Hakim?" said the
+Soldan. "He who does on a disguise must make the sentiments of his heart
+and the learning of his head accord with the dress which he assumes.
+I desired to see how a brave and single-hearted cavalier of Frangistan
+would conduct himself in debate with such a chief as I then seemed; and
+I questioned the truth of a well-known fact, to know by what arguments
+thou wouldst support thy assertion."
+
+While they were speaking, the Archduke of Austria, who stood a little
+apart, was struck with the mention of iced sherbet, and took with
+pleasure and some bluntness the deep goblet, as the Earl of Huntingdon
+was about to replace it.
+
+"Most delicious!" he exclaimed, after a deep draught, which the heat of
+the weather, and the feverishness following the debauch of the preceding
+day, had rendered doubly acceptable. He sighed as he handed the cup to
+the Grand Master of the Templars. Saladin made a sign to the dwarf, who
+advanced and pronounced, with a harsh voice, the words, ACCIPE HOC! The
+Templar started, like a steed who sees a lion under a bush beside the
+pathway; yet instantly recovered, and to hide, perhaps, his confusion,
+raised the goblet to his lips. But those lips never touched that
+goblet's rim. The sabre of Saladin left its sheath as lightning leaves
+the cloud. It was waved in the air, and the head of the Grand Master
+rolled to the extremity of the tent, while the trunk remained for a
+second standing, with the goblet still clenched in its grasp, then fell,
+the liquor mingling with the blood that spurted from the veins.
+
+There was a general exclamation of treason, and Austria, nearest to
+whom Saladin stood with the bloody sabre in his hand, started back as
+if apprehensive that his turn was to come next. Richard and others laid
+hand on their swords.
+
+"Fear nothing, noble Austria," said Saladin, as composedly as if nothing
+had happened,--"nor you, royal England, be wroth at what you have seen.
+Not for his manifold treasons--not for the attempt which, as may
+be vouched by his own squire, he instigated against King Richard's
+life--not that he pursued the Prince of Scotland and myself in the
+desert, reducing us to save our lives by the speed of our horses--not
+that he had stirred up the Maronites to attack us upon this very
+occasion, had I not brought up unexpectedly so many Arabs as rendered
+the scheme abortive--not for any or all of these crimes does he now lie
+there, although each were deserving such a doom--but because, scarce
+half an hour ere he polluted our presence, as the simoom empoisons
+the atmosphere, he poniarded his comrade and accomplice, Conrade of
+Montserrat, lest he should confess the infamous plots in which they had
+both been engaged."
+
+"How! Conrade murdered?--And by the Grand Master, his sponsor and most
+intimate friend!" exclaimed Richard. "Noble Soldan, I would not doubt
+thee; yet this must be proved, otherwise--"
+
+"There stands the evidence," said Saladin, pointing to the terrified
+dwarf. "Allah, who sends the fire-fly to illuminate the night season,
+can discover secret crimes by the most contemptible means."
+
+The Soldan proceeded to tell the dwarf's story, which amounted to this.
+In his foolish curiosity, or, as he partly confessed, with some thoughts
+of pilfering, Nectabanus had strayed into the tent of Conrade, which had
+been deserted by his attendants, some of whom had left the encampment
+to carry the news of his defeat to his brother, and others were availing
+themselves of the means which Saladin had supplied for revelling. The
+wounded man slept under the influence of Saladin's wonderful talisman,
+so that the dwarf had opportunity to pry about at pleasure until he was
+frightened into concealment by the sound of a heavy step. He skulked
+behind a curtain, yet could see the motions, and hear the words, of the
+Grand Master, who entered, and carefully secured the covering of the
+pavilion behind him. His victim started from sleep, and it would appear
+that he instantly suspected the purpose of his old associate, for it was
+in a tone of alarm that he demanded wherefore he disturbed him.
+
+"I come to confess and to absolve thee," answered the Grand Master.
+
+Of their further speech the terrified dwarf remembered little, save that
+Conrade implored the Grand Master not to break a wounded reed, and that
+the Templar struck him to the heart with a Turkish dagger, with the
+words ACCIPE HOC!--words which long afterwards haunted the terrified
+imagination of the concealed witness.
+
+"I verified the tale," said Saladin, "by causing the body to be
+examined; and I made this unhappy being, whom Allah hath made the
+discoverer of the crime, repeat in your own presence the words which the
+murderer spoke; and you yourselves saw the effect which they produced
+upon his conscience!"
+
+The Soldan paused, and the King of England broke silence.
+
+"If this be true, as I doubt not, we have witnessed a great act of
+justice, though it bore a different aspect. But wherefore in this
+presence? wherefore with thine own hand?"
+
+"I had designed otherwise," said Saladin. "But had I not hastened his
+doom, it had been altogether averted, since, if I had permitted him to
+taste of my cup, as he was about to do, how could I, without incurring
+the brand of inhospitality, have done him to death as he deserved? Had
+he murdered my father, and afterwards partaken of my food and my bowl,
+not a hair of his head could have been injured by me. But enough of
+him--let his carcass and his memory be removed from amongst us."
+
+The body was carried away, and the marks of the slaughter obliterated
+or concealed with such ready dexterity, as showed that the case was not
+altogether so uncommon as to paralyze the assistants and officers of
+Saladin's household.
+
+But the Christian princes felt that the scene which they had beheld
+weighed heavily on their spirits, and although, at the courteous
+invitation of the Soldan, they assumed their seats at the banquet, yet
+it was with the silence of doubt and amazement. The spirits of Richard
+alone surmounted all cause for suspicion or embarrassment. Yet he too
+seemed to ruminate on some proposition, as if he were desirous of making
+it in the most insinuating and acceptable manner which was possible.
+At length he drank off a large bowl of wine, and addressing the Soldan,
+desired to know whether it was not true that he had honoured the Earl of
+Huntingdon with a personal encounter.
+
+Saladin answered with a smile that he had proved his horse and his
+weapons with the heir of Scotland, as cavaliers are wont to do with each
+other when they meet in the desert; and modestly added that, though the
+combat was not entirely decisive, he had not on his part much reason to
+pride himself on the event. The Scot, on the other hand, disclaimed the
+attributed superiority, and wished to assign it to the Soldan.
+
+"Enough of honour thou hast had in the encounter," said Richard, "and I
+envy thee more for that than for the smiles of Edith Plantagenet, though
+one of them might reward a bloody day's work.--But what say you, noble
+princes? Is it fitting that such a royal ring of chivalry should break
+up without something being done for future times to speak of? What is
+the overthrow and death of a traitor to such a fair garland of honour
+as is here assembled, and which ought not to part without witnessing
+something more worthy of their regard?--How say you, princely Soldan?
+What if we two should now, and before this fair company, decide the
+long-contended question for this land of Palestine, and end at once
+these tedious wars? Yonder are the lists ready, nor can Paynimrie ever
+hope a better champion than thou. I, unless worthier offers, will lay
+down my gauntlet in behalf of Christendom, and in all love and honour we
+will do mortal battle for the possession of Jerusalem."
+
+There was a deep pause for the Soldan's answer. His cheek and brow
+coloured highly, and it was the opinion of many present that he
+hesitated whether he should accept the challenge. At length he said,
+"Fighting for the Holy City against those whom we regard as idolaters
+and worshippers of stocks and stones and graven images, I might confide
+that Allah would strengthen my arm; or if I fell beneath the sword of
+the Melech Ric, I could not pass to Paradise by a more glorious death.
+But Allah has already given Jerusalem to the true believers, and it
+were a tempting the God of the Prophet to peril, upon my own personal
+strength and skill, that which I hold securely by the superiority of my
+forces."
+
+"If not for Jerusalem, then," said Richard, in the tone of one who would
+entreat a favour of an intimate friend, "yet, for the love of honour,
+let us run at least three courses with grinded lances?"
+
+"Even this," said Saladin, half smiling at Coeur de Lion's affectionate
+earnestness for the combat--"even this I may not lawfully do. The master
+places the shepherd over the flock not for the shepherd's own sake, but
+for the sake of the sheep. Had I a son to hold the sceptre when I fell,
+I might have had the liberty, as I have the will, to brave this bold
+encounter; but your own Scripture saith that when the herdsman is
+smitten, the sheep are scattered."
+
+"Thou hast had all the fortune," said Richard, turning to the Earl of
+Huntingdon with a sigh. "I would have given the best year in my life for
+that one half hour beside the Diamond of the Desert!"
+
+The chivalrous extravagance of Richard awakened the spirits of the
+assembly, and when at length they arose to depart Saladin advanced and
+took Coeur de Lion by the hand.
+
+"Noble King of England," he said, "we now part, never to meet again.
+That your league is dissolved, no more to be reunited, and that
+your native forces are far too few to enable you to prosecute your
+enterprise, is as well known to me as to yourself. I may not yield you
+up that Jerusalem which you so much desire to hold--it is to us, as to
+you, a Holy City. But whatever other terms Richard demands of Saladin
+shall be as willingly yielded as yonder fountain yields its waters. Ay
+and the same should be as frankly afforded by Saladin if Richard stood
+in the desert with but two archers in his train!"
+
+The next day saw Richard's return to his own camp, and in a short
+space afterwards the young Earl of Huntingdon was espoused by Edith
+Plantagenet. The Soldan sent, as a nuptial present on this occasion, the
+celebrated TALISMAN. But though many cures were wrought by means of it
+in Europe, none equalled in success and celebrity those which the Soldan
+achieved. It is still in existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl
+of Huntingdon to a brave knight of Scotland, Sir Simon of the Lee, in
+whose ancient and highly honoured family it is still preserved;
+and although charmed stones have been dismissed from the modern
+Pharmacopoeia, its virtues are still applied to for stopping blood, and
+in cases of canine madness.
+
+Our Story closes here, as the terms on which Richard relinquished his
+conquests are to be found in every history of the period.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
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+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    .indent5   { margin-left: 5%;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Talisman
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2009 [EBook #1377]
+Last Updated: July 25, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALISMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonomous Volunteer, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE TALISMAN
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Sir Walter Scott
+    </h2>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0006m.jpg" alt="0006m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0006.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN. </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION. </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0003"> TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. TALE II.&mdash;<b>THE
+        TALISMAN.</b> </a><br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The "Betrothed" did not greatly please one or two friends, who thought
+      that it did not well correspond to the general title of "The Crusaders."
+      They urged, therefore, that, without direct allusion to the manners of the
+      Eastern tribes, and to the romantic conflicts of the period, the title of
+      a "Tale of the Crusaders" would resemble the playbill, which is said to
+      have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of
+      Denmark being left out. On the other hand, I felt the difficulty of giving
+      a vivid picture of a part of the world with which I was almost totally
+      unacquainted, unless by early recollections of the Arabian Nights'
+      Entertainments; and not only did I labour under the incapacity of
+      ignorance&mdash;in which, as far as regards Eastern manners, I was as
+      thickly wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog&mdash;but my contemporaries
+      were, many of them, as much enlightened upon the subject as if they had
+      been inhabitants of the favoured land of Goshen. The love of travelling
+      had pervaded all ranks, and carried the subjects of Britain into all
+      quarters of the world. Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by its
+      struggles for freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name, where
+      every fountain had its classical legend&mdash;Palestine, endeared to the
+      imagination by yet more sacred remembrances&mdash;had been of late
+      surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers. Had I,
+      therefore, attempted the difficult task of substituting manners of my own
+      invention, instead of the genuine costume of the East, almost every
+      traveller I met who had extended his route beyond what was anciently
+      called "The Grand Tour," had acquired a right, by ocular inspection, to
+      chastise me for my presumption. Every member of the Travellers' Club who
+      could pretend to have thrown his shoe over Edom was, by having done so,
+      constituted my lawful critic and corrector. It occurred, therefore, that
+      where the author of Anastasius, as well as he of Hadji Baba, had described
+      the manners and vices of the Eastern nations, not only with fidelity, but
+      with the humour of Le Sage and the ludicrous power of Fielding himself,
+      one who was a perfect stranger to the subject must necessarily produce an
+      unfavourable contrast. The Poet Laureate also, in the charming tale of
+      "Thalaba," had shown how extensive might be the researches of a person of
+      acquirements and talent, by dint of investigation alone, into the ancient
+      doctrines, history, and manners of the Eastern countries, in which we are
+      probably to look for the cradle of mankind; Moore, in his "Lalla Rookh,"
+      had successfully trod the same path; in which, too, Byron, joining ocular
+      experience to extensive reading, had written some of his most attractive
+      poems. In a word, the Eastern themes had been already so successfully
+      handled by those who were acknowledged to be masters of their craft, that
+      I was diffident of making the attempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were powerful objections; nor did they lose force when they became
+      the subject of anxious reflection, although they did not finally prevail.
+      The arguments on the other side were, that though I had no hope of
+      rivalling the contemporaries whom I have mentioned, yet it occurred to me
+      as possible to acquit myself of the task I was engaged in without entering
+      into competition with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The period relating more immediately to the Crusades which I at last fixed
+      upon was that at which the warlike character of Richard I., wild and
+      generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all its extravagant virtues, and its
+      no less absurd errors, was opposed to that of Saladin, in which the
+      Christian and English monarch showed all the cruelty and violence of an
+      Eastern sultan, and Saladin, on the other hand, displayed the deep policy
+      and prudence of a European sovereign, whilst each contended which should
+      excel the other in the knightly qualities of bravery and generosity. This
+      singular contrast afforded, as the author conceived, materials for a work
+      of fiction possessing peculiar interest. One of the inferior characters
+      introduced was a supposed relation of Richard Coeur de Lion&mdash;a
+      violation of the truth of history which gave offence to Mr. Mills, the
+      author of the "History of Chivalry and the Crusades," who was not, it may
+      be presumed, aware that romantic fiction naturally includes the power of
+      such invention, which is indeed one of the requisites of the art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince David of Scotland, who was actually in the host, and was the hero
+      of some very romantic adventures on his way home, was also pressed into my
+      service, and constitutes one of my DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true I had already brought upon the field him of the lion heart. But
+      it was in a more private capacity than he was here to be exhibited in the
+      Talisman&mdash;then as a disguised knight, now in the avowed character of
+      a conquering monarch; so that I doubted not a name so dear to Englishmen
+      as that of King Richard I. might contribute to their amusement for more
+      than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had access to all which antiquity believed, whether of reality or fable,
+      on the subject of that magnificent warrior, who was the proudest boast of
+      Europe and their chivalry, and with whose dreadful name the Saracens,
+      according to a historian of their own country, were wont to rebuke their
+      startled horses. "Do you think," said they, "that King Richard is on the
+      track, that you stray so wildly from it?" The most curious register of the
+      history of King Richard is an ancient romance, translated originally from
+      the Norman; and at first certainly having a pretence to be termed a work
+      of chivalry, but latterly becoming stuffed with the most astonishing and
+      monstrous fables. There is perhaps no metrical romance upon record where,
+      along with curious and genuine history, are mingled more absurd and
+      exaggerated incidents. We have placed in the Appendix to this Introduction
+      the passage of the romance in which Richard figures as an ogre, or literal
+      cannibal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A principal incident in the story is that from which the title is derived.
+      Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps most remarkable
+      for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells, periapts, and similar
+      charms, framed, it was said, under the influence of particular planets,
+      and bestowing high medical powers, as well as the means of advancing men's
+      fortunes in various manners. A story of this kind, relating to a Crusader
+      of eminence, is often told in the west of Scotland, and the relic alluded
+      to is still in existence, and even yet held in veneration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee and Gartland made a considerable figure in the
+      reigns of Robert the Bruce and of his son David. He was one of the chief
+      of that band of Scottish chivalry who accompanied James, the Good Lord
+      Douglas, on his expedition to the Holy Land with the heart of King Robert
+      Bruce. Douglas, impatient to get at the Saracens, entered into war with
+      those of Spain, and was killed there. Lockhart proceeded to the Holy Land
+      with such Scottish knights as had escaped the fate of their leader and
+      assisted for some time in the wars against the Saracens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following adventure is said by tradition to have befallen him:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made prisoner in battle an Emir of considerable wealth and consequence.
+      The aged mother of the captive came to the Christian camp, to redeem her
+      son from his state of captivity. Lockhart is said to have fixed the price
+      at which his prisoner should ransom himself; and the lady, pulling out a
+      large embroidered purse, proceeded to tell down the ransom, like a mother
+      who pays little respect to gold in comparison of her son's liberty. In
+      this operation, a pebble inserted in a coin, some say of the Lower Empire,
+      fell out of the purse, and the Saracen matron testified so much haste to
+      recover it as gave the Scottish knight a high idea of its value, when
+      compared with gold or silver. "I will not consent," he said, "to grant
+      your son's liberty, unless that amulet be added to his ransom." The lady
+      not only consented to this, but explained to Sir Simon Lockhart the mode
+      in which the talisman was to be used, and the uses to which it might be
+      put. The water in which it was dipped operated as a styptic, as a
+      febrifuge, and possessed other properties as a medical talisman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Simon Lockhart, after much experience of the wonders which it wrought,
+      brought it to his own country, and left it to his heirs, by whom, and by
+      Clydesdale in general, it was, and is still, distinguished by the name of
+      the Lee-penny, from the name of his native seat of Lee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most remarkable part of its history, perhaps, was that it so
+      especially escaped condemnation when the Church of Scotland chose to
+      impeach many other cures which savoured of the miraculous, as occasioned
+      by sorcery, and censured the appeal to them, "excepting only that to the
+      amulet, called the Lee-penny, to which it had pleased God to annex certain
+      healing virtues which the Church did not presume to condemn." It still, as
+      has been said, exists, and its powers are sometimes resorted to. Of late,
+      they have been chiefly restricted to the cure of persons bitten by mad
+      dogs; and as the illness in such cases frequently arises from imagination,
+      there can be no reason for doubting that water which has been poured on
+      the Lee-penny furnishes a congenial cure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the tradition concerning the talisman, which the author has taken
+      the liberty to vary in applying it to his own purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considerable liberties have also been taken with the truth of history,
+      both with respect to Conrade of Montserrat's life, as well as his death.
+      That Conrade, however, was reckoned the enemy of Richard is agreed both in
+      history and romance. The general opinion of the terms upon which they
+      stood may be guessed from the proposal of the Saracens that the Marquis of
+      Montserrat should be invested with certain parts of Syria, which they were
+      to yield to the Christians. Richard, according to the romance which bears
+      his name, "could no longer repress his fury. The Marquis he said, was a
+      traitor, who had robbed the Knights Hospitallers of sixty thousand pounds,
+      the present of his father Henry; that he was a renegade, whose treachery
+      had occasioned the loss of Acre; and he concluded by a solemn oath, that
+      he would cause him to be drawn to pieces by wild horses, if he should ever
+      venture to pollute the Christian camp by his presence. Philip attempted to
+      intercede in favour of the Marquis, and throwing down his glove, offered
+      to become a pledge for his fidelity to the Christians; but his offer was
+      rejected, and he was obliged to give way to Richard's impetuosity."&mdash;HISTORY
+      OF CHIVALRY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade of Montserrat makes a considerable figure in those wars, and was
+      at length put to death by one of the followers of the Scheik, or Old Man
+      of the Mountain; nor did Richard remain free of the suspicion of having
+      instigated his death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be said, in general, that most of the incidents introduced in the
+      following tale are fictitious, and that reality, where it exists, is only
+      retained in the characters of the piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      While warring in the Holy Land, Richard was seized with an ague.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The best leeches of the camp were unable to effect the cure of the King's
+      disease; but the prayers of the army were more successful. He became
+      convalescent, and the first symptom of his recovery was a violent longing
+      for pork. But pork was not likely to be plentiful in a country whose
+      inhabitants had an abhorrence for swine's flesh; and
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Though his men should be hanged,
+     They ne might, in that countrey,
+     For gold, ne silver, ne no money,
+     No pork find, take, ne get,
+     That King Richard might aught of eat.
+     An old knight with Richard biding,
+     When he heard of that tiding,
+     That the king's wants were swyche,
+     To the steward he spake privyliche&mdash;
+     "Our lord the king sore is sick, I wis,
+     After porck he alonged is;
+     Ye may none find to selle;
+     No man be hardy him so to telle!
+     If he did he might die.
+     Now behoves to done as I shall say,
+     Tho' he wete nought of that.
+     Take a Saracen, young and fat;
+     In haste let the thief be slain,
+     Opened, and his skin off flayn;
+     And sodden full hastily,
+     With powder and with spicery,
+     And with saffron of good colour.
+     When the king feels thereof savour,
+     Out of ague if he be went,
+     He shall have thereto good talent.
+     When he has a good taste,
+     And eaten well a good repast,
+     And supped of the BREWIS [Broth] a sup,
+     Slept after and swet a drop,
+     Through Goddis help and my counsail,
+     Soon he shall be fresh and hail.'
+     The sooth to say, at wordes few,
+     Slain and sodden was the heathen shrew.
+     Before the king it was forth brought:
+     Quod his men, 'Lord, we have pork sought;
+     Eates and sups of the brewis SOOTE,[Sweet]
+     Thorough grace of God it shall be your boot.'
+     Before King Richard carff a knight,
+     He ate faster than he carve might.
+     The king ate the flesh and GNEW [Gnawed] the bones,
+     And drank well after for the nonce.
+     And when he had eaten enough,
+     His folk hem turned away, and LOUGH.[Laughed]
+     He lay still and drew in his arm;
+     His chamberlain him wrapped warm.
+     He lay and slept, and swet a stound,
+     And became whole and sound.
+     King Richard clad him and arose,
+     And walked abouten in the close."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      An attack of the Saracens was repelled by Richard in person, the
+      consequence of which is told in the following lines:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "When King Richard had rested a whyle,
+     A knight his arms 'gan unlace,
+     Him to comfort and solace.
+     Him was brought a sop in wine.
+     'The head of that ilke swine,
+     That I of ate!' (the cook he bade,)
+     'For feeble I am, and faint and mad.
+     Of mine evil now I am fear;
+     Serve me therewith at my soupere!'
+     Quod the cook, 'That head I ne have.'
+     Then said the king, 'So God me save,
+     But I see the head of that swine,
+     For sooth, thou shalt lesen thine!'
+     The cook saw none other might be;
+     He fet the head and let him see.
+     He fell on knees, and made a cry&mdash;
+     'Lo, here the head!  my Lord, mercy!'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The cook had certainly some reason to fear that his master would be struck
+      with horror at the recollection of the dreadful banquet to which he owed
+      his recovery; but his fears were soon dissipated.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "The swarte vis [Black face] when the king seeth,
+     His black beard and white teeth,
+     How his lippes grinned wide,
+     'What devil is this?' the king cried,
+     And 'gan to laugh as he were wode.
+     'What!  is Saracen's flesh thus good?
+     That never erst I nought wist!
+     By God's death and his uprist,
+     Shall we never die for default,
+     While we may in any assault,
+     Slee Saracens, the flesh may take,
+     And seethen and roasten and do hem bake,
+     [And] Gnawen her flesh to the bones!
+     Now I have it proved once,
+     For hunger ere I be wo,
+     I and my folk shall eat mo!"'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The besieged now offered to surrender, upon conditions of safety to the
+      inhabitants; while all the public treasure, military machines, and arms
+      were delivered to the victors, together with the further ransom of one
+      hundred thousand bezants. After this capitulation, the following
+      extraordinary scene took place. We shall give it in the words of the
+      humorous and amiable George Ellis, the collector and the editor of these
+      Romances:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Though the garrison had faithfully performed the other articles of their
+      contract, they were unable to restore the cross, which was not in their
+      possession, and were therefore treated by the Christians with great
+      cruelty. Daily reports of their sufferings were carried to Saladin; and as
+      many of them were persons of the highest distinction, that monarch, at the
+      solicitation of their friends, dispatched an embassy to King Richard with
+      magnificent presents, which he offered for the ransom of the captives. The
+      ambassadors were persons the most respectable from their age, their rank,
+      and their eloquence. They delivered their message in terms of the utmost
+      humility; and without arraigning the justice of the conqueror in his
+      severe treatment of their countrymen, only solicited a period to that
+      severity, laying at his feet the treasures with which they were entrusted,
+      and pledging themselves and their master for the payment of any further
+      sums which he might demand as the price of mercy.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "King Richard spake with wordes mild.
+     'The gold to take, God me shield!
+     Among you partes [Divide] every charge.
+     I brought in shippes and in barge,
+     More gold and silver with me,
+     Than has your lord, and swilke three.
+     To his treasure have I no need!
+     But for my love I you bid,
+     To meat with me that ye dwell;
+     And afterward I shall you tell.
+     Thorough counsel I shall you answer,
+     What BODE [Message] ye shall to your lord bear.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "The invitation was gratefully accepted. Richard, in the meantime, gave
+      secret orders to his marshal that he should repair to the prison, select a
+      certain number of the most distinguished captives, and, after carefully
+      noting their names on a roll of parchment, cause their heads to be
+      instantly struck off; that these heads should be delivered to the cook,
+      with instructions to clear away the hair, and, after boiling them in a
+      cauldron, to distribute them on several platters, one to each guest,
+      observing to fasten on the forehead of each the piece of parchment
+      expressing the name and family of the victim.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "'An hot head bring me beforn,
+     As I were well apayed withall,
+     Eat thereof fast I shall;
+     As it were a tender chick,
+     To see how the others will like.'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "This horrible order was punctually executed. At noon the guests were
+      summoned to wash by the music of the waits. The king took his seat
+      attended by the principal officers of his court, at the high table, and
+      the rest of the company were marshalled at a long table below him. On the
+      cloth were placed portions of salt at the usual distances, but neither
+      bread, wine, nor water. The ambassadors, rather surprised at this
+      omission, but still free from apprehension, awaited in silence the arrival
+      of the dinner, which was announced by the sound of pipes, trumpets, and
+      tabours; and beheld, with horror and dismay, the unnatural banquet
+      introduced by the steward and his officers. Yet their sentiments of
+      disgust and abhorrence, and even their fears, were for a time suspended by
+      their curiosity. Their eyes were fixed on the king, who, without the
+      slightest change of countenance, swallowed the morsels as fast as they
+      could be supplied by the knight who carved them.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Every man then poked other;
+     They said, 'This is the devil's brother,
+     That slays our men, and thus hem eats!'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Their attention was then involuntarily fixed on the smoking heads before
+      them. They traced in the swollen and distorted features the resemblance of
+      a friend or near relation, and received from the fatal scroll which
+      accompanied each dish the sad assurance that this resemblance was not
+      imaginary. They sat in torpid silence, anticipating their own fate in that
+      of their countrymen; while their ferocious entertainer, with fury in his
+      eyes, but with courtesy on his lips, insulted them by frequent invitations
+      to merriment. At length this first course was removed, and its place
+      supplied by venison, cranes, and other dainties, accompanied by the
+      richest wines. The king then apologized to them for what had passed, which
+      he attributed to his ignorance of their taste; and assured them of his
+      religious respect for their characters as ambassadors, and of his
+      readiness to grant them a safe-conduct for their return. This boon was all
+      that they now wished to claim; and
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "King Richard spake to an old man,
+     'Wendes home to your Soudan!
+     His melancholy that ye abate;
+     And sayes that ye came too late.
+     Too slowly was your time y-guessed;
+     Ere ye came, the flesh was dressed,
+     That men shoulden serve with me,
+     Thus at noon, and my meynie.
+     Say him, it shall him nought avail,
+     Though he for-bar us our vitail,
+     Bread, wine, fish, flesh, salmon, and conger;
+     Of us none shall die with hunger,
+     While we may wenden to fight,
+     And slay the Saracens downright,
+     Wash the flesh, and roast the head.
+     With 0 [One] Saracen I may well feed
+     Well a nine or a ten
+     Of my good Christian men.
+     King Richard shall warrant,
+     There is no flesh so nourissant
+     Unto an English man,
+     Partridge, plover, heron, ne swan,
+     Cow ne ox, sheep ne swine,
+     As the head of a Sarazyn.
+     There he is fat, and thereto tender,
+     And my men be lean and slender.
+     While any Saracen quick be,
+     Livand now in this Syrie,
+     For meat will we nothing care.
+     Abouten fast we shall rare,
+     And every day we shall eat
+     All as many as we may get.
+     To England will we nought gon,
+     Till they be eaten every one.'"
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      ELLIS'S SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH METRICEL ROMANCES.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The reader may be curious to know owing to what circumstances so
+      extraordinary an invention as that which imputed cannibalism to the King
+      of England should have found its way into his history. Mr. James, to whom
+      we owe so much that is curious, seems to have traced the origin of this
+      extraordinary rumour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With the army of the cross also was a multitude of men," the same author
+      declares, "who made it a profession to be without money. They walked
+      barefoot, carried no arms, and even preceded the beasts of burden in their
+      march, living upon roots and herbs, and presenting a spectacle both
+      disgusting and pitiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A Norman, who, according to all accounts, was of noble birth, but who,
+      having lost his horse, continued to follow as a foot soldier, took the
+      strange resolution of putting himself at the head of this race of
+      vagabonds, who willingly received him as their king. Amongst the Saracens
+      these men became well known under the name of THAFURS (which Guibert
+      translates TRUDENTES), and were beheld with great horror from the general
+      persuasion that they fed on the dead bodies of their enemies; a report
+      which was occasionally justified, and which the king of the Thafurs took
+      care to encourage. This respectable monarch was frequently in the habit of
+      stopping his followers, one by one, in a narrow defile, and of causing
+      them to be searched carefully, lest the possession of the least sum of
+      money should render them unworthy of the name of his subjects. If even two
+      sous were found upon any one, he was instantly expelled the society of his
+      tribe, the king bidding him contemptuously buy arms and fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This troop, so far from being cumbersome to the army, was infinitely
+      serviceable, carrying burdens, bringing in forage, provisions, and
+      tribute; working the machines in the sieges; and, above all, spreading
+      consternation among the Turks, who feared death from the lances of the
+      knights less than that further consummation they heard of under the teeth
+      of the Thafurs." [James's "History of Chivalry."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is easy to conceive that an ignorant minstrel, finding the taste and
+      ferocity of the Thafurs commemorated in the historical accounts of the
+      Holy Wars, has ascribed their practices and propensities to the Monarch of
+      England, whose ferocity was considered as an object of exaggeration as
+      legitimate as his valour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. TALE II.&mdash;THE TALISMAN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     They, too, retired
+     To the wilderness, but 'twas with arms.
+         PARADISE REGAINED.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the
+      horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant northern
+      home and joined the host of the Crusaders in Palestine, was pacing slowly
+      along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, or, as
+      it is called, the Lake Asphaltites, where the waves of the Jordan pour
+      themselves into an inland sea, from which there is no discharge of waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The warlike pilgrim had toiled among cliffs and precipices during the
+      earlier part of the morning. More lately, issuing from those rocky and
+      dangerous defiles, he had entered upon that great plain, where the
+      accursed cities provoked, in ancient days, the direct and dreadful
+      vengeance of the Omnipotent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The toil, the thirst, the dangers of the way, were forgotten, as the
+      traveller recalled the fearful catastrophe which had converted into an
+      arid and dismal wilderness the fair and fertile valley of Siddim, once
+      well watered, even as the Garden of the Lord, now a parched and blighted
+      waste, condemned to eternal sterility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing himself, as he viewed the dark mass of rolling waters, in colour
+      as in duality unlike those of any other lake, the traveller shuddered as
+      he remembered that beneath these sluggish waves lay the once proud cities
+      of the plain, whose grave was dug by the thunder of the heavens, or the
+      eruption of subterraneous fire, and whose remains were hid, even by that
+      sea which holds no living fish in its bosom, bears no skiff on its
+      surface, and, as if its own dreadful bed were the only fit receptacle for
+      its sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes, a tribute to the ocean.
+      The whole land around, as in the days of Moses, was "brimstone and salt;
+      it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth thereon." The land as
+      well as the lake might be termed dead, as producing nothing having
+      resemblance to vegetation, and even the very air was entirely devoid of
+      its ordinary winged inhabitants, deterred probably by the odour of bitumen
+      and sulphur which the burning sun exhaled from the waters of the lake in
+      steaming clouds, frequently assuming the appearance of waterspouts. Masses
+      of the slimy and sulphureous substance called naphtha, which floated idly
+      on the sluggish and sullen waves, supplied those rolling clouds with new
+      vapours, and afforded awful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost intolerable
+      splendour, and all living nature seemed to have hidden itself from the
+      rays, excepting the solitary figure which moved through the flitting sand
+      at a foot's pace, and appeared the sole breathing thing on the wide
+      surface of the plain. The dress of the rider and the accoutrements of his
+      horse were peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country. A coat of
+      linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel breastplate,
+      had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour; there were also his
+      triangular shield suspended round his neck, and his barred helmet of
+      steel, over which he had a hood and collar of mail, which was drawn around
+      the warrior's shoulders and throat, and filled up the vacancy between the
+      hauberk and the headpiece. His lower limbs were sheathed, like his body,
+      in flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs, while the feet rested in
+      plated shoes, which corresponded with the gauntlets. A long, broad,
+      straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with a handle formed like a cross,
+      corresponded with a stout poniard on the other side. The knight also bore,
+      secured to his saddle, with one end resting on his stirrup, the long
+      steel-headed lance, his own proper weapon, which, as he rode, projected
+      backwards, and displayed its little pennoncelle, to dally with the faint
+      breeze, or drop in the dead calm. To this cumbrous equipment must be added
+      a surcoat of embroidered cloth, much frayed and worn, which was thus far
+      useful that it excluded the burning rays of the sun from the armour, which
+      they would otherwise have rendered intolerable to the wearer. The surcoat
+      bore, in several places, the arms of the owner, although much defaced.
+      These seemed to be a couchant leopard, with the motto, "I sleep; wake me
+      not." An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though
+      many a blow had almost effaced the painting. The flat top of his cumbrous
+      cylindrical helmet was unadorned with any crest. In retaining their own
+      unwieldy defensive armour, the Northern Crusaders seemed to set at
+      defiance the nature of the climate and country to which they had come to
+      war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and unwieldy
+      than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated with steel,
+      uniting in front with a species of breastplate, and behind with defensive
+      armour made to cover the loins. Then there was a steel axe, or hammer,
+      called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow. The reins were
+      secured by chain-work, and the front-stall of the bridle was a steel
+      plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the midst a
+      short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the horse like the horn
+      of the fabulous unicorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second nature,
+      both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers, indeed, of the
+      Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere they became inured to
+      the burning climate; but there were others to whom that climate became
+      innocent and even friendly, and among this fortunate number was the
+      solitary horseman who now traversed the border of the Dead Sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength, fitted to
+      wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the meshes had been formed
+      of cobwebs, had endowed him with a constitution as strong as his limbs,
+      and which bade defiance to almost all changes of climate, as well as to
+      fatigue and privations of every kind. His disposition seemed, in some
+      degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as the one
+      possessed great strength and endurance, united with the power of violent
+      exertion, the other, under a calm and undisturbed semblance, had much of
+      the fiery and enthusiastic love of glory which constituted the principal
+      attribute of the renowned Norman line, and had rendered them sovereigns in
+      every corner of Europe where they had drawn their adventurous swords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such tempting
+      rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight during two years'
+      campaign in Palestine had been only temporal fame, and, as he was taught
+      to believe, spiritual privileges. Meantime, his slender stock of money had
+      melted away, the rather that he did not pursue any of the ordinary modes
+      by which the followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit their
+      diminished resources at the expense of the people of Palestine&mdash;he
+      exacted no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
+      when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed himself
+      of any opportunity of enriching himself by the ransom of prisoners of
+      consequence. The small train which had followed him from his native
+      country had been gradually diminished, as the means of maintaining them
+      disappeared, and his only remaining squire was at present on a sick-bed,
+      and unable to attend his master, who travelled, as we have seen, singly
+      and alone. This was of little consequence to the Crusader, who was
+      accustomed to consider his good sword as his safest escort, and devout
+      thoughts as his best companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even on the
+      iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the Sleeping Leopard;
+      and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some distance on his right, he
+      joyfully hailed the sight of two or three palm-trees, which arose beside
+      the well which was assigned for his mid-day station. His good horse, too,
+      which had plodded forward with the steady endurance of his master, now
+      lifted his head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened his pace, as if he
+      snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the place of repose and
+      refreshment. But labour and danger were doomed to intervene ere the horse
+      or horseman reached the desired spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
+      attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed to him as
+      if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated itself
+      from the trees, which partly hid its motions, and advanced towards the
+      knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman, whom his turban,
+      long spear, and green caftan floating in the wind, on his nearer approach
+      showed to be a Saracen cavalier. "In the desert," saith an Eastern
+      proverb, "no man meets a friend." The Crusader was totally indifferent
+      whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb as if borne on
+      the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe&mdash;perhaps, as a vowed
+      champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred the latter. He
+      disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized it with the right hand,
+      placed it in rest with its point half elevated, gathered up the reins in
+      the left, waked his horse's mettle with the spur, and prepared to
+      encounter the stranger with the calm self-confidence belonging to the
+      victor in many contests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman, managing his
+      steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his body than by any use of
+      the reins, which hung loose in his left hand; so that he was enabled to
+      wield the light, round buckler of the skin of the rhinoceros, ornamented
+      with silver loops, which he wore on his arm, swinging it as if he meant to
+      oppose its slender circle to the formidable thrust of the Western lance.
+      His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that of his
+      antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and brandished
+      at arm's-length above his head. As the cavalier approached his enemy at
+      full career, he seemed to expect that the Knight of the Leopard should put
+      his horse to the gallop to encounter him. But the Christian knight, well
+      acquainted with the customs of Eastern warriors, did not mean to exhaust
+      his good horse by any unnecessary exertion; and, on the contrary, made a
+      dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced to the actual shock, his
+      own weight, and that of his powerful charger, would give him sufficient
+      advantage, without the additional momentum of rapid motion. Equally
+      sensible and apprehensive of such a probable result, the Saracen cavalier,
+      when he had approached towards the Christian within twice the length of
+      his lance, wheeled his steed to the left with inimitable dexterity, and
+      rode twice around his antagonist, who, turning without quitting his
+      ground, and presenting his front constantly to his enemy, frustrated his
+      attempts to attack him on an unguarded point; so that the Saracen,
+      wheeling his horse, was fain to retreat to the distance of a hundred
+      yards. A second time, like a hawk attacking a heron, the heathen renewed
+      the charge, and a second time was fain to retreat without coming to a
+      close struggle. A third time he approached in the same manner, when the
+      Christian knight, desirous to terminate this illusory warfare, in which he
+      might at length have been worn out by the activity of his foeman, suddenly
+      seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and, with a strong hand and
+      unerring aim, hurled it against the head of the Emir, for such and not
+      less his enemy appeared. The Saracen was just aware of the formidable
+      missile in time to interpose his light buckler betwixt the mace and his
+      head; but the violence of the blow forced the buckler down on his turban,
+      and though that defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the
+      Saracen was beaten from his horse. Ere the Christian could avail himself
+      of this mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and, calling on
+      his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat
+      without touching the stirrup, and regained all the advantage of which the
+      Knight of the Leopard hoped to deprive him. But the latter had in the
+      meanwhile recovered his mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who remembered the
+      strength and dexterity with which his antagonist had aimed it, seemed to
+      keep cautiously out of reach of that weapon of which he had so lately felt
+      the force, while he showed his purpose of waging a distant warfare with
+      missile weapons of his own. Planting his long spear in the sand at a
+      distance from the scene of combat, he strung, with great address, a short
+      bow, which he carried at his back; and putting his horse to the gallop,
+      once more described two or three circles of a wider extent than formerly,
+      in the course of which he discharged six arrows at the Christian with such
+      unerring skill that the goodness of his harness alone saved him from being
+      wounded in as many places. The seventh shaft apparently found a less
+      perfect part of the armour, and the Christian dropped heavily from his
+      horse. But what was the surprise of the Saracen, when, dismounting to
+      examine the condition of his prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly
+      within the grasp of the European, who had had recourse to this artifice to
+      bring his enemy within his reach! Even in this deadly grapple the Saracen
+      was saved by his agility and presence of mind. He unloosed the sword-belt,
+      in which the Knight of the Leopard had fixed his hold, and, thus eluding
+      his fatal grasp, mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with
+      the intelligence of a human being, and again rode off. But in the last
+      encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of arrows, both of
+      which were attached to the girdle which he was obliged to abandon. He had
+      also lost his turban in the struggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a truce. He approached
+      the Christian with his right hand extended, but no longer in a menacing
+      attitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is truce betwixt our nations," he said, in the lingua franca
+      commonly used for the purpose of communication with the Crusaders;
+      "wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me? Let there be peace
+      betwixt us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am well contented," answered he of the Couchant Leopard; "but what
+      security dost thou offer that thou wilt observe the truce?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The word of a follower of the Prophet was never broken," answered the
+      Emir. "It is thou, brave Nazarene, from whom I should demand security, did
+      I not know that treason seldom dwells with courage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Crusader felt that the confidence of the Moslem made him ashamed of
+      his own doubts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the cross of my sword," he said, laying his hand on the weapon as he
+      spoke, "I will be true companion to thee, Saracen, while our fortune wills
+      that we remain in company together."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Mohammed, Prophet of God, and by Allah, God of the Prophet," replied
+      his late foeman, "there is not treachery in my heart towards thee. And now
+      wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour of rest is at hand, and the
+      stream had hardly touched my lip when I was called to battle by thy
+      approach."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Couchant Leopard yielded a ready and courteous assent;
+      and the late foes, without an angry look or gesture of doubt, rode side by
+      side to the little cluster of palm-trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Times of danger have always, and in a peculiar degree, their seasons of
+      good-will and security; and this was particularly so in the ancient feudal
+      ages, in which, as the manners of the period had assigned war to be the
+      chief and most worthy occupation of mankind, the intervals of peace, or
+      rather of truce, were highly relished by those warriors to whom they were
+      seldom granted, and endeared by the very circumstances which rendered them
+      transitory. It is not worth while preserving any permanent enmity against
+      a foe whom a champion has fought with to-day, and may again stand in
+      bloody opposition to on the next morning. The time and situation afforded
+      so much room for the ebullition of violent passions, that men, unless when
+      peculiarly opposed to each other, or provoked by the recollection of
+      private and individual wrongs, cheerfully enjoyed in each other's society
+      the brief intervals of pacific intercourse which a warlike life admitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The distinction of religions, nay, the fanatical zeal which animated the
+      followers of the Cross and of the Crescent against each other, was much
+      softened by a feeling so natural to generous combatants, and especially
+      cherished by the spirit of chivalry. This last strong impulse had extended
+      itself gradually from the Christians to their mortal enemies the Saracens,
+      both of Spain and of Palestine. The latter were, indeed, no longer the
+      fanatical savages who had burst from the centre of Arabian deserts, with
+      the sabre in one hand and the Koran in the other, to inflict death or the
+      faith of Mohammed, or, at the best, slavery and tribute, upon all who
+      dared to oppose the belief of the prophet of Mecca. These alternatives
+      indeed had been offered to the unwarlike Greeks and Syrians; but in
+      contending with the Western Christians, animated by a zeal as fiery as
+      their own, and possessed of as unconquerable courage, address, and success
+      in arms, the Saracens gradually caught a part of their manners, and
+      especially of those chivalrous observances which were so well calculated
+      to charm the minds of a proud and conquering people. They had their
+      tournaments and games of chivalry; they had even their knights, or some
+      rank analogous; and above all, the Saracens observed their plighted faith
+      with an accuracy which might sometimes put to shame those who owned a
+      better religion. Their truces, whether national or betwixt individuals,
+      were faithfully observed; and thus it was that war, in itself perhaps the
+      greatest of evils, yet gave occasion for display of good faith,
+      generosity, clemency, and even kindly affections, which less frequently
+      occur in more tranquil periods, where the passions of men, experiencing
+      wrongs or entertaining quarrels which cannot be brought to instant
+      decision, are apt to smoulder for a length of time in the bosoms of those
+      who are so unhappy as to be their prey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was under the influence of these milder feelings which soften the
+      horrors of warfare that the Christian and Saracen, who had so lately done
+      their best for each other's mutual destruction, rode at a slow pace
+      towards the fountain of palm-trees to which the Knight of the Couchant
+      Leopard had been tending, when interrupted in mid-passage by his fleet and
+      dangerous adversary. Each was wrapt for some time in his own reflections,
+      and took breath after an encounter which had threatened to be fatal to one
+      or both; and their good horses seemed no less to enjoy the interval of
+      repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That of the Saracen, however, though he had been forced into much the more
+      violent and extended sphere of motion, appeared to have suffered less from
+      fatigue than the charger of the European knight. The sweat hung still
+      clammy on the limbs of the latter, when those of the noble Arab were
+      completely dried by the interval of tranquil exercise, all saving the
+      foam-flakes which were still visible on his bridle and housings. The loose
+      soil on which he trod so much augmented the distress of the Christian's
+      horse, heavily loaded by his own armour and the weight of his rider, that
+      the latter jumped from his saddle, and led his charger along the deep dust
+      of the loamy soil, which was burnt in the sun into a substance more
+      impalpable than the finest sand, and thus gave the faithful horse
+      refreshment at the expense of his own additional toil; for, iron-sheathed
+      as he was, he sunk over the mailed shoes at every step which he placed on
+      a surface so light and unresisting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right," said the Saracen&mdash;and it was the first word that
+      either had spoken since their truce was concluded; "your strong horse
+      deserves your care. But what do you in the desert with an animal which
+      sinks over the fetlock at every step as if he would plant each foot deep
+      as the root of a date-tree?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou speakest rightly, Saracen," said the Christian knight, not delighted
+      at the tone with which the infidel criticized his favourite steed&mdash;"rightly,
+      according to thy knowledge and observation. But my good horse hath ere now
+      borne me, in mine own land, over as wide a lake as thou seest yonder
+      spread out behind us, yet not wet one hair above his hoof."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen looked at him with as much surprise as his manners permitted
+      him to testify, which was only expressed by a slight approach to a
+      disdainful smile, that hardly curled perceptibly the broad, thick
+      moustache which enveloped his upper lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is justly spoken," he said, instantly composing himself to his usual
+      serene gravity; "List to a Frank, and hear a fable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art not courteous, misbeliever," replied the Crusader, "to doubt the
+      word of a dubbed knight; and were it not that thou speakest in ignorance,
+      and not in malice, our truce had its ending ere it is well begun. Thinkest
+      thou I tell thee an untruth when I say that I, one of five hundred
+      horsemen, armed in complete mail, have ridden&mdash;ay, and ridden for
+      miles, upon water as solid as the crystal, and ten times less brittle?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What wouldst thou tell me?" answered the Moslem. "Yonder inland sea thou
+      dost point at is peculiar in this, that, by the especial curse of God, it
+      suffereth nothing to sink in its waves, but wafts them away, and casts
+      them on its margin; but neither the Dead Sea, nor any of the seven oceans
+      which environ the earth, will endure on their surface the pressure of a
+      horse's foot, more than the Red Sea endured to sustain the advance of
+      Pharaoh and his host."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You speak truth after your knowledge, Saracen," said the Christian
+      knight; "and yet, trust me, I fable not, according to mine. Heat, in this
+      climate, converts the soil into something almost as unstable as water; and
+      in my land cold often converts the water itself into a substance as hard
+      as rock. Let us speak of this no longer, for the thoughts of the calm,
+      clear, blue refulgence of a winter's lake, glimmering to stars and
+      moonbeam, aggravate the horrors of this fiery desert, where, methinks, the
+      very air which we breathe is like the vapour of a fiery furnace seven
+      times heated."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen looked on him with some attention, as if to discover in what
+      sense he was to understand words which, to him, must have appeared either
+      to contain something of mystery or of imposition. At length he seemed
+      determined in what manner to receive the language of his new companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are," he said, "of a nation that loves to laugh, and you make sport
+      with yourselves, and with others, by telling what is impossible, and
+      reporting what never chanced. Thou art one of the knights of France, who
+      hold it for glee and pastime to GAB, as they term it, of exploits that are
+      beyond human power. [Gaber. This French word signified a sort of sport
+      much used among the French chivalry, which consisted in vying with each
+      other in making the most romantic gasconades. The verb and the meaning are
+      retained in Scottish.] I were wrong to challenge, for the time, the
+      privilege of thy speech, since boasting is more natural to thee than
+      truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not of their land, neither of their fashion," said the Knight,
+      "which is, as thou well sayest, to GAB of that which they dare not
+      undertake&mdash;or, undertaking, cannot perfect. But in this I have
+      imitated their folly, brave Saracen, that in talking to thee of what thou
+      canst not comprehend, I have, even in speaking most simple truth, fully
+      incurred the character of a braggart in thy eyes; so, I pray you, let my
+      words pass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had now arrived at the knot of palm-trees and the fountain which
+      welled out from beneath their shade in sparkling profusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have spoken of a moment of truce in the midst of war; and this, a spot
+      of beauty in the midst of a sterile desert, was scarce less dear to the
+      imagination. It was a scene which, perhaps, would elsewhere have deserved
+      little notice; but as the single speck, in a boundless horizon, which
+      promised the refreshment of shade and living water, these blessings, held
+      cheap where they are common, rendered the fountain and its neighbourhood a
+      little paradise. Some generous or charitable hand, ere yet the evil days
+      of Palestine began, had walled in and arched over the fountain, to
+      preserve it from being absorbed in the earth, or choked by the flitting
+      clouds of dust with which the least breath of wind covered the desert. The
+      arch was now broken, and partly ruinous; but it still so far projected
+      over and covered in the fountain that it excluded the sun in a great
+      measure from its waters, which, hardly touched by a straggling beam, while
+      all around was blazing, lay in a steady repose, alike delightful to the
+      eye and the imagination. Stealing from under the arch, they were first
+      received in a marble basin, much defaced indeed, but still cheering the
+      eye, by showing that the place was anciently considered as a station, that
+      the hand of man had been there and that man's accommodation had been in
+      some measure attended to. The thirsty and weary traveller was reminded by
+      these signs that others had suffered similar difficulties, reposed in the
+      same spot, and, doubtless, found their way in safety to a more fertile
+      country. Again, the scarce visible current which escaped from the basin
+      served to nourish the few trees which surrounded the fountain, and where
+      it sunk into the ground and disappeared, its refreshing presence was
+      acknowledged by a carpet of velvet verdure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this delightful spot the two warriors halted, and each, after his own
+      fashion, proceeded to relieve his horse from saddle, bit, and rein, and
+      permitted the animals to drink at the basin, ere they refreshed themselves
+      from the fountain head, which arose under the vault. They then suffered
+      the steeds to go loose, confident that their interest, as well as their
+      domesticated habits, would prevent their straying from the pure water and
+      fresh grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Christian and Saracen next sat down together on the turf, and produced
+      each the small allowance of store which they carried for their own
+      refreshment. Yet, ere they severally proceeded to their scanty meal, they
+      eyed each other with that curiosity which the close and doubtful conflict
+      in which they had been so lately engaged was calculated to inspire. Each
+      was desirous to measure the strength, and form some estimate of the
+      character, of an adversary so formidable; and each was compelled to
+      acknowledge that, had he fallen in the conflict, it had been by a noble
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The champions formed a striking contrast to each other in person and
+      features, and might have formed no inaccurate representatives of their
+      different nations. The Frank seemed a powerful man, built after the
+      ancient Gothic cast of form, with light brown hair, which, on the removal
+      of his helmet, was seen to curl thick and profusely over his head. His
+      features had acquired, from the hot climate, a hue much darker than those
+      parts of his neck which were less frequently exposed to view, or than was
+      warranted by his full and well-opened blue eye, the colour of his hair,
+      and of the moustaches which thickly shaded his upper lip, while his chin
+      was carefully divested of beard, after the Norman fashion. His nose was
+      Grecian and well formed; his mouth rather large in proportion, but filled
+      with well-set, strong, and beautifully white teeth; his head small, and
+      set upon the neck with much grace. His age could not exceed thirty, but if
+      the effects of toil and climate were allowed for, might be three or four
+      years under that period. His form was tall, powerful, and athletic, like
+      that of a man whose strength might, in later life, become unwieldy, but
+      which was hitherto united with lightness and activity. His hands, when he
+      withdrew the mailed gloves, were long, fair, and well-proportioned; the
+      wrist-bones peculiarly large and strong; and the arms remarkably
+      well-shaped and brawny. A military hardihood and careless frankness of
+      expression characterized his language and his motions; and his voice had
+      the tone of one more accustomed to command than to obey, and who was in
+      the habit of expressing his sentiments aloud and boldly, whenever he was
+      called upon to announce them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen Emir formed a marked and striking contrast with the Western
+      Crusader. His stature was indeed above the middle size, but he was at
+      least three inches shorter than the European, whose size approached the
+      gigantic. His slender limbs and long, spare hands and arms, though well
+      proportioned to his person, and suited to the style of his countenance,
+      did not at first aspect promise the display of vigour and elasticity which
+      the Emir had lately exhibited. But on looking more closely, his limbs,
+      where exposed to view, seemed divested of all that was fleshy or
+      cumbersome; so that nothing being left but bone, brawn, and sinew, it was
+      a frame fitted for exertion and fatigue, far beyond that of a bulky
+      champion, whose strength and size are counterbalanced by weight, and who
+      is exhausted by his own exertions. The countenance of the Saracen
+      naturally bore a general national resemblance to the Eastern tribe from
+      whom he descended, and was as unlike as possible to the exaggerated terms
+      in which the minstrels of the day were wont to represent the infidel
+      champions, and the fabulous description which a sister art still presents
+      as the Saracen's Head upon signposts. His features were small,
+      well-formed, and delicate, though deeply embrowned by the Eastern sun, and
+      terminated by a flowing and curled black beard, which seemed trimmed with
+      peculiar care. The nose was straight and regular, the eyes keen, deep-set,
+      black, and glowing, and his teeth equalled in beauty the ivory of his
+      deserts. The person and proportions of the Saracen, in short, stretched on
+      the turf near to his powerful antagonist, might have been compared to his
+      sheeny and crescent-formed sabre, with its narrow and light but bright and
+      keen Damascus blade, contrasted with the long and ponderous Gothic
+      war-sword which was flung unbuckled on the same sod. The Emir was in the
+      very flower of his age, and might perhaps have been termed eminently
+      beautiful, but for the narrowness of his forehead and something of too
+      much thinness and sharpness of feature, or at least what might have seemed
+      such in a European estimate of beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The manners of the Eastern warrior were grave, graceful, and decorous;
+      indicating, however, in some particulars, the habitual restraint which men
+      of warm and choleric tempers often set as a guard upon their native
+      impetuosity of disposition, and at the same time a sense of his own
+      dignity, which seemed to impose a certain formality of behaviour in him
+      who entertained it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This haughty feeling of superiority was perhaps equally entertained by his
+      new European acquaintance, but the effect was different; and the same
+      feeling, which dictated to the Christian knight a bold, blunt, and
+      somewhat careless bearing, as one too conscious of his own importance to
+      be anxious about the opinions of others, appeared to prescribe to the
+      Saracen a style of courtesy more studiously and formally observant of
+      ceremony. Both were courteous; but the courtesy of the Christian seemed to
+      flow rather from a good humoured sense of what was due to others; that of
+      the Moslem, from a high feeling of what was to be expected from himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The provision which each had made for his refreshment was simple, but the
+      meal of the Saracen was abstemious. A handful of dates and a morsel of
+      coarse barley-bread sufficed to relieve the hunger of the latter, whose
+      education had habituated them to the fare of the desert, although, since
+      their Syrian conquests, the Arabian simplicity of life frequently gave
+      place to the most unbounded profusion of luxury. A few draughts from the
+      lovely fountain by which they reposed completed his meal. That of the
+      Christian, though coarse, was more genial. Dried hog's flesh, the
+      abomination of the Moslemah, was the chief part of his repast; and his
+      drink, derived from a leathern bottle, contained something better than
+      pure element. He fed with more display of appetite, and drank with more
+      appearance of satisfaction, than the Saracen judged it becoming to show in
+      the performance of a mere bodily function; and, doubtless, the secret
+      contempt which each entertained for the other, as the follower of a false
+      religion, was considerably increased by the marked difference of their
+      diet and manners. But each had found the weight of his opponent's arm, and
+      the mutual respect which the bold struggle had created was sufficient to
+      subdue other and inferior considerations. Yet the Saracen could not help
+      remarking the circumstances which displeased him in the Christian's
+      conduct and manners; and, after he had witnessed for some time in silence
+      the keen appetite which protracted the knight's banquet long after his own
+      was concluded, he thus addressed him:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Valiant Nazarene, is it fitting that one who can fight like a man should
+      feed like a dog or a wolf? Even a misbelieving Jew would shudder at the
+      food which you seem to eat with as much relish as if it were fruit from
+      the trees of Paradise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Valiant Saracen," answered the Christian, looking up with some surprise
+      at the accusation thus unexpectedly brought, "know thou that I exercise my
+      Christian freedom in using that which is forbidden to the Jews, being, as
+      they esteem themselves, under the bondage of the old law of Moses. We,
+      Saracen, be it known to thee, have a better warrant for what we do&mdash;Ave
+      Maria!&mdash;be we thankful." And, as if in defiance of his companion's
+      scruples, he concluded a short Latin grace with a long draught from the
+      leathern bottle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That, too, you call a part of your liberty," said the Saracen; "and as
+      you feed like the brutes, so you degrade yourself to the bestial condition
+      by drinking a poisonous liquor which even they refuse!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Know, foolish Saracen," replied the Christian, without hesitation, "that
+      thou blasphemest the gifts of God, even with the blasphemy of thy father
+      Ishmael. The juice of the grape is given to him that will use it wisely,
+      as that which cheers the heart of man after toil, refreshes him in
+      sickness, and comforts him in sorrow. He who so enjoyeth it may thank God
+      for his winecup as for his daily bread; and he who abuseth the gift of
+      Heaven is not a greater fool in his intoxication than thou in thine
+      abstinence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The keen eye of the Saracen kindled at this sarcasm, and his hand sought
+      the hilt of his poniard. It was but a momentary thought, however, and died
+      away in the recollection of the powerful champion with whom he had to
+      deal, and the desperate grapple, the impression of which still throbbed in
+      his limbs and veins; and he contented himself with pursuing the contest in
+      colloquy, as more convenient for the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy words" he said, "O Nazarene, might create anger, did not thy
+      ignorance raise compassion. Seest thou not, O thou more blind than any who
+      asks alms at the door of the Mosque, that the liberty thou dost boast of
+      is restrained even in that which is dearest to man's happiness and to his
+      household; and that thy law, if thou dost practise it, binds thee in
+      marriage to one single mate, be she sick or healthy, be she fruitful or
+      barren, bring she comfort and joy, or clamour and strife, to thy table and
+      to thy bed? This, Nazarene, I do indeed call slavery; whereas, to the
+      faithful, hath the Prophet assigned upon earth the patriarchal privileges
+      of Abraham our father, and of Solomon, the wisest of mankind, having given
+      us here a succession of beauty at our pleasure, and beyond the grave the
+      black-eyed houris of Paradise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by His name that I most reverence in heaven," said the Christian,
+      "and by hers whom I most worship on earth, thou art but a blinded and a
+      bewildered infidel!&mdash;That diamond signet which thou wearest on thy
+      finger, thou holdest it, doubtless, as of inestimable value?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Balsora and Bagdad cannot show the like," replied the Saracen; "but what
+      avails it to our purpose?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Much," replied the Frank, "as thou shalt thyself confess. Take my war-axe
+      and dash the stone into twenty shivers: would each fragment be as valuable
+      as the original gem, or would they, all collected, bear the tenth part of
+      its estimation?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is a child's question," answered the Saracen; "the fragments of such
+      a stone would not equal the entire jewel in the degree of hundreds to
+      one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saracen," replied the Christian warrior, "the love which a true knight
+      binds on one only, fair and faithful, is the gem entire; the affection
+      thou flingest among thy enslaved wives and half-wedded slaves is
+      worthless, comparatively, as the sparkling shivers of the broken diamond."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by the Holy Caaba," said the Emir, "thou art a madman who hugs his
+      chain of iron as if it were of gold! Look more closely. This ring of mine
+      would lose half its beauty were not the signet encircled and enchased with
+      these lesser brilliants, which grace it and set it off. The central
+      diamond is man, firm and entire, his value depending on himself alone; and
+      this circle of lesser jewels are women, borrowing his lustre, which he
+      deals out to them as best suits his pleasure or his convenience. Take the
+      central stone from the signet, and the diamond itself remains as valuable
+      as ever, while the lesser gems are comparatively of little value. And this
+      is the true reading of thy parable; for what sayeth the poet Mansour: 'It
+      is the favour of man which giveth beauty and comeliness to woman, as the
+      stream glitters no longer when the sun ceaseth to shine.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saracen," replied the Crusader, "thou speakest like one who never saw a
+      woman worthy the affection of a soldier. Believe me, couldst thou look
+      upon those of Europe, to whom, after Heaven, we of the order of knighthood
+      vow fealty and devotion, thou wouldst loathe for ever the poor sensual
+      slaves who form thy haram. The beauty of our fair ones gives point to our
+      spears and edge to our swords; their words are our law; and as soon will a
+      lamp shed lustre when unkindled, as a knight distinguish himself by feats
+      of arms, having no mistress of his affection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard of this frenzy among the warriors of the West," said the
+      Emir, "and have ever accounted it one of the accompanying symptoms of that
+      insanity which brings you hither to obtain possession of an empty
+      sepulchre. But yet, methinks, so highly have the Franks whom I have met
+      with extolled the beauty of their women, I could be well contented to
+      behold with mine own eyes those charms which can transform such brave
+      warriors into the tools of their pleasure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Brave Saracen," said the Knight, "if I were not on a pilgrimage to the
+      Holy Sepulchre, it should be my pride to conduct you, on assurance of
+      safety, to the camp of Richard of England, than whom none knows better how
+      to do honour to a noble foe; and though I be poor and unattended yet have
+      I interest to secure for thee, or any such as thou seemest, not safety
+      only, but respect and esteem. There shouldst thou see several of the
+      fairest beauties of France and Britain form a small circle, the brilliancy
+      of which exceeds ten-thousandfold the lustre of mines of diamonds such as
+      thine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by the corner-stone of the Caaba!" said the Saracen, "I will accept
+      thy invitation as freely as it is given, if thou wilt postpone thy present
+      intent; and, credit me, brave Nazarene, it were better for thyself to turn
+      back thy horse's head towards the camp of thy people, for to travel
+      towards Jerusalem without a passport is but a wilful casting-away of thy
+      life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have a pass," answered the Knight, producing a parchment, "Under
+      Saladin's hand and signet."
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0040m.jpg" alt="0040m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0040.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen bent his head to the dust as he recognized the seal and
+      handwriting of the renowned Soldan of Egypt and Syria; and having kissed
+      the paper with profound respect, he pressed it to his forehead, then
+      returned it to the Christian, saying, "Rash Frank, thou hast sinned
+      against thine own blood and mine, for not showing this to me when we met."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You came with levelled spear," said the Knight. "Had a troop of Saracens
+      so assailed me, it might have stood with my honour to have shown the
+      Soldan's pass, but never to one man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And yet one man," said the Saracen haughtily, "was enough to interrupt
+      your journey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True, brave Moslem," replied the Christian; "but there are few such as
+      thou art. Such falcons fly not in flocks; or, if they do, they pounce not
+      in numbers upon one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou dost us but justice," said the Saracen, evidently gratified by the
+      compliment, as he had been touched by the implied scorn of the European's
+      previous boast; "from us thou shouldst have had no wrong. But well was it
+      for me that I failed to slay thee, with the safeguard of the king of kings
+      upon thy person. Certain it were, that the cord or the sabre had justly
+      avenged such guilt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad to hear that its influence shall be availing to me," said the
+      Knight; "for I have heard that the road is infested with robber-tribes,
+      who regard nothing in comparison of an opportunity of plunder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The truth has been told to thee, brave Christian," said the Saracen; "but
+      I swear to thee, by the turban of the Prophet, that shouldst thou miscarry
+      in any haunt of such villains, I will myself undertake thy revenge with
+      five thousand horse. I will slay every male of them, and send their women
+      into such distant captivity that the name of their tribe shall never again
+      be heard within five hundred miles of Damascus. I will sow with salt the
+      foundations of their village, and there shall never live thing dwell
+      there, even from that time forward."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had rather the trouble which you design for yourself were in revenge of
+      some other more important person than of me, noble Emir," replied the
+      Knight; "but my vow is recorded in heaven, for good or for evil, and I
+      must be indebted to you for pointing me out the way to my resting-place
+      for this evening."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That," said the Saracen, "must be under the black covering of my father's
+      tent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This night," answered the Christian, "I must pass in prayer and penitence
+      with a holy man, Theodorick of Engaddi, who dwells amongst these wilds,
+      and spends his life in the service of God."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will at least see you safe thither," said the Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That would be pleasant convoy for me," said the Christian; "yet might
+      endanger the future security of the good father; for the cruel hand of
+      your people has been red with the blood of the servants of the Lord, and
+      therefore do we come hither in plate and mail, with sword and lance, to
+      open the road to the Holy Sepulchre, and protect the chosen saints and
+      anchorites who yet dwell in this land of promise and of miracle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nazarene," said the Moslem, "in this the Greeks and Syrians have much
+      belied us, seeing we do but after the word of Abubeker Alwakel, the
+      successor of the Prophet, and, after him, the first commander of true
+      believers. 'Go forth,' he said, 'Yezed Ben Sophian,' when he sent that
+      renowned general to take Syria from the infidels; 'quit yourselves like
+      men in battle, but slay neither the aged, the infirm, the women, nor the
+      children. Waste not the land, neither destroy corn and fruit-trees; they
+      are the gifts of Allah. Keep faith when you have made any covenant, even
+      if it be to your own harm. If ye find holy men labouring with their hands,
+      and serving God in the desert, hurt them not, neither destroy their
+      dwellings. But when you find them with shaven crowns, they are of the
+      synagogue of Satan! Smite with the sabre, slay, cease not till they become
+      believers or tributaries.' As the Caliph, companion of the Prophet, hath
+      told us, so have we done, and those whom our justice has smitten are but
+      the priests of Satan. But unto the good men who, without stirring up
+      nation against nation, worship sincerely in the faith of Issa Ben Mariam,
+      we are a shadow and a shield; and such being he whom you seek, even though
+      the light of the Prophet hath not reached him, from me he will only have
+      love, favour, and regard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The anchorite whom I would now visit," said the warlike pilgrim, "is, I
+      have heard, no priest; but were he of that anointed and sacred order, I
+      would prove with my good lance, against paynim and infidel&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let us not defy each other, brother," interrupted the Saracen; "we shall
+      find, either of us, enough of Franks or of Moslemah on whom to exercise
+      both sword and lance. This Theodorick is protected both by Turk and Arab;
+      and, though one of strange conditions at intervals, yet, on the whole, he
+      bears himself so well as the follower of his own prophet, that he merits
+      the protection of him who was sent&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by Our Lady, Saracen," exclaimed the Christian, "if thou darest name
+      in the same breath the camel-driver of Mecca with&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An electrical shock of passion thrilled through the form of the Emir; but
+      it was only momentary, and the calmness of his reply had both dignity and
+      reason in it, when he said, "Slander not him whom thou knowest not&mdash;the
+      rather that we venerate the founder of thy religion, while we condemn the
+      doctrine which your priests have spun from it. I will myself guide thee to
+      the cavern of the hermit, which, methinks, without my help, thou wouldst
+      find it a hard matter to reach. And, on the way, let us leave to mollahs
+      and to monks to dispute about the divinity of our faith, and speak on
+      themes which belong to youthful warriors&mdash;upon battles, upon
+      beautiful women, upon sharp swords, and upon bright armour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The warriors arose from their place of brief rest and simple refreshment,
+      and courteously aided each other while they carefully replaced and
+      adjusted the harness from which they had relieved for the time their
+      trusty steeds. Each seemed familiar with an employment which at that time
+      was a part of necessary and, indeed, of indispensable duty. Each also
+      seemed to possess, as far as the difference betwixt the animal and
+      rational species admitted, the confidence and affection of the horse which
+      was the constant companion of his travels and his warfare. With the
+      Saracen this familiar intimacy was a part of his early habits; for, in the
+      tents of the Eastern military tribes, the horse of the soldier ranks next
+      to, and almost equal in importance with, his wife and his family; and with
+      the European warrior, circumstances, and indeed necessity, rendered his
+      war-horse scarcely less than his brother in arms. The steeds, therefore,
+      suffered themselves quietly to be taken from their food and liberty, and
+      neighed and snuffled fondly around their masters, while they were
+      adjusting their accoutrements for further travel and additional toil. And
+      each warrior, as he prosecuted his own task, or assisted with courtesy his
+      companion, looked with observant curiosity at the equipments of his
+      fellow-traveller, and noted particularly what struck him as peculiar in
+      the fashion in which he arranged his riding accoutrements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere they remounted to resume their journey, the Christian Knight again
+      moistened his lips and dipped his hands in the living fountain, and said
+      to his pagan associate of the journey, "I would I knew the name of this
+      delicious fountain, that I might hold it in my grateful remembrance; for
+      never did water slake more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than I
+      have this day experienced."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is called in the Arabic language," answered the Saracen, "by a name
+      which signifies the Diamond of the Desert."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And well is it so named," replied the Christian. "My native valley hath a
+      thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I attach hereafter such
+      precious recollection as to this solitary fount, which bestows its liquid
+      treasures where they are not only delightful, but nearly indispensable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You say truth," said the Saracen; "for the curse is still on yonder sea
+      of death, and neither man nor beast drinks of its waves, nor of the river
+      which feeds without filling it, until this inhospitable desert be passed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They mounted, and pursued their journey across the sandy waste. The ardour
+      of noon was now past, and a light breeze somewhat alleviated the terrors
+      of the desert, though not without bearing on its wings an impalpable dust,
+      which the Saracen little heeded, though his heavily-armed companion felt
+      it as such an annoyance that he hung his iron casque at his saddle-bow,
+      and substituted the light riding-cap, termed in the language of the time a
+      MORTIER, from its resemblance in shape to an ordinary mortar. They rode
+      together for some time in silence, the Saracen performing the part of
+      director and guide of the journey, which he did by observing minute marks
+      and bearings of the distant rocks, to a ridge of which they were gradually
+      approaching. For a little time he seemed absorbed in the task, as a pilot
+      when navigating a vessel through a difficult channel; but they had not
+      proceeded half a league when he seemed secure of his route, and disposed,
+      with more frankness than was usual to his nation, to enter into
+      conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have asked the name," he said, "of a mute fountain, which hath the
+      semblance, but not the reality, of a living thing. Let me be pardoned to
+      ask the name of the companion with whom I have this day encountered, both
+      in danger and in repose, and which I cannot fancy unknown even here among
+      the deserts of Palestine?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not yet worth publishing," said the Christian. "Know, however, that
+      among the soldiers of the Cross I am called Kenneth&mdash;Kenneth of the
+      Couching Leopard; at home I have other titles, but they would sound harsh
+      in an Eastern ear. Brave Saracen, let me ask which of the tribes of Arabia
+      claims your descent, and by what name you are known?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir Kenneth," said the Moslem, "I joy that your name is such as my lips
+      can easily utter. For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my descent from a line
+      neither less wild nor less warlike. Know, Sir Knight of the Leopard, that
+      I am Sheerkohf, the Lion of the Mountain, and that Kurdistan, from which I
+      derive my descent, holds no family more noble than that of Seljook."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard," answered the Christian, "that your great Soldan claims his
+      blood from the same source?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thanks to the Prophet that hath so far honoured our mountains as to send
+      from their bosom him whose word is victory," answered the paynim. "I am
+      but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria, and yet in my own land
+      something my name may avail. Stranger, with how many men didst thou come
+      on this warfare?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith," said Sir Kenneth, "with aid of friends and kinsmen, I was
+      hardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed lances, with maybe some
+      fifty more men, archers and varlets included. Some have deserted my
+      unlucky pennon&mdash;some have fallen in battle&mdash;several have died of
+      disease&mdash;and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing
+      my pilgrimage, lies on the bed of sickness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Christian," said Sheerkohf, "here I have five arrows in my quiver, each
+      feathered from the wing of an eagle. When I send one of them to my tents,
+      a thousand warriors mount on horseback&mdash;when I send another, an equal
+      force will arise&mdash;for the five, I can command five thousand men; and
+      if I send my bow, ten thousand mounted riders will shake the desert. And
+      with thy fifty followers thou hast come to invade a land in which I am one
+      of the meanest!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by the rood, Saracen," retorted the Western warrior, "thou shouldst
+      know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steel glove can crush a whole
+      handful of hornets."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but it must first enclose them within its grasp," said the Saracen,
+      with a smile which might have endangered their new alliance, had he not
+      changed the subject by adding, "And is bravery so much esteemed amongst
+      the Christian princes that thou, thus void of means and of men, canst
+      offer, as thou didst of late, to be my protector and security in the camp
+      of thy brethren?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Know, Saracen," said the Christian, "since such is thy style, that the
+      name of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle him to place
+      himself on the same rank with sovereigns even of the first degree, in so
+      far as regards all but regal authority and dominion. Were Richard of
+      England himself to wound the honour of a knight as poor as I am, he could
+      not, by the law of chivalry, deny him the combat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks I should like to look upon so strange a scene," said the Emir,
+      "in which a leathern belt and a pair of spurs put the poorest on a level
+      with the most powerful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must add free blood and a fearless heart," said the Christian; "then,
+      perhaps, you will not have spoken untruly of the dignity of knighthood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And mix you as boldly amongst the females of your chiefs and leaders?"
+      asked the Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God forbid," said the Knight of the Leopard, "that the poorest knight in
+      Christendom should not be free, in all honourable service, to devote his
+      hand and sword, the fame of his actions, and the fixed devotion of his
+      heart, to the fairest princess who ever wore coronet on her brow!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But a little while since," said the Saracen, "and you described love as
+      the highest treasure of the heart&mdash;thine hath undoubtedly been high
+      and nobly bestowed?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stranger," answered the Christian, blushing deeply as he spoke, "we tell
+      not rashly where it is we have bestowed our choicest treasures. It is
+      enough for thee to know that, as thou sayest, my love is highly and nobly
+      bestowed&mdash;most highly&mdash;most nobly; but if thou wouldst hear of
+      love and broken lances, venture thyself, as thou sayest, to the camp of
+      the Crusaders, and thou wilt find exercise for thine ears, and, if thou
+      wilt, for thy hands too."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Eastern warrior, raising himself in his stirrups, and shaking aloft
+      his lance, replied, "Hardly, I fear, shall I find one with a crossed
+      shoulder who will exchange with me the cast of the jerrid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will not promise for that," replied the Knight; "though there be in the
+      camp certain Spaniards, who have right good skill in your Eastern game of
+      hurling the javelin."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dogs, and sons of dogs!" ejaculated the Saracen; "what have these
+      Spaniards to do to come hither to combat the true believers, who, in their
+      own land, are their lords and taskmasters? with them I would mix in no
+      warlike pastime."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let not the knights of Leon or Asturias hear you speak thus of them,"
+      said the Knight of the Leopard. "But," added he, smiling at the
+      recollection of the morning's combat, "if, instead of a reed, you were
+      inclined to stand the cast of a battle-axe, there are enough of Western
+      warriors who would gratify your longing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the beard of my father, sir," said the Saracen, with an approach to
+      laughter, "the game is too rough for mere sport. I will never shun them in
+      battle, but my head" (pressing his hand to his brow) "will not, for a
+      while, permit me to seek them in sport."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would you saw the axe of King Richard," answered the Western warrior,
+      "to which that which hangs at my saddle-bow weighs but as a feather."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We hear much of that island sovereign," said the Saracen. "Art thou one
+      of his subjects?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One of his followers I am, for this expedition," answered the Knight,
+      "and honoured in the service; but not born his subject, although a native
+      of the island in which he reigns."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How mean you? " said the Eastern soldier; "have you then two kings in one
+      poor island?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As thou sayest," said the Scot, for such was Sir Kenneth by birth. "It is
+      even so; and yet, although the inhabitants of the two extremities of that
+      island are engaged in frequent war, the country can, as thou seest,
+      furnish forth such a body of men-at-arms as may go far to shake the unholy
+      hold which your master hath laid on the cities of Zion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the beard of Saladin, Nazarene, but that it is a thoughtless and
+      boyish folly, I could laugh at the simplicity of your great Sultan, who
+      comes hither to make conquests of deserts and rocks, and dispute the
+      possession of them with those who have tenfold numbers at command, while
+      he leaves a part of his narrow islet, in which he was born a sovereign, to
+      the dominion of another sceptre than his. Surely, Sir Kenneth, you and the
+      other good men of your country should have submitted yourselves to the
+      dominion of this King Richard ere you left your native land, divided
+      against itself, to set forth on this expedition?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hasty and fierce was Kenneth's answer. "No, by the bright light of Heaven!
+      If the King of England had not set forth to the Crusade till he was
+      sovereign of Scotland, the Crescent might, for me, and all true-hearted
+      Scots, glimmer for ever on the walls of Zion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus far he had proceeded, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he
+      muttered, "MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA! what have I, a soldier of the Cross, to
+      do with recollection of war betwixt Christian nations!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rapid expression of feeling corrected by the dictates of duty did not
+      escape the Moslem, who, if he did not entirely understand all which it
+      conveyed, saw enough to convince him with the assurance that Christians,
+      as well as Moslemah, had private feelings of personal pique, and national
+      quarrels, which were not entirely reconcilable. But the Saracens were a
+      race, polished, perhaps, to the utmost extent which their religion
+      permitted, and particularly capable of entertaining high ideas of courtesy
+      and politeness; and such sentiments prevented his taking any notice of the
+      inconsistency of Sir Kenneth's feelings in the opposite characters of a
+      Scot and a Crusader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, as they advanced, the scene began to change around them. They
+      were now turning to the eastward, and had reached the range of steep and
+      barren hills which binds in that quarter the naked plain, and varies the
+      surface of the country, without changing its sterile character. Sharp,
+      rocky eminences began to rise around them, and, in a short time, deep
+      declivities and ascents, both formidable in height and difficult from the
+      narrowness of the path, offered to the travellers obstacles of a different
+      kind from those with which they had recently contended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dark caverns and chasms amongst the rocks&mdash;those grottoes so often
+      alluded to in Scripture&mdash;yawned fearfully on either side as they
+      proceeded, and the Scottish knight was informed by the Emir that these
+      were often the refuge of beasts of prey, or of men still more ferocious,
+      who, driven to desperation by the constant war, and the oppression
+      exercised by the soldiery, as well of the Cross as of the Crescent, had
+      become robbers, and spared neither rank nor religion, neither sex nor age,
+      in their depredations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight listened with indifference to the accounts of ravages
+      committed by wild beasts or wicked men, secure as he felt himself in his
+      own valour and personal strength; but he was struck with mysterious dread
+      when he recollected that he was now in the awful wilderness of the forty
+      days' fast, and the scene of the actual personal temptation, wherewith the
+      Evil Principle was permitted to assail the Son of Man. He withdrew his
+      attention gradually from the light and worldly conversation of the infidel
+      warrior beside him, and, however acceptable his gay and gallant bravery
+      would have rendered him as a companion elsewhere, Sir Kenneth felt as if,
+      in those wildernesses the waste and dry places in which the foul spirits
+      were wont to wander when expelled the mortals whose forms they possessed,
+      a bare-footed friar would have been a better associate than the gay but
+      unbelieving paynim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These feelings embarrassed him the rather that the Saracen's spirits
+      appeared to rise with the journey, and because the farther he penetrated
+      into the gloomy recesses of the mountains, the lighter became his
+      conversation, and when he found that unanswered, the louder grew his song.
+      Sir Kenneth knew enough of the Eastern languages to be assured that he
+      chanted sonnets of love, containing all the glowing praises of beauty in
+      which the Oriental poets are so fond of luxuriating, and which, therefore,
+      were peculiarly unfitted for a serious or devotional strain of thought,
+      the feeling best becoming the Wilderness of the Temptation. With
+      inconsistency enough, the Saracen also sung lays in praise of wine, the
+      liquid ruby of the Persian poets; and his gaiety at length became so
+      unsuitable to the Christian knight's contrary train of sentiments, as, but
+      for the promise of amity which they had exchanged, would most likely have
+      made Sir Kenneth take measures to change his note. As it was, the Crusader
+      felt as if he had by his side some gay, licentious fiend, who endeavoured
+      to ensnare his soul, and endanger his immortal salvation, by inspiring
+      loose thoughts of earthly pleasure, and thus polluting his devotion, at a
+      time when his faith as a Christian and his vow as a pilgrim called on him
+      for a serious and penitential state of mind. He was thus greatly
+      perplexed, and undecided how to act; and it was in a tone of hasty
+      displeasure that, at length breaking silence, he interrupted the lay of
+      the celebrated Rudpiki, in which he prefers the mole on his mistress's
+      bosom to all the wealth of Bokhara and Samarcand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saracen," said the Crusader sternly, "blinded as thou art, and plunged
+      amidst the errors of a false law, thou shouldst yet comprehend that there
+      are some places more holy than others, and that there are some scenes also
+      in which the Evil One hath more than ordinary power over sinful mortals. I
+      will not tell thee for what awful reason this place&mdash;these rocks&mdash;these
+      caverns with their gloomy arches, leading as it were to the central abyss&mdash;are
+      held an especial haunt of Satan and his angels. It is enough that I have
+      been long warned to beware of this place by wise and holy men, to whom the
+      qualities of the unholy region are well known. Wherefore, Saracen, forbear
+      thy foolish and ill-timed levity, and turn thy thoughts to things more
+      suited to the spot&mdash;although, alas for thee! thy best prayers are but
+      as blasphemy and sin."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen listened with some surprise, and then replied, with
+      good-humour and gaiety, only so far repressed as courtesy required, "Good
+      Sir Kenneth, methinks you deal unequally by your companion, or else
+      ceremony is but indifferently taught amongst your Western tribes. I took
+      no offence when I saw you gorge hog's flesh and drink wine, and permitted
+      you to enjoy a treat which you called your Christian liberty, only pitying
+      in my heart your foul pastimes. Wherefore, then, shouldst thou take
+      scandal, because I cheer, to the best of my power, a gloomy road with a
+      cheerful verse? What saith the poet, 'Song is like the dews of heaven on
+      the bosom of the desert; it cools the path of the traveller.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Friend Saracen," said the Christian, "I blame not the love of minstrelsy
+      and of the GAI SCIENCE; albeit, we yield unto it even too much room in our
+      thoughts when they should be bent on better things. But prayers and holy
+      psalms are better fitting than LAIS of love, or of wine-cups, when men
+      walk in this Valley of the Shadow of Death, full of fiends and demons,
+      whom the prayers of holy men have driven forth from the haunts of humanity
+      to wander amidst scenes as accursed as themselves."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak not thus of the Genii, Christian," answered the Saracen, "for know
+      thou speakest to one whose line and nation drew their origin from the
+      immortal race which your sect fear and blaspheme."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I well thought," answered the Crusader, "that your blinded race had their
+      descent from the foul fiend, without whose aid you would never have been
+      able to maintain this blessed land of Palestine against so many valiant
+      soldiers of God. I speak not thus of thee in particular, Saracen, but
+      generally of thy people and religion. Strange is it to me, however, not
+      that you should have the descent from the Evil One, but that you should
+      boast of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From whom should the bravest boast of descending, saving from him that is
+      bravest?" said the Saracen; "from whom should the proudest trace their
+      line so well as from the Dark Spirit, which would rather fall headlong by
+      force than bend the knee by his will? Eblis may be hated, stranger, but he
+      must be feared; and such as Eblis are his descendants of Kurdistan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tales of magic and of necromancy were the learning of the period, and Sir
+      Kenneth heard his companion's confession of diabolical descent without any
+      disbelief, and without much wonder; yet not without a secret shudder at
+      finding himself in this fearful place, in the company of one who avouched
+      himself to belong to such a lineage. Naturally insusceptible, however, of
+      fear, he crossed himself, and stoutly demanded of the Saracen an account
+      of the pedigree which he had boasted. The latter readily complied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Know, brave stranger," he said, "that when the cruel Zohauk, one of the
+      descendants of Giamschid, held the throne of Persia, he formed a league
+      with the Powers of Darkness, amidst the secret vaults of Istakhar, vaults
+      which the hands of the elementary spirits had hewn out of the living rock
+      long before Adam himself had an existence. Here he fed, with daily
+      oblations of human blood, two devouring serpents, which had become,
+      according to the poets, a part of himself, and to sustain whom he levied a
+      tax of daily human sacrifices, till the exhausted patience of his subjects
+      caused some to raise up the scimitar of resistance, like the valiant
+      Blacksmith and the victorious Feridoun, by whom the tyrant was at length
+      dethroned, and imprisoned for ever in the dismal caverns of the mountain
+      Damavend. But ere that deliverance had taken place, and whilst the power
+      of the bloodthirsty tyrant was at its height, the band of ravening slaves
+      whom he had sent forth to purvey victims for his daily sacrifice brought
+      to the vaults of the palace of Istakhar seven sisters so beautiful that
+      they seemed seven houris. These seven maidens were the daughters of a
+      sage, who had no treasures save those beauties and his own wisdom. The
+      last was not sufficient to foresee this misfortune, the former seemed
+      ineffectual to prevent it. The eldest exceeded not her twentieth year, the
+      youngest had scarce attained her thirteenth; and so like were they to each
+      other that they could not have been distinguished but for the difference
+      of height, in which they gradually rose in easy gradation above each
+      other, like the ascent which leads to the gates of Paradise. So lovely
+      were these seven sisters when they stood in the darksome vault, disrobed
+      of all clothing saving a cymar of white silk, that their charms moved the
+      hearts of those who were not mortal. Thunder muttered, the earth shook,
+      the wall of the vault was rent, and at the chasm entered one dressed like
+      a hunter, with bow and shafts, and followed by six others, his brethren.
+      They were tall men, and, though dark, yet comely to behold; but their eyes
+      had more the glare of those of the dead than the light which lives under
+      the eyelids of the living. 'Zeineb,' said the leader of the band&mdash;and
+      as he spoke he took the eldest sister by the hand, and his voice was soft,
+      low, and melancholy&mdash;'I am Cothrob, king of the subterranean world,
+      and supreme chief of Ginnistan. I and my brethren are of those who,
+      created out of the pure elementary fire, disdained, even at the command of
+      Omnipotence, to do homage to a clod of earth, because it was called Man.
+      Thou mayest have heard of us as cruel, unrelenting, and persecuting. It is
+      false. We are by nature kind and generous; only vengeful when insulted,
+      only cruel when affronted. We are true to those who trust us; and we have
+      heard the invocations of thy father, the sage Mithrasp, who wisely
+      worships not alone the Origin of Good, but that which is called the Source
+      of Evil. You and your sisters are on the eve of death; but let each give
+      to us one hair from your fair tresses, in token of fealty, and we will
+      carry you many miles from hence to a place of safety, where you may bid
+      defiance to Zohauk and his ministers.' The fear of instant death, saith
+      the poet, is like the rod of the prophet Haroun, which devoured all other
+      rods when transformed into snakes before the King of Pharaoh; and the
+      daughters of the Persian sage were less apt than others to be afraid of
+      the addresses of a spirit. They gave the tribute which Cothrob demanded,
+      and in an instant the sisters were transported to an enchanted castle on
+      the mountains of Tugrut, in Kurdistan, and were never again seen by mortal
+      eye. But in process of time seven youths, distinguished in the war and in
+      the chase, appeared in the environs of the castle of the demons. They were
+      darker, taller, fiercer, and more resolute than any of the scattered
+      inhabitants of the valleys of Kurdistan; and they took to themselves
+      wives, and became fathers of the seven tribes of the Kurdmans, whose
+      valour is known throughout the universe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Christian knight heard with wonder the wild tale, of which Kurdistan
+      still possesses the traces, and, after a moment's thought, replied,
+      "Verily, Sir Knight, you have spoken well&mdash;your genealogy may be
+      dreaded and hated, but it cannot be contemned. Neither do I any longer
+      wonder at your obstinacy in a false faith, since, doubtless, it is part of
+      the fiendish disposition which hath descended from your ancestors, those
+      infernal huntsmen, as you have described them, to love falsehood rather
+      than truth; and I no longer marvel that your spirits become high and
+      exalted, and vent themselves in verse and in tunes, when you approach to
+      the places encumbered by the haunting of evil spirits, which must excite
+      in you that joyous feeling which others experience when approaching the
+      land of their human ancestry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my father's beard, I think thou hast the right," said the Saracen,
+      rather amused than offended by the freedom with which the Christian had
+      uttered his reflections; "for, though the Prophet (blessed be his name!)
+      hath sown amongst us the seed of a better faith than our ancestors learned
+      in the ghostly halls of Tugrut, yet we are not willing, like other
+      Moslemah, to pass hasty doom on the lofty and powerful elementary spirits
+      from whom we claim our origin. These Genii, according to our belief and
+      hope, are not altogether reprobate, but are still in the way of probation,
+      and may hereafter be punished or rewarded. Leave we this to the mollahs
+      and the imauns. Enough that with us the reverence for these spirits is not
+      altogether effaced by what we have learned from the Koran, and that many
+      of us still sing, in memorial of our fathers' more ancient faith, such
+      verses as these."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he proceeded to chant verses, very ancient in the language and
+      structure, which some have thought derive their source from the
+      worshippers of Arimanes, the Evil Principle.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                AHRIMAN.
+
+     Dark Ahriman, whom Irak still
+     Holds origin of woe and ill!
+     When, bending at thy shrine,
+     We view the world with troubled eye,
+     Where see we 'neath the extended sky,
+     An empire matching thine!
+
+     If the Benigner Power can yield
+     A fountain in the desert field,
+     Where weary pilgrims drink;
+     Thine are the waves that lash the rock,
+     Thine the tornado's deadly shock,
+     Where countless navies sink!
+
+     Or if he bid the soil dispense
+     Balsams to cheer the sinking sense,
+     How few can they deliver
+     From lingering pains, or pang intense,
+     Red Fever, spotted Pestilence,
+     The arrows of thy quiver!
+
+     Chief in Man's bosom sits thy sway,
+     And frequent, while in words we pray
+     Before another throne,
+     Whate'er of specious form be there,
+     The secret meaning of the prayer
+     Is, Ahriman, thine own.
+
+     Say, hast thou feeling, sense, and form,
+     Thunder thy voice, thy garments storm,
+     As Eastern Magi say;
+     With sentient soul of hate and wrath,
+     And wings to sweep thy deadly path,
+     And fangs to tear thy prey?
+
+     Or art thou mix'd in Nature's source,
+     An ever-operating force,
+     Converting good to ill;
+     An evil principle innate,
+     Contending with our better fate,
+     And, oh!  victorious still?
+
+     Howe'er it be, dispute is vain.
+     On all without thou hold'st thy reign,
+     Nor less on all within;
+     Each mortal passion's fierce career,
+     Love, hate, ambition, joy, and fear,
+     Thou goadest into sin.
+
+     Whene'er a sunny gleam appears,
+     To brighten up our vale of tears,
+     Thou art not distant far;
+     'Mid such brief solace of our lives,
+     Thou whett'st our very banquet-knives
+     To tools of death and war.
+
+     Thus, from the moment of our birth,
+     Long as we linger on the earth,
+     Thou rulest the fate of men;
+     Thine are the pangs of life's last hour,
+     And&mdash;who dare answer?&mdash;is thy power,
+     Dark Spirit!  ended THEN?
+
+     [The worthy and learned clergyman by whom this species of
+     hymn has been translated desires, that, for fear of
+     misconception, we should warn the reader to recollect that
+     it is composed by a heathen, to whom the real causes of
+     moral and physical evil are unknown, and who views their
+     predominance in the system of the universe as all must view
+     that appalling fact who have not the benefit of the
+     Christian revelation.  On our own part, we beg to add, that
+     we understand the style of the translator is more
+     paraphrastic than can be approved by those who are
+     acquainted with the singularly curious original.  The
+     translator seems to have despaired of rendering into English
+     verse the flights of Oriental poetry; and, possibly, like
+     many learned and ingenious men, finding it impossible to
+     discover the sense of the original, he may have tacitly
+     substituted his own.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      These verses may perhaps have been the not unnatural effusion of some
+      half-enlightened philosopher, who, in the fabled deity, Arimanes, saw but
+      the prevalence of moral and physical evil; but in the ears of Sir Kenneth
+      of the Leopard they had a different effect, and, sung as they were by one
+      who had just boasted himself a descendant of demons, sounded very like an
+      address of worship to the arch-fiend himself. He weighed within himself
+      whether, on hearing such blasphemy in the very desert where Satan had
+      stood rebuked for demanding homage, taking an abrupt leave of the Saracen
+      was sufficient to testify his abhorrence; or whether he was not rather
+      constrained by his vow as a Crusader to defy the infidel to combat on the
+      spot, and leave him food for the beasts of the wilderness, when his
+      attention was suddenly caught by an unexpected apparition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light was now verging low, yet served the knight still to discern that
+      they two were no longer alone in the desert, but were closely watched by a
+      figure of great height and very thin, which skipped over rocks and bushes
+      with so much agility as, added to the wild and hirsute appearance of the
+      individual, reminded him of the fauns and silvans, whose images he had
+      seen in the ancient temples of Rome. As the single-hearted Scottishman had
+      never for a moment doubted these gods of the ancient Gentiles to be
+      actually devils, so he now hesitated not to believe that the blasphemous
+      hymn of the Saracen had raised up an infernal spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But what recks it?" said stout Sir Kenneth to himself; "down with the
+      fiend and his worshippers!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not, however, think it necessary to give the same warning of
+      defiance to two enemies as he would unquestionably have afforded to one.
+      His hand was upon his mace, and perhaps the unwary Saracen would have been
+      paid for his Persian poetry by having his brains dashed out on the spot,
+      without any reason assigned for it; but the Scottish Knight was spared
+      from committing what would have been a sore blot in his shield of arms.
+      The apparition, on which his eyes had been fixed for some time, had at
+      first appeared to dog their path by concealing itself behind rocks and
+      shrubs, using those advantages of the ground with great address, and
+      surmounting its irregularities with surprising agility. At length, just as
+      the Saracen paused in his song, the figure, which was that of a tall man
+      clothed in goat-skins, sprung into the midst of the path, and seized a
+      rein of the Saracen's bridle in either hand, confronting thus and bearing
+      back the noble horse, which, unable to endure the manner in which this
+      sudden assailant pressed the long-armed bit, and the severe curb, which,
+      according to the Eastern fashion, was a solid ring of iron, reared
+      upright, and finally fell backwards on his master, who, however, avoided
+      the peril of the fall by lightly throwing himself to one side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The assailant then shifted his grasp from the bridle of the horse to the
+      throat of the rider, flung himself above the struggling Saracen, and,
+      despite of his youth and activity kept him undermost, wreathing his long
+      arms above those of his prisoner, who called out angrily, and yet
+      half-laughing at the same time&mdash;"Hamako&mdash;fool&mdash;unloose me&mdash;this
+      passes thy privilege&mdash;unloose me, or I will use my dagger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy dagger!&mdash;infidel dog!" said the figure in the goat-skins, "hold
+      it in thy gripe if thou canst!" and in an instant he wrenched the
+      Saracen's weapon out of its owner's hand, and brandished it over his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Help, Nazarene!" cried Sheerkohf, now seriously alarmed; "help, or the
+      Hamako will slay me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Slay thee!" replied the dweller of the desert; "and well hast thou
+      merited death, for singing thy blasphemous hymns, not only to the praise
+      of thy false prophet, who is the foul fiend's harbinger, but to that of
+      the Author of Evil himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Christian Knight had hitherto looked on as one stupefied, so strangely
+      had this rencontre contradicted, in its progress and event, all that he
+      had previously conjectured. He felt, however, at length, that it touched
+      his honour to interfere in behalf of his discomfited companion, and
+      therefore addressed himself to the victorious figure in the goat-skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whosoe'er thou art," he said, "and whether of good or of evil, know that
+      I am sworn for the time to be true companion to the Saracen whom thou
+      holdest under thee; therefore, I pray thee to let him arise, else I will
+      do battle with thee in his behalf."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And a proper quarrel it were," answered the Hamako, "for a Crusader to do
+      battle in&mdash;for the sake of an unbaptized dog, to combat one of his
+      own holy faith! Art thou come forth to the wilderness to fight for the
+      Crescent against the Cross? A goodly soldier of God art thou to listen to
+      those who sing the praises of Satan!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, while he spoke thus, he arose himself, and, suffering the Saracen to
+      rise also, returned him his cangiar, or poniard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou seest to what a point of peril thy presumption hath brought thee,"
+      continued he of the goat-skins, now addressing Sheerkohf, "and by what
+      weak means thy practised skill and boasted agility can be foiled, when
+      such is Heaven's pleasure. Wherefore, beware, O Ilderim! for know that,
+      were there not a twinkle in the star of thy nativity which promises for
+      thee something that is good and gracious in Heaven's good time, we two had
+      not parted till I had torn asunder the throat which so lately trilled
+      forth blasphemies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hamako," said the Saracen, without any appearance of resenting the
+      violent language and yet more violent assault to which he had been
+      subjected, "I pray thee, good Hamako, to beware how thou dost again urge
+      thy privilege over far; for though, as a good Moslem, I respect those whom
+      Heaven hath deprived of ordinary reason, in order to endow them with the
+      spirit of prophecy, yet I like not other men's hands on the bridle of my
+      horse, neither upon my own person. Speak, therefore, what thou wilt,
+      secure of any resentment from me; but gather so much sense as to apprehend
+      that if thou shalt again proffer me any violence, I will strike thy
+      shagged head from thy meagre shoulders.&mdash;and to thee, friend
+      Kenneth," he added, as he remounted his steed, "I must needs say, that in
+      a companion through the desert, I love friendly deeds better than fair
+      words. Of the last thou hast given me enough; but it had been better to
+      have aided me more speedily in my struggle with this Hamako, who had
+      well-nigh taken my life in his frenzy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith," said the Knight, "I did somewhat fail&mdash;was somewhat
+      tardy in rendering thee instant help; but the strangeness of the
+      assailant, the suddenness of the scene&mdash;it was as if thy wild and
+      wicked lay had raised the devil among us&mdash;and such was my confusion,
+      that two or three minutes elapsed ere I could take to my weapon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art but a cold and considerate friend," said the Saracen; "and, had
+      the Hamako been one grain more frantic, thy companion had been slain by
+      thy side, to thy eternal dishonour, without thy stirring a finger in his
+      aid, although thou satest by, mounted, and in arms."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my word, Saracen," said the Christian, "if thou wilt have it in plain
+      terms, I thought that strange figure was the devil; and being of thy
+      lineage, I knew not what family secret you might be communicating to each
+      other, as you lay lovingly rolling together on the sand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy gibe is no answer, brother Kenneth," said the Saracen; "for know,
+      that had my assailant been in very deed the Prince of Darkness, thou wert
+      bound not the less to enter into combat with him in thy comrade's behalf.
+      Know, also, that whatever there may be of foul or of fiendish about the
+      Hamako belongs more to your lineage than to mine&mdash;this Hamako being,
+      in truth, the anchorite whom thou art come hither to visit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This!" said Sir Kenneth, looking at the athletic yet wasted figure before
+      him&mdash;"this! Thou mockest, Saracen&mdash;this cannot be the venerable
+      Theodorick!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ask himself, if thou wilt not believe me," answered Sheerkohf; and ere
+      the words had left his mouth, the hermit gave evidence in his own behalf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am Theodorick of Engaddi," he said&mdash;"I am the walker of the desert&mdash;I
+      am friend of the Cross, and flail of all infidels, heretics, and
+      devil-worshippers. Avoid ye, avoid ye! Down with Mahound, Termagaunt, and
+      all their adherents!"&mdash;So saying, he pulled from under his shaggy
+      garment a sort of flail or jointed club, bound with iron, which he
+      brandished round his head with singular dexterity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou seest thy saint," said the Saracen, laughing, for the first time, at
+      the unmitigated astonishment with which Sir Kenneth looked on the wild
+      gestures and heard the wayward muttering of Theodorick, who, after
+      swinging his flail in every direction, apparently quite reckless whether
+      it encountered the head of either of his companions, finally showed his
+      own strength, and the soundness of the weapon, by striking into fragments
+      a large stone which lay near him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a madman," said Sir Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not the worse saint," returned the Moslem, speaking according to the
+      well-known Eastern belief, that madmen are under the influence of
+      immediate inspiration. "Know, Christian, that when one eye is
+      extinguished, the other becomes more keen; when one hand is cut off, the
+      other becomes more powerful; so, when our reason in human things is
+      disturbed or destroyed, our view heavenward becomes more acute and
+      perfect."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the voice of the Saracen was drowned in that of the hermit, who began
+      to hollo aloud in a wild, chanting tone, "I am Theodorick of Engaddi&mdash;I
+      am the torch-brand of the desert&mdash;I am the flail of the infidels! The
+      lion and the leopard shall be my comrades, and draw nigh to my cell for
+      shelter; neither shall the goat be afraid of their fangs. I am the torch
+      and the lantern&mdash;Kyrie Eleison!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He closed his song by a short race, and ended that again by three forward
+      bounds, which would have done him great credit in a gymnastic academy, but
+      became his character of hermit so indifferently that the Scottish Knight
+      was altogether confounded and bewildered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen seemed to understand him better. "You see," he said, "that he
+      expects us to follow him to his cell, which, indeed, is our only place of
+      refuge for the night. You are the leopard, from the portrait on your
+      shield; I am the lion, as my name imports; and by the goat, alluding to
+      his garb of goat-skins, he means himself. We must keep him in sight,
+      however, for he is as fleet as a dromedary."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, the task was a difficult one, for though the reverend guide
+      stopped from time to time, and waved his hand, as if to encourage them to
+      come on, yet, well acquainted with all the winding dells and passes of the
+      desert, and gifted with uncommon activity, which, perhaps, an unsettled
+      state of mind kept in constant exercise, he led the knights through chasms
+      and along footpaths where even the light-armed Saracen, with his
+      well-trained barb, was in considerable risk, and where the iron-sheathed
+      European and his over-burdened steed found themselves in such imminent
+      peril as the rider would gladly have exchanged for the dangers of a
+      general action. Glad he was when, at length, after this wild race, he
+      beheld the holy man who had led it standing in front of a cavern, with a
+      large torch in his hand, composed of a piece of wood dipped in bitumen,
+      which cast a broad and flickering light, and emitted a strong sulphureous
+      smell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Undeterred by the stifling vapour, the knight threw himself from his horse
+      and entered the cavern, which afforded small appearance of accommodation.
+      The cell was divided into two parts, in the outward of which were an altar
+      of stone and a crucifix made of reeds: this served the anchorite for his
+      chapel. On one side of this outward cave the Christian knight, though not
+      without scruple, arising from religious reverence to the objects around,
+      fastened up his horse, and arranged him for the night, in imitation of the
+      Saracen, who gave him to understand that such was the custom of the place.
+      The hermit, meanwhile, was busied putting his inner apartment in order to
+      receive his guests, and there they soon joined him. At the bottom of the
+      outer cave, a small aperture, closed with a door of rough plank, led into
+      the sleeping apartment of the hermit, which was more commodious. The floor
+      had been brought to a rough level by the labour of the inhabitant, and
+      then strewed with white sand, which he daily sprinkled with water from a
+      small fountain which bubbled out of the rock in one corner, affording in
+      that stifling climate, refreshment alike to the ear and the taste.
+      Mattresses, wrought of twisted flags, lay by the side of the cell; the
+      sides, like the floor, had been roughly brought to shape, and several
+      herbs and flowers were hung around them. Two waxen torches, which the
+      hermit lighted, gave a cheerful air to the place, which was rendered
+      agreeable by its fragrance and coolness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were implements of labour in one corner of the apartment, in another
+      was a niche for a rude statue of the Virgin. A table and two chairs showed
+      that they must be the handiwork of the anchorite, being different in their
+      form from Oriental accommodations. The former was covered, not only with
+      reeds and pulse, but also with dried flesh, which Theodorick assiduously
+      placed in such arrangement as should invite the appetite of his guests.
+      This appearance of courtesy, though mute, and expressed by gestures only,
+      seemed to Sir Kenneth something entirely irreconcilable with his former
+      wild and violent demeanour. The movements of the hermit were now become
+      composed, and apparently it was only a sense of religious humiliation
+      which prevented his features, emaciated as they were by his austere mode
+      of life, from being majestic and noble. He trod his cell as one who seemed
+      born to rule over men, but who had abdicated his empire to become the
+      servant of Heaven. Still, it must be allowed that his gigantic size, the
+      length of his unshaven locks and beard, and the fire of a deep-set and
+      wild eye were rather attributes of a soldier than of a recluse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the Saracen seemed to regard the anchorite with some veneration,
+      while he was thus employed, and he whispered in a low tone to Sir Kenneth,
+      "The Hamako is now in his better mind, but he will not speak until we have
+      eaten&mdash;such is his vow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in silence, accordingly, that Theodorick motioned to the Scot to
+      take his place on one of the low chairs, while Sheerkohf placed himself,
+      after the custom of his nation, upon a cushion of mats. The hermit then
+      held up both hands, as if blessing the refreshment which he had placed
+      before his guests, and they proceeded to eat in silence as profound as his
+      own. To the Saracen this gravity was natural; and the Christian imitated
+      his taciturnity, while he employed his thoughts on the singularity of his
+      own situation, and the contrast betwixt the wild, furious gesticulations,
+      loud cries, and fierce actions of Theodorick, when they first met him, and
+      the demure, solemn, decorous assiduity with which he now performed the
+      duties of hospitality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When their meal was ended, the hermit, who had not himself eaten a morsel,
+      removed the fragments from the table, and placing before the Saracen a
+      pitcher of sherbet, assigned to the Scot a flask of wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Drink," he said, "my children"&mdash;they were the first words he had
+      spoken&mdash;"the gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is
+      remembered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having said this, he retired to the outward cell, probably for performance
+      of his devotions, and left his guests together in the inner apartment;
+      when Sir Kenneth endeavoured, by various questions, to draw from Sheerkohf
+      what that Emir knew concerning his host. He was interested by more than
+      mere curiosity in these inquiries. Difficult as it was to reconcile the
+      outrageous demeanour of the recluse at his first appearance with his
+      present humble and placid behaviour, it seemed yet more impossible to
+      think it consistent with the high consideration in which, according to
+      what Sir Kenneth had learned, this hermit was held by the most enlightened
+      divines of the Christian world. Theodorick, the hermit of Engaddi, had, in
+      that character, been the correspondent of popes and councils; to whom his
+      letters, full of eloquent fervour, had described the miseries imposed by
+      the unbelievers upon the Latin Christians in the Holy Land, in colours
+      scarce inferior to those employed at the Council of Clermont by the Hermit
+      Peter, when he preached the first Crusade. To find, in a person so
+      reverend and so much revered, the frantic gestures of a mad fakir, induced
+      the Christian knight to pause ere he could resolve to communicate to him
+      certain important matters, which he had in charge from some of the leaders
+      of the Crusade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been a main object of Sir Kenneth's pilgrimage, attempted by a
+      route so unusual, to make such communications; but what he had that night
+      seen induced him to pause and reflect ere he proceeded to the execution of
+      his commission. From the Emir he could not extract much information, but
+      the general tenor was as follows:&mdash;That, as he had heard, the hermit
+      had been once a brave and valiant soldier, wise in council and fortunate
+      in battle, which last he could easily believe from the great strength and
+      agility which he had often seen him display; that he had appeared at
+      Jerusalem in the character not of a pilgrim, but in that of one who had
+      devoted himself to dwell for the remainder of his life in the Holy Land.
+      Shortly afterwards, he fixed his residence amid the scenes of desolation
+      where they now found him, respected by the Latins for his austere
+      devotion, and by the Turks and Arabs on account of the symptoms of
+      insanity which he displayed, and which they ascribed to inspiration. It
+      was from them he had the name of Hamako, which expresses such a character
+      in the Turkish language. Sheerkohf himself seemed at a loss how to rank
+      their host. He had been, he said, a wise man, and could often for many
+      hours together speak lessons of virtue or wisdom, without the slightest
+      appearance of inaccuracy. At other times he was wild and violent, but
+      never before had he seen him so mischievously disposed as he had that day
+      appeared to be. His rage was chiefly provoked by any affront to his
+      religion; and there was a story of some wandering Arabs, who had insulted
+      his worship and defaced his altar, and whom he had on that account
+      attacked and slain with the short flail which he carried with him in lieu
+      of all other weapons. This incident had made a great noise, and it was as
+      much the fear of the hermit's iron flail as regard for his character as a
+      Hamako which caused the roving tribes to respect his dwelling and his
+      chapel. His fame had spread so far that Saladin had issued particular
+      orders that he should be spared and protected. He himself, and other
+      Moslem lords of rank, had visited the cell more than once, partly from
+      curiosity, partly that they expected from a man so learned as the
+      Christian Hamako some insight into the secrets of futurity. "He had,"
+      continued the Saracen, "a rashid, or observatory, of great height,
+      contrived to view the heavenly bodies, and particularly the planetary
+      system&mdash;by whose movements and influences, as both Christian and
+      Moslem believed, the course of human events was regulated, and might be
+      predicted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the substance of the Emir Sheerkohf's information, and it left
+      Sir Kenneth in doubt whether the character of insanity arose from the
+      occasional excessive fervour of the hermit's zeal, or whether it was not
+      altogether fictitious, and assumed for the sake of the immunities which it
+      afforded. Yet it seemed that the infidels had carried their complaisance
+      towards him to an uncommon length, considering the fanaticism of the
+      followers of Mohammed, in the midst of whom he was living, though the
+      professed enemy of their faith. He thought also there was more intimacy of
+      acquaintance betwixt the hermit and the Saracen than the words of the
+      latter had induced him to anticipate; and it had not escaped him that the
+      former had called the latter by a name different from that which he
+      himself had assumed. All these considerations authorized caution, if not
+      suspicion. He determined to observe his host closely, and not to be
+      over-hasty in communicating with him on the important charge entrusted to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Beware, Saracen," he said; "methinks our host's imagination wanders as
+      well on the subject of names as upon other matters. Thy name is Sheerkohf,
+      and he called thee but now by another."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name, when in the tent of my father," replied the Kurdman, "was
+      Ilderim, and by this I am still distinguished by many. In the field, and
+      to soldiers, I am known as the Lion of the Mountain, being the name my
+      good sword hath won for me. But hush, the Hamako comes&mdash;it is to warn
+      us to rest. I know his custom; none must watch him at his vigils."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The anchorite accordingly entered, and folding his arms on his bosom as he
+      stood before them, said with a solemn voice, "Blessed be His name, who
+      hath appointed the quiet night to follow the busy day, and the calm sleep
+      to refresh the wearied limbs and to compose the troubled spirit!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both warriors replied "Amen!" and, arising from the table, prepared to
+      betake themselves to the couches, which their host indicated by waving his
+      hand, as, making a reverence to each, he again withdrew from the
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Leopard then disarmed himself of his heavy panoply, his
+      Saracen companion kindly assisting him to undo his buckler and clasps,
+      until he remained in the close dress of chamois leather, which knights and
+      men-at-arms used to wear under their harness. The Saracen, if he had
+      admired the strength of his adversary when sheathed in steel, was now no
+      less struck with the accuracy of proportion displayed in his nervous and
+      well-compacted figure. The knight, on the other hand, as, in exchange of
+      courtesy, he assisted the Saracen to disrobe himself of his upper
+      garments, that he might sleep with more convenience, was, on his side, at
+      a loss to conceive how such slender proportions and slimness of figure
+      could be reconciled with the vigour he had displayed in personal contest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each warrior prayed ere he addressed himself to his place of rest. The
+      Moslem turned towards his KEBLAH, the point to which the prayer of each
+      follower of the Prophet was to be addressed, and murmured his heathen
+      orisons; while the Christian, withdrawing from the contamination of the
+      infidel's neighbourhood, placed his huge cross-handled sword upright, and
+      kneeling before it as the sign of salvation, told his rosary with a
+      devotion which was enhanced by the recollection of the scenes through
+      which he had passed, and the dangers from which he had been rescued, in
+      the course of the day. Both warriors, worn by toil and travel, were soon
+      fast asleep, each on his separate pallet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Kenneth the Scot was uncertain how long his senses had been lost in
+      profound repose, when he was roused to recollection by a sense of
+      oppression on his chest, which at first suggested a flirting dream of
+      struggling with a powerful opponent, and at length recalled him fully to
+      his senses. He was about to demand who was there, when, opening his eyes,
+      he beheld the figure of the anchorite, wild and savage-looking as we have
+      described him, standing by his bedside, and pressing his right hand upon
+      his breast, while he held a small silver lamp in the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be silent," said the hermit, as the prostrate knight looked up in
+      surprise; "I have that to say to you which yonder infidel must not hear."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These words he spoke in the French language, and not in the lingua franca,
+      or compound of Eastern and European dialects, which had hitherto been used
+      amongst them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Arise," he continued, "put on thy mantle; speak not, but tread lightly,
+      and follow me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth arose, and took his sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It needs not," answered the anchorite, in a whisper; "we are going where
+      spiritual arms avail much, and fleshly weapons are but as the reed and the
+      decayed gourd."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight deposited his sword by the bedside as before, and, armed only
+      with his dagger, from which in this perilous country he never parted,
+      prepared to attend his mysterious host.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hermit then moved slowly forwards, and was followed by the knight,
+      still under some uncertainty whether the dark form which glided on before
+      to show him the path was not, in fact, the creation of a disturbed dream.
+      They passed, like shadows, into the outer apartment, without disturbing
+      the paynim Emir, who lay still buried in repose. Before the cross and
+      altar, in the outward room, a lamp was still burning, a missal was
+      displayed, and on the floor lay a discipline, or penitential scourge of
+      small cord and wire, the lashes of which were recently stained with blood&mdash;a
+      token, no doubt, of the severe penance of the recluse. Here Theodorick
+      kneeled down, and pointed to the knight to take his place beside him upon
+      the sharp flints, which seemed placed for the purpose of rendering the
+      posture of reverential devotion as uneasy as possible. He read many
+      prayers of the Catholic Church, and chanted, in a low but earnest voice,
+      three of the penitential psalms. These last he intermixed with sighs, and
+      tears, and convulsive throbs, which bore witness how deeply he felt the
+      divine poetry which he recited. The Scottish knight assisted with profound
+      sincerity at these acts of devotion, his opinion of his host beginning, in
+      the meantime, to be so much changed, that he doubted whether, from the
+      severity of his penance and the ardour of his prayers, he ought not to
+      regard him as a saint; and when they arose from the ground, he stood with
+      reverence before him, as a pupil before an honoured master. The hermit
+      was, on his side, silent and abstracted for the space of a few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look into yonder recess, my son," he said, pointing to the farther corner
+      of the cell; "there thou wilt find a veil&mdash;bring it hither."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight obeyed, and in a small aperture cut out of the wall, and
+      secured with a door of wicker, he found the veil inquired for. When he
+      brought it to the light, he discovered that it was torn, and soiled in
+      some places with some dark substance. The anchorite looked at it with a
+      deep but smothered emotion, and ere he could speak to the Scottish knight,
+      was compelled to vent his feelings in a convulsive groan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art now about to look upon the richest treasure that the earth
+      possesses," he at length said; "woe is me, that my eyes are unworthy to be
+      lifted towards it! Alas! I am but the vile and despised sign, which points
+      out to the wearied traveller a harbour of rest and security, but must
+      itself remain for ever without doors. In vain have I fled to the very
+      depths of the rocks, and the very bosom of the thirsty desert. Mine enemy
+      hath found me&mdash;even he whom I have denied has pursued me to my
+      fortresses."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused again for a moment, and turning to the Scottish knight, said, in
+      a firmer tone of voice, "You bring me a greeting from Richard of England?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I come from the Council of Christian Princes," said the knight; "but the
+      King of England being indisposed, I am not honoured with his Majesty's
+      commands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your token?" demanded the recluse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth hesitated. Former suspicions, and the marks of insanity which
+      the hermit had formerly exhibited, rushed suddenly on his thoughts; but
+      how suspect a man whose manners were so saintly? "My password," he said at
+      length, "is this&mdash;Kings begged of a beggar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is right," said the hermit, while he paused. "I know you well; but the
+      sentinel upon his post&mdash;and mine is an important one&mdash;challenges
+      friend as well as foe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then moved forward with the lamp, leading the way into the room which
+      they had left. The Saracen lay on his couch, still fast asleep. The hermit
+      paused by his side, and looked down on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He sleeps," he said, "in darkness, and must not be awakened."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The attitude of the Emir did indeed convey the idea of profound repose.
+      One arm, flung across his body, as he lay with his face half turned to the
+      wall, concealed, with its loose and long sleeve, the greater part of his
+      face; but the high forehead was yet visible. Its nerves, which during his
+      waking hours were so uncommonly active, were now motionless, as if the
+      face had been composed of dark marble, and his long silken eyelashes
+      closed over his piercing and hawklike eyes. The open and relaxed hand, and
+      the deep, regular, and soft breathing, all gave tokens of the most
+      profound repose. The slumberer formed a singular group along with the tall
+      forms of the hermit in his shaggy dress of goat-skins, bearing the lamp,
+      and the knight in his close leathern coat&mdash;the former with an austere
+      expression of ascetic gloom, the latter with anxious curiosity deeply
+      impressed on his manly features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He sleeps soundly," said the hermit, in the same low tone as before; and
+      repeating the words, though he had changed the meaning from that which is
+      literal to a metaphorical sense&mdash;"he sleeps in darkness, but there
+      shall be for him a dayspring.&mdash;O Ilderim, thy waking thoughts are yet
+      as vain and wild as those which are wheeling their giddy dance through thy
+      sleeping brain; but the trumpet shall be heard, and the dream shall be
+      dissolved."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, and making the knight a sign to follow him, the hermit went
+      towards the altar, and passing behind it, pressed a spring, which, opening
+      without noise, showed a small iron door wrought in the side of the cavern,
+      so as to be almost imperceptible, unless upon the most severe scrutiny.
+      The hermit, ere he ventured fully to open the door, dropped some oil on
+      the hinges, which the lamp supplied. A small staircase, hewn in the rock,
+      was discovered, when the iron door was at length completely opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take the veil which I hold," said the hermit, in a melancholy tone, "and
+      blind mine eyes; For I may not look on the treasure which thou art
+      presently to behold, without sin and presumption."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without reply, the knight hastily muffled the recluse's head in the veil,
+      and the latter began to ascend the staircase as one too much accustomed to
+      the way to require the use of light, while at the same time he held the
+      lamp to the Scot, who followed him for many steps up the narrow ascent. At
+      length they rested in a small vault of irregular form, in one nook of
+      which the staircase terminated, while in another corner a corresponding
+      stair was seen to continue the ascent. In a third angle was a Gothic door,
+      very rudely ornamented with the usual attributes of clustered columns and
+      carving, and defended by a wicket, strongly guarded with iron, and studded
+      with large nails. To this last point the hermit directed his steps, which
+      seemed to falter as he approached it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Put off thy shoes," he said to his attendant; "the ground on which thou
+      standest is holy. Banish from thy innermost heart each profane and carnal
+      thought, for to harbour such while in this place were a deadly impiety."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight laid aside his shoes as he was commanded, and the hermit stood
+      in the meanwhile as if communing with his soul in secret prayer, and when
+      he again moved, commanded the knight to knock at the wicket three times.
+      He did so. The door opened spontaneously&mdash;at least Sir Kenneth beheld
+      no one&mdash;and his senses were at once assailed by a stream of the
+      purest light, and by a strong and almost oppressive sense of the richest
+      perfumes. He stepped two or three paces back, and it was the space of a
+      minute ere he recovered the dazzling and overpowering effects of the
+      sudden change from darkness to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he entered the apartment in which this brilliant lustre was
+      displayed, he perceived that the light proceeded from a combination of
+      silver lamps, fed with purest oil, and sending forth the richest odours,
+      hanging by silver chains from the roof of a small Gothic chapel, hewn,
+      like most part of the hermit's singular mansion, out of the sound and
+      solid rock. But whereas, in every other place which Sir Kenneth had seen,
+      the labour employed upon the rock had been of the simplest and coarsest
+      description, it had in this chapel employed the invention and the chisels
+      of the most able architects. The groined roofs rose from six columns on
+      each side, carved with the rarest skill; and the manner in which the
+      crossings of the concave arches were bound together, as it were, with
+      appropriate ornaments, were all in the finest tone of the architecture of
+      the age. Corresponding to the line of pillars, there were on each side six
+      richly-wrought niches, each of which contained the image of one of the
+      twelve apostles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the upper and eastern end of the chapel stood the altar, behind which a
+      very rich curtain of Persian silk, embroidered deeply with gold, covered a
+      recess, containing, unquestionably, some image or relic of no ordinary
+      sanctity, in honour of which this singular place of worship had been
+      erected, Under the persuasion that this must be the case, the knight
+      advanced to the shrine, and kneeling down before it, repeated his
+      devotions with fervency, during which his attention was disturbed by the
+      curtain being suddenly raised, or rather pulled aside, how or by whom he
+      saw not; but in the niche which was thus disclosed he beheld a cabinet of
+      silver and ebony, with a double folding-door, the whole formed into the
+      miniature resemblance of a Gothic church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he gazed with anxious curiosity on the shrine, the two folding-doors
+      also flew open, discovering a large piece of wood, on which were blazoned
+      the words, VERA CRUX; at the same time a choir of female voices sung
+      GLORIA PATRI. The instant the strain had ceased, the shrine was closed,
+      and the curtain again drawn, and the knight who knelt at the altar might
+      now continue his devotions undisturbed, in honour of the holy relic which
+      had been just disclosed to his view. He did this under the profound
+      impression of one who had witnessed, with his own eyes, an awful evidence
+      of the truth of his religion; and it was some time ere, concluding his
+      orisons, he arose, and ventured to look around him for the hermit, who had
+      guided him to this sacred and mysterious spot. He beheld him, his head
+      still muffled in the veil which he had himself wrapped around it,
+      crouching, like a rated hound, upon the threshold of the chapel; but,
+      apparently, without venturing to cross it&mdash;the holiest reverence, the
+      most penitential remorse, was expressed by his posture, which seemed that
+      of a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the burden of his inward
+      feelings. It seemed to the Scot that only the sense of the deepest
+      penitence, remorse, and humiliation could have thus prostrated a frame so
+      strong and a spirit so fiery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He approached him as if to speak; but the recluse anticipated his purpose,
+      murmuring in stifled tones, from beneath the fold in which his head was
+      muffled, and which sounded like a voice proceeding from the cerements of a
+      corpse,&mdash;"Abide, abide&mdash;happy thou that mayest&mdash;the vision
+      is not yet ended." So saying, he reared himself from the ground, drew back
+      from the threshold on which he had hitherto lain prostrate, and closed the
+      door of the chapel, which, secured by a spring bolt within, the snap of
+      which resounded through the place, appeared so much like a part of the
+      living rock from which the cavern was hewn, that Kenneth could hardly
+      discern where the aperture had been. He was now alone in the lighted
+      chapel which contained the relic to which he had lately rendered his
+      homage, without other arms than his dagger, or other companion than his
+      pious thoughts and dauntless courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncertain what was next to happen, but resolved to abide the course of
+      events, Sir Kenneth paced the solitary chapel till about the time of the
+      earliest cock-crowing. At this dead season, when night and morning met
+      together, he heard, but from what quarter he could not discover, the sound
+      of such a small silver bell as is rung at the elevation of the host in the
+      ceremony, or sacrifice, as it has been called, of the mass. The hour and
+      the place rendered the sound fearfully solemn, and, bold as he was, the
+      knight withdrew himself into the farther nook of the chapel, at the end
+      opposite to the altar, in order to observe, without interruption, the
+      consequences of this unexpected signal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not wait long ere the silken curtain was again withdrawn, and the
+      relic again presented to his view. As he sunk reverentially on his knee,
+      he heard the sound of the lauds, or earliest office of the Catholic
+      Church, sung by female voices, which united together in the performance as
+      they had done in the former service. The knight was soon aware that the
+      voices were no longer stationary in the distance, but approached the
+      chapel and became louder, when a door, imperceptible when closed, like
+      that by which he had himself entered, opened on the other side of the
+      vault, and gave the tones of the choir more room to swell along the ribbed
+      arches of the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and,
+      continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene
+      required, expected the consequence of these preparations. A procession
+      appeared about to issue from the door. First, four beautiful boys, whose
+      arms, necks, and legs were bare, showing the bronze complexion of the
+      East, and contrasting with the snow-white tunics which they wore, entered
+      the chapel by two and two. The first pair bore censers, which they swung
+      from side to side, adding double fragrance to the odours with which the
+      chapel already was impregnated. The second pair scattered flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After these followed, in due and majestic order, the females who composed
+      the choir&mdash;six, who from their black scapularies, and black veils
+      over their white garments, appeared to be professed nuns of the order of
+      Mount Carmel; and as many whose veils, being white, argued them to be
+      novices, or occasional inhabitants in the cloister, who were not as yet
+      bound to it by vows. The former held in their hands large rosaries, while
+      the younger and lighter figures who followed carried each a chaplet of red
+      and white roses. They moved in procession around the chapel, without
+      appearing to take the slightest notice of Kenneth, although passing so
+      near him that their robes almost touched him, while they continued to
+      sing. The knight doubted not that he was in one of those cloisters where
+      the noble Christian maidens had formerly openly devoted themselves to the
+      services of the church. Most of them had been suppressed since the
+      Mohammedans had reconquered Palestine, but many, purchasing connivance by
+      presents, or receiving it from the clemency or contempt of the victors,
+      still continued to observe in private the ritual to which their vows had
+      consecrated them. Yet, though Kenneth knew this to be the case, the
+      solemnity of the place and hour, the surprise at the sudden appearance of
+      these votaresses, and the visionary manner in which they moved past him,
+      had such influence on his imagination that he could scarce conceive that
+      the fair procession which he beheld was formed of creatures of this world,
+      so much did they resemble a choir of supernatural beings, rendering homage
+      to the universal object of adoration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the knight's first idea, as the procession passed him, scarce
+      moving, save just sufficiently to continue their progress; so that, seen
+      by the shadowy and religious light which the lamps shed through the clouds
+      of incense which darkened the apartment, they appeared rather to glide
+      than to walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as a second time, in surrounding the chapel, they passed the spot on
+      which he kneeled, one of the white-stoled maidens, as she glided by him,
+      detached from the chaplet which she carried a rosebud, which dropped from
+      her fingers, perhaps unconsciously, on the foot of Sir Kenneth. The knight
+      started as if a dart had suddenly struck his person; for, when the mind is
+      wound up to a high pitch of feeling and expectation, the slightest
+      incident, if unexpected, gives fire to the train which imagination has
+      already laid. But he suppressed his emotion, recollecting how easily an
+      incident so indifferent might have happened, and that it was only the
+      uniform monotony of the movement of the choristers which made the incident
+      in the slightest degree remarkable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, while the procession, for the third time, surrounded the chapel,
+      the thoughts and the eyes of Kenneth followed exclusively the one among
+      the novices who had dropped the rosebud. Her step, her face, her form were
+      so completely assimilated to the rest of the choristers that it was
+      impossible to perceive the least marks of individuality; and yet Kenneth's
+      heart throbbed like a bird that would burst from its cage, as if to assure
+      him, by its sympathetic suggestions, that the female who held the right
+      file on the second rank of the novices was dearer to him, not only than
+      all the rest that were present, but than the whole sex besides. The
+      romantic passion of love, as it was cherished, and indeed enjoined, by the
+      rules of chivalry, associated well with the no less romantic feelings of
+      devotion; and they might be said much more to enhance than to counteract
+      each other. It was, therefore, with a glow of expectation that had
+      something even of a religious character that Sir Kenneth, his sensations
+      thrilling from his heart to the ends of his fingers, expected some second
+      sign of the presence of one who, he strongly fancied, had already bestowed
+      on him the first. Short as the space was during which the procession again
+      completed a third perambulation of the chapel, it seemed an eternity to
+      Kenneth. At length the form which he had watched with such devoted
+      attention drew nigh. There was no difference betwixt that shrouded figure
+      and the others, with whom it moved in concert and in unison, until, just
+      as she passed for the third time the kneeling Crusader, a part of a little
+      and well-proportioned hand, so beautifully formed as to give the highest
+      idea of the perfect proportions of the form to which it belonged, stole
+      through the folds of the gauze, like a moonbeam through the fleecy cloud
+      of a summer night, and again a rosebud lay at the feet of the Knight of
+      the Leopard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This second intimation could not be accidental&mdash;-it could not be
+      fortuitous, the resemblance of that half-seen but beautiful female hand
+      with one which his lips had once touched, and, while they touched it, had
+      internally sworn allegiance to the lovely owner. Had further proof been
+      wanting, there was the glimmer of that matchless ruby ring on that
+      snow-white finger, whose invaluable worth Kenneth would yet have prized
+      less than the slightest sign which that finger could have made; and,
+      veiled too, as she was, he might see, by chance or by favour, a stray curl
+      of the dark tresses, each hair of which was dearer to him a hundred times
+      than a chain of massive gold. It was the lady of his love! But that she
+      should be here&mdash;in the savage and sequestered desert&mdash;among
+      vestals, who rendered themselves habitants of wilds and of caverns, that
+      they might perform in secret those Christian rites which they dared not
+      assist in openly; that this should be so, in truth and in reality, seemed
+      too incredible&mdash;it must be a dream&mdash;a delusive trance of the
+      imagination. While these thoughts passed through the mind of Kenneth, the
+      same passage, by which the procession had entered the chapel, received
+      them on their return. The young sacristans, the sable nuns, vanished
+      successively through the open door. At length she from whom he had
+      received this double intimation passed also; yet, in passing, turned her
+      head, slightly indeed, but perceptibly, towards the place where he
+      remained fixed as an image. He marked the last wave of her veil&mdash;it
+      was gone&mdash;and a darkness sunk upon his soul, scarce less palpable
+      than that which almost immediately enveloped his external sense; for the
+      last chorister had no sooner crossed the threshold of the door than it
+      shut with a loud sound, and at the same instant the voices of the choir
+      were silent, the lights of the chapel were at once extinguished, and Sir
+      Kenneth remained solitary and in total darkness. But to Kenneth, solitude,
+      and darkness, and the uncertainty of his mysterious situation were as
+      nothing&mdash;he thought not of them&mdash;cared not for them&mdash;cared
+      for nought in the world save the flitting vision which had just glided
+      past him, and the tokens of her favour which she had bestowed. To grope on
+      the floor for the buds which she had dropped&mdash;to press them to his
+      lips, to his bosom, now alternately, now together&mdash;to rivet his lips
+      to the cold stones on which, as near as he could judge, she had so lately
+      stepped&mdash;to play all the extravagances which strong affection
+      suggests and vindicates to those who yield themselves up to it, were but
+      the tokens of passionate love common to all ages. But it was peculiar to
+      the times of chivalry that, in his wildest rapture, the knight imagined of
+      no attempt to follow or to trace the object of such romantic attachment;
+      that he thought of her as of a deity, who, having deigned to show herself
+      for an instant to her devoted worshipper, had again returned to the
+      darkness of her sanctuary&mdash;or as an influential planet, which, having
+      darted in some auspicious minute one favourable ray, wrapped itself again
+      in its veil of mist. The motions of the lady of his love were to him those
+      of a superior being, who was to move without watch or control, rejoice him
+      by her appearance, or depress him by her absence, animate him by her
+      kindness, or drive him to despair by her cruelty&mdash;all at her own free
+      will, and without other importunity or remonstrance than that expressed by
+      the most devoted services of the heart and sword of the champion, whose
+      sole object in life was to fulfil her commands, and, by the splendour of
+      his own achievements, to exalt her fame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the rules of chivalry, and of the love which was its ruling
+      principle. But Sir Kenneth's attachment was rendered romantic by other and
+      still more peculiar circumstances. He had never even heard the sound of
+      his lady's voice, though he had often beheld her beauty with rapture. She
+      moved in a circle which his rank of knighthood permitted him indeed to
+      approach, but not to mingle with; and highly as he stood distinguished for
+      warlike skill and enterprise, still the poor Scottish soldier was
+      compelled to worship his divinity at a distance almost as great as divides
+      the Persian from the sun which he adores. But when was the pride of woman
+      too lofty to overlook the passionate devotion of a lover, however inferior
+      in degree? Her eye had been on him in the tournament, her ear had heard
+      his praises in the report of the battles which were daily fought; and
+      while count, duke, and lord contended for her grace, it flowed,
+      unwillingly perhaps at first, or even unconsciously, towards the poor
+      Knight of the Leopard, who, to support his rank, had little besides his
+      sword. When she looked, and when she listened, the lady saw and heard
+      enough to encourage her in a partiality which had at first crept on her
+      unawares. If a knight's personal beauty was praised, even the most prudish
+      dames of the military court of England would make an exception in favour
+      of the Scottish Kenneth; and it oftentimes happened that, notwithstanding
+      the very considerable largesses which princes and peers bestowed on the
+      minstrels, an impartial spirit of independence would seize the poet, and
+      the harp was swept to the heroism of one who had neither palfreys nor
+      garments to bestow in guerdon of his applause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moments when she listened to the praises of her lover became gradually
+      more and more dear to the high-born Edith, relieving the flattery with
+      which her ear was weary, and presenting to her a subject of secret
+      contemplation, more worthy, as he seemed by general report, than those who
+      surpassed him in rank and in the gifts of fortune. As her attention became
+      constantly, though cautiously, fixed on Sir Kenneth, she grew more and
+      more convinced of his personal devotion to herself and more and more
+      certain in her mind that in Kenneth of Scotland she beheld the fated
+      knight doomed to share with her through weal and woe&mdash;and the
+      prospect looked gloomy and dangerous&mdash;the passionate attachment to
+      which the poets of the age ascribed such universal dominion, and which its
+      manners and morals placed nearly on the same rank with devotion itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us not disguise the truth from our readers. When Edith became aware of
+      the state of her own sentiments, chivalrous as were her sentiments,
+      becoming a maiden not distant from the throne of England&mdash;gratified
+      as her pride must have been with the mute though unceasing homage rendered
+      to her by the knight whom she had distinguished, there were moments when
+      the feelings of the woman, loving and beloved, murmured against the
+      restraints of state and form by which she was surrounded, and when she
+      almost blamed the timidity of her lover, who seemed resolved not to
+      infringe them. The etiquette, to use a modern phrase, of birth and rank,
+      had drawn around her a magical circle, beyond which Sir Kenneth might
+      indeed bow and gaze, but within which he could no more pass than an evoked
+      spirit can transgress the boundaries prescribed by the rod of a powerful
+      enchanter. The thought involuntarily pressed on her that she herself must
+      venture, were it but the point of her fairy foot, beyond the prescribed
+      boundary, if she ever hoped to give a lover so reserved and bashful an
+      opportunity of so slight a favour as but to salute her shoe-tie. There was
+      an example&mdash;the noted precedent of the "King's daughter of Hungary,"
+      who thus generously encouraged the "squire of low degree;" and Edith,
+      though of kingly blood, was no king's daughter, any more than her lover
+      was of low degree&mdash;fortune had put no such extreme barrier in
+      obstacle to their affections. Something, however, within the maiden's
+      bosom&mdash;that modest pride which throws fetters even on love itself
+      forbade her, notwithstanding the superiority of her condition, to make
+      those advances, which, in every case, delicacy assigns to the other sex;
+      above all, Sir Kenneth was a knight so gentle and honourable, so highly
+      accomplished, as her imagination at least suggested, together with the
+      strictest feelings of what was due to himself and to her, that however
+      constrained her attitude might be while receiving his adorations, like the
+      image of some deity, who is neither supposed to feel nor to reply to the
+      homage of its votaries, still the idol feared that to step prematurely
+      from her pedestal would be to degrade herself in the eyes of her devoted
+      worshipper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet the devout adorer of an actual idol can even discover signs of
+      approbation in the rigid and immovable features of a marble image; and it
+      is no wonder that something, which could be as favourably interpreted,
+      glanced from the bright eye of the lovely Edith, whose beauty, indeed,
+      consisted rather more in that very power of expression, than an absolute
+      regularity of contour or brilliancy of complexion. Some slight marks of
+      distinction had escaped from her, notwithstanding her own jealous
+      vigilance, else how could Sir Kenneth have so readily and so undoubtingly
+      recognized the lovely hand, of which scarce two fingers were visible from
+      under the veil, or how could he have rested so thoroughly assured that two
+      flowers, successively dropped on the spot, were intended as a recognition
+      on the part of his lady-love? By what train of observation&mdash;by what
+      secret signs, looks, or gestures&mdash;by what instinctive freemasonry of
+      love, this degree of intelligence came to subsist between Edith and her
+      lover, we cannot attempt to trace; for we are old, and such slight
+      vestiges of affection, quickly discovered by younger eyes, defy the power
+      of ours. Enough that such affection did subsist between parties who had
+      never even spoken to one another&mdash;though, on the side of Edith, it
+      was checked by a deep sense of the difficulties and dangers which must
+      necessarily attend the further progress of their attachment; and upon that
+      of the knight by a thousand doubts and fears lest he had overestimated the
+      slight tokens of the lady's notice, varied, as they necessarily were, by
+      long intervals of apparent coldness, during which either the fear of
+      exciting the observation of others, and thus drawing danger upon her
+      lover, or that of sinking in his esteem by seeming too willing to be won,
+      made her behave with indifference, and as if unobservant of his presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This narrative, tedious perhaps, but which the story renders necessary,
+      may serve to explain the state of intelligence, if it deserves so strong a
+      name, betwixt the lovers, when Edith's unexpected appearance in the chapel
+      produced so powerful an effect on the feelings of her knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Their necromantic forms in vain
+     Haunt us on the tented plain;
+     We bid these spectre shapes avaunt,
+     Ashtaroth and Termagaunt.     WARTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The most profound silence, the deepest darkness, continued to brood for
+      more than an hour over the chapel in which we left the Knight of the
+      Leopard still kneeling, alternately expressing thanks to Heaven and
+      gratitude to his lady for the boon which had been vouchsafed to him. His
+      own safety, his own destiny, for which he was at all times little anxious,
+      had not now the weight of a grain of dust in his reflections. He was in
+      the neighbourhood of Lady Edith; he had received tokens of her grace; he
+      was in a place hallowed by relics of the most awful sanctity. A Christian
+      soldier, a devoted lover, could fear nothing, think of nothing, but his
+      duty to Heaven and his devoir to his lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the lapse of the space of time which we have noticed, a shrill whistle,
+      like that with which a falconer calls his hawk, was heard to ring sharply
+      through the vaulted chapel. It was a sound ill suited to the place, and
+      reminded Sir Kenneth how necessary it was he should be upon his guard. He
+      started from his knee, and laid his hand upon his poniard. A creaking
+      sound, as of a screw or pulleys, succeeded, and a light streaming upwards,
+      as from an opening in the floor, showed that a trap-door had been raised
+      or depressed. In less than a minute a long, skinny arm, partly naked,
+      partly clothed in a sleeve of red samite, arose out of the aperture,
+      holding a lamp as high as it could stretch upwards, and the figure to
+      which the arm belonged ascended step by step to the level of the chapel
+      floor. The form and face of the being who thus presented himself were
+      those of a frightful dwarf, with a large head, a cap fantastically adorned
+      with three peacock feathers, a dress of red samite, the richness of which
+      rendered his ugliness more conspicuous, distinguished by gold bracelets
+      and armlets, and a white silk sash, in which he wore a gold-hilted dagger.
+      This singular figure had in his left hand a kind of broom. So soon as he
+      had stepped from the aperture through which he arose, he stood still, and,
+      as if to show himself more distinctly, moved the lamp which he held slowly
+      over his face and person, successively illuminating his wild and fantastic
+      features, and his misshapen but nervous limbs. Though disproportioned in
+      person, the dwarf was not so distorted as to argue any want of strength or
+      activity. While Sir Kenneth gazed on this disagreeable object, the popular
+      creed occurred to his remembrance concerning the gnomes or earthly spirits
+      which make their abode in the caverns of the earth; and so much did this
+      figure correspond with ideas he had formed of their appearance, that he
+      looked on it with disgust, mingled not indeed with fear, but that sort of
+      awe which the presence of a supernatural creature may infuse into the most
+      steady bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dwarf again whistled, and summoned from beneath a companion. This
+      second figure ascended in the same manner as the first; but it was a
+      female arm in this second instance which upheld the lamp from the
+      subterranean vault out of which these presentments arose, and it was a
+      female form, much resembling the first in shape and proportions, which
+      slowly emerged from the floor. Her dress was also of red samite,
+      fantastically cut and flounced, as if she had been dressed for some
+      exhibition of mimes or jugglers; and with the same minuteness which her
+      predecessor had exhibited, she passed the lamp over her face and person,
+      which seemed to rival the male's in ugliness. But with all this most
+      unfavourable exterior, there was one trait in the features of both which
+      argued alertness and intelligence in the most uncommon degree. This arose
+      from the brilliancy of their eyes, which, deep-set beneath black and
+      shaggy brows, gleamed with a lustre which, like that in the eye of the
+      toad, seemed to make some amends for the extreme ugliness of countenance
+      and person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth remained as if spellbound, while this unlovely pair, moving
+      round the chapel close to each other, appeared to perform the duty of
+      sweeping it, like menials; but as they used only one hand, the floor was
+      not much benefited by the exercise, which they plied with such oddity of
+      gestures and manner as befitted their bizarre and fantastic appearance.
+      When they approached near to the knight in the course of their occupation,
+      they ceased to use their brooms; and placing themselves side by side,
+      directly opposite to Sir Kenneth, they again slowly shifted the lights
+      which they held, so as to allow him distinctly to survey features which
+      were not rendered more agreeable by being brought nearer, and to observe
+      the extreme quickness and keenness with which their black and glittering
+      eyes flashed back the light of the lamps. They then turned the gleam of
+      both lights upon the knight, and having accurately surveyed him, turned
+      their faces to each other, and set up a loud, yelling laugh, which
+      resounded in his ears. The sound was so ghastly that Sir Kenneth started
+      at hearing it, and hastily demanded, in the name of God, who they were who
+      profaned that holy place with such antic gestures and elritch
+      exclamations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am the dwarf Nectabanus," said the abortion-seeming male, in a voice
+      corresponding to his figure, and resembling the voice of the night-crow
+      more than any sound which is heard by daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I am Guenevra, his lady and his love," replied the female, in tones
+      which, being shriller, were yet wilder than those of her companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wherefore are you here?" again demanded the knight, scarcely yet assured
+      that they were human beings which he saw before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am," replied the male dwarf, with much assumed gravity and dignity,
+      "the twelfth Imaum. I am Mohammed Mohadi, the guide and the conductor of
+      the faithful. A hundred horses stand ready saddled for me and my train at
+      the Holy City, and as many at the City of Refuge. I am he who shall bear
+      witness, and this is one of my houris."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou liest!" answered the female, interrupting her companion, in tones
+      yet shriller than his own; "I am none of thy houris, and thou art no such
+      infidel trash as the Mohammed of whom thou speakest. May my curse rest
+      upon his coffin! I tell thee, thou ass of Issachar, thou art King Arthur
+      of Britain, whom the fairies stole away from the field of Avalon; and I am
+      Dame Guenevra, famed for her beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But in truth, noble sir," said the male, "we are distressed princes,
+      dwelling under the wing of King Guy of Jerusalem, until he was driven out
+      from his own nest by the foul infidels&mdash;Heaven's bolts consume them!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush," said a voice from the side upon which the knight had entered&mdash;"hush,
+      fools, and begone; your ministry is ended."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dwarfs had no sooner heard the command than, gibbering in discordant
+      whispers to each other, they blew out their lights at once, and left the
+      knight in utter darkness, which, when the pattering of their retiring feet
+      had died away, was soon accompanied by its fittest companion, total
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight felt the departure of these unfortunate creatures a relief. He
+      could not, from their language, manners, and appearance, doubt that they
+      belonged to the degraded class of beings whom deformity of person and
+      weakness of intellect recommended to the painful situation of appendages
+      to great families, where their personal appearance and imbecility were
+      food for merriment to the household. Superior in no respect to the ideas
+      and manners of his time, the Scottish knight might, at another period,
+      have been much amused by the mummery of these poor effigies of humanity;
+      but now their appearance, gesticulations, and language broke the train of
+      deep and solemn feeling with which he was impressed, and he rejoiced in
+      the disappearance of the unhappy objects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes after they had retired, the door at which he had entered
+      opened slowly, and remaining ajar, discovered a faint light arising from a
+      lantern placed upon the threshold. Its doubtful and wavering gleam showed
+      a dark form reclined beside the entrance, but without its precincts,
+      which, on approaching it more nearly, he recognized to be the hermit,
+      crouching in the same humble posture in which he had at first laid himself
+      down, and which, doubtless, he had retained during the whole time of his
+      guest's continuing in the chapel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All is over," said the hermit, as he heard the knight approaching, "and
+      the most wretched of earthly sinners, with him who should think himself
+      most honoured and most happy among the race of humanity, must retire from
+      this place. Take the light, and guide me down the descent, for I must not
+      uncover my eyes until I am far from this hallowed spot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight obeyed in silence, for a solemn and yet ecstatic sense
+      of what he had seen had silenced even the eager workings of curiosity. He
+      led the way, with considerable accuracy, through the various secret
+      passages and stairs by which they had ascended, until at length they found
+      themselves in the outward cell of the hermit's cavern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The condemned criminal is restored to his dungeon, reprieved from one
+      miserable day to another, until his awful Judge shall at length appoint
+      the well-deserved sentence to be carried into execution."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the hermit spoke these words, he laid aside the veil with which his
+      eyes had been bound, and looked at it with a suppressed and hollow sigh.
+      No sooner had he restored it to the crypt from which he had caused the
+      Scot to bring it, than he said hastily and sternly to his companion;
+      "Begone, begone&mdash;to rest, to rest. You may sleep&mdash;you can sleep&mdash;I
+      neither can nor may."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Respecting the profound agitation with which this was spoken, the knight
+      retired into the inner cell; but casting back his eye as he left the
+      exterior grotto, he beheld the anchorite stripping his shoulders with
+      frantic haste of their shaggy mantle, and ere he could shut the frail door
+      which separated the two compartments of the cavern, he heard the clang of
+      the scourge and the groans of the penitent under his self-inflicted
+      penance. A cold shudder came over the knight as he reflected what could be
+      the foulness of the sin, what the depth of the remorse, which, apparently,
+      such severe penance could neither cleanse nor assuage. He told his beads
+      devoutly, and flung himself on his rude couch, after a glance at the still
+      sleeping Moslem, and, wearied by the various scenes of the day and the
+      night, soon slept as sound as infancy. Upon his awaking in the morning, he
+      held certain conferences with the hermit upon matters of importance, and
+      the result of their intercourse induced him to remain for two days longer
+      in the grotto. He was regular, as became a pilgrim, in his devotional
+      exercises, but was not again admitted to the chapel in which he had seen
+      such wonders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Now change the scene&mdash;and let the trumpets sound,
+     For we must rouse the lion from his lair.  OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The scene must change, as our programme has announced, from the mountain
+      wilderness of Jordan to the camp of King Richard of England, then
+      stationed betwixt Jean d'Acre and Ascalon, and containing that army with
+      which he of the lion heart had promised himself a triumphant march to
+      Jerusalem, and in which he would probably have succeeded, if not hindered
+      by the jealousies of the Christian princes engaged in the same enterprise,
+      and the offence taken by them at the uncurbed haughtiness of the English
+      monarch, and Richard's unveiled contempt for his brother sovereigns, who,
+      his equals in rank, were yet far his inferiors in courage, hardihood, and
+      military talents. Such discords, and particularly those betwixt Richard
+      and Philip of France, created disputes and obstacles which impeded every
+      active measure proposed by the heroic though impetuous Richard, while the
+      ranks of the Crusaders were daily thinned, not only by the desertion of
+      individuals, but of entire bands, headed by their respective feudal
+      leaders, who withdrew from a contest in which they had ceased to hope for
+      success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effects of the climate became, as usual, fatal to soldiers from the
+      north, and the more so that the dissolute license of the Crusaders,
+      forming a singular contrast to the principles and purpose of their taking
+      up arms, rendered them more easy victims to the insalubrious influence of
+      burning heat and chilling dews. To these discouraging causes of loss was
+      to be added the sword of the enemy. Saladin, than whom no greater name is
+      recorded in Eastern history, had learned, to his fatal experience, that
+      his light-armed followers were little able to meet in close encounter with
+      the iron-clad Franks, and had been taught, at the same time, to apprehend
+      and dread the adventurous character of his antagonist Richard. But if his
+      armies were more than once routed with great slaughter, his numbers gave
+      the Saracen the advantage in those lighter skirmishes, of which many were
+      inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the army of his assailants decreased, the enterprises of the Sultan
+      became more numerous and more bold in this species of petty warfare. The
+      camp of the Crusaders was surrounded, and almost besieged, by clouds of
+      light cavalry, resembling swarms of wasps, easily crushed when they are
+      once grasped, but furnished with wings to elude superior strength, and
+      stings to inflict harm and mischief. There was perpetual warfare of posts
+      and foragers, in which many valuable lives were lost, without any
+      corresponding object being gained; convoys were intercepted, and
+      communications were cut off. The Crusaders had to purchase the means of
+      sustaining life, by life itself; and water, like that of the well of
+      Bethlehem, longed for by King David, one of its ancient monarchs, was
+      then, as before, only obtained by the expenditure of blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These evils were in a great measure counterbalanced by the stern
+      resolution and restless activity of King Richard, who, with some of his
+      best knights, was ever on horseback, ready to repair to any point where
+      danger occurred, and often not only bringing unexpected succour to the
+      Christians, but discomfiting the infidels when they seemed most secure of
+      victory. But even the iron frame of Coeur de Lion could not support
+      without injury the alternations of the unwholesome climate, joined to
+      ceaseless exertions of body and mind. He became afflicted with one of
+      those slow and wasting fevers peculiar to Asia, and in despite of his
+      great strength and still greater courage, grew first unfit to mount on
+      horseback, and then unable to attend the councils of war which were from
+      time to time held by the Crusaders. It was difficult to say whether this
+      state of personal inactivity was rendered more galling or more endurable
+      to the English monarch by the resolution of the council to engage in a
+      truce of thirty days with the Sultan Saladin; for on the one hand, if he
+      was incensed at the delay which this interposed to the progress of the
+      great enterprise, he was, on the other, somewhat consoled by knowing that
+      others were not acquiring laurels while he remained inactive upon a
+      sick-bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That, however, which Coeur de Lion could least excuse was the general
+      inactivity which prevailed in the camp of the Crusaders so soon as his
+      illness assumed a serious aspect; and the reports which he extracted from
+      his unwilling attendants gave him to understand that the hopes of the host
+      had abated in proportion to his illness, and that the interval of truce
+      was employed, not in recruiting their numbers, reanimating their courage,
+      fostering their spirit of conquest, and preparing for a speedy and
+      determined advance upon the Holy City, which was the object of their
+      expedition, but in securing the camp occupied by their diminished
+      followers with trenches, palisades, and other fortifications, as if
+      preparing rather to repel an attack from a powerful enemy so soon as
+      hostilities should recommence, than to assume the proud character of
+      conquerors and assailants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English king chafed under these reports, like the imprisoned lion
+      viewing his prey from the iron barriers of his cage. Naturally rash and
+      impetuous, the irritability of his temper preyed on itself. He was dreaded
+      by his attendants and even the medical assistants feared to assume the
+      necessary authority which a physician, to do justice to his patient, must
+      needs exercise over him. One faithful baron, who, perhaps, from the
+      congenial nature of his disposition, was devoutly attached to the King's
+      person, dared alone to come between the dragon and his wrath, and quietly,
+      but firmly, maintained a control which no other dared assume over the
+      dangerous invalid, and which Thomas de Multon only exercised because he
+      esteemed his sovereign's life and honour more than he did the degree of
+      favour which he might lose, or even the risk which he might incur, in
+      nursing a patient so intractable, and whose displeasure was so perilous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Thomas was the Lord of Gilsland, in Cumberland, and in an age when
+      surnames and titles were not distinctly attached, as now, to the
+      individuals who bore them, he was called by the Normans the Lord de Vaux;
+      and in English by the Saxons, who clung to their native language, and were
+      proud of the share of Saxon blood in this renowned warrior's veins, he was
+      termed Thomas, or, more familiarly, Thom of the Gills, or Narrow Valleys,
+      from which his extensive domains derived their well-known appellation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This chief had been exercised in almost all the wars, whether waged
+      betwixt England and Scotland, or amongst the various domestic factions
+      which then tore the former country asunder, and in all had been
+      distinguished, as well from his military conduct as his personal prowess.
+      He was, in other respects, a rude soldier, blunt and careless in his
+      bearing, and taciturn&mdash;nay, almost sullen&mdash;in his habits of
+      society, and seeming, at least, to disclaim all knowledge of policy and of
+      courtly art. There were men, however, who pretended to look deeply into
+      character, who asserted that the Lord de Vaux was not less shrewd and
+      aspiring than he was blunt and bold, and who thought that, while he
+      assimilated himself to the king's own character of blunt hardihood, it
+      was, in some degree at least, with an eye to establish his favour, and to
+      gratify his own hopes of deep-laid ambition. But no one cared to thwart
+      his schemes, if such he had, by rivalling him in the dangerous occupation
+      of daily attendance on the sick-bed of a patient whose disease was
+      pronounced infectious, and more especially when it was remembered that the
+      patient was Coeur de Lion, suffering under all the furious impatience of a
+      soldier withheld from battle, and a sovereign sequestered from authority;
+      and the common soldiers, at least in the English army, were generally of
+      opinion that De Vaux attended on the King like comrade upon comrade, in
+      the honest and disinterested frankness of military friendship contracted
+      between the partakers of daily dangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on the decline of a Syrian day that Richard lay on his couch of
+      sickness, loathing it as much in mind as his illness made it irksome to
+      his body. His bright blue eye, which at all times shone with uncommon
+      keenness and splendour, had its vivacity augmented by fever and mental
+      impatience, and glanced from among his curled and unshorn locks of yellow
+      hair as fitfully and as vividly as the last gleams of the sun shoot
+      through the clouds of an approaching thunderstorm, which still, however,
+      are gilded by its beams. His manly features showed the progress of wasting
+      illness, and his beard, neglected and untrimmed, had overgrown both lips
+      and chin. Casting himself from side to side, now clutching towards him the
+      coverings, which at the next moment he flung as impatiently from him, his
+      tossed couch and impatient gestures showed at once the energy and the
+      reckless impatience of a disposition whose natural sphere was that of the
+      most active exertion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beside his couch stood Thomas de Vaux, in face, attitude, and manner the
+      strongest possible contrast to the suffering monarch. His stature
+      approached the gigantic, and his hair in thickness might have resembled
+      that of Samson, though only after the Israelitish champion's locks had
+      passed under the shears of the Philistines, for those of De Vaux were cut
+      short, that they might be enclosed under his helmet. The light of his
+      broad, large hazel eye resembled that of the autumn morn; and it was only
+      perturbed for a moment, when from time to time it was attracted by
+      Richard's vehement marks of agitation and restlessness. His features,
+      though massive like his person, might have been handsome before they were
+      defaced with scars; his upper lip, after the fashion of the Normans, was
+      covered with thick moustaches, which grew so long and luxuriantly as to
+      mingle with his hair, and, like his hair, were dark brown, slightly
+      brindled with grey. His frame seemed of that kind which most readily
+      defies both toil and climate, for he was thin-flanked, broad-chested,
+      long-armed, deep-breathed, and strong-limbed. He had not laid aside his
+      buff-coat, which displayed the cross cut on the shoulder, for more than
+      three nights, enjoying but such momentary repose as the warder of a sick
+      monarch's couch might by snatches indulge. This Baron rarely changed his
+      posture, except to administer to Richard the medicine or refreshments
+      which none of his less favoured attendants could persuade the impatient
+      monarch to take; and there was something affecting in the kindly yet
+      awkward manner in which he discharged offices so strangely contrasted with
+      his blunt and soldierly habits and manners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pavilion in which these personages were, had, as became the time, as
+      well as the personal character of Richard, more of a warlike than a
+      sumptuous or royal character. Weapons offensive and defensive, several of
+      them of strange and newly-invented construction, were scattered about the
+      tented apartment, or disposed upon the pillars which supported it. Skins
+      of animals slain in the chase were stretched on the ground, or extended
+      along the sides of the pavilion; and upon a heap of these silvan spoils
+      lay three ALANS, as they were then called (wolf-greyhounds, that is), of
+      the largest size, and as white as snow. Their faces, marked with many a
+      scar from clutch and fang, showed their share in collecting the trophies
+      upon which they reposed; and their eyes, fixed from time to time with an
+      expressive stretch and yawn upon the bed of Richard, evinced how much they
+      marvelled at and regretted the unwonted inactivity which they were
+      compelled to share. These were but the accompaniments of the soldier and
+      huntsman; but on a small table close by the bed was placed a shield of
+      wrought steel, of triangular form, bearing the three lions passant first
+      assumed by the chivalrous monarch, and before it the golden circlet,
+      resembling much a ducal coronet, only that it was higher in front than
+      behind, which, with the purple velvet and embroidered tiara that lined it,
+      formed then the emblem of England's sovereignty. Beside it, as if prompt
+      for defending the regal symbol, lay a mighty curtal-axe, which would have
+      wearied the arm of any other than Coeur de Lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an outer partition of the pavilion waited two or three officers of the
+      royal household, depressed, anxious for their master's health, and not
+      less so for their own safety, in case of his decease. Their gloomy
+      apprehensions spread themselves to the warders without, who paced about in
+      downcast and silent contemplation, or, resting on their halberds, stood
+      motionless on their post, rather like armed trophies than living warriors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So thou hast no better news to bring me from without, Sir Thomas!" said
+      the King, after a long and perturbed silence, spent in the feverish
+      agitation which we have endeavoured to describe. "All our knights turned
+      women, and our ladies become devotees, and neither a spark of valour nor
+      of gallantry to enlighten a camp which contains the choicest of Europe's
+      chivalry&mdash;ha!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The truce, my lord," said De Vaux, with the same patience with which he
+      had twenty times repeated the explanation&mdash;"the truce prevents us
+      bearing ourselves as men of action; and for the ladies, I am no great
+      reveller, as is well known to your Majesty, and seldom exchange steel and
+      buff for velvet and gold&mdash;but thus far I know, that our choicest
+      beauties are waiting upon the Queen's Majesty and the Princess, to a
+      pilgrimage to the convent of Engaddi, to accomplish their vows for your
+      Highness's deliverance from this trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And is it thus," said Richard, with the impatience of indisposition,
+      "that royal matrons and maidens should risk themselves, where the dogs who
+      defile the land have as little truth to man as they have faith towards
+      God?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord," said De Vaux, "they have Saladin's word for their safety."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True, true!" replied Richard; "and I did the heathen Soldan injustice&mdash;I
+      owe him reparation for it. Would God I were but fit to offer it him upon
+      my body between the two hosts&mdash;Christendom and heathenesse both
+      looking on!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Richard spoke, he thrust his right arm out of bed naked to the
+      shoulder, and painfully raising himself in his couch, shook his clenched
+      hand, as if it grasped sword or battle-axe, and was then brandished over
+      the jewelled turban of the Soldan. It was not without a gentle degree of
+      violence, which the King would scarce have endured from another, that De
+      Vaux, in his character of sick-nurse, compelled his royal master to
+      replace himself in the couch, and covered his sinewy arm, neck, and
+      shoulders with the care which a mother bestows upon an impatient child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a rough nurse, though a willing one, De Vaux," said the King,
+      laughing with a bitter expression, while he submitted to the strength
+      which he was unable to resist; "methinks a coif would become thy lowering
+      features as well as a child's biggin would beseem mine. We should be a
+      babe and nurse to frighten girls with."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have frightened men in our time, my liege," said De Vaux; "and, I
+      trust, may live to frighten them again. What is a fever-fit, that we
+      should not endure it patiently, in order to get rid of it easily?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fever-fit!" exclaimed Richard impetuously; "thou mayest think, and
+      justly, that it is a fever-fit with me; but what is it with all the other
+      Christian princes&mdash;with Philip of France, with that dull Austrian,
+      with him of Montserrat, with the Hospitallers, with the Templars&mdash;what
+      is it with all them? I will tell thee. It is a cold palsy, a dead
+      lethargy, a disease that deprives them of speech and action, a canker that
+      has eaten into the heart of all that is noble, and chivalrous, and
+      virtuous among them&mdash;that has made them false to the noblest vow ever
+      knights were sworn to&mdash;has made them indifferent to their fame, and
+      forgetful of their God!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For the love of Heaven, my liege," said De Vaux, "take it less violently&mdash;you
+      will be heard without doors, where such speeches are but too current
+      already among the common soldiery, and engender discord and contention in
+      the Christian host. Bethink you that your illness mars the mainspring of
+      their enterprise; a mangonel will work without screw and lever better than
+      the Christian host without King Richard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou flatterest me, De Vaux," said Richard, and not insensible to the
+      power of praise, he reclined his head on the pillow with a more deliberate
+      attempt to repose than he had yet exhibited. But Thomas de Vaux was no
+      courtier; the phrase which had offered had risen spontaneously to his
+      lips, and he knew not how to pursue the pleasing theme so as to soothe and
+      prolong the vein which he had excited. He was silent, therefore, until,
+      relapsing into his moody contemplations, the King demanded of him sharply,
+      "Despardieux! This is smoothly said to soothe a sick man; but does a
+      league of monarchs, an assemblage or nobles, a convocation of all the
+      chivalry of Europe, droop with the sickness of one man, though he chances
+      to be King of England? Why should Richard's illness, or Richard's death,
+      check the march of thirty thousand men as brave as himself? When the
+      master stag is struck down, the herd do not disperse upon his fall; when
+      the falcon strikes the leading crane, another takes the guidance of the
+      phalanx. Why do not the powers assemble and choose some one to whom they
+      may entrust the guidance of the host?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Forsooth, and if it please your Majesty," said De Vaux, "I hear
+      consultations have been held among the royal leaders for some such
+      purpose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" exclaimed Richard, his jealousy awakened, giving his mental
+      irritation another direction, "am I forgot by my allies ere I have taken
+      the last sacrament? Do they hold me dead already? But no, no, they are
+      right. And whom do they select as leader of the Christian host?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rank and dignity," said De Vaux, "point to the King of France."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, ay," answered the English monarch, "Philip of France and Navarre&mdash;Denis
+      Mountjoie&mdash;his most Christian Majesty! Mouth-filling words these!
+      There is but one risk&mdash;that he might mistake the words EN ARRIERE for
+      EN AVANT, and lead us back to Paris, instead of marching to Jerusalem. His
+      politic head has learned by this time that there is more to be gotten by
+      oppressing his feudatories, and pillaging his allies, than fighting with
+      the Turks for the Holy Sepulchre."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They might choose the Archduke of Austria," said De Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! because he is big and burly like thyself, Thomas&mdash;nearly as
+      thick-headed, but without thy indifference to danger and carelessness of
+      offence? I tell thee that Austria has in all that mass of flesh no bolder
+      animation than is afforded by the peevishness of a wasp and the courage of
+      a wren. Out upon him! He a leader of chivalry to deeds of glory! Give him
+      a flagon of Rhenish to drink with his besmirched baaren-hauters and
+      lance-knechts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is the Grand Master of the Templars," continued the baron, not
+      sorry to keep his master's attention engaged on other topics than his own
+      illness, though at the expense of the characters of prince and potentate.
+      "There is the Grand Master of the Templars," he continued, "undaunted,
+      skilful, brave in battle, and sage in council, having no separate kingdoms
+      of his own to divert his exertions from the recovery of the Holy Land&mdash;what
+      thinks your Majesty of the Master as a general leader of the Christian
+      host?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha, Beau-Seant?" answered the King. "Oh, no exception can be taken to
+      Brother Giles Amaury; he understands the ordering of a battle, and the
+      fighting in front when it begins. But, Sir Thomas, were it fair to take
+      the Holy Land from the heathen Saladin, so full of all the virtues which
+      may distinguish unchristened man, and give it to Giles Amaury, a worse
+      pagan than himself, an idolater, a devil-worshipper, a necromancer, who
+      practises crimes the most dark and unnatural in the vaults and secret
+      places of abomination and darkness?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Grand Master of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem is not
+      tainted by fame, either with heresy or magic," said Thomas de Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But is he not a sordid miser?" said Richard hastily; "has he not been
+      suspected&mdash;ay, more than suspected&mdash;of selling to the infidels
+      those advantages which they would never have won by fair force? Tush, man,
+      better give the army to be made merchandise of by Venetian skippers and
+      Lombardy pedlars, than trust it to the Grand Master of St. John."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then, I will venture but another guess," said the Baron de Vaux.
+      "What say you to the gallant Marquis of Montserrat, so wise, so elegant,
+      such a good man-at-arms?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wise?&mdash;cunning, you would say," replied Richard; "elegant in a
+      lady's chamber, if you will. Oh, ay, Conrade of Montserrat&mdash;who knows
+      not the popinjay? Politic and versatile, he will change you his purposes
+      as often as the trimmings of his doublet, and you shall never be able to
+      guess the hue of his inmost vestments from their outward colours. A
+      man-at-arms? Ay, a fine figure on horseback, and can bear him well in the
+      tilt-yard, and at the barriers, when swords are blunted at point and edge,
+      and spears are tipped with trenchers of wood instead of steel pikes. Wert
+      thou not with me when I said to that same gay Marquis, 'Here we be, three
+      good Christians, and on yonder plain there pricks a band of some
+      threescore Saracens&mdash;what say you to charge them briskly? There are
+      but twenty unbelieving miscreants to each true knight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I recollect the Marquis replied," said De Vaux, "that his limbs were of
+      flesh, not of iron, and that he would rather bear the heart of a man than
+      of a beast, though that beast were the lion, But I see how it is&mdash;we
+      shall end where we began, without hope of praying at the Sepulchre until
+      Heaven shall restore King Richard to health."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this grave remark Richard burst out into a hearty fit of laughter, the
+      first which he had for some time indulged in. "Why what a thing is
+      conscience," he said, "that through its means even such a thick-witted
+      northern lord as thou canst bring thy sovereign to confess his folly! It
+      is true that, did they not propose themselves as fit to hold my
+      leading-staff, little should I care for plucking the silken trappings off
+      the puppets thou hast shown me in succession. What concerns it me what
+      fine tinsel robes they swagger in, unless when they are named as rivals in
+      the glorious enterprise to which I have vowed myself? Yes, De Vaux, I
+      confess my weakness, and the wilfulness of my ambition. The Christian camp
+      contains, doubtless, many a better knight than Richard of England, and it
+      would be wise and worthy to assign to the best of them the leading of the
+      host. But," continued the warlike monarch, raising himself in his bed, and
+      shaking the cover from his head, while his eyes sparkled as they were wont
+      to do on the eve of battle, "were such a knight to plant the banner of the
+      Cross on the Temple of Jerusalem while I was unable to bear my share in
+      the noble task, he should, so soon as I was fit to lay lance in rest,
+      undergo my challenge to mortal combat, for having diminished my fame, and
+      pressed in before to the object of my enterprise. But hark, what trumpets
+      are those at a distance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Those of King Philip, as I guess, my liege," said the stout Englishman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art dull of ear, Thomas," said the King, endeavouring to start up;
+      "hearest thou not that clash and clang? By Heaven, the Turks are in the
+      camp&mdash;I hear their LELIES." [The war-cries of the Moslemah.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He again endeavoured to get out of bed, and De Vaux was obliged to
+      exercise his own great strength, and also to summon the assistance of the
+      chamberlains from the inner tent, to restrain him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a false traitor, De Vaux," said the incensed monarch, when,
+      breathless and exhausted with struggling, he was compelled to submit to
+      superior strength, and to repose in quiet on his couch. "I would I were&mdash;I
+      would I were but strong enough to dash thy brains out with my battle-axe!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would you had the strength, my liege," said De Vaux, "and would even
+      take the risk of its being so employed. The odds would be great in favour
+      of Christendom were Thomas Multon dead and Coeur de Lion himself again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mine honest faithful servant," said Richard, extending his hand, which
+      the baron reverentially saluted, "forgive thy master's impatience of mood.
+      It is this burning fever which chides thee, and not thy kind master,
+      Richard of England. But go, I prithee, and bring me word what strangers
+      are in the camp, for these sounds are not of Christendom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux left the pavilion on the errand assigned, and in his absence,
+      which he had resolved should be brief, he charged the chamberlains, pages,
+      and attendants to redouble their attention on their sovereign, with
+      threats of holding them to responsibility, which rather added to than
+      diminished their timid anxiety in the discharge of their duty; for next,
+      perhaps, to the ire of the monarch himself, they dreaded that of the stern
+      and inexorable Lord of Gilsland. [Sir Thomas Multon of Gilsland.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     There never was a time on the march parts yet,
+     When Scottish with English met,
+     But it was marvel if the red blood ran not
+     As the rain does in the street.
+     &mdash;BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A considerable band of Scottish warriors had joined the Crusaders, and had
+      naturally placed themselves under the command of the English monarch,
+      being, like his native troops, most of them of Saxon and Norman descent,
+      speaking the same languages, possessed, some of them, of English as well
+      as Scottish demesnes, and allied in some cases by blood and intermarriage.
+      The period also preceded that when the grasping ambition of Edward I. gave
+      a deadly and envenomed character to the wars betwixt the two nations&mdash;the
+      English fighting for the subjugation of Scotland, and the Scottish, with
+      all the stern determination and obstinacy which has ever characterized
+      their nation, for the defence of their independence, by the most violent
+      means, under the most disadvantageous circumstances, and at the most
+      extreme hazard. As yet, wars betwixt the two nations, though fierce and
+      frequent, had been conducted on principles of fair hostility, and admitted
+      of those softening shades by which courtesy and the respect for open and
+      generous foemen qualify and mitigate the horrors of war. In time of peace,
+      therefore, and especially when both, as at present, were engaged in war,
+      waged in behalf of a common cause, and rendered dear to them by their
+      ideas of religion, the adventurers of both countries frequently fought
+      side by side, their national emulation serving only to stimulate them to
+      excel each other in their efforts against the common enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The frank and martial character of Richard, who made no distinction
+      betwixt his own subjects and those of William of Scotland, excepting as
+      they bore themselves in the field of battle, tended much to conciliate the
+      troops of both nations. But upon his illness, and the disadvantageous
+      circumstances in which the Crusaders were placed, the national disunion
+      between the various bands united in the Crusade, began to display itself,
+      just as old wounds break out afresh in the human body when under the
+      influence of disease or debility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish and English, equally jealous and high-spirited, and apt to
+      take offence&mdash;the former the more so, because the poorer and the
+      weaker nation&mdash;began to fill up by internal dissension the period
+      when the truce forbade them to wreak their united vengeance on the
+      Saracens. Like the contending Roman chiefs of old, the Scottish would
+      admit no superiority, and their southern neighbours would brook no
+      equality. There were charges and recriminations, and both the common
+      soldiery and their leaders and commanders, who had been good comrades in
+      time of victory, lowered on each other in the period of adversity, as if
+      their union had not been then more essential than ever, not only to the
+      success of their common cause, but to their joint safety. The same
+      disunion had begun to show itself betwixt the French and English, the
+      Italians and the Germans, and even between the Danes and Swedes; but it is
+      only that which divided the two nations whom one island bred, and who
+      seemed more animated against each other for the very reason, that our
+      narrative is principally concerned with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all the English nobles who had followed their King to Palestine, De
+      Vaux was most prejudiced against the Scottish. They were his near
+      neighbours, with whom he had been engaged during his whole life in private
+      or public warfare, and on whom he had inflicted many calamities, while he
+      had sustained at their hands not a few. His love and devotion to the King
+      was like the vivid affection of the old English mastiff to his master,
+      leaving him churlish and inaccessible to all others even towards those to
+      whom he was indifferent&mdash;and rough and dangerous to any against whom
+      he entertained a prejudice. De Vaux had never observed without jealousy
+      and displeasure his King exhibit any mark of courtesy or favour to the
+      wicked, deceitful, and ferocious race born on the other side of a river,
+      or an imaginary line drawn through waste and wilderness; and he even
+      doubted the success of a Crusade in which they were suffered to bear arms,
+      holding them in his secret soul little better than the Saracens whom he
+      came to combat. It may be added that, as being himself a blunt and
+      downright Englishman, unaccustomed to conceal the slightest movement
+      either of love or of dislike, he accounted the fair-spoken courtesy which
+      the Scots had learned, either from imitation of their frequent allies, the
+      French, or which might have arisen from their own proud and reserved
+      character, as a false and astucious mark of the most dangerous designs
+      against their neighbours, over whom he believed, with genuine English
+      confidence, they could, by fair manhood, never obtain any advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, though De Vaux entertained these sentiments concerning his Northern
+      neighbours, and extended them, with little mitigation, even to such as had
+      assumed the Cross, his respect for the King, and a sense of the duty
+      imposed by his vow as a Crusader, prevented him from displaying them
+      otherwise than by regularly shunning all intercourse with his Scottish
+      brethren-at-arms as far as possible, by observing a sullen taciturnity
+      when compelled to meet them occasionally, and by looking scornfully upon
+      them when they encountered on the march and in camp. The Scottish barons
+      and knights were not men to bear his scorn unobserved or unreplied to; and
+      it came to that pass that he was regarded as the determined and active
+      enemy of a nation, whom, after all, he only disliked, and in some sort
+      despised. Nay, it was remarked by close observers that, if he had not
+      towards them the charity of Scripture, which suffereth long, and judges
+      kindly, he was by no means deficient in the subordinate and limited
+      virtue, which alleviates and relieves the wants of others. The wealth of
+      Thomas of Gilsland procured supplies of provisions and medicines, and some
+      of these usually flowed by secret channels into the quarters of the
+      Scottish&mdash;his surly benevolence proceeding on the principle that,
+      next to a man's friend, his foe was of most importance to him, passing
+      over all the intermediate relations as too indifferent to merit even a
+      thought. This explanation is necessary, in order that the reader may fully
+      understand what we are now to detail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thomas de Vaux had not made many steps beyond the entrance of the royal
+      pavilion when he was aware of what the far more acute ear of the English
+      monarch&mdash;no mean proficient in the art of minstrelsy&mdash;had
+      instantly discovered, that the musical strains, namely, which had reached
+      their ears, were produced by the pipes, shalms, and kettle-drums of the
+      Saracens; and at the bottom of an avenue of tents, which formed a broad
+      access to the pavilion of Richard, he could see a crowd of idle soldiers
+      assembled around the spot from which the music was heard, almost in the
+      centre of the camp; and he saw, with great surprise, mingled amid the
+      helmets of various forms worn by the Crusaders of different nations, white
+      turbans and long pikes, announcing the presence of armed Saracens, and the
+      huge deformed heads of several camels or dromedaries, overlooking the
+      multitude by aid of their long, disproportioned necks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wondering, and displeased at a sight so unexpected and singular&mdash;for
+      it was customary to leave all flags of truce and other communications from
+      the enemy at an appointed place without the barriers&mdash;the baron
+      looked eagerly round for some one of whom he might inquire the cause of
+      this alarming novelty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first person whom he met advancing to him he set down at once, by his
+      grave and haughty step, as a Spaniard or a Scot; and presently after
+      muttered to himself, "And a Scot it is&mdash;he of the Leopard. I have
+      seen him fight indifferently well, for one of his country."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Loath to ask even a passing question, he was about to pass Sir Kenneth,
+      with that sullen and lowering port which seems to say, "I know thee, but I
+      will hold no communication with thee." But his purpose was defeated by the
+      Northern Knight, who moved forward directly to him, and accosting him with
+      formal courtesy, said, "My Lord de Vaux of Gilsland, I have in charge to
+      speak with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" returned the English baron, "with me? But say your pleasure, so it
+      be shortly spoken&mdash;I am on the King's errand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mine touches King Richard yet more nearly," answered Sir Kenneth; "I
+      bring him, I trust, health."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord of Gilsland measured the Scot with incredulous eyes, and replied,
+      "Thou art no leech, I think, Sir Scot; I had as soon thought of your
+      bringing the King of England wealth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth, though displeased with the manner of the baron's reply,
+      answered calmly, "Health to Richard is glory and wealth to Christendom.&mdash;But
+      my time presses; I pray you, may I see the King?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely not, fair sir," said the baron, "until your errand be told more
+      distinctly. The sick chambers of princes open not to all who inquire, like
+      a northern hostelry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Kenneth, "the cross which I wear in common with yourself,
+      and the importance of what I have to tell, must, for the present, cause me
+      to pass over a bearing which else I were unapt to endure. In plain
+      language, then, I bring with me a Moorish physician, who undertakes to
+      work a cure on King Richard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A Moorish physician!" said De Vaux; "and who will warrant that he brings
+      not poisons instead of remedies?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His own life, my lord&mdash;his head, which he offers as a guarantee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have known many a resolute ruffian," said De Vaux, "who valued his own
+      life as little as it deserved, and would troop to the gallows as merrily
+      as if the hangman were his partner in a dance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But thus it is, my lord," replied the Scot. "Saladin, to whom none will
+      deny the credit of a generous and valiant enemy, hath sent this leech
+      hither with an honourable retinue and guard, befitting the high estimation
+      in which El Hakim [The Physician] is held by the Soldan, and with fruits
+      and refreshments for the King's private chamber, and such message as may
+      pass betwixt honourable enemies, praying him to be recovered of his fever,
+      that he may be the fitter to receive a visit from the Soldan, with his
+      naked scimitar in his hand, and a hundred thousand cavaliers at his back.
+      Will it please you, who are of the King's secret council, to cause these
+      camels to be discharged of their burdens, and some order taken as to the
+      reception of the learned physician?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wonderful!" said De Vaux, as speaking to himself.&mdash;"And who will
+      vouch for the honour of Saladin, in a case when bad faith would rid him at
+      once of his most powerful adversary?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I myself," replied Sir Kenneth, "will be his guarantee, with honour,
+      life, and fortune."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Strange!" again ejaculated De Vaux; "the North vouches for the South&mdash;the
+      Scot for the Turk! May I crave of you, Sir Knight, how you became
+      concerned in this affair?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have been absent on a pilgrimage, in the course of which," replied Sir
+      Kenneth "I had a message to discharge towards the holy hermit of Engaddi."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May I not be entrusted with it, Sir Kenneth, and with the answer of the
+      holy man?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may not be, my lord," answered the Scot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am of the secret council of England," said the Englishman haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To which land I owe no allegiance," said Kenneth. "Though I have
+      voluntarily followed in this war the personal fortunes of England's
+      sovereign, I was dispatched by the General Council of the kings, princes,
+      and supreme leaders of the army of the Blessed Cross, and to them only I
+      render my errand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! sayest thou?" said the proud Baron de Vaux. "But know, messenger of
+      the kings and princes as thou mayest be, no leech shall approach the
+      sick-bed of Richard of England without the consent of him of Gilsland; and
+      they will come on evil errand who dare to intrude themselves against it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was turning loftily away, when the Scot, placing himself closer, and
+      more opposite to him, asked, in a calm voice, yet not without expressing
+      his share of pride, whether the Lord of Gilsland esteemed him a gentleman
+      and a good knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All Scots are ennobled by their birthright," answered Thomas de Vaux,
+      something ironically; but sensible of his own injustice, and perceiving
+      that Kenneth's colour rose, he added, "For a good knight it were sin to
+      doubt you, in one at least who has seen you well and bravely discharge
+      your devoir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then," said the Scottish knight, satisfied with the frankness of
+      the last admission, "and let me swear to you, Thomas of Gilsland, that, as
+      I am true Scottish man, which I hold a privilege equal to my ancient
+      gentry, and as sure as I am a belted knight, and come hither to acquire
+      LOS [Los&mdash;laus, praise, or renown] and fame in this mortal life, and
+      forgiveness of my sins in that which is to come&mdash;so truly, and by the
+      blessed Cross which I wear, do I protest unto you that I desire but the
+      safety of Richard Coeur de Lion, in recommending the ministry of this
+      Moslem physician."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Englishman was struck with the solemnity of the obtestation, and
+      answered with more cordiality than he had yet exhibited, "Tell me, Sir
+      Knight of the Leopard, granting (which I do not doubt) that thou art
+      thyself satisfied in this matter, shall I do well, in a land where the art
+      of poisoning is as general as that of cooking, to bring this unknown
+      physician to practise with his drugs on a health so valuable to
+      Christendom?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," replied the Scot, "thus only can I reply&mdash;that my squire,
+      the only one of my retinue whom war and disease had left in attendance on
+      me, has been of late suffering dangerously under this same fever, which,
+      in valiant King Richard, has disabled the principal limb of our holy
+      enterprise. This leech, this El Hakim, hath ministered remedies to him not
+      two hours since, and already he hath fallen into a refreshing sleep. That
+      he can cure the disorder, which has proved so fatal, I nothing doubt; that
+      he hath the purpose to do it is, I think, warranted by his mission from
+      the royal Soldan, who is true-hearted and loyal, so far as a blinded
+      infidel may be called so; and for his eventual success, the certainty of
+      reward in case of succeeding, and punishment in case of voluntary failure,
+      may be a sufficient guarantee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Englishman listened with downcast looks, as one who doubted, yet was
+      not unwilling to receive conviction. At length he looked up and said, "May
+      I see your sick squire, fair sir?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight hesitated and coloured, yet answered at last,
+      "Willingly, my Lord of Gilsland. But you must remember, when you see my
+      poor quarter, that the nobles and knights of Scotland feed not so high,
+      sleep not so soft, and care not for the magnificence of lodgment which is
+      Proper to their southern neighbours. I am POORLY lodged, my Lord of
+      Gilsland," he added, with a haughty emphasis on the word, while, with some
+      unwillingness, he led the way to his temporary place of abode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever were the prejudices of De Vaux against the nation of his new
+      acquaintance, and though we undertake not to deny that some of these were
+      excited by its proverbial poverty, he had too much nobleness of
+      disposition to enjoy the mortification of a brave individual thus
+      compelled to make known wants which his pride would gladly have concealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shame to the soldier of the Cross," he said, "who thinks of worldly
+      splendour, or of luxurious accommodation, when pressing forward to the
+      conquest of the Holy City. Fare as hard as we may, we shall yet be better
+      than the host of martyrs and of saints, who, having trod these scenes
+      before us, now hold golden lamps and evergreen palms."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the most metaphorical speech which Thomas of Gilsland was ever
+      known to utter, the rather, perhaps (as will sometimes happen), that it
+      did not entirely express his own sentiments, being somewhat a lover of
+      good cheer and splendid accommodation. By this time they reached the place
+      of the camp where the Knight of the Leopard had assumed his abode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Appearances here did indeed promise no breach of the laws of
+      mortification, to which the Crusaders, according to the opinion expressed
+      by him of Gilsland, ought to subject themselves. A space of ground, large
+      enough to accommodate perhaps thirty tents, according to the Crusaders'
+      rules of castrametation, was partly vacant&mdash;because, in ostentation,
+      the knight had demanded ground to the extent of his original retinue&mdash;partly
+      occupied by a few miserable huts, hastily constructed of boughs, and
+      covered with palm-leaves. These habitations seemed entirely deserted, and
+      several of them were ruinous. The central hut, which represented the
+      pavilion of the leader, was distinguished by his swallow-tailed pennon,
+      placed on the point of a spear, from which its long folds dropped
+      motionless to the ground, as if sickening under the scorching rays of the
+      Asiatic sun. But no pages or squires&mdash;not even a solitary warder&mdash;was
+      placed by the emblem of feudal power and knightly degree. If its
+      reputation defended it not from insult, it had no other guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth cast a melancholy look around him, but suppressing his
+      feelings, entered the hut, making a sign to the Baron of Gilsland to
+      follow. He also cast around a glance of examination, which implied pity
+      not altogether unmingled with contempt, to which, perhaps, it is as nearly
+      akin as it is said to be to love. He then stooped his lofty crest, and
+      entered a lowly hut, which his bulky form seemed almost entirely to fill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interior of the hut was chiefly occupied by two beds. One was empty,
+      but composed of collected leaves, and spread with an antelope's hide. It
+      seemed, from the articles of armour laid beside it, and from a crucifix of
+      silver, carefully and reverentially disposed at the head, to be the couch
+      of the knight himself. The other contained the invalid, of whom Sir
+      Kenneth had spoken, a strong-built and harsh-featured man, past, as his
+      looks betokened, the middle age of life. His couch was trimmed more softly
+      than his master's, and it was plain that the more courtly garments of the
+      latter, the loose robe in which the knights showed themselves on pacific
+      occasions, and the other little spare articles of dress and adornment, had
+      been applied by Sir Kenneth to the accommodation of his sick domestic. In
+      an outward part of the hut, which yet was within the range of the English
+      baron's eye, a boy, rudely attired with buskins of deer's hide, a blue cap
+      or bonnet, and a doublet, whose original finery was much tarnished, sat on
+      his knees by a chafing-dish filled with charcoal, cooking upon a plate of
+      iron the cakes of barley-bread, which were then, and still are, a
+      favourite food with the Scottish people. Part of an antelope was suspended
+      against one of the main props of the hut. Nor was it difficult to know how
+      it had been procured; for a large stag greyhound, nobler in size and
+      appearance than those even which guarded King Richard's sick-bed, lay
+      eyeing the process of baking the cake. The sagacious animal, on their
+      first entrance, uttered a stifled growl, which sounded from his deep chest
+      like distant thunder. But he saw his master, and acknowledged his presence
+      by wagging his tail and couching his head, abstaining from more tumultuous
+      or noisy greeting, as if his noble instinct had taught him the propriety
+      of silence in a sick man's chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beside the couch sat on a cushion, also composed of skins, the Moorish
+      physician of whom Sir Kenneth had spoken, cross-legged, after the Eastern
+      fashion. The imperfect light showed little of him, save that the lower
+      part of his face was covered with a long, black beard, which descended
+      over his breast; that he wore a high TOLPACH, a Tartar cap of the lamb's
+      wool manufactured at Astracan, bearing the same dusky colour; and that his
+      ample caftan, or Turkish robe, was also of a dark hue. Two piercing eyes,
+      which gleamed with unusual lustre, were the only lineaments of his visage
+      that could be discerned amid the darkness in which he was enveloped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English lord stood silent with a sort of reverential awe; for
+      notwithstanding the roughness of his general bearing, a scene of distress
+      and poverty, firmly endured without complaint or murmur, would at any time
+      have claimed more reverence from Thomas de Vaux than would all the
+      splendid formalities of a royal presence-chamber, unless that
+      presence-chamber were King Richard's own. Nothing was for a time heard but
+      the heavy and regular breathings of the invalid, who seemed in profound
+      repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He hath not slept for six nights before," said Sir Kenneth, "as I am
+      assured by the youth, his attendant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Noble Scot," said Thomas de Vaux, grasping the Scottish knight's hand,
+      with a pressure which had more of cordiality than he permitted his words
+      to utter, "this gear must be amended. Your esquire is but too evil fed and
+      looked to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the latter part of this speech he naturally raised his voice to its
+      usual decided tone, The sick man was disturbed in his slumbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My master," he said, murmuring as in a dream, "noble Sir Kenneth, taste
+      not, to you as to me, the waters of the Clyde cold and refreshing after
+      the brackish springs of Palestine?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He dreams of his native land, and is happy in his slumbers," whispered
+      Sir Kenneth to De Vaux; but had scarce uttered the words, when the
+      physician, arising from the place which he had taken near the couch of the
+      sick, and laying the hand of the patient, whose pulse he had been
+      carefully watching, quietly upon the couch, came to the two knights, and
+      taking them each by the arm, while he intimated to them to remain silent,
+      led them to the front of the hut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the name of Issa Ben Mariam," he said, "whom we honour as you, though
+      not with the same blinded superstition, disturb not the effect of the
+      blessed medicine of which he hath partaken. To awaken him now is death or
+      deprivation of reason; but return at the hour when the muezzin calls from
+      the minaret to evening prayer in the mosque, and if left undisturbed until
+      then, I promise you this same Frankish soldier shall be able, without
+      prejudice to his health, to hold some brief converse with you on any
+      matters on which either, and especially his master, may have to question
+      him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knights retreated before the authoritative commands of the leech, who
+      seemed fully to comprehend the importance of the Eastern proverb that the
+      sick chamber of the patient is the kingdom of the physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They paused, and remained standing together at the door of the hut&mdash;Sir
+      Kenneth with the air of one who expected his visitor to say farewell, and
+      De Vaux as if he had something on his mind which prevented him from doing
+      so. The hound, however, had pressed out of the tent after them, and now
+      thrust his long, rough countenance into the hand of his master, as if
+      modestly soliciting some mark of his kindness. He had no sooner received
+      the notice which he desired, in the shape of a kind word and slight
+      caress, than, eager to acknowledge his gratitude and joy for his master's
+      return, he flew off at full speed, galloping in full career, and with
+      outstretched tail, here and there, about and around, cross-ways and
+      endlong, through the decayed huts and the esplanade we have described, but
+      never transgressing those precincts which his sagacity knew were protected
+      by his master's pennon. After a few gambols of this kind, the dog, coming
+      close up to his master, laid at once aside his frolicsome mood, relapsed
+      into his usual gravity and slowness of gesture and deportment, and looked
+      as if he were ashamed that anything should have moved him to depart so far
+      out of his sober self-control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both knights looked on with pleasure; for Sir Kenneth was justly proud of
+      his noble hound, and the northern English baron was, of course, an admirer
+      of the chase, and a judge of the animal's merits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A right able dog," he said. "I think, fair sir, King Richard hath not an
+      ALAN which may match him, if he be as stanch as he is swift. But let me
+      pray you&mdash;speaking in all honour and kindness&mdash;have you not
+      heard the proclamation that no one under the rank of earl shall keep
+      hunting dogs within King Richard's camp without the royal license, which,
+      I think, Sir Kenneth, hath not been issued to you? I speak as Master of
+      the Horse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I answer as a free Scottish knight," said Kenneth sternly. "For the
+      present I follow the banner of England, but I cannot remember that I have
+      ever subjected myself to the forest-laws of that kingdom, nor have I such
+      respect for them as would incline me to do so. When the trumpet sounds to
+      arms, my foot is in the stirrup as soon as any&mdash;when it clangs for
+      the charge, my lance has not yet been the last laid in the rest. But for
+      my hours of liberty or of idleness King Richard has no title to bar my
+      recreation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nevertheless," said De Vaux, "it is a folly to disobey the King's
+      ordinance; so, with your good leave, I, as having authority in that
+      matter, will send you a protection for my friend here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thank you," said the Scot coldly; "but he knows my allotted quarters,
+      and within these I can protect him myself.&mdash;And yet," he said,
+      suddenly changing his manner, "this is but a cold return for a well-meant
+      kindness. I thank you, my lord, most heartily. The King's equerries or
+      prickers might find Roswal at disadvantage, and do him some injury, which
+      I should not, perhaps, be slow in returning, and so ill might come of it.
+      You have seen so much of my house-keeping, my lord," he added, with a
+      smile, "that I need not shame to say that Roswal is our principal
+      purveyor, and well I hope our Lion Richard will not be like the lion in
+      the minstrel fable, that went a-hunting, and kept the whole booty to
+      himself. I cannot think he would grudge a poor gentleman, who follows him
+      faithfully, his hour of sport and his morsel of game, more especially when
+      other food is hard enough to come by."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, you do the King no more than justice; and yet," said the
+      baron, "there is something in these words, vert and venison, that turns
+      the very brains of our Norman princes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have heard of late," said the Scot, "by minstrels and pilgrims, that
+      your outlawed yeomen have formed great bands in the shires of York and
+      Nottingham, having at their head a most stout archer, called Robin Hood,
+      with his lieutenant, Little John. Methinks it were better that Richard
+      relaxed his forest-code in England, than endeavour to enforce it in the
+      Holy Land."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wild work, Sir Kenneth," replied De Vaux, shrugging his shoulders, as one
+      who would avoid a perilous or unpleasing topic&mdash;"a mad world, sir. I
+      must now bid you adieu, having presently to return to the King's pavilion.
+      At vespers I will again, with your leave, visit your quarters, and speak
+      with this same infidel physician. I would, in the meantime, were it no
+      offence, willingly send you what would somewhat mend your cheer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thank you, sir," said Sir Kenneth, "but it needs not. Roswal hath
+      already stocked my larder for two weeks, since the sun of Palestine, if it
+      brings diseases, serves also to dry venison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two warriors parted much better friends than they had met; but ere
+      they separated, Thomas de Vaux informed himself at more length of the
+      circumstances attending the mission of the Eastern physician, and received
+      from the Scottish knight the credentials which he had brought to King
+      Richard on the part of Saladin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
+     Is more than armies to the common weal.
+       POPE'S ILLIAD.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "This is a strange tale, Sir Thomas," said the sick monarch, when he had
+      heard the report of the trusty Baron of Gilsland. "Art thou sure this
+      Scottish man is a tall man and true?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot say, my lord," replied the jealous Borderer. "I live a little
+      too near the Scots to gather much truth among them, having found them ever
+      fair and false. But this man's bearing is that of a true man, were he a
+      devil as well as a Scot; that I must needs say for him in conscience."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And for his carriage as a knight, how sayest thou, De Vaux?" demanded the
+      King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is your Majesty's business more than mine to note men's bearings; and
+      I warrant you have noted the manner in which this man of the Leopard hath
+      borne himself. He hath been full well spoken of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And justly, Thomas," said the King. "We have ourselves witnessed him. It
+      is indeed our purpose in placing ourselves ever in the front of battle, to
+      see how our liegemen and followers acquit themselves, and not from a
+      desire to accumulate vainglory to ourselves, as some have supposed. We
+      know the vanity of the praise of man, which is but a vapour, and buckle on
+      our armour for other purposes than to win it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux was alarmed when he heard the King make a declaration so
+      inconsistent with his nature, and believed at first that nothing short of
+      the approach of death could have brought him to speak in depreciating
+      terms of military renown, which was the very breath of his nostrils. But
+      recollecting he had met the royal confessor in the outer pavilion, he was
+      shrewd enough to place this temporary self-abasement to the effect of the
+      reverend man's lesson, and suffered the King to proceed without reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," continued Richard, "I have indeed marked the manner in which this
+      knight does his devoir. My leading-staff were not worth a fool's bauble
+      had he escaped my notice; and he had ere now tasted of our bounty, but
+      that I have also marked his overweening and audacious presumption."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My liege," said the Baron of Gilsland, observing the King's countenance
+      change, "I fear I have transgressed your pleasure in lending some
+      countenance to his transgression."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, De Multon, thou?" said the King, contracting his brows, and speaking
+      in a tone of angry surprise. "Thou countenance his insolence? It cannot
+      be."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, your Majesty will pardon me to remind you that I have by mine office
+      right to grant liberty to men of gentle blood to keep them a hound or two
+      within camp, just to cherish the noble art of venerie; and besides, it
+      were a sin to have maimed or harmed a thing so noble as this gentleman's
+      dog."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Has he, then, a dog so handsome?" said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A most perfect creature of Heaven," said the baron, who was an enthusiast
+      in field-sports&mdash;"of the noblest Northern breed&mdash;deep in the
+      chest, strong in the stern&mdash;black colour, and brindled on the breast
+      and legs, not spotted with white, but just shaded into grey&mdash;strength
+      to pull down a bull, swiftness to cote an antelope."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King laughed at his enthusiasm. "Well, thou hast given him leave to
+      keep the hound, so there is an end of it. Be not, however, liberal of your
+      licenses among those knights adventurers who have no prince or leader to
+      depend upon; they are ungovernable, and leave no game in Palestine.&mdash;But
+      to this piece of learned heathenesse&mdash;sayest thou the Scot met him in
+      the desert?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my liege; the Scot's tale runs thus. He was dispatched to the old
+      hermit of Engaddi, of whom men talk so much&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Sdeath and hell!" said Richard, starting up. "By whom dispatched, and
+      for what? Who dared send any one thither, when our Queen was in the
+      Convent of Engaddi, upon her pilgrimage for our recovery?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Council of the Crusade sent him, my lord," answered the Baron de
+      Vaux; "for what purpose, he declined to account to me. I think it is
+      scarce known in the camp that your royal consort is on a pilgrimage; and
+      even the princes may not have been aware, as the Queen has been
+      sequestered from company since your love prohibited her attendance in case
+      of infection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, it shall be looked into," said Richard. "So this Scottish man, this
+      envoy, met with a wandering physician at the grotto of Engaddi&mdash;ha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so my liege," replied De Vaux? "but he met, I think, near that place,
+      with a Saracen Emir with whom he had some MELEE in the way of proof of
+      valour, and finding him worthy to bear brave men company, they went
+      together, as errant knights are wont, to the grotto of Engaddi."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here De Vaux stopped, for he was not one of those who can tell a long
+      story in a sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And did they there meet the physician?" demanded the King impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my liege," replied De Vaux; "but the Saracen, learning your Majesty's
+      grievous illness, undertook that Saladin should send his own physician to
+      you, and with many assurances of his eminent skill; and he came to the
+      grotto accordingly, after the Scottish knight had tarried a day for him
+      and more. He is attended as if he were a prince, with drums and atabals,
+      and servants on horse and foot, and brings with him letters of credence
+      from Saladin."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have they been examined by Giacomo Loredani?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I showed them to the interpreter ere bringing them hither, and behold
+      their contents in English."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard took a scroll, in which were inscribed these words: The blessing
+      of Allah and his Prophet Mohammed ["Out upon the hound!" said Richard,
+      spitting in contempt, by way of interjection], Saladin, king of kings,
+      Saldan of Egypt and of Syria, the light and refuge of the earth, to the
+      great Melech Ric, Richard of England, greeting. Whereas, we have been
+      informed that the hand of sickness hath been heavy upon thee, our royal
+      brother, and that thou hast with thee only such Nazarene and Jewish
+      mediciners as work without the blessing of Allah and our holy Prophet
+      ["Confusion on his head!" again muttered the English monarch], we have
+      therefore sent to tend and wait upon thee at this time the physician to
+      our own person, Adonbec el Hakim, before whose face the angel Azrael [The
+      Angel of Death.] spreads his wings and departs from the sick chamber; who
+      knows the virtues of herbs and stones, the path of the sun, moon, and
+      stars, and can save man from all that is not written on his forehead. And
+      this we do, praying you heartily to honour and make use of his skill; not
+      only that we may do service to thy worth and valour, which is the glory of
+      all the nations of Frangistan, but that we may bring the controversy which
+      is at present between us to an end, either by honourable agreement, or by
+      open trial thereof with our weapons, in a fair field&mdash;seeing that it
+      neither becomes thy place and courage to die the death of a slave who hath
+      been overwrought by his taskmaster, nor befits it our fame that a brave
+      adversary be snatched from our weapon by such a disease. And, therefore,
+      may the holy&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold, hold," said Richard, "I will have no more of his dog of a prophet!
+      It makes me sick to think the valiant and worthy Soldan should believe in
+      a dead dog. Yes, I will see his physician. I will put myself into the
+      charge of this Hakim&mdash;I will repay the noble Soldan his generosity&mdash;I
+      will meet Saladin in the field, as he so worthily proposes, and he shall
+      have no cause to term Richard of England ungrateful. I will strike him to
+      the earth with my battle-axe&mdash;I will convert him to Holy Church with
+      such blows as he has rarely endured. He shall recant his errors before my
+      good cross-handled sword, and I will have him baptized on the
+      battle-field, from my own helmet, though the cleansing waters were mixed
+      with the blood of us both.&mdash;Haste, De Vaux, why dost thou delay a
+      conclusion so pleasing? Fetch the Hakim hither."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the baron, who perhaps saw some accession of fever in this
+      overflow of confidence, "bethink you, the Soldan is a pagan, and that you
+      are his most formidable enemy&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For which reason he is the more bound to do me service in this matter,
+      lest a paltry fever end the quarrel betwixt two such kings. I tell thee he
+      loves me as I love him&mdash;as noble adversaries ever love each other. By
+      my honour, it were sin to doubt his good faith!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nevertheless, my lord, it were well to wait the issue of these medicines
+      upon the Scottish squire," said the Lord of Gilsland. "My own life depends
+      upon it, for worthy were I to die like a dog did I proceed rashly in this
+      matter, and make shipwreck of the weal of Christendom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never knew thee before hesitate for fear of life," said Richard
+      upbraidingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor would I now, my liege," replied the stout-hearted baron, "save that
+      yours lies at pledge as well as my own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, thou suspicious mortal," answered Richard, "begone then, and watch
+      the progress of this remedy. I could almost wish it might either cure or
+      kill me, for I am weary of lying here like an ox dying of the murrain,
+      when tambours are beating, horses stamping, and trumpets sounding
+      without."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron hastily departed, resolved, however, to communicate his errand
+      to some churchman, as he felt something burdened in conscience at the idea
+      of his master being attended by an unbeliever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archbishop of Tyre was the first to whom he confided his doubts,
+      knowing his interest with his master, Richard, who both loved and honoured
+      that sagacious prelate. The bishop heard the doubts which De Vaux stated,
+      with that acuteness of intelligence which distinguishes the Roman Catholic
+      clergy. The religious scruples of De Vaux he treated with as much
+      lightness as propriety permitted him to exhibit on such a subject to a
+      layman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mediciners," he said, "like the medicines which they employed, were often
+      useful, though the one were by birth or manners the vilest of humanity, as
+      the others are, in many cases, extracted from the basest materials. Men
+      may use the assistance of pagans and infidels," he continued, "in their
+      need, and there is reason to think that one cause of their being permitted
+      to remain on earth is that they might minister to the convenience of true
+      Christians. Thus we lawfully make slaves of heathen captives. Again,"
+      proceeded the prelate, "there is no doubt that the primitive Christians
+      used the services of the unconverted heathen. Thus in the ship of
+      Alexandria, in which the blessed Apostle Paul sailed to Italy, the sailors
+      were doubtless pagans; yet what said the holy saint when their ministry
+      was needful?&mdash;'NISI HI IN NAVI MANSERINT, VOS SALVI FIERI NON
+      POTESTIS'&mdash;Unless these men abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
+      Again, Jews are infidels to Christianity, as well as Mohammedans. But
+      there are few physicians in the camp excepting Jews, and such are employed
+      without scandal or scruple. Therefore, Mohammedans may be used for their
+      service in that capacity&mdash;QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This reasoning entirely removed the scruples of Thomas de Vaux, who was
+      particularly moved by the Latin quotation, as he did not understand a word
+      of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the bishop proceeded with far less fluency when he considered the
+      possibility of the Saracen's acting with bad faith; and here he came not
+      to a speedy decision. The baron showed him the letters of credence. He
+      read and re-read them, and compared the original with the translation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a dish choicely cooked," he said, "to the palate of King Richard,
+      and I cannot but have my suspicions of the wily Saracen. They are curious
+      in the art of poisons, and can so temper them that they shall be weeks in
+      acting upon the party, during which time the perpetrator has leisure to
+      escape. They can impregnate cloth and leather, nay, even paper and
+      parchment, with the most subtle venom. Our Lady forgive me! And wherefore,
+      knowing this, hold I these letters of credence so close to my face? Take
+      them, Sir Thomas&mdash;take them speedily!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he gave them at arm's-length, and with some appearance of haste, to
+      the baron. "But come, my Lord de Vaux," he continued, "wend we to the tent
+      of this sick squire, where we shall learn whether this Hakim hath really
+      the art of curing which he professeth, ere we consider whether there be
+      safety in permitting him to exercise his art upon King Richard.&mdash;Yet,
+      hold! let me first take my pouncet-box, for these fevers spread like an
+      infection. I would advise you to use dried rosemary steeped in vinegar, my
+      lord. I, too, know something of the healing art."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thank your reverend lordship," replied Thomas of Gilsland; "but had I
+      been accessible to the fever, I had caught it long since by the bed of my
+      master."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bishop of Tyre blushed, for he had rather avoided the presence of the
+      sick monarch; and he bid the baron lead on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they paused before the wretched hut in which Kenneth of the Leopard and
+      his follower abode, the bishop said to De Vaux, "Now, of a surety, my
+      lord, these Scottish Knights have worse care of their followers than we of
+      our dogs. Here is a knight, valiant, they say, in battle, and thought
+      fitting to be graced with charges of weight in time of truce, whose
+      esquire of the body is lodged worse than in the worst dog-kennel in
+      England. What say you of your neighbours?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That a master doth well enough for his servant when he lodgeth him in no
+      worse dwelling than his own," said De Vaux, and entered the hut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bishop followed, not without evident reluctance; for though he lacked
+      not courage in some respects, yet it was tempered with a strong and lively
+      regard for his own safety. He recollected, however, the necessity there
+      was for judging personally of the skill of the Arabian physician, and
+      entered the hut with a stateliness of manner calculated, as he thought, to
+      impose respect on the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate was, indeed, a striking and commanding figure. In his youth he
+      had been eminently handsome, and even in age was unwilling to appear less
+      so. His episcopal dress was of the richest fashion, trimmed with costly
+      fur, and surrounded by a cope of curious needlework. The rings on his
+      fingers were worth a goodly barony, and the hood which he wore, though now
+      unclasped and thrown back for heat, had studs of pure gold to fasten it
+      around his throat and under his chin when he so inclined. His long beard,
+      now silvered with age, descended over his breast. One of two youthful
+      acolytes who attended him created an artificial shade, peculiar then to
+      the East, by bearing over his head an umbrella of palmetto leaves, while
+      the other refreshed his reverend master by agitating a fan of
+      peacock-feathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Bishop of Tyre entered the hut of the Scottish knight, the master
+      was absent, and the Moorish physician, whom he had come to see, sat in the
+      very posture in which De Vaux had left him several hours before,
+      cross-legged upon a mat made of twisted leaves, by the side of the
+      patient, who appeared in deep slumber, and whose pulse he felt from time
+      to time. The bishop remained standing before him in silence for two or
+      three minutes, as if expecting some honourable salutation, or at least
+      that the Saracen would seem struck with the dignity of his appearance. But
+      Adonbec el Hakim took no notice of him beyond a passing glance, and when
+      the prelate at length saluted him in the lingua franca current in the
+      country, he only replied by the ordinary Oriental greeting, "SALAM ALICUM&mdash;Peace
+      be with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Art thou a physician, infidel?" said the bishop, somewhat mortified at
+      this cold reception. "I would speak with thee on that art."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If thou knewest aught of medicine," answered El Hakim, "thou wouldst be
+      aware that physicians hold no counsel or debate in the sick chamber of
+      their patient. Hear," he added, as the low growling of the staghound was
+      heard from the inner hut, "even the dog might teach thee reason, Ulemat.
+      His instinct teaches him to suppress his barking in the sick man's
+      hearing. Come without the tent," said he, rising and leading the way, "if
+      thou hast ought to say with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the plainness of the Saracen leech's dress, and his
+      inferiority of size when contrasted with the tall prelate and gigantic
+      English baron, there was something striking in his manner and countenance,
+      which prevented the Bishop of Tyre from expressing strongly the
+      displeasure he felt at this unceremonious rebuke. When without the hut, he
+      gazed upon Adonbec in silence for several minutes before he could fix on
+      the best manner to renew the conversation. No locks were seen under the
+      high bonnet of the Arabian, which hid also part of a brow that seemed
+      lofty and expanded, smooth, and free from wrinkles, as were his cheeks,
+      where they were seen under the shade of his long beard. We have elsewhere
+      noticed the piercing quality of his dark eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate, struck with his apparent youth, at length broke a pause,
+      which the other seemed in no haste to interrupt, by demanding of the
+      Arabian how old he was?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The years of ordinary men," said the Saracen, "are counted by their
+      wrinkles; those of sages by their studies. I dare not call myself older
+      than a hundred revolutions of the Hegira." [Meaning that his attainments
+      were those which might have been made in a hundred years.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Baron of Gilsland, who took this for a literal assertion that he was a
+      century old, looked doubtfully upon the prelate, who, though he better
+      understood the meaning of El Hakim, answered his glance by mysteriously
+      shaking his head. He resumed an air of importance when he again
+      authoritatively demanded what evidence Adonbec could produce of his
+      medical proficiency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye have the word of the mighty Saladin," said the sage, touching his cap
+      in sign of reverence&mdash;"a word which was never broken towards friend
+      or foe. What, Nazarene, wouldst thou demand more?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would have ocular proof of thy skill," said the baron, "and without it
+      thou approachest not to the couch of King Richard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The praise of the physician," said the Arabian, "is in the recovery of
+      his patient. Behold this sergeant, whose blood has been dried up by the
+      fever which has whitened your camp with skeletons, and against which the
+      art of your Nazarene leeches hath been like a silken doublet against a
+      lance of steel. Look at his fingers and arms, wasted like the claws and
+      shanks of the crane. Death had this morning his clutch on him; but had
+      Azrael been on one side of the couch, I being on the other, his soul
+      should not have been left from his body. Disturb me not with further
+      questions, but await the critical minute, and behold in silent wonder the
+      marvellous event."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician had then recourse to his astrolabe, the oracle of Eastern
+      science, and watching with grave precision until the precise time of the
+      evening prayer had arrived, he sunk on his knees, with his face turned to
+      Mecca, and recited the petitions which close the Moslemah's day of toil.
+      The bishop and the English baron looked on each other, meanwhile, with
+      symptoms of contempt and indignation, but neither judged it fit to
+      interrupt El Hakim in his devotions, unholy as they considered them to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arab arose from the earth, on which he had prostrated himself, and
+      walking into the hut where the patient lay extended, he drew a sponge from
+      a small silver box, dipped perhaps in some aromatic distillation, for when
+      he put it to the sleeper's nose, he sneezed, awoke, and looked wildly
+      around. He was a ghastly spectacle as he sat up almost naked on his couch,
+      the bones and cartilages as visible through the surface of his skin as if
+      they had never been clothed with flesh. His face was long, and furrowed
+      with wrinkles; but his eye, though it wandered at first, became gradually
+      more settled. He seemed to be aware of the presence of his dignified
+      visitors, for he attempted feebly to pull the covering from his head in
+      token of reverence, as he inquired, in a subdued and submissive voice, for
+      his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know us, vassal?" said the Lord of Gilsland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not perfectly, my lord," replied the squire faintly. "My sleep has been
+      long and full of dreams. Yet I know that you are a great English lord, as
+      seemeth by the red cross, and this a holy prelate, whose blessing I crave
+      on me a poor sinner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast it&mdash;BENEDICTIO DOMINI SIT VOBISCUM," said the prelate,
+      making the sign of the cross, but without approaching nearer to the
+      patient's bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your eyes witness," said the Arabian, "the fever hath been subdued. He
+      speaks with calmness and recollection&mdash;his pulse beats composedly as
+      yours&mdash;try its pulsations yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate declined the experiment; but Thomas of Gilsland, more
+      determined on making the trial, did so, and satisfied himself that the
+      fever was indeed gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is most wonderful," said the knight, looking to the bishop; "the man
+      is assuredly cured. I must conduct this mediciner presently to King
+      Richard's tent. What thinks your reverence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stay, let me finish one cure ere I commence another," said the Arab; "I
+      will pass with you when I have given my patient the second cup of this
+      most holy elixir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying he pulled out a silver cup, and filling it with water from a
+      gourd which stood by the bedside, he next drew forth a small silken bag
+      made of network, twisted with silver, the contents of which the bystanders
+      could not discover, and immersing it in the cup, continued to watch it in
+      silence during the space of five minutes. It seemed to the spectators as
+      if some effervescence took place during the operation; but if so, it
+      instantly subsided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Drink," said the physician to the sick man&mdash;"sleep, and awaken free
+      from malady."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And with this simple-seeming draught thou wilt undertake to cure a
+      monarch?" said the Bishop of Tyre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have cured a beggar, as you may behold," replied the sage. "Are the
+      Kings of Frangistan made of other clay than the meanest of their
+      subjects?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let us have him presently to the King," said the Baron of Gilsland. "He
+      hath shown that he possesses the secret which may restore his health. If
+      he fails to exercise it, I will put himself past the power of medicine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were about to leave the hut, the sick man, raising his voice as
+      much as his weakness permitted, exclaimed, "Reverend father, noble knight,
+      and you, kind leech, if you would have me sleep and recover, tell me in
+      charity what is become of my dear master?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is upon a distant expedition, friend," replied the prelate&mdash;"on
+      an honourable embassy, which may detain him for some days."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said the Baron of Gilsland, "why deceive the poor fellow?&mdash;Friend,
+      thy master has returned to the camp, and you will presently see him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The invalid held up, as if in thankfulness, his wasted hands to Heaven,
+      and resisting no longer the soporiferous operation of the elixir, sunk
+      down in a gentle sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are a better physician than I, Sir Thomas," said the prelate&mdash;"a
+      soothing falsehood is fitter for a sick-room than an unpleasing truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How mean you, my reverend lord?" said De Vaux hastily. "Think you I would
+      tell a falsehood to save the lives of a dozen such as he?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You said," replied the bishop, with manifest symptoms of alarm&mdash;"you
+      said the esquire's master was returned&mdash;he, I mean, of the Couchant
+      Leopard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And he IS returned," said De Vaux. "I spoke with him but a few hours
+      since. This learned leech came in his company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Holy Virgin! why told you not of his return to me?" said the bishop, in
+      evident perturbation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did I not say that this same Knight of the Leopard had returned in
+      company with the physician? I thought I had," replied De Vaux carelessly.
+      "But what signified his return to the skill of the physician, or the cure
+      of his Majesty?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Much, Sir Thomas&mdash;it signified much," said the bishop, clenching his
+      hands, pressing his foot against the earth, and giving signs of
+      impatience, as if in an involuntary manner. "But where can he be gone now,
+      this same knight? God be with us&mdash;here may be some fatal errors!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yonder serf in the outer space," said De Vaux, not without wonder at the
+      bishop's emotion, "can probably tell us whither his master has gone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad was summoned, and in a language nearly incomprehensible to them,
+      gave them at length to understand that an officer had summoned his master
+      to the royal tent some time before their arrival at that of his master.
+      The anxiety of the bishop appeared to rise to the highest, and became
+      evident to De Vaux, though, neither an acute observer nor of a suspicious
+      temper. But with his anxiety seemed to increase his wish to keep it
+      subdued and unobserved. He took a hasty leave of De Vaux, who looked after
+      him with astonishment, and after shrugging his shoulders in silent wonder,
+      proceeded to conduct the Arabian physician to the tent of King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     This is the prince of leeches; fever, plague,
+     Cold rheum, and hot podagra, do but look on him,
+     And quit their grasp upon the tortured sinews.
+        ANONYMOUS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Baron of Gilsland walked with slow step and an anxious countenance
+      towards the royal pavilion. He had much diffidence of his own capacity,
+      except in a field of battle, and conscious of no very acute intellect, was
+      usually contented to wonder at circumstances which a man of livelier
+      imagination would have endeavoured to investigate and understand, or at
+      least would have made the subject of speculation. But it seemed very
+      extraordinary, even to him, that the attention of the bishop should have
+      been at once abstracted from all reflection on the marvellous cure which
+      they had witnessed, and upon the probability it afforded of Richard being
+      restored to health, by what seemed a very trivial piece of information
+      announcing the motions of a beggardly Scottish knight, than whom Thomas of
+      Gilsland knew nothing within the circle of gentle blood more unimportant
+      or contemptible; and despite his usual habit of passively beholding
+      passing events, the baron's spirit toiled with unwonted attempts to form
+      conjectures on the cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the idea occurred at once to him that the whole might be a
+      conspiracy against King Richard, formed within the camp of the allies, and
+      to which the bishop, who was by some represented as a politic and
+      unscrupulous person, was not unlikely to have been accessory. It was true
+      that, in his own opinion, there existed no character so perfect as that of
+      his master; for Richard being the flower of chivalry, and the chief of
+      Christian leaders, and obeying in all points the commands of Holy Church,
+      De Vaux's ideas of perfection went no further. Still, he knew that,
+      however unworthily, it had been always his master's fate to draw as much
+      reproach and dislike as honour and attachment from the display of his
+      great qualities; and that in the very camp, and amongst those princes
+      bound by oath to the Crusade, were many who would have sacrificed all hope
+      of victory over the Saracens to the pleasure of ruining, or at least of
+      humbling, Richard of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wherefore," said the baron to himself, "it is in no sense impossible that
+      this El Hakim, with this his cure, or seeming cure, wrought on the body of
+      the Scottish squire, may mean nothing but a trick, to which he of the
+      Leopard may be accessory, and wherein the Bishop of Tyre, prelate as he
+      is, may have some share."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This hypothesis, indeed, could not be so easily reconciled with the alarm
+      manifested by the bishop on learning that, contrary to his expectation,
+      the Scottish knight had suddenly returned to the Crusaders' camp. But De
+      Vaux was influenced only by his general prejudices, which dictated to him
+      the assured belief that a wily Italian priest, a false-hearted Scot, and
+      an infidel physician, formed a set of ingredients from which all evil, and
+      no good, was likely to be extracted. He resolved, however, to lay his
+      scruples bluntly before the King, of whose judgment he had nearly as high
+      an opinion as of his valour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, events had taken place very contrary to the suppositions which
+      Thomas de Vaux had entertained. Scarce had he left the royal pavilion,
+      when, betwixt the impatience of the fever, and that which was natural to
+      his disposition, Richard began to murmur at his delay, and express an
+      earnest desire for his return. He had seen enough to try to reason himself
+      out of this irritation, which greatly increased his bodily malady. He
+      wearied his attendants by demanding from them amusements, and the breviary
+      of the priest, the romance of the clerk, even the harp of his favourite
+      minstrel, were had recourse to in vain. At length, some two hours before
+      sundown, and long, therefore, ere he could expect a satisfactory account
+      of the process of the cure which the Moor or Arabian had undertaken, he
+      sent, as we have already heard, a messenger commanding the attendance of
+      the Knight of the Leopard, determined to soothe his impatience by
+      obtaining from Sir Kenneth a more particular account of the cause of his
+      absence from the camp, and the circumstances of his meeting with this
+      celebrated physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight, thus summoned, entered the royal presence as one who
+      was no stranger to such scenes. He was scarcely known to the King of
+      England, even by sight, although, tenacious of his rank, as devout in the
+      adoration of the lady of his secret heart, he had never been absent on
+      those occasions when the munificence and hospitality of England opened the
+      Court of its monarch to all who held a certain rank in chivalry. The King
+      gazed fixedly on Sir Kenneth approaching his bedside, while the knight
+      bent his knee for a moment, then arose, and stood before him in a posture
+      of deference, but not of subservience or humility, as became an officer in
+      the presence of his sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy name," said the King, "is Kenneth of the Leopard&mdash;from whom
+      hadst thou degree of knighthood?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I took it from the sword of William the Lion, King of Scotland," replied
+      the Scot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A weapon," said the King, "well worthy to confer honour; nor has it been
+      laid on an undeserving shoulder. We have seen thee bear thyself knightly
+      and valiantly in press of battle, when most need there was; and thou hadst
+      not been yet to learn that thy deserts were known to us, but that thy
+      presumption in other points has been such that thy services can challenge
+      no better reward than that of pardon for thy transgression. What sayest
+      thou&mdash;ha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kenneth attempted to speak, but was unable to express himself distinctly;
+      the consciousness of his too ambitious love, and the keen, falcon glance
+      with which Coeur de Lion seemed to penetrate his inmost soul, combining to
+      disconcert him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And yet," said the King, "although soldiers should obey command, and
+      vassals be respectful towards their superiors, we might forgive a brave
+      knight greater offence than the keeping a simple hound, though it were
+      contrary to our express public ordinance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard kept his eye fixed on the Scot's face, beheld and beholding,
+      smiling inwardly at the relief produced by the turn he had given to his
+      general accusation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So please you, my lord," said the Scot, "your majesty must be good to us
+      poor gentlemen of Scotland in this matter. We are far from home, scant of
+      revenues, and cannot support ourselves as your wealthy nobles, who have
+      credit of the Lombards. The Saracens shall feel our blows the harder that
+      we eat a piece of dried venison from time to time with our herbs and
+      barley-cakes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It skills not asking my leave," said Richard, "since Thomas de Vaux, who
+      doth, like all around me, that which is fittest in his own eyes, hath
+      already given thee permission for hunting and hawking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For hunting only, and please you," said the Scot. "But if it please your
+      Majesty to indulge me with the privilege of hawking also, and you list to
+      trust me with a falcon on fist, I trust I could supply your royal mess
+      with some choice waterfowl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dread me, if thou hadst but the falcon," said the King, "thou wouldst
+      scarce wait for the permission. I wot well it is said abroad that we of
+      the line of Anjou resent offence against our forest-laws as highly as we
+      would do treason against our crown. To brave and worthy men, however, we
+      could pardon either misdemeanour.&mdash;But enough of this. I desire to
+      know of you, Sir Knight, wherefore, and by whose authority, you took this
+      recent journey to the wilderness of the Dead Sea and Engaddi?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By order," replied the knight, "of the Council of Princes of the Holy
+      Crusade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how dared any one to give such an order, when I&mdash;not the least,
+      surely, in the league&mdash;was unacquainted with it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was not my part, please your highness," said the Scot, "to inquire
+      into such particulars. I am a soldier of the Cross&mdash;serving,
+      doubtless, for the present, under your highness's banner, and proud of the
+      permission to do so, but still one who hath taken on him the holy symbol
+      for the rights of Christianity and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, and
+      bound, therefore, to obey without question the orders of the princes and
+      chiefs by whom the blessed enterprise is directed. That indisposition
+      should seclude, I trust for but a short time, your highness from their
+      councils, in which you hold so potential a voice, I must lament with all
+      Christendom; but, as a soldier, I must obey those on whom the lawful right
+      of command devolves, or set but an evil example in the Christian camp."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou sayest well," said King Richard; "and the blame rests not with thee,
+      but with those with whom, when it shall please Heaven to raise me from
+      this accursed bed of pain and inactivity, I hope to reckon roundly. What
+      was the purport of thy message?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks, and please your highness," replied Sir Kenneth, "that were best
+      asked of those who sent me, and who can render the reasons of mine errand;
+      whereas I can only tell its outward form and purport."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Palter not with me, Sir Scot&mdash;it were ill for thy safety," said the
+      irritable monarch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My safety, my lord," replied the knight firmly, "I cast behind me as a
+      regardless thing when I vowed myself to this enterprise, looking rather to
+      my immortal welfare than to that which concerns my earthly body."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the mass," said King Richard, "thou art a brave fellow! Hark thee, Sir
+      Knight, I love the Scottish people; they are hardy, though dogged and
+      stubborn, and, I think, true men in the main, though the necessity of
+      state has sometimes constrained them to be dissemblers. I deserve some
+      love at their hand, for I have voluntarily done what they could not by
+      arms have extorted from me any more than from my predecessors, I have
+      re-established the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, which lay in pledge
+      to England; I have restored your ancient boundaries; and, finally, I have
+      renounced a claim to homage upon the crown of England, which I thought
+      unjustly forced on you. I have endeavoured to make honourable and
+      independent friends, where former kings of England attempted only to
+      compel unwilling and rebellious vassals."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All this you have done, my Lord King," said Sir Kenneth, bowing&mdash;"all
+      this you have done, by your royal treaty with our sovereign at Canterbury.
+      Therefore have you me, and many better Scottish men, making war against
+      the infidels, under your banners, who would else have been ravaging your
+      frontiers in England. If their numbers are now few, it is because their
+      lives have been freely waged and wasted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I grant it true," said the King; "and for the good offices I have done
+      your land I require you to remember that, as a principal member of the
+      Christian league, I have a right to know the negotiations of my
+      confederates. Do me, therefore, the justice to tell me what I have a title
+      to be acquainted with, and which I am certain to know more truly from you
+      than from others."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the Scot, "thus conjured, I will speak the truth; for I
+      well believe that your purposes towards the principal object of our
+      expedition are single-hearted and honest, and it is more than I dare
+      warrant for others of the Holy League. Be pleased, therefore, to know my
+      charge was to propose, through the medium of the hermit of Engaddi&mdash;a
+      holy man, respected and protected by Saladin himself&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A continuation of the truce, I doubt not," said Richard, hastily
+      interrupting him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, by Saint Andrew, my liege," said the Scottish knight; "but the
+      establishment of a lasting peace, and the withdrawing our armies from
+      Palestine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saint George!" said Richard, in astonishment. "Ill as I have justly
+      thought of them, I could not have dreamed they would have humbled
+      themselves to such dishonour. Speak, Sir Kenneth, with what will did you
+      carry such a message?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With right good will, my lord," said Kenneth; "because, when we had lost
+      our noble leader, under whose guidance alone I hoped for victory, I saw
+      none who could succeed him likely to lead us to conquest, and I accounted
+      it well in such circumstances to avoid defeat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And on what conditions was this hopeful peace to be contracted?" said
+      King Richard, painfully suppressing the passion with which his heart was
+      almost bursting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "These were not entrusted to me, my lord," answered the Knight of the
+      Couchant Leopard. "I delivered them sealed to the hermit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And for what hold you this reverend hermit&mdash;for fool, madman,
+      traitor, or saint?" said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His folly, sire," replied the shrewd Scottish man, "I hold to be assumed
+      to win favour and reverence from the Paynimrie, who regard madmen as the
+      inspired of Heaven&mdash;at least it seemed to me as exhibited only
+      occasionally, and not as mixing, like natural folly, with the general
+      tenor of his mind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shrewdly replied," said the monarch, throwing himself back on his couch,
+      from which he had half-raised himself. "Now of his penitence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His penitence," continued Kenneth, "appears to me sincere, and the fruits
+      of remorse for some dreadful crime, for which he seems, in his own
+      opinion, condemned to reprobation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And for his policy?" said King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks, my lord," said the Scottish knight, "he despairs of the
+      security of Palestine, as of his own salvation, by any means short of a
+      miracle&mdash;at least, since the arm of Richard of England hath ceased to
+      strike for it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, therefore, the coward policy of this hermit is like that of these
+      miserable princes, who, forgetful of their knighthood and their faith, are
+      only resolved and determined when the question is retreat, and rather than
+      go forward against an armed Saracen, would trample in their flight over a
+      dying ally!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Might I so far presume, my Lord King," said the Scottish knight, "this
+      discourse but heats your disease, the enemy from which Christendom dreads
+      more evil than from armed hosts of infidels."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The countenance of King Richard was, indeed, more flushed, and his action
+      became more feverishly vehement, as, with clenched hand, extended arm, and
+      flashing eyes, he seemed at once to suffer under bodily pain, and at the
+      same time under vexation of mind, while his high spirit led him to speak
+      on, as if in contempt of both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You can flatter, Sir Knight," he said, "but you escape me not. I must
+      know more from you than you have yet told me. Saw you my royal consort
+      when at Engaddi?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To my knowledge&mdash;no, my lord," replied Sir Kenneth, with
+      considerable perturbation, for he remembered the midnight procession in
+      the chapel of the rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ask you," said the King, in a sterner voice, "whether you were not in
+      the chapel of the Carmelite nuns at Engaddi, and there saw Berengaria,
+      Queen of England, and the ladies of her Court, who went thither on
+      pilgrimage?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Sir Kenneth, "I will speak the truth as in the
+      confessional. In a subterranean chapel, to which the anchorite conducted
+      me, I beheld a choir of ladies do homage to a relic of the highest
+      sanctity; but as I saw not their faces, nor heard their voices, unless in
+      the hymns which they chanted, I cannot tell whether the Queen of England
+      was of the bevy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And was there no one of these ladies known to you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth stood silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ask you," said Richard, raising himself on his elbow, "as a knight and
+      a gentleman&mdash;and I shall know by your answer how you value either
+      character&mdash;did you, or did you not, know any lady amongst that band
+      of worshippers?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Kenneth, not without much hesitation, "I might guess."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I also may guess," said the King, frowning sternly; "but it is
+      enough. Leopard as you are, Sir Knight, beware tempting the lion's paw.
+      Hark ye&mdash;to become enamoured of the moon would be but an act of
+      folly; but to leap from the battlements of a lofty tower, in the wild hope
+      of coming within her sphere, were self-destructive madness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment some bustling was heard in the outer apartment, and the
+      King, hastily changing to his more natural manner, said, "Enough&mdash;begone&mdash;speed
+      to De Vaux, and send him hither with the Arabian physician. My life for
+      the faith of the Soldan! Would he but abjure his false law, I would aid
+      him with my sword to drive this scum of French and Austrians from his
+      dominions, and think Palestine as well ruled by him as when her kings were
+      anointed by the decree of Heaven itself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Leopard retired, and presently afterwards the
+      chamberlain announced a deputation from the Council, who had come to wait
+      on the Majesty of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is well they allow that I am living yet," was his reply. "Who are the
+      reverend ambassadors?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Grand Master of the Templars and the Marquis of Montserrat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Our brother of France loves not sick-beds," said Richard; "yet, had
+      Philip been ill, I had stood by his couch long since.&mdash;Jocelyn, lay
+      me the couch more fairly&mdash;it is tumbled like a stormy sea. Reach me
+      yonder steel mirror&mdash;pass a comb through my hair and beard. They
+      look, indeed, liker a lion's mane than a Christian man's locks. Bring
+      water."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the trembling chamberlain, "the leeches say that cold
+      water may be fatal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To the foul fiend with the leeches!" replied the monarch; "if they cannot
+      cure me, think you I will allow them to torment me?&mdash;There, then," he
+      said, after having made his ablutions, "admit the worshipful envoys; they
+      will now, I think, scarcely see that disease has made Richard negligent of
+      his person."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The celebrated Master of the Templars was a tall, thin, war-worn man, with
+      a slow yet penetrating eye, and a brow on which a thousand dark intrigues
+      had stamped a portion of their obscurity. At the head of that singular
+      body, to whom their order was everything, and their individuality nothing&mdash;seeking
+      the advancement of its power, even at the hazard of that very religion
+      which the fraternity were originally associated to protect&mdash;accused
+      of heresy and witchcraft, although by their character Christian priests&mdash;suspected
+      of secret league with the Soldan, though by oath devoted to the protection
+      of the Holy Temple, or its recovery&mdash;the whole order, and the whole
+      personal character of its commander, or Grand Master, was a riddle, at the
+      exposition of which most men shuddered. The Grand Master was dressed in
+      his white robes of solemnity, and he bore the ABACUS, a mystic staff of
+      office, the peculiar form of which has given rise to such singular
+      conjectures and commentaries, leading to suspicions that this celebrated
+      fraternity of Christian knights were embodied under the foulest symbols of
+      paganism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade of Montserrat had a much more pleasing exterior than the dark and
+      mysterious priest-soldier by whom he was accompanied. He was a handsome
+      man, of middle age, or something past that term, bold in the field,
+      sagacious in council, gay and gallant in times of festivity; but, on the
+      other hand, he was generally accused of versatility, of a narrow and
+      selfish ambition, of a desire to extend his own principality, without
+      regard to the weal of the Latin kingdom of Palestine, and of seeking his
+      own interest, by private negotiations with Saladin, to the prejudice of
+      the Christian leaguers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the usual salutations had been made by these dignitaries, and
+      courteously returned by King Richard, the Marquis of Montserrat commenced
+      an explanation of the motives of their visit, sent, as he said they were,
+      by the anxious kings and princes who composed the Council of the
+      Crusaders, "to inquire into the health of their magnanimous ally, the
+      valiant King of England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We know the importance in which the princes of the Council hold our
+      health," replied the English King; "and are well aware how much they must
+      have suffered by suppressing all curiosity concerning it for fourteen
+      days, for fear, doubtless, of aggravating our disorder, by showing their
+      anxiety regarding the event."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flow of the Marquis's eloquence being checked, and he himself thrown
+      into some confusion by this reply, his more austere companion took up the
+      thread of the conversation, and with as much dry and brief gravity as was
+      consistent with the presence which he addressed, informed the King that
+      they came from the Council, to pray, in the name of Christendom, "that he
+      would not suffer his health to be tampered with by an infidel physician,
+      said to be dispatched by Saladin, until the Council had taken measures to
+      remove or confirm the suspicion which they at present conceived did attach
+      itself to the mission of such a person."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Grand Master of the Holy and Valiant Order of Knights Templars, and you,
+      most noble Marquis of Montserrat," replied Richard, "if it please you to
+      retire into the adjoining pavilion, you shall presently see what account
+      we make of the tender remonstrances of our royal and princely colleagues
+      in this religious warfare."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis and Grand Master retired accordingly; nor had they been many
+      minutes in the outward pavilion when the Eastern physician arrived,
+      accompanied by the Baron of Gilsland and Kenneth of Scotland. The baron,
+      however, was a little later of entering the tent than the other two,
+      stopping, perchance, to issue some orders to the warders without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Arabian physician entered, he made his obeisance, after the
+      Oriental fashion, to the Marquis and Grand Master, whose dignity was
+      apparent, both from their appearance and their bearing. The Grand Master
+      returned the salutation with an expression of disdainful coldness, the
+      Marquis with the popular courtesy which he habitually practised to men of
+      every rank and nation. There was a pause, for the Scottish knight, waiting
+      for the arrival of De Vaux, presumed not, of his own authority, to enter
+      the tent of the King of England; and during this interval the Grand Master
+      sternly demanded of the Moslem, "Infidel, hast thou the courage to
+      practise thine art upon the person of an anointed sovereign of the
+      Christian host?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The sun of Allah," answered the sage, "shines on the Nazarene as well as
+      on the true believer, and His servant dare make no distinction betwixt
+      them when called on to exercise the art of healing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Misbelieving Hakim," said the Grand Master, "or whatsoever they call thee
+      for an unbaptized slave of darkness, dost thou well know that thou shalt
+      be torn asunder by wild horses should King Richard die under thy charge?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That were hard justice," answered the physician, "seeing that I can but
+      use human means, and that the issue is written in the book of light."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, reverend and valiant Grand Master," said the Marquis of Montserrat,
+      "consider that this learned man is not acquainted with our Christian
+      order, adopted in the fear of God, and for the safety of His anointed.&mdash;Be
+      it known to thee, grave physician, whose skill we doubt not, that your
+      wisest course is to repair to the presence of the illustrious Council of
+      our Holy League, and there to give account and reckoning to such wise and
+      learned leeches as they shall nominate, concerning your means of process
+      and cure of this illustrious patient; so shall you escape all the danger
+      which, rashly taking such a high matter upon your sole answer, you may
+      else most likely incur."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lords," said El Hakim, "I understand you well. But knowledge hath its
+      champions as well as your military art&mdash;nay, hath sometimes had its
+      martyrs as well as religion. I have the command of my sovereign, the
+      Soldan Saladin, to heal this Nazarene King, and, with the blessing of the
+      Prophet, I will obey his commands. If I fail, ye wear swords thirsting for
+      the blood of the faithful, and I proffer my body to your weapons. But I
+      will not reason with one uncircumcised upon the virtue of the medicines of
+      which I have obtained knowledge through the grace of the Prophet, and I
+      pray you interpose no delay between me and my office."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who talks of delay?" said the Baron de Vaux, hastily entering the tent;
+      "we have had but too much already. I salute you, my Lord of Montserrat,
+      and you, valiant Grand Master. But I must presently pass with this learned
+      physician to the bedside of my master."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the Marquis, in Norman-French, or the language of Ouie, as
+      it was then called, "are you well advised that we came to expostulate, on
+      the part of the Council of the Monarchs and Princes of the Crusade,
+      against the risk of permitting an infidel and Eastern physician to tamper
+      with a health so valuable as that of your master, King Richard?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Noble Lord Marquis," replied the Englishman bluntly, "I can neither use
+      many words, nor do I delight in listening to them; moreover, I am much
+      more ready to believe what my eyes have seen than what my ears have heard.
+      I am satisfied that this heathen can cure the sickness of King Richard,
+      and I believe and trust he will labour to do so. Time is precious. If
+      Mohammed&mdash;may God's curse be on him! stood at the door of the tent,
+      with such fair purpose as this Adonbec el Hakim entertains, I would hold
+      it sin to delay him for a minute. So, give ye God'en, my lords."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but," said Conrade of Montserrat, "the King himself said we should
+      be present when this same physician dealt upon him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron whispered the chamberlain, probably to know whether the Marquis
+      spoke truly, and then replied, "My lords, if you will hold your patience,
+      you are welcome to enter with us; but if you interrupt, by action or
+      threat, this accomplished physician in his duty, be it known that, without
+      respect to your high quality, I will enforce your absence from Richard's
+      tent; for know, I am so well satisfied of the virtue of this man's
+      medicines, that were Richard himself to refuse them, by our Lady of
+      Lanercost, I think I could find in my heart to force him to take the means
+      of his cure whether he would or no.&mdash;Move onward, El Hakim."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last word was spoken in the lingua franca, and instantly obeyed by the
+      physician. The Grand Master looked grimly on the unceremonious old
+      soldier, but, on exchanging a glance with the Marquis, smoothed his
+      frowning brow as well as he could, and both followed De Vaux and the
+      Arabian into the inner tent, where Richard lay expecting them, with that
+      impatience with which the sick man watches the step of his physician. Sir
+      Kenneth, whose attendance seemed neither asked nor prohibited, felt
+      himself, by the circumstances in which he stood, entitled to follow these
+      high dignitaries; but, conscious of his inferior power and rank, remained
+      aloof during the scene which took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, when they entered his apartment, immediately exclaimed, "So ho! a
+      goodly fellowship come to see Richard take his leap in the dark. My noble
+      allies, I greet you as the representatives of our assembled league;
+      Richard will again be amongst you in his former fashion, or ye shall bear
+      to the grave what is left of him.&mdash;De Vaux, lives he or dies he, thou
+      hast the thanks of thy prince. There is yet another&mdash;but this fever
+      hath wasted my eyesight. What, the bold Scot, who would climb heaven
+      without a ladder! He is welcome too.&mdash;Come, Sir Hakim, to the work,
+      to the work!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician, who had already informed himself of the various symptoms of
+      the King's illness, now felt his pulse for a long time, and with deep
+      attention, while all around stood silent, and in breathless expectation.
+      The sage next filled a cup with spring water, and dipped into it the small
+      red purse, which, as formerly, he took from his bosom. When he seemed to
+      think it sufficiently medicated, he was about to offer it to the
+      sovereign, who prevented him by saying, "Hold an instant. Thou hast felt
+      my pulse&mdash;let me lay my finger on thine. I too, as becomes a good
+      knight, know something of thine art."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arabian yielded his hand without hesitation, and his long, slender
+      dark fingers were for an instant enclosed, and almost buried, in the large
+      enfoldment of King Richard's hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His blood beats calm as an infant's," said the King; "so throbs not
+      theirs who poison princes. De Vaux, whether we live or die, dismiss this
+      Hakim with honour and safety.&mdash;Commend us, friend, to the noble
+      Saladin. Should I die, it is without doubt of his faith; should I live, it
+      will be to thank him as a warrior would desire to be thanked."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then raised himself in bed, took the cup in his hand, and turning to
+      the Marquis and the Grand Master&mdash;"Mark what I say, and let my royal
+      brethren pledge me in Cyprus wine, 'To the immortal honour of the first
+      Crusader who shall strike lance or sword on the gate of Jerusalem; and to
+      the shame and eternal infamy of whomsoever shall turn back from the plough
+      on which he hath laid his hand!'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drained the cup to the bottom, resigned it to the Arabian, and sunk
+      back, as if exhausted, upon the cushions which were arranged to receive
+      him. The physician then, with silent but expressive signs, directed that
+      all should leave the tent excepting himself and De Vaux, whom no
+      remonstrance could induce to withdraw. The apartment was cleared
+      accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     And now I will unclasp a secret book,
+     And, to your quick-conceiving discontent,
+     I'll read you matter deep and dangerous.
+       HENRY IV., PART I.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis of Montserrat and the Grand Master of the Knights Templars
+      stood together in the front of the royal pavilion, within which this
+      singular scene had passed, and beheld a strong guard of bills and bows
+      drawn out to form a circle around it, and keep at distance all which might
+      disturb the sleeping monarch. The soldiers wore the downcast, silent, and
+      sullen looks with which they trail their arms at a funeral, and stepped
+      with such caution that you could not hear a buckler ring or a sword
+      clatter, though so many men in armour were moving around the tent. They
+      lowered their weapons in deep reverence as the dignitaries passed through
+      their files, but with the same profound silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is a change of cheer among these island dogs," said the Grand
+      Master to Conrade, when they had passed Richard's guards. "What hoarse
+      tumult and revel used to be before this pavilion!&mdash;nought but
+      pitching the bar, hurling the ball, wrestling, roaring of songs,
+      clattering of wine pots, and quaffing of flagons among these burly yeomen,
+      as if they were holding some country wake, with a Maypole in the midst of
+      them instead of a royal standard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mastiffs are a faithful race," said Conrade; "and the King their Master
+      has won their love by being ready to wrestle, brawl, or revel amongst the
+      foremost of them, whenever the humour seized him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is totally compounded of humours," said the Grand Master. "Marked you
+      the pledge he gave us! instead of a prayer, over his grace-cup yonder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He would have felt it a grace-cup, and a well-spiced one too," said the
+      Marquis, "were Saladin like any other Turk that ever wore turban, or
+      turned him to Mecca at call of the muezzin. But he affects faith, and
+      honour, and generosity, as if it were for an unbaptized dog like him to
+      practise the virtuous bearing of a Christian knight. It is said he hath
+      applied to Richard to be admitted within the pale of chivalry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Saint Bernard!" exclaimed the Grand Master, "it were time then to
+      throw off our belts and spurs, Sir Conrade, deface our armorial bearings,
+      and renounce our burgonets, if the highest honour of Christianity were
+      conferred on an unchristened Turk of tenpence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You rate the Soldan cheap," replied the Marquis; "yet though he be a
+      likely man, I have seen a better heathen sold for forty pence at the
+      bagnio."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were now near their horses, which stood at some distance from the
+      royal tent, prancing among the gallant train of esquires and pages by whom
+      they were attended, when Conrade, after a moment's pause, proposed that
+      they should enjoy the coolness of the evening breeze which had arisen,
+      and, dismissing their steeds and attendants, walk homewards to their own
+      quarters through the lines of the extended Christian camp. The Grand
+      Master assented, and they proceeded to walk together accordingly,
+      avoiding, as if by mutual consent, the more inhabited parts of the canvas
+      city, and tracing the broad esplanade which lay between the tents and the
+      external defences, where they could converse in private, and unmarked,
+      save by the sentinels as they passed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They spoke for a time upon the military points and preparations for
+      defence; but this sort of discourse, in which neither seemed to take
+      interest, at length died away, and there was a long pause, which
+      terminated by the Marquis of Montserrat stopping short, like a man who has
+      formed a sudden resolution, and gazing for some moments on the dark,
+      inflexible countenance of the Grand Master, he at length addressed him
+      thus: "Might it consist with your valour and sanctity, reverend Sir Giles
+      Amaury, I would pray you for once to lay aside the dark visor which you
+      wear, and to converse with a friend barefaced."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar half smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are light-coloured masks," he said, "as well as dark visors, and
+      the one conceals the natural features as completely as the other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be it so," said the Marquis, putting his hand to his chin, and
+      withdrawing it with the action of one who unmasks himself; "there lies my
+      disguise. And now, what think you, as touching the interests of your own
+      order, of the prospects of this Crusade?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is tearing the veil from my thoughts rather than exposing your own,"
+      said the Grand Master; "yet I will reply with a parable told to me by a
+      santon of the desert. 'A certain farmer prayed to Heaven for rain, and
+      murmured when it fell not at his need. To punish his impatience, Allah,'
+      said the santon, 'sent the Euphrates upon his farm, and he was destroyed,
+      with all his possessions, even by the granting of his own wishes.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Most truly spoken," said the Marquis Conrade. "Would that the ocean had
+      swallowed up nineteen parts of the armaments of these Western princes!
+      What remained would better have served the purpose of the Christian nobles
+      of Palestine, the wretched remnant of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. Left
+      to ourselves, we might have bent to the storm; or, moderately supported
+      with money and troops, we might have compelled Saladin to respect our
+      valour, and grant us peace and protection on easy terms. But from the
+      extremity of danger with which this powerful Crusade threatens the Soldan,
+      we cannot suppose, should it pass over, that the Saracen will suffer any
+      one of us to hold possessions or principalities in Syria, far less permit
+      the existence of the Christian military fraternities, from whom they have
+      experienced so much mischief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but," said the Templar, "these adventurous Crusaders may succeed, and
+      again plant the Cross on the bulwarks of Zion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what will that advantage either the Order of the Templars, or Conrade
+      of Montserrat?" said the Marquis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You it may advantage," replied the Grand Master. "Conrade of Montserrat
+      might become Conrade King of Jerusalem."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That sounds like something," said the Marquis, "and yet it rings but
+      hollow. Godfrey of Bouillon might well choose the crown of thorns for his
+      emblem. Grand Master, I will confess to you I have caught some attachment
+      to the Eastern form of government&mdash;a pure and simple monarchy should
+      consist but of king and subjects. Such is the simple and primitive
+      structure&mdash;a shepherd and his flock. All this internal chain of
+      feudal dependance is artificial and sophisticated; and I would rather hold
+      the baton of my poor marquisate with a firm gripe, and wield it after my
+      pleasure, than the sceptre of a monarch, to be in effect restrained and
+      curbed by the will of as many proud feudal barons as hold land under the
+      Assizes of Jerusalem. [The Assises de Jerusalem were the digest of feudal
+      law, composed by Godfrey of Boulogne, for the government of the Latin
+      kingdom of Palestine, when reconquered from the Saracens. "It was composed
+      with advice of the patriarch and barons, the clergy and laity, and is,"
+      says the historian Gibbon, "a precious monument of feudatory
+      jurisprudence, founded upon those principles of freedom which were
+      essential to the system."] A king should tread freely, Grand Master, and
+      should not be controlled by here a ditch, and there a fence-here a feudal
+      privilege, and there a mail-clad baron with his sword in his hand to
+      maintain it. To sum the whole, I am aware that Guy de Lusignan's claims to
+      the throne would be preferred to mine, if Richard recovers, and has aught
+      to say in the choice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough," said the Grand Master; "thou hast indeed convinced me of thy
+      sincerity. Others may hold the same opinions, but few, save Conrade of
+      Montserrat, dared frankly avow that he desires not the restitution of the
+      kingdom of Jerusalem, but rather prefers being master of a portion of its
+      fragments&mdash;like the barbarous islanders, who labour not for the
+      deliverance of a goodly vessel from the billows, expecting rather to
+      enrich themselves at the expense of the wreck."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wilt not betray my counsel?" said Conrade, looking sharply and
+      suspiciously. "Know, for certain, that my tongue shall never wrong my
+      head, nor my hand forsake the defence of either. Impeach me if thou wilt&mdash;I
+      am prepared to defend myself in the lists against the best Templar who
+      ever laid lance in rest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet thou start'st somewhat suddenly for so bold a steed," said the Grand
+      Master. "However, I swear to thee by the Holy Temple, which our Order is
+      sworn to defend, that I will keep counsel with thee as a true comrade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By which Temple?" said the Marquis of Montserrat, whose love of sarcasm
+      often outran his policy and discretion; "swearest thou by that on the hill
+      of Zion, which was built by King Solomon, or by that symbolical,
+      emblematical edifice, which is said to be spoken of in the councils held
+      in the vaults of your Preceptories, as something which infers the
+      aggrandizement of thy valiant and venerable Order?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar scowled upon him with an eye of death, but answered calmly,
+      "By whatever Temple I swear, be assured, Lord Marquis, my oath is sacred.
+      I would I knew how to bind THEE by one of equal obligation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will swear truth to thee," said the Marquis, laughing, "by the earl's
+      coronet, which I hope to convert, ere these wars are over, into something
+      better. It feels cold on my brow, that same slight coronal; a duke's cap
+      of maintenance were a better protection against such a night-breeze as now
+      blows, and a king's crown more preferable still, being lined with
+      comfortable ermine and velvet. In a word, our interests bind us together;
+      for think not, Lord Grand Master, that, were these allied princes to
+      regain Jerusalem, and place a king of their own choosing there, they would
+      suffer your Order, any more than my poor marquisate, to retain the
+      independence which we now hold. No, by Our Lady! In such case, the proud
+      Knights of Saint John must again spread plasters and dress plague sores in
+      the hospitals; and you, most puissant and venerable Knights of the Temple,
+      must return to your condition of simple men-at-arms, sleep three on a
+      pallet, and mount two upon one horse, as your present seal still expresses
+      to have been your ancient most simple custom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The rank, privileges, and opulence of our Order prevent so much
+      degradation as you threaten," said the Templar haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "These are your bane," said Conrade of Montserrat; "and you, as well as I,
+      reverend Grand Master, know that, were the allied princes to be successful
+      in Palestine, it would be their first point of policy to abate the
+      independence of your Order, which, but for the protection of our holy
+      father the Pope, and the necessity of employing your valour in the
+      conquest of Palestine, you would long since have experienced. Give them
+      complete success, and you will be flung aside, as the splinters of a
+      broken lance are tossed out of the tilt-yard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There may be truth in what you say," said the Templar, darkly smiling.
+      "But what were our hopes should the allies withdraw their forces, and
+      leave Palestine in the grasp of Saladin?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Great and assured," replied Conrade. "The Soldan would give large
+      provinces to maintain at his behest a body of well-appointed Frankish
+      lances. In Egypt, in Persia, a hundred such auxiliaries, joined to his own
+      light cavalry, would turn the battle against the most fearful odds. This
+      dependence would be but for a time&mdash;perhaps during the life of this
+      enterprising Soldan; but in the East empires arise like mushrooms. Suppose
+      him dead, and us strengthened with a constant succession of fiery and
+      adventurous spirits from Europe, what might we not hope to achieve,
+      uncontrolled by these monarchs, whose dignity throws us at present into
+      the shade&mdash;and, were they to remain here, and succeed in this
+      expedition, would willingly consign us for ever to degradation and
+      dependence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You say well, my Lord Marquis," said the Grand Master, "and your words
+      find an echo in my bosom. Yet must we be cautious&mdash;Philip of France
+      is wise as well as valiant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True, and will be therefore the more easily diverted from an expedition
+      to which, in a moment of enthusiasm, or urged by his nobles, he rashly
+      bound himself. He is jealous of King Richard, his natural enemy, and longs
+      to return to prosecute plans of ambition nearer to Paris than Palestine.
+      Any fair pretence will serve him for withdrawing from a scene in which he
+      is aware he is wasting the force of his kingdom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Duke of Austria?" said the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, touching the Duke," returned Conrade, "his self-conceit and folly
+      lead him to the same conclusions as do Philip's policy and wisdom. He
+      conceives himself, God help the while, ungratefully treated, because men's
+      mouths&mdash;even those of his own MINNE-SINGERS [The German minstrels
+      were so termed.]&mdash;are filled with the praises of King Richard, whom
+      he fears and hates, and in whose harm he would rejoice, like those unbred,
+      dastardly curs, who, if the foremost of the pack is hurt by the gripe of
+      the wolf, are much more likely to assail the sufferer from behind than to
+      come to his assistance. But wherefore tell I this to thee, save to show
+      that I am in sincerity in desiring that this league be broken up, and the
+      country freed of these great monarchs with their hosts? And thou well
+      knowest, and hast thyself seen, how all the princes of influence and
+      power, one alone excepted, are eager to enter into treaty with the
+      Soldan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I acknowledge it," said the Templar; "he were blind that had not seen
+      this in their last deliberations. But lift yet thy mask an inch higher,
+      and tell me thy real reason for pressing upon the Council that Northern
+      Englishman, or Scot, or whatever you call yonder Knight of the Leopard, to
+      carry their proposals for a treaty?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There was a policy in it," replied the Italian. "His character of native
+      of Britain was sufficient to meet what Saladin required, who knew him to
+      belong to the band of Richard; while his character of Scot, and certain
+      other personal grudges which I wot of, rendered it most unlikely that our
+      envoy should, on his return, hold any communication with the sick-bed of
+      Richard, to whom his presence was ever unacceptable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, too finespun policy," said the Grand Master; "trust me, that Italian
+      spiders' webs will never bind this unshorn Samson of the Isle&mdash;well
+      if you can do it with new cords, and those of the toughest. See you not
+      that the envoy whom you have selected so carefully hath brought us, in
+      this physician, the means of restoring the lion-hearted, bull-necked
+      Englishman to prosecute his Crusading enterprise. And so soon as he is
+      able once more to rush on, which of the princes dare hold back? They must
+      follow him for very shame, although they would march under the banner of
+      Satan as soon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be content," said Conrade of Montserrat; "ere this physician, if he work
+      by anything short of miraculous agency, can accomplish Richard's cure, it
+      may be possible to put some open rupture betwixt the Frenchman&mdash;at
+      least the Austrian&mdash;and his allies of England, so that the breach
+      shall be irreconcilable; and Richard may arise from his bed, perhaps to
+      command his own native troops, but never again, by his sole energy, to
+      wield the force of the whole Crusade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a willing archer," said the Templar; "but, Conrade of
+      Montserrat, thy bow is over-slack to carry an arrow to the mark."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then stopped short, cast a suspicious glance to see that no one
+      overheard him, and taking Conrade by the hand, pressed it eagerly as he
+      looked the Italian in the face, and repeated slowly, "Richard arise from
+      his bed, sayest thou? Conrade, he must never arise!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis of Montserrat started. "What! spoke you of Richard of England&mdash;of
+      Coeur de Lion&mdash;the champion of Christendom?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His cheek turned pale and his knees trembled as he spoke. The Templar
+      looked at him, with his iron visage contorted into a smile of contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Knowest thou what thou look'st like, Sir Conrade, at this moment? Not
+      like the politic and valiant Marquis of Montserrat, not like him who would
+      direct the Council of Princes and determine the fate of empires&mdash;but
+      like a novice, who, stumbling upon a conjuration in his master's book of
+      gramarye, has raised the devil when he least thought of it, and now stands
+      terrified at the spirit which appears before him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I grant you," said Conrade, recovering himself, "that&mdash;unless some
+      other sure road could be discovered&mdash;thou hast hinted at that which
+      leads most direct to our purpose. But, blessed Mary! we shall become the
+      curse of all Europe, the malediction of every one, from the Pope on his
+      throne to the very beggar at the church gate, who, ragged and leprous, in
+      the last extremity of human wretchedness, shall bless himself that he is
+      neither Giles Amaury nor Conrade of Montserrat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If thou takest it thus," said the Grand Master, with the same composure
+      which characterized him all through this remarkable dialogue, "let us hold
+      there has nothing passed between us&mdash;that we have spoken in our sleep&mdash;have
+      awakened, and the vision is gone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It never can depart," answered Conrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Visions of ducal crowns and kingly diadems are, indeed, somewhat
+      tenacious of their place in the imagination," replied the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," answered Conrade, "let me but first try to break peace between
+      Austria and England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They parted. Conrade remained standing still upon the spot, and watching
+      the flowing white cloak of the Templar as he stalked slowly away, and
+      gradually disappeared amid the fast-sinking darkness of the Oriental
+      night. Proud, ambitious, unscrupulous, and politic, the Marquis of
+      Montserrat was yet not cruel by nature. He was a voluptuary and an
+      epicurean, and, like many who profess this character, was averse, even
+      upon selfish motives, from inflicting pain or witnessing acts of cruelty;
+      and he retained also a general sense of respect for his own reputation,
+      which sometimes supplies the want of the better principle by which
+      reputation is to be maintained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have," he said, as his eyes still watched the point at which he had
+      seen the last slight wave of the Templar's mantle&mdash;"I have, in truth,
+      raised the devil with a vengeance! Who would have thought this stern,
+      ascetic Grand Master, whose whole fortune and misfortune is merged in that
+      of his order, would be willing to do more for its advancement than I who
+      labour for my own interest? To check this wild Crusade was my motive,
+      indeed, but I durst not think on the ready mode which this determined
+      priest has dared to suggest. Yet it is the surest&mdash;perhaps even the
+      safest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the Marquis's meditations, when his muttered soliloquy was
+      broken by a voice from a little distance, which proclaimed with the
+      emphatic tone of a herald, "Remember the Holy Sepulchre!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The exhortation was echoed from post to post, for it was the duty of the
+      sentinels to raise this cry from time to time upon their periodical watch,
+      that the host of the Crusaders might always have in their remembrance the
+      purpose of their being in arms. But though Conrade was familiar with the
+      custom, and had heard the warning voice on all former occasions as a
+      matter of habit, yet it came at the present moment so strongly in contact
+      with his own train of thought, that it seemed a voice from Heaven warning
+      him against the iniquity which his heart meditated. He looked around
+      anxiously, as if, like the patriarch of old, though from very different
+      circumstances, he was expecting some ram caught in a thicket some
+      substitution for the sacrifice which his comrade proposed to offer, not to
+      the Supreme Being, but to the Moloch of their own ambition. As he looked,
+      the broad folds of the ensign of England, heavily distending itself to the
+      failing night-breeze, caught his eye. It was displayed upon an artificial
+      mound, nearly in the midst of the camp, which perhaps of old some Hebrew
+      chief or champion had chosen as a memorial of his place of rest. If so,
+      the name was now forgotten, and the Crusaders had christened it Saint
+      George's Mount, because from that commanding height the banner of England
+      was supereminently displayed, as if an emblem of sovereignty over the many
+      distinguished, noble, and even royal ensigns, which floated in lower
+      situations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quick intellect like that of Conrade catches ideas from the glance of a
+      moment. A single look on the standard seemed to dispel the uncertainty of
+      mind which had affected him. He walked to his pavilion with the hasty and
+      determined step of one who has adopted a plan which he is resolved to
+      achieve, dismissed the almost princely train who waited to attend him,
+      and, as he committed himself to his couch, muttered his amended
+      resolution, that the milder means are to be tried before the more
+      desperate are resorted to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To-morrow," he said, "I sit at the board of the Archduke of Austria. We
+      will see what can be done to advance our purpose before prosecuting the
+      dark suggestions of this Templar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     One thing is certain in our Northern land&mdash;
+     Allow that birth or valour, wealth or wit,
+     Give each precedence to their possessor,
+     Envy, that follows on such eminence,
+     As comes the lyme-hound on the roebuck's trace,
+     Shall pull them down each one.
+              SIR DAVID LINDSAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Leopold, Grand Duke of Austria, was the first possessor of that noble
+      country to whom the princely rank belonged. He had been raised to the
+      ducal sway in the German Empire on account of his near relationship to the
+      Emperor, Henry the Stern, and held under his government the finest
+      provinces which are watered by the Danube. His character has been stained
+      in history on account of one action of violence and perfidy, which arose
+      out of these very transactions in the Holy Land; and yet the shame of
+      having made Richard a prisoner when he returned through his dominions;
+      unattended and in disguise, was not one which flowed from Leopold's
+      natural disposition. He was rather a weak and a vain than an ambitious or
+      tyrannical prince. His mental powers resembled the qualities of his
+      person. He was tall, strong, and handsome, with a complexion in which red
+      and white were strongly contrasted, and had long flowing locks of fair
+      hair. But there was an awkwardness in his gait which seemed as if his size
+      was not animated by energy sufficient to put in motion such a mass; and in
+      the same manner, wearing the richest dresses, it always seemed as if they
+      became him not. As a prince, he appeared too little familiar with his own
+      dignity; and being often at a loss how to assert his authority when the
+      occasion demanded it, he frequently thought himself obliged to recover, by
+      acts and expressions of ill-timed violence, the ground which might have
+      been easily and gracefully maintained by a little more presence of mind in
+      the beginning of the controversy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not only were these deficiencies visible to others, but the Archduke
+      himself could not but sometimes entertain a painful consciousness that he
+      was not altogether fit to maintain and assert the high rank which he had
+      acquired; and to this was joined the strong, and sometimes the just,
+      suspicion that others esteemed him lightly accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he first joined the Crusade, with a most princely attendance, Leopold
+      had desired much to enjoy the friendship and intimacy of Richard, and had
+      made such advances towards cultivating his regard as the King of England
+      ought, in policy, to have received and answered. But the Archduke, though
+      not deficient in bravery, was so infinitely inferior to Coeur de Lion in
+      that ardour of mind which wooed danger as a bride, that the King very soon
+      held him in a certain degree of contempt. Richard, also, as a Norman
+      prince, a people with whom temperance was habitual, despised the
+      inclination of the German for the pleasures of the table, and particularly
+      his liberal indulgence in the use of wine. For these, and other personal
+      reasons, the King of England very soon looked upon the Austrian Prince
+      with feelings of contempt, which he was at no pains to conceal or modify,
+      and which, therefore, were speedily remarked, and returned with deep
+      hatred, by the suspicious Leopold. The discord between them was fanned by
+      the secret and politic arts of Philip of France, one of the most sagacious
+      monarchs of the time, who, dreading the fiery and overbearing character of
+      Richard, considering him as his natural rival, and feeling offended,
+      moreover, at the dictatorial manner in which he, a vassal of France for
+      his Continental domains, conducted himself towards his liege lord,
+      endeavoured to strengthen his own party, and weaken that of Richard, by
+      uniting the Crusading princes of inferior degree in resistance to what he
+      termed the usurping authority of the King of England. Such was the state
+      of politics and opinions entertained by the Archduke of Austria, when
+      Conrade of Montserrat resolved upon employing his jealousy of England as
+      the means of dissolving, or loosening at least, the league of the
+      Crusaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time which he chose for his visit was noon; and the pretence, to
+      present the Archduke with some choice Cyprus wine which had lately fallen
+      into his hands, and discuss its comparative merits with those of Hungary
+      and of the Rhine. An intimation of his purpose was, of course, answered by
+      a courteous invitation to partake of the Archducal meal, and every effort
+      was used to render it fitting the splendour of a sovereign prince. Yet the
+      refined taste of the Italian saw more cumbrous profusion than elegance or
+      splendour in the display of provisions under which the board groaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Germans, though still possessing the martial and frank character of
+      their ancestors&mdash;who subdued the Roman Empire&mdash;had retained
+      withal no slight tinge of their barbarism. The practices and principles of
+      chivalry were not carried to such a nice pitch amongst them as amongst the
+      French and English knights, nor were they strict observers of the
+      prescribed rules of society, which among those nations were supposed to
+      express the height of civilization. Sitting at the table of the Archduke,
+      Conrade was at once stunned and amused with the clang of Teutonic sounds
+      assaulting his ears on all sides, notwithstanding the solemnity of a
+      princely banquet. Their dress seemed equally fantastic to him, many of the
+      Austrian nobles retaining their long beards, and almost all of them
+      wearing short jerkins of various colours, cut, and flourished, and fringed
+      in a manner not common in Western Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Numbers of dependants, old and young, attended in the pavilion, mingled at
+      times in the conversation, received from their masters the relics of the
+      entertainment, and devoured them as they stood behind the backs of the
+      company. Jesters, dwarfs, and minstrels were there in unusual numbers, and
+      more noisy and intrusive than they were permitted to be in better
+      regulated society. As they were allowed to share freely in the wine, which
+      flowed round in large quantities, their licensed tumult was the more
+      excessive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this while, and in the midst of a clamour and confusion which would
+      better have become a German tavern during a fair than the tent of a
+      sovereign prince, the Archduke was waited upon with a minuteness of form
+      and observance which showed how anxious he was to maintain rigidly the
+      state and character to which his elevation had entitled him. He was served
+      on the knee, and only by pages of noble blood, fed upon plate of silver,
+      and drank his Tokay and Rhenish wines from a cup of gold. His ducal mantle
+      was splendidly adorned with ermine, his coronet might have equalled in
+      value a royal crown, and his feet, cased in velvet shoes (the length of
+      which, peaks included, might be two feet), rested upon a footstool of
+      solid silver. But it served partly to intimate the character of the man,
+      that, although desirous to show attention to the Marquis of Montserrat,
+      whom he had courteously placed at his right hand, he gave much more of his
+      attention to his SPRUCH-SPRECHER&mdash;that is, his man of conversation,
+      or SAYER-OF-SAYINGS&mdash;who stood behind the Duke's right shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This personage was well attired in a cloak and doublet of black velvet,
+      the last of which was decorated with various silver and gold coins
+      stitched upon it, in memory of the munificent princes who had conferred
+      them, and bearing a short staff to which also bunches of silver coins were
+      attached by rings, which he jingled by way of attracting attention when he
+      was about to say anything which he judged worthy of it. This person's
+      capacity in the household of the Archduke was somewhat betwixt that of a
+      minstrel and a counsellor. He was by turns a flatterer, a poet, and an
+      orator; and those who desired to be well with the Duke generally studied
+      to gain the good-will of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lest too much of this officer's wisdom should become tiresome, the Duke's
+      other shoulder was occupied by his HOFF-NARR, or court-jester, called
+      Jonas Schwanker, who made almost as much noise with his fool's cap, bells,
+      and bauble, as did the orator, or man of talk, with his jingling baton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two personages threw out grave and comic nonsense alternately; while
+      their master, laughing or applauding them himself, yet carefully watched
+      the countenance of his noble guest, to discern what impressions so
+      accomplished a cavalier received from this display of Austrian eloquence
+      and wit. It is hard to say whether the man of wisdom or the man of folly
+      contributed most to the amusement of the party, or stood highest in the
+      estimation of their princely master; but the sallies of both seemed
+      excellently well received. Sometimes they became rivals for the
+      conversation, and clanged their flappers in emulation of each other with a
+      most alarming contention; but, in general, they seemed on such good terms,
+      and so accustomed to support each other's play, that the SPRUCH-SPRECHER
+      often condescended to follow up the jester's witticisms with an
+      explanation, to render them more obvious to the capacity of the audience,
+      so that his wisdom became a sort of commentary on the buffoon's folly. And
+      sometimes, in requital, the HOFF-NARR, with a pithy jest, wound up the
+      conclusion of the orator's tedious harangue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever his real sentiments might be, Conrade took especial care that his
+      countenance should express nothing but satisfaction with what he heard,
+      and smiled or applauded as zealously, to all appearance, as the Archduke
+      himself at the solemn folly of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the gibbering wit
+      of the fool. In fact, he watched carefully until the one or other should
+      introduce some topic favourable to the purpose which was uppermost in his
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not long ere the King of England was brought on the carpet by the
+      jester, who had been accustomed to consider Dickon of the Broom (which
+      irreverent epithet he substituted for Richard Plantagenet) as a subject of
+      mirth, acceptable and inexhaustible. The orator, indeed, was silent, and
+      it was only when applied to by Conrade that he observed, "The GENISTA, or
+      broom-plant, was an emblem of humility; and it would be well when those
+      who wore it would remember the warning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The allusion to the illustrious badge of Plantagenet was thus rendered
+      sufficiently manifest, and Jonas Schwanker observed that they who humbled
+      themselves had been exalted with a vengeance. "Honour unto whom honour is
+      due," answered the Marquis of Montserrat. "We have all had some part in
+      these marches and battles, and methinks other princes might share a little
+      in the renown which Richard of England engrosses amongst minstrels and
+      MINNE-SINGERS. Has no one of the joyeuse science here present a song in
+      praise of the royal Archduke of Austria, our princely entertainer?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three minstrels emulously stepped forward with voice and harp. Two were
+      silenced with difficulty by the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who seemed to act as
+      master of the revels, and a hearing was at length procured for the poet
+      preferred, who sung, in high German, stanzas which may be thus translated:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What brave chief shall head the forces, Where the red-cross legions
+      gather? Best of horsemen, best of horses, Highest head and fairest
+      feather."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the orator, jingling his staff, interrupted the bard to intimate to
+      the party&mdash;what they might not have inferred from the description&mdash;that
+      their royal host was the party indicated, and a full-crowned goblet went
+      round to the acclamation, HOCH LEBE DER HERZOG LEOPOLD! Another stanza
+      followed:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ask not Austria why, 'midst princes, Still her banner rises highest; Ask
+      as well the strong-wing'd eagle, Why to heaven he soars the highest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The eagle," said the expounder of dark sayings, "is the cognizance of our
+      noble lord the Archduke&mdash;of his royal Grace, I would say&mdash;and
+      the eagle flies the highest and nearest to the sun of all the feathered
+      creation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The lion hath taken a spring above the eagle," said Conrade carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archduke reddened, and fixed his eyes on the speaker, while the
+      SPRUCH-SPRECHER answered, after a minute's consideration, "The Lord
+      Marquis will pardon me&mdash;a lion cannot fly above an eagle, because no
+      lion hath got wings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Except the lion of Saint Mark," responded the jester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is the Venetian's banner," said the Duke; "but assuredly that
+      amphibious race, half nobles, half merchants, will not dare to place their
+      rank in comparison with ours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, it was not of the Venetian lion that I spoke," said the Marquis of
+      Montserrat, "but of the three lions passant of England. Formerly, it is
+      said, they were leopards; but now they are become lions at all points, and
+      must take precedence of beast, fish, or fowl, or woe worth the
+      gainstander."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mean you seriously, my lord?" said the Austrian, now considerably flushed
+      with wine. "Think you that Richard of England asserts any pre-eminence
+      over the free sovereigns who have been his voluntary allies in this
+      Crusade?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not but from circumstances," answered Conrade. "Yonder hangs his
+      banner alone in the midst of our camp, as if he were king and
+      generalissimo of our whole Christian army."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And do you endure this so patiently, and speak of it so coldly?" said the
+      Archduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord," answered Conrade, "it cannot concern the poor Marquis of
+      Montserrat to contend against an injury patiently submitted to by such
+      potent princes as Philip of France and Leopold of Austria. What dishonour
+      you are pleased to submit to cannot be a disgrace to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leopold closed his fist, and struck on the table with violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have told Philip of this," he said. "I have often told him that it was
+      our duty to protect the inferior princes against the usurpation of this
+      islander; but he answers me ever with cold respects of their relations
+      together as suzerain and vassal, and that it were impolitic in him to make
+      an open breach at this time and period."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The world knows that Philip is wise," said Conrade, "and will judge his
+      submission to be policy. Yours, my lord, you can yourself alone account
+      for; but I doubt not you have deep reasons for submitting to English
+      domination."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I submit!" said Leopold indignantly&mdash;"I, the Archduke of Austria, so
+      important and vital a limb of the Holy Roman Empire&mdash;I submit myself
+      to this king of half an island, this grandson of a Norman bastard! No, by
+      Heaven! The camp and all Christendom shall see that I know how to right
+      myself, and whether I yield ground one inch to the English bandog.&mdash;Up,
+      my lieges and merry men; up and follow me! We will&mdash;and that without
+      losing one instant&mdash;place the eagle of Austria where she shall float
+      as high as ever floated the cognizance of king or kaiser."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he started from his seat, and amidst the tumultuous cheering of
+      his guests and followers, made for the door of the pavilion, and seized
+      his own banner, which stood pitched before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord," said Conrade, affecting to interfere, "it will blemish
+      your wisdom to make an affray in the camp at this hour; and perhaps it is
+      better to submit to the usurpation of England a little longer than to&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not an hour, not a moment longer," vociferated the Duke; and with the
+      banner in his hand, and followed by his shouting guests and attendants,
+      marched hastily to the central mount, from which the banner of England
+      floated, and laid his hand on the standard-spear, as if to pluck it from
+      the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My master, my dear master!" said Jonas Schwanker, throwing his arms about
+      the Duke, "take heed&mdash;lions have teeth&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And eagles have claws," said the Duke, not relinquishing his hold on the
+      banner-staff, yet hesitating to pull it from the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The speaker of sentences, notwithstanding such was his occupation, had
+      nevertheless some intervals of sound sense. He clashed his staff loudly,
+      and Leopold, as if by habit, turned his head towards his man of counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The eagle is king among the fowls of the air," said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER,
+      "as is the lion among the beasts of the field&mdash;each has his dominion,
+      separated as wide as England and Germany. Do thou, noble eagle, no
+      dishonour to the princely lion, but let your banners remain floating in
+      peace side by side."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leopold withdrew his hand from the banner-spear, and looked round for
+      Conrade of Montserrat, but he saw him not; for the Marquis, so soon as he
+      saw the mischief afoot, had withdrawn himself from the crowd, taking care,
+      in the first place, to express before several neutral persons his regret
+      that the Archduke should have chosen the hours after dinner to avenge any
+      wrong of which he might think he had a right to complain. Not seeing his
+      guest, to whom he wished more particularly to have addressed himself, the
+      Archduke said aloud that, having no wish to breed dissension in the army
+      of the Cross, he did but vindicate his own privileges and right to stand
+      upon an equality with the King of England, without desiring, as he might
+      have done, to advance his banner&mdash;which he derived from emperors, his
+      progenitors&mdash;above that of a mere descendant of the Counts of Anjou;
+      and in the meantime he commanded a cask of wine to be brought hither and
+      pierced, for regaling the bystanders, who, with tuck of drum and sound of
+      music, quaffed many a carouse round the Austrian standard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This disorderly scene was not acted without a degree of noise, which
+      alarmed the whole camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The critical hour had arrived at which the physician, according to the
+      rules of his art, had predicted that his royal patient might be awakened
+      with safety, and the sponge had been applied for that purpose; and the
+      leech had not made many observations ere he assured the Baron of Gilsland
+      that the fever had entirely left his sovereign, and that, such was the
+      happy strength of his constitution, it would not be even necessary, as in
+      most cases, to give a second dose of the powerful medicine. Richard
+      himself seemed to be of the same opinion, for, sitting up and rubbing his
+      eyes, he demanded of De Vaux what present sum of money was in the royal
+      coffers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron could not exactly inform him of the amount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It matters not," said Richard; "be it greater or smaller, bestow it all
+      on this learned leech, who hath, I trust, given me back again to the
+      service of the Crusade. If it be less than a thousand byzants, let him
+      have jewels to make it up."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I sell not the wisdom with which Allah has endowed me," answered the
+      Arabian physician; "and be it known to you, great Prince, that the divine
+      medicine of which you have partaken would lose its effects in my unworthy
+      hands did I exchange its virtues either for gold or diamonds."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Physician refuseth a gratuity!" said De Vaux to himself. "This is
+      more extraordinary than his being a hundred years old."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thomas de Vaux," said Richard, "thou knowest no courage but what belongs
+      to the sword, no bounty and virtue but what are used in chivalry. I tell
+      thee that this Moor, in his independence, might set an example to them who
+      account themselves the flower of knighthood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is reward enough for me," said the Moor, folding his arms on his
+      bosom, and maintaining an attitude at once respectful and dignified, "that
+      so great a king as the Melech Ric [Richard was thus called by the Eastern
+      nations.] should thus speak of his servant.&mdash;But now let me pray you
+      again to compose yourself on your couch; for though I think there needs no
+      further repetition of the divine draught, yet injury might ensue from any
+      too early exertion ere your strength be entirely restored."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must obey thee, Hakim," said the King; "yet believe me, my bosom feels
+      so free from the wasting fire which for so many days hath scorched it,
+      that I care not how soon I expose it to a brave man's lance.&mdash;But
+      hark! what mean these shouts, and that distant music, in the camp? Go,
+      Thomas de Vaux, and make inquiry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is the Archduke Leopold," said De Vaux, returning after a minute's
+      absence, "who makes with his pot-companions some procession through the
+      camp."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The drunken fool!" exclaimed King Richard; "can he not keep his brutal
+      inebriety within the veil of his pavilion, that he must needs show his
+      shame to all Christendom?&mdash;What say you, Sir Marquis?" he added,
+      addressing himself to Conrade of Montserrat, who at that moment entered
+      the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thus much, honoured Prince," answered the Marquis, "that I delight to see
+      your Majesty so well, and so far recovered; and that is a long speech for
+      any one to make who has partaken of the Duke of Austria's hospitality."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! you have been dining with the Teutonic wine-skin!" said the
+      monarch. "And what frolic has he found out to cause all this disturbance?
+      Truly, Sir Conrade, I have still held you so good a reveller that I wonder
+      at your quitting the game."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux, who had got a little behind the King, now exerted himself by look
+      and sign to make the Marquis understand that he should say nothing to
+      Richard of what was passing without. But Conrade understood not, or heeded
+      not, the prohibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What the Archduke does," he said, "is of little consequence to any one,
+      least of all to himself, since he probably knows not what he is acting;
+      yet, to say truth, it is a gambol I should not like to share in, since he
+      is pulling down the banner of England from Saint George's Mount, in the
+      centre of the camp yonder, and displaying his own in its stead."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "WHAT sayest thou?" exclaimed the King, in a tone which might have waked
+      the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said the Marquis, "let it not chafe your Highness that a fool
+      should act according to his folly&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak not to me," said Richard, springing from his couch, and casting on
+      his clothes with a dispatch which seemed marvellous&mdash;"Speak not to
+      me, Lord Marquis!&mdash;De Multon, I command thee speak not a word to me&mdash;he
+      that breathes but a syllable is no friend to Richard Plantagenet.&mdash;Hakim,
+      be silent, I charge thee!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this while the King was hastily clothing himself, and, with the last
+      word, snatched his sword from the pillar of the tent, and without any
+      other weapon, or calling any attendance, he rushed out of his pavilion.
+      Conrade, holding up his hands as if in astonishment, seemed willing to
+      enter into conversation with De Vaux; but Sir Thomas pushed rudely past
+      him, and calling to one of the royal equerries, said hastily, "Fly to Lord
+      Salisbury's quarters, and let him get his men together and follow me
+      instantly to Saint George's Mount. Tell him the King's fever has left his
+      blood and settled in his brain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imperfectly heard, and still more imperfectly comprehended, by the
+      startled attendant whom De Vaux addressed thus hastily, the equerry and
+      his fellow-servants of the royal chamber rushed hastily into the tents of
+      the neighbouring nobility, and quickly spread an alarm, as general as the
+      cause seemed vague, through the whole British forces. The English
+      soldiers, waked in alarm from that noonday rest which the heat of the
+      climate had taught them to enjoy as a luxury, hastily asked each other the
+      cause of the tumult, and without waiting an answer, supplied by the force
+      of their own fancy the want of information. Some said the Saracens were in
+      the camp, some that the King's life was attempted, some that he had died
+      of the fever the preceding night, many that he was assassinated by the
+      Duke of Austria. The nobles and officers, at an equal loss with the common
+      men to ascertain the real cause of the disorder, laboured only to get
+      their followers under arms and under authority, lest their rashness should
+      occasion some great misfortune to the Crusading army. The English trumpets
+      sounded loud, shrill, and continuously. The alarm-cry of "Bows and bills,
+      bows and bills!" was heard from quarter to quarter, again and again
+      shouted, and again and again answered by the presence of the ready
+      warriors, and their national invocation, "Saint George for merry England!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alarm went through the nearest quarter of the camp, and men of all the
+      various nations assembled, where, perhaps, every people in Christendom had
+      their representatives, flew to arms, and drew together under circumstances
+      of general confusion, of which they knew neither the cause nor the object.
+      It was, however, lucky, amid a scene so threatening, that the Earl of
+      Salisbury, while he hurried after De Vaux's summons with a few only of the
+      readiest English men-at-arms, directed the rest of the English host to be
+      drawn up and kept under arms, to advance to Richard's succour if necessity
+      should require, but in fit array and under due command, and not with the
+      tumultuary haste which their own alarm and zeal for the King's safety
+      might have dictated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, without regarding for one instant the shouts, the cries,
+      the tumult which began to thicken around him, Richard, with his dress in
+      the last disorder, and his sheathed blade under his arm, pursued his way
+      with the utmost speed, followed only by De Vaux and one or two household
+      servants, to Saint George's Mount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He outsped even the alarm which his impetuosity only had excited, and
+      passed the quarter of his own gallant troops of Normandy, Poitou, Gascony,
+      and Anjou before the disturbance had reached them, although the noise
+      accompanying the German revel had induced many of the soldiery to get on
+      foot to listen. The handful of Scots were also quartered in the vicinity,
+      nor had they been disturbed by the uproar. But the King's person and his
+      haste were both remarked by the Knight of the Leopard, who, aware that
+      danger must be afoot, and hastening to share in it, snatched his shield
+      and sword, and united himself to De Vaux, who with some difficulty kept
+      pace with his impatient and fiery master. De Vaux answered a look of
+      curiosity, which the Scottish knight directed towards him, with a shrug of
+      his broad shoulders, and they continued, side by side, to pursue Richard's
+      steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King was soon at the foot of Saint George's Mount, the sides as well
+      as platform of which were now surrounded and crowded, partly by those
+      belonging to the Duke of Austria's retinue, who were celebrating, with
+      shouts of jubilee, the act which they considered as an assertion of
+      national honour; partly by bystanders of different nations, whom dislike
+      to the English, or mere curiosity, had assembled together to witness the
+      end of these extraordinary proceedings. Through this disorderly troop
+      Richard burst his way, like a goodly ship under full sail, which cleaves
+      her forcible passage through the rolling billows, and heeds not that they
+      unite after her passage and roar upon her stern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The summit of the eminence was a small level space, on which were pitched
+      the rival banners, surrounded still by the Archduke's friends and retinue.
+      In the midst of the circle was Leopold himself, still contemplating with
+      self-satisfaction the deed he had done, and still listening to the shouts
+      of applause which his partisans bestowed with no sparing breath. While he
+      was in this state of self-gratulation, Richard burst into the circle,
+      attended, indeed, only by two men, but in his own headlong energies an
+      irresistible host.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who has dared," he said, laying his hands upon the Austrian standard, and
+      speaking in a voice like the sound which precedes an earthquake&mdash;"Who
+      has dared to place this paltry rag beside the banner of England?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archduke wanted not personal courage, and it was impossible he could
+      hear this question without reply. Yet so much was he troubled and
+      surprised by the unexpected arrival of Richard, and affected by the
+      general awe inspired by his ardent and unyielding character, that the
+      demand was twice repeated, in a tone which seemed to challenge heaven and
+      earth, ere the Archduke replied, with such firmness as he could command,
+      "It was I, Leopold of Austria."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then shall Leopold of Austria," replied Richard, "presentry see the rate
+      at which his banner and his pretensions are held by Richard of England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he pulled up the standard-spear, splintered it to pieces, threw
+      the banner itself on the ground, and placed his foot upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thus," said he, "I trample on the banner of Austria. Is there a knight
+      among your Teutonic chivalry dare impeach my deed?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a momentary silence; but there are no braver men than the
+      Germans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I," and "I," and "I," was heard from several knights of the Duke"s
+      followers; and he himself added his voice to those which accepted the King
+      of England's defiance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why do we dally thus?" said the Earl Wallenrode, a gigantic warrior from
+      the frontiers of Hungary. "Brethren and noble gentlemen, this man's foot
+      is on the honour of your country&mdash;let us rescue it from violation,
+      and down with the pride of England!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he drew his sword, and struck at the King a blow which might
+      have proved fatal, had not the Scot intercepted and caught it upon his
+      shield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have sworn," said King Richard&mdash;and his voice was heard above all
+      the tumult, which now waxed wild and loud&mdash;"never to strike one whose
+      shoulder bears the cross; therefore live, Wallenrode&mdash;but live to
+      remember Richard of England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, he grasped the tall Hungarian round the waist, and, unmatched
+      in wrestling, as in other military exercises, hurled him backwards with
+      such violence that the mass flew as if discharged from a military engine,
+      not only through the ring of spectators who witnessed the extraordinary
+      scene, but over the edge of the mount itself, down the steep side of which
+      Wallenrode rolled headlong, until, pitching at length upon his shoulder,
+      he dislocated the bone, and lay like one dead. This almost supernatural
+      display of strength did not encourage either the Duke or any of his
+      followers to renew a personal contest so inauspiciously commenced. Those
+      who stood farthest back did, indeed, clash their swords, and cry out, "Cut
+      the island mastiff to pieces!" but those who were nearer veiled, perhaps,
+      their personal fears under an affected regard for order, and cried, for
+      the most part, "Peace! Peace! the peace of the Cross&mdash;the peace of
+      Holy Church and our Father the Pope!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These various cries of the assailants, contradicting each other, showed
+      their irresolution; while Richard, his foot still on the archducal banner,
+      glared round him with an eye that seemed to seek an enemy, and from which
+      the angry nobles shrunk appalled, as from the threatened grasp of a lion.
+      De Vaux and the Knight of the Leopard kept their places beside him; and
+      though the swords which they held were still sheathed, it was plain that
+      they were prompt to protect Richard's person to the very last, and their
+      size and remarkable strength plainly showed the defence would be a
+      desperate one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and
+      partisans brandished, and bows already bended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment King Philip of France, attended by one or two of his
+      nobles, came on the platform to inquire the cause of the disturbance, and
+      made gestures of surprise at finding the King of England raised from his
+      sick-bed, and confronting their common ally, the Duke of Austria, in such
+      a menacing and insulting posture. Richard himself blushed at being
+      discovered by Philip, whose sagacity he respected as much as he disliked
+      his person, in an attitude neither becoming his character as a monarch,
+      nor as a Crusader; and it was observed that he withdrew his foot, as if
+      accidentally, from the dishonoured banner, and exchanged his look of
+      violent emotion for one of affected composure and indifference. Leopold
+      also struggled to attain some degree of calmness, mortified as he was by
+      having been seen by Philip in the act of passively submitting to the
+      insults of the fiery King of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Possessed of many of those royal qualities for which he was termed by his
+      subjects the August, Philip might be termed the Ulysses, as Richard was
+      indisputably the Achilles, of the Crusade. The King of France was
+      sagacious, wise, deliberate in council, steady and calm in action, seeing
+      clearly, and steadily pursuing, the measures most for the interest of his
+      kingdom&mdash;dignified and royal in his deportment, brave in person, but
+      a politician rather than a warrior. The Crusade would have been no choice
+      of his own; but the spirit was contagious, and the expedition was enforced
+      upon him by the church, and by the unanimous wish of his nobility. In any
+      other situation, or in a milder age, his character might have stood higher
+      than that of the adventurous Coeur de Lion. But in the Crusade, itself an
+      undertaking wholly irrational, sound reason was the quality of all others
+      least estimated, and the chivalric valour which both the age and the
+      enterprise demanded was considered as debased if mingled with the least
+      touch of discretion. So that the merit of Philip, compared with that of
+      his haughty rival, showed like the clear but minute flame of a lamp placed
+      near the glare of a huge, blazing torch, which, not possessing half the
+      utility, makes ten times more impression on the eye. Philip felt his
+      inferiority in public opinion with the pain natural to a high-spirited
+      prince; and it cannot be wondered at if he took such opportunities as
+      offered for placing his own character in more advantageous contrast with
+      that of his rival. The present seemed one of those occasions in which
+      prudence and calmness might reasonably expect to triumph over obstinacy
+      and impetuous violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What means this unseemly broil betwixt the sworn brethren of the Cross&mdash;the
+      royal Majesty of England and the princely Duke Leopold? How is it possible
+      that those who are the chiefs and pillars of this holy expedition&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A truce with thy remonstrance, France," said Richard, enraged inwardly at
+      finding himself placed on a sort of equality with Leopold, yet not knowing
+      how to resent it. "This duke, or prince, or pillar, if you will, hath been
+      insolent, and I have chastised him&mdash;that is all. Here is a coil,
+      forsooth, because of spurning a hound!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Majesty of France," said the Duke, "I appeal to you and every sovereign
+      prince against the foul indignity which I have sustained. This King of
+      England hath pulled down my banner-torn and trampled on it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because he had the audacity to plant it beside mine," said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My rank as thine equal entitled me," replied the Duke, emboldened by the
+      presence of Philip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Assert such equality for thy person," said King Richard, "and, by Saint
+      George, I will treat thy person as I did thy broidered kerchief there, fit
+      but for the meanest use to which kerchief may be put."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but patience, brother of England," said Philip, "and I will
+      presently show Austria that he is wrong in this matter.&mdash;Do not
+      think, noble Duke," he continued, "that, in permitting the standard of
+      England to occupy the highest point in our camp, we, the independent
+      sovereigns of the Crusade, acknowledge any inferiority to the royal
+      Richard. It were inconsistent to think so, since even the Oriflamme itself&mdash;the
+      great banner of France, to which the royal Richard himself, in respect of
+      his French possessions, is but a vassal&mdash;holds for the present an
+      inferior place to the Lions of England. But as sworn brethren of the
+      Cross, military pilgrims, who, laying aside the pomp and pride of this
+      world, are hewing with our swords the way to the Holy Sepulchre, I myself,
+      and the other princes, have renounced to King Richard, from respect to his
+      high renown and great feats of arms, that precedence which elsewhere, and
+      upon other motives, would not have been yielded. I am satisfied that, when
+      your royal grace of Austria shall have considered this, you will express
+      sorrow for having placed your banner on this spot, and that the royal
+      Majesty of England will then give satisfaction for the insult he has
+      offered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the jester had both retired to a safe distance
+      when matters seemed coming to blows; but returned when words, their own
+      commodity, seemed again about to become the order of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man of proverbs was so delighted with Philip's politic speech that he
+      clashed his baton at the conclusion, by way of emphasis, and forgot the
+      presence in which he was, so far as to say aloud that he himself had never
+      said a wiser thing in his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be so," whispered Jonas Schwanker, "but we shall be whipped if you
+      speak so loud."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duke answered sullenly that he would refer his quarrel to the General
+      Council of the Crusade&mdash;a motion which Philip highly applauded, as
+      qualified to take away a scandal most harmful to Christendom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, retaining the same careless attitude, listened to Philip until
+      his oratory seemed exhausted, and then said aloud, "I am drowsy&mdash;this
+      fever hangs about me still. Brother of France, thou art acquainted with my
+      humour, and that I have at all times but few words to spare. Know,
+      therefore, at once, I will submit a matter touching the honour of England
+      neither to Prince, Pope, nor Council. Here stands my banner&mdash;whatsoever
+      pennon shall be reared within three butts' length of it&mdash;ay, were it
+      the Oriflamme, of which you were, I think, but now speaking&mdash;shall be
+      treated as that dishonoured rag; nor will I yield other satisfaction than
+      that which these poor limbs can render in the lists to any bold challenge&mdash;ay,
+      were it against five champions instead of one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now," said the jester, whispering his companion, "that is as complete a
+      piece of folly as if I myself had said it; but yet, I think, there may be
+      in this matter a greater fool than Richard yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And who may that be?" asked the man of wisdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Philip," said the jester, "or our own Royal Duke, should either accept
+      the challenge. But oh, most sage SPRUCH-SPECHER, what excellent kings
+      wouldst thou and I have made, since those on whose heads these crowns have
+      fallen can play the proverb-monger and the fool as completely as
+      ourselves!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these worthies plied their offices apart, Philip answered calmly to
+      the almost injurious defiance of Richard, "I came not hither to awaken
+      fresh quarrels, contrary to the oath we have sworn, and the holy cause in
+      which we have engaged. I part from my brother of England as brothers
+      should part, and the only strife between the Lions of England and the
+      Lilies of France shall be which shall be carried deepest into the ranks of
+      the infidels."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a bargain, my royal brother," said Richard, stretching out his hand
+      with all the frankness which belonged to his rash but generous
+      disposition; "and soon may we have the opportunity to try this gallant and
+      fraternal wager."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let this noble Duke also partake in the friendship of this happy moment,"
+      said Philip; and the Duke approached half-sullenly, half-willing to enter
+      into some accommodation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think not of fools, nor of their folly," said Richard carelessly; and
+      the Archduke, turning his back on him, withdrew from the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard looked after him as he retired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is a sort of glow-worm courage," he said, "that shows only by
+      night. I must not leave this banner unguarded in darkness; by daylight the
+      look of the Lions will alone defend it. Here, Thomas of Gilsland, I give
+      thee the charge of the standard&mdash;watch over the honour of England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Her safety is yet more dear to me," said De Vaux, "and the life of
+      Richard is the safety of England. I must have your Highness back to your
+      tent, and that without further tarriance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a rough and peremptory nurse, De Vaux," said the king, smiling;
+      and then added, addressing Sir Kenneth, "Valiant Scot, I owe thee a boon,
+      and I will pay it richly. There stands the banner of England! Watch it as
+      novice does his armour on the night before he is dubbed. Stir not from it
+      three spears' length, and defend it with thy body against injury or
+      insult. Sound thy bugle if thou art assailed by more than three at once.
+      Dost thou undertake the charge?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Willingly," said Kenneth; "and will discharge it upon penalty of my head.
+      I will but arm me, and return hither instantly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Kings of France and England then took formal leave of each other,
+      hiding, under an appearance of courtesy, the grounds of complaint which
+      either had against the other&mdash;Richard against Philip, for what he
+      deemed an officious interference betwixt him and Austria, and Philip
+      against Coeur de Lion, for the disrespectful manner in which his mediation
+      had been received. Those whom this disturbance had assembled now drew off
+      in different directions, leaving the contested mount in the same solitude
+      which had subsisted till interrupted by the Austrian bravado. Men judged
+      of the events of the day according to their partialities, and while the
+      English charged the Austrian with having afforded the first ground of
+      quarrel, those of other nations concurred in casting the greater blame
+      upon the insular haughtiness and assuming character of Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou seest," said the Marquis of Montserrat to the Grand Master of the
+      Templars, "that subtle courses are more effective than violence. I have
+      unloosed the bonds which held together this bunch of sceptres and lances&mdash;thou
+      wilt see them shortly fall asunder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would have called thy plan a good one," said the Templar, "had there
+      been but one man of courage among yonder cold-blooded Austrians to sever
+      the bonds of which you speak with his sword. A knot that is unloosed may
+      again be fastened, but not so the cord which has been cut to pieces."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Tis woman that seduces all mankind.
+        GAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the days of chivalry, a dangerous post or a perilous adventure was a
+      reward frequently assigned to military bravery as a compensation for its
+      former trials; just as, in ascending a precipice, the surmounting one crag
+      only lifts the climber to points yet more dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was midnight, and the moon rode clear and high in heaven, when Kenneth
+      of Scotland stood upon his watch on Saint George's Mount, beside the
+      banner of England, a solitary sentinel, to protect the emblem of that
+      nation against the insults which might be meditated among the thousands
+      whom Richard's pride had made his enemies. High thoughts rolled, one after
+      each other, upon the mind of the warrior. It seemed to him as if he had
+      gained some favour in the eyes of the chivalrous monarch, who till now had
+      not seemed to distinguish him among the crowds of brave men whom his
+      renown had assembled under his banner, and Sir Kenneth little recked that
+      the display of royal regard consisted in placing him upon a post so
+      perilous. The devotion of his ambitious and high-placed affection inflamed
+      his military enthusiasm. Hopeless as that attachment was in almost any
+      conceivable circumstances, those which had lately occurred had, in some
+      degree, diminished the distance between Edith and himself. He upon whom
+      Richard had conferred the distinction of guarding his banner was no longer
+      an adventurer of slight note, but placed within the regard of a princess,
+      although he was as far as ever from her level. An unknown and obscure fate
+      could not now be his. If he was surprised and slain on the post which had
+      been assigned him, his death&mdash;and he resolved it should be glorious&mdash;must
+      deserve the praises as well as call down the vengeance of Coeur de Lion,
+      and be followed by the regrets, and even the tears, of the high-born
+      beauties of the English Court. He had now no longer reason to fear that he
+      should die as a fool dieth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth had full leisure to enjoy these and similar high-souled
+      thoughts, fostered by that wild spirit of chivalry, which, amid its most
+      extravagant and fantastic flights, was still pure from all selfish alloy&mdash;generous,
+      devoted, and perhaps only thus far censurable, that it proposed objects
+      and courses of action inconsistent with the frailties and imperfections of
+      man. All nature around him slept in calm moon-shine or in deep shadow. The
+      long rows of tents and pavilions, glimmering or darkening as they lay in
+      the moonlight or in the shade, were still and silent as the streets of a
+      deserted city. Beside the banner-staff lay the large staghound already
+      mentioned, the sole companion of Kenneth's watch, on whose vigilance he
+      trusted for early warning of the approach of any hostile footstep. The
+      noble animal seemed to understand the purpose of their watch; for he
+      looked from time to time at the rich folds of the heavy pennon, and, when
+      the cry of the sentinels came from the distant lines and defences of the
+      camp, he answered them with one deep and reiterated bark, as if to affirm
+      that he too was vigilant in his duty. From time to time, also, he lowered
+      his lofty head, and wagged his tail, as his master passed and repassed him
+      in the short turns which he took upon his post; or, when the knight stood
+      silent and abstracted leaning on his lance, and looking up towards heaven,
+      his faithful attendant ventured sometimes, in the phrase of romance, "to
+      disturb his thoughts," and awaken him from his reverie, by thrusting his
+      large rough snout into the knight's gauntleted hand, to solicit a
+      transitory caress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus passed two hours of the knight's watch without anything remarkable
+      occurring. At length, and upon a sudden, the gallant staghound bayed
+      furiously, and seemed about to dash forward where the shadow lay the
+      darkest, yet waited, as if in the slips, till he should know the pleasure
+      of his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who goes there?" said Sir Kenneth, aware that there was something
+      creeping forward on the shadowy side of the mount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the name of Merlin and Maugis," answered a hoarse, disagreeable voice,
+      "tie up your fourfooted demon there, or I come not at you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And who art thou that would approach my post?" said Sir Kenneth, bending
+      his eyes as keenly as he could on some object, which he could just observe
+      at the bottom of the ascent, without being able to distinguish its form.
+      "Beware&mdash;I am here for death and life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take up thy long-fanged Sathanas," said the voice, "or I will conjure him
+      with a bolt from my arblast."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time was heard the sound of a spring or check, as when a
+      crossbow is bent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Unbend thy arblast, and come into the moonlight," said the Scot, "or, by
+      Saint Andrew, I will pin thee to the earth, be what or whom thou wilt!"
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0073m.jpg" alt="0073m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0073.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he poised his long lance by the middle, and, fixing his eye
+      upon the object, which seemed to move, he brandished the weapon, as if
+      meditating to cast it from his hand&mdash;a use of the weapon sometimes,
+      though rarely, resorted to when a missile was necessary. But Sir Kenneth
+      was ashamed of his purpose, and grounded his weapon, when there stepped
+      from the shadow into the moonlight, like an actor entering upon the stage,
+      a stunted, decrepit creature, whom, by his fantastic dress and deformity,
+      he recognized, even at some distance, for the male of the two dwarfs whom
+      he had seen in the chapel at Engaddi. Recollecting, at the same moment,
+      the other and far different visions of that extraordinary night, he gave
+      his dog a signal, which he instantly understood, and, returning to the
+      standard, laid himself down beside it with a stifled growl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little, distorted miniature of humanity, assured of his safety from an
+      enemy so formidable, came panting up the ascent, which the shortness of
+      his legs rendered laborious, and, when he arrived on the platform at the
+      top, shifted to his left hand the little crossbow, which was just such a
+      toy as children at that period were permitted to shoot small birds with,
+      and, assuming an attitude of great dignity, gracefully extended his right
+      hand to Sir Kenneth, in an attitude as if he expected he would salute it.
+      But such a result not following, he demanded, in a sharp and angry tone of
+      voice, "Soldier, wherefore renderest thou not to Nectabanus the homage due
+      to his dignity? Or is it possible that thou canst have forgotten him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Great Nectabanus," answered the knight, willing to soothe the creature's
+      humour, "that were difficult for any one who has ever looked upon thee.
+      Pardon me, however, that, being a soldier upon my post, with my lance in
+      my hand, I may not give to one of thy puissance the advantage of coming
+      within my guard, or of mastering my weapon. Suffice it that I reverence
+      thy dignity, and submit myself to thee as humbly as a man-at-arms in my
+      place may."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It shall suffice," said Nectabanus, "so that you presently attend me to
+      the presence of those who have sent me hither to summon you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Great sir," replied the knight, "neither in this can I gratify thee, for
+      my orders are to abide by this banner till daybreak&mdash;so I pray you to
+      hold me excused in that matter also."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he resumed his walk upon the platform; but the dwarf did not
+      suffer him so easily to escape from his importunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look you," he said, placing himself before Sir Kenneth, so as to
+      interrupt his way, "either obey me, Sir Knight, as in duty bound, or I
+      will lay the command upon thee, in the name of one whose beauty could call
+      down the genii from their sphere, and whose grandeur could command the
+      immortal race when they had descended."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wild and improbable conjecture arose in the knight's mind, but he
+      repelled it. It was impossible, he thought, that the lady of his love
+      should have sent him such a message by such a messenger; yet his voice
+      trembled as he said, "Go to, Nectabanus. Tell me at once, and as a true
+      man, whether this sublime lady of whom thou speakest be other than the
+      houri with whose assistance I beheld thee sweeping the chapel at Engaddi?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! presumptuous Knight," replied the dwarf, "think'st thou the mistress
+      of our own royal affections, the sharer of our greatness, and the partner
+      of our comeliness, would demean herself by laying charge on such a vassal
+      as thou? No; highly as thou art honoured, thou hast not yet deserved the
+      notice of Queen Guenevra, the lovely bride of Arthur, from whose high seat
+      even princes seem but pigmies. But look thou here, and as thou knowest or
+      disownest this token, so obey or refuse her commands who hath deigned to
+      impose them on thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he placed in the knight's hand a ruby ring, which, even in the
+      moonlight, he had no difficulty to recognize as that which usually graced
+      the finger of the high-born lady to whose service he had devoted himself.
+      Could he have doubted the truth of the token, he would have been convinced
+      by the small knot of carnation-coloured ribbon which was fastened to the
+      ring. This was his lady's favourite colour, and more than once had he
+      himself, assuming it for that of his own liveries, caused the carnation to
+      triumph over all other hues in the lists and in the battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth was struck nearly mute by seeing such a token in such hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the name of all that is sacred, from whom didst thou receive this
+      witness?" said the knight. "Bring, if thou canst, thy wavering
+      understanding to a right settlement for a minute or two, and tell me the
+      person by whom thou art sent, and the real purpose of thy message, and
+      take heed what thou sayest, for this is no subject for buffoonery."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fond and foolish Knight," said the dwarf, "wouldst thou know more of this
+      matter than that thou art honoured with commands from a princess,
+      delivered to thee by a king? We list not to parley with thee further than
+      to command thee, in the name and by the power of that ring, to follow us
+      to her who is the owner of the ring. Every minute that thou tarriest is a
+      crime against thy allegiance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good Nectabanus, bethink thyself," said the knight. "Can my lady know
+      where and upon what duty I am this night engaged? Is she aware that my
+      life&mdash;pshaw, why should I speak of life&mdash;but that my honour
+      depends on my guarding this banner till daybreak; and can it be her wish
+      that I should leave it even to pay homage to her? It is impossible&mdash;the
+      princess is pleased to be merry with her servant in sending him such a
+      message; and I must think so the rather that she hath chosen such a
+      messenger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, keep your belief," said Nectabanus, turning round as if to leave the
+      platform; "it is little to me whether you be traitor or true man to this
+      royal lady&mdash;so fare thee well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stay, stay&mdash;I entreat you stay," said Sir Kenneth. "Answer me but
+      one question: is the lady who sent thee near to this place?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What signifies it?" said the dwarf. "Ought fidelity to reckon furlongs,
+      or miles, or leagues&mdash;like the poor courier, who is paid for his
+      labour by the distance which he traverses? Nevertheless, thou soul of
+      suspicion, I tell thee, the fair owner of the ring now sent to so unworthy
+      a vassal, in whom there is neither truth nor courage, is not more distant
+      from this place than this arblast can send a bolt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight gazed again on that ring, as if to ascertain that there was no
+      possible falsehood in the token. "Tell me," he said to the dwarf, "is my
+      presence required for any length of time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Time!" answered Nectabanus, in his flighty manner; "what call you time? I
+      see it not&mdash;I feel it not&mdash;it is but a shadowy name&mdash;a
+      succession of breathings measured forth by night by the clank of a bell,
+      by day by a shadow crossing along a dial-stone. Knowest thou not a true
+      knight's time should only be reckoned by the deeds that he performs in
+      behalf of God and his lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The words of truth, though in the mouth of folly," said the knight. "And
+      doth my lady really summon me to some deed of action, in her name and for
+      her sake?&mdash;and may it not be postponed for even the few hours till
+      daybreak?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She requires thy presence instantly," said the dwarf, "and without the
+      loss of so much time as would be told by ten grains of the sandglass.
+      Hearken, thou cold-blooded and suspicious knight, these are her very words&mdash;Tell
+      him that the hand which dropped roses can bestow laurels."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This allusion to their meeting in the chapel of Engaddi sent a thousand
+      recollections through Sir Kenneth's brain, and convinced him that the
+      message delivered by the dwarf was genuine. The rosebuds, withered as they
+      were, were still treasured under his cuirass, and nearest to his heart. He
+      paused, and could not resolve to forego an opportunity, the only one which
+      might ever offer, to gain grace in her eyes whom he had installed as
+      sovereign of his affections. The dwarf, in the meantime, augmented his
+      confusion by insisting either that he must return the ring or instantly
+      attend him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold, hold, yet a moment hold," said the knight, and proceeded to mutter
+      to himself, "Am I either the subject or slave of King Richard, more than
+      as a free knight sworn to the service of the Crusade? And whom have I come
+      hither to honour with lance and sword? Our holy cause and my transcendent
+      lady!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The ring! the ring!" exclaimed the dwarf impatiently; "false and slothful
+      knight, return the ring, which thou art unworthy to touch or to look
+      upon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A moment, a moment, good Nectabanus," said Sir Kenneth; "disturb not my
+      thoughts.&mdash;What if the Saracens were just now to attack our lines?
+      Should I stay here like a sworn vassal of England, watching that her
+      king's pride suffered no humiliation; or should I speed to the breach, and
+      fight for the Cross? To the breach, assuredly; and next to the cause of
+      God come the commands of my liege lady. And yet, Coeur de Lion's behest&mdash;my
+      own promise! Nectabanus, I conjure thee once more to say, are you to
+      conduct me far from hence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But to yonder pavilion; and, since you must needs know," replied
+      Nectabanus, "the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its
+      roof, and which is worth a king's ransom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can return in an instant," said the knight, shutting his eyes
+      desperately to all further consequences, "I can hear from thence the bay
+      of my dog if any one approaches the standard. I will throw myself at my
+      lady's feet, and pray her leave to return to conclude my watch.&mdash;Here,
+      Roswal" (calling his hound, and throwing down his mantle by the side of
+      the standard-spear), "watch thou here, and let no one approach."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The majestic dog looked in his master's face, as if to be sure that he
+      understood his charge, then sat down beside the mantle, with ears erect
+      and head raised, like a sentinel, understanding perfectly the purpose for
+      which he was stationed there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come now, good Nectabanus," said the knight, "let us hasten to obey the
+      commands thou hast brought."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Haste he that will," said the dwarf sullenly; "thou hast not been in
+      haste to obey my summons, nor can I walk fast enough to follow your long
+      strides&mdash;you do not walk like a man, but bound like an ostrich in the
+      desert."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were but two ways of conquering the obstinacy of Nectabanus, who, as
+      he spoke, diminished his walk into a snail's pace. For bribes Sir Kenneth
+      had no means&mdash;for soothing no time; so in his impatience he snatched
+      the dwarf up from the ground, and bearing him along, notwithstanding his
+      entreaties and his fear, reached nearly to the pavilion pointed out as
+      that of the Queen. In approaching it, however, the Scot observed there was
+      a small guard of soldiers sitting on the ground, who had been concealed
+      from him by the intervening tents. Wondering that the clash of his own
+      armour had not yet attracted their attention, and supposing that his
+      motions might, on the present occasion, require to be conducted with
+      secrecy, he placed the little panting guide upon the ground to recover his
+      breath, and point out what was next to be done. Nectabanus was both
+      frightened and angry; but he had felt himself as completely in the power
+      of the robust knight as an owl in the claws of an eagle, and therefore
+      cared not to provoke him to any further display of his strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made no complaints, therefore, of the usage he had received; but,
+      turning amongst the labyrinth of tents, he led the knight in silence to
+      the opposite side of the pavilion, which thus screened them from the
+      observation of the warders, who seemed either too negligent or too sleepy
+      to discharge their duty with much accuracy. Arrived there, the dwarf
+      raised the under part of the canvas from the ground, and made signs to Sir
+      Kenneth that he should introduce himself to the inside of the tent, by
+      creeping under it. The knight hesitated. There seemed an indecorum in thus
+      privately introducing himself into a pavilion pitched, doubtless, for the
+      accommodation of noble ladies; but he recalled to remembrance the assured
+      tokens which the dwarf had exhibited, and concluded that it was not for
+      him to dispute his lady's pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stooped accordingly, crept beneath the canvas enclosure of the tent,
+      and heard the dwarf whisper from without, "Remain here until I call thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     You talk of Gaiety and Innocence!
+     The moment when the fatal fruit was eaten,
+     They parted ne'er to meet again; and Malice
+     Has ever since been playmate to light Gaiety,
+     From the first moment when the smiling infant
+     Destroys the flower or butterfly he toys with,
+     To the last chuckle of the dying miser,
+     Who on his deathbed laughs his last to hear
+     His wealthy neighbour has become a bankrupt.
+         OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth was left for some minutes alone and in darkness. Here was
+      another interruption which must prolong his absence from his post, and he
+      began almost to repent the facility with which he had been induced to quit
+      it. But to return without seeing the Lady Edith was now not to be thought
+      of. He had committed a breach of military discipline, and was determined
+      at least to prove the reality of the seductive expectations which had
+      tempted him to do so. Meanwhile his situation was unpleasant. There was no
+      light to show him into what sort of apartment he had been led&mdash;the
+      Lady Edith was in immediate attendance on the Queen of England&mdash;and
+      the discovery of his having introduced himself thus furtively into the
+      royal pavilion might, were it discovered; lead to much and dangerous
+      suspicion. While he gave way to these unpleasant reflections, and began
+      almost to wish that he could achieve his retreat unobserved, he heard a
+      noise of female voices, laughing, whispering, and speaking, in an
+      adjoining apartment, from which, as the sounds gave him reason to judge,
+      he could only be separated by a canvas partition. Lamps were burning, as
+      he might perceive by the shadowy light which extended itself even to his
+      side of the veil which divided the tent, and he could see shades of
+      several figures sitting and moving in the adjoining apartment. It cannot
+      be termed discourtesy in Sir Kenneth that, situated as he was, he
+      overheard a conversation in which he found himself deeply interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Call her&mdash;call her, for Our Lady's sake," said the voice of one of
+      these laughing invisibles. "Nectabanus, thou shalt be made ambassador to
+      Prester John's court, to show them how wisely thou canst discharge thee of
+      a mission."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrill tone of the dwarf was heard, yet so much subdued that Sir
+      Kenneth could not understand what he said, except that he spoke something
+      of the means of merriment given to the guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But how shall we rid us of the spirit which Nectabanus hath raised, my
+      maidens?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hear me, royal madam," said another voice. "If the sage and princely
+      Nectabanus be not over-jealous of his most transcendent bride and empress,
+      let us send her to get us rid of this insolent knight-errant, who can be
+      so easily persuaded that high-born dames may need the use of his insolent
+      and overweening valour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It were but justice, methinks," replied another, "that the Princess
+      Guenever should dismiss, by her courtesy, him whom her husband's wisdom
+      has been able to entice hither."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Struck to the heart with shame and resentment at what he had heard, Sir
+      Kenneth was about to attempt his escape from the tent at all hazards, when
+      what followed arrested his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, truly," said the first speaker, "our cousin Edith must first learn
+      how this vaunted wight hath conducted himself, and we must reserve the
+      power of giving her ocular proof that he hath failed in his duty. It may
+      be a lesson will do good upon her; for, credit me, Calista, I have
+      sometimes thought she has let this Northern adventurer sit nearer her
+      heart than prudence would sanction."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the other voices was then heard to mutter something of the Lady
+      Edith's prudence and wisdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Prudence, wench!" was the reply. "It is mere pride, and the desire to be
+      thought more rigid than any of us. Nay, I will not quit my advantage. You
+      know well that when she has us at fault no one can, in a civil way, lay
+      your error before you more precisely than can my Lady Edith. But here she
+      comes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A figure, as if entering the apartment, cast upon the partition a shade,
+      which glided along slowly until it mixed with those which already clouded
+      it. Despite of the bitter disappointment which he had experienced&mdash;despite
+      the insult and injury with which it seemed he had been visited by the
+      malice, or, at best, by the idle humour of Queen Berengaria (for he
+      already concluded that she who spoke loudest, and in a commanding tone,
+      was the wife of Richard), the knight felt something so soothing to his
+      feelings in learning that Edith had been no partner to the fraud practised
+      on him, and so interesting to his curiosity in the scene which was about
+      to take place, that, instead of prosecuting his more prudent purpose of an
+      instant retreat, he looked anxiously, on the contrary, for some rent or
+      crevice by means of which he might be made eye as well as ear witness to
+      what was to go forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely," said he to himself, "the Queen, who hath been pleased for an
+      idle frolic to endanger my reputation, and perhaps my life, cannot
+      complain if I avail myself of the chance which fortune seems willing to
+      afford me to obtain knowledge of her further intentions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed, in the meanwhile, as if Edith were waiting for the commands of
+      the Queen, and as if the other were reluctant to speak for fear of being
+      unable to command her laughter and that of her companions; for Sir Kenneth
+      could only distinguish a sound as of suppressed tittering and merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Majesty," said Edith at last, "seems in a merry mood, though,
+      methinks, the hour of night prompts a sleepy one. I was well disposed
+      bedward when I had your Majesty's commands to attend you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will not long delay you, cousin, from your repose," said the Queen,
+      "though I fear you will sleep less soundly when I tell you your wager is
+      lost."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, royal madam," said Edith, "this, surely, is dwelling on a jest which
+      has rather been worn out, I laid no wager, however it was your Majesty's
+      pleasure to suppose, or to insist, that I did so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, now, despite our pilgrimage, Satan is strong with you, my gentle
+      cousin, and prompts thee to leasing. Can you deny that you gaged your ruby
+      ring against my golden bracelet that yonder Knight of the Libbard, or how
+      call you him, could not be seduced from his post?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Majesty is too great for me to gainsay you," replied Edith, "but
+      these ladies can, if they will, bear me witness that it was your Highness
+      who proposed such a wager, and took the ring from my finger, even while I
+      was declaring that I did not think it maidenly to gage anything on such a
+      subject."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but, my Lady Edith," said another voice, "you must needs grant,
+      under your favour, that you expressed yourself very confident of the
+      valour of that same Knight of the Leopard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And if I did, minion," said Edith angrily, "is that a good reason why
+      thou shouldst put in thy word to flatter her Majesty's humour? I spoke of
+      that knight but as all men speak who have seen him in the field, and had
+      no more interest in defending than thou in detracting from him. In a camp,
+      what can women speak of save soldiers and deeds of arms?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The noble Lady Edith," said a third voice, "hath never forgiven Calista
+      and me, since we told your Majesty that she dropped two rosebuds in the
+      chapel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If your Majesty," said Edith, in a tone which Sir Kenneth could judge to
+      be that of respectful remonstrance, "have no other commands for me than to
+      hear the gibes of your waiting-women, I must crave your permission to
+      withdraw."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Silence, Florise," said the Queen, "and let not our indulgence lead you
+      to forget the difference betwixt yourself and the kinswoman of England.&mdash;But
+      you, my dear cousin," she continued, resuming her tone of raillery, "how
+      can you, who are so good-natured, begrudge us poor wretches a few minutes'
+      laughing, when we have had so many days devoted to weeping and gnashing of
+      teeth?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Great be your mirth, royal lady," said Edith; "yet would I be content not
+      to smile for the rest of my life, rather than&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped, apparently out of respect; but Sir Kenneth could hear that
+      she was in much agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Forgive me," said Berengaria, a thoughtless but good-humoured princess of
+      the House of Navarre; "but what is the great offence, after all? A young
+      knight has been wiled hither&mdash;has stolen, or has been stolen, from
+      his post, which no one will disturb in his absence&mdash;for the sake of a
+      fair lady; for, to do your champion justice, sweet one, the wisdom of
+      Nectabanus could conjure him hither in no name but yours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gracious Heaven! your Majesty does not say so?" said Edith, in a voice of
+      alarm quite different from the agitation she had previously evinced,&mdash;"you
+      cannot say so consistently with respect for your own honour and for mine,
+      your husband's kinswoman! Say you were jesting with me, my royal mistress,
+      and forgive me that I could, even for a moment, think it possible you
+      could be in earnest!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Lady Edith," said the Queen, in a displeased tone of voice, "regrets
+      the ring we have won of her. We will restore the pledge to you, gentle
+      cousin; only you must not grudge us in turn a little triumph over the
+      wisdom which has been so often spread over us, as a banner over a host."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A triumph!" exclaimed Edith indignantly&mdash;"a triumph! The triumph
+      will be with the infidel, when he hears that the Queen of England can make
+      the reputation of her husband's kinswoman the subject of a light frolic."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are angry, fair cousin, at losing your favourite ring," said the
+      Queen. "Come, since you grudge to pay your wager, we will renounce our
+      right; it was your name and that pledge brought him hither, and we care
+      not for the bait after the fish is caught."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," replied Edith impatiently, "you know well that your Grace could
+      not wish for anything of mine but it becomes instantly yours. But I would
+      give a bushel of rubies ere ring or name of mine had been used to bring a
+      brave man into a fault, and perhaps to disgrace and punishment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, it is for the safety of our true knight that we fear!" said the
+      Queen. "You rate our power too low, fair cousin, when you speak of a life
+      being lost for a frolic of ours. O Lady Edith, others have influence on
+      the iron breasts of warriors as well as you&mdash;the heart even of a lion
+      is made of flesh, not of stone; and, believe me, I have interest enough
+      with Richard to save this knight, in whose fate Lady Edith is so deeply
+      concerned, from the penalty of disobeying his royal commands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For the love of the blessed Cross, most royal lady," said Edith&mdash;and
+      Sir Kenneth, with feelings which it were hard to unravel, heard her
+      prostrate herself at the Queen's feet&mdash;"for the love of our blessed
+      Lady, and of every holy saint in the calendar, beware what you do! You
+      know not King Richard&mdash;you have been but shortly wedded to him. Your
+      breath might as well combat the west wind when it is wildest, as your
+      words persuade my royal kinsman to pardon a military offence. Oh, for
+      God's sake, dismiss this gentleman, if indeed you have lured him hither! I
+      could almost be content to rest with the shame of having invited him, did
+      I know that he was returned again where his duty calls him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Arise, cousin, arise," said Queen Berengaria, "and be assured all will be
+      better than you think. Rise, dear Edith. I am sorry I have played my
+      foolery with a knight in whom you take such deep interest. Nay, wring not
+      thy hands; I will believe thou carest not for him&mdash;believe anything
+      rather than see thee look so wretchedly miserable. I tell thee I will take
+      the blame on myself with King Richard in behalf of thy fair Northern
+      friend&mdash;thine acquaintance, I would say, since thou own'st him not as
+      a friend. Nay, look not so reproachfully. We will send Nectabanus to
+      dismiss this Knight of the Standard to his post; and we ourselves will
+      grace him on some future day, to make amends for his wild-goose chase. He
+      is, I warrant, but lying perdu in some neighbouring tent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my crown of lilies, and my sceptre of a specially good water-reed,"
+      said Nectabanus, "your Majesty is mistaken, He is nearer at hand than you
+      wot&mdash;he lieth ensconced there behind that canvas partition."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And within hearing of each word we have said!" exclaimed the Queen, in
+      her turn violently surprised and agitated. "Out, monster of folly and
+      malignity!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she uttered these words, Nectabanus fled from the pavilion with a yell
+      of such a nature as leaves it still doubtful whether Berengaria had
+      confined her rebuke to words, or added some more emphatic expression of
+      her displeasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What can now be done?" said the Queen to Edith, in a whisper of
+      undisguised uneasiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That which must," said Edith firmly. "We must see this gentleman and
+      place ourselves in his mercy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she began hastily to undo a curtain, which at one place covered
+      an entrance or communication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For Heaven's sake, forbear&mdash;consider," said the Queen&mdash;"my
+      apartment&mdash;our dress&mdash;the hour&mdash;my honour!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But ere she could detail her remonstrances, the curtain fell, and there
+      was no division any longer betwixt the armed knight and the party of
+      ladies. The warmth of an Eastern night occasioned the undress of Queen
+      Berengaria and her household to be rather more simple and unstudied than
+      their station, and the presence of a male spectator of rank, required.
+      This the Queen remembered, and with a loud shriek fled from the apartment
+      where Sir Kenneth was disclosed to view in a compartment of the ample
+      pavilion, now no longer separated from that in which they stood. The grief
+      and agitation of the Lady Edith, as well as the deep interest she felt in
+      a hasty explanation with the Scottish knight, perhaps occasioned her
+      forgetting that her locks were more dishevelled and her person less
+      heedfully covered than was the wont of high-born damsels, in an age which
+      was not, after all, the most prudish or scrupulous period of the ancient
+      time. A thin, loose garment of pink-coloured silk made the principal part
+      of her vestments, with Oriental slippers, into which she had hastily
+      thrust her bare feet, and a scarf hurriedly and loosely thrown about her
+      shoulders. Her head had no other covering than the veil of rich and
+      dishevelled locks falling round it on every side, that half hid a
+      countenance which a mingled sense of modesty and of resentment, and other
+      deep and agitated feelings, had covered with crimson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But although Edith felt her situation with all that delicacy which is her
+      sex's greatest charm, it did not seem that for a moment she placed her own
+      bashfulness in comparison with the duty which, as she thought, she owed to
+      him who had been led into error and danger on her account. She drew,
+      indeed, her scarf more closely over her neck and bosom, and she hastily
+      laid from her hand a lamp which shed too much lustre over her figure; but,
+      while Sir Kenneth stood motionless on the same spot in which he was first
+      discovered, she rather stepped towards than retired from him, as she
+      exclaimed, "Hasten to your post, valiant knight!&mdash;you are deceived in
+      being trained hither&mdash;ask no questions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I need ask none," said the knight, sinking upon one knee, with the
+      reverential devotion of a saint at the altar, and bending his eyes on the
+      ground, lest his looks should increase the lady's embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you heard all?" said Edith impatiently. "Gracious saints! then
+      wherefore wait you here, when each minute that passes is loaded with
+      dishonour!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard that I am dishonoured, lady, and I have heard it from you,"
+      answered Kenneth. "What reck I how soon punishment follows? I have but one
+      petition to you; and then I seek, among the sabres of the infidels,
+      whether dishonour may not be washed out with blood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not so, neither," said the lady. "Be wise&mdash;dally not here; all
+      may yet be well, if you will but use dispatch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wait but for your forgiveness," said the knight, still kneeling, "for
+      my presumption in believing that my poor services could have been required
+      or valued by you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do forgive you&mdash;oh, I have nothing to forgive! have been the means
+      of injuring you. But oh, begone! I will forgive&mdash;I will value you&mdash;that
+      is, as I value every brave Crusader&mdash;if you will but begone!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Receive, first, this precious yet fatal pledge," said the knight,
+      tendering the ring to Edith, who now showed gestures of impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, no, no " she said, declining to receive it. "Keep it&mdash;keep it as
+      a mark of my regard&mdash;my regret, I would say. Oh, begone, if not for
+      your own sake, for mine!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost recompensed for the loss even of honour, which her voice had
+      denounced to him, by the interest which she seemed to testify in his
+      safety, Sir Kenneth rose from his knee, and, casting a momentary glance on
+      Edith, bowed low, and seemed about to withdraw. At the same instant, that
+      maidenly bashfulness, which the energy of Edith's feelings had till then
+      triumphed over, became conqueror in its turn, and she hastened from the
+      apartment, extinguishing her lamp as she went, and leaving, in Sir
+      Kenneth's thoughts, both mental and natural gloom behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She must be obeyed, was the first distinct idea which waked him from his
+      reverie, and he hastened to the place by which he had entered the
+      pavilion. To pass under the canvas in the manner he had entered required
+      time and attention, and he made a readier aperture by slitting the canvas
+      wall with his poniard. When in the free air, he felt rather stupefied and
+      overpowered by a conflict of sensations, than able to ascertain what was
+      the real import of the whole. He was obliged to spur himself to action by
+      recollecting that the commands of the Lady Edith had required haste. Even
+      then, engaged as he was amongst tent-ropes and tents, he was compelled to
+      move with caution until he should regain the path or avenue, aside from
+      which the dwarf had led him, in order to escape the observation of the
+      guards before the Queen's pavilion; and he was obliged also to move
+      slowly, and with precaution, to avoid giving an alarm, either by falling
+      or by the clashing of his armour. A thin cloud had obscured the moon, too,
+      at the very instant of his leaving the tent, and Sir Kenneth had to
+      struggle with this inconvenience at a moment when the dizziness of his
+      head and the fullness of his heart scarce left him powers of intelligence
+      sufficient to direct his motions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at once sounds came upon his ear which instantly recalled him to the
+      full energy of his faculties. These proceeded from the Mount of Saint
+      George. He heard first a single, fierce, angry, and savage bark, which was
+      immediately followed by a yell of agony. No deer ever bounded with a
+      wilder start at the voice of Roswal than did Sir Kenneth at what he feared
+      was the death-cry of that noble hound, from whom no ordinary injury could
+      have extracted even the slightest acknowledgment of pain. He surmounted
+      the space which divided him from the avenue, and, having attained it,
+      began to run towards the mount, although loaded with his mail, faster than
+      most men could have accompanied him even if unarmed, relaxed not his pace
+      for the steep sides of the artificial mound, and in a few minutes stood on
+      the platform upon its summit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon broke forth at this moment, and showed him that the Standard of
+      England was vanished, that the spear on which it had floated lay broken on
+      the ground, and beside it was his faithful hound, apparently in the
+      agonies of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     All my long arrear of honour lost,
+     Heap'd up in youth, and hoarded up for age.
+     Hath Honour's fountain then suck'd up the stream?
+     He hath&mdash;and hooting boys may barefoot pass,
+     And gather pebbles from the naked ford!
+          DON SEBASTIAN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      After a torrent of afflicting sensations, by which he was at first almost
+      stunned and confounded, Sir Kenneth's first thought was to look for the
+      authors of this violation of the English banner; but in no direction could
+      he see traces of them. His next, which to some persons, but scarce to any
+      who have made intimate acquaintances among the canine race, may appear
+      strange, was to examine the condition of his faithful Roswal, mortally
+      wounded, as it seemed, in discharging the duty which his master had been
+      seduced to abandon. He caressed the dying animal, who, faithful to the
+      last, seemed to forget his own pain in the satisfaction he received from
+      his master's presence, and continued wagging his tail and licking his
+      hand, even while by low moanings he expressed that his agony was increased
+      by the attempts which Sir Kenneth made to withdraw from the wound the
+      fragment of the lance or javelin with which it had been inflicted; then
+      redoubled his feeble endearments, as if fearing he had offended his master
+      by showing a sense of the pain to which his interference had subjected
+      him. There was something in the display of the dying creature's attachment
+      which mixed as a bitter ingredient with the sense of disgrace and
+      desolation by which Sir Kenneth was oppressed. His only friend seemed
+      removed from him, just when he had incurred the contempt and hatred of all
+      besides. The knight's strength of mind gave way to a burst of agonized
+      distress, and he groaned and wept aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he thus indulged his grief, a clear and solemn voice, close beside
+      him, pronounced these words in the sonorous tone of the readers of the
+      mosque, and in the lingua franca mutually understood by Christians and
+      Saracens:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Adversity is like the period of the former and of the latter rain&mdash;cold,
+      comfortless, unfriendly to man and to animal; yet from that season have
+      their birth the flower and the fruit, the date, the rose, and the
+      pomegranate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth of the Leopard turned towards the speaker, and beheld the
+      Arabian physician, who, approaching unheard, had seated himself a little
+      behind him cross-legged, and uttered with gravity, yet not without a tone
+      of sympathy, the moral sentences of consolation with which the Koran and
+      its commentators supplied him; for, in the East, wisdom is held to consist
+      less in a display of the sage's own inventive talents, than in his ready
+      memory and happy application of and reference to "that which is written."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ashamed at being surprised in a womanlike expression of sorrow, Sir
+      Kenneth dashed his tears indignantly aside, and again busied himself with
+      his dying favourite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The poet hath said," continued the Arab, without noticing the knight's
+      averted looks and sullen deportment, "the ox for the field, and the camel
+      for the desert. Were not the hand of the leech fitter than that of the
+      soldier to cure wounds, though less able to inflict them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This patient, Hakim, is beyond thy help," said Sir Kenneth; "and,
+      besides, he is, by thy law, an unclean animal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where Allah hath deigned to bestow life, and a sense of pain and
+      pleasure," said the physician, "it were sinful pride should the sage, whom
+      He has enlightened, refuse to prolong existence or assuage agony. To the
+      sage, the cure of a miserable groom, of a poor dog and of a conquering
+      monarch, are events of little distinction. Let me examine this wounded
+      animal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth acceded in silence, and the physician inspected and handled
+      Roswal's wound with as much care and attention as if he had been a human
+      being. He then took forth a case of instruments, and, by the judicious and
+      skilful application of pincers, withdrew from the wounded shoulder the
+      fragment of the weapon, and stopped with styptics and bandages the
+      effusion of blood which followed; the creature all the while suffering him
+      patiently to perform these kind offices, as if he had been aware of his
+      kind intentions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The animal may be cured," said El Hakim, addressing himself to Sir
+      Kenneth, "if you will permit me to carry him to my tent, and treat him
+      with the care which the nobleness of his nature deserves. For know, that
+      thy servant Adonbec is no less skilful in the race and pedigree and
+      distinctions of good dogs and of noble steeds than in the diseases which
+      afflict the human race."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take him with you," said the knight. "I bestow him on you freely, if he
+      recovers. I owe thee a reward for attendance on my squire, and have
+      nothing else to pay it with. For myself, I will never again wind bugle or
+      halloo to hound!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arabian made no reply, but gave a signal with a clapping of his hands,
+      which was instantly answered by the appearance of two black slaves. He
+      gave them his orders in Arabic, received the answer that "to hear was to
+      obey," when, taking the animal in their arms, they removed him, without
+      much resistance on his part; for though his eyes turned to his master, he
+      was too weak to struggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fare thee well, Roswal, then," said Sir Kenneth&mdash;"fare thee well, my
+      last and only friend&mdash;thou art too noble a possession to be retained
+      by one such as I must in future call myself!&mdash;I would," he said, as
+      the slaves retired, "that, dying as he is, I could exchange conditions
+      with that noble animal!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is written," answered the Arabian, although the exclamation had not
+      been addressed to him, "that all creatures are fashioned for the service
+      of man; and the master of the earth speaketh folly when he would exchange,
+      in his impatience, his hopes here and to come for the servile condition of
+      an inferior being."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A dog who dies in discharging his duty," said the knight sternly, "is
+      better than a man who survives the desertion of it. Leave me, Hakim; thou
+      hast, on this side of miracle, the most wonderful science which man ever
+      possessed, but the wounds of the spirit are beyond thy power."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not if the patient will explain his calamity, and be guided by the
+      physician," said Adonbec el Hakim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Know, then," said Sir Kenneth, "since thou art so importunate, that last
+      night the Banner of England was displayed from this mound&mdash;I was its
+      appointed guardian&mdash;morning is now breaking&mdash;there lies the
+      broken banner-spear, the standard itself is lost, and here sit I a living
+      man!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!" said El Hakim, examining him; "thy armour is whole&mdash;there is
+      no blood on thy weapons, and report speaks thee one unlikely to return
+      thus from fight. Thou hast been trained from thy post&mdash;ay, trained by
+      the rosy cheek and black eye of one of those houris, to whom you Nazarenes
+      vow rather such service as is due to Allah, than such love as may lawfully
+      be rendered to forms of clay like our own. It has been thus assuredly; for
+      so hath man ever fallen, even since the days of Sultan Adam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And if it were so, physician," said Sir Kenneth sullenly, "what remedy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Knowledge is the parent of power," said El Hakim, "as valour supplies
+      strength. Listen to me. Man is not as a tree, bound to one spot of earth;
+      nor is he framed to cling to one bare rock, like the scarce animated
+      shell-fish. Thine own Christian writings command thee, when persecuted in
+      one city, to flee to another; and we Moslem also know that Mohammed, the
+      Prophet of Allah, driven forth from the holy city of Mecca, found his
+      refuge and his helpmates at Medina."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what does this concern me?" said the Scot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Much," answered the physician. "Even the sage flies the tempest which he
+      cannot control. Use thy speed, therefore, and fly from the vengeance of
+      Richard to the shadow of Saladin's victorious banner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I might indeed hide my dishonour," said Sir Kenneth ironically, "in a
+      camp of infidel heathens, where the very phrase is unknown. But had I not
+      better partake more fully in their reproach? Does not thy advice stretch
+      so far as to recommend me to take the turban? Methinks I want but apostasy
+      to consummate my infamy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Blaspheme not, Nazarene," said the physician sternly. "Saladin makes no
+      converts to the law of the Prophet, save those on whom its precepts shall
+      work conviction. Open thine eyes to the light, and the great Soldan, whose
+      liberality is as boundless as his power, may bestow on thee a kingdom;
+      remain blinded if thou will, and, being one whose second life is doomed to
+      misery, Saladin will yet, for this span of present time, make thee rich
+      and happy. But fear not that thy brows shall be bound with the turban,
+      save at thine own free choice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My choice were rather," said the knight, "that my writhen features should
+      blacken, as they are like to do, in this evening's setting sun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet thou art not wise, Nazarene," said El Hakim, "to reject this fair
+      offer; for I have power with Saladin, and can raise thee high in his
+      grace. Look you, my son&mdash;this Crusade, as you call your wild
+      enterprise, is like a large dromond [The largest sort of vessels then
+      known were termed dromond's, or dromedaries.] parting asunder in the
+      waves. Thou thyself hast borne terms of truce from the kings and princes,
+      whose force is here assembled, to the mighty Soldan, and knewest not,
+      perchance, the full tenor of thine own errand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I knew not, and I care not," said the knight impatiently. "What avails it
+      to me that I have been of late the envoy of princes, when, ere night, I
+      shall be a gibbeted and dishonoured corpse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, I speak that it may not be so with thee," said the physician.
+      "Saladin is courted on all sides. The combined princes of this league
+      formed against him have made such proposals of composition and peace, as,
+      in other circumstances, it might have become his honour to have granted to
+      them. Others have made private offers, on their own separate account, to
+      disjoin their forces from the camp of the Kings of Frangistan, and even to
+      lend their arms to the defence of the standard of the Prophet. But Saladin
+      will not be served by such treacherous and interested defection. The king
+      of kings will treat only with the Lion King. Saladin will hold treaty with
+      none but the Melech Ric, and with him he will treat like a prince, or
+      fight like a champion. To Richard he will yield such conditions of his
+      free liberality as the swords of all Europe could never compel from him by
+      force or terror. He will permit a free pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and all
+      the places where the Nazarenes list to worship; nay, he will so far share
+      even his empire with his brother Richard, that he will allow Christian
+      garrisons in the six strongest cities of Palestine, and one in Jerusalem
+      itself, and suffer them to be under the immediate command of the officers
+      of Richard, who, he consents, shall bear the name of King Guardian of
+      Jerusalem. Yet further, strange and incredible as you may think it, know,
+      Sir Knight&mdash;for to your honour I can commit even that almost
+      incredible secret&mdash;know that Saladin will put a sacred seal on this
+      happy union betwixt the bravest and noblest of Frangistan and Asia, by
+      raising to the rank of his royal spouse a Christian damsel, allied in
+      blood to King Richard, and known by the name of the Lady Edith of
+      Plantagenet." [This may appear so extraordinary and improbable a
+      proposition that it is necessary to say such a one was actually made. The
+      historians, however, substitute the widowed Queen of Naples, sister of
+      Richard, for the bride, and Saladin's brother for the bridegroom. They
+      appear to have been ignorant of the existence of Edith of Plantagenet.&mdash;See
+      MILL'S History of the Crusades, vol. ii., p. 61.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!&mdash;sayest thou?" exclaimed Sir Kenneth, who, listening with
+      indifference and apathy to the preceding part of El Hakim's speech, was
+      touched by this last communication, as the thrill of a nerve, unexpectedly
+      jarred, will awaken the sensation of agony, even in the torpor of palsy.
+      Then, moderating his tone, by dint of much effort he restrained his
+      indignation, and, veiling it under the appearance of contemptuous doubt,
+      he prosecuted the conversation, in order to get as much knowledge as
+      possible of the plot, as he deemed it, against the honour and happiness of
+      her whom he loved not the less that his passion had ruined, apparently,
+      his fortunes, at once, and his honour.&mdash;"And what Christian," he
+      said, With tolerable calmness, "would sanction a union so unnatural as
+      that of a Christian maiden with an unbelieving Saracen?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art but an ignorant, bigoted Nazarene," said the Hakim. "Seest thou
+      not how the Mohammedan princes daily intermarry with the noble Nazarene
+      maidens in Spain, without scandal either to Moor or Christian? And the
+      noble Soldan will, in his full confidence in the blood of Richard, permit
+      the English maid the freedom which your Frankish manners have assigned to
+      women. He will allow her the free exercise of her religion, seeing that,
+      in very truth, it signifies but little to which faith females are
+      addicted; and he will assign her such place and rank over all the women of
+      his zenana, that she shall be in every respect his sole and absolute
+      queen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" said Sir Kenneth, "darest thou think, Moslem, that Richard would
+      give his kinswoman&mdash;a high-born and virtuous princess&mdash;to be, at
+      best, the foremost concubine in the haram of a misbeliever? Know, Hakim,
+      the meanest free Christian noble would scorn, on his child's behalf, such
+      splendid ignominy."
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0236m.jpg" alt="0236m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0236.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Thou errest," said the Hakim. "Philip of France, and Henry of Champagne,
+      and others of Richard's principal allies, have heard the proposal without
+      starting, and have promised, as far as they may, to forward an alliance
+      that may end these wasteful wars; and the wise arch-priest of Tyre hath
+      undertaken to break the proposal to Richard, not doubting that he shall be
+      able to bring the plan to good issue. The Soldan's wisdom hath as yet kept
+      his proposition secret from others, such as he of Montserrat, and the
+      Master of the Templars, because he knows they seek to thrive by Richard's
+      death or disgrace, not by his life or honour. Up, therefore, Sir Knight,
+      and to horse. I will give thee a scroll which shall advance thee highly
+      with the Soldan; and deem not that you are leaving your country, or her
+      cause, or her religion, since the interest of the two monarchs will
+      speedily be the same. To Saladin thy counsel will be most acceptable,
+      since thou canst make him aware of much concerning the marriages of the
+      Christians, the treatment of their wives, and other points of their laws
+      and usages, which, in the course of such treaty, it much concerns him that
+      he should know. The right hand of the Soldan grasps the treasures of the
+      East, and it is the fountain or generosity. Or, if thou desirest it,
+      Saladin, when allied with England, can have but little difficulty to
+      obtain from Richard, not only thy pardon and restoration to favour, but an
+      honourable command in the troops which may be left of the King of
+      England's host, to maintain their joint government in Palestine. Up, then,
+      and mount&mdash;there lies a plain path before thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hakim," said the Scottish knight, "thou art a man of peace; also thou
+      hast saved the life of Richard of England&mdash;and, moreover, of my own
+      poor esquire, Strauchan. I have, therefore, heard to an end a matter
+      which, being propounded by another Moslem than thyself, I would have cut
+      short with a blow of my dagger! Hakim, in return for thy kindness, I
+      advise thee to see that the Saracen who shall propose to Richard a union
+      betwixt the blood of Plantagenet and that of his accursed race do put on a
+      helmet which is capable to endure such a blow of a battle-axe as that
+      which struck down the gate of Acre. Certes, he will be otherwise placed
+      beyond the reach even of thy skill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art, then, wilfully determined not to fly to the Saracen host?" said
+      the physician. "Yet, remember, thou stayest to certain destruction; and
+      the writings of thy law, as well as ours, prohibit man from breaking into
+      the tabernacle of his own life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God forbid!" replied the Scot, crossing himself; "but we are also
+      forbidden to avoid the punishment which our crimes have deserved. And
+      since so poor are thy thoughts of fidelity, Hakim, it grudges me that I
+      have bestowed my good hound on thee, for, should he live, he will have a
+      master ignorant of his value."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A gift that is begrudged is already recalled," said El Hakim; "only we
+      physicians are sworn not to send away a patient uncured. If the dog
+      recover, he is once more yours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go to, Hakim," answered Sir Kenneth; "men speak not of hawk and hound
+      when there is but an hour of day-breaking betwixt them and death. Leave me
+      to recollect my sins, and reconcile myself to Heaven."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I leave thee in thine obstinacy," said the physician; "the mist hides the
+      precipice from those who are doomed to fall over it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He withdrew slowly, turning from time to time his head, as if to observe
+      whether the devoted knight might not recall him either by word or signal.
+      At last his turbaned figure was lost among the labyrinth of tents which
+      lay extended beneath, whitening in the pale light of the dawning, before
+      which the moonbeam had now faded away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But although the physician Adonbec's words had not made that impression
+      upon Kenneth which the sage desired, they had inspired the Scot with a
+      motive for desiring life, which, dishonoured as he conceived himself to
+      be, he was before willing to part from as from a sullied vestment no
+      longer becoming his wear. Much that had passed betwixt himself and the
+      hermit, besides what he had observed between the anchorite and Sheerkohf
+      (or Ilderim), he now recalled to recollection, and tended to confirm what
+      the Hakim had told him of the secret article of the treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The reverend impostor!" he exclaimed to himself; "the hoary hypocrite! He
+      spoke of the unbelieving husband converted by the believing wife; and what
+      do I know but that the traitor exhibited to the Saracen, accursed of God,
+      the beauties of Edith Plantagenet, that the hound might judge if the
+      princely Christian lady were fit to be admitted into the haram of a
+      misbeliever? If I had yonder infidel Ilderim, or whatsoever he is called,
+      again in the gripe with which I once held him fast as ever hound held
+      hare, never again should HE at least come on errand disgraceful to the
+      honour of Christian king or noble and virtuous maiden. But I&mdash;my
+      hours are fast dwindling into minutes&mdash;yet, while I have life and
+      breath, something must be done, and speedily."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused for a few minutes, threw from him his helmet, then strode down
+      the hill, and took the road to King Richard's pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The feather'd songster, chanticleer,
+     Had wound his bugle-horn,
+     And told the early villager
+     The coming of the morn.
+     King Edward saw the ruddy streaks
+     Of light eclipse the grey,
+     And heard the raven's croaking throat
+     Proclaim the fated day.
+     "Thou'rt right," he said, "for, by the God
+     That sits enthron'd on high,
+     Charles Baldwin, and his fellows twain,
+     This day shall surely die."
+                   CHATTERTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the evening on which Sir Kenneth assumed his post, Richard, after the
+      stormy event which disturbed its tranquillity, had retired to rest in the
+      plenitude of confidence inspired by his unbounded courage and the
+      superiority which he had displayed in carrying the point he aimed at in
+      presence of the whole Christian host and its leaders, many of whom, he was
+      aware, regarded in their secret souls the disgrace of the Austrian Duke as
+      a triumph over themselves; so that his pride felt gratified, that in
+      prostrating one enemy he had mortified a hundred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another monarch would have doubled his guards on the evening after such a
+      scene, and kept at least a part of his troops under arms. But Coeur de
+      Lion dismissed, upon the occasion, even his ordinary watch, and assigned
+      to his soldiers a donative of wine to celebrate his recovery, and to drink
+      to the Banner of Saint George; and his quarter of the camp would have
+      assumed a character totally devoid of vigilance and military preparation,
+      but that Sir Thomas de Vaux, the Earl of Salisbury, and other nobles, took
+      precautions to preserve order and discipline among the revellers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician attended the King from his retiring to bed till midnight was
+      past, and twice administered medicine to him during that period, always
+      previously observing the quarter of heaven occupied by the full moon,
+      whose influences he declared to be most sovereign, or most baleful, to the
+      effect of his drugs. It was three hours after midnight ere El Hakim
+      withdrew from the royal tent, to one which had been pitched for himself
+      and his retinue. In his way thither he visited the tent of Sir Kenneth of
+      the Leopard, in order to see the condition of his first patient in the
+      Christian camp, old Strauchan, as the knight's esquire was named.
+      Inquiring there for Sir Kenneth himself, El Hakim learned on what duty he
+      was employed, and probably this information led him to Saint George's
+      Mount, where he found him whom he sought in the disastrous circumstances
+      alluded to in the last chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was about the hour of sunrise, when a slow, armed tread was heard
+      approaching the King's pavilion; and ere De Vaux, who slumbered beside his
+      master's bed as lightly as ever sleep sat upon the eyes of a watch-dog,
+      had time to do more than arise and say, "Who comes?" the Knight of the
+      Leopard entered the tent, with a deep and devoted gloom seated upon his
+      manly features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whence this bold intrusion, Sir Knight?" said De Vaux sternly, yet in a
+      tone which respected his master's slumbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold! De Vaux," said Richard, awaking on the instant; "Sir Kenneth cometh
+      like a good soldier to render an account of his guard. To such the
+      general's tent is ever accessible." Then rising from his slumbering
+      posture, and leaning on his elbow, he fixed his large bright eye upon the
+      warrior&mdash;"Speak, Sir Scot; thou comest to tell me of a vigilant,
+      safe, and honourable watch, dost thou not? The rustling of the folds of
+      the Banner of England were enough to guard it, even without the body of
+      such a knight as men hold thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As men will hold me no more," said Sir Kenneth. "My watch hath neither
+      been vigilant, safe, nor honourable. The Banner of England has been
+      carried off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou alive to tell it!" said Richard, in a tone of derisive
+      incredulity. "Away, it cannot be. There is not even a scratch on thy face.
+      Why dost thou stand thus mute? Speak the truth&mdash;it is ill jesting
+      with a king; yet I will forgive thee if thou hast lied."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Lied, Sir King!" returned the unfortunate knight, with fierce emphasis,
+      and one glance of fire from his eye, bright and transient as the flash
+      from the cold and stony flint. "But this also must be endured. I have
+      spoken the truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By God and by Saint George!" said the King, bursting into fury, which,
+      however, he instantly checked. "De Vaux, go view the spot. This fever has
+      disturbed his brain. This cannot be. The man's courage is proof. It CANNOT
+      be! Go speedily&mdash;or send, if thou wilt not go."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King was interrupted by Sir Henry Neville, who came, breathless, to
+      say that the banner was gone, and the knight who guarded it overpowered,
+      and most probably murdered, as there was a pool of blood where the
+      banner-spear lay shivered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But whom do I see here?" said Neville, his eyes suddenly resting upon Sir
+      Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A traitor," said the King, starting to his feet, and seizing the
+      curtal-axe, which was ever near his bed&mdash;"a traitor! whom thou shalt
+      see die a traitor's death." And he drew back the weapon as in act to
+      strike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colourless, but firm as a marble statue, the Scot stood before him, with
+      his bare head uncovered by any protection, his eyes cast down to the
+      earth, his lips scarcely moving, yet muttering probably in prayer.
+      Opposite to him, and within the due reach for a blow, stood King Richard,
+      his large person wrapt in the folds of his camiscia, or ample gown of
+      linen, except where the violence of his action had flung the covering from
+      his right arm, shoulder, and a part of his breast, leaving to view a
+      specimen of a frame which might have merited his Saxon predecessor's
+      epithet of Ironside. He stood for an instant, prompt to strike; then
+      sinking the head of the weapon towards the ground, he exclaimed, "But
+      there was blood, Neville&mdash;there was blood upon the place. Hark thee,
+      Sir Scot&mdash;brave thou wert once, for I have seen thee fight. Say thou
+      hast slain two of the thieves in defence of the Standard&mdash;say but one&mdash;say
+      thou hast struck but a good blow in our behalf, and get thee out of the
+      camp with thy life and thy infamy!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have called me liar, my Lord King," replied Kenneth firmly; "and
+      therein, at least, you have done me wrong. Know that there was no blood
+      shed in defence of the Standard save that of a poor hound, which, more
+      faithful than his master, defended the charge which he deserted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by Saint George!" said Richard, again heaving up his arm. But De
+      Vaux threw himself between the King and the object of his vengeance, and
+      spoke with the blunt truth of his character, "My liege, this must not be&mdash;here,
+      nor by your hand. It is enough of folly for one night and day to have
+      entrusted your banner to a Scot. Said I not they were ever fair and
+      false?" [Such were the terms in which the English used to speak of their
+      poor northern neighbours, forgetting that their own encroachments upon the
+      independence of Scotland obliged the weaker nation to defend themselves by
+      policy as well as force. The disgrace must be divided between Edward I.
+      and Edward III., who enforced their domination over a free country, and
+      the Scots, who were compelled to take compulsory oaths, without any
+      purpose of keeping them.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou didst, De Vaux; thou wast right, and I confess it," said Richard. "I
+      should have known him better&mdash;I should have remembered how the fox
+      William deceived me touching this Crusade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Sir Kenneth, "William of Scotland never deceived; but
+      circumstances prevented his bringing his forces."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, shameless!" said the King; "thou sulliest the name of a prince,
+      even by speaking it.&mdash;And yet, De Vaux, it is strange," he added, "to
+      see the bearing of the man. Coward or traitor he must be, yet he abode the
+      blow of Richard Plantagenet as our arm had been raised to lay knighthood
+      on his shoulder. Had he shown the slightest sign of fear, had but a joint
+      trembled or an eyelid quivered, I had shattered his head like a crystal
+      goblet. But I cannot strike where there is neither fear nor resistance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Kenneth&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" replied Richard, interrupting him, "hast thou found thy speech? Ask
+      grace from Heaven, but none from me; for England is dishonoured through
+      thy fault, and wert thou mine own and only brother, there is no pardon for
+      thy fault."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I speak not to demand grace of mortal man," said the Scot; "it is in your
+      Grace's pleasure to give or refuse me time for Christian shrift&mdash;if
+      man denies it, may God grant me the absolution which I would otherwise ask
+      of His church! But whether I die on the instant, or half an hour hence, I
+      equally beseech your Grace for one moment's opportunity to speak that to
+      your royal person which highly concerns your fame as a Christian king."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say on," said the King, making no doubt that he was about to hear some
+      confession concerning the loss of the Banner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What I have to speak," said Sir Kenneth, "touches the royalty of England,
+      and must be said to no ears but thine own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Begone with yourselves, sirs," said the King to Neville and De Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first obeyed, but the latter would not stir from the King's presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you said I was in the right," replied De Vaux to his sovereign, "I
+      will be treated as one should be who hath been found to be right&mdash;that
+      is, I will have my own will. I leave you not with this false Scot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! De Vaux," said Richard angrily, and stamping slightly, "darest thou
+      not venture our person with one traitor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is in vain you frown and stamp, my lord," said De Vaux; "I venture not
+      a sick man with a sound one, a naked man with one armed in proof."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It matters not," said the Scottish knight; "I seek no excuse to put off
+      time. I will speak in presence of the Lord of Gilsland. He is good lord
+      and true."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But half an hour since," said De Vaux, with a groan, implying a mixture
+      of sorrow and vexation, "and I had said as much for thee!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is treason around you, King of England," continued Sir Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may well be as thou sayest," replied Richard; "I have a pregnant
+      example."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Treason that will injure thee more deeply than the loss of a hundred
+      banners in a pitched field. The&mdash;the&mdash;" Sir Kenneth hesitated,
+      and at length continued, in a lower tone, "The Lady Edith&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" said the King, drawing himself suddenly into a state of haughty
+      attention, and fixing his eye firmly on the supposed criminal; "what of
+      her? what of her? What has she to do with this matter?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the Scot, "there is a scheme on foot to disgrace your
+      royal lineage, by bestowing the hand of the Lady Edith on the Saracen
+      Soldan, and thereby to purchase a peace most dishonourable to Christendom,
+      by an alliance most shameful to England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This communication had precisely the contrary effect from that which Sir
+      Kenneth expected. Richard Plantagenet was one of those who, in Iago's
+      words, would not serve God because it was the devil who bade him; advice
+      or information often affected him less according to its real import, than
+      through the tinge which it took from the supposed character and views of
+      those by whom it was communicated. Unfortunately, the mention of his
+      relative's name renewed his recollection of what he had considered as
+      extreme presumption in the Knight of the Leopard, even when he stood high
+      in the roll of chivalry, but which, in his present condition, appeared an
+      insult sufficient to drive the fiery monarch into a frenzy of passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Silence," he said, "infamous and audacious! By Heaven, I will have thy
+      tongue torn out with hot pincers, for mentioning the very name of a noble
+      Christian damsel! Know, degenerate traitor, that I was already aware to
+      what height thou hadst dared to raise thine eyes, and endured it, though
+      it were insolence, even when thou hadst cheated us&mdash;for thou art all
+      a deceit&mdash;into holding thee as of some name and fame. But now, with
+      lips blistered with the confession of thine own dishonour&mdash;that thou
+      shouldst NOW dare to name our noble kinswoman as one in whose fate thou
+      hast part or interest! What is it to thee if she marry Saracen or
+      Christian? What is it to thee if, in a camp where princes turn cowards by
+      day and robbers by night&mdash;where brave knights turn to paltry
+      deserters and traitors&mdash;what is it, I say, to thee, or any one, if I
+      should please to ally myself to truth and to valour, in the person of
+      Saladin?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Little to me, indeed, to whom all the world will soon be as nothing,"
+      answered Sir Kenneth boldly; "but were I now stretched on the rack, I
+      would tell thee that what I have said is much to thine own conscience and
+      thine own fame. I tell thee, Sir King, that if thou dost but in thought
+      entertain the purpose of wedding thy kinswoman, the Lady Edith&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Name her not&mdash;and for an instant think not of her," said the King,
+      again straining the curtal-axe in his gripe, until the muscles started
+      above his brawny arm, like cordage formed by the ivy around the limb of an
+      oak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not name&mdash;not think of her!" answered Sir Kenneth, his spirits,
+      stunned as they were by self-depression, beginning to recover their
+      elasticity from this species of controversy. "Now, by the Cross, on which
+      I place my hope, her name shall be the last word in my mouth, her image
+      the last thought in my mind. Try thy boasted strength on this bare brow,
+      and see if thou canst prevent my purpose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will drive me mad!" said Richard, who, in his despite, was once more
+      staggered in his purpose by the dauntless determination of the criminal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere Thomas of Gilsland could reply, some bustle was heard without, and the
+      arrival of the Queen was announced from the outer part of the pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Detain her&mdash;detain her, Neville," cried the King; "this is no sight
+      for women.&mdash;Fie, that I have suffered such a paltry traitor to chafe
+      me thus!&mdash;Away with him, De Vaux," he whispered, "through the back
+      entrance of our tent; coop him up close, and answer for his safe custody
+      with your life. And hark ye&mdash;he is presently to die&mdash;let him
+      have a ghostly father&mdash;we would not kill soul and body. And stay&mdash;hark
+      thee&mdash;we will not have him dishonoured&mdash;he shall die knightlike,
+      in his belt and spurs; for if his treachery be as black as hell, his
+      boldness may match that of the devil himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux, right glad, if the truth may be guessed, that the scene ended
+      without Richard's descending to the unkingly act of himself slaying an
+      unresisting prisoner, made haste to remove Sir Kenneth by a private issue
+      to a separate tent, where he was disarmed, and put in fetters for
+      security. De Vaux looked on with a steady and melancholy attention, while
+      the provost's officers, to whom Sir Kenneth was now committed, took these
+      severe precautions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were ended, he said solemnly to the unhappy criminal, "It is
+      King Richard's pleasure that you die undegraded&mdash;without mutilation
+      of your body, or shame to your arms&mdash;and that your head be severed
+      from the trunk by the sword of the executioner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is kind," said the knight, in a low and rather submissive tone of
+      voice, as one who received an unexpected favour; "my family will not then
+      hear the worst of the tale. Oh, my father&mdash;my father!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This muttered invocation did not escape the blunt but kindly-natured
+      Englishman, and he brushed the back of his large hand over his rough
+      features ere he could proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is Richard of England's further pleasure," he said at length, "that
+      you have speech with a holy man; and I have met on the passage hither with
+      a Carmelite friar, who may fit you for your passage. He waits without,
+      until you are in a frame of mind to receive him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let it be instantly," said the knight. "In this also Richard is kind. I
+      cannot be more fit to see the good father at any time than now; for life
+      and I have taken farewell, as two travellers who have arrived at the
+      crossway, where their roads separate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is well," said De Vaux slowly and solemnly; "for it irks me somewhat
+      to say that which sums my message. It is King Richard's pleasure that you
+      prepare for instant death."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God's pleasure and the King's be done," replied the knight patiently. "I
+      neither contest the justice of the sentence, nor desire delay of the
+      execution."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux began to leave the tent, but very slowly&mdash;paused at the door,
+      and looked back at the Scot, from whose aspect thoughts of the world
+      seemed banished, as if he was composing himself into deep devotion. The
+      feelings of the stout English baron were in general none of the most
+      acute, and yet, on the present occasion, his sympathy overpowered him in
+      an unusual manner. He came hastily back to the bundle of reeds on which
+      the captive lay, took one of his fettered hands, and said, with as much
+      softness as his rough voice was capable of expressing, "Sir Kenneth, thou
+      art yet young&mdash;thou hast a father. My Ralph, whom I left training his
+      little galloway nag on the banks of the Irthing, may one day attain thy
+      years, and, but for last night, would to God I saw his youth bear such
+      promise as thine! Can nothing be said or done in thy behalf?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing," was the melancholy answer. "I have deserted my charge&mdash;the
+      banner entrusted to me is lost. When the headsman and block are prepared,
+      the head and trunk are ready to part company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then, God have mercy!" said De Vaux. "Yet would I rather than my
+      best horse I had taken that watch myself. There is mystery in it, young
+      man, as a plain man may descry, though he cannot see through it.
+      Cowardice? Pshaw! No coward ever fought as I have seen thee do. Treachery?
+      I cannot think traitors die in their treason so calmly. Thou hast been
+      trained from thy post by some deep guile&mdash;some well-devised stratagem&mdash;the
+      cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look
+      of some merry one has taken thine eye. Never blush for it; we have all
+      been led aside by such gear. Come, I pray thee, make a clean conscience of
+      it to me, instead of the priest. Richard is merciful when his mood is
+      abated. Hast thou nothing to entrust to me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate knight turned his face from the kind warrior, and
+      answered, "NOTHING."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And De Vaux, who had exhausted his topics of persuasion, arose and left
+      the tent, with folded arms, and in melancholy deeper than he thought the
+      occasion merited&mdash;even angry with himself to find that so simple a
+      matter as the death of a Scottish man could affect him so nearly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet," as he said to himself, "though the rough-footed knaves be our
+      enemies in Cumberland, in Palestine one almost considers them as
+      brethren."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Tis not her sense, for sure in that
+     There's nothing more than common;
+     And all her wit is only chat,
+     Like any other woman.
+        SONG.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The high-born Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre, and the
+      Queen-Consort of the heroic Richard, was accounted one of the most
+      beautiful women of the period. Her form was slight, though exquisitely
+      moulded. She was graced with a complexion not common in her country, a
+      profusion of fair hair, and features so extremely juvenile as to make her
+      look several years younger than she really was, though in reality she was
+      not above one-and-twenty. Perhaps it was under the consciousness of this
+      extremely juvenile appearance that she affected, or at least practised, a
+      little childish petulance and wilfulness of manner, not unbefitting, she
+      might suppose, a youthful bride, whose rank and age gave her a right to
+      have her fantasies indulged and attended to. She was by nature perfectly
+      good-humoured, and if her due share of admiration and homage (in her
+      opinion a very large one) was duly resigned to her, no one could possess
+      better temper or a more friendly disposition; but then, like all despots,
+      the more power that was voluntarily yielded to her, the more she desired
+      to extend her sway. Sometimes, even when all her ambition was gratified,
+      she chose to be a little out of health, and a little out of spirits; and
+      physicians had to toil their wits to invent names for imaginary maladies,
+      while her ladies racked their imagination for new games, new head-gear,
+      and new court-scandal, to pass away those unpleasant hours, during which
+      their own situation was scarce to be greatly envied. Their most frequent
+      resource for diverting this malady was some trick or piece of mischief
+      practised upon each other; and the good Queen, in the buoyancy of her
+      reviving spirits, was, to speak truth, rather too indifferent whether the
+      frolics thus practised were entirely befitting her own dignity, or whether
+      the pain which those suffered upon whom they were inflicted was not beyond
+      the proportion of pleasure which she herself derived from them. She was
+      confident in her husband's favour, in her high rank, and in her supposed
+      power to make good whatever such pranks might cost others. In a word, she
+      gambolled with the freedom of a young lioness, who is unconscious of the
+      weight of her own paws when laid on those whom she sports with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen Berengaria loved her husband passionately, but she feared the
+      loftiness and roughness of his character; and as she felt herself not to
+      be his match in intellect, was not much pleased to see that he would often
+      talk with Edith Plantagenet in preference to herself, simply because he
+      found more amusement in her conversation, a more comprehensive
+      understanding, and a more noble cast of thoughts and sentiments, than his
+      beautiful consort exhibited. Berengaria did not hate Edith on this
+      account, far less meditate her any harm; for, allowing for some
+      selfishness, her character was, on the whole, innocent and generous. But
+      the ladies of her train, sharpsighted in such matters, had for some time
+      discovered that a poignant jest at the expense of the Lady Edith was a
+      specific for relieving her Grace of England's low spirits, and the
+      discovery saved their imagination much toil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something ungenerous in this, because the Lady Edith was
+      understood to be an orphan; and though she was called Plantagenet, and the
+      fair Maid of Anjou, and admitted by Richard to certain privileges only
+      granted to the royal family, and held her place in the circle accordingly,
+      yet few knew, and none acquainted with the Court of England ventured to
+      ask, in what exact degree of relationship she stood to Coeur de Lion. She
+      had come with Eleanor, the celebrated Queen Mother of England, and joined
+      Richard at Messina, as one of the ladies destined to attend on Berengaria,
+      whose nuptials then approached. Richard treated his kinswoman with much
+      respectful observance, and the Queen made her her most constant attendant,
+      and, even in despite of the petty jealousy which we have observed, treated
+      her, generally, with suitable respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies of the household had, for a long time, no further advantage
+      over Edith than might be afforded by an opportunity of censuring a less
+      artfully disposed head attire or an unbecoming robe; for the lady was
+      judged to be inferior in these mysteries. The silent devotion of the
+      Scottish knight did not, indeed, pass unnoticed; his liveries, his
+      cognizances, his feats of arms, his mottoes and devices, were nearly
+      watched, and occasionally made the subject of a passing jest. But then
+      came the pilgrimage of the Queen and her ladies to Engaddi, a journey
+      which the Queen had undertaken under a vow for the recovery of her
+      husband's health, and which she had been encouraged to carry into effect
+      by the Archbishop of Tyre for a political purpose. It was then, and in the
+      chapel at that holy place, connected from above with a Carmelite nunnery,
+      from beneath with the cell of the anchorite, that one of the Queen's
+      attendants remarked that secret sign of intelligence which Edith had made
+      to her lover, and failed not instantly to communicate it to her Majesty.
+      The Queen returned from her pilgrimage enriched with this admirable recipe
+      against dullness or ennui; and her train was at the same time augmented by
+      a present of two wretched dwarfs from the dethroned Queen of Jerusalem, as
+      deformed and as crazy (the excellence of that unhappy species) as any
+      Queen could have desired. One of Berengaria's idle amusements had been to
+      try the effect of the sudden appearance of such ghastly and fantastic
+      forms on the nerves of the Knight when left alone in the chapel; but the
+      jest had been lost by the composure of the Scot and the interference of
+      the anchorite. She had now tried another, of which the consequences
+      promised to be more serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies again met after Sir Kenneth had retired from the tent, and the
+      Queen, at first little moved by Edith's angry expostulations, only replied
+      to her by upbraiding her prudery, and by indulging her wit at the expense
+      of the garb, nation, and, above all the poverty of the Knight of the
+      Leopard, in which she displayed a good deal of playful malice, mingled
+      with some humour, until Edith was compelled to carry her anxiety to her
+      separate apartment. But when, in the morning, a female whom Edith had
+      entrusted to make inquiry brought word that the Standard was missing, and
+      its champion vanished, she burst into the Queen's apartment, and implored
+      her to rise and proceed to the King's tent without delay, and use her
+      powerful mediation to prevent the evil consequences of her jest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, frightened in her turn, cast, as is usual, the blame of her own
+      folly on those around her, and endeavoured to comfort Edith's grief, and
+      appease her displeasure, by a thousand inconsistent arguments. She was
+      sure no harm had chanced&mdash;the knight was sleeping, she fancied, after
+      his night-watch. What though, for fear of the King's displeasure, he had
+      deserted with the Standard&mdash;it was but a piece of silk, and he but a
+      needy adventurer; or if he was put under warding for a time, she would
+      soon get the King to pardon him&mdash;it was but waiting to let Richard's
+      mood pass away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus she continued talking thick and fast, and heaping together all sorts
+      of inconsistencies, with the vain expectation of persuading both Edith and
+      herself that no harm could come of a frolic which in her heart she now
+      bitterly repented. But while Edith in vain strove to intercept this
+      torrent of idle talk, she caught the eye of one of the ladies who entered
+      the Queen's apartment. There was death in her look of affright and horror,
+      and Edith, at the first glance of her countenance, had sunk at once on the
+      earth, had not strong necessity and her own elevation of character enabled
+      her to maintain at least external composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," she said to the Queen, "lose not another word in speaking, but
+      save life&mdash;if, indeed," she added, her voice choking as she said it,
+      "life may yet be saved."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may, it may," answered the Lady Calista. "I have just heard that he
+      has been brought before the King. It is not yet over&mdash;but," she
+      added, bursting into a vehement flood of weeping, in which personal
+      apprehensions had some share, "it will soon, unless some course be taken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will vow a golden candlestick to the Holy Sepulchre, a shrine of silver
+      to our Lady of Engaddi, a pall, worth one hundred byzants, to Saint Thomas
+      of Orthez," said the Queen in extremity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Up, up, madam!" said Edith; "call on the saints if you list, but be your
+      own best saint."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed, madam," said the terrified attendant, "the Lady Edith speaks
+      truth. Up, madam, and let us to King Richard's tent and beg the poor
+      gentleman's life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will go&mdash;I will go instantly," said the Queen, rising and
+      trembling excessively; while her women, in as great confusion as herself,
+      were unable to render her those duties which were indispensable to her
+      levee. Calm, composed, only pale as death, Edith ministered to the Queen
+      with her own hand, and alone supplied the deficiencies of her numerous
+      attendants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How you wait, wenches!" said the Queen, not able even then to forget
+      frivolous distinctions. "Suffer ye the Lady Edith to do the duties of your
+      attendance? Seest thou, Edith, they can do nothing; I shall never be
+      attired in time. We will send for the Archbishop of Tyre, and employ him
+      as a mediator."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Edith. "Go yourself madam; you have done the evil,
+      do you confer the remedy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will go&mdash;I will go," said the Queen; "but if Richard be in his
+      mood, I dare not speak to him&mdash;he will kill me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet go, gracious madam," said the Lady Calista, who best knew her
+      mistress's temper; "not a lion, in his fury, could look upon such a face
+      and form, and retain so much as an angry thought, far less a love-true
+      knight like the royal Richard, to whom your slightest word would be a
+      command."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dost thou think so, Calista?" said the Queen. "Ah, thou little knowest
+      yet I will go. But see you here, what means this? You have bedizened me in
+      green, a colour he detests. Lo you! let me have a blue robe, and&mdash;search
+      for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of Cyprus's ransom; it
+      is either in the steel casket, or somewhere else."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This, and a man's life at stake!" said Edith indignantly; "it passes
+      human patience. Remain at your ease, madam; I will go to King Richard. I
+      am a party interested. I will know if the honour of a poor maiden of his
+      blood is to be so far tampered with that her name shall be abused to train
+      a brave gentleman from his duty, bring him within the compass of death and
+      infamy, and make, at the same time, the glory of England a laughing-stock
+      to the whole Christian army."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this unexpected burst of passion, Berengaria listened with an almost
+      stupefied look of fear and wonder. But as Edith was about to leave the
+      tent, she exclaimed, though faintly, "Stop her, stop her!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must indeed stop, noble Lady Edith," said Calista, taking her arm
+      gently; "and you, royal madam, I am sure, will go, and without further
+      dallying. If the Lady Edith goes alone to the King, he will be dreadfully
+      incensed, nor will it be one life that will stay his fury."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will go&mdash;I will go," said the Queen, yielding to necessity; and
+      Edith reluctantly halted to wait her movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were now as speedy as she could have desired. The Queen hastily
+      wrapped herself in a large loose mantle, which covered all inaccuracies of
+      the toilet. In this guise, attended by Edith and her women, and preceded
+      and followed by a few officers and men-at-arms, she hastened to the tent
+      of her lionlike husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Were every hair upon his head a life,
+     And every life were to be supplicated
+     By numbers equal to those hairs quadrupled,
+     Life after life should out like waning stars
+     Before the daybreak&mdash;or as festive lamps,
+     Which have lent lustre to the midnight revel,
+     Each after each are quench'd when guests depart!
+          OLD PLAY
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The entrance of Queen Berengaria into the interior of Richard's pavilion
+      was withstood&mdash;in the most respectful and reverential manner indeed,
+      but still withstood&mdash;by the chamberlains who watched in the outer
+      tent. She could hear the stern command of the King from within,
+      prohibiting their entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see," said the Queen, appealing to Edith, as if she had exhausted all
+      means of intercession in her power; "I knew it&mdash;the King will not
+      receive us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time, they heard Richard speak to some one within:&mdash;"Go,
+      speed thine office quickly, sirrah, for in that consists thy mercy&mdash;ten
+      byzants if thou dealest on him at one blow. And hark thee, villain,
+      observe if his cheek loses colour, or his eye falters; mark me the
+      smallest twitch of the features, or wink of the eyelid. I love to know how
+      brave souls meet death."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If he sees my blade waved aloft without shrinking, he is the first ever
+      did so," answered a harsh, deep voice, which a sense of unusual awe had
+      softened into a sound much lower than its usual coarse tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edith could remain silent no longer. "If your Grace," she said to the
+      Queen, "make not your own way, I make it for you; or if not for your
+      Majesty, for myself at least.&mdash;Chamberlain, the Queen demands to see
+      King Richard&mdash;the wife to speak with her husband."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Noble lady," said the officer, lowering his wand of office, "it grieves
+      me to gainsay you, but his Majesty is busied on matters of life and
+      death."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And we seek also to speak with him on matters of life and death," said
+      Edith. "I will make entrance for your Grace." And putting aside the
+      chamberlain with one hand, she laid hold on the curtain with the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare not gainsay her Majesty's pleasure," said the chamberlain,
+      yielding to the vehemence of the fair petitioner; and as he gave way, the
+      Queen found herself obliged to enter the apartment of Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Monarch was lying on his couch, and at some distance, as awaiting his
+      further commands, stood a man whose profession it was not difficult to
+      conjecture. He was clothed in a jerkin of red cloth, which reached scantly
+      below the shoulders, leaving the arms bare from about half way above the
+      elbow; and as an upper garment, he wore, when about as at present to
+      betake himself to his dreadful office, a coat or tabard without sleeves,
+      something like that of a herald, made of dressed bull's hide, and stained
+      in the front with many a broad spot and speckle of dull crimson. The
+      jerkin, and the tabard over it, reached the knee; and the nether stocks,
+      or covering of the legs, were of the same leather which composed the
+      tabard. A cap of rough shag served to hide the upper part of a visage
+      which, like that of a screech owl, seemed desirous to conceal itself from
+      light, the lower part of the face being obscured by a huge red beard,
+      mingling with shaggy locks of the same colour. What features were seen
+      were stern and misanthropical. The man's figure was short, strongly made,
+      with a neck like a bull, very broad shoulders, arms of great and
+      disproportioned length, a huge square trunk, and thick bandy legs. This
+      truculent official leant on a sword, the blade of which was nearly four
+      feet and a half in length, while the handle of twenty inches, surrounded
+      by a ring of lead plummets to counterpoise the weight of such a blade,
+      rose considerably above the man's head as he rested his arm upon its hilt,
+      waiting for King Richard's further directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the sudden entrance of the ladies, Richard, who was then lying on his
+      couch with his face towards the entrance, and resting on his elbow as he
+      spoke to his grisly attendant, flung himself hastily, as if displeased and
+      surprised, to the other side, turning his back to the Queen and the
+      females of her train, and drawing around him the covering of his couch,
+      which, by his own choice, or more probably the flattering selection of his
+      chamberlains, consisted of two large lions' skins, dressed in Venice with
+      such admirable skill that they seemed softer than the hide of the deer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Berengaria, such as we have described her, knew well&mdash;what woman
+      knows not?&mdash;her own road to victory. After a hurried glance of
+      undisguised and unaffected terror at the ghastly companion of her
+      husband's secret counsels, she rushed at once to the side of Richard's
+      couch, dropped on her knees, flung her mantle from her shoulders, showing,
+      as they hung down at their full length, her beautiful golden tresses, and
+      while her countenance seemed like the sun bursting through a cloud, yet
+      bearing on its pallid front traces that its splendours have been obscured,
+      she seized upon the right hand of the King, which, as he assumed his
+      wonted posture, had been employed in dragging the covering of his couch,
+      and gradually pulling it to her with a force which was resisted, though
+      but faintly, she possessed herself of that arm, the prop of Christendom
+      and the dread of Heathenesse, and imprisoning its strength in both her
+      little fairy hands, she bent upon it her brow, and united to it her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What needs this, Berengaria?" said Richard, his head still averted, but
+      his hand remaining under her control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Send away that man, his look kills me!" muttered Berengaria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Begone, sirrah," said Richard, still without looking round, "What wait'st
+      thou for? art thou fit to look on these ladies?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Highness's pleasure touching the head," said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Out with thee, dog!" answered Richard&mdash;"a Christian burial!" The man
+      disappeared, after casting a look upon the beautiful Queen, in her
+      deranged dress and natural loveliness, with a smile of admiration more
+      hideous in its expression than even his usual scowl of cynical hatred
+      against humanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now, foolish wench, what wishest thou?" said Richard, turning slowly
+      and half reluctantly round to his royal suppliant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was not in nature for any one, far less an admirer of beauty like
+      Richard, to whom it stood only in the second rank to glory, to look
+      without emotion on the countenance and the tremor of a creature so
+      beautiful as Berengaria, or to feel, without sympathy, that her lips, her
+      brow, were on his hand, and that it was wetted by her tears. By degrees,
+      he turned on her his manly countenance, with the softest expression of
+      which his large blue eye, which so often gleamed with insufferable light,
+      was capable. Caressing her fair head, and mingling his large fingers in
+      her beautiful and dishevelled locks, he raised and tenderly kissed the
+      cherub countenance which seemed desirous to hide itself in his hand. The
+      robust form, the broad, noble brow and majestic looks, the naked arm and
+      shoulder, the lions' skins among which he lay, and the fair, fragile
+      feminine creature that kneeled by his side, might have served for a model
+      of Hercules reconciling himself, after a quarrel, to his wife Dejanira.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, once more, what seeks the lady of my heart in her knight's pavilion
+      at this early and unwonted hour?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon, my most gracious liege&mdash;pardon!" said the Queen, whose fears
+      began again to unfit her for the duty of intercessor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon&mdash;for what?" asked the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "First, for entering your royal presence too boldly and unadvisedly&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "THOU too boldly!&mdash;the sun might as well ask pardon because his rays
+      entered the windows of some wretch's dungeon. But I was busied with work
+      unfit for thee to witness, my gentle one; and I was unwilling, besides,
+      that thou shouldst risk thy precious health where sickness had been so
+      lately rife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But thou art now well?" said the Queen, still delaying the communication
+      which she feared to make.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well enough to break a lance on the bold crest of that champion who shall
+      refuse to acknowledge thee the fairest dame in Christendom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wilt not then refuse me one boon&mdash;only one&mdash;only a poor
+      life?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!&mdash;proceed," said King Richard, bending his brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This unhappy Scottish knight&mdash;" murmured the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak not of him, madam," exclaimed Richard sternly; "he dies&mdash;his
+      doom is fixed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my royal liege and love, 'tis but a silken banner neglected.
+      Berengaria will give thee another broidered with her own hand, and rich as
+      ever dallied with the wind. Every pearl I have shall go to bedeck it, and
+      with every pearl I will drop a tear of thankfulness to my generous
+      knight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou knowest not what thou sayest," said the King, interrupting her in
+      anger. "Pearls! can all the pearls of the East atone for a speck upon
+      England's honour&mdash;all the tears that ever woman's eye wept wash away
+      a stain on Richard's fame? Go to, madam, know your place, and your time,
+      and your sphere. At present we have duties in which you cannot be our
+      partner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hearest, Edith," whispered the Queen; "we shall but incense him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be it so," said Edith, stepping forward.&mdash;"My lord, I, your poor
+      kinswoman, crave you for justice rather than mercy; and to the cry of
+      justice the ears of a monarch should be open at every time, place, and
+      circumstance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! our cousin Edith?" said Richard, rising and sitting upright on the
+      side of his couch, covered with his long camiscia. "She speaks ever
+      kinglike, and kinglike will I answer her, so she bring no request unworthy
+      herself or me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The beauty of Edith was of a more intellectual and less voluptuous cast
+      than that of the Queen; but impatience and anxiety had given her
+      countenance a glow which it sometimes wanted, and her mien had a character
+      of energetic dignity that imposed silence for a moment even on Richard
+      himself, who, to judge by his looks, would willingly have interrupted her.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0006m.jpg" alt="0006m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0006.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," she said, "this good knight, whose blood you are about to
+      spill, hath done, in his time, service to Christendom. He has fallen from
+      his duty through a snare set for him in mere folly and idleness of spirit.
+      A message sent to him in the name of one who&mdash;why should I not speak
+      it?&mdash;it was in my own&mdash;induced him for an instant to leave his
+      post. And what knight in the Christian camp might not have thus far
+      transgressed at command of a maiden, who, poor howsoever in other
+      qualities, hath yet the blood of Plantagenet in her veins?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you saw him, then, cousin?" replied the King, biting his lips to keep
+      down his passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did, my liege," said Edith. "It is no time to explain wherefore. I am
+      here neither to exculpate myself nor to blame others."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And where did you do him such a grace?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the tent of her Majesty the Queen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of our royal consort!" said Richard. "Now by Heaven, by Saint George of
+      England, and every other saint that treads its crystal floor, this is too
+      audacious! I have noticed and overlooked this warrior's insolent
+      admiration of one so far above him, and I grudged him not that one of my
+      blood should shed from her high-born sphere such influence as the sun
+      bestows on the world beneath. But, heaven and earth! that you should have
+      admitted him to an audience by night, in the very tent of our royal
+      consort!&mdash;and dare to offer this as an excuse for his disobedience
+      and desertion! By my father's soul, Edith, thou shalt rue this thy life
+      long in a monastery!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My liege," said Edith, "your greatness licenses tyranny. My honour, Lord
+      King, is as little touched as yours, and my Lady the Queen can prove it if
+      she think fit. But I have already said I am not here to excuse myself or
+      inculpate others. I ask you but to extend to one, whose fault was
+      committed under strong temptation, that mercy, which even you yourself,
+      Lord King, must one day supplicate at a higher tribunal, and for faults,
+      perhaps, less venial."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can this be Edith Plantagenet?" said the King bitterly&mdash;"Edith
+      Plantagenet, the wise and the noble? Or is it some lovesick woman who
+      cares not for her own fame in comparison of the life of her paramour? Now,
+      by King Henry's soul! little hinders but I order thy minion's skull to be
+      brought from the gibbet, and fixed as a perpetual ornament by the crucifix
+      in thy cell!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And if thou dost send it from the gibbet to be placed for ever in my
+      sight," said Edith, "I will say it is a relic of a good knight, cruelly
+      and unworthily done to death by" (she checked herself)&mdash;"by one of
+      whom I shall only say, he should have known better how to reward chivalry.
+      Minion callest thou him?" she continued, with increasing vehemence. "He
+      was indeed my lover, and a most true one; but never sought he grace from
+      me by look or word&mdash;contented with such humble observance as men pay
+      to the saints. And the good&mdash;the valiant&mdash;the faithful must die
+      for this!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, peace, peace, for pity's sake," whispered the Queen, "you do but
+      offend him more!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I care not," said Edith; "the spotless virgin fears not the raging lion.
+      Let him work his will on this worthy knight. Edith, for whom he dies, will
+      know how to weep his memory. To me no one shall speak more of politic
+      alliances to be sanctioned with this poor hand. I could not&mdash;I would
+      not&mdash;have been his bride living&mdash;our degrees were too distant.
+      But death unites the high and the low&mdash;I am henceforward the spouse
+      of the grave."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King was about to answer with much anger, when a Carmelite monk
+      entered the apartment hastily, his head and person muffled in the long
+      mantle and hood of striped cloth of the coarsest texture which
+      distinguished his order, and, flinging himself on his knees before the
+      King, conjured him, by every holy word and sign, to stop the execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by both sword and sceptre," said Richard, "the world is leagued to
+      drive me mad!&mdash;fools, women, and monks cross me at every step. How
+      comes he to live still?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My gracious liege," said the monk, "I entreated of the Lord of Gilsland
+      to stay the execution until I had thrown myself at your royal&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And he was wilful enough to grant thy request," said the King; "but it is
+      of a piece with his wonted obstinacy. And what is it thou hast to say?
+      Speak, in the fiend's name!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord, there is a weighty secret, but it rests under the seal of
+      confession. I dare not tell or even whisper it; but I swear to thee by my
+      holy order, by the habit which I wear, by the blessed Elias, our founder,
+      even him who was translated without suffering the ordinary pangs of
+      mortality, that this youth hath divulged to me a secret, which, if I might
+      confide it to thee, would utterly turn thee from thy bloody purpose in
+      regard to him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good father," said Richard, "that I reverence the church, let the arms
+      which I now wear for her sake bear witness. Give me to know this secret,
+      and I will do what shall seem fitting in the matter. But I am no blind
+      Bayard, to take a leap in the dark under the stroke of a pair of priestly
+      spurs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the holy man, throwing back his cowl and upper vesture,
+      and discovering under the latter a garment of goatskin, and from beneath
+      the former a visage so wildly wasted by climate, fast, and penance, as to
+      resemble rather the apparition of an animated skeleton than a human face,
+      "for twenty years have I macerated this miserable body in the caverns of
+      Engaddi, doing penance for a great crime. Think you I, who am dead to the
+      world, would contrive a falsehood to endanger my own soul; or that one,
+      bound by the most sacred oaths to the contrary&mdash;one such as I, who
+      have but one longing wish connected with earth, to wit, the rebuilding of
+      our Christian Zion&mdash;would betray the secrets of the confessional?
+      Both are alike abhorrent to my very soul."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So," answered the King, "thou art that hermit of whom men speak so much?
+      Thou art, I confess, like enough to those spirits which walk in dry
+      places; but Richard fears no hobgoblins. And thou art he, too, as I
+      bethink me, to whom the Christian princes sent this very criminal to open
+      a communication with the Soldan, even while I, who ought to have been
+      first consulted, lay on my sick-bed? Thou and they may content themselves&mdash;I
+      will not put my neck into the loop of a Carmelite's girdle. And, for your
+      envoy, he shall die the rather and the sooner that thou dost entreat for
+      him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now God be gracious to thee, Lord King!" said the hermit, with much
+      emotion; "thou art setting that mischief on foot which thou wilt hereafter
+      wish thou hadst stopped, though it had cost thee a limb. Rash, blinded
+      man, yet forbear!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Away, away," cried the King, stamping; "the sun has risen on the
+      dishonour of England, and it is not yet avenged.&mdash;Ladies and priest,
+      withdraw, if you would not hear orders which would displease you; for, by
+      St. George, I swear&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Swear NOT!" said the voice of one who had just then entered the pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! my learned Hakim," said the King, "come, I hope, to tax our
+      generosity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I come to request instant speech with you&mdash;instant&mdash;and
+      touching matters of deep interest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "First look on my wife, Hakim, and let her know in you the preserver of
+      her husband."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not for me," said the physician, folding his arms with an air of
+      Oriental modesty and reverence, and bending his eyes on the ground&mdash;"it
+      is not for me to look upon beauty unveiled, and armed in its splendours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Retire, then, Berengaria," said the Monarch; "and, Edith, do you retire
+      also;&mdash;nay, renew not your importunities! This I give to them that
+      the execution shall not be till high noon. Go and be pacified&mdash;dearest
+      Berengaria, begone.&mdash;Edith," he added, with a glance which struck
+      terror even into the courageous soul of his kinswoman, "go, if you are
+      wise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The females withdrew, or rather hurried from the tent, rank and ceremony
+      forgotten, much like a flock of wild-fowl huddled together, against whom
+      the falcon has made a recent stoop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They returned from thence to the Queen's pavilion to indulge in regrets
+      and recriminations, equally unavailing. Edith was the only one who seemed
+      to disdain these ordinary channels of sorrow. Without a sigh, without a
+      tear, without a word of upbraiding, she attended upon the Queen, whose
+      weak temperament showed her sorrow in violent hysterical ecstasies and
+      passionate hypochondriacal effusions, in the course of which Edith
+      sedulously and even affectionately attended her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is impossible she can have loved this knight," said Florise to
+      Calista, her senior in attendance upon the Queen's person. "We have been
+      mistaken; she is but sorry for his fate, as for a stranger who has come to
+      trouble on her account."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush, hush," answered her more experienced and more observant comrade;
+      "she is of that proud house of Plantagenet who never own that a hurt
+      grieves them. While they have themselves been bleeding to death, under a
+      mortal wound, they have been known to bind up the scratches sustained by
+      their more faint-hearted comrades. Florise, we have done frightfully
+      wrong, and, for my own part, I would buy with every jewel I have that our
+      fatal jest had remained unacted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     This work desires a planetary intelligence
+     Of Jupiter and Sol; and those great spirits
+     Are proud, fantastical. It asks great charges
+     To entice them from the guiding of their spheres,
+     To wait on mortals.
+            ALBUMAZAR.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The hermit followed the ladies from the pavilion of Richard, as shadow
+      follows a beam of sunshine when the clouds are driving over the face of
+      the sun. But he turned on the threshold, and held up his hand towards the
+      King in a warning, or almost a menacing posture, as he said, "Woe to him
+      who rejects the counsel of the church, and betaketh himself to the foul
+      divan of the infidel! King Richard, I do not yet shake the dust from my
+      feet and depart from thy encampment; the sword falls not&mdash;but it
+      hangs but by a hair. Haughty monarch, we shall meet again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be it so, haughty priest," returned Richard, "prouder in thy goatskins
+      than princes in purple and fine linen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hermit vanished from the tent, and the King continued, addressing the
+      Arabian, "Do the dervises of the East, wise Hakim, use such familiarity
+      with their princes?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The dervise," replied Adonbec, "should be either a sage or a madman;
+      there is no middle course for him who wears the khirkhah, [Literally, the
+      torn robe. The habit of the dervises is so called.] who watches by night,
+      and fasts by day. Hence hath he either wisdom enough to bear himself
+      discreetly in the presence of princes; or else, having no reason bestowed
+      on him, he is not responsible for his own actions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks our monks have adopted chiefly the latter character," said
+      Richard. "But to the matter. In what can I pleasure you, my learned
+      physician?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Great King," said El Hakim, making his profound Oriental obeisance, "let
+      thy servant speak one word, and yet live. I would remind thee that thou
+      owest&mdash;not to me, their humble instrument&mdash;but to the
+      Intelligences, whose benefits I dispense to mortals, a life&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I warrant me thou wouldst have another in requital, ha?" interrupted
+      the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such is my humble prayer," said the Hakim, "to the great Melech Ric&mdash;even
+      the life of this good knight, who is doomed to die, and but for such fault
+      as was committed by the Sultan Adam, surnamed Aboulbeschar, or the father
+      of all men."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thy wisdom might remind thee, Hakim, that Adam died for it," said the
+      King, somewhat sternly, and then began to pace the narrow space of his
+      tent with some emotion, and to talk to himself. "Why, God-a-mercy, I knew
+      what he desired as soon as ever he entered the pavilion! Here is one poor
+      life justly condemned to extinction, and I, a king and a soldier, who have
+      slain thousands by my command, and scores with my own hand, am to have no
+      power over it, although the honour of my arms, of my house, of my very
+      Queen, hath been attainted by the culprit. By Saint George, it makes me
+      laugh! By Saint Louis, it reminds me of Blondel's tale of an enchanted
+      castle, where the destined knight was withstood successively in his
+      purpose of entrance by forms and figures the most dissimilar, but all
+      hostile to his undertaking! No sooner one sunk than another appeared! Wife&mdash;kinswoman&mdash;hermit&mdash;Hakim-each
+      appears in the lists as soon as the other is defeated! Why, this is a
+      single knight fighting against the whole MELEE of the tournament&mdash;ha!
+      ha! ha!" And Richard laughed aloud; for he had, in fact, begun to change
+      his mood, his resentment being usually too violent to be of long
+      endurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The physician meanwhile looked on him with a countenance of surprise, not
+      unmingled with contempt; for the Eastern people make no allowance for
+      these mercurial changes in the temper, and consider open laughter, upon
+      almost any account, as derogatory to the dignity of man, and becoming only
+      to women and children. At length the sage addressed the King when he saw
+      him more composed:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A doom of death should not issue from laughing lips. Let thy servant hope
+      that thou hast granted him this man's life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take the freedom of a thousand captives instead," said Richard; "restore
+      so many of thy countrymen to their tents and families, and I will give the
+      warrant instantly. This man's life can avail thee nothing, and it is
+      forfeited."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All our lives are forfeited," said the Hakim, putting his hand to his
+      cap. "But the great Creditor is merciful, and exacts not the pledge
+      rigorously nor untimely."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou canst show me," said Richard, "no special interest thou hast to
+      become intercessor betwixt me and the execution of justice, to which I am
+      sworn as a crowned king."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art sworn to the dealing forth mercy as well as justice," said El
+      Hakim; "but what thou seekest, great King, is the execution of thine own
+      will. And for the concern I have in this request, know that many a man's
+      life depends upon thy granting this boon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Explain thy words," said Richard; "but think not to impose upon me by
+      false pretexts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be it far from thy servant!" said Adonbec. "Know, then, that the medicine
+      to which thou, Sir King, and many one besides, owe their recovery, is a
+      talisman, composed under certain aspects of the heavens, when the Divine
+      Intelligences are most propitious. I am but the poor administrator of its
+      virtues. I dip it in a cup of water, observe the fitting hour to
+      administer it to the patient, and the potency of the draught works the
+      cure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A most rare medicine," said the King, "and a commodious! and, as it may
+      be carried in the leech's purse, would save the whole caravan of camels
+      which they require to convey drugs and physic stuff; I marvel there is any
+      other in use."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is written," answered the Hakim, with imperturbable gravity, "'Abuse
+      not the steed which hath borne thee from the battle.' Know that such
+      talismans might indeed be framed, but rare has been the number of adepts
+      who have dared to undertake the application of their virtue. Severe
+      restrictions, painful observances, fasts, and penance, are necessary on
+      the part of the sage who uses this mode of cure; and if, through neglect
+      of these preparations, by his love of ease, or his indulgence of sensual
+      appetite, he omits to cure at least twelve persons within the course of
+      each moon, the virtue of the divine gift departs from the amulet, and both
+      the last patient and the physician will be exposed to speedy misfortune,
+      neither will they survive the year. I require yet one life to make up the
+      appointed number."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go out into the camp, good Hakim, where thou wilt find a-many," said the
+      King, "and do not seek to rob my headsman of HIS patients; it is
+      unbecoming a mediciner of thine eminence to interfere with the practice of
+      another. Besides, I cannot see how delivering a criminal from the death he
+      deserves should go to make up thy tale of miraculous cures."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When thou canst show why a draught of cold water should have cured thee
+      when the most precious drugs failed," said the Hakim, "thou mayest reason
+      on the other mysteries attendant on this matter. For myself, I am
+      inefficient to the great work, having this morning touched an unclean
+      animal. Ask, therefore, no further questions; it is enough that, by
+      sparing this man's life at my request, you will deliver yourself, great
+      King, and thy servant, from a great danger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hark thee, Adonbec," replied the King, "I have no objection that leeches
+      should wrap their words in mist, and pretend to derive knowledge from the
+      stars; but when you bid Richard Plantagenet fear that a danger will fall
+      upon HIM from some idle omen, or omitted ceremonial, you speak to no
+      ignorant Saxon, or doting old woman, who foregoes her purpose because a
+      hare crosses the path, a raven croaks, or a cat sneezes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot hinder your doubt of my words," said Adonbec; "but yet let my
+      Lord the King grant that truth is on the tongue of his servant&mdash;will
+      he think it just to deprive the world, and every wretch who may suffer by
+      the pains which so lately reduced him to that couch, of the benefit of
+      this most virtuous talisman, rather than extend his forgiveness to one
+      poor criminal? Bethink you, Lord King, that, though thou canst slay
+      thousands, thou canst not restore one man to health. Kings have the power
+      of Satan to torment, sages that of Allah to heal&mdash;beware how thou
+      hinderest the good to humanity which thou canst not thyself render. Thou
+      canst cut off the head, but not cure the aching tooth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is over-insolent," said the King, hardening himself, as the Hakim
+      assumed a more lofty and almost a commanding tone. "We took thee for our
+      leech, not for our counsellor or conscience-keeper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And is it thus the most renowned Prince of Frangistan repays benefit done
+      to his royal person?" said El Hakim, exchanging the humble and stooping
+      posture in which he had hitherto solicited the King, for an attitude lofty
+      and commanding. "Know, then," he said, "that: through every court of
+      Europe and Asia&mdash;to Moslem and Nazarene&mdash;to knight and lady&mdash;wherever
+      harp is heard and sword worn&mdash;wherever honour is loved and infamy
+      detested&mdash;to every quarter of the world&mdash;will I denounce thee,
+      Melech Ric, as thankless and ungenerous; and even the lands&mdash;if there
+      be any such&mdash;that never heard of thy renown shall yet be acquainted
+      with thy shame!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are these terms to me, vile infidel?" said Richard, striding up to him in
+      fury. "Art weary of thy life?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Strike!" said El Hakim; "thine own deed shall then paint thee more
+      worthless than could my words, though each had a hornet's sting."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard turned fiercely from him, folded his arms, traversed the tent as
+      before, and then exclaimed, "Thankless and ungenerous!&mdash;as well be
+      termed coward and infidel! Hakim, thou hast chosen thy boon; and though I
+      had rather thou hadst asked my crown jewels, yet I may not, kinglike,
+      refuse thee. Take this Scot, therefore, to thy keeping; the provost will
+      deliver him to thee on this warrant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hastily traced one or two lines, and gave them to the physician. "Use
+      him as thy bond-slave, to be disposed of as thou wilt&mdash;only, let him
+      beware how he comes before the eyes of Richard. Hark thee&mdash;thou art
+      wise&mdash;he hath been over-bold among those in whose fair looks and weak
+      judgments we trust our honour, as you of the East lodge your treasures in
+      caskets of silver wire, as fine and as frail as the web of a gossamer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy servant understands the words of the King," said the sage, at once
+      resuming the reverent style of address in which he had commenced. "When
+      the rich carpet is soiled, the fool pointeth to the stain&mdash;the wise
+      man covers it with his mantle. I have heard my lord's pleasure, and to
+      hear is to obey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is well," said the King; "let him consult his own safety, and never
+      appear in my presence more. Is there aught else in which I may do thee
+      pleasure?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The bounty of the King hath filled my cup to the brim," said the sage&mdash;"yea,
+      it hath been abundant as the fountain which sprung up amid the camp of the
+      descendants of Israel when the rock was stricken by the rod of Moussa Ben
+      Amram."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but," said the King, smiling, "it required, as in the desert, a hard
+      blow on the rock ere it yielded its treasures. I would that I knew
+      something to pleasure thee, which I might yield as freely as the natural
+      fountain sends forth its waters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me touch that victorious hand," said the sage, "in token that if
+      Adonbec el Hakim should hereafter demand a boon of Richard of England, he
+      may do so, yet plead his command."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast hand and glove upon it, man," replied Richard; "only, if thou
+      couldst consistently make up thy tale of patients without craving me to
+      deliver from punishment those who have deserved it, I would more willingly
+      discharge my debt in some other form."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May thy days be multiplied!" answered the Hakim, and withdrew from the
+      apartment after the usual deep obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard gazed after him as he departed, like one but half-satisfied
+      with what had passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Strange pertinacity," he said, "in this Hakim, and a wonderful chance to
+      interfere between that audacious Scot and the chastisement he has merited
+      so richly. Yet let him live! there is one brave man the more in the world.
+      And now for the Austrian. Ho! is the Baron of Gilsland there without?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Thomas de Vaux thus summoned, his bulky form speedily darkened the
+      opening of the pavilion, while behind him glided as a spectre,
+      unannounced, yet unopposed, the savage form of the hermit of Engaddi,
+      wrapped in his goatskin mantle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, without noticing his presence, called in a loud tone to the
+      baron, "Sir Thomas de Vaux, of Lanercost and Gilsland, take trumpet and
+      herald, and go instantly to the tent of him whom they call Archduke of
+      Austria, and see that it be when the press of his knights and vassals is
+      greatest around him, as is likely at this hour, for the German boar
+      breakfasts ere he hears mass&mdash;enter his presence with as little
+      reverence as thou mayest, and impeach him, on the part of Richard of
+      England, that he hath this night, by his own hand, or that of others,
+      stolen from its staff the Banner of England. Wherefore say to him our
+      pleasure that within an hour from the time of my speaking he restore the
+      said banner with all reverence&mdash;he himself and his principal barons
+      waiting the whilst with heads uncovered, and without their robes of
+      honour. And that, moreover, he pitch beside it, on the one hand, his own
+      Banner of Austria reversed, as that which hath been dishonoured by theft
+      and felony, and on the other, a lance, bearing the bloody head of him who
+      was his nearest counsellor, or assistant, in this base injury. And say,
+      that such our behests being punctually discharged we will, for the sake of
+      our vow and the weal of the Holy Land, forgive his other forfeits."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how if the Duke of Austria deny all accession to this act of wrong
+      and of felony?" said Thomas de Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell him," replied the King, "we will prove it upon his body&mdash;ay,
+      were he backed with his two bravest champions. Knightlike will we prove
+      it, on foot or on horse, in the desert or in the field, time, place, and
+      arms all at his own choice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bethink you of the peace of God and the church, my liege lord," said the
+      Baron of Gilsland, "among those princes engaged in this holy Crusade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bethink you how to execute my commands, my liege vassal," answered
+      Richard impatiently. "Methinks men expect to turn our purpose by their
+      breath, as boys blow feathers to and fro. Peace of the church! Who, I
+      prithee, minds it? The peace of the church, among Crusaders, implies war
+      with the Saracens, with whom the princes have made truce; and the one ends
+      with the other. And besides, see you not how every prince of them is
+      seeking his own several ends? I will seek mine also&mdash;and that is
+      honour. For honour I came hither; and if I may not win it upon the
+      Saracens, at least I will not lose a jot from any respect to this paltry
+      Duke, though he were bulwarked and buttressed by every prince in the
+      Crusade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux turned to obey the King's mandate, shrugging his shoulders at the
+      same time, the bluntness of his nature being unable to conceal that its
+      tenor went against his judgment. But the hermit of Engaddi stepped
+      forward, and assumed the air of one charged with higher commands than
+      those of a mere earthly potentate. Indeed, his dress of shaggy skins, his
+      uncombed and untrimmed hair and beard, his lean, wild, and contorted
+      features, and the almost insane fire which gleamed from under his bushy
+      eyebrows, made him approach nearly to our idea of some seer of Scripture,
+      who, charged with high mission to the sinful Kings of Judah or Israel,
+      descended from the rocks and caverns in which he dwelt in abstracted
+      solitude, to abash earthly tyrants in the midst of their pride, by
+      discharging on them the blighting denunciations of Divine Majesty, even as
+      the cloud discharges the lightnings with which it is fraught on the
+      pinnacles and towers of castles and palaces. In the midst of his most
+      wayward mood, Richard respected the church and its ministers; and though
+      offended at the intrusion of the hermit into his tent, he greeted him with
+      respect&mdash;at the same time, however, making a sign to Sir Thomas de
+      Vaux to hasten on his message.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the hermit prohibited the baron, by gesture, look, and word, to stir a
+      yard on such an errand; and holding up his bare arm, from which the
+      goatskin mantle fell back in the violence of his action, he waved it
+      aloft, meagre with famine, and wealed with the blows of the discipline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the name of God, and of the most holy Father, the vicegerent of the
+      Christian Church upon earth, I prohibit this most profane, bloodthirsty,
+      and brutal defiance betwixt two Christian princes, whose shoulders are
+      signed with the blessed mark under which they swore brotherhood. Woe to
+      him by whom it is broken!&mdash;Richard of England, recall the most
+      unhallowed message thou hast given to that baron. Danger and death are
+      nigh thee!&mdash;the dagger is glancing at thy very throat!&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Danger and death are playmates to Richard," answered the Monarch proudly;
+      "and he hath braved too many swords to fear a dagger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Danger and death are near," replied the seer, and sinking his voice to a
+      hollow, unearthly tone, he added, "And after death the judgment!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good and holy father," said Richard, "I reverence thy person and thy
+      sanctity&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Reverence not me!" interrupted the hermit; "reverence sooner the vilest
+      insect that crawls by the shores of the Dead Sea, and feeds upon its
+      accursed slime. But reverence Him whose commands I speak&mdash;reverence
+      Him whose sepulchre you have vowed to rescue&mdash;revere the oath of
+      concord which you have sworn, and break not the silver cord of union and
+      fidelity with which you have bound yourself to your princely
+      confederates."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good father," said the King, "you of the church seem to me to presume
+      somewhat, if a layman may say so much, upon the dignity of your holy
+      character. Without challenging your right to take charge of our
+      conscience, methinks you might leave us the charge of our own honour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Presume!" repeated the hermit. "Is it for me to presume, royal Richard,
+      who am but the bell obeying the hand of the sexton&mdash;but the senseless
+      and worthless trumpet carrying the command of him who sounds it? See, on
+      my knees I throw myself before thee, imploring thee to have mercy on
+      Christendom, on England, and on thyself!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rise, rise," said Richard, compelling him to stand up; "it beseems not
+      that knees which are so frequently bended to the Deity should press the
+      ground in honour of man. What danger awaits us, reverend father? and when
+      stood the power of England so low that the noisy bluster of this new-made
+      Duke's displeasure should alarm her or her monarch?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have looked forth from my mountain turret upon the starry host of
+      heaven, as each in his midnight circuit uttered wisdom to another, and
+      knowledge to the few who can understand their voice. There sits an enemy
+      in thy House of Life, Lord King, malign at once to thy fame and thy
+      prosperity&mdash;an emanation of Saturn, menacing thee with instant and
+      bloody peril, and which, but thou yield thy proud will to the rule of thy
+      duty, will presently crush thee even in thy pride."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Away, away&mdash;this is heathen science," said the King. "Christians
+      practise it not&mdash;wise men believe it not. Old man, thou dotest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dote not, Richard," answered the hermit&mdash;"I am not so happy. I
+      know my condition, and that some portion of reason is yet permitted me,
+      not for my own use, but that of the Church and the advancement of the
+      Cross. I am the blind man who holds a torch to others, though it yields no
+      light to himself. Ask me touching what concerns the weal of Christendom,
+      and of this Crusade, and I will speak with thee as the wisest counsellor
+      on whose tongue persuasion ever sat. Speak to me of my own wretched being,
+      and my words shall be those of the maniac outcast which I am."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would not break the bands of unity asunder among the princes of the
+      Crusade," said Richard, with a mitigated tone and manner; "but what
+      atonement can they render me for the injustice and insult which I have
+      sustained?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even of that I am prepared and commissioned to speak by the Council,
+      which, meeting hastily at the summons of Philip of France, have taken
+      measures for that effect."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Strange," replied Richard, "that others should treat of what is due to
+      the wounded majesty of England!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are willing to anticipate your demands, if it be possible," answered
+      the hermit. "In a body, they consent that the Banner of England be
+      replaced on Saint George's Mount; and they lay under ban and condemnation
+      the audacious criminal, or criminals, by whom it was outraged, and will
+      announce a princely reward to any who shall denounce the delinquent's
+      guilt, and give his flesh to the wolves and ravens."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And Austria," said Richard, "upon whom rest such strong presumptions that
+      he was the author of the deed?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To prevent discord in the host," replied the hermit, "Austria will clear
+      himself of the suspicion by submitting to whatsoever ordeal the Patriarch
+      of Jerusalem shall impose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will he clear himself by the trial by combat?" said King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His oath prohibits it," said the hermit; "and, moreover, the Council of
+      the Princes&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will neither authorize battle against the Saracens," interrupted Richard,
+      "nor against any one else. But it is enough, father&mdash;thou hast shown
+      me the folly of proceeding as I designed in this matter. You shall sooner
+      light your torch in a puddle of rain than bring a spark out of a
+      cold-blooded coward. There is no honour to be gained on Austria, and so
+      let him pass. I will have him perjure himself, however; I will insist on
+      the ordeal. How I shall laugh to hear his clumsy fingers hiss, as he
+      grasps the red-hot globe of iron! Ay, or his huge mouth riven, and his
+      gullet swelling to suffocation, as he endeavours to swallow the
+      consecrated bread!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, Richard," said the hermit&mdash;"oh, peace, for shame, if not for
+      charity! Who shall praise or honour princes who insult and calumniate each
+      other? Alas! that a creature so noble as thou art&mdash;so accomplished in
+      princely thoughts and princely daring&mdash;so fitted to honour
+      Christendom by thy actions, and, in thy calmer mood, to rule her by thy
+      wisdom, should yet have the brute and wild fury of the lion mingled with
+      the dignity and courage of that king of the forest!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained an instant musing with his eyes fixed on the ground, and then
+      proceeded&mdash;"But Heaven, that knows our imperfect nature, accepts of
+      our imperfect obedience, and hath delayed, though not averted, the bloody
+      end of thy daring life. The destroying angel hath stood still, as of old
+      by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and the blade is drawn in
+      his hand, by which, at no distant date, Richard, the lion-hearted, shall
+      be as low as the meanest peasant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Must it, then, be so soon?" said Richard. "Yet, even so be it. May my
+      course be bright, if it be but brief!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas! noble King," said the solitary, and it seemed as if a tear
+      (unwonted guest) were gathering in his dry and glazened eye, "short and
+      melancholy, marked with mortification, and calamity, and captivity, is the
+      span that divides thee from the grave which yawns for thee&mdash;a grave
+      in which thou shalt be laid without lineage to succeed thee&mdash;without
+      the tears of a people, exhausted by thy ceaseless wars, to lament thee&mdash;without
+      having extended the knowledge of thy subjects&mdash;without having done
+      aught to enlarge their happiness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But not without renown, monk&mdash;not without the tears of the lady of
+      my love! These consolations, which thou canst neither know nor estimate,
+      await upon Richard to his grave."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "DO I not know, CAN I not estimate the value of minstrel's praise and of
+      lady's love?" retorted the hermit, in a tone which for a moment seemed to
+      emulate the enthusiasm of Richard himself. "King of England," he
+      continued, extending his emaciated arm, "the blood which boils in thy blue
+      veins is not more noble than that which stagnates in mine. Few and cold as
+      the drops are, they still are of the blood of the royal Lusignan&mdash;of
+      the heroic and sainted Godfrey. I am&mdash;that is, I was when in the
+      world&mdash;Alberick Mortemar&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whose deeds," said Richard, "have so often filled Fame's trumpet! Is it
+      so?&mdash;can it be so? Could such a light as thine fall from the horizon
+      of chivalry, and yet men be uncertain where its embers had alighted?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seek a fallen star," said the hermit, "and thou shalt only light on some
+      foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a
+      moment an appearance of splendour. Richard, if I thought that rending the
+      bloody veil from my horrible fate could make thy proud heart stoop to the
+      discipline of the church, I could find in my heart to tell thee a tale,
+      which I have hitherto kept gnawing at my vitals in concealment, like the
+      self-devoted youth of heathenesse. Listen, then, Richard, and may the
+      grief and despair which cannot avail this wretched remnant of what was
+      once a man be powerful as an example to so noble, yet so wild, a being as
+      thou art! Yes&mdash;I will&mdash;I WILL tear open the long-hidden wounds,
+      although in thy very presence they should bleed to death!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard, upon whom the history of Alberick of Mortemar had made a
+      deep impression in his early years, when minstrels were regaling his
+      father's halls with legends of the Holy Land, listened with respect to the
+      outlines of a tale, which, darkly and imperfectly sketched, indicated
+      sufficiently the cause of the partial insanity of this singular and most
+      unhappy being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I need not," he said, "tell thee that I was noble in birth, high in
+      fortune, strong in arms, wise in counsel. All these I was. But while the
+      noblest ladies in Palestine strove which should wind garlands for my
+      helmet, my love was fixed&mdash;unalterably and devotedly fixed&mdash;on a
+      maiden of low degree. Her father, an ancient soldier of the Cross, saw our
+      passion, and knowing the difference betwixt us, saw no other refuge for
+      his daughter's honour than to place her within the shadow of the cloister.
+      I returned from a distant expedition, loaded with spoils and honour, to
+      find my happiness was destroyed for ever! I too sought the cloister; and
+      Satan, who had marked me for his own, breathed into my heart a vapour of
+      spiritual pride, which could only have had its source in his own infernal
+      regions. I had risen as high in the church as before in the state. I was,
+      forsooth, the wise, the self-sufficient, the impeccable!&mdash;I was the
+      counsellor of councils&mdash;I was the director of prelates. How should I
+      stumble?&mdash;wherefore should I fear temptation? Alas! I became
+      confessor to a sisterhood, and amongst that sisterhood I found the
+      long-loved&mdash;the long-lost. Spare me further confession!&mdash;A
+      fallen nun, whose guilt was avenged by self-murder, sleeps soundly in the
+      vaults of Engaddi; while, above her very grave, gibbers, moans, and roars
+      a creature to whom but so much reason is left as may suffice to render him
+      completely sensible to his fate!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Unhappy man!" said Richard, "I wonder no longer at thy misery. How didst
+      thou escape the doom which the canons denounce against thy offence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ask one who is yet in the gall of worldly bitterness," said the hermit,
+      "and he will speak of a life spared for personal respects, and from
+      consideration to high birth. But, Richard, I tell thee that Providence
+      hath preserved me to lift me on high as a light and beacon, whose ashes,
+      when this earthly fuel is burnt out, must yet be flung into Tophet.
+      Withered and shrunk as this poor form is, it is yet animated with two
+      spirits&mdash;one active, shrewd, and piercing, to advocate the cause of
+      the Church of Jerusalem; one mean, abject, and despairing, fluctuating
+      between madness and misery, to mourn over my own wretchedness, and to
+      guard holy relics on which it would be most sinful for me even to cast my
+      eye. Pity me not!&mdash;it is but sin to pity the loss of such an abject;
+      pity me not, but profit by my example. Thou standest on the highest, and,
+      therefore, on the most dangerous pinnacle occupied by any Christian
+      prince. Thou art proud of heart, loose of life, bloody of hand. Put from
+      thee the sins which are to thee as daughters&mdash;though they be dear to
+      the sinful Adam, expel these adopted furies from thy breast&mdash;thy
+      pride, thy luxury, thy bloodthirstiness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He raves," said Richard, turning from the solitary to De Vaux, as one who
+      felt some pain from a sarcasm which yet he could not resent; then turned
+      him calmly, and somewhat scornfully, to the anchoret, as he replied, "Thou
+      hast found a fair bevy of daughters, reverend father, to one who hath been
+      but few months married; but since I must put them from my roof, it were
+      but like a father to provide them with suitable matches. Therefore, I will
+      part with my pride to the noble canons of the church&mdash;my luxury, as
+      thou callest it, to the monks of the rule&mdash;and my bloodthirstiness to
+      the Knights of the Temple."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O heart of steel, and hand of iron," said the anchoret, "upon whom
+      example, as well as advice, is alike thrown away! Yet shalt thou be spared
+      for a season, in case it so be thou shouldst turn, and do that which is
+      acceptable in the sight of Heaven. For me I must return to my place. Kyrie
+      Eleison! I am he through whom the rays of heavenly grace dart like those
+      of the sun through a burning-glass, concentrating them on other objects,
+      until they kindle and blaze, while the glass itself remains cold and
+      uninfluenced. Kyrie Eleison!&mdash;the poor must be called, for the rich
+      have refused the banquet&mdash;Kyrie Eleison!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he burst from the tent, uttering loud cries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A mad priest!" said Richard, from whose mind the frantic exclamations of
+      the hermit had partly obliterated the impression produced by the detail of
+      his personal history and misfortunes. "After him, De Vaux, and see he
+      comes to no harm; for, Crusaders as we are, a juggler hath more reverence
+      amongst our varlets than a priest or a saint, and they may, perchance, put
+      some scorn upon him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight obeyed, and Richard presently gave way to the thoughts which
+      the wild prophecy of the monk had inspired. "To die early&mdash;without
+      lineage&mdash;without lamentation! A heavy sentence, and well that it is
+      not passed by a more competent judge. Yet the Saracens, who are
+      accomplished in mystical knowledge, will often maintain that He, in whose
+      eyes the wisdom of the sage is but as folly, inspires wisdom and prophecy
+      into the seeming folly of the madman. Yonder hermit is said to read the
+      stars, too, an art generally practised in these lands, where the heavenly
+      host was of yore the object of idolatry. I would I had asked him touching
+      the loss of my banner; for not the blessed Tishbite, the founder of his
+      order, could seem more wildly rapt out of himself, or speak with a tongue
+      more resembling that of a prophet.&mdash;How now, De Vaux, what news of
+      the mad priest?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mad priest, call you him, my lord?" answered De Vaux. "Methinks he
+      resembles more the blessed Baptist himself, just issued from the
+      wilderness. He has placed himself on one of the military engines, and from
+      thence he preaches to the soldiers as never man preached since the time of
+      Peter the Hermit. The camp, alarmed by his cries, crowd around him in
+      thousands; and breaking off every now and then from the main thread of his
+      discourse, he addresses the several nations, each in their own language,
+      and presses upon each the arguments best qualified to urge them to
+      perseverance in the delivery of Palestine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By this light, a noble hermit!" said King Richard. "But what else could
+      come from the blood of Godfrey? HE despair of safety, because he hath in
+      former days lived PAR AMOURS? I will have the Pope send him an ample
+      remission, and I would not less willingly be intercessor had his BELLE
+      AMIE been an abbess."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the Archbishop of Tyre craved audience, for the purpose of
+      requesting Richard's attendance, should his health permit, on a secret
+      conclave of the chiefs of the Crusade, and to explain to him the military
+      and political incidents which had occurred during his illness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Must we then sheathe our still victorious sword;
+     Turn back our forward step, which ever trod
+     O'er foemen's necks the onward path of glory;
+     Unclasp the mail, which with a solemn vow,
+     In God's own house, we hung upon our shoulders&mdash;
+     That vow, as unaccomplish'd as the promise
+     Which village nurses make to still their children,
+     And after think no more of?
+           THE CRUSADE, A TRAGEDY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Archbishop of Tyre was an emissary well chosen to communicate to
+      Richard tidings, which from another voice the lion-hearted King would not
+      have brooked to hear without the most unbounded explosions of resentment.
+      Even this sagacious and reverend prelate found difficulty in inducing him
+      to listen to news which destroyed all his hopes of gaining back the Holy
+      Sepulchre by force of arms, and acquiring the renown which the universal
+      all-hail of Christendom was ready to confer upon him as the Champion of
+      the Cross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, by the Archbishop's report, it appeared that Saladin was assembling
+      all the force of his hundred tribes, and that the monarchs of Europe,
+      already disgusted from various motives with the expedition, which had
+      proved so hazardous, and was daily growing more so, had resolved to
+      abandon their purpose. In this they were countenanced by the example of
+      Philip of France, who, with many protestations of regard, and assurances
+      that he would first see his brother of England in safety, declared his
+      intention to return to Europe. His great vassal, the Earl of Champagne,
+      had adopted the same resolution; and it could not excite surprise that
+      Leopold of Austria, affronted as he had been by Richard, was glad to
+      embrace an opportunity of deserting a cause in which his haughty opponent
+      was to be considered as chief. Others announced the same purpose; so that
+      it was plain that the King of England was to be left, if he chose to
+      remain, supported only by such volunteers as might, under such depressing
+      circumstances, join themselves to the English army, and by the doubtful
+      aid of Conrade of Montserrat and the military orders of the Temple and of
+      Saint John, who, though they were sworn to wage battle against the
+      Saracens, were at least equally jealous of any European monarch achieving
+      the conquest of Palestine, where, with shortsighted and selfish policy,
+      they proposed to establish independent dominions of their own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It needed not many arguments to show Richard the truth of his situation;
+      and indeed, after his first burst of passion, he sat him calmly down, and
+      with gloomy looks, head depressed, and arms folded on his bosom, listened
+      to the Archbishop's reasoning on the impossibility of his carrying on the
+      Crusade when deserted by his companions. Nay, he forbore interruption,
+      even when the prelate ventured, in measured terms, to hint that Richard's
+      own impetuosity had been one main cause of disgusting the princes with the
+      expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "CONFITEOR," answered Richard, with a dejected look, and something of a
+      melancholy smile&mdash;"I confess, reverend father, that I ought on some
+      accounts to sing CULPA MEA. But is it not hard that my frailties of temper
+      should be visited with such a penance&mdash;that, for a burst or two of
+      natural passion, I should be doomed to see fade before me ungathered such
+      a rich harvest of glory to God and honour to chivalry? But it shall NOT
+      fade. By the soul of the Conqueror, I will plant the Cross on the towers
+      of Jerusalem, or it shall be planted over Richard's grave!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou mayest do it," said the prelate, "yet not another drop of Christian
+      blood be shed in the quarrel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah, you speak of compromise, Lord Prelate; but the blood of the infidel
+      hounds must also cease to flow," said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There will be glory enough," replied the Archbishop, "in having extorted
+      from Saladin, by force of arms, and by the respect inspired by your fame,
+      such conditions as at once restore the Holy Sepulchre, open the Holy Land
+      to pilgrims, secure their safety by strong fortresses, and, stronger than
+      all, assure the safety of the Holy City, by conferring on Richard the
+      title of King Guardian of Jerusalem."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!" said Richard, his eyes sparkling with unusual light. "I&mdash;I&mdash;I
+      the King Guardian of the Holy City! Victory itself, but that it is
+      victory, could not gain more&mdash;scarce so much, when won with unwilling
+      and disunited forces. But Saladin still proposes to retain his interest in
+      the Holy Land?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As a joint sovereign, the sworn ally," replied the prelate, "of the
+      mighty Richard&mdash;his relative, if it may be permitted, by marriage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By marriage!" said Richard, surprised, yet less so than the prelate had
+      expected. "Ha!&mdash;ay&mdash;Edith Plantagenet. Did I dream this? or did
+      some one tell me? My head is still weak from this fever, and has been
+      agitated. Was it the Scot, or the Hakim, or yonder holy hermit, that
+      hinted such a wild bargain?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The hermit of Engaddi, most likely," said the Archbishop, "for he hath
+      toiled much in this matter; and since the discontent of the princes has
+      became apparent, and a separation of their forces unavoidable, he hath had
+      many consultations, both with Christian and pagan, for arranging such a
+      pacification as may give to Christendom, at least in part, the objects of
+      this holy warfare."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My kinswoman to an infidel&mdash;ha!" exclaimed Richard, as his eyes
+      began to sparkle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prelate hastened to avert his wrath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Pope's consent must doubtless be first attained, and the holy hermit,
+      who is well known at Rome, will treat with the holy Father."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How?&mdash;without our consent first given?" said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely no," said the Bishop, in a quieting and insinuating tone of voice&mdash;"only
+      with and under your especial sanction."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My sanction to marry my kinswoman to an infidel!" said Richard; yet he
+      spoke rather in a tone of doubt than as distinctly reprobating the measure
+      proposed. "Could I have dreamed of such a composition when I leaped upon
+      the Syrian shore from the prow of my galley, even as a lion springs on his
+      prey! And now&mdash;But proceed&mdash;I will hear with patience."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Equally delighted and surprised to find his task so much easier than he
+      had apprehended, the Archbishop hastened to pour forth before Richard the
+      instances of such alliances in Spain&mdash;not without countenance from
+      the Holy See; the incalculable advantages which all Christendom would
+      derive from the union of Richard and Saladin by a bond so sacred; and,
+      above all, he spoke with great vehemence and unction on the probability
+      that Saladin would, in case of the proposed alliance, exchange his false
+      faith for the true one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hath the Soldan shown any disposition to become Christian?" said Richard.
+      "If so, the king lives not on earth to whom I would grant the hand of a
+      kinswoman, ay, or sister, sooner than to my noble Saladin&mdash;ay, though
+      the one came to lay crown and sceptre at her feet, and the other had
+      nothing to offer but his good sword and better heart!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saladin hath heard our Christian teachers," said the Bishop, somewhat
+      evasively&mdash;"my unworthy self, and others&mdash;and as he listens with
+      patience, and replies with calmness, it can hardly be but that he be
+      snatched as a brand from the burning. MAGNA EST VERITAS, ET PREVALEBIT!
+      moreover, the hermit of Engaddi, few of whose words have fallen fruitless
+      to the ground, is possessed fully with the belief that there is a calling
+      of the Saracens and the other heathen approaching, to which this marriage
+      shall be matter of induction. He readeth the course of the stars; and
+      dwelling, with maceration of the flesh, in those divine places which the
+      saints have trodden of old, the spirit of Elijah the Tishbite, the founder
+      of his blessed order, hath been with him as it was with the prophet
+      Elisha, the son of Shaphat, when he spread his mantle over him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard listened to the Prelate's reasoning with a downcast brow and
+      a troubled look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot tell," he said, "How, it is with me, but methinks these cold
+      counsels of the Princes of Christendom have infected me too with a
+      lethargy of spirit. The time hath been that, had a layman proposed such
+      alliance to me, I had struck him to earth&mdash;if a churchman, I had spit
+      at him as a renegade and priest of Baal; yet now this counsel sounds not
+      so strange in mine ear. For why should I not seek for brotherhood and
+      alliance with a Saracen, brave, just, generous&mdash;who loves and honours
+      a worthy foe, as if he were a friend&mdash;whilst the Princes of
+      Christendom shrink from the side of their allies, and forsake the cause of
+      Heaven and good knighthood? But I will possess my patience, and will not
+      think of them. Only one attempt will I make to keep this gallant
+      brotherhood together, if it be possible; and if I fail, Lord Archbishop,
+      we will speak together of thy counsel, which, as now, I neither accept nor
+      altogether reject. Wend we to the Council, my lord&mdash;the hour calls
+      us. Thou sayest Richard is hasty and proud&mdash;thou shalt see him humble
+      himself like the lowly broom-plant from which he derives his surname."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the assistance of those of his privy chamber, the King then hastily
+      robed himself in a doublet and mantle of a dark and uniform colour; and
+      without any mark of regal dignity, excepting a ring of gold upon his head,
+      he hastened with the Archbishop of Tyre to attend the Council, which
+      waited but his presence to commence its sitting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pavilion of the Council was an ample tent, having before it the large
+      Banner of the Cross displayed, and another, on which was portrayed a
+      female kneeling, with dishevelled hair and disordered dress, meant to
+      represent the desolate and distressed Church of Jerusalem, and bearing the
+      motto, AFFLICTAE SPONSAE NE OBLIVISCARIS. Warders, carefully selected,
+      kept every one at a distance from the neighbourhood of this tent, lest the
+      debates, which were sometimes of a loud and stormy character, should reach
+      other ears than those they were designed for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, therefore, the princes of the Crusade were assembled awaiting
+      Richard's arrival. And even the brief delay which was thus interposed was
+      turned to his disadvantage by his enemies, various instances being
+      circulated of his pride and undue assumption of superiority, of which even
+      the necessity of the present short pause was quoted as an instance. Men
+      strove to fortify each other in their evil opinion of the King of England,
+      and vindicated the offence which each had taken, by putting the most
+      severe construction upon circumstances the most trifling; and all this,
+      perhaps, because they were conscious of an instinctive reverence for the
+      heroic monarch, which it would require more than ordinary efforts to
+      overcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had settled, accordingly, that they should receive him on his
+      entrance with slight notice, and no more respect than was exactly
+      necessary to keep within the bounds of cold ceremonial. But when they
+      beheld that noble form, that princely countenance, somewhat pale from his
+      late illness&mdash;the eye which had been called by minstrels the bright
+      star of battle and victory&mdash;when his feats, almost surpassing human
+      strength and valour, rushed on their recollection, the Council of Princes
+      simultaneously arose&mdash;even the jealous King of France and the sullen
+      and offended Duke of Austria&mdash;arose with one consent, and the
+      assembled princes burst forth with one voice in the acclamation, "God save
+      King Richard of England! Long life to the valiant Lion's-heart!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a countenance frank and open as the summer sun when it rises, Richard
+      distributed his thanks around, and congratulated himself on being once
+      more among his royal brethren of the Crusade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Some brief words he desired to say," such was his address to the
+      assembly, "though on a subject so unworthy as himself, even at the risk of
+      delaying for a few minutes their consultations for the weal of Christendom
+      and the advancement of their holy enterprise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The assembled princes resumed their seats, and there was a profound
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This day," continued the King of England, "is a high festival of the
+      church, and it well becomes Christian men, at such a tide, to reconcile
+      themselves with their brethren, and confess their faults to each other.
+      Noble princes and fathers of this holy expedition, Richard is a soldier&mdash;his
+      hand is ever readier than his tongue&mdash;and his tongue is but too much
+      used to the rough language of his trade. But do not, for Plantagenet's
+      hasty speeches and ill-considered actions, forsake the noble cause of the
+      redemption of Palestine&mdash;do not throw away earthly renown and eternal
+      salvation, to be won here if ever they can be won by man, because the act
+      of a soldier may have been hasty, and his speech as hard as the iron which
+      he has worn from childhood. Is Richard in default to any of you, Richard
+      will make compensation both by word and action.&mdash;Noble brother of
+      France, have I been so unlucky as to offend you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Majesty of France has no atonement to seek from that of England,"
+      answered Philip, with kingly dignity, accepting, at the same time, the
+      offered hand of Richard; "and whatever opinion I may adopt concerning the
+      prosecution of this enterprise will depend on reasons arising out of the
+      state of my own kingdom&mdash;certainly on no jealousy or disgust at my
+      royal and most valorous brother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Austria," said Richard, walking up to the Archduke, with a mixture of
+      frankness and dignity, while Leopold arose from his seat, as if
+      involuntarily, and with the action of an automaton, whose motions depended
+      upon some external impulse&mdash;"Austria thinks he hath reason to be
+      offended with England; England, that he hath cause to complain of Austria.
+      Let them exchange forgiveness, that the peace of Europe and the concord of
+      this host may remain unbroken. We are now joint supporters of a more
+      glorious banner than ever blazed before an earthly prince, even the Banner
+      of Salvation. Let not, therefore, strife be betwixt us for the symbol of
+      our more worldly dignities; but let Leopold restore the pennon of England,
+      if he has it in his power, and Richard will say, though from no motive
+      save his love for Holy Church, that he repents him of the hasty mood in
+      which he did insult the standard of Austria."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archduke stood still, sullen and discontented, with his eyes fixed on
+      the floor, and his countenance lowering with smothered displeasure, which
+      awe, mingled with awkwardness, prevented his giving vent to in words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Patriarch of Jerusalem hastened to break the embarrassing silence, and
+      to bear witness for the Archduke of Austria that he had exculpated
+      himself, by a solemn oath, from all knowledge, direct or indirect, of the
+      aggression done to the Banner of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then we have done the noble Archduke the greater wrong," said Richard;
+      "and craving his pardon for imputing to him an outrage so cowardly, we
+      extend our hand to him in token of renewed peace and amity. But how is
+      this? Austria refuses our uncovered hand, as he formerly refused our
+      mailed glove? What! are we neither to be his mate in peace nor his
+      antagonist in war? Well, let it be so. We will take the slight esteem in
+      which he holds us as a penance for aught which we may have done against
+      him in heat of blood, and will therefore hold the account between us
+      cleared."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he turned from the Archduke with an air rather of dignity than
+      scorn, leaving the Austrian apparently as much relieved by the removal of
+      his eye as is a sullen and truant schoolboy when the glance of his severe
+      pedagogue is withdrawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Noble Earl of Champagne&mdash;princely Marquis of Montserrat&mdash;valiant
+      Grand Master of the Templars&mdash;I am here a penitent in the
+      confessional. Do any of you bring a charge or claim amends from me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not on what we could ground any," said the smooth-tongued Conrade,
+      "unless it were that the King of England carries off from his poor
+      brothers of the war all the fame which they might have hoped to gain in
+      the expedition."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My charge, if I am called on to make one," said the Master of the
+      Templars, "is graver and deeper than that of the Marquis of Montserrat. It
+      may be thought ill to beseem a military monk such as I to raise his voice
+      where so many noble princes remain silent; but it concerns our whole host,
+      and not least this noble King of England, that he should hear from some
+      one to his face those charges which there are enow to bring against him in
+      his absence. We laud and honour the courage and high achievements of the
+      King of England; but we feel aggrieved that he should on all occasions
+      seize and maintain a precedence and superiority over us, which it becomes
+      not independent princes to submit to. Much we might yield of our free will
+      to his bravery, his zeal, his wealth, and his power; but he who snatches
+      all as matter of right, and leaves nothing to grant out of courtesy and
+      favour, degrades us from allies into retainers and vassals, and sullies in
+      the eyes of our soldiers and subjects the lustre of our authority, which
+      is no longer independently exercised. Since the royal Richard has asked
+      the truth from us, he must neither be surprised nor angry when he hears
+      one, to whom worldly pomp is prohibited, and secular authority is nothing,
+      saving so far as it advances the prosperity of God's Temple, and the
+      prostration of the lion which goeth about seeking whom he may devour&mdash;when
+      he hears, I say, such a one as I tell him the truth in reply to his
+      question; which truth, even while I speak it, is, I know, confirmed by the
+      heart of every one who hears me, however respect may stifle their voices."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard coloured very highly while the Grand Master was making this direct
+      and unvarnished attack upon his conduct, and the murmur of assent which
+      followed it showed plainly that almost all who were present acquiesced in
+      the justice of the accusation. Incensed, and at the same time mortified,
+      he yet foresaw that to give way to his headlong resentment would be to
+      give the cold and wary accuser the advantage over him which it was the
+      Templar's principal object to obtain. He therefore, with a strong effort,
+      remained silent till he had repeated a pater noster, being the course
+      which his confessor had enjoined him to pursue when anger was likely to
+      obtain dominion over him. The King then spoke with composure, though not
+      without an embittered tone, especially at the outset:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And is it even so? And are our brethren at such pains to note the
+      infirmities of our natural temper, and the rough precipitance of our zeal,
+      which may sometimes have urged us to issue commands when there was little
+      time to hold council? I could not have thought that offences, casual and
+      unpremeditated like mine, could find such deep root in the hearts of my
+      allies in this most holy cause; that for my sake they should withdraw
+      their hands from the plough when the furrow was near the end&mdash;for my
+      sake turn aside from the direct path to Jerusalem, which their swords have
+      opened. I vainly thought that my small services might have outweighed my
+      rash errors&mdash;that if it were remembered that I pressed to the van in
+      an assault, it would not be forgotten that I was ever the last in the
+      retreat&mdash;that, if I elevated my banner upon conquered fields of
+      battle, it was all the advantage that I sought, while others were dividing
+      the spoil. I may have called the conquered city by my name, but it was to
+      others that I yielded the dominion. If I have been headstrong in urging
+      bold counsels, I have not, methinks, spared my own blood or my people's in
+      carrying them into as bold execution; or if I have, in the hurry of march
+      or battle, assumed a command over the soldiers of others, such have been
+      ever treated as my own when my wealth purchased the provisions and
+      medicines which their own sovereigns could not procure. But it shames me
+      to remind you of what all but myself seem to have forgotten. Let us rather
+      look forward to our future measures; and believe me, brethren," he
+      continued, his face kindling with eagerness, "you shall not find the
+      pride, or the wrath, or the ambition of Richard a stumbling-block of
+      offence in the path to which religion and glory summon you as with the
+      trumpet of an archangel. Oh, no, no! never would I survive the thought
+      that my frailties and infirmities had been the means to sever this goodly
+      fellowship of assembled princes. I would cut off my left hand with my
+      right, could my doing so attest my sincerity. I will yield up,
+      voluntarily, all right to command in the host&mdash;even mine own liege
+      subjects. They shall be led by such sovereigns as you may nominate; and
+      their King, ever but too apt to exchange the leader's baton for the
+      adventurer's lance, will serve under the banner of Beau-Seant among the
+      Templars&mdash;ay, or under that of Austria, if Austria will name a brave
+      man to lead his forces. Or if ye are yourselves a-weary of this war, and
+      feel your armour chafe your tender bodies, leave but with Richard some ten
+      or fifteen thousand of your soldiers to work out the accomplishment of
+      your vow; and when Zion is won," he exclaimed, waving his hand aloft, as
+      if displaying the standard of the Cross over Jerusalem&mdash;"when Zion is
+      won, we will write upon her gates, NOT the name of Richard Plantagenet,
+      but of those generous princes who entrusted him with the means of
+      conquest!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rough eloquence and determined expression of the military monarch at
+      once roused the drooping spirits of the Crusaders, reanimated their
+      devotion, and, fixing their attention on the principal object of the
+      expedition, made most of them who were present blush for having been moved
+      by such petty subjects of complaint as had before engrossed them. Eye
+      caught fire from eye, voice lent courage to voice. They resumed, as with
+      one accord, the war-cry with which the sermon of Peter the Hermit was
+      echoed back, and shouted aloud, "Lead us on, gallant Lion's-heart; none so
+      worthy to lead where brave men follow. Lead us on&mdash;to Jerusalem&mdash;to
+      Jerusalem! It is the will of God&mdash;it is the will of God! Blessed is
+      he who shall lend an arm to its fulfilment!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shout, so suddenly and generally raised, was heard beyond the ring of
+      sentinels who guarded the pavilion of Council, and spread among the
+      soldiers of the host, who, inactive and dispirited by disease and climate,
+      had begun, like their leaders, to droop in resolution; but the
+      reappearance of Richard in renewed vigour, and the well-known shout which
+      echoed from the assembly of the princes, at once rekindled their
+      enthusiasm, and thousands and tens of thousands answered with the same
+      shout of "Zion, Zion! War, war! Instant battle with the infidels! It is
+      the will of God&mdash;it is the will of God!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The acclamations from without increased in their turn the enthusiasm which
+      prevailed within the pavilion. Those who did not actually catch the flame
+      were afraid&mdash;at least for the time&mdash;to seem colder than others.
+      There was no more speech except of a proud advance towards Jerusalem upon
+      the expiry of the truce, and the measures to be taken in the meantime for
+      supplying and recruiting the army. The Council broke up, all apparently
+      filled with the same enthusiastic purpose&mdash;which, however, soon faded
+      in the bosom of most, and never had an existence in that of others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the latter class were the Marquis Conrade and the Grand Master of the
+      Templars, who retired together to their quarters ill at ease, and
+      malcontent with the events of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ever told it to thee," said the latter, with the cold, sardonic
+      expression peculiar to him, "that Richard would burst through the flimsy
+      wiles you spread for him, as would a lion through a spider's web. Thou
+      seest he has but to speak, and his breath agitates these fickle fools as
+      easily as the whirlwind catcheth scattered straws, and sweeps them
+      together, or disperses them at its pleasure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When the blast has passed away," said Conrade, "the straws, which it made
+      dance to its pipe, will settle to earth again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But knowest thou not besides," said the Templar, "that it seems, if this
+      new purpose of conquest shall be abandoned and pass away, and each mighty
+      prince shall again be left to such guidance as his own scanty brain can
+      supply, Richard may yet probably become King of Jerusalem by compact, and
+      establish those terms of treaty with the Soldan which thou thyself
+      thought'st him so likely to spurn at?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by Mahound and Termagaunt, for Christian oaths are out of fashion,"
+      said Conrade, "sayest thou the proud King of England would unite his blood
+      with a heathen Soldan? My policy threw in that ingredient to make the
+      whole treaty an abomination to him. As bad for us that he become our
+      master by an agreement, as by victory."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy policy hath ill calculated Richard's digestion," answered the
+      Templar; "I know his mind by a whisper from the Archbishop. And then thy
+      master-stroke respecting yonder banner&mdash;it has passed off with no
+      more respect than two cubits of embroidered silk merited. Marquis Conrade,
+      thy wit begins to halt; I will trust thy finespun measures no longer, but
+      will try my own. Knowest thou not the people whom the Saracens call
+      Charegites?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely," answered the Marquis; "they are desperate and besotted
+      enthusiasts, who devote their lives to the advancement of religion&mdash;-somewhat
+      like Templars, only they are never known to pause in the race of their
+      calling."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jest not," answered the scowling monk. "Know that one of these men has
+      set down in his bloody vow the name of the Island Emperor yonder, to be
+      hewn down as the chief enemy of the Moslem faith."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A most judicious paynim," said Conrade. "May Mohammed send him his
+      paradise for a reward!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He was taken in the camp by one of our squires, and in private
+      examination frankly avowed his fixed and determined purpose to me," said
+      the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now the heavens pardon them who prevented the purpose of this most
+      judicious Charegite!" answered Conrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is my prisoner," added the Templar, "and secluded from speech with
+      others, as thou mayest suppose; but prisons have been broken&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Chains left unlocked, and captives have escaped," answered the Marquis.
+      "It is an ancient saying, no sure dungeon but the grave."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When loose, he resumes his quest," continued the military priest; "for it
+      is the nature of this sort of blood hound never to quit the suit of the
+      prey he has once scented."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say no more of it," said the Marquis; "I see thy policy&mdash;it is
+      dreadful, but the emergency is imminent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I only told thee of it," said the Templar, "that thou mayest keep thyself
+      on thy guard; for the uproar will be dreadful, and there is no knowing on
+      whom the English may vent their rage. Ay, and there is another risk. My
+      page knows the counsels of this Charegite," he continued; "and, moreover,
+      he is a peevish, self-willed fool, whom I would I were rid of, as he
+      thwarts me by presuming to see with his own eyes, not mine. But our holy
+      order gives me power to put a remedy to such inconvenience. Or stay&mdash;the
+      Saracen may find a good dagger in his cell, and I warrant you he uses it
+      as he breaks forth, which will be of a surety so soon as the page enters
+      with his food."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It will give the affair a colour," said Conrade; "and yet&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "YET and BUT," said the Templar, "are words for fools; wise men neither
+      hesitate nor retract&mdash;they resolve and they execute."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     When beauty leads the lion in her toils,
+     Such are her charms, he dare not raise his mane,
+     Far less expand the terror of his fangs.
+     So great Alcides made his club a distaff,
+     And spun to please fair Omphale.
+               ANONYMOUS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Richard, the unsuspicious object of the dark treachery detailed in the
+      closing part of the last chapter, having effected, for the present at
+      least, the triumphant union of the Crusading princes in a resolution to
+      prosecute the war with vigour, had it next at heart to establish
+      tranquillity in his own family; and, now that he could judge more
+      temperately, to inquire distinctly into the circumstances leading to the
+      loss of his banner, and the nature and the extent of the connection
+      betwixt his kinswoman Edith and the banished adventurer from Scotland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, the Queen and her household were startled with a visit from
+      Sir Thomas de Vaux, requesting the present attendance of the Lady Calista
+      of Montfaucon, the Queen's principal bower-woman, upon King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What am I to say, madam?" said the trembling attendant to the Queen, "He
+      will slay us all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, fear not, madam," said De Vaux. "His Majesty hath spared the life of
+      the Scottish knight, who was the chief offender, and bestowed him upon the
+      Moorish physician. He will not be severe upon a lady, though faulty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Devise some cunning tale, wench," said Berengaria. "My husband hath too
+      little time to make inquiry into the truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell the tale as it really happened," said Edith, "lest I tell it for
+      thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With humble permission of her Majesty," said De Vaux, "I would say Lady
+      Edith adviseth well; for although King Richard is pleased to believe what
+      it pleases your Grace to tell him, yet I doubt his having the same
+      deference for the Lady Calista, and in this especial matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Lord of Gilsland is right," said the Lady Calista, much agitated at
+      the thoughts of the investigation which was to take place; "and besides,
+      if I had presence of mind enough to forge a plausible story, beshrew me if
+      I think I should have the courage to tell it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this candid humour, the Lady Calista was conducted by De Vaux to the
+      King, and made, as she had proposed, a full confession of the decoy by
+      which the unfortunate Knight of the Leopard had been induced to desert his
+      post; exculpating the Lady Edith, who, she was aware, would not fail to
+      exculpate herself, and laying the full burden on the Queen, her mistress,
+      whose share of the frolic, she well knew, would appear the most venial in
+      the eyes of Coeur de Lion. In truth, Richard was a fond, almost a uxorious
+      husband. The first burst of his wrath had long since passed away, and he
+      was not disposed severely to censure what could not now be amended. The
+      wily Lady Calista, accustomed from her earliest childhood to fathom the
+      intrigues of a court, and watch the indications of a sovereign's will,
+      hastened back to the Queen with the speed of a lapwing, charged with the
+      King's commands that she should expect a speedy visit from him; to which
+      the bower-lady added a commentary founded on her own observation, tending
+      to show that Richard meant just to preserve so much severity as might
+      bring his royal consort to repent of her frolic, and then to extend to her
+      and all concerned his gracious pardon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sits the wind in that corner, wench?" said the Queen, much relieved by
+      this intelligence. "Believe me that, great commander as he is, Richard
+      will find it hard to circumvent us in this matter, and that, as the
+      Pyrenean shepherds are wont to say in my native Navarre, Many a one comes
+      for wool, and goes back shorn."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having possessed herself of all the information which Calista could
+      communicate, the royal Berengaria arrayed herself in her most becoming
+      dress, and awaited with confidence the arrival of the heroic Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He arrived, and found himself in the situation of a prince entering an
+      offending province, in the confidence that his business will only be to
+      inflict rebuke, and receive submission, when he unexpectedly finds it in a
+      state of complete defiance and insurrection. Berengaria well knew the
+      power of her charms and the extent of Richard's affection, and felt
+      assured that she could make her own terms good, now that the first
+      tremendous explosion of his anger had expended itself without mischief.
+      Far from listening to the King's intended rebuke, as what the levity of
+      her conduct had justly deserved, she extenuated, nay, defended as a
+      harmless frolic, that which she was accused of. She denied, indeed, with
+      many a pretty form of negation, that she had directed Nectabanus
+      absolutely to entice the knight farther than the brink of the Mount on
+      which he kept watch&mdash;and, indeed, this was so far true, that she had
+      not designed Sir Kenneth to be introduced into her tent&mdash;and then,
+      eloquent in urging her own defence, the Queen was far more so in pressing
+      upon Richard the charge of unkindness, in refusing her so poor a boon as
+      the life of an unfortunate knight, who, by her thoughtless prank, had been
+      brought within the danger of martial law. She wept and sobbed while she
+      enlarged on her husband's obduracy on this score, as a rigour which had
+      threatened to make her unhappy for life, whenever she should reflect that
+      she had given, unthinkingly, the remote cause for such a tragedy. The
+      vision of the slaughtered victim would have haunted her dreams&mdash;nay,
+      for aught she knew, since such things often happened, his actual spectre
+      might have stood by her waking couch. To all this misery of the mind was
+      she exposed by the severity of one who, while he pretended to dote upon
+      her slightest glance, would not forego one act of poor revenge, though the
+      issue was to render her miserable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this flow of female eloquence was accompanied with the usual arguments
+      of tears and sighs, and uttered with such tone and action as seemed to
+      show that the Queen's resentment arose neither from pride nor sullenness,
+      but from feelings hurt at finding her consequence with her husband less
+      than she had expected to possess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good King Richard was considerably embarrassed. He tried in vain to
+      reason with one whose very jealousy of his affection rendered her
+      incapable of listening to argument, nor could he bring himself to use the
+      restraint of lawful authority to a creature so beautiful in the midst of
+      her unreasonable displeasure. He was therefore reduced to the defensive,
+      endeavoured gently to chide her suspicions and soothe her displeasure, and
+      recalled to her mind that she need not look back upon the past with
+      recollections either of remorse or supernatural fear, since Sir Kenneth
+      was alive and well, and had been bestowed by him upon the great Arabian
+      physician, who, doubtless, of all men, knew best how to keep him living.
+      But this seemed the unkindest cut of all, and the Queen's sorrow was
+      renewed at the idea of a Saracen&mdash;a mediciner&mdash;obtaining a boon
+      for which, with bare head and on bended knee, she had petitioned her
+      husband in vain. At this new charge Richard's patience began rather to
+      give way, and he said, in a serious tone of voice, "Berengaria, the
+      physician saved my life. If it is of value in your eyes, you will not
+      grudge him a higher recompense than the only one I could prevail on him to
+      accept."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen was satisfied she had urged her coquettish displeasure to the
+      verge of safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My Richard," she said, "why brought you not that sage to me, that
+      England's Queen might show how she esteemed him who could save from
+      extinction the lamp of chivalry, the glory of England, and the light of
+      poor Berengaria's life and hope?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a word, the matrimonial dispute was ended; but, that some penalty might
+      be paid to justice, both King and Queen accorded in laying the whole blame
+      on the agent Nectabanus, who (the Queen being by this time well weary of
+      the poor dwarf's humour) was, with his royal consort Guenevra, sentenced
+      to be banished from the Court; and the unlucky dwarf only escaped a
+      supplementary whipping, from the Queen's assurances that he had already
+      sustained personal chastisement. It was decreed further that, as an envoy
+      was shortly to be dispatched to Saladin, acquainting him with the
+      resolution of the Council to resume hostilities so soon as the truce was
+      ended, and as Richard proposed to send a valuable present to the Soldan,
+      in acknowledgment of the high benefit he had derived from the services of
+      El Hakim, the two unhappy creatures should be added to it as curiosities,
+      which, from their extremely grotesque appearance, and the shattered state
+      of their intellect, were gifts that might well pass between sovereign and
+      sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard had that day yet another female encounter to sustain; but he
+      advanced to it with comparative indifference, for Edith, though beautiful
+      and highly esteemed by her royal relative&mdash;nay, although she had from
+      his unjust suspicions actually sustained the injury of which Berengaria
+      only affected to complain&mdash;still was neither Richard's wife nor
+      mistress, and he feared her reproaches less, although founded in reason,
+      than those of the Queen, though unjust and fantastical. Having requested
+      to speak with her apart, he was ushered into her apartment, adjoining that
+      of the Queen, whose two female Coptish slaves remained on their knees in
+      the most remote corner during the interview. A thin black veil extended
+      its ample folds over the tall and graceful form of the high-born maiden,
+      and she wore not upon her person any female ornament of what kind soever.
+      She arose and made a low reverence when Richard entered, resumed her seat
+      at his command, and, when he sat down beside her, waited, without uttering
+      a syllable, until he should communicate his pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, whose custom it was to be familiar with Edith, as their
+      relationship authorized, felt this reception chilling, and opened the
+      conversation with some embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Our fair cousin," he at length said, "is angry with us; and we own that
+      strong circumstances have induced us, without cause, to suspect her of
+      conduct alien to what we have ever known in her course of life. But while
+      we walk in this misty valley of humanity, men will mistake shadows for
+      substances. Can my fair cousin not forgive her somewhat vehement kinsman
+      Richard?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who can refuse forgiveness to RICHARD," answered Edith, "provided Richard
+      can obtain pardon of the KING?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, my kinswoman," replied Coeur de Lion, "this is all too solemn. By
+      Our Lady, such a melancholy countenance, and this ample sable veil, might
+      make men think thou wert a new-made widow, or had lost a betrothed lover,
+      at least. Cheer up! Thou hast heard, doubtless, that there is no real
+      cause for woe; why, then, keep up the form of mourning?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For the departed honour of Plantagenet&mdash;for the glory which hath
+      left my father's house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard frowned. "Departed honour! glory which hath left our house!" he
+      repeated angrily. "But my cousin Edith is privileged. I have judged her
+      too hastily; she has therefore a right to deem of me too harshly. But tell
+      me at least in what I have faulted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Plantagenet," said Edith, "should have either pardoned an offence, or
+      punished it. It misbecomes him to assign free men, Christians, and brave
+      knights, to the fetters of the infidels. It becomes him not to compromise
+      and barter, or to grunt life under the forfeiture of liberty. To have
+      doomed the unfortunate to death might have been severity, but had a show
+      of justice; to condemn him to slavery and exile was barefaced tyranny."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see, my fair cousin," said Richard, "you are of those pretty ones who
+      think an absent lover as bad as none, or as a dead one. Be patient; half a
+      score of light horsemen may yet follow and redeem the error, if thy
+      gallant have in keeping any secret which might render his death more
+      convenient than his banishment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace with thy scurrile jests!" answered Edith, colouring deeply. "Think,
+      rather, that for the indulgence of thy mood thou hast lopped from this
+      great enterprise one goodly limb, deprived the Cross of one of its most
+      brave supporters, and placed a servant of the true God in the hands of the
+      heathen; hast given, too, to minds as suspicious as thou hast shown thine
+      own in this matter, some right to say that Richard Coeur de Lion banished
+      the bravest soldier in his camp lest his name in battle might match his
+      own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I&mdash;I!" exclaimed Richard, now indeed greatly moved&mdash;"am I one
+      to be jealous of renown? I would he were here to profess such an equality!
+      I would waive my rank and my crown, and meet him, manlike, in the lists,
+      that it might appear whether Richard Plantagenet had room to fear or to
+      envy the prowess of mortal man. Come, Edith, thou think'st not as thou
+      sayest. Let not anger or grief for the absence of thy lover make thee
+      unjust to thy kinsman, who, notwithstanding all thy techiness, values thy
+      good report as high as that of any one living."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The absence of my lover?" said the Lady Edith, "But yes, he may be well
+      termed my lover, who hath paid so dear for the title. Unworthy as I might
+      be of such homage, I was to him like a light, leading him forward in the
+      noble path of chivalry; but that I forgot my rank, or that he presumed
+      beyond his, is false, were a king to speak it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My fair cousin," said Richard, "do not put words in my mouth which I have
+      not spoken. I said not you had graced this man beyond the favour which a
+      good knight may earn, even from a princess, whatever be his native
+      condition. But, by Our Lady, I know something of this love-gear. It begins
+      with mute respect and distant reverence; but when opportunities occur,
+      familiarity increases, and so&mdash;But it skills not talking with one who
+      thinks herself wiser than all the world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My kinsman's counsels I willingly listen to, when they are such," said
+      Edith, "as convey no insult to my rank and character."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Kings, my fair cousin, do not counsel, but rather command," said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Soldans do indeed command," said Edith, "but it is because they have
+      slaves to govern."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, you might learn to lay aside this scorn of Soldanrie, when you hold
+      so high of a Scot," said the King. "I hold Saladin to be truer to his word
+      than this William of Scotland, who must needs be called a Lion, forsooth;
+      he hath foully faulted towards me in failing to send the auxiliary aid he
+      promised. Let me tell thee, Edith, thou mayest live to prefer a true Turk
+      to a false Scot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No&mdash;never!" answered Edith&mdash;"not should Richard himself embrace
+      the false religion, which he crossed the seas to expel from Palestine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wilt have the last word," said Richard, "and thou shalt have it.
+      Even think of me what thou wilt, pretty Edith. I shall not forget that we
+      are near and dear cousins."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he took his leave in fair fashion, but very little satisfied
+      with the result of his visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the fourth day after Sir Kenneth had been dismissed from the camp,
+      and King Richard sat in his pavilion, enjoying an evening breeze from the
+      west, which, with unusual coolness on her wings, seemed breathed from
+      merry England for the refreshment of her adventurous Monarch, as he was
+      gradually recovering the full strength which was necessary to carry on his
+      gigantic projects. There was no one with him, De Vaux having been sent to
+      Ascalon to bring up reinforcements and supplies of military munition, and
+      most of his other attendants being occupied in different departments, all
+      preparing for the re-opening of hostilities, and for a grand preparatory
+      review of the army of the Crusaders, which was to take place the next day.
+      The King sat listening to the busy hum among the soldiery, the clatter
+      from the forges, where horseshoes were preparing, and from the tents of
+      the armourers, who were repairing harness. The voice of the soldiers, too,
+      as they passed and repassed, was loud and cheerful, carrying with its very
+      tone an assurance of high and excited courage, and an omen of approaching
+      victory. While Richard's ear drank in these sounds with delight, and while
+      he yielded himself to the visions of conquest and of glory which they
+      suggested, an equerry told him that a messenger from Saladin waited
+      without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Admit him instantly," said the King, "and with due honour, Josceline."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English knight accordingly introduced a person, apparently of no
+      higher rank than a Nubian slave, whose appearance was nevertheless highly
+      interesting. He was of superb stature and nobly formed, and his commanding
+      features, although almost jet-black, showed nothing of negro descent. He
+      wore over his coal-black locks a milk-white turban, and over his shoulders
+      a short mantle of the same colour, open in front and at the sleeves, under
+      which appeared a doublet of dressed leopard's skin reaching within a
+      handbreadth of the knee. The rest of his muscular limbs, both legs and
+      arms, were bare, excepting that he had sandals on his feet, and wore a
+      collar and bracelets of silver. A straight broadsword, with a handle of
+      box-wood and a sheath covered with snakeskin, was suspended from his
+      waist. In his right hand he held a short javelin, with a broad, bright
+      steel head, of a span in length, and in his left he led by a leash of
+      twisted silk and gold a large and noble staghound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The messenger prostrated himself, at the same time partially uncovering
+      his shoulders, in sign of humiliation, and having touched the earth with
+      his forehead, arose so far as to rest on one knee, while he delivered to
+      the King a silken napkin, enclosing another of cloth of gold, within which
+      was a letter from Saladin in the original Arabic, with a translation into
+      Norman-English, which may be modernized thus:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saladin, King of Kings, to Melech Ric, the Lion of England. Whereas, we
+      are informed by thy last message that thou hast chosen war rather than
+      peace, and our enmity rather than our friendship, we account thee as one
+      blinded in this matter, and trust shortly to convince thee of thine error,
+      by the help of our invincible forces of the thousand tribes, when
+      Mohammed, the Prophet of God, and Allah, the God of the Prophet, shall
+      judge the controversy betwixt us. In what remains, we make noble account
+      of thee, and of the gifts which thou hast sent us, and of the two dwarfs,
+      singular in their deformity as Ysop, and mirthful as the lute of Isaack.
+      And in requital of these tokens from the treasure-house of thy bounty,
+      behold we have sent thee a Nubian slave, named Zohauk, of whom judge not
+      by his complexion, according to the foolish ones of the earth, in respect
+      the dark-rinded fruit hath the most exquisite flavour. Know that he is
+      strong to execute the will of his master, as Rustan of Zablestan; also he
+      is wise to give counsel when thou shalt learn to hold communication with
+      him, for the Lord of Speech hath been stricken with silence betwixt the
+      ivory walls of his palace. We commend him to thy care, hoping the hour may
+      not be distant when he may render thee good service. And herewith we bid
+      thee farewell; trusting that our most holy Prophet may yet call thee to a
+      sight of the truth, failing which illumination, our desire is for the
+      speedy restoration of thy royal health, that Allah may judge between thee
+      and us in a plain field of battle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the missive was sanctioned by the signature and seal of the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard surveyed the Nubian in silence as he stood before him, his looks
+      bent upon the ground, his arms folded on his bosom, with the appearance of
+      a black marble statue of the most exquisite workmanship, waiting life from
+      the touch of a Prometheus. The King of England, who, as it was
+      emphatically said of his successor Henry the Eighth, loved to look upon A
+      MAN, was well pleased with the thews, sinews, and symmetry of him whom he
+      now surveyed, and questioned him in the lingua franca, "Art thou a pagan?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave shook his head, and raising his finger to his brow, crossed
+      himself in token of his Christianity, then resumed his posture of
+      motionless humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A Nubian Christian, doubtless," said Richard, "and mutilated of the organ
+      of speech by these heathen dogs?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute again slowly shook his head, in token of negative, pointed with
+      his forefinger to Heaven, and then laid it upon his own lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I understand thee," said Richard; "thou dost suffer under the infliction
+      of God, not by the cruelty of man. Canst thou clean an armour and belt,
+      and buckle it in time of need?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute nodded, and stepping towards the coat of mail, which hung with
+      the shield and helmet of the chivalrous monarch upon the pillar of the
+      tent, he handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently to show
+      that he fully understood the business of an armour-bearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art an apt, and wilt doubtless be a useful knave. Thou shalt wait in
+      my chamber, and on my person," said the King, "to show how much I value
+      the gift of the royal Soldan. If thou hast no tongue, it follows thou
+      canst carry no tales, neither provoke me to be sudden by any unfit reply."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian again prostrated himself till his brow touched the earth, then
+      stood erect, at some paces distant, as waiting for his new master's
+      commands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, thou shalt commence thy office presently," said Richard, "for I see
+      a speck of rust darkening on that shield; and when I shake it in the face
+      of Saladin, it should be bright and unsullied as the Soldan's honour and
+      mine own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A horn was winded without, and presently Sir Henry Neville entered with a
+      packet of dispatches. "From England, my lord," he said, as he delivered
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From England&mdash;our own England!" repeated Richard, in a tone of
+      melancholy enthusiasm. "Alas! they little think how hard their Sovereign
+      has been beset by sickness and sorrow&mdash;faint friends and forward
+      enemies." Then opening the dispatches, he said hastily, "Ha! this comes
+      from no peaceful land&mdash;they too have their feuds. Neville, begone; I
+      must peruse these tidings alone, and at leisure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neville withdrew accordingly, and Richard was soon absorbed in the
+      melancholy details which had been conveyed to him from England, concerning
+      the factions that were tearing to pieces his native dominions&mdash;the
+      disunion of his brothers John and Geoffrey, and the quarrels of both with
+      the High Justiciary Longchamp, Bishop of Ely&mdash;the oppressions
+      practised by the nobles upon the peasantry, and rebellion of the latter
+      against their masters, which had produced everywhere scenes of discord,
+      and in some instances the effusion of blood. Details of incidents
+      mortifying to his pride, and derogatory from his authority, were
+      intermingled with the earnest advice of his wisest and most attached
+      counsellors that he should presently return to England, as his presence
+      offered the only hope of saving the Kingdom from all the horrors of civil
+      discord, of which France and Scotland were likely to avail themselves.
+      Filled with the most painful anxiety, Richard read, and again read, the
+      ill-omened letters; compared the intelligence which some of them contained
+      with the same facts as differently stated in others; and soon became
+      totally insensible to whatever was passing around him, although seated,
+      for the sake of coolness, close to the entrance of his tent, and having
+      the curtains withdrawn, so that he could see and be seen by the guards and
+      others who were stationed without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deeper in the shadow of the pavilion, and busied with the task his new
+      master had imposed, sat the Nubian slave, with his back rather turned
+      towards the King. He had finished adjusting and cleaning the hauberk and
+      brigandine, and was now busily employed on a broad pavesse, or buckler, of
+      unusual size, and covered with steel-plating, which Richard often used in
+      reconnoitring, or actually storming fortified places, as a more effectual
+      protection against missile weapons than the narrow triangular shield used
+      on horseback. This pavesse bore neither the royal lions of England, nor
+      any other device, to attract the observation of the defenders of the walls
+      against which it was advanced; the care, therefore, of the armourer was
+      addressed to causing its surface to shine as bright as crystal, in which
+      he seemed to be peculiarly successful. Beyond the Nubian, and scarce
+      visible from without, lay the large dog, which might be termed his brother
+      slave, and which, as if he felt awed by being transferred to a royal
+      owner, was couched close to the side of the mute, with head and ears on
+      the ground, and his limbs and tail drawn close around and under him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Monarch and his new attendant were thus occupied, another actor
+      crept upon the scene, and mingled among the group of English yeomen, about
+      a score of whom, respecting the unusually pensive posture and close
+      occupation of their Sovereign, were, contrary to their wont, keeping a
+      silent guard in front of his tent. It was not, however, more vigilant than
+      usual. Some were playing at games of hazard with small pebbles, others
+      spoke together in whispers of the approaching day of battle, and several
+      lay asleep, their bulky limbs folded in their green mantles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amid these careless warders glided the puny form of a little old Turk,
+      poorly dressed like a marabout or santon of the desert&mdash;a sort of
+      enthusiasts, who sometimes ventured into the camp of the Crusaders, though
+      treated always with contumely, and often with violence. Indeed, the luxury
+      and profligate indulgence of the Christian leaders had occasioned a motley
+      concourse in their tents of musicians, courtesans, Jewish merchants,
+      Copts, Turks, and all the varied refuse of the Eastern nations; so that
+      the caftan and turban, though to drive both from the Holy Land was the
+      professed object of the expedition, were, nevertheless, neither an
+      uncommon nor an alarming sight in the camp of the Crusaders. When,
+      however, the little insignificant figure we have described approached so
+      nigh as to receive some interruption from the warders, he dashed his dusky
+      green turban from his head, showed that his beard and eyebrows were shaved
+      like those of a professed buffoon, and that the expression of his
+      fantastic and writhen features, as well as of his little black eyes, which
+      glittered like jet, was that of a crazed imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dance, marabout," cried the soldiers, acquainted with the manners of
+      these wandering enthusiasts, "dance, or we will scourge thee with our
+      bow-strings till thou spin as never top did under schoolboy's lash." Thus
+      shouted the reckless warders, as much delighted at having a subject to
+      tease as a child when he catches a butterfly, or a schoolboy upon
+      discovering a bird's nest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marabout, as if happy to do their behests, bounded from the earth, and
+      spun his giddy round before them with singular agility, which, when
+      contrasted with his slight and wasted figure, and diminutive appearance,
+      made him resemble a withered leaf twirled round and round at the pleasure
+      of the winter's breeze. His single lock of hair streamed upwards from his
+      bald and shaven head, as if some genie upheld him by it; and indeed it
+      seemed as if supernatural art were necessary to the execution of the wild,
+      whirling dance, in which scarce the tiptoe of the performer was seen to
+      touch the ground. Amid the vagaries of his performance he flew here and
+      there, from one spot to another, still approaching, however, though almost
+      imperceptibly, to the entrance of the royal tent; so that, when at length
+      he sunk exhausted on the earth, after two or three bounds still higher
+      than those which he had yet executed, he was not above thirty yards from
+      the King's person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give him water," said one yeoman; "they always crave a drink after their
+      merry-go-round."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aha, water, sayest thou, Long Allen?" exclaimed another archer, with a
+      most scornful emphasis on the despised element; "how wouldst like such
+      beverage thyself, after such a morrice dancing?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The devil a water-drop he gets here," said a third. "We will teach the
+      light-footed old infidel to be a good Christian, and drink wine of
+      Cyprus."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said a fourth; "and in case he be restive, fetch thou Dick
+      Hunter's horn, that he drenches his mare withal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A circle was instantly formed around the prostrate and exhausted dervise,
+      and while one tall yeoman raised his feeble form from the ground, another
+      presented to him a huge flagon of wine. Incapable of speech, the old man
+      shook his head, and waved away from him with his hand the liquor forbidden
+      by the Prophet. But his tormentors were not thus to be appeased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The horn, the horn!" exclaimed one. "Little difference between a Turk and
+      a Turkish horse, and we will use him conforming."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Saint George, you will choke him!" said Long Allen; "and besides, it
+      is a sin to throw away upon a heathen dog as much wine as would serve a
+      good Christian for a treble night-cap."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou knowest not the nature of these Turks and pagans, Long Allen,"
+      replied Henry Woodstall. "I tell thee, man, that this flagon of Cyprus
+      will set his brains a-spinning, just in the opposite direction that they
+      went whirling in the dancing, and so bring him, as it were, to himself
+      again. Choke? He will no more choke on it than Ben's black bitch on the
+      pound of butter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And for grudging it," said Tomalin Blacklees, "why shouldst thou grudge
+      the poor paynim devil a drop of drink on earth, since thou knowest he is
+      not to have a drop to cool the tip of his tongue through a long eternity?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That were hard laws, look ye," said Long Allen, "only for being a Turk,
+      as his father was before him. Had he been Christian turned heathen, I
+      grant you the hottest corner had been good winter quarters for him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold thy peace, Long Allen," said Henry Woodstall. "I tell thee that
+      tongue of thine is not the shortest limb about thee, and I prophesy that
+      it will bring thee into disgrace with Father Francis, as once about the
+      black-eyed Syrian wench. But here comes the horn. Be active a bit, man,
+      wilt thou, and just force open his teeth with the haft of thy
+      dudgeon-dagger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold, hold&mdash;he is conformable," said Tomalin; "see, see, he signs
+      for the goblet&mdash;give him room, boys! OOP SEY ES, quoth the Dutchman&mdash;down
+      it goes like lamb's-wool! Nay, they are true topers when once they begin&mdash;your
+      Turk never coughs in his cup, or stints in his liquoring."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, the dervise, or whatever he was, drank&mdash;or at least seemed
+      to drink&mdash;the large flagon to the very bottom at a single pull; and
+      when he took it from his lips after the whole contents were exhausted,
+      only uttered, with a deep sigh, the words, ALLAH KERIM, or God is
+      merciful. There was a laugh among the yeomen who witnessed this
+      pottle-deep potation, so obstreperous as to rouse and disturb the King,
+      who, raising his finger, said angrily, "How, knaves, no respect, no
+      observance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All were at once hushed into silence, well acquainted with the temper of
+      Richard, which at some times admitted of much military familiarity, and at
+      others exacted the most precise respect, although the latter humour was of
+      much more rare occurrence. Hastening to a more reverent distance from the
+      royal person, they attempted to drag along with them the marabout, who,
+      exhausted apparently by previous fatigue, or overpowered by the potent
+      draught he had just swallowed, resisted being moved from the spot, both
+      with struggles and groans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Leave him still, ye fools," whispered Long Allen to his mates; "by Saint
+      Christopher, you will make our Dickon go beside himself, and we shall have
+      his dagger presently fly at our costards. Leave him alone; in less than a
+      minute he will sleep like a dormouse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same moment the Monarch darted another impatient glance to the
+      spot, and all retreated in haste, leaving the dervise on the ground,
+      unable, as it seemed, to stir a single limb or joint of his body. In a
+      moment afterward all was as still and quiet as it had been before the
+      intrusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &mdash;and wither'd Murder,
+     Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
+     Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
+     With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
+     Moves like a ghost.
+                MACBETH.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      For the space of a quarter of an hour, or longer, after the incident
+      related, all remained perfectly quiet in the front of the royal
+      habitation. The King read and mused in the entrance of his pavilion;
+      behind, and with his back turned to the same entrance, the Nubian slave
+      still burnished the ample pavesse; in front of all, at a hundred paces
+      distant, the yeomen of the guard stood, sat, or lay extended on the grass,
+      attentive to their own sports, but pursuing them in silence, while on the
+      esplanade betwixt them and the front of the tent lay, scarcely to be
+      distinguished from a bundle of rags, the senseless form of the marabout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Nubian had the advantage of a mirror from the brilliant reflection
+      which the surface of the highly-polished shield now afforded, by means of
+      which he beheld, to his alarm and surprise, that the marabout raised his
+      head gently from the ground, so as to survey all around him, moving with a
+      well-adjusted precaution which seemed entirely inconsistent with a state
+      of ebriety. He couched his head instantly, as if satisfied he was
+      unobserved, and began, with the slightest possible appearance of voluntary
+      effort, to drag himself, as if by chance, ever nearer and nearer to the
+      King, but stopping and remaining fixed at intervals, like the spider,
+      which, moving towards her object, collapses into apparent lifelessness
+      when she thinks she is the subject of observation. This species of
+      movement appeared suspicious to the Ethiopian, who, on his part, prepared
+      himself, as quietly as possible, to interfere, the instant that
+      interference should seem to be necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marabout, meanwhile, glided on gradually and imperceptibly,
+      serpent-like, or rather snail-like, till he was about ten yards distant
+      from Richard's person, when, starting on his feet, he sprung forward with
+      the bound of a tiger, stood at the King's back in less than an instant,
+      and brandished aloft the cangiar, or poniard, which he had hidden in his
+      sleeve. Not the presence of his whole army could have saved their heroic
+      Monarch; but the motions of the Nubian had been as well calculated as
+      those of the enthusiast, and ere the latter could strike, the former
+      caught his uplifted arm. Turning his fanatical wrath upon what thus
+      unexpectedly interposed betwixt him and his object, the Charegite, for
+      such was the seeming marabout, dealt the Nubian a blow with the dagger,
+      which, however, only grazed his arm, while the far superior strength of
+      the Ethiopian easily dashed him to the ground. Aware of what had passed,
+      Richard had now arisen, and with little more of surprise, anger, or
+      interest of any kind in his countenance than an ordinary man would show in
+      brushing off and crushing an intrusive wasp, caught up the stool on which
+      he had been sitting, and exclaiming only, "Ha, dog!" dashed almost to
+      pieces the skull of the assassin, who uttered twice, once in a loud, and
+      once in a broken tone, the words ALLAH ACKBAR!&mdash;God is victorious&mdash;and
+      expired at the King's feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye are careful warders," said Richard to his archers, in a tone of
+      scornful reproach, as, aroused by the bustle of what had passed, in terror
+      and tumult they now rushed into his tent; "watchful sentinels ye are, to
+      leave me to do such hangman's work with my own hand. Be silent, all of
+      you, and cease your senseless clamour!&mdash;saw ye never a dead Turk
+      before? Here, cast that carrion out of the camp, strike the head from the
+      trunk, and stick it on a lance, taking care to turn the face to Mecca,
+      that he may the easier tell the foul impostor on whose inspiration he came
+      hither how he has sped on his errand.&mdash;For thee, my swart and silent
+      friend," he added, turning to the Ethiopian&mdash;"but how's this? Thou
+      art wounded&mdash;and with a poisoned weapon, I warrant me, for by force
+      of stab so weak an animal as that could scarce hope to do more than raze
+      the lion's hide.&mdash;Suck the poison from his wound one of you&mdash;the
+      venom is harmless on the lips, though fatal when it mingles with the
+      blood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The yeomen looked on each other confusedly and with hesitation, the
+      apprehension of so strange a danger prevailing with those who feared no
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How now, sirrahs," continued the King, "are you dainty-lipped, or do you
+      fear death, that you daily thus?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not the death of a man," said Long Allen, to whom the King looked as he
+      spoke; "but methinks I would not die like a poisoned rat for the sake of a
+      black chattel there, that is bought and sold in a market like a Martlemas
+      ox."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His Grace speaks to men of sucking poison," muttered another yeoman, "as
+      if he said, 'Go to, swallow a gooseberry!'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said Richard, "I never bade man do that which I would not do
+      myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And without further ceremony, and in spite of the general expostulations
+      of those around, and the respectful opposition of the Nubian himself, the
+      King of England applied his lips to the wound of the black slave, treating
+      with ridicule all remonstrances, and overpowering all resistance. He had
+      no sooner intermitted his singular occupation, than the Nubian started
+      from him, and casting a scarf over his arm, intimated by gestures, as firm
+      in purpose as they were respectful in manner, his determination not to
+      permit the Monarch to renew so degrading an employment. Long Allen also
+      interposed, saying that, if it were necessary to prevent the King engaging
+      again in a treatment of this kind, his own lips, tongue, and teeth were at
+      the service of the negro (as he called the Ethiopian), and that he would
+      eat him up bodily, rather than King Richard's mouth should again approach
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neville, who entered with other officers, added his remonstrances.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+"Nay, nay, make not a needless halloo about a hart that the hounds have
+lost, or a danger when it is over," said the King. "The wound will be a
+trifle, for the blood is scarce drawn&mdash;an angry cat had dealt a deeper
+scratch. And for me, I have but to take a drachm of orvietan by way of
+precaution, though it is needless."
+
+ Thus spoke Richard, a little ashamed, perhaps, of his own
+condescension, though sanctioned both by humanity and gratitude. But
+when Neville continued to make remonstrances on the peril to his royal
+person, the King imposed silence on him.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, I prithee&mdash;make no more of it. I did it but to show these
+      ignorant, prejudiced knaves how they might help each other when these
+      cowardly caitiffs come against us with sarbacanes and poisoned shafts.
+      But," he added, "take thee this Nubian to thy quarters, Neville&mdash;I
+      have changed my mind touching him&mdash;let him be well cared for. But
+      hark in thine ear; see that he escapes thee not&mdash;there is more in him
+      than seems. Let him have all liberty, so that he leave not the camp.&mdash;And
+      you, ye beef-devouring, wine-swilling English mastiffs, get ye to your
+      guard again, and be sure you keep it more warily. Think not you are now in
+      your own land of fair play, where men speak before they strike, and shake
+      hands ere they cut throats. Danger in our land walks openly, and with his
+      blade drawn, and defies the foe whom he means to assault; but here he
+      challenges you with a silk glove instead of a steel gauntlet, cuts your
+      throat with the feather of a turtle-dove, stabs you with the tongue of a
+      priest's brooch, or throttles you with the lace of my lady's boddice. Go
+      to&mdash;keep your eyes open and your mouths shut&mdash;drink less, and
+      look sharper about you; or I will place your huge stomachs on such short
+      allowance as would pinch the stomach of a patient Scottish man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The yeomen, abashed and mortified, withdrew to their post, and Neville was
+      beginning to remonstrate with his master upon the risk of passing over
+      thus slightly their negligence upon their duty, and the propriety of an
+      example in a case so peculiarly aggravated as the permitting one so
+      suspicious as the marabout to approach within dagger's length of his
+      person, when Richard interrupted him with, "Speak not of it, Neville&mdash;wouldst
+      thou have me avenge a petty risk to myself more severely than the loss of
+      England's banner? It has been stolen&mdash;stolen by a thief, or delivered
+      up by a traitor, and no blood has been shed for it.&mdash;My sable friend,
+      thou art an expounder of mysteries, saith the illustrious Soldan&mdash;now
+      would I give thee thine own weight in gold, if, by raising one still
+      blacker than thyself or by what other means thou wilt, thou couldst show
+      me the thief who did mine honour that wrong. What sayest thou, ha?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute seemed desirous to speak, but uttered only that imperfect sound
+      proper to his melancholy condition; then folded his arms, looked on the
+      King with an eye of intelligence, and nodded in answer to his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!" said Richard, with joyful impatience. "Wilt thou undertake to make
+      discovery in this matter?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian slave repeated the same motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But how shall we understand each other?" said the King. "Canst thou
+      write, good fellow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave again nodded in assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give him writing-tools," said the King. "They were readier in my father's
+      tent than mine; but they be somewhere about, if this scorching climate
+      have not dried up the ink.&mdash;Why, this fellow is a jewel&mdash;a black
+      diamond, Neville."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So please you, my liege," said Neville, "if I might speak my poor mind,
+      it were ill dealing in this ware. This man must be a wizard, and wizards
+      deal with the Enemy, who hath most interest to sow tares among the wheat,
+      and bring dissension into our councils, and&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, Neville," said Richard. "Hello to your northern hound when he is
+      close on the haunch of the deer, and hope to recall him, but seek not to
+      stop Plantagenet when he hath hope to retrieve his honour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The slave, who during this discussion had been writing, in which art he
+      seemed skilful, now arose, and pressing what he had written to his brow,
+      prostrated himself as usual, ere he delivered it into the King's hands.
+      The scroll was in French, although their intercourse had hitherto been
+      conducted by Richard in the lingua franca.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To Richard, the conquering and invincible King of England, this from the
+      humblest of his slaves. Mysteries are the sealed caskets of Heaven, but
+      wisdom may devise means to open the lock. Were your slave stationed where
+      the leaders of the Christian host were made to pass before him in order,
+      doubt nothing that if he who did the injury whereof my King complains
+      shall be among the number, he may be made manifest in his iniquity, though
+      it be hidden under seven veils."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by Saint George!" said King Richard, "thou hast spoken most
+      opportunely.&mdash;Neville, thou knowest that when we muster our troops
+      to-morrow the princes have agreed that, to expiate the affront offered to
+      England in the theft of her banner, the leaders should pass our new
+      standard as it floats on Saint George's Mount, and salute it with formal
+      regard. Believe me, the secret traitor will not dare to absent himself
+      from an expurgation so solemn, lest his very absence should be matter of
+      suspicion. There will we place our sable man of counsel, and if his art
+      can detect the villain, leave me to deal with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My liege," said Neville, with the frankness of an English baron, "beware
+      what work you begin. Here is the concord of our holy league unexpectedly
+      renewed&mdash;will you, upon such suspicion as a negro slave can instil,
+      tear open wounds so lately closed? Or will you use the solemn procession,
+      adopted for the reparation of your honour and establishment of unanimity
+      amongst the discording princes, as the means of again finding out new
+      cause of offence, or reviving ancient quarrels? It were scarce too strong
+      to say this were a breach of the declaration your Grace made to the
+      assembled Council of the Crusade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Neville," said the King, sternly interrupting him, "thy zeal makes thee
+      presumptuous and unmannerly. Never did I promise to abstain from taking
+      whatever means were most promising to discover the infamous author of the
+      attack on my honour. Ere I had done so, I would have renounced my kingdom,
+      my life. All my declarations were under this necessary and absolute
+      qualification;&mdash;only, if Austria had stepped forth and owned the
+      injury like a man, I proffered, for the sake of Christendom, to have
+      forgiven HIM."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But," continued the baron anxiously, "what hope that this juggling slave
+      of Saladin will not palter with your Grace?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, Neville," said the King; "thou thinkest thyself mighty wise, and
+      art but a fool. Mind thou my charge touching this fellow; there is more in
+      him than thy Westmoreland wit can fathom.&mdash;And thou, smart and
+      silent, prepare to perform the feat thou hast promised, and, by the word
+      of a King, thou shalt choose thine own recompense.&mdash;Lo, he writes
+      again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute accordingly wrote and delivered to the King, with the same form
+      as before, another slip of paper, containing these words, "The will of the
+      King is the law to his slave; nor doth it become him to ask guerdon for
+      discharge of his devoir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "GUERDON and DEVOIR!" said the King, interrupting himself as he read, and
+      speaking to Neville in the English tongue with some emphasis on the words.
+      "These Eastern people will profit by the Crusaders&mdash;they are
+      acquiring the language of chivalry! And see, Neville, how discomposed that
+      fellow looks! were it not for his colour he would blush. I should not
+      think it strange if he understood what I say&mdash;they are perilous
+      linguists."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The poor slave cannot endure your Grace's eye," said Neville; "it is
+      nothing more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, but," continued the King, striking the paper with his finger as he
+      proceeded, "this bold scroll proceeds to say that our trusty mute is
+      charged with a message from Saladin to the Lady Edith Plantagenet, and
+      craves means and opportunity to deliver it. What thinkest thou of a
+      request so modest&mdash;ha, Neville?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot say," said Neville, "how such freedom may relish with your
+      Grace; but the lease of the messenger's neck would be a short one, who
+      should carry such a request to the Soldan on the part of your Majesty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, I thank Heaven that I covet none of his sunburnt beauties," said
+      Richard; "and for punishing this fellow for discharging his master's
+      errand, and that when he has just saved my life&mdash;methinks it were
+      something too summary. I'll tell thee, Neville, a secret; for although our
+      sable and mute minister be present, he cannot, thou knowest, tell it over
+      again, even if he should chance to understand us. I tell thee that, for
+      this fortnight past, I have been under a strange spell, and I would I were
+      disenchanted. There has no sooner any one done me good service, but, lo
+      you, he cancels his interest in me by some deep injury; and, on the other
+      hand, he who hath deserved death at my hands for some treachery or some
+      insult, is sure to be the very person of all others who confers upon me
+      some obligation that overbalances his demerits, and renders respite of his
+      sentence a debt due from my honour. Thus, thou seest, I am deprived of the
+      best part of my royal function, since I can neither punish men nor reward
+      them. Until the influence of this disqualifying planet be passed away, I
+      will say nothing concerning the request of this our sable attendant, save
+      that it is an unusually bold one, and that his best chance of finding
+      grace in our eyes will be to endeavour to make the discovery which he
+      proposes to achieve in our behalf. Meanwhile, Neville, do thou look well
+      to him, and let him be honourably cared for. And hark thee once more," he
+      said, in a low whisper, "seek out yonder hermit of Engaddi, and bring him
+      to me forthwith, be he saint or savage, madman or sane. Let me see him
+      privately."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neville retired from the royal tent, signing to the Nubian to follow him,
+      and much surprised at what he had seen and heard, and especially at the
+      unusual demeanour of the King. In general, no task was so easy as to
+      discover Richard's immediate course of sentiment and feeling, though it
+      might, in some cases, be difficult to calculate its duration; for no
+      weathercock obeyed the changing wind more readily than the King his gusts
+      of passion. But on the present occasion his manner seemed unusually
+      constrained and mysterious; nor was it easy to guess whether displeasure
+      or kindness predominated in his conduct towards his new dependant, or in
+      the looks with which, from time to time, he regarded him. The ready
+      service which the King had rendered to counteract the bad effects of the
+      Nubian's wound might seem to balance the obligation conferred on him by
+      the slave when he intercepted the blow of the assassin; but it seemed, as
+      a much longer account remained to be arranged between them, that the
+      Monarch was doubtful whether the settlement might leave him, upon the
+      whole, debtor or creditor, and that, therefore, he assumed in the meantime
+      a neutral demeanour, which might suit with either character. As for the
+      Nubian, by whatever means he had acquired the art of writing the European
+      languages, the King remained convinced that the English tongue at least
+      was unknown to him, since, having watched him closely during the last part
+      of the interview, he conceived it impossible for any one understanding a
+      conversation, of which he was himself the subject, to have so completely
+      avoided the appearance of taking an interest in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Who's there!&mdash;Approach&mdash;'tis kindly done&mdash;
+     My learned physician and a friend.
+              SIR EUSTACE GREY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Our narrative retrogrades to a period shortly previous to the incidents
+      last mentioned, when, as the reader must remember, the unfortunate Knight
+      of the Leopard, bestowed upon the Arabian physician by King Richard,
+      rather as a slave than in any other capacity, was exiled from the camp of
+      the Crusaders, in whose ranks he had so often and so brilliantly
+      distinguished himself. He followed his new master&mdash;for so he must now
+      term the Hakim&mdash;to the Moorish tents which contained his retinue and
+      his property, with the stupefied feelings of one who, fallen from the
+      summit of a precipice, and escaping unexpectedly with life, is just able
+      to drag himself from the fatal spot, but without the power of estimating
+      the extent of the damage which he has sustained. Arrived at the tent, he
+      threw himself, without speech of any kind, upon a couch of dressed
+      buffalo's hide, which was pointed out to him by his conductor, and hiding
+      his face betwixt his hands, groaned heavily, as if his heart were on the
+      point of bursting. The physician heard him, as he was giving orders to his
+      numerous domestics to prepare for their departure the next morning before
+      daybreak, and, moved with compassion, interrupted his occupation to sit
+      down, cross-legged, by the side of his couch, and administer comfort
+      according to the Oriental manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My friend," he said, "be of good comfort; for what saith the poet&mdash;it
+      is better that a man should be the servant of a kind master than the slave
+      of his own wild passions. Again, be of good courage; because, whereas
+      Ysouf Ben Yagoube was sold to a king by his brethren, even to Pharaoh,
+      King of Egypt, thy king hath, on the other hand, bestowed thee on one who
+      will be to thee as a brother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth made an effort to thank the Hakim, but his heart was too full,
+      and the indistinct sounds which accompanied his abortive attempts to reply
+      induced the kind physician to desist from his premature endeavours at
+      consolation. He left his new domestic, or guest, in quiet, to indulge his
+      sorrows, and having commanded all the necessary preparations for their
+      departure on the morning, sat down upon the carpet of the tent, and
+      indulged himself in a moderate repast. After he had thus refreshed
+      himself, similar viands were offered to the Scottish knight; but though
+      the slaves let him understand that the next day would be far advanced ere
+      they would halt for the purpose of refreshment, Sir Kenneth could not
+      overcome the disgust which he felt against swallowing any nourishment, and
+      could be prevailed upon to taste nothing, saving a draught of cold water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was awake long after his Arab host had performed his usual devotions
+      and betaken himself to his repose; nor had sleep visited him at the hour
+      of midnight, when a movement took place among the domestics, which, though
+      attended with no speech, and very little noise, made him aware they were
+      loading the camels and preparing for departure. In the course of these
+      preparations, the last person who was disturbed, excepting the physician
+      himself, was the knight of Scotland, whom, about three in the morning, a
+      sort of major-domo, or master of the household, acquainted that he must
+      arise. He did so, without further answer, and followed him into the
+      moonlight, where stood the camels, most of which were already loaded, and
+      one only remained kneeling until its burden should be completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little apart from the camels stood a number of horses ready bridled and
+      saddled, and the Hakim himself, coming forth, mounted on one of them with
+      as much agility as the grave decorum of his character permitted, and
+      directed another, which he pointed out, to be led towards Sir Kenneth. An
+      English officer was in attendance, to escort them through the camp of the
+      Crusaders, and to ensure their leaving it in safety; and all was ready for
+      their departure. The pavilion which they had left was, in the meanwhile,
+      struck with singular dispatch, and the tent-poles and coverings composed
+      the burden of the last camel&mdash;when the physician, pronouncing
+      solemnly the verse of the Koran, "God be our guide, and Mohammed our
+      protector, in the desert as in the watered field," the whole cavalcade was
+      instantly in motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In traversing the camp, they were challenged by the various sentinels who
+      maintained guard there, and suffered to proceed in silence, or with a
+      muttered curse upon their prophet, as they passed the post of some more
+      zealous Crusader. At length the last barriers were left behind them, and
+      the party formed themselves for the march with military precaution. Two or
+      three horsemen advanced in front as a vanguard; one or two remained a
+      bow-shot in the rear; and, wherever the ground admitted, others were
+      detached to keep an outlook on the flanks. In this manner they proceeded
+      onward; while Sir Kenneth, looking back on the moonlit camp, might now
+      indeed seem banished, deprived at once of honour and of liberty, from the
+      glimmering banners under which he had hoped to gain additional renown, and
+      the tented dwellings of chivalry, of Christianity, and&mdash;of Edith
+      Plantagenet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hakim, who rode by his side, observed, in his usual tone of
+      sententious consolation, "It is unwise to look back when the journey lieth
+      forward;" and as he spoke, the horse of the knight made such a perilous
+      stumble as threatened to add a practical moral to the tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight was compelled by this hint to give more attention to the
+      management of his steed, which more than once required the assistance and
+      support of the check-bridle, although, in other respects, nothing could be
+      more easy at once, and active, than the ambling pace at which the animal
+      (which was a mare) proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The conditions of that horse," observed the sententious physician, "are
+      like those of human fortune&mdash;seeing that, amidst his most swift and
+      easy pace, the rider must guard himself against a fall, and that it is
+      when prosperity is at the highest that our prudence should be awake and
+      vigilant to prevent misfortune."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The overloaded appetite loathes even the honeycomb, and it is scarce a
+      wonder that the knight, mortified and harassed with misfortunes and
+      abasement, became something impatient of hearing his misery made, at every
+      turn, the ground of proverbs and apothegms, however just and apposite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks," he said, rather peevishly, "I wanted no additional
+      illustration of the instability of fortune though I would thank thee, Sir
+      Hakim, for the choice of a steed for me, would the jade but stumble so
+      effectually as at once to break my neck and her own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My brother," answered the Arab sage, with imperturbable gravity, "thou
+      speakest as one of the foolish. Thou sayest in thy heart that the sage
+      should have given you, as his guest, the younger and better horse, and
+      reserved the old one for himself. But know that the defects of the older
+      steed may be compensated by the energies of the young rider, whereas the
+      violence of the young horse requires to be moderated by the cold temper of
+      the older."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So spoke the sage; but neither to this observation did Sir Kenneth return
+      any answer which could lead to a continuance of their conversation, and
+      the physician, wearied, perhaps, of administering comfort to one who would
+      not be comforted, signed to one of his retinue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hassan," he said, "hast thou nothing wherewith to beguile the way?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hassan, story-teller and poet by profession, spurred up, upon this
+      summons, to exercise his calling. "Lord of the palace of life," he said,
+      addressing the physician, "thou, before whom the angel Azrael spreadeth
+      his wings for flight&mdash;thou, wiser than Solimaun Ben Daoud, upon whose
+      signet was inscribed the REAL NAME which controls the spirits of the
+      elements&mdash;forbid it, Heaven, that while thou travellest upon the
+      track of benevolence, bearing healing and hope wherever thou comest, thine
+      own course should be saddened for lack of the tale and of the song.
+      Behold, while thy servant is at thy side, he will pour forth the treasures
+      of his memory, as the fountain sendeth her stream beside the pathway, for
+      the refreshment or him that walketh thereon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this exordium, Hassan uplifted his voice, and began a tale of love
+      and magic, intermixed with feats of warlike achievement, and ornamented
+      with abundant quotations from the Persian poets, with whose compositions
+      the orator seemed familiar. The retinue of the physician, such excepted as
+      were necessarily detained in attendance on the camels, thronged up to the
+      narrator, and pressed as close as deference for their master permitted, to
+      enjoy the delight which the inhabitants of the East have ever derived from
+      this species of exhibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At another time, notwithstanding his imperfect knowledge of the language,
+      Sir Kenneth might have been interested in the recitation, which, though
+      dictated by a more extravagant imagination, and expressed in more inflated
+      and metaphorical language, bore yet a strong resemblance to the romances
+      of chivalry then so fashionable in Europe. But as matters stood with him,
+      he was scarcely even sensible that a man in the centre of the cavalcade
+      recited and sung, in a low tone, for nearly two hours, modulating his
+      voice to the various moods of passion introduced into the tale, and
+      receiving, in return, now low murmurs of applause, now muttered
+      expressions of wonder, now sighs and tears, and sometimes, what it was far
+      more difficult to extract from such an audience, a tribute of smiles, and
+      even laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the recitation, the attention of the exile, however abstracted by
+      his own deep sorrow, was occasionally awakened by the low wail of a dog,
+      secured in a wicker enclosure suspended on one of the camels, which, as an
+      experienced woodsman, he had no hesitation in recognizing to be that of
+      his own faithful hound; and from the plaintive tone of the animal, he had
+      no doubt that he was sensible of his master's vicinity, and, in his way,
+      invoking his assistance for liberty and rescue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas! poor Roswal," he said, "thou callest for aid and sympathy upon one
+      in stricter bondage than thou thyself art. I will not seem to heed thee or
+      return thy affection, since it would serve but to load our parting with
+      yet more bitterness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus passed the hours of night and the space of dim hazy dawn which forms
+      the twilight of a Syrian morning. But when the very first line of the
+      sun's disk began to rise above the level horizon, and when the very first
+      level ray shot glimmering in dew along the surface of the desert, which
+      the travellers had now attained, the sonorous voice of El Hakim himself
+      overpowered and cut short the narrative of the tale-teller, while he
+      caused to resound along the sands the solemn summons, which the muezzins
+      thunder at morning from the minaret of every mosque.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To prayer&mdash;to prayer! God is the one God.&mdash;To prayer&mdash;to
+      prayer! Mohammed is the Prophet of God.&mdash;To prayer&mdash;to prayer!
+      Time is flying from you.&mdash;To prayer&mdash;to prayer! Judgment is
+      drawing nigh to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant each Moslem cast himself from his horse, turned his face
+      towards Mecca, and performed with sand an imitation of those ablutions,
+      which were elsewhere required to be made with water, while each
+      individual, in brief but fervent ejaculations, recommended himself to the
+      care, and his sins to the forgiveness, of God and the Prophet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Sir Kenneth, whose reason at once and prejudices were offended by
+      seeing his companions in that which he considered as an act of idolatry,
+      could not help respecting the sincerity of their misguided zeal, and being
+      stimulated by their fervour to apply supplications to Heaven in a purer
+      form, wondering, meanwhile, what new-born feelings could teach him to
+      accompany in prayer, though with varied invocation, those very Saracens,
+      whose heathenish worship he had conceived a crime dishonourable to the
+      land in which high miracles had been wrought, and where the day-star of
+      redemption had arisen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The act of devotion, however, though rendered in such strange society,
+      burst purely from his natural feelings of religious duty, and had its
+      usual effect in composing the spirits which had been long harassed by so
+      rapid a succession of calamities. The sincere and earnest approach of the
+      Christian to the throne of the Almighty teaches the best lesson of
+      patience under affliction; since wherefore should we mock the Deity with
+      supplications, when we insult him by murmuring under His decrees? or how,
+      while our prayers have in every word admitted the vanity and nothingness
+      of the things of time in comparison to those of eternity, should we hope
+      to deceive the Searcher of Hearts, by permitting the world and worldly
+      passions to reassume the reins even immediately after a solemn address to
+      Heaven! But Sir Kenneth was not of these. He felt himself comforted and
+      strengthened, and better prepared to execute or submit to whatever his
+      destiny might call upon him to do or to suffer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, the party of Saracens regained their saddles, and continued
+      their route, and the tale-teller, Hassan, resumed the thread of his
+      narrative; but it was no longer to the same attentive audience. A
+      horseman, who had ascended some high ground on the right hand of the
+      little column, had returned on a speedy gallop to El Hakim, and
+      communicated with him. Four or five more cavaliers had then been
+      dispatched, and the little band, which might consist of about twenty or
+      thirty persons, began to follow them with their eyes, as men from whose
+      gestures, and advance or retreat, they were to augur good or evil. Hassan,
+      finding his audience inattentive, or being himself attracted by the
+      dubious appearances on the flank, stinted in his song; and the march
+      became silent, save when a camel-driver called out to his patient charge,
+      or some anxious follower of the Hakim communicated with his next neighbour
+      in a hurried and low whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This suspense continued until they had rounded a ridge, composed of
+      hillocks of sand, which concealed from their main body the object that had
+      created this alarm among their scouts. Sir Kenneth could now see, at the
+      distance of a mile or more, a dark object moving rapidly on the bosom of
+      the desert, which his experienced eye recognized for a party of cavalry,
+      much superior to their own in numbers, and, from the thick and frequent
+      flashes which flung back the level beams of the rising sun, it was plain
+      that these were Europeans in their complete panoply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxious looks which the horsemen of El Hakim now cast upon their
+      leader seemed to indicate deep apprehension; while he, with gravity as
+      undisturbed as when he called his followers to prayer, detached two of his
+      best-mounted cavaliers, with instructions to approach as closely as
+      prudence permitted to these travellers of the desert, and observe more
+      minutely their numbers, their character, and, if possible, their purpose.
+      The approach of danger, or what was feared as such, was like a stimulating
+      draught to one in apathy, and recalled Sir Kenneth to himself and his
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What fear you from these Christian horsemen, for such they seem?" he said
+      to the Hakim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fear!" said El Hakim, repeating the word disdainfully. "The sage fears
+      nothing but Heaven, but ever expects from wicked men the worst which they
+      can do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are Christians," said Sir Kenneth, "and it is the time of truce&mdash;why
+      should you fear a breach of faith?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are the priestly soldiers of the Temple," answered El Hakim, "whose
+      vow limits them to know neither truce nor faith with the worshippers of
+      Islam. May the Prophet blight them, both root, branch, and twig! Their
+      peace is war, and their faith is falsehood. Other invaders of Palestine
+      have their times and moods of courtesy. The lion Richard will spare when
+      he has conquered, the eagle Philip will close his wing when he has
+      stricken a prey, even the Austrian bear will sleep when he is gorged; but
+      this horde of ever-hungry wolves know neither pause nor satiety in their
+      rapine. Seest thou not that they are detaching a party from their main
+      body, and that they take an eastern direction? Yon are their pages and
+      squires, whom they train up in their accursed mysteries, and whom, as
+      lighter mounted, they send to cut us off from our watering-place. But they
+      will be disappointed. I know the war of the desert yet better than they."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke a few words to his principal officer, and his whole demeanour and
+      countenance was at once changed from the solemn repose of an Eastern sage
+      accustomed more to contemplation than to action, into the prompt and proud
+      expression of a gallant soldier whose energies are roused by the near
+      approach of a danger which he at once foresees and despises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Sir Kenneth's eyes the approaching crisis had a different aspect, and
+      when Adonbec said to him, "Thou must tarry close by my side," he answered
+      solemnly in the negative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yonder," he said, "are my comrades in arms&mdash;the men in whose society
+      I have vowed to fight or fall. On their banner gleams the sign of our most
+      blessed redemption&mdash;I cannot fly from the Cross in company with the
+      Crescent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fool!" said the Hakim; "their first action would be to do thee to death,
+      were it only to conceal their breach of the truce."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of that I must take my chance," replied Sir Kenneth; "but I wear not the
+      bonds of the infidels an instant longer than I can cast them from me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then will I compel thee to follow me," said El Hakim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Compel!" answered Sir Kenneth angrily. "Wert thou not my benefactor, or
+      one who has showed will to be such, and were it not that it is to thy
+      confidence I owe the freedom of these hands, which thou mightst have
+      loaded with fetters, I would show thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsion
+      would be no easy task."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough, enough," replied the Arabian physician, "we lose time even when
+      it is becoming precious."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill cry, as a
+      signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed themselves on the face of
+      the desert, in as many different directions as a chaplet of beads when the
+      string is broken. Sir Kenneth had no time to note what ensued; for, at the
+      same instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed, and putting his own
+      to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with the suddenness of light, and
+      at a pitch of velocity which almost deprived the Scottish knight of the
+      power of respiration, and left him absolutely incapable, had he been
+      desirous, to have checked the career of his guide. Practised as Sir
+      Kenneth was in horsemanship from his earliest youth, the speediest horse
+      he had ever mounted was a tortoise in comparison to those of the Arabian
+      sage. They spurned the sand from behind them; they seemed to devour the
+      desert before them; miles flew away with minutes&mdash;and yet their
+      strength seemed unabated, and their respiration as free as when they first
+      started upon the wonderful race. The motion, too, as easy as it was swift,
+      seemed more like flying through the air than riding on the earth, and was
+      attended with no unpleasant sensation, save the awe naturally felt by one
+      who is moving at such astonishing speed, and the difficulty of breathing
+      occasioned by their passing through the air so rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not until after an hour of this portentous motion, and when all
+      human pursuit was far, far behind, that the Hakim at length relaxed his
+      speed, and, slackening the pace of the horses into a hand-gallop, began,
+      in a voice as composed and even as if he had been walking for the last
+      hour, a descant upon the excellence of his coursers to the Scot, who,
+      breathless, half blind, half deaf, and altogether giddy; from the rapidity
+      of this singular ride, hardly comprehended the words which flowed so
+      freely from his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "These horses," he said, "are of the breed called the Winged, equal in
+      speed to aught excepting the Borak of the Prophet. They are fed on the
+      golden barley of Yemen, mixed with spices and with a small portion of
+      dried sheep's flesh. Kings have given provinces to possess them, and their
+      age is active as their youth. Thou, Nazarene, art the first, save a true
+      believer, that ever had beneath his loins one of this noble race, a gift
+      of the Prophet himself to the blessed Ali, his kinsman and lieutenant,
+      well called the Lion of God. Time lays his touch so lightly on these
+      generous steeds, that the mare on which thou now sittest has seen five
+      times five years pass over her, yet retains her pristine speed and vigour,
+      only that in the career the support of a bridle, managed by a hand more
+      experienced than thine, hath now become necessary. May the Prophet be
+      blessed, who hath bestowed on the true believers the means of advance and
+      retreat, which causeth their iron-clothed enemies to be worn out with
+      their own ponderous weight! How the horses of yonder dog Templars must
+      have snorted and blown, when they had toiled fetlock-deep in the desert
+      for one-twentieth part of the space which these brave steeds have left
+      behind them, without one thick pant, or a drop of moisture upon their
+      sleek and velvet coats!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight, who had now begun to recover his breath and powers of
+      attention, could not help acknowledging in his heart the advantage
+      possessed by these Eastern warriors in a race of animals, alike proper for
+      advance or retreat, and so admirably adapted to the level and sandy
+      deserts of Arabia and Syria. But he did not choose to augment the pride of
+      the Moslem by acquiescing in his proud claim of superiority, and therefore
+      suffered the conversation to drop, and, looking around him, could now, at
+      the more moderate pace at which they moved, distinguish that he was in a
+      country not unknown to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blighted borders and sullen waters of the Dead Sea, the ragged and
+      precipitous chain of mountains arising on the left, the two or three palms
+      clustered together, forming the single green speck on the bosom of the
+      waste wilderness&mdash;objects which, once seen, were scarcely to be
+      forgotten&mdash;showed to Sir Kenneth that they were approaching the
+      fountain called the Diamond of the Desert, which had been the scene of his
+      interview on a former occasion with the Saracen Emir Sheerkohf, or
+      Ilderim. In a few minutes they checked their horses beside the spring, and
+      the Hakim invited Sir Kenneth to descend from horseback and repose himself
+      as in a place of safety. They unbridled their steeds, El Hakim observing
+      that further care of them was unnecessary, since they would be speedily
+      joined by some of the best mounted among his slaves, who would do what
+      further was needful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Meantime," he said, spreading some food on the grass, "eat and drink, and
+      be not discouraged. Fortune may raise up or abase the ordinary mortal, but
+      the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond her control."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scottish knight endeavoured to testify his thanks by showing himself
+      docile; but though he strove to eat out of complaisance, the singular
+      contrast between his present situation and that which he had occupied on
+      the same spot when the envoy of princes and the victor in combat, came
+      like a cloud over his mind, and fasting, lassitude, and fatigue oppressed
+      his bodily powers. El Hakim examined his hurried pulse, his red and
+      inflamed eye, his heated hand, and his shortened respiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The mind," he said, "grows wise by watching, but her sister the body, of
+      coarser materials, needs the support of repose. Thou must sleep; and that
+      thou mayest do so to refreshment, thou must take a draught mingled with
+      this elixir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew from his bosom a small crystal vial, cased in silver
+      filigree-work, and dropped into a little golden drinking-cup a small
+      portion of a dark-coloured fluid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This," he said, "is one of those productions which Allah hath sent on
+      earth for a blessing, though man's weakness and wickedness have sometimes
+      converted it into a curse. It is powerful as the wine-cup of the Nazarene
+      to drop the curtain on the sleepless eye, and to relieve the burden of the
+      overloaded bosom; but when applied to the purposes of indulgence and
+      debauchery, it rends the nerves, destroys the strength, weakens the
+      intellect, and undermines life. But fear not thou to use its virtues in
+      the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the same firebrand with
+      which the madman burneth the tent." [Some preparation of opium seems to be
+      intimated.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have seen too much of thy skill, sage Hakim," said Sir Kenneth, "to
+      debate thine hest;" and swallowed the narcotic, mingled as it was with
+      some water from the spring, then wrapped him in the haik, or Arab cloak,
+      which had been fastened to his saddle-pommel, and, according to the
+      directions of the physician, stretched himself at ease in the shade to
+      await the promised repose. Sleep came not at first, but in her stead a
+      train of pleasing yet not rousing or awakening sensations. A state ensued
+      in which, still conscious of his own identity and his own condition, the
+      knight felt enabled to consider them not only without alarm and sorrow,
+      but as composedly as he might have viewed the story of his misfortunes
+      acted upon a stage&mdash;or rather as a disembodied spirit might regard
+      the transactions of its past existence. From this state of repose,
+      amounting almost to apathy respecting the past, his thoughts were carried
+      forward to the future, which, in spite of all that existed to overcloud
+      the prospect, glittered with such hues as, under much happier auspices,
+      his unstimulated imagination had not been able to produce, even in its
+      most exalted state. Liberty, fame, successful love, appeared to be the
+      certain and not very distant prospect of the enslaved exile, the
+      dishonoured knight, even of the despairing lover who had placed his hopes
+      of happiness so far beyond the prospect of chance, in her wildest
+      possibilities, serving to countenance his wishes. Gradually as the
+      intellectual sight became overclouded, these gay visions became obscure,
+      like the dying hues of sunset, until they were at last lost in total
+      oblivion; and Sir Kenneth lay extended at the feet of El Hakim, to all
+      appearance, but for his deep respiration, as inanimate a corpse as if life
+      had actually departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Mid these wild scenes Enchantment waves her hand,
+     To change the face of the mysterious land;
+     Till the bewildering scenes around us seem
+     The Vain productions of a feverish dream.
+        ASTOLPHO, A ROMANCE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When the Knight of the Leopard awoke from his long and profound repose, he
+      found himself in circumstances so different from those in which he had
+      lain down to sleep, that he doubted whether he was not still dreaming, or
+      whether the scene had not been changed by magic. Instead of the damp
+      grass, he lay on a couch of more than Oriental luxury; and some kind hands
+      had, during his repose, stripped him of the cassock of chamois which he
+      wore under his armour, and substituted a night-dress of the finest linen
+      and a loose gown of silk. He had been canopied only by the palm-trees of
+      the desert, but now he lay beneath a silken pavilion, which blazed with
+      the richest colours of the Chinese loom, while a slight curtain of gauze,
+      displayed around his couch, was calculated to protect his repose from the
+      insects, to which he had, ever since his arrival in these climates, been a
+      constant and passive prey. He looked around, as if to convince himself
+      that he was actually awake; and all that fell beneath his eye partook of
+      the splendour of his dormitory. A portable bath of cedar, lined with
+      silver, was ready for use, and steamed with the odours which had been used
+      in preparing it. On a small stand of ebony beside the couch stood a silver
+      vase, containing sherbet of the most exquisite quality, cold as snow, and
+      which the thirst that followed the use of the strong narcotic rendered
+      peculiarly delicious. Still further to dispel the dregs of intoxication
+      which it had left behind, the knight resolved to use the bath, and
+      experienced in doing so a delightful refreshment. Having dried himself
+      with napkins of the Indian wool, he would willingly have resumed his own
+      coarse garments, that he might go forth to see whether the world was as
+      much changed without as within the place of his repose. These, however,
+      were nowhere to be seen, but in their place he found a Saracen dress of
+      rich materials, with sabre and poniard, and all befitting an emir of
+      distinction. He was able to suggest no motive to himself for this
+      exuberance of care, excepting a suspicion that these attentions were
+      intended to shake him in his religious profession&mdash;as indeed it was
+      well known that the high esteem of the European knowledge and courage made
+      the Soldan unbounded in his gifts to those who, having become his
+      prisoners, had been induced to take the turban. Sir Kenneth, therefore,
+      crossing himself devoutly, resolved to set all such snares at defiance;
+      and that he might do so the more firmly, conscientiously determined to
+      avail himself as moderately as possible of the attentions and luxuries
+      thus liberally heaped upon him. Still, however, he felt his head oppressed
+      and sleepy; and aware, too, that his undress was not fit for appearing
+      abroad, he reclined upon the couch, and was again locked in the arms of
+      slumber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this time his rest was not unbroken, for he was awakened by the voice
+      of the physician at the door of the tent, inquiring after his health, and
+      whether he had rested sufficiently. "May I enter your tent?" he concluded,
+      "for the curtain is drawn before the entrance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The master," replied Sir Kenneth, determined to show that he was not
+      surprised into forgetfulness of his own condition, "need demand no
+      permission to enter the tent of the slave."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But if I come not as a master?" said El Hakim, still without entering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The physician," answered the knight, "hath free access to the bedside of
+      his patient."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Neither come I now as a physician," replied El Hakim; "and therefore I
+      still request permission, ere I come under the covering of thy tent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whoever comes as a friend," said Sir Kenneth, "and such thou hast
+      hitherto shown thyself to me, the habitation of the friend is ever open to
+      him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet once again," said the Eastern sage, after the periphrastical manner
+      of his countrymen, "supposing that I come not as a friend?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come as thou wilt," said the Scottish knight, somewhat impatient of this
+      circumlocution; "be what thou wilt&mdash;thou knowest well it is neither
+      in my power nor my inclination to refuse thee entrance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I come, then," said El Hakim, "as your ancient foe, but a fair and a
+      generous one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He entered as he spoke; and when he stood before the bedside of Sir
+      Kenneth, the voice continued to be that of Adonbec, the Arabian physician,
+      but the form, dress, and features were those of Ilderim of Kurdistan,
+      called Sheerkohf. Sir Kenneth gazed upon him as if he expected the vision
+      to depart, like something created by his imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doth it so surprise thee," said Ilderim, "and thou an approved warrior,
+      to see that a soldier knows somewhat of the art of healing? I say to thee,
+      Nazarene, that an accomplished cavalier should know how to dress his
+      steed, as well as how to ride him; how to forge his sword upon the stithy,
+      as well as how to use it in battle; how to burnish his arms, as well as
+      how to wear them; and, above all, how to cure wounds, as well as how to
+      inflict them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the Christian knight repeatedly shut his eyes, and while they
+      remained closed, the idea of the Hakim, with his long, flowing dark robes,
+      high Tartar cap, and grave gestures was present to his imagination; but so
+      soon as he opened them, the graceful and richly-gemmed turban, the light
+      hauberk of steel rings entwisted with silver, which glanced brilliantly as
+      it obeyed every inflection of the body, the features freed from their
+      formal expression, less swarthy, and no longer shadowed by the mass of
+      hair (now limited to a well-trimmed beard), announced the soldier and not
+      the sage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Art thou still so much surprised," said the Emir, "and hast thou walked
+      in the world with such little observance, as to wonder that men are not
+      always what they seem? Thou thyself&mdash;art thou what thou seemest?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, by Saint Andrew!" exclaimed the knight; "for to the whole Christian
+      camp I seem a traitor, and I know myself to be a true though an erring
+      man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even so I judged thee," said Ilderim; "and as we had eaten salt together,
+      I deemed myself bound to rescue thee from death and contumely. But
+      wherefore lie you still on your couch, since the sun is high in the
+      heavens? or are the vestments which my sumpter-camels have afforded
+      unworthy of your wearing?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not unworthy, surely, but unfitting for it," replied the Scot. "Give me
+      the dress of a slave, noble Ilderim, and I will don it with pleasure; but
+      I cannot brook to wear the habit of the free Eastern warrior with the
+      turban of the Moslem."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nazarene," answered the Emir, "thy nation so easily entertain suspicion
+      that it may well render themselves suspected. Have I not told thee that
+      Saladin desires no converts saving those whom the holy Prophet shall
+      dispose to submit themselves to his law? violence and bribery are alike
+      alien to his plan for extending the true faith. Hearken to me, my brother.
+      When the blind man was miraculously restored to sight, the scales dropped
+      from his eyes at the Divine pleasure. Think'st thou that any earthly leech
+      could have removed them? No. Such mediciner might have tormented the
+      patient with his instruments, or perhaps soothed him with his balsams and
+      cordials, but dark as he was must the darkened man have remained; and it
+      is even so with the blindness of the understanding. If there be those
+      among the Franks who, for the sake of worldly lucre, have assumed the
+      turban of the Prophet, and followed the laws of Islam, with their own
+      consciences be the blame. Themselves sought out the bait; it was not flung
+      to them by the Soldan. And when they shall hereafter be sentenced, as
+      hypocrites, to the lowest gulf of hell, below Christian and Jew, magician
+      and idolater, and condemned to eat the fruit of the tree Yacoun, which is
+      the heads of demons, to themselves, not to the Soldan, shall their guilt
+      and their punishment be attributed. Wherefore wear, without doubt or
+      scruple, the vesture prepared for you, since, if you proceed to the camp
+      of Saladin, your own native dress will expose you to troublesome
+      observation, and perhaps to insult."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "IF I go to the camp of Saladin?" said Sir Kenneth, repeating the words of
+      the Emir; "alas! am I a free agent, and rather must I NOT go wherever your
+      pleasure carries me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thine own will may guide thine own motions," said the Emir, "as freely as
+      the wind which moveth the dust of the desert in what direction it
+      chooseth. The noble enemy who met and well-nigh mastered my sword cannot
+      become my slave like him who has crouched beneath it. If wealth and power
+      would tempt thee to join our people, I could ensure thy possessing them;
+      but the man who refused the favours of the Soldan when the axe was at his
+      head, will not, I fear, now accept them, when I tell him he has his free
+      choice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Complete your generosity, noble Emir," said Sir Kenneth, "by forbearing
+      to show me a mode of requital which conscience forbids me to comply with.
+      Permit me rather to express, as bound in courtesy, my gratitude for this
+      most chivalrous bounty, this undeserved generosity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say not undeserved," replied the Emir Ilderim. "Was it not through thy
+      conversation, and thy account of the beauties which grace the court of the
+      Melech Ric, that I ventured me thither in disguise, and thereby procured a
+      sight the most blessed that I have ever enjoyed&mdash;that I ever shall
+      enjoy, until the glories of Paradise beam on my eyes?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I understand you not," said Sir Kenneth, colouring alternately, and
+      turning pale, as one who felt that the conversation was taking a tone of
+      the most painful delicacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not understand me!" exclaimed the Emir. "If the sight I saw in the tent
+      of King Richard escaped thine observation, I will account it duller than
+      the edge of a buffoon's wooden falchion. True, thou wert under sentence of
+      death at the time; but, in my case, had my head been dropping from the
+      trunk, the last strained glances of my eyeballs had distinguished with
+      delight such a vision of loveliness, and the head would have rolled itself
+      towards the incomparable houris, to kiss with its quivering lips the hem
+      of their vestments. Yonder royalty of England, who for her superior
+      loveliness deserves to be Queen of the universe&mdash;what tenderness in
+      her blue eye, what lustre in her tresses of dishevelled gold! By the tomb
+      of the Prophet, I scarce think that the houri who shall present to me the
+      diamond cup of immortality will deserve so warm a caress!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saracen," said Sir Kenneth sternly, "thou speakest of the wife of Richard
+      of England, of whom men think not and speak not as a woman to be won, but
+      as a Queen to be revered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cry you mercy," said the Saracen. "I had forgotten your superstitious
+      veneration for the sex, which you consider rather fit to be wondered at
+      and worshipped than wooed and possessed. I warrant, since thou exactest
+      such profound respect to yonder tender piece of frailty, whose every
+      motion, step, and look bespeaks her very woman, less than absolute
+      adoration must not be yielded to her of the dark tresses and nobly
+      speaking eye. SHE indeed, I will allow, hath in her noble port and
+      majestic mien something at once pure and firm; yet even she, when pressed
+      by opportunity and a forward lover, would, I warrant thee, thank him in
+      her heart rather for treating her as a mortal than as a goddess."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Respect the kinswoman of Coeur de Lion!" said Sir Kenneth, in a tone of
+      unrepressed anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Respect her!" answered the Emir in scorn; "by the Caaba, and if I do, it
+      shall be rather as the bride of Saladin."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The infidel Soldan is unworthy to salute even a spot that has been
+      pressed by the foot of Edith Plantagenet!" exclaimed the Christian,
+      springing from his couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! what said the Giaour?" exclaimed the Emir, laying his hand on his
+      poniard hilt, while his forehead glowed like glancing copper, and the
+      muscles of his lips and cheeks wrought till each curl of his beard seemed
+      to twist and screw itself, as if alive with instinctive wrath. But the
+      Scottish knight, who had stood the lion-anger of Richard, was unappalled
+      at the tigerlike mood of the chafed Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What I have said," continued Sir Kenneth, with folded arms and dauntless
+      look, "I would, were my hands loose, maintain on foot or horseback against
+      all mortals; and would hold it not the most memorable deed of my life to
+      support it with my good broadsword against a score of these sickles and
+      bodkins," pointing at the curved sabre and small poniard of the Emir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen recovered his composure as the Christian spoke, so far as to
+      withdraw his hand from his weapon, as if the motion had been without
+      meaning, but still continued in deep ire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the sword of the Prophet," he said, "which is the key both of heaven
+      and hell, he little values his own life, brother, who uses the language
+      thou dost! Believe me, that were thine hands loose, as thou term'st it,
+      one single true believer would find them so much to do that thou wouldst
+      soon wish them fettered again in manacles of iron."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sooner would I wish them hewn off by the shoulder-blades!" replied Sir
+      Kenneth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well. Thy hands are bound at present," said the Saracen, in a more
+      amicable tone&mdash;"bound by thine own gentle sense of courtesy; nor have
+      I any present purpose of setting them at liberty. We have proved each
+      other's strength and courage ere now, and we may again meet in a fair
+      field&mdash;and shame befall him who shall be the first to part from his
+      foeman! But now we are friends, and I look for aid from thee rather than
+      hard terms or defiances."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We ARE friends," repeated the knight; and there was a pause, during which
+      the fiery Saracen paced the tent, like the lion, who, after violent
+      irritation, is said to take that method of cooling the distemperature of
+      his blood, ere he stretches himself to repose in his den. The colder
+      European remained unaltered in posture and aspect; yet he, doubtless, was
+      also engaged in subduing the angry feelings which had been so unexpectedly
+      awakened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let us reason of this calmly," said the Saracen. "I am a physician, as
+      thou knowest, and it is written that he who would have his wound cured
+      must not shrink when the leech probes and tests it. Seest thou, I am about
+      to lay my finger on the sore. Thou lovest this kinswoman of the Melech
+      Ric. Unfold the veil that shrouds thy thoughts&mdash;or unfold it not if
+      thou wilt, for mine eyes see through its coverings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I LOVED her," answered Sir Kenneth, after a pause, "as a man loves
+      Heaven's grace, and sued for her favour like a sinner for Heaven's
+      pardon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you love her no longer?" said the Saracen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas," answered Sir Kenneth, "I am no longer worthy to love her. I pray
+      thee cease this discourse&mdash;thy words are poniards to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me but a moment," continued Ilderim. "When thou, a poor and
+      obscure soldier, didst so boldly and so highly fix thine affection, tell
+      me, hadst thou good hope of its issue?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Love exists not without hope," replied the knight; "but mine was as
+      nearly allied to despair as that of the sailor swimming for his life, who,
+      as he surmounts billow after billow, catches by intervals some gleam of
+      the distant beacon, which shows him there is land in sight, though his
+      sinking heart and wearied limbs assure him that he shall never reach it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now," said Ilderim, "these hopes are sunk&mdash;that solitary light
+      is quenched for ever?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For ever," answered Sir Kenneth, in the tone of an echo from the bosom of
+      a ruined sepulchre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks," said the Saracen, "if all thou lackest were some such distant
+      meteoric glimpse of happiness as thou hadst formerly, thy beacon-light
+      might be rekindled, thy hope fished up from the ocean in which it has
+      sunk, and thou thyself, good knight, restored to the exercise and
+      amusement of nourishing thy fantastic fashion upon a diet as unsubstantial
+      as moonlight; for, if thou stood'st tomorrow fair in reputation as ever
+      thou wert, she whom thou lovest will not be less the daughter of princes
+      and the elected bride of Saladin."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would it so stood," said the Scot, "and if I did not&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped short, like a man who is afraid of boasting under circumstances
+      which did not permit his being put to the test. The Saracen smiled as he
+      concluded the sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wouldst challenge the Soldan to single combat?" said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And if I did," said Sir Kenneth haughtily, "Saladin's would neither be
+      the first nor the best turban that I have couched lance at."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but methinks the Soldan might regard it as too unequal a mode of
+      perilling the chance of a royal bride and the event of a great war," said
+      the Emir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He may be met with in the front of battle," said the knight, his eyes
+      gleaming with the ideas which such a thought inspired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He has been ever found there," said Ilderim; "nor is it his wont to turn
+      his horse's head from any brave encounter. But it was not of the Soldan
+      that I meant to speak. In a word, if it will content thee to be placed in
+      such reputation as may be attained by detection of the thief who stole the
+      Banner of England, I can put thee in a fair way of achieving this task&mdash;that
+      is, if thou wilt be governed; for what says Lokman, 'If the child would
+      walk, the nurse must lead him; if the ignorant would understand, the wise
+      must instruct.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou art wise, Ilderim," said the Scot&mdash;"wise though a Saracen,
+      and generous though an infidel. I have witnessed that thou art both. Take,
+      then, the guidance of this matter; and so thou ask nothing of me contrary
+      to my loyalty and my Christian faith, I, will obey thee punctually. Do
+      what thou hast said, and take my life when it is accomplished."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Listen thou to me, then," said the Saracen. "Thy noble hound is now
+      recovered, by the blessing of that divine medicine which healeth man and
+      beast; and by his sagacity shall those who assailed him be discovered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" said the knight, "methinks I comprehend thee. I was dull not to
+      think of this!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But tell me," added the Emir, "hast thou any followers or retainers in
+      the camp by whom the animal may be known?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dismissed," said Sir Kenneth, "my old attendant, thy patient, with a
+      varlet that waited on him, at the time when I expected to suffer death,
+      giving him letters for my friends in Scotland; there are none other to
+      whom the dog is familiar. But then my own person is well known&mdash;my
+      very speech will betray me, in a camp where I have played no mean part for
+      many months."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Both he and thou shalt be disguised, so as to escape even close
+      examination. I tell thee," said the Saracen, "that not thy brother in arms&mdash;not
+      thy brother in blood&mdash;shall discover thee, if thou be guided by my
+      counsels. Thou hast seen me do matters more difficult&mdash;he that can
+      call the dying from the darkness of the shadow of death can easily cast a
+      mist before the eyes of the living. But mark me: there is still the
+      condition annexed to this service&mdash;that thou deliver a letter of
+      Saladin to the niece of the Melech Ric, whose name is as difficult to our
+      Eastern tongue and lips, as her beauty is delightful to our eyes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Kenneth paused before he answered, and the Saracen observing his
+      hesitation, demanded of him, "if he feared to undertake this message?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not if there were death in the execution," said Sir Kenneth. "I do but
+      pause to consider whether it consists with my honour to bear the letter of
+      the Soldan, or with that of the Lady Edith to receive it from a heathen
+      prince."
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0368m.jpg" alt="0368m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0368.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "By the head of Mohammed, and by the honour of a soldier&mdash;by the tomb
+      at Mecca, and by the soul of my father," said the Emir, "I swear to thee
+      that the letter is written in all honour and respect. The song of the
+      nightingale will sooner blight the rose-bower she loves than will the
+      words of the Soldan offend the ears of the lovely kinswoman of England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," said the knight, "I will bear the Soldan's letter faithfully, as
+      if I were his born vassal&mdash;understanding, that beyond this simple act
+      of service, which I will render with fidelity, from me of all men he can
+      least expect mediation or advice in this his strange love-suit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saladin is noble," answered the Emir, "and will not spur a generous horse
+      to a leap which he cannot achieve. Come with me to my tent," he added,
+      "and thou shalt be presently equipped with a disguise as unsearchable as
+      midnight, so thou mayest walk the camp of the Nazarenes as if thou hadst
+      on thy finger the signet of Giaougi." [Perhaps the same with Gyges.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     A grain of dust
+     Soiling our cup, will make our sense reject
+     Fastidiously the draught which we did thirst for;
+     A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass,
+     Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
+     Even this small cause of anger and disgust
+     Will break the bonds of amity 'mongst princes,
+     And wreck their noblest purposes.
+                  THE CRUSADE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The reader can now have little doubt who the Ethiopian slave really was,
+      with what purpose he had sought Richard's camp, and wherefore and with
+      what hope he now stood close to the person of that Monarch, as, surrounded
+      by his valiant peers of England and Normandy, Coeur de Lion stood on the
+      summit of Saint George's Mount, with the Banner of England by his side,
+      borne by the most goodly person in the army, being his own natural
+      brother, William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, the offspring of
+      Henry the Second's amour with the celebrated Rosamond of Woodstock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From several expressions in the King's conversation with Neville on the
+      preceding day, the Nubian was left in anxious doubt whether his disguise
+      had not been penetrated, especially as that the King seemed to be aware in
+      what manner the agency of the dog was expected to discover the thief who
+      stole the banner, although the circumstance of such an animal's having
+      been wounded on the occasion had been scarce mentioned in Richard's
+      presence. Nevertheless, as the King continued to treat him in no other
+      manner than his exterior required, the Nubian remained uncertain whether
+      he was or was not discovered, and determined not to throw his disguise
+      aside voluntarily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, the powers of the various Crusading princes, arrayed under
+      their royal and princely leaders, swept in long order around the base of
+      the little mound; and as those of each different country passed by, their
+      commanders advanced a step or two up the hill, and made a signal of
+      courtesy to Richard and to the Standard of England, "in sign of regard and
+      amity," as the protocol of the ceremony heedfully expressed it, "not of
+      subjection or vassalage." The spiritual dignitaries, who in those days
+      veiled not their bonnets to created being, bestowed on the King and his
+      symbol of command their blessing instead of rendering obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus the long files marched on, and, diminished as they were by so many
+      causes, appeared still an iron host, to whom the conquest of Palestine
+      might seem an easy task. The soldiers, inspired by the consciousness of
+      united strength, sat erect in their steel saddles; while it seemed that
+      the trumpets sounded more cheerfully shrill, and the steeds, refreshed by
+      rest and provender, chafed on the bit, and trod the ground more proudly.
+      On they passed, troop after troop, banners waving, spears glancing, plumes
+      dancing, in long perspective&mdash;a host composed of different nations,
+      complexions, languages, arms, and appearances, but all fired, for the
+      time, with the holy yet romantic purpose of rescuing the distressed
+      daughter of Zion from her thraldom, and redeeming the sacred earth, which
+      more than mortal had trodden, from the yoke of the unbelieving pagan. And
+      it must be owned that if, in other circumstances, the species of courtesy
+      rendered to the King of England by so many warriors, from whom he claimed
+      no natural allegiance, had in it something that might have been thought
+      humiliating, yet the nature and cause of the war was so fitted to his
+      pre-eminently chivalrous character and renowned feats in arms, that claims
+      which might elsewhere have been urged were there forgotten, and the brave
+      did willing homage to the bravest, in an expedition where the most
+      undaunted and energetic courage was necessary to success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good King was seated on horseback about half way up the mount, a
+      morion on his head, surmounted by a crown, which left his manly features
+      exposed to public view, as, with cool and considerate eye, he perused each
+      rank as it passed him, and returned the salutation of the leaders. His
+      tunic was of sky-coloured velvet, covered with plates of silver, and his
+      hose of crimson silk, slashed with cloth of gold. By his side stood the
+      seeming Ethiopian slave, holding the noble dog in a leash, such as was
+      used in woodcraft. It was a circumstance which attracted no notice, for
+      many of the princes of the Crusade had introduced black slaves into their
+      household, in imitation of the barbarous splendour of the Saracens. Over
+      the King's head streamed the large folds of the banner, and, as he looked
+      to it from time to time, he seemed to regard a ceremony, indifferent to
+      himself personally, as important, when considered as atoning an indignity
+      offered to the kingdom which he ruled. In the background, and on the very
+      summit of the Mount, a wooden turret, erected for the occasion, held the
+      Queen Berengaria and the principal ladies of the Court. To this the King
+      looked from time to time; and then ever and anon his eyes were turned on
+      the Nubian and the dog, but only when such leaders approached, as, from
+      circumstances of previous ill-will, he suspected of being accessory to the
+      theft of the standard, or whom he judged capable of a crime so mean.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0269m.jpg" alt="0269m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0269.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Thus, he did not look in that direction when Philip Augustus of France
+      approached at the head of his splendid troops of Gallic chivalry&mdash;-nay,
+      he anticipated the motions of the French King, by descending the Mount as
+      the latter came up the ascent, so that they met in the middle space, and
+      blended their greetings so gracefully that it appeared they met in
+      fraternal equality. The sight of the two greatest princes in Europe, in
+      rank at once and power, thus publicly avowing their concord, called forth
+      bursts of thundering acclaim from the Crusading host at many miles
+      distance, and made the roving Arab scouts of the desert alarm the camp of
+      Saladin with intelligence that the army of the Christians was in motion.
+      Yet who but the King of kings can read the hearts of monarchs? Under this
+      smooth show of courtesy, Richard nourished displeasure and suspicion
+      against Philip, and Philip meditated withdrawing himself and his host from
+      the army of the Cross, and leaving Richard to accomplish or fail in the
+      enterprise with his own unassisted forces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard's demeanour was different when the dark-armed knights and squires
+      of the Temple chivalry approached&mdash;men with countenances bronzed to
+      Asiatic blackness by the suns of Palestine, and the admirable state of
+      whose horses and appointments far surpassed even that of the choicest
+      troops of France and England. The King cast a hasty glance aside; but the
+      Nubian stood quiet, and his trusty dog sat at his feet, watching, with a
+      sagacious yet pleased look, the ranks which now passed before them. The
+      King's look turned again on the chivalrous Templars, as the Grand Master,
+      availing himself of his mingled character, bestowed his benediction on
+      Richard as a priest, instead of doing him reverence as a military leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The misproud and amphibious caitiff puts the monk upon me," said Richard
+      to the Earl of Salisbury. "But, Longsword, we will let it pass. A
+      punctilio must not lose Christendom the services of these experienced
+      lances, because their victories have rendered them overweening. Lo you,
+      here comes our valiant adversary, the Duke of Austria. Mark his manner and
+      bearing, Longsword&mdash;and thou, Nubian, let the hound have full view of
+      him. By Heaven, he brings his buffoons along with him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, whether from habit, or, which is more likely, to intimate
+      contempt of the ceremonial he was about to comply with, Leopold was
+      attended by his SPRUCH-SPRECHER and his jester; and as he advanced towards
+      Richard, he whistled in what he wished to be considered as an indifferent
+      manner, though his heavy features evinced the sullenness, mixed with the
+      fear, with which a truant schoolboy may be seen to approach his master. As
+      the reluctant dignitary made, with discomposed and sulky look, the
+      obeisance required, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his baton, and proclaimed,
+      like a herald, that, in what he was now doing, the Archduke of Austria was
+      not to be held derogating from the rank and privileges of a sovereign
+      prince; to which the jester answered with a sonorous AMEN, which provoked
+      much laughter among the bystanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King Richard looked more than once at the Nubian and his dog; but the
+      former moved not, nor did the latter strain at the leash, so that Richard
+      said to the slave with some scorn, "Thy success in this enterprise, my
+      sable friend, even though thou hast brought thy hound's sagacity to back
+      thine own, will not, I fear, place thee high in the rank of wizards, or
+      much augment thy merits towards our person."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian answered, as usual, only by a lowly obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime the troops of the Marquis of Montserrat next passed in order
+      before the King of England. That powerful and wily baron, to make the
+      greater display of his forces, had divided them into two bodies. At the
+      head of the first, consisting of his vassals and followers, and levied
+      from his Syrian possessions, came his brother Enguerrand; and he himself
+      followed, leading on a gallant band of twelve hundred Stradiots, a kind of
+      light cavalry raised by the Venetians in their Dalmatian possessions, and
+      of which they had entrusted the command to the Marquis, with whom the
+      republic had many bonds of connection. These Stradiots were clothed in a
+      fashion partly European, but partaking chiefly of the Eastern fashion.
+      They wore, indeed, short hauberks, but had over them party-coloured tunics
+      of rich stuffs, with large wide pantaloons and half-boots. On their heads
+      were straight upright caps, similar to those of the Greeks; and they
+      carried small round targets, bows and arrows, scimitars, and poniards.
+      They were mounted on horses carefully selected, and well maintained at the
+      expense of the State of Venice; their saddles and appointments resembled
+      those of the Turks, and they rode in the same manner, with short stirrups
+      and upon a high seat. These troops were of great use in skirmishing with
+      the Arabs, though unable to engage in close combat, like the iron-sheathed
+      men-at-arms of Western and Northern Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before this goodly band came Conrade, in the same garb with the Stradiots,
+      but of such rich stuff that he seemed to blaze with gold and silver, and
+      the milk-white plume fastened in his cap by a clasp of diamonds seemed
+      tall enough to sweep the clouds. The noble steed which he reined bounded
+      and caracoled, and displayed his spirit and agility in a manner which
+      might have troubled a less admirable horseman than the Marquis, who
+      gracefully ruled him with the one hand, while the other displayed the
+      baton, whose predominancy over the ranks which he led seemed equally
+      absolute. Yet his authority over the Stradiots was more in show than in
+      substance; for there paced beside him, on an ambling palfrey of soberest
+      mood, a little old man, dressed entirely in black, without beard or
+      moustaches, and having an appearance altogether mean and insignificant
+      when compared with the blaze of splendour around him. But this
+      mean-looking old man was one of those deputies whom the Venetian
+      government sent into camps to overlook the conduct of the generals to whom
+      the leading was consigned, and to maintain that jealous system of espial
+      and control which had long distinguished the policy of the republic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade, who, by cultivating Richard's humour, had attained a certain
+      degree of favour with him, no sooner was come within his ken than the King
+      of England descended a step or two to meet him, exclaiming, at the same
+      time, "Ha, Lord Marquis, thou at the head of the fleet Stradiots, and thy
+      black shadow attending thee as usual, whether the sun shines or not! May
+      not one ask thee whether the rule of the troops remains with the shadow or
+      the substance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade was commencing his reply with a smile, when Roswal, the noble
+      hound, uttering a furious and savage yell, sprung forward. The Nubian, at
+      the same time, slipped the leash, and the hound, rushing on, leapt upon
+      Conrade's noble charger, and, seizing the Marquis by the throat, pulled
+      him down from the saddle. The plumed rider lay rolling on the sand, and
+      the frightened horse fled in wild career through the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy hound hath pulled down the right quarry, I warrant him," said the
+      King to the Nubian, "and I vow to Saint George he is a stag of ten tynes!
+      Pluck the dog off; lest he throttle him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ethiopian, accordingly, though not without difficulty, disengaged the
+      dog from Conrade, and fastened him up, still highly excited, and
+      struggling in the leash. Meanwhile many crowded to the spot, especially
+      followers of Conrade and officers of the Stradiots, who, as they saw their
+      leader lie gazing wildly on the sky, raised him up amid a tumultuary cry
+      of "Cut the slave and his hound to pieces!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the voice of Richard, loud and sonorous, was heard clear above all
+      other exclamations. "He dies the death who injures the hound! He hath but
+      done his duty, after the sagacity with which God and nature have endowed
+      the brave animal.&mdash;Stand forward for a false traitor, thou Conrade,
+      Marquis of Montserrat! I impeach thee of treason."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several of the Syrian leaders had now come up, and Conrade&mdash;vexation,
+      and shame, and confusion struggling with passion in his manner and voice&mdash;exclaimed,
+      "What means this? With what am I charged? Why this base usage and these
+      reproachful terms? Is this the league of concord which England renewed but
+      so lately?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are the Princes of the Crusade turned hares or deers in the eyes of King
+      Richard that he should slip hounds on them?" said the sepulchral voice of
+      the Grand Master of the Templars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It must be some singular accident&mdash;some fatal mistake," said Philip
+      of France, who rode up at the same moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Some deceit of the Enemy," said the Archbishop of Tyre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A stratagem of the Saracens," cried Henry of Champagne. "It were well to
+      hang up the dog, and put the slave to the torture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let no man lay hand upon them," said Richard, "as he loves his own life!
+      Conrade, stand forth, if thou darest, and deny the accusation which this
+      mute animal hath in his noble instinct brought against thee, of injury
+      done to him, and foul scorn to England!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never touched the banner," said Conrade hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy words betray thee, Conrade!" said Richard, "for how didst thou know,
+      save from conscious guilt, that the question is concerning the banner?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hast thou then not kept the camp in turmoil on that and no other score?"
+      answered Conrade; "and dost thou impute to a prince and an ally a crime
+      which, after all, was probably committed by some paltry felon for the sake
+      of the gold thread? Or wouldst thou now impeach a confederate on the
+      credit of a dog?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the alarm was becoming general, so that Philip of France
+      interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Princes and nobles," he said, "you speak in presence of those whose
+      swords will soon be at the throats of each other if they hear their
+      leaders at such terms together. In the name of Heaven, let us draw off
+      each his own troops into their separate quarters, and ourselves meet an
+      hour hence in the Pavilion of Council to take some order in this new state
+      of confusion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Content," said King Richard, "though I should have liked to have
+      interrogated that caitiff while his gay doublet was yet besmirched with
+      sand. But the pleasure of France shall be ours in this matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The leaders separated as was proposed, each prince placing himself at the
+      head of his own forces; and then was heard on all sides the crying of
+      war-cries and the sounding of gathering-notes upon bugles and trumpets, by
+      which the different stragglers were summoned to their prince's banner, and
+      the troops were shortly seen in motion, each taking different routes
+      through the camp to their own quarters. But although any immediate act of
+      violence was thus prevented, yet the accident which had taken place dwelt
+      on every mind; and those foreigners who had that morning hailed Richard as
+      the worthiest to lead their army, now resumed their prejudices against his
+      pride and intolerance, while the English, conceiving the honour of their
+      country connected with the quarrel, of which various reports had gone
+      about, considered the natives of other countries jealous of the fame of
+      England and her King, and disposed to undermine it by the meanest arts of
+      intrigue. Many and various were the rumours spread upon the occasion, and
+      there was one which averred that the Queen and her ladies had been much
+      alarmed by the tumult, and that one of them had swooned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Council assembled at the appointed hour. Conrade had in the meanwhile
+      laid aside his dishonoured dress, and with it the shame and confusion
+      which, in spite of his talents and promptitude, had at first overwhelmed
+      him, owing to the strangeness of the accident and suddenness of the
+      accusation. He was now robed like a prince; and entered the
+      council-chamber attended by the Archduke of Austria, the Grand Masters
+      both of the Temple and of the Order of Saint John, and several other
+      potentates, who made a show of supporting him and defending his cause,
+      chiefly perhaps from political motives, or because they themselves
+      nourished a personal enmity against Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This appearance of union in favour of Conrade was far from influencing the
+      King of England. He entered the Council with his usual indifference of
+      manner, and in the same dress in which he had just alighted from
+      horseback. He cast a careless and somewhat scornful glance on the leaders,
+      who had with studied affectation arranged themselves around Conrade as if
+      owning his cause, and in the most direct terms charged Conrade of
+      Montserrat with having stolen the Banner of England, and wounded the
+      faithful animal who stood in its defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade arose boldly to answer, and in despite, as he expressed himself,
+      of man and brute, king or dog, avouched his innocence of the crime
+      charged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Brother of England," said Philip, who willingly assumed the character of
+      moderator of the assembly, "this is an unusual impeachment. We do not hear
+      you avouch your own knowledge of this matter, further than your belief
+      resting upon the demeanour of this hound towards the Marquis of
+      Montserrat. Surely the word of a knight and a prince should bear him out
+      against the barking of a cur?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Royal brother," returned Richard, "recollect that the Almighty, who gave
+      the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him
+      with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. He forgets neither friend nor
+      foe&mdash;remembers, and with accuracy, both benefit and injury. He hath a
+      share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's falsehood. You may
+      bribe a soldier to slay a man with his sword, or a witness to take life by
+      false accusation; but you cannot make a hound tear his benefactor. He is
+      the friend of man, save when man justly incurs his enmity. Dress yonder
+      marquis in what peacock-robes you will, disguise his appearance, alter his
+      complexion with drugs and washes, hide him amidst a hundred men,&mdash;I
+      will yet pawn my sceptre that the hound detects him, and expresses his
+      resentment, as you have this day beheld. This is no new incident, although
+      a strange one. Murderers and robbers have been ere now convicted, and
+      suffered death under such evidence, and men have said that the finger of
+      God was in it. In thine own land, royal brother, and upon such an
+      occasion, the matter was tried by a solemn duel betwixt the man and the
+      dog, as appellant and defendant in a challenge of murder. The dog was
+      victorious, the man was punished, and the crime was confessed. Credit me,
+      royal brother, that hidden crimes have often been brought to light by the
+      testimony even of inanimate substances, not to mention animals far
+      inferior in instinctive sagacity to the dog, who is the friend and
+      companion of our race."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such a duel there hath indeed been, royal brother," answered Philip, "and
+      that in the reign of one of our predecessors, to whom God be gracious. But
+      it was in the olden time, nor can we hold it a precedent fitting for this
+      occasion. The defendant in that case was a private gentleman of small rank
+      or respect; his offensive weapons were only a club, his defensive a
+      leathern jerkin. But we cannot degrade a prince to the disgrace of using
+      such rude arms, or to the ignominy of such a combat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never meant that you should," said King Richard; "it were foul play to
+      hazard the good hound's life against that of such a double-faced traitor
+      as this Conrade hath proved himself. But there lies our own glove; we
+      appeal him to the combat in respect of the evidence we brought forth
+      against him. A king, at least, is more than the mate of a marquis."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conrade made no hasty effort to seize on the pledge which Richard cast
+      into the middle of the assembly, and King Philip had time to reply ere the
+      marquis made a motion to lift the glove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A king," said he of France, "is as much more than a match for the Marquis
+      Conrade as a dog would be less. Royal Richard, this cannot be permitted.
+      You are the leader of our expedition&mdash;the sword and buckler of
+      Christendom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I protest against such a combat," said the Venetian proveditore, "until
+      the King of England shall have repaid the fifty thousand byzants which he
+      is indebted to the republic. It is enough to be threatened with loss of
+      our debt, should our debtor fall by the hands of the pagans, without the
+      additional risk of his being slain in brawls amongst Christians concerning
+      dogs and banners."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I," said William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, "protest in
+      my turn against my royal brother perilling his life, which is the property
+      of the people of England, in such a cause. Here, noble brother, receive
+      back your glove, and think only as if the wind had blown it from your
+      hand. Mine shall lie in its stead. A king's son, though with the bar
+      sinister on his shield, is at least a match for this marmoset of a
+      marquis."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Princes and nobles," said Conrade, "I will not accept of King Richard's
+      defiance. He hath been chosen our leader against the Saracens, and if his
+      conscience can answer the accusation of provoking an ally to the field on
+      a quarrel so frivolous, mine, at least, cannot endure the reproach of
+      accepting it. But touching his bastard brother, William of Woodstock, or
+      against any other who shall adopt or shall dare to stand godfather to this
+      most false charge, I will defend my honour in the lists, and prove
+      whosoever impeaches it a false liar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Marquis of Montserrat," said the Archbishop of Tyre, "hath spoken
+      like a wise and moderate gentleman; and methinks this controversy might,
+      without dishonour to any party, end at this point."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks it might so terminate," said the King of France, "provided King
+      Richard will recall his accusation as made upon over-slight grounds."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Philip of France," answered Coeur de Lion, "my words shall never do my
+      thoughts so much injury. I have charged yonder Conrade as a thief, who,
+      under cloud of night, stole from its place the emblem of England's
+      dignity. I still believe and charge him to be such; and when a day is
+      appointed for the combat, doubt not that, since Conrade declines to meet
+      us in person, I will find a champion to appear in support of my challenge&mdash;for
+      thou, William, must not thrust thy long sword into this quarrel without
+      our special license."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Since my rank makes me arbiter in this most unhappy matter," said Philip
+      of France, "I appoint the fifth day from hence for the decision thereof,
+      by way of combat, according to knightly usage&mdash;Richard, King of
+      England, to appear by his champion as appellant, and Conrade, Marquis of
+      Montserrat, in his own person, as defendant. Yet I own I know not where to
+      find neutral ground where such a quarrel may be fought out; for it must
+      not be in the neighbourhood of this camp, where the soldiers would make
+      faction on the different sides."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It were well," said Richard, "to apply to the generosity of the royal
+      Saladin, since, heathen as he is, I have never known knight more fulfilled
+      of nobleness, or to whose good faith we may so peremptorily entrust
+      ourselves. I speak thus for those who may be doubtful of mishap; for
+      myself, wherever I see my foe, I make that spot my battle-ground."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be it so," said Philip; "we will make this matter known to Saladin,
+      although it be showing to an enemy the unhappy spirit of discord which we
+      would willingly hide from even ourselves, were it possible. Meanwhile, I
+      dismiss this assembly, and charge you all, as Christian men and noble
+      knights, that ye let this unhappy feud breed no further brawling in the
+      camp, but regard it as a thing solemnly referred to the judgment of God,
+      to whom each of you should pray that He will dispose of victory in the
+      combat according to the truth of the quarrel; and therewith may His will
+      be done!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Amen, amen!" was answered on all sides; while the Templar whispered the
+      Marquis, "Conrade, wilt thou not add a petition to be delivered from the
+      power of the dog, as the Psalmist hath it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, thou&mdash;!" replied the Marquis; "there is a revealing demon
+      abroad which may report, amongst other tidings, how far thou dost carry
+      the motto of thy order&mdash;'FERIATUR LEO'."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wilt stand the brunt of challenge?" said the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doubt me not," said Conrade. "I would not, indeed, have willingly met the
+      iron arm of Richard himself, and I shame not to confess that I rejoice to
+      be free of his encounter; but, from his bastard brother downward, the man
+      breathes not in his ranks whom I fear to meet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is well you are so confident," continued the Templar; "and, in that
+      case, the fangs of yonder hound have done more to dissolve this league of
+      princes than either thy devices or the dagger of the Charegite. Seest thou
+      how, under a brow studiously overclouded, Philip cannot conceal the
+      satisfaction which he feels at the prospect of release from the alliance
+      which sat so heavy on him? Mark how Henry of Champagne smiles to himself,
+      like a sparkling goblet of his own wine; and see the chuckling delight of
+      Austria, who thinks his quarrel is about to be avenged without risk or
+      trouble of his own. Hush! he approaches.&mdash;A most grievous chance,
+      most royal Austria, that these breaches in the walls of our Zion&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If thou meanest this Crusade," replied the Duke, "I would it were
+      crumbled to pieces, and each were safe at home! I speak this in
+      confidence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But," said the Marquis of Montserrat, "to think this disunion should be
+      made by the hands of King Richard, for whose pleasure we have been
+      contented to endure so much, and to whom we have been as submissive as
+      slaves to a master, in hopes that he would use his valour against our
+      enemies, instead of exercising it upon our friends!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see not that he is so much more valorous than others," said the
+      Archduke. "I believe, had the noble Marquis met him in the lists, he would
+      have had the better; for though the islander deals heavy blows with the
+      pole-axe, he is not so very dexterous with the lance. I should have cared
+      little to have met him myself on our old quarrel, had the weal of
+      Christendom permitted to sovereign princes to breathe themselves in the
+      lists; and if thou desirest it, noble Marquis, I will myself be your
+      godfather in this combat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I also," said the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, then, and take your nooning in our tent, noble sirs," said the
+      Duke, "and we'll speak of this business over some right NIERENSTEIN."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered together accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What said our patron and these great folks together?" said Jonas
+      Schwanker to his companion, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who had used the freedom
+      to press nigh to his master when the Council was dismissed, while the
+      jester waited at a more respectful distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Servant of Folly," said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, "moderate thy curiosity; it
+      beseems not that I should tell to thee the counsels of our master."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Man of wisdom, you mistake," answered Jonas. "We are both the constant
+      attendants on our patron, and it concerns us alike to know whether thou or
+      I&mdash;Wisdom or Folly&mdash;have the deeper interest in him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He told to the Marquis," answered the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, "and to the Grand
+      Master, that he was aweary of these wars, and would be glad he was safe at
+      home."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is a drawn cast, and counts for nothing in the game," said the
+      jester; "it was most wise to think thus, but great folly to tell it to
+      others&mdash;proceed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha, hem!" said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER; "he next said to them that Richard
+      was not more valorous than others, or over-dexterous in the tilt-yard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Woodcock of my side," said Schwanker, "this was egregious folly. What
+      next?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, I am something oblivious," replied the man of wisdom&mdash;"he
+      invited them to a goblet of NIERENSTEIN."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That hath a show of wisdom in it," said Jonas. "Thou mayest mark it to
+      thy credit in the meantime; but an he drink too much, as is most likely, I
+      will have it pass to mine. Anything more?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing worth memory," answered the orator; "only he wished he had taken
+      the occasion to meet Richard in the lists."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Out upon it&mdash;out upon it!" said Jonas; "this is such dotage of folly
+      that I am well-nigh ashamed of winning the game by it. Ne'ertheless, fool
+      as he is, we will follow him, most sage SPRUCH-SPRECHER, and have our
+      share of the wine of NIERENSTEIN."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Yet this inconstancy is such,
+     As thou, too, shalt adore;
+     I could not love thee, love so much,
+     Loved I not honour more.
+            MONTROSE'S LINES.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When King Richard returned to his tent, he commanded the Nubian to be
+      brought before him. He entered with his usual ceremonial reverence, and
+      having prostrated himself, remained standing before the King in the
+      attitude of a slave awaiting the orders of his master. It was perhaps well
+      for him that the preservation of his character required his eyes to be
+      fixed on the ground, since the keen glance with which Richard for some
+      time surveyed him in silence would, if fully encountered, have been
+      difficult to sustain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou canst well of woodcraft," said the King, after a pause, "and hast
+      started thy game and brought him to bay as ably as if Tristrem himself had
+      taught thee. [A universal tradition ascribed to Sir Tristrem, famous for
+      his love of the fair Queen Yseult, the laws concerning the practice of
+      woodcraft, or VENERIE, as it was called, being those that related to the
+      rules of the chase, which were deemed of much consequence during the
+      Middle Ages.] But this is not all&mdash;he must be brought down at force.
+      I myself would have liked to have levelled my hunting-spear at him. There
+      are, it seems, respects which prevent this. Thou art about to return to
+      the camp of the Soldan, bearing a letter, requiring of his courtesy to
+      appoint neutral ground for the deed of chivalry, and should it consist
+      with his pleasure, to concur with us in witnessing it. Now, speaking
+      conjecturally, we think thou mightst find in that camp some cavalier who,
+      for the love of truth and his own augmentation of honour, will do battle
+      with this same traitor of Montserrat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian raised his eyes and fixed them on the King with a look of eager
+      ardour; then raised them to Heaven with such solemn gratitude that the
+      water soon glistened in them; then bent his head, as affirming what
+      Richard desired, and resumed his usual posture of submissive attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is well," said the King; "and I see thy desire to oblige me in this
+      matter. And herein, I must needs say, lies the excellence of such a
+      servant as thou, who hast not speech either to debate our purpose or to
+      require explanation of what we have determined. An English serving man in
+      thy place had given me his dogged advice to trust the combat with some
+      good lance of my household, who, from my brother Longsword downwards, are
+      all on fire to do battle in my cause; and a chattering Frenchman had made
+      a thousand attempts to discover wherefore I look for a champion from the
+      camp of the infidels. But thou, my silent agent, canst do mine errand
+      without questioning or comprehending it; with thee to hear is to obey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bend of the body and a genuflection were the appropriate answer of the
+      Ethiopian to these observations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now to another point," said the King, and speaking suddenly and
+      rapidly&mdash;"have you yet seen Edith Plantagenet?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mute looked up as in the act of being about to speak&mdash;nay, his
+      lips had begun to utter a distinct negative&mdash;when the abortive
+      attempt died away in the imperfect murmurs of the dumb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, lo you there!" said the King, "the very sound of the name of a royal
+      maiden of beauty so surpassing as that of our lovely cousin seems to have
+      power enough well-nigh to make the dumb speak. What miracles then might
+      her eye work upon such a subject! I will make the experiment, friend
+      slave. Thou shalt see this choice beauty of our Court, and do the errand
+      of the princely Soldan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again a joyful glance&mdash;again a genuflection&mdash;but, as he arose,
+      the King laid his hand heavily on his shoulder, and proceeded with stern
+      gravity thus: "Let me in one thing warn you, my sable envoy. Even if thou
+      shouldst feel that the kindly influence of her whom thou art soon to
+      behold should loosen the bonds of thy tongue, presently imprisoned, as the
+      good Soldan expresses it, within the ivory walls of its castle, beware how
+      thou changest thy taciturn character, or speakest a word in her presence,
+      even if thy powers of utterance were to be miraculously restored. Believe
+      me that I should have thy tongue extracted by the roots, and its ivory
+      palace&mdash;that is, I presume, its range of teeth&mdash;drawn out one by
+      one. Wherefore, be wise and silent still."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nubian, so soon as the King had removed his heavy grasp from his
+      shoulder, bent his head, and laid his hand on his lips, in token of silent
+      obedience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Richard again laid his hand on him more gently, and added, "This
+      behest we lay on thee as on a slave. Wert thou knight and gentleman, we
+      would require thine honour in pledge of thy silence, which is one especial
+      condition of our present trust."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ethiopian raised his body proudly, looked full at the King, and laid
+      his right hand on his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard then summoned his chamberlain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go, Neville," he said, "with this slave to the tent of our royal consort,
+      and say it is our pleasure that he have an audience&mdash;a private
+      audience&mdash;of our cousin Edith. He is charged with a commission to
+      her. Thou canst show him the way also, in case he requires thy guidance,
+      though thou mayst have observed it is wonderful how familiar he already
+      seems to be with the purlieus of our camp.&mdash;And thou, too, friend
+      Ethiop," the King continued, "what thou dost do quickly, and return hither
+      within the half-hour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I stand discovered," thought the seeming Nubian, as, with downcast looks
+      and folded arms, he followed the hasty stride of Neville towards the tent
+      of Queen Berengaria&mdash;"I stand undoubtedly discovered and unfolded to
+      King Richard; yet I cannot perceive that his resentment is hot against me.
+      If I understand his words&mdash;and surely it is impossible to
+      misinterpret them&mdash;he gives me a noble chance of redeeming my honour
+      upon the crest of this false Marquis, whose guilt I read in his craven eye
+      and quivering lip when the charge was made against him.&mdash;Roswal,
+      faithfully hast thou served thy master, and most dearly shall thy wrong be
+      avenged!&mdash;But what is the meaning of my present permission to look
+      upon her whom I had despaired ever to see again? And why, or how, can the
+      royal Plantagenet consent that I should see his divine kinswoman, either
+      as the messenger of the heathen Saladin, or as the guilty exile whom he so
+      lately expelled from his camp&mdash;his audacious avowal of the affection
+      which is his pride being the greatest enhancement of his guilt? That
+      Richard should consent to her receiving a letter from an infidel lover by
+      the hands of one of such disproportioned rank are either of them
+      circumstances equally incredible, and, at the same time, inconsistent with
+      each other. But Richard, when unmoved by his heady passions, is liberal,
+      generous, and truly noble; and as such I will deal with him, and act
+      according to his instructions, direct or implied, seeking to know no more
+      than may gradually unfold itself without my officious inquiry. To him who
+      has given me so brave an opportunity to vindicate my tarnished honour, I
+      owe acquiescence and obedience; and painful as it may be, the debt shall
+      be paid. And yet"&mdash;thus the proud swelling of his heart further
+      suggested&mdash;"Coeur de Lion, as he is called, might have measured the
+      feelings of others by his own. I urge an address to his kinswoman! I, who
+      never spoke word to her when I took a royal prize from her hand&mdash;when
+      I was accounted not the lowest in feats of chivalry among the defenders of
+      the Cross! I approach her when in a base disguise, and in a servile habit&mdash;and,
+      alas! when my actual condition is that of a slave, with a spot of
+      dishonour on that which was once my shield! I do this! He little knows me.
+      Yet I thank him for the opportunity which may make us all better
+      acquainted with each other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he arrived at this conclusion, they paused before the entrance of the
+      Queen's pavilion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were of course admitted by the guards, and Neville, leaving the
+      Nubian in a small apartment, or antechamber, which was but too well
+      remembered by him, passed into that which was used as the Queen's
+      presence-chamber. He communicated his royal master's pleasure in a low and
+      respectful tone of voice, very different from the bluntness of Thomas de
+      Vaux, to whom Richard was everything and the rest of the Court, including
+      Berengaria herself, was nothing. A burst of laughter followed the
+      communication of his errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what like is the Nubian slave who comes ambassador on such an errand
+      from the Soldan?&mdash;a negro, De Neville, is he not?" said a female
+      voice, easily recognized for that of Berengaria. "A negro, is he not, De
+      Neville, with black skin, a head curled like a ram's, a flat nose, and
+      blubber lips&mdash;ha, worthy Sir Henry?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let not your Grace forget the shin-bones," said another voice, "bent
+      outwards like the edge of a Saracen scimitar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rather like the bow of a Cupid, since he comes upon a lover's errand,"
+      said the Queen.&mdash;"Gentle Neville, thou art ever prompt to pleasure us
+      poor women, who have so little to pass away our idle moments. We must see
+      this messenger of love. Turks and Moors have I seen many, but negro
+      never."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am created to obey your Grace's commands, so you will bear me out with
+      my Sovereign for doing so," answered the debonair knight. "Yet, let me
+      assure your Grace you will see something different from what you expect."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So much the better&mdash;uglier yet than our imaginations can fancy, yet
+      the chosen love-messenger of this gallant Soldan!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gracious madam," said the Lady Calista, "may I implore you would permit
+      the good knight to carry this messenger straight to the Lady Edith, to
+      whom his credentials are addressed? We have already escaped hardly for
+      such a frolic."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Escaped?" repeated the Queen scornfully. "Yet thou mayest be right,
+      Calista, in thy caution. Let this Nubian, as thou callest him, first do
+      his errand to our cousin&mdash;besides, he is mute too, is he not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is, gracious madam," answered the knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Royal sport have these Eastern ladies," said Berengaria, "attended by
+      those before whom they may say anything, yet who can report nothing.
+      Whereas in our camp, as the Prelate of Saint Jude's is wont to say, a bird
+      of the air will carry the matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because," said De Neville, "your Grace forgets that you speak within
+      canvas walls."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voices sunk on this observation, and after a little whispering, the
+      English knight again returned to the Ethiopian, and made him a sign to
+      follow. He did so, and Neville conducted him to a pavilion, pitched
+      somewhat apart from that of the Queen, for the accommodation, it seemed,
+      of the Lady Edith and her attendants. One of her Coptic maidens received
+      the message communicated by Sir Henry Neville, and in the space of a very
+      few minutes the Nubian was ushered into Edith's presence, while Neville
+      was left on the outside of the tent. The slave who introduced him withdrew
+      on a signal from her mistress, and it was with humiliation, not of the
+      posture only but of the very inmost soul, that the unfortunate knight,
+      thus strangely disguised, threw himself on one knee, with looks bent on
+      the ground and arms folded on his bosom, like a criminal who expects his
+      doom. Edith was clad in the same manner as when she received King Richard,
+      her long, transparent dark veil hanging around her like the shade of a
+      summer night on a beautiful landscape, disguising and rendering obscure
+      the beauties which it could not hide. She held in her hand a silver lamp,
+      fed with some aromatic spirit, which burned with unusual brightness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Edith came within a step of the kneeling and motionless slave, she
+      held the light towards his face, as if to peruse his features more
+      attentively, then turned from him, and placed her lamp so as to throw the
+      shadow of his face in profile upon the curtain which hung beside. She at
+      length spoke in a voice composed, yet deeply sorrowful,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it you? It is indeed you, brave Knight of the Leopard&mdash;gallant
+      Sir Kenneth of Scotland; is it indeed you?&mdash;thus servilely disguised&mdash;thus
+      surrounded by a hundred dangers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At hearing the tones of his lady's voice thus unexpectedly addressed to
+      him, and in a tone of compassion approaching to tenderness, a
+      corresponding reply rushed to the knight's lips, and scarce could
+      Richard's commands and his own promised silence prevent his answering that
+      the sight he saw, the sounds he just heard, were sufficient to recompense
+      the slavery of a life, and dangers which threatened that life every hour.
+      He did recollect himself, however, and a deep and impassioned sigh was his
+      only reply to the high-born Edith's question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see&mdash;I know I have guessed right," continued Edith. "I marked you
+      from your first appearance near the platform on which I stood with the
+      Queen. I knew, too, your valiant hound. She is no true lady, and is
+      unworthy of the service of such a knight as thou art, from whom disguises
+      of dress or hue could conceal a faithful servant. Speak, then, without
+      fear to Edith Plantagenet. She knows how to grace in adversity the good
+      knight who served, honoured, and did deeds of arms in her name, when
+      fortune befriended him.&mdash;Still silent! Is it fear or shame that keeps
+      thee so! Fear should be unknown to thee; and for shame, let it remain with
+      those who have wronged thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight, in despair at being obliged to play the mute in an interview
+      so interesting, could only express his mortification by sighing deeply,
+      and laying his finger upon his lips. Edith stepped back, as if somewhat
+      displeased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" she said, "the Asiatic mute in very deed, as well as in attire?
+      This I looked not for. Or thou mayest scorn me, perhaps, for thus boldly
+      acknowledging that I have heedfully observed the homage thou hast paid me?
+      Hold no unworthy thoughts of Edith on that account. She knows well the
+      bounds which reserve and modesty prescribe to high-born maidens, and she
+      knows when and how far they should give place to gratitude&mdash;to a
+      sincere desire that it were in her power to repay services and repair
+      injuries arising from the devotion which a good knight bore towards her.
+      Why fold thy hands together, and wring them with so much passion? Can it
+      be," she added, shrinking back at the idea, "that their cruelty has
+      actually deprived thee of speech? Thou shakest thy head. Be it a spell&mdash;be
+      it obstinacy, I question thee no further, but leave thee to do thine
+      errand after thine own fashion. I also can be mute."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The disguised knight made an action as if at once lamenting his own
+      condition and deprecating her displeasure, while at the same time he
+      presented to her, wrapped, as usual, in fine silk and cloth of gold, the
+      letter of the Soldan. She took it, surveyed it carelessly, then laid it
+      aside, and bending her eyes once more on the knight, she said in a low
+      tone, "Not even a word to do thine errand to me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pressed both his hands to his brow, as if to intimate the pain which he
+      felt at being unable to obey her; but she turned from him in anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Begone!" she said. "I have spoken enough&mdash;too much&mdash;to one who
+      will not waste on me a word in reply. Begone!&mdash;and say, if I have
+      wronged thee, I have done penance; for if I have been the unhappy means of
+      dragging thee down from a station of honour, I have, in this interview,
+      forgotten my own worth, and lowered myself in thy eyes and in my own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She covered her eyes with her hands, and seemed deeply agitated. Sir
+      Kenneth would have approached, but she waved him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stand off! thou whose soul Heaven hath suited to its new station! Aught
+      less dull and fearful than a slavish mute had spoken a word of gratitude,
+      were it but to reconcile me to my own degradation. Why pause you?&mdash;begone!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The disguised knight almost involuntarily looked towards the letter as an
+      apology for protracting his stay. She snatched it up, saying in a tone of
+      irony and contempt, "I had forgotten&mdash;the dutiful slave waits an
+      answer to his message. How's this&mdash;from the Soldan!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She hastily ran over the contents, which were expressed both in Arabic and
+      French, and when she had done, she laughed in bitter anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now this passes imagination!" she said; "no jongleur can show so deft a
+      transmutation! His legerdemain can transform zechins and byzants into
+      doits and maravedis; but can his art convert a Christian knight, ever
+      esteemed among the bravest of the Holy Crusade, into the dust-kissing
+      slave of a heathen Soldan&mdash;the bearer of a paynim's insolent
+      proposals to a Christian maiden&mdash;nay, forgetting the laws of
+      honourable chivalry, as well as of religion? But it avails not talking to
+      the willing slave of a heathen hound. Tell your master, when his scourge
+      shall have found thee a tongue, that which thou hast seen me do"&mdash;so
+      saying, she threw the Soldan's letter on the ground, and placed her foot
+      upon it&mdash;"and say to him, that Edith Plantagenet scorns the homage of
+      an unchristened pagan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words she was about to shoot from the knight, when, kneeling at
+      her feet in bitter agony, he ventured to lay his hand upon her robe and
+      oppose her departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Heard'st thou not what I said, dull slave?" she said, turning short round
+      on him, and speaking with emphasis. "Tell the heathen Soldan, thy master,
+      that I scorn his suit as much as I despise the prostration of a worthless
+      renegade to religion and chivalry&mdash;to God and to his lady!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she burst from him, tore her garment from his grasp, and left
+      the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice of Neville, at the same time, summoned him from without.
+      Exhausted and stupefied by the distress he had undergone during this
+      interview, from which he could only have extricated himself by breach of
+      the engagement which he had formed with King Richard, the unfortunate
+      knight staggered rather than walked after the English baron, till they
+      reached the royal pavilion, before which a party of horsemen had just
+      dismounted. There were light and motion within the tent, and when Neville
+      entered with his disguised attendant, they found the King, with several of
+      his nobility, engaged in welcoming those who were newly arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "The tears I shed must ever fall.
+     I weep not for an absent swain;
+     For time may happier hours recall,
+     And parted lovers meet again.
+
+     "I weep not for the silent dead.
+     Their pains are past, their sorrows o'er;
+     And those that loved their steps must tread,
+     When death shall join to part no more."
+
+     But worse than absence, worse than death,
+     She wept her lover's sullied fame,
+     And, fired with all the pride of birth,
+     She wept a soldier's injured name.
+            BALLAD.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The frank and bold voice of Richard was heard in joyous gratulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thomas de Vaux! stout Tom of the Gills! by the head of King Henry, thou
+      art welcome to me as ever was flask of wine to a jolly toper! I should
+      scarce have known how to order my battle-array, unless I had thy bulky
+      form in mine eye as a landmark to form my ranks upon. We shall have blows
+      anon, Thomas, if the saints be gracious to us; and had we fought in thine
+      absence, I would have looked to hear of thy being found hanging upon an
+      elder-tree."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should have borne my disappointment with more Christian patience, I
+      trust," said Thomas de Vaux, "than to have died the death of an apostate.
+      But I thank your Grace for my welcome, which is the more generous, as it
+      respects a banquet of blows, of which, saving your pleasure, you are ever
+      too apt to engross the larger share. But here have I brought one to whom
+      your Grace will, I know, give a yet warmer welcome."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The person who now stepped forward to make obeisance to Richard was a
+      young man of low stature and slight form. His dress was as modest as his
+      figure was unimpressive; but he bore on his bonnet a gold buckle, with a
+      gem, the lustre of which could only be rivalled by the brilliancy of the
+      eye which the bonnet shaded. It was the only striking feature in his
+      countenance; but when once noticed, it ever made a strong impression on
+      the spectator. About his neck there hung in a scarf of sky-blue silk a
+      WREST as it was called&mdash;that is, the key with which a harp is tuned,
+      and which was of solid gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This personage would have kneeled reverently to Richard, but the Monarch
+      raised him in joyful haste, pressed him to his bosom warmly, and kissed
+      him on either side of the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Blondel de Nesle!" he exclaimed joyfully&mdash;"welcome from Cyprus, my
+      king of minstrels!&mdash;welcome to the King of England, who rates not his
+      own dignity more highly than he does thine. I have been sick, man, and, by
+      my soul, I believe it was for lack of thee; for, were I half way to the
+      gate of heaven, methinks thy strains could call me back. And what news, my
+      gentle master, from the land of the lyre? Anything fresh from the
+      TROUVEURS of Provence? Anything from the minstrels of merry Normandy?
+      Above all, hast thou thyself been busy? But I need not ask thee&mdash;thou
+      canst not be idle if thou wouldst; thy noble qualities are like a fire
+      burning within, and compel thee to pour thyself out in music and song."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Something I have learned, and something I have done, noble King,"
+      answered the celebrated Blondel, with a retiring modesty which all
+      Richard's enthusiastic admiration of his skill had been unable to banish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will hear thee, man&mdash;we will hear thee instantly," said the King.
+      Then, touching Blondel's shoulder kindly, he added, "That is, if thou art
+      not fatigued with thy journey; for I would sooner ride my best horse to
+      death than injure a note of thy voice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My voice is, as ever, at the service of my royal patron," said Blondel;
+      "but your Majesty," he added, looking at some papers on the table, "seems
+      more importantly engaged, and the hour waxes late."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not a whit, man, not a whit, my dearest Blondel. I did but sketch an
+      array of battle against the Saracens, a thing of a moment, almost as soon
+      done as the routing of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks, however," said Thomas de Vaux, "it were not unfit to inquire
+      what soldiers your Grace hath to array. I bring reports on that subject
+      from Ascalon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a mule, Thomas," said the King&mdash;"a very mule for dullness
+      and obstinacy! Come, nobles&mdash;a hall&mdash;a hall&mdash;range ye
+      around him! Give Blondel the tabouret. Where is his harp-bearer?&mdash;or,
+      soft, lend him my harp, his own may be damaged by the journey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would your Grace would take my report," said Thomas de Vaux. "I have
+      ridden far, and have more list to my bed than to have my ears tickled."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "THY ears tickled!" said the King; "that must be with a woodcock's
+      feather, and not with sweet sounds. Hark thee, Thomas, do thine ears know
+      the singing of Blondel from the braying of an ass?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In faith, my liege," replied Thomas, "I cannot well say; but setting
+      Blondel out of the question, who is a born gentleman, and doubtless of
+      high acquirements, I shall never, for the sake of your Grace's question,
+      look on a minstrel but I shall think upon an ass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And might not your manners," said Richard, "have excepted me, who am a
+      gentleman born as well as Blondel, and, like him, a guild-brother of the
+      joyeuse science?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Grace should remember," said De Vaux, smiling, "that 'tis useless
+      asking for manners from a mule."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Most truly spoken," said the King; "and an ill-conditioned animal thou
+      art. But come hither, master mule, and be unloaded, that thou mayest get
+      thee to thy litter, without any music being wasted on thee. Meantime do
+      thou, good brother of Salisbury, go to our consort's tent, and tell her
+      that Blondel has arrived, with his budget fraught with the newest
+      minstrelsy. Bid her come hither instantly, and do thou escort her, and see
+      that our cousin, Edith Plantagenet, remain not behind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eye then rested for a moment on the Nubian, with that expression of
+      doubtful meaning which his countenance usually displayed when he looked at
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha, our silent and secret messenger returned?&mdash;Stand up, slave,
+      behind the back of De Neville, and thou shalt hear presently sounds which
+      will make thee bless God that He afflicted thee rather with dumbness than
+      deafness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he turned from the rest of the company towards De Vaux, and
+      plunged instantly into the military details which that baron laid before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About the time that the Lord of Gilsland had finished his audience, a
+      messenger announced that the Queen and her attendants were approaching the
+      royal tent.&mdash;"A flask of wine, ho!" said the King; "of old King
+      Isaac's long-saved Cyprus, which we won when we stormed Famagosta. Fill to
+      the stout Lord of Gilsland, gentles&mdash;a more careful and faithful
+      servant never had any prince."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad," said Thomas de Vaux, "that your Grace finds the mule a useful
+      slave, though his voice be less musical than horse-hair or wire."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, thou canst not yet digest that quip of the mule?" said Richard.
+      "Wash it down with a brimming flagon, man, or thou wilt choke upon it.
+      Why, so&mdash;well pulled!&mdash;and now I will tell thee, thou art a
+      soldier as well as I, and we must brook each other's jests in the hall as
+      each other's blows in the tourney, and love each other the harder we hit.
+      By my faith, if thou didst not hit me as hard as I did thee in our late
+      encounter! thou gavest all thy wit to the thrust. But here lies the
+      difference betwixt thee and Blondel. Thou art but my comrade&mdash;I might
+      say my pupil&mdash;in the art of war; Blondel is my master in the science
+      of minstrelsy and music. To thee I permit the freedom of intimacy; to him
+      I must do reverence, as to my superior in his art. Come, man, be not
+      peevish, but remain and hear our glee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To see your Majesty in such cheerful mood," said the Lord of Gilsland,
+      "by my faith, I could remain till Blondel had achieved the great romance
+      of King Arthur, which lasts for three days."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will not tax your patience so deeply," said the King. "But see, yonder
+      glare of torches without shows that our consort approaches. Away to
+      receive her, man, and win thyself grace in the brightest eyes of
+      Christendom. Nay, never stop to adjust thy cloak. See, thou hast let
+      Neville come between the wind and the sails of thy galley."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He was never before me in the field of battle," said De Vaux, not greatly
+      pleased to see himself anticipated by the more active service of the
+      chamberlain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, neither he nor any one went before thee there, my good Tom of the
+      Gills," said the King, "unless it was ourself, now and then."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, my liege," said De Vaux, "and let us do justice to the unfortunate.
+      The unhappy Knight of the Leopard hath been before me too, at a season;
+      for, look you, he weighs less on horseback, and so&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush!" said the King, interrupting him in a peremptory tone, "not a word
+      of him," and instantly stepped forward to greet his royal consort; and
+      when he had done so, he presented to her Blondel, as king of minstrelsy
+      and his master in the gay science. Berengaria, who well knew that her
+      royal husband's passion for poetry and music almost equalled his appetite
+      for warlike fame, and that Blondel was his especial favourite, took
+      anxious care to receive him with all the flattering distinctions due to
+      one whom the King delighted to honour. Yet it was evident that, though
+      Blondel made suitable returns to the compliments showered on him something
+      too abundantly by the royal beauty, he owned with deeper reverence and
+      more humble gratitude the simple and graceful welcome of Edith, whose
+      kindly greeting appeared to him, perhaps, sincere in proportion to its
+      brevity and simplicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the Queen and her royal husband were aware of this distinction, and
+      Richard, seeing his consort somewhat piqued at the preference assigned to
+      his cousin, by which perhaps he himself did not feel much gratified, said
+      in the hearing of both, "We minstrels, Berengaria, as thou mayest see by
+      the bearing of our master Blondel, pay more reverence to a severe judge
+      like our kinswoman than to a kindly, partial friend like thyself, who is
+      willing to take our worth upon trust."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edith was moved by this sarcasm of her royal kinsman, and hesitated not to
+      reply that, "To be a harsh and severe judge was not an attribute proper to
+      her alone of all the Plantagenets."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had perhaps said more, having some touch of the temper of that house,
+      which, deriving their name and cognizance from the lowly broom (PLANTA
+      GENISTA), assumed as an emblem of humility, were perhaps one of the
+      proudest families that ever ruled in England; but her eye, when kindling
+      in her reply, suddenly caught those of the Nubian, although he endeavoured
+      to conceal himself behind the nobles who were present, and she sunk upon a
+      seat, turning so pale that Queen Berengaria deemed herself obliged to call
+      for water and essences, and to go through the other ceremonies appropriate
+      to a lady's swoon. Richard, who better estimated Edith's strength of mind,
+      called to Blondel to assume his seat and commence his lay, declaring that
+      minstrelsy was worth every other recipe to recall a Plantagenet to life.
+      "Sing us," he said, "that song of the Bloody Vest, of which thou didst
+      formerly give me the argument ere I left Cyprus. Thou must be perfect in
+      it by this time, or, as our yeomen say, thy bow is broken."
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0401m.jpg" alt="0401m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0401.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The anxious eye of the minstrel, however, dwelt on Edith, and it was not
+      till he observed her returning colour that he obeyed the repeated commands
+      of the King. Then, accompanying his voice with the harp, so as to grace,
+      but yet not drown, the sense of what he sung, he chanted in a sort of
+      recitative one of those ancient adventures of love and knighthood which
+      were wont of yore to win the public attention. So soon as he began to
+      prelude, the insignificance of his personal appearance seemed to
+      disappear, and his countenance glowed with energy and inspiration. His
+      full, manly, mellow voice, so absolutely under command of the purest
+      taste, thrilled on every ear and to every heart. Richard, rejoiced as
+      after victory, called out the appropriate summons for silence, "Listen,
+      lords, in bower and hall"; while, with the zeal of a patron at once and a
+      pupil, he arranged the circle around, and hushed them into silence; and he
+      himself sat down with an air of expectation and interest, not altogether
+      unmixed with the gravity of the professed critic. The courtiers turned
+      their eyes on the King, that they might be ready to trace and imitate the
+      emotions his features should express, and Thomas de Vaux yawned
+      tremendously, as one who submitted unwillingly to a wearisome penance. The
+      song of Blondel was of course in the Norman language, but the verses which
+      follow express its meaning and its manner.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+     'Twas near the fair city of Benevent,
+     When the sun was setting on bough and bent,
+     And knights were preparing in bower and tent,
+     On the eve of the Baptist's tournament;
+     When in Lincoln green a stripling gent,
+     Well seeming a page by a princess sent,
+     Wander'd the camp, and, still as he went,
+     Inquired for the Englishman, Thomas a Kent.
+
+     Far hath he far'd, and farther must fare,
+     Till he finds his pavilion nor stately nor rare,&mdash;
+     Little save iron and steel was there;
+     And, as lacking the coin to pay armourer's care,
+     With his sinewy arms to the shoulders bare,
+     The good knight with hammer and file did repair
+     The mail that to-morrow must see him wear,
+     For the honour of Saint John and his lady fair.
+
+     "Thus speaks my lady," the page said he,
+     And the knight bent lowly both head and knee,
+     "She is Benevent's Princess so high in degree,
+     And thou art as lowly as knight may well be&mdash;
+     He that would climb so lofty a tree,
+     Or spring such a gulf as divides her from thee,
+     Must dare some high deed, by which all men may see
+     His ambition is back'd by his hie chivalrie.
+
+     "Therefore thus speaks my lady," the fair page he said,
+     And the knight lowly louted with hand and with head,
+     "Fling aside the good armour in which thou art clad,
+     And don thou this weed of her night-gear instead,
+     For a hauberk of steel, a kirtle of thread;
+     And charge, thus attir'd, in the tournament dread,
+     And fight as thy wont is where most blood is shed,
+     And bring honour away, or remain with the dead."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Untroubled in his look, and untroubled in his breast, The knight the weed
+      hath taken, and reverently hath kiss'd. "Now blessed be the moment, the
+      messenger be blest! Much honour'd do I hold me in my lady's high behest;
+      And say unto my lady, in this dear night-weed dress'd, To the best armed
+      champion I will not veil my crest; But if I live and bear me well 'tis her
+      turn to take the test." Here, gentles, ends the foremost fytte of the Lay
+      of the Bloody Vest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast changed the measure upon us unawares in that last couplet, my
+      Blondel," said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Most true, my lord," said Blondel. "I rendered the verses from the
+      Italian of an old harper whom I met in Cyprus, and not having had time
+      either to translate it accurately or commit it to memory, I am fain to
+      supply gaps in the music and the verse as I can upon the spur of the
+      moment, as you see boors mend a quickset fence with a fagot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, on my faith," said the King, "I like these rattling, rolling
+      Alexandrines. Methinks they come more twangingly off to the music than
+      that briefer measure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Both are licensed, as is well known to your Grace," answered Blondel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are so, Blondel," said Richard, "yet methinks the scene where there
+      is like to be fighting will go best on in these same thundering
+      Alexandrines, which sound like the charge of cavalry, while the other
+      measure is but like the sidelong amble of a lady's palfrey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It shall be as your Grace pleases," replied Blondel, and began again to
+      prelude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, first cherish thy fancy with a cup of fiery Chios wine," said the
+      King. "And hark thee, I would have thee fling away that new-fangled
+      restriction of thine, of terminating in accurate and similar rhymes. They
+      are a constraint on thy flow of fancy, and make thee resemble a man
+      dancing in fetters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The fetters are easily flung off, at least," said Blondel, again sweeping
+      his fingers over the strings, as one who would rather have played than
+      listened to criticism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But why put them on, man?" continued the King. "Wherefore thrust thy
+      genius into iron bracelets? I marvel how you got forward at all. I am sure
+      I should not have been able to compose a stanza in yonder hampered
+      measure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blondel looked down, and busied himself with the strings of his harp, to
+      hide an involuntary smile which crept over his features; but it escaped
+      not Richard's observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, thou laughest at me, Blondel," he said; "and, in good truth,
+      every man deserves it who presumes to play the master when he should be
+      the pupil. But we kings get bad habits of self-opinion. Come, on with thy
+      lay, dearest Blondel&mdash;on after thine own fashion, better than aught
+      that we can suggest, though we must needs be talking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blondel resumed the lay; but as extemporaneous composition was familiar to
+      him, he failed not to comply with the King's hints, and was perhaps not
+      displeased to show with how much ease he could new-model a poem, even
+      while in the act of recitation.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                   THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+                    FYTTE SECOND.
+
+     The Baptist's fair morrow beheld gallant feats&mdash;
+     There was winning of honour and losing of seats;
+     There was hewing with falchions and splintering of staves&mdash;
+     The victors won glory, the vanquish'd won graves.
+     Oh, many a knight there fought bravely and well,
+     Yet one was accounted his peers to excel,
+     And 'twas he whose sole armour on body and breast
+     Seem'd the weed of a damsel when bouned for her rest.
+
+     There were some dealt him wounds that were bloody and sore,
+     But others respected his plight, and forbore.
+     "It is some oath of honour," they said, "and I trow,
+     'Twere unknightly to slay him achieving his vow."
+     Then the Prince, for his sake, bade the tournament cease&mdash;
+     He flung down his warder, the trumpets sung peace;
+     And the judges declare, and competitors yield,
+     That the Knight of the Night-gear was first in the field.
+
+     The feast it was nigh, and the mass it was nigher,
+     When before the fair Princess low looted a squire,
+     And deliver'd a garment unseemly to view,
+     With sword-cut and spear-thrust, all hack'd and pierc'd through;
+     All rent and all tatter'd, all clotted with blood,
+     With foam of the horses, with dust, and with mud;
+     Not the point of that lady's small finger, I ween,
+     Could have rested on spot was unsullied and clean.
+
+     "This token my master, Sir Thomas a Kent,
+     Restores to the Princess of fair Benevent;
+     He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit,
+     He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit;
+     Through life's utmost peril the prize I have won,
+     And now must the faith of my mistress be shown:
+     For she who prompts knights on such danger to run
+     Must avouch his true service in front of the sun.
+
+     "'I restore,' says my master, 'the garment I've worn,
+     And I claim of the Princess to don it in turn;
+     For its stains and its rents she should prize it the more,
+     Since by shame 'tis unsullied, though crimson'd with gore.'"
+     Then deep blush'd the Princess&mdash;yet kiss'd she and press'd
+     The blood-spotted robes to her lips and her breast.
+     "Go tell my true knight, church and chamber shall show
+     If I value the blood on this garment or no."
+
+     And when it was time for the nobles to pass,
+     In solemn procession to minster and mass,
+     The first walk'd the Princess in purple and pall,
+     But the blood-besmear'd night-robe she wore over all;
+     And eke, in the hall, where they all sat at dine,
+     When she knelt to her father and proffer'd the wine,
+     Over all her rich robes and state jewels she wore
+     That wimple unseemly bedabbled with gore.
+
+     Then lords whisper'd ladies, as well you may think,
+     And ladies replied with nod, titter, and wink;
+     And the Prince, who in anger and shame had look'd down,
+     Turn'd at length to his daughter, and spoke with a frown:
+     "Now since thou hast publish'd thy folly and guilt,
+     E'en atone with thy hand for the blood thou hast spilt;
+     Yet sore for your boldness you both will repent,
+     When you wander as exiles from fair Benevent."
+
+     Then out spoke stout Thomas, in hall where he stood,
+     Exhausted and feeble, but dauntless of mood:
+     "The blood that I lost for this daughter of thine,
+     I pour'd forth as freely as flask gives its wine;
+     And if for my sake she brooks penance and blame,
+     Do not doubt I will save her from suffering and shame;
+     And light will she reck of thy princedom and rent,
+     When I hail her, in England, the Countess of Kent."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A murmur of applause ran through the assembly, following the example of
+      Richard himself, who loaded with praises his favourite minstrel, and ended
+      by presenting him with a ring of considerable value. The Queen hastened to
+      distinguish the favourite by a rich bracelet, and many of the nobles who
+      were present followed the royal example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is our cousin Edith," said the King, "become insensible to the sound of
+      the harp she once loved?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She thanks Blondel for his lay," replied Edith, "but doubly the kindness
+      of the kinsman who suggested it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art angry, cousin," said the King; "angry because thou hast heard of
+      a woman more wayward than thyself. But you escape me not. I will walk a
+      space homeward with you towards the Queen's pavilion. We must have
+      conference together ere the night has waned into morning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen and her attendants were now on foot, and the other guests
+      withdrew from the royal tent. A train with blazing torches, and an escort
+      of archers, awaited Berengaria without the pavilion, and she was soon on
+      her way homeward. Richard, as he had proposed, walked beside his
+      kinswoman, and compelled her to accept of his arm as her support, so that
+      they could speak to each other without being overheard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What answer, then, am I to return to the noble Soldan?" said Richard.
+      "The kings and princes are falling from me, Edith; this new quarrel hath
+      alienated them once more. I would do something for the Holy Sepulchre by
+      composition, if not by victory; and the chance of my doing this depends,
+      alas, on the caprice of a woman. I would lay my single spear in the rest
+      against ten of the best lances in Christendom, rather than argue with a
+      wilful wench who knows not what is for her own good. What answer, coz, am
+      I to return to the Soldan? It must be decisive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell him," said Edith, "that the poorest of the Plantagenets will rather
+      wed with misery than with misbelief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall I say with slavery, Edith?" said the King. "Methinks that is nearer
+      thy thoughts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no room," said Edith, "for the suspicion you so grossly
+      insinuate. Slavery of the body might have been pitied, but that of the
+      soul is only to be despised. Shame to thee, King of merry England. Thou
+      hast enthralled both the limbs and the spirit of a knight, one scarce less
+      famed than thyself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Should I not prevent my kinswoman from drinking poison, by sullying the
+      vessel which contained it, if I saw no other means of disgusting her with
+      the fatal liquor?" replied the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is thyself," answered Edith, "that would press me to drink poison,
+      because it is proffered in a golden chalice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Edith," said Richard, "I cannot force thy resolution; but beware you shut
+      not the door which Heaven opens. The hermit of Engaddi&mdash;he whom Popes
+      and Councils have regarded as a prophet&mdash;hath read in the stars that
+      thy marriage shall reconcile me with a powerful enemy, and that thy
+      husband shall be Christian, leaving thus the fairest ground to hope that
+      the conversion of the Soldan, and the bringing in of the sons of Ishmael
+      to the pale of the church, will be the consequence of thy wedding with
+      Saladin. Come, thou must make some sacrifice rather than mar such happy
+      prospects."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Men may sacrifice rams and goats," said Edith, "but not honour and
+      conscience. I have heard that it was the dishonour of a Christian maiden
+      which brought the Saracens into Spain; the shame of another is no likely
+      mode of expelling them from Palestine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dost thou call it shame to become an empress?" said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I call it shame and dishonour to profane a Christian sacrament by
+      entering into it with an infidel whom it cannot bind; and I call it foul
+      dishonour that I, the descendant of a Christian princess, should become of
+      free will the head of a haram of heathen concubines."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, kinswoman," said the King, after a pause, "I must not quarrel with
+      thee, though I think thy dependent condition might have dictated more
+      compliance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My liege," replied Edith, "your Grace hath worthily succeeded to all the
+      wealth, dignity, and dominion of the House of Plantagenet&mdash;do not,
+      therefore, begrudge your poor kinswoman some small share of their pride."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, wench," said the King, "thou hast unhorsed me with that very
+      word, so we will kiss and be friends. I will presently dispatch thy answer
+      to Saladin. But after all, coz, were it not better to suspend your answer
+      till you have seen him? Men say he is pre-eminently handsome."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no chance of our meeting, my lord," said Edith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Saint George, but there is next to a certainty of it," said the King;
+      "for Saladin will doubtless afford us a free field for the doing of this
+      new battle of the Standard, and will witness it himself. Berengaria is
+      wild to behold it also; and I dare be sworn not a feather of you, her
+      companions and attendants, will remain behind&mdash;least of all thou
+      thyself, fair coz. But come, we have reached the pavilion, and must part;
+      not in unkindness thou, oh&mdash;nay, thou must seal it with thy lip as
+      well as thy hand, sweet Edith&mdash;it is my right as a sovereign to kiss
+      my pretty vassals."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He embraced her respectfully and affectionately, and returned through the
+      moonlit camp, humming to himself such snatches of Blondel's lay as he
+      could recollect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his arrival he lost no time in making up his dispatches for Saladin,
+      and delivered them to the Nubian, with a charge to set out by peep of day
+      on his return to the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     We heard the Techir&mdash;so these Arabs call
+     Their shout of onset, when, with loud acclaim,
+     They challenge Heaven to give them victory.
+        SIEGE OF DAMASCUS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the subsequent morning Richard was invited to a conference by Philip of
+      France, in which the latter, with many expressions of his high esteem for
+      his brother of England, communicated to him in terms extremely courteous,
+      but too explicit to be misunderstood, his positive intention to return to
+      Europe, and to the cares of his kingdom, as entirely despairing of future
+      success in their undertaking, with their diminished forces and civil
+      discords. Richard remonstrated, but in vain; and when the conference ended
+      he received without surprise a manifesto from the Duke of Austria, and
+      several other princes, announcing a resolution similar to that of Philip,
+      and in no modified terms, assigning, for their defection from the cause of
+      the Cross, the inordinate ambition and arbitrary domination of Richard of
+      England. All hopes of continuing the war with any prospect of ultimate
+      success were now abandoned; and Richard, while he shed bitter tears over
+      his disappointed hopes of glory, was little consoled by the recollection
+      that the failure was in some degree to be imputed to the advantages which
+      he had given his enemies by his own hasty and imprudent temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They had not dared to have deserted my father thus," he said to De Vaux,
+      in the bitterness of his resentment. "No slanders they could have uttered
+      against so wise a king would have been believed in Christendom; whereas&mdash;fool
+      that I am!&mdash;I have not only afforded them a pretext for deserting me,
+      but even a colour for casting all the blame of the rupture upon my unhappy
+      foibles."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These thoughts were so deeply galling to the King, that De Vaux was
+      rejoiced when the arrival of an ambassador from Saladin turned his
+      reflections into a different channel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This new envoy was an Emir much respected by the Soldan, whose name was
+      Abdallah el Hadgi. He derived his descent from the family of the Prophet,
+      and the race or tribe of Hashem, in witness of which genealogy he wore a
+      green turban of large dimensions. He had also three times performed the
+      journey to Mecca, from which he derived his epithet of El Hadgi, or the
+      Pilgrim. Notwithstanding these various pretensions to sanctity, Abdallah
+      was (for an Arab) a boon companion, who enjoyed a merry tale, and laid
+      aside his gravity so far as to quaff a blithe flagon when secrecy ensured
+      him against scandal. He was likewise a statesman, whose abilities had been
+      used by Saladin in various negotiations with the Christian princes, and
+      particularly with Richard, to whom El Hadgi was personally known and
+      acceptable. Animated by the cheerful acquiescence with which the envoy of
+      Saladin afforded a fair field for the combat, a safe conduct for all who
+      might choose to witness it, and offered his own person as a guarantee of
+      his fidelity, Richard soon forgot his disappointed hopes, and the
+      approaching dissolution of the Christian league, in the interesting
+      discussions preceding a combat in the lists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The station called the Diamond of the Desert was assigned for the place of
+      conflict, as being nearly at an equal distance betwixt the Christian and
+      Saracen camps. It was agreed that Conrade of Montserrat, the defendant,
+      with his godfathers, the Archduke of Austria and the Grand Master of the
+      Templars, should appear there on the day fixed for the combat, with a
+      hundred armed followers, and no more; that Richard of England and his
+      brother Salisbury, who supported the accusation, should attend with the
+      same number, to protect his champion; and that the Soldan should bring
+      with him a guard of five hundred chosen followers, a band considered as
+      not more than equal to the two hundred Christian lances. Such persons of
+      consideration as either party chose to invite to witness the contest were
+      to wear no other weapons than their swords, and to come without defensive
+      armour. The Soldan undertook the preparation of the lists, and to provide
+      accommodations and refreshments of every kind for all who were to assist
+      at the solemnity; and his letters expressed with much courtesy the
+      pleasure which he anticipated in the prospect of a personal and peaceful
+      meeting with the Melech Ric, and his anxious desire to render his
+      reception as agreeable as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All preliminaries being arranged and communicated to the defendant and his
+      godfathers, Abdullah the Hadgi was admitted to a more private interview,
+      where he heard with delight the strains of Blondel. Having first carefully
+      put his green turban out of sight, and assumed a Greek cap in its stead,
+      he requited the Norman minstrel's music with a drinking song from the
+      Persian, and quaffed a hearty flagon of Cyprus wine, to show that his
+      practice matched his principles. On the next day, grave and sober as the
+      water-drinker Mirglip, he bent his brow to the ground before Saladin's
+      footstool, and rendered to the Soldan an account of his embassy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the day before that appointed for the combat Conrade and his friends
+      set off by daybreak to repair to the place assigned, and Richard left the
+      camp at the same hour and for the same purpose; but, as had been agreed
+      upon, he took his journey by a different route&mdash;a precaution which
+      had been judged necessary, to prevent the possibility of a quarrel betwixt
+      their armed attendants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good King himself was in no humour for quarrelling with any one.
+      Nothing could have added to his pleasurable anticipations of a desperate
+      and bloody combat in the lists, except his being in his own royal person
+      one of the combatants; and he was half in charity again even with Conrade
+      of Montserrat. Lightly armed, richly dressed, and gay as a bridegroom on
+      the eve of his nuptials, Richard caracoled along by the side of Queen
+      Berengaria's litter, pointing out to her the various scenes through which
+      they passed, and cheering with tale and song the bosom of the inhospitable
+      wilderness. The former route of the Queen's pilgrimage to Engaddi had been
+      on the other side of the chain of mountains, so that the ladies were
+      strangers to the scenery of the desert; and though Berengaria knew her
+      husband's disposition too well not to endeavour to seem interested in what
+      he was pleased either to say or to sing, she could not help indulging some
+      female fears when she found herself in the howling wilderness with so
+      small an escort, which seemed almost like a moving speck on the bosom of
+      the plain, and knew at the same time they were not so distant from the
+      camp of Saladin, but what they might be in a moment surprised and swept
+      off by an overpowering host of his fiery-footed cavalry, should the pagan
+      be faithless enough to embrace an opportunity thus tempting. But when she
+      hinted these suspicions to Richard he repelled them with displeasure and
+      disdain. "It were worse than ingratitude," he said, "to doubt the good
+      faith of the generous Soldan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet the same doubts and fears recurred more than once, not to the timid
+      mind of the Queen alone, but to the firmer and more candid soul of Edith
+      Plantagenet, who had no such confidence in the faith of the Moslem as to
+      render her perfectly at ease when so much in their power; and her surprise
+      had been far less than her terror, if the desert around had suddenly
+      resounded with the shout of ALLAH HU! and a band of Arab cavalry had
+      pounced on them like vultures on their prey. Nor were these suspicions
+      lessened when, as evening approached, they were aware of a single Arab
+      horseman, distinguished by his turban and long lance, hovering on the edge
+      of a small eminence like a hawk poised in the air, and who instantly, on
+      the appearance of the royal retinue, darted off with the speed of the same
+      bird when it shoots down the wind and disappears from the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We must be near the station," said King Richard; "and yonder cavalier is
+      one of Saladin's outposts&mdash;methinks I hear the noise of the Moorish
+      horns and cymbals. Get you into order, my hearts, and form yourselves
+      around the ladies soldierlike and firmly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, each knight, squire, and archer hastily closed in upon his
+      appointed ground, and they proceeded in the most compact order, which made
+      their numbers appear still smaller. And to say the truth, though there
+      might be no fear, there was anxiety as well as curiosity in the attention
+      with which they listened to the wild bursts of Moorish music, which came
+      ever and anon more distinctly from the quarter in which the Arab horseman
+      had been seen to disappear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux spoke in a whisper to the King. "Were it not well, my liege, to
+      send a page to the top of that sand-bank? Or would it stand with your
+      pleasure that I prick forward? Methinks, by all yonder clash and clang, if
+      there be no more than five hundred men beyond the sand-hills, half of the
+      Soldan's retinue must be drummers and cymbal-tossers. Shall I spur on?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The baron had checked his horse with the bit, and was just about to strike
+      him with the spurs when the King exclaimed, "Not for the world. Such a
+      caution would express suspicion, and could do little to prevent surprise,
+      which, however, I apprehend not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They advanced accordingly in close and firm order till they surmounted the
+      line of low sand-hills, and came in sight of the appointed station, when a
+      splendid, but at the same time a startling, spectacle awaited them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Diamond of the Desert, so lately a solitary fountain, distinguished
+      only amid the waste by solitary groups of palm-trees, was now the centre
+      of an encampment, the embroidered flags and gilded ornaments of which
+      glittered far and wide, and reflected a thousand rich tints against the
+      setting sun. The coverings of the large pavilions were of the gayest
+      colours&mdash;scarlet, bright yellow, pale blue, and other gaudy and
+      gleaming hues&mdash;and the tops of their pillars, or tent-poles, were
+      decorated with golden pomegranates and small silken flags. But besides
+      these distinguished pavilions, there were what Thomas de Vaux considered
+      as a portentous number of the ordinary black tents of the Arabs, being
+      sufficient, as he conceived, to accommodate, according to the Eastern
+      fashion, a host of five thousand men. A number of Arabs and Kurds, fully
+      corresponding to the extent of the encampment, were hastily assembling,
+      each leading his horse in his hand, and their muster was accompanied by an
+      astonishing clamour of their noisy instruments of martial music, by which,
+      in all ages, the warfare of the Arabs has been animated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They soon formed a deep and confused mass of dismounted cavalry in front
+      of their encampment, when, at the signal of a shrill cry, which arose high
+      over the clangour of the music, each cavalier sprung to his saddle. A
+      cloud of dust arising at the moment of this manoeuvre hid from Richard and
+      his attendants the camp, the palm-trees, and the distant ridge of
+      mountains, as well as the troops whose sudden movement had raised the
+      cloud, and, ascending high over their heads, formed itself into the
+      fantastic forms of writhed pillars, domes, and minarets. Another shrill
+      yell was heard from the bosom of this cloudy tabernacle. It was the signal
+      for the cavalry to advance, which they did at full gallop, disposing
+      themselves as they came forward so as to come in at once on the front,
+      flanks, and rear of Richard's little bodyguard, who were thus surrounded,
+      and almost choked by the dense clouds of dust enveloping them on each
+      side, through which were seen alternately, and lost, the grim forms and
+      wild faces of the Saracens, brandishing and tossing their lances in every
+      possible direction with the wildest cries and halloos, and frequently only
+      reining up their horses when within a spear's length of the Christians,
+      while those in the rear discharged over the heads of both parties thick
+      volleys of arrows. One of these struck the litter in which the Queen was
+      seated, who loudly screamed, and the red spot was on Richard's brow in an
+      instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! Saint George," he exclaimed, "we must take some order with this
+      infidel scum!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Edith, whose litter was near, thrust her head out, and with her hand
+      holding one of the shafts, exclaimed, "Royal Richard, beware what you do!
+      see, these arrows are headless!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Noble, sensible wench!" exclaimed Richard; "by Heaven, thou shamest us
+      all by thy readiness of thought and eye.&mdash;Be not moved, my English
+      hearts," he exclaimed to his followers; "their arrows have no heads&mdash;and
+      their spears, too, lack the steel points. It is but a wild welcome, after
+      their savage fashion, though doubtless they would rejoice to see us
+      daunted or disturbed. Move onward, slow and steady."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little phalanx moved forward accordingly, accompanied on all sides by
+      the Arabs, with the shrillest and most piercing cries, the bowmen,
+      meanwhile, displaying their agility by shooting as near the crests of the
+      Christians as was possible, without actually hitting them, while the
+      lancers charged each other with such rude blows of their blunt weapons
+      that more than one of them lost his saddle, and well-nigh his life, in
+      this rough sport. All this, though designed to express welcome, had rather
+      a doubtful appearance in the eyes of the Europeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they had advanced nearly half way towards the camp, King Richard and
+      his suite forming, as it were, the nucleus round which this tumultuary
+      body of horsemen howled, whooped, skirmished, and galloped, creating a
+      scene of indescribable confusion, another shrill cry was heard, on which
+      all these irregulars, who were on the front and upon the flanks of the
+      little body of Europeans, wheeled off; and forming themselves into a long
+      and deep column, followed with comparative order and silence in the rear
+      of Richard's troops. The dust began now to dissipate in their front, when
+      there advanced to meet them through that cloudy veil a body of cavalry of
+      a different and more regular description, completely armed with offensive
+      and defensive weapons, and who might well have served as a bodyguard to
+      the proudest of Eastern monarchs. This splendid troop consisted of five
+      hundred men and each horse which it contained was worth an earl's ransom.
+      The riders were Georgian and Circassian slaves in the very prime of life.
+      Their helmets and hauberks were formed of steel rings, so bright that they
+      shone like silver; their vestures were of the gayest colours, and some of
+      cloth of gold or silver; the sashes were twisted with silk and gold, their
+      rich turbans were plumed and jewelled, and their sabres and poniards, of
+      Damascene steel, were adorned with gold and gems on hilt and scabbard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This splendid array advanced to the sound of military music, and when they
+      met the Christian body they opened their files to the right and left, and
+      let them enter between their ranks. Richard now assumed the foremost place
+      in his troop, aware that Saladin himself was approaching. Nor was it long
+      when, in the centre of his bodyguard, surrounded by his domestic officers
+      and those hideous negroes who guard the Eastern haram, and whose misshapen
+      forms were rendered yet more frightful by the richness of their attire,
+      came the Soldan, with the look and manners of one on whose brow Nature had
+      written, This is a King! In his snow-white turban, vest, and wide Eastern
+      trousers, wearing a sash of scarlet silk, without any other ornament,
+      Saladin might have seemed the plainest-dressed man in his own guard. But
+      closer inspection discerned in his turban that inestimable gem which was
+      called by the poets the Sea of Light; the diamond on which his signet was
+      engraved, and which he wore in a ring, was probably worth all the jewels
+      of the English crown; and a sapphire which terminated the hilt of his
+      cangiar was not of much inferior value. It should be added that, to
+      protect himself from the dust, which in the vicinity of the Dead Sea
+      resembles the finest ashes, or, perhaps, out of Oriental pride, the Soldan
+      wore a sort of veil attached to his turban, which partly obscured the view
+      of his noble features. He rode a milk-white Arabian, which bore him as if
+      conscious and proud of his noble burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no need of further introduction. The two heroic monarchs&mdash;for
+      such they both were&mdash;threw themselves at once from horseback, and the
+      troops halting and the music suddenly ceasing, they advanced to meet each
+      other in profound silence, and after a courteous inclination on either
+      side they embraced as brethren and equals. The pomp and display upon both
+      sides attracted no further notice&mdash;no one saw aught save Richard and
+      Saladin, and they too beheld nothing but each other. The looks with which
+      Richard surveyed Saladin were, however, more intently curious than those
+      which the Soldan fixed upon him; and the Soldan also was the first to
+      break silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Melech Ric is welcome to Saladin as water to this desert. I trust he
+      hath no distrust of this numerous array. Excepting the armed slaves of my
+      household, those who surround you with eyes of wonder and of welcome are&mdash;even
+      the humblest of them&mdash;the privileged nobles of my thousand tribes;
+      for who that could claim a title to be present would remain at home when
+      such a Prince was to be seen as Richard, with the terrors of whose name,
+      even on the sands of Yemen, the nurse stills her child, and the free Arab
+      subdues his restive steed!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And these are all nobles of Araby?" said Richard, looking around on wild
+      forms with their persons covered with haiks, their countenance swart with
+      the sunbeams, their teeth as white as ivory, their black eyes glancing
+      with fierce and preternatural lustre from under the shade of their
+      turbans, and their dress being in general simple even to meanness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They claim such rank," said Saladin; "but though numerous, they are
+      within the conditions of the treaty, and bear no arms but the sabre&mdash;even
+      the iron of their lances is left behind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I fear," muttered De Vaux in English, "they have left them where they can
+      be soon found. A most flourishing House of Peers, I confess, and would
+      find Westminster Hall something too narrow for them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush, De Vaux," said Richard, "I command thee.&mdash;Noble Saladin," he
+      said, "suspicion and thou cannot exist on the same ground. Seest thou,"
+      pointing to the litters, "I too have brought some champions with me,
+      though armed, perhaps, in breach of agreement; for bright eyes and fair
+      features are weapons which cannot be left behind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan, turning to the litters, made an obeisance as lowly as if
+      looking towards Mecca, and kissed the sand in token of respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said Richard, "they will not fear a closer encounter, brother; wilt
+      thou not ride towards their litters, and the curtains will be presently
+      withdrawn?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That may Allah prohibit!" said Saladin, "since not an Arab looks on who
+      would not think it shame to the noble ladies to be seen with their faces
+      uncovered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou shalt see them, then, in private, brother," answered Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To what purpose?" answered Saladin mournfully. "Thy last letter was, to
+      the hopes which I had entertained, like water to fire; and wherefore
+      should I again light a flame which may indeed consume, but cannot cheer
+      me? But will not my brother pass to the tent which his servant hath
+      prepared for him? My principal black slave hath taken order for the
+      reception of the Princesses, the officers of my household will attend your
+      followers, and ourself will be the chamberlain of the royal Richard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He led the way accordingly to a splendid pavilion, where was everything
+      that royal luxury could devise. De Vaux, who was in attendance, then
+      removed the chappe (CAPA), or long riding-cloak, which Richard wore, and
+      he stood before Saladin in the close dress which showed to advantage the
+      strength and symmetry of his person, while it bore a strong contrast to
+      the flowing robes which disguised the thin frame. of the Eastern monarch.
+      It was Richard's two-handed sword that chiefly attracted the attention of
+      the Saracen&mdash;a broad, straight blade, the seemingly unwieldy length
+      of which extended well-nigh from the shoulder to the heel of the wearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Had I not," said Saladin, "seen this brand flaming in the front of
+      battle, like that of Azrael, I had scarce believed that human arm could
+      wield it. Might I request to see the Melech Ric strike one blow with it in
+      peace, and in pure trial of strength?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Willingly, noble Saladin," answered Richard; and looking around for
+      something whereon to exercise his strength, he saw a steel mace held by
+      one of the attendants, the handle being of the same metal, and about an
+      inch and a half in diameter. This he placed on a block of wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxiety of De Vaux for his master's honour led him to whisper in
+      English, "For the blessed Virgin's sake, beware what you attempt, my
+      liege! Your full strength is not as yet returned&mdash;give no triumph to
+      the infidel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, fool!" said Richard, standing firm on his ground, and casting a
+      fierce glance around; "thinkest thou that I can fail in HIS presence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft to the
+      King's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway of
+      some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled on the ground in two
+      pieces, as a woodsman would sever a sapling with a hedging-bill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!" said the Soldan,
+      critically and accurately examining the iron bar which had been cut
+      asunder; and the blade of the sword was so well tempered as to exhibit not
+      the least token of having suffered by the feat it had performed. He then
+      took the King's hand, and looking on the size and muscular strength which
+      it exhibited, laughed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and thin, so
+      inferior in brawn and sinew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, look well," said De Vaux in English, "it will be long ere your long
+      jackanape's fingers do such a feat with your fine gilded reaping-hook
+      there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Silence, De Vaux," said Richard; "by Our Lady, he understands or guesses
+      thy meaning&mdash;be not so broad, I pray thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan, indeed, presently said, "Something I would fain attempt&mdash;though
+      wherefore should the weak show their inferiority in presence of the
+      strong? Yet each land hath its own exercises, and this may be new to the
+      Melech Ric." So saying, he took from the floor a cushion of silk and down,
+      and placed it upright on one end. "Can thy weapon, my brother, sever that
+      cushion?" he said to King Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, surely," replied the King; "no sword on earth, were it the Excalibur
+      of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady resistance to the
+      blow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mark, then," said Saladin; and tucking up the sleeve of his gown, showed
+      his arm, thin indeed and spare, but which constant exercise had hardened
+      into a mass consisting of nought but bone, brawn, and sinew. He unsheathed
+      his scimitar, a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not like the
+      swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue colour,
+      marked with ten millions of meandering lines, which showed how anxiously
+      the metal had been welded by the armourer. Wielding this weapon,
+      apparently so inefficient when compared to that of Richard, the Soldan
+      stood resting his weight upon his left foot, which was slightly advanced;
+      he balanced himself a little, as if to steady his aim; then stepping at
+      once forward, drew the scimitar across the cushion, applying the edge so
+      dexterously, and with so little apparent effort, that the cushion seemed
+      rather to fall asunder than to be divided by violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a juggler's trick," said De Vaux, darting forward and snatching up
+      the portion of the cushion which had been cut off, as if to assure himself
+      of the reality of the feat; "there is gramarye in this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan seemed to comprehend him, for he undid the sort of veil which
+      he had hitherto worn, laid it double along the edge of his sabre, extended
+      the weapon edgeways in the air, and drawing it suddenly through the veil,
+      although it hung on the blade entirely loose, severed that also into two
+      parts, which floated to different sides of the tent, equally displaying
+      the extreme temper and sharpness of the weapon, and the exquisite
+      dexterity of him who used it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, in good faith, my brother," said Richard, "thou art even matchless
+      at the trick of the sword, and right perilous were it to meet thee! Still,
+      however, I put some faith in a downright English blow, and what we cannot
+      do by sleight we eke out by strength. Nevertheless, in truth thou art as
+      expert in inflicting wounds as my sage Hakim in curing them. I trust I
+      shall see the learned leech. I have much to thank him for, and had brought
+      some small present."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, Saladin exchanged his turban for a Tartar cap. He had no
+      sooner done so, than De Vaux opened at once his extended mouth and his
+      large, round eyes, and Richard gazed with scarce less astonishment, while
+      the Soldan spoke in a grave and altered voice: "The sick man, saith the
+      poet, while he is yet infirm, knoweth the physician by his step; but when
+      he is recovered, he knoweth not even his face when he looks upon him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A miracle!&mdash;a miracle!" exclaimed Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of Mahound's working, doubtless," said Thomas de Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That I should lose my learned Hakim," said Richard, "merely by absence of
+      his cap and robe, and that I should find him again in my royal brother
+      Saladin!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such is oft the fashion of the world," answered the Soldan; "the tattered
+      robe makes not always the dervise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And it was through thy intercession," said Richard, "that yonder Knight
+      of the Leopard was saved from death, and by thy artifice that he revisited
+      my camp in disguise?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even so," replied Saladin. "I was physician enough to know that, unless
+      the wounds of his bleeding honour were stanched, the days of his life must
+      be few. His disguise was more easily penetrated than I had expected from
+      the success of my own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An accident," said King Richard (probably alluding to the circumstance of
+      his applying his lips to the wound of the supposed Nubian), "let me first
+      know that his skin was artificially discoloured; and that hint once taken,
+      detection became easy, for his form and person are not to be forgotten. I
+      confidently expect that he will do battle on the morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is full in preparation, and high in hope," said the Soldan. "I have
+      furnished him with weapons and horse, thinking nobly of him from what I
+      have seen under various disguises."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Knows he now," said Richard, "to whom he lies under obligation?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He doth," replied the Saracen. "I was obliged to confess my person when I
+      unfolded my purpose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And confessed he aught to you?" said the King of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing explicit," replied the Soldan; "but from much that passed between
+      us, I conceive his love is too highly placed to be happy in its issue."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou knowest that his daring and insolent passion crossed thine own
+      wishes?" said Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I might guess so much," said Saladin; "but his passion had existed ere my
+      wishes had been formed&mdash;and, I must now add, is likely to survive
+      them. I cannot, in honour, revenge me for my disappointment on him who had
+      no hand in it. Or, if this high-born dame loved him better than myself,
+      who can say that she did not justice to a knight of her own religion, who
+      is full of nobleness?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet of too mean lineage to mix with the blood of Plantagenet," said
+      Richard haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such may be your maxims in Frangistan," replied the Soldan. "Our poets of
+      the Eastern countries say that a valiant camel-driver is worthy to kiss
+      the lip of a fair Queen, when a cowardly prince is not worthy to salute
+      the hem of her garment. But with your permission, noble brother, I must
+      take leave of thee for the present, to receive the Duke of Austria and
+      yonder Nazarene knight, much less worthy of hospitality, but who must yet
+      be suitably entreated, not for their sakes, but for mine own honour&mdash;for
+      what saith the sage Lokman? 'Say not that the food is lost unto thee which
+      is given to the stranger; for if his body be strengthened and fattened
+      therewithal, not less is thine own worship and good name cherished and
+      augmented.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Saracen Monarch departed from King Richard's tent, and having
+      indicated to him, rather with signs than with speech, where the pavilion
+      of the Queen and her attendants was pitched, he went to receive the
+      Marquis of Montserrat and his attendants, for whom, with less goodwill,
+      but with equal splendour, the magnificent Soldan had provided
+      accommodations. The most ample refreshments, both in the Oriental and
+      after the European fashion, were spread before the royal and princely
+      guests of Saladin, each in their own separate pavilion; and so attentive
+      was the Soldan to the habits and taste of his visitors, that Grecian
+      slaves were stationed to present them with the goblet, which is the
+      abomination of the sect of Mohammed. Ere Richard had finished his meal,
+      the ancient Omrah, who had brought the Soldan's letter to the Christian
+      camp, entered with a plan of the ceremonial to be observed on the
+      succeeding day of combat. Richard, who knew the taste of his old
+      acquaintance, invited him to pledge him in a flagon of wine of Shiraz; but
+      Abdallah gave him to understand, with a rueful aspect, that self-denial in
+      the present circumstances was a matter in which his life was concerned,
+      for that Saladin, tolerant in many respects, both observed and enforced by
+      high penalties the laws of the Prophet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then," said Richard, "if he loves not wine, that lightener of the
+      human heart, his conversion is not to be hoped for, and the prediction of
+      the mad priest of Engaddi goes like chaff down the wind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King then addressed himself to settle the articles of combat, which
+      cost a considerable time, as it was necessary on some points to consult
+      with the opposite parties, as well as with the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were at length finally agreed upon, and adjusted by a protocol in
+      French and in Arabian, which was subscribed by Saladin as umpire of the
+      field, and by Richard and Leopold as guarantees for the two combatants. As
+      the Omrah took his final leave of King Richard for the evening, De Vaux
+      entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The good knight," he said, "who is to do battle tomorrow requests to know
+      whether he may not to-night pay duty to his royal godfather!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hast thou seen him, De Vaux?" said the King, smiling; "and didst thou
+      know an ancient acquaintance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By our Lady of Lanercost," answered De Vaux, "there are so many surprises
+      and changes in this land that my poor brain turns. I scarce knew Sir
+      Kenneth of Scotland, till his good hound, that had been for a short while
+      under my care, came and fawned on me; and even then I only knew the tyke
+      by the depth of his chest, the roundness of his foot, and his manner of
+      baying, for the poor gazehound was painted like any Venetian courtesan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art better skilled in brutes than men, De Vaux," said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will not deny," said De Vaux, "I have found them ofttimes the honester
+      animals. Also, your Grace is pleased to term me sometimes a brute myself;
+      besides that, I serve the Lion, whom all men acknowledge the king of
+      brutes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Saint George, there thou brokest thy lance fairly on my brow," said
+      the King. "I have ever said thou hast a sort of wit, De Vaux; marry, one
+      must strike thee with a sledge-hammer ere it can be made to sparkle. But
+      to the present gear&mdash;is the good knight well armed and equipped?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fully, my liege, and nobly," answered De Vaux. "I know the armour well;
+      it is that which the Venetian commissary offered your highness, just ere
+      you became ill, for five hundred byzants."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And he hath sold it to the infidel Soldan, I warrant me, for a few ducats
+      more, and present payment. These Venetians would sell the Sepulchre
+      itself!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The armour will never be borne in a nobler cause," said De Vaux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thanks to the nobleness of the Saracen," said the King, "not to the
+      avarice of the Venetians."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would to God your Grace would be more cautious," said the anxious De
+      Vaux. "Here are we deserted by all our allies, for points of offence given
+      to one or another; we cannot hope to prosper upon the land; and we have
+      only to quarrel with the amphibious republic, to lose the means of retreat
+      by sea!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will take care," said Richard impatiently; "but school me no more. Tell
+      me rather, for it is of interest, hath the knight a confessor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He hath," answered De Vaux; "the hermit of Engaddi, who erst did him that
+      office when preparing for death, attends him on the present occasion, the
+      fame of the duel having brought him hither."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Tis well," said Richard; "and now for the knight's request. Say to him,
+      Richard will receive him when the discharge of his devoir beside the
+      Diamond of the Desert shall have atoned for his fault beside the Mount of
+      Saint George; and as thou passest through the camp, let the Queen know I
+      will visit her pavilion&mdash;and tell Blondel to meet me there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      De Vaux departed, and in about an hour afterwards, Richard, wrapping his
+      mantle around him, and taking his ghittern in his hand, walked in the
+      direction of the Queen's pavilion. Several Arabs passed him, but always
+      with averted heads and looks fixed upon the earth, though he could observe
+      that all gazed earnestly after him when he was past. This led him justly
+      to conjecture that his person was known to them; but that either the
+      Soldan's commands, or their own Oriental politeness, forbade them to seem
+      to notice a sovereign who desired to remain incognito.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the King reached the pavilion of his Queen he found it guarded by
+      those unhappy officials whom Eastern jealousy places around the zenana.
+      Blondel was walking before the door, and touched his rote from time to
+      time in a manner which made the Africans show their ivory teeth, and bear
+      burden with their strange gestures and shrill, unnatural voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What art thou after with this herd of black cattle, Blondel?" said the
+      King; "wherefore goest thou not into the tent?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because my trade can neither spare the head nor the fingers," said
+      Blondel, "and these honest blackamoors threatened to cut me joint from
+      joint if I pressed forward."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, enter with me," said the King, "and I will be thy safeguard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blacks accordingly lowered pikes and swords to King Richard, and bent
+      their eyes on the ground, as if unworthy to look upon him. In the interior
+      of the pavilion they found Thomas de Vaux in attendance on the Queen.
+      While Berengaria welcomed Blondel, King Richard spoke for some time
+      secretly and apart with his fair kinswoman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, "Are we still foes, my fair Edith?" he said, in a whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my liege," said Edith, in a voice just so low as not to interrupt the
+      music; "none can bear enmity against King Richard when he deigns to show
+      himself, as he really is, generous and noble, as well as valiant and
+      honourable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she extended her hand to him. The King kissed it in token of
+      reconciliation, and then proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You think, my sweet cousin, that my anger in this matter was feigned; but
+      you are deceived. The punishment I inflicted upon this knight was just;
+      for he had betrayed&mdash;no matter for how tempting a bribe, fair cousin&mdash;the
+      trust committed to him. But I rejoice, perchance as much as you, that
+      to-morrow gives him a chance to win the field, and throw back the stain
+      which for a time clung to him upon the actual thief and traitor. No!&mdash;future
+      times may blame Richard for impetuous folly, but they shall say that in
+      rendering judgment he was just when he should and merciful when he could."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Laud not thyself, cousin King," said Edith. "They may call thy justice
+      cruelty, thy mercy caprice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And do not thou pride thyself," said the King, "as if thy knight, who
+      hath not yet buckled on his armour, were unbelting it in triumph&mdash;Conrade
+      of Montserrat is held a good lance. What if the Scot should lose the day?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is impossible!" said Edith firmly. "My own eyes saw yonder Conrade
+      tremble and change colour like a base thief; he is guilty, and the trial
+      by combat is an appeal to the justice of God. I myself, in such a cause,
+      would encounter him without fear."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+"By the mass, I think thou wouldst, wench," said the King, "and beat him
+to boot, for there never breathed a truer Plantagenet than thou."
+
+ He paused, and added in a very serious tone, "See that thou
+continue to remember what is due to thy birth."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "What means that advice, so seriously given at this moment?" said Edith.
+      "Am I of such light nature as to forget my name&mdash;my condition?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will speak plainly, Edith," answered the King, "and as to a friend.
+      What will this knight be to you, should he come off victor from yonder
+      lists?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To me?" said Edith, blushing deep with shame and displeasure. "What can
+      he be to me more than an honoured knight, worthy of such grace as Queen
+      Berengaria might confer on him, had he selected her for his lady, instead
+      of a more unworthy choice? The meanest knight may devote himself to the
+      service of an empress, but the glory of his choice," she said proudly,
+      "must be his reward."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet he hath served and suffered much for you," said the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have paid his services with honour and applause, and his sufferings
+      with tears," answered Edith. "Had he desired other reward, he would have
+      done wisely to have bestowed his affections within his own degree."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You would not, then, wear the bloody night-gear for his sake?" said King
+      Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No more," answered Edith, "than I would have required him to expose his
+      life by an action in which there was more madness than honour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Maidens talk ever thus," said the King; "but when the favoured lover
+      presses his suit, she says, with a sigh, her stars had decreed otherwise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Grace has now, for the second time, threatened me with the influence
+      of my horoscope," Edith replied, with dignity. "Trust me, my liege,
+      whatever be the power of the stars, your poor kinswoman will never wed
+      either infidel or obscure adventurer. Permit me that I listen to the music
+      of Blondel, for the tone of your royal admonitions is scarce so grateful
+      to the ear."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conclusion of the evening offered nothing worthy of notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Heard ye the din of battle bray,
+     Lance to lance, and horse to horse?
+          GRAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It had been agreed, on account of the heat of the climate, that the
+      judicial combat which was the cause of the present assemblage of various
+      nations at the Diamond of the Desert should take place at one hour after
+      sunrise. The wide lists, which had been constructed under the inspection
+      of the Knight of the Leopard, enclosed a space of hard sand, which was one
+      hundred and twenty yards long by forty in width. They extended in length
+      from north to south, so as to give both parties the equal advantage of the
+      rising sun. Saladin's royal seat was erected on the western side of the
+      enclosure, just in the centre, where the combatants were expected to meet
+      in mid encounter. Opposed to this was a gallery with closed casements, so
+      contrived that the ladies, for whose accommodation it was erected, might
+      see the fight without being themselves exposed to view. At either
+      extremity of the lists was a barrier, which could be opened or shut at
+      pleasure. Thrones had been also erected, but the Archduke, perceiving that
+      his was lower than King Richard's, refused to occupy it; and Coeur de
+      Lion, who would have submitted to much ere any formality should have
+      interfered with the combat, readily agreed that the sponsors, as they were
+      called, should remain on horseback during the fight. At one extremity of
+      the lists were placed the followers of Richard, and opposed to them were
+      those who accompanied the defender Conrade. Around the throne destined for
+      the Soldan were ranged his splendid Georgian Guards, and the rest of the
+      enclosure was occupied by Christian and Mohammedan spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long before daybreak the lists were surrounded by even a larger number of
+      Saracens than Richard had seen on the preceding evening. When the first
+      ray of the sun's glorious orb arose above the desert, the sonorous call,
+      "To prayer&mdash;to prayer!" was poured forth by the Soldan himself, and
+      answered by others, whose rank and zeal entitled them to act as muezzins.
+      It was a striking spectacle to see them all sink to earth, for the purpose
+      of repeating their devotions, with their faces turned to Mecca. But when
+      they arose from the ground, the sun's rays, now strengthening fast, seemed
+      to confirm the Lord of Gilsland's conjecture of the night before. They
+      were flashed back from many a spearhead, for the pointless lances of the
+      preceding day were certainly no longer such. De Vaux pointed it out to his
+      master, who answered with impatience that he had perfect confidence in the
+      good faith of the Soldan; but if De Vaux was afraid of his bulky body, he
+      might retire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this the noise of timbrels was heard, at the sound of which the
+      whole Saracen cavaliers threw themselves from their horses, and prostrated
+      themselves, as if for a second morning prayer. This was to give an
+      opportunity to the Queen, with Edith and her attendants, to pass from the
+      pavilion to the gallery intended for them. Fifty guards of Saladin's
+      seraglio escorted them with naked sabres, whose orders were to cut to
+      pieces whomsoever, were he prince or peasant, should venture to gaze on
+      the ladies as they passed, or even presume to raise his head until the
+      cessation of the music should make all men aware that they were lodged in
+      their gallery, not to be gazed on by the curious eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This superstitious observance of Oriental reverence to the fair sex called
+      forth from Queen Berengaria some criticisms very unfavourable to Saladin
+      and his country. But their den, as the royal fair called it, being
+      securely closed and guarded by their sable attendants, she was under the
+      necessity of contenting herself with seeing, and laying aside for the
+      present the still more exquisite pleasure of being seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime the sponsors of both champions went, as was their duty, to see
+      that they were duly armed and prepared for combat. The Archduke of Austria
+      was in no hurry to perform this part of the ceremony, having had rather an
+      unusually severe debauch upon wine of Shiraz the preceding evening. But
+      the Grand Master of the Temple, more deeply concerned in the event of the
+      combat, was early before the tent of Conrade of Montserrat. To his great
+      surprise, the attendants refused him admittance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you not know me, ye knaves?" said the Grand Master, in great anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We do, most valiant and reverend," answered Conrade's squire; "but even
+      you may not at present enter&mdash;the Marquis is about to confess
+      himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Confess himself!" exclaimed the Templar, in a tone where alarm mingled
+      with surprise and scorn&mdash;"and to whom, I pray thee?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My master bid me be secret," said the squire; on which the Grand Master
+      pushed past him, and entered the tent almost by force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Marquis of Montserrat was kneeling at the feet of the hermit of
+      Engaddi, and in the act of beginning his confession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What means this, Marquis?" said the Grand Master; "up, for shame&mdash;or,
+      if you must needs confess, am not I here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have confessed to you too often already," replied Conrade, with a pale
+      cheek and a faltering voice. "For God's sake, Grand Master, begone, and
+      let me unfold my conscience to this holy man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In what is he holier than I am?" said the Grand Master.&mdash;"Hermit,
+      prophet, madman&mdash;say, if thou darest, in what thou excellest me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bold and bad man," replied the hermit, "know that I am like the latticed
+      window, and the divine light passes through to avail others, though, alas!
+      it helpeth not me. Thou art like the iron stanchions, which neither
+      receive light themselves, nor communicate it to any one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Prate not to me, but depart from this tent," said the Grand Master; "the
+      Marquis shall not confess this morning, unless it be to me, for I part not
+      from his side."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is this YOUR pleasure?" said the hermit to Conrade; "for think not I will
+      obey that proud man, if you continue to desire my assistance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas," said Conrade irresolutely, "what would you have me say? Farewell
+      for a while&mdash;-we will speak anon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O procrastination!" exclaimed the hermit, "thou art a soul-murderer!&mdash;Unhappy
+      man, farewell&mdash;not for a while, but until we shall both meet no
+      matter where. And for thee," he added, turning to the Grand Master,
+      "TREMBLE!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tremble!" replied the Templar contemptuously, "I cannot if I would."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hermit heard not his answer, having left the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come! to this gear hastily," said the Grand Master, "since thou wilt
+      needs go through the foolery. Hark thee&mdash;I think I know most of thy
+      frailties by heart, so we may omit the detail, which may be somewhat a
+      long one, and begin with the absolution. What signifies counting the spots
+      of dirt that we are about to wash from our hands?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Knowing what thou art thyself," said Conrade, "it is blasphemous to speak
+      of pardoning another."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is not according to the canon, Lord Marquis," said the Templar;
+      "thou art more scrupulous than orthodox. The absolution of the wicked
+      priest is as effectual as if he were himself a saint&mdash;otherwise, God
+      help the poor penitent! What wounded man inquires whether the surgeon that
+      tends his gashes has clean hands or no? Come, shall we to this toy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said Conrade, "I will rather die unconfessed than mock the
+      sacrament."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, noble Marquis," said the Templar, "rouse up your courage, and speak
+      not thus. In an hour's time thou shalt stand victorious in the lists, or
+      confess thee in thy helmet, like a valiant knight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas, Grand Master," answered Conrade, "all augurs ill for this affair,
+      the strange discovery by the instinct of a dog&mdash;the revival of this
+      Scottish knight, who comes into the lists like a spectre&mdash;all
+      betokens evil."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pshaw," said the Templar, "I have seen thee bend thy lance boldly against
+      him in sport, and with equal chance of success. Think thou art but in a
+      tournament, and who bears him better in the tilt-yard than thou?&mdash;Come,
+      squires and armourers, your master must be accoutred for the field."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The attendants entered accordingly, and began to arm the Marquis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What morning is without?" said Conrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The sun rises dimly," answered a squire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou seest, Grand Master," said Conrade, "nought smiles on us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wilt fight the more coolly, my son," answered the Templar; "thank
+      Heaven, that hath tempered the sun of Palestine to suit thine occasion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus jested the Grand Master. But his jests had lost their influence on
+      the harassed mind of the Marquis, and notwithstanding his attempts to seem
+      gay, his gloom communicated itself to the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This craven," he thought, "will lose the day in pure faintness and
+      cowardice of heart, which he calls tender conscience. I, whom visions and
+      auguries shake not&mdash;-who am firm in my purpose as the living rock&mdash;I
+      should have fought the combat myself. Would to God the Scot may strike him
+      dead on the spot; it were next best to his winning the victory. But come
+      what will, he must have no other confessor than myself&mdash;our sins are
+      too much in common, and he might confess my share with his own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these thoughts passed through his mind, he continued to assist the
+      Marquis in arming, but it was in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour at length arrived; the trumpets sounded; the knights rode into
+      the lists armed at all points, and mounted like men who were to do battle
+      for a kingdom's honour. They wore their visors up, and riding around the
+      lists three times, showed themselves to the spectators. Both were goodly
+      persons, and both had noble countenances. But there was an air of manly
+      confidence on the brow of the Scot&mdash;a radiancy of hope, which
+      amounted even to cheerfulness; while, although pride and effort had
+      recalled much of Conrade's natural courage, there lowered still on his
+      brow a cloud of ominous despondence. Even his steed seemed to tread less
+      lightly and blithely to the trumpet-sound than the noble Arab which was
+      bestrode by Sir Kenneth; and the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his head while he
+      observed that, while the challenger rode around the lists in the course of
+      the sun&mdash;that is, from right to left&mdash;the defender made the same
+      circuit WIDDERSINS&mdash;that is, from left to right&mdash;which is in
+      most countries held ominous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A temporary altar was erected just beneath the gallery occupied by the
+      Queen, and beside it stood the hermit in the dress of his order as a
+      Carmelite friar. Other churchmen were also present. To this altar the
+      challenger and defender were successively brought forward, conducted by
+      their respective sponsors. Dismounting before it, each knight avouched the
+      justice of his cause by a solemn oath on the Evangelists, and prayed that
+      his success might be according to the truth or falsehood of what he then
+      swore. They also made oath that they came to do battle in knightly guise,
+      and with the usual weapons, disclaiming the use of spells, charms, or
+      magical devices to incline victory to their side. The challenger
+      pronounced his vow with a firm and manly voice, and a bold and cheerful
+      countenance. When the ceremony was finished, the Scottish Knight looked at
+      the gallery, and bent his head to the earth, as if in honour of those
+      invisible beauties which were enclosed within; then, loaded with armour as
+      he was, sprung to the saddle without the use of the stirrup, and made his
+      courser carry him in a succession of caracoles to his station at the
+      eastern extremity of the lists. Conrade also presented himself before the
+      altar with boldness enough; but his voice as he took the oath sounded
+      hollow, as if drowned in his helmet. The lips with which he appealed to
+      Heaven to adjudge victory to the just quarrel grew white as they uttered
+      the impious mockery. As he turned to remount his horse, the Grand Master
+      approached him closer, as if to rectify something about the sitting of his
+      gorget, and whispered, "Coward and fool! recall thy senses, and do me this
+      battle bravely, else, by Heaven, shouldst thou escape him, thou escapest
+      not ME!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The savage tone in which this was whispered perhaps completed the
+      confusion of the Marquis's nerves, for he stumbled as he made to horse;
+      and though he recovered his feet, sprung to the saddle with his usual
+      agility, and displayed his address in horsemanship as he assumed his
+      position opposite to the challenger's, yet the accident did not escape
+      those who were on the watch for omens which might predict the fate of the
+      day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The priests, after a solemn prayer that God would show the rightful
+      quarrel, departed from the lists. The trumpets of the challenger then rung
+      a flourish, and a herald-at-arms proclaimed at the eastern end of the
+      lists&mdash;"Here stands a good knight, Sir Kenneth of Scotland, champion
+      for the royal King Richard of England, who accuseth Conrade, Marquis of
+      Montserrat, of foul treason and dishonour done to the said King."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the words Kenneth of Scotland announced the name and character of the
+      champion, hitherto scarce generally known, a loud and cheerful acclaim
+      burst from the followers of King Richard, and hardly, notwithstanding
+      repeated commands of silence, suffered the reply of the defendant to be
+      heard. He, of course, avouched his innocence, and offered his body for
+      battle. The esquires of the combatants now approached, and delivered to
+      each his shield and lance, assisting to hang the former around his neck,
+      that his two hands might remain free, one for the management of the
+      bridle, the other to direct the lance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shield of the Scot displayed his old bearing, the leopard, but with
+      the addition of a collar and broken chain, in allusion to his late
+      captivity. The shield of the Marquis bore, in reference to his title, a
+      serrated and rocky mountain. Each shook his lance aloft, as if to
+      ascertain the weight and toughness of the unwieldy weapon, and then laid
+      it in the rest. The sponsors, heralds, and squires now retired to the
+      barriers, and the combatants sat opposite to each other, face to face,
+      with couched lance and closed visor, the human form so completely
+      enclosed, that they looked more like statues of molten iron than beings of
+      flesh and blood. The silence of suspense was now general. Men breathed
+      thicker, and their very souls seemed seated in their eyes; while not a
+      sound was to be heard save the snorting and pawing of the good steeds,
+      who, sensible of what was about to happen, were impatient to dash into
+      career. They stood thus for perhaps three minutes, when, at a signal given
+      by the Soldan, a hundred instruments rent the air with their brazen
+      clamours, and each champion striking his horse with the spurs, and
+      slacking the rein, the horses started into full gallop, and the knights
+      met in mid space with a shock like a thunderbolt. The victory was not in
+      doubt&mdash;no, not one moment. Conrade, indeed, showed himself a
+      practised warrior; for he struck his antagonist knightly in the midst of
+      his shield, bearing his lance so straight and true that it shivered into
+      splinters from the steel spear-head up to the very gauntlet. The horse of
+      Sir Kenneth recoiled two or three yards and fell on his haunches; but the
+      rider easily raised him with hand and rein. But for Conrade there was no
+      recovery. Sir Kenneth's lance had pierced through the shield, through a
+      plated corselet of Milan steel, through a SECRET, or coat of linked mail,
+      worn beneath the corselet, had wounded him deep in the bosom, and borne
+      him from his saddle, leaving the truncheon of the lance fixed in his
+      wound. The sponsors, heralds, and Saladin himself, descending from his
+      throne, crowded around the wounded man; while Sir Kenneth, who had drawn
+      his sword ere yet he discovered his antagonist was totally helpless, now
+      commanded him to avow his guilt. The helmet was hastily unclosed, and the
+      wounded man, gazing wildly on the skies, replied, "What would you more?
+      God hath decided justly&mdash;I am guilty; but there are worse traitors in
+      the camp than I. In pity to my soul, let me have a confessor!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He revived as he uttered these words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The talisman&mdash;the powerful remedy, royal brother!" said King Richard
+      to Saladin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The traitor," answered the Soldan, "is more fit to be dragged from the
+      lists to the gallows by the heels, than to profit by its virtues. And some
+      such fate is in his look," he added, after gazing fixedly upon the wounded
+      man; "for though his wound may be cured, yet Azrael's seal is on the
+      wretch's brow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nevertheless," said Richard, "I pray you do for him what you may, that he
+      may at least have time for confession. Slay not soul and body! To him one
+      half hour of time may be worth more, by ten thousandfold, than the life of
+      the oldest patriarch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My royal brother's wish shall be obeyed," said Saladin.&mdash;"Slaves,
+      bear this wounded man to our tent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not so," said the Templar, who had hitherto stood gloomily looking on
+      in silence. "The royal Duke of Austria and myself will not permit this
+      unhappy Christian prince to be delivered over to the Saracens, that they
+      may try their spells upon him. We are his sponsors, and demand that he be
+      assigned to our care."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is, you refuse the certain means offered to recover him?" said
+      Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so," said the Grand Master, recollecting himself. "If the Soldan
+      useth lawful medicines, he may attend the patient in my tent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do so, I pray thee, good brother," said Richard to Saladin, "though the
+      permission be ungraciously yielded.&mdash;But now to a more glorious work.
+      Sound, trumpets&mdash;shout, England&mdash;in honour of England's
+      champion!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Drum, clarion, trumpet, and cymbal rung forth at once, and the deep and
+      regular shout, which for ages has been the English acclamation, sounded
+      amidst the shrill and irregular yells of the Arabs, like the diapason of
+      the organ amid the howling of a storm. There was silence at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Brave Knight of the Leopard," resumed Coeur de Lion, "thou hast shown
+      that the Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his spots, though
+      clerks quote Scripture for the impossibility. Yet I have more to say to
+      you when I have conducted you to the presence of the ladies, the best
+      judges and best rewarders of deeds of chivalry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them. I promise thee our
+      Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the opportunity to
+      thank her royal host for her most princely reception."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must attend the wounded man," he said. "The leech leaves not his
+      patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be summoned to a
+      bower like those of Paradise. And further, royal Richard, know that the
+      blood of the East flows not so temperately in the presence of beauty as
+      that of your land. What saith the Book itself?&mdash;Her eye is as the
+      edge of the sword of the Prophet, who shall look upon it? He that would
+      not be burnt avoideth to tread on hot embers&mdash;wise men spread not the
+      flax before a flickering torch. He, saith the sage, who hath forfeited a
+      treasure, doth not wisely to turn back his head to gaze at it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, it may be believed, respected the motives of delicacy which
+      flowed from manners so different from his own, and urged his request no
+      further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At noon," said the Soldan, as he departed, "I trust ye will all accept a
+      collation under the black camel-skin tent of a chief of Kurdistan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same invitation was circulated among the Christians, comprehending all
+      those of sufficient importance to be admitted to sit at a feast made for
+      princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hark!" said Richard, "the timbrels announce that our Queen and her
+      attendants are leaving their gallery&mdash;and see, the turbans sink on
+      the ground, as if struck down by a destroying angel. All lie prostrate, as
+      if the glance of an Arab's eye could sully the lustre of a lady's cheek!
+      Come, we will to the pavilion, and lead our conqueror thither in triumph.
+      How I pity that noble Soldan, who knows but of love as it is known to
+      those of inferior nature!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blondel tuned his harp to his boldest measure, to welcome the introduction
+      of the victor into the pavilion of Queen Berengaria. He entered, supported
+      on either side by his sponsors, Richard and Thomas Longsword, and knelt
+      gracefully down before the Queen, though more than half the homage was
+      silently rendered to Edith, who sat on her right hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Unarm him, my mistresses," said the King, whose delight was in the
+      execution of such chivalrous usages; "let Beauty honour Chivalry! Undo his
+      spurs, Berengaria; Queen though thou be, thou owest him what marks of
+      favour thou canst give.&mdash;Unlace his helmet, Edith;&mdash;by this hand
+      thou shalt, wert thou the proudest Plantagenet of the line, and he the
+      poorest knight on earth!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both ladies obeyed the royal commands&mdash;Berengaria with bustling
+      assiduity, as anxious to gratify her husband's humour, and Edith blushing
+      and growing pale alternately, as, slowly and awkwardly, she undid, with
+      Longsword's assistance, the fastenings which secured the helmet to the
+      gorget.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what expect you from beneath this iron shell?" said Richard, as the
+      removal of the casque gave to view the noble countenance of Sir Kenneth,
+      his face glowing with recent exertion, and not less so with present
+      emotion. "What think ye of him, gallants and beauties?" said Richard.
+      "Doth he resemble an Ethiopian slave, or doth he present the face of an
+      obscure and nameless adventurer? No, by my good sword! Here terminate his
+      various disguises. He hath knelt down before you unknown, save by his
+      worth; he arises equally distinguished by birth and by fortune. The
+      adventurous knight, Kenneth, arises David, Earl of Huntingdon, Prince
+      Royal of Scotland!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general exclamation of surprise, and Edith dropped from her
+      hand the helmet which she had just received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, my masters," said the King, "it is even so. Ye know how Scotland
+      deceived us when she proposed to send this valiant Earl, with a bold
+      company of her best and noblest, to aid our arms in this conquest of
+      Palestine, but failed to comply with her engagements. This noble youth,
+      under whom the Scottish Crusaders were to have been arrayed, thought foul
+      scorn that his arm should be withheld from the holy warfare, and joined us
+      at Sicily with a small train of devoted and faithful attendants, which was
+      augmented by many of his countrymen to whom the rank of their leader was
+      unknown. The confidants of the Royal Prince had all, save one old
+      follower, fallen by death, when his secret, but too well kept, had nearly
+      occasioned my cutting off, in a Scottish adventurer, one of the noblest
+      hopes of Europe.&mdash;Why did you not mention your rank, noble
+      Huntingdon, when endangered by my hasty and passionate sentence? Was it
+      that you thought Richard capable of abusing the advantage I possessed over
+      the heir of a King whom I have so often found hostile?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did you not that injustice, royal Richard," answered the Earl of
+      Huntingdon; "but my pride brooked not that I should avow myself Prince of
+      Scotland in order to save my life, endangered for default of loyalty. And,
+      moreover, I had made my vow to preserve my rank unknown till the Crusade
+      should be accomplished; nor did I mention it save IN ARTICULO MORTIS, and
+      under the seal of confession, to yonder reverend hermit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was the knowledge of that secret, then, which made the good man so
+      urgent with me to recall my severe sentence?" said Richard. "Well did he
+      say that, had this good knight fallen by my mandate, I should have wished
+      the deed undone though it had cost me a limb. A limb! I should have wished
+      it undone had it cost me my life&mdash;-since the world would have said
+      that Richard had abused the condition in which the heir of Scotland had
+      placed himself by his confidence in his generosity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet, may we know of your Grace by what strange and happy chance this
+      riddle was at length read?" said the Queen Berengaria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Letters were brought to us from England," said the King, "in which we
+      learned, among other unpleasant news, that the King of Scotland had seized
+      upon three of our nobles, when on a pilgrimage to Saint Ninian, and
+      alleged, as a cause, that his heir, being supposed to be fighting in the
+      ranks of the Teutonic Knights against the heathen of Borussia, was, in
+      fact, in our camp, and in our power; and, therefore, William proposed to
+      hold these nobles as hostages for his safety. This gave me the first light
+      on the real rank of the Knight of the Leopard; and my suspicions were
+      confirmed by De Vaux, who, on his return from Ascalon, brought back with
+      him the Earl of Huntingdon's sole attendant, a thick-skulled slave, who
+      had gone thirty miles to unfold to De Vaux a secret he should have told to
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Old Strauchan must be excused," said the Lord of Gilsland. "He knew from
+      experience that my heart is somewhat softer than if I wrote myself
+      Plantagenet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy heart soft? thou commodity of old iron and Cumberland flint, that
+      thou art!" exclaimed the King.&mdash;"It is we Plantagenets who boast soft
+      and feeling hearts. Edith," turning to his cousin with an expression which
+      called the blood into her cheek, "give me thy hand, my fair cousin, and,
+      Prince of Scotland, thine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Forbear, my lord," said Edith, hanging back, and endeavouring to hide her
+      confusion under an attempt to rally her royal kinsman's credulity.
+      "Remember you not that my hand was to be the signal of converting to the
+      Christian faith the Saracen and Arab, Saladin and all his turbaned host?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but the wind of prophecy hath chopped about, and sits now in another
+      corner," replied Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mock not, lest your bonds be made strong," said the hermit stepping
+      forward. "The heavenly host write nothing but truth in their brilliant
+      records. It is man's eyes which are too weak to read their characters
+      aright. Know, that when Saladin and Kenneth of Scotland slept in my
+      grotto, I read in the stars that there rested under my roof a prince, the
+      natural foe of Richard, with whom the fate of Edith Plantagenet was to be
+      united. Could I doubt that this must be the Soldan, whose rank was well
+      known to me, as he often visited my cell to converse on the revolutions of
+      the heavenly bodies? Again, the lights of the firmament proclaimed that
+      this prince, the husband of Edith Plantagenet, should be a Christian; and
+      I&mdash;weak and wild interpreter!&mdash;argued thence the conversion of
+      the noble Saladin, whose good qualities seemed often to incline him
+      towards the better faith. The sense of my weakness hath humbled me to the
+      dust; but in the dust I have found comfort! I have not read aright the
+      fate of others&mdash;who can assure me but that I may have miscalculated
+      mine own? God will not have us break into His council-house, or spy out
+      His hidden mysteries. We must wait His time with watching and prayer&mdash;with
+      fear and with hope. I came hither the stern seer&mdash;the proud prophet&mdash;skilled,
+      as I thought, to instruct princes, and gifted even with supernatural
+      powers, but burdened with a weight which I deemed no shoulders but mine
+      could have borne. But my bands have been broken! I go hence humble in mine
+      ignorance, penitent&mdash;and not hopeless."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words he withdrew from the assembly; and it is recorded that
+      from that period his frenzy fits seldom occurred, and his penances were of
+      a milder character, and accompanied with better hopes of the future. So
+      much is there of self-opinion, even in insanity, that the conviction of
+      his having entertained and expressed an unfounded prediction with so much
+      vehemence seemed to operate like loss of blood on the human frame, to
+      modify and lower the fever of the brain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is needless to follow into further particulars the conferences at the
+      royal tent, or to inquire whether David, Earl of Huntingdon, was as mute
+      in the presence of Edith Plantagenet as when he was bound to act under the
+      character of an obscure and nameless adventurer. It may be well believed
+      that he there expressed with suitable earnestness the passion to which he
+      had so often before found it difficult to give words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour of noon now approached, and Saladin waited to receive the Princes
+      of Christendom in a tent, which, but for its large size, differed little
+      from that of the ordinary shelter of the common Kurdman, or Arab; yet
+      beneath its ample and sable covering was prepared a banquet after the most
+      gorgeous fashion of the East, extended upon carpets of the richest stuffs,
+      with cushions laid for the guests. But we cannot stop to describe the
+      cloth of gold and silver&mdash;the superb embroidery in arabesque&mdash;the
+      shawls of Kashmere and the muslins of India, which were here unfolded in
+      all their splendour; far less to tell the different sweetmeats, ragouts
+      edged with rice coloured in various manners, with all the other niceties
+      of Eastern cookery. Lambs roasted whole, and game and poultry dressed in
+      pilaus, were piled in vessels of gold, and silver, and porcelain, and
+      intermixed with large mazers of sherbet, cooled in snow and ice from the
+      caverns of Mount Lebanon. A magnificent pile of cushions at the head of
+      the banquet seemed prepared for the master of the feast, and such
+      dignitaries as he might call to share that place of distinction; while
+      from the roof of the tent in all quarters, but over this seat of eminence
+      in particular, waved many a banner and pennon, the trophies of battles won
+      and kingdoms overthrown. But amongst and above them all, a long lance
+      displayed a shroud, the banner of Death, with this impressive inscription&mdash;"SALADIN,
+      KING OF KINGS&mdash;SALADIN, VICTOR OF VICTORS&mdash;SALADIN MUST DIE."
+      Amid these preparations, the slaves who had arranged the refreshments
+      stood with drooped heads and folded arms, mute and motionless as
+      monumental statuary, or as automata, which waited the touch of the artist
+      to put them in motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Expecting the approach of his princely guests, the Soldan, imbued, as most
+      were, with the superstitions of his time, paused over a horoscope and
+      corresponding scroll, which had been sent to him by the hermit of Engaddi
+      when he departed from the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Strange and mysterious science," he muttered to himself, "which,
+      pretending to draw the curtain of futurity, misleads those whom it seems
+      to guide, and darkens the scene which it pretends to illuminate! Who would
+      not have said that I was that enemy most dangerous to Richard, whose
+      enmity was to be ended by marriage with his kinswoman? Yet it now appears
+      that a union betwixt this gallant Earl and the lady will bring about
+      friendship betwixt Richard and Scotland, an enemy more dangerous than I,
+      as a wildcat in a chamber is more to be dreaded than a lion in a distant
+      desert. But then," he continued to mutter to himself, "the combination
+      intimates that this husband was to be Christian.&mdash;Christian!" he
+      repeated, after a pause. "That gave the insane fanatic star-gazer hopes
+      that I might renounce my faith! But me, the faithful follower of our
+      Prophet&mdash;me it should have undeceived. Lie there, mysterious scroll,"
+      he added, thrusting it under the pile of cushions; "strange are thy
+      bodements and fatal, since, even when true in themselves, they work upon
+      those who attempt to decipher their meaning all the effects of falsehood.&mdash;How
+      now! what means this intrusion?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke to the dwarf Nectabanus, who rushed into the tent fearfully
+      agitated, with each strange and disproportioned feature wrenched by horror
+      into still more extravagant ugliness&mdash;his mouth open, his eyes
+      staring, his hands, with their shrivelled and deformed fingers, wildly
+      expanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What now?" said the Soldan sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "ACCIPE HOC!" groaned out the dwarf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! sayest thou?" answered Saladin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "ACCIPE HOC!" replied the panic-struck creature, unconscious, perhaps,
+      that he repeated the same words as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hence, I am in no vein for foolery," said the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor am I further fool," said the dwarf, "than to make my folly help out
+      my wits to earn my bread, poor, helpless wretch! Hear, hear me, great
+      Soldan!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, if thou hast actual wrong to complain of," said Saladin, "fool or
+      wise, thou art entitled to the ear of a King. Retire hither with me;" and
+      he led him into the inner tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever their conference related to, it was soon broken off by the
+      fanfare of the trumpets announcing the arrival of the various Christian
+      princes, whom Saladin welcomed to his tent with a royal courtesy well
+      becoming their rank and his own; but chiefly he saluted the young Earl of
+      Huntingdon, and generously congratulated him upon prospects which seemed
+      to have interfered with and overclouded those which he had himself
+      entertained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But think not," said the Soldan, "thou noble youth, that the Prince of
+      Scotland is more welcome to Saladin than was Kenneth to the solitary
+      Ilderim when they met in the desert, or the distressed Ethiop to the Hakim
+      Adonbec. A brave and generous disposition like thine hath a value
+      independent of condition and birth, as the cool draught, which I here
+      proffer thee, is as delicious from an earthen vessel as from a goblet of
+      gold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of Huntingdon made a suitable reply, gratefully acknowledging the
+      various important services he had received from the generous Soldan; but
+      when he had pledged Saladin in the bowl of sherbet which the Soldan had
+      proffered to him, he could not help remarking with a smile, "The brave
+      cavalier Ilderim knew not of the formation of ice, but the munificent
+      Soldan cools his sherbet with snow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wouldst thou have an Arab or a Kurdman as wise as a Hakim?" said the
+      Soldan. "He who does on a disguise must make the sentiments of his heart
+      and the learning of his head accord with the dress which he assumes. I
+      desired to see how a brave and single-hearted cavalier of Frangistan would
+      conduct himself in debate with such a chief as I then seemed; and I
+      questioned the truth of a well-known fact, to know by what arguments thou
+      wouldst support thy assertion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were speaking, the Archduke of Austria, who stood a little
+      apart, was struck with the mention of iced sherbet, and took with pleasure
+      and some bluntness the deep goblet, as the Earl of Huntingdon was about to
+      replace it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Most delicious!" he exclaimed, after a deep draught, which the heat of
+      the weather, and the feverishness following the debauch of the preceding
+      day, had rendered doubly acceptable. He sighed as he handed the cup to the
+      Grand Master of the Templars. Saladin made a sign to the dwarf, who
+      advanced and pronounced, with a harsh voice, the words, ACCIPE HOC! The
+      Templar started, like a steed who sees a lion under a bush beside the
+      pathway; yet instantly recovered, and to hide, perhaps, his confusion,
+      raised the goblet to his lips. But those lips never touched that goblet's
+      rim. The sabre of Saladin left its sheath as lightning leaves the cloud.
+      It was waved in the air, and the head of the Grand Master rolled to the
+      extremity of the tent, while the trunk remained for a second standing,
+      with the goblet still clenched in its grasp, then fell, the liquor
+      mingling with the blood that spurted from the veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general exclamation of treason, and Austria, nearest to whom
+      Saladin stood with the bloody sabre in his hand, started back as if
+      apprehensive that his turn was to come next. Richard and others laid hand
+      on their swords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fear nothing, noble Austria," said Saladin, as composedly as if nothing
+      had happened,&mdash;"nor you, royal England, be wroth at what you have
+      seen. Not for his manifold treasons&mdash;not for the attempt which, as
+      may be vouched by his own squire, he instigated against King Richard's
+      life&mdash;not that he pursued the Prince of Scotland and myself in the
+      desert, reducing us to save our lives by the speed of our horses&mdash;not
+      that he had stirred up the Maronites to attack us upon this very occasion,
+      had I not brought up unexpectedly so many Arabs as rendered the scheme
+      abortive&mdash;not for any or all of these crimes does he now lie there,
+      although each were deserving such a doom&mdash;but because, scarce half an
+      hour ere he polluted our presence, as the simoom empoisons the atmosphere,
+      he poniarded his comrade and accomplice, Conrade of Montserrat, lest he
+      should confess the infamous plots in which they had both been engaged."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! Conrade murdered?&mdash;And by the Grand Master, his sponsor and
+      most intimate friend!" exclaimed Richard. "Noble Soldan, I would not doubt
+      thee; yet this must be proved, otherwise&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There stands the evidence," said Saladin, pointing to the terrified
+      dwarf. "Allah, who sends the fire-fly to illuminate the night season, can
+      discover secret crimes by the most contemptible means."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan proceeded to tell the dwarf's story, which amounted to this. In
+      his foolish curiosity, or, as he partly confessed, with some thoughts of
+      pilfering, Nectabanus had strayed into the tent of Conrade, which had been
+      deserted by his attendants, some of whom had left the encampment to carry
+      the news of his defeat to his brother, and others were availing themselves
+      of the means which Saladin had supplied for revelling. The wounded man
+      slept under the influence of Saladin's wonderful talisman, so that the
+      dwarf had opportunity to pry about at pleasure until he was frightened
+      into concealment by the sound of a heavy step. He skulked behind a
+      curtain, yet could see the motions, and hear the words, of the Grand
+      Master, who entered, and carefully secured the covering of the pavilion
+      behind him. His victim started from sleep, and it would appear that he
+      instantly suspected the purpose of his old associate, for it was in a tone
+      of alarm that he demanded wherefore he disturbed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I come to confess and to absolve thee," answered the Grand Master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of their further speech the terrified dwarf remembered little, save that
+      Conrade implored the Grand Master not to break a wounded reed, and that
+      the Templar struck him to the heart with a Turkish dagger, with the words
+      ACCIPE HOC!&mdash;words which long afterwards haunted the terrified
+      imagination of the concealed witness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I verified the tale," said Saladin, "by causing the body to be examined;
+      and I made this unhappy being, whom Allah hath made the discoverer of the
+      crime, repeat in your own presence the words which the murderer spoke; and
+      you yourselves saw the effect which they produced upon his conscience!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan paused, and the King of England broke silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If this be true, as I doubt not, we have witnessed a great act of
+      justice, though it bore a different aspect. But wherefore in this
+      presence? wherefore with thine own hand?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had designed otherwise," said Saladin. "But had I not hastened his
+      doom, it had been altogether averted, since, if I had permitted him to
+      taste of my cup, as he was about to do, how could I, without incurring the
+      brand of inhospitality, have done him to death as he deserved? Had he
+      murdered my father, and afterwards partaken of my food and my bowl, not a
+      hair of his head could have been injured by me. But enough of him&mdash;let
+      his carcass and his memory be removed from amongst us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The body was carried away, and the marks of the slaughter obliterated or
+      concealed with such ready dexterity, as showed that the case was not
+      altogether so uncommon as to paralyze the assistants and officers of
+      Saladin's household.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Christian princes felt that the scene which they had beheld
+      weighed heavily on their spirits, and although, at the courteous
+      invitation of the Soldan, they assumed their seats at the banquet, yet it
+      was with the silence of doubt and amazement. The spirits of Richard alone
+      surmounted all cause for suspicion or embarrassment. Yet he too seemed to
+      ruminate on some proposition, as if he were desirous of making it in the
+      most insinuating and acceptable manner which was possible. At length he
+      drank off a large bowl of wine, and addressing the Soldan, desired to know
+      whether it was not true that he had honoured the Earl of Huntingdon with a
+      personal encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Saladin answered with a smile that he had proved his horse and his weapons
+      with the heir of Scotland, as cavaliers are wont to do with each other
+      when they meet in the desert; and modestly added that, though the combat
+      was not entirely decisive, he had not on his part much reason to pride
+      himself on the event. The Scot, on the other hand, disclaimed the
+      attributed superiority, and wished to assign it to the Soldan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough of honour thou hast had in the encounter," said Richard, "and I
+      envy thee more for that than for the smiles of Edith Plantagenet, though
+      one of them might reward a bloody day's work.&mdash;But what say you,
+      noble princes? Is it fitting that such a royal ring of chivalry should
+      break up without something being done for future times to speak of? What
+      is the overthrow and death of a traitor to such a fair garland of honour
+      as is here assembled, and which ought not to part without witnessing
+      something more worthy of their regard?&mdash;How say you, princely Soldan?
+      What if we two should now, and before this fair company, decide the
+      long-contended question for this land of Palestine, and end at once these
+      tedious wars? Yonder are the lists ready, nor can Paynimrie ever hope a
+      better champion than thou. I, unless worthier offers, will lay down my
+      gauntlet in behalf of Christendom, and in all love and honour we will do
+      mortal battle for the possession of Jerusalem."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a deep pause for the Soldan's answer. His cheek and brow
+      coloured highly, and it was the opinion of many present that he hesitated
+      whether he should accept the challenge. At length he said, "Fighting for
+      the Holy City against those whom we regard as idolaters and worshippers of
+      stocks and stones and graven images, I might confide that Allah would
+      strengthen my arm; or if I fell beneath the sword of the Melech Ric, I
+      could not pass to Paradise by a more glorious death. But Allah has already
+      given Jerusalem to the true believers, and it were a tempting the God of
+      the Prophet to peril, upon my own personal strength and skill, that which
+      I hold securely by the superiority of my forces."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If not for Jerusalem, then," said Richard, in the tone of one who would
+      entreat a favour of an intimate friend, "yet, for the love of honour, let
+      us run at least three courses with grinded lances?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even this," said Saladin, half smiling at Coeur de Lion's affectionate
+      earnestness for the combat&mdash;"even this I may not lawfully do. The
+      master places the shepherd over the flock not for the shepherd's own sake,
+      but for the sake of the sheep. Had I a son to hold the sceptre when I
+      fell, I might have had the liberty, as I have the will, to brave this bold
+      encounter; but your own Scripture saith that when the herdsman is smitten,
+      the sheep are scattered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast had all the fortune," said Richard, turning to the Earl of
+      Huntingdon with a sigh. "I would have given the best year in my life for
+      that one half hour beside the Diamond of the Desert!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chivalrous extravagance of Richard awakened the spirits of the
+      assembly, and when at length they arose to depart Saladin advanced and
+      took Coeur de Lion by the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Noble King of England," he said, "we now part, never to meet again. That
+      your league is dissolved, no more to be reunited, and that your native
+      forces are far too few to enable you to prosecute your enterprise, is as
+      well known to me as to yourself. I may not yield you up that Jerusalem
+      which you so much desire to hold&mdash;it is to us, as to you, a Holy
+      City. But whatever other terms Richard demands of Saladin shall be as
+      willingly yielded as yonder fountain yields its waters. Ay and the same
+      should be as frankly afforded by Saladin if Richard stood in the desert
+      with but two archers in his train!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day saw Richard's return to his own camp, and in a short space
+      afterwards the young Earl of Huntingdon was espoused by Edith Plantagenet.
+      The Soldan sent, as a nuptial present on this occasion, the celebrated
+      TALISMAN. But though many cures were wrought by means of it in Europe,
+      none equalled in success and celebrity those which the Soldan achieved. It
+      is still in existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl of Huntingdon to
+      a brave knight of Scotland, Sir Simon of the Lee, in whose ancient and
+      highly honoured family it is still preserved; and although charmed stones
+      have been dismissed from the modern Pharmacopoeia, its virtues are still
+      applied to for stopping blood, and in cases of canine madness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our Story closes here, as the terms on which Richard relinquished his
+      conquests are to be found in every history of the period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott
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+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TALISMAN
+
+By Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN.
+
+The "Betrothed" did not greatly please one or two friends, who
+thought that it did not well correspond to the general title of
+"The Crusaders."  They urged, therefore, that, without direct
+allusion to the manners of the Eastern tribes, and to the
+romantic conflicts of the period, the title of a "Tale of the
+Crusaders" would resemble the playbill, which is said to have
+announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of
+Denmark being left out.  On the other hand, I felt the difficulty
+of giving a vivid picture of a part of the world with which I was
+almost totally unacquainted, unless by early recollections of the
+Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and not only did I labour under
+the incapacity of ignorance--in which, as far as regards Eastern
+manners, I was as thickly wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog--but
+my contemporaries were, many of them, as much enlightened upon
+the subject as if they had been inhabitants of the favoured land
+of Goshen.  The love of travelling had pervaded all ranks, and
+carried the subjects of Britain into all quarters of the world.
+Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by its struggles for
+freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name, where
+every fountain had its classical legend--Palestine, endeared to
+the imagination by yet more sacred remembrances--had been of late
+surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers.
+Had I, therefore, attempted the difficult task of substituting
+manners of my own invention, instead of the genuine costume of
+the East, almost every traveller I met who had extended his route
+beyond what was anciently called "The Grand Tour," had acquired a
+right, by ocular inspection, to chastise me for my presumption.
+Every member of the Travellers' Club who could pretend to have
+thrown his shoe over Edom was, by having done so, constituted my
+lawful critic and corrector.  It occurred, therefore, that where
+the author of Anastasius, as well as he of Hadji Baba, had
+described the manners and vices of the Eastern nations, not only
+with fidelity, but with the humour of Le Sage and the ludicrous
+power of Fielding himself, one who was a perfect stranger to the
+subject must necessarily produce an unfavourable contrast.  The
+Poet Laureate also, in the charming tale of "Thalaba," had shown
+how extensive might be the researches of a person of acquirements
+and talent, by dint of investigation alone, into the ancient
+doctrines, history, and manners of the Eastern countries, in
+which we are probably to look for the cradle of mankind; Moore,
+in his "Lalla Rookh," had successfully trod the same path; in
+which, too, Byron, joining ocular experience to extensive
+reading, had written some of his most attractive poems.  In a
+word, the Eastern themes had been already so successfully handled
+by those who were acknowledged to be masters of their craft, that
+I was diffident of making the attempt.
+
+These were powerful objections; nor did they lose force when they
+became the subject of anxious reflection, although they did not
+finally prevail.  The arguments on the other side were, that
+though I had no hope of rivalling the contemporaries whom I have
+mentioned, yet it occurred to me as possible to acquit myself of
+the task I was engaged in without entering into competition with
+them.
+
+The period relating more immediately to the Crusades which I at
+last fixed upon was that at which the warlike character of
+Richard I., wild and generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all
+its extravagant virtues, and its no less absurd errors, was
+opposed to that of Saladin, in which the Christian and English
+monarch showed all the cruelty and violence of an Eastern sultan,
+and Saladin, on the other hand, displayed the deep policy and
+prudence of a European sovereign, whilst each contended which
+should excel the other in the knightly qualities of bravery and
+generosity.  This singular contrast afforded, as the author
+conceived, materials for a work of fiction possessing peculiar
+interest.  One of the inferior characters introduced was a
+supposed relation of Richard Coeur de Lion--a violation of the
+truth of history which gave offence to Mr. Mills, the author of
+the "History of Chivalry and the Crusades," who was not, it may
+be presumed, aware that romantic fiction naturally includes the
+power of such invention, which is indeed one of the requisites of
+the art.
+
+Prince David of Scotland, who was actually in the host, and was
+the hero of some very romantic adventures on his way home, was
+also pressed into my service, and constitutes one of my DRAMATIS
+PERSONAE.
+
+It is true I had already brought upon the field him of the lion
+heart.  But it was in a more private capacity than he was here to
+be exhibited in the Talisman--then as a disguised knight, now in
+the avowed character of a conquering monarch; so that I doubted
+not a name so dear to Englishmen as that of King Richard I. might
+contribute to their amusement for more than once.
+
+I had access to all which antiquity believed, whether of reality
+or fable, on the subject of that magnificent warrior, who was the
+proudest boast of Europe and their chivalry, and with whose
+dreadful name the Saracens, according to a historian of their own
+country, were wont to rebuke their startled horses.  "Do you
+think," said they, "that King Richard is on the track, that you
+stray so wildly from it?"  The most curious register of the
+history of King Richard is an ancient romance, translated
+originally from the Norman; and at first certainly having a
+pretence to be termed a work of chivalry, but latterly becoming
+stuffed with the most astonishing and monstrous fables.  There is
+perhaps no metrical romance upon record where, along with curious
+and genuine history, are mingled more absurd and exaggerated
+incidents.  We have placed in the Appendix to this Introduction
+the passage of the romance in which Richard figures as an ogre,
+or literal cannibal.
+
+A principal incident in the story is that from which the title is
+derived.  Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps
+most remarkable for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells,
+periapts, and similar charms, framed, it was said, under the
+influence of particular planets, and bestowing high medical
+powers, as well as the means of advancing men's fortunes in
+various manners.  A story of this kind, relating to a Crusader of
+eminence, is often told in the west of Scotland, and the relic
+alluded to is still in existence, and even yet held in
+veneration.
+
+Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee and Gartland made a considerable figure
+in the reigns of Robert the Bruce and of his son David.  He was
+one of the chief of that band of Scottish chivalry who
+accompanied James, the Good Lord Douglas, on his expedition to
+the Holy Land with the heart of King Robert Bruce.  Douglas,
+impatient to get at the Saracens, entered into war with those of
+Spain, and was killed there.  Lockhart proceeded to the Holy Land
+with such Scottish knights as had escaped the fate of their
+leader and assisted for some time in the wars against the
+Saracens.
+
+The following adventure is said by tradition to have befallen
+him:--
+
+He made prisoner in battle an Emir of considerable wealth and
+consequence.  The aged mother of the captive came to the
+Christian camp, to redeem her son from his state of captivity.
+Lockhart is said to have fixed the price at which his prisoner
+should ransom himself; and the lady, pulling out a large
+embroidered purse, proceeded to tell down the ransom, like a
+mother who pays little respect to gold in comparison of her son's
+liberty.  In this operation, a pebble inserted in a coin, some
+say of the Lower Empire, fell out of the purse, and the Saracen
+matron testified so much haste to recover it as gave the Scottish
+knight a high idea of its value, when compared with gold or
+silver.  "I will not consent," he said, "to grant your son's
+liberty, unless that amulet be added to his ransom."  The lady
+not only consented to this, but explained to Sir Simon Lockhart
+the mode in which the talisman was to be used, and the uses to
+which it might be put.  The water in which it was dipped operated
+as a styptic, as a febrifuge, and possessed other properties as a
+medical talisman.
+
+Sir Simon Lockhart, after much experience of the wonders which it
+wrought, brought it to his own country, and left it to his heirs,
+by whom, and by Clydesdale in general, it was, and is still,
+distinguished by the name of the Lee-penny, from the name of his
+native seat of Lee.
+
+The most remarkable part of its history, perhaps, was that it so
+especially escaped condemnation when the Church of Scotland chose
+to impeach many other cures which savoured of the miraculous, as
+occasioned by sorcery, and censured the appeal to them,
+"excepting only that to the amulet, called the Lee-penny, to
+which it had pleased God to annex certain healing virtues which
+the Church did not presume to condemn." It still, as has been
+said, exists, and its powers are sometimes resorted to.  Of late,
+they have been chiefly restricted to the cure of persons bitten
+by mad dogs; and as the illness in such cases frequently arises
+from imagination, there can be no reason for doubting that water
+which has been poured on the Lee-penny furnishes a congenial
+cure.
+
+Such is the tradition concerning the talisman, which the author
+has taken the liberty to vary in applying it to his own purposes.
+
+Considerable liberties have also been taken with the truth of
+history, both with respect to Conrade of Montserrat's life, as
+well as his death.  That Conrade, however, was reckoned the enemy
+of Richard is agreed both in history and romance.  The general
+opinion of the terms upon which they stood may be guessed from
+the proposal of the Saracens that the Marquis of Montserrat
+should be invested with certain parts of Syria, which they were
+to yield to the Christians.  Richard, according to the romance
+which bears his name, "could no longer repress his fury.  The
+Marquis he said, was a traitor, who had robbed the Knights
+Hospitallers of sixty thousand pounds, the present of his father
+Henry; that he was a renegade, whose treachery had occasioned the
+loss of Acre; and he concluded by a solemn oath, that he would
+cause him to be drawn to pieces by wild horses, if he should ever
+venture to pollute the Christian camp by his presence.  Philip
+attempted to intercede in favour of the Marquis, and throwing
+down his glove, offered to become a pledge for his fidelity to
+the Christians; but his offer was rejected, and he was obliged to
+give way to Richard's impetuosity."--HISTORY OF CHIVALRY.
+
+Conrade of Montserrat makes a considerable figure in those wars,
+and was at length put to death by one of the followers of the
+Scheik, or Old Man of the Mountain; nor did Richard remain free
+of the suspicion of having instigated his death.
+
+It may be said, in general, that most of the incidents introduced
+in the following tale are fictitious, and that reality, where it
+exists, is only retained in the characters of the piece.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832
+
+*
+
+
+APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.
+
+While warring in the Holy Land, Richard was seized with an ague.
+
+The best leeches of the camp were unable to effect the cure of
+the King's disease; but the prayers of the army were more
+successful.  He became convalescent, and the first symptom of his
+recovery was a violent longing for pork.  But pork was not likely
+to be plentiful in a country whose inhabitants had an abhorrence
+for swine's flesh; and
+
+"Though his men should be hanged,
+They ne might, in that countrey,
+For gold, ne silver, ne no money,
+No pork find, take, ne get,
+That King Richard might aught of eat.
+An old knight with Richard biding,
+When he heard of that tiding,
+That the kingis wants were swyche,
+To the steward he spake privyliche--
+"Our lord the king sore is sick, I wis,
+After porck he alonged is;
+Ye may none find to selle;
+No man be hardy him so to telle!
+If he did he might die.
+Now behoves to done as I shall say,
+Tho' he wete nought of that.
+Take a Saracen, young and fat;
+In haste let the thief be slain,
+Opened, and his skin off flayn;
+And sodden full hastily,
+With powder and with spicery,
+And with saffron of good colour.
+When the king feels thereof savour,
+Out of ague if he be went,
+He shall have thereto good talent.
+When he has a good taste,
+And eaten well a good repast,
+And supped of the BREWIS [Broth] a sup,
+Slept after and swet a drop,
+Through Goddis help and my counsail,
+Soon he shall be fresh and hail.'
+The sooth to say, at wordes few,
+Slain and sodden was the heathen shrew.
+Before the king it was forth brought:
+Quod his men, 'Lord, we have pork sought;
+Eates and sups of the brewis SOOTE,[Sweet]
+Thorough grace of God it shall be your boot.'
+Before King Richard carff a knight,
+He ate faster than he carve might.
+The king ate the flesh and GNEW [Gnawed] the bones,
+And drank well after for the nonce.
+And when he had eaten enough,
+His folk hem turned away, and LOUGH.[Laughed]
+He lay still and drew in his arm;
+His chamberlain him wrapped warm.
+He lay and slept, and swet a stound,
+And became whole and sound.
+King Richard clad him and arose,
+And walked abouten in the close."
+
+An attack of the Saracens was repelled by Richard in person, the
+consequence of which is told in the following lines :-
+
+"When King Richard had rested a whyle,
+A knight his arms 'gan unlace,
+Him to comfort and solace.
+Him was brought a sop in wine.
+'The head of that ilke swine,
+That I of ate!' (the cook he bade,)
+'For feeble I am, and faint and mad.
+Of mine evil now I am fear;
+Serve me therewith at my soupere!'
+Quod the cook, 'That head I ne have.'
+Then said the king, 'So God me save,
+But I see the head of that swine,
+For sooth, thou shalt lesen thine!'
+The cook saw none other might be;
+He fet the head and let him see.
+He fell on knees, and made a cry--
+'Lo, here the head!  my Lord, mercy!'"
+
+The cook had certainly some reason to fear that his master would
+be struck with horror at the recollection of the dreadful banquet
+to which he owed his recovery; but his fears were soon
+dissipated.
+
+"The swarte vis [Black face] when the king seeth,
+His black beard and white teeth,
+How his lippes grinned wide,
+'What devil is this?' the king cried,
+And 'gan to laugh as he were wode.
+'What!  is Saracen's flesh thus good?
+That never erst I nought wist!
+By God's death and his uprist,
+Shall we never die for default,
+While we may in any assault,
+Slee Saracens, the flesh may take,
+And seethen and roasten and do hem bake,
+[And] Gnawen her flesh to the bones!
+Now I have it proved once,
+For hunger ere I be wo,
+I and my folk shall eat mo!"'
+
+The besieged now offered to surrender, upon conditions of safety
+to the inhabitants; while all the public treasure, military
+machines, and arms were delivered to the victors, together with
+the further ransom of one hundred thousand bezants.  After this
+capitulation, the following extraordinary scene took place.  We
+shall give it in the words of the humorous and amiable George
+Ellis, the collector and the editor of these Romances:--
+
+"Though the garrison had faithfully performed the other articles
+of their contract, they were unable to restore the cross, which
+was not in their possession, and were therefore treated by the
+Christians with great cruelty.  Daily reports of their sufferings
+were carried to Saladin; and as many of them were persons of the
+highest distinction, that monarch, at the solicitation of their
+friends, dispatched an embassy to King Richard with magnificent
+presents, which he offered for the ransom of the captives.  The
+ambassadors were persons the most respectable from their age,
+their rank, and their eloquence.  They delivered their message in
+terms of the utmost humility; and without arraigning the justice
+of the conqueror in his severe treatment of their countrymen,
+only solicited a period to that severity, laying at his feet the
+treasures with which they were entrusted, and pledging themselves
+and their master for the payment of any further sums which he
+might demand as the price of mercy.
+
+"King Richard spake with wordes mild.
+'The gold to take, God me shield!
+Among you partes [Divide] every charge.
+I brought in shippes and in barge,
+More gold and silver with me,
+Than has your lord, and swilke three.
+To his treasure have I no need!
+But for my love I you bid,
+To meat with me that ye dwell;
+And afterward I shall you tell.
+Thorough counsel I shall you answer,
+What BODE [Message] ye shall to your lord bear.
+
+"The invitation was gratefully accepted.  Richard, in the
+meantime, gave secret orders to his marshal that he should repair
+to the prison, select a certain number of the most distinguished
+captives, and, after carefully noting their names on a roll of
+parchment, cause their heads to be instantly struck off; that
+these heads should be delivered to the cook, with instructions to
+clear away the hair, and, after boiling them in a cauldron, to
+distribute them on several platters, one to each guest, observing
+to fasten on the forehead of each the piece of parchment
+expressing the name and family of the victim.
+
+"'An hot head bring me beforn,
+As I were well apayed withall,
+Eat thereof fast I shall;
+As it were a tender chick,
+To see how the others will like.'
+
+"This horrible order was punctually executed.  At noon the guests
+were summoned to wash by the music of the waits.  The king took
+his seat attended by the principal officers of his court, at the
+high table, and the rest of the company were marshalled at a long
+table below him.  On the cloth were placed portions of salt at
+the usual distances, but neither bread, wine, nor water.  The
+ambassadors, rather surprised at this omission, but still free
+from apprehension, awaited in silence the arrival of the dinner,
+which was announced by the sound of pipes, trumpets, and tabours;
+and beheld, with horror and dismay, the unnatural banquet
+introduced by the steward and his officers.  Yet their sentiments
+of disgust and abhorrence, and even their fears, were for a time
+suspended by their curiosity.  Their eyes were fixed on the king,
+who, without the slightest change of countenance, swallowed the
+morsels as fast as they could be supplied by the knight who
+carved them.
+
+"Every man then poked other;
+They said, 'This is the devil's brother,
+That slays our men, and thus hem eats!'
+
+"Their attention was then involuntarily fixed on the smoking
+heads before them.  They traced in the swollen and distorted
+features the resemblance of a friend or near relation, and
+received from the fatal scroll which accompanied each dish the
+sad assurance that this resemblance was not imaginary.  They sat
+in torpid silence, anticipating their own fate in that of their
+countrymen; while their ferocious entertainer, with fury in his
+eyes, but with courtesy on his lips, insulted them by frequent
+invitations to merriment.  At length this first course was
+removed, and its place supplied by venison, cranes, and other
+dainties, accompanied by the richest wines.  The king then
+apologized to them for what had passed, which he attributed to
+his ignorance of their taste; and assured them of his religious
+respect for their characters as ambassadors, and of his readiness
+to grant them a safe-conduct for their return.  This boon was all
+that they now wished to claim; and
+
+"King Richard spake to an old man,
+'Wendes home to your Soudan!
+His melancholy that ye abate;
+And sayes that ye came too late.
+Too slowly was your time y-guessed;
+Ere ye came, the flesh was dressed,
+That men shoulden serve with me,
+Thus at noon, and my meynie.
+Say him, it shall him nought avail,
+Though he for-bar us our vitail,
+Bread, wine, fish, flesh, salmon, and conger;
+Of us none shall die with hunger,
+While we may wenden to fight,
+And slay the Saracens downright,
+Wash the flesh, and roast the head.
+With OO [One] Saracen I may well feed
+Well a nine or a ten
+Of my good Christian men.
+King Richard shall warrant,
+There is no flesh so nourissant
+Unto an English man,
+Partridge, plover, heron, ne swan,
+Cow ne ox, sheep ne swine,
+As the head of a Sarazyn.
+There he is fat, and thereto tender,
+And my men be lean and slender.
+While any Saracen quick be,
+Livand now in this Syrie,
+For meat will we nothing care.
+Abouten fast we shall rare,
+And every day we shall eat
+All as many as we may get.
+To England will we nought gon,
+Till they be eaten every one.'"
+      ELLIS'S SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH METRICEL ROMANCES.
+
+The reader may be curious to know owing to what circumstances so
+extraordinary an invention as that which imputed cannibalism to
+the King of England should have found its way into his history.
+Mr. James, to whom we owe so much that is curious, seems to have
+traced the origin of this extraordinary rumour.
+
+"With the army of the cross also was a multitude of men," the
+same author declares, "who made it a profession to be without
+money.  They walked barefoot, carried no arms, and even preceded
+the beasts of burden in their march, living upon roots and herbs,
+and presenting a spectacle both disgusting and pitiable.
+
+"A Norman, who, according to all accounts, was of noble birth,
+but who, having lost his horse, continued to follow as a foot
+soldier, took the strange resolution of putting himself at the
+head of this race of vagabonds, who willingly received him as
+their king.  Amongst the Saracens these men became well known
+under the name of THAFURS (which Guibert translates TRUDENTES),
+and were beheld with great horror from the general persuasion
+that they fed on the dead bodies of their enemies; a report which
+was occasionally justified, and which the king of the Thafurs
+took care to encourage.  This respectable monarch was frequently
+in the habit of stopping his followers, one by one, in a narrow
+defile, and of causing them to be searched carefully, lest the
+possession of the least sum of money should render them unworthy
+of the name of his subjects.  If even two sous were found upon
+any one, he was instantly expelled the society of his tribe, the
+king bidding him contemptuously buy arms and fight.
+
+"This troop, so far from being cumbersome to the army, was
+infinitely serviceable, carrying burdens, bringing in forage,
+provisions, and tribute; working the machines in the sieges; and,
+above all, spreading consternation among the Turks, who feared
+death from the lances of the knights less than that further
+consummation they heard of under the teeth of the Thafurs."
+[James's "History of Chivalry."]
+
+It is easy to conceive that an ignorant minstrel, finding the
+taste and ferocity of the Thafurs commemorated in the historical
+accounts of the Holy Wars, has ascribed their practices and
+propensities to the Monarch of England, whose ferocity was
+considered as an object of exaggeration as legitimate as his
+valour.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832.
+
+*
+
+
+
+
+TALES OF THE CRUSADERS.    TALE II.--THE TALISMAN.
+
+*
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+They, too, retired
+To the wilderness, but 'twas with arms.    PARADISE REGAINED.
+
+The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point
+in the horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his
+distant northern home and joined the host of the Crusaders in
+Palestine, was pacing slowly along the sandy deserts which lie in
+the vicinity of the Dead Sea, or, as it is called, the Lake
+Asphaltites, where the waves of the Jordan pour themselves into
+an inland sea, from which there is no discharge of waters.
+
+The warlike pilgrim had toiled among cliffs and precipices during
+the earlier part of the morning.  More lately, issuing from those
+rocky and dangerous defiles, he had entered upon that great
+plain, where the accursed cities provoked, in ancient days, the
+direct and dreadful vengeance of the Omnipotent.
+
+The toil, the thirst, the dangers of the way, were forgotten, as
+the traveller recalled the fearful catastrophe which had
+converted into an arid and dismal wilderness the fair and fertile
+valley of Siddim, once well watered, even as the Garden of the
+Lord, now a parched and blighted waste, condemned to eternal
+sterility.
+
+Crossing himself, as he viewed the dark mass of rolling waters,
+in colour as in duality unlike those of any other lake, the
+traveller shuddered as he remembered that beneath these sluggish
+waves lay the once proud cities of the plain, whose grave was dug
+by the thunder of the heavens, or the eruption of subterraneous
+fire, and whose remains were hid, even by that sea which holds no
+living fish in its bosom, bears no skiff on its surface, and, as
+if its own dreadful bed were the only fit receptacle for its
+sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes, a tribute to the
+ocean.  The whole land around, as in the days of Moses, was
+"brimstone and salt; it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass
+groweth thereon."  The land as well as the lake might be termed
+dead, as producing nothing having resemblance to vegetation, and
+even the very air was entirely devoid of its ordinary winged
+inhabitants, deterred probably by the odour of bitumen and
+sulphur which the burning sun exhaled from the waters of the lake
+in steaming clouds, frequently assuming the appearance of
+waterspouts.  Masses of the slimy and sulphureous substance
+called naphtha, which floated idly on the sluggish and sullen
+waves, supplied those rolling clouds with new vapours, and
+afforded awful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic history.
+
+Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost
+intolerable splendour, and all living nature seemed to have
+hidden itself from the rays, excepting the solitary figure which
+moved through the flitting sand at a foot's pace, and appeared
+the sole breathing thing on the wide surface of the plain.  The
+dress of the rider and the accoutrements of his horse were
+peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country.  A coat of
+linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel
+breastplate, had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour;
+there were also his triangular shield suspended round his neck,
+and his barred helmet of steel, over which he had a hood and
+collar of mail, which was drawn around the warrior's shoulders
+and throat, and filled up the vacancy between the hauberk and the
+headpiece.  His lower limbs were sheathed, like his body, in
+flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs, while the feet
+rested in plated shoes, which corresponded with the gauntlets.  A
+long, broad, straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with a
+handle formed like a cross, corresponded with a stout poniard on
+the other side.  The knight also bore, secured to his saddle,
+with one end resting on his stirrup, the long steel-headed lance,
+his own proper weapon, which, as he rode, projected backwards,
+and displayed its little pennoncelle, to dally with the faint
+breeze, or drop in the dead calm.  To this cumbrous equipment
+must be added a surcoat of embroidered cloth, much frayed and
+worn, which was thus far useful that it excluded the burning rays
+of the sun from the armour, which they would otherwise have
+rendered intolerable to the wearer.  The surcoat bore, in several
+places, the arms of the owner, although much defaced.  These
+seemed to be a couchant leopard, with the motto, "I sleep; wake
+me not."  An outline of the same device might be traced on his
+shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting.  The
+flat top of his cumbrous cylindrical helmet was unadorned with
+any crest.  In retaining their own unwieldy defensive armour, the
+Northern Crusaders seemed to set at defiance the nature of the
+climate and country to which they had come to war.
+
+The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and
+unwieldy than those of the rider.  The animal had a heavy saddle
+plated with steel, uniting in front with a species of
+breastplate, and behind with defensive armour made to cover the
+loins.  Then there was a steel axe, or hammer, called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow.  
+The reins were secured
+by chain-work, and the front-stall of the bridle was a steel
+plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the
+midst a short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the
+horse like the horn of the fabulous unicorn.
+
+But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second
+nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger.  Numbers,
+indeed, of the Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere
+they became inured to the burning climate; but there were others
+to whom that climate became innocent and even friendly, and among
+this fortunate number was the solitary horseman who now traversed
+the border of the Dead Sea.
+
+Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength,
+fitted to wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the
+meshes had been formed of cobwebs, had endowed him with a
+constitution as strong as his limbs, and which bade defiance to
+almost all changes of climate, as well as to fatigue and
+privations of every kind.  His disposition seemed, in some
+degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as
+the one possessed great strength and endurance, united with the
+power of violent exertion, the other, under a calm and
+undisturbed semblance, had much of the fiery and enthusiastic
+love of glory which constituted the principal attribute of the
+renowned Norman line, and had rendered them sovereigns in every
+corner of Europe where they had drawn their adventurous swords.
+
+It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such
+tempting rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight
+during two years' campaign in Palestine had been only temporal
+fame, and, as he was taught to believe, spiritual privileges.
+Meantime, his slender stock of money had melted away, the rather
+that he did not pursue any of the ordinary modes by which the
+followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit their diminished
+resources at the expense of the people of Palestine--he exacted
+no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
+when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed
+himself of any opportunity of enriching himself by the ransom of
+prisoners of consequence.  The small train which had followed him
+from his native country had been gradually diminished, as the
+means of maintaining them disappeared, and his only remaining
+squire was at present on a sick-bed, and unable to attend his
+master, who travelled, as we have seen, singly and alone.  This
+was of little consequence to the Crusader, who was accustomed to
+consider his good sword as his safest escort, and devout thoughts
+as his best companion.
+
+Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even
+on the iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the
+Sleeping Leopard; and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some
+distance on his right, he joyfully hailed the sight of two or
+three palm-trees, which arose beside the well which was assigned
+for his mid-day station.  His good horse, too, which had plodded
+forward with the steady endurance of his master, now lifted his
+head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened his pace, as if he
+snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the place of
+repose and refreshment.  But labour and danger were doomed to
+intervene ere the horse or horseman reached the desired spot.
+
+As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
+attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed
+to him as if some object was moving among them.  The distant form
+separated itself from the trees, which partly hid its motions,
+and advanced towards the knight with a speed which soon showed a
+mounted horseman, whom his turban, long spear, and green caftan
+floating in the wind, on his nearer approach showed to be a
+Saracen cavalier.  "In the desert," saith an Eastern proverb, "no
+man meets a friend."  The Crusader was totally indifferent
+whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb as if
+borne on the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe--perhaps,
+as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred
+the latter.  He disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized it
+with the right hand, placed it in rest with its point half
+elevated, gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's
+mettle with the spur, and prepared to encounter the stranger with
+the calm self-confidence belonging to the victor in many
+contests.
+
+The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman,
+managing his steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his
+body than by any use of the reins, which hung loose in his left
+hand; so that he was enabled to wield the light, round buckler of
+the skin of the rhinoceros, ornamented with silver loops, which
+he wore on his arm, swinging it as if he meant to oppose its
+slender circle to the formidable thrust of the Western lance.
+His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that of his
+antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and
+brandished at  arm's-length above his head.  As the cavalier
+approached his enemy at full career, he seemed to expect that the
+Knight of the Leopard should put his horse to the gallop to
+encounter him.  But the Christian knight, well acquainted with
+the customs of Eastern warriors, did not mean to exhaust his good
+horse by any unnecessary exertion; and, on the contrary, made a
+dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced to the actual
+shock, his own weight, and that of his powerful charger, would
+give him sufficient advantage, without the additional momentum of
+rapid motion.  Equally sensible and apprehensive of such a
+probable result, the Saracen cavalier, when he had approached
+towards the Christian within twice the length of his lance,
+wheeled his steed to the left with inimitable dexterity, and rode
+twice around his antagonist, who, turning without quitting his
+ground, and presenting his front constantly to his enemy,
+frustrated his attempts to attack him on an unguarded point; so
+that the Saracen, wheeling his horse, was fain to retreat to the
+distance of a hundred yards.  A second time, like a hawk
+attacking a heron, the heathen renewed the charge, and a second
+time was fain to retreat without coming to a close struggle.  A
+third time he approached in the same manner, when the Christian
+knight, desirous to terminate this illusory warfare, in which he
+might at length have been worn out by the activity of his foeman,
+suddenly seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and, with
+a strong hand and unerring aim, hurled it against the head of the
+Emir, for such and not less his enemy appeared.  The Saracen was
+just aware of the formidable missile in time to interpose his
+light buckler betwixt the mace and his head; but the violence of
+the blow forced the buckler down on his turban, and though that
+defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the Saracen was
+beaten from his horse.  Ere the Christian could avail himself of
+this mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and,
+calling on his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he
+leaped into his seat without touching the stirrup, and regained
+all the advantage of which the Knight of the Leopard hoped to
+deprive him.  But the latter had in the meanwhile recovered his
+mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who remembered the strength and
+dexterity with which his antagonist had aimed it, seemed to keep
+cautiously out of reach of that weapon of which he had so lately
+felt the force, while he showed his purpose of waging a distant
+warfare with missile weapons of his own.  Planting his long spear
+in the sand at a distance from the scene of combat, he strung,
+with great address, a short bow, which he carried at his back;
+and putting his horse to the gallop, once more described two or
+three circles of a wider extent than formerly, in the course of
+which he discharged six arrows at the Christian with such
+unerring skill that the goodness of his harness alone saved him
+from being wounded in as many places.  The seventh shaft
+apparently found a less perfect part of the armour, and the
+Christian dropped heavily from his horse.  But what was the
+surprise of the Saracen, when, dismounting to examine the
+condition of his prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly
+within the grasp of the European, who had had recourse to this
+artifice to bring his enemy within his reach!  Even in this
+deadly grapple the Saracen was saved by his agility and presence
+of mind.  He unloosed the sword-belt, in which the Knight of the
+Leopard had fixed his hold, and, thus eluding his fatal grasp,
+mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with the
+intelligence of a human being, and again rode off.   But in the
+last encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of
+arrows, both of which were attached to the girdle which he was
+obliged to abandon.  He had also lost his turban in the struggle.
+
+These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a truce.  He
+approached the Christian with his right hand extended, but no
+longer in a menacing attitude.
+
+"There is truce betwixt our nations," he said, in the lingua
+franca commonly used for the purpose of communication with the
+Crusaders; "wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me?
+Let there be peace betwixt us."
+
+"I am well contented," answered he of the Couchant Leopard; "but
+what security dost thou offer that thou wilt observe the truce?"
+
+"The word of a follower of the Prophet was never broken,"
+answered the Emir.  "It is thou, brave Nazarene, from whom I
+should demand security, did I not know that treason seldom dwells
+with courage."
+
+The Crusader felt that the confidence of the Moslem made him
+ashamed of his own doubts.
+
+"By the cross of my sword," he said, laying his hand on the
+weapon as he spoke, "I will be true companion to thee, Saracen,
+while our fortune wills that we remain in company together."
+
+"By Mohammed, Prophet of God, and by Allah, God of the Prophet,"
+replied his late foeman, "there is not treachery in my heart
+towards thee.  And now wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour
+of rest is at hand, and the stream had hardly touched my lip when
+I was called to battle by thy approach."
+
+The Knight of the Couchant Leopard yielded a ready and courteous
+assent; and the late foes, without an angry look or gesture of
+doubt, rode side by side to the little cluster of palm-trees.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Times of danger have always, and in a peculiar degree, their
+seasons of good-will and security; and this was particularly so
+in the ancient feudal ages, in which, as the manners of the
+period had assigned war to be the chief and most worthy
+occupation of mankind, the intervals of peace, or rather of
+truce, were highly relished by those warriors to whom they were
+seldom granted, and endeared by the very circumstances which
+rendered them transitory.  It is not worth while preserving any
+permanent enmity against a foe whom a champion has fought with
+to-day, and may again stand in bloody opposition to on the next
+morning.  The time and situation afforded so much room for the
+ebullition of violent passions, that men, unless when peculiarly
+opposed to each other, or provoked by the recollection of private
+and individual wrongs, cheerfully enjoyed in each other's society
+the brief intervals of pacific intercourse which a warlike life
+admitted.
+
+The distinction of religions, nay, the fanatical zeal which
+animated the followers of the Cross and of the Crescent against
+each other, was much softened by a feeling so natural to generous
+combatants, and especially cherished by the spirit of chivalry.
+This last strong impulse had extended itself gradually from the
+Christians to their mortal enemies the Saracens, both of Spain
+and of Palestine.  The latter were, indeed, no longer the
+fanatical savages who had burst from the centre of Arabian
+deserts, with the sabre in one hand and the Koran in the other,
+to inflict death or the faith of Mohammed, or, at the best,
+slavery and tribute, upon all who dared to oppose the belief of
+the prophet of Mecca.  These alternatives indeed had been offered
+to the unwarlike Greeks and Syrians; but in contending with the
+Western Christians, animated by a zeal as fiery as their own, and
+possessed of as unconquerable courage, address, and success in
+arms, the Saracens gradually caught a part of their manners, and
+especially of those chivalrous observances which were so well
+calculated to charm the minds of a proud and conquering people.
+They had their tournaments and games of chivalry; they had even
+their knights, or some rank analogous; and above all, the
+Saracens observed their plighted faith with an accuracy which
+might sometimes put to shame those who owned a better religion.
+Their truces, whether national or betwixt individuals, were
+faithfully observed; and thus it was that war, in itself perhaps
+the greatest of evils, yet gave occasion for display of good
+faith, generosity, clemency, and even kindly affections, which
+less frequently occur in more tranquil periods, where the
+passions of men, experiencing wrongs or entertaining quarrels
+which cannot be brought to instant decision, are apt to smoulder
+for a length of time in the bosoms of those who are so unhappy as
+to be their prey.
+
+It was under the influence of these milder feelings which soften
+the horrors of warfare that the Christian and Saracen, who had so
+lately done their best for each other's mutual destruction, rode
+at a slow pace towards the fountain of palm-trees to which the
+Knight of the Couchant Leopard had been tending, when interrupted
+in mid-passage by his fleet and dangerous adversary.  Each was
+wrapt for some time in his own reflections, and took breath after
+an encounter which had threatened to be fatal to one or both; and
+their good horses seemed no less to enjoy the interval of repose.
+
+That of the Saracen, however, though he had been forced into much
+the more violent and extended sphere of motion, appeared to have
+suffered less from fatigue than the charger of the European
+knight.  The sweat hung still clammy on the limbs of the latter,
+when those of the noble Arab were completely dried by the
+interval of tranquil exercise, all saving the foam-flakes which
+were still visible on his bridle and housings.  The loose soil on
+which he trod so much augmented the distress of the Christian's
+horse, heavily loaded by his own armour and the weight of his
+rider, that the latter jumped from his saddle, and led his
+charger along the deep dust of the loamy soil, which was burnt in
+the sun into a substance more impalpable than the finest sand,
+and thus gave the faithful horse refreshment at the expense of
+his own additional toil; for, iron-sheathed as he was, he sunk
+over the mailed shoes at every step which he placed on a surface
+so light and unresisting.
+
+"You are right," said the Saracen--and it was the first word that
+either had spoken since their truce was concluded; "your strong
+horse deserves your care.  But what do you in the desert with an
+animal which sinks over the fetlock at every step as if he would
+plant each foot deep as the root of a date-tree?"
+
+"Thou speakest rightly, Saracen," said the Christian knight, not
+delighted at the tone with which the infidel criticized his
+favourite steed--"rightly, according to thy knowledge and
+observation.  But my good horse hath ere now borne me, in mine
+own land, over as wide a lake as thou seest yonder spread out
+behind us, yet not wet one hair above his hoof."
+
+The Saracen looked at him with as much surprise as his manners
+permitted him to testify, which was only expressed by a slight
+approach to a disdainful smile, that hardly curled perceptibly
+the broad, thick moustache which enveloped his upper lip.
+
+"It is justly spoken," he said, instantly composing himself to
+his usual serene gravity; "List to a Frank, and hear a fable."
+
+"Thou art not courteous, misbeliever," replied the Crusader, "to
+doubt the word of a dubbed knight; and were it not that thou
+speakest in ignorance, and not in malice, our truce had its
+ending ere it is well begun.  Thinkest thou I tell thee an
+untruth when I say that I, one of five hundred horsemen, armed in
+complete mail, have ridden--ay, and ridden for miles, upon water
+as solid as the crystal, and ten times less brittle?"
+
+"What wouldst thou tell me?"  answered the Moslem.  "Yonder
+inland sea thou dost point at is peculiar in this, that, by the
+especial curse of God, it suffereth nothing to sink in its waves,
+but wafts them away, and casts them on its margin; but neither
+the Dead Sea, nor any of the seven oceans which environ the
+earth, will endure on their surface the pressure of a horse's
+foot, more than the Red Sea endured to sustain the advance of
+Pharaoh and his host."
+
+"You speak truth after your knowledge, Saracen," said the
+Christian knight; "and yet, trust me, I fable not, according to
+mine.  Heat, in this climate, converts the soil into something
+almost as unstable as water; and in my land cold often converts
+the water itself into a substance as hard as rock.  Let us speak
+of this no longer, for the thoughts of the calm, clear, blue
+refulgence of a winter's lake, glimmering to stars and moonbeam,
+aggravate the horrors of this fiery desert, where, methinks, the
+very air which we breathe is like the vapour of a fiery furnace
+seven times heated."
+
+The Saracen looked on him with some attention, as if to discover
+in what sense he was to understand words which, to him, must have
+appeared either to contain something of mystery or of imposition.
+At length he seemed determined in what manner to receive the
+language of his new companion.
+
+"You are," he said, "of a nation that loves to laugh, and you
+make sport with yourselves, and with others, by telling what is
+impossible, and reporting what never chanced.  Thou art one of
+the knights of France, who hold it for glee and pastime to GAB,
+as they term it, of exploits that are beyond human power.
+[Gaber.  This French word signified a sort of sport much used
+among the French chivalry, which consisted in vying with each
+other in making the most romantic gasconades.  The verb and the
+meaning are retained in Scottish.]  I were wrong to challenge,
+for the time, the privilege of thy speech, since boasting is more
+natural to thee than truth."
+
+"I am not of their land, neither of their fashion," said the
+Knight, "which is, as thou well sayest, to GAB of that which they
+dare not undertake--or, undertaking, cannot perfect.  But in this
+I have imitated their folly, brave Saracen, that in talking to
+thee of what thou canst not comprehend, I have, even in speaking
+most simple truth, fully incurred the character of a braggart in
+thy eyes; so, I pray you, let my words pass."
+
+They had now arrived at the knot of palm-trees and the fountain
+which welled out from beneath their shade in sparkling profusion.
+
+We have spoken of a moment of truce in the midst of war; and
+this, a spot of beauty in the midst of a sterile desert, was
+scarce less dear to the imagination.  It was a scene which,
+perhaps, would elsewhere have deserved little notice; but as the
+single speck, in a boundless horizon, which promised the
+refreshment of shade and living water, these blessings, held
+cheap where they are common, rendered the fountain and its
+neighbourhood a little paradise.  Some generous or charitable
+hand, ere yet the evil days of Palestine began, had walled in and
+arched over the fountain, to preserve it from being absorbed in
+the earth, or choked by the flitting clouds of dust with which
+the least breath of wind covered the desert.  The arch was now
+broken, and partly ruinous; but it still so far projected over
+and covered in the fountain that it excluded the sun in a great
+measure from its waters, which, hardly touched by a straggling
+beam, while all around was blazing, lay in a steady repose, alike
+delightful to the eye and the imagination.  Stealing from under
+the arch, they were first received in a marble basin, much
+defaced indeed, but still cheering the eye, by showing that the
+place was anciently considered as a station, that the hand of man
+had been there and that man's accommodation had been in some
+measure attended to.  The thirsty and weary traveller was
+reminded by these signs that others had suffered similar
+difficulties, reposed in the same spot, and, doubtless, found
+their way in safety to a more fertile country.  Again, the scarce
+visible current which escaped from the basin served to nourish
+the few trees which surrounded the fountain, and where it sunk
+into the ground and disappeared, its refreshing presence was
+acknowledged by a carpet of velvet verdure.
+
+In this delightful spot the two warriors halted, and each, after
+his own fashion, proceeded to relieve his horse from saddle, bit,
+and rein, and permitted the animals to drink at the basin, ere
+they refreshed themselves from the fountain head, which arose
+under the vault.  They then suffered the steeds to go loose,
+confident that their interest, as well as their domesticated
+habits, would prevent their straying from the pure water and
+fresh grass.
+
+Christian and Saracen next sat down together on the turf, and
+produced each the small allowance of store which they carried for
+their own refreshment.  Yet, ere they severally proceeded to
+their scanty meal, they eyed each other with that curiosity which
+the close and doubtful conflict in which they had been so lately
+engaged was calculated to inspire.  Each was desirous to measure
+the strength, and form some estimate of the character, of an
+adversary so formidable; and each was compelled to acknowledge
+that, had he fallen in the conflict, it had been by a noble hand.
+
+The champions formed a striking contrast to each other in person
+and features, and might have formed no inaccurate representatives
+of their different nations.  The Frank seemed a powerful man,
+built after the ancient Gothic cast of form, with light brown
+hair, which, on the removal of his helmet, was seen to curl thick
+and profusely over his head.  His features had acquired, from the
+hot climate, a hue much darker than those parts of his neck which
+were less frequently exposed to view, or than was warranted by
+his full and well-opened blue eye, the colour of his hair, and of
+the moustaches which thickly shaded his upper lip, while his chin
+was carefully divested of beard, after the Norman fashion.  His
+nose was Grecian and well formed; his mouth rather large in
+proportion, but filled with well-set, strong, and beautifully
+white teeth; his head small, and set upon the neck with much
+grace.  His age could not exceed thirty, but if the effects of
+toil and climate were allowed for, might be three or four years
+under that period.  His form was tall, powerful, and athletic,
+like that of a man whose strength might, in later life, become
+unwieldy, but which was hitherto united with lightness and
+activity.  His hands, when he withdrew the mailed gloves, were
+long, fair, and well-proportioned; the wrist-bones peculiarly
+large and strong; and the arms remarkably well-shaped and brawny.
+A military hardihood and careless frankness of expression
+characterized his language and his motions; and his voice had the
+tone of one more accustomed to command than to obey, and who was
+in the habit of expressing his sentiments aloud and boldly,
+whenever he was called upon to announce them.
+
+The Saracen Emir formed a marked and striking contrast with the
+Western Crusader.  His stature was indeed above the middle size,
+but he was at least three inches shorter than the European, whose
+size approached the gigantic.  His slender limbs and long, spare
+hands and arms, though well proportioned to his person, and
+suited to the style of his countenance, did not at first aspect
+promise the display of vigour and elasticity which the Emir had
+lately exhibited.  But on looking more closely, his limbs, where
+exposed to view, seemed divested of all that was fleshy or
+cumbersome; so that nothing being left but bone, brawn, and
+sinew, it was a frame fitted for exertion and fatigue, far beyond
+that of a bulky champion, whose strength and size are
+counterbalanced by weight, and who is exhausted by his own
+exertions.  The countenance of the Saracen naturally bore a
+general national resemblance to the Eastern tribe from whom he
+descended, and was as unlike as possible to the exaggerated terms
+in which the minstrels of the day were wont to represent the
+infidel champions, and the fabulous description which a sister
+art still presents as the Saracen's Head upon signposts.  His
+features were small, well-formed, and delicate, though deeply
+embrowned by the Eastern sun, and terminated by a flowing and
+curled black beard, which seemed trimmed with peculiar care.  The
+nose was straight and regular, the eyes keen, deep-set, black,
+and glowing, and his teeth equalled in beauty the ivory of his
+deserts.  The person and proportions of the Saracen, in short,
+stretched on the turf near to his powerful antagonist, might have
+been compared to his sheeny and crescent-formed sabre, with its
+narrow and light but bright and keen Damascus blade, contrasted
+with the long and ponderous Gothic war-sword which was flung
+unbuckled on the same sod.  The Emir was in the very flower of
+his age, and might perhaps have been termed eminently beautiful,
+but for the narrowness of his forehead and something of too much
+thinness and sharpness of feature, or at least what might have
+seemed such in a European estimate of beauty.
+
+The manners of the Eastern warrior were grave, graceful, and
+decorous; indicating, however, in some particulars, the habitual
+restraint which men of warm and choleric tempers often set as a
+guard upon their native impetuosity of disposition, and at the
+same time a sense of his own dignity, which seemed to impose a
+certain formality of behaviour in him who entertained it.
+
+This haughty feeling of superiority was perhaps equally
+entertained by his new European acquaintance, but the effect was
+different; and the same feeling, which dictated to the Christian
+knight a bold, blunt, and somewhat careless bearing, as one too
+conscious of his own importance to be anxious about the opinions
+of others, appeared to prescribe to the Saracen a style of
+courtesy more studiously and formally observant of ceremony.
+Both were courteous; but the courtesy of the Christian seemed to
+flow rather from a good humoured sense of what was due to others;
+that of the Moslem, from a high feeling of what was to be
+expected from himself.
+
+The provision which each had made for his refreshment was simple,
+but the meal of the Saracen was abstemious.  A handful of dates
+and a morsel of coarse barley-bread sufficed to relieve the
+hunger of the latter, whose education had habituated them to the
+fare of the desert, although, since their Syrian conquests, the
+Arabian simplicity of life frequently gave place to the most
+unbounded profusion of luxury.  A few draughts from the lovely
+fountain by which they reposed completed his meal.  That of the
+Christian, though coarse, was more genial.  Dried hog's flesh,
+the abomination of the Moslemah, was the chief part of his
+repast; and his drink, derived from a leathern bottle, contained
+something better than pure element.  He fed with more display of
+appetite, and drank with more appearance of satisfaction, than
+the Saracen judged it becoming to show in the performance of a
+mere bodily function; and, doubtless, the secret contempt which
+each entertained for the other, as the follower of a false
+religion, was considerably increased by the marked difference of
+their diet and manners.  But each had found the weight of his
+opponent's arm, and the mutual respect which the bold struggle
+had created was sufficient to subdue other and inferior
+considerations.  Yet the Saracen could not help remarking the
+circumstances which displeased him in the Christian's conduct and
+manners; and, after he had witnessed for some time in silence the
+keen appetite which protracted the knight's banquet long after
+his own was concluded, he thus addressed him:--
+
+"Valiant Nazarene, is it fitting that one who can fight like a
+man should feed like a dog or a wolf?  Even a misbelieving Jew
+would shudder at the food which you seem to eat with as much
+relish as if it were fruit from the trees of Paradise."
+
+"Valiant Saracen," answered the Christian, looking up with some
+surprise at the accusation thus unexpectedly brought, "know thou
+that I exercise my Christian freedom in using that which is
+forbidden to the Jews, being, as they esteem themselves, under
+the bondage of the old law of Moses.  We, Saracen, be it known to
+thee, have a better warrant for what we do--Ave Maria!--be we
+thankful."  And, as if in defiance of his companion's scruples,
+he concluded a short Latin grace with a long draught from the
+leathern bottle.
+
+"That, too, you call a part of your liberty," said the Saracen;
+"and as you feed like the brutes, so you degrade yourself to the
+bestial condition by drinking a poisonous liquor which even they
+refuse!"
+
+"Know, foolish Saracen," replied the Christian, without
+hesitation, "that thou blasphemest the gifts of God, even with
+the blasphemy of thy father Ishmael.  The juice of the grape is
+given to him that will use it wisely, as that which cheers the
+heart of man after toil, refreshes him in sickness, and comforts
+him in sorrow.  He who so enjoyeth it may thank God for his winecup as for his daily bread; and he who 
+abuseth the gift of Heaven
+is not a greater fool in his intoxication than thou in thine
+abstinence."
+
+The keen eye of the Saracen kindled at this sarcasm, and his hand
+sought the hilt of his poniard.  It was but a momentary thought,
+however, and died away in the recollection of the powerful
+champion with whom he had to deal, and the desperate grapple, the
+impression of which still throbbed in his limbs and veins; and he
+contented himself with pursuing the contest in colloquy, as more
+convenient for the time.
+
+"Thy words" he said, "O Nazarene, might create anger, did not thy
+ignorance raise compassion.  Seest thou not, O thou more blind
+than any who asks alms at the door of the Mosque, that the
+liberty thou dost boast of is restrained even in that which is
+dearest to man's happiness and to his household; and that thy
+law, if thou dost practise it, binds thee in marriage to one
+single mate, be she sick or healthy, be she fruitful or barren,
+bring she comfort and joy, or clamour and strife, to thy table
+and to thy bed?  This, Nazarene, I do indeed call slavery;
+whereas, to the faithful, hath the Prophet assigned upon earth
+the patriarchal privileges of Abraham our father, and of Solomon,
+the wisest of mankind, having given us here a succession of
+beauty at our pleasure, and beyond the grave the black-eyed
+houris of Paradise."
+
+"Now, by His name that I most reverence in heaven," said the
+Christian, "and by hers whom I most worship on earth, thou art
+but a blinded and a bewildered infidel!-- That diamond signet
+which thou wearest on thy finger, thou holdest it, doubtless, as
+of inestimable value?"
+
+"Balsora and Bagdad cannot show the like," replied the Saracen;
+"but what avails it to our purpose?"
+
+"Much," replied the Frank, "as thou shalt thyself confess.  Take
+my war-axe and dash the stone into twenty shivers:  would each
+fragment be as valuable as the original gem, or would they, all
+collected, bear the tenth part of its estimation?"
+
+"That is a child's question," answered the Saracen; "the
+fragments of such a stone would not equal the entire jewel in the
+degree of hundreds to one."
+
+"Saracen," replied the Christian warrior, "the love which a true
+knight binds on one only, fair and faithful, is the gem entire;
+the affection thou flingest among thy enslaved wives and half-wedded slaves is worthless, comparatively, 
+as the sparkling
+shivers of the broken diamond."
+
+"Now, by the Holy Caaba," said the Emir, "thou art a madman who
+hugs his chain of iron as if it were of gold!  Look more closely.
+This ring of mine would lose half its beauty were not the signet
+encircled and enchased with these lesser brilliants, which grace
+it and set it off.  The central diamond is man, firm and entire,
+his value depending on himself alone; and this circle of lesser
+jewels are women, borrowing his lustre, which he deals out to
+them as best suits his pleasure or his convenience.  Take the
+central stone from the signet, and the diamond itself remains as
+valuable as ever, while the lesser gems are comparatively of
+little value.  And this is the true reading of thy parable; for
+what sayeth the poet Mansour:  'It is the favour of man which
+giveth beauty and comeliness to woman, as the stream glitters no
+longer when the sun ceaseth to shine.'"
+
+"Saracen," replied the Crusader, "thou speakest like one who
+never saw a woman worthy the affection of a soldier.  Believe me,
+couldst thou look upon those of Europe, to whom, after Heaven, we
+of the order of knighthood vow fealty and devotion, thou wouldst
+loathe for ever the poor sensual slaves who form thy haram.  The
+beauty of our fair ones gives point to our spears and edge to our
+swords; their words are our law; and as soon will a lamp shed
+lustre when unkindled, as a knight distinguish himself by feats
+of arms, having no mistress of his affection."
+
+"I have heard of this frenzy among the warriors of the West,"
+said the Emir, "and have ever accounted it one of the
+accompanying symptoms of that insanity which brings you hither to
+obtain possession of an empty sepulchre.  But yet, methinks, so
+highly have the Franks whom I have met with extolled the beauty
+of their women, I could be well contented to behold with mine own
+eyes those charms which can transform such brave warriors into
+the tools of their pleasure."
+
+"Brave Saracen," said the Knight, "if I were not on a pilgrimage
+to the Holy Sepulchre, it should be my pride to conduct you, on
+assurance of safety, to the camp of Richard of England, than whom
+none knows better how to do honour to a noble foe; and though I
+be poor and unattended yet have I interest to secure for thee, or
+any such as thou seemest, not safety only, but respect and
+esteem.  There shouldst thou see several of the fairest beauties
+of France and Britain form a small circle, the brilliancy of
+which exceeds ten-thousandfold the lustre of mines of diamonds
+such as thine."
+
+"Now, by the corner-stone of the Caaba!"  said the Saracen, "I
+will accept thy invitation as freely as it is given, if thou wilt
+postpone thy present intent; and, credit me, brave Nazarene, it
+were better for thyself to turn back thy horse's head towards the
+camp of thy people, for to travel towards Jerusalem without a
+passport is but a wilful casting-away of thy life."
+
+"I have a pass," answered the Knight, producing a parchment,
+"Under Saladin's hand and signet."
+
+The Saracen bent his head to the dust as he recognized the seal
+and handwriting of the renowned Soldan of Egypt and Syria; and
+having kissed the paper with profound respect, he pressed it to
+his forehead, then returned it to the Christian, saying, "Rash
+Frank, thou hast sinned against thine own blood and mine, for not
+showing this to me when we met."
+
+"You came with levelled spear," said the Knight.  "Had a troop of
+Saracens so assailed me, it might have stood with my honour to
+have shown the Soldan's pass, but never to one man."
+
+"And yet one man," said the Saracen haughtily, "was enough to
+interrupt your journey."
+
+"True, brave Moslem," replied the Christian; "but there are few
+such as thou art.  Such falcons fly not in flocks; or, if they
+do, they pounce not in numbers upon one."
+
+"Thou dost us but justice," said the Saracen, evidently gratified
+by the compliment, as he had been touched by the implied scorn of
+the European's previous boast; "from us thou shouldst have had no
+wrong.  But well was it for me that I failed to slay thee, with
+the safeguard of the king of kings upon thy person.  Certain it
+were, that the cord or the sabre had justly avenged such guilt."
+
+"I am glad to hear that its influence shall be availing to me,"
+said the Knight; "for I have heard that the road is infested with
+robber-tribes, who regard nothing in comparison of an opportunity
+of plunder."
+
+"The truth has been told to thee, brave Christian," said the
+Saracen; "but I swear to thee, by the turban of the Prophet, that
+shouldst thou miscarry in any haunt of such villains, I will
+myself undertake thy revenge with five thousand horse.  I will
+slay every male of them, and send their women into such distant
+captivity that the name of their tribe shall never again be heard
+within five hundred miles of Damascus.  I will sow with salt the
+foundations of their village, and there shall never live thing
+dwell there, even from that time forward."
+
+"I had rather the trouble which you design for yourself were in
+revenge of some other more important person than of me, noble
+Emir," replied the Knight; "but my vow is recorded in heaven, for
+good or for evil, and I must be indebted to you for pointing me
+out the way to my resting-place for this evening."
+
+"That," said the Saracen, "must be under the black covering of my
+father's tent."
+
+"This night," answered the Christian, "I must pass in prayer and
+penitence with a holy man, Theodorick of Engaddi, who dwells
+amongst these wilds, and spends his life in the service of God."
+
+"I will at least see you safe thither," said the Saracen.
+
+"That would be pleasant convoy for me," said the Christian; "yet
+might endanger the future security of the good father; for the
+cruel hand of your people has been red with the blood of the
+servants of the Lord, and therefore do we come hither in plate
+and mail, with sword and lance, to open the road to the Holy
+Sepulchre, and protect the chosen saints and anchorites who yet
+dwell in this land of promise and of miracle."
+
+"Nazarene," said the Moslem, "in this the Greeks and Syrians have
+much belied us, seeing we do but after the word of Abubeker
+Alwakel, the successor of the Prophet, and, after him, the first
+commander of true believers.  'Go forth,' he said, 'Yezed Ben
+Sophian,' when he sent that renowned general to take Syria from
+the infidels; 'quit yourselves like men in battle, but slay
+neither the aged, the infirm, the women, nor the children.  Waste
+not the land, neither destroy corn and fruit-trees; they are the
+gifts of Allah.  Keep faith when you have made any covenant, even
+if it be to your own harm.  If ye find holy men labouring with
+their hands, and serving God in the desert, hurt them not,
+neither destroy their dwellings.  But when you find them with
+shaven crowns, they are of the synagogue of Satan!  Smite with
+the sabre, slay, cease not till they become believers or
+tributaries.'  As the Caliph, companion of the Prophet, hath told
+us, so have we done, and those whom our justice has smitten are
+but the priests of Satan.  But unto the good men who, without
+stirring up nation against nation, worship sincerely in the faith
+of Issa Ben Mariam, we are a shadow and a shield; and such being
+he whom you seek, even though the light of the Prophet hath not
+reached him, from me he will only have love, favour, and regard."
+
+"The anchorite whom I would now visit," said the warlike pilgrim,
+"is, I have heard, no priest; but were he of that anointed and
+sacred order, I would prove with my good lance, against paynim
+and infidel--"
+
+"Let us not defy each other, brother," interrupted the Saracen;
+"we shall find, either of us, enough of Franks or of Moslemah on
+whom to exercise both sword and lance.  This Theodorick is
+protected both by Turk and Arab; and, though one of strange
+conditions at intervals, yet, on the whole, he bears himself so
+well as the follower of his own prophet, that he merits the
+protection of him who was sent--"
+
+"Now, by Our Lady, Saracen," exclaimed the Christian, "if thou
+darest name in the same breath the camel-driver of Mecca with
+--"
+
+An electrical shock of passion thrilled through the form of the
+Emir; but it was only momentary, and the calmness of his reply
+had both dignity and reason in it, when he said, "Slander not him
+whom thou knowest not--the rather that we venerate the founder of
+thy religion, while we condemn the doctrine which your priests
+have spun from it.  I will myself guide thee to the cavern of the
+hermit, which, methinks, without my help, thou wouldst find it a
+hard matter to reach.  And, on the way, let us leave to mollahs
+and to monks to dispute about the divinity of our faith, and
+speak on themes which belong to youthful warriors--upon battles,
+upon beautiful women, upon sharp swords, and upon bright armour."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The warriors arose from their place of brief rest and simple
+refreshment, and courteously aided each other while they
+carefully replaced and adjusted the harness from which they had
+relieved for the time their trusty steeds.  Each seemed familiar
+with an employment which at that time was a part of necessary
+and, indeed, of indispensable duty.  Each also seemed to possess,
+as far as the difference betwixt the animal and rational species
+admitted, the confidence and affection of the horse which was the
+constant companion of his travels and his warfare.  With the
+Saracen this familiar intimacy was a part of his early habits;
+for, in the tents of the Eastern military tribes, the horse of
+the soldier ranks next to, and almost equal in importance with,
+his wife and his family; and with the European warrior,
+circumstances, and indeed necessity, rendered his war-horse
+scarcely less than his brother in arms.  The steeds, therefore,
+suffered themselves quietly to be taken from their food and
+liberty, and neighed and snuffled fondly around their masters,
+while they were adjusting their accoutrements for further travel
+and additional toil.  And each warrior, as he prosecuted his own
+task, or assisted with courtesy his companion, looked with
+observant curiosity at the equipments of his fellow-traveller,
+and noted particularly what struck him as peculiar in the fashion
+in which he arranged his riding accoutrements.
+
+Ere they remounted to resume their journey, the Christian Knight
+again moistened his lips and dipped his hands in the living
+fountain, and said to his pagan associate of the journey, "I
+would I knew the name of this delicious fountain, that I might
+hold it in my grateful remembrance; for never did water slake
+more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than I have this day
+experienced."
+
+"It is called in the Arabic language," answered the Saracen, "by
+a name which signifies the Diamond of the Desert."
+
+"And well is it so named," replied the Christian.  "My native
+valley hath a thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I
+attach hereafter such precious recollection as to this solitary
+fount, which bestows its liquid treasures where they are not only
+delightful, but nearly indispensable."
+
+"You say truth," said the Saracen; "for the curse is still on
+yonder sea of death, and neither man nor beast drinks of its
+waves, nor of the river which feeds without filling it, until
+this inhospitable desert be passed."
+
+They mounted, and pursued their journey across the sandy waste.
+The ardour of noon was now past, and a light breeze somewhat
+alleviated the terrors of the desert, though not without bearing
+on its wings an impalpable dust, which the Saracen little heeded,
+though his heavily-armed companion felt it as such an annoyance
+that he hung his iron casque at his saddle-bow, and substituted
+the light riding-cap, termed in the language of the time a
+MORTIER, from its resemblance in shape to an ordinary mortar.
+They rode together for some time in silence, the Saracen
+performing the part of director and guide of the journey, which
+he did by observing minute marks and bearings of the distant
+rocks, to a ridge of which they were gradually approaching.  For
+a little time he seemed absorbed in the task, as a pilot when
+navigating a vessel through a difficult channel; but they had not
+proceeded half a league when he seemed secure of his route, and
+disposed, with more frankness than was usual to his nation, to
+enter into conversation.
+
+"You have asked the name," he said, "of a mute fountain, which
+hath the semblance, but not the reality, of a living thing.  Let
+me be pardoned to ask the name of the companion with whom I have
+this day encountered, both in danger and in repose, and which I
+cannot fancy unknown even here among the deserts of Palestine?"
+
+"It is not yet worth publishing," said the Christian.  "Know,
+however, that among the soldiers of the Cross I am called
+Kenneth--Kenneth of the Couching Leopard; at home I have other
+titles, but they would sound harsh in an Eastern ear.  Brave
+Saracen, let me ask which of the tribes of Arabia claims your
+descent, and by what name you are known?"
+
+"Sir Kenneth," said the Moslem, "I joy that your name is such as
+my lips can easily utter.  For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my
+descent from a line neither less wild nor less warlike.  Know,
+Sir Knight of the Leopard, that I am Sheerkohf, the Lion of the
+Mountain, and that Kurdistan, from which I derive my descent,
+holds no family more noble than that of Seljook."
+
+"I have heard," answered the Christian, "that your great Soldan
+claims his blood from the same source?"
+
+"Thanks to the Prophet that hath so far honoured our mountains as
+to send from their bosom him whose word is victory," answered the
+paynim.  "I am but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria,
+and yet in my own land something my name may avail.  Stranger,
+with how many men didst thou come on this warfare?"
+
+"By my faith," said Sir Kenneth, "with aid of friends and
+kinsmen, I was hardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed
+lances, with maybe some fifty more men, archers and varlets
+included.  Some have deserted my unlucky pennon--some have fallen
+in battle--several have died of disease--and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing my 
+pilgrimage, lies on the
+bed of sickness."
+
+"Christian," said Sheerkohf, "here I have five arrows in my
+quiver, each feathered from the wing of an eagle.  When I send
+one of them to my tents, a thousand warriors mount on horseback
+--when I send another, an equal force will arise--for the five, I
+can command five thousand men; and if I send my bow, ten thousand
+mounted riders will shake the desert.  And with thy fifty
+followers thou hast come to invade a land in which I am one of
+the meanest!"
+
+"Now, by the rood, Saracen," retorted the Western warrior, "thou
+shouldst know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steel glove
+can crush a whole handful of hornets."
+
+"Ay, but it must first enclose them within its grasp," said the
+Saracen, with a smile which might have endangered their new
+alliance, had he not changed the subject by adding, "And is
+bravery so much esteemed amongst the Christian princes that thou,
+thus void of means and of men, canst offer, as thou didst of
+late, to be my protector and security in the camp of thy
+brethren?"
+
+"Know, Saracen," said the Christian, "since such is thy style,
+that the name of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle
+him to place himself on the same rank with sovereigns even of the
+first degree, in so far as regards all but regal authority and
+dominion.  Were Richard of England himself to wound the honour of
+a knight as poor as I am, he could not, by the law of chivalry,
+deny him the combat."
+
+"Methinks I should like to look upon so strange a scene," said
+the Emir, "in which a leathern belt and a pair of spurs put the
+poorest on a level with the most powerful."
+
+"You must add free blood and a fearless heart," said the
+Christian; "then, perhaps, you will not have spoken untruly of
+the dignity of knighthood."
+
+"And mix you as boldly amongst the females of your chiefs and
+leaders?" asked the Saracen.
+
+"God forbid," said the Knight of the Leopard, "that the poorest
+knight in Christendom should not be free, in all honourable
+service, to devote his hand and sword, the fame of his actions,
+and the fixed devotion of his heart, to the fairest princess who
+ever wore coronet on her brow!"
+
+"But a little while since," said the Saracen, "and you described
+love as the highest treasure of the heart--thine hath undoubtedly
+been high and nobly bestowed?"
+
+"Stranger," answered the Christian, blushing deeply as he spoke,
+"we tell not rashly where it is we have bestowed our choicest
+treasures.  It is enough for thee to know that, as thou sayest,
+my love is highly and nobly bestowed--most highly--most nobly;
+but if thou wouldst hear of love and broken lances, venture
+thyself, as thou sayest, to the camp of the Crusaders, and thou
+wilt find exercise for thine ears, and, if thou wilt, for thy
+hands too."
+
+The Eastern warrior, raising himself in his stirrups, and shaking
+aloft his lance, replied, "Hardly, I fear, shall I find one with
+a crossed shoulder who will exchange with me the cast of the
+jerrid."
+
+"I will not promise for that," replied the Knight; "though there
+be in the camp certain Spaniards, who have right good skill in
+your Eastern game of hurling the javelin."
+
+"Dogs, and sons of dogs!"  ejaculated the Saracen; "what have
+these Spaniards to do to come hither to combat the true
+believers, who, in their own land, are their lords and
+taskmasters?  with them I would mix in no warlike pastime."
+
+"Let not the knights of Leon or Asturias hear you speak thus of
+them," said the Knight of the Leopard.  " But," added he, smiling
+at the recollection of the morning's combat, "if, instead of a
+reed, you were inclined to stand the cast of a battle-axe, there
+are enough of Western warriors who would gratify your longing."
+
+"By the beard of my father, sir," said the Saracen, with an
+approach to laughter, "the game is too rough for mere sport.  I
+will never shun them in battle, but my head" (pressing his hand
+to his brow) "will not, for a while, permit me to seek them in
+sport."
+
+"I would you saw the axe of King Richard," answered the Western
+warrior, "to which that which hangs at my saddle-bow weighs but
+as a feather."
+
+"We hear much of that island sovereign," said the Saracen.  "Art
+thou one of his subjects?"
+
+"One of his followers I am, for this expedition," answered the
+Knight, "and honoured in the service; but not born his subject,
+although a native of the island in which he reigns."
+
+"How mean you? " said the Eastern soldier; "have you then two
+kings in one poor island?"
+
+"As thou sayest," said the Scot, for such was Sir Kenneth by
+birth.  "It is even so; and yet, although the inhabitants of the
+two extremities of that island are engaged in frequent war, the
+country can, as thou seest, furnish forth such a body of men-at-arms as may go far to shake the unholy hold 
+which your master
+hath laid on the cities of Zion."
+
+"By the beard of Saladin, Nazarene, but that it is a thoughtless
+and boyish folly, I could laugh at the simplicity of your great
+Sultan, who comes hither to make conquests of deserts and rocks,
+and dispute the possession of them with those who have tenfold
+numbers at command, while he leaves a part of his narrow islet,
+in which he was born a sovereign, to the dominion of another
+sceptre than his.  Surely, Sir Kenneth, you and the other good
+men of your country should have submitted yourselves to the
+dominion of this King Richard ere you left your native land,
+divided against itself, to set forth on this expedition?"
+
+Hasty and fierce was Kenneth's answer.  "No, by the bright light
+of Heaven!  If the King of England had not set forth to the
+Crusade till he was sovereign of Scotland, the Crescent might,
+for me, and all true-hearted Scots, glimmer for ever on the walls
+of Zion."
+
+Thus far he had proceeded, when, suddenly recollecting himself,
+he muttered, "MEA CULPA!  MEA CULPA!  what have I, a soldier of
+the Cross, to do with recollection of war betwixt Christian
+nations!"
+
+The rapid expression of feeling corrected by the dictates of duty
+did not escape the Moslem, who, if he did not entirely understand
+all which it conveyed, saw enough to convince him with the
+assurance that Christians, as well as Moslemah, had private
+feelings of personal pique, and national quarrels, which were not
+entirely reconcilable.  But the Saracens were a race, polished,
+perhaps, to the utmost extent which their religion permitted, and
+particularly capable of entertaining high ideas of courtesy and
+politeness; and such sentiments prevented his taking any notice
+of the inconsistency of Sir Kenneth's feelings in the opposite
+characters of a Scot and a Crusader.
+
+Meanwhile, as they advanced, the scene began to change around
+them.  They were now turning to the eastward, and had reached the
+range of steep and barren hills which binds in that quarter the
+naked plain, and varies the surface of the country, without
+changing its sterile character.  Sharp, rocky eminences began to
+rise around them, and, in a short time, deep declivities and
+ascents, both formidable in height and difficult from the
+narrowness of the path, offered to the travellers obstacles of a
+different kind from those with which they had recently contended.
+
+Dark caverns and chasms amongst the rocks--those grottoes so
+often alluded to in Scripture--yawned fearfully on either side as
+they proceeded, and the Scottish knight was informed by the Emir
+that these were often the refuge of beasts of prey, or of men
+still more ferocious, who, driven to desperation by the constant
+war, and the oppression exercised by the soldiery, as well of the
+Cross as of the Crescent, had become robbers, and spared neither
+rank nor religion, neither sex nor age, in their depredations.
+
+The Scottish knight listened with indifference to the accounts of
+ravages committed by wild beasts or wicked men, secure as he felt
+himself in his own valour and personal strength; but he was
+struck with mysterious dread when he recollected that he was now
+in the awful wilderness of the forty days' fast, and the scene of
+the actual personal temptation, wherewith the Evil Principle was
+permitted to assail the Son of Man.  He withdrew his attention
+gradually from the light and worldly conversation of the infidel
+warrior beside him, and, however acceptable his gay and gallant
+bravery would have rendered him as a companion elsewhere, Sir
+Kenneth felt as if, in those wildernesses the waste and dry
+places in which the foul spirits were wont to wander when
+expelled the mortals whose forms they possessed, a bare-footed
+friar would have been a better associate than the gay but
+unbelieving paynim.
+
+These feelings embarrassed him the rather that the Saracen's
+spirits appeared to rise with the journey, and because the
+farther he penetrated into the gloomy recesses of the mountains,
+the lighter became his conversation, and when he found that
+unanswered, the louder grew his song.  Sir Kenneth knew enough of
+the Eastern languages to be assured that he chanted sonnets of
+love, containing all the glowing praises of beauty in which the
+Oriental poets are so fond of luxuriating, and which, therefore,
+were peculiarly unfitted for a serious or devotional strain of
+thought, the feeling best becoming the Wilderness of the
+Temptation.  With inconsistency enough, the Saracen also sung
+lays in praise of wine, the liquid ruby of the Persian poets; and
+his gaiety at length became so unsuitable to the Christian
+knight's contrary train of sentiments, as, but for the promise of
+amity which they had exchanged, would most likely have made Sir
+Kenneth take measures to change his note.  As it was, the
+Crusader felt as if he had by his side some gay, licentious
+fiend, who endeavoured to ensnare his soul, and endanger his
+immortal salvation, by inspiring loose thoughts of earthly
+pleasure, and thus polluting his devotion, at a time when his
+faith as a Christian and his vow as a pilgrim called on him for a
+serious and penitential state of mind.  He was thus greatly
+perplexed, and undecided how to act; and it was in a tone of
+hasty displeasure that, at length breaking silence, he
+interrupted the lay of the celebrated Rudpiki, in which he
+prefers the mole on his mistress's bosom to all the wealth of
+Bokhara and Samarcand.
+
+"Saracen," said the Crusader sternly, "blinded as thou art, and
+plunged amidst the errors of a false law, thou shouldst yet
+comprehend that there are some places more holy than others, and
+that there are some scenes also in which the Evil One hath more
+than ordinary power over sinful mortals.  I will not tell thee
+for what awful reason this place--these rocks--these caverns with
+their gloomy arches, leading as it were to the central abyss--are
+held an especial haunt of Satan and his angels.  It is enough
+that I have been long warned to beware of this place by wise and
+holy men, to whom the qualities of the unholy region are well
+known.  Wherefore, Saracen, forbear thy foolish and ill-timed
+levity, and turn thy thoughts to things more suited to the spot
+--although, alas for thee!  thy best prayers are but as blasphemy
+and sin."
+
+The Saracen listened with some surprise, and then replied, with
+good-humour and gaiety, only so far repressed as courtesy
+required, "Good Sir Kenneth, methinks you deal unequally by your
+companion, or else ceremony is but indifferently taught amongst
+your Western tribes.  I took no offence when I saw you gorge
+hog's flesh and drink wine, and permitted you to enjoy a treat
+which you called your Christian liberty, only pitying in my heart
+your foul pastimes.  Wherefore, then, shouldst thou take scandal,
+because I cheer, to the best of my power, a gloomy road with a
+cheerful verse?  What saith the poet, 'Song is like the dews of
+
+heaven on the bosom of the desert; it cools the path of the
+traveller.'"
+
+"Friend Saracen," said the Christian, "I blame not the love of
+minstrelsy and of the GAI SCIENCE; albeit, we yield unto it even
+too much room in our thoughts when they should be bent on better
+things.  But prayers and holy psalms are better fitting than LAIS
+of love, or of wine-cups, when men walk in this Valley of the
+Shadow of Death, full of fiends and demons, whom the prayers of
+holy men have driven forth from the haunts of humanity to wander
+amidst scenes as accursed as themselves."
+
+"Speak not thus of the Genii, Christian," answered the Saracen,
+"for know thou speakest to one whose line and nation drew their
+origin from the immortal race which your sect fear and
+blaspheme."
+
+"I well thought," answered the Crusader, "that your blinded race
+had their descent from the foul fiend, without whose aid you
+would never have been able to maintain this blessed land of
+Palestine against so many valiant soldiers of God.  I speak not
+thus of thee in particular, Saracen, but generally of thy people
+and religion.  Strange is it to me, however, not that you should
+have the descent from the Evil One, but that you should boast of
+it."
+
+"From whom should the bravest boast of descending, saving from
+him that is bravest?"  said the Saracen; "from whom should the
+proudest trace their line so well as from the Dark Spirit, which
+would rather fall headlong by force than bend the knee by his
+will?  Eblis may be hated, stranger, but he must be feared; and
+such as Eblis are his descendants of Kurdistan."
+
+Tales of magic and of necromancy were the learning of the period,
+and Sir Kenneth heard his companion's confession of diabolical
+descent without any disbelief, and without much wonder; yet not
+without a secret shudder at finding himself in this fearful
+place, in the company of one who avouched himself to belong to
+such a lineage.  Naturally insusceptible, however, of fear, he
+crossed himself, and stoutly demanded of the Saracen an account
+of the pedigree which he had boasted.  The latter readily
+complied.
+
+"Know, brave stranger," he said, "that when the cruel Zohauk, one
+of the descendants of Giamschid, held the throne of Persia, he
+formed a league with the Powers of Darkness, amidst the secret
+vaults of Istakhar, vaults which the hands of the elementary
+spirits had hewn out of the living rock long before Adam himself
+had an existence.  Here he fed, with daily oblations of human
+blood, two devouring serpents, which had become, according to the
+poets, a part of himself, and to sustain whom he levied a tax of
+daily human sacrifices, till the exhausted patience of his
+subjects caused some to raise up the scimitar of resistance, like
+the valiant Blacksmith and the victorious Feridoun, by whom the
+tyrant was at length dethroned, and imprisoned for ever in the
+dismal caverns of the mountain Damavend.  But ere that
+deliverance had taken place, and whilst the power of the
+bloodthirsty tyrant was at its height, the band of ravening
+slaves whom he had sent forth to purvey victims for his daily
+sacrifice brought to the vaults of the palace of Istakhar seven
+sisters so beautiful that they seemed seven houris.  These seven
+maidens were the daughters of a sage, who had no treasures save
+those beauties and his own wisdom.  The last was not sufficient
+to foresee this misfortune, the former seemed ineffectual to
+prevent it.  The eldest exceeded not her twentieth year, the
+youngest had scarce attained her thirteenth; and so like were
+they to each other that they could not have been distinguished
+but for the difference of height, in which they gradually rose in
+easy gradation above each other, like the ascent which leads to
+the gates of Paradise.  So lovely were these seven sisters when
+they stood in the darksome vault, disrobed of all clothing saving
+a cymar of white silk, that their charms moved the hearts of
+those who were not mortal.  Thunder muttered, the earth shook,
+the wall of the vault was rent, and at the chasm entered one
+dressed like a hunter, with bow and shafts, and followed by six
+others, his brethren.  They were tall men, and, though dark, yet
+comely to behold; but their eyes had more the glare of those of
+the dead than the light which lives under the eyelids of the
+living.  'Zeineb,' said the leader of the band--and as he spoke
+he took the eldest sister by the hand, and his voice was soft,
+low, and melancholy--'I am Cothrob, king of the subterranean
+world, and supreme chief of Ginnistan.  I and my brethren are of
+those who, created out of the pure elementary fire, disdained,
+even at the command of Omnipotence, to do homage to a clod of
+earth, because it was called Man.  Thou mayest have heard of us
+as cruel, unrelenting, and persecuting.  It is false.  We are by
+nature kind and generous; only vengeful when insulted, only cruel
+when affronted.  We are true to those who trust us; and we have
+heard the invocations of thy father, the sage Mithrasp, who
+wisely worships not alone the Origin of Good, but that which is
+called the Source of Evil.  You and your sisters are on the eve
+of death; but let each give to us one hair from your fair
+tresses, in token of fealty, and we will carry you many miles
+from hence to a place of safety, where you may bid defiance to
+Zohauk and his ministers.' The fear of instant death, saith the
+poet, is like the rod of the prophet Haroun, which devoured all
+other rods when transformed into snakes before the King of
+Pharaoh; and the daughters of the Persian sage were less apt than
+others to be afraid of the addresses of a spirit.  They gave the
+tribute which Cothrob demanded, and in an instant the sisters
+were transported to an enchanted castle on the mountains of
+Tugrut, in Kurdistan, and were never again seen by mortal eye.
+But in process of time seven youths, distinguished in the war and
+in the chase, appeared in the environs of the castle of the
+demons.  They were darker, taller, fiercer, and more resolute
+than any of the scattered inhabitants of the valleys of
+Kurdistan; and they took to themselves wives, and became fathers
+of the seven tribes of the Kurdmans, whose valour is known
+throughout the universe."
+
+The Christian knight heard with wonder the wild tale, of which
+Kurdistan still possesses the traces, and, after a moment's
+thought, replied, "Verily, Sir Knight, you have spoken well
+--your genealogy may be dreaded and hated, but it cannot be
+contemned.  Neither do I any longer wonder at your obstinacy in a
+false faith, since, doubtless, it is part of the fiendish
+disposition which hath descended from your ancestors, those
+infernal huntsmen, as you have described them, to love falsehood
+rather than truth; and I no longer marvel that your spirits
+become high and exalted, and vent themselves in verse and in
+tunes, when you approach to the places encumbered by the haunting
+of evil spirits, which must excite in you that joyous feeling
+which others experience when approaching the land of their human
+ancestry."
+
+"By my father's beard, I think thou hast the right," said the
+Saracen, rather amused than offended by the freedom with which
+the Christian had uttered his reflections; "for, though the
+Prophet (blessed be his name!) hath sown amongst us the seed of a
+better faith than our ancestors learned in the ghostly halls of
+Tugrut, yet we are not willing, like other Moslemah, to pass
+hasty doom on the lofty and powerful elementary spirits from whom
+we claim our origin.  These Genii, according to our belief and
+hope, are not altogether reprobate, but are still in the way of
+probation, and may hereafter be punished or rewarded.  Leave we
+this to the mollahs and the imaums.  Enough that with us the
+reverence for these spirits is not altogether effaced by what we
+have learned from the Koran, and that many of us still sing, in
+memorial of our fathers' more ancient faith, such verses as
+these."
+
+So saying, he proceeded to chant verses, very ancient in the
+language and structure, which some have thought derive their
+source from the worshippers of Arimanes, the Evil Principle.
+
+AHRIMAN.
+
+Dark Ahriman, whom Irak still
+Holds origin of woe and ill!
+When, bending at thy shrine,
+We view the world with troubled eye,
+Where see we 'neath the extended sky,
+An empire matching thine!
+
+If the Benigner Power can yield
+A fountain in the desert field,
+Where weary pilgrims drink;
+Thine are the waves that lash the rock,
+Thine the tornado's deadly shock,
+Where countless navies sink!
+
+Or if he bid the soil dispense
+Balsams to cheer the sinking sense,
+How few can they deliver
+From lingering pains, or pang intense,
+Red Fever, spotted Pestilence,
+The arrows of thy quiver!
+
+Chief in Man's bosom sits thy sway,
+And frequent, while in words we pray
+Before another throne,
+Whate'er of specious form be there,
+The secret meaning of the prayer
+Is, Ahriman, thine own.
+
+Say, hast thou feeling, sense, and form,
+Thunder thy voice, thy garments storm,
+As Eastern Magi say;
+With sentient soul of hate and wrath,
+And wings to sweep thy deadly path,
+And fangs to tear thy prey?
+
+Or art thou mix'd in Nature's source,
+An ever-operating force,
+Converting good to ill;
+An evil principle innate,
+Contending with our better fate,
+And, oh!  victorious still?
+
+Howe'er it be, dispute is vain.
+On all without thou hold'st thy reign,
+Nor less on all within;
+Each mortal passion's fierce career,
+Love, hate, ambition, joy, and fear,
+Thou goadest into sin.
+
+Whene'er a sunny gleam appears,
+To brighten up our vale of tears,
+Thou art not distant far;
+'Mid such brief solace of our lives,
+Thou whett'st our very banquet-knives
+To tools of death and war.
+
+Thus, from the moment of our birth,
+Long as we linger on the earth,
+Thou rulest the fate of men;
+Thine are the pangs of life's last hour,
+And--who dare answer?--is thy power,
+Dark Spirit!  ended THEN?
+
+[The worthy and learned clergyman by whom this species of hymn
+has been translated desires, that, for fear of misconception, we
+should warn the reader to recollect that it is composed by a
+heathen, to whom the real causes of moral and physical evil are
+unknown, and who views their predominance in the system of the
+universe as all must view that appalling fact who have not the
+benefit of the Christian revelation.  On our own part, we beg to
+add, that we understand the style of the translator is more
+paraphrastic than can be approved by those who are acquainted
+with the singularly curious original.  The translator seems to
+have despaired of rendering into English verse the flights of
+Oriental poetry; and, possibly, like many learned and ingenious
+men, finding it impossible to discover the sense of the original,
+he may have tacitly substituted his own.]
+
+These verses may perhaps have been the not unnatural effusion of
+some half-enlightened philosopher, who, in the fabled deity,
+Arimanes, saw but the prevalence of moral and physical evil; but
+in the ears of Sir Kenneth of the Leopard they had a different
+effect, and, sung as they were by one who had just boasted
+himself a descendant of demons, sounded very like an address of
+worship to the arch-fiend himself.  He weighed within himself
+whether, on hearing such blasphemy in the very desert where Satan
+had stood rebuked for demanding homage, taking an abrupt leave of
+the Saracen was sufficient to testify his abhorrence; or whether
+he was not rather constrained by his vow as a Crusader to defy
+the infidel to combat on the spot, and leave him food for the
+beasts of the wilderness, when his attention was suddenly caught
+by an unexpected apparition.
+
+The light was now verging low, yet served the knight still to
+discern that they two were no longer alone in the desert, but
+were closely watched by a figure of great height and very thin,
+which skipped over rocks and bushes with so much agility as,
+added to the wild and hirsute appearance of the individual,
+reminded him of the fauns and silvans, whose images he had seen
+in the ancient temples of Rome.  As the single-hearted
+Scottishman had never for a moment doubted these gods of the
+ancient Gentiles to be actually devils, so he now hesitated not
+to believe that the  blasphemous hymn of the Saracen had raised
+up an infernal spirit.
+
+"But what recks it?"  said stout Sir Kenneth to himself; "down
+with the fiend and his worshippers!"
+
+He did not, however, think it necessary to give the same warning
+of defiance to two enemies as he would unquestionably have
+afforded to one.  His hand was upon his mace, and perhaps the
+unwary Saracen would have been paid for his Persian poetry by
+having his brains dashed out on the spot, without any reason
+assigned for it; but the Scottish Knight was spared from
+committing what would have been a sore blot in his shield of
+arms.  The apparition, on which his eyes had been fixed for some
+time, had at first appeared to dog their path by concealing
+itself behind rocks and shrubs, using those advantages of the
+ground with great address, and surmounting its irregularities
+with surprising agility.  At length, just as the Saracen paused
+in his song, the figure, which was that of a tall man clothed in
+goat-skins, sprung into the midst of the path, and seized a rein
+of the Saracen's bridle in either hand, confronting thus and
+bearing back the noble horse, which, unable to endure the manner
+in which this sudden assailant pressed the long-armed bit, and
+the severe curb, which, according to the Eastern fashion, was a
+solid ring of iron, reared upright, and finally fell backwards on
+his master, who, however, avoided the peril of the fall by
+lightly throwing himself to one side.
+
+The assailant then shifted his grasp from the bridle of the horse
+to the throat of the rider, flung himself above the struggling
+Saracen, and, despite of his youth and activity kept him
+undermost, wreathing his long arms above those of his prisoner,
+who called out angrily, and yet half-laughing at the same time
+--"Hamako--fool--unloose me--this passes thy privilege--unloose
+me, or I will use my dagger."
+
+"Thy dagger!--infidel dog!"  said the figure in the goat-skins,
+"hold it in thy gripe if thou canst!"  and in an instant he
+wrenched the Saracen's weapon out of its owner's hand, and
+brandished it over his head.
+
+"Help, Nazarene!"  cried Sheerkohf, now seriously alarmed; "help,
+or the Hamako will slay me."
+
+"Slay thee!"  replied the dweller of the desert; "and well hast
+thou merited death, for singing thy blasphemous hymns, not only
+to the praise of thy false prophet, who is the foul fiend's
+harbinger, but to that of the Author of Evil himself."
+
+The Christian Knight had hitherto looked on as one stupefied, so
+strangely had this rencontre contradicted, in its progress and
+event, all that he had previously conjectured.  He felt, however,
+at length, that it touched his honour to interfere in behalf of
+his discomfited companion, and therefore addressed himself to the
+victorious figure in the goat-skins.
+
+"Whosoe'er thou art," he said, "and whether of good or of evil,
+know that I am sworn for the time to be true companion to the
+Saracen whom thou holdest under thee; therefore, I pray thee to
+let him arise, else I will do battle with thee in his behalf."
+
+"And a proper quarrel it were," answered the Hamako, "for a
+Crusader to do battle in--for the sake of an unbaptized dog, to
+combat one of his own holy faith!  Art thou come forth to the
+wilderness to fight for the Crescent against the Cross?  A goodly
+soldier of God art thou to listen to those who sing the praises
+of Satan!"
+
+Yet, while he spoke thus, he arose himself, and, suffering the
+Saracen to rise also, returned him his cangiar, or poniard.
+
+"Thou seest to what a point of peril thy presumption hath brought
+thee," continued he of the goat-skins, now addressing Sheerkohf,
+"and by what weak means thy practised skill and boasted agility
+can be foiled, when such is Heaven's pleasure.  Wherefore,
+beware, O Ilderim!  for know that, were there not a twinkle in
+the star of thy nativity which promises for thee something that
+is good and gracious in Heaven's good time, we two had not parted
+till I had torn asunder the throat which so lately trilled forth
+blasphemies."
+
+"Hamako," said the Saracen, without any appearance of resenting
+the violent language and yet more violent assault to which he had
+been subjected, "I pray thee, good Hamako, to beware how thou
+dost again urge thy privilege over far; for though, as a good
+Moslem, I respect those whom Heaven hath deprived of ordinary
+reason, in order to endow them with the spirit of prophecy, yet I
+like not other men's hands on the bridle of my horse, neither
+upon my own person.  Speak, therefore, what thou wilt, secure of
+any resentment from me; but gather so much sense as to apprehend
+that if thou shalt again proffer me any violence, I will strike
+thy shagged head from thy meagre shoulders.--and to thee, friend
+Kenneth," he added, as he remounted his steed, "I must needs say,
+that in a companion through the desert, I love friendly deeds
+better than fair words.  Of the last thou hast given me enough;
+but it had been better to have aided me more speedily in my
+struggle with this Hamako, who had well-nigh taken my life in his
+frenzy,"
+
+"By my faith," said the Knight, "I did somewhat fail--was
+somewhat tardy in rendering thee instant help; but the
+strangeness of the assailant, the suddenness of the scene--it was
+as if thy wild and wicked lay had raised the devil among us--and
+such was my confusion, that two or three minutes elapsed ere I
+could take to my weapon."
+
+"Thou art but a cold and considerate friend," said the Saracen;
+"and, had the Hamako been one grain more frantic, thy companion
+had been slain by thy side, to thy eternal dishonour, without thy
+stirring a finger in his aid, although thou satest by, mounted,
+and in arms."
+
+"By my word, Saracen," said the Christian, "if thou wilt have it
+in plain terms, I thought that strange figure was the devil; and
+being of thy lineage, I knew not what family secret you might be
+communicating to each other, as you lay lovingly rolling together
+on the sand."
+
+"Thy gibe is no answer, brother Kenneth," said the Saracen; "for
+know, that had my assailant been in very deed the Prince of
+Darkness, thou wert bound not the less to enter into combat with
+him in thy comrade's behalf.  Know, also, that whatever there may
+be of foul or of fiendish about the Hamako belongs more to your
+lineage than to mine--this Hamako being, in truth, the anchorite
+whom thou art come hither to visit."
+
+"This!"  said Sir Kenneth, looking at the athletic yet wasted
+figure before him--"this!  Thou mockest, Saracen--this cannot be
+the venerable Theodorick!"
+
+"Ask himself, if thou wilt not believe me," answered Sheerkohf;
+and ere the words had left his mouth, the hermit gave evidence in
+his own behalf.
+
+"I am Theodorick of Engaddi," he said--"I am the walker of the
+desert--I am friend of the Cross, and flail of all infidels,
+heretics, and devil-worshippers.  Avoid ye, avoid ye!  Down with
+Mahound, Termagaunt, and all their adherents!"--So saying, he
+pulled from under his shaggy garment a sort of flail or jointed
+club, bound with iron, which he brandished round his head with
+singular dexterity,
+
+"Thou seest thy saint," said the Saracen, laughing, for the first
+time, at the unmitigated astonishment with which Sir Kenneth
+looked on the wild gestures and heard the wayward muttering of
+Theodorick, who, after swinging his flail in every direction,
+apparently quite reckless whether it encountered the head of
+either of his companions, finally showed his own strength, and
+the soundness of the weapon, by striking into fragments a large
+stone which lay near him.
+
+"This is a madman," said Sir Kenneth.
+
+"Not the worse saint," returned the Moslem, speaking according to
+the well-known Eastern belief, that madmen are under the
+influence of immediate inspiration.  "Know, Christian, that when
+one eye is extinguished, the other becomes more keen; when one
+hand is cut off, the other becomes more powerful; so, when our
+reason in human things is disturbed or destroyed, our view
+heavenward becomes more acute and perfect."
+
+Here the voice of the Saracen was drowned in that of the hermit,
+who began to hollo aloud in a wild, chanting tone, "I am
+Theodorick of Engaddi--I am the torch-brand of the desert--I am
+the flail of the infidels!  The lion and the leopard shall be my
+comrades, and draw nigh to my cell for shelter; neither shall the
+goat be afraid of their fangs.  I am the torch and the lantern
+--Kyrie Eleison!"
+
+He closed his song by a short race, and ended that again by three
+forward bounds, which would have done him great credit in a
+gymnastic academy, but became his character of hermit so
+indifferently that the Scottish Knight was altogether confounded
+and bewildered.
+
+The Saracen seemed to understand him better.  "You see," he said,
+"that he expects us to follow him to his cell, which, indeed, is
+our only place of refuge for the night.  You are the leopard,
+from the portrait on your shield; I am the lion, as my name
+imports; and by the goat, alluding to his garb of goat-skins, he
+means himself.  We must keep him in sight, however, for he is as
+fleet as a dromedary."
+
+In fact, the task was a difficult one, for though the reverend
+guide stopped from time to time, and waved his hand, as if to
+encourage them to come on, yet, well acquainted with all the
+winding dells and passes of the desert, and gifted with uncommon
+activity, which, perhaps, an unsettled state of mind kept in
+constant exercise, he led the knights through chasms and along
+footpaths where even the light-armed Saracen, with his well-trained barb, was in considerable risk, and 
+where the iron-sheathed European and his over-burdened steed found themselves in
+such imminent peril as the rider would gladly have exchanged for
+the dangers of a general action.  Glad he was when, at length,
+after this wild race, he beheld the holy man who had led it
+standing in front of a cavern, with a large torch in his hand,
+composed of a piece of wood dipped in bitumen, which cast a broad
+and flickering light, and emitted a strong sulphureous smell.
+
+Undeterred by the stifling vapour, the knight threw himself from
+his horse and entered the cavern, which afforded small appearance
+of accommodation.  The cell was divided into two parts, in the
+outward of which were an altar of stone and a crucifix made of
+reeds: this served the anchorite for his chapel.  On one side of
+this outward cave the Christian knight, though not without
+scruple, arising from religious reverence to the objects around,
+fastened up his horse, and arranged him for the night, in
+imitation of the Saracen, who gave him to understand that such
+was the custom of the place.  The hermit, meanwhile, was busied
+putting his inner apartment in order to receive his guests, and
+there they soon joined him.  At the bottom of the outer cave, a
+small aperture, closed with a door of rough plank, led into the
+sleeping apartment of the hermit, which was more commodious.  The
+floor had been brought to a rough level by the labour of the
+inhabitant, and then strewed with white sand, which he daily
+sprinkled with water from a small fountain which bubbled out of
+the rock in one corner, affording in that stifling climate,
+refreshment alike to the ear and the taste.  Mattresses, wrought
+of twisted flags, lay by the side of the cell; the sides, like
+the floor, had been roughly brought to shape, and several herbs
+and flowers were hung around them.  Two waxen torches, which the
+hermit lighted, gave a cheerful air to the place, which was
+rendered agreeable by its fragrance and coolness.
+
+There were implements of labour in one corner of the apartment,
+in another was a niche for a rude statue of the Virgin.  A table
+and two chairs showed that they must be the handiwork of the
+anchorite, being different in their form from Oriental
+accommodations.  The former was covered, not only with reeds and
+pulse, but also with dried flesh, which Theodorick assiduously
+placed in such arrangement as should invite the appetite of his
+guests.  This appearance of courtesy, though mute, and expressed
+by gestures only, seemed to Sir Kenneth something entirely
+irreconcilable with his former wild and violent demeanour.  The
+movements of the hermit were now become composed, and apparently
+it was only a sense of religious humiliation which prevented his
+features, emaciated as they were by his austere mode of life,
+from being majestic and noble.  He trod his cell as one who
+seemed born to rule over men, but who had abdicated his empire to
+become the servant of Heaven.  Still, it must be allowed that his
+gigantic size, the length of his unshaven locks and beard, and
+the fire of a deep-set and wild eye were rather attributes of a
+soldier than of a recluse.
+
+Even the Saracen seemed to regard the anchorite with some
+veneration, while he was thus employed, and he whispered in a low
+tone to Sir Kenneth, "The Hamako is now in his better mind, but
+he will not speak until we have eaten--such is his vow."
+
+It was in silence, accordingly, that Theodorick motioned to the
+Scot to take his place on one of the low chairs, while Sheerkohf
+placed himself, after the custom of his nation, upon a cushion of
+mats.  The hermit then held up both hands, as if blessing the
+refreshment which he had placed before his guests, and they
+proceeded to eat in silence as profound as his own.  To the
+Saracen this gravity was natural; and the Christian imitated his
+taciturnity, while he employed his thoughts on the singularity of
+his own situation, and the contrast betwixt the wild, furious
+gesticulations, loud cries, and fierce actions of Theodorick,
+when they first met him, and the demure, solemn, decorous
+assiduity with which he now performed the duties of hospitality.
+
+When their meal was ended, the hermit, who had not himself eaten
+a morsel, removed the fragments from the table, and placing
+before the Saracen a pitcher of sherbet, assigned to the Scot a
+flask of wine.
+
+"Drink," he said, "my children"--they were the first words he had
+spoken--"the gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is
+remembered."
+
+Having said this, he retired to the outward cell, probably for
+performance of his devotions, and left his guests together in the
+inner apartment; when Sir Kenneth endeavoured, by various
+questions, to draw from Sheerkohf what that Emir knew concerning
+his host.  He was interested by more than mere curiosity in these
+inquiries.  Difficult as it was to reconcile the outrageous
+demeanour of the recluse at his first appearance with his present
+humble and placid behaviour, it seemed yet more impossible to
+think it consistent with the high consideration in which,
+according to what Sir Kenneth had learned, this hermit was held
+by the most enlightened divines of the Christian world.
+Theodorick, the hermit of Engaddi, had, in that character, been
+the correspondent of popes and councils; to whom his letters,
+full of eloquent fervour, had described the miseries imposed by
+the unbelievers upon the Latin Christians in the Holy Land, in
+colours scarce inferior to those employed at the Council of
+Clermont by the Hermit Peter, when he preached the first Crusade.
+To find, in a person so reverend and so much revered, the frantic
+gestures of a mad fakir, induced the Christian knight to pause
+ere he could resolve to communicate to him certain important
+matters, which he had in charge from some of the leaders of the
+Crusade.
+
+It had been a main object of Sir Kenneth's pilgrimage, attempted
+by a route so unusual, to make such communications; but what he
+had that night seen induced him to pause and reflect ere he
+proceeded to the execution of his commission.  From the Emir he
+could not extract much information, but the general tenor was as
+follows:--That, as he had heard, the hermit had been once a brave
+and valiant soldier, wise in council and fortunate in battle,
+which last he could easily believe from the great strength and
+agility which he had often seen him display; that he had appeared
+at Jerusalem in the character not of a pilgrim, but in that of
+one who had devoted himself to dwell for the remainder of his
+life in the Holy Land.  Shortly afterwards, he fixed his
+residence amid the scenes of desolation where they now found him,
+respected by the Latins for his austere devotion, and by the
+Turks and Arabs on account of the symptoms of insanity which he
+displayed, and which they ascribed to inspiration.  It was from
+them he had the name of Hamako, which expresses such a character
+in the Turkish language.  Sheerkohf himself seemed at a loss how
+to rank their host.  He had been, he said, a wise man, and could
+often for many hours together speak lessons of virtue or wisdom,
+without the slightest appearance of inaccuracy.  At other times
+he was wild and violent, but never before had he seen him so
+mischievously disposed as he had that day appeared to be.  His
+rage was chiefly provoked by any affront to his religion; and
+there was a story of some wandering Arabs, who had insulted his
+worship and defaced his altar, and whom he had on that account
+attacked and slain with the short flail which he carried with him
+in lieu of all other weapons.  This incident had made a great
+noise, and it was as much the fear of the hermit's iron flail as
+regard for his character as a Hamako which caused the roving
+tribes to respect his dwelling and his chapel.  His fame had
+spread so far that Saladin had issued particular orders that he
+should be spared and protected.  He himself, and other Moslem
+lords of rank, had visited the cell more than once, partly from
+curiosity, partly that they expected from a man so learned as the
+Christian Hamako some insight into the secrets of futurity.  "He
+had," continued the Saracen, "a rashid, or observatory, of great
+height, contrived to view the heavenly bodies, and particularly
+the planetary system--by whose movements and influences, as both
+Christian and Moslem believed, the course of human events was
+regulated, and might be predicted."
+
+This was the substance of the Emir Sheerkohf's information, and
+it left Sir Kenneth in doubt whether the character of insanity
+arose from the occasional excessive fervour of the hermit's zeal,
+or whether it was not altogether fictitious, and assumed for the
+sake of the immunities which it afforded.  Yet it seemed that the
+infidels had carried their complaisance towards him to an
+uncommon length, considering the fanaticism of the followers of
+Mohammed, in the midst of whom he was living, though the
+professed enemy of their faith.  He thought also there was more
+intimacy of acquaintance betwixt the hermit and the Saracen than
+the words of the latter had induced him to anticipate; and it had
+not escaped him that the former had called the latter by a name
+different from that which he himself had assumed.  All these
+considerations authorized caution, if not suspicion.  He
+determined to observe his host closely, and not to be over-hasty
+in communicating with him on the important charge entrusted to
+him.
+
+"Beware, Saracen," he said; "methinks our host's imagination
+wanders as well on the subject of names as upon other matters.
+Thy name is Sheerkohf, and he called thee but now by another."
+
+"My name, when in the tent of my father," replied the Kurdman,
+"was Ilderim, and by this I am still distinguished by many.  In
+the field, and to soldiers, I am known as the Lion of the
+Mountain, being the name my good sword hath won for me.  But
+hush, the Hamako comes--it is to warn us to rest.  I know his
+custom; none must watch him at his vigils."
+
+The anchorite accordingly entered, and folding his arms on his
+bosom as he stood before them, said with a solemn voice, "Blessed
+be His name, who hath appointed the quiet night to follow the
+busy day, and the calm sleep to refresh the wearied limbs and to
+compose the troubled spirit!"
+
+Both warriors replied "Amen!"  and, arising from the table,
+prepared to betake themselves to the couches, which their host
+indicated by waving his hand, as, making a reverence to each, he
+again withdrew from the apartment.
+
+The Knight of the Leopard then disarmed himself of his heavy
+panoply, his Saracen companion kindly assisting him to undo his
+buckler and clasps, until he remained in the close dress of
+chamois leather, which knights and men-at-arms used to wear under
+their harness.  The Saracen, if he had admired the strength of
+his adversary when sheathed in steel, was now no less struck with
+the accuracy of proportion displayed in his nervous and well-compacted figure.  The knight, on the other 
+hand, as, in exchange
+of courtesy, he assisted the Saracen to disrobe himself of his
+upper garments, that he might sleep with more convenience, was,
+on his side, at a loss to conceive how such slender proportions
+and slimness of figure could be reconciled with the vigour he had
+displayed in personal contest.
+
+Each warrior prayed ere he addressed himself to his place of
+rest.  The Moslem turned towards his KEBLAH, the point to which
+the prayer of each follower of the Prophet was to be addressed,
+and murmured his heathen orisons; while the Christian,
+withdrawing from the contamination of the infidel's
+neighbourhood, placed his huge cross-handled sword upright, and
+kneeling before it as the sign of salvation, told his rosary with
+a devotion which was enhanced by the recollection of the scenes
+through which he had passed, and the dangers from which he had
+been rescued, in the course of the day.  Both warriors, worn by
+toil and travel, were soon fast asleep, each on his separate
+pallet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Kenneth the Scot was uncertain how long his senses had been lost
+in profound repose, when he was roused to recollection by a sense
+of oppression on his chest, which at first suggested a flirting
+dream of struggling with a powerful opponent, and at length
+recalled him fully to his senses.  He was about to demand who was
+there, when, opening his eyes, he beheld the figure of the
+anchorite, wild and savage-looking as we have described him,
+standing by his bedside, and pressing his right hand upon his
+breast, while he held a small silver lamp in the other.
+
+"Be silent," said the hermit, as the prostrate knight looked up
+in surprise; "I have that to say to you which yonder infidel must
+not hear."
+
+These words he spoke in the French language, and not in the
+lingua franca, or compound of Eastern and European dialects,
+which had hitherto been used amongst them.
+
+"Arise," he continued, "put on thy mantle; speak not, but tread
+lightly, and follow me."
+
+Sir Kenneth arose, and took his sword.
+
+"It needs not," answered the anchorite, in a whisper; "we are
+going where spiritual arms avail much, and fleshly weapons are
+but as the reed and the decayed gourd."
+
+The knight deposited his sword by the bedside as before, and,
+armed only with his dagger, from which in this perilous country
+he never parted, prepared to attend his mysterious host.
+
+The hermit then moved slowly forwards, and was followed by the
+knight, still under some uncertainty whether the dark form which
+glided on before to show him the path was not, in fact, the
+creation of a disturbed dream.  They passed, like shadows, into
+the outer apartment, without disturbing the paynim Emir, who lay
+still buried in repose.  Before the cross and altar, in the
+outward room, a lamp was still burning, a missal was displayed,
+and on the floor lay a discipline, or penitential scourge of
+small cord and wire, the lashes of which were recently stained
+with blood--a token, no doubt, of the severe penance of the
+recluse.  Here Theodorick kneeled down, and pointed to the knight
+to take his place beside him upon the sharp flints, which seemed
+placed for the purpose of rendering the posture of reverential
+devotion as uneasy as possible.  He read many prayers of the
+Catholic Church, and chanted, in a low but earnest voice, three
+of the penitential psalms.  These last he intermixed with sighs,
+and tears, and convulsive throbs, which bore witness how deeply
+he felt the divine poetry which he recited.  The Scottish knight
+assisted with profound sincerity at these acts of devotion, his
+opinion of his host beginning, in the meantime, to be so much
+changed, that he doubted whether, from the severity of his
+penance and the ardour of his prayers, he ought not to regard him
+as a saint; and when they arose from the ground, he stood with
+reverence before him, as a pupil before an honoured master.  The
+hermit was, on his side, silent and abstracted for the space of a
+few minutes.
+
+"Look into yonder recess, my son," he said, pointing to the
+farther corner of the cell; "there thou wilt find a veil--bring
+it hither."
+
+The knight obeyed, and in a small aperture cut out of the wall,
+and secured with a door of wicker, he found the veil inquired
+for.  When he brought it to the light, he discovered that it was
+torn, and soiled in some places with some dark substance.  The
+anchorite looked at it with a deep but smothered emotion, and ere
+he could speak to the Scottish knight, was compelled to vent his
+feelings in a convulsive groan.
+
+"Thou art now about to look upon the richest treasure that the
+earth possesses," he at length said; "woe is me, that my eyes are
+unworthy to be lifted towards it!  Alas!  I am but the vile and
+despised sign, which points out to the wearied traveller a
+harbour of rest and security, but must itself remain for ever
+without doors.  In vain have I fled to the very depths of the
+rocks, and the very bosom of the thirsty desert.  Mine enemy hath
+found me--even he whom I have denied has pursued me to my
+fortresses."
+
+He paused again for a moment, and turning to the Scottish knight,
+said, in a firmer tone of voice, "You bring me a greeting from
+Richard of England?"
+
+"I come from the Council of Christian Princes," said the knight;
+"but the King of England being indisposed, I am not honoured with
+his Majesty's commands."
+
+"Your token?"  demanded the recluse.
+
+Sir Kenneth hesitated.  Former suspicions, and the marks of
+insanity which the hermit had formerly exhibited, rushed suddenly
+on his thoughts; but how suspect a man whose manners were so
+saintly?  "My password," he said at length, "is this--Kings
+begged of a beggar."
+
+"It is right," said the hermit, while he paused.  "I know you
+well; but the sentinel upon his post--and mine is an important
+one--challenges friend as well as foe,"
+
+He then moved forward with the lamp, leading the way into the
+room which they had left.  The Saracen lay on his couch, still
+fast asleep.  The hermit paused by his side, and looked down on
+him.
+
+"He sleeps," he said, "in darkness, and must not be awakened."
+
+The attitude of the Emir did indeed convey the idea of profound
+repose.  One arm, flung across his body, as he lay with his face
+half turned to the wall, concealed, with its loose and long
+sleeve, the greater part of his face; but the high forehead was
+yet visible.  Its nerves, which during his waking hours were so
+uncommonly active, were now motionless, as if the face had been
+composed of dark marble, and his long silken eyelashes closed
+over his piercing and hawklike eyes.  The open and relaxed hand,
+and the deep, regular, and soft breathing, all gave tokens of the
+most profound repose.  The slumberer formed a singular group
+along with the tall forms of the hermit in his shaggy dress of
+goat-skins, bearing the lamp, and the knight in his close
+leathern coat--the former with an austere expression of ascetic
+gloom, the latter with anxious curiosity deeply impressed on his
+manly features.
+
+"He sleeps soundly," said the hermit, in the same low tone as
+before; and repeating the words, though he had changed the
+meaning from that which is literal to a metaphorical sense--"he
+sleeps in darkness, but there shall be for him a dayspring.--O
+Ilderim, thy waking thoughts are yet as vain and wild as those
+which are wheeling their giddy dance through thy sleeping brain;
+but the trumpet shall be heard, and the dream shall be
+dissolved."
+
+So saying, and making the knight a sign to follow him, the hermit
+went towards the altar, and passing behind it, pressed a spring,
+which, opening without noise, showed a small iron door wrought in
+the side of the cavern, so as to be almost imperceptible, unless
+upon the most severe scrutiny.  The hermit, ere he ventured fully
+to open the door, dropped some oil on the hinges, which the lamp
+supplied.  A small staircase, hewn in the rock, was discovered,
+when the iron door was at length completely opened.
+
+"Take the veil which I hold," said the hermit, in a melancholy
+tone, "and blind mine eyes; For I may not look on the treasure
+which thou art presently to behold, without sin and presumption."
+
+Without reply, the knight hastily muffled the recluse's head in
+the veil, and the latter began to ascend the staircase as one too
+much accustomed to the way to require the use of light, while at
+the same time he held the lamp to the Scot, who followed him for
+many steps up the narrow ascent.  At length they rested in a
+small vault of irregular form, in one nook of which the staircase
+terminated, while in another corner a corresponding stair was
+seen to continue the ascent.  In a third angle was a Gothic door,
+very rudely ornamented with the usual attributes of clustered
+columns and carving, and defended by a wicket, strongly guarded
+with iron, and studded with large nails.  To this last point the
+hermit directed his steps, which seemed to falter as he
+approached it.
+
+"Put off thy shoes," he said to his attendant; "the ground on
+which thou standest is holy.  Banish from thy innermost heart
+each profane and carnal thought, for to harbour such while in
+this place were a deadly impiety."
+
+The knight laid aside his shoes as he was commanded, and the
+hermit stood in the meanwhile as if communing with his soul in
+secret prayer, and when he again moved, commanded the knight to
+knock at the wicket three times.  He did so.  The door opened
+spontaneously--at least Sir Kenneth beheld no one--and his senses
+were at once assailed by a stream of the purest light, and by a
+strong and almost oppressive sense of the richest perfumes.  He
+stepped two or three paces back, and it was the space of a minute
+ere he recovered the dazzling and overpowering effects of the
+sudden change from darkness to light.
+
+When he entered the apartment in which this brilliant lustre was
+displayed, he perceived that the light proceeded from a
+combination of silver lamps, fed with purest oil, and sending
+forth the richest odours, hanging by silver chains from the roof
+of a small Gothic chapel, hewn, like most part of the hermit's
+singular mansion, out of the sound and solid rock.  But whereas,
+in every other place which Sir Kenneth had seen, the labour
+employed upon the rock had been of the simplest and coarsest
+description, it had in this chapel employed the invention and the
+chisels of the most able architects.  The groined roofs rose from
+six columns on each side, carved with the rarest skill; and the
+manner in which the crossings of the concave arches were bound
+together, as it were, with appropriate ornaments, were all in the
+finest tone of the architecture of the age.  Corresponding to the
+line of pillars, there were on each side six richly-wrought
+niches, each of which contained the image of one of the twelve
+apostles.
+
+At the upper and eastern end of the chapel stood the altar,
+behind which a very rich curtain of Persian silk, embroidered
+deeply with gold, covered a recess, containing, unquestionably,
+some image or relic of no ordinary sanctity, in honour of which
+this singular place of worship had been erected, Under the
+persuasion that this must be the case, the knight advanced to the
+shrine, and kneeling down before it, repeated his devotions with
+fervency, during which his attention was disturbed by the curtain
+being suddenly raised, or rather pulled aside, how or by whom he
+saw not; but in the niche which was thus disclosed he beheld a
+cabinet of silver and ebony, with a double folding-door, the
+whole formed into the miniature resemblance of a Gothic church.
+
+As he gazed with anxious curiosity on the shrine, the two
+folding-doors also flew open, discovering a large piece of wood,
+on which were blazoned the words, VERA CRUX; at the same time a
+choir of female voices sung GLORIA PATRI.  The instant the strain
+had ceased, the shrine was closed, and the curtain again drawn,
+and the knight who knelt at the altar might now continue his
+devotions undisturbed, in honour of the holy relic which had been
+just disclosed to his view.  He did this under the profound
+impression of one who had witnessed, with his own eyes, an awful
+evidence of the truth of his religion; and it was some time ere,
+concluding his orisons, he arose, and ventured to look around him
+for the hermit, who had guided him to this sacred and mysterious
+spot.  He beheld him, his head still muffled in the veil which he
+had himself wrapped around it, crouching, like a rated hound,
+upon the threshold of the chapel; but, apparently, without
+venturing to cross it--the holiest reverence, the most
+penitential remorse, was expressed by his posture, which seemed
+that of a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the burden
+of his inward feelings.  It seemed to the Scot that only the
+sense of the deepest penitence, remorse, and humiliation could
+have thus prostrated a frame so strong and a spirit so fiery.
+
+He approached him as if to speak; but the recluse anticipated his
+purpose, murmuring in stifled tones, from beneath the fold in
+which his head was muffled, and which sounded like a voice
+proceeding from the cerements of a corpse,--"Abide, abide--happy
+thou that mayest--the vision is not yet ended."  So saying, he
+reared himself from the ground, drew back from the threshold on
+which he had hitherto lain prostrate, and closed the door of the
+chapel, which, secured by a spring bolt within, the snap of which
+resounded through the place, appeared so much like a part of the
+living rock from which the cavern was hewn, that Kenneth could
+hardly discern where the aperture had been.  He was now alone in
+the lighted chapel which contained the relic to which he had
+lately rendered his homage, without other arms than his dagger,
+or other companion than his pious thoughts and dauntless courage.
+
+Uncertain what was next to happen, but resolved to abide the
+course of events, Sir Kenneth paced the solitary chapel till
+about the time of the earliest cock-crowing.  At this dead
+season, when night and morning met together, he heard, but from
+what quarter he could not discover, the sound of such a small
+silver bell as is rung at the elevation of the host in the
+ceremony, or sacrifice, as it has been called, of the mass. The
+hour and the place rendered the sound fearfully solemn, and, bold
+as he was, the knight withdrew himself into the farther nook of
+the chapel, at the end opposite to the altar, in order to
+observe, without interruption, the consequences of this
+unexpected signal.
+
+He did not wait long ere the silken curtain was again withdrawn,
+and the relic again presented to his view.  As he sunk
+reverentially on his knee, he heard the sound of the lauds, or
+earliest office of the Catholic Church, sung by female voices,
+which united together in the performance as they had done in the
+former service.  The knight was soon aware that the voices were
+no longer stationary in the distance, but approached the chapel
+and became louder, when a door, imperceptible when closed, like
+that by which he had himself entered, opened on the other side of
+the vault, and gave the tones of the choir more room to swell
+along the ribbed arches of the roof.
+
+The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety,
+and, continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the
+place and scene required, expected the consequence of these
+preparations.  A procession appeared about to issue from the
+door.  First, four beautiful boys, whose arms, necks, and legs
+were bare, showing the bronze complexion of the East, and
+contrasting with the snow-white tunics which they wore, entered
+the chapel by two and two.  The first pair bore censers, which
+they swung from side to side, adding double fragrance to the
+odours with which the chapel already was impregnated.  The second
+pair scattered flowers.
+
+After these followed, in due and majestic order, the females who
+composed the choir--six, who from their black scapularies, and
+black veils over their white garments, appeared to be professed
+nuns of the order of Mount Carmel; and as many whose veils, being
+white, argued them to be novices, or occasional inhabitants in
+the cloister, who were not as yet bound to it by vows.  The
+former held in their hands large rosaries, while the younger and
+lighter figures who followed carried each a chaplet of red and
+white roses.  They moved in procession around the chapel, without
+appearing to take the slightest notice of Kenneth, although
+passing so near him that their robes almost touched him, while
+they continued to sing.  The knight doubted not that he was in
+one of those cloisters where the noble Christian maidens had
+formerly openly devoted themselves to the services of the church.
+Most of them had been suppressed since the Mohammedans had
+reconquered Palestine, but many, purchasing connivance by
+presents, or receiving it from the clemency or contempt of the
+victors, still continued to observe in private the ritual to
+which their vows had consecrated them.  Yet, though Kenneth knew
+this to be the case, the solemnity of the place and hour, the
+surprise at the sudden appearance of these votaresses, and the
+visionary manner in which they moved past him, had such influence
+on his imagination that he could scarce conceive that the fair
+procession which he beheld was formed of creatures of this world,
+so much did they resemble a choir of supernatural beings,
+rendering homage to the universal object of adoration.
+
+Such was the knight's first idea, as the procession passed him,
+scarce moving, save just sufficiently to continue their progress;
+so that, seen by the shadowy and religious light which the lamps
+shed through the clouds of incense which darkened the apartment,
+they appeared rather to glide than to walk.
+
+But as a second time, in surrounding the chapel, they passed the
+spot on which he kneeled, one of the white-stoled maidens, as she
+glided by him, detached from the chaplet which she carried a
+rosebud, which dropped from her fingers, perhaps unconsciously,
+on the foot of Sir Kenneth.  The knight started as if a dart had
+suddenly struck his person; for, when the mind is wound up to a
+high pitch of feeling and expectation, the slightest incident, if
+unexpected, gives fire to the train which imagination has already
+laid.  But he suppressed his emotion, recollecting how easily an
+incident so indifferent might have happened, and that it was only
+the uniform monotony of the movement of the choristers which made
+the incident in the slightest degree remarkable.
+
+Still, while the procession, for the third time, surrounded the
+chapel, the thoughts and the eyes of Kenneth followed exclusively
+the one among the novices who had dropped the rosebud.  Her step,
+her face, her form were so completely assimilated to the rest of
+the choristers that it was impossible to perceive the least marks
+of individuality; and yet Kenneth's heart throbbed like a bird
+that would burst from its cage, as if to assure him, by its
+sympathetic suggestions, that the female who held the right file
+on the second rank of the novices was dearer to him, not only
+than all the rest that were present, but than the whole sex
+besides.  The romantic passion of love, as it was cherished, and
+indeed enjoined, by the rules of chivalry, associated well with
+the no less romantic feelings of devotion; and they might be said
+much more to enhance than to counteract each other.  It was,
+therefore, with a glow of expectation that had something even of
+a religious character that Sir Kenneth, his sensations thrilling
+from his heart to the ends of his fingers, expected some second
+sign of the presence of one who, he strongly fancied, had already
+bestowed on him the first.  Short as the space was during which
+the procession again completed a third perambulation of the
+chapel, it seemed an eternity to Kenneth.  At length the form
+which he had watched with such devoted attention drew nigh.
+There was no difference betwixt that shrouded figure and the
+others, with whom it moved in concert and in unison, until, just
+as she passed for the third time the kneeling Crusader, a part of
+a little and well-proportioned hand, so beautifully formed as to
+give the highest idea of the perfect proportions of the form to
+which it belonged, stole through the folds of the gauze, like a
+moonbeam through the fleecy cloud of a summer night, and again a
+rosebud lay at the feet of the Knight of the Leopard.
+
+This second intimation could not be accidental---it could not be
+fortuitous, the resemblance of that half-seen but beautiful
+female hand with one which his lips had once touched, and, while
+they touched it, had internally sworn allegiance to the lovely
+owner.  Had further proof been wanting, there was the glimmer of
+that matchless ruby ring on that snow-white finger, whose
+invaluable worth Kenneth would yet have prized less than the
+slightest sign which that finger could have made; and, veiled
+too, as she was, he might see, by chance or by favour, a stray
+curl of the dark tresses, each hair of which was dearer to him a
+hundred times than a chain of massive gold.  It was the lady of
+his love!  But that she should he here--in the savage and
+sequestered desert--among vestals, who rendered themselves
+habitants of wilds and of caverns, that they might perform in
+secret those Christian rites which they dared not assist in
+openly; that this should be so, in truth and in reality, seemed
+too incredible--it must be a dream--a delusive trance of the
+imagination.  While these thoughts passed through the mind of
+Kenneth, the same passage, by which the procession had entered
+the chapel, received them on their return.  The young sacristans,
+the sable nuns, vanished successively through the open door.  At
+length she from whom he had received this double intimation
+passed also; yet, in passing, turned her head, slightly indeed,
+but perceptibly, towards the place where he remained fixed as an
+image.  He marked the last wave of her veil--it was gone--and a
+darkness sunk upon his soul, scarce less palpable than that which
+almost immediately enveloped his external sense; for the last
+chorister had no sooner crossed the threshold of the door than it
+shut with a loud sound, and at the same instant the voices of the
+choir were silent, the lights of the chapel were at once
+extinguished, and Sir Kenneth remained solitary and in total
+darkness.  But to Kenneth, solitude, and darkness, and the
+uncertainty of his mysterious situation were as nothing--he
+thought not of them--cared not for them--cared for nought in the
+world save the flitting vision which had just glided past him,
+and the tokens of her favour which she had bestowed.  To grope on
+the floor for the buds which she had dropped--to press them to
+his lips, to his bosom, now alternately, now together--to rivet
+his lips to the cold stones on which, as near as he could judge,
+she had so lately stepped--to play all the extravagances which
+strong affection suggests and vindicates to those who yield
+themselves up to it, were but the tokens of passionate love
+common to all ages.  But it was peculiar to the times of chivalry
+that, in his wildest rapture, the knight imagined of no attempt
+to follow or to trace the object of such romantic attachment;
+that he thought of her as of a deity, who, having deigned to show
+herself for an instant to her devoted worshipper, had again
+returned to the darkness of her sanctuary--or as an influential
+planet, which, having darted in some auspicious minute one
+favourable ray, wrapped itself again in its veil of mist.  The
+motions of the lady of his love were to him those of a superior
+being, who was to move without watch or control, rejoice him by
+her appearance, or depress him by her absence, animate him by her
+kindness, or drive him to despair by her cruelty--all at her own
+free will, and without other importunity or remonstrance than
+that expressed by the most devoted services of the heart and
+sword of the champion, whose sole object in life was to fulfil
+her commands, and, by the splendour of his own achievements, to
+exalt her fame.
+
+Such were the rules of chivalry, and of the love which was its
+ruling principle.  But Sir Kenneth's attachment was rendered
+romantic by other and still more peculiar circumstances.  He had
+never even heard the sound of his lady's voice, though he had
+often beheld her beauty with rapture.  She moved in a circle
+which his rank of knighthood permitted him indeed to approach,
+but not to mingle with; and highly as he stood distinguished for
+warlike skill and enterprise, still the poor Scottish soldier was
+compelled to worship his divinity at a distance almost as great
+as divides the Persian from the sun which he adores.  But when
+was the pride of woman too lofty to overlook the passionate
+devotion of a lover, however inferior in degree?  Her eye had
+been on him in the tournament, her ear had heard his praises in
+the report of the battles which were daily fought; and while
+count, duke, and lord contended for her grace, it flowed,
+unwillingly perhaps at first, or even unconsciously, towards the
+poor Knight of the Leopard, who, to support his rank, had little
+besides his sword.  When she looked, and when she listened, the
+lady saw and heard enough to encourage her in a partiality which
+had at first crept on her unawares.  If a knight's personal
+beauty was praised, even the most prudish dames of the military
+court of England would make an exception in favour of the
+Scottish Kenneth; and it oftentimes happened that,
+notwithstanding the very considerable largesses which princes and
+peers bestowed on the minstrels, an impartial spirit of
+independence would seize the poet, and the harp was swept to the
+heroism of one who had neither palfreys nor garments to bestow in
+guerdon of his applause.
+
+The moments when she listened to the praises of her lover became
+gradually more and more dear to the high-born Edith, relieving
+the flattery with which her ear was weary, and presenting to her
+a subject of secret contemplation, more worthy, as he seemed by
+general report, than those who surpassed him in rank and in the
+gifts of fortune.  As her attention became constantly, though
+cautiously, fixed on Sir Kenneth, she grew more and more
+convinced of his personal devotion to herself and more and more
+certain in her mind that in Kenneth of Scotland she beheld the
+fated knight doomed to share with her through weal and woe--and
+the prospect looked gloomy and dangerous--the passionate
+attachment to which the poets of the age ascribed such universal
+dominion, and which its manners and morals placed nearly on the
+same rank with devotion itself.
+
+Let us not disguise the truth from our readers.  When Edith
+became aware of the state of her own sentiments, chivalrous as
+were her sentiments, becoming a maiden not distant from the
+throne of England--gratified as her pride must have been with the
+mute though unceasing homage rendered to her by the knight whom
+she had distinguished, there were moments when the feelings of
+the woman, loving and beloved, murmured against the restraints of
+state and form by which she was surrounded, and when she almost
+blamed the timidity of her lover, who seemed resolved not to
+infringe them.  The etiquette, to use a modern phrase, of birth
+and rank, had drawn around her a magical circle, beyond which Sir
+Kenneth might indeed bow and gaze, but within which he could no
+more pass than an evoked spirit can transgress the boundaries
+prescribed by the rod of a powerful enchanter.  The thought
+involuntarily pressed on her that she herself must venture, were
+it but the point of her fairy foot, beyond the prescribed
+boundary, if she ever hoped to give a lover so reserved and
+bashful an opportunity of so slight a favour as but to salute her
+shoe-tie.  There was an example--the noted precedent of the
+"King's daughter of Hungary," who thus generously encouraged the
+"squire of low degree;" and Edith, though of kingly blood, was no
+king's daughter, any more than her lover was of low degree
+--fortune had put no such extreme barrier in obstacle to their
+affections.  Something, however, within the maiden's bosom--that
+modest pride which throws fetters even on love itself forbade
+her, notwithstanding the superiority of her condition, to make
+those advances, which, in every case, delicacy assigns to the
+other sex; above all, Sir Kenneth was a knight so gentle and
+honourable, so highly accomplished, as her imagination at least
+suggested, together with the strictest feelings of what was due
+to himself and to her, that however constrained her attitude
+might be while receiving his adorations, like the image of some
+deity, who is neither supposed to feel nor to reply to the homage
+of its votaries, still the idol feared that to step prematurely
+from her pedestal would be to degrade herself in the eyes of her
+devoted worshipper.
+
+Yet the devout adorer of an actual idol can even discover signs
+of approbation in the rigid and immovable features of a marble
+image; and it is no wonder that something, which could be as
+favourably interpreted, glanced from the bright eye of the lovely
+Edith, whose beauty, indeed, consisted rather more in that very
+power of expression, than an absolute regularity of contour or
+brilliancy of complexion.  Some slight marks of distinction had
+escaped from her, notwithstanding her own jealous vigilance,
+else how could Sir Kenneth have so readily and so undoubtingly
+recognized the lovely hand, of which scarce two fingers were
+visible from under the veil, or how could he have rested so
+thoroughly assured that two flowers, successively dropped on the
+spot, were intended as a recognition on the part of his lady-love?  By what train of observation--by what 
+secret signs, looks,
+or gestures--by what instinctive freemasonry of love, this degree
+of intelligence came to subsist between Edith and her lover, we
+cannot attempt to trace; for we are old, and such slight vestiges
+of affection, quickly discovered by younger eyes, defy the power
+of ours.  Enough that such affection did subsist between parties
+who had never even spoken to one another--though, on the side of
+Edith, it was checked by a deep sense of the difficulties and
+dangers which must necessarily attend the further progress of
+their attachment; and upon that of the knight by a thousand
+doubts and fears lest he had overestimated the slight tokens of
+the lady's notice, varied, as they necessarily were, by long
+intervals of apparent coldness, during which either the fear of
+exciting the observation of others, and thus drawing danger upon
+her lover, or that of sinking in his esteem by seeming too
+willing to be won, made her behave with indifference, and as if
+unobservant of his presence.
+
+This narrative, tedious perhaps, but which the story renders
+necessary, may serve to explain the state of intelligence, if it
+deserves so strong a name, betwixt the lovers, when Edith's
+unexpected appearance in the chapel produced so powerful an
+effect on the feelings of her knight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Their necromantic forms in vain
+Haunt us on the tented plain;
+We bid these spectre shapes avaunt,
+Ashtaroth and Termagaunt.     WARTON.
+
+The most profound silence, the deepest darkness, continued to
+brood for more than an hour over the chapel in which we left the
+Knight of the Leopard still kneeling, alternately expressing
+thanks to Heaven and gratitude to his lady for the boon which had
+been vouchsafed to him.  His own safety, his own destiny, for
+which he was at all times little anxious, had not now the weight
+of a grain of dust in his reflections.  He was in the
+neighbourhood of Lady Edith; he had received tokens of her grace;
+he was in a place hallowed by relics of the most awful sanctity.
+A Christian soldier, a devoted lover, could fear nothing, think
+of nothing, but his duty to Heaven and his devoir to his lady.
+
+At the lapse of the space of time which we have noticed, a shrill
+whistle, like that with which a falconer calls his hawk, was
+heard to ring sharply through the vaulted chapel.  it was a sound
+ill suited to the place, and reminded Sir Kenneth how necessary
+it was he should be upon his guard.  He started from his knee,
+and laid his hand upon his poniard.  A creaking sound, as of a
+screw or pulleys, succeeded, and a light streaming upwards, as
+from an opening in the floor, showed that a trap-door had been
+raised or depressed.  In less than a minute a long, skinny arm,
+partly naked, partly clothed in a sleeve of red samite, arose out
+of the aperture, holding a lamp as high as it could stretch
+upwards, and the figure to which the arm belonged ascended step
+by step to the level of the chapel floor.  The form and face of
+the being who thus presented himself were those of a frightful
+dwarf, with a large head, a cap fantastically adorned with three
+peacock feathers, a dress of red samite, the richness of which
+rendered his ugliness more conspicuous, distinguished by gold
+bracelets and armlets, and a white silk sash, in which he wore a
+gold-hilted dagger.  This singular figure had in his left hand a
+kind of broom.  So soon as he had stepped from the aperture
+through which he arose, he stood still, and, as if to show
+himself more distinctly, moved the lamp which he held slowly over
+his face and person, successively illuminating his wild and
+fantastic features, and his misshapen but nervous limbs.  Though
+disproportioned in person, the dwarf was not so distorted as to
+argue any want of strength or activity.  While Sir Kenneth gazed
+on this disagreeable object, the popular creed occurred to his
+remembrance concerning the gnomes or earthly spirits which make
+their abode in the caverns of the earth; and so much did this
+figure correspond with ideas he had formed of their appearance,
+that he looked on it with disgust, mingled not indeed with fear,
+but that sort of awe which the presence of a supernatural
+creature may infuse into the most steady bosom.
+
+The dwarf again whistled, and summoned from beneath a companion.
+This second figure ascended in the same manner as the first; but
+it was a female arm in this second instance which upheld the lamp
+from the subterranean vault out of which these presentments
+arose, and it was a female form, much resembling the first in
+shape and proportions, which slowly emerged from the floor.  Her
+dress was also of red samite, fantastically cut and flounced, as
+if she had been dressed for some exhibition of mimes or jugglers;
+and with the same minuteness which her predecessor had exhibited,
+she passed the lamp over her face and person, which seemed to
+rival the male's in ugliness.  But with all this most
+unfavourable exterior, there was one trait in the features of
+both which argued alertness and intelligence in the most uncommon
+degree.  This arose from the brilliancy of their eyes, which,
+deep-set beneath black and shaggy brows, gleamed with a lustre
+which, like that in the eye of the toad, seemed to make some
+amends for the extreme ugliness of countenance and person.
+
+Sir Kenneth remained as if spellbound, while this unlovely pair,
+moving round the chapel close to each other, appeared to perform
+the duty of sweeping it, like menials; but as they used only one
+hand, the floor was not much benefited by the exercise, which
+they plied with such oddity of gestures and manner as befitted
+their bizarre and fantastic appearance.  When they approached
+near to the knight in the course of their occupation, they ceased
+to use their brooms; and placing themselves side by side,
+directly opposite to Sir Kenneth, they again slowly shifted the
+lights which they held, so as to allow him distinctly to survey
+features which were not rendered more agreeable by being brought
+nearer, and to observe the extreme quickness and keenness with
+which their black and glittering eyes flashed back the light of
+the lamps.  They then turned the gleam of both lights upon the
+knight, and having accurately surveyed him, turned their faces to
+each other, and set up a loud, yelling laugh, which resounded in
+his ears.  The sound was so ghastly that Sir Kenneth started at
+hearing it, and hastily demanded, in the name of God, who they
+were who profaned that holy place with such antic gestures and
+elritch exclamations.
+
+"I am the dwarf Nectabanus," said the abortion-seeming male, in a
+voice corresponding to his figure, and resembling the voice of
+the night-crow more than any sound which is heard by daylight.
+
+"And I am Guenevra, his lady and his love," replied the female,
+in tones which, being shriller, were yet wilder than those of her
+companion.
+
+"Wherefore are you here?"  again demanded the knight, scarcely
+yet assured that they were human beings which he saw before him.
+
+"I am," replied the male dwarf, with much assumed gravity and
+dignity, "the twelfth Imaum.  I am Mohammed Mohadi, the guide and
+the conductor of the faithful.  A hundred horses stand ready
+saddled for me and my train at the Holy City, and as many at the
+City of Refuge.  I am he who shall bear witness, and this is one
+of my houris."
+
+"Thou liest!"  answered the female, interrupting her companion,
+in tones yet shriller than his own; "I am none of thy houris, and
+thou art no such infidel trash as the Mohammed of whom thou
+speakest.  May my curse rest upon his coffin!  I tell thee, thou
+ass of Issachar, thou art King Arthur of Britain, whom the
+fairies stole away from the field of Avalon; and I am Dame
+Guenevra, famed for her beauty."
+
+"But in truth, noble sir," said the male, "we are distressed
+princes, dwelling under the wing of King Guy of Jerusalem, until
+he was driven out from his own nest by the foul infidels
+--Heaven's bolts consume them!"
+
+"Hush," said a voice from the side upon which the knight had
+entered--"hush, fools, and begone; your ministry is ended."
+
+The dwarfs had no sooner heard the command than, gibbering in
+discordant whispers to each other, they blew out their lights at
+once, and left the knight in utter darkness, which, when the
+pattering of their retiring feet had died away, was soon
+accompanied by its fittest companion, total silence.
+
+The knight felt the departure of these unfortunate creatures a
+relief.  He could not, from their language, manners, and
+appearance, doubt that they belonged to the degraded class of
+beings whom deformity of person and weakness of intellect
+recommended to the painful situation of appendages to great
+families, where their personal appearance and imbecility were
+food for merriment to the household.  Superior in no respect to
+the ideas and manners of his time, the Scottish knight might, at
+another period, have been much amused by the mummery of these
+poor effigies of humanity; but now their appearance,
+gesticulations, and language broke the train of deep and solemn
+feeling with which he was impressed, and he rejoiced in the
+disappearance of the unhappy objects.
+
+A few minutes after they had retired, the door at which he had
+entered opened slowly, and remaining ajar, discovered a faint
+light arising from a lantern placed upon the threshold.  Its
+doubtful and wavering gleam showed a dark form reclined beside
+the entrance, but without its precincts, which, on approaching it
+more nearly, he recognized to be the hermit, crouching in the
+same humble posture in which he had at first laid himself down,
+and which, doubtless, he had retained during the whole time of
+his guest's continuing in the chapel.
+
+"All is over," said the hermit, as he heard the knight
+approaching, "and the most wretched of earthly sinners, with him
+who should think himself most honoured and most happy among the
+race of humanity, must retire from this place.  Take the light,
+and guide me down the descent, for I must not uncover my eyes
+until I am far from this hallowed spot."
+
+The Scottish knight obeyed in silence, for a solemn and yet
+ecstatic sense of what he had seen had silenced even the eager
+
+workings of curiosity.  He led the way, with considerable
+accuracy, through the various secret passages and stairs by which
+they had ascended, until at length they found themselves in the
+outward cell of the hermit's cavern.
+
+"The condemned criminal is restored to his dungeon, reprieved
+from one miserable day to another, until his awful Judge shall at
+length appoint the well-deserved sentence to be carried into
+execution."
+
+As the hermit spoke these words, he laid aside the veil with
+which his eyes had been bound, and looked at it with a suppressed
+and hollow sigh.  No sooner had he restored it to the crypt from
+which he had caused the Scot to bring it, than he said hastily
+and sternly to his companion; "Begone, begone--to rest, to rest.
+You may sleep--you can sleep--I neither can nor may."
+
+Respecting the profound agitation with which this was spoken, the
+knight retired into the inner cell; but casting back his eye as
+he left the exterior grotto, he beheld the anchorite stripping
+his shoulders with frantic haste of their shaggy mantle, and ere
+he could shut the frail door which separated the two compartments
+of the cavern, he heard the clang of the scourge and the groans
+of the penitent under his self-inflicted penance.  A cold shudder
+came over the knight as he reflected what could be the foulness
+of the sin, what the depth of the remorse, which, apparently,
+such severe penance could neither cleanse nor assuage.  He told
+his beads devoutly, and flung himself on his rude couch, after a
+glance at the still sleeping Moslem, and, wearied by the various
+scenes of the day and the night, soon slept as sound as infancy.
+Upon his awaking in the morning, he held certain conferences with
+the hermit upon matters of importance, and the result of their
+intercourse induced him to remain for two days longer in the
+grotto.  He was regular, as became a pilgrim, in his devotional
+exercises, but was not again admitted to the chapel in which he
+had seen such wonders.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Now change the scene--and let the trumpets sound,
+For we must rouse the lion from his lair.  OLD PLAY.
+
+The scene must change, as our programme has announced, from the
+mountain wilderness of Jordan to the camp of King Richard of
+England, then stationed betwixt Jean d'Acre and Ascalon, and
+containing that army with which he of the lion heart had promised
+himself a triumphant march to Jerusalem, and in which he would
+probably have succeeded, if not hindered by the jealousies of the
+Christian princes engaged in the same enterprise, and the offence
+taken by them at the uncurbed haughtiness of the English monarch,
+and Richard's unveiled contempt for his brother sovereigns, who,
+his equals in rank, were yet far his inferiors in courage,
+hardihood, and military talents.  Such discords, and particularly
+those betwixt Richard and Philip of France, created disputes and
+obstacles which impeded every active measure proposed by the
+heroic though impetuous Richard, while the ranks of the Crusaders
+were daily thinned, not only by the desertion of individuals, but
+of entire bands, headed by their respective feudal leaders, who
+withdrew from a contest in which they had ceased to hope for
+success.
+
+The effects of the climate became, as usual, fatal to soldiers
+from the north, and the more so that the dissolute license of the
+Crusaders, forming a singular contrast to the principles and
+purpose of their taking up arms, rendered them more easy victims
+to the insalubrious influence of burning heat and chilling dews.
+To these discouraging causes of loss was to be added the sword of
+the enemy.  Saladin, than whom no greater name is recorded in
+Eastern history, had learned, to his fatal experience, that his
+light-armed followers were little able to meet in close encounter
+with the iron-clad Franks, and had been taught, at the same time,
+to apprehend and dread the adventurous character of his
+antagonist Richard.  But if his armies were more than once routed
+with great slaughter, his numbers gave the Saracen the advantage
+in those lighter skirmishes, of which many were inevitable.
+
+As the army of his assailants decreased, the enterprises of the
+Sultan became more numerous and more bold in this species of
+petty warfare.  The camp of the Crusaders was surrounded, and
+almost besieged, by clouds of light cavalry, resembling swarms of
+wasps, easily crushed when they are once grasped, but furnished
+with wings to elude superior strength, and stings to inflict harm
+and mischief.  There was perpetual warfare of posts and foragers,
+in which many valuable lives were lost, without any corresponding
+object being gained; convoys were intercepted, and communications
+were cut off.  The Crusaders had to purchase the means of
+sustaining life, by life itself; and water, like that of the well
+of Bethlehem, longed for by King David, one of its ancient
+monarchs, was then, as before, only obtained by the expenditure
+of blood.
+
+These evils were in a great measure counterbalanced by the stern
+resolution and restless activity of King Richard, who, with some
+of his best knights, was ever on horseback, ready to repair to
+any point where danger occurred, and often not only bringing
+unexpected succour to the Christians, but discomfiting the
+infidels when they seemed most secure of victory.  But even the
+iron frame of Coeur de Lion could not support without injury the
+alternations of the unwholesome climate, joined to ceaseless
+exertions of body and mind.  He became afflicted with one of
+those slow and wasting fevers peculiar to Asia, and in despite of
+his great strength and still greater courage, grew first unfit to
+mount on horseback, and then unable to attend the councils of war
+which were from time to time held by the Crusaders.  It was
+difficult to say whether this state of personal inactivity was
+rendered more galling or more endurable to the English monarch by
+the resolution of the council to engage in a truce of thirty days
+with the Sultan Saladin; for on the one hand, if he was incensed
+at the delay which this interposed to the progress of the great
+enterprise, he was, on the other, somewhat consoled by knowing
+that others were not acquiring laurels while he remained inactive
+upon a sick-bed,
+
+That, however, which Coeur de Lion could least excuse was the
+general inactivity which prevailed in the camp of the Crusaders
+so soon as his illness assumed a serious aspect; and the reports
+which he extracted from his unwilling attendants gave him to
+understand that the hopes of the host had abated in proportion to
+his illness, and that the interval of truce was employed, not in
+recruiting their numbers, reanimating their courage, fostering
+their spirit of conquest, and preparing for a speedy and
+determined advance upon the Holy City, which was the object of
+their expedition, but in securing the camp occupied by their
+diminished followers with trenches, palisades, and other
+fortifications, as if preparing rather to repel an attack from a
+powerful enemy so soon as hostilities should recommence, than to
+assume the proud character of conquerors and assailants.
+
+The English king chafed under these reports, like the imprisoned
+lion viewing his prey from the iron barriers of his cage.
+Naturally rash and impetuous, the irritability of his temper
+preyed on itself.  He was dreaded by his attendants and even the
+medical assistants feared to assume the necessary authority which
+a physician, to do justice to his patient, must needs exercise
+over him.  One faithful baron, who, perhaps, from the congenial
+nature of his disposition, was devoutly attached to the King's
+person, dared alone to come between the dragon and his wrath, and
+quietly, but firmly, maintained a control which no other dared
+assume over the dangerous invalid, and which Thomas de Multon
+only exercised because he esteemed his sovereign's life and
+honour more than he did the degree of favour which he might lose,
+or even the risk which he might incur, in nursing a patient so
+intractable, and whose displeasure was so perilous.
+
+Sir Thomas was the Lord of Gilsland, in Cumberland, and in an age
+when surnames and titles were not distinctly attached, as now, to
+the individuals who bore them, he was called by the Normans the
+Lord de Vaux; and in English by the Saxons, who clung to their
+native language, and were proud of the share of Saxon blood in
+this renowned warrior's veins, he was termed Thomas, or, more
+familiarly, Thom of the Gills, or Narrow Valleys, from which his
+extensive domains derived their well-known appellation.
+
+This chief had been exercised in almost all the wars, whether
+waged betwixt England and Scotland, or amongst the various
+domestic factions which then tore the former country asunder, and
+in all had been distinguished, as well from his military conduct
+as his personal prowess.  He was, in other respects, a rude
+soldier, blunt and careless in his bearing, and taciturn--nay,
+almost sullen--in his habits of society, and seeming, at least,
+to disclaim all knowledge of policy and of courtly art.  There
+were men, however, who pretended to look deeply into character,
+who asserted that the Lord de Vaux was not less shrewd and
+aspiring than he was blunt and bold, and who thought that, while
+he assimilated himself to the king's own character of blunt
+hardihood, it was, in some degree at least, with an eye to
+establish his favour, and to gratify his own hopes of deep-laid
+ambition.  But no one cared to thwart his schemes, if such he
+had, by rivalling him in the dangerous occupation of daily
+attendance on the sick-bed of a patient whose disease was
+pronounced infectious, and more especially when it was remembered
+that the patient was Coeur de Lion, suffering under all the
+furious impatience of a soldier withheld from battle, and a
+sovereign sequestered from authority; and the common soldiers, at
+least in the English army, were generally of opinion that De Vaux
+attended on the King like comrade upon comrade, in the honest and
+disinterested frankness of military friendship contracted between
+the partakers of daily dangers.
+
+It was on the decline of a Syrian day that Richard lay on his
+couch of sickness, loathing it as much in mind as his illness
+made it irksome to his body.  His bright blue eye, which at all
+times shone with uncommon keenness and splendour, had its
+vivacity augmented by fever and mental impatience, and glanced
+from among his curled and unshorn locks of yellow hair as
+fitfully and as vividly as the last gleams of the sun shoot
+through the clouds of an approaching thunderstorm, which still,
+however, are gilded by its beams.  His manly features showed the
+progress of wasting illness, and his beard, neglected and
+untrimmed, had overgrown both lips and chin.  Casting himself
+from side to side, now clutching towards him the coverings, which
+at the next moment he flung as impatiently from him, his tossed
+couch and impatient gestures showed at once the energy and the
+reckless impatience of a disposition whose natural sphere was
+that of the most active exertion.
+
+Beside his couch stood Thomas de Vaux, in face, attitude, and
+manner the strongest possible contrast to the suffering monarch.
+His stature approached the gigantic, and his hair in thickness
+might have resembled that of Samson, though only after the
+Israelitish champion's locks had passed under the shears of the
+Philistines, for those of De Vaux were cut short, that they might
+be enclosed under his helmet.  The light of his broad, large
+hazel eye resembled that of the autumn morn; and it was only
+perturbed for a moment, when from time to time it was attracted
+by Richard's vehement marks of agitation and restlessness.  His
+features, though massive like his person, might have been
+handsome before they were defaced with scars; his upper lip,
+after the fashion of the Normans, was covered with thick
+moustaches, which grew so long and luxuriantly as to mingle with
+his hair, and, like his hair, were dark brown, slightly brindled
+with grey.  His frame seemed of that kind which most readily
+defies both toil and climate, for he was thin-flanked, broad-chested, long-armed, deep-breathed, and strong-
+limbed.  He had
+not laid aside his buff-coat, which displayed the cross cut on
+the shoulder, for more than three nights, enjoying but such
+momentary repose as the warder of a sick monarch's couch might by
+snatches indulge.  This Baron rarely changed his posture, except
+to administer to Richard the medicine or refreshments which none
+of his less favoured attendants could persuade the impatient
+monarch to take; and there was something affecting in the kindly
+yet awkward manner in which he discharged offices so strangely
+contrasted with his blunt and soldierly habits and manners.
+
+The pavilion in which these personages were, had, as became the
+time, as well as the personal character of Richard, more of a
+warlike than a sumptuous or royal character.  Weapons offensive
+and defensive, several of them of strange and newly-invented
+construction, were scattered about the tented apartment, or
+disposed upon the pillars which supported it.  Skins of animals
+slain in the chase were stretched on the ground, or extended
+along the sides of the pavilion; and upon a heap of these silvan
+spoils lay three ALANS, as they were then called (wolf-
+greyhounds, that is), of the largest size, and as white as snow.
+Their faces, marked with many a scar from clutch and fang, showed
+their share in collecting the trophies upon which they reposed;
+and their eyes, fixed from time to time with an expressive
+stretch and yawn upon the bed of Richard, evinced how much they
+marvelled at and regretted the unwonted inactivity which they
+were compelled to share.  These were but the accompaniments of
+the soldier and huntsman; but on a small table close by the bed
+was placed a shield of wrought steel, of triangular form, bearing
+the three lions passant first assumed by the chivalrous monarch,
+and before it the golden circlet, resembling much a ducal
+coronet, only that it was higher in front than behind, which,
+with the purple velvet and embroidered tiara that lined it,
+formed then the emblem of England's sovereignty.  Beside it, as
+if prompt for defending the regal symbol, lay a mighty curtal-axe, which would have wearied the arm of 
+any other than Coeur de
+Lion.
+
+In an outer partition of the pavilion waited two or three
+officers of the royal household, depressed, anxious for their
+master's health, and not less so for their own safety, in case of
+his decease.  Their gloomy apprehensions spread themselves to the
+warders without, who paced about in downcast and silent
+contemplation, or, resting on their halberds, stood motionless on
+their post, rather like armed trophies than living warriors.
+
+"So thou hast no better news to bring me from without, Sir
+Thomas!"  said the King, after a long and perturbed silence,
+spent in the feverish agitation which we have endeavoured to
+describe. "All our knights turned women, and our ladies become
+devotees, and neither a spark of valour nor of gallantry to
+enlighten a camp which contains the choicest of Europe's
+chivalry--ha!"
+
+"The truce, my lord," said De Vaux, with the same patience with
+which he had twenty times repeated the explanation--"the truce
+prevents us bearing ourselves as men of action; and for the
+ladies, I am no great reveller, as is well known to your Majesty,
+and seldom exchange steel and buff for velvet and gold--but thus
+far I know, that our choicest beauties are waiting upon the
+Queen's Majesty and the Princess, to a pilgrimage to the convent
+of Engaddi, to accomplish their vows for your Highness's
+deliverance from this trouble."
+
+"And is it thus," said Richard, with the impatience of
+indisposition, "that royal matrons and maidens should risk
+themselves, where the dogs who defile the land have as little
+truth to man as they have faith towards God?"
+
+"Nay, my lord," said De Vaux, "they have Saladin's word for their
+safety."
+
+"True, true!"  replied Richard; "and I did the heathen Soldan
+injustice--I owe him reparation for it.  Would God I were but fit
+to offer it him upon my body between the two hosts--Christendom
+and heathenesse both looking on!"
+
+As Richard spoke, he thrust his right arm out of bed naked to the
+shoulder, and painfully raising himself in his couch, shook his
+clenched hand, as if it grasped sword or battle-axe, and was then
+brandished over the jewelled turban of the Soldan.  It was not
+without a gentle degree of violence, which the King would scarce
+have endured from another, that De Vaux, in his character of
+sick-nurse, compelled his royal master to replace himself in the
+couch, and covered his sinewy arm, neck, and shoulders with the
+care which a mother bestows upon an impatient child.
+
+"Thou art a rough nurse, though a willing one, De Vaux," said the
+King, laughing with a bitter expression, while he submitted to
+the strength which he was unable to resist; "methinks a coif
+would become thy lowering features as well as a child's biggin
+would beseem mine.  We should be a babe and nurse to frighten
+girls with."
+
+"We have frightened men in our time, my liege," said De Vaux;
+"and, I trust, may live to frighten them again.  What is a fever-fit, that we should not endure it patiently, in 
+order to get rid
+of it easily?"
+
+"Fever-fit!"  exclaimed Richard impetuously; "thou mayest think,
+and justly, that it is a fever-fit with me; but what is it with
+all the other Christian princes--with Philip of France, with that
+dull Austrian, with him of Montserrat, with the Hospitallers,
+with the Templars--what is it with all them?  I will tell thee.
+It is a cold palsy, a dead lethargy, a disease that deprives them
+of speech and action, a canker that has eaten into the heart of
+all that is noble, and chivalrous, and virtuous among them--that
+has made them false to the noblest vow ever knights were sworn to
+--has made them indifferent to their fame, and forgetful of their
+God!"
+
+"For the love of Heaven, my liege," said De Vaux, "take it less
+violently--you will be heard without doors, where such speeches
+are but too current already among the common soldiery, and
+engender discord and contention in the Christian host.  Bethink
+you that your illness mars the mainspring of their enterprise; a
+mangonel will work without screw and lever better than the
+Christian host without King Richard."
+
+"Thou flatterest me, De Vaux," said Richard, and not insensible
+to the power of praise, he reclined his head on the pillow with a
+more deliberate attempt to repose than he had yet exhibited.  But
+Thomas de Vaux was no courtier; the phrase which had offered had
+risen spontaneously to his lips, and he knew not how to pursue
+the pleasing theme so as to soothe and prolong the vein which he
+had excited.  He was silent, therefore, until, relapsing into his
+moody contemplations, the King demanded of him sharply,
+"Despardieux!  This is smoothly said to soothe a sick man; but
+does a league of monarchs, an assemblage or nobles, a convocation
+of all the chivalry of Europe, droop with the sickness of one
+man, though he chances to be King of England?  Why should
+Richard's illness, or Richard's death, check the march of thirty
+thousand men as brave as himself?  When the master stag is struck
+down, the herd do not disperse upon his fall; when the falcon
+strikes the leading crane, another takes the guidance of the
+phalanx.  Why do not the powers assemble and choose some one to
+whom they may entrust the guidance of the host?"
+
+"Forsooth, and if it please your Majesty," said De Vaux, "I hear
+consultations have been held among the royal leaders for some
+such purpose."
+
+"Ha!"  exclaimed Richard, his jealousy awakened, giving his
+mental irritation another direction, "am I forgot by my allies
+ere I have taken the last sacrament?  Do they hold me dead
+already?  But no, no, they are right.  And whom do they select as
+leader of the Christian host?"
+
+"Rank and dignity," said De Vaux, "point to the King of France."
+
+"Oh, ay," answered the English monarch, "Philip of France and
+Navarre--Denis Mountjoie--his most Christian Majesty!  Mouth-filling words these!  There is but one risk -
+-that he might
+mistake the words EN ARRIERE for EN AVANT, and lead us back to
+Paris, instead of marching to Jerusalem.  His politic head has
+learned by this time that there is more to be gotten by
+oppressing his feudatories, and pillaging his allies, than
+fighting with the Turks for the Holy Sepulchre."
+
+"They might choose the Archduke of Austria," said De Vaux.
+
+"What! because he is big and burly like thyself, Thomas--nearly
+as thick-headed, but without thy indifference to danger and
+carelessness of offence?  I tell thee that Austria has in all
+that mass of flesh no bolder animation than is afforded by the
+peevishness of a wasp and the courage of a wren.  Out upon him!
+He a leader of chivalry to deeds of glory!  Give him a flagon of
+Rhenish to drink with his besmirched baaren-hauters and lance-knechts."
+
+"There is the Grand Master of the Templars," continued the baron,
+not sorry to keep his master's attention engaged on other topics
+than his own illness, though at the expense of the characters of
+prince and potentate.  "There is the Grand Master of the
+Templars," he continued, "undaunted, skilful, brave in battle,
+and sage in council, having no separate kingdoms of his own to
+divert his exertions from the recovery of the Holy Land--what
+thinks your Majesty of the Master as a general leader of the
+Christian host?"
+
+"Ha, Beau-Seant?"  answered the King.  "Oh, no exception can be
+taken to Brother Giles Amaury; he understands the ordering of a
+battle, and the fighting in front when it begins.  But, Sir
+Thomas, were it fair to take the Holy Land from the heathen
+Saladin, so full of all the virtues which may distinguish
+unchristened man, and give it to Giles Amaury, a worse pagan than
+himself, an idolater, a devil-worshipper, a necromancer, who
+practises crimes the most dark and unnatural in the vaults and
+secret places of abomination and darkness?"
+
+"The Grand Master of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem is
+not tainted by fame, either with heresy or magic," said Thomas de
+Vaux.
+
+"But is he not a sordid miser?"  said Richard hastily; "has he
+not been suspected--ay, more than suspected--of selling to the
+infidels those advantages which they would never have won by fair
+force?  Tush, man, better give the army to be made merchandise of
+by Venetian skippers and Lombardy pedlars, than trust it to the
+Grand Master of St. John."
+
+"Well, then, I will venture but another guess," said the Baron de
+Vaux.  "What say you to the gallant Marquis of Montserrat, so
+wise, so elegant, such a good man-at-arms?"
+
+"Wise?--cunning, you would say," replied Richard; "elegant in a
+lady's chamber, if you will.  Oh, ay, Conrade of Montserrat--who
+knows not the popinjay?  Politic and versatile, he will change
+you his purposes as often as the trimmings of his doublet, and
+you shall never be able to guess the hue of his inmost vestments
+from their outward colours.  A man-at-arms?  Ay, a fine figure on
+horseback, and can bear him well in the tilt-yard, and at the
+barriers, when swords are blunted at point and edge, and spears
+are tipped with trenchers of wood instead of steel pikes.  Wert
+thou not with me when I said to that same gay Marquis, 'Here we
+be, three good Christians, and on yonder plain there pricks a
+band of some threescore Saracens--what say you to charge them
+briskly?  There are but twenty unbelieving miscreants to each
+true knight."
+
+"I recollect the Marquis replied," said De Vaux, "that his limbs
+were of flesh, not of iron, and that he would rather bear the
+heart of a man than of a beast, though that beast were the lion,
+But I see how it is--we shall end where we began, without hope of
+praying at the Sepulchre until Heaven shall restore King Richard
+to health."
+
+At this grave remark Richard burst out into a hearty fit of
+laughter, the first which he had for some time indulged in.  "Why
+what a thing is conscience," he said, "that through its means
+even such a thick-witted northern lord as thou canst bring thy
+sovereign to confess his folly!  It is true that, did they not
+propose themselves as fit to hold my leading-staff, little should
+I care for plucking the silken trappings off the puppets thou
+hast shown me in succession.  What concerns it me what fine
+tinsel robes they swagger in, unless when they are named as
+rivals in the glorious enterprise to which I have vowed myself?
+Yes, De Vaux, I confess my weakness, and the wilfulness of my
+ambition.  The Christian camp contains, doubtless, many a better
+knight than Richard of England, and it would be wise and worthy
+to assign to the best of them the leading of the host.  But,"
+continued the warlike monarch, raising himself in his bed, and
+shaking the cover from his head, while his eyes sparkled as they
+were wont to do on the eve of battle, "were such a knight to
+plant the banner of the Cross on the Temple of Jerusalem while I
+was unable to bear my share in the noble task, he should, so soon
+as I was fit to lay lance in rest, undergo my challenge to mortal
+combat, for having diminished my fame, and pressed in before to
+the object of my enterprise.  But hark, what trumpets are those
+at a distance?"
+
+"Those of King Philip, as I guess, my liege," said the stout
+Englishman.
+
+"Thou art dull of ear, Thomas," said the King, endeavouring to
+start up; "hearest thou not that clash and clang?  By Heaven, the
+Turks are in the camp--I hear their LELIES." [The war-cries of
+the Moslemah.]
+
+He again endeavoured to get out of bed, and De Vaux was obliged
+to exercise his own great strength, and also to summon the
+assistance of the chamberlains from the inner tent, to restrain
+him.
+
+"Thou art a false traitor, De Vaux," said the incensed monarch,
+when, breathless and exhausted with struggling, he was compelled
+to submit to superior strength, and to repose in quiet on his
+couch.  "I would I were--I would I were but strong enough to dash
+thy brains out with my battle-axe!"
+
+"I would you had the strength, my liege," said De Vaux, "and
+would even take the risk of its being so employed.  The odds
+would be great in favour of Christendom were Thomas Multon dead
+and Coeur de Lion himself again."
+
+"Mine honest faithful servant," said Richard, extending his hand,
+which the baron reverentially saluted, "forgive thy master's
+impatience of mood.  It is this burning fever which chides thee,
+and not thy kind master, Richard of England.  But go, I prithee,
+and bring me word what strangers are in the camp, for these
+sounds are not of Christendom."
+
+De Vaux left the pavilion on the errand assigned, and in his
+absence, which he had resolved should be brief, he charged the
+chamberlains, pages, and attendants to redouble their attention
+on their sovereign, with threats of holding them to
+responsibility, which rather added to than diminished their timid
+anxiety in the discharge of their duty; for next, perhaps, to the
+ire of the monarch himself, they dreaded that of the stern and
+inexorable Lord of Gilsland.  [Sir Thomas Multon of Gilsland.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+There never was a time on the march parts yet,
+When Scottish with English met,
+But it was marvel if the red blood ran not
+As the rain does in the street.   BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
+
+A considerable band of Scottish warriors had joined the
+Crusaders, and had naturally placed themselves under the command
+of the English monarch, being, like his native troops, most of
+them of Saxon and Norman descent, speaking the same languages,
+possessed, some of them, of English as well as Scottish demesnes,
+and allied in some cases by blood and intermarriage.  The period
+also preceded that when the grasping ambition of Edward I. gave a
+deadly and envenomed character to the wars betwixt the two
+nations--the English fighting for the subjugation of Scotland,
+and the Scottish, with all the stern determination and obstinacy
+which has ever characterized their nation, for the defence of
+their independence, by the most violent means, under the most
+disadvantageous circumstances, and at the most extreme hazard.
+As yet, wars betwixt the two nations, though fierce and frequent,
+had been conducted on principles of fair hostility, and admitted
+of those softening shades by which courtesy and the respect for
+open and generous foemen qualify and mitigate the horrors of war.
+In time of peace, therefore, and especially when both, as at
+present, were engaged in war, waged in behalf of a common cause,
+and rendered dear to them by their ideas of religion, the
+adventurers of both countries frequently fought side by side,
+their national emulation serving only to stimulate them to excel
+each other in their efforts against the common enemy.
+
+The frank and martial character of Richard, who made no
+distinction betwixt his own subjects and those of William of
+Scotland, excepting as they bore themselves in the field of
+battle, tended much to conciliate the troops of both nations.
+But upon his illness, and the disadvantageous circumstances in
+which the Crusaders were placed, the national disunion between
+the various bands united in the Crusade, began to display itself,
+just as old wounds break out afresh in the human body when under
+the influence of disease or debility.
+
+The Scottish and English, equally jealous and high-spirited, and
+apt to take offence--the former the more so, because the poorer
+and the weaker nation--began to fill up by internal dissension
+the period when the truce forbade them to wreak their united
+vengeance on the Saracens.  Like the contending Roman chiefs of
+old, the Scottish would admit no superiority, and their southern
+neighbours would brook no equality.  There were charges and
+recriminations, and both the common soldiery and their leaders
+and commanders, who had been good comrades in time of victory,
+lowered on each other in the period of adversity, as if their
+union had not been then more essential than ever, not only to the
+success of their common cause, but to their joint safety.  The
+same disunion had begun to show itself betwixt the French and
+English, the Italians and the Germans, and even between the Danes
+and Swedes; but it is only that which divided the two nations
+whom one island bred, and who seemed more animated against each
+other for the very reason, that our narrative is principally
+concerned with.
+
+Of all the English nobles who had followed their King to
+Palestine, De Vaux was most prejudiced against the Scottish.
+They were his near neighbours, with whom he had been engaged
+during his whole life in private or public warfare, and on whom
+he had inflicted many calamities, while he had sustained at their
+hands not a few.  His love and devotion to the King was like the
+vivid affection of the old English mastiff to his master, leaving
+him churlish and inaccessible to all others even towards those to
+whom he was indifferent--and rough and dangerous to any against
+whom he entertained a prejudice.  De Vaux had never observed
+without jealousy and displeasure his King exhibit any mark of
+courtesy or favour to the wicked, deceitful, and ferocious race
+born on the other side of a river, or an imaginary line drawn
+through waste and wilderness; and he even doubted the success of
+a Crusade in which they were suffered to bear arms, holding them
+in his secret soul little better than the Saracens whom he came
+to combat.  It may be added that, as being himself a blunt and
+downright Englishman, unaccustomed to conceal the slightest
+movement either of love or of dislike, he accounted the fair-spoken courtesy which the Scots had learned, 
+either from
+imitation of their frequent allies, the French, or which might
+have arisen from their own proud and reserved character, as a
+false and astucious mark of the most dangerous designs against
+their neighbours, over whom he believed, with genuine English
+confidence, they could, by fair manhood, never obtain any
+advantage.
+
+Yet, though De Vaux entertained these sentiments concerning his
+Northern neighbours, and extended them, with little mitigation,
+even to such as had assumed the Cross, his respect for the King,
+and a sense of the duty imposed by his vow as a Crusader,
+prevented him from displaying them otherwise than by regularly
+shunning all intercourse with his Scottish brethren-at-arms as
+far as possible, by observing a sullen taciturnity when compelled
+to meet them occasionally, and by looking scornfully upon them
+when they encountered on the march and in camp.  The Scottish
+barons and knights were not men to bear his scorn unobserved or
+unreplied to; and it came to that pass that he was regarded as
+the determined and active enemy of a nation, whom, after all, he
+only disliked, and in some sort despised.  Nay, it was remarked
+by close observers that, if he had not towards them the charity
+of Scripture, which suffereth long, and judges kindly, he was by
+no means deficient in the subordinate and limited virtue, which
+alleviates and relieves the wants of others.  The wealth of
+Thomas of Gilsland procured supplies of provisions and medicines,
+and some of these usually flowed by secret channels into the
+quarters of the Scottish--his surly benevolence proceeding on the
+principle that, next to a man's friend, his foe was of most
+importance to him, passing over all the intermediate relations as
+too indifferent to merit even a thought.  This explanation is
+necessary, in order that the reader may fully understand what we
+are now to detail.
+
+Thomas de Vaux had not made many steps beyond the entrance of the
+royal pavilion when he was aware of what the far more acute ear
+of the English monarch--no mean proficient in the art of
+minstrelsy--had instantly discovered, that the musical strains,
+namely, which had reached their ears, were produced by the pipes,
+shalms, and kettle-drums of the Saracens; and at the bottom of an
+avenue of tents, which formed a broad access to the pavilion of
+Richard, he could see a crowd of idle soldiers assembled around
+the spot from which the music was heard, almost in the centre of
+the camp; and he saw, with great surprise, mingled amid the
+helmets of various forms worn by the Crusaders of different
+nations, white turbans and long pikes, announcing the presence of
+armed Saracens, and the huge deformed heads of several camels or
+dromedaries, overlooking the multitude by aid of their long,
+disproportioned necks.
+
+Wondering, and displeased at a sight so unexpected and singular
+--for it was customary to leave all flags of truce and other
+communications from the enemy at an appointed place without the
+barriers--the baron looked eagerly round for some one of whom he
+might inquire the cause of this alarming novelty.
+
+The first person whom he met advancing to him he set down at
+once, by his grave and haughty step, as a Spaniard or a Scot; and
+presently after muttered to himself, "And a Scot it is--he of the
+Leopard.  I have seen him fight indifferently well, for one of
+his country."
+
+Loath to ask even a passing question, he was about to pass Sir
+Kenneth, with that sullen and lowering port which seems to say,
+"I know thee, but I will hold no communication with thee."  But
+his purpose was defeated by the Northern Knight, who moved
+forward directly to him, and accosting him with formal courtesy,
+said, "My Lord de Vaux of Gilsland, I have in charge to speak
+with you."
+
+"Ha!"  returned the English baron, "with me?  But say your
+pleasure, so it be shortly spoken--I am on the King's errand."
+
+"Mine touches King Richard yet more nearly," answered Sir
+Kenneth; "I bring him, I trust, health."
+
+The Lord of Gilsland measured the Scot with incredulous eyes, and
+replied, "Thou art no leech, I think, Sir Scot; I had as soon
+thought of your bringing the King of England wealth."
+
+Sir Kenneth, though displeased with the manner of the baron's
+reply, answered calmly, "Health to Richard is glory and wealth to
+Christendom.--But my time presses; I pray you, may I see the
+King?"
+
+"Surely not, fair sir," said the baron, "until your errand be
+told more distinctly.  The sick chambers of princes open not to
+all who inquire, like a northern hostelry."
+
+"My lord," said Kenneth, "the cross which I wear in common with
+yourself, and the importance of what I have to tell, must, for
+the present, cause me to pass over a bearing which else I were
+unapt to endure.  In plain language, then, I bring with me a
+Moorish physician, who undertakes to work a cure on King
+Richard."
+
+"A Moorish physician!"  said De Vaux; "and who will warrant that
+he brings not poisons instead of remedies?"
+
+"His own life, my lord--his head, which he offers as a
+guarantee."
+
+"I have known many a resolute ruffian," said De Vaux, "who valued
+his own life as little as it deserved, and would troop to the
+gallows as merrily as if the hangman were his partner in a
+dance."
+
+"But thus it is, my lord," replied the Scot.  "Saladin, to whom
+none will deny the credit of a generous and valiant enemy, hath
+sent this leech hither with an honourable retinue and guard,
+befitting the high estimation in which El Hakim [The Physician]
+is held by the Soldan, and with fruits and refreshments for the
+King's private chamber, and such message as may pass betwixt
+honourable enemies, praying him to be recovered of his fever,
+that he may be the fitter to receive a visit from the Soldan,
+with his naked scimitar in his hand, and a hundred thousand
+cavaliers at his back.  Will it please you, who are of the King's
+secret council, to cause these camels to be discharged of their
+burdens, and some order taken as to the reception of the learned
+physician?"
+
+"Wonderful!"  said De Vaux, as speaking to himself.--"And who
+will vouch for the honour of Saladin, in a case when bad faith
+would rid him at once of his most powerful adversary?"
+
+"I myself," replied Sir Kenneth, "will be his guarantee, with
+honour, life, and fortune."
+
+"Strange!"  again ejaculated De Vaux; "the North vouches for the
+South--the Scot for the Turk!  May I crave of you, Sir Knight,
+how you became concerned in this affair?"
+
+"I have been absent on a pilgrimage, in the course of which,"
+replied Sir Kenneth "I had a message to discharge towards the
+holy hermit of Engaddi."
+
+"May I not be entrusted with it, Sir Kenneth, and with the answer
+of the holy man?"
+
+"It may not be, my lord," answered the Scot.
+
+"I am of the secret council of England," said the Englishman
+haughtily.
+
+"To which land I owe no allegiance," said Kenneth.  "Though I
+have voluntarily followed in this war the personal fortunes of
+England's sovereign, I was dispatched by the General Council of
+the kings, princes, and supreme leaders of the army of the
+Blessed Cross, and to them only I render my errand."
+
+"Ha!  sayest thou?"  said the proud Baron de Vaux.  "But know,
+messenger of the kings and princes as thou mayest be, no leech
+shall approach the sick-bed of Richard of England without the
+consent of him of Gilsland; and they will come on evil errand who
+dare to intrude themselves against it."
+
+He was turning loftily away, when the Scot, placing himself
+closer, and more opposite to him, asked, in a calm voice, yet not
+without expressing his share of pride, whether the Lord of
+Gilsland esteemed him a gentleman and a good knight.
+
+"All Scots are ennobled by their birthright," answered Thomas de
+Vaux, something ironically; but sensible of his own injustice,
+and perceiving that Kenneth's colour rose, he added, "For a good
+knight it were sin to doubt you, in one at least who has seen you
+well and bravely discharge your devoir."
+
+"Well, then," said the Scottish knight, satisfied with the
+frankness of the last admission, "and let me swear to you, Thomas
+of Gilsland, that, as I am true Scottish man, which I hold a
+privilege equal to my ancient gentry, and as sure as I am a
+belted knight, and come hither to acquire LOS [Los--laus, praise,
+or renown] and fame in this mortal life, and forgiveness of my
+sins in that which is to come--so truly, and by the blessed Cross
+which I wear, do I protest unto you that I desire but the safety
+of Richard Coeur de Lion, in recommending the ministry of this
+Moslem physician."
+
+The Englishman was struck with the solemnity of the obtestation,
+and answered with more cordiality than he had yet exhibited,
+"Tell me, Sir Knight of the Leopard, granting (which I do not
+doubt) that thou art thyself satisfied in this matter, shall I do
+well, in a land where the art of poisoning is as general as that
+of cooking, to bring this unknown physician to practise with his
+drugs on a health so valuable to Christendom?"
+
+"My lord," replied the Scot, "thus only can I reply--that my
+squire, the only one of my retinue whom war and disease had left
+in attendance on me, has been of late suffering dangerously under
+this same fever, which, in valiant King Richard, has disabled the
+principal limb of our holy enterprise.  This leech, this El
+Hakim, hath ministered remedies to him not two hours since, and
+already he hath fallen into a refreshing sleep.  That he can cure
+the disorder, which has proved so fatal, I nothing doubt; that he
+hath the purpose to do it is, I think, warranted by his mission
+from the royal Soldan, who is true-hearted and loyal, so far as a
+blinded infidel may be called so; and for his eventual success,
+the certainty of reward in case of succeeding, and punishment in
+case of voluntary failure, may be a sufficient guarantee."
+
+The Englishman listened with downcast looks, as one who doubted,
+yet was not unwilling to receive conviction.  At length he looked
+up and said, "May I see your sick squire, fair sir?"
+
+The Scottish knight hesitated and coloured, yet answered at last,
+"Willingly, my Lord of Gilsland.  But you must remember, when you
+see my poor quarter, that the nobles and knights of Scotland feed
+not so high, sleep not so soft, and care not for the magnificence
+of lodgment which is Proper to their southern neighbours.  I am
+POORLY lodged, my Lord of Gilsland," he added, with a haughty
+emphasis on the word, while, with some unwillingness, he led the
+way to his temporary place of abode.
+
+Whatever were the prejudices of De Vaux against the nation of his
+new acquaintance, and though we undertake not to deny that some
+of these were excited by its proverbial poverty, he had too much
+nobleness of disposition to enjoy the mortification of a brave
+individual thus compelled to make known wants which his pride
+would gladly have concealed.
+
+"Shame to the soldier of the Cross," he said, "who thinks of
+worldly splendour, or of luxurious accommodation, when pressing
+forward to the conquest of the Holy City.  Fare as hard as we
+may, we shall yet be better than the host of martyrs and of
+saints, who, having trod these scenes before us, now hold golden
+lamps and evergreen palms."
+
+This was the most metaphorical speech which Thomas of Gilsland
+was ever known to utter, the rather, perhaps (as will sometimes
+happen), that it did not entirely express his own sentiments,
+being somewhat a lover of good cheer and splendid accommodation.
+By this time they reached the place of the camp where the Knight
+of the Leopard had assumed his abode.
+
+Appearances here did indeed promise no breach of the laws of
+mortification, to which the Crusaders, according to the opinion
+expressed by him of Gilsland, ought to subject themselves.  A
+space of ground, large enough to accommodate perhaps thirty
+tents, according to the Crusaders' rules of castrametation, was
+partly vacant--because, in ostentation, the knight had demanded
+ground to the extent of his original retinue--partly occupied by
+a few miserable huts, hastily constructed of boughs, and covered
+with palm-leaves.  These habitations seemed entirely deserted,
+and several of them were ruinous.  The central hut, which
+represented the pavilion of the leader, was distinguished by his
+swallow-tailed pennon, placed on the point of a spear, from which
+its long folds dropped motionless to the ground, as if sickening
+under the scorching rays of the Asiatic sun.  But no pages or
+squires--not even a solitary warder--was placed by the emblem of
+feudal power and knightly degree.  If its reputation defended it
+not from insult, it had no other guard.
+
+Sir Kenneth cast a melancholy look around him, but suppessing his
+feelings, entered the hut, making a sign to the Baron of Gilsland
+to follow.  He also cast around a glance of examination, which
+implied pity not altogether unmingled with contempt, to which,
+perhaps, it is as nearly akin as it is said to be to love.  He
+then stooped his lofty crest, and entered a lowly hut, which his
+bulky form seemed almost entirely to fill.
+
+The interior of the hut was chiefly occupied by two beds.  One
+was empty, but composed of collected leaves, and spread with an
+antelope's hide.  It seemed, from the articles of armour laid
+beside it, and from a crucifix of silver, carefully and
+reverentially disposed at the head, to be the couch of the knight
+himself.  The other contained the invalid, of whom Sir Kenneth
+had spoken, a strong-built and harsh-featured man, past, as his
+looks betokened, the middle age of life.  His couch was trimmed
+more softly than his master's, and it was plain that the more
+courtly garments of the latter, the loose robe in which the
+knights showed themselves on pacific occasions, and the other
+little spare articles of dress and adornment, had been applied by
+Sir Kenneth to the accommodation of his sick domestic.  In an
+outward part of the hut, which yet was within the range of the
+English baron's eye, a boy, rudely attired with buskins of deer's
+hide, a blue cap or bonnet, and a doublet, whose original finery
+was much tarnished, sat on his knees by a chafing-dish filled
+with charcoal, cooking upon a plate of iron the cakes of barley-bread, which were then, and still are, a 
+favourite food with the
+Scottish people.  Part of an antelope was suspended against one
+of the main props of the hut.  Nor was it difficult to know how
+it had been procured; for a large stag greyhound, nobler in size
+and appearance than those even which guarded King Richard's sick-bed, lay eyeing the process of baking 
+the cake.  The sagacious
+animal, on their first entrance, uttered a stifled growl, which
+sounded from his deep chest like distant thunder.  But he saw his
+master, and acknowledged his presence by wagging his tail and
+couching his head, abstaining from more tumultuous or noisy
+greeting, as if his noble instinct had taught him the propriety
+of silence in a sick man's chamber.
+
+Beside the couch sat on a cushion, also composed of skins, the
+Moorish physician of whom Sir Kenneth had spoken, cross-legged,
+after the Eastern fashion.  The imperfect light showed little of
+him, save that the lower part of his face was covered with a
+long, black beard, which descended over his breast; that he wore
+a high TOLPACH, a Tartar cap of the lamb's wool manufactured at
+Astracan, bearing the same dusky colour; and that his ample
+caftan, or Turkish robe, was also of a dark hue.  Two piercing
+eyes, which gleamed with unusual lustre, were the only lineaments
+of his visage that could be discerned amid the darkness in which
+he was enveloped.
+
+The English lord stood silent with a sort of reverential awe; for
+notwithstanding the roughness of his general bearing, a scene of
+distress and poverty, firmly endured without complaint or murmur,
+would at any time have claimed more reverence from Thomas de Vaux
+than would all the splendid formalities of a royal presence-chamber, unless that presence-chamber were 
+King Richard's own.
+Nothing was for a time heard but the heavy and regular breathings
+of the invalid, who seemed in profound repose.
+
+"He hath not slept for six nights before," said Sir Kenneth, "as
+I am assured by the youth, his attendant."
+
+"Noble Scot," said Thomas de Vaux, grasping the Scottish knight's
+hand, with a pressure which had more of cordiality than he
+permitted his words to utter, "this gear must be amended.  Your
+esquire is but too evil fed and looked to."
+
+In the latter part of this speech he naturally raised his voice
+to its usual decided tone, The sick man was disturbed in his
+slumbers.
+
+"My master," he said, murmuring as in a dream, "noble Sir
+Kenneth, taste not, to you as to me, the waters of the Clyde cold
+and refreshing after the brackish springs of Palestine?"
+
+"He dreams of his native land, and is happy in his slumbers,"
+whispered Sir Kenneth to De Vaux; but had scarce uttered the
+words, when the physician, arising from the place which he had
+taken near the couch of the sick, and laying the hand of the
+patient, whose pulse he had been carefully watching, quietly upon
+the couch, came to the two knights, and taking them each by the
+arm, while he intimated to them to remain silent, led them to the
+front of the hut.
+
+"In the name of Issa Ben Mariam," he said, "whom we honour as
+you, though not with the same blinded superstition, disturb not
+the effect of the blessed medicine of which he hath partaken.  To
+awaken him now is death or deprivation of reason; but return at
+the hour when the muezzin calls from the minaret to evening
+prayer in the mosque, and if left undisturbed until then, I
+promise you this same Frankish soldier shall be able, without
+prejudice to his health, to hold some brief converse with you on
+any matters on which either, and especially his master, may have
+to question him."
+
+The knights retreated before the authoritative commands of the
+leech, who seemed fully to comprehend the importance of the
+Eastern proverb that the sick chamber of the patient is the
+kingdom of the physician.
+
+They paused, and remained standing together at the door of the
+hut--Sir Kenneth with the air of one who expected his visitor to
+say farewell, and De Vaux as if he had something on his mind
+which prevented him from doing so.  The hound, however, had
+pressed out of the tent after them, and now thrust his long,
+rough countenance into the hand of his master, as if modestly
+soliciting some mark of his kindness.  He had no sooner received
+the notice which he desired, in the shape of a kind word and
+slight caress, than, eager to acknowledge his gratitude and joy
+for his master's return, he flew off at full speed, galloping in
+full career, and with outstretched tail, here and there, about
+and around, cross-ways and endlong, through the decayed huts and
+the esplanade we have described, but never transgressing those
+precincts which his sagacity knew were protected by his master's
+pennon.  After a few gambols of this kind, the dog, coming close
+up to his master, laid at once aside his frolicsome mood,
+relapsed into his usual gravity and slowness of gesture and
+deportment, and looked as if he were ashamed that anything should
+have moved him to depart so far out of his sober self-control.
+
+Both knights looked on with pleasure; for Sir Kenneth was justly
+proud of his noble hound, and the northern English baron was, of
+course, an admirer of the chase, and a judge of the animal's
+merits.
+
+"A right able dog," he said.  "I think, fair sir, King Richard
+hath not an ALAN which may match him, if he be as stanch as he is
+swift.  But let me pray you--speaking in all honour and kindness
+--have you not heard the proclamation that no one under the rank
+of earl shall keep hunting dogs within King Richard's camp
+without the royal license, which, I think, Sir Kenneth, hath not
+been issued to you? I speak as Master of the Horse."
+
+"And I answer as a free Scottish knight," said Kenneth sternly.
+"For the present I follow the banner of England, but I cannot
+remember that I have ever subjected myself to the forest-laws of
+that kingdom, nor have I such respect for them as would incline
+me to do so.  When the trumpet sounds to arms, my foot is in the
+stirrup as soon as any--when it clangs for the charge, my lance
+has not yet been the last laid in the rest.  But for my hours of
+liberty or of idleness King Richard has no title to bar my
+recreation."
+
+"Nevertheless," said De Vaux, "it is a folly to disobey the
+King's ordinance; so, with your good leave, I, as having
+authority in that matter, will send you a protection for my
+friend here."
+
+"I thank you," said the Scot coldly; "but he knows my allotted
+quarters, and within these I can protect him myself.--And yet,"
+he said, suddenly changing his manner, "this is but a cold return
+for a well-meant kindness.  I thank you, my lord, most heartily.
+The King's equerries or prickers might find Roswal at
+disadvantage, and do him some injury, which I should not,
+perhaps, be slow in returning, and so ill might come of it.  You
+have seen so much of my house-keeping, my lord," he added, with a
+smile, "that I need not shame to say that Roswal is our principal
+purveyor, and well I hope our Lion Richard will not be like the
+lion in the minstrel fable, that went a-hunting, and kept the
+whole booty to himself.  I cannot think he would grudge a poor
+gentleman, who follows him faithfully, his hour of sport and his
+morsel of game, more especially when other food is hard enough to
+come by."
+
+"By my faith, you do the King no more than justice; and yet,"
+said the baron, "there is something in these words, vert and
+venison, that turns the very brains of our Norman princes."
+
+"We have heard of late," said the Scot, "by minstrels and
+pilgrims, that your outlawed yeomen have formed great bands in
+the shires of York and Nottingham, having at their head a most
+stout archer, called Robin Hood, with his lieutenant, Little
+John.  Methinks it were better that Richard relaxed his forest-code in England, than endeavour to enforce it 
+in the Holy Land."
+
+"Wild work, Sir Kenneth," replied De Vaux, shrugging his
+shoulders, as one who would avoid a perilous or unpleasing topic
+--"a mad world, sir.  I must now bid you adieu, having presently
+to return to the King's pavilion.  At vespers I will again, with
+your leave, visit your quarters, and speak with this same infidel
+physician.  I would, in the meantime, were it no offence,
+willingly send you what would somewhat mend your cheer."
+
+"I thank you, sir," said Sir Kenneth, "but it needs not.  Roswal
+hath already stocked my larder for two weeks, since the sun of
+Palestine, if it brings diseases, serves also to dry venison."
+
+The two warriors parted much better friends than they had met;
+but ere they separated, Thomas de Vaux informed himself at more
+length of the circumstances attending the mission of the Eastern
+physician, and received from the Scottish knight the credentials
+which he had brought to King Richard on the part of Saladin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
+Is more than armies to the common weal.  POPE'S ILLIAD.
+
+
+"This is a strange tale, Sir Thomas," said the sick monarch, when
+he had heard the report of the trusty Baron of Gilsland.  "Art
+thou sure this Scottish man is a tall man and true?"
+
+"I cannot say, my lord," replied the jealous Borderer.  "I live a
+little too near the Scots to gather much truth among them, having
+found them ever fair and false.  But this man's bearing is that
+of a true man, were he a devil as well as a Scot; that I must
+needs say for him in conscience."
+
+"And for his carriage as a knight, how sayest thou, De Vaux?"
+demanded the King.
+
+"It is your Majesty's business more than mine to note men's
+bearings; and I warrant you have noted the manner in which this
+man of the Leopard hath borne himself.  He hath been full well
+spoken of."
+
+"And justly, Thomas," said the King.  "We have ourselves
+witnessed him.  It is indeed our purpose in placing ourselves
+ever in the front of battle, to see how our liegemen and
+followers acquit themselves, and not from a desire to accumulate
+vainglory to ourselves, as some have supposed.  We know the
+vanity of the praise of man, which is but a vapour, and buckle on
+our armour for other purposes than to win it."
+
+De Vaux was alarmed when he heard the King make a declaration so
+inconsistent with his nature, and believed at first that nothing
+short of the approach of death could have brought him to speak in
+depreciating terms of military renown, which was the very breath
+of his nostrils.  But recollecting he had met the royal confessor
+in the outer pavilion, he was shrewd enough to place this
+temporary self-abasement to the effect of the reverend man's
+lesson, and suffered the King to proceed without reply.
+
+"Yes," continued Richard, "I have indeed marked the manner in
+which this knight does his devoir.  My leading-staff were not
+worth a fool's bauble had he escaped my notice; and he had ere
+now tasted of our bounty, but that I have also marked his
+overweening and audacious presumption."
+
+"My liege," said the Baron of Gilsland, observing the King's
+countenance change, "I fear I have transgressed your pleasure in
+lending some countenance to his transgression."  
+
+"How, De Multon,
+thou?"  said the King, contracting his brows, and speaking in a
+tone of angry surprise.  "Thou countenance his insolence?  It
+cannot be."
+
+"Nay, your Majesty will pardon me to remind you that I have by
+mine office right to grant liberty to men of gentle blood to keep
+them a hound or two within camp, just to cherish the noble art of
+venerie ; and besides, it were a sin to have maimed or harmed a
+thing so noble as this gentleman's dog."
+
+"Has he, then, a dog so handsome?"  said the King.
+
+"A most perfect creature of Heaven," said the baron, who was an
+enthusiast in field-sports--"of the noblest Northern breed--deep
+in the chest, strong in the stern--black colour, and brindled on
+the breast and legs, not spotted with white, but just shaded into
+grey--strength to pull down a bull, swiftness to cote an
+antelope."
+
+The King laughed at his enthusiasm.  "Well, thou hast given him
+leave to keep the hound, so there is an end of it.  Be not,
+however, liberal of your licenses among those knights adventurers
+who have no prince or leader to depend upon; they are
+ungovernable, and leave no game in Palestine.--But to this piece
+of learned heathenesse--sayest thou the Scot met him in the
+desert?"
+
+"No, my liege; the Scot's tale runs thus.  He was dispatched to
+the old hermit of Engaddi, of whom men talk so much--"
+
+"'Sdeath and hell!"  said Richard, starting up.  "By whom
+dispatched, and for what?  Who dared send any one thither, when
+our Queen was in the Convent of Engaddi, upon her pilgrimage for
+our recovery?"
+
+"The Council of the Crusade sent him, my lord," answered the
+Baron de Vaux; "for what purpose, he declined to account to me.
+I think it is scarce known in the camp that your royal consort is
+on a pilgrimage; and even the princes may not have been aware, as
+the Queen has been sequestered from company since your love
+prohibited her attendance in case of infection."
+
+"Well, it shall be looked into," said Richard.  "So this Scottish
+man, this envoy, met with a wandering physician at the grotto of
+Engaddi--ha?"
+
+"Not so my liege," replied De Vaux?  "but he met, I think, near
+that place, with a Saracen Emir with whom he had some MELEE in
+the way of proof of valour, and finding him worthy to bear brave
+men company, they went together, as errant knights are wont, to
+the grotto of Engaddi."
+
+Here De Vaux stopped, for he was not one of those who can tell a
+long story in a sentence.
+
+"And did they there meet the physician?"  demanded the King
+impatiently.
+
+"No, my liege," replied De Vaux; "but the Saracen, learning your
+Majesty's grievous illness, undertook that Saladin should send
+his own physician to you, and with many assurances of his eminent
+skill; and he came to the grotto accordingly, after the Scottish
+knight had tarried a day for him and more.  He is attended as if
+he were a prince, with drums and atabals, and servants on horse
+and foot, and brings with him letters of credence from Saladin."
+
+"Have they been examined by Giacomo Loredani?"
+
+"I showed them to the interpreter ere bringing them hither, and
+behold their contents in English."
+
+Richard took a scroll, in which were inscribed these words:  The
+blessing of Allah and his Prophet Mohammed ["Out upon the hound!"
+said Richard, spitting in contempt, by way of interjection],
+Saladin, king of kings, Saldan of Egypt and of Syria, the light
+and refuge of the earth, to the great Melech Ric, Richard of
+England, greeting.  Whereas, we have been informed that the hand
+of sickness hath been heavy upon thee, our royal brother, and
+that thou hast with thee only such Nazarene and Jewish mediciners
+as work without the blessing of Allah and our holy Prophet
+["Confusion on his head!"  again muttered the English monarch],
+we have therefore sent to tend and wait upon thee at this time
+the physician to our own person, Adonbec el Hakim, before whose
+face the angel Azrael [The Angel of Death.] spreads his wings and
+departs from the sick chamber; who knows the virtues of herbs and
+stones, the path of the sun, moon, and stars, and can save man
+from all that is not written on his forehead.  And this we do,
+praying you heartily to honour and make use of his skill; not
+only that we may do service to thy worth and valour, which is the
+glory of all the nations of Frangistan, but that we may bring the
+controversy which is at present between us to an end, either by
+honourable agreement, or by open trial thereof with our weapons,
+in a fair field--seeing that it neither becomes thy place and
+courage to die the death of a slave who hath been overwrought by
+his taskmaster, nor befits it our fame that a brave adversary be
+snatched from our weapon by such a disease.  And, therefore, may
+the holy--"
+
+"Hold, hold," said Richard, " I will have no more of his dog of a
+prophet!  It makes me sick to think the valiant and worthy Soldan
+should believe in a dead dog.  Yes, I will see his physician.  I
+will put myself into the charge of this Hakim--I will repay the
+noble Soldan his generosity--I will meet Saladin in the field, as
+he so worthily proposes, and he shall have no cause to term
+Richard of England ungrateful.  I will strike him to the earth
+with my battle-axe--I will convert him to Holy Church with such
+blows as he has rarely endured.  He shall recant his errors
+before my good cross-handled sword, and I will have him baptized
+on the battle-field, from my own helmet, though the cleansing
+waters were mixed with the blood of us both.--Haste, De Vaux, why
+dost thou delay a conclusion so pleasing?  Fetch the Hakim
+hither."
+
+"My lord," said the baron, who perhaps saw some accession of
+fever in this overflow of confidence, "bethink you, the Soldan is
+a pagan, and that you are his most formidable enemy--"
+
+"For which reason he is the more bound to do me service in this
+matter, lest a paltry fever end the quarrel betwixt two such
+kings.  I tell thee he loves me as I love him--as noble
+adversaries ever love each other.  By my honour, it were sin to
+doubt his good faith!"
+
+"Nevertheless, my lord, it were well to wait the issue of these
+medicines upon the Scottish squire," said the Lord of Gilsland.
+"My own life depends upon it, for worthy were I to die like a dog
+did I proceed rashly in this matter, and make shipwreck of the
+weal of Christendom."
+
+"I never knew thee before hesitate for fear of life," said
+Richard upbraidingly.
+
+"Nor would I now, my liege," replied the stout-hearted baron,
+"save that yours lies at pledge as well as my own."
+
+"Well, thou suspicious mortal," answered Richard,  "begone then,
+and watch the progress of this remedy.  I could almost wish it
+might either cure or kill me, for I am weary of lying here like
+an ox dying of the murrain, when tambours are beating, horses
+stamping, and trumpets sounding without."
+
+The baron hastily departed, resolved, however, to communicate his
+errand to some churchman, as he felt something burdened in
+conscience at the idea of his master being attended by an
+unbeliever.
+
+The Archbishop of Tyre was the first to whom he confided his
+doubts, knowing his interest with his master, Richard, who both
+loved and honoured that sagacious prelate.  The bishop heard the
+doubts which De Vaux stated, with that acuteness of intelligence
+which distinguishes the Roman Catholic clergy.  The religious
+scruples of De Vaux he treated with as much lightness as
+propriety permitted him to exhibit on such a subject to a layman.
+
+"Mediciners," he said, "like the medicines which they employed,
+were often useful, though the one were by birth or manners the
+vilest of humanity, as the others are, in many cases, extracted
+from the basest materials.  Men may use the assistance of pagans
+and infidels," he continued, "in their need, and there is reason
+to think that one cause of their being permitted to remain on
+earth is that they might minister to the convenience of true
+Christians.  Thus we lawfully make slaves of heathen captives.
+Again," proceeded the prelate, "there is no doubt that the
+primitive Christians used the services of the unconverted
+heathen.  Thus in the ship of Alexandria, in which the blessed
+Apostle Paul sailed to Italy, the sailors were doubtless pagans;
+yet what said the holy saint when their ministry was needful?
+--'NISI HI IN NAVI MANSERINT, VOS SALVI FIERI NON POTESTIS'--
+Unless these men abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.  Again,
+Jews are infidels to Christianity, as well as Mohammedans.  But
+there are few physicians in the camp excepting Jews, and such are
+employed without scandal or scruple.  Therefore, Mohammedans may
+be used for their service in that capacity--QUOD ERAT
+DEMONSTRANDUM."
+
+This reasoning entirely removed the scruples of Thomas de Vaux,
+who was particularly moved by the Latin quotation, as he did not
+understand a word of it.
+
+But the bishop proceeded with far less fluency when he considered
+the possibility of the Saracen's acting with bad faith; and here
+he came not to a speedy decision.  The baron showed him the
+letters of credence.  He read and re-read them, and compared the
+original with the translation.
+
+"It is a dish choicely cooked," he said, "to the palate of King
+Richard, and I cannot but have my suspicions of the wily Saracen.
+They are curious in the art of poisons, and can so temper them
+that they shall be weeks in acting upon the party, during which
+time the perpetrator has leisure to escape.  They can impregnate
+cloth and leather, nay, even paper and parchment, with the most
+subtle venom.  Our Lady forgive me!  And wherefore, knowing this,
+hold I these letters of credence so close to my face?  Take them,
+Sir Thomas--take them speedily!"
+
+Here he gave them at arm's-length, and with some appearance of
+haste, to the baron.  "But come, my Lord de Vaux," he continued,
+"wend we to the tent of this sick squire, where we shall learn
+whether this Hakim hath really the art of curing which he
+professeth, ere we consider whether there be safety in permitting
+him to exercise his art upon King Richard.--Yet, hold!  let me
+first take my pouncet-box, for these fevers spread like an
+infection.  I would advise you to use dried rosemary steeped in
+vinegar, my lord.  I, too, know something of the healing art."
+
+"I thank your reverend lordship," replied Thomas of Gilsland;
+"but had I been accessible to the fever, I had caught it long
+since by the bed of my master."
+
+The Bishop of Tyre blushed, for he had rather avoided the
+presence of the sick monarch; and he bid the baron lead on.
+
+As they paused before the wretched hut in which Kenneth of the
+Leopard and his follower abode, the bishop said to De Vaux, "Now,
+of a surety, my lord, these Scottish Knights have worse care of
+their followers than we of our dogs.  Here is a knight, valiant,
+they say, in battle, and thought fitting to be graced with
+charges of weight in time of truce, whose esquire of the body is
+lodged worse than in the worst dog-kennel in England.  What say
+you of your neighbours?"
+
+"That a master doth well enough for his servant when he lodgeth
+him in no worse dwelling than his own," said De Vaux, and entered
+the hut.
+
+The bishop followed, not without evident reluctance; for though
+he lacked not courage in some respects, yet it was tempered with
+a strong and lively regard for his own safety.  He recollected,
+however, the necessity there was for judging personally of the
+skill of the Arabian physician, and entered the hut with a
+stateliness of manner calculated, as he thought, to impose
+respect on the stranger.
+
+The prelate was, indeed, a striking and commanding figure.  In
+his youth he had been eminently handsome, and even in age was
+unwilling to appear less so.  His episcopal dress was of the
+richest fashion, trimmed with costly fur, and surrounded by a
+cope of curious needlework.  The rings on his fingers were worth
+a goodly barony, and the hood which he wore, though now unclasped
+and thrown back for heat, had studs of pure gold to fasten it
+around his throat and under his chin when he so inclined.  His
+long beard, now silvered with age, descended over his breast.
+One of two youthful acolytes who attended him created an
+artificial shade, peculiar then to the East, by bearing over his
+head an umbrella of palmetto leaves, while the other refreshed
+his reverend master by agitating a fan of peacock-feathers.
+
+When the Bishop of Tyre entered the hut of the Scottish knight,
+the master was absent, and the Moorish physician, whom he had
+come to see, sat in the very posture in which De Vaux had left
+him several hours before, cross-legged upon a mat made of twisted
+leaves, by the side of the patient, who appeared in deep slumber,
+and whose pulse he felt from time to time.  The bishop remained
+standing before him in silence for two or three minutes, as if
+expecting some honourable salutation, or at least that the
+Saracen would seem struck with the dignity of his appearance.
+But Adonbec el Hakim took no notice of him beyond a passing
+glance, and when the prelate at length saluted him in the lingua
+franca current in the country, he only replied by the ordinary
+Oriental greeting, "SALAM ALICUM--Peace be with you."
+
+"Art thou a physician, infidel?"  said the bishop, somewhat
+mortified at this cold reception.  "I would speak with thee on
+that art."
+
+"If thou knewest aught of medicine," answered El Hakim, "thou
+wouldst be aware that physicians hold no counsel or debate in the
+sick chamber of their patient.  Hear," he added, as the low
+growling of the staghound was heard from the inner hut, "even the
+dog might teach thee reason, Ulemat.  His instinct teaches him to
+suppress his barking in the sick man's hearing.  Come without the
+tent," said he, rising and leading the way, "if thou hast ought
+to say with me."
+
+Notwithstanding the plainness of the Saracen leech's dress, and
+his inferiority of size when contrasted with the tall prelate and
+gigantic English baron, there was something striking in his
+manner and countenance, which prevented the Bishop of Tyre from
+expressing strongly the displeasure he felt at this unceremonious
+rebuke.  When without the hut, he gazed upon Adonbec in silence
+for several minutes before he could fix on the best manner to
+renew the conversation.  No locks were seen under the high bonnet
+of the Arabian, which hid also part of a brow that seemed lofty
+and expanded, smooth, and free from wrinkles, as were his cheeks,
+where they were seen under the shade of his long beard.  We have
+elsewhere noticed the piercing quality of his dark eyes.
+
+The prelate, struck with his apparent youth, at length broke a
+pause, which the other seemed in no haste to interrupt, by
+demanding of the Arabian how old he was?
+
+"The years of ordinary men," said the Saracen, "are counted by
+their wrinkles; those of sages by their studies.  I dare not call
+myself older than a hundred revolutions of the Hegira."  [Meaning
+that his attainments were those which might have been made in a
+hundred years.]
+
+The Baron of Gilsland, who took this for a literal assertion that
+he was a century old, looked doubtfully upon the prelate, who,
+though he better understood the meaning of El Hakim, answered his
+glance by mysteriously shaking his head.  He resumed an air of
+importance when he again authoritatively demanded what evidence
+Adonbec could produce of his medical proficiency.
+
+"Ye have the word of the mighty Saladin," said the sage, touching
+his cap in sign of reverence--"a word which was never broken
+towards friend or foe.  What, Nazarene, wouldst thou demand
+more?"
+
+"I would have ocular proof of thy skill," said the baron, "and
+without it thou approachest not to the couch of King Richard."
+
+"The praise of the physician," said the Arabian, "is in the
+recovery of his patient.  Behold this sergeant, whose blood has
+been dried up by the fever which has whitened your camp with
+skeletons, and against which the art of your Nazarene leeches
+hath been like a silken doublet against a lance of steel.  Look
+at his fingers and arms, wasted like the claws and shanks of the
+crane.  Death had this morning his clutch on him; but had Azrael
+been on one side of the couch, I being on the other, his soul
+should not have been left from his body.  Disturb me not with
+further questions, but await the critical minute, and behold in
+silent wonder the marvellous event."
+
+The physician had then recourse to his astrolabe, the oracle of
+Eastern science, and watching with grave precision until the
+precise time of the evening prayer had arrived, he sunk on his
+knees, with his face turned to Mecca, and recited the petitions
+which close the Moslemah's day of toil.  The bishop and the
+English baron looked on each other, meanwhile, with symptoms of
+contempt and indignation, but neither judged it fit to interrupt
+El Hakim in his devotions, unholy as they considered them to be.
+
+The Arab arose from the earth, on which he had prostrated
+himself, and walking into the hut where the patient lay extended,
+he drew a sponge from a small silver box, dipped perhaps in some
+aromatic distillation, for when he put it to the sleeper's nose,
+he sneezed, awoke, and looked wildly around.  He was a ghastly
+spectacle as he sat up almost naked on his couch, the bones and
+cartilages as visible through the surface of his skin as if they
+had never been clothed with flesh.  His face was long, and
+furrowed with wrinkles; but his eye, though it wandered at first,
+became gradually more settled.  He seemed to be aware of the
+presence of his dignified visitors, for he attempted feebly to
+pull the covering from his head in token of reverence, as he
+inquired, in a subdued and submissive voice, for his master.
+
+"Do you know us, vassal?"  said the Lord of Gilsland.
+
+"Not perfectly, my lord," replied the squire faintly.  "My sleep
+has been long and full of dreams.  Yet I know that you are a
+great English lord, as seemeth by the red cross, and this a holy
+prelate, whose blessing I crave on me a poor sinner."
+
+"Thou hast it--BENEDICTIO DOMINI SIT VOBISCUM," said the prelate,
+making the sign of the cross, but without approaching nearer to
+the patient's bed.
+
+"Your eyes witness," said the Arabian, "the fever hath been
+subdued.  He speaks with calmness and recollection--his pulse
+beats composedly as yours--try its pulsations yourself."
+
+The prelate declined the experiment; but Thomas of Gilsland, more
+determined on making the trial, did so, and satisfied himself
+that the fever was indeed gone.
+
+"This is most wonderful," said the knight, looking to the bishop;
+"the man is assuredly cured.  I must conduct this mediciner
+presently to King Richard's tent.  What thinks your reverence?"
+
+"Stay, let me finish one cure ere I commence another," said the
+Arab; "I will pass with you when I have given my patient the
+second cup of this most holy elixir."
+
+So saying he pulled out a silver cup, and filling it with water
+from a gourd which stood by the bedside, he next drew forth a
+small silken bag made of network, twisted with silver, the
+contents of which the bystanders could not discover, and
+immersing it in the cup, continued to watch it in silence during
+the space of five minutes.  It seemed to the spectators as if
+some effervescence took place during the operation; but if so, it
+instantly subsided.
+
+"Drink," said the physician to the sick man--"sleep, and awaken
+free from malady."
+
+"And with this simple-seeming draught thou wilt undertake to cure
+a monarch?"  said the Bishop of Tyre.
+
+"I have cured a beggar, as you may behold," replied the sage.
+"Are the Kings of Frangistan made of other clay than the meanest
+of their subjects?"
+
+"Let us have him presently to the King," said the Baron of
+Gilsland.  "He hath shown that he possesses the secret which may
+restore his health.  If he fails to exercise it, I will put
+himself past the power of medicine."
+
+As they were about to leave the hut, the sick man, raising his
+voice as much as his weakness permitted, exclaimed, "Reverend
+father, noble knight, and you, kind leech, if you would have me
+sleep and recover, tell me in charity what is become of my dear
+master?"
+
+"He is upon a distant expedition, friend," replied the prelate--
+"on an honourable embassy, which may detain him for some days."
+
+"Nay," said the Baron of Gilsland, "why deceive the poor fellow?
+--Friend, thy master has returned to the camp, and you will
+presently see him."
+
+The invalid held up, as if in thankfulness, his wasted hands to
+Heaven, and resisting no longer the soporiferous operation of the
+elixir, sunk down in a gentle sleep.
+
+"You are a better physician than I, Sir Thomas," said the
+prelate--"a soothing falsehood is fitter for a sick-room than an
+unpleasing truth."
+
+"How mean you, my reverend lord?"  said De Vaux hastily.  "Think
+you I would tell a falsehood to save the lives of a dozen such as
+he?"
+
+"You said," replied the bishop, with manifest symptoms of alarm
+--"you said the esquire's master was returned--he, I mean, of the
+Couchant Leopard."
+
+"And he IS returned," said De Vaux.  "I spoke with him but a few
+hours since.  This learned leech came in his company."
+
+"Holy Virgin!  why told you not of his return to me?"  said the
+bishop, in evident perturbation.
+
+"Did I not say that this same Knight of the Leopard had returned
+in company with the physician?  I thought I had," replied De Vaux
+carelessly.  "But what signified his return to the skill of the
+physician, or the cure of his Majesty?"
+
+"Much, Sir Thomas--it signified much," said the bishop, clenching
+his hands, pressing his foot against the earth, and giving signs
+of impatience, as if in an involuntary manner.  "But where can he
+be gone now, this same knight?  God be with us--here may be some
+fatal errors!"
+
+"Yonder serf in the outer space," said De Vaux, not without
+wonder at the bishop's emotion, "can probably tell us whither his
+master has gone."
+
+The lad was summoned, and in a language nearly incomprehensible
+to them, gave them at length to understand that an officer had
+summoned his master to the royal tent some time before their
+arrival at that of his master.  The anxiety of the bishop
+appeared to rise to the highest, and became evident to De Vaux,
+though, neither an acute observer nor of a suspicious temper.
+But with his anxiety seemed to increase his wish to keep it
+subdued and unobserved.  He took a hasty leave of De Vaux, who
+looked after him with astonishment, and after shrugging his
+shoulders in silent wonder, proceeded to conduct the Arabian
+physician to the tent of King Richard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+This is the prince of leeches; fever, plague,
+Cold rheum, and hot podagra, do but look on him,
+And quit their grasp upon the tortured sinews.   ANONYMOUS.
+
+The Baron of Gilsland walked with slow step and an anxious
+countenance towards the royal pavilion.  He had much diffidence
+of his own capacity, except in a field of battle, and conscious
+of no very acute intellect, was usually contented to wonder at
+circumstances which a man of livelier imagination would have
+endeavoured to investigate and understand, or at least would have
+made the subject of speculation.  But it seemed very
+extraordinary, even to him, that the attention of the bishop
+should have been at once abstracted from all reflection on the
+marvellous cure which they had witnessed, and upon the
+probability it afforded of Richard being restored to health, by
+what seemed a very trivial piece of information announcing the
+motions of a beggardly Scottish knight, than whom Thomas of
+Gilsland knew nothing within the circle of gentle blood more
+unimportant or contemptible; and despite his usual habit of
+passively beholding passing events, the baron's spirit toiled
+with unwonted attempts to form conjectures on the cause.
+
+At length the idea occurred at once to him that the whole might
+be a conspiracy against King Richard, formed within the camp of
+the allies, and to which the bishop, who was by some represented
+as a politic and unscrupulous person, was not unlikely to have
+been accessory.  It was true that, in his own opinion, there
+existed no character so perfect as that of his master; for
+Richard being the flower of chivalry, and the chief of Christian
+leaders, and obeying in all points the commands of Holy Church,
+De Vaux's ideas of perfection went no further.  Still, he knew
+that, however unworthily, it had been always his master's fate to
+draw as much reproach and dislike as honour and attachment from
+the display of his great qualities; and that in the very camp,
+and amongst those princes bound by oath to the Crusade, were many
+who would have sacrificed all hope of victory over the Saracens
+to the pleasure of ruining, or at least of humbling, Richard of
+England.
+
+"Wherefore," said the baron to himself, "it is in no sense
+impossible that this El Hakim, with this his cure, or seeming
+cure, wrought on the body of the Scottish squire, may mean
+nothing but a trick, to which he of the Leopard may be accessory,
+and wherein the Bishop of Tyre, prelate as he is, may have some
+share."
+
+This hypothesis, indeed, could not be so easily reconciled with
+the alarm manifested by the bishop on learning that, contrary to
+his expectation, the Scottish knight had suddenly returned to the
+Crusaders' camp.  But De Vaux was influenced only by his general
+prejudices, which dictated to him the assured belief that a wily
+Italian priest, a false-hearted Scot, and an infidel physician,
+formed a set of ingredients from which all evil, and no good, was
+likely to be extracted.  He resolved, however, to lay his
+scruples bluntly before the King, of whose judgment he had nearly
+as high an opinion as of his valour.
+
+Meantime, events had taken place very contrary to the
+suppositions which Thomas de Vaux had entertained.  Scarce had he
+left the royal pavilion, when, betwixt the impatience of the
+fever, and that which was natural to his disposition, Richard
+began to murmur at his delay, and express an earnest desire for
+his return.  He had seen enough to try to reason himself out of
+this irritation, which greatly increased his bodily malady.  He
+wearied his attendants by demanding from them amusements, and the
+breviary of the priest, the romance of the clerk, even the harp
+of his favourite minstrel, were had recourse to in vain.  At
+length, some two hours before sundown, and long, therefore, ere
+he could expect a satisfactory account of the process of the cure
+which the Moor or Arabian had undertaken, he sent, as we have
+already heard, a messenger commanding the attendance of the
+Knight of the Leopard, determined to soothe his impatience by
+obtaining from Sir Kenneth a more particular account of the cause
+of his absence from the camp, and the circumstances of his
+meeting with this celebrated physician.
+
+The Scottish knight, thus summoned, entered the royal presence as
+one who was no stranger to such scenes.  He was scarcely known to
+the King of England, even by sight, although, tenacious of his
+rank, as devout in the adoration of the lady of his secret heart,
+he had never been absent on those occasions when the munificence
+and hospitality of England opened the Court of its monarch to all
+who held a certain rank in chivalry.  The King gazed fixedly on
+Sir Kenneth approaching his bedside, while the knight bent his
+knee for a moment, then arose, and stood before him in a posture
+of deference, but not of subservience or humility, as became an
+officer in the presence of his sovereign.
+
+"Thy name," said the King, "is Kenneth of the Leopard--from whom
+hadst thou degree of knighthood?"
+
+"I took it from the sword of William the Lion, King of Scotland,"
+replied the Scot.
+
+"A weapon," said the King, "well worthy to confer honour; nor has
+it been laid on an undeserving shoulder.  We have seen thee bear
+thyself knightly and valiantly in press of battle, when most need
+there was; and thou hadst not been yet to learn that thy deserts
+were known to us, but that thy presumption in other points has
+been such that thy services can challenge no better reward than
+that of pardon for thy transgression.  What sayest thou--ha?"
+
+Kenneth attempted to speak, but was unable to express himself
+distinctly; the consciousness of his too ambitious love, and the
+keen, falcon glance with which Coeur de Lion seemed to penetrate
+his inmost soul, combining to disconcert him.
+
+"And yet," said the King, "although soldiers should obey command,
+and vassals be respectful towards their superiors, we might
+forgive a brave knight greater offence than the keeping a simple
+hound, though it were contrary to our express public ordinance."
+
+Richard kept his eye fixed on the Scot's face, beheld and
+beholding, smiling inwardly at the relief produced by the turn he
+had given to his general accusation.
+
+"So please you, my lord," said the Scot, "your majesty must be
+good to us poor gentlemen of Scotland in this matter.  We are far
+from home, scant of revenues, and cannot support ourselves as
+your wealthy nobles, who have credit of the Lombards.  The
+Saracens shall feel our blows the harder that we eat a piece of
+dried venison from time to time with our herbs and barley-cakes."
+
+"It skills not asking my leave," said Richard, "since Thomas de
+Vaux, who doth, like all around me, that which is fittest in his
+own eyes, hath already given thee permission for hunting and
+hawking."
+
+"For hunting only, and please you," said the Scot.  "But if it
+please your Majesty to indulge me with the privilege of hawking
+also, and you list to trust me with a falcon on fist, I trust I
+could supply your royal mess with some choice waterfowl."
+
+"I dread me, if thou hadst but the falcon," said the King, "thou
+wouldst scarce wait for the permission.  I wot well it is said
+abroad that we of the line of Anjou resent offence against our
+forest-laws as highly as we would do treason against our crown.
+To brave and worthy men, however, we could pardon either
+misdemeanour.--But enough of this.  I desire to know of you, Sir
+Knight, wherefore, and by whose authority, you took this recent
+journey to the wilderness of the Dead Sea and Engaddi?"
+
+"By order," replied the knight, "of the Council of Princes of the
+Holy Crusade."
+
+"And how dared any one to give such an order, when I--not the
+least, surely, in the league--was unacquainted with it?"
+
+"It was not my part, please your highness," said the Scot, "to
+inquire into such particulars.  I am a soldier of the Cross
+--serving, doubtless, for the present, under your highness's
+banner, and proud of the permission to do so, but still one who
+hath taken on him the holy symbol for the rights of Christianity
+and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, and bound, therefore, to
+obey without question the orders of the princes and chiefs by
+whom the blessed enterprise is directed.  That indisposition
+should seclude, I trust for but a short time, your highness from
+their councils, in which you hold so potential a voice, I must
+lament with all Christendom; but, as a soldier, I must obey those
+on whom the lawful right of command devolves, or set but an evil
+example in the Christian camp."
+
+"Thou sayest well," said King Richard; "and the blame rests not
+with thee, but with those with whom, when it shall please Heaven
+to raise me from this accursed bed of pain and inactivity, I hope
+to reckon roundly.  What was the purport of thy message"
+
+"Methinks, and please your highness," replied Sir Kenneth, "that
+were best asked of those who sent me, and who can render the
+reasons of mine errand; whereas I can only tell its outward form
+and purport."
+
+"Palter not with me, Sir Scot--it were ill for thy safety," said
+the irritable monarch.
+
+"My safety, my lord," replied the knight firmly, "I cast behind
+me as a regardless thing when I vowed myself to this enterprise,
+looking rather to my immortal welfare than to that which concerns
+my earthly body."
+
+"By the mass," said King Richard, "thou art a brave fellow!  Hark
+thee, Sir Knight, I love the Scottish people; they are hardy,
+though dogged and stubborn, and, I think, true men in the main,
+though the necessity of state has sometimes constrained them to
+be dissemblers.  I deserve some love at their hand, for I have
+voluntarily done what they could not by arms have extorted from
+me any more than from my predecessors, I have re-established the
+fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, which lay in pledge to
+England; I have restored your ancient boundaries; and, finally, I
+have renounced a claim to homage upon the crown of England, which
+I thought unjustly forced on you.  I have endeavoured to make
+honourable and independent friends, where former kings of England
+attempted only to compel unwilling and rebellious vassals."
+
+"All this you have done, my Lord King," said Sir Kenneth, bowing
+--"all this you have done, by your royal treaty with our
+sovereign at Canterbury.  Therefore have you me, and many better
+Scottish men, making war against the infidels, under your
+banners, who would else have been ravaging your frontiers in
+England.  If their numbers are now few, it is because their lives
+have been freely waged and wasted."
+
+"I grant it true," said the King; "and for the good offices I
+have done your land I require you to remember that, as a
+principal member of the Christian league, I have a right to know
+the negotiations of my confederates.  Do me, therefore, the
+justice to tell me what I have a title to be acquainted with, and
+which I am certain to know more truly from you than from others."
+
+"My lord," said the Scot, "thus conjured, I will speak the truth;
+for I well believe that your purposes towards the principal
+object of our expedition are single-hearted and honest, and it is
+more than I dare warrant for others of the Holy League.  Be
+pleased, therefore, to know my charge was to propose, through the
+medium of the hermit of Engaddi--a holy man, respected and
+protected by Saladin himself--"
+
+"A continuation of the truce, I doubt not," said Richard, hastily
+interrupting him.
+
+"No, by Saint Andrew, my liege," said the Scottish knight; "but
+the establishment of a lasting peace, and the withdrawing our
+armies from Palestine."
+
+"Saint George!"  said Richard, in astonishment.  "Ill as I have
+justly thought of them, I could not have dreamed they would have
+humbled themselves to such dishonour.  Speak, Sir Kenneth, with
+what will did you carry such a message?"
+
+"With right good will, my lord," said Kenneth; "because, when we
+had lost our noble leader, under whose guidance alone I hoped for
+victory, I saw none who could succeed him likely to lead us to
+conquest, and I accounted it well in such circumstances to avoid
+defeat."
+
+"And on what conditions was this hopeful peace to be contracted?"
+said King Richard, painfully suppressing the passion with which
+his heart was almost bursting.
+
+"These were not entrusted to me, my lord," answered the Knight of
+the Couchant Leopard.  "I delivered them sealed to the hermit."
+
+"And for what hold you this reverend hermit--for fool, madman,
+traitor, or saint?"  said Richard.
+
+"His folly, sire," replied the shrewd Scottish man, "I hold to be
+assumed to win favour and reverence from the Paynimrie, who
+regard madmen as the inspired of Heaven--at least it seemed to me
+as exhibited only occasionally, and not as mixing, like natural
+folly, with the general tenor of his mind."
+
+"Shrewdly replied," said the monarch, throwing himself back on
+his couch, from which he had half-raised himself.  "Now of his
+penitence?"
+
+"His penitence," continued Kenneth, "appears to me sincere, and
+the fruits of remorse for some dreadful crime, for which he
+seems, in his own opinion, condemned to reprobation."
+
+"And for his policy?"  said King Richard.
+
+"Methinks, my lord," said the Scottish knight, "he despairs of
+the security of Palestine, as of his own salvation, by any means
+short of a miracle--at least, since the arm of Richard of England
+hath ceased to strike for it."
+
+"And, therefore, the coward policy of this hermit is like that of
+these miserable princes, who, forgetful of their knighthood and
+their faith, are only resolved and determined when the question
+is retreat, and rather than go forward against an armed Saracen,
+would trample in their flight over a dying ally!"
+
+"Might I so far presume, my Lord King," said the Scottish knight,
+"this discourse but heats your disease, the enemy from which
+Christendom dreads more evil than from armed hosts of infidels."
+
+The countenance of King Richard was, indeed, more flushed, and
+his action became more feverishly vehement, as, with clenched
+hand, extended arm, and flashing eyes, he seemed at once to
+suffer under bodily pain, and at the same time under vexation of
+mind, while his high spirit led him to speak on, as if in
+contempt of both.
+
+"You can flatter, Sir Knight," he said, "but you escape me not.
+I must know more from you than you have yet told me.  Saw you my
+royal consort when at Engaddi?"
+
+"To my knowledge--no, my lord," replied Sir Kenneth, with
+considerable perturbation, for he remembered the midnight
+procession in the chapel of the rocks.
+
+"I ask you," said the King, in a sterner voice," whether you were
+not in the chapel of the Carmelite nuns at Engaddi, and there saw
+Berengaria, Queen of England, and the ladies of her Court, who
+went thither on pilgrimage?"
+
+"My lord," said Sir Kenneth, "I will speak the truth as in the
+confessional.  In a subterranean chapel, to which the anchorite
+conducted me, I beheld a choir of ladies do homage to a relic of
+the highest sanctity; but as I saw not their faces, nor heard
+their voices, unless in the hymns which they chanted, I cannot
+tell whether the Queen of England was of the bevy."
+
+"And was there no one of these ladies known to you?"
+
+Sir Kenneth stood silent.
+
+"I ask you," said Richard, raising himself on his elbow, "as a
+knight and a gentleman--and I shall know by your answer how you
+value either character--did you, or did you not, know any lady
+amongst that band of worshippers?"
+
+"My lord," said Kenneth, not without much hesitation, "I might
+guess."
+
+"And I also may guess," said the King, frowning sternly; "but it
+is enough.  Leopard as you are, Sir Knight, beware tempting the
+lion's paw.  Hark ye--to become enamoured of the moon would be
+but an act of folly; but to leap from the battlements of a lofty
+tower, in the wild hope of coming within her sphere, were self-destructive madness."
+
+At this moment some bustling was heard in the outer apartment,
+and the King, hastily changing to his more natural manner, said,
+"Enough--begone--speed to De Vaux, and send him hither with the
+Arabian physician.  My life for the faith of the Soldan!  Would
+he but abjure his false law, I would aid him with my sword to
+drive this scum of French and Austrians from his dominions, and
+think Palestine as well ruled by him as when her kings were
+anointed by the decree of Heaven itself."
+
+The Knight of the Leopard retired, and presently afterwards the
+chamberlain announced a deputation from the Council, who had come
+to wait on the Majesty of England.
+
+"It is well they allow that I am living yet," was his reply.
+"Who are the reverend ambassadors?"
+
+"The Grand Master of the Templars and the Marquis of Montserrat."
+
+"Our brother of France loves not sick-beds," said Richard; "yet,
+had Philip been ill, I had stood by his couch long since.
+--Jocelyn, lay me the couch more fairly--it is tumbled like a
+stormy sea.  Reach me yonder steel mirror--pass a comb through my
+hair and beard.  They look, indeed, liker a lion's mane than a
+Christian man's locks.  Bring water."
+
+"My lord," said the trembling chamberlain, "the leeches say that
+cold water may be fatal."
+
+"To the foul fiend with the leeches!"  replied the monarch; "if
+they cannot cure me, think you I will allow them to torment me?
+--There, then," he said, after having made his ablutions, "admit
+the worshipful envoys; they will now, I think, scarcely see that
+disease has made Richard negligent of his person."
+
+The celebrated Master of the Templars was a tall, thin, war-worn
+man, with a slow yet penetrating eye, and a brow on which a
+thousand dark intrigues had stamped a portion of their obscurity.
+At the head of that singular body, to whom their order was
+everything, and their individuality nothing--seeking the
+advancement of its power, even at the hazard of that very
+religion which the fraternity were originally associated to
+protect--accused of heresy and witchcraft, although by their
+character Christian priests--suspected of secret league with the
+Soldan, though by oath devoted to the protection of the Holy
+Temple, or its recovery--the whole order, and the whole personal
+character of its commander, or Grand Master, was a riddle, at the
+exposition of which most men shuddered.  The Grand Master was
+dressed in his white robes of solemnity, and he bore the ABACUS,
+a mystic staff of office, the peculiar form of which has given
+rise to such singular conjectures and commentaries, leading to
+suspicions that this celebrated fraternity of Christian knights
+were embodied under the foulest symbols of paganism.
+
+Conrade of Montserrat had a much more pleasing exterior than the
+dark and mysterious priest-soldier by whom he was accompanied.
+He was a handsome man, of middle age, or something past that
+term, bold in the field, sagacious in council, gay and gallant in
+times of festivity; but, on the other hand, he was generally
+accused of versatility, of a narrow and selfish ambition, of a
+desire to extend his own principality, without regard to the weal
+of the Latin kingdom of Palestine, and of seeking his own
+interest, by private negotiations with Saladin, to the prejudice
+of the Christian leaguers.
+
+When the usual salutations had been made by these dignitaries,
+and courteously returned by King Richard, the Marquis of
+Montserrat commenced an explanation of the motives of their
+visit, sent, as he said they were, by the anxious kings and
+princes who composed the Council of the Crusaders, "to inquire
+into the health of their magnanimous ally, the valiant King of
+England."
+
+"We know the importance in which the princes of the Council hold
+our health," replied the English King; "and are well aware how
+much they must have suffered by suppressing all curiosity
+concerning it for fourteen days, for fear, doubtless, of
+aggravating our disorder, by showing their anxiety regarding the
+event."
+
+The flow of the Marquis's eloquence being checked, and he himself
+thrown into some confusion by this reply, his more austere
+companion took up the thread of the conversation, and with as
+much dry and brief gravity as was consistent with the presence
+which he addressed, informed the King that they came from the
+Council, to pray, in the name of Christendom, "that he would not
+suffer his health to be tampered with by an infidel physician,
+said to be dispatched by Saladin, until the Council had taken
+measures to remove or confirm the suspicion which they at present
+conceived did attach itself to the mission of such a person."
+
+"Grand Master of the Holy and Valiant Order of Knights Templars,
+and you, most noble Marquis of Montserrat," replied Richard, "if
+it please you to retire into the adjoining pavilion, you shall
+presently see what account we make of the tender remonstrances of
+our royal and princely colleagues in this religious warfare."
+
+The Marquis and Grand Master retired accordingly; nor had they
+been many minutes in the outward pavilion when the Eastern
+physician arrived, accompanied by the Baron of Gilsland and
+Kenneth of Scotland.  The baron, however, was a little later of
+entering the tent than the other two, stopping, perchance, to
+issue some orders to the warders without.
+
+As the Arabian physician entered, he made his obeisance, after
+the Oriental fashion, to the Marquis and Grand Master, whose
+dignity was apparent, both from their appearance and their
+bearing.  The Grand Master returned the salutation with an
+expression of disdainful coldness, the Marquis with the popular
+courtesy which he habitually practised to men of every rank and
+nation.  There was a pause, for the Scottish knight, waiting for
+the arrival of De Vaux, presumed not, of his own authority, to
+enter the tent of the King of England; and during this interval
+the Grand Master sternly demanded of the Moslem, "Infidel, hast
+thou the courage to practise thine art upon the person of an
+anointed sovereign of the Christian host?"
+
+"The sun of Allah," answered the sage, "shines on the Nazarene as
+well as on the true believer, and His servant dare make no
+distinction betwixt them when called on to exercise the art of
+healing."
+
+"Misbelieving Hakim," said the Grand Master, "or whatsoever they
+call thee for an unbaptized slave of darkness, dost thou well
+know that thou shalt be torn asunder by wild horses should King
+Richard die under thy charge?"
+
+"That were hard justice," answered the physician, "seeing that I
+can but use human means, and that the issue is written in the
+book of light."
+
+"Nay, reverend and valiant Grand Master," said the Marquis of
+Montserrat, "consider that this learned man is not acquainted
+with our Christian order, adopted in the fear of God, and for the
+safety of His anointed.--Be it known to thee, grave physician,
+whose skill we doubt not, that your wisest course is to repair to
+the presence of the illustrious Council of our Holy League, and
+there to give account and reckoning to such wise and learned
+leeches as they shall nominate, concerning your means of process
+and cure of this illustrious patient; so shall you escape all the
+danger which, rashly taking such a high matter upon your sole
+answer, you may else most likely incur."
+
+"My lords," said El Hakim, "I understand you well.  But knowledge
+hath its champions as well as your military art--nay, hath
+sometimes had its martyrs as well as religion.  I have the
+command of my sovereign, the Soldan Saladin, to heal this
+Nazarene King, and, with the blessing of the Prophet, I will obey
+his commands.  If I fail, ye wear swords thirsting for the blood
+of the faithful, and I proffer my body to your weapons.  But I
+will not reason with one uncircumcised upon the virtue of the
+medicines of which I have obtained knowledge through the grace of
+the Prophet, and I pray you interpose no delay between me and my
+office."
+
+"Who talks of delay?"  said the Baron de Vaux, hastily entering
+the tent; "we have had but too much already.  I salute you, my
+Lord of Montserrat, and you, valiant Grand Master.  But I must
+presently pass with this learned physician to the bedside of my
+master."
+
+"My lord," said the Marquis, in Norman-French, or the language of
+Ouie, as it was then called, "are you well advised that we came
+to expostulate, on the part of the Council of the Monarchs and
+Princes of the Crusade, against the risk of permitting an infidel
+and Eastern physician to tamper with a health so valuable as that
+of your master, King Richard?"
+
+"Noble Lord Marquis," replied the Englishman bluntly, "I can
+neither use many words, nor do I delight in listening to them;
+moreover, I am much more ready to believe what my eyes have seen
+than what my ears have heard.  I am satisfied that this heathen
+can cure the sickness of King Richard, and I believe and trust he
+will labour to do so.  Time is precious.  If Mohammed--may God's
+curse be on him!  stood at the door of the tent, with such fair
+purpose as this Adonbec el Hakim entertains, I would hold it sin
+to delay him for a minute.  So, give ye God'en, my lords."
+
+"Nay, but," said Conrade of Montserrat, "the King himself said we
+should be present when this same physician dealt upon him."
+
+The baron whispered the chamberlain, probably to know whether the
+Marquis spoke truly, and then replied, "My lords, if you will
+hold your patience, you are welcome to enter with us; but if you
+interrupt, by action or threat, this accomplished physician in
+his duty, be it known that, without respect to your high quality,
+I will enforce your absence from Richard's tent; for know, I am
+so well satisfied of the virtue of this man's medicines, that
+were Richard himself to refuse them, by our Lady of Lanercost, I
+think I could find in my heart to force him to take the means of
+his cure whether he would or no.--Move onward, El Hakim."
+
+The last word was spoken in the lingua franca, and instantly
+obeyed by the physician.  The Grand Master looked grimly on the
+unceremonious old soldier, but, on exchanging a glance with the
+Marquis, smoothed his frowning brow as well as he could, and both
+followed De Vaux and the Arabian into the inner tent, where
+Richard lay expecting them, with that impatience with which the
+sick man watches the step of his physician.  Sir Kenneth, whose
+attendance seemed neither asked nor prohibited, felt himself, by
+the circumstances in which he stood, entitled to follow these
+high dignitaries; but, conscious of his inferior power and rank,
+remained aloof during the scene which took place.
+
+Richard, when they entered his apartment, immediately exclaimed,
+"So ho!  a goodly fellowship come to see Richard take his leap in
+the dark.  My noble allies, I greet you as the representatives of
+our assembled league; Richard will again be amongst you in his
+former fashion, or ye shall bear to the grave what is left of
+him.--De Vaux, lives he or dies he, thou hast the thanks of thy
+prince.  There is yet another--but this fever hath wasted my
+eyesight.  What, the bold Scot, who would climb heaven without a
+ladder!  He is welcome too.--Come, Sir Hakim, to the work, to the
+work!"
+
+The physician, who had already informed himself of the various
+symptoms of the King's illness, now felt his pulse for a long
+time, and with deep attention, while all around stood silent, and
+in breathless expectation.  The sage next filled a cup with
+spring water, and dipped into it the small red purse, which, as
+formerly, he took from his bosom.  When he seemed to think it
+sufficiently medicated, he was about to offer it to the
+sovereign, who prevented him by saying, "Hold an instant.  Thou
+hast felt my pulse--let me lay my finger on thine.  I too, as
+becomes a good knight, know something of thine art."
+
+The Arabian yielded his hand without hesitation, and his long,
+slender dark fingers were for an instant enclosed, and almost
+buried, in the large enfoldment of King Richard's hand.
+
+"His blood beats calm as an infant's," said the King; "so throbs
+not theirs who poison princes.  De Vaux, whether we live or die,
+dismiss this Hakim with honour and safety.--Commend us, friend,
+to the noble Saladin.  Should I die, it is without doubt of his
+faith; should I live, it will be to thank him as a warrior would
+desire to be thanked."
+
+He then raised himself in bed, took the cup in his hand, and
+turning to the Marquis and the Grand Master--"Mark what I say,
+and let my royal brethren pledge me in Cyprus wine, 'To the
+immortal honour of the first Crusader who shall strike lance or
+sword on the gate of Jerusalem; and to the shame and eternal
+infamy of whomsoever shall turn back from the plough on which he
+hath laid his hand!'"
+
+He drained the cup to the bottom, resigned it to the Arabian, and
+sunk back, as if exhausted, upon the cushions which were arranged
+to receive him.  The physician then, with silent but expressive
+signs, directed that all should leave the tent excepting himself
+and De Vaux, whom no remonstrance could induce to withdraw.  The
+apartment was cleared accordingly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+And now I will unclasp a secret book,
+And, to your quick-conceiving discontent,
+I'll read you matter deep and dangerous.  HENRY IV., PART I.
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat and the Grand Master of the Knights
+Templars stood together in the front of the royal pavilion,
+within which this singular scene had passed, and beheld a strong
+guard of bills and bows drawn out to form a circle around it, and
+keep at distance all which might disturb the sleeping monarch.
+The soldiers wore the downcast, silent, and sullen looks with
+which they trail their arms at a funeral, and stepped with such
+caution that you could not hear a buckler ring or a sword
+clatter, though so many men in armour were moving around the
+tent.  They lowered their weapons in deep reverence as the
+dignitaries passed through their files, but with the same
+profound silence.
+
+"There is a change of cheer among these island dogs," said the
+Grand Master to Conrade, when they had passed Richard's guards.
+"What hoarse tumult and revel used to be before this pavilion!
+--nought but pitching the bar, hurling the ball, wrestling,
+roaring of songs, clattering of wine pots, and quaffing of
+flagons among these burly yeomen, as if they were holding some
+country wake, with a Maypole in the midst of them instead of a
+royal standard."
+
+"Mastiffs are a faithful race," said Conrade; "and the King their
+Master has won their love by being ready to wrestle, brawl, or
+revel amongst the foremost of them, whenever the humour seized
+him."
+
+"He is totally compounded of humours," said the Grand Master.
+"Marked you the pledge he gave us!  instead of a prayer, over his
+grace-cup yonder."
+
+"He would have felt it a grace-cup, and a well-spiced one too,"
+said the Marquis, "were Saladin like any other Turk that ever
+wore turban, or turned him to Mecca at call of the muezzin.  But
+he affects faith, and honour, and generosity, as if it were for
+an unbaptized dog like him to practise the virtuous bearing of a
+Christian knight.  It is said he hath applied to Richard to be
+admitted within the pale of chivalry."
+
+"By Saint Bernard!"  exclaimed the Grand Master, "it were time
+then to throw off our belts and spurs, Sir Conrade, deface our
+armorial bearings, and renounce our burgonets, if the highest
+honour of Christianity were conferred on an unchristened Turk of
+tenpence."
+
+"You rate the Soldan cheap," replied the Marquis; "yet though he
+be a likely man, I have seen a better heathen sold for forty
+pence at the bagnio."
+
+They were now near their horses, which stood at some distance
+from the royal tent, prancing among the gallant train of esquires
+and pages by whom they were attended, when Conrade, after a
+moment's pause, proposed that they should enjoy the coolness of
+the evening breeze which had arisen, and, dismissing their steeds
+and attendants, walk homewards to their own quarters through the
+lines of the extended Christian camp.  The Grand Master assented,
+and they proceeded to walk together accordingly, avoiding, as if
+by mutual consent, the more inhabited parts of the canvas city,
+and tracing the broad esplanade which lay between the tents and
+the external defences, where they could converse in private, and
+unmarked, save by the sentinels as they passed them.
+
+They spoke for a time upon the military points and preparations
+for defence; but this sort of discourse, in which neither seemed
+to take interest, at length died away, and there was a long
+pause, which terminated by the Marquis of Montserrat stopping
+short, like a man who has formed a sudden resolution, and gazing
+for some moments on the dark, inflexible countenance of the Grand
+Master, he at length addressed him thus:  "Might it consist with
+your valour and sanctity, reverend Sir Giles Amaury, I would pray
+you for once to lay aside the dark visor which you wear, and to
+converse with a friend barefaced."
+
+The Templar half smiled.
+
+"There are light-coloured masks," he said, "as well as dark
+visors, and the one conceals the natural features as completely
+as the other."
+
+"Be it so," said the Marquis, putting his hand to his chin, and
+withdrawing it with the action of one who unmasks himself; "there
+lies my disguise.  And now, what think you, as touching the
+interests of your own order, of the prospects of this Crusade?"
+
+"This is tearing the veil from my thoughts rather than exposing
+your own," said the Grand Master; "yet I will reply with a
+parable told to me by a santon of the desert.  'A certain farmer
+prayed to Heaven for rain, and murmured when it fell not at his
+need.  To punish his impatience, Allah,' said the santon, 'sent
+the Euphrates upon his farm, and he was destroyed, with all his
+possessions, even by the granting of his own wishes.'"
+
+"Most truly spoken," said the Marquis Conrade.  "Would that the
+ocean had swallowed up nineteen parts of the armaments of these
+Western princes!  What remained would better have served the
+purpose of the Christian nobles of Palestine, the wretched
+remnant of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.  Left to ourselves, we
+might have bent to the storm; or, moderately supported with money
+and troops, we might have compelled Saladin to respect our
+valour, and grant us peace and protection on easy terms.  But
+from the extremity of danger with which this powerful Crusade
+threatens the Soldan, we cannot suppose, should it pass over,
+that the Saracen will suffer any one of us to hold possessions or
+principalities in Syria, far less permit the existence of the
+Christian military fraternities, from whom they have experienced
+so much mischief."
+
+"Ay, but," said the Templar, "these adventurous Crusaders may
+succeed, and again plant the Cross on the bulwarks of Zion."
+
+"And what will that advantage either the Order of the Templars,
+or Conrade of Montserrat?"  said the Marquis.
+
+"You it may advantage," replied the Grand Master.  "Conrade of
+Montserrat might become Conrade King of Jerusalem."
+
+"That sounds like something," said the Marquis, "and yet it rings
+but hollow.  Godfrey of Bouillon might well choose the crown of
+thorns for his emblem.  Grand Master, I will confess to you I
+have caught some attachment to the Eastern form of government--a
+pure and simple monarchy should consist but of king and subjects.
+Such is the simple and primitive structure--a shepherd and his
+flock.  All this internal chain of feudal dependance is
+artificial and sophisticated; and I would rather hold the baton
+of my poor marquisate with a firm gripe, and wield it after my
+pleasure, than the sceptre of a monarch, to be in effect
+restrained and curbed by the will of as many proud feudal barons
+as hold land under the Assizes of Jerusalem.  [The Assises de
+Jerusalem were the digest of feudal law, composed by Godfrey of
+Boulogne, for the government of the Latin kingdom of Palestine,
+when reconquered from the Saracens.  "It was composed with advice
+of the patriarch and barons, the clergy and laity, and is," says
+the historian Gibbon, "a precious monument of feudatory
+jurisprudence, founded upon those principles of freedom which
+were essential to the system."]  A king should tread freely,
+Grand Master, and should not be controlled by here a ditch, and
+there a fence-here a feudal privilege, and there a mail-clad
+baron with his sword in his hand to maintain it.  To sum the
+whole, I am aware that Guy de Lusignan's claims to the throne
+would be preferred to mine, if Richard recovers, and has aught to
+say in the choice."
+
+"Enough," said the Grand Master; "thou hast indeed convinced me
+of thy sincerity.  Others may hold the same opinions, but few,
+save Conrade of Montserrat, dared frankly avow that he desires
+not the restitution of the kingdom of Jerusalem, but rather
+prefers being master of a portion of its fragments--like the
+barbarous islanders, who labour not for the deliverance of a
+goodly vessel from the billows, expecting rather to enrich
+themselves at the expense of the wreck."
+
+"Thou wilt not betray my counsel?"  said Conrade, looking sharply
+and suspiciously.  "Know, for certain, that my tongue shall never
+wrong my head, nor my hand forsake the defence of either.
+Impeach me if thou wilt--I am prepared to defend myself in the
+lists against the best Templar who ever laid lance in rest."
+
+"Yet thou start'st somewhat suddenly for so bold a steed," said
+the Grand Master.  "However, I swear to thee by the Holy Temple,
+which our Order is sworn to defend, that I will keep counsel with
+thee as a true comrade."
+
+"By which Temple?"  said the Marquis of Montserrat, whose love of
+sarcasm often outran his policy and discretion; "swearest thou by
+that on the hill of Zion, which was built by King Solomon, or by
+that symbolical, emblematical edifice, which is said to be spoken
+of in the councils held in the vaults of your Preceptories, as
+something which infers the aggrandizement of thy valiant and
+venerable Order?"
+
+The Templar scowled upon him with an eye of death, but answered
+calmly, "By whatever Temple I swear, be assured, Lord Marquis,
+my oath is sacred.  I would I knew how to bind THEE by one of
+equal obligation."
+
+"I will swear truth to thee," said the Marquis, laughing, "by the
+earl's coronet, which I hope to convert, ere these wars are over,
+into something better.  It feels cold on my brow, that same
+slight coronal; a duke's cap of maintenance were a better
+protection against such a night-breeze as now blows, and a king's
+crown more preferable still, being lined with comfortable ermine
+and velvet.  In a word, our interests bind us together; for think
+not, Lord Grand Master, that, were these allied princes to regain
+Jerusalem, and place a king of their own choosing there, they
+would suffer your Order, any more than my poor marquisate, to
+retain the independence which we now hold.  No, by Our Lady!  In
+such case, the proud Knights of Saint John must again spread
+plasters and dress plague sores in the hospitals; and you, most
+puissant and venerable Knights of the Temple, must return to your
+condition of simple men-at-arms, sleep three on a pallet, and
+mount two upon one horse, as your present seal still expresses to
+have been your ancient most simple custom."
+
+"The rank, privileges, and opulence of our Order prevent so much
+degradation as you threaten," said the Templar haughtily.
+
+"These are your bane," said Conrade of Montserrat; "and you, as
+well as I, reverend Grand Master, know that, were the allied
+princes to be successful in Palestine, it would be their first
+point of policy to abate the independence of your Order, which,
+but for the protection of our holy father the Pope, and the
+necessity of employing your valour in the conquest of Palestine,
+you would long since have experienced.  Give them complete
+success, and you will be flung aside, as the splinters of a
+broken lance are tossed out of the tilt-yard."
+
+"There may be truth in what you say," said the Templar, darkly
+smiling.  "But what were our hopes should the allies withdraw
+their forces, and leave Palestine in the grasp of Saladin?"
+
+"Great and assured," replied Conrade.  "The Soldan would give
+large provinces to maintain at his behest a body of well-appointed Frankish lances.  In Egypt, in Persia, a 
+hundred such
+auxiliaries, joined to his own light cavalry, would turn the
+battle against the most fearful odds.  This dependence would be
+but for a time--perhaps during the life of this enterprising
+Soldan; but in the East empires arise like mushrooms.  Suppose
+him dead, and us strengthened with a constant succession of fiery
+and adventurous spirits from Europe, what might we not hope to
+achieve, uncontrolled by these monarchs, whose dignity throws us
+at present into the shade--and, were they to remain here, and
+succeed in this expedition, would willingly consign us for ever
+to degradation and dependence?"
+
+"You say well, my Lord Marquis," said the Grand Master, "and your
+words find an echo in my bosom.  Yet must we be cautious--Philip
+of France is wise as well as valiant."
+
+"True, and will be therefore the more easily diverted from an
+expedition to which, in a moment of enthusiasm, or urged by his
+nobles, he rashly bound himself.  He is jealous of King Richard,
+his natural enemy, and longs to return to prosecute plans of
+ambition nearer to Paris than Palestine.  Any fair pretence will
+serve him for withdrawing from a scene in which he is aware he is
+wasting the force of his kingdom."
+
+"And the Duke of Austria?"  said the Templar.
+
+"Oh, touching the Duke," returned Conrade, "his self-conceit and
+folly lead him to the same conclusions as do Philip's policy and
+wisdom.  He conceives himself, God help the while, ungratefully
+treated, because men's mouths--even those of his own MINNE-SINGERS [The German minstrels were so 
+termed.]--are filled with
+the praises of King Richard, whom he fears and hates, and in
+whose harm he would rejoice, like those unbred, dastardly curs,
+who, if the foremost of the pack is hurt by the gripe of the
+wolf, are much more likely to assail the sufferer from behind
+than to come to his assistance.  But wherefore tell I this to
+thee, save to show that I am in sincerity in desiring that this
+league be broken up, and the country freed of these great
+monarchs with their hosts? And thou well knowest, and hast
+thyself seen, how all the princes of influence and power, one
+alone excepted, are eager to enter into treaty with the Soldan."
+
+"I acknowledge it," said the Templar; "he were blind that had not
+seen this in their last deliberations.  But lift yet thy mask an
+inch higher, and tell me thy real reason for pressing upon the
+Council that Northern Englishman, or Scot, or whatever you call
+yonder Knight of the Leopard, to carry their proposals for a
+treaty?"
+
+"There was a policy in it," replied the Italian.  "His character
+of native of Britain was sufficient to meet what Saladin
+required, who knew him to belong to the band of Richard; while
+his character of Scot, and certain other personal grudges which I
+wot of, rendered it most unlikely that our envoy should, on his
+return, hold any communication with the sick-bed of Richard, to
+whom his presence was ever unacceptable."
+
+"Oh, too finespun policy," said the Grand Master; "trust me, that
+Italian spiders' webs will never bind this unshorn Samson of the
+Isle--well if you can do it with new cords, and those of the
+toughest.  See you not that the envoy whom you have selected so
+carefully hath brought us, in this physician, the means of
+restoring the lion-hearted, bull-necked Englishman to prosecute
+his Crusading enterprise.  And so soon as he is able once more to
+rush on, which of the princes dare hold back?  They must follow
+him for very shame, although they would march under the banner of
+Satan as soon."
+
+"Be content," said Conrade of Montserrat; "ere this physician, if
+he work by anything short of miraculous agency, can accomplish
+Richard's cure, it may be possible to put some open rupture
+betwixt the Frenchman--at least the Austrian--and his allies of
+England, so that the breach shall be irreconcilable; and Richard
+may arise from his bed, perhaps to command his own native troops,
+but never again, by his sole energy, to wield the force of the
+whole Crusade."
+
+"Thou art a willing archer," said the Templar; "but, Conrade of
+Montserrat, thy bow is over-slack to carry an arrow to the mark."
+
+He then stopped short, cast a suspicious glance to see that no
+one overheard him, and taking Conrade by the hand, pressed it
+eagerly as he looked the Italian in the face, and repeated
+slowly, "Richard arise from his bed, sayest thou?  Conrade, he
+must never arise!"
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat started.  "What!  spoke you of Richard
+of England--of Coeur de Lion--the champion of Christendom?"
+
+His cheek turned pale and his knees trembled as he spoke.  The
+Templar looked at him, with his iron visage contorted into a
+smile of contempt.
+
+"Knowest thou what thou look'st like, Sir Conrade, at this
+moment?  Not like the politic and valiant Marquis of Montserrat,
+not like him who would direct the Council of Princes and
+determine the fate of empires--but like a novice, who, stumbling
+upon a conjuration in his master's book of gramarye, has raised
+the devil when he least thought of it, and now stands terrified
+at the spirit which appears before him."
+
+"I grant you," said Conrade, recovering himself, "that--unless
+some other sure road could be discovered--thou hast hinted at
+that which leads most direct to our purpose.  But, blessed Mary!
+we shall become the curse of all Europe, the malediction of every
+one, from the Pope on his throne to the very beggar at the church
+gate, who, ragged and leprous, in the last extremity of human
+wretchedness, shall bless himself that he is neither Giles Amaury
+nor Conrade of Montserrat."
+
+"If thou takest it thus," said the Grand Master, with the same
+composure which characterized him all through this remarkable
+dialogue, "let us hold there has nothing passed between us--that
+we have spoken in our sleep--have awakened, and the vision is
+gone."
+
+"It never can depart," answered Conrade.
+
+"Visions of ducal crowns and kingly diadems are, indeed, somewhat
+tenacious of their place in the imagination," replied the Grand
+Master.
+
+"Well," answered Conrade, "let me but first try to break peace
+between Austria and England."
+
+They parted.  Conrade remained standing still upon the spot, and
+watching the flowing white cloak of the Templar as he stalked
+slowly away, and gradually disappeared amid the fast-sinking
+darkness of the Oriental night.  Proud, ambitious, unscrupulous,
+and politic, the Marquis of Montserrat was yet not cruel by
+nature.  He was a voluptuary and an epicurean, and, like many who
+profess this character, was averse, even upon selfish motives,
+from inflicting pain or witnessing acts of cruelty; and he
+retained also a general sense of respect for his own reputation,
+which sometimes supplies the want of the better principle by
+which reputation is to be maintained.
+
+"I have," he said, as his eyes still watched the point at which
+he had seen the last slight wave of the Templar's mantle--"I
+have, in truth, raised the devil with a vengeance!  Who would
+have thought this stern, ascetic Grand Master, whose whole
+fortune and misfortune is merged in that of his order, would be
+willing to do more for its advancement than I who labour for my
+own interest?  To check this wild Crusade was my motive, indeed,
+but I durst not think on the ready mode which this determined
+priest has dared to suggest.  Yet it is the surest--perhaps even
+the safest."
+
+Such were the Marquis's meditations, when his muttered soliloquy
+was broken by a voice from a little distance, which proclaimed
+with the emphatic tone of a herald, "Remember the Holy
+Sepulchre!"
+
+The exhortation was echoed from post to post, for it was the duty
+of the sentinels to raise this cry from time to time upon their
+periodical watch, that the host of the Crusaders might always
+have in their remembrance the purpose of their being in arms.
+But though Conrade was familiar with the custom, and had heard
+the warning voice on all former occasions as a matter of habit,
+yet it came at the present moment so strongly in contact with his
+own train of thought, that it seemed a voice from Heaven warning
+him against the iniquity which his heart meditated.  He looked
+around anxiously, as if, like the patriarch of old, though from
+very different circumstances, he was expecting some ram caught in
+a thicket some substitution for the sacrifice which his comrade
+proposed to offer, not to the Supreme Being, but to the Moloch of
+their own ambition.  As he looked, the broad folds of the ensign
+of England, heavily distending itself to the failing night-breeze, caught his eye.  It was displayed upon an 
+artificial
+mound, nearly in the midst of the camp, which perhaps of old some
+Hebrew chief or champion had chosen as a memorial of his place of
+rest.  If so, the name was now forgotten, and the Crusaders had
+christened it Saint George's Mount, because from that commanding
+height the banner of England was supereminently displayed, as if
+an emblem of sovereignty over the many distinguished, noble, and
+even royal ensigns, which floated in lower situations.
+
+A quick intellect like that of Conrade catches ideas from the
+glance of a moment.  A single look on the standard seemed to
+dispel the uncertainty of mind which had affected him.  He walked
+to his pavilion with the hasty and determined step of one who has
+adopted a plan which he is resolved to achieve, dismissed the
+almost princely train who waited to attend him, and, as he
+committed himself to his couch, muttered his amended resolution,
+that the milder means are to be tried before the more desperate
+are resorted to.
+
+"To-morrow," he said, "I sit at the board of the Archduke of
+Austria.  We will see what can be done to advance our purpose
+before prosecuting the dark suggestions of this Templar."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+One thing is certain in our Northern land--
+Allow that birth or valour, wealth or wit,
+Give each precedence to their possessor,
+Envy, that follows on such eminence,
+As comes the lyme-hound on the roebuck's trace,
+Shall pull them down each one.         SIR DAVID LINDSAY.
+
+Leopold, Grand Duke of Austria, was the first possessor of that
+noble country to whom the princely rank belonged.  He had been
+raised to the ducal sway in the German Empire on account of his
+near relationship to the Emperor, Henry the Stern, and held under
+his government the finest provinces which are watered by the
+Danube.  His character has been stained in history on account of
+one action of violence and perfidy, which arose out of these very
+transactions in the Holy Land; and yet the shame of having made
+Richard a prisoner when he returned through his dominions;
+unattended and in disguise, was not one which flowed from
+Leopold's natural disposition.  He was rather a weak and a vain
+than an ambitious or tyrannical prince.  His mental powers
+resembled the qualities of his person.  He was tall, strong, and
+handsome, with a complexion in which red and white were strongly
+contrasted, and had long flowing locks of fair hair.  But there
+was an awkwardness in his gait which seemed as if his size was
+not animated by energy sufficient to put in motion such a mass;
+and in the same manner, wearing the richest dresses, it always
+seemed as if they became him not.  As a prince, he appeared too
+little familiar with his own dignity; and being often at a loss
+how to assert his authority when the occasion demanded it, he
+frequently thought himself obliged to recover, by acts and
+expressions of ill-timed violence, the ground which might have
+been easily and gracefully maintained by a little more presence
+of mind in the beginning of the controversy.
+
+Not only were these deficiencies visible to others, but the
+Archduke himself could not but sometimes entertain a painful
+consciousness that he was not altogether fit to maintain and
+assert the high rank which he had acquired; and to this was
+joined the strong, and sometimes the just, suspicion that others
+esteemed him lightly accordingly.
+
+When he first joined the Crusade, with a most princely
+attendance, Leopold had desired much to enjoy the friendship and
+intimacy of Richard, and had made such advances towards
+cultivating his regard as the King of England ought, in policy,
+to have received and answered.  But the Archduke, though not
+deficient in bravery, was so infinitely inferior to Coeur de Lion
+in that ardour of mind which wooed danger as a bride, that the
+King very soon held him in a certain degree of contempt.
+Richard, also, as a Norman prince, a people with whom temperance
+was habitual, despised the inclination of the German for the
+pleasures of the table, and particularly his liberal indulgence
+in the use of wine.  For these, and other personal reasons, the
+King of England very soon looked upon the Austrian Prince with
+feelings of contempt, which he was at no pains to conceal or
+modify, and which, therefore, were speedily remarked, and
+returned with deep hatred, by the suspicious Leopold.  The
+discord between them was fanned by the secret and politic arts of
+Philip of France, one of the most sagacious monarchs of the time,
+who, dreading the fiery and overbearing character of Richard,
+considering him as his natural rival, and feeling offended,
+moreover, at the dictatorial manner in which he, a vassal of
+France for his Continental domains, conducted himself towards his
+liege lord, endeavoured to strengthen his own party, and weaken
+that of Richard, by uniting the Crusading princes of inferior
+degree in resistance to what he termed the usurping authority of
+the King of England.  Such was the state of politics and opinions
+entertained by the Archduke of Austria, when Conrade of
+Montserrat resolved upon employing his jealousy of England as the
+means of dissolving, or loosening at least, the league of the
+Crusaders.
+
+The time which he chose for his visit was noon; and the pretence,
+to present the Archduke with some choice Cyprus wine which had
+lately fallen into his hands, and discuss its comparative merits
+with those of Hungary and of the Rhine.  An intimation of his
+purpose was, of course, answered by a courteous invitation to
+partake of the Archducal meal, and every effort was used to
+render it fitting the splendour of a sovereign prince.  Yet the
+refined taste of the Italian saw more cumbrous profusion than
+elegance or splendour in the display of provisions under which
+the board groaned.
+
+The Germans, though still possessing the martial and frank
+character of their ancestors--who subdued the Roman Empire--had
+retained withal no slight tinge of their barbarism.  The
+practices and principles of chivalry were not carried to such a
+nice pitch amongst them as amongst the French and English
+knights, nor were they strict observers of the prescribed rules
+of society, which among those nations were supposed to express
+the height of civilization.  Sitting at the table of the
+Archduke, Conrade was at once stunned and amused with the clang
+of Teutonic sounds assaulting his ears on all sides,
+notwithstanding the solemnity of a princely banquet.  Their dress
+seemed equally fantastic to him, many of the Austrian nobles
+retaining their long beards, and almost all of them wearing short
+jerkins of various colours, cut, and flourished, and fringed in a
+manner not common in Western Europe.
+
+Numbers of dependants, old and young, attended in the pavilion,
+mingled at times in the conversation, received from their masters
+the relics of the entertainment, and devoured them as they stood
+behind the backs of the company.  Jesters, dwarfs, and minstrels
+were there in unusual numbers, and more noisy and intrusive than
+they were permitted to be in better regulated society.  As they
+were allowed to share freely in the wine, which flowed round in
+large quantities, their licensed tumult was the more excessive.
+
+All this while, and in the midst of a clamour and confusion which
+would better have become a German tavern during a fair than the
+tent of a sovereign prince, the Archduke was waited upon with a
+minuteness of form and observance which showed how anxious he was
+to maintain rigidly the state and character to which his
+elevation had entitled him.  He was served on the knee, and only
+by pages of noble blood, fed upon plate of silver, and drank his
+Tokay and Rhenish wines from a cup of gold.  His ducal mantle was
+splendidly adorned with ermine, his coronet might have equalled
+in value a royal crown, and his feet, cased in velvet shoes (the
+length of which, peaks included, might be two feet), rested upon
+a footstool of solid silver.  But it served partly to intimate
+the character of the man, that, although desirous to show
+attention to the Marquis of Montserrat, whom he had courteously
+placed at his right hand, he gave much more of his attention to
+his SPRUCH-SPRECHER--that is, his man of conversation, or SAYER-OF-SAYINGS --who stood behind 
+the Duke's right shoulder.
+
+This personage was well attired in a cloak and doublet of black
+velvet, the last of which was decorated with various silver and
+gold coins stitched upon it, in memory of the munificent princes
+who had conferred them, and bearing a short staff to which also
+bunches of silver coins were attached by rings, which he jingled
+by way of attracting attention when he was about to say anything
+which he judged worthy of it.  This person's capacity in the
+household of the Archduke was somewhat betwixt that of a minstrel
+and a counsellor.  He was by turns a flatterer, a poet, and an
+orator; and those who desired to be well with the Duke generally
+studied to gain the good-will of the SPRUCH-SPRECHER.
+
+Lest too much of this officer's wisdom should become tiresome,
+the Duke's other shoulder was occupied by his HOFF-NARR, or
+court-jester, called Jonas Schwanker, who made almost as much
+noise with his fool's cap, bells, and bauble, as did the orator,
+or man of talk, with his jingling baton.
+
+These two personages threw out grave and comic nonsense
+alternately; while their master, laughing or applauding them
+himself, yet carefully watched the countenance of his noble
+guest, to discern what impressions so accomplished a cavalier
+received from this display of Austrian eloquence and wit.  It is
+hard to say whether the man of wisdom or the man of folly
+contributed most to the amusement of the party, or stood highest
+in the estimation of their princely master; but the sallies of
+both seemed excellently well received.  Sometimes they became
+rivals for the conversation, and clanged their flappers in
+emulation of each other with a most alarming contention; but, in
+general, they seemed on such good terms, and so accustomed to
+support each other's play, that the SPRUCH-SPRECHER often
+condescended to follow up the jester's witticisms with an
+explanation, to render them more obvious to the capacity of the
+audience, so that his wisdom became a sort of commentary on the
+buffoon's folly.  And sometimes, in requital, the HOFF-NARR, with
+a pithy jest, wound up the conclusion of the orator's tedious
+harangue.
+
+Whatever his real sentiments might be, Conrade took especial care
+that his countenance should express nothing but satisfaction with
+what he heard, and smiled or applauded as zealously, to all
+appearance, as the Archduke himself at the solemn folly of the
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the gibbering wit of the fool.  In fact, he
+watched carefully until the one or other should introduce some
+topic favourable to the purpose which was uppermost in his mind.
+
+It was not long ere the King of England was brought on the carpet
+by the jester, who had been accustomed to consider Dickon of the
+Broom (which irreverent epithet he substituted for Richard
+Plantagenet) as a subject of mirth, acceptable and inexhaustible.
+The orator, indeed, was silent, and it was only when applied to
+by Conrade that he observed, "The GENISTA, or broom-plant, was an
+emblem of humility; and it would be well when those who wore it
+would remember the warning."
+
+The allusion to the illustrious badge of Plantagenet was thus
+rendered sufficiently manifest, and Jonas Schwanker observed that
+they who humbled themselves had been exalted with a vengeance.
+"Honour unto whom honour is due," answered the Marquis of
+Montserrat.  "We have all had some part in these marches and
+battles, and methinks other princes might share a little in the
+renown which Richard of England engrosses amongst minstrels and
+MINNE-SINGERS.  Has no one of the joyeuse science here present a
+song in praise of the royal Archduke of Austria, our princely
+entertainer?"
+
+Three minstrels emulously stepped forward with voice and harp.
+Two were silenced with difficulty by the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who
+seemed to act as master of the revels, and a hearing was at
+length procured for the poet preferred, who sung, in high German,
+stanzas which may be thus translated:--
+
+"What brave chief shall head the forces,
+Where the red-cross legions gather?
+Best of horsemen, best of horses,
+Highest head and fairest feather."
+
+Here the orator, jingling his staff, interrupted the bard to
+intimate to the party--what they might not have inferred from the
+description--that their royal host was the party indicated, and a
+full-crowned goblet went round to the acclamation, HOCH LEBE DER
+HERZOG LEOPOLD!  Another stanza followed:--
+
+"Ask not Austria why, 'midst princes,
+Still her banner rises highest;
+Ask as well the strong-wing'd eagle,
+Why to heaven he soars the highest."
+
+"The eagle," said the expounder of dark sayings, "is the
+cognizance of our noble lord the Archduke--of his royal Grace, I
+would say--and the eagle flies the highest and nearest to the sun
+of all the feathered creation."
+
+"The lion hath taken a spring above the eagle," said Conrade
+carelessly.
+
+The Archduke reddened, and fixed his eyes on the speaker, while
+the SPRUCH-SPRECHER answered, after a minute's consideration,
+"The Lord Marquis will pardon me--a lion cannot fly above an
+eagle, because no lion hath got wings."
+
+"Except the lion of Saint Mark," responded the jester.
+
+"That is the Venetian's banner," said the Duke; "but assuredly
+that amphibious race, half nobles, half merchants, will not dare
+to place their rank in comparison with ours."
+
+"Nay, it was not of the Venetian lion that I spoke," said the
+Marquis of Montserrat, "but of the three lions passant of
+England.  Formerly, it is said, they were leopards; but now they
+are become lions at all points, and must take precedence of
+beast, fish, or fowl, or woe worth the gainstander."
+
+"Mean you seriously, my lord?"  said the Austrian, now
+considerably flushed with wine.  "Think you that Richard of
+England asserts any pre-eminence over the free sovereigns who
+have been his voluntary allies in this Crusade?"
+
+"I know not but from circumstances," answered Conrade.  "Yonder
+hangs his banner alone in the midst of our camp, as if he were
+king and generalissimo of our whole Christian army."
+
+"And do you endure this so patiently, and speak of it so coldly?"
+said the Archduke.
+
+"Nay, my lord," answered Conrade, "it cannot concern the poor
+Marquis of Montserrat to contend against an injury patiently
+submitted to by such potent princes as Philip of France and
+Leopold of Austria.  What dishonour you are pleased to submit to
+cannot be a disgrace to me."
+
+Leopold closed his fist, and struck on the table with violence.
+
+"I have told Philip of this," he said.  "I have often told him
+that it was our duty to protect the inferior princes against the
+usurpation of this islander; but he answers me ever with cold
+respects of their relations together as suzerain and vassal, and
+that it were impolitic in him to make an open breach at this time
+and period."
+
+"The world knows that Philip is wise," said Conrade, "and will
+judge his submission to be policy.  Yours, my lord, you can
+yourself alone account for; but I doubt not you have deep reasons
+for submitting to English domination."
+
+"I submit!"  said Leopold indignantly--"I, the Archduke of
+Austria, so important and vital a limb of the Holy Roman Empire
+--I submit myself to this king of half an island, this grandson
+of a Norman bastard!  No, by Heaven!  The camp and all
+Christendom shall see that I know how to right myself, and
+whether I yield ground one inch to the English bandog.--Up, my
+lieges and merry men; up and follow me!  We will--and that
+without losing one instant--place the eagle of Austria where she
+shall float as high as ever floated the cognizance of king or
+kaiser."
+
+With that he started from his seat, and amidst the tumultuous
+cheering of his guests and followers, made for the door of the
+pavilion, and seized his own banner, which stood pitched before
+it.
+
+"Nay, my lord," said Conrade, affecting to interfere, "it will
+blemish your wisdom to make an affray in the camp at this hour;
+and perhaps it is better to submit to the usurpation of England a
+little longer than to--"
+
+"Not an hour, not a moment longer," vociferated the Duke; and
+with the banner in his hand, and followed by his shouting guests
+and attendants, marched hastily to the central mount, from which
+the banner of England floated, and laid his hand on the standard-spear, as if to pluck it from the ground.
+
+"My master, my dear master!"  said Jonas Schwanker, throwing his
+arms about the Duke, "take heed--lions have teeth--"
+
+"And eagles have claws," said the Duke, not relinquishing his
+hold on the banner-staff, yet hesitating to pull it from the
+ground.
+
+The speaker of sentences, notwithstanding such was his
+occupation, had nevertheless some intervals of sound sense.  He
+clashed his staff loudly, and Leopold, as if by habit, turned his
+head towards his man of counsel.
+
+"The eagle is king among the fowls of the air," said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, "as is the lion among the 
+beasts of the field--each has
+his dominion, separated as wide as England and Germany.  Do thou,
+noble eagle, no dishonour to the princely lion, but let your
+banners remain floating in peace side by side."
+
+Leopold withdrew his hand from the banner-spear, and looked round
+for Conrade of Montserrat, but he saw him not; for the Marquis,
+so soon as he saw the mischief afoot, had withdrawn himself from
+the crowd, taking care, in the first place, to express before
+several neutral persons his regret that the Archduke should have
+chosen the hours after dinner to avenge any wrong of which he
+might think he had a right to complain.  Not seeing his guest, to
+whom he wished more particularly to have addressed himself, the
+Archduke said aloud that, having no wish to breed dissension in
+the army of the Cross, he did but vindicate his own privileges
+and right to stand upon an equality with the King of England,
+without desiring, as he might have done, to advance his banner
+--which he derived from emperors, his progenitors--above that of
+a mere descendant of the Counts of Anjou; and in the meantime he
+commanded a cask of wine to be brought hither and pierced, for
+regaling the bystanders, who, with tuck of drum and sound of
+music, quaffed many a carouse round the Austrian standard.
+
+This disorderly scene was not acted without a degree of noise,
+which alarmed the whole camp.
+
+The critical hour had arrived at which the physician, according
+to the rules of his art, had predicted that his royal patient
+might be awakened with safety, and the sponge had been applied
+for that purpose; and the leech had not made many observations
+ere he assured the Baron of Gilsland that the fever had entirely
+left his sovereign, and that, such was the happy strength of his
+constitution, it would not be even necessary, as in most cases,
+to give a second dose of the powerful medicine.  Richard himself
+seemed to be of the same opinion, for, sitting up and rubbing his
+eyes, he demanded of De Vaux what present sum of money was in the
+royal coffers.
+
+The baron could not exactly inform him of the amount.
+
+"It matters not," said Richard; "be it greater or smaller,
+bestow it all on this learned leech, who hath, I trust, given me
+back again to the service of the Crusade.  If it be less than a
+thousand byzants, let him have jewels to make it up."
+
+"I sell not the wisdom with which Allah has endowed me," answered
+the Arabian physician; "and be it known to you, great Prince,
+that the divine medicine of which you have partaken would lose
+its effects in my unworthy hands did I exchange its virtues
+either for gold or diamonds."
+
+"The Physician refuseth a gratuity!"  said De Vaux to himself.
+"This is more extraordinary than his being a hundred years old."
+
+"Thomas de Vaux," said Richard, "thou knowest no courage but what
+belongs to the sword, no bounty and virtue but what are used in
+chivalry.  I tell thee that this Moor, in his independence, might
+set an example to them who account themselves the flower of
+knighthood."
+
+"It is reward enough for me," said the Moor, folding his arms on
+his bosom, and maintaining an attitude at once respectful and
+dignified, "that so great a king as the Melech Ric [Richard was
+thus called by the Eastern nations.]  should thus speak of his
+servant.--But now let me pray you again to compose yourself on
+your couch; for though I think there needs no further repetition
+of the divine draught, yet injury might ensue from any too early
+exertion ere your strength be entirely restored."
+
+"I must obey thee, Hakim," said the King; "yet believe me, my
+bosom feels so free from the wasting fire which for so many days
+hath scorched it, that I care not how soon I expose it to a brave
+man's lance.--But hark!  what mean these shouts, and that distant
+music, in the camp?  Go, Thomas de Vaux, and make inquiry."
+
+"It is the Archduke Leopold," said De Vaux, returning after a
+minute's absence, "who makes with his pot-companions some
+procession through the camp."
+
+"The drunken fool!"  exclaimed King Richard; "can he not keep his
+brutal inebriety within the veil of his pavilion, that he must
+needs show his shame to all Christendom?--What say you, Sir
+Marquis?"  he added, addressing himself to Conrade of Montserrat,
+who at that moment entered the tent.
+
+"Thus much, honoured Prince," answered the Marquis, "that I
+delight to see your Majesty so well, and so far recovered; and
+that is a long speech for any one to make who has partaken of the
+Duke of Austria's hospitality."
+
+"What!  you have been dining with the Teutonic wine-skin!"  said
+the monarch.  "And what frolic has he found out to cause all this
+disturbance?  Truly, Sir Conrade, I have still held you so good a
+reveller that I wonder at your quitting the game."
+
+De Vaux, who had got a little behind the King, now exerted
+himself by look and sign to make the Marquis understand that he
+should say nothing to Richard of what was passing without.  But
+Conrade understood not, or heeded not, the prohibition.
+
+"What the Archduke does," he said, "is of little consequence to
+any one, least of all to himself, since he probably knows not
+what he is acting; yet, to say truth, it is a gambol I should not
+like to share in, since he is pulling down the banner of England
+from Saint George's Mount, in the centre of the camp yonder, and
+displaying his own in its stead."
+
+"WHAT sayest thou?"  exclaimed the King, in a tone which might
+have waked the dead.
+
+"Nay," said the Marquis, "let it not chafe your Highness that a
+fool should act according to his folly--"
+
+"Speak not to me," said Richard, springing from his couch, and
+casting on his clothes with a dispatch which seemed marvellous
+--"Speak not to me, Lord Marquis!--De Multon, I command thee
+speak not a word to me--he that breathes but a syllable is no
+friend to Richard Plantagenet.--Hakim, be silent, I charge thee!"
+
+All this while the King was hastily clothing himself, and, with
+the last word, snatched his sword from the pillar of the tent,
+and without any other weapon, or calling any attendance, he
+rushed out of his pavilion.  Conrade, holding up his hands as if
+in astonishment, seemed willing to enter into conversation with
+De Vaux; but Sir Thomas pushed rudely past him, and calling to
+one of the royal equerries, said hastily, "Fly to Lord
+Salisbury's quarters, and let him get his men together and follow
+me instantly to Saint George's Mount.  Tell him the King's fever
+has left his blood and settled in his brain."
+
+Imperfectly heard, and still more imperfectly comprehended, by
+the startled attendant whom De Vaux addressed thus hastily, the
+equerry and his fellow-servants of the royal chamber rushed
+hastily into the tents of the neighbouring nobility, and quickly
+spread an alarm, as general as the cause seemed vague, through
+the whole British forces.  The English soldiers, waked in alarm
+from that noonday rest which the heat of the climate had taught
+them to enjoy as a luxury, hastily asked each other the cause of
+the tumult, and without waiting an answer, supplied by the force
+of their own fancy the want of information.  Some said the
+Saracens were in the camp, some that the King's life was
+attempted, some that he had died of the fever the preceding
+night, many that he was assassinated by the Duke of Austria.  The
+nobles and officers, at an equal loss with the common men  to
+ascertain the real cause of the disorder, laboured only to get
+their followers under arms and under authority, lest their
+rashness should occasion some great misfortune to the Crusading
+army.  The English trumpets sounded loud, shrill, and
+continuously.  The alarm-cry of "Bows and bills, bows and bills!"
+was heard from quarter to quarter, again and again shouted, and
+again and again answered by the presence of the ready warriors,
+and their national invocation, "Saint George for merry England!"
+
+The alarm went through the nearest quarter of the camp, and men
+of all the various nations assembled, where, perhaps, every
+people in Christendom had their representatives, flew to arms,
+and drew together under circumstances of general confusion, of
+which they knew neither the cause nor the object.  It was,
+however, lucky, amid a scene so threatening, that the Earl of
+Salisbury, while he hurried after De Vaux's summons with a few
+only of the readiest English men-at-arms, directed the rest of
+the English host to be drawn up and kept under arms, to advance
+to Richard's succour if necessity should require, but in fit
+array and under due command, and not with the tumultuary haste
+which their own alarm and zeal for the King's safety might have
+dictated.
+
+In the meanwhile, without regarding for one instant the shouts,
+the cries, the tumult which began to thicken around him, Richard,
+with his dress in the last disorder, and his sheathed blade under
+his arm, pursued his way with the utmost speed, followed only by
+De Vaux and one or two household servants, to Saint George's
+Mount.
+
+He outsped even the alarm which his impetuosity only had excited,
+and passed the quarter of his own gallant troops of Normandy,
+Poitou, Gascony, and Anjou before the disturbance had reached
+them, although the noise accompanying the German revel had
+induced many of the soldiery to get on foot to listen.  The
+handful of Scots were also quartered in the vicinity, nor had
+they been disturbed by the uproar.  But the King's person and his
+haste were both remarked by the Knight of the Leopard, who, aware
+that danger must be afoot, and hastening to share in it, snatched
+his shield and sword, and united himself to De Vaux, who with
+some difficulty kept pace with his impatient and fiery master.
+De Vaux answered a look of curiosity, which the Scottish knight
+directed towards him, with a shrug of his broad shoulders, and
+they continued, side by side, to pursue Richard's steps.
+
+The King was soon at the foot of Saint George's Mount, the sides
+as well as platform of which were now surrounded and crowded,
+partly by those belonging to the Duke of Austria's retinue, who
+were celebrating, with shouts of jubilee, the act which they
+considered as an assertion of national honour; partly by
+bystanders of different nations, whom dislike to the English, or
+mere curiosity, had assembled together to witness the end of
+these extraordinary proceedings.  Through this disorderly troop
+Richard burst his way, like a goodly ship under full sail, which
+cleaves her forcible passage through the rolling billows, and
+heeds not that they unite after her passage and roar upon her
+stern.
+
+The summit of the eminence was a small level space, on which were
+pitched the rival banners, surrounded still by the Archduke's
+friends and retinue.  In the midst of the circle was Leopold
+himself, still contemplating with self-satisfaction the deed he
+had done, and still listening to the shouts of applause which his
+partisans bestowed with no sparing breath.  While he was in this
+state of self-gratulation, Richard burst into the circle,
+attended, indeed, only by two men, but in his own headlong
+energies an irresistible host.
+
+"Who has dared," he said, laying his hands upon the Austrian
+standard, and speaking in a voice like the sound which precedes
+an earthquake--"Who has dared to place this paltry rag beside the
+banner of England?"
+
+The Archduke wanted not personal courage, and it was impossible
+he could hear this question without reply.  Yet so much was he
+troubled and surprised by the unexpected arrival of Richard, and
+affected by the general awe inspired by his ardent and unyielding
+character, that the demand was twice repeated, in a tone which
+seemed to challenge heaven and earth, ere the Archduke replied,
+with such firmness as he could command, "It was I, Leopold of
+Austria."
+
+"Then shall Leopold of Austria," replied Richard, "presentry see
+the rate at which his banner and his pretensions are held by
+Richard of England."
+
+So saying, he pulled up the standard-spear, splintered it to
+pieces, threw the banner itself on the ground, and placed his
+foot upon it.
+
+"Thus," said he, "I trample on the banner of Austria.  Is there a
+knight among your Teutonic chivalry dare impeach my deed?"
+
+There was a momentary silence; but there are no braver men than
+the Germans.
+
+"I," and "I," and "I," was heard from several knights of the
+Duke"s followers; and he himself added his voice to those which
+accepted the King of England's defiance.
+
+"Why do we dally thus?"  said the Earl Wallenrode, a gigantic
+warrior from the frontiers of Hungary.  "Brethren and noble
+gentlemen, this man's foot is on the honour of your country--let
+us rescue it from violation, and down with the pride of England!"
+
+So saying, he drew his sword, and struck at the King a blow which
+might have proved fatal, had not the Scot intercepted and caught
+it upon his shield.
+
+"I have sworn," said King Richard--and his voice was heard above
+all the tumult, which now waxed wild and loud--"never to strike
+one whose shoulder bears the cross; therefore live, Wallenrode
+--but live to remember Richard of England."
+
+As he spoke, he grasped the tall Hungarian round the waist, and,
+unmatched in wrestling, as in other military exercises, hurled
+him backwards with such violence that the mass flew as if
+discharged from a military engine, not only through the ring of
+spectators who witnessed the extraordinary scene, but over the
+edge of the mount itself, down the steep side of which Wallenrode
+rolled headlong, until, pitching at length upon his shoulder, he
+dislocated the bone, and lay like one dead.  This almost
+supernatural display of strength did not encourage either the
+Duke or any of his followers to renew a personal contest so
+inauspiciously commenced.  Those who stood farthest back did,
+indeed, clash their swords, and cry out, "Cut the island mastiff
+to pieces!"  but those who were nearer veiled, perhaps, their
+personal fears under an affected regard for order, and cried, for
+the most part, "Peace!  Peace!  the peace of the Cross--the peace
+of Holy Church and our Father the Pope!"
+
+These various cries of the assailants, contradicting each other,
+showed their irresolution; while Richard, his foot still on the
+archducal banner, glared round him with an eye that seemed to
+seek an enemy, and from which the angry nobles shrunk appalled,
+as from the threatened grasp of a lion.  De Vaux and the Knight
+of the Leopard kept their places beside him; and though the
+swords which they held were still sheathed, it was plain that
+they were prompt to protect Richard's person to the very last,
+and their size and remarkable strength plainly showed the defence
+would be a desperate one.
+
+Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with
+bills and partisans brandished, and bows already bended.
+
+At this moment King Philip of France, attended by one or two of
+his nobles, came on the platform to inquire the cause of the
+disturbance, and made gestures of surprise at finding the King of
+England raised from his sick-bed, and confronting their common
+ally, the Duke of Austria, in such a menacing and insulting
+posture.  Richard himself blushed at being discovered by Philip,
+whose sagacity he respected as much as he disliked his person, in
+an attitude neither becoming his character as a monarch, nor as a
+Crusader; and it was observed that he withdrew his foot, as if
+accidentally, from the dishonoured banner, and exchanged his look
+of violent emotion for one of affected composure and
+indifference.  Leopold also struggled to attain some degree of
+calmness, mortified as he was by having been seen by Philip in
+the act of passively submitting to the insults of the fiery King
+of England.
+
+Possessed of many of those royal qualities for which he was
+termed by his subjects the August, Philip might be termed the
+Ulysses, as Richard was indisputably the Achilles, of the
+Crusade.  The King of France was sagacious, wise, deliberate in
+council, steady and calm in action, seeing clearly, and steadily
+pursuing, the measures most for the interest of his kingdom
+--dignified and royal in his deportment, brave in person, but a
+politician rather than a warrior.  The Crusade would have been no
+choice of his own; but the spirit was contagious, and the
+expedition was enforced upon him by the church, and by the
+unanimous wish of his nobility.  In any other situation, or in a
+milder age, his character might have stood higher than that of
+the adventurous Coeur de Lion.  But in the Crusade, itself an
+undertaking wholly irrational, sound reason was the quality of
+all others least estimated, and the chivalric valour which both
+the age and the enterprise demanded was considered as debased if
+mingled with the least touch of discretion.  So that the merit of
+Philip, compared with that of his haughty rival, showed like the
+clear but minute flame of a lamp placed near the glare of a huge,
+blazing torch, which, not possessing half the utility, makes ten
+times more impression on the eye.  Philip felt his inferiority in
+public opinion with the pain natural to a high-spirited prince;
+and it cannot be wondered at if he took such opportunities as
+offered for placing his own character in more advantageous
+contrast with that of his rival.  The present seemed one of those
+occasions in which prudence and calmness might reasonably expect
+to triumph over obstinacy and impetuous violence.
+
+"What means this unseemly broil betwixt the sworn brethren of the
+Cross--the royal Majesty of England and the princely Duke
+Leopold?  How is it possible that those who are the chiefs and
+pillars of this holy expedition--"
+
+"A truce with thy remonstrance, France," said Richard, enraged
+inwardly at finding himself placed on a sort of equality with
+Leopold, yet not knowing how to resent it.  "This duke, or
+prince, or pillar, if you will, hath been insolent, and I have
+chastised him--that is all.  Here is a coil, forsooth, because of
+spurning a hound!"
+
+"Majesty of France," said the Duke, "I appeal to you and every
+sovereign prince against the foul indignity which I have
+sustained.  This King of England hath pulled down my banner-torn
+and trampled on it."
+
+"Because he had the audacity to plant it beside mine," said
+Richard.
+
+"My rank as thine equal entitled me," replied the Duke,
+emboldened by the presence of Philip.
+
+"Assert such equality for thy person," said King Richard, "and,
+by Saint George, I will treat thy person as I did thy broidered
+kerchief there, fit but for the meanest use to which kerchief may
+be put."
+
+"Nay, but patience, brother of England," said Philip, "and I will
+presently show Austria that he is wrong in this matter.--Do not
+think, noble Duke," he continued, "that, in permitting the
+standard of England to occupy the highest point in our camp, we,
+the independent sovereigns of the Crusade, acknowledge any
+inferiority to the royal Richard.  It were inconsistent to think
+so, since even the Oriflamme itself--the great banner of France,
+to which the royal Richard himself, in respect of his French
+possessions, is but a vassal--holds for the present an inferior
+place to the Lions of England.  But as sworn brethren of the
+Cross, military pilgrims, who, laying aside the pomp and pride of
+this world, are hewing with our swords the way to the Holy
+Sepulchre, I myself, and the other princes, have renounced to
+King Richard, from respect to his high renown and great feats of
+arms, that precedence which elsewhere, and upon other motives,
+would not have been yielded.  I am satisfied that, when your
+royal grace of Austria shall have considered this, you will
+express sorrow for having placed your banner on this spot, and
+that the royal Majesty of England will then give satisfaction for
+the insult he has offered."
+
+The SPRUCH-SPRECHER and the jester had both retired to a safe
+distance when matters seemed coming to blows; but returned when
+words, their own commodity, seemed again about to become the
+order of the day.
+
+The man of proverbs was so delighted with Philip's politic speech
+that he clashed his baton at the conclusion, by way of emphasis,
+and forgot the presence in which he was, so far as to say aloud
+that he himself had never said a wiser thing in his life.
+
+"It may be so," whispered Jonas Schwanker, "but we shall be
+whipped if you speak so loud."
+
+The Duke answered sullenly that he would refer his quarrel to
+the General Council of the Crusade--a motion which Philip highly
+applauded, as qualified to take away a scandal most harmful to
+Christendom.
+
+Richard, retaining the same careless attitude, listened to Philip
+until his oratory seemed exhausted, and then said aloud, "I am
+drowsy--this fever hangs about me still.  Brother of France, thou
+art acquainted with my humour, and that I have at all times but
+few words to spare.  Know, therefore, at once, I will submit a
+matter touching the honour of England neither to Prince, Pope,
+nor Council.  Here stands my banner--whatsoever pennon shall be
+reared within three butts' length of it--ay, were it the
+Oriflamme, of which you were, I think, but now speaking--shall be
+treated as that dishonoured rag; nor will I yield other
+satisfaction than that which these poor limbs can render in the
+lists to any bold challenge--ay, were it against five champions
+instead of one."
+
+"Now," said the jester, whispering his companion, "that is as
+complete a piece of folly as if I myself had said it; but yet, I
+think, there may be in this matter a greater fool than Richard
+yet."
+
+"And who may that be?"  asked the man of wisdom.
+
+"Philip," said the jester, "or our own Royal Duke, should either
+accept the challenge.  But oh, most sage SPRUCH-SPECHER, what
+excellent kings wouldst thou and I have made, since those on
+whose heads these crowns have fallen can play the proverb-monger
+and the fool as completely as ourselves!"
+
+While these worthies plied their offices apart, Philip answered
+calmly to the almost injurious defiance of Richard, "I came not
+hither to awaken fresh quarrels, contrary to the oath we have
+sworn, and the holy cause in which we have engaged.  I part from
+my brother of England as brothers should part, and the only
+strife between the Lions of England and the Lilies of France
+shall be which shall be carried deepest into the ranks of the
+infidels."
+
+"It is a bargain, my royal brother," said Richard, stretching out
+his hand with all the frankness which belonged to his rash but
+generous disposition; "and soon may we have the opportunity to
+try this gallant and fraternal wager."
+
+"Let this noble Duke also partake in the friendship of this happy
+moment," said Philip; and the Duke approached half-sullenly,
+half-willing to enter into some accommodation.
+
+"I think not of fools, nor of their folly," said Richard
+carelessly; and the Archduke, turning his back on him, withdrew
+from the ground.
+
+Richard looked after him as he retired.
+
+"There is a sort of glow-worm courage," he said, "that shows only
+by night.  I must not leave this banner unguarded in darkness; by
+daylight the look of the Lions will alone defend it.  Here,
+Thomas of Gilsland, I give thee the charge of the standard--watch
+over the honour of England."
+
+"Her safety is yet more dear to me," said De Vaux, "and the life
+of Richard is the safety of England.  I must have your Highness
+back to your tent, and that without further tarriance."
+
+"Thou art a rough and peremptory nurse, De Vaux," said the king,
+smiling; and then added, addressing Sir Kenneth, "Valiant Scot, I
+owe thee a boon, and I will pay it richly.  There stands the
+banner of England!  Watch it as novice does his armour on the
+night before he is dubbed.  Stir not from it three spears'
+length, and defend it with thy body against injury or insult.
+Sound thy bugle if thou art assailed by more than three at once.
+Dost thou undertake the charge?"
+
+"Willingly," said Kenneth; "and will discharge it upon penalty of
+my head.  I will but arm me, and return hither instantly."
+
+The Kings of France and England then took formal leave of each
+other, hiding, under an appearance of courtesy, the grounds of
+complaint which either had against the other--Richard against
+Philip, for what he deemed an officious interference betwixt him
+and Austria, and Philip against Coeur de Lion, for the
+disrespectful manner in which his mediation had been received.
+Those whom this disturbance had assembled now drew off in
+different directions, leaving the contested mount in the same
+solitude which had subsisted till interrupted by the Austrian
+bravado.  Men judged of the events of the day according to their
+partialities, and while the English charged the Austrian with
+having afforded the first ground of quarrel, those of other
+nations concurred in casting the greater blame upon the insular
+haughtiness and assuming character of Richard.
+
+"Thou seest," said the Marquis of Montserrat to the Grand Master
+of the Templars, "that subtle courses are more effective than
+violence.  I have unloosed the bonds which held together this
+bunch of sceptres and lances--thou wilt see them shortly fall
+asunder."
+
+"I would have called thy plan a good one," said the Templar, "had
+there been but one man of courage among yonder cold-blooded
+Austrians to sever the bonds of which you speak with his sword.
+A knot that is unloosed may again be fastened, but not so the
+cord which has been cut to pieces."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+'Tis woman that seduces all mankind.   GAY.
+
+In the days of chivalry, a dangerous post or a perilous adventure
+was a reward frequently assigned to military bravery as a
+compensation for its former trials; just as, in ascending a
+precipice, the surmounting one crag only lifts the climber to
+points yet more dangerous.
+
+It was midnight, and the moon rode clear and high in heaven, when
+Kenneth of Scotland stood upon his watch on Saint George's Mount,
+beside the banner of England, a solitary sentinel, to protect the
+emblem of that nation against the insults which might be
+meditated among the thousands whom Richard's pride had made his
+enemies.  High thoughts rolled, one after each other, upon the
+mind of the warrior.  It seemed to him as if he had gained some
+favour in the eyes of the chivalrous monarch, who till now had
+not seemed to distinguish him among the crowds of brave men whom
+his renown had assembled under his banner, and Sir Kenneth little
+recked that the display of royal regard consisted in placing him
+upon a post so perilous.  The devotion of his ambitious and high-placed affection inflamed his military 
+enthusiasm.  Hopeless as
+that attachment was in almost any conceivable circumstances,
+those which had lately occurred had, in some degree, diminished
+the distance between Edith and himself.  He upon whom Richard had
+conferred the distinction of guarding his banner was no longer an
+adventurer of slight note, but placed within the regard of a
+princess, although he was as far as ever from her level.  An
+unknown and obscure fate could not now be his.  If he was
+surprised and slain on the post which had been assigned him, his
+death--and he resolved it should be glorious--must deserve the
+praises as well as call down the vengeance of Coeur de Lion, and
+be followed by the regrets, and even the tears, of the high-born
+beauties of the English Court.  He had now no longer reason to
+fear that he should die as a fool dieth.
+
+Sir Kenneth had full leisure to enjoy these and similar high-souled thoughts, fostered by that wild spirit of 
+chivalry, which,
+amid its most extravagant and fantastic flights, was still pure
+from all selfish alloy--generous, devoted, and perhaps only thus
+far censurable, that it proposed objects and courses of action
+inconsistent with the frailties and imperfections of man.  All
+nature around him slept in calm moon-shine or in deep shadow.
+The long rows of tents and pavilions, glimmering or darkening as
+they lay in the moonlight or in the shade, were still and silent
+as the streets of a deserted city.  Beside the banner-staff lay
+the large staghound already mentioned, the sole companion of
+Kenneth's watch, on whose vigilance he trusted for early warning
+of the approach of any hostile footstep.  The noble animal seemed
+to understand the purpose of their watch; for he looked from time
+to time at the rich folds of the heavy pennon, and, when the cry
+of the sentinels came from the distant lines and defences of the
+camp, he answered them with one deep and reiterated bark, as if
+to affirm that he too was vigilant in his duty.  From time to
+time, also, he lowered his lofty head, and wagged his tail, as
+his master passed and repassed him in the short turns which he
+took upon his post; or, when the knight stood silent and
+abstracted leaning on his lance, and looking up towards heaven,
+his faithful attendant ventured sometimes, in the phrase of
+romance, "to disturb his thoughts," and awaken him from his
+reverie, by thrusting his large rough snout into the knight's
+gauntleted hand, to solicit a transitory caress.
+
+Thus passed two hours of the knight's watch without anything
+remarkable occurring.  At length, and upon a sudden, the gallant
+staghound bayed furiously, and seemed about to dash forward where
+the shadow lay the darkest, yet waited, as if in the slips, till
+he should know the pleasure of his master.
+
+"Who goes there?"  said Sir Kenneth, aware that there was
+something creeping forward on the shadowy side of the mount.
+
+"In the name of Merlin and Maugis," answered a hoarse,
+disagreeable voice, "tie up your fourfooted demon there, or I
+come not at you."
+
+"And who art thou that would approach my post?"  said Sir
+Kenneth, bending his eyes as keenly as he could on some object,
+which he could just observe at the bottom of the ascent, without
+being able to distinguish its form.  "Beware--I am here for death
+and life."
+
+"Take up thy long-fanged Sathanas," said the voice, "or I will
+conjure him with a bolt from my arblast."
+
+At the same time was heard the sound of a spring or check, as
+when a crossbow is bent.
+
+"Unbend thy arblast, and come into the moonlight," said the Scot,
+"or, by Saint Andrew, I will pin thee to the earth, be what or
+whom thou wilt!"
+
+As he spoke he poised his long lance by the middle, and, fixing
+his eye upon the object, which seemed to move, he brandished the
+weapon, as if meditating to cast it from his hand--a use of the
+weapon sometimes, though rarely, resorted to when a missile was
+necessary.  But Sir Kenneth was ashamed of his purpose, and
+grounded his weapon, when there stepped from the shadow into the
+moonlight, like an actor entering upon the stage, a stunted,
+decrepit creature, whom, by his fantastic dress and deformity, he
+recognized, even at some distance, for the male of the two dwarfs
+whom he had seen in the chapel at Engaddi.  Recollecting, at the
+same moment, the other and far different visions of that
+extraordinary night, he gave his dog a signal, which he instantly
+understood, and, returning to the standard, laid himself down
+beside it with a stifled growl.
+
+The little, distorted miniature of humanity, assured of his
+safety from an enemy so formidable, came panting up the ascent,
+which the shortness of his legs rendered laborious, and, when he
+arrived on the platform at the top, shifted to his left hand the
+little crossbow, which was just such a toy as children at that
+period were permitted to shoot small birds with, and, assuming an
+attitude of great dignity, gracefully extended his right hand to
+Sir Kenneth, in an attitude as if he expected he would salute it.
+But such a result not following, he demanded, in a sharp and
+angry tone of voice, "Soldier, wherefore renderest thou not to
+Nectabanus the homage due to his dignity?  Or is it possible that
+thou canst have forgotten him?"
+
+"Great Nectabanus," answered the knight, willing to soothe the
+creature's humour, "that were difficult for any one who has ever
+looked upon thee.  Pardon me, however, that, being a soldier upon
+my post, with my lance in my hand, I may not give to one of thy
+puissance the advantage of coming within my guard, or of
+mastering my weapon.  Suffice it that I reverence thy dignity,
+and submit myself to thee as humbly as a man-at-arms in my place
+may."
+
+"It shall suffice," said Nectabanus, "so that you presently
+attend me to the presence of those who have sent me hither to
+summon you."
+
+"Great sir," replied the knight, "neither in this can I gratify
+thee, for my orders are to abide by this banner till daybreak
+--so I pray you to hold me excused in that matter also."
+
+So saying, he resumed his walk upon the platform; but the dwarf
+did not suffer him so easily to escape from his importunity.
+
+"Look you," he said, placing himself before Sir Kenneth, so as to
+interrupt his way, "either obey me, Sir Knight, as in duty bound,
+or I will lay the command upon thee, in the name of one whose
+beauty could call down the genii from their sphere, and whose
+grandeur could command the immortal race when they had
+descended."
+
+A wild and improbable conjecture arose in the knight's mind, but
+he repelled it.  It was impossible, he thought, that the lady of
+his love should have sent him such a message by such a messenger;
+yet his voice trembled as he said, "Go to, Nectabanus.  Tell me
+at once, and as a true man, whether this sublime lady of whom
+thou speakest be other than the houri with whose assistance I
+beheld thee sweeping the chapel at Engaddi?"
+
+"How!  presumptuous Knight," replied the dwarf, "think'st thou
+the mistress of our own royal affections, the sharer of our
+greatness, and the partner of our comeliness, would demean
+herself by laying charge on such a vassal as thou?  No; highly as
+thou art honoured, thou hast not yet deserved the notice of Queen
+Guenevra, the lovely bride of Arthur, from whose high seat even
+princes seem but pigmies.  But look thou here, and as thou
+knowest or disownest this token, so obey or refuse her commands
+who hath deigned to impose them on thee."
+
+So saying, he placed in the knight's hand a ruby ring, which,
+even in the moonlight, he had no difficulty to recognize as that
+which usually graced the finger of the high-born lady to whose
+service he had devoted himself.  Could he have doubted the truth
+of the token, he would have been convinced by the small knot of
+carnation-coloured ribbon which was fastened to the ring.  This
+was his lady's favourite colour, and more than once had he
+himself, assuming it for that of his own liveries, caused the
+carnation to triumph over all other hues in the lists and in the
+battle.
+
+Sir Kenneth was struck nearly mute by seeing such a token in such
+hands.
+
+"In the name of all that is sacred, from whom didst thou receive
+this witness?"  said the knight.  "Bring, if thou canst, thy
+wavering understanding to a right settlement for a minute or two,
+and tell me the person by whom thou art sent, and the real
+purpose of thy message, and take heed what thou sayest, for this
+is no subject for buffoonery."
+
+"Fond and foolish Knight," said the dwarf, "wouldst thou know
+more of this matter than that thou art honoured with commands
+from a princess, delivered to thee by a king?  We list not to
+parley with thee further than to command thee, in the name and by
+the power of that ring, to follow us to her who is the owner of
+the ring.  Every minute that thou tarriest is a crime against thy
+allegiance."
+
+"Good Nectabanus, bethink thyself," said the knight.  "Can my
+lady know where and upon what duty I am this night engaged?  Is
+she aware that my life--pshaw, why should I speak of life--but
+that my honour depends on my guarding this banner till daybreak;
+and can it be her wish that I should leave it even to pay homage
+to her?  It is impossible--the princess is pleased to be merry
+with her servant in sending him such a message; and I must think
+so the rather that she hath chosen such a messenger."
+
+"Oh, keep your belief," said Nectabanus, turning round as if to
+leave the platform; "it is little to me whether you be traitor or
+true man to this royal lady--so fare thee well."
+
+"Stay, stay--I entreat you stay," said Sir Kenneth.  "Answer me
+but one question:  is the lady who sent thee near to this place?"
+
+"What signifies it?"  said the dwarf.  "Ought fidelity to reckon
+furlongs, or miles, or leagues--like the poor courier, who is
+paid for his labour by the distance which he traverses?
+Nevertheless, thou soul of suspicion, I tell thee, the fair owner
+of the ring now sent to so unworthy a vassal, in whom there is
+neither truth nor courage, is not more distant from this place
+than this arblast can send a bolt."
+
+The knight gazed again on that ring, as if to ascertain that
+there was no possible falsehood in the token.  "Tell me," he said
+to the dwarf, "is my presence required for any length of time?"
+
+"Time!"  answered Nectabanus, in his flighty manner; "what call
+you time?  I see it not--I feel it not--it is but a shadowy name
+--a succession of breathings measured forth by night by the clank
+of a bell, by day by a shadow crossing along a dial-stone.
+Knowest thou not a true knight's time should only be reckoned by
+the deeds that he performs in behalf of God and his lady?"
+
+"The words of truth, though in the mouth of folly," said the
+knight.  "And doth my lady really summon me to some deed of
+action, in her name and for her sake?--and may it not be
+postponed for even the few hours till daybreak?"
+
+"She requires thy presence instantly," said the dwarf, "and
+without the loss of so much time as would be told by ten grains
+of the sandglass.  Hearken, thou cold-blooded and suspicious
+knight, these are her very words--Tell him that the hand which
+dropped roses can bestow laurels."
+
+This allusion to their meeting in the chapel of Engaddi sent a
+thousand recollections through Sir Kenneth's brain, and convinced
+him that the message delivered by the dwarf was genuine.  The
+rosebuds, withered as they were, were still treasured under his
+cuirass, and nearest to his heart.  He paused, and could not
+resolve to forego an opportunity, the only one which might ever
+offer, to gain grace in her eyes whom he had installed as
+sovereign of his affections.  The dwarf, in the meantime,
+augmented his confusion by insisting either that he must return
+the ring or instantly attend him.
+
+"Hold, hold, yet a moment hold," said the knight, and proceeded
+to mutter to himself, "Am I either the subject or slave of King
+Richard, more than as a free knight sworn to the service of the
+Crusade?  And whom have I come hither to honour with lance and
+sword?  Our holy cause and my transcendent lady!"
+
+"The ring!  the ring!"  exclaimed the dwarf impatiently; "false
+and slothful knight, return the ring, which thou art unworthy to
+touch or to look upon."
+
+"A moment, a moment, good Nectabanus," said Sir Kenneth; "disturb
+not my thoughts.--What if the Saracens were just now to attack
+our lines?  Should I stay here like a sworn vassal of England,
+watching that her king's pride suffered no humiliation; or should
+I speed to the breach, and fight for the Cross?  To the breach,
+assuredly; and next to the cause of God come the commands of my
+liege lady.  And yet, Coeur de Lion's behest--my own promise!
+Nectabanus, I conjure thee once more to say, are you to conduct
+me far from hence?"
+
+"But to yonder pavilion; and, since you must needs know," replied
+Nectabanus, "the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which
+crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom."
+
+"I can return in an instant," said the knight, shutting his eyes
+desperately to all further consequences, "I can hear from thence
+the bay of my dog if any one approaches the standard.  I will
+throw myself at my lady's feet, and pray her leave to return to
+conclude my watch.--Here, Roswal" (calling his hound, and
+throwing down his mantle by the side of the standard-spear),
+"watch thou here, and let no one approach."
+
+The majestic dog looked in his master's face, as if to be sure
+that he understood his charge, then sat down beside the mantle,
+with ears erect and head raised, like a sentinel, understanding
+perfectly the purpose for which he was stationed there.
+
+"Come now, good Nectabanus," said the knight, "let us hasten to
+obey the commands thou hast brought."
+
+"Haste he that will," said the dwarf sullenly; "thou hast not
+been in haste to obey my summons, nor can I walk fast enough to
+follow your long strides--you do not walk like a man, but bound
+like an ostrich in the desert."
+
+There were but two ways of conquering the obstinacy of
+Nectabanus, who, as he spoke, diminished his walk into a snail's
+pace.  For bribes Sir Kenneth had no means--for soothing no time;
+so in his impatience he snatched the dwarf up from the ground,
+and bearing him along, notwithstanding his entreaties and his
+fear, reached nearly to the pavilion pointed out as that of the
+Queen.  In approaching it, however, the Scot observed there was a
+small guard of soldiers sitting on the ground, who had been
+concealed from him by the intervening tents.  Wondering that the
+clash of his own armour had not yet attracted their attention,
+and supposing that his motions might, on the present occasion,
+require to be conducted with secrecy, he placed the little
+panting guide upon the ground to recover his breath, and point
+out what was next to be done.  Nectabanus was both frightened and
+angry; but he had felt himself as completely in the power of the
+robust knight as an owl in the claws of an eagle, and therefore
+cared not to provoke him to any further display of his strength.
+
+He made no complaints, therefore, of the usage he had received;
+but, turning amongst the labyrinth of tents, he led the knight in
+silence to the opposite side of the pavilion, which thus screened
+them from the observation of the warders, who seemed either too
+negligent or too sleepy to discharge their duty with much
+accuracy.  Arrived there, the dwarf raised the under part of the
+canvas from the ground, and made signs to Sir Kenneth that he
+should introduce himself to the inside of the tent, by creeping
+under it.  The knight hesitated.  There seemed an indecorum in
+thus privately introducing himself into a pavilion pitched,
+doubtless, for the accommodation of noble ladies; but he recalled
+to remembrance the assured tokens which the dwarf had exhibited,
+and concluded that it was not for him to dispute his lady's
+pleasure.
+
+He stooped accordingly, crept beneath the canvas enclosure of the
+tent, and heard the dwarf whisper from without, "Remain here
+until I call thee."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+You talk of Gaiety and Innocence!
+The moment when the fatal fruit was eaten,
+They parted ne'er to meet again; and Malice
+Has ever since been playmate to light Gaiety,
+From the first moment when the smiling infant
+Destroys the flower or butterfly he toys with,
+To the last chuckle of the dying miser,
+Who on his deathbed laughs his last to hear
+His wealthy neighbour has become a bankrupt.    OLD PLAY.
+
+Sir Kenneth was left for some minutes alone and in darkness.
+Here was another interruption which must prolong his absence from
+his post, and he began almost to repent the facility with which
+he had been induced to quit it.  But to return without seeing the
+Lady Edith was now not to be thought of.  He had committed a
+breach of military discipline, and was determined at least to
+prove the reality of the seductive expectations which had tempted
+him to do so.  Meanwhile his situation was unpleasant.  There was
+no light to show him into what sort of apartment he had been led
+--the Lady Edith was in immediate attendance on the Queen of
+England--and the discovery of his having introduced himself thus
+furtively into the royal pavilion might, were it discovered; lead
+to much and dangerous suspicion.  While he gave way to these
+unpleasant reflections, and began almost to wish that he could
+achieve his retreat unobserved, he heard a noise of female
+voices, laughing, whispering, and speaking, in an adjoining
+apartment, from which, as the sounds gave him reason to judge, he
+could only be separated by a canvas partition.  Lamps were
+burning, as he might perceive by the shadowy light which extended
+itself even to his side of the veil which divided the tent, and
+he could see shades of several figures sitting and moving in the
+adjoining apartment.  It cannot be termed discourtesy in Sir
+Kenneth that, situated as he was, he overheard a conversation in
+which he found himself deeply interested.
+
+"Call her--call her, for Our Lady's sake," said the voice of one
+of these laughing invisibles.  "Nectabanus, thou shalt be made
+ambassador to Prester John's court, to show them how wisely thou
+canst discharge thee of a mission."
+
+The shrill tone of the dwarf was heard, yet so much subdued that
+Sir Kenneth could not understand what he said, except that he
+spoke something of the means of merriment given to the guard.
+
+"But how shall we rid us of the spirit which Nectabanus hath
+raised, my maidens?"
+
+"Hear me, royal madam," said another voice.  "If the sage and
+princely Nectabanus be not over-jealous of his most transcendent
+bride and empress, let us send her to get us rid of this insolent
+knight-errant, who can be so easily persuaded that high-born
+dames may need the use of his insolent and overweening valour."
+
+"It were but justice, methinks," replied another, "that the
+Princess Guenever should dismiss, by her courtesy, him whom her
+husband's wisdom has been able to entice hither."
+
+Struck to the heart with shame and resentment at what he had
+heard, Sir Kenneth was about to attempt his escape from the tent
+at all hazards, when what followed arrested his purpose.
+
+"Nay, truly," said the first speaker, "our cousin Edith must
+first learn how this vaunted wight hath conducted himself, and we
+must reserve the power of giving her ocular proof that he hath
+failed in his duty.  It may be a lesson will do good upon her;
+for, credit me, Calista, I have sometimes thought she has let
+this Northern adventurer sit nearer her heart than prudence would
+sanction."
+
+One of the other voices was then heard to mutter something of the
+Lady Edith's prudence and wisdom.
+
+"Prudence, wench!"  was the reply.  "It is mere pride, and the
+desire to be thought more rigid than any of us.  Nay, I will not
+quit my advantage.  You know well that when she has us at fault
+no one can, in a civil way, lay your error before you more
+precisely than can my Lady Edith.  But here she comes."
+
+A figure, as if entering the apartment, cast upon the partition a
+shade, which glided along slowly until it mixed with those which
+already clouded it.  Despite of the bitter disappointment which
+he had experienced--despite the insult and injury with which it
+seemed he had been visited by the malice, or, at best, by the
+idle humour of Queen Berengaria (for he already concluded that
+she who spoke loudest, and in a commanding tone, was the wife of
+Richard), the knight felt something so soothing to his feelings
+in learning that Edith had been no partner to the fraud practised
+on him, and so interesting to his curiosity in the scene which
+was about to take place, that, instead of prosecuting his more
+prudent purpose of an instant retreat, he looked anxiously, on
+the contrary, for some rent or crevice by means of which be might
+be made eye as well as ear witness to what was to go forward.
+
+"Surely," said he to himself, "the Queen, who hath been pleased
+for an idle frolic to endanger my reputation, and perhaps my
+life, cannot complain if I avail myself of the chance which
+fortune seems willing to afford me to obtain knowledge of her
+further intentions."
+
+It seemed, in the meanwhile, as if Edith were waiting for the
+commands of the Queen, and as if the other were reluctant to
+speak for fear of being unable to command her laughter and that
+of her companions; for Sir Kenneth could only distinguish a sound
+as of suppressed tittering and merriment.
+
+"Your Majesty," said Edith at last, "seems in a merry mood,
+though, methinks, the hour of night prompts a sleepy one.  I was
+well disposed bedward when I had your Majesty's commands to
+attend you."
+
+"I will not long delay you, cousin, from your repose," said the
+Queen, "though I fear you will sleep less soundly when I tell you
+your wager is lost."
+
+"Nay, royal madam," said Edith, "this, surely, is dwelling on a
+jest which has rather been worn out, I laid no wager, however it
+was your Majesty's pleasure to suppose, or to insist, that I did
+so."
+
+"Nay, now, despite our pilgrimage, Satan is strong with you, my
+gentle cousin, and prompts thee to leasing.  Can you deny that
+you gaged your ruby ring against my golden bracelet that yonder
+Knight of the Libbard, or how call you him, could not be seduced
+from his post?"
+
+"Your Majesty is too great for me to gainsay you," replied Edith,
+"but these ladies can, if they will, bear me witness that it was
+your Highness who proposed such a wager, and took the ring from
+my finger, even while I was declaring that I did not think it
+maidenly to gage anything on such a subject."
+
+"Nay, but, my Lady Edith," said another voice, "you must needs
+grant, under your favour, that you expressed yourself very
+confident of the valour of that same Knight of the Leopard."
+
+"And if I did, minion," said Edith angrily, "is that a good
+reason why thou shouldst put in thy word to flatter her Majesty's
+humour?  I spoke of that knight but as all men speak who have
+seen him in the field, and had no more interest in defending than
+thou in detracting from him.  In a camp, what can women speak of
+save soldiers and deeds of arms?"
+
+"The noble Lady Edith," said a third voice, "hath never forgiven
+Calista and me, since we told your Majesty that she dropped two
+rosebuds in the chapel."
+
+"If your Majesty," said Edith, in a tone which Sir Kenneth could
+judge to be that of respectful remonstrance, "have no other
+commands for me than to hear the gibes of your waiting-women, I
+must crave your permission to withdraw."
+
+"Silence, Florise," said the Queen, "and let not our indulgence
+lead you to forget the difference betwixt yourself and the
+kinswoman of England.--But you, my dear cousin," she continued,
+resuming her tone of raillery, "how can you, who are so good-natured, begrudge us poor wretches a few 
+minutes' laughing, when
+we have had so many days devoted to weeping and gnashing of
+teeth?"
+
+"Great be your mirth, royal lady," said Edith; "yet would I be
+content not to smile for the rest of my life, rather than--"
+
+She stopped, apparently out of respect; but Sir Kenneth could
+hear that she was in much agitation.
+
+"Forgive me," said Berengaria, a thoughtless but good-humoured
+princess of the House of Navarre; "but what is the great offence,
+after all?  A young knight has been wiled hither--has stolen, or
+has been stolen, from his post, which no one will disturb in his
+absence--for the sake of a fair lady; for, to do your champion
+justice, sweet one, the wisdom of Nectabanus could conjure him
+hither in no name but yours."
+
+"Gracious Heaven! your Majesty does not say so?" said Edith, in a
+voice of alarm quite different from the agitation she had
+previously evinced,--"you cannot say so consistently with respect
+for your own honour and for mine, your husband's kinswoman! Say
+you were jesting with me, my royal mistress, and forgive me that
+I could, even for a moment, think it possible you could be in
+earnest!"
+
+"The Lady Edith," said the Queen, in a displeased tone of voice,
+"regrets the ring we have won of her.  We will restore the pledge
+to you, gentle cousin; only you must not grudge us in turn a
+little triumph over the wisdom which has been so often spread
+over us, as a banner over a host."
+
+"A triumph!"  exclaimed Edith indignantly--"a triumph! The
+triumph will be with the infidel, when he hears that the Queen of
+England can make the reputation of her husband's kinswoman the
+subject of a light frolic."
+
+"You are angry, fair cousin, at losing your favourite ring," said
+the Queen.  "Come, since you grudge to pay your wager, we will
+renounce our right; it was your name and that pledge brought him
+hither, and we care not for the bait after the fish is caught."
+
+"Madam," replied Edith impatiently, "you know well that your
+Grace could not wish for anything of mine but it becomes
+instantly yours.  But I would give a bushel of rubies ere ring or
+name of mine had been used to bring a brave man into a fault, and
+perhaps to disgrace and punishment."
+
+"Oh, it is for the safety of our true knight that we fear!"  said
+the Queen.  "You rate our power too low, fair cousin, when you
+speak of a life being lost for a frolic of ours.  O Lady Edith,
+others have influence on the iron breasts of warriors as well as
+you--the heart even of a lion is made of flesh, not of stone;
+and, believe me, I have interest enough with Richard to save this
+knight, in whose fate Lady Edith is so deeply concerned, from the
+penalty of disobeying his royal commands."
+
+"For the love of the blessed Cross, most royal lady," said Edith
+--and Sir Kenneth, with feelings which it were hard to unravel,
+heard her prostrate herself at the Queen's feet--"for the love of
+our blessed Lady, and of every holy saint in the calendar, beware
+what you do! You know not King Richard--you have been but shortly
+wedded to him.  Your breath might as well combat the west wind
+when it is wildest, as your words persuade my royal kinsman to
+pardon a military offence.  Oh, for God's sake, dismiss this
+gentleman, if indeed you have lured him hither! I could almost be
+content to rest with the shame of having invited him, did I know
+that he was returned again where his duty calls him!"
+
+"Arise, cousin, arise," said Queen Berengaria, "and be assured
+all will be better than you think.  Rise, dear Edith.  I am sorry
+I have played my foolery with a knight in whom you take such deep
+interest.  Nay, wring not thy hands; I will believe thou carest
+not for him--believe anything rather than see thee look so
+wretchedly miserable.  I tell thee I will take the blame on
+myself with King Richard in behalf of thy fair Northern friend
+--thine acquaintance, I would say, since thou own'st him not as a
+friend.  Nay, look not so reproachfully.  We will send Nectabanus
+to dismiss this Knight of the Standard to his post; and we
+ourselves will grace him on some future day, to make amends for
+his wild-goose chase.  He is, I warrant, but lying perdu in some
+neighbouring tent."
+
+"By my crown of lilies, and my sceptre of a specially good water-reed," said Nectabanus, "your Majesty is 
+mistaken, He is nearer
+at hand than you wot--he lieth ensconced there behind that canvas
+partition."
+
+"And within hearing of each word we have said!"  exclaimed the
+Queen, in her turn violently surprised and agitated.  "Out,
+monster of folly and malignity!"
+
+As she uttered these words, Nectabanus fled from the pavilion
+with a yell of such a nature as leaves it still doubtful whether
+Berengaria had confined her rebuke to words, or added some more
+emphatic expression of her displeasure.
+
+"What can now be done?"  said the Queen to Edith, in a whisper of
+undisguised uneasiness.
+
+"That which must," said Edith firmly.  "We must see this
+gentleman and place ourselves in his mercy."
+
+So saying, she began hastily to undo a curtain, which at one
+place covered an entrance or communication.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, forbear--consider," said the Queen--"my
+apartment--our dress--the hour--my honour!"
+
+But ere she could detail her remonstrances, the curtain fell, and
+there was no division any longer betwixt the armed knight and the
+party of ladies.  The warmth of an Eastern night occasioned the
+undress of Queen Berengaria and her household to be rather more
+simple and unstudied than their station, and the presence of a
+male spectator of rank, required.  This the Queen remembered, and
+with a loud shriek fled from the apartment where Sir Kenneth was
+disclosed to view in a compartment of the ample pavilion, now no
+longer separated from that in which they stood.  The grief and
+agitation of the Lady Edith, as well as the deep interest she
+felt in a hasty explanation with the Scottish knight, perhaps
+occasioned her forgetting that her locks were more dishevelled
+and her person less heedfully covered than was the wont of high-born damsels, in an age which was not, 
+after all, the most
+prudish or scrupulous period of the ancient time.  A thin, loose
+garment of pink-coloured silk made the principal part of her
+vestments, with Oriental slippers, into which she had hastily
+thrust her bare feet, and a scarf hurriedly and loosely thrown
+about her shoulders.  Her head had no other covering than the
+veil of rich and dishevelled locks falling round it on every
+side, that half hid a countenance which a mingled sense of
+modesty and of resentment, and other deep and agitated feelings,
+had covered with crimson.
+
+But although Edith felt her situation with all that delicacy
+which is her sex's greatest charm, it did not seem that for a
+moment she placed her own bashfulness in comparison with the duty
+which, as she thought, she owed to him who had been led into
+error and danger on her account.  She drew, indeed, her scarf
+more closely over her neck and bosom, and she hastily laid from
+her hand a lamp which shed too much lustre over her figure; but,
+while Sir Kenneth stood motionless on the same spot in which he
+was first discovered, she rather stepped towards than retired
+from him, as she exclaimed, "Hasten to your post, valiant
+knight!--you are deceived in being trained hither--ask no
+questions."
+
+"I need ask none," said the knight, sinking upon one knee, with
+the reverential devotion of a saint at the altar, and bending his
+eyes on the ground, lest his looks should increase the lady's
+embarrassment.
+
+"Have you heard all?" said Edith impatiently.  "Gracious saints!
+then wherefore wait you here, when each minute that passes is
+loaded with dishonour!"
+
+"I have heard that I am dishonoured, lady, and I have heard it
+from you," answered Kenneth.  "What reck I how soon punishment
+follows?  I have but one petition to you; and then I seek, among
+the sabres of the infidels, whether dishonour may not be washed
+out with blood."
+
+"Do not so, neither," said the lady.  "Be wise--dally not here;
+all may yet be well, if you will but use dispatch."
+
+"I wait but for your forgiveness," said the knight, still
+kneeling, "for my presumption in believing that my poor services
+could have been required or valued by you."
+
+"I do forgive you--oh, I have nothing to forgive! have been the
+means of injuring you.  But oh, begone! I will forgive--I will
+value you--that is, as I value every brave Crusader--if you will
+but begone!"
+
+"Receive, first, this precious yet fatal pledge," said the
+knight, tendering the ring to Edith, who now showed gestures of
+impatience.
+
+"Oh, no, no " she said, declining to receive it.  "Keep it--keep
+it as a mark of my regard--my regret, I would say.  Oh, begone,
+if not for your own sake, for mine!"
+
+Almost recompensed for the loss even of honour, which her voice
+had denounced to him, by the interest which she seemed to testify
+in his safety, Sir Kenneth rose from his knee, and, casting a
+momentary glance on Edith, bowed low, and seemed about to
+withdraw.  At the same instant, that maidenly bashfulness, which
+the energy of Edith's feelings had till then triumphed over,
+became conqueror in its turn, and she hastened from the
+apartment, extinguishing her lamp as she went, and leaving, in
+Sir Kenneth's thoughts, both mental and natural gloom behind her.
+
+She must be obeyed, was the first distinct idea which waked him
+from his reverie, and he hastened to the place by which he had
+entered the pavilion.  To pass under the canvas in the manner he
+had entered required time and attention, and he made a readier
+aperture by slitting the canvas wall with his poniard.  When in
+the free air, he felt rather stupefied and overpowered by a
+conflict of sensations, than able to ascertain what was the real
+import of the whole.  He was obliged to spur himself to action by
+recollecting that the commands of the Lady Edith had required
+haste.  Even then, engaged as he was amongst tent-ropes and
+tents, he was compelled to move with caution until he should
+regain the path or avenue, aside from which the dwarf had led
+him, in order to escape the observation of the guards before the
+Queen's pavilion; and he was obliged also to move slowly, and
+with precaution, to avoid giving an alarm, either by falling or
+by the clashing of his armour.  A thin cloud had obscured the
+moon, too, at the very instant of his leaving the tent, and Sir
+Kenneth had to struggle with this inconvenience at a moment when
+the dizziness of his head and the fullness of his heart scarce
+left him powers of intelligence sufficient to direct his motions.
+
+But at once sounds came upon his ear which instantly recalled him
+to the full energy of his faculties.  These proceeded from the
+Mount of Saint George.  He heard first a single, fierce, angry,
+and savage bark, which was immediately followed by a yell of
+agony.  No deer ever bounded with a wilder start at the voice of
+Roswal than did Sir Kenneth at what he feared was the death-cry
+of that noble hound, from whom no ordinary injury could have
+extracted even the slightest acknowledgment of pain.  He
+surmounted the space which divided him from the avenue, and,
+having attained it, began to run towards the mount, although
+loaded with his mail, faster than most men could have accompanied
+him even if unarmed, relaxed not his pace for the steep sides of
+the artificial mound, and in a few minutes stood on the platform
+upon its summit.
+
+The moon broke forth at this moment, and showed him that the
+Standard of England was vanished, that the spear on which it had
+floated lay broken on the ground, and beside it was his faithful
+hound, apparently in the agonies of death.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+All my long arrear of honour lost,
+Heap'd up in youth, and hoarded up for age.
+Hath Honour's fountain then suck'd up the stream?
+He hath--and hooting boys may barefoot pass,
+And gather pebbles from the naked ford!     DON SEBASTIAN.
+
+After a torrent of afflicting sensations, by which he was at
+first almost stunned and confounded, Sir Kenneth's first thought
+was to look for the authors of this violation of the English
+banner; but in no direction could he see traces of them.  His
+next, which to some persons, but scarce to any who have made
+intimate acquaintances among the canine race, may appear strange,
+was to examine the condition of his faithful Roswal, mortally
+wounded, as it seemed, in discharging the duty which his master
+had been seduced to abandon.  He caressed the dying animal, who,
+faithful to the last, seemed to forget his own pain in the
+satisfaction he received from his master's presence, and
+continued wagging his tail and licking his hand, even while by
+low moanings he expressed that his agony was increased by the
+attempts which Sir Kenneth made to withdraw from the wound the
+fragment of the lance or javelin with which it had been
+inflicted; then redoubled his feeble endearments, as if fearing
+he had offended his master by showing a sense of the pain to
+which his interference had subjected him.  There was something in
+the display of the dying creature's attachment which mixed as a
+bitter ingredient with the sense of disgrace and desolation by
+which Sir Kenneth was oppressed.  His only friend seemed removed
+from him, just when he had incurred the contempt and hatred of
+all besides.  The knight's strength of mind gave way to a burst
+of agonized distress, and he groaned and wept aloud.
+
+While he thus indulged his grief, a clear and solemn voice, close
+beside him, pronounced these words in the sonorous tone of the
+readers of the mosque, and in the lingua franca mutually
+understood by Christians and Saracens:--
+
+"Adversity is like the period of the former and of the latter
+rain--cold, comfortless, unfriendly to man and to animal; yet
+from that season have their birth the flower and the fruit, the
+date, the rose, and the pomegranate."
+
+Sir Kenneth of the Leopard turned towards the speaker, and beheld
+the Arabian physician, who, approaching unheard, had seated
+himself a little behind him cross-legged, and uttered with
+gravity, yet not without a tone of sympathy, the moral sentences
+of consolation with which the Koran and its commentators supplied
+
+him; for, in the East, wisdom is held to consist less in a
+display of the sage's own inventive talents, than in his ready
+memory and happy application of and reference to "that which is
+written."
+
+Ashamed at being surprised in a womanlike expression of sorrow,
+Sir Kenneth dashed his tears indignantly aside, and again busied
+himself with his dying favourite.
+
+"The poet hath said," continued the Arab, without noticing the
+knight's averted looks and sullen deportment, "the ox for the
+field, and the camel for the desert.  Were not the hand of the
+leech fitter than that of the soldier to cure wounds, though less
+able to inflict them?"
+
+"This patient, Hakim, is beyond thy help," said Sir Kenneth;
+"and, besides, he is, by thy law, an unclean animal."
+
+"Where Allah hath deigned to bestow life, and a sense of pain and
+pleasure," said the physician, "it were sinful pride should the
+sage, whom He has enlightened, refuse to prolong existence or
+assuage agony.  To the sage, the cure of a miserable groom, of a
+poor dog and of a conquering monarch, are events of little
+distinction.  Let me examine this wounded animal."
+
+Sir Kenneth acceded in silence, and the physician inspected and
+handled Roswal's wound with as much care and attention as if he
+had been a human being.  He then took forth a case of
+instruments, and, by the judicious and skilful application of
+pincers, withdrew from the wounded shoulder the fragment of the
+weapon, and stopped with styptics and bandages the effusion of
+blood which followed; the creature all the while suffering him
+patiently to perform these kind offices, as if he had been aware
+of his kind intentions.
+
+"The animal may be cured," said El Hakim, addressing himself to
+Sir Kenneth, "if you will permit me to carry him to my tent, and
+treat him with the care which the nobleness of his nature
+deserves.  For know, that thy servant Adonbec is no less skilful
+in the race and pedigree and distinctions of good dogs and of
+noble steeds than in the diseases which afflict the human race."
+
+"Take him with you," said the knight.  "I bestow him on you
+freely, if he recovers.  I owe thee a reward for attendance on my
+squire, and have nothing else to pay it with.  For myself, I will
+never again wind bugle or halloo to hound!"
+
+The Arabian made no reply, but gave a signal with a clapping of
+his hands, which was instantly answered by the appearance of two
+black slaves.  He gave them his orders in Arabic, received the
+answer that "to hear was to obey," when, taking the animal in
+their arms, they removed him, without much resistance on his
+part; for though his eyes turned to his master, he was too weak
+to struggle.
+
+"Fare thee well, Roswal, then," said Sir Kenneth--"fare thee
+well, my last and only friend--thou art too noble a possession to
+be retained by one such as I must in future call myself!--I
+would," he said, as the slaves retired, "that, dying as he is, I
+could exchange conditions with that noble animal!"
+
+"It is written," answered the Arabian, although the exclamation
+had not been addressed to him, "that all creatures are fashioned
+for the service of man; and the master of the earth speaketh
+folly when he would exchange, in his impatience, his hopes here
+and to come for the servile condition of an inferior being."
+
+"A dog who dies in discharging his duty," said the knight
+sternly, "is better than a man who survives the desertion of it.
+Leave me, Hakim; thou hast, on this side of miracle, the most
+wonderful science which man ever possessed, but the wounds of the
+spirit are beyond thy power."
+
+"Not if the patient will explain his calamity, and be guided by
+the physician," said Adonbec el Hakim.
+
+"Know, then," said Sir Kenneth, "since thou art so importunate,
+that last night the Banner of England was displayed from this
+mound--I was its appointed guardian--morning is now breaking--
+there lies the broken banner-spear, the standard itself is lost,
+and here sit I a living man!"
+
+"How!"  said El Hakim, examining him; "thy armour is whole--there
+is no blood on thy weapons, and report speaks thee one unlikely
+to return thus from fight.  Thou hast been trained from thy post
+--ay, trained by the rosy cheek and black eye of one of those
+houris, to whom you Nazarenes vow rather such service as is due
+to Allah, than such love as may lawfully be rendered to forms of
+clay like our own.  It has been thus assuredly; for so hath man
+ever fallen, even since the days of Sultan Adam."
+
+"And if it were so, physician," said Sir Kenneth sullenly, "what
+remedy?"
+
+"Knowledge is the parent of power," said El Hakim, "as valour
+supplies strength.  Listen to me.  Man is not as a tree, bound to
+one spot of earth; nor is he framed to cling to one bare rock,
+like the scarce animated shell-fish.  Thine own Christian
+writings command thee, when persecuted in one city, to flee to
+another; and we Moslem also know that Mohammed, the Prophet of
+Allah, driven forth from the holy city of Mecca, found his refuge
+and his helpmates at Medina."
+
+"And what does this concern me?"  said the Scot.
+
+"Much," answered the physician.  "Even the sage flies the tempest
+which he cannot control.  Use thy speed, therefore, and fly from
+the vengeance of Richard to the shadow of Saladin's victorious
+banner."
+
+"I might indeed hide my dishonour," said Sir Kenneth ironically,
+"in a camp of infidel heathens, where the very phrase is unknown.
+But had I not better partake more fully in their reproach?  Does
+not thy advice stretch so far as to recommend me to take the
+turban?  Methinks I want but apostasy to consummate my infamy."
+
+"Blaspheme not, Nazarene," said the physician sternly.  "Saladin
+makes no converts to the law of the Prophet, save those on whom
+its precepts shall work conviction.  Open thine eyes to the
+light, and the great Soldan, whose liberality is as boundless as
+his power, may bestow on thee a kingdom; remain blinded if thou
+will, and, being one whose second life is doomed to misery,
+Saladin will yet, for this span of present time, make thee rich
+and happy.  But fear not that thy brows shall be bound with the
+turban, save at thine own free choice."
+
+"My choice were rather," said the knight, "that my writhen
+features should blacken, as they are like to do, in this
+evening's setting sun."
+
+"Yet thou art not wise, Nazarene," said El Hakim, "to reject this
+fair offer; for I have power with Saladin, and can raise thee
+high in his grace.  Look you, my son--this Crusade, as you call
+your wild enterprise, is like a large dromond [The largest sort
+of vessels then known were termed dromond's, or dromedaries.]
+parting asunder in the waves.  Thou thyself hast borne terms of
+truce from the kings and princes, whose force is here assembled,
+to the mighty Soldan, and knewest not, perchance, the full tenor
+of thine own errand."
+
+"I knew not, and I care not," said the knight impatiently.  "What
+avails it to me that I have been of late the envoy of princes,
+when, ere night, I shall be a gibbeted and dishonoured corpse?"
+
+"Nay, I speak that it may not be so with thee," said the
+physician.  "Saladin is courted on all sides.  The combined
+princes of this league formed against him have made such
+proposals of composition and peace, as, in other circumstances,
+it might have become his honour to have granted to them.  Others
+have made private offers, on their own separate account, to
+disjoin their forces from the camp of the Kings of Frangistan,
+and even to lend their arms to the defence of the standard of the
+Prophet.  But Saladin will not be served by such treacherous and
+interested defection.  The king of kings will treat only with the
+Lion King.  Saladin will hold treaty with none but the Melech
+Ric, and with him he will treat like a prince, or fight like a
+champion.  To Richard he will yield such conditions of his free
+liberality as the swords of all Europe could never compel from
+him by force or terror.  He will permit a free pilgrimage to
+Jerusalem, and all the places where the Nazarenes list to
+worship; nay, he will so far share even his empire with his
+brother Richard, that he will allow Christian garrisons in the
+six strongest cities of Palestine, and one in Jerusalem itself,
+and suffer them to be under the immediate command of the officers
+of Richard, who, he consents, shall bear the name of King
+Guardian of Jerusalem.  Yet further, strange and incredible as
+you may think it, know, Sir Knight--for to your honour I can
+commit even that almost incredible secret--know that Saladin will
+put a sacred seal on this happy union betwixt the bravest and
+noblest of Frangistan and Asia, by raising to the rank of his
+royal spouse a Christian damsel, allied in blood to King Richard,
+and known by the name of the Lady Edith of Plantagenet."  [This
+may appear so extraordinary and improbable a proposition that it
+is necessary to say such a one was actually made.  The
+historians, however, substitute the widowed Queen of Naples,
+sister of Richard, for the bride, and Saladin's brother for the
+bridegroom.  They appear to have been ignorant of the existence
+of Edith of Plantagenet.--See MILL'S History of the Crusades,
+vol. ii., p. 61.]
+
+"Ha!--sayest thou?"  exclaimed Sir Kenneth, who, listening with
+indifference and apathy to the preceding part of El Hakim's
+speech, was touched by this last communication, as the thrill of
+a nerve, unexpectedly jarred, will awaken the sensation of agony,
+even in the torpor of palsy.  Then, moderating his tone, by dint
+of much effort he restrained his indignation, and, veiling it
+under the appearance of contemptuous doubt, he prosecuted the
+conversation, in order to get as much knowledge as possible of
+the plot, as he deemed it, against the honour and happiness of
+her whom he loved not the less that his passion had ruined,
+apparently, his fortunes, at once, and his honour.--"And what
+Christian," he said, With tolerable calmness, "would sanction a
+union so unnatural as that of a Christian maiden with an
+unbelieving Saracen?"
+
+"Thou art but an ignorant, bigoted Nazarene," said the Hakim.
+"Seest thou not how the Mohammedan princes daily intermarry with
+the noble Nazarene maidens in Spain, without scandal either to
+Moor or Christian?  And the noble Soldan will, in his full
+confidence in the blood of Richard, permit the English maid the
+freedom which your Frankish manners have assigned to women.  He
+will allow her the free exercise of her religion, seeing that, in
+very truth, it signifies but little to which faith females are
+addicted; and he will assign her such place and rank over all the
+women of his zenana, that she shall be in every respect his sole
+and absolute queen."
+
+"What!"  said Sir Kenneth, "darest thou think, Moslem, that
+Richard would give his kinswoman--a high-born and virtuous
+princess--to be, at best, the foremost concubine in the haram of
+a misbeliever?  Know, Hakim, the meanest free Christian noble
+would scorn, on his child's behalf, such splendid ignominy."
+
+"Thou errest," said the Hakim.  "Philip of France, and Henry of
+Champagne, and others of Richard's principal allies, have heard
+the proposal without starting, and have promised, as far as they
+may, to forward an alliance that may end these wasteful wars; and
+the wise arch-priest of Tyre hath undertaken to break the
+proposal to Richard, not doubting that he shall be able to bring
+the plan to good issue.  The Soldan's wisdom hath as yet kept his
+proposition secret from others, such as he of Montserrat, and the
+Master of the Templars, because he knows they seek to thrive by
+Richard's death or disgrace, not by his life or honour.  Up,
+therefore, Sir Knight, and to horse.  I will give thee a scroll
+which shall advance thee highly with the Soldan; and deem not
+that you are leaving your country, or her cause, or her religion,
+since the interest of the two monarchs will speedily be the same.
+To Saladin thy counsel will be most acceptable, since thou canst
+make him aware of much concerning the marriages of the
+Christians, the treatment of their wives, and other points of
+their laws and usages, which, in the course of such treaty, it
+much concerns him that he should know.  The right hand of the
+Soldan grasps the treasures of the East, and it is the fountain
+or generosity.  Or, if thou desirest it, Saladin, when allied
+with England, can have but little difficulty to obtain from
+Richard, not only thy pardon and restoration to favour, but an
+honourable command in the troops which may be left of the King of
+England's host, to maintain their joint government in Palestine.
+Up, then, and mount--there lies a plain path before thee."
+
+"Hakim," said the Scottish knight, "thou art a man of peace; also
+thou hast saved the life of Richard of England--and, moreover, of
+my own poor esquire, Strauchan.  I have, therefore, heard to an
+end a matter which, being propounded by another Moslem than
+thyself, I would have cut short with a blow of my dagger!  Hakim,
+in return for thy kindness, I advise thee to see that the Saracen
+who shall propose to Richard a union betwixt the blood of
+Plantagenet and that of his accursed race do put on a helmet
+which is capable to endure such a blow of a battle-axe as that
+which struck down the gate of Acre.  Certes, he will be otherwise
+placed beyond the reach even of thy skill."
+
+"Thou art, then, wilfully determined not to fly to the Saracen
+host?"  said the physician.  "Yet, remember, thou stayest to
+certain destruction; and the writings of thy law, as well as
+ours, prohibit man from breaking into the tabernacle of his own
+life."
+
+"God forbid!"  replied the Scot, crossing himself; "but we are
+also forbidden to avoid the punishment which our crimes have
+deserved.  And since so poor are thy thoughts of fidelity, Hakim,
+it grudges me that I have bestowed my good hound on thee, for,
+should he live, he will have a master ignorant of his value."
+
+"A gift that is begrudged is already recalled," said El Hakim;
+"only we physicians are sworn not to send away a patient uncured.
+If the dog recover, he is once more yours."
+
+"Go to, Hakim," answered Sir Kenneth; "men speak not of hawk and
+hound when there is but an hour of day-breaking betwixt them and
+death.  Leave me to recollect my sins, and reconcile myself to
+Heaven."
+
+"I leave thee in thine obstinacy," said the physician; "the mist
+hides the precipice from those who are doomed to fall over it."
+
+He withdrew slowly, turning from time to time his head, as if to
+observe whether the devoted knight might not recall him either by
+word or signal.  At last his turbaned figure was lost among the
+labyrinth of tents which lay extended beneath, whitening in the
+pale light of the dawning, before which the moonbeam had now
+faded away.
+
+But although the physician Adonbec's words had not made that
+impression upon Kenneth which the sage desired, they had inspired
+the Scot with a motive for desiring life, which, dishonoured as
+he conceived himself to be, he was before willing to part from as
+from a sullied vestment no longer becoming his wear.  Much that
+had passed betwixt himself and the hermit, besides what he had
+observed between the anchorite and Sheerkohf (or Ilderim), he now
+recalled to recollection, and tended to confirm what the Hakim
+had told him of the secret article of the treaty.
+
+"The reverend impostor!"  he exclaimed to himself; "the hoary
+hypocrite!  He spoke of the unbelieving husband converted by the
+believing wife; and what do I know but that the traitor exhibited
+to the Saracen, accursed of God, the beauties of Edith
+Plantagenet, that the hound might judge if the princely Christian
+lady were fit to be admitted into the haram of a misbeliever?  If
+I had yonder infidel Ilderim, or whatsoever he is called, again
+in the gripe with which I once held him fast as ever hound held
+hare, never again should HE at least come on errand disgraceful
+to the honour of Christian king or noble and virtuous maiden.
+But I--my hours are fast dwindling into minutes--yet, while I
+have life and breath, something must be done, and speedily."
+
+He paused for a few minutes, threw from him his helmet, then
+strode down the hill, and took the road to King Richard's
+pavilion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The feather'd songster, chanticleer,
+Had wound his bugle-horn,
+And told the early villager
+The coming of the morn.
+King Edward saw the ruddy streaks
+Of light eclipse the grey,
+And heard the raven's croaking throat
+Proclaim the fated day.
+"Thou'rt right," he said, "for, by the God
+That sits enthron'd on high,
+Charles Baldwin, and his fellows twain,
+This day shall surely die."              CHATTERTON.
+
+On the evening on which Sir Kenneth assumed his post, Richard,
+after the stormy event which disturbed its tranquillity, had
+retired to rest in the plenitude of confidence inspired by his
+unbounded courage and the superiority which he had displayed in
+carrying the point he aimed at in presence of the whole Christian
+host and its leaders, many of whom, he was aware, regarded in
+their secret souls the disgrace of the Austrian Duke as a triumph
+over themselves; so that his pride felt gratified, that in
+prostrating one enemy he had mortified a hundred.
+
+Another monarch would have doubled his guards on the evening
+after such a scene, and kept at least a part of his troops under
+arms.  But Coeur de Lion dismissed, upon the occasion, even his
+ordinary watch, and assigned to his soldiers a donative of wine
+to celebrate his recovery, and to drink to the Banner of Saint
+George; and his quarter of the camp would have assumed a
+character totally devoid of vigilance and military preparation,
+but that Sir Thomas de Vaux, the Earl of Salisbury, and other
+nobles, took precautions to preserve order and discipline among
+the revellers.
+
+The physician attended the King from his retiring to bed till
+midnight was past, and twice administered medicine to him during
+that period, always previously observing the quarter of heaven
+occupied by the full moon, whose influences he declared to be
+most sovereign, or most baleful, to the effect of his drugs.  It
+was three hours after midnight ere El Hakim withdrew from the
+royal tent, to one which had been pitched for himself and his
+retinue.  In his way thither he visited the tent of Sir Kenneth
+of the Leopard, in order to see the condition of his first
+patient in the Christian camp, old Strauchan, as the knight's
+esquire was named. Inquiring there for Sir Kenneth himself, El
+Hakim learned on what duty he was employed, and probably this
+information led him to Saint George's Mount, where he found him
+whom he sought in the disastrous circumstances alluded to in the
+last chapter.
+
+It was about the hour of sunrise, when a slow, armed tread was
+heard approaching the King's pavilion; and ere De Vaux, who
+slumbered beside his master's bed as lightly as ever sleep sat
+upon the eyes of a watch-dog, had time to do more than arise and
+say, "Who comes?"  the Knight of the Leopard entered the tent,
+with a deep and devoted gloom seated upon his manly features.
+
+"Whence this bold intrusion, Sir Knight?"  said De Vaux sternly,
+yet in a tone which respected his master's slumbers.
+
+"Hold!  De Vaux," said Richard, awaking on the instant; "Sir
+Kenneth cometh like a good soldier to render an account of his
+guard.  To such the general's tent is ever accessible."  Then
+rising from his slumbering posture, and leaning on his elbow, he
+fixed his large bright eye upon the warrior--"Speak, Sir Scot;
+thou comest to tell me of a vigilant, safe, and honourable watch,
+dost thou not?  The rustling of the folds of the Banner of
+England were enough to guard it, even without the body of such a
+knight as men hold thee."
+
+"As men will hold me no more," said Sir Kenneth.  "My watch hath
+neither been vigilant, safe, nor honourable.  The Banner of
+England has been carried off."
+
+"And thou alive to tell it!"  said Richard, in a tone of derisive
+incredulity.  "Away, it cannot be.  There is not even a scratch
+on thy face.  Why dost thou stand thus mute?   Speak the truth
+--it is ill jesting with a king; yet I will forgive thee if thou
+hast lied."
+
+"Lied, Sir King!"  returned the unfortunate knight, with fierce
+emphasis, and one glance of fire from his eye, bright and
+transient as the flash from the cold and stony flint. "But this
+also must be endured.  I have spoken the truth."
+
+"By God and by Saint George!"  said the King, bursting into fury,
+which, however, he instantly checked.  "De Vaux, go view the
+spot.  This fever has disturbed his brain.  This cannot be.  The
+man's courage is proof.  It CANNOT be!  Go speedily--or send, if
+thou wilt not go."
+
+The King was interrupted by Sir Henry Neville, who came,
+breathless, to say that the banner was gone, and the knight who
+guarded it overpowered, and most probably murdered, as there was
+a pool of blood where the banner-spear lay shivered.
+
+"But whom do I see here?"  said Neville, his eyes suddenly
+resting upon Sir Kenneth.
+
+"A traitor," said the King, starting to his feet, and seizing the
+curtal-axe, which was ever near his bed--"a traitor!  whom thou
+shalt see die a traitor's death."  And he drew back the weapon as
+in act to strike.
+
+Colourless, but firm as a marble statue, the Scot stood before
+him, with his bare head uncovered by any protection, his eyes
+cast down to the earth, his lips scarcely moving, yet muttering
+probably in prayer.  Opposite to him, and within the due reach
+for a blow, stood King Richard, his large person wrapt in the
+folds of his camiscia, or ample gown of linen, except where the
+violence of his action had flung the covering from his right arm,
+shoulder, and a part of his breast, leaving to view a specimen of
+a frame which might have merited his Saxon predecessor's epithet
+of Ironside.  He stood for an instant, prompt to strike; then
+sinking the head of the weapon towards the ground, he exclaimed,
+"But there was blood, Neville--there was blood upon the place.
+Hark thee, Sir Scot--brave thou wert once, for I have seen thee
+fight.  Say thou hast slain two of the thieves in defence of the
+Standard--say but one--say thou hast struck but a good blow in
+our behalf, and get thee out of the camp with thy life and thy
+infamy!"
+
+"You have called me liar, my Lord King," replied Kenneth firmly;
+"and therein, at least, you have done me wrong.  Know that there
+was no blood shed in defence of the Standard save that of a poor
+hound, which, more faithful than his master, defended the charge
+which he deserted."
+
+"Now, by Saint George!"  said Richard, again heaving up his arm.
+But De Vaux threw himself between the King and the object of his
+vengeance, and spoke with the blunt truth of his character, "My
+liege, this must not be--here, nor by your hand.  It is enough of
+folly for one night and day to have entrusted your banner to a
+Scot.  Said I not they were ever fair and false?"  [Such were the
+terms in which the English used to speak of their poor northern
+neighbours, forgetting that their own encroachments upon the
+independence of Scotland obliged the weaker nation to defend
+themselves by policy as well as force.  The disgrace must be
+divided between Edward I. and Edward III., who enforced their
+domination over a free country, and the Scots, who were compelled
+to take compulsory oaths, without any purpose of keeping them.]
+
+"Thou didst, De Vaux; thou wast right, and I confess it," said
+Richard.  "I should have known him better--I should have
+remembered how the fox William deceived me touching this
+Crusade."
+
+"My lord," said Sir Kenneth, "William of Scotland never deceived;
+but circumstances prevented his bringing his forces."
+
+"Peace, shameless!"  said the King; "thou sulliest the name of a
+prince, even by speaking it.--And yet, De Vaux, it is strange,"
+he added, "to see the bearing of the man.  Coward or traitor he
+must be, yet he abode the blow of Richard Plantagenet as our arm
+had been raised to lay knighthood on his shoulder.  Had he shown
+the slightest sign of fear, had but a joint trembled or an eyelid
+quivered, I had shattered his head like a crystal goblet.  But I
+cannot strike where there is neither fear nor resistance."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"My lord," said Kenneth--
+
+"Ha!"  replied Richard, interrupting him, "hast thou found thy
+speech?   Ask grace from Heaven, but none from me; for England is
+dishonoured through thy fault, and wert thou mine own and only
+brother, there is no pardon for thy fault."
+
+"I speak not to demand grace of mortal man," said the Scot; "it
+is in your Grace's pleasure to give or refuse me time for
+Christian shrift--if man denies it, may God grant me the
+absolution which I would otherwise ask of His church!  But
+whether I die on the instant, or half an hour hence, I equally
+beseech your Grace for one moment's opportunity to speak that to
+your royal person which highly concerns your fame as a Christian
+king."
+
+"Say on," said the King, making no doubt that he was about to
+hear some confession concerning the loss of the Banner.
+
+"What I have to speak," said Sir Kenneth, "touches the royalty of
+England, and must be said to no ears but thine own."
+
+"Begone with yourselves, sirs," said the King to Neville and De
+Vaux.
+
+The first obeyed, but the latter would not stir from the King's
+presence.
+
+"If you said I was in the right," replied De Vaux to his
+sovereign, "I will be treated as one should be who hath been
+found to be right--that is, I will have my own will.  I leave you
+not with this false Scot."
+
+"How!  De Vaux," said Richard angrily, and stamping slightly,
+"darest thou not venture our person with one traitor?"
+
+"It is in vain you frown and stamp, my lord," said De Vaux; "I
+venture not a sick man with a sound one, a naked man with one
+armed in proof."
+
+"It matters not," said the Scottish knight; "I seek no excuse to
+put off time.  I will speak in presence of the Lord of Gilsland.
+He is good lord and true."
+
+"But half an hour since," said De Vaux, with a groan, implying a
+mixture of sorrow and vexation, "and I had said as much for
+thee!"
+
+"There is treason around you, King of England,"  continued Sir
+Kenneth.
+
+"It may well be as thou sayest," replied Richard; "I have a
+pregnant example."
+
+"Treason that will injure thee more deeply than the loss of a
+hundred banners in a pitched field.  The--the--" Sir Kenneth
+hesitated, and at length continued, in a lower tone, "The Lady
+Edith--"
+
+"Ha!"  said the King, drawing himself suddenly into a state of
+haughty attention, and fixing his eye firmly on the supposed
+criminal; "what of her?  what of her?  What has she to do with
+this matter?"
+
+"My lord," said the Scot, "there is a scheme on foot to disgrace
+your royal lineage, by bestowing the hand of the Lady Edith on
+the Saracen Soldan, and thereby to purchase a peace most
+dishonourable to Christendom, by an alliance most shameful to
+England."
+
+This communication had precisely the contrary effect from that
+which Sir Kenneth expected.  Richard Plantagenet was one of those
+who, in Iago's words, would not serve God because it was the
+devil who bade him; advice or information often affected him less
+according to its real import, than through the tinge which it
+took from the supposed character and views of those by whom it
+was communicated.  Unfortunately, the mention of his relative's
+name renewed his recollection of what he had considered as
+extreme presumption in the Knight of the Leopard, even when he
+stood high in the roll of chivalry, but which, in his present
+condition, appeared an insult sufficient to drive the fiery
+monarch into a frenzy of passion.
+
+"Silence," he said, "infamous and audacious!  By Heaven, I will
+have thy tongue torn out with hot pincers, for mentioning the
+very name of a noble Christian damsel!  Know, degenerate traitor,
+that I was already aware to what height thou hadst dared to raise
+thine eyes, and endured it, though it were insolence, even when
+thou hadst cheated us--for thou art all a deceit--into holding
+thee as of some name and fame.  But now, with lips blistered with
+the confession of thine own dishonour--that thou shouldst NOW
+dare to name our noble kinswoman as one in whose fate thou hast
+part or interest!  What is it to thee if she marry Saracen or
+Christian?  What is it to thee if, in a camp where princes turn
+cowards by day and robbers by night--where brave knights turn to
+paltry deserters and traitors--what is it, I say, to thee, or any
+one, if I should please to ally myself to truth and to valour, in
+the person of Saladin?"
+
+"Little to me, indeed, to whom all the world will soon be as
+nothing," answered Sir Kenneth boldly; "but were I now stretched
+on the rack, I would tell thee that what I have said is much to
+thine own conscience and thine own fame.  I tell thee, Sir King,
+that if thou dost but in thought entertain the purpose of wedding
+thy kinswoman, the Lady Edith--"
+
+"Name her not--and for an instant think not of her," said the
+King, again straining the curtal-axe in his gripe, until the
+muscles started above his brawny arm, like cordage formed by the
+ivy around the limb of an oak.
+
+"Not name--not think of her!"  answered Sir Kenneth, his spirits,
+stunned as they were by self-depression, beginning to recover
+their elasticity from this species of controversy.  "Now, by the
+Cross, on which I place my hope, her name shall be the last word
+in my mouth, her image the last thought in my mind.  Try thy
+boasted strength on this bare brow, and see if thou canst prevent
+my purpose."
+
+"He will drive me mad!"  said Richard, who, in his despite, was
+once more staggered in his purpose by the dauntless determination
+of the criminal.
+
+Ere Thomas of Gilsland could reply, some bustle was heard
+without, and the arrival of the Queen was announced from the
+outer part of the pavilion.
+
+"Detain her--detain her, Neville," cried the King; "this is no
+sight for women.--Fie, that I have suffered such a paltry traitor
+to chafe me thus!--Away with him, De Vaux," he whispered,
+"through the back entrance of our tent; coop him up close, and
+answer for his safe custody with your life.  And hark ye--he is
+presently to die--let him have a ghostly father--we would not
+kill soul and body.  And stay--hark thee--we will not have him
+dishonoured--he shall die knightlike, in his belt and spurs; for
+if his treachery be as black as hell, his boldness may match that
+of the devil himself."
+
+De Vaux, right glad, if the truth may be guessed, that the scene
+ended without Richard's descending to the unkingly act of himself
+slaying an unresisting prisoner, made haste to remove Sir Kenneth
+by a private issue to a separate tent, where he was disarmed, and
+put in fetters for security.  De Vaux looked on with a steady and
+melancholy attention, while the provost's officers, to whom Sir
+Kenneth was now committed, took these severe precautions.
+
+When they were ended, he said solemnly to the unhappy criminal,
+"It is King Richard's pleasure that you die undegraded--without
+mutilation of your body, or shame to your arms--and that your
+head be severed from the trunk by the sword of the executioner."
+
+"It is kind," said the knight, in a low and rather submissive
+tone of voice, as one who received an unexpected favour; "my
+family will not then hear the worst of the tale. Oh, my father
+--my father!"
+
+This muttered invocation did not escape the blunt but kindly-natured Englishman, and he brushed the back 
+of his large hand
+over his rough features ere he could proceed.
+
+"It is Richard of England's further pleasure," he said at length,
+"that you have speech with a holy man; and I have met on the
+passage hither with a Carmelite friar, who may fit you for your
+passage.  He waits without, until you are in a frame of mind to
+receive him."
+
+"Let it be instantly," said the knight.  "In this also Richard is
+kind.  I cannot be more fit to see the good father at any time
+than now; for life and I have taken farewell, as two travellers
+who have arrived at the crossway, where their roads separate."
+
+"It is well," said De Vaux slowly and solemnly; "for it irks me
+somewhat to say that which sums my message.  It is King Richard's
+pleasure that you prepare for instant death."
+
+"God's pleasure and the King's be done," replied the knight
+patiently.  "I neither contest the justice of the sentence, nor
+desire delay of the execution."
+
+De Vaux began to leave the tent, but very slowly--paused at the
+door, and looked back at the Scot, from whose aspect thoughts of
+the world seemed banished, as if he was composing himself into
+deep devotion.  The feelings of the stout English baron were in
+general none of the most acute, and yet, on the present occasion,
+his sympathy overpowered him in an unusual manner.  He came
+hastily back to the bundle of reeds on which the captive lay,
+took one of his fettered hands, and said, with as much softness
+as his rough voice was capable of expressing, "Sir Kenneth, thou
+art yet young--thou hast a father.  My Ralph, whom I left
+training his little galloway nag on the banks of the Irthing, may
+one day attain thy years, and, but for last night, would to God I
+saw his youth bear such promise as thine!  Can nothing be said or
+done in thy behalf?"
+
+"Nothing," was the melancholy answer.  "I have deserted my
+charge--the banner entrusted to me is lost.  When the headsman
+and block are prepared, the head and trunk are ready to part
+company."
+
+"Nay, then, God have mercy!"  said De Vaux.  "Yet would I rather
+than my best horse I had taken that watch myself.  There is
+mystery in it, young man, as a plain man may descry, though he
+cannot see through it.  Cowardice?  Pshaw!  No coward ever fought
+as I have seen thee do.  Treachery?  I cannot think traitors die
+in their treason so calmly.  Thou hast been trained from thy post
+by some deep guile--some well-devised stratagem--the cry of some
+distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look of
+some merry one has taken thine eye.  Never blush for it; we have
+all been led aside by such gear.  Come, I pray thee, make a clean
+conscience of it to me, instead of the priest.  Richard is
+merciful when his mood is abated.  Hast thou nothing to entrust
+to me?"
+
+The unfortunate knight turned his face from the kind warrior, and
+answered, "NOTHING."
+
+And De Vaux, who had exhausted his topics of persuasion, arose
+and left the tent, with folded arms, and in melancholy deeper
+than he thought the occasion merited--even angry with himself to
+find that so simple a matter as the death of a Scottish man could
+affect him so nearly.
+
+"Yet," as he said to himself, "though the rough-footed knaves be
+our enemies in Cumberland, in Palestine one almost considers them
+as brethren."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+'Tis not her sense, for sure in that
+There's nothing more than common;
+And all her wit is only chat,
+Like any other woman.   SONG.
+
+The high-born Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre,
+and the Queen-Consort of the heroic Richard, was accounted one of
+the most beautiful women of the period.  Her form was slight,
+though exquisitely moulded.  She was graced with a complexion not
+common in her country, a profusion of fair hair, and features so
+extremely juvenile as to make her look several years younger than
+she really was, though in reality she was not above one-and-twenty. Perhaps it was under the consciousness 
+of this extremely
+juvenile appearance that she affected, or at least practised, a
+little childish petulance and wilfulness of manner, not
+unbefitting, she might suppose, a youthful bride, whose rank and
+age gave her a right to have her fantasies indulged and attended
+to.  She was by nature perfectly good-humoured, and if her due
+share of admiration and homage (in her opinion a very large one)
+was duly resigned to her, no one could possess better temper or a
+more friendly disposition; but then, like all despots, the more
+power that was voluntarily yielded to her, the more she desired
+to extend her sway.  Sometimes, even when all her ambition was
+gratified, she chose to be a little out of health, and a little
+out of spirits; and physicians had to toil their wits to invent
+names for imaginary maladies, while her ladies racked their
+imagination for new games, new head-gear, and new court-scandal,
+to pass away those unpleasant hours, during which their own
+situation was scarce to be greatly envied.  Their most frequent
+resource for diverting this malady was some trick or piece of
+mischief practised upon each other; and the good Queen, in the
+buoyancy of her reviving spirits, was, to speak truth, rather too
+indifferent whether the frolics thus practised were entirely
+befitting her own dignity, or whether the pain which those
+suffered upon whom they were inflicted was not beyond the
+proportion of pleasure which she herself derived from them.  She
+was confident in her husband's favour, in her high rank, and in
+her supposed power to make good whatever such pranks might cost
+others.  In a word, she gambolled with the freedom of a young
+lioness, who is unconscious of the weight of her own paws when
+laid on those whom she sports with.
+
+The Queen Berengaria loved her husband passionately, but she
+feared the loftiness and roughness of his character; and as she
+felt herself not to be his match in intellect, was not much
+pleased to see that he would often talk with Edith Plantagenet in
+preference to herself, simply because he found more amusement in
+her conversation, a more comprehensive understanding, and a more
+noble cast of thoughts and sentiments, than his beautiful consort
+exhibited.  Berengaria did not hate Edith on this account, far
+less meditate her any harm; for, allowing for some selfishness,
+her character was, on the whole, innocent and generous.  But the
+ladies of her train, sharpsighted in such matters, had for some
+time discovered that a poignant jest at the expense of the Lady
+Edith was a specific for relieving her Grace of England's low
+spirits, and the discovery saved their imagination much toil.
+
+There was something ungenerous in this, because the Lady Edith
+was understood to be an orphan; and though she was called
+Plantagenet, and the fair Maid of Anjou, and admitted by Richard
+to certain privileges only granted to the royal family, and held
+her place in the circle accordingly, yet few knew, and none
+acquainted with the Court of England ventured to ask, in what
+exact degree of relationship she stood to Coeur de Lion.  She had
+come with Eleanor, the celebrated Queen Mother of England, and
+joined Richard at Messina, as one of the ladies destined to
+attend on Berengaria, whose nuptials then approached.  Richard
+treated his kinswoman with much respectful observance, and the
+Queen made her her most constant attendant, and, even in despite
+of the petty jealousy which we have observed, treated her,
+generally, with suitable respect.
+
+The ladies of the household had, for a long time, no further
+advantage over Edith than might be afforded by an opportunity of
+censuring a less artfully disposed head attire or an unbecoming
+robe; for the lady was judged to be inferior in these mysteries.
+The silent devotion of the Scottish knight did not, indeed, pass
+unnoticed; his liveries, his cognizances, his feats of arms, his
+mottoes and devices, were nearly watched, and occasionally made
+the subject of a passing jest. But then came the pilgrimage of
+the Queen and her ladies to Engaddi, a journey which the Queen
+had undertaken under a vow for the recovery of her husband's
+health, and which she had been encouraged to carry into effect by
+the Archbishop of Tyre for a political purpose.  It was then, and
+in the chapel at that holy place, connected from above with a
+Carmelite nunnery, from beneath with the cell of the anchorite,
+that one of the Queen's attendants remarked that secret sign of
+intelligence which Edith had made to her lover, and failed not
+instantly to communicate it to her Majesty.  The Queen returned
+from her pilgrimage enriched with this admirable recipe against
+dullness or ennui; and her train was at the same time augmented
+by a present of two wretched dwarfs from the dethroned Queen of
+Jerusalem, as deformed and as crazy (the excellence of that
+unhappy species) as any Queen could have desired.  One of
+Berengaria's idle amusements had been to try the effect of the
+sudden appearance of such ghastly and fantastic forms on the
+nerves of the Knight when left alone in the chapel; but the jest
+had been lost by the composure of the Scot and the interference
+of the anchorite. She had now tried another, of which the
+consequences promised to be more serious.
+
+The ladies again met after Sir Kenneth had retired from the tent,
+and the Queen, at first little moved by Edith's angry
+expostulations, only replied to her by upbraiding her prudery,
+and by indulging her wit at the expense of the garb, nation, and,
+above all the poverty of the Knight of the Leopard, in which she
+displayed a good deal of playful malice, mingled with some
+humour, until Edith was compelled to carry her anxiety to her
+separate apartment.  But when, in the morning, a female whom
+Edith had entrusted to make inquiry brought word that the
+Standard was missing, and its champion vanished, she burst into
+the Queen's apartment, and implored her to rise and proceed to
+the King's tent without delay, and use her powerful mediation to
+prevent the evil consequences of her jest.
+
+The Queen, frightened in her turn, cast, as is usual, the blame
+of her own folly on those around her, and endeavoured to comfort
+Edith's grief, and appease her displeasure, by a thousand
+inconsistent arguments.  She was sure no harm had chanced--the
+knight was sleeping, she fancied, after his night-watch.  What
+though, for fear of the King's displeasure, he had deserted with
+the Standard--it was but a piece of silk, and he but a needy
+adventurer; or if he was put under warding for a time, she would
+soon get the King to pardon him--it was but waiting to let
+Richard's mood pass away.
+
+Thus she continued talking thick and fast, and heaping together
+all sorts of inconsistencies, with the vain expectation of
+persuading both Edith and herself that no harm could come of a
+frolic which in her heart she now bitterly repented.  But while
+Edith in vain strove to intercept this torrent of idle talk, she
+caught the eye of one of the ladies who entered the Queen's
+apartment.  There was death in her look of affright and horror,
+and Edith, at the first glance of her countenance, had sunk at
+once on the earth, had not strong necessity and her own elevation
+of character enabled her to maintain at least external composure.
+
+"Madam," she said to the Queen, "lose not another word in
+speaking, but save life--if, indeed," she added, her voice
+choking as she said it, "life may yet be saved."
+
+"It may, it may," answered the Lady Calista.  "I have just heard
+that he has been brought before the King.  It is not yet over
+--but," she added, bursting into a vehement flood of weeping, in
+which personal apprehensions had some share, "it will soon,
+unless some course be taken."
+
+"I will vow a golden candlestick to the Holy Sepulchre, a shrine
+of silver to our Lady of Engaddi, a pall, worth one hundred
+byzants, to Saint Thomas of Orthez," said the Queen in extremity.
+
+"Up, up, madam!"  said Edith; "call on the saints if you list,
+but be your own best saint."
+
+"Indeed, madam," said the terrified attendant, "the Lady Edith
+speaks truth.  Up, madam, and let us to King Richard's tent and
+beg the poor gentleman's life."
+
+"I will go--I will go instantly," said the Queen, rising and
+trembling excessively; while her women, in as great confusion as
+herself, were unable to render her those duties which were
+indispensable to her levee.  Calm, composed, only pale as death,
+Edith ministered to the Queen with her own hand, and alone
+supplied the deficiencies of her numerous attendants.
+
+"How you wait, wenches!"  said the Queen, not able even then to
+forget frivolous distinctions.  "Suffer ye the Lady Edith to do
+the duties of your attendance?  Seest thou, Edith, they can do
+nothing; I shall never be attired in time.  We will send for the
+Archbishop of Tyre, and employ him as a mediator."
+
+"Oh, no, no!"  exclaimed Edith.  "Go yourself madam; you have
+done the evil, do you confer the remedy."
+
+"I will go--I will go," said the Queen; "but if Richard be in his
+mood, I dare not speak to him--he will kill me!"
+
+"Yet go, gracious madam," said the Lady Calista, who best knew
+her mistress's temper; "not a lion, in his fury, could look upon
+such a face and form, and retain so much as an angry thought, far
+less a love-true knight like the royal Richard, to whom your
+slightest word would be a command."
+
+"Dost thou think so, Calista?"  said the Queen.  "Ah, thou little
+knowest yet I will go.  But see you here, what means this?   You
+have bedizened me in green, a colour he detests.  Lo you!  let me
+have a blue robe, and--search for the ruby carcanet, which was
+part of the King of Cyprus's ransom; it is either in the steel
+casket, or somewhere else."
+
+"This, and a man's life at stake!"  said Edith indignantly; "it
+passes human patience.  Remain at your ease, madam; I will go to
+King Richard.  I am a party interested.  I will know if the
+honour of a poor maiden of his blood is to be so far tampered
+with that her name shall be abused to train a brave gentleman
+from his duty, bring him within the compass of death and infamy,
+and make, at the same time, the glory of England a laughing-stock
+to the whole Christian army."
+
+At this unexpected burst of passion, Berengaria listened with an
+almost stupefied look of fear and wonder.  But as Edith was about
+to leave the tent, she exclaimed, though faintly, "Stop her, stop
+her!"
+
+"You must indeed stop, noble Lady Edith," said Calista, taking
+her arm gently; "and you, royal madam, I am sure, will go, and
+without further dallying.  If the Lady Edith goes alone to the
+King, he will be dreadfully incensed, nor will it be one life
+that will stay his fury."
+
+"I will go--I will go," said the Queen, yielding to necessity;
+and Edith reluctantly halted to wait her movements.
+
+They were now as speedy as she could have desired.  The Queen
+hastily wrapped herself in a large loose mantle, which covered
+all inaccuracies of the toilet.  In this guise, attended by Edith
+and her women, and preceded and followed by a few officers and
+men-at-arms, she hastened to the tent of her lionlike husband.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Were every hair upon his head a life,
+And every life were to be supplicated
+By numbers equal to those hairs quadrupled,
+Life after life should out like waning stars
+Before the daybreak--or as festive lamps,
+Which have lent lustre to the midnight revel,
+Each after each are quench'd when guests depart!     OLD PLAY
+
+
+The entrance of Queen Berengaria into the interior of Richard's
+pavilion was withstood--in the most respectful and reverential
+manner indeed, but still withstood--by the chamberlains who
+watched in the outer tent.  She could hear the stern command of
+the King from within, prohibiting their entrance.
+
+"You see," said the Queen, appealing to Edith, as if she had
+exhausted all means of intercession in her power; "I knew it--the
+King will not receive us."
+
+At the same time, they heard Richard speak to some one within:
+--"Go, speed thine office quickly, sirrah, for in that consists
+thy mercy--ten byzants if thou dealest on him at one blow.  And
+hark thee, villain, observe if his cheek loses colour, or his eye
+falters; mark me the smallest twitch of the features, or wink of
+the eyelid.  I love to know how brave souls meet death."
+
+"If he sees my blade waved aloft without shrinking, he is the
+first ever did so," answered a harsh, deep voice, which a sense
+of unusual awe had softened into a sound much lower than its
+usual coarse tones.
+
+Edith could remain silent no longer.  "If your Grace," she said
+to the Queen, "make not your own way, I make it for you; or if
+not for your Majesty, for myself at least.--Chamberlain, the
+Queen demands to see King Richard--the wife to speak with her
+husband."
+
+"Noble lady," said the officer, lowering his wand of office, "it
+grieves me to gainsay you, but his Majesty is busied on matters
+of life and death."
+
+"And we seek also to speak with him on matters of life and
+death," said Edith.  "I will make entrance for your Grace."  And
+putting aside the chamberlain with one hand, she laid hold on the
+curtain with the other.
+
+"I dare not gainsay her Majesty's pleasure," said the
+chamberlain, yielding to the vehemence of the fair petitioner;
+and as he gave way, the Queen found herself obliged to enter the
+apartment of Richard.
+
+The Monarch was lying on his couch, and at some distance, as
+awaiting his further commands, stood a man whose profession it
+was not difficult to conjecture.  He was clothed in a jerkin of
+red cloth, which reached scantly below the shoulders, leaving the
+arms bare from about half way above the elbow; and as an upper
+garment, he wore, when about as at present to betake himself to
+his dreadful office, a coat or tabard without sleeves, something
+like that of a herald, made of dressed bull's hide, and stained
+in the front with many a broad spot and speckle of dull crimson.
+The jerkin, and the tabard over it, reached the knee; and the
+nether stocks, or covering of the legs, were of the same leather
+which composed the tabard.  A cap of rough shag served to hide
+the upper part of a visage which, like that of a screech owl,
+seemed desirous to conceal itself from light, the lower part of
+the face being obscured by a huge red beard, mingling with shaggy
+locks of the same colour.  What features were seen were stern and
+misanthropical.  The man's figure was short, strongly made, with
+a neck like a bull, very broad shoulders, arms of great and
+disproportioned length, a huge square trunk, and thick bandy
+legs.  This truculent official leant on a sword, the blade of
+which was nearly four feet and a half in length, while the handle
+of twenty inches, surrounded by a ring of lead plummets to
+counterpoise the weight of such a blade, rose considerably above
+the man's head as he rested his arm upon its hilt, waiting for
+King Richard's further directions.
+
+On the sudden entrance of the ladies, Richard, who was then lying
+on his couch with his face towards the entrance, and resting on
+his elbow as he spoke to his grisly attendant, flung himself
+hastily, as if displeased and surprised, to the other side,
+turning his back to the Queen and the females of her train, and
+drawing around him the covering of his couch, which, by his own
+choice, or more probably the flattering selection of his
+chamberlains, consisted of two large lions' skins, dressed in
+Venice with such admirable skill that they seemed softer than the
+hide of the deer.
+
+Berengaria, such as we have described her, knew well--what woman
+knows not?--her own road to victory.  After a hurried glance of
+undisguised and unaffected terror at the ghastly companion of her
+husband's secret counsels, she rushed at once to the side of
+Richard's couch, dropped on her knees, flung her mantle from her
+shoulders, showing, as they hung down at their full length, her
+beautiful golden tresses, and while her countenance seemed like
+the sun bursting through a cloud, yet bearing on its pallid front
+traces that its splendours have been obscured, she seized upon
+the right hand of the King, which, as he assumed his wonted
+posture, had been employed in dragging the covering of his couch,
+and gradually pulling it to her with a force which was resisted,
+though but faintly, she possessed herself of that arm, the prop
+of Christendom and the dread of Heathenesse, and imprisoning its
+strength in both her little fairy hands, she bent upon it her
+brow, and united to it her lips.
+
+"What needs this, Berengaria?"  said Richard, his head still
+averted, but his hand remaining under her control.
+
+"Send away that man, his look kills me!"  muttered Berengaria.
+
+"Begone, sirrah," said Richard, still without looking round,
+"What wait'st thou for?  art thou fit to look on these ladies?"
+
+"Your Highness's pleasure touching the head," said the man.
+
+"Out with thee, dog!" answered Richard--"a Christian burial!"
+The man disappeared, after casting a look upon the beautiful
+Queen, in her deranged dress and natural loveliness, with a smile
+of admiration more hideous in its expression than even his usual
+scowl of cynical hatred against humanity.
+
+"And now, foolish wench, what wishest thou?"  said Richard,
+turning slowly and half reluctantly round to his royal suppliant.
+
+But it was not in nature for any one, far less an admirer of
+beauty like Richard, to whom it stood only in the second rank to
+glory, to look without emotion on the countenance and the tremor
+of a creature so beautiful as Berengaria, or to feel, without
+sympathy, that her lips, her brow, were on his hand, and that it
+was wetted by her tears.  By degrees, he turned on her his manly
+countenance, with the softest expression of which his large blue
+eye, which so often gleamed with insufferable light, was capable.
+Caressing her fair head, and mingling his large fingers in her
+beautiful and dishevelled locks, he raised and tenderly kissed
+the cherub countenance which seemed desirous to hide itself in
+his hand.  The robust form, the broad, noble brow and majestic
+looks, the naked arm and shoulder, the lions' skins among which
+he lay, and the fair, fragile feminine creature that kneeled by
+his side, might have served for a model of Hercules reconciling
+himself, after a quarrel, to his wife Dejanira.
+
+"And, once more, what seeks the lady of my heart in her knight's
+pavilion at this early and unwonted hour?"
+
+"Pardon, my most gracious liege--pardon!"  said the Queen, whose
+fears began again to unfit her for the duty of intercessor.
+
+"Pardon--for what?"  asked the King.
+
+"First, for entering your royal presence too boldly and
+unadvisedly--"
+
+She stopped.
+
+"THOU too boldly!--the sun might as well ask pardon because his
+rays entered the windows of some wretch's dungeon.  But I was
+busied with work unfit for thee to witness, my gentle one; and I
+was unwilling, besides, that thou shouldst risk thy precious
+health where sickness had been so lately rife."
+
+"But thou art now well?"  said the Queen, still delaying the
+communication which she feared to make.
+
+"Well enough to break a lance on the bold crest of that champion
+who shall refuse to acknowledge thee the fairest dame in
+Christendom."
+
+"Thou wilt not then refuse me one boon--only one--only a poor
+life?"
+
+"Ha!--proceed," said King Richard, bending his brows.
+
+"This unhappy Scottish knight--" murmured the Queen.
+
+"Speak not of him, madam," exclaimed Richard sternly; "he dies
+--his doom is fixed."
+
+"Nay, my royal liege and love, 'tis but a silken banner
+neglected.  Berengaria will give thee another broidered with her
+own hand, and rich as ever dallied with the wind.  Every pearl I
+have shall go to bedeck it, and with every pearl I will drop a
+tear of thankfulness to my generous knight."
+
+"Thou knowest not what thou sayest," said the King, interrupting
+her in anger.  "Pearls!  can all the pearls of the East atone for
+a speck upon England's honour--all the tears that ever woman's
+eye wept wash away a stain on Richard's fame?  Go to, madam, know
+your place, and your time, and your sphere.  At present we have
+duties in which you cannot be our partner."
+
+"Thou hearest, Edith," whispered the Queen; "we shall but incense
+him."
+
+"Be it so," said Edith, stepping forward.--"My lord, I, your poor
+kinswoman, crave you for justice rather than mercy; and to the
+cry of justice the ears of a monarch should be open at every
+time, place, and circumstance."
+
+"Ha!  our cousin Edith?"  said Richard, rising and sitting
+upright on the side of his couch, covered with his long camiscia.
+"She speaks ever kinglike, and kinglike will I answer her, so she
+bring no request unworthy herself or me."
+
+The beauty of Edith was of a more intellectual and less
+voluptuous cast than that of the Queen; but impatience and
+anxiety had given her countenance a glow which it sometimes
+wanted, and her mien had a character of energetic dignity that
+imposed silence for a moment even on Richard himself, who, to
+judge by his looks, would willingly have interrupted her.
+
+"My lord," she said, "this good knight, whose blood you are about
+to spill, hath done, in his time, service to Christendom.  He has
+fallen from his duty through a snare set for him in mere folly
+and idleness of spirit.  A message sent to him in the name of one
+who--why should I not speak it?--it was in my own--induced him
+for an instant to leave his post.  And what knight in the
+Christian camp might not have thus far transgressed at command of
+a maiden, who, poor howsoever in other qualities, hath yet the
+blood of Plantagenet in her veins?"
+
+"And you saw him, then, cousin?"  replied the King, biting his
+lips to keep down his passion.
+
+"I did, my liege," said Edith.  "It is no time to explain
+wherefore.  I am here neither to exculpate myself nor to blame
+others."
+
+"And where did you do him such a grace?"
+
+"In the tent of her Majesty the Queen."
+
+"Of our royal consort!" said Richard.  "Now by Heaven, by Saint
+George of England, and every other saint that treads its crystal
+floor, this is too audacious!  I have noticed and overlooked this
+warrior's insolent admiration of one so far above him, and I
+grudged him not that one of my blood should shed from her high-born sphere such influence as the sun 
+bestows on the world
+beneath.  But, heaven and earth!  that you should have admitted
+him to an audience by night, in the very tent of our royal
+consort!--and dare to offer this as an excuse for his
+disobedience and desertion!  By my father's soul, Edith, thou
+shalt rue this thy life long in a monastery!"
+
+"My liege," said Edith, "your greatness licenses tyranny.  My
+honour, Lord King, is as little touched as yours, and my Lady the
+Queen can prove it if she think fit.  But I have already said I
+am not here to excuse myself or inculpate others.  I ask you but
+to extend to one, whose fault was committed under strong
+temptation, that mercy, which even you yourself, Lord King, must
+one day supplicate at a higher tribunal, and for faults, perhaps,
+less venial."
+
+"Can this be Edith Plantagenet?"  said the King bitterly--"Edith
+Plantagenet, the wise and the noble?  Or is it some lovesick
+woman who cares not for her own fame in comparison of the life of
+her paramour?  Now, by King Henry's soul!  little hinders but I
+order thy minion's skull to be brought from the gibbet, and fixed
+as a perpetual ornament by the crucifix in thy cell!"
+
+"And if thou dost send it from the gibbet to be placed for ever
+in my sight," said Edith, "I will say it is a relic of a good
+knight, cruelly and unworthily done to death by" (she checked
+herself)--"by one of whom I shall only say, he should have known
+better how to reward chivalry.  Minion callest thou him?"  she
+continued, with increasing vehemence. "He was indeed my lover,
+and a most true one; but never sought he grace from me by look or
+word--contented with such humble observance as men pay to the
+saints.  And the good--the valiant--the faithful must die for
+this!"
+
+"Oh, peace, peace, for pity's sake," whispered the Queen, "you do
+but offend him more!"
+
+"I care not," said Edith; "the spotless virgin fears not the
+raging lion.  Let him work his will on this worthy knight.
+Edith, for whom he dies, will know how to weep his memory. To me
+no one shall speak more of politic alliances to be sanctioned
+with this poor hand.  I could not--I would not --have been his
+bride living--our degrees were too distant. But death unites the
+high and the low--I am henceforward the spouse of the grave."
+
+The King was about to answer with much anger, when a Carmelite
+monk entered the apartment hastily, his head and person muffled
+in the long mantle and hood of striped cloth of the coarsest
+texture which distinguished his order, and, flinging himself on
+his knees before the King, conjured him, by every holy word and
+sign, to stop the execution.
+
+"Now, by both sword and sceptre," said Richard, "the world is
+leagued to drive me mad!--fools, women, and monks cross me at
+every step.  How comes he to live still?"
+
+"My gracious liege," said the monk, "I entreated of the Lord of
+Gilsland to stay the execution until I had thrown myself at your
+royal--"
+
+"And he was wilful enough to grant thy request," said the King; "but it is of a piece with his wonted 
+obstinacy.  And what is it
+thou hast to say?  Speak, in the fiend's name!"
+
+"My lord, there is a weighty secret, but it rests under the seal
+of confession.  I dare not tell or even whisper it; but I swear
+to thee by my holy order, by the habit which I wear, by the
+blessed Elias, our founder, even him who was translated without
+suffering the ordinary pangs of mortality, that this youth hath
+divulged to me a secret, which, if I might confide it to thee,
+would utterly turn thee from thy bloody purpose in regard to
+him."
+
+"Good father," said Richard, "that I reverence the church, let
+the arms which I now wear for her sake bear witness.  Give me to
+know this secret, and I will do what shall seem fitting in the
+matter.  But I am no blind Bayard, to take a leap in the dark
+under the stroke of a pair of priestly spurs."
+
+"My lord," said the holy man, throwing back his cowl and upper
+vesture, and discovering under the latter a garment of goatskin,
+and from beneath the former a visage so wildly wasted by climate,
+fast, and penance, as to resemble rather the apparition of an
+animated skeleton than a human face, "for twenty years have I
+macerated this miserable body in the caverns of Engaddi, doing
+penance for a great crime. Think you I, who am dead to the world,
+would contrive a falsehood to endanger my own soul; or that one,
+bound by the most sacred oaths to the contrary--one such as I,
+who have but one longing wish connected with earth, to wit, the
+rebuilding of our Christian Zion--would betray the secrets of the
+confessional?  Both are alike abhorrent to my very soul."
+
+"So," answered the King, "thou art that hermit of whom men speak
+so much?  Thou art, I confess, like enough to those spirits which
+walk in dry places; but Richard fears no hobgoblins.  And thou
+art he, too, as I bethink me, to whom the Christian princes sent
+this very criminal to open a communication with the Soldan, even
+while I, who ought to have been first consulted, lay on my sick-bed?  Thou and they may content 
+themselves--I will not put my
+neck into the loop of a Carmelite's girdle.  And, for your envoy,
+he shall die the rather and the sooner that thou dost entreat for
+him."
+
+"Now God be gracious to thee, Lord King!"  said the hermit, with
+much emotion; "thou art setting that mischief on foot which thou
+wilt hereafter wish thou hadst stopped, though it had cost thee a
+limb.  Rash, blinded man, yet forbear!"
+
+"Away, away," cried the King, stamping; "the sun has risen on the
+dishonour of England, and it is not yet avenged.--Ladies and
+priest, withdraw, if you would not hear orders which would
+displease you; for, by St. George, I swear--"
+
+"Swear NOT!" said the voice of one who had just then entered the
+pavilion.
+
+"Ha!  my learned Hakim," said the King, "come, I hope, to tax our
+generosity."
+
+"I come to request instant speech with you--instant--and touching
+matters of deep interest."
+
+"First look on my wife, Hakim, and let her know in you the
+preserver of her husband."
+
+"It is not for me," said the physician, folding his arms with an
+air of Oriental modesty and reverence, and bending his eyes on
+the ground--"it is not for me to look upon beauty unveiled, and
+armed in its splendours."
+
+"Retire, then, Berengaria," said the Monarch; "and, Edith, do you
+retire also;--nay, renew not your importunities!  This I give to
+them that the execution shall not be till high noon.  Go and be
+pacified--dearest Berengaria, begone.--Edith," he added, with a
+glance which struck terror even into the courageous soul of his
+kinswoman, "go, if you are wise."
+
+The females withdrew, or rather hurried from the tent, rank and
+ceremony forgotten, much like a flock of wild-fowl huddled
+together, against whom the falcon has made a recent stoop.
+
+They returned from thence to the Queen's pavilion to indulge in
+regrets and recriminations, equally unavailing. Edith was the
+only one who seemed to disdain these ordinary channels of sorrow.
+Without a sigh, without a tear, without a word of upbraiding, she
+attended upon the Queen, whose weak temperament showed her sorrow
+in violent hysterical ecstasies and passionate hypochondriacal
+effusions, in the course of which Edith sedulously and even
+affectionately attended her.
+
+"It is impossible she can have loved this knight," said Florise
+to Calista, her senior in attendance upon the Queen's person.
+"We have been mistaken; she is but sorry for his fate, as for a
+stranger who has come to trouble on her account."
+
+"Hush, hush," answered her more experienced and more observant
+comrade; "she is of that proud house of Plantagenet who never own
+that a hurt grieves them.  While they have themselves been
+bleeding to death, under a mortal wound, they have been known to
+bind up the scratches sustained by their more faint-hearted
+comrades.  Florise, we have done frightfully wrong, and, for my
+own part, I would buy with every jewel I have that our fatal jest
+had remained unacted."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+This work desires a planetary intelligence
+Of Jupiter and Sol; and those great spirits
+Are proud, fantastical. It asks great charges
+To entice them from the guiding of their spheres,
+To wait on mortals.       ALBUMAZAR.
+
+The hermit followed the ladies from the pavilion of Richard, as
+shadow follows a beam of sunshine when the clouds are driving
+over the face of the sun.  But he turned on the threshold, and
+held up his hand towards the King in a warning, or almost a
+menacing posture, as he said, "Woe to him who rejects the counsel
+of the church, and betaketh himself to the foul divan of the
+infidel!  King Richard, I do not yet shake the dust from my feet
+and depart from thy encampment; the sword falls not--but it hangs
+but by a hair.  Haughty monarch, we shall meet again."
+
+"Be it so, haughty priest," returned Richard, "prouder in thy
+goatskins than princes in purple and fine linen."
+
+The hermit vanished from the tent, and the King continued,
+addressing the Arabian, "Do the dervises of the East, wise Hakim,
+use such familiarity with their princes?"
+
+"The dervise," replied Adonbec, "should be either a sage or a
+madman; there is no middle course for him who wears the khirkhah,
+[Literally, the torn robe.  The habit of the dervises is so
+called.] who watches by night, and fasts by day. Hence hath he
+either wisdom enough to bear himself discreetly in the presence
+of princes; or else, having no reason bestowed on him, he is not
+responsible for his own actions."
+
+"Methinks our monks have adopted chiefly the latter character,"
+said Richard.  "But to the matter.  In what can I pleasure you,
+my learned physician?"
+
+"Great King," said El Hakim, making his profound Oriental
+obeisance, "let thy servant speak one word, and yet live.  I
+would remind thee that thou owest--not to me, their humble
+instrument--but to the Intelligences, whose benefits I dispense
+to mortals, a life--"
+
+"And I warrant me thou wouldst have another in requital, ha?"
+interrupted the King.
+
+"Such is my humble prayer," said the Hakim, "to the great Melech
+Ric--even the life of this good knight, who is doomed to die, and
+but for such fault as was committed by the Sultan Adam, surnamed
+Aboulbeschar, or the father of all men."
+
+"And thy wisdom might remind thee, Hakim, that Adam died for it,"
+said the King, somewhat sternly, and then began to pace the
+narrow space of his tent with some emotion, and to talk to
+himself.  "Why, God-a-mercy, I knew what he desired as soon as
+ever he entered the pavilion!  Here is one poor life justly
+condemned to extinction, and I, a king and a soldier, who have
+slain thousands by my command, and scores with my own hand, am to
+have no power over it, although the honour of my arms, of my
+house, of my very Queen, hath been attainted by the culprit.  By
+Saint George, it makes me laugh!  By Saint Louis, it reminds me
+of Blondel's tale of an enchanted castle, where the destined
+knight was withstood successively in his purpose of entrance by
+forms and figures the most dissimilar, but all hostile to his
+undertaking!  No sooner one sunk than another appeared!  Wife
+--kinswoman--hermit--Hakim-each appears in the lists as soon as
+the other is defeated!  Why, this is a single knight fighting
+against the whole MELEE of the tournament--ha!  ha!  ha!"  And
+Richard laughed aloud; for he had, in fact, begun to change his
+mood, his resentment being usually too violent to be of long
+endurance.
+
+The physician meanwhile looked on him with a countenance of
+surprise, not unmingled with contempt; for the Eastern people
+make no allowance for these mercurial changes in the temper, and
+consider open laughter, upon almost any account, as derogatory to
+the dignity of man, and becoming only to women and children.  At
+length the sage addressed the King when he saw him more
+composed:--
+
+"A doom of death should not issue from laughing lips. Let thy
+servant hope that thou hast granted him this man's life."
+
+"Take the freedom of a thousand captives instead," said Richard;
+"restore so many of thy countrymen to their tents and families,
+and I will give the warrant instantly.  This man's life can avail
+thee nothing, and it is forfeited."
+
+"All our lives are forfeited," said the Hakim, putting his hand
+to his cap.  "But the great Creditor is merciful, and exacts not
+the pledge rigorously nor untimely."
+
+"Thou canst show me," said Richard, "no special interest thou
+hast to become intercessor betwixt me and the execution of
+justice, to which I am sworn as a crowned king."
+
+"Thou art sworn to the dealing forth mercy as well as justice,"
+said El Hakim; "but what thou seekest, great King, is the
+execution of thine own will.  And for the concern I have in this
+request, know that many a man's life depends upon thy granting
+this boon."
+
+"Explain thy words," said Richard; "but think not to impose upon
+me by false pretexts."
+
+"Be it far from thy servant!"  said Adonbec.  "Know, then, that
+the medicine to which thou, Sir King, and many one besides, owe
+their recovery, is a talisman, composed under certain aspects of
+the heavens, when the Divine Intelligences are most propitious.
+I am but the poor administrator of its virtues.  I dip it in a
+cup of water, observe the fitting hour to administer it to the
+patient, and the potency of the draught works the cure."
+
+"A most rare medicine," said the King, "and a commodious!  and,
+as it may be carried in the leech's purse, would save the whole
+caravan of camels which they require to convey drugs and physic
+stuff; I marvel there is any other in use."
+
+"It is written," answered the Hakim, with imperturbable gravity,
+"'Abuse not the steed which hath borne thee from the battle.'
+Know that such talismans might indeed be framed, but rare has
+been the number of adepts who have dared to undertake the
+application of their virtue.  Severe restrictions, painful
+observances, fasts, and penance, are necessary on the part of the
+sage who uses this mode of cure; and if, through neglect of these
+preparations, by his love of ease, or his indulgence of sensual
+appetite, he omits to cure at least twelve persons within the
+course of each moon, the virtue of the divine gift departs from
+the amulet, and both the last patient and the physician will be
+exposed to speedy misfortune, neither will they survive the year.
+I require yet one life to make up the appointed number."
+
+"Go out into the camp, good Hakim, where thou wilt find a-many,"
+said the King, "and do not seek to rob my headsman of HIS
+patients; it is unbecoming a mediciner of thine eminence to
+interfere with the practice of another.  Besides, I cannot see
+how delivering a criminal from the death he deserves should go to
+make up thy tale of miraculous cures."
+
+"When thou canst show why a draught of cold water should have
+cured thee when the most precious drugs failed," said the Hakim,
+"thou mayest reason on the other mysteries attendant on this
+matter.  For myself, I am inefficient to the great work, having
+this morning touched an unclean animal.  Ask, therefore, no
+further questions; it is enough that, by sparing this man's life
+at my request, you will deliver yourself, great King, and thy
+servant, from a great danger."
+
+"Hark thee, Adonbec," replied the King, "I have no objection that
+leeches should wrap their words in mist, and pretend to derive
+knowledge from the stars; but when you bid Richard Plantagenet
+fear that a danger will fall upon HIM from some idle omen, or
+omitted ceremonial, you speak to no ignorant Saxon, or doting old
+woman, who foregoes her purpose because a hare crosses the path,
+a raven croaks, or a cat sneezes."
+
+"I cannot hinder your doubt of my words," said Adonbec; "but yet
+let my Lord the King grant that truth is on the tongue of his
+servant--will he think it just to deprive the world, and every
+wretch who may suffer by the pains which so lately reduced him to
+that couch, of the benefit of this most virtuous talisman, rather
+than extend his forgiveness to one poor criminal?  Bethink you,
+Lord King, that, though thou canst slay thousands, thou canst not
+restore one man to health.  Kings have the power of Satan to
+torment, sages that of Allah to heal--beware how thou hinderest
+the good to humanity which thou canst not thyself render.  Thou
+canst cut off the head, but not cure the aching tooth."
+
+"This is over-insolent," said the King, hardening himself, as the
+Hakim assumed a more lofty and almost a commanding tone.  "We
+took thee for our leech, not for our counsellor or conscience-keeper."
+
+"And is it thus the most renowned Prince of Frangistan repays
+benefit done to his royal person?"  said El Hakim, exchanging the
+humble and stooping posture in which he had hitherto solicited
+the King, for an attitude lofty and commanding.  "Know, then," he
+said, "that:  through every court of Europe and Asia--to Moslem
+and Nazarene--to knight and lady--wherever harp is heard and
+sword worn --wherever honour is loved and infamy detested--to
+every quarter of the world--will I denounce thee, Melech Ric, as
+thankless and ungenerous; and even the lands--if there be any
+such--that never heard of thy renown shall yet be acquainted with
+thy shame!"
+
+"Are these terms to me, vile infidel?"  said Richard, striding
+up to him in fury.  "Art weary of thy life?"
+
+"Strike!"  said El Hakim; "thine own deed shall then paint thee
+more worthless than could my words, though each had a hornet's
+sting."
+
+Richard turned fiercely from him, folded his arms, traversed the
+tent as before, and then exclaimed, "Thankless and ungenerous!
+--as well be termed coward and infidel! Hakim, thou hast chosen
+thy boon; and though I had rather thou hadst asked my crown
+jewels, yet I may not, kinglike, refuse thee.  Take this Scot,
+therefore, to thy keeping; the provost will deliver him to thee
+on this warrant."
+
+He hastily traced one or two lines, and gave them to the
+physician.  "Use him as thy bond-slave, to be disposed of as thou
+wilt--only, let him beware how he comes before the eyes of
+Richard.  Hark thee--thou art wise--he hath been over-bold among
+those in whose fair looks and weak judgments we trust our honour,
+as you of the East lodge your treasures in caskets of silver
+wire, as fine and as frail as the web of a gossamer."
+
+"Thy servant understands the words of the King," said the sage,
+at once resuming the reverent style of address in which he had
+commenced.  "When the rich carpet is soiled, the fool pointeth to
+the stain--the wise man covers it with his mantle.  I have heard
+my lord's pleasure, and to hear is to obey."
+
+"It is well," said the King; "let him consult his own safety, and
+never appear in my presence more.  Is there aught else in which I
+may do thee pleasure?"
+
+"The bounty of the King hath filled my cup to the brim," said the
+sage--" yea, it hath been abundant as the fountain which sprung
+up amid the camp of the descendants of Israel when the rock was
+stricken by the rod of Moussa Ben Amram."
+
+"Ay, but," said the King, smiling, "it required, as in the
+desert, a hard blow on the rock ere it yielded its treasures.  I
+would that I knew something to pleasure thee, which I might yield
+as freely as the natural fountain sends forth its waters."
+
+"Let me touch that victorious hand," said the sage, "in token
+that if Adonbec el Hakim should hereafter demand a boon of
+Richard of England, he may do so, yet plead his command."
+
+"Thou hast hand and glove upon it, man,"  replied Richard; "only,
+if thou couldst consistently make up thy tale of patients without
+craving me to deliver from punishment those who have deserved it,
+I would more willingly discharge my debt in some other form."
+
+"May thy days be multiplied!"  answered the Hakim, and withdrew
+from the apartment after the usual deep obeisance.
+
+King Richard gazed after him as he departed, like one but half-satisfied with what had passed.
+
+"Strange pertinacity," he said, "in this Hakim, and a wonderful
+chance to interfere between that audacious Scot and the
+chastisement he has merited so richly.  Yet let him live!  there
+is one brave man the more in the world.  And now for the
+Austrian.  Ho!  is the Baron of Gilsland there without?"
+
+Sir Thomas de Vaux thus summoned, his bulky form speedily
+darkened the opening of the pavilion, while behind him glided as
+a spectre, unannounced, yet unopposed, the savage form of the
+hermit of Engaddi, wrapped in his goatskin mantle.
+
+Richard, without noticing his presence, called in a loud tone to
+the baron, "Sir Thomas de Vaux, of Lanercost and Gilsland, take
+trumpet and herald, and go instantly to the tent of him whom they
+call Archduke of Austria, and see that it be when the press of
+his knights and vassals is greatest around him, as is likely at
+this hour, for the German boar breakfasts ere he hears mass--
+enter his presence with as little reverence as thou mayest, and
+impeach him, on the part of Richard of England, that he hath this
+night, by his own hand, or that of others, stolen from its staff
+the Banner of England.  Wherefore say to him our pleasure that
+within an hour from the time of my speaking he restore the said
+banner with all reverence--he himself and his principal barons
+waiting the whilst with heads uncovered, and without their robes
+of honour.  And that, moreover, he pitch beside it, on the one
+hand, his own Banner of Austria reversed, as that which hath been
+dishonoured by theft and felony, and on the other, a lance,
+bearing the bloody head of him who was his nearest counsellor, or
+assistant, in this base injury. And say, that such our behests
+being punctually discharged we will, for the sake of our vow and
+the weal of the Holy Land, forgive his other forfeits."
+
+"And how if the Duke of Austria deny all accession to this act of
+wrong and of felony?"  said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+"Tell him," replied the King, "we will prove it upon his body
+--ay, were he backed with his two bravest champions.  Knightlike
+will we prove it, on foot or on horse, in the desert or in the
+field, time, place, and arms all at his own choice."
+
+"Bethink you of the peace of God and the church, my liege lord,"
+said the Baron of Gilsland, "among those princes engaged in this
+holy Crusade."
+
+"Bethink you how to execute my commands, my liege vassal,"
+answered Richard impatiently.  "Methinks men expect to turn our
+purpose by their breath, as boys blow feathers to and fro.  Peace
+of the church!   Who, I prithee, minds it?  The peace of the
+church, among Crusaders, implies war with the Saracens, with whom
+the princes have made truce; and the one ends with the other.
+And besides, see you not how every prince of them is seeking his
+own several ends?  I will seek mine also--and that is honour.
+For honour I came hither; and if I may not win it upon the
+Saracens, at least I will not lose a jot from any respect to this
+paltry Duke, though he were bulwarked and buttressed by every
+prince in the Crusade."
+
+De Vaux turned to obey the King's mandate, shrugging his
+shoulders at the same time, the bluntness of his nature being
+unable to conceal that its tenor went against his judgment.  But
+the hermit of Engaddi stepped forward, and assumed the air of one
+charged with higher commands than those of a mere earthly
+potentate.  Indeed, his dress of shaggy skins, his uncombed and
+untrimmed hair and beard, his lean, wild, and contorted features,
+and the almost insane fire which gleamed from under his bushy
+eyebrows, made him approach nearly to our idea of some seer of
+Scripture, who, charged with high mission to the sinful Kings of
+Judah or Israel, descended from the rocks and caverns in which he
+dwelt in abstracted solitude, to abash earthly tyrants in the
+midst of their pride, by discharging on them the blighting
+denunciations of Divine Majesty, even as the cloud discharges the
+lightnings with which it is fraught on the pinnacles and towers
+of castles and palaces.  In the midst of his most wayward mood,
+Richard respected the church and its ministers; and though
+offended at the intrusion of the hermit into his tent, he greeted
+him with respect--at the same time, however, making a sign to Sir
+Thomas de Vaux to hasten on his message.
+
+But the hermit prohibited the baron, by gesture, look, and word,
+to stir a yard on such an errand; and holding up his bare arm,
+from which the goatskin mantle fell back in the violence of his
+action, he waved it aloft, meagre with famine, and wealed with
+the blows of the discipline.
+
+"In the name of God, and of the most holy Father, the vicegerent
+of the Christian Church upon earth, I prohibit this most profane,
+bloodthirsty, and brutal defiance betwixt two Christian princes,
+whose shoulders are signed with the blessed mark under which they
+swore brotherhood.  Woe to him by whom it is broken!--Richard of
+England, recall the most unhallowed message thou hast given to
+that baron.  Danger and death are nigh thee!--the dagger is
+glancing at thy very throat!--"
+
+"Danger and death are playmates to Richard," answered the Monarch
+proudly; "and he hath braved too many swords to fear a dagger."
+
+"Danger and death are near," replied the seer, and sinking his
+voice to a hollow, unearthly tone, he added, "And after death the
+judgment!"
+
+"Good and holy father," said Richard, "I reverence thy person and
+thy sanctity--"
+
+"Reverence not me!"  interrupted the hermit; "reverence sooner
+the vilest insect that crawls by the shores of the Dead Sea, and
+feeds upon its accursed slime.  But reverence Him whose commands
+I speak--reverence Him whose sepulchre you have vowed to rescue
+--revere the oath of concord which you have sworn, and break not
+the silver cord of union and fidelity with which you have bound
+yourself to your princely confederates."
+
+"Good father," said the King, "you of the church seem to me to
+presume somewhat, if a layman may say so much, upon the dignity
+of your holy character.  Without challenging your right to take
+charge of our conscience, methinks you might leave us the charge
+of our own honour."
+
+"Presume!"  repeated the hermit.  "Is it for me to presume, royal
+Richard, who am but the bell obeying the hand of the sexton--but
+the senseless and worthless trumpet carrying the command of him
+who sounds it?  See, on my knees I throw myself before thee,
+imploring thee to have mercy on Christendom, on England, and on
+thyself!"
+
+"Rise, rise," said Richard, compelling him to stand up; "it
+beseems not that knees which are so frequently bended to the
+Deity should press the ground in honour of man.  What danger
+awaits us, reverend father?  and when stood the power of England
+so low that the noisy bluster of this new-made Duke's displeasure
+should alarm her or her monarch?"
+
+"I have looked forth from my mountain turret upon the starry host
+of heaven, as each in his midnight circuit uttered wisdom to
+another, and knowledge to the few who can understand their voice.
+There sits an enemy in thy House of Life, Lord King, malign at
+once to thy fame and thy prosperity--an emanation of Saturn,
+menacing thee with instant and bloody peril, and which, but thou
+yield thy proud will to the rule of thy duty, will presently
+crush thee even in thy pride."
+
+"Away, away--this is heathen science," said the King. "Christians
+practise it not--wise men believe it not.  Old man, thou dotest."
+
+"I dote not, Richard," answered the hermit--"I am not so happy.
+I know my condition, and that some portion of reason is yet
+permitted me, not for my own use, but that of the Church and the
+advancement of the Cross.  I am the blind man who holds a torch
+to others, though it yields no light to himself.  Ask me touching
+what concerns the weal of Christendom, and of this Crusade, and I
+will speak with thee as the wisest counsellor on whose tongue
+persuasion ever sat.  Speak to me of my own wretched being, and
+my words shall be those of the maniac outcast which I am."
+
+"I would not break the bands of unity asunder among the princes
+of the Crusade," said Richard, with a mitigated tone and manner;
+"but what atonement can they render me for the injustice and
+insult which I have sustained?"
+
+"Even of that I am prepared and commissioned to speak by the
+Council, which, meeting hastily at the summons of Philip of
+France, have taken measures for that effect."
+
+"Strange," replied Richard, "that others should treat of what is
+due to the wounded majesty of England!"
+
+"They are willing to anticipate your demands, if it be possible,"
+answered the hermit.  "In a body, they consent that the Banner of
+England be replaced on Saint George's Mount; and they lay under
+ban and condemnation the audacious criminal, or criminals, by
+whom it was outraged, and will announce a princely reward to any
+who shall denounce the delinquent's guilt, and give his flesh to
+the wolves and ravens."
+
+"And Austria," said Richard, "upon whom rest such strong
+presumptions that he was the author of the deed?"
+
+"To prevent discord in the host," replied the hermit, "Austria
+will clear himself of the suspicion by submitting to whatsoever
+ordeal the Patriarch of Jerusalem shall impose."
+
+"Will he clear himself by the trial by combat?"  said King
+Richard.
+
+"His oath prohibits it," said the hermit; "and, moreover, the
+Council of the Princes--"
+
+"Will neither authorize battle against the Saracens," interrupted
+Richard, "nor against any one else.  But it is enough, father--
+thou hast shown me the folly of proceeding as I designed in this
+matter.  You shall sooner light your torch in a puddle of rain
+than bring a spark out of a cold-blooded coward.  There is no
+honour to be gained on Austria, and so let him pass.  I will have
+him perjure himself, however; I will insist on the ordeal.  How I
+shall laugh to hear his clumsy fingers hiss, as he grasps the
+red-hot globe of iron!  Ay, or his huge mouth riven, and his
+gullet swelling to suffocation, as he endeavours to swallow the
+consecrated bread!"
+
+"Peace, Richard," said the hermit--"oh, peace, for shame, if not
+for charity!  Who shall praise or honour princes who insult and
+calumniate each other?  Alas! that a creature so noble as thou
+art--so accomplished in princely thoughts and princely daring--so
+fitted to honour Christendom by thy actions, and, in thy calmer
+mood, to rule her by thy wisdom, should yet have the brute and
+wild fury of the lion mingled with the dignity and courage of
+that king of the forest!"
+
+He remained an instant musing with his eyes fixed on the ground,
+and then proceeded--"But Heaven, that knows our imperfect nature,
+accepts of our imperfect obedience, and hath delayed, though not
+averted, the bloody end of thy daring life.  The destroying angel
+hath stood still, as of old by the threshing-floor of Araunah the
+Jebusite, and the blade is drawn in his hand, by which, at no
+distant date, Richard, the lion-hearted, shall be as low as the
+meanest peasant."
+
+"Must it, then, be so soon?"  said Richard.  "Yet, even so be it.
+May my course be bright, if it be but brief!"
+
+"Alas!  noble King," said the solitary, and it seemed as if a
+tear (unwonted guest) were gathering in his dry and glazened eye,
+"short and melancholy, marked with mortification, and calamity,
+and captivity, is the span that divides thee from the grave which
+yawns for thee--a grave in which thou shalt be laid without
+lineage to succeed thee--without the tears of a people, exhausted
+by thy ceaseless wars, to lament thee-- without having extended
+the knowledge of thy subjects-- without having done aught to
+enlarge their happiness."
+
+"But not without renown, monk--not without the tears of the lady
+of my love!  These consolations, which thou canst neither know
+nor estimate, await upon Richard to his grave."
+
+"DO I not know, CAN I not estimate the value of minstrel's praise
+and of lady's love?"  retorted the hermit, in a tone which for a
+moment seemed to emulate the enthusiasm of Richard himself.
+"King of England," he continued, extending his emaciated arm,
+"the blood which boils in thy blue veins is not more noble than
+that which stagnates in mine.  Few and cold as the drops are,
+they still are of the blood of the royal Lusignan--of the heroic
+and sainted Godfrey. I am--that is, I was when in the world--
+Alberick Mortemar--"
+
+"Whose deeds," said Richard, "have so often filled Fame's
+trumpet!  Is it so?--can it be so?  Could such a light as thine
+fall from the horizon of chivalry, and yet men be uncertain where
+its embers had alighted?"
+
+"Seek a fallen star," said the hermit, "and thou shalt only light
+on some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has
+assumed for a moment an appearance of splendour.  Richard, if I
+thought that rending the bloody veil from my horrible fate could
+make thy proud heart stoop to the discipline of the church, I
+could find in my heart to tell thee a tale, which I have hitherto
+kept gnawing at my vitals in concealment, like the self-devoted
+youth of heathenesse.  Listen, then, Richard, and may the grief
+and despair which cannot avail this wretched remnant of what was
+once a man be powerful as an example to so noble, yet so wild, a
+being as thou art!  Yes--I will--I WILL tear open the long-hidden
+wounds, although in thy very presence they should bleed to
+death!"
+
+King Richard, upon whom the history of Alberick of Mortemar had
+made a deep impression in his early years, when minstrels were
+regaling his father's halls with legends of the Holy Land,
+listened with respect to the outlines of a tale, which, darkly
+and imperfectly sketched, indicated sufficiently the cause of the
+partial insanity of this singular and most unhappy being.
+
+"I need not," he said, "tell thee that I was noble in birth, high
+in fortune, strong in arms, wise in counsel.  All these I was.
+But while the noblest ladies in Palestine strove which should
+wind garlands for my helmet, my love was fixed --unalterably and
+devotedly fixed--on a maiden of low degree.  Her father, an
+ancient soldier of the Cross, saw our passion, and knowing the
+difference betwixt us, saw no other refuge for his daughter's
+honour than to place her within the shadow of the cloister.  I
+returned from a distant expedition, loaded with spoils and
+honour, to find my happiness was destroyed for ever!  I too
+sought the cloister; and Satan, who had marked me for his own,
+breathed into my heart a vapour of spiritual pride, which could
+only have had its source in his own infernal regions.  I had
+risen as high in the church as before in the state.  I was,
+forsooth, the wise, the self-sufficient, the impeccable!--I was
+the counsellor of councils--I was the director of prelates.  How
+should I stumble?--wherefore should I fear temptation?  Alas!  I
+became confessor to a sisterhood, and amongst that sisterhood I
+found the long-loved--the long-lost.  Spare me further
+confession!--A fallen nun, whose guilt was avenged by self-murder, sleeps soundly in the vaults of 
+Engaddi; while, above her
+very grave, gibbers, moans, and roars a creature to whom but so
+much reason is left as may suffice to render him completely
+sensible to his fate!"
+
+"Unhappy man!"  said Richard, "I wonder no longer at thy misery.
+How didst thou escape the doom which the canons denounce against
+thy offence?"
+
+"Ask one who is yet in the gall of worldly bitterness," said the
+hermit, "and he will speak of a life spared for personal
+respects, and from consideration to high birth.  But, Richard, I
+tell thee that Providence hath preserved me to lift me on high as
+a light and beacon, whose ashes, when this earthly fuel is burnt
+out, must yet be flung into Tophet.  Withered and shrunk as this
+poor form is, it is yet animated with two spirits--one active,
+shrewd, and piercing, to advocate the cause of the Church of
+Jerusalem; one mean, abject, and despairing, fluctuating between
+madness and misery, to mourn over my own wretchedness, and to
+guard holy relics on which it would be most sinful for me even to
+cast my eye.  Pity me not!--it is but sin to pity the loss of
+such an abject; pity me not, but profit by my example.  Thou
+standest on the highest, and, therefore, on the most dangerous
+pinnacle occupied by any Christian prince.  Thou art proud of
+heart, loose of life, bloody of hand.  Put from thee the sins
+which are to thee as daughters--though they be dear to the sinful
+Adam, expel these adopted furies from thy breast--thy pride, thy
+luxury, thy bloodthirstiness."
+
+"He raves," said Richard, turning from the solitary to De Vaux,
+as one who felt some pain from a sarcasm which yet he could not
+resent; then turned him calmly, and somewhat scornfully, to the
+anchoret, as he replied, "Thou hast found a fair bevy of
+daughters, reverend father, to one who hath been but few months
+married; but since I must put them from my roof, it were but like
+a father to provide them with suitable matches.  Therefore, I
+will part with my pride to the noble canons of the church--my
+luxury, as thou callest it, to the monks of the rule--and my
+bloodthirstiness to the Knights of the Temple."
+
+"O heart of steel, and hand of iron," said the anchoret, "upon
+whom example, as well as advice, is alike thrown away!  Yet shalt
+thou be spared for a season, in case it so be thou shouldst turn,
+and do that which is acceptable in the sight of Heaven.  For me I
+must return to my place.  Kyrie Eleison!  I am he through whom
+the rays of heavenly grace dart like those of the sun through a
+burning-glass, concentrating them on other objects, until they
+kindle and blaze, while the glass itself remains cold and
+uninfluenced.  Kyrie Eleison!--the poor must be called, for the
+rich have refused the banquet--Kyrie Eleison!"
+
+So saying, he burst from the tent, uttering loud cries.
+
+"A mad priest!"  said Richard, from whose mind the frantic
+exclamations of the hermit had partly obliterated the impression
+produced by the detail of his personal history and misfortunes.
+"After him, De Vaux, and see he comes to no harm; for, Crusaders
+as we are, a juggler hath more reverence amongst our varlets than
+a priest or a saint, and they may, perchance, put some scorn upon
+him."
+
+The knight obeyed, and Richard presently gave way to the thoughts
+which the wild prophecy of the monk had inspired.  "To die early
+--without lineage--without lamentation!  A heavy sentence, and
+well that it is not passed by a more competent judge.  Yet the
+Saracens, who are accomplished in mystical knowledge, will often
+maintain that He, in whose eyes the wisdom of the sage is but as
+folly, inspires wisdom and prophecy into the seeming folly of the
+madman.  Yonder hermit is said to read the stars, too, an art
+generally practised in these lands, where the heavenly host was
+of yore the object of idolatry.  I would I had asked him touching
+the loss of my banner; for not the blessed Tishbite, the founder
+of his order, could seem more wildly rapt out of himself, or
+speak with a tongue more resembling that of a prophet.--How now,
+De Vaux, what news of the mad priest?"
+
+"Mad priest, call you him, my lord?"  answered De Vaux. "Methinks
+he resembles more the blessed Baptist himself, just issued from
+the wilderness.  He has placed himself on one of the military
+engines, and from thence he preaches to the soldiers as never man
+preached since the time of Peter the Hermit.  The camp, alarmed
+by his cries, crowd around him in thousands; and breaking off
+every now and then from the main thread of his discourse, he
+addresses the several nations, each in their own language, and
+presses upon each the arguments best qualified to urge them to
+perseverance in the delivery of Palestine."
+
+"By this light, a noble hermit!"  said King Richard. "But what
+else could come from the blood of Godfrey?  HE despair of safety,
+because he hath in former days lived PAR AMOURS?  I will have the
+Pope send him an ample remission, and I would not less willingly
+be intercessor had his BELLE AMIE been an abbess."
+
+As he spoke, the Archbishop of Tyre craved audience, for the
+purpose of requesting Richard's attendance, should his health
+permit, on a secret conclave of the chiefs of the Crusade, and to
+explain to him the military and political incidents which had
+occurred during his illness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Must we then sheathe our still victorious sword;
+Turn back our forward step, which ever trod
+O'er foemen's necks the onward path of glory;
+Unclasp the mail, which with a solemn vow,
+In God's own house, we hung upon our shoulders--
+That vow, as unaccomplish'd as the promise
+Which village nurses make to still their children,
+And after think no more of?      THE CRUSADE, A TRAGEDY.
+
+The Archbishop of Tyre was an emissary well chosen to communicate
+to Richard tidings, which from another voice the lion-hearted
+King would not have brooked to hear without the most unbounded
+explosions of resentment.  Even this sagacious and reverend
+prelate found difficulty in inducing him to listen to news which
+destroyed all his hopes of gaining back the Holy Sepulchre by
+force of arms, and acquiring the renown which the universal all-hail of Christendom was ready to confer 
+upon him as the Champion
+of the Cross.
+
+But, by the Archbishop's report, it appeared that Saladin was
+assembling all the force of his hundred tribes, and that the
+monarchs of Europe, already disgusted from various motives with
+the expedition, which had proved so hazardous, and was daily
+growing more so, had resolved to abandon their purpose.  In this
+they were countenanced by the example of Philip of France, who,
+with many protestations of regard, and assurances that he would
+first see his brother of England in safety, declared his
+intention to return to Europe. His great vassal, the Earl of
+Champagne, had adopted the same resolution; and it could not
+excite surprise that Leopold of Austria, affronted as he had been
+by Richard, was glad to embrace an opportunity of deserting a
+cause in which his haughty opponent was to be considered as
+chief.  Others announced the same purpose; so that it was plain
+that the King of England was to be left, if he chose to remain,
+supported only by such volunteers as might, under such depressing
+circumstances, join themselves to the English army, and by the
+doubtful aid of Conrade of Montserrat and the military orders of
+the Temple and of Saint John, who, though they were sworn to wage
+battle against the Saracens, were at least equally jealous of any
+European monarch achieving the conquest of Palestine, where, with
+shortsighted and selfish policy, they proposed to establish
+independent dominions of their own.
+
+It needed not many arguments to show Richard the truth of his
+situation; and indeed, after his first burst of passion, he sat
+him calmly down, and with gloomy looks, head depressed, and arms
+folded on his bosom, listened to the Archbishop's reasoning on
+the impossibility of his carrying on the Crusade when deserted by
+his companions.  Nay, he forbore interruption, even when the
+prelate ventured, in measured terms, to hint that Richard's own
+impetuosity had been one main cause of disgusting the princes
+with the expedition.
+
+"CONFITEOR,"  answered Richard, with a dejected look, and
+something of a melancholy smile--"I confess, reverend father,
+that I ought on some accounts to sing CULPA MEA. But is it not
+hard that my frailties of temper should be visited with such a
+penance--that, for a burst or two of natural passion, I should be
+doomed to see fade before me ungathered such a rich harvest of
+glory to God and honour to chivalry?  But it shall NOT fade.  By
+the soul of the Conqueror, I will plant the Cross on the towers
+of Jerusalem, or it shall be planted over Richard's grave!"
+
+"Thou mayest do it," said the prelate, "yet not another drop of
+Christian blood be shed in the quarrel."
+
+"Ah, you speak of compromise, Lord Prelate; but the blood of the
+infidel hounds must also cease to flow," said Richard.
+
+"There will be glory enough," replied the Archbishop, "in having
+extorted from Saladin, by force of arms, and by the respect
+inspired by your fame, such conditions as at once restore the
+Holy Sepulchre, open the Holy Land to pilgrims, secure their
+safety by strong fortresses, and, stronger than all, assure the
+safety of the Holy City, by conferring on Richard the title of
+King Guardian of Jerusalem."
+
+"How!"  said Richard, his eyes sparkling with unusual light.  "I-
+-I--I the King Guardian of the Holy City!  Victory itself, but
+that it is victory, could not gain more--scarce so much, when won
+with unwilling and disunited forces.  But Saladin still proposes
+to retain his interest in the Holy Land?"
+
+"As a joint sovereign, the sworn ally," replied the prelate, "of
+the mighty Richard--his relative, if it may be permitted, by
+marriage."
+
+"By marriage!"  said Richard, surprised, yet less so than the
+prelate had expected.  "Ha!--ay--Edith Plantagenet. Did I dream
+this?  or did some one tell me?  My head is still weak from this
+fever, and has been agitated.  Was it the Scot, or the Hakim, or
+yonder holy hermit, that hinted such a wild bargain?"
+
+"The hermit of Engaddi, most likely," said the Archbishop, "for
+he hath toiled much in this matter; and since the discontent of
+the princes has became apparent, and a separation of their forces
+unavoidable, he hath had many consultations, both with Christian
+and pagan, for arranging such a pacification as may give to
+Christendom, at least in part, the objects of this holy warfare."
+
+"My kinswoman to an infidel--ha!"  exclaimed Richard, as his eyes
+began to sparkle.
+
+The prelate hastened to avert his wrath.
+
+"The Pope's consent must doubtless be first attained, and the
+holy hermit, who is well known at Rome, will treat with the holy
+Father."
+
+"How?--without our consent first given?"  said the King.
+
+"Surely no," said the Bishop, in a quieting and insinuating tone
+of voice--"only with and under your especial sanction."
+
+"My sanction to marry my kinswoman to an infidel!" said Richard;
+yet he spoke rather in a tone of doubt than as distinctly
+reprobating the measure proposed.  "Could I have dreamed of such
+a composition when I leaped upon the Syrian shore from the prow
+of my galley, even as a lion springs on his prey!  And now--But
+proceed--I will hear with patience."
+
+Equally delighted and surprised to find his task so much easier
+than he had apprehended, the Archbishop hastened to pour forth
+before Richard the instances of such alliances in Spain--not
+without countenance from the Holy See; the incalculable
+advantages which all Christendom would derive from the union of
+Richard and Saladin by a bond so sacred; and, above all, he spoke
+with great vehemence and unction on the probability that Saladin
+would, in case of the proposed alliance, exchange his false faith
+for the true one.
+
+"Hath the Soldan shown any disposition to become Christian?"
+said Richard.  "If so, the king lives not on earth to whom I
+would grant the hand of a kinswoman, ay, or sister, sooner than
+to my noble Saladin--ay, though the one came to lay crown and
+sceptre at her feet, and the other had nothing to offer but his
+good sword and better heart!"
+
+"Saladin hath heard our Christian teachers," said the Bishop,
+somewhat evasively--"my unworthy self, and others--and as he
+listens with patience, and replies with calmness, it can hardly
+be but that he be snatched as a brand from the burning.  MAGNA
+EST VERITAS, ET PREVALEBIT! moreover, the hermit of Engaddi, few
+of whose words have fallen fruitless to the ground, is possessed
+fully with the belief that there is a calling of the Saracens and
+the other heathen approaching, to which this marriage shall be
+matter of induction.  He readeth the course of the stars; and
+dwelling, with maceration of the flesh, in those divine places
+which the saints have trodden of old, the spirit of Elijah the
+Tishbite, the founder of his blessed order, hath been with him as
+it was with the prophet Elisha, the son of Shaphat, when he
+spread his mantle over him."
+
+King Richard listened to the Prelate's reasoning with a downcast
+brow and a troubled look.
+
+"I cannot tell," he said, "How, it is with me, but methinks these
+cold counsels of the Princes of Christendom have infected me too
+with a lethargy of spirit.  The time hath been that, had a layman
+proposed such alliance to me, I had struck him to earth--if a
+churchman, I had spit at him as a renegade and priest of Baal;
+yet now this counsel sounds not so strange in mine ear.  For why
+should I not seek for brotherhood and alliance with a Saracen,
+brave, just, generous--who loves and honours a worthy foe, as if
+he were a friend--whilst the Princes of Christendom shrink from
+the side of their allies, and forsake the cause of Heaven and
+good knighthood?  But I will possess my patience, and will not
+think of them.  Only one attempt will I make to keep this gallant
+brotherhood together, if it be possible; and if I fail, Lord
+Archbishop, we will speak together of thy counsel, which, as now,
+I neither accept nor altogether reject.  Wend we to the Council,
+my lord--the hour calls us.  Thou sayest Richard is hasty and
+proud--thou shalt see him humble himself like the lowly broom-plant from which he derives his surname."
+
+With the assistance of those of his privy chamber, the King then
+hastily robed himself in a doublet and mantle of a dark and
+uniform colour; and without any mark of regal dignity, excepting
+a ring of gold upon his head, he hastened with the Archbishop of
+Tyre to attend the Council, which waited but his presence to
+commence its sitting.
+
+The pavilion of the Council was an ample tent, having before it
+the large Banner of the Cross displayed, and another, on which
+was portrayed a female kneeling, with dishevelled hair and
+disordered dress, meant to represent the desolate and distressed
+Church of Jerusalem, and bearing the motto, AFFLICTAE SPONSAE NE
+OBLIVISCARIS.  Warders, carefully selected, kept every one at a
+distance from the neighbourhood of this tent, lest the debates,
+which were sometimes of a loud and stormy character, should reach
+other ears than those they were designed for.
+
+Here, therefore, the princes of the Crusade were assembled
+awaiting Richard's arrival.  And even the brief delay which was
+thus interposed was turned to his disadvantage by his enemies,
+various instances being circulated of his pride and undue
+assumption of superiority, of which even the necessity of the
+present short pause was quoted as an instance.  Men strove to
+fortify each other in their evil opinion of the King of England,
+and vindicated the offence which each had taken, by putting the
+most severe construction upon circumstances the most trifling;
+and all this, perhaps, because they were conscious of an
+instinctive reverence for the heroic monarch, which it would
+require more than ordinary efforts to overcome.
+
+They had settled, accordingly, that they should receive him on
+his entrance with slight notice, and no more respect than was
+exactly necessary to keep within the bounds of cold ceremonial.
+But when they beheld that noble form, that princely countenance,
+somewhat pale from his late illness-- the eye which had been
+called by minstrels the bright star of battle and victory--when
+his feats, almost surpassing human strength and valour, rushed on
+their recollection, the Council of Princes simultaneously arose
+--even the jealous King of France and the sullen and offended
+Duke of Austria--arose with one consent, and the assembled
+princes burst forth with one voice in the acclamation, "God save
+King Richard of England!  Long life to the valiant Lion's-heart!"
+
+With a countenance frank and open as the summer sun when it
+rises, Richard distributed his thanks around, and congratulated
+himself on being once more among his royal brethren of the
+Crusade.
+
+"Some brief words he desired to say," such was his address to the
+assembly, "though on a subject so unworthy as himself, even at
+the risk of delaying for a few minutes their consultations for
+the weal of Christendom and the advancement of their holy
+enterprise."
+
+The assembled princes resumed their seats, and there was a
+profound silence.
+
+"This day," continued the King of England, "is a high festival of
+the church, and it well becomes Christian men, at such a tide, to
+reconcile themselves with their brethren, and confess their
+faults to each other.  Noble princes and fathers of this holy
+expedition, Richard is a soldier--his hand is ever readier than
+his tongue--and his tongue is but too much used to the rough
+language of his trade.  But do not, for Plantagenet's hasty
+speeches and ill-considered actions, forsake the noble cause of
+the redemption of Palestine--do not throw away earthly renown
+and eternal salvation, to be won here if ever they can be won by
+man, because the act of a soldier may have been hasty, and his
+speech as hard as the iron which he has worn from childhood.  Is
+Richard in default to any of you, Richard will make compensation
+both by word and action.--Noble brother of France, have I been so
+unlucky as to offend you?"
+
+"The Majesty of France has no atonement to seek from that of
+England," answered Philip, with kingly dignity, accepting, at the
+same time, the offered hand of Richard; "and whatever opinion I
+may adopt concerning the prosecution of this enterprise will
+depend on reasons arising out of the state of my own kingdom--
+certainly on no jealousy or disgust at my royal and most
+valorous brother."
+
+"Austria," said Richard, walking up to the Archduke, with a
+mixture of frankness and dignity, while Leopold arose from his
+seat, as if involuntarily, and with the action of an automaton,
+whose motions depended upon some external impulse--"Austria
+thinks he hath reason to be offended with England; England, that
+he hath cause to complain of Austria.  Let them exchange
+forgiveness, that the peace of Europe and the concord of this
+host may remain unbroken. We are now joint supporters of a more
+glorious banner than ever blazed before an earthly prince, even
+the Banner of Salvation.  Let not, therefore, strife be betwixt
+us for the symbol of our more worldly dignities; but let Leopold
+restore the pennon of England, if he has it in his power, and
+Richard will say, though from no motive save his love for Holy
+Church, that he repents him of the hasty mood in which he did
+insult the standard of Austria."
+
+The Archduke stood still, sullen and discontented, with his eyes
+fixed on the floor, and his countenance lowering with smothered
+displeasure, which awe, mingled with awkwardness, prevented his
+giving vent to in words.
+
+The Patriarch of Jerusalem hastened to break the embarrassing
+silence, and to bear witness for the Archduke of Austria that he
+had exculpated himself, by a solemn oath, from all knowledge,
+direct or indirect, of the aggression done to the Banner of
+England.
+
+"Then we have done the noble Archduke the greater wrong," said
+Richard; "and craving his pardon for imputing to him an outrage
+so cowardly, we extend our hand to him in token of renewed peace
+and amity.  But how is this?  Austria refuses our uncovered hand,
+as he formerly refused our mailed glove?  What!  are we neither
+to be his mate in peace nor his antagonist in war?  Well, let it
+be so.  We will take the slight esteem in which he holds us as a
+penance for aught which we may have done against him in heat of
+blood, and will therefore hold the account between us cleared."
+
+So saying, he turned from the Archduke with an air rather of
+dignity than scorn, leaving the Austrian apparently as much
+relieved by the removal of his eye as is a sullen and truant
+schoolboy when the glance of his severe pedagogue is withdrawn.
+
+"Noble Earl of Champagne--princely Marquis of Montserrat
+--valiant Grand Master of the Templars--I am here a penitent in
+the confessional.  Do any of you bring a charge or claim amends
+from me?"
+
+"I know not on what we could ground any," said the smooth-tongued
+Conrade, "unless it were that the King of England carries off
+from his poor brothers of the war all the fame which they might
+have hoped to gain in the expedition."
+
+"My charge, if I am called on to make one," said the Master of
+the Templars, "is graver and deeper than that of the Marquis of
+Montserrat.  It may be thought ill to beseem a military monk such
+as I to raise his voice where so many noble princes remain
+silent; but it concerns our whole host, and not least this noble
+King of England, that he should hear from some one to his face
+those charges which there are enow to bring against him in his
+absence.  We laud and honour the courage and high achievements of
+the King of England; but we feel aggrieved that he should on all
+occasions seize and maintain a precedence and superiority over
+us, which it becomes not independent princes to submit to. Much
+we might yield of our free will to his bravery, his zeal, his
+wealth, and his power; but he who snatches all as matter of
+right, and leaves nothing to grant out of courtesy and favour,
+degrades us from allies into retainers and vassals, and sullies
+in the eyes of our soldiers and subjects the lustre of our
+authority, which is no longer independently exercised.  Since the
+royal Richard has asked the truth from us, he must neither be
+surprised nor angry when he hears one, to whom worldly pomp is
+prohibited, and secular authority is nothing, saving so far as it
+advances the prosperity of God's Temple, and the prostration of
+the lion which goeth about seeking whom he may devour--when he
+hears, I say, such a one as I tell him the truth in reply to his
+question; which truth, even while I speak it, is, I know,
+confirmed by the heart of every one who hears me, however respect
+may stifle their voices."
+
+Richard coloured very highly while the Grand Master was making
+this direct and unvarnished attack upon his conduct, and the
+murmur of assent which followed it showed plainly that almost all
+who were present acquiesced in the justice of the accusation.
+Incensed, and at the same time mortified, he yet foresaw that to
+give way to his headlong resentment would be to give the cold and
+wary accuser the advantage over him which it was the Templar's
+principal object to obtain.  He therefore, with a strong effort,
+remained silent till he had repeated a pater noster, being the
+course which his confessor had enjoined him to pursue when anger
+was likely to obtain dominion over him.  The King then spoke with
+composure, though not without an embittered tone, especially at
+the outset:--
+
+"And is it even so?  And are our brethren at such pains to note
+the infirmities of our natural temper, and the rough precipitance
+of our zeal, which may sometimes have urged us to issue commands
+when there was little time to hold council?  I could not have
+thought that offences, casual and unpremeditated like mine, could
+find such deep root in the hearts of my allies in this most holy
+cause; that for my sake they should withdraw their hands from the
+plough when the furrow was near the end--for my sake turn aside
+from the direct path to Jerusalem, which their swords have
+opened.  I vainly thought that my small services might have
+outweighed my rash errors--that if it were remembered that I
+pressed to the van in an assault, it would not be forgotten that
+I was ever the last in the retreat--that, if I elevated my banner
+upon conquered fields of battle, it was all the advantage that I
+sought, while others were dividing the spoil.  I may have called
+the conquered city by my name, but it was to others that I
+yielded the dominion.  If I have been headstrong in urging bold
+counsels, I have not, methinks, spared my own blood or my
+people's in carrying them into as bold execution; or if I have,
+in the hurry of march or battle, assumed a command over the
+soldiers of others, such have been ever treated as my own when my
+wealth purchased the provisions and medicines which their own
+sovereigns could not procure.  But it shames me to remind you of
+what all but myself seem to have forgotten.  Let us rather look
+forward to our future measures; and believe me, brethren," he
+continued, his face kindling with eagerness, "you shall not find
+the pride, or the wrath, or the ambition of Richard a stumbling-block of offence in the path to which 
+religion and glory summon
+you as with the trumpet of an archangel. Oh, no, no!  never would
+I survive the thought that my frailties and infirmities had been
+the means to sever this goodly fellowship of assembled princes.
+I would cut off my left hand with my right, could my doing so
+attest my sincerity.  I will yield up, voluntarily, all right to
+command in the host--even mine own liege subjects.  They shall be
+led by such sovereigns as you may nominate; and their King, ever
+but too apt to exchange the leader's baton for the adventurer's
+lance, will serve under the banner of Beau-Seant among the
+Templars--ay, or under that of Austria, if Austria will name a
+brave man to lead his forces.  Or if ye are yourselves a-weary of
+this war, and feel your armour chafe your tender bodies, leave
+but with Richard some ten or fifteen thousand of your soldiers to
+work out the accomplishment of your vow; and when Zion is won,"
+he exclaimed, waving his hand aloft, as if displaying the
+standard of the Cross over Jerusalem--"when Zion is won, we will
+write upon her gates, NOT the name of Richard Plantagenet, but of
+those generous princes who entrusted him with the means of
+conquest!"
+
+The rough eloquence and determined expression of the military
+monarch at once roused the drooping spirits of the Crusaders,
+reanimated their devotion, and, fixing their attention on the
+principal object of the expedition, made most of them who were
+present blush for having been moved by such petty subjects of
+complaint as had before engrossed them.  Eye caught fire from
+eye, voice lent courage to voice.  They resumed, as with one
+accord, the war-cry with which the sermon of Peter the Hermit was
+echoed back, and shouted aloud, "Lead us on, gallant Lion's-heart; none so worthy to lead where brave men 
+follow.  Lead us
+on--to Jerusalem--to Jerusalem!  It is the will of God--it is the
+will of God!  Blessed is he who shall lend an arm to its
+fulfilment!"
+
+The shout, so suddenly and generally raised, was heard beyond the
+ring of sentinels who guarded the pavilion of Council, and spread
+among the soldiers of the host, who, inactive and dispirited by
+disease and climate, had begun, like their leaders, to droop in
+resolution; but the reappearance of Richard in renewed vigour,
+and the well-known shout which echoed from the assembly of the
+princes, at once rekindled their enthusiasm, and thousands and
+tens of thousands answered with the same shout of "Zion, Zion!
+War, war!  Instant battle with the infidels!  It is the will of
+God--it is the will of God!"
+
+The acclamations from without increased in their turn the
+enthusiasm which prevailed within the pavilion.  Those who did
+not actually catch the flame were afraid--at least for the time
+--to seem colder than others.  There was no more speech except of
+a proud advance towards Jerusalem upon the expiry of the truce,
+and the measures to be taken in the meantime for supplying and
+recruiting the army.  The Council broke up, all apparently filled
+with the same enthusiastic purpose--which, however, soon faded
+in the bosom of most, and never had an existence in that of
+others.
+
+Of the latter class were the Marquis Conrade and the Grand Master
+of the Templars, who retired together to their quarters ill at
+ease, and malcontent with the events of the day.
+
+"I ever told it to thee," said the latter, with the cold,
+sardonic expression peculiar to him, "that Richard would burst
+through the flimsy wiles you spread for him, as would a lion
+through a spider's web.  Thou seest he has but to speak, and his
+breath agitates these fickle fools as easily as the whirlwind
+catcheth scattered straws, and sweeps them together, or disperses
+them at its pleasure."
+
+"When the blast has passed away," said Conrade, "the straws,
+which it made dance to its pipe, will settle to earth again."
+
+"But knowest thou not besides," said the Templar, "that it seems,
+if this new purpose of conquest shall be abandoned and pass away,
+and each mighty prince shall again be left to such guidance as
+his own scanty brain can supply, Richard may yet probably become
+King of Jerusalem by compact, and establish those terms of treaty
+with the Soldan which thou thyself thought'st him so likely to
+spurn at?"
+
+"Now, by Mahound and Termagaunt, for Christian oaths are out of
+fashion," said Conrade, "sayest thou the proud King of England
+would unite his blood with a heathen Soldan?  My policy threw in
+that ingredient to make the whole treaty an abomination to him.
+As bad for us that he become our master by an agreement, as by
+victory."
+
+"Thy policy hath ill calculated Richard's digestion," answered
+the Templar; "I know his mind by a whisper from the Archbishop.
+And then thy master-stroke respecting yonder banner--it has
+passed off with no more respect than two cubits of embroidered
+silk merited.  Marquis Conrade, thy wit begins to halt; I will
+trust thy finespun measures no longer, but will try my own.
+Knowest thou not the people whom the Saracens call Charegites?"
+
+"Surely," answered the Marquis; "they are desperate and besotted
+enthusiasts, who devote their lives to the advancement of
+religion---somewhat like Templars, only they are never known to
+pause in the race of their calling."
+
+"Jest not," answered the scowling monk.  "Know that one of these
+men has set down in his bloody vow the name of the Island Emperor
+yonder, to be hewn down as the chief enemy of the Moslem faith."
+
+"A most judicious paynim," said Conrade.  "May Mohammed send him
+his paradise for a reward!"
+
+"He was taken in the camp by one of our squires, and in private
+examination frankly avowed his fixed and determined purpose to
+me," said the Grand Master.
+
+"Now the heavens pardon them who prevented the purpose of this
+most judicious Charegite!"  answered Conrade.
+
+"He is my prisoner," added the Templar, "and secluded from speech
+with others, as thou mayest suppose; but prisons have been
+broken--"
+
+"Chains left unlocked, and captives have escaped," answered the
+Marquis.  "It is an ancient saying, no sure dungeon but the
+grave."
+
+"When loose, he resumes his quest," continued the military
+priest; "for it is the nature of this sort of blood hound never
+to quit the suit of the prey he has once scented."
+
+"Say no more of it," said the Marquis; "I see thy policy--it is
+dreadful, but the emergency is imminent."
+
+"I only told thee of it," said the Templar, "that thou mayest
+keep thyself on thy guard; for the uproar will be dreadful, and
+there is no knowing on whom the English may vent their rage.  Ay,
+and there is another risk.  My page knows the counsels of this
+Charegite," he continued; "and, moreover, he is a peevish, self-willed fool, whom I would I were rid of, as 
+he thwarts me by
+presuming to see with his own eyes, not mine.  But our holy order
+gives me power to put a remedy to such inconvenience.  Or stay--
+the Saracen may find a good dagger in his cell, and I warrant you
+he uses it as he breaks forth, which will be of a surety so soon
+as the page enters with his food."
+
+"It will give the affair a colour," said Conrade; "and yet--"
+
+"YET and BUT," said the Templar, "are words for fools; wise men
+neither hesitate nor retract--they resolve and they execute."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+When beauty leads the lion in her toils,
+Such are her charms, he dare not raise his mane,
+Far less expand the terror of his fangs.
+So great Alcides made his club a distaff,
+And spun to please fair Omphale.          ANONYMOUS.
+
+Richard, the unsuspicious object of the dark treachery detailed
+in the closing part of the last chapter, having effected, for the
+present at least, the triumphant union of the Crusading princes
+in a resolution to prosecute the war with vigour, had it next at
+heart to establish tranquillity in his own family; and, now that
+he could judge more temperately, to inquire distinctly into the
+circumstances leading to the loss of his banner, and the nature
+and the extent of the connection betwixt his kinswoman Edith and
+the banished adventurer from Scotland.
+
+Accordingly, the Queen and her household were startled with a
+visit from Sir Thomas de Vaux, requesting the present attendance
+of the Lady Calista of Montfaucon, the Queen's principal bower-woman, upon King Richard.
+
+"What am I to say, madam?"  said the trembling attendant to the
+Queen, "He will slay us all."
+
+"Nay, fear not, madam," said De Vaux.  "His Majesty hath spared
+the life of the Scottish knight, who was the chief offender, and
+bestowed him upon the Moorish physician.  He will not be severe
+upon a lady, though faulty."
+
+"Devise some cunning tale, wench," said Berengaria. "My husband
+hath too little time to make inquiry into the truth."
+
+"Tell the tale as it really happened," said Edith, "lest I tell
+it for thee."
+
+"With humble permission of her Majesty," said De Vaux, "I would
+say Lady Edith adviseth well; for although King Richard is
+pleased to believe what it pleases your Grace to tell him, yet I
+doubt his having the same deference for the Lady Calista, and in
+this especial matter."
+
+"The Lord of Gilsland is right," said the Lady Calista, much
+agitated at the thoughts of the investigation which was to take
+place; "and besides, if I had presence of mind enough to forge a
+plausible story, beshrew me if I think I should have the courage
+to tell it."
+
+In this candid humour, the Lady Calista was conducted by De Vaux
+to the King, and made, as she had proposed, a full confession of
+the decoy by which the unfortunate Knight of the Leopard had been
+induced to desert his post; exculpating the Lady Edith, who, she
+was aware, would not fail to exculpate herself, and laying the
+full burden on the Queen, her mistress, whose share of the
+frolic, she well knew, would appear the most venial in the eyes
+of Coeur de Lion.  In truth, Richard was a fond, almost a
+uxorious husband.  The first burst of his wrath had long since
+passed away, and he was not disposed severely to censure what
+could not now be amended.  The wily Lady Calista, accustomed from
+her earliest childhood to fathom the intrigues of a court, and
+watch the indications of a sovereign's will, hastened back to the
+Queen with the speed of a lapwing, charged with the King's
+commands that she should expect a speedy visit from him; to which
+the bower-lady added a commentary founded on her own observation,
+tending to show that Richard meant just to preserve so much
+severity as might bring his royal consort to repent of her
+frolic, and then to extend to her and all concerned his gracious
+pardon.
+
+"Sits the wind in that corner, wench?"  said the Queen, much
+relieved by this intelligence.  "Believe me that, great commander
+as he is, Richard will find it hard to circumvent us in this
+matter, and that, as the Pyrenean shepherds are wont to say in my
+native Navarre, Many a one comes for wool, and goes back shorn."
+
+Having possessed herself of all the information which Calista
+could communicate, the royal Berengaria arrayed herself in her
+most becoming dress, and awaited with confidence the arrival of
+the heroic Richard.
+
+He arrived, and found himself in the situation of a prince
+entering an offending province, in the confidence that his
+business will only be to inflict rebuke, and receive  submission,
+when he unexpectedly finds it in a state of complete defiance and
+insurrection.  Berengaria well knew the power of her charms and
+the extent of Richard's affection, and felt assured that she
+could make her own terms good, now that the first tremendous
+explosion of his anger had expended itself without mischief.  Far
+from listening to the King's intended rebuke, as what the levity
+of her conduct had justly deserved, she extenuated, nay, defended
+as a harmless frolic, that which she was accused of.  She denied,
+indeed, with many a pretty form of negation, that she had
+directed Nectabanus absolutely to entice the knight farther than
+the brink of the Mount on which he kept watch--and, indeed, this
+was so far true, that she had not designed Sir Kenneth to be
+introduced into her tent--and then, eloquent in urging her own
+defence, the Queen was far more so in pressing upon Richard the
+charge of unkindness, in refusing her so poor a boon as the life
+of an unfortunate knight, who, by her thoughtless prank, had been
+brought within the danger of martial law.  She wept and sobbed
+while she enlarged on her husband's obduracy on this score, as a
+rigour which had threatened to make her unhappy for life,
+whenever she should reflect that she had given, unthinkingly, the
+remote cause for such a tragedy.  The vision of the slaughtered
+victim would have haunted her dreams--nay, for aught she knew,
+since such things often happened, his actual spectre might have
+stood by her waking couch.  To all this misery of the mind was
+she exposed by the severity of one who, while he pretended to
+dote upon her slightest glance, would not forego one act of poor
+revenge, though the issue was to render her miserable.
+
+All this flow of female eloquence was accompanied with the usual
+arguments of tears and sighs, and uttered with such tone and
+action as seemed to show that the Queen's resentment arose
+neither from pride nor sullenness, but from feelings hurt at
+finding her consequence with her husband less than she had
+expected to possess.
+
+The good King Richard was considerably embarrassed.  He tried in
+vain to reason with one whose very jealousy of his affection
+rendered her incapable of listening to argument, nor could he
+bring himself to use the restraint of lawful authority to a
+creature so beautiful in the midst of her unreasonable
+displeasure.  He was therefore reduced to the defensive,
+endeavoured gently to chide her suspicions and soothe her
+displeasure, and recalled to her mind that she need not look back
+upon the past with recollections either of remorse or
+supernatural fear, since Sir Kenneth was alive and well, and had
+been bestowed by him upon the great Arabian physician, who,
+doubtless, of all men, knew best how to keep him living.  But
+this seemed the unkindest cut of all, and the Queen's sorrow was
+renewed at the idea of a Saracen--a mediciner--obtaining a boon
+for which, with bare head and on bended knee, she had petitioned
+her husband in vain.  At this new charge Richard's patience began
+rather to give way, and he said, in a serious tone of voice,
+"Berengaria, the physician saved my life.  If it is of value in
+your eyes, you will not grudge him a higher recompense than the
+only one I could prevail on him to accept."
+
+The Queen was satisfied she had urged her coquettish displeasure
+to the verge of safety.
+
+"My Richard," she said, "why brought you not that sage to me,
+that England's Queen might show how she esteemed him who could
+save from extinction the lamp of chivalry, the glory of England,
+and the light of poor Berengaria's life and hope?"
+
+In a word, the matrimonial dispute was ended; but, that some
+penalty might be paid to justice, both King and Queen accorded in
+laying the whole blame on the agent Nectabanus, who (the Queen
+being by this time well weary of the poor dwarf's humour) was,
+with his royal consort Guenevra, sentenced to be banished from
+the Court; and the unlucky dwarf only escaped a supplementary
+whipping, from the Queen's assurances that he had already
+sustained personal chastisement.  It was decreed further that, as
+an envoy was shortly to be dispatched to Saladin, acquainting him
+with the resolution of the Council to resume hostilities so soon
+as the truce was ended, and as Richard proposed to send a
+valuable present to the Soldan, in acknowledgment of the high
+benefit he had derived from the services of El Hakim, the two
+unhappy creatures should be added to it as curiosities, which,
+from their extremely grotesque appearance, and the shattered
+state of their intellect, were gifts that might well pass between
+sovereign and sovereign.
+
+Richard had that day yet another female encounter to sustain; but
+he advanced to it with comparative indifference, for Edith,
+though beautiful and highly esteemed by her royal relative--nay,
+although she had from his unjust suspicions actually sustained
+the injury of which Berengaria only affected to complain--still
+was neither Richard's wife nor mistress, and he feared her
+reproaches less, although founded in reason, than those of the
+Queen, though unjust and fantastical.  Having requested to speak
+with her apart, he was ushered into her apartment, adjoining that
+of the Queen, whose two female Coptish slaves remained on their
+knees in the most remote corner during the interview.  A thin
+black veil extended its ample folds over the tall and graceful
+form of the high-born maiden, and she wore not upon her person
+any female ornament of what kind soever. She arose and made a low
+reverence when Richard entered, resumed her seat at his command,
+and, when he sat down beside her, waited, without uttering a
+syllable, until he should communicate his pleasure.
+
+Richard, whose custom it was to be familiar with Edith, as their
+relationship authorized, felt this reception chilling, and opened
+the conversation with some embarrassment.
+
+"Our fair cousin," he at length said, "is angry with us; and we
+own that strong circumstances have induced us, without cause, to
+suspect her of conduct alien to what we have ever known in her
+course of life.  But while we walk in this misty valley of
+humanity, men will mistake shadows for substances.  Can my fair
+cousin not forgive her somewhat vehement kinsman Richard?"
+
+"Who can refuse forgiveness to RICHARD," answered Edith,
+"provided Richard can obtain pardon of the KING?"
+
+"Come, my kinswoman," replied Coeur de Lion, "this is all too
+solemn.  By Our Lady, such a melancholy countenance, and this
+ample sable veil, might make men think thou wert a new-made
+widow, or had lost a betrothed lover, at least.  Cheer up!  Thou
+hast heard, doubtless, that there is no real cause for woe; why,
+then, keep up the form of mourning?"
+
+"For the departed honour of Plantagenet--for the glory which hath
+left my father's house."
+
+Richard frowned.  "Departed honour!  glory which hath left our
+house!"  he repeated angrily.  "But my cousin Edith is
+privileged.  I have judged her too hastily; she has therefore a
+right to deem of me too harshly.  But tell me at least in what I
+have faulted."
+
+"Plantagenet," said Edith, "should have either pardoned an
+offence, or punished it.  It misbecomes him to assign free men,
+Christians, and brave knights, to the fetters of the infidels.
+It becomes him not to compromise and barter, or to grunt life
+under the forfeiture of liberty.  To have doomed the unfortunate
+to death might have been severity, but had a show of justice; to
+condemn him to slavery and exile was barefaced tyranny."
+
+"I see, my fair cousin," said Richard, "you are of those pretty
+ones who think an absent lover as bad as none, or as a dead one.
+Be patient; half a score of light horsemen may yet follow and
+redeem the error, if thy gallant have in keeping any secret which
+might render his death more convenient than his banishment."
+
+"Peace with thy scurrile jests!"  answered Edith, colouring
+deeply.  "Think, rather, that for the indulgence of thy mood thou
+hast lopped from this great enterprise one goodly limb, deprived
+the Cross of one of its most brave supporters, and placed a
+servant of the true God in the hands of the heathen; hast given,
+too, to minds as suspicious as thou hast shown thine own in this
+matter, some right to say that Richard Coeur de Lion banished the
+bravest soldier in his camp lest his name in battle might match
+his own."
+
+"I--I!"  exclaimed Richard, now indeed greatly moved--"am I one
+to be jealous of renown?  I would he were here to profess such an
+equality!  I would waive my rank and my crown, and meet him,
+manlike, in the lists, that it might appear whether Richard
+Plantagenet had room to fear or to envy the prowess of mortal
+man.  Come, Edith, thou think'st not as thou sayest.  Let not
+anger or grief for the absence of thy lover make thee unjust to
+thy kinsman, who, notwithstanding all thy techiness, values thy
+good report as high as that of any one living."
+
+"The absence of my lover?"  said the Lady Edith, "But yes, he may
+be well termed my lover, who hath paid so dear for the title.
+Unworthy as I might be of such homage, I was to him like a light,
+leading him forward in the noble path of chivalry; but that I
+forgot my rank, or that he presumed beyond his, is false, were a
+king to speak it."
+
+"My fair cousin," said Richard, "do not put words in my mouth
+which I have not spoken.  I said not you had graced this man
+beyond the favour which a good knight may earn, even from a
+princess, whatever be his native condition.  But, by Our Lady, I
+know something of this love-gear.  It begins with mute respect
+and distant reverence; but when opportunities occur, familiarity
+increases, and so--But it skills not talking with one who thinks
+herself wiser than all the world."
+
+"My kinsman's counsels I willingly listen to, when they are
+such," said Edith, "as convey no insult to my rank and
+character."
+
+"Kings, my fair cousin, do not counsel, but rather command," said
+Richard.
+
+"Soldans do indeed command," said Edith, "but it is because they
+have slaves to govern."
+
+"Come, you might learn to lay aside this scorn of Soldanrie, when
+you hold so high of a Scot," said the King.  "I hold Saladin to
+be truer to his word than this William of Scotland, who must
+needs be called a Lion, forsooth; he hath foully faulted towards
+me in failing to send the auxiliary aid he promised.  Let me tell
+thee, Edith, thou mayest live to prefer a true Turk to a false
+Scot."
+
+"No--never!"  answered Edith--"not should Richard himself embrace
+the false religion, which he crossed the seas to expel from
+Palestine."
+
+"Thou wilt have the last word," said Richard, "and thou shalt
+have it.  Even think of me what thou wilt, pretty Edith. I shall
+not forget that we are near and dear cousins."
+
+So saying, he took his leave in fair fashion, but very little
+satisfied with the result of his visit.
+
+It was the fourth day after Sir Kenneth had been dismissed from
+the camp, and King Richard sat in his pavilion, enjoying an
+evening breeze from the west, which, with unusual coolness on her
+wings, seemed breathed from merry England for the refreshment of
+her adventurous Monarch, as he was gradually recovering the full
+strength which was necessary to carry on his gigantic projects.
+There was no one with him, De Vaux having been sent to Ascalon to
+bring up reinforcements and supplies of military munition, and
+most of his other attendants being occupied in different
+departments, all preparing for the re-opening of hostilities, and
+for a grand preparatory review of the army of the Crusaders,
+which was to take place the next day.  The King sat listening to
+the busy hum among the soldiery, the clatter from the forges,
+where horseshoes were preparing, and from the tents of the
+armourers, who were repairing harness.  The voice of the
+soldiers, too, as they passed and repassed, was loud and
+cheerful, carrying with its very tone an assurance of high and
+excited courage, and an omen of approaching victory.  While
+Richard's ear drank in these sounds with delight, and while he
+yielded himself to the visions of conquest and of glory which
+they suggested, an equerry told him that a messenger from Saladin
+waited without.
+
+"Admit him instantly," said the King, "and with due honour,
+Josceline."
+
+The English knight accordingly introduced a person, apparently of
+no higher rank than a Nubian slave, whose appearance was
+nevertheless highly interesting.  He was of superb stature and
+nobly formed, and his commanding features, although almost jet-black, showed nothing of negro descent.  
+He wore over his coal-black locks a milk-white turban, and over his shoulders a short
+mantle of the same colour, open in front and at the sleeves,
+under which appeared a doublet of dressed leopard's skin reaching
+within a handbreadth of the knee.  The rest of his muscular
+limbs, both legs and arms, were bare, excepting that he had
+sandals on his feet, and wore a collar and bracelets of silver.
+A straight broadsword, with a handle of box-wood and a sheath
+covered with snakeskin, was suspended from his waist.  In his
+right hand he held a short javelin, with a broad, bright steel
+head, of a span in length, and in his left he led by a leash of
+twisted silk and gold a large and noble staghound.
+
+The messenger prostrated himself, at the same time partially
+uncovering his shoulders, in sign of humiliation, and having
+touched the earth with his forehead, arose so far as to rest on
+one knee, while he delivered to the King a silken napkin,
+enclosing another of cloth of gold, within which was a letter
+from Saladin in the original Arabic, with a translation into
+Norman-English, which may be modernized thus:--
+
+"Saladin, King of Kings, to Melech Ric, the Lion of England.
+Whereas, we are informed by thy last message that thou hast
+chosen war rather than peace, and our enmity rather than our
+friendship, we account thee as one blinded in this matter, and
+trust shortly to convince thee of thine error, by the help of our
+invincible forces of the thousand tribes, when Mohammed, the
+Prophet of God, and Allah, the God of the Prophet, shall judge
+the controversy betwixt us.  In what remains, we make noble
+account of thee, and of the gifts which thou hast sent us, and of
+the two dwarfs, singular in their deformity as Ysop, and mirthful
+as the lute of Isaack.  And in requital of these tokens from the
+treasure-house of thy bounty, behold we have sent thee a Nubian
+slave, named Zohauk, of whom judge not by his complexion,
+according to the foolish ones of the earth, in respect the dark-rinded fruit hath the most exquisite flavour.  
+Know that he is
+strong to execute the will of his master, as Rustan of Zablestan;
+also he is wise to give counsel when thou shalt learn to hold
+communication with him, for the Lord of Speech hath been stricken
+with silence betwixt the ivory walls of his palace.  We commend
+him to thy care, hoping the hour may not be distant when he may
+render thee good service.  And herewith we bid thee farewell;
+trusting that our most holy Prophet may yet call thee to a sight
+of the truth, failing which illumination, our desire is for the
+speedy restoration of thy royal health, that Allah may judge
+between thee and us in a plain field of battle."
+
+And the missive was sanctioned by the signature and seal of the
+Soldan.
+
+Richard surveyed the Nubian in silence as he stood before him,
+his looks bent upon the ground, his arms folded on his bosom,
+with the appearance of a black marble statue of the most
+exquisite workmanship, waiting life from the touch of a
+Prometheus.  The King of England, who, as it was emphatically
+said of his successor Henry the Eighth, loved to look upon A MAN,
+was well pleased with the thews, sinews, and symmetry of him whom
+he now surveyed, and questioned him in the lingua franca, "Art
+thou a pagan?"
+
+The slave shook his head, and raising his finger to his brow,
+crossed himself in token of his Christianity, then resumed his
+posture of motionless humility.
+
+"A Nubian Christian, doubtless," said Richard, "and mutilated of
+the organ of speech by these heathen dogs?"
+
+The mute again slowly shook his head, in token of negative,
+pointed with his forefinger to Heaven, and then laid it upon his
+own lips.
+
+"I understand thee," said Richard; "thou dost suffer under the
+infliction of God, not by the cruelty of man. Canst thou clean an
+armour and belt, and buckle it in time of need?"
+
+The mute nodded, and stepping towards the coat of mail, which
+hung with the shield and helmet of the chivalrous monarch upon
+the pillar of the tent, he handled it with such nicety of address
+as sufficiently to show that he fully understood the business of
+an armour-bearer.
+
+"Thou art an apt, and wilt doubtless be a useful knave. Thou
+shalt wait in my chamber, and on my person," said the King, "to
+show how much I value the gift of the royal Soldan.  If thou hast
+no tongue, it follows thou canst carry no tales, neither provoke
+me to be sudden by any unfit reply."
+
+The Nubian again prostrated himself till his brow touched the
+earth, then stood erect, at some paces distant, as waiting for
+his new master's commands.
+
+"Nay, thou shalt commence thy office presently," said Richard,
+"for I see a speck of rust darkening on that shield; and when I
+shake it in the face of Saladin, it should be bright and
+unsullied as the Soldan's honour and mine own."
+
+A horn was winded without, and presently Sir Henry Neville
+entered with a packet of dispatches.  "From England, my lord," he
+said, as he delivered it.
+
+"From England--our own England!"  repeated Richard, in a tone of
+melancholy enthusiasm.  "Alas!  they little think how hard their
+Sovereign has been beset by sickness and sorrow--faint friends
+and forward enemies."  Then opening the dispatches, he said
+hastily, "Ha!  this comes from no peaceful land--they too have
+their feuds.  Neville, begone; I must peruse these tidings alone,
+and at leisure."
+
+Neville withdrew accordingly, and Richard was soon absorbed in
+the melancholy details which had been conveyed to him from
+England, concerning the factions that were tearing to pieces his
+native dominions--the disunion of his brothers John and Geoffrey,
+and the quarrels of both with the High Justiciary Longchamp,
+Bishop of Ely--the oppressions practised by the nobles upon the
+peasantry, and rebellion of the latter against their masters,
+which had produced everywhere scenes of discord, and in some
+instances the effusion of blood.  Details of incidents mortifying
+to his pride, and derogatory from his authority, were
+intermingled with the earnest advice of his wisest and most
+attached counsellors that he should presently return to England,
+as his presence offered the only hope of saving the Kingdom from
+all the horrors of civil discord, of which France and Scotland
+were likely to avail themselves.  Filled with the most painful
+anxiety, Richard read, and again read, the ill-omened letters;
+compared the intelligence which some of them contained with the
+same facts as differently stated in others; and soon became
+totally insensible to whatever was passing around him, although
+seated, for the sake of coolness, close to the entrance of his
+tent, and having the curtains withdrawn, so that he could see and
+be seen by the guards and others who were stationed without.
+
+Deeper in the shadow of the pavilion, and busied with the task
+his new master had imposed, sat the Nubian slave, with his back
+rather turned towards the King.  He had finished adjusting and
+cleaning the hauberk and brigandine, and was now busily employed
+on a broad pavesse, or buckler, of unusual size, and covered with
+steel-plating, which Richard often used in reconnoitring, or
+actually storming fortified places, as a more effectual
+protection against missile weapons than the narrow triangular
+shield used on horseback.  This pavesse bore neither the royal
+lions of England, nor any other device, to attract the
+observation of the defenders of the walls against which it was
+advanced; the care, therefore, of the armourer was addressed to
+causing its surface to shine as bright as crystal, in which he
+seemed to be peculiarly successful.  Beyond the Nubian, and
+scarce visible from without, lay the large dog, which might be
+termed his brother slave, and which, as if he felt awed by being
+transferred to a royal owner, was couched close to the side of
+the mute, with head and ears on the ground, and his limbs and
+tail drawn close around and under him.
+
+While the Monarch and his new attendant were thus occupied,
+another actor crept upon the scene, and mingled among the group
+of English yeomen, about a score of whom, respecting the
+unusually pensive posture and close occupation of their
+Sovereign, were, contrary to their wont, keeping a silent guard
+in front of his tent.  It was not, however, more vigilant than
+usual.  Some were playing at games of hazard with small pebbles,
+others spoke together in whispers of the approaching day of
+battle, and several lay asleep, their bulky limbs folded in their
+green mantles.
+
+Amid these careless warders glided the puny form of a little old
+Turk, poorly dressed like a marabout or santon of the desert--a
+sort of enthusiasts, who sometimes ventured into the camp of the
+Crusaders, though treated always with contumely, and often with
+violence.  Indeed, the luxury and profligate indulgence of the
+Christian leaders had occasioned a motley concourse in their
+tents of musicians, courtesans, Jewish merchants, Copts, Turks,
+and all the varied refuse of the Eastern nations; so that the
+caftan and turban, though to drive both from the Holy Land was
+the professed object of the expedition, were, nevertheless,
+neither an uncommon nor an alarming sight in the camp of the
+Crusaders.  When, however, the little insignificant figure we
+have described approached so nigh as to receive some interruption
+from the warders, he dashed his dusky green turban from his head,
+showed that his beard and eyebrows were shaved like those of a
+professed buffoon, and that the expression of his fantastic and
+writhen features, as well as of his little black eyes, which
+glittered like jet, was that of a crazed imagination.
+
+"Dance, marabout," cried the soldiers, acquainted with the
+manners of these wandering enthusiasts, "dance, or we will
+scourge thee with our bow-strings till thou spin as never top did
+under schoolboy's lash."  Thus shouted the reckless warders, as
+much delighted at having a subject to tease as a child when he
+catches a butterfly, or a schoolboy upon discovering a bird's
+nest.
+
+The marabout, as if happy to do their behests, bounded from the
+earth, and spun his giddy round before them with singular
+agility, which, when contrasted with his slight and wasted
+figure, and diminutive appearance, made him resemble a withered
+leaf twirled round and round at the pleasure of the winter's
+breeze.  His single lock of hair streamed upwards from his bald
+and shaven head, as if some genie upheld him by it; and indeed it
+seemed as if supernatural art were necessary to the execution of
+the wild, whirling dance, in which scarce the tiptoe of the
+performer was seen to touch the ground.  Amid the vagaries of his
+performance he flew here and there, from one spot to another,
+still approaching, however, though almost imperceptibly, to the
+entrance of the royal tent; so that, when at length he sunk
+exhausted on the earth, after two or three bounds still higher
+than those which he had yet executed, he was not above thirty
+yards from the King's person.
+
+"Give him water," said one yeoman; "they always crave a drink
+after their merry-go-round."
+
+"Aha, water, sayest thou, Long Allen?"  exclaimed another archer,
+with a most scornful emphasis on the despised element; "how
+wouldst like such beverage thyself, after such a morrice
+dancing?"
+
+"The devil a water-drop he gets here," said a third.  "We will
+teach the light-footed old infidel to be a good Christian, and
+drink wine of Cyprus."
+
+"Ay, ay," said a fourth; "and in case he be restive, fetch thou
+Dick Hunter's horn, that he drenches his mare withal."
+
+A circle was instantly formed around the prostrate and exhausted
+dervise, and while one tall yeoman raised his feeble form from
+the ground, another presented to him a huge flagon of wine.
+Incapable of speech, the old man shook his head, and waved away
+from him with his hand the liquor forbidden by the Prophet.  But
+his tormentors were not thus to be appeased.
+
+"The horn, the horn!"  exclaimed one.  "Little difference between
+a Turk and a Turkish horse, and we will use him conforming."
+
+"By Saint George, you will choke him!"  said Long Allen; "and
+besides, it is a sin to throw away upon a heathen dog as much
+wine as would serve a good Christian for a treble night-cap."
+
+"Thou knowest not the nature of these Turks and pagans, Long
+Allen," replied Henry Woodstall.  "I tell thee, man, that this
+flagon of Cyprus will set his brains a-spinning, just in the
+opposite direction that they went whirling in the dancing, and so
+bring him, as it were, to himself again. Choke?  He will no more
+choke on it than Ben's black bitch on the pound of butter."
+
+"And for grudging it," said Tomalin Blacklees, "why shouldst thou
+grudge the poor paynim devil a drop of drink on earth, since thou
+knowest he is not to have a drop to cool the tip of his tongue
+through a long eternity?"
+
+"That were hard laws, look ye," said Long Allen, "only for being
+a Turk, as his father was before him.  Had he been Christian
+turned heathen, I grant you the hottest corner had been good
+winter quarters for him."
+
+"Hold thy peace, Long Allen," said Henry Woodstall. "I tell thee
+that tongue of thine is not the shortest limb about thee, and I
+prophesy that it will bring thee into disgrace with Father
+Francis, as once about the black-eyed Syrian wench.  But here
+comes the horn.  Be active a bit, man, wilt thou, and just force
+open his teeth with the haft of thy dudgeon-dagger."
+
+"Hold, hold--he is conformable," said Tomalin; "see, see, he
+signs for the goblet--give him room, boys!  OOP SEY ES, quoth the
+Dutchman--down it goes like lamb's-wool! Nay, they are true
+topers when once they begin--your Turk never coughs in his cup,
+or stints in his liquoring."
+
+In fact, the dervise, or whatever he was, drank--or at least
+seemed to drink--the large flagon to the very bottom at a single
+pull; and when he took it from his lips after the whole contents
+were exhausted, only uttered, with a deep sigh, the words, ALLAH
+KERIM, or God is merciful.  There was a laugh among the yeomen
+who witnessed this pottle-deep potation, so obstreperous as to
+rouse and disturb the King, who, raising his finger, said
+angrily, "How, knaves, no respect, no observance?"
+
+All were at once hushed into silence, well acquainted with the
+temper of Richard, which at some times admitted of much military
+familiarity, and at others exacted the most precise respect,
+although the latter humour was of much more rare occurrence.
+Hastening to a more reverent distance from the royal person, they
+attempted to drag along with them the marabout, who, exhausted
+apparently by previous fatigue, or overpowered by the potent
+draught he had just swallowed, resisted being moved from the
+spot, both with struggles and groans.
+
+"Leave him still, ye fools," whispered Long Allen to his mates;
+"by Saint Christopher, you will make our Dickon go beside
+himself, and we shall have his dagger presently fly at our
+costards.  Leave him alone; in less than a minute he will sleep
+like a dormouse."
+
+At the same moment the Monarch darted another impatient glance to
+the spot, and all retreated in haste, leaving the dervise on the
+ground, unable, as it seemed, to stir a single limb or joint of
+his body.  In a moment afterward all was as still and quiet as it
+had been before the intrusion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+--and wither'd Murder,
+Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
+Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
+With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
+Moves like a ghost.           MACBETH.
+
+For the space of a quarter of an hour, or longer, after the
+incident related, all remained perfectly quiet in the front of
+the royal habitation.  The King read and mused in the entrance of
+his pavilion; behind, and with his back turned to the same
+entrance, the Nubian slave still burnished the ample pavesse; in
+front of all, at a hundred paces distant, the yeomen of the guard
+stood, sat, or lay extended on the grass, attentive to their own
+sports, but pursuing them in silence, while on the esplanade
+betwixt them and the front of the tent lay, scarcely to be
+distinguished from a bundle of rags, the senseless form of the
+marabout.
+
+But the Nubian had the advantage of a mirror from the brilliant
+reflection which the surface of the highly-polished shield now
+afforded, by means of which he beheld, to his alarm and surprise,
+that the marabout raised his head gently from the ground, so as
+to survey all around him, moving with a well-adjusted precaution
+which seemed entirely inconsistent with a state of ebriety.  He
+couched his head instantly, as if satisfied he was unobserved,
+and began, with the slightest possible appearance of voluntary
+effort, to drag himself, as if by chance, ever nearer and nearer
+to the King, but stopping and remaining fixed at intervals, like
+the spider, which, moving towards her object, collapses into
+apparent lifelessness when she thinks she is the subject of
+observation. This species of movement appeared suspicious to the
+Ethiopian, who, on his part, prepared himself, as quietly as
+possible, to interfere, the instant that interference should seem
+to be necessary.
+
+The marabout, meanwhile, glided on gradually and imperceptibly,
+serpent-like, or rather snail-like, till he was about ten yards
+distant from Richard's person, when, starting on his feet, he
+sprung forward with the bound of a tiger, stood at the King's
+back in less than an instant, and brandished aloft the cangiar,
+or poniard, which he had hidden in his sleeve.  Not the presence
+of his whole army could have saved their heroic Monarch; but the
+motions of the Nubian had been as well calculated as those of the
+enthusiast, and ere the latter could strike, the former caught
+his uplifted arm.  Turning his fanatical wrath upon what thus
+unexpectedly interposed betwixt him and his object, the
+Charegite, for such was the seeming marabout, dealt the Nubian a
+blow with the dagger, which, however, only grazed his arm, while
+the far superior strength of the Ethiopian easily dashed him to
+the ground.  Aware of what had passed, Richard had now arisen,
+and with little more of surprise, anger, or interest of any kind
+in his countenance than an ordinary man would show in brushing
+off and crushing an intrusive wasp, caught up the stool on which
+he had been sitting, and exclaiming only, "Ha, dog!" dashed
+almost to pieces the skull of the assassin, who uttered twice,
+once in a loud, and once in a broken tone, the words ALLAH
+ACKBAR!--God is victorious--and expired at the King's feet.
+
+"Ye are careful warders," said Richard to his archers, in a tone
+of scornful reproach, as, aroused by the bustle of what had
+passed, in terror and tumult they now rushed into his tent;
+"watchful sentinels ye are, to leave me to do such hangman's work
+with my own hand.  Be silent, all of you, and cease your
+senseless clamour!--saw ye never a dead Turk before?  Here, cast
+that carrion out of the camp, strike the head from the trunk, and
+stick it on a lance, taking care to turn the face to Mecca, that
+he may the easier tell the foul impostor on whose inspiration he
+came hither how he has sped on his errand.--For thee, my swart
+and silent friend," he added, turning to the Ethiopian--"but
+how's this?  Thou art wounded--and with a poisoned weapon, I
+warrant me, for by force of stab so weak an animal as that could
+scarce hope to do more than raze the lion's hide.--Suck the
+poison from his wound one of you--the venom is harmless on the
+lips, though fatal when it mingles with the blood."
+
+The yeomen looked on each other confusedly and with hesitation,
+the apprehension of so strange a danger prevailing with those who
+feared no other.
+
+"How now, sirrahs," continued the King, "are you dainty-lipped,
+or do you fear death, that you daily thus?"
+
+"Not the death of a man," said Long Allen, to whom the King
+looked as he spoke; "but methinks I would not die like a poisoned
+rat for the sake of a black chattel there, that is bought and
+sold in a market like a Martlemas ox."
+
+"His Grace speaks to men of sucking poison," muttered another
+yeoman, "as if he said, "Go to, swallow a gooseberry!"
+
+"Nay," said Richard, "I never bade man do that which I would not
+do myself."
+
+And without further ceremony, and in spite of the general
+expostulations of those around, and the respectful opposition of
+the Nubian himself, the King of England applied his lips to the
+wound of the black slave, treating with ridicule all
+remonstrances, and overpowering all resistance.  He had no sooner
+intermitted his singular occupation, than the Nubian started from
+him, and casting a scarf over his arm, intimated by gestures, as
+firm in purpose as they were respectful in manner, his
+determination not to permit the Monarch to renew so degrading an
+employment.  Long Allen also interposed, saying that, if it were
+necessary to prevent the King engaging again in a treatment of
+this kind, his own lips, tongue, and teeth were at the service of
+the negro (as he called the Ethiopian), and that he would eat him
+up bodily, rather than King Richard's mouth should again approach
+him.
+
+Neville, who entered with other officers, added his
+remonstrances.
+
+"Nay, nay, make not a needless halloo about a hart that the
+hounds have lost, or a danger when it is over," said the King.
+"The wound will be a trifle, for the blood is scarce drawn--an
+angry cat had dealt a deeper scratch.  And for me, I have but to
+take a drachm of orvietan by way of precaution, though it is
+needless."
+
+ Thus spoke Richard, a little ashamed, perhaps, of his own
+condescension, though sanctioned both by humanity and gratitude.
+But when Neville continued to make remonstrances on the peril to
+his royal person, the King imposed silence on him.
+
+"Peace, I prithee--make no more of it.  I did it but to show
+these ignorant, prejudiced knaves how they might help each other
+when these cowardly caitiffs come against us with sarbacanes and
+poisoned shafts.  But," he added, "take thee this Nubian to thy
+quarters, Neville--I have changed my mind touching him--let him
+be well cared for.  But hark in thine ear; see that he escapes
+thee not--there is more in him than seems.  Let him have all
+liberty, so that he leave not the camp.--And you, ye beef-devouring, wine-swilling English mastiffs, get ye 
+to your guard
+again, and be sure you keep it more warily.  Think not you are
+now in your own land of fair play, where men speak before they
+strike, and shake hands ere they cut throats.  Danger in our land
+walks openly, and with his blade drawn, and defies the foe whom
+he means to assault; but here he challenges you with a silk glove
+instead of a steel gauntlet, cuts your throat with the feather of
+a turtle-dove, stabs you with the tongue of a priest's brooch, or
+throttles you with the lace of my lady's boddice.  Go to--keep
+your eyes open and your mouths shut--drink less, and look sharper
+about you; or I will place your huge stomachs on such short
+allowance as would pinch the stomach of a patient Scottish man."
+
+The yeomen, abashed and mortified, withdrew to their post, and
+Neville was beginning to remonstrate with his master upon the
+risk of passing over thus slightly their negligence upon their
+duty, and the propriety of an example in a case so peculiarly
+aggravated as the permitting one so suspicious as the marabout to
+approach within dagger's length of his person, when Richard
+interrupted him with, "Speak not of it, Neville--wouldst thou
+have me avenge a petty risk to myself more severely than the loss
+of England's banner? It has been stolen--stolen by a thief, or
+delivered up by a traitor, and no blood has been shed for it.--My
+sable friend, thou art an expounder of mysteries, saith the
+illustrious Soldan--now would I give thee thine own weight in
+gold, if, by raising one still blacker than thyself or by what
+other means thou wilt, thou couldst show me the thief who did
+mine honour that wrong.  What sayest thou, ha?"
+
+The mute seemed desirous to speak, but uttered only that
+imperfect sound proper to his melancholy condition; then folded
+his arms, looked on the King with an eye of intelligence, and
+nodded in answer to his question.
+
+"How!"  said Richard, with joyful impatience.  "Wilt thou
+undertake to make discovery in this matter?"
+
+The Nubian slave repeated the same motion.
+
+"But how shall we understand each other?" said the King.  "Canst
+thou write, good fellow?"
+
+The slave again nodded in assent.
+
+"Give him writing-tools," said the King.  "They were readier in
+my father's tent than mine; but they be somewhere about, if this
+scorching climate have not dried up the ink.--Why, this fellow is
+a jewel--a black diamond, Neville."
+
+"So please you, my liege," said Neville, "if I might speak my
+poor mind, it were ill dealing in this ware.  This man must be a
+wizard, and wizards deal with the Enemy, who hath most interest
+to sow tares among the wheat, and bring dissension into our
+councils, and--"
+
+"Peace, Neville," said Richard.  "Hello to your northern hound
+when he is close on the haunch of the deer, and hope to recall
+him, but seek not to stop Plantagenet when he hath hope to
+retrieve his honour."
+
+The slave, who during this discussion had been writing, in which
+art he seemed skilful, now arose, and pressing what he had
+written to his brow, prostrated himself as usual, ere he
+delivered it into the King's hands.  The scroll was in French,
+although their intercourse had hitherto been conducted by Richard
+in the lingua franca.
+
+"To Richard, the conquering and invincible King of England, this
+from the humblest of his slaves.  Mysteries are the sealed
+caskets of Heaven, but wisdom may devise means to open the lock.
+Were your slave stationed where the leaders of the Christian host
+were made to pass before him in order, doubt nothing that if he
+who did the injury whereof my King complains shall be among the
+number, he may be made manifest in his iniquity, though it be
+hidden under seven veils."
+
+"Now, by Saint George!" said King Richard, "thou hast spoken most
+opportunely.--Neville, thou knowest that when we muster our
+troops to-morrow the princes have agreed that, to expiate the
+affront offered to England in the theft of her banner, the
+leaders should pass our new standard as it floats on Saint
+George's Mount, and salute it with formal regard. Believe me, the
+secret traitor will not dare to absent himself from an
+expurgation so solemn, lest his very absence should be matter of
+suspicion.  There will we place our sable man of counsel, and if
+his art can detect the villain, leave me to deal with him."
+
+"My liege," said Neville, with the frankness of an English baron,
+"beware what work you begin.  Here is the concord of our holy
+league unexpectedly renewed--will you, upon such suspicion as a
+negro slave can instil, tear open wounds so lately closed?  Or
+will you use the solemn procession, adopted for the reparation of
+your honour and establishment of unanimity amongst the discording
+princes, as the means of again finding out new cause of offence,
+or reviving ancient quarrels?  It were scarce too strong to say
+this were a breach of the declaration your Grace made to the
+assembled Council of the Crusade."
+
+"Neville," said the King, sternly interrupting him, "thy zeal
+makes thee presumptuous and unmannerly.  Never did I promise to
+abstain from taking whatever means were most promising to
+discover the infamous author of the attack on my honour.  Ere I
+had done so, I would have renounced my kingdom, my life.  All my
+declarations were under this necessary and absolute
+qualification;--only, if Austria had stepped forth and owned the
+injury like a man, I proffered, for the sake of Christendom, to
+have forgiven HIM."
+
+"But," continued the baron anxiously, "what hope that this
+juggling slave of Saladin will not palter with your Grace?"
+
+"Peace, Neville," said the King; "thou thinkest thyself mighty
+wise, and art but a fool.  Mind thou my charge touching this
+fellow; there is more in him than thy Westmoreland wit can
+fathom.--And thou, smart and silent, prepare to perform the feat
+thou hast promised, and, by the word of a King, thou shalt choose
+thine own recompense.--Lo, he writes again."
+
+The mute accordingly wrote and delivered to the King, with the
+same form as before, another slip of paper, containing these
+words, "The will of the King is the law to his slave; nor doth it
+become him to ask guerdon for discharge of his devoir."
+
+"GUERDON and DEVOIR!" said the King, interrupting himself as he
+read, and speaking to Neville in the English tongue with some
+emphasis on the words.  "These Eastern people will profit by the
+Crusaders--they are acquiring the language of chivalry!  And see,
+Neville, how discomposed that fellow looks!  were it not for his
+colour he would blush. I should not think it strange if he
+understood what I say--they are perilous linguists."
+
+"The poor slave cannot endure your Grace's eye," said Neville;
+"it is nothing more."
+
+"Well, but," continued the King, striking the paper with his
+finger as he proceeded, "this bold scroll proceeds to say that
+our trusty mute is charged with a message from Saladin to the
+Lady Edith Plantagenet, and craves means and opportunity to
+deliver it.  What thinkest thou of a request so modest--ha,
+Neville?"
+
+"I cannot say," said Neville, "how such freedom may relish with
+your Grace; but the lease of the messenger's neck would be a
+short one, who should carry such a request to the Soldan on the
+part of your Majesty."
+
+"Nay, I thank Heaven that I covet none of his sunburnt beauties,"
+said Richard; "and for punishing this fellow for discharging his
+master's errand, and that when he has just saved my life--
+methinks it were something too summary.  I'll tell thee, Neville,
+a secret; for although our sable and mute minister be present, he
+cannot, thou knowest, tell it over again, even if he should
+chance to understand us.  I tell thee that, for this fortnight
+past, I have been under a strange spell, and I would I were
+disenchanted.  There has no sooner any one done me good service,
+but, lo you, he cancels his interest in me by some deep injury;
+and, on the other hand, he who hath deserved death at my hands
+for some treachery or some insult, is sure to be the very person
+of all others who confers upon me some obligation that
+overbalances his demerits, and renders respite of his sentence a
+debt due from my honour.  Thus, thou seest, I am deprived of the
+best part of my royal function, since I can neither punish men
+nor reward them.  Until the influence of this disqualifying
+planet be passed away, I will say nothing concerning the request
+of this our sable attendant, save that it is an unusually bold
+one, and that his best chance of finding grace in our eyes will
+be to endeavour to make the discovery which he proposes to
+achieve in our behalf.  Meanwhile, Neville, do thou look well to
+him, and let him be honourably cared for.  And hark thee once
+more," he said, in a low whisper, "seek out yonder hermit of
+Engaddi, and bring him to me forthwith, be he saint or savage,
+madman or sane.  Let me see him privately."
+
+Neville retired from the royal tent, signing to the Nubian to
+follow him, and much surprised at what he had seen and heard, and
+especially at the unusual demeanour of the King.  In general, no
+task was so easy as to discover Richard's immediate course of
+sentiment and feeling, though it might, in some cases, be
+difficult to calculate its duration; for no weathercock obeyed
+the changing wind more readily than the King his gusts of
+passion.  But on the present occasion his manner seemed unusually
+constrained and mysterious; nor was it easy to guess whether
+displeasure or kindness predominated in his conduct towards his
+new dependant, or in the looks with which, from time to time, he
+regarded him.  The ready service which the King had rendered to
+counteract the bad effects of the Nubian's wound might seem to
+balance the obligation conferred on him by the slave when he
+intercepted the blow of the assassin; but it seemed, as a much
+longer account remained to be arranged between them, that the
+Monarch was doubtful whether the settlement might leave him, upon
+the whole, debtor or creditor, and that, therefore, he assumed in
+the meantime a neutral demeanour, which might suit with either
+character.  As for the Nubian, by whatever means he had acquired
+the art of writing the European languages, the King remained
+convinced that the English tongue at least was unknown to him,
+since, having watched him closely during the last part of the
+interview, he conceived it impossible for any one understanding a
+conversation, of which he was himself the subject, to have so
+completely avoided the appearance of taking an interest in it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Who's there!--Approach--'tis kindly done--
+My learned physician and a friend.         SIR EUSTACE GREY.
+
+Our narrative retrogrades to a period shortly previous to the
+incidents last mentioned, when, as the reader must remember, the
+unfortunate Knight of the Leopard, bestowed upon the Arabian
+physician by King Richard, rather as a slave than in any other
+capacity, was exiled from the camp of the Crusaders, in whose
+ranks he had so often and so brilliantly distinguished himself.
+He followed his new master--for so he must now term the Hakim--to
+the Moorish tents which contained his retinue and his property,
+with the stupefied feelings of one who, fallen from the summit of
+a precipice, and escaping unexpectedly with life, is just able to
+drag himself from the fatal spot, but without the power of
+estimating the extent of the damage which he has sustained.
+Arrived at the tent, he threw himself, without speech of any
+kind, upon a couch of dressed buffalo's hide, which was pointed
+out to him by his conductor, and hiding his face betwixt his
+hands, groaned heavily, as if his heart were on the point of
+bursting.  The physician heard him, as he was giving orders to
+his numerous domestics to prepare for their departure the next
+morning before daybreak, and, moved with compassion, interrupted
+his occupation to sit down, cross-legged, by the side of his
+couch, and administer comfort according to the Oriental manner.
+
+"My friend," he said, "be of good comfort; for what saith the
+poet--it is better that a man should be the servant of a kind
+master than the slave of his own wild passions.  Again, be of
+good courage; because, whereas Ysouf Ben Yagoube was sold to a
+king by his brethren, even to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, thy king
+hath, on the other hand, bestowed thee on one who will be to thee
+as a brother."
+
+Sir Kenneth made an effort to thank the Hakim, but his heart was
+too full, and the indistinct sounds which accompanied his
+abortive attempts to reply induced the kind physician to desist
+from his premature endeavours at consolation.  He left his new
+domestic, or guest, in quiet, to indulge his sorrows, and having
+commanded all the necessary preparations for their departure on
+the morning, sat down upon the carpet of the tent, and indulged
+himself in a moderate repast.  After he had thus refreshed
+himself, similar viands were offered to the Scottish knight; but
+though the slaves let him understand that the next day would be
+far advanced ere they would halt for the purpose of refreshment,
+Sir Kenneth could not overcome the disgust which he felt against
+swallowing any nourishment, and could be prevailed upon to taste
+nothing, saving a draught of cold water.
+
+He was awake long after his Arab host had performed his usual
+devotions and betaken himself to his repose; nor had sleep
+visited him at the hour of midnight, when a movement took place
+among the domestics, which, though attended with no speech, and
+very little noise, made him aware they were loading the camels
+and preparing for departure.  In the course of these
+preparations, the last person who was disturbed, excepting the
+physician himself, was the knight of Scotland, whom, about three
+in the morning, a sort of major-domo, or master of the household,
+acquainted that he must arise.  He did so, without further
+answer, and followed him into the moonlight, where stood the
+camels, most of which were already loaded, and one only remained
+kneeling until its burden should be completed.
+
+A little apart from the camels stood a number of horses ready
+bridled and saddled, and the Hakim himself, coming forth, mounted
+on one of them with as much agility as the grave decorum of his
+character permitted, and directed another, which he pointed out,
+to be led towards Sir Kenneth. An English officer was in
+attendance, to escort them through the camp of the Crusaders, and
+to ensure their leaving it in safety; and all was ready for their
+departure.  The pavilion which they had left was, in the
+meanwhile, struck with singular dispatch, and the tent-poles and
+coverings composed the burden of the last camel--when the
+physician, pronouncing solemnly the verse of the Koran, "God be
+our guide, and Mohammed our protector, in the desert as in the
+watered field," the whole cavalcade was instantly in motion.
+
+In traversing the camp, they were challenged by the various
+sentinels who maintained guard there, and suffered to proceed in
+silence, or with a muttered curse upon their prophet, as they
+passed the post of some more zealous Crusader.  At length the
+last barriers were left behind them, and the party formed
+themselves for the march with military precaution.  Two or three
+horsemen advanced in front as a vanguard; one or two remained a
+bow-shot in the rear; and, wherever the ground admitted, others
+were detached to keep an outlook on the flanks.  In this manner
+they proceeded onward; while Sir Kenneth, looking back on the
+moonlit camp, might now indeed seem banished, deprived at once of
+honour and of liberty, from the glimmering banners under which he
+had hoped to gain additional renown, and the tented dwellings of
+chivalry, of Christianity, and--of Edith Plantagenet.
+
+
+The Hakim, who rode by his side, observed, in his usual tone  of
+sententious consolation, "It is unwise to look back when the
+journey lieth forward;" and as he spoke, the horse of the knight
+made such a perilous stumble as threatened to add a practical
+moral to the tale.
+
+The knight was compelled by this hint to give more attention to
+the management of his steed, which more than once required the
+assistance and support of the check-bridle, although, in other
+respects, nothing could be more easy at once, and active, than
+the ambling pace at which the animal (which was a mare)
+proceeded.
+
+"The conditions of that horse," observed the sententious
+physician, "are like those of human fortune--seeing that, amidst
+his most swift and easy pace, the rider must guard himself
+against a fall, and that it is when prosperity is at the highest
+that our prudence should be awake and vigilant to prevent
+misfortune."
+
+The overloaded appetite loathes even the honeycomb, and it is
+scarce a wonder that the knight, mortified and harassed with
+misfortunes and abasement, became something impatient of hearing
+his misery made, at every turn, the ground of proverbs and
+apothegms, however just and apposite.
+
+"Methinks," he said, rather peevishly, "I wanted no additional
+illustration of the instability of fortune though I would thank
+thee, Sir Hakim, for the choice of a steed for me, would the jade
+but stumble so effectually as at once to break my neck and her
+own."
+
+"My brother," answered the Arab sage, with imperturbable gravity,
+"thou speakest as one of the foolish.  Thou sayest in thy heart
+that the sage should have given you, as his guest, the younger
+and better horse, and reserved the old one for himself.  But know
+that the defects of the older steed may be compensated by the
+energies of the young rider, whereas the violence of the young
+horse requires to be moderated by the cold temper of the older."
+
+So spoke the sage; but neither to this observation did Sir
+Kenneth return any answer which could lead to a continuance of
+their conversation, and the physician, wearied, perhaps, of
+administering comfort to one who would not be comforted, signed
+to one of his retinue.
+
+"Hassan," he said, "hast thou nothing wherewith to beguile the
+way?"
+
+Hassan, story-teller and poet by profession, spurred up, upon
+this summons, to exercise his calling.  "Lord of the palace of
+life," he said, addressing the physician, "thou, before whom the
+angel Azrael spreadeth his wings for flight--thou, wiser than
+Solimaun Ben Daoud, upon whose signet was inscribed the REAL NAME
+which controls the spirits of the elements--forbid it, Heaven,
+that while thou travellest upon the track of benevolence, bearing
+healing and hope wherever thou comest, thine own course should be
+saddened for lack of the tale and of the song.  Behold, while thy
+servant is at thy side, he will pour forth the treasures of his
+memory, as the fountain sendeth her stream beside the pathway,
+for the refreshment or him that walketh thereon."
+
+After this exordium, Hassan uplifted his voice, and began a tale
+of love and magic, intermixed with feats of warlike achievement,
+and ornamented with abundant quotations from the Persian poets,
+with whose compositions the orator seemed familiar.  The retinue
+of the physician, such excepted as were necessarily detained in
+attendance on the camels, thronged up to the narrator, and
+pressed as close as deference for their master permitted, to
+enjoy the delight which the inhabitants of the East have ever
+derived from this species of exhibition.
+
+At another time, notwithstanding his imperfect knowledge of the
+language, Sir Kenneth might have been interested in the
+recitation, which, though dictated by a more extravagant
+imagination, and expressed in more inflated and metaphorical
+language, bore yet a strong resemblance to the romances of
+chivalry then so fashionable in Europe.  But as matters stood
+with him, he was scarcely even sensible that a man in the centre
+of the cavalcade recited and sung, in a low tone, for nearly two
+hours, modulating his voice to the various moods of passion
+introduced into the tale, and receiving, in return, now low
+murmurs of applause, now muttered expressions of wonder, now
+sighs and tears, and sometimes, what it was far more difficult to
+extract from such an audience, a tribute of smiles, and even
+laughter.
+
+During the recitation, the attention of the exile, however
+abstracted by his own deep sorrow, was occasionally awakened by
+the low wail of a dog, secured in a wicker enclosure suspended on
+one of the camels, which, as an experienced woodsman, he had no
+hesitation in recognizing to be that of his own faithful hound;
+and from the plaintive tone of the animal, he had no doubt that
+he was sensible of his master's vicinity, and, in his way,
+invoking his assistance for liberty and rescue.
+
+"Alas!  poor Roswal," he said, "thou callest for aid and sympathy
+upon one in stricter bondage than thou thyself art.  I will not
+seem to heed thee or return thy affection, since it would serve
+but to load our parting with yet more bitterness."
+
+Thus passed the hours of night and the space of dim hazy dawn
+which forms the twilight of a Syrian morning.  But when the very
+first line of the sun's disk began to rise above the level
+horizon, and when the very first level ray shot glimmering in dew
+along the surface of the desert, which the travellers had now
+attained, the sonorous voice of El Hakim himself overpowered and
+cut short the narrative of the tale-teller, while he caused to
+resound along the sands the solemn summons, which the muezzins
+thunder at morning from the minaret of every mosque.
+
+"To prayer--to prayer!  God is the one God.--To prayer--to
+prayer!  Mohammed is the Prophet of God.--To prayer--to prayer!
+Time is flying from you.--To prayer--to prayer!  Judgment is
+drawing nigh to you,"
+
+In an instant each Moslem cast himself from his horse, turned his
+face towards Mecca, and performed with sand an imitation of those
+ablutions, which were elsewhere required to be made with water,
+while each individual, in brief but fervent ejaculations,
+recommended himself to the care, and his sins to the forgiveness,
+of God and the Prophet.
+
+Even Sir Kenneth, whose reason at once and prejudices were
+offended by seeing his companions in that which he considered as
+an act of idolatry, could not help respecting the sincerity of
+their misguided zeal, and being stimulated by their fervour to
+apply supplications to Heaven in a purer form, wondering,
+meanwhile, what new-born feelings could teach him to accompany in
+prayer, though with varied invocation, those very Saracens, whose
+heathenish worship he had conceived a crime dishonourable to the
+land in which high miracles had been wrought, and where the day-star of redemption had arisen.
+
+The act of devotion, however, though rendered in such strange
+society, burst purely from his natural feelings of religious
+duty, and had its usual effect in composing the spirits which had
+been long harassed by so rapid a succession of calamities.  The
+sincere and earnest approach of the Christian to the throne of
+the Almighty teaches the best lesson of patience under
+affliction; since wherefore should we mock the Deity with
+supplications, when we insult him by murmuring under His decrees?
+or how, while our prayers have in every word admitted the vanity
+and nothingness of the things of time in comparison to those of
+eternity, should we hope to deceive the Searcher of Hearts, by
+permitting the world and worldly passions to reassume the reins
+even immediately after a solemn address to Heaven!  But Sir
+Kenneth was not of these.  He felt himself comforted and
+strengthened, and better prepared to execute or submit to
+whatever his destiny might call upon him to do or to suffer.
+
+Meanwhile, the party of Saracens regained their saddles, and
+continued their route, and the tale-teller, Hassan, resumed the
+thread of his narrative; but it was no longer to the same
+attentive audience.  A horseman, who had ascended some high
+ground on the right hand of the little column, had returned on a
+speedy gallop to El Hakim, and communicated with him.  Four or
+five more cavaliers had then been dispatched, and the little
+band, which might consist of about twenty or thirty persons,
+began to follow them with their eyes, as men from whose gestures,
+and advance or retreat, they were to augur good or evil.  Hassan,
+finding his audience inattentive, or being himself attracted by
+the dubious appearances on the flank, stinted in his song; and
+the march became silent, save when a camel-driver called out to
+his patient charge, or some anxious follower of the Hakim
+communicated with his next neighbour in a hurried and low
+whisper.
+
+This suspense continued until they had rounded a ridge, composed
+of hillocks of sand, which concealed from their main body the
+object that had created this alarm among their scouts.  Sir
+Kenneth could now see, at the distance of a mile or more, a dark
+object moving rapidly on the bosom of the desert, which his
+experienced eye recognized for a party of cavalry, much superior
+to their own in numbers, and, from the thick and frequent flashes
+which flung back the level beams of the rising sun, it was plain
+that these were Europeans in their complete panoply.
+
+The anxious looks which the horsemen of El Hakim now cast upon
+their leader seemed to indicate deep apprehension; while he, with
+gravity as undisturbed as when he called his followers to prayer,
+detached two of his best-mounted cavaliers, with instructions to
+approach as closely as prudence permitted to these travellers of
+the desert, and observe more minutely their numbers, their
+character, and, if possible, their purpose.  The approach of
+danger, or what was feared as such, was like a stimulating
+draught to one in apathy, and recalled Sir Kenneth to himself and
+his situation.
+
+"What fear you from these Christian horsemen, for such they
+seem?"  he said to the Hakim.
+
+"Fear!"  said El Hakim, repeating the word disdainfully. "The
+sage fears nothing but Heaven, but ever expects from wicked men
+the worst which they can do."
+
+"They are Christians," said Sir Kenneth, "and it is the time of
+truce--why should you fear a breach of faith?"
+
+"They are the priestly soldiers of the Temple," answered El
+Hakim, "whose vow limits them to know neither truce nor faith
+with the worshippers of Islam.  May the Prophet blight them, both
+root, branch, and twig!  Their peace is war, and their faith is
+falsehood.  Other invaders of Palestine have their times and
+moods of courtesy.  The lion Richard will spare when he has
+conquered, the eagle Philip will close his wing when he has
+stricken a prey, even the Austrian bear will sleep when he is
+gorged; but this horde of ever-hungry wolves know neither pause
+nor satiety in their rapine.  Seest thou not that they are
+detaching a party from their main body, and that they take an
+eastern direction? Yon are their pages and squires, whom they
+train up in their accursed mysteries, and whom, as lighter
+mounted, they send to cut us off from our watering-place.  But
+they will be disappointed.  I know the war of the desert yet
+better than they."
+
+He spoke a few words to his principal officer, and his whole
+demeanour and countenance was at once changed from the solemn
+repose of an Eastern sage accustomed more to contemplation than
+to action, into the prompt and proud expression of a gallant
+soldier whose energies are roused by the near approach of a
+danger which he at once foresees and despises.
+
+To Sir Kenneth's eyes the approaching crisis had a different
+aspect, and when Adonbec said to him, "Thou must tarry close by
+my side," he answered solemnly in the negative.
+
+"Yonder," he said, "are my comrades in arms--the men in whose
+society I have vowed to fight or fall.  On their banner gleams
+the sign of our most blessed redemption--I cannot fly from the
+Cross in company with the Crescent."
+
+"Fool!"  said the Hakim; "their first action would be to do thee
+to death, were it only to conceal their breach of the truce."
+
+"Of that I must take my chance," replied Sir Kenneth; "but I wear
+not the bonds of the infidels an instant longer than I can cast
+them from me."
+
+"Then will I compel thee to follow me," said El Hakim.
+
+"Compel!"  answered Sir Kenneth angrily.  "Wert thou not my
+benefactor, or one who has showed will to be such, and were it
+not that it is to thy confidence I owe the freedom of these
+hands, which thou mightst have loaded with fetters, I would show
+thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsion would be no easy task."
+
+"Enough, enough," replied the Arabian physician, "we lose time
+even when it is becoming precious."
+
+So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill
+cry, as a signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed
+themselves on the face of the desert, in as many different
+directions as a chaplet of beads when the string is broken.  Sir
+Kenneth had no time to note what ensued; for, at the same
+instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed, and putting his
+own to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with the suddenness
+of light, and at a pitch of velocity which almost deprived the
+Scottish knight of the power of respiration, and left him
+absolutely incapable, had he been desirous, to have checked the
+career of his guide.  Practised as Sir Kenneth was in
+horsemanship from his earliest youth, the speediest horse he had
+ever mounted was a tortoise in comparison to those of the Arabian
+sage.  They spurned the sand from behind them; they seemed to
+devour the desert before them; miles flew away with minutes--and
+yet their strength seemed unabated, and their respiration as free
+as when they first started upon the wonderful race.  The motion,
+too, as easy as it was swift, seemed more like flying through the
+air than riding on the earth, and was attended with no unpleasant
+sensation, save the awe naturally felt by one who is moving at
+such astonishing speed, and the difficulty of breathing
+occasioned by their passing through the air so rapidly.
+
+It was not until after an hour of this portentous motion, and
+when all human pursuit was far, far behind, that the Hakim at
+length relaxed his speed, and, slackening the pace of the horses
+into a hand-gallop, began, in a voice as composed and even as if
+he had been walking for the last hour, a descant upon the
+excellence of his coursers to the Scot, who, breathless, half
+blind, half deaf, and altogether giddy; from the rapidity of this
+singular ride, hardly comprehended the words which flowed so
+freely from his companion.
+
+"These horses," he said, "are of the breed called the Winged,
+equal in speed to aught excepting the Borak of the Prophet.  They
+are fed on the golden barley of Yemen, mixed with spices and with
+a small portion of dried sheep's flesh.  Kings have given
+provinces to possess them, and their age is active as their
+youth.  Thou, Nazarene, art the first, save a true believer, that
+ever had beneath his loins one of this noble race, a gift of the
+Prophet himself to the blessed Ali, his kinsman and lieutenant,
+well called the Lion of God.  Time lays his touch so lightly on
+these generous steeds, that the mare on which thou now sittest
+has seen five times five years pass over her, yet retains her
+pristine speed and vigour, only that in the career the support of
+a bridle, managed by a hand more experienced than thine, hath now
+become necessary.  May the Prophet be blessed, who hath bestowed
+on the true believers the means of advance and retreat, which
+causeth their iron-clothed enemies to be worn out with their own
+ponderous weight!  How the horses of yonder dog Templars must
+have snorted and blown, when they had toiled fetlock-deep in the
+desert for one-twentieth part of the space which these brave
+steeds have left behind them, without one thick pant, or a drop
+of moisture upon their sleek and velvet coats!"
+
+The Scottish knight, who had now begun to recover his breath and
+powers of attention, could not help acknowledging in his heart
+the advantage possessed by these Eastern warriors in a race of
+animals, alike proper for advance or retreat, and so admirably
+adapted to the level and sandy deserts of Arabia and Syria.  But
+he did not choose to augment the pride of the Moslem by
+acquiescing in his proud claim of superiority, and therefore
+suffered the conversation to drop, and, looking around him, could
+now, at the more moderate pace at which they moved, distinguish
+that he was in a country not unknown to him.
+
+The blighted borders and sullen waters of the Dead Sea, the
+ragged and precipitous chain of mountains arising on the left,
+the two or three palms clustered together, forming the single
+green speck on the bosom of the waste wilderness--objects which,
+once seen, were scarcely to be forgotten--showed to Sir Kenneth
+that they were approaching the fountain called the Diamond of the
+Desert, which had been the scene of his interview on a former
+occasion with the Saracen Emir Sheerkohf, or Ilderim.  In a few
+minutes they checked their horses beside the spring, and the
+Hakim invited Sir Kenneth to descend from horseback and repose
+himself as in a place of safety.  They unbridled their steeds, El
+Hakim observing that further care of them was unnecessary, since
+they would be speedily joined by some of the best mounted among
+his slaves, who would do what further was needful.
+
+"Meantime," he said, spreading some food on the grass, "eat and
+drink, and be not discouraged.  Fortune may raise up or abase the
+ordinary mortal, but the sage and the soldier should have minds
+beyond her control."
+
+The Scottish knight endeavoured to testify his thanks by showing
+himself docile; but though he strove to eat out of complaisance,
+the singular contrast between his present situation and that
+which he had occupied on the same spot when the envoy of princes
+and the victor in combat, came like a cloud over his mind, and
+fasting, lassitude, and fatigue oppressed his bodily powers.  El
+Hakim examined his hurried pulse, his red and inflamed eye, his
+heated hand, and his shortened respiration.
+
+"The mind," he said, "grows wise by watching, but her sister the
+body, of coarser materials, needs the support of repose.  Thou
+must sleep; and that thou mayest do so to refreshment, thou must
+take a draught mingled with this elixir."
+
+He drew from his bosom a small crystal vial, cased in silver
+filigree-work, and dropped into a little golden drinking-cup a
+small portion of a dark-coloured fluid.
+
+"This," he said, "is one of those productions which Allah hath
+sent on earth for a blessing, though man's weakness and
+wickedness have sometimes converted it into a curse. It is
+powerful as the wine-cup of the Nazarene to drop the curtain on
+the sleepless eye, and to relieve the burden of the overloaded
+bosom; but when applied to the purposes of indulgence and
+debauchery, it rends the nerves, destroys the strength, weakens
+the intellect, and undermines life.  But fear not thou to use its
+virtues in the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the
+same firebrand with which the madman burneth the tent."  [Some
+preparation of opium seems to be intimated.]
+
+"I have seen too much of thy skill, sage Hakim," said Sir
+Kenneth, "to debate thine hest;" and swallowed the narcotic,
+mingled as it was with some water from the spring, then wrapped
+him in the haik, or Arab cloak, which had been fastened to his
+saddle-pommel, and, according to the directions of the physician,
+stretched himself at ease in the shade to await the promised
+repose.  Sleep came not at first, but in her stead a train of
+pleasing yet not rousing or awakening sensations.  A state ensued
+in which, still conscious of his own identity and his own
+condition, the knight felt enabled to consider them not only
+without alarm and sorrow, but as composedly as he might have
+viewed the story of his misfortunes acted upon a stage--or rather
+as a disembodied spirit might regard the transactions of its past
+existence.  From this state of repose, amounting almost to apathy
+respecting the past, his thoughts were carried forward to the
+future, which, in spite of all that existed to overcloud the
+prospect, glittered with such hues as, under much happier
+auspices, his unstimulated imagination had not been able to
+produce, even in its most exalted state.  Liberty, fame,
+successful love, appeared to be the certain and not very distant
+prospect of the enslaved exile, the dishonoured knight, even of
+the despairing lover who had placed his hopes of happiness so far
+beyond the prospect of chance, in her wildest possibilities,
+serving to countenance his wishes.  Gradually as the intellectual
+sight became overclouded, these gay visions became obscure, like
+the dying hues of sunset, until they were at last lost in total
+oblivion; and Sir Kenneth lay extended at the feet of El Hakim,
+to all appearance, but for his deep respiration, as inanimate a
+corpse as if life had actually departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+'Mid these wild scenes Enchantment waves her hand,
+To change the face of the mysterious land;
+Till the bewildering scenes around us seem
+The Vain productions of a feverish dream.   ASTOLPHO, A ROMANCE.
+
+When the Knight of the Leopard awoke from his long and profound
+repose, he found himself in circumstances so different from those
+in which he had lain down to sleep, that he doubted whether he
+was not still dreaming, or whether the scene had not been changed
+by magic.  Instead of the damp grass, he lay on a couch of more
+than Oriental luxury; and some kind hands had, during his repose,
+stripped him of the cassock of chamois which he wore under his
+armour, and substituted a night-dress of the finest linen and a
+loose gown of silk.  He had been canopied only by the palm-trees
+of the desert, but now he lay beneath a silken pavilion, which
+blazed with the richest colours of the Chinese loom, while a
+slight curtain of gauze, displayed around his couch, was
+calculated to protect his repose from the insects, to which he
+had, ever since his arrival in these climates, been a constant
+and passive prey.  He looked around, as if to convince himself
+that he was actually awake; and all that fell beneath his eye
+partook of the splendour of his dormitory.  A portable bath of
+cedar, lined with silver, was ready for use, and steamed with the
+odours which had been used in preparing it.  On a small stand of
+ebony beside the couch stood a silver vase, containing sherbet of
+the most exquisite quality, cold as snow, and which the thirst
+that followed the use of the strong narcotic rendered peculiarly
+delicious.  Still further to dispel the dregs of intoxication
+which it had left behind, the knight resolved to use the bath,
+and experienced in doing so a delightful refreshment.  Having
+dried himself with napkins of the Indian wool, he would willingly
+have resumed his own coarse garments, that he might go forth to
+see whether the world was as much changed without as within the
+place of his repose.  These, however, were nowhere to be seen,
+but in their place he found a Saracen dress of rich materials,
+with sabre and poniard, and all befitting an emir of distinction.
+He was able to suggest no motive to himself for this exuberance
+of care, excepting a suspicion that these attentions were
+intended to shake him in his religious profession--as indeed it
+was well known that the high esteem of the European knowledge and
+courage made the Soldan unbounded in his gifts to those who,
+having become his prisoners, had been induced to take the turban.
+Sir Kenneth, therefore, crossing himself devoutly, resolved to
+set all such snares at defiance; and that he might do so the more
+firmly, conscientiously determined to avail himself as moderately
+as possible of the attentions and luxuries thus liberally heaped
+upon him.  Still, however, he felt his head oppressed and sleepy;
+and aware, too, that his undress was not fit for appearing
+abroad, he reclined upon the couch, and was again locked in the
+arms of slumber.
+
+But this time his rest was not unbroken, for he was awakened by
+the voice of the physician at the door of the tent, inquiring
+after his health, and whether he had rested sufficiently.  "May I
+enter your tent?" he concluded, "for the curtain is drawn before
+the entrance."
+
+"The master," replied Sir Kenneth, determined to show that he was
+not surprised into forgetfulness of his own condition, "need
+demand no permission to enter the tent of the slave."
+
+"But if I come not as a master?" said El Hakim, still without
+entering.
+
+"The physician," answered the knight, "hath free access to the
+bedside of his patient."
+
+"Neither come I now as a physician," replied El Hakim; "and
+therefore I still request permission, ere I come under the
+covering of thy tent."
+
+"Whoever comes as a friend," said Sir Kenneth, "and such thou
+hast hitherto shown thyself to me, the habitation of the friend
+is ever open to him."
+
+"Yet once again," said the Eastern sage, after the periphrastical
+manner of his countrymen, "supposing that I come not as a
+friend?"
+
+"Come as thou wilt," said the Scottish knight, somewhat impatient
+of this circumlocution; "be what thou wilt--thou knowest well it
+is neither in my power nor my inclination to refuse thee
+entrance."
+
+"I come, then," said El Hakim, "as your ancient foe, but a fair
+and a generous one."
+
+He entered as he spoke; and when he stood before the bedside of
+Sir Kenneth, the voice continued to be that of Adonbec, the
+Arabian physician, but the form, dress, and features were those
+of Ilderim of Kurdistan, called Sheerkohf.  Sir Kenneth gazed
+upon him as if he expected the vision to depart, like something
+created by his imagination.
+
+"Doth it so surprise thee," said Ilderim, "and thou an approved
+warrior, to see that a soldier knows somewhat of the art of
+healing?  I say to thee, Nazarene, that an accomplished cavalier
+should know how to dress his steed, as well as how to ride him;
+how to forge his sword upon the stithy, as well as how to use it
+in battle; how to burnish his arms, as well as how to wear them;
+and, above all, how to cure wounds, as well as how to inflict
+them."
+
+As he spoke, the Christian knight repeatedly shut his eyes, and
+while they remained closed, the idea of the Hakim, with his long,
+flowing dark robes, high Tartar cap, and grave gestures was
+present to his imagination; but so soon as he opened them, the
+graceful and richly-gemmed turban, the light hauberk of steel
+rings entwisted with silver, which glanced brilliantly as it
+obeyed every inflection of the body, the features freed from
+their formal expression, less swarthy, and no longer shadowed by
+the mass of hair (now limited to a well-trimmed beard), announced
+the soldier and not the sage.
+
+"Art thou still so much surprised," said the Emir, "and hast thou
+walked in the world with such little observance, as to wonder
+that men are not always what they seem? Thou thyself--art thou
+what thou seemest?"
+
+"No, by Saint Andrew!" exclaimed the knight; "for to the whole
+Christian camp I seem a traitor, and I know myself to be a true
+though an erring man."
+
+"Even so I judged thee," said Ilderim; "and as we had eaten salt
+together, I deemed myself bound to rescue thee from death and
+contumely.  But wherefore lie you still on your couch, since the
+sun is high in the heavens?  or are the vestments which my
+sumpter-camels have afforded unworthy of your wearing?"
+
+"Not unworthy, surely, but unfitting for it," replied the Scot.
+"Give me the dress of a slave, noble Ilderim, and I will don it
+with pleasure; but I cannot brook to wear the habit of the free
+Eastern warrior with the turban of the Moslem."
+
+"Nazarene," answered the Emir, "thy nation so easily entertain
+suspicion that it may well render themselves suspected.  Have I
+not told thee that Saladin desires no converts saving those whom
+the holy Prophet shall dispose to submit themselves to his law?
+violence and bribery are alike alien to his plan for extending
+the true faith.  Hearken to me, my brother.  When the blind man
+was miraculously restored to sight, the scales dropped from his
+eyes at the Divine pleasure.  Think'st thou that any earthly
+leech could have removed them?  No.  Such mediciner might have
+tormented the patient with his instruments, or perhaps soothed
+him with his balsams and cordials, but dark as he was must the
+darkened man have remained; and it is even so with the blindness
+of the understanding.  If there be those among the Franks who,
+for the sake of worldly lucre, have assumed the turban of the
+Prophet, and followed the laws of Islam, with their own
+consciences be the blame.  Themselves sought out the bait; it was
+not flung to them by the Soldan.  And when they shall hereafter
+be sentenced, as hypocrites, to the lowest gulf of hell, below
+Christian and Jew, magician and idolater, and condemned to eat
+the fruit of the tree Yacoun, which is the heads of demons, to
+themselves, not to the Soldan, shall their guilt and their
+punishment be attributed.  Wherefore wear, without doubt or
+scruple, the vesture prepared for you, since, if you proceed to
+the camp of Saladin, your own native dress will expose you to
+troublesome observation, and perhaps to insult."
+
+"IF I go to the camp of Saladin?" said Sir Kenneth, repeating the
+words of the Emir; "alas!  am I a free agent, and rather must I
+NOT go wherever your pleasure carries me?"
+
+"Thine own will may guide thine own motions," said the Emir, "as
+freely as the wind which moveth the dust of the desert in what
+direction it chooseth.  The noble enemy who met and well-nigh
+mastered my sword cannot become my slave like him who has
+crouched beneath it.  If wealth and power would tempt thee to
+join our people, I could ensure thy possessing them; but the man
+who refused the favours of the Soldan when the axe was at his
+head, will not, I fear, now accept them, when I tell him he has
+his free choice."
+
+"Complete your generosity, noble Emir," said Sir Kenneth, "by
+forbearing to show me a mode of requital which conscience forbids
+me to comply with.  Permit me rather to express, as bound in
+courtesy, my gratitude for this most chivalrous bounty, this
+undeserved generosity."
+
+"Say not undeserved," replied the Emir Ilderim.  "Was it not
+through thy conversation, and thy account of the beauties which
+grace the court of the Melech Ric, that I ventured me thither in
+disguise, and thereby procured a sight the most blessed that I
+have ever enjoyed--that I ever shall enjoy, until the glories of
+Paradise beam on my eyes?"
+
+"I understand you not," said Sir Kenneth, colouring alternately,
+and turning pale, as one who felt that the conversation was
+taking a tone of the most painful delicacy.
+
+"Not understand me!" exclaimed the Emir.  "If the sight I saw in
+the tent of King Richard escaped thine observation, I will
+account it duller than the edge of a buffoon's wooden falchion.
+True, thou wert under sentence of death at the time; but, in my
+case, had my head been dropping from the trunk, the last strained
+glances of my eyeballs had distinguished with delight such a
+vision of loveliness, and the head would have rolled itself
+towards the incomparable houris, to kiss with its quivering lips
+the hem of their vestments.  Yonder royalty of England, who for
+her superior loveliness deserves to be Queen of the universe--
+what tenderness in her blue eye, what lustre in her tresses of
+dishevelled gold!  By the tomb of the Prophet, I scarce think
+that the houri who shall present to me the diamond cup of
+immortality will deserve so warm a caress!"
+
+"Saracen," said Sir Kenneth sternly, "thou speakest of the wife
+of Richard of England, of whom men think not and speak not as a
+woman to be won, but as a Queen to be revered."
+
+"I cry you mercy," said the Saracen.  "I had forgotten your
+superstitious veneration for the sex, which you consider rather
+fit to be wondered at and worshipped than wooed and possessed.  I
+warrant, since thou exactest such profound respect to yonder
+tender piece of frailty, whose every motion, step, and look
+bespeaks her very woman, less than absolute adoration must not be
+yielded to her of the dark tresses and nobly speaking eye.  SHE
+indeed, I will allow, hath in her noble port and majestic mien
+something at once pure and firm; yet even she, when pressed by
+opportunity and a forward lover, would, I warrant thee, thank him
+in her heart rather for treating her as a mortal than as a
+goddess."
+
+"Respect the kinswoman of Coeur de Lion!"  said Sir Kenneth, in a
+tone of unrepressed anger.
+
+"Respect her!" answered the Emir in scorn; "by the Caaba, and if
+I do, it shall be rather as the bride of Saladin."
+
+"The infidel Soldan is unworthy to salute even a spot that has
+been pressed by the foot of Edith Plantagenet!"  exclaimed the
+Christian, springing from his couch.
+
+"Ha!  what said the Giaour?"  exclaimed the Emir, laying his hand
+on his poniard hilt, while his forehead glowed like glancing
+copper, and the muscles of his lips and cheeks wrought till each
+curl of his beard seemed to twist and screw itself, as if alive
+with instinctive wrath.  But the Scottish knight, who had stood
+the lion-anger of Richard, was unappalled at the tigerlike mood
+of the chafed Saracen.
+
+"What I have said," continued Sir Kenneth, with folded arms and
+dauntless look, "I would, were my hands loose, maintain on foot
+or horseback against all mortals; and would hold it not the most
+memorable deed of my life to support it with my good broadsword
+against a score of these sickles and bodkins,"  pointing at the
+curved sabre and small poniard of the Emir.
+
+The Saracen recovered his composure as the Christian spoke, so
+far as to withdraw his hand from his weapon, as if the motion had
+been without meaning, but still continued in deep ire.
+
+"By the sword of the Prophet," he said, "which is the key both of
+heaven and hell, he little values his own life, brother, who uses
+the language thou dost!  Believe me, that were thine hands loose,
+as thou term'st it, one single true believer would find them so
+much to do that thou wouldst soon wish them fettered again in
+manacles of iron."
+
+"Sooner would I wish them hewn off by the shoulder-blades!"
+replied Sir Kenneth.
+
+"Well.  Thy hands are bound at present," said the Saracen, in a
+more amicable tone--"bound by thine own gentle sense of courtesy;
+nor have I any present purpose of setting them at liberty.  We
+have proved each other's strength and courage ere now, and we may
+again meet in a fair field--and shame befall him who shall be
+the first to part from his foeman!  But now we are friends, and I
+look for aid from thee rather than hard terms or defiances."
+
+"We ARE friends," repeated the knight; and there was a pause,
+during which the fiery Saracen paced the tent, like the lion,
+who, after violent irritation, is said to take that method of
+cooling the distemperature of his blood, ere he stretches himself
+to repose in his den.  The colder European remained unaltered in
+posture and aspect; yet he, doubtless, was also engaged in
+subduing the angry feelings which had been so unexpectedly
+awakened.
+
+"Let us reason of this calmly," said the Saracen.  "I am a
+physician, as thou knowest, and it is written that he who would
+have his wound cured must not shrink when the leech probes and
+tests it.  Seest thou, I am about to lay my finger on the sore.
+Thou lovest this kinswoman of the Melech Ric.  Unfold the veil
+that shrouds thy thoughts--or unfold it not if thou wilt, for
+mine eyes see through its coverings."
+
+"I LOVED her," answered Sir Kenneth, after a pause, "as a man
+loves Heaven's grace, and sued for her favour like a sinner for
+Heaven's pardon."
+
+"And you love her no longer?"  said the Saracen.
+
+"Alas," answered Sir Kenneth, "I am no longer worthy to love her.
+I pray thee cease this discourse--thy words are poniards to me."
+
+"Pardon me but a moment," continued Ilderim.  "When thou, a poor
+and obscure soldier, didst so boldly and so highly fix thine
+affection, tell me, hadst thou good hope of its issue?"
+
+"Love exists not without hope," replied the knight; "but mine was
+as nearly allied to despair as that of the sailor swimming for
+his life, who, as he surmounts billow after billow, catches by
+intervals some gleam of the distant beacon, which shows him there
+is land in sight, though his sinking heart and wearied limbs
+assure him that he shall never reach it."
+
+"And now," said Ilderim, "these hopes are sunk--that solitary
+light is quenched for ever?"
+
+"For ever," answered Sir Kenneth, in the tone of an echo from the
+bosom of a ruined sepulchre.
+
+"Methinks," said the Saracen, "if all thou lackest were some such
+distant meteoric glimpse of happiness as thou hadst formerly, thy
+beacon-light might be rekindled, thy hope fished up from the
+ocean in which it has sunk, and thou thyself, good knight,
+restored to the exercise and amusement of nourishing thy
+fantastic fashion upon a diet as unsubstantial as moonlight; for,
+if thou stood'st tomorrow fair in reputation as ever thou wert,
+she whom thou lovest will not be less the daughter of princes and
+the elected bride of Saladin."
+
+"I would it so stood," said the Scot, "and if I did not--"
+
+He stopped short, like a man who is afraid of boasting under
+circumstances which did not permit his being put to the test.
+The Saracen smiled as he concluded the sentence.
+
+"Thou wouldst challenge the.  Soldan to single combat?" said he.
+
+"And if I did," said Sir Kenneth haughtily, "Saladin's would
+neither be the first nor the best turban that I have couched
+lance at."
+
+"Ay, but methinks the Soldan might regard it as too unequal a
+mode of perilling the chance of a royal bride and the event of a
+great war," said the Emir.
+
+"He may be met with in the front of battle," said the knight, his
+eyes gleaming with the ideas which such a thought inspired.
+
+"He has been ever found there," said Ilderim; "nor is it his wont
+to turn his horse's head from any brave encounter.  But it was
+not of the Soldan that I meant to speak.  In a word, if it will
+content thee to be placed in such reputation as may be attained
+by detection of the thief who stole the Banner of England, I can
+put thee in a fair way of achieving this task--that is, if thou
+wilt be governed; for what says Lokman, 'If the child would walk,
+the nurse must lead him; if the ignorant would understand, the
+wise must instruct.'"
+
+"And thou art wise, Ilderim," said the Scot--"wise though a
+Saracen, and generous though an infidel.  I have witnessed that
+thou art both.  Take, then, the guidance of this matter; and so
+thou ask nothing of me contrary to my loyalty and my Christian
+faith, I, will obey thee punctually.  Do what thou hast said, and
+take my life when it is accomplished."
+
+"Listen thou to me, then," said the Saracen.  "Thy noble hound is
+now recovered, by the blessing of that divine medicine which
+healeth man and beast; and by his sagacity shall those who
+assailed him be discovered."
+
+"Ha!"  said the knight, "methinks I comprehend thee. I was dull
+not to think of this!"
+
+"But tell me," added the Emir, "hast thou any followers or
+retainers in the camp by whom the animal may be known?"
+
+"I dismissed," said Sir Kenneth, "my old attendant, thy patient,
+with a varlet that waited on him, at the time when I expected to
+suffer death, giving him letters for my friends in Scotland;
+there are none other to whom the dog is familiar.  But then my
+own person is well known--my very speech will betray me, in a
+camp where I have played no mean part for many months."
+
+"Both he and thou shalt be disguised, so as to escape even close
+examination.  I tell thee," said the Saracen, "that not thy
+brother in arms--not thy brother in blood--shall discover thee,
+if thou be guided by my counsels.  Thou hast seen me do matters
+more difficult--he that can call the dying from the darkness of
+the shadow of death can easily cast a mist before the eyes of the
+living.  But mark me:  there is still the condition annexed to
+this service--that thou deliver a letter of Saladin to the niece
+of the Melech Ric, whose name is as difficult to our Eastern
+tongue and lips, as her beauty is delightful to our eyes."
+
+Sir Kenneth paused before he answered, and the Saracen observing
+his hesitation, demanded of him, "if he feared to undertake this
+message?"
+
+"Not if there were death in the execution," said Sir Kenneth.  "I
+do but pause to consider whether it consists with my honour to
+bear the letter of the Soldan, or with that of the Lady Edith to
+receive it from a heathen prince."
+
+"By the head of Mohammed, and by the honour of a soldier--by the
+tomb at Mecca, and by the soul of my father," said the Emir, "I
+swear to thee that the letter is written in all honour and
+respect.  The song of the nightingale will sooner blight the
+rose-bower she loves than will the words of the Soldan offend the
+ears of the lovely kinswoman of England."
+
+"Then," said the knight, "I will bear the Soldan's letter
+faithfully, as if I were his born vassal--understanding, that
+beyond this simple act of service, which I will render with
+fidelity, from me of all men he can least expect mediation or
+advice in this his strange love-suit."
+
+"Saladin is noble," answered the Emir, "and will not spur a
+generous horse to a leap which he cannot achieve.  Come with me
+to my tent," he added, "and thou shalt be presently equipped with
+a disguise as unsearchable as midnight, so thou mayest walk the
+camp of the Nazarenes as if thou hadst on thy finger the signet
+of Giaougi."  [Perhaps the same with Gyges.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A grain of dust
+Soiling our cup, will make our sense reject
+Fastidiously the draught which we did thirst for;
+A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass,
+Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
+Even this small cause of anger and disgust
+Will break the bonds of amity 'mongst princes,
+And wreck their noblest purposes.             THE CRUSADE.
+
+The reader can now have little doubt who the Ethiopian slave
+really was, with what purpose he had sought Richard's camp, and
+wherefore and with what hope he now stood close to the person of
+that Monarch, as, surrounded by his valiant peers of England and
+Normandy, Coeur de Lion stood on the summit of Saint George's
+Mount, with the Banner of England by his side, borne by the most
+goodly person in the army, being his own natural brother, William
+with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury, the offspring of Henry
+the Second's amour with the celebrated Rosamond of Woodstock.
+
+From several expressions in the King's conversation with Neville
+on the preceding day, the Nubian was left in anxious doubt
+whether his disguise had not been penetrated, especially as that
+the King seemed to be aware in what manner the agency of the dog
+was expected to discover the thief who stole the banner, although
+the circumstance of such an animal's having been wounded on the
+occasion had been scarce mentioned in Richard's presence.
+Nevertheless, as the King continued to treat him in no other
+manner than his exterior required, the Nubian remained uncertain
+whether he was or was not discovered, and determined not to throw
+his disguise aside voluntarily.
+
+Meanwhile, the powers of the various Crusading princes, arrayed
+under their royal and princely leaders, swept in long order
+around the base of the little mound; and as those of each
+different country passed by, their commanders advanced a step or
+two up the hill, and made a signal of courtesy to Richard and to
+the Standard of England, "in sign of regard and amity," as the
+protocol of the ceremony heedfully expressed it, "not of
+subjection or vassalage."  The spiritual dignitaries, who in
+those days veiled not their bonnets to created being, bestowed on
+the King and his symbol of command their blessing instead of
+rendering obeisance.
+
+Thus the long files marched on, and, diminished as they were by
+so many causes, appeared still an iron host, to whom the conquest
+of Palestine might seem an easy task. The soldiers, inspired by
+the consciousness of united strength, sat erect in their steel
+saddles; while it seemed that the trumpets sounded more
+cheerfully shrill, and the steeds, refreshed by rest and
+provender, chafed on the bit, and trod the ground more proudly.
+On they passed, troop after troop, banners waving, spears
+glancing, plumes dancing, in long perspective--a host composed of
+different nations, complexions, languages, arms, and appearances,
+but all fired, for the time, with the holy yet romantic purpose
+of rescuing the distressed daughter of Zion from her thraldom,
+and redeeming the sacred earth, which more than mortal had
+trodden, from the yoke of the unbelieving pagan.  And it must be
+owned that if, in other circumstances, the species of courtesy
+rendered to the King of England by so many warriors, from whom he
+claimed no natural allegiance, had in it something that might
+have been thought humiliating, yet the nature and cause of the
+war was so fitted to his pre-eminently chivalrous character and
+renowned feats in arms, that claims which might elsewhere have
+been urged were there forgotten, and the brave did willing homage
+to the bravest, in an expedition where the most undaunted and
+energetic courage was necessary to success.
+
+The good King was seated on horseback about half way up the
+mount, a morion on his head, surmounted by a crown, which left
+his manly features exposed to public view, as, with cool and
+considerate eye, he perused each rank as it passed him, and
+returned the salutation of the leaders.  His tunic was of sky-coloured velvet, covered with plates of silver, 
+and his hose of
+crimson silk, slashed with cloth of gold.  By his side stood the
+seeming Ethiopian slave, holding the noble dog in a leash, such
+as was used in woodcraft.  It was a circumstance which attracted
+no notice, for many of the princes of the Crusade had introduced
+black slaves into their household, in imitation of the barbarous
+splendour of the Saracens.  Over the King's head streamed the
+large folds of the banner, and, as he looked to it from time to
+time, he seemed to regard a ceremony, indifferent to himself
+personally, as important, when considered as atoning an indignity
+offered to the kingdom which he ruled.  In the background, and on
+the very summit of the Mount, a wooden turret, erected for the
+occasion, held the Queen Berengaria and the principal ladies of
+the Court.  To this the King looked from time to time; and then
+ever and anon his eyes were turned on the Nubian and the dog, but
+only when such leaders approached, as, from circumstances of
+previous ill-will, he suspected of being accessory to the theft
+of the standard, or whom he judged capable of a crime so mean.
+
+Thus, he did not look in that direction when Philip Augustus of
+France approached at the head of his splendid troops of Gallic
+chivalry---nay, he anticipated the motions of the French King, by
+descending the Mount as the latter came up the ascent, so that
+they met in the middle space, and blended their greetings so
+gracefully that it appeared they met in fraternal equality.  The
+sight of the two greatest princes in Europe, in rank at once and
+power, thus publicly avowing their concord, called forth bursts
+of thundering acclaim from the Crusading host at many miles
+distance, and made the roving Arab scouts of the desert alarm the
+camp of Saladin with intelligence that the army of the Christians
+was in motion.  Yet who but the King of kings can read the hearts
+of monarchs?  Under this smooth show of courtesy, Richard
+nourished displeasure and suspicion against Philip, and Philip
+meditated withdrawing himself and his host from the army of the
+Cross, and leaving Richard to accomplish or fail in the
+enterprise with his own unassisted forces.
+
+Richard's demeanour was different when the dark-armed knights and
+squires of the Temple chivalry approached--men with countenances
+bronzed to Asiatic blackness by the suns of Palestine, and the
+admirable state of whose horses and appointments far surpassed
+even that of the choicest troops of France and England.  The King
+cast a hasty glance aside; but the Nubian stood quiet, and his
+trusty dog sat at his feet, watching, with a sagacious yet
+pleased look, the ranks which now passed before them.  The King's
+look turned again on the chivalrous Templars, as the Grand
+Master, availing himself of his mingled character, bestowed his
+benediction on Richard as a priest, instead of doing him
+reverence as a military leader.
+
+"The misproud and amphibious caitiff puts the monk upon me," said
+Richard to the Earl of Salisbury.  "But, Longsword, we will let
+it pass.  A punctilio must not lose Christendom the services of
+these experienced lances, because their victories have rendered
+them overweening.  Lo you, here comes our valiant adversary, the
+Duke of Austria. Mark his manner and bearing, Longsword--and
+thou, Nubian, let the hound have full view of him.  By Heaven, he
+brings his buffoons along with him!"
+
+In fact, whether from habit, or, which is more likely, to
+intimate contempt of the ceremonial he was about to comply with,
+Leopold was attended by his SPRUCH-SPRECHER and his jester; and
+as he advanced towards Richard, he whistled in what he wished to
+be considered as an indifferent manner, though his heavy features
+evinced the sullenness, mixed with the fear, with which a truant
+schoolboy may be seen to approach his master.  As the reluctant
+dignitary made, with discomposed and sulky look, the obeisance
+required, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER shook his baton, and proclaimed,
+like a herald, that, in what he was now doing, the Archduke of
+Austria was not to be held derogating from the rank and
+privileges of a sovereign prince; to which the jester answered
+with a sonorous AMEN, which provoked much laughter among the
+bystanders.
+
+King Richard looked more than once at the Nubian and his dog; but
+the former moved not, nor did the latter strain at the leash, so
+that Richard said to the slave with some scorn, "Thy success in
+this enterprise, my sable friend, even though thou hast brought
+thy hound's sagacity to back thine own, will not, I fear, place
+thee high in the rank of wizards, or much augment thy merits
+towards our person."
+
+The Nubian answered, as usual, only by a lowly obeisance.
+
+Meantime the troops of the Marquis of Montserrat next passed in
+order before the King of England.  That powerful and wily baron,
+to make the greater display of his forces, had divided them into
+two bodies.  At the head of the first, consisting of his vassals
+and followers, and levied from his Syrian possessions, came his
+brother Enguerrand; and he himself followed, leading on a gallant
+band of twelve hundred Stradiots, a kind of light cavalry raised
+by the Venetians in their Dalmatian possessions, and of which
+they had entrusted the command to the Marquis, with whom the
+republic had many bonds of connection.  These Stradiots were
+clothed in a fashion partly European, but partaking chiefly of
+the Eastern fashion.  They wore, indeed, short hauberks, but had
+over them party-coloured tunics of rich stuffs, with large wide
+pantaloons and half-boots.  On their heads were straight upright
+caps, similar to those of the Greeks; and they carried small
+round targets, bows and arrows, scimitars, and poniards.  They
+were mounted on horses carefully selected, and well maintained at
+the expense of the State of Venice; their saddles and
+appointments resembled those of the Turks, and they rode in the
+same manner, with short stirrups and upon a high seat.  These
+troops were of great use in skirmishing with the Arabs, though
+unable to engage in close combat, like the iron-sheathed men-at-arms of Western and Northern Europe.
+
+Before this goodly band came Conrade, in the same garb with the
+Stradiots, but of such rich stuff that he seemed to blaze with
+gold and silver, and the milk-white plume fastened in his cap by
+a clasp of diamonds seemed tall enough to sweep the clouds.  The
+noble steed which he reined bounded and caracoled, and displayed
+his spirit and agility in a manner which might have troubled a
+less admirable horseman than the Marquis, who gracefully ruled
+him with the one hand, while the other displayed the baton, whose
+predominancy over the ranks which he led seemed equally absolute.
+Yet his authority over the Stradiots was more in show than in
+substance; for there paced beside him, on an ambling palfrey of
+soberest mood, a little old man, dressed entirely in black,
+without beard or moustaches, and having an appearance altogether
+mean and insignificant when compared with the blaze of splendour
+around him.  But this mean-looking old man was one of those
+deputies whom the Venetian government sent into camps to overlook
+the conduct of the generals to whom the leading was consigned,
+and to maintain that jealous system of espial and control which
+had long distinguished the policy of the republic.
+
+Conrade, who, by cultivating Richard's humour, had attained a
+certain degree of favour with him, no sooner was come within his
+ken than the King of England descended a step or two to meet him,
+exclaiming, at the same time, "Ha, Lord Marquis, thou at the head
+of the fleet Stradiots, and thy black shadow attending thee as
+usual, whether the sun shines or not!  May not one ask thee
+whether the rule of the troops remains with the shadow or the
+substance?"
+
+Conrade was commencing his reply with a smile, when Roswal, the
+noble hound, uttering a furious and savage yell, sprung forward.
+The Nubian, at the same time, slipped the leash, and the hound,
+rushing on, leapt upon Conrade's noble charger, and, seizing the
+Marquis by the throat, pulled him down from the saddle.  The
+plumed rider lay rolling on the sand, and the frightened horse
+fled in wild career through the camp.
+
+"Thy hound hath pulled down the right quarry, I warrant him,"
+said the King to the Nubian, "and I vow to Saint George he is a
+stag of ten tynes!  Pluck the dog off; lest he throttle him."
+
+The Ethiopian, accordingly, though not without difficulty,
+disengaged the dog from Conrade, and fastened him up, still
+highly excited, and struggling in the leash.  Meanwhile many
+crowded to the spot, especially followers of Conrade and officers
+of the Stradiots, who, as they saw their leader lie gazing wildly
+on the sky, raised him up amid a tumultuary cry of "Cut the slave
+and his hound to pieces!"
+
+But the voice of Richard, loud and sonorous, was heard clear
+above all other exclamations.  "He dies the death who injures the
+hound!  He hath but done his duty, after the sagacity with which
+God and nature have endowed the brave animal.--Stand forward for
+a false traitor, thou Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat!  I impeach
+thee of treason."
+
+Several of the Syrian leaders had now come up, and Conrade
+--vexation, and shame, and confusion struggling with passion in
+his manner and voice--exclaimed, "What means this?  With what am
+I charged?  Why this base usage and these reproachful terms?  Is
+this the league of concord which England renewed but so lately?"
+
+"Are the Princes of the Crusade turned hares or deers in the eyes
+of King Richard that he should slip hounds on them?"  said the
+sepulchral voice of the Grand Master of the Templars.
+
+"It must be some singular accident--some fatal mistake," said
+Philip of France, who rode up at the same moment.
+
+"Some deceit of the Enemy," said the Archbishop of Tyre.
+
+"A stratagem of the Saracens," cried Henry of Champagne.  "It
+were well to hang up the dog, and put the slave to the torture."
+
+"Let no man lay hand upon them," said Richard, "as he loves his
+own life!  Conrade, stand forth, if thou darest, and deny the
+accusation which this mute animal hath in his noble instinct
+brought against thee, of injury done to him, and foul scorn to
+England!"
+
+"I never touched the banner," said Conrade hastily.
+
+"Thy words betray thee, Conrade!"  said Richard, "for how didst
+thou know, save from conscious guilt, that the question is
+concerning the banner?"
+
+"Hast thou then not kept the camp in turmoil on that and no other
+score?"  answered Conrade; "and dost thou impute to a prince and
+an ally a crime which, after all, was probably committed by some
+paltry felon for the sake of the gold thread?  Or wouldst thou
+now impeach a confederate on the credit of a dog?"
+
+By this time the alarm was becoming general, so that Philip of
+France interposed.
+
+"Princes and nobles," he said, "you speak in presence of those
+whose swords will soon be at the throats of each other if they
+hear their leaders at such terms together.  In the name of
+Heaven, let us draw off each his own troops into their separate
+quarters, and ourselves meet an hour hence in the Pavilion of
+Council to take some order in this new state of confusion."
+
+"Content," said King Richard, "though I should have liked to have
+interrogated that caitiff while his gay doublet was yet
+besmirched with sand.  But the pleasure of France shall be ours
+in this matter."
+
+The leaders separated as was proposed, each prince placing
+himself at the head of his own forces; and then was heard on all
+sides the crying of war-cries and the sounding of gathering-notes
+upon bugles and trumpets, by which the different stragglers were
+summoned to their prince's banner, and the troops were shortly
+seen in motion, each taking different routes through the camp to
+their own quarters.  But although any immediate act of violence
+was thus prevented, yet the accident which had taken place dwelt
+on every mind; and those foreigners who had that morning hailed
+Richard as the worthiest to lead their army, now resumed their
+prejudices against his pride and intolerance, while the English,
+conceiving the honour of their country connected with the
+quarrel, of which various reports had gone about, considered the
+natives of other countries jealous of the fame of England and her
+King, and disposed to undermine it by the meanest arts of
+intrigue.  Many and various were the rumours spread upon the
+occasion, and there was one which averred that the Queen and her
+ladies had been much alarmed by the tumult, and that one of them
+had swooned.
+
+The Council assembled at the appointed hour.  Conrade had in the
+meanwhile laid aside his dishonoured dress, and with it the shame
+and confusion which, in spite of his talents and promptitude, had
+at first overwhelmed him, owing to the strangeness of the
+accident and suddenness of the accusation.  He was now robed like
+a prince; and entered the council-chamber attended by the
+Archduke of Austria, the Grand Masters both of the Temple and of
+the Order of Saint John, and several other potentates, who made a
+show of supporting him and defending his cause, chiefly perhaps
+from political motives, or because they themselves nourished a
+personal enmity against Richard.
+
+This appearance of union in favour of Conrade was far from
+influencing the King of England.  He entered the Council with his
+usual indifference of manner, and in the same dress in which he
+had just alighted from horseback.  He cast a careless and
+somewhat scornful glance on the leaders, who had with studied
+affectation arranged themselves around Conrade as if owning his
+cause, and in the most direct terms charged Conrade of Montserrat
+with having stolen the Banner of England, and wounded the
+faithful animal who stood in its defence.
+
+Conrade arose boldly to answer, and in despite, as he expressed
+himself, of man and brute, king or dog, avouched his innocence of
+the crime charged.
+
+"Brother of England," said Philip, who willingly assumed the
+character of moderator of the assembly, "this is an unusual
+impeachment.  We do not hear you avouch your own knowledge of
+this matter, further than your belief resting upon the demeanour
+of this hound towards the Marquis of Montserrat.  Surely the word
+of a knight and a prince should bear him out against the barking
+of a cur?"
+
+"Royal brother," returned Richard, "recollect that the Almighty,
+who gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils,
+hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit.
+He forgets neither friend nor foe--remembers, and with accuracy,
+both benefit and injury. He hath a share of man's intelligence,
+but no share of man's falsehood.  You may bribe a soldier to slay
+a man with his sword, or a witness to take life by false
+accusation; but you cannot make a hound tear his benefactor.  He
+is the friend of man, save when man justly incurs his enmity.
+Dress yonder marquis in what peacock-robes you will, disguise his
+appearance, alter his complexion with drugs and washes, hide him
+amidst a hundred men,--I will yet pawn my sceptre that the hound
+detects him, and expresses his resentment, as you have this day
+beheld.  This is no new incident, although a strange one.
+Murderers and robbers have been ere now convicted, and suffered
+death under such evidence, and men have said that the finger of
+God was in it.  In thine own land, royal brother, and upon such
+an occasion, the matter was tried by a solemn duel betwixt the
+man and the dog, as appellant and defendant in a challenge of
+murder. The dog was victorious, the man was punished, and the
+crime was confessed.  Credit me, royal brother, that hidden
+crimes have often been brought to light by the testimony even of
+inanimate substances, not to mention animals far inferior in
+instinctive sagacity to the dog, who is the friend and companion
+of our race."
+
+"Such a duel there hath indeed been, royal brother," answered
+Philip, "and that in the reign of one of our predecessors, to
+whom God be gracious.  But it was in the olden time, nor can we
+hold it a precedent fitting for this occasion.  The defendant in
+that case was a private gentleman of small rank or respect; his
+offensive weapons were only a club, his defensive a leathern
+jerkin.  But we cannot degrade a prince to the disgrace of using
+such rude arms, or to the ignominy of such a combat."
+
+"I never meant that you should," said King Richard; "it were foul
+play to hazard the good hound's life against that of such a
+double-faced traitor as this Conrade hath proved himself.  But
+there lies our own glove; we appeal him to the combat in respect
+of the evidence we brought forth against him.  A king, at least,
+is more than the mate of a marquis."
+
+Conrade made no hasty effort to seize on the pledge which Richard
+cast into the middle of the assembly, and King Philip had time to
+reply ere the marquis made a motion to lift the glove.
+
+"A king," said he of France, "is as much more than a match for
+the Marquis Conrade as a dog would be less. Royal Richard, this
+cannot be permitted.  You are the leader of our expedition--the
+sword and buckler of Christendom."
+
+"I protest against such a combat," said the Venetian proveditore,
+"until the King of England shall have repaid the fifty thousand
+byzants which he is indebted to the republic.  It is enough to be
+threatened with loss of our debt, should our debtor fall by the
+hands of the pagans, without the additional risk of his being
+slain in brawls amongst Christians concerning dogs and banners."
+
+"And I," said William with the Long Sword, Earl of Salisbury,
+"protest in my turn against my royal brother perilling his life,
+which is the property of the people of England, in such a cause.
+Here, noble brother, receive back your glove, and think only as
+if the wind had blown it from your hand.  Mine shall lie in its
+stead.  A king's son, though with the bar sinister on his shield,
+is at least a match for this marmoset of a marquis."
+
+"Princes and nobles," said Conrade, "I will not accept of King
+Richard's defiance.  He hath been chosen our leader against the
+Saracens, and if his conscience can answer the accusation of
+provoking an ally to the field on a quarrel so frivolous, mine,
+at least, cannot endure the reproach of accepting it.  But
+touching his bastard brother, William of Woodstock, or against
+any other who shall adopt or shall dare to stand godfather to
+this most false charge, I will defend my honour in the lists, and
+prove whosoever impeaches it a false liar."
+
+"The Marquis of Montserrat," said the Archbishop of Tyre, "hath
+spoken like a wise and moderate gentleman; and methinks this
+controversy might, without dishonour to any party, end at this
+point."
+
+"Methinks it might so terminate," said the King of France,
+"provided King Richard will recall his accusation as made upon
+over-slight grounds."
+
+"Philip of France," answered Coeur de Lion, "my words shall never
+do my thoughts so much injury.  I have charged yonder Conrade as
+a thief, who, under cloud of night, stole from its place the
+emblem of England's dignity.  I still believe and charge him to
+be such; and when a day is appointed for the combat, doubt not
+that, since Conrade declines to meet us in person, I will find a
+champion to appear in support of my challenge--for thou, William,
+must not thrust thy long sword into this quarrel without our
+special license."
+
+"Since my rank makes me arbiter in this most unhappy matter,"
+said Philip of France, "I appoint the fifth day from hence for
+the decision thereof, by way of combat, according to knightly
+usage--Richard, King of England, to appear by his champion as
+appellant, and Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat, in his own person,
+as defendant.  Yet I own I know not where to find neutral ground
+where such a quarrel may be fought out; for it must not be in the
+neighbourhood of this camp, where the soldiers would make faction
+on the different sides."
+
+"It were well," said Richard, "to apply to the generosity of the
+royal Saladin, since, heathen as he is, I have never known knight
+more fulfilled of nobleness, or to whose good faith we may so
+peremptorily entrust ourselves.  I speak thus for those who may
+be doubtful of mishap; for myself, wherever I see my foe, I make
+that spot my battle-ground."
+
+"Be it so," said Philip; "we will make this matter known to
+Saladin, although it be showing to an enemy the unhappy spirit of
+discord which we would willingly hide from even ourselves, were
+it possible.  Meanwhile, I dismiss this assembly, and charge you
+all, as Christian men and noble knights, that ye let this unhappy
+feud breed no further brawling in the camp, but regard it as a
+thing solemnly referred to the judgment of God, to whom each of
+you should pray that He will dispose of victory in the combat
+according to the truth of the quarrel; and therewith may His will
+be done!"
+
+"Amen, amen!"  was answered on all sides; while the Templar
+whispered the Marquis,  "Conrade, wilt thou not add a petition to
+be delivered from the power of the dog, as the Psalmist hath it?"
+
+"Peace, thou--!"  replied the Marquis; "there is a revealing
+demon abroad which may report, amongst other tidings, how far
+thou dost carry the motto of thy order--"FERIATUR LEO."
+
+"Thou wilt stand the brunt of challenge?" said the Templar.
+
+"Doubt me not," said Conrade.  "I would not, indeed, have
+willingly met the iron arm of Richard himself, and I shame not to
+confess that I rejoice to be free of his encounter; but, from his
+bastard brother downward, the man breathes not in his ranks whom
+I fear to meet."
+
+"It is well you are so confident," continued the Templar; "and,
+in that case, the fangs of yonder hound have done more to
+dissolve this league of princes than either thy devices or the
+dagger of the Charegite.  Seest thou how, under a brow studiously
+overclouded, Philip cannot conceal the satisfaction which he
+feels at the prospect of release from the alliance which sat so
+heavy on him?  Mark how Henry of Champagne smiles to himself,
+like a sparkling goblet of his own wine; and see the chuckling
+delight of Austria, who thinks his quarrel is about to be avenged
+without risk or trouble of his own.  Hush!  he approaches.--A
+most grievous chance, most royal Austria, that these breaches in
+the walls of our Zion--"
+
+"If thou meanest this Crusade," replied the Duke, "I would it
+were crumbled to pieces, and each were safe at home!  I speak
+this in confidence."
+
+"But," said the Marquis of Montserrat, "to think this disunion
+should be made by the hands of King Richard, for whose pleasure
+we have been contented to endure so much, and to whom we have
+been as submissive as slaves to a master, in hopes that he would
+use his valour against our enemies, instead of exercising it upon
+our friends!"
+
+"I see not that he is so much more valorous than others," said
+the Archduke.  "I believe, had the noble Marquis met him in the
+lists, he would have had the better; for though the islander
+deals heavy blows with the pole-axe, he is not so very dexterous
+with the lance.  I should have cared little to have met him
+myself on our old quarrel, had the weal of Christendom permitted
+to sovereign princes to breathe themselves in the lists; and if
+thou desirest it, noble Marquis, I will myself be your godfather
+in this combat."
+
+"And I also," said the Grand Master.
+
+"Come, then, and take your nooning in our tent, noble sirs," said
+the Duke, "and we'll speak of this business over some right
+NIERENSTEIN."
+
+They entered together accordingly.
+
+"What said our patron and these great folks together?" said Jonas
+Schwanker to his companion, the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, who had used the
+freedom to press nigh to his master when the Council was
+dismissed, while the jester waited at a more respectful distance.
+
+"Servant of Folly," said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER,  "moderate thy
+curiosity; it beseems not that I should tell to thee the counsels
+of our master."
+
+"Man of wisdom, you mistake," answered Jonas.  "We are both the
+constant attendants on our patron, and it concerns us alike to
+know whether thou or I--Wisdom or Folly--have the deeper interest
+in him."
+
+"He told to the Marquis," answered the SPRUCH-SPRECHER, "and to
+the Grand Master, that he was aweary of these wars, and would be
+glad he was safe at home."
+
+"That is a drawn cast, and counts for nothing in the game," said
+the jester; "it was most wise to think thus, but great folly to
+tell it to others--proceed."
+
+"Ha, hem!"  said the SPRUCH-SPRECHER; "he next said to them that
+Richard was not more valorous than others, or over-dexterous in
+the tilt-yard."
+
+"Woodcock of my side," said Schwanker, "this was egregious folly.
+What next?"
+
+"Nay, I am something oblivious," replied the man of wisdom-- "he
+invited them to a goblet of NIERENSTEIN."
+
+"That hath a show of wisdom in it," said Jonas.  "Thou mayest
+mark it to thy credit in the meantime; but an he drink too much,
+as is most likely, I will have it pass to mine. Anything more?"
+
+"Nothing worth memory," answered the orator; "only he wished he
+had taken the occasion to meet Richard in the lists."
+
+"Out upon it--out upon it!"  said Jonas; "this is such dotage of
+folly that I am well-nigh ashamed of winning the game by it.
+Ne'ertheless, fool as he is, we will follow him, most sage
+SPRUCH-SPRECHER, and have our share of the wine of NIERENSTEIN."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Yet this inconstancy is such,
+As thou, too, shalt adore;
+I could not love thee, love so much,
+Loved I not honour more.       MONTROSE'S LINES.
+
+When King Richard returned to his tent, he commanded the Nubian
+to be brought before him.  He entered with his usual ceremonial
+reverence, and having prostrated himself, remained standing
+before the King in the attitude of a slave awaiting the orders of
+his master.  It was perhaps well for him that the preservation of
+his character required his eyes to be fixed on the ground, since
+the keen glance with which Richard for some time surveyed him in
+silence would, if fully encountered, have been difficult to
+sustain.
+
+"Thou canst well of woodcraft," said the King, after a pause,
+"and hast started thy game and brought him to bay as ably as if
+Tristrem himself had taught thee.  [A universal tradition
+ascribed to Sir Tristrem, famous for his love of the fair Queen
+Yseult, the laws concerning the practice of woodcraft, or
+VENERIE, as it was called, being those that related to the rules
+of the chase, which were deemed of much consequence during the
+Middle Ages.]  But this is not all--he must be brought down at
+force.  I myself would have liked to have levelled my hunting-spear at him.  There are, it seems, respects 
+which prevent this.
+Thou art about to return to the camp of the Soldan, bearing a
+letter, requiring of his courtesy to appoint neutral ground for
+the deed of chivalry, and should it consist with his pleasure, to
+concur with us in witnessing it.  Now, speaking conjecturally, we
+think thou mightst find in that camp some cavalier who, for the
+love of truth and his own augmentation of honour, will do battle
+with this same traitor of Montserrat."
+
+The Nubian raised his eyes and fixed them on the King with a look
+of eager ardour; then raised them to Heaven with such solemn
+gratitude that the water soon glistened in them; then bent his
+head, as affirming what Richard desired, and resumed his usual
+posture of submissive attention.
+
+"It is well," said the King; "and I see thy desire to oblige me
+in this matter.  And herein, I must needs say, lies the
+excellence of such a servant as thou, who hast not speech either
+to debate our purpose or to require explanation of what we have
+determined.  An English serving man in thy place had given me his
+dogged advice to trust the combat with some good lance of my
+household, who, from my brother Longsword downwards, are all on
+fire to do battle in my cause; and a chattering Frenchman had
+made a thousand attempts to discover wherefore I look for a
+champion from the camp of the infidels.  But thou, my silent
+agent, canst do mine errand without questioning or comprehending
+it; with thee to hear is to obey."
+
+A bend of the body and a genuflection were the appropriate answer
+of the Ethiopian to these observations.
+
+"And now to another point," said the King, and speaking suddenly
+and rapidly--"have you yet seen Edith Plantagenet?"
+
+The mute looked up as in the act of being about to speak--nay,
+his lips had begun to utter a distinct negative--when the
+abortive attempt died away in the imperfect murmurs of the dumb.
+
+"Why, lo you there!"  said the King, "the very sound of the name
+of a royal maiden of beauty so surpassing as that of our lovely
+cousin seems to have power enough well-nigh to make the dumb
+speak.  What miracles then might her eye work upon such a
+subject!  I will make the experiment, friend slave.  Thou shalt
+see this choice beauty of our Court, and do the errand of the
+princely Soldan."
+
+Again a joyful glance--again a genuflection--but, as he arose,
+the King laid his hand heavily on his shoulder, and proceeded
+with stern gravity thus: "Let me in one thing warn you, my sable
+envoy.  Even if thou shouldst feel that the kindly influence of
+her whom thou art soon to behold should loosen the bonds of thy
+tongue, presently imprisoned, as the good Soldan expresses it,
+within the ivory walls of its castle, beware how thou changest
+thy taciturn character, or speakest a word in her presence, even
+if thy powers of utterance were to be miraculously restored.
+Believe me that I should have thy tongue extracted by the roots,
+and its ivory palace--that is, I presume, its range of teeth
+--drawn out one by one.  Wherefore, be wise and silent still."
+
+The Nubian, so soon as the King had removed his heavy grasp from
+his shoulder, bent his head, and laid his hand on his lips, in
+token of silent obedience.
+
+But Richard again laid his hand on him more gently, and added,
+"This behest we lay on thee as on a slave.  Wert thou knight and
+gentleman, we would require thine honour in pledge of thy
+silence, which is one especial condition of our present trust."
+
+The Ethiopian raised his body proudly, looked full at the King,
+and laid his right hand on his heart.
+
+Richard then summoned his chamberlain.
+
+"Go, Neville," he said, "with this slave to the tent of our royal
+consort, and say it is our pleasure that he have an audience--a
+private audience--of our cousin Edith.  He is charged with a
+commission to her.  Thou canst show him the way also, in case he
+requires thy guidance, though thou mayst have observed it is
+wonderful how familiar he already seems to be with the purlieus
+of our camp.--And thou, too, friend Ethiop," the King continued,
+"what thou dost do quickly, and return hither within the half-hour."
+
+"I stand discovered," thought the seeming Nubian, as, with
+downcast looks and folded arms, he followed the hasty stride of
+Neville towards the tent of Queen Berengaria--"I stand
+undoubtedly discovered and unfolded to King Richard; yet I cannot
+perceive that his resentment is hot against me.  If I understand
+his words--and surely it is impossible to misinterpret them--he
+gives me a noble chance of redeeming my honour upon the crest of
+this false Marquis, whose guilt I read in his craven eye and
+quivering lip when the charge was made against him.--Roswal,
+faithfully hast thou served thy master, and most dearly shall thy
+wrong be avenged!--But what is the meaning of my present
+permission to look upon her whom I had despaired ever to see
+again?  And why, or how, can the royal Plantagenet consent that I
+should see his divine kinswoman, either as the messenger of the
+heathen Saladin, or as the guilty exile whom he so lately
+expelled from his camp--his audacious avowal of the affection
+which is his pride being the greatest enhancement of his guilt?
+That Richard should consent to her receiving a letter from an
+infidel lover by the hands of one of such disproportioned rank
+are either of them circumstances equally incredible, and, at the
+same time, inconsistent with each other.  But Richard, when
+unmoved by his heady passions, is liberal, generous, and truly
+noble; and as such I will deal with him, and act according to his
+instructions, direct or implied, seeking to know no more than may
+gradually unfold itself without my officious inquiry.  To him who
+has given me so brave an opportunity to vindicate my tarnished
+honour, I owe acquiescence and obedience; and painful as it may
+be, the debt shall be paid.  And yet"--thus the proud swelling
+of his heart further suggested--"Coeur de Lion, as he is called,
+might have measured the feelings of others by his own.  I urge an
+address to his kinswoman!  I, who never spoke word to her when I
+took a royal prize from her hand--when I was accounted not the
+lowest in feats of chivalry among the defenders of the Cross! I
+approach her when in a base disguise, and in a servile habit--
+and, alas!  when my actual condition is that of a slave, with a
+spot of dishonour on that which was once my shield!  I do this!
+He little knows me.  Yet I thank him for the opportunity which
+may make us all better acquainted with each other."
+
+As he arrived at this conclusion, they paused before the entrance
+of the Queen's pavilion.
+
+They were of course admitted by the guards, and Neville, leaving
+the Nubian in a small apartment, or antechamber, which was but
+too well remembered by him, passed into that which was used as
+the Queen's presence-chamber.  He communicated his royal master's
+pleasure in a low and respectful tone of voice, very different
+from the bluntness of Thomas de Vaux, to whom Richard was
+everything and the rest of the Court, including Berengaria
+herself, was nothing.  A burst of laughter followed the
+communication of his errand.
+
+"And what like is the Nubian slave who comes ambassador on such
+an errand from the Soldan?--a negro, De Neville, is he not?" said
+a female voice, easily recognized for that of Berengaria.  "A
+negro, is he not, De Neville, with black skin, a head curled like
+a ram's, a flat nose, and blubber lips--ha, worthy Sir Henry?"
+
+"Let not your Grace forget the shin-bones," said another voice,
+"bent outwards like the edge of a Saracen scimitar."
+
+"Rather like the bow of a Cupid, since he comes upon a lover's
+errand,"  said the Queen.--"Gentle Neville, thou art ever prompt
+to pleasure us poor women, who have so little to pass away our
+idle moments.  We must see this messenger of love.  Turks and
+Moors have I seen many, but negro never."
+
+"I am created to obey your Grace's commands, so you will bear me
+out with my Sovereign for doing so," answered the debonair
+knight.  "Yet, let me assure your Grace you will see something
+different from what you expect."
+
+"So much the better--uglier yet than our imaginations can fancy,
+yet the chosen love-messenger of this gallant Soldan!"
+
+"Gracious madam," said the Lady Calista, "may I implore you would
+permit the good knight to carry this messenger straight to the
+Lady Edith, to whom his credentials are addressed?  We have
+already escaped hardly for such a frolic."
+
+"Escaped?" repeated the Queen scornfully.  "Yet thou mayest be
+right, Calista, in thy caution.  Let this Nubian, as thou callest
+him, first do his errand to our cousin--besides, he is mute too,
+is he not?"
+
+"He is, gracious madam," answered the knight.
+
+"Royal sport have these Eastern ladies," said Berengaria,
+"attended by those before whom they may say anything, yet who can
+report nothing.  Whereas in our camp, as the Prelate of Saint
+Jude's is wont to say, a bird of the air will carry the matter."
+
+"Because," said De Neville, "your Grace forgets that you speak
+within canvas walls."
+
+The voices sunk on this observation, and after a little
+whispering, the English knight again returned to the Ethiopian,
+and made him a sign to follow.  He did so, and Neville conducted
+him to a pavilion, pitched somewhat apart from that of the Queen,
+for the accommodation, it seemed, of the Lady Edith and her
+attendants.  One of her Coptic maidens received the message
+communicated by Sir Henry Neville, and in the space of a very few
+minutes the Nubian was ushered into Edith's presence, while
+Neville was left on the outside of the tent.  The slave who
+introduced him withdrew on a signal from her mistress, and it was
+with humiliation, not of the posture only but of the very inmost
+soul, that the unfortunate knight, thus strangely disguised,
+threw himself on one knee, with looks bent on the ground and arms
+folded on his bosom, like a criminal who expects his doom.  Edith
+was clad in the same manner as when she received King Richard,
+her long, transparent dark veil hanging around her like the shade
+of a summer night on a beautiful landscape, disguising and
+rendering obscure the beauties which it could not hide.  She held
+in her hand a silver lamp, fed with some aromatic spirit, which
+burned with unusual brightness.
+
+When Edith came within a step of the kneeling and motionless
+slave, she held the light towards his face, as if to peruse his
+features more attentively, then turned from him, and placed her
+lamp so as to throw the shadow of his face in profile upon the
+curtain which hung beside.  She at length spoke in a voice
+composed, yet deeply sorrowful,
+
+"Is it you? It is indeed you, brave Knight of the Leopard
+--gallant Sir Kenneth of Scotland; is it indeed you?--thus
+servilely disguised--thus surrounded by a hundred dangers."
+
+At hearing the tones of his lady's voice thus unexpectedly
+addressed to him, and in a tone of compassion approaching to
+tenderness, a corresponding reply rushed to the knight's lips,
+and scarce could Richard's commands and his own promised silence
+prevent his answering that the sight he saw, the sounds he just
+heard, were sufficient to recompense the slavery of a life, and
+dangers which threatened that life every hour.  He did recollect
+himself, however, and a deep and impassioned sigh was his only
+reply to the high-born Edith's question.
+
+"I see--I know I have guessed right," continued Edith. "I marked
+you from your first appearance near the platform on which I stood
+with the Queen.  I knew, too, your valiant hound.  She is no true
+lady, and is unworthy of the service of such a knight as thou
+art, from whom disguises of dress or hue could conceal a faithful
+servant.  Speak, then, without fear to Edith Plantagenet.  She
+knows how to grace in adversity the good knight who served,
+honoured, and did deeds of arms in her name, when fortune
+befriended him.--Still silent!  Is it fear or shame that keeps
+thee so!  Fear should be unknown to thee; and for shame, let it
+remain with those who have wronged thee."
+
+The knight, in despair at being obliged to play the mute in an
+interview so interesting, could only express his mortification by
+sighing deeply, and laying his finger upon his lips.  Edith
+stepped back, as if somewhat displeased.
+
+What!" she said, "the Asiatic mute in very deed, as well as in
+attire? This I looked not for.  Or thou mayest scorn me, perhaps,
+for thus boldly acknowledging that I have heedfully observed the
+homage thou hast paid me? Hold no unworthy thoughts of Edith on
+that account.  She knows well the bounds which reserve and
+modesty prescribe to high-born maidens, and she knows when and
+how far they should give place to gratitude--to a sincere desire
+that it were in her power to repay services and repair injuries
+arising from the devotion which a good knight bore towards her.
+Why fold thy hands together, and wring them with so much passion?
+Can it be," she added, shrinking back at the idea, "that their
+cruelty has actually deprived thee of speech? Thou shakest thy
+head.  Be it a spell--be it obstinacy, I question thee no
+further, but leave thee to do thine errand after thine own
+fashion.  I also can be mute."
+
+The disguised knight made an action as if at once lamenting his
+own condition and deprecating her displeasure, while at the same
+time he presented to her, wrapped, as usual, in fine silk and
+cloth of gold, the letter of the Soldan.  She took it, surveyed
+it carelessly, then laid it aside, and bending her eyes once more
+on the knight, she said in a low tone, "Not even a word to do
+thine errand to me?"
+
+He pressed both his hands to his brow, as if to intimate the pain
+which he felt at being unable to obey her; but she turned from
+him in anger.
+
+"Begone!" she said.  "I have spoken enough--too much--to one who
+will not waste on me a word in reply. Begone!--and say, if I have
+wronged thee, I have done penance; for if I have been the unhappy
+means of dragging thee down from a station of honour, I have, in
+this interview, forgotten my own worth, and lowered myself in thy
+eyes and in my own."
+
+She covered her eyes with her hands, and seemed deeply agitated.
+Sir Kenneth would have approached, but she waved him back.
+
+"Stand off!  thou whose soul Heaven hath suited to its new
+station!  Aught less dull and fearful than a slavish mute had
+spoken a word of gratitude, were it but to reconcile me to my own
+degradation.  Why pause you?--begone!"
+
+The disguised knight almost involuntarily looked towards the
+letter as an apology for protracting his stay.  She snatched it
+up, saying in a tone of irony and contempt, "I had forgotten--the
+dutiful slave waits an answer to his message. How's this--from
+the Soldan!"
+
+She hastily ran over the contents, which were expressed both in
+Arabic and French, and when she had done, she laughed in bitter
+anger.
+
+"Now this passes imagination!" she said; "no jongleur can show so
+deft a transmutation!  His legerdemain can transform zechins and
+byzants into doits and maravedis; but can his art convert a
+Christian knight, ever esteemed among the bravest of the Holy
+Crusade, into the dust-kissing slave of a heathen Soldan--the
+bearer of a paynim's insolent proposals to a Christian maiden--
+nay, forgetting the laws of honourable chivalry, as well as of
+religion? But it avails not talking to the willing slave of a
+heathen hound.  Tell your master, when his scourge shall have
+found thee a tongue, that which thou hast seen me do"--so saying,
+she threw the Soldan's letter on the ground, and placed her foot
+upon it--"and say to him, that Edith Plantagenet scorns the
+homage of an unchristened pagan."
+
+With these words she was about to shoot from the knight, when,
+kneeling at her feet in bitter agony, he ventured to lay his hand
+upon her robe and oppose her departure.
+
+"Heard'st thou not what I said, dull slave?" she said, turning
+short round on him, and speaking with emphasis. "Tell the heathen
+Soldan, thy master, that I scorn his suit as much as I despise
+the prostration of a worthless renegade to religion and chivalry
+--to God and to his lady!"
+
+So saying, she burst from him, tore her garment from his grasp,
+and left the tent.
+
+The voice of Neville, at the same time, summoned him from
+without.  Exhausted and stupefied by the distress he had
+undergone during this interview, from which he could only have
+extricated himself by breach of the engagement which he had
+formed with King Richard, the unfortunate knight staggered rather
+than walked after the English baron, till they reached the royal
+pavilion, before which a party of horsemen had just dismounted.
+There were light and motion within the tent, and when Neville
+entered with his disguised attendant, they found the King, with
+several of his nobility, engaged in welcoming those who were
+newly arrived.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+"The tears I shed must ever fall.
+I weep not for an absent swain;
+For time may happier hours recall,
+And parted lovers meet again.
+
+"I weep not for the silent dead.
+Their pains are past, their sorrows o'er;
+And those that loved their steps must tread,
+When death shall join to part no more."
+
+But worse than absence, worse than death,
+She wept her lover's sullied fame,
+And, fired with all the pride of birth,
+She wept a soldier's injured name.       BALLAD.
+
+The frank and bold voice of Richard was heard in joyous
+gratulation.
+
+"Thomas de Vaux!  stout Tom of the Gills!  by the head of King
+Henry, thou art welcome to me as ever was flask of wine to a
+jolly toper!  I should scarce have known how to order my battle-array, unless I had thy bulky form in mine 
+eye as a landmark to
+form my ranks upon.  We shall have blows anon, Thomas, if the
+saints be gracious to us; and had we fought in thine absence, I
+would have looked to hear of thy being found hanging upon an
+elder-tree."
+
+"I should have borne my disappointment with more Christian
+patience, I trust," said Thomas de Vaux, "than to have died the
+death of an apostate.  But I thank your Grace for my welcome,
+which is the more generous, as it respects a banquet of blows, of
+which, saving your pleasure, you are ever too apt to engross the
+larger share.  But here have I brought one to whom your Grace
+will, I know, give a yet warmer welcome."
+
+The person who now stepped forward to make obeisance to Richard
+was a young man of low stature and slight form. His dress was as
+modest as his figure was unimpressive; but he bore on his bonnet
+a gold buckle, with a gem, the lustre of which could only be
+rivalled by the brilliancy of the eye which the bonnet shaded.
+It was the only striking feature in his countenance; but when
+once noticed, it ever made a strong impression on the spectator.
+About his neck there hung in a scarf of sky-blue silk a WREST as
+it was called--that is, the key with which a harp is tuned, and
+which was of solid gold.
+
+This personage would have kneeled reverently to Richard, but the
+Monarch raised him in joyful haste, pressed him to his bosom
+warmly, and kissed him on either side of the face.
+
+"Blondel de Nesle!"  he exclaimed joyfully--"welcome from Cyprus,
+my king of minstrels!--welcome to the King of England, who rates
+not his own dignity more highly than he does thine.  I have been
+sick, man, and, by my soul, I believe it was for lack of thee;
+for, were I half way to the gate of heaven, methinks thy strains
+could call me back.  And what news, my gentle master, from the
+land of the lyre?  Anything fresh from the TROUVEURS of Provence?
+Anything from the minstrels of merry Normandy?  Above all, hast
+thou thyself been busy?  But I need not ask thee--thou canst not
+be idle if thou wouldst; thy noble qualities are like a fire
+burning within, and compel thee to pour thyself out in music and
+song."
+
+"Something I have learned, and something I have done, noble
+King," answered the celebrated Blondel, with a retiring modesty
+which all Richard's enthusiastic admiration of his skill had been
+unable to banish.
+
+"We will hear thee, man--we will hear thee instantly," said the
+King.  Then, touching Blondel's shoulder kindly, he added, "That
+is, if thou art not fatigued with thy journey; for I would sooner
+ride my best horse to death than injure a note of thy voice."
+
+"My voice is, as ever, at the service of my royal patron," said
+Blondel; "but your Majesty," he added, looking at some papers on
+the table, "seems more importantly engaged, and the hour waxes
+late."
+
+"Not a whit, man, not a whit, my dearest Blondel.  I did but
+sketch an array of battle against the Saracens, a thing of a
+moment, almost as soon done as the routing of them."
+
+"Methinks, however," said Thomas de Vaux, "it were not unfit to
+inquire what soldiers your Grace hath to array.  I bring reports
+on that subject from Ascalon."
+
+"Thou art a mule, Thomas," said the King--"a very mule for
+dullness and obstinacy!   Come, nobles--a hall--a hall--range ye
+around him!  Give Blondel the tabouret.  Where is his harp-bearer?--or, soft, lend him my harp, his own 
+may be damaged by
+the journey."
+
+"I would your Grace would take my report," said Thomas de Vaux.
+"I have ridden far, and have more list to my bed than to have my
+ears tickled."
+
+"THY ears tickled!"  said the King; "that must be with a
+woodcock's feather, and not with sweet sounds.  Hark thee,
+Thomas, do thine ears know the singing of Blondel from the
+braying of an ass?"
+
+"In faith, my liege," replied Thomas, "I cannot well say; but
+setting Blondel out of the question, who is a born gentleman, and
+doubtless of high acquirements, I shall never, for the sake of
+your Grace's question, look on a minstrel but I shall think upon
+an ass."
+
+"And might not your manners," said Richard, "have excepted me,
+who am a gentleman born as well as Blondel, and, like him, a
+guild-brother of the joyeuse science?"
+
+"Your Grace should remember," said De Vaux, smiling, "that 'tis
+useless asking for manners from a mule."
+
+"Most truly spoken," said the King; "and an ill-conditioned
+animal thou art.  But come hither, master mule, and be unloaded,
+that thou mayest get thee to thy litter, without any music being
+wasted on thee.  Meantime do thou, good brother of Salisbury, go
+to our consort's tent, and tell her that Blondel has arrived,
+with his budget fraught with the newest minstrelsy.  Bid her come
+hither instantly, and do thou escort her, and see that our
+cousin, Edith Plantagenet, remain not behind."
+
+His eye then rested for a moment on the Nubian, with that
+expression of doubtful meaning which his countenance usually
+displayed when he looked at him.
+
+"Ha, our silent and secret messenger returned?--Stand up, slave,
+behind the back of De Neville, and thou shalt hear presently
+sounds which will make thee bless God that He afflicted thee
+rather with dumbness than deafness."
+
+So saying, he turned from the rest of the company towards De
+Vaux, and plunged instantly into the military details which that
+baron laid before him.
+
+About the time that the Lord of Gilsland had finished his
+audience, a messenger announced that the Queen and her attendants
+were approaching the royal tent.--"A flask of wine, ho!"  said
+the King; "of old King Isaac's long-saved Cyprus, which we won
+when we stormed Famagosta.  Fill to the stout Lord of Gilsland,
+gentles--a more careful and faithful servant never had any
+prince."
+
+"I am glad," said Thomas de Vaux, "that your Grace finds the mule
+a useful slave, though his voice be less musical than horse-hair
+or wire."
+
+"What, thou canst not yet digest that quip of the mule?" said
+Richard.  "Wash it down with a brimming flagon, man, or thou wilt
+choke upon it.  Why, so--well pulled!--and now I will tell thee,
+thou art a soldier as well as I, and we must brook each other's
+jests in the hall as each other's blows in the tourney, and love
+each other the harder we hit.  By my faith, if thou didst not hit
+me as hard as I did thee in our late encounter!  thou gavest all
+thy wit to the thrust. But here lies the difference betwixt thee
+and Blondel.  Thou art but my comrade--I might say my pupil--in
+the art of war; Blondel is my master in the science of minstrelsy
+and music.  To thee I permit the freedom of intimacy; to him I
+must do reverence, as to my superior in his art.  Come, man, be
+not peevish, but remain and hear our glee."
+
+"To see your Majesty in such cheerful mood," said the Lord of
+Gilsland, "by my faith, I could remain till Blondel had achieved
+the great romance of King Arthur, which lasts for three days."
+
+"We will not tax your patience so deeply," said the King. "But
+see, yonder glare of torches without shows that our consort
+approaches.  Away to receive her, man, and win thyself grace in
+the brightest eyes of Christendom.  Nay, never stop to adjust thy
+cloak.  See, thou hast let Neville come between the wind and the
+sails of thy galley."
+
+"He was never before me in the field of battle," said De Vaux,
+not greatly pleased to see himself anticipated by the more active
+service of the chamberlain.
+
+"No, neither he nor any one went before thee there, my good Tom
+of the Gills," said the King, "unless it was ourself, now and
+then."
+
+"Ay, my liege," said De Vaux, "and let us do justice to the
+unfortunate.  The unhappy Knight of the Leopard hath been before
+me too, at a season; for, look you, he weighs less on horseback,
+and so--"
+
+"Hush!"  said the King, interrupting him in a peremptory tone,
+"not a word of him," and instantly stepped forward to greet his
+royal consort; and when he had done so, he presented to her
+Blondel, as king of minstrelsy and his master in the gay science.
+Berengaria, who well knew that her royal husband's passion for
+poetry and music almost equalled his appetite for warlike fame,
+and that Blondel was his especial favourite, took anxious care to
+receive him with all the flattering distinctions due to one whom
+the King delighted to honour.  Yet it was evident that, though
+Blondel made suitable returns to the compliments showered on him
+something too abundantly by the royal beauty, he owned with
+deeper reverence and more humble gratitude the simple and
+graceful welcome of Edith, whose kindly greeting appeared to him,
+perhaps, sincere in proportion to its brevity and simplicity.
+
+Both the Queen and her royal husband were aware of this
+distinction, and Richard, seeing his consort somewhat piqued at
+the preference assigned to his cousin, by which perhaps he
+himself did not feel much gratified, said in the hearing of both,
+"We minstrels, Berengaria, as thou mayest see by the bearing of
+our master Blondel, pay more reverence to a severe judge like our
+kinswoman than to a kindly, partial friend like thyself, who is
+willing to take our worth upon trust."
+
+Edith was moved by this sarcasm of her royal kinsman, and
+hesitated not to reply that, "To be a harsh and severe judge was
+not an attribute proper to her alone of all the Plantagenets."
+
+She had perhaps said more, having some touch of the temper of
+that house, which, deriving their name and cognizance from the
+lowly broom (PLANTA GENISTA), assumed as an emblem of humility,
+were perhaps one of the proudest families that ever ruled in
+England; but her eye, when kindling in her reply, suddenly caught
+those of the Nubian, although he endeavoured to conceal himself
+behind the nobles who were present, and she sunk upon a seat,
+turning so pale that Queen Berengaria deemed herself obliged to
+call for water and essences, and to go through the other
+ceremonies appropriate to a lady's swoon.  Richard, who better
+estimated Edith's strength of mind, called to Blondel to assume
+his seat and commence his lay, declaring that minstrelsy was
+worth every other recipe to recall a Plantagenet to life.  "Sing
+us," he said, "that song of the Bloody Vest, of which thou didst
+formerly give me the argument ere I left Cyprus.  Thou must be
+perfect in it by this time, or, as our yeomen say, thy bow is
+broken."
+
+The anxious eye of the minstrel, however, dwelt on Edith, and it
+was not till he observed her returning colour that he obeyed the
+repeated commands of the King.  Then, accompanying his voice with
+the harp, so as to grace, but yet not drown, the sense of what he
+sung, he chanted in a sort of recitative one of those ancient
+adventures of love and knighthood which were wont of yore to win
+the public attention.  So soon as he began to prelude, the
+insignificance of his personal appearance seemed to disappear,
+and his countenance glowed with energy and inspiration.  His
+full, manly, mellow voice, so absolutely under command of the
+purest taste, thrilled on every ear and to every heart.  Richard,
+rejoiced as after victory, called out the appropriate summons for
+silence,
+
+"Listen, lords, in bower and hall;"
+
+while, with the zeal of a patron at once and a pupil, he arranged
+the circle around, and hushed them into silence; and he himself
+sat down with an air of expectation and interest, not altogether
+unmixed with the gravity of the professed critic.  The courtiers
+turned their eyes on the King, that they might be ready to trace
+and imitate the emotions his features should express, and Thomas
+de Vaux yawned tremendously, as one who submitted unwillingly to
+a wearisome penance.  The song of Blondel was of course in the
+Norman language, but the verses which follow express its meaning
+and its manner.
+
+THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+'Twas near the fair city of Benevent,
+When the sun was setting on bough and bent,
+And knights were preparing in bower and tent,
+On the eve of the Baptist's tournament;
+When in Lincoln green a stripling gent,
+Well seeming a page by a princess sent,
+Wander'd the camp, and, still as he went,
+Inquired for the Englishman, Thomas a Kent.
+
+Far hath he far'd, and farther must fare,
+Till he finds his pavilion nor stately nor rare,--
+Little save iron and steel was there;
+And, as lacking the coin to pay armourer's care,
+With his sinewy arms to the shoulders bare,
+The good knight with hammer and file did repair
+The mail that to-morrow must see him wear,
+For the honour of Saint John and his lady fair.
+
+"Thus speaks my lady," the page said he,
+And the knight bent lowly both head and knee,
+"She is Benevent's Princess so high in degree,
+And thou art as lowly as knight may well be--
+He that would climb so lofty a tree,
+Or spring such a gulf as divides her from thee,
+Must dare some high deed, by which all men may see
+His ambition is back'd by his hie chivalrie.
+
+"Therefore thus speaks my lady," the fair page he said,
+And the knight lowly louted with hand and with head,
+"Fling aside the good armour in which thou art clad,
+And don thou this weed of her night-gear instead,
+For a hauberk of steel, a kirtle of thread;
+And charge, thus attir'd, in the tournament dread,
+And fight as thy wont is where most blood is shed,
+And bring honour away, or remain with the dead."
+
+Untroubled in his look, and untroubled in his breast,
+The knight the weed hath taken, and reverently hath kiss'd.
+"Now blessed be the moment, the messenger be blest!
+Much honour'd do I hold me in my lady's high behest;
+And say unto my lady, in this dear night-weed dress'd,
+To the best armed champion I will not veil my crest;
+But if I live and bear me well 'tis her turn to take the test."
+Here, gentles, ends the foremost fytte of the Lay of the Bloody
+Vest.
+
+"Thou hast changed the measure upon us unawares in that last
+couplet, my Blondel," said the King.
+
+"Most true, my lord," said Blondel.  "I rendered the verses from
+the Italian of an old harper whom I met in Cyprus, and not having
+had time either to translate it accurately or commit it to
+memory, I am fain to supply gaps in the music and the verse as I
+can upon the spur of the moment, as you see boors mend a quickset
+fence with a fagot."
+
+"Nay, on my faith," said the King, "I like these rattling,
+rolling Alexandrines.  Methinks they come more twangingly off to
+the music than that briefer measure."
+
+"Both are licensed, as is well known to your Grace," answered
+Blondel.
+
+"They are so, Blondel," said Richard, "yet methinks the scene
+where there is like to be fighting will go best on in these same
+thundering Alexandrines, which sound like the charge of cavalry,
+while the other measure is but like the sidelong amble of a
+lady's palfrey."
+
+"It shall be as your Grace pleases," replied Blondel, and began
+again to prelude.
+
+"Nay, first cherish thy fancy with a cup of fiery Chios wine,"
+said the King.  "And hark thee, I would have thee fling away that
+new-fangled restriction of thine, of terminating in accurate and
+similar rhymes.  They are a constraint on thy flow of fancy, and
+make thee resemble a man dancing in fetters."
+
+"The fetters are easily flung off, at least," said Blondel, again
+sweeping his fingers over the strings, as one who would rather
+have played than listened to criticism.
+
+"But why put them on, man?" continued the King. "Wherefore thrust
+thy genius into iron bracelets?  I marvel how you got forward at
+all.  I am sure I should not have been able to compose a stanza
+in yonder hampered measure."
+
+Blondel looked down, and busied himself with the strings of his
+harp, to hide an involuntary smile which crept over his features;
+but it escaped not Richard's observation.
+
+"By my faith, thou laughest at me, Blondel," he said; "and, in
+good truth, every man deserves it who presumes to play the master
+when he should be the pupil.  But we kings get bad habits of
+self-opinion.  Come, on with thy lay, dearest Blondel--on after
+thine own fashion, better than aught that we can suggest, though
+we must needs be talking."
+
+Blondel resumed the lay; but as extemporaneous composition was
+familiar to him, he failed not to comply with the King's hints,
+and was perhaps not displeased to show with how much ease he
+could new-model a poem, even while in the act of recitation.
+
+THE BLOODY VEST.
+
+FYTTE SECOND.
+
+The Baptist's fair morrow beheld gallant feats--
+There was winning of honour and losing of seats;
+There was hewing with falchions and splintering of staves--
+The victors won glory, the vanquish'd won graves.
+Oh, many a knight there fought bravely and well,
+Yet one was accounted his peers to excel,
+And 'twas he whose sole armour on body and breast
+Seem'd the weed of a damsel when bouned for her rest.
+
+There were some dealt him wounds that were bloody and sore,
+But others respected his plight, and forbore.
+"It is some oath of honour," they said, "and I trow,
+'Twere unknightly to slay him achieving his vow."
+Then the Prince, for his sake, bade the tournament cease--
+He flung down his warder, the trumpets sung peace;
+And the judges declare, and competitors yield,
+That the Knight of the Night-gear was first in the field.
+
+The feast it was nigh, and the mass it was nigher,
+When before the fair Princess low looted a squire,
+And deliver'd a garment unseemly to view,
+With sword-cut and spear-thrust, all hack'd and pierc'd through;
+All rent and all tatter'd, all clotted with blood,
+With foam of the horses, with dust, and with mud;
+Not the point of that lady's small finger, I ween,
+Could have rested on spot was unsullied and clean.
+
+"This token my master, Sir Thomas a Kent,
+Restores to the Princess of fair Benevent;
+He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit,
+He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit;
+Through life's utmost peril the prize I have won,
+And now must the faith of my mistress be shown:
+For she who prompts knights on such danger to run
+Must avouch his true service in front of the sun.
+
+"'I restore,' says my master, 'the garment I've worn,
+And I claim of the Princess to don it in turn;
+For its stains and its rents she should prize it the more,
+Since by shame 'tis unsullied, though crimson'd with gore.'"
+Then deep blush'd the Princess--yet kiss'd she and press'd
+The blood-spotted robes to her lips and her breast.
+"Go tell my true knight, church and chamber shall show
+If I value the blood on this garment or no."
+
+And when it was time for the nobles to pass,
+In solemn procession to minster and mass,
+The first walk'd the Princess in purple and pall,
+But the blood-besmear'd night-robe she wore over all;
+And eke, in the hall, where they all sat at dine,
+When she knelt to her father and proffer'd the wine,
+Over all her rich robes and state jewels she wore
+That wimple unseemly bedabbled with gore.
+
+Then lords whisper'd ladies, as well you may think,
+And ladies replied with nod, titter, and wink;
+And the Prince, who in anger and shame had look'd down,
+Turn'd at length to his daughter, and spoke with a frown:
+"Now since thou hast publish'd thy folly and guilt,
+E'en atone with thy hand for the blood thou hast spilt;
+Yet sore for your boldness you both will repent,
+When you wander as exiles from fair Benevent'"
+
+Then out spoke stout Thomas, in hall where he stood,
+Exhausted and feeble, but dauntless of mood:
+"The blood that I lost for this daughter of thine,
+I pour'd forth as freely as flask gives its wine;
+And if for my sake she brooks penance and blame,
+Do not doubt I will save her from suffering and shame;
+And light will she reck of thy princedom and rent,
+When I hail her, in England, the Countess of Kent,"
+
+A murmur of applause ran through the assembly, following
+the example of Richard himself, who loaded with praises
+his favourite minstrel, and ended by presenting him with a
+ring of considerable value.  The Queen hastened to
+distinguish the favourite by a rich bracelet, and many of the
+nobles who were present followed the royal example.
+
+"Is our cousin Edith," said the King, "become insensible to the
+sound of the harp she once loved?"
+
+"She thanks Blondel for his lay," replied Edith, "but doubly the
+kindness of the kinsman who suggested it."
+
+"Thou art angry, cousin," said the King; "angry because thou hast
+heard of a woman more wayward than thyself. But you escape me
+not.  I will walk a space homeward with you towards the Queen's
+pavilion.  We must have conference together ere the night has
+waned into morning."
+
+The Queen and her attendants were now on foot, and the other
+guests withdrew from the royal tent.  A train with blazing
+torches, and an escort of archers, awaited Berengaria without the
+pavilion, and she was soon on her way homeward. Richard, as he
+had proposed, walked beside his kinswoman, and compelled her to
+accept of his arm as her support, so that they could speak to
+each other without being overheard.
+
+"What answer, then, am I to return to the noble Soldan?" said
+Richard.  "The kings and princes are falling from me, Edith; this
+new quarrel hath alienated them once more.  I would do something
+for the Holy Sepulchre by composition, if not by victory; and the
+chance of my doing this depends, alas, on the caprice of a woman.
+I would lay my single spear in the rest against ten of the best
+lances in Christendom, rather than argue with a wilful wench who
+knows not what is for her own good.  What answer, coz, am I to
+return to the Soldan?  It must be decisive."
+
+"Tell him," said Edith, "that the poorest of the Plantagenets
+will rather wed with misery than with misbelief."
+
+"Shall I say with slavery, Edith?" said the King.  "Methinks that
+is nearer thy thoughts."
+
+"There is no room," said Edith, "for the suspicion you so grossly
+insinuate.  Slavery of the body might have been pitied, but that
+of the soul is only to be despised.  Shame to thee, King of merry
+England.  Thou hast enthralled both the limbs and the spirit of a
+knight, one scarce less famed than thyself."
+
+"Should I not prevent my kinswoman from drinking poison, by
+sullying the vessel which contained it, if I saw no other means
+of disgusting her with the fatal liquor?"  replied the King.
+
+"It is thyself," answered Edith, "that would press me to drink
+poison, because it is proffered in a golden chalice."
+
+"Edith," said Richard, "I cannot force thy resolution; but beware
+you shut not the door which Heaven opens.  The hermit of Engaddi
+--he whom Popes and Councils have regarded as a prophet--hath
+read in the stars that thy marriage shall reconcile me with a
+powerful enemy, and that thy husband shall be Christian, leaving
+thus the fairest ground to hope that the conversion of the
+Soldan, and the bringing in of the sons of Ishmael to the pale of
+the church, will be the consequence of thy wedding with Saladin.
+Come, thou must make some sacrifice rather than mar such happy
+prospects."
+
+"Men may sacrifice rams and goats," said Edith, "but not honour
+and conscience.  I have heard that it was the dishonour of a
+Christian maiden which brought the Saracens into Spain; the shame
+of another is no likely mode of expelling them from Palestine."
+
+"Dost thou call it shame to become an empress?" said the King.
+
+"I call it shame and dishonour to profane a Christian sacrament
+by entering into it with an infidel whom it cannot bind; and I
+call it foul dishonour that I, the descendant of a Christian
+princess, should become of free will the head of a haram of
+heathen concubines."
+
+"Well, kinswoman," said the King, after a pause, "I must not
+quarrel with thee, though I think thy dependent condition might
+have dictated more compliance."
+
+"My liege," replied Edith, "your Grace hath worthily succeeded to
+all the wealth, dignity, and dominion of the House of
+Plantagenet--do not, therefore, begrudge your poor kinswoman some
+small share of their pride."
+
+"By my faith, wench," said the King, "thou hast unhorsed me with
+that very word, so we will kiss and be friends.  I will presently
+dispatch thy answer to Saladin.  But after all, coz, were it not
+better to suspend your answer till you have seen him?  Men say he
+is pre-eminently handsome."
+
+"There is no chance of our meeting, my lord," said Edith.
+
+"By Saint George, but there is next to a certainty of it," said
+the King; "for Saladin will doubtless afford us a free field for
+the doing of this new battle of the Standard, and will witness it
+himself.  Berengaria is wild to behold it also; and I dare be
+sworn not a feather of you, her companions and attendants, will
+remain behind--least of all thou thyself, fair coz.  But come, we
+have reached the pavilion, and must part; not in unkindness thou,
+oh--nay, thou must seal it with thy lip as well as thy hand,
+sweet Edith--it is my right as a sovereign to kiss my pretty
+vassals."
+
+He embraced her respectfully and affectionately, and returned
+through the moonlit camp, humming to himself such snatches of
+Blondel's lay as he could recollect.
+
+On his arrival he lost no time in making up his dispatches for
+Saladin, and delivered them to the Nubian, with a charge to set
+out by peep of day on his return to the Soldan.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+We heard the Tecbir--so these Arabs call
+Their shout of onset, when, with loud acclaim,
+They challenge Heaven to give them victory.   SIEGE OF DAMASCUS.
+
+On the subsequent morning Richard was invited to a conference by
+Philip of France, in which the latter, with many expressions of
+his high esteem for his brother of England, communicated to him
+in terms extremely courteous, but too explicit to be
+misunderstood, his positive intention to return to Europe, and to
+the cares of his kingdom, as entirely despairing of future
+success in their undertaking, with their diminished forces and
+civil discords.  Richard remonstrated, but in vain; and when the
+conference ended he received without surprise a manifesto from
+the Duke of Austria, and several other princes, announcing a
+resolution similar to that of Philip, and in no modified terms,
+assigning, for their defection from the cause of the Cross, the
+inordinate ambition and arbitrary domination of Richard of
+England.  All hopes of continuing the war with any prospect of
+ultimate success were now abandoned; and Richard, while he shed
+bitter tears over his disappointed hopes of glory, was little
+consoled by the recollection that the failure was in some degree
+to be imputed to the advantages which he had given his enemies by
+his own hasty and imprudent temper.
+
+"They had not dared to have deserted my father thus," he said to
+De Vaux, in the bitterness of his resentment. "No slanders they
+could have uttered against so wise a king would have been
+believed in Christendom; whereas--fool that I am!--I have not
+only afforded them a pretext for deserting me, but even a colour
+for casting all the blame of the rupture upon my unhappy
+foibles."
+
+These thoughts were so deeply galling to the King, that De Vaux
+was rejoiced when the arrival of an ambassador from Saladin
+turned his reflections into a different channel.
+
+This new envoy was an Emir much respected by the Soldan, whose
+name was Abdallah el Hadgi.  He derived his descent from the
+family of the Prophet, and the race or tribe of Hashem, in
+witness of which genealogy he wore a green turban of large
+dimensions.  He had also three times performed the journey to
+Mecca, from which he derived his epithet of El Hadgi, or the
+Pilgrim.  Notwithstanding these various pretensions to sanctity,
+Abdallah was (for an Arab) a boon companion, who enjoyed a merry
+tale, and laid aside his gravity so far as to quaff a blithe
+flagon when secrecy ensured him against scandal.  He was likewise
+a statesman, whose abilities had been used by Saladin in various
+negotiations with the Christian princes, and particularly with
+Richard, to whom El Hadgi was personally known and acceptable.
+Animated by the cheerful acquiescence with which the envoy of
+Saladin afforded a fair field for the combat, a safe conduct for
+all who might choose to witness it, and offered his own person as
+a guarantee of his fidelity, Richard soon forgot his disappointed
+hopes, and the approaching dissolution of the Christian league,
+in the interesting discussions preceding a combat in the lists.
+
+The station called the Diamond of the Desert was assigned for the
+place of conflict, as being nearly at an equal distance betwixt
+the Christian and Saracen camps.  It was agreed that Conrade of
+Montserrat, the defendant, with his godfathers, the Archduke of
+Austria and the Grand Master of the Templars, should appear there
+on the day fixed for the combat, with a hundred armed followers,
+and no more; that Richard of England and his brother Salisbury,
+who supported the accusation, should attend with the same number,
+to protect his champion; and that the Soldan should bring with
+him a guard of five hundred chosen followers, a band considered
+as not more than equal to the two hundred Christian lances.  Such
+persons of consideration as either party chose to invite to
+witness the contest were to wear no other weapons than their
+swords, and to come without defensive armour.  The Soldan
+undertook the preparation of the lists, and to provide
+accommodations and refreshments of every kind for all who were to
+assist at the solemnity; and his letters expressed with much
+courtesy the pleasure which he anticipated in the prospect of a
+personal and peaceful meeting with the Melech Ric, and his
+anxious desire to render his reception as agreeable as possible.
+
+All preliminaries being arranged and communicated to the
+defendant and his godfathers, Abdullah the Hadgi was admitted to
+a more private interview, where he heard with delight the strains
+of Blondel.  Having first carefully put his green turban out of
+sight, and assumed a Greek cap in its stead, he requited the
+Norman minstrel's music with a drinking song from the Persian,
+and quaffed a hearty flagon of Cyprus wine, to show that his
+practice matched his principles.  On the next day, grave and
+sober as the water-drinker Mirglip, he bent his brow to the
+ground before Saladin's footstool, and rendered to the Soldan an
+account of his embassy.
+
+On the day before that appointed for the combat Conrade and his
+friends set off by daybreak to repair to the place assigned, and
+Richard left the camp at the same hour and for the same purpose;
+but, as had been agreed upon, he took his journey by a different
+route--a precaution which had been judged necessary, to prevent
+the possibility of a quarrel betwixt their armed attendants.
+
+The good King himself was in no humour for quarrelling with any
+one.  Nothing could have added to his pleasurable anticipations
+of a desperate and bloody combat in the lists, except his being
+in his own royal person one of the combatants; and he was half in
+charity again even with Conrade of Montserrat.  Lightly armed,
+richly dressed, and gay as a bridegroom on the eve of his
+nuptials, Richard caracoled along by the side of Queen
+Berengaria's litter, pointing out to her the various scenes
+through which they passed, and cheering with tale and song the
+bosom of the inhospitable wilderness.  The former route of the
+Queen's pilgrimage to Engaddi had been on the other side of the
+chain of mountains, so that the ladies were strangers to the
+scenery of the desert; and though Berengaria knew her husband's
+disposition too well not to endeavour to seem interested in what
+he was pleased either to say or to sing, she could not help
+indulging some female fears when she found herself in the howling
+wilderness with so small an escort, which seemed almost like a
+moving speck on the bosom of the plain, and knew at the same time
+they were not so distant from the camp of Saladin, but what they
+might be in a moment surprised and swept off by an overpowering
+host of his fiery-footed cavalry, should the pagan be faithless
+enough to embrace an opportunity thus tempting.  But when she
+hinted these suspicions to Richard he repelled them with
+displeasure and disdain.  "It were worse than ingratitude," he
+said, "to doubt the good faith of the generous Soldan."
+
+Yet the same doubts and fears recurred more than once, not to the
+timid mind of the Queen alone, but to the firmer and more candid
+soul of Edith Plantagenet, who had no such confidence in the
+faith of the Moslem as to render her perfectly at ease when so
+much in their power; and her surprise had been far less than her
+terror, if the desert around had suddenly resounded with the
+shout of ALLAH HU!  and a band of Arab cavalry had pounced on
+them like vultures on their prey.  Nor were these suspicions
+lessened when, as evening approached, they were aware of a single
+Arab horseman, distinguished by his turban and long lance,
+hovering on the edge of a small eminence like a hawk poised in
+the air, and who instantly, on the appearance of the royal
+retinue, darted off with the speed of the same bird when it
+shoots down the wind and disappears from the horizon.
+
+"We must be near the station," said King Richard; "and yonder
+cavalier is one of Saladin's outposts--methinks I hear the noise
+of the Moorish horns and cymbals.  Get you into order, my hearts,
+and form yourselves around the ladies soldierlike and firmly."
+
+As he spoke, each knight, squire, and archer hastily closed in
+upon his appointed ground, and they proceeded in the most compact
+order, which made their numbers appear still smaller.  And to say
+the truth, though there might be no fear, there was anxiety as
+well as curiosity in the attention with which they listened to
+the wild bursts of Moorish music, which came ever and anon more
+distinctly from the quarter in which the Arab horseman had been
+seen to disappear.
+
+De Vaux spoke in a whisper to the King.  "Were it not well, my
+liege, to send a page to the top of that sand-bank?  Or would it
+stand with your pleasure that I prick forward?  Methinks, by all
+yonder clash and clang, if there be no more than five hundred men
+beyond the sand-hills, half of the Soldan's retinue must be
+drummers and cymbal-tossers.  Shall I spur on?"
+
+The baron had checked his horse with the bit, and was just about
+to strike him with the spurs when the King exclaimed, "Not for
+the world.  Such a caution would express suspicion, and could do
+little to prevent surprise, which, however, I apprehend not."
+
+They advanced accordingly in close and firm order till they
+surmounted the line of low sand-hills, and came in sight of the
+appointed station, when a splendid, but at the same time a
+startling, spectacle awaited them.
+
+The Diamond of the Desert, so lately a solitary fountain,
+distinguished only amid the waste by solitary groups of palm-trees, was now the centre of an encampment, 
+the embroidered flags
+and gilded ornaments of which glittered far and wide, and
+reflected a thousand rich tints against the setting sun. The
+coverings of the large pavilions were of the gayest colours--
+scarlet, bright yellow, pale blue, and other gaudy and gleaming
+hues--and the tops of their pillars, or tent-poles, were
+decorated with golden pomegranates and small silken flags.  But
+besides these distinguished pavilions, there were what Thomas de
+Vaux considered as a portentous number of the ordinary black
+tents of the Arabs, being sufficient, as he conceived, to
+accommodate, according to the Eastern fashion, a host of five
+thousand men.  A number of Arabs and Kurds, fully corresponding
+to the extent of the encampment, were hastily assembling, each
+leading his horse in his hand, and their muster was accompanied
+by an astonishing clamour of their noisy instruments of martial
+music, by which, in all ages, the warfare of the Arabs has been
+animated.
+
+They soon formed a deep and confused mass of dismounted cavalry
+in front of their encampment, when, at the signal of a shrill
+cry, which arose high over the clangour of the music, each
+cavalier sprung to his saddle.  A cloud of dust arising at the
+moment of this manoeuvre hid from Richard and his attendants the
+camp, the palm-trees, and the distant ridge of mountains, as well
+as the troops whose sudden movement had raised the cloud, and,
+ascending high over their heads, formed itself into the fantastic
+forms of writhed pillars, domes, and minarets.  Another shrill
+yell was heard from the bosom of this cloudy tabernacle.  It was
+the signal for the cavalry to advance, which they did at full
+gallop, disposing themselves as they came forward so as to come
+in at once on the front, flanks, and rear of Richard's little
+bodyguard, who were thus surrounded, and almost choked by the
+dense clouds of dust enveloping them on each side, through which
+were seen alternately, and lost, the grim forms and wild faces of
+the Saracens, brandishing and tossing their lances in every
+possible direction with the wildest cries and halloos, and
+frequently only reining up their horses when within a spear's
+length of the Christians, while those in the rear discharged over
+the heads of both parties thick volleys of arrows.  One of these
+struck the litter in which the Queen was seated, who loudly
+screamed, and the red spot was on Richard's brow in an instant.
+
+"Ha!  Saint George," he exclaimed, "we must take some order with
+this infidel scum!"
+
+But Edith, whose litter was near, thrust her head out, and with
+her hand holding one of the shafts, exclaimed, "Royal Richard,
+beware what you do!  see, these arrows are headless!"
+
+"Noble, sensible wench!"  exclaimed Richard; "by Heaven, thou
+shamest us all by thy readiness of thought and eye.--Be not
+moved, my English hearts," he exclaimed to his followers; "their
+arrows have no heads--and their spears, too, lack the steel
+points.  It is but a wild welcome, after their savage fashion,
+though doubtless they would rejoice to see us daunted or
+disturbed.  Move onward, slow and steady."
+
+The little phalanx moved forward accordingly, accompanied on all
+sides by the Arabs, with the shrillest and most piercing cries,
+the bowmen, meanwhile, displaying their agility by shooting as
+near the crests of the Christians as was possible, without
+actually hitting them, while the lancers charged each other with
+such rude blows of their blunt weapons that more than one of them
+lost his saddle, and well-nigh his life, in this rough sport.
+All this, though designed to express welcome, had rather a
+doubtful appearance in the eyes of the Europeans.
+
+As they had advanced nearly half way towards the camp, King
+Richard and his suite forming, as it were, the nucleus round
+which this tumultuary body of horsemen howled, whooped,
+skirmished, and galloped, creating a scene of indescribable
+confusion, another shrill cry was heard, on which all these
+irregulars, who were on the front and upon the flanks of the
+little body of Europeans, wheeled off; and forming themselves
+into a long and deep column, followed with comparative order and
+silence in the rear of Richard's troops.  The dust began now to
+dissipate in their front, when there advanced to meet them
+through that cloudy veil a body of cavalry of a different and
+more regular description, completely armed with offensive and
+defensive weapons, and who might well have served as a bodyguard
+to the proudest of Eastern monarchs.  This splendid troop
+consisted of five hundred men and each horse which it contained
+was worth an earl's ransom.  The riders were Georgian and
+Circassian slaves in the very prime of life. Their helmets and
+hauberks were formed of steel rings, so bright that they shone
+like silver; their vestures were of the gayest colours, and some
+of cloth of gold or silver; the sashes were twisted with silk and
+gold, their rich turbans were plumed and jewelled, and their
+sabres and poniards, of Damascene steel, were adorned with gold
+and gems on hilt and scabbard.
+
+This splendid array advanced to the sound of military music, and
+when they met the Christian body they opened their files to the
+right and left, and let them enter between their ranks.  Richard
+now assumed the foremost place in his troop, aware that Saladin
+himself was approaching.  Nor was it long when, in the centre of
+his bodyguard, surrounded by his domestic officers and those
+hideous negroes who guard the Eastern haram, and whose misshapen
+forms were rendered yet more frightful by the richness of their
+attire, came the Soldan, with the look and manners of one on
+whose brow Nature had written, This is a King!  In his snow-white
+turban, vest, and wide Eastern trousers, wearing a sash of
+scarlet silk, without any other ornament, Saladin might have
+seemed the plainest-dressed man in his own guard.  But closer
+inspection discerned in his turban that inestimable gem which was
+called by the poets the Sea of Light; the diamond on which his
+signet was engraved, and which he wore in a ring, was probably
+worth all the jewels of the English crown; and a sapphire which
+terminated the hilt of his cangiar was not of much inferior
+value.  It should be added that, to protect himself from the
+dust, which in the vicinity of the Dead Sea resembles the finest
+ashes, or, perhaps, out of Oriental pride, the Soldan wore a sort
+of veil attached to his turban, which partly obscured the view of
+his noble features.  He rode a milk-white Arabian, which bore him
+as if conscious and proud of his noble burden.
+
+
+There was no need of further introduction.  The two heroic
+monarchs--for such they both were--threw themselves at once from
+horseback, and the troops halting and the music suddenly ceasing,
+they advanced to meet each other in profound silence, and after a
+courteous inclination on either side they embraced as brethren
+and equals.  The pomp and display upon both sides attracted no
+further notice--no one saw aught save Richard and Saladin, and
+they too beheld nothing but each other.  The looks with which
+Richard surveyed Saladin were, however, more intently curious
+than those which the Soldan fixed upon him; and the Soldan also
+was the first to break silence.
+
+"The Melech Ric is welcome to Saladin as water to this desert.  I
+trust he hath no distrust of this numerous array. Excepting the
+armed slaves of my household, those who surround you with eyes of
+wonder and of welcome are--even the humblest of them--the
+privileged nobles of my thousand tribes; for who that could claim
+a title to be present would remain at home when such a Prince was
+to be seen as Richard, with the terrors of whose name, even on
+the sands of Yemen, the nurse stills her child, and the free Arab
+subdues his restive steed!"
+
+"And these are all nobles of Araby?"  said Richard, looking
+around on wild forms with their persons covered with haiks, their
+countenance swart with the sunbeams, their teeth as white as
+ivory, their black eyes glancing with fierce and preternatural
+lustre from under the shade of their turbans, and their dress
+being in general simple even to meanness.
+
+"They claim such rank," said Saladin; "but though numerous, they
+are within the conditions of the treaty, and bear no arms but the
+sabre--even the iron of their lances is left behind."
+
+"I fear," muttered De Vaux in English, "they have left them where
+they can be soon found.  A most flourishing House of Peers, I
+confess, and would find Westminster Hall something too narrow for
+them."
+
+"Hush, De Vaux," said Richard, "I command thee.--Noble Saladin,"
+he said, "suspicion and thou cannot exist on the same ground.
+Seest thou," pointing to the litters, "I too have brought some
+champions with me, though armed, perhaps, in breach of agreement;
+for bright eyes and fair features are weapons which cannot be
+left behind."
+
+The Soldan, turning to the litters, made an obeisance as lowly as
+if looking towards Mecca, and kissed the sand in token of
+respect.
+
+"Nay," said Richard, "they will not fear a closer encounter,
+brother; wilt thou not ride towards their litters, and the
+curtains will be presently withdrawn?"  
+
+"That may Allah
+prohibit!"  said Saladin, "since not an Arab looks on who would
+not think it shame to the noble ladies to be seen with their
+faces uncovered."
+
+"Thou shalt see them, then, in private, brother," answered
+Richard.
+
+"To what purpose?"  answered Saladin mournfully.  "Thy last
+letter was, to the hopes which I had entertained, like water to
+fire; and wherefore should I again light a flame which may indeed
+consume, but cannot cheer me?  But will not my brother pass to
+the tent which his servant hath prepared for him?  My principal
+black slave hath taken order for the reception of the Princesses,
+the officers of my household will attend your followers, and
+ourself will be the chamberlain of the royal Richard."
+
+He led the way accordingly to a splendid pavilion, where was
+everything that royal luxury could devise.  De Vaux, who was in
+attendance, then removed the chappe (CAPA), or long riding-cloak,
+which Richard wore, and he stood before Saladin in the close
+dress which showed to advantage the strength and symmetry of his
+person, while it bore a strong contrast to the flowing robes
+which disguised the thin frame. of the Eastern monarch.  It was
+Richard's two-handed sword that chiefly attracted the attention
+of the Saracen--a broad, straight blade, the seemingly unwieldy
+length of which extended well-nigh from the shoulder to the heel
+of the wearer.
+
+"Had I not," said Saladin, "seen this brand flaming in the front
+of battle, like that of Azrael, I had scarce believed that human
+arm could wield it.  Might I request to see the Melech Ric strike
+one blow with it in peace, and in pure trial of strength?"
+
+"Willingly, noble Saladin," answered Richard; and looking around
+for something whereon to exercise his strength, he saw a steel
+mace held by one of the attendants, the handle being of the same
+metal, and about an inch and a half in diameter.  This he placed
+on a block of wood.
+
+The anxiety of De Vaux for his master's honour led him to whisper
+in English, "For the blessed Virgin's sake, beware what you
+attempt, my liege!  Your full strength is not as yet returned
+--give no triumph to the infidel."
+
+"Peace, fool!"  said Richard, standing firm on his ground, and
+casting a fierce glance around; "thinkest thou that I can fail in
+HIS presence?"
+
+The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft
+to the King's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended
+with the sway of some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled
+on the ground in two pieces, as a woodsman would sever a sapling
+with a hedging-bill.
+
+"By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!" said the
+Soldan, critically and accurately examining the iron bar which
+had been cut asunder; and the blade of the sword was so well
+tempered as to exhibit not the least token of having suffered by
+the feat it had performed.  He then took the King's hand, and
+looking on the size and muscular strength which it exhibited,
+laughed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and thin, so
+inferior in brawn and sinew.
+
+"Ay, look well," said De Vaux in English, "it will be long ere
+your long jackanape's fingers do such a feat with your fine
+gilded reaping-hook there."
+
+"Silence, De Vaux," said Richard; "by Our Lady, he understands or
+guesses thy meaning--be not so broad, I pray thee."
+
+The Soldan, indeed, presently said, "Something I would fain
+attempt--though wherefore should the weak show their inferiority
+in presence of the strong?  Yet each land hath its own exercises,
+and this may be new to the Melech Ric."  So saying, he took from
+the floor a cushion of silk and down, and placed it upright on
+one end.  "Can thy weapon, my brother, sever that cushion?"  he
+said to King Richard.
+
+"No, surely," replied the King; "no sword on earth, were it the
+Excalibur of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady
+resistance to the blow."
+
+"Mark, then," said Saladin; and tucking up the sleeve of his
+gown, showed his arm, thin indeed and spare, but which constant
+exercise had hardened into a mass consisting of nought but bone,
+brawn, and sinew.  He unsheathed his scimitar, a curved and
+narrow blade, which glittered not like the swords of the Franks,
+but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue colour, marked with ten
+millions of meandering lines, which showed how anxiously the
+metal had been welded by the armourer.  Wielding this weapon,
+apparently so inefficient when compared to that of Richard, the
+Soldan stood resting his weight upon his left foot, which was
+slightly advanced; he balanced himself a little, as if to steady
+his aim; then stepping at once forward, drew the scimitar across
+the cushion, applying the edge so dexterously, and with so little
+apparent effort, that the cushion seemed rather to fall asunder
+than to be divided by violence.
+
+"It is a juggler's trick," said De Vaux, darting forward and
+snatching up the portion of the cushion which had been cut off,
+as if to assure himself of the reality of the feat; "there is
+gramarye in this."
+
+The Soldan seemed to comprehend him, for he undid the sort of
+veil which he had hitherto worn, laid it double along the edge of
+his sabre, extended the weapon edgeways in the air, and drawing
+it suddenly through the veil, although it hung on the blade
+entirely loose, severed that also into two parts, which floated
+to different sides of the tent, equally displaying the extreme
+temper and sharpness of the weapon, and the exquisite dexterity
+of him who used it.
+
+"Now, in good faith, my brother," said Richard, "thou art even
+matchless at the trick of the sword, and right perilous were it
+to meet thee!  Still, however, I put some faith in a downright
+English blow, and what we cannot do by sleight we eke out by
+strength.  Nevertheless, in truth thou art as expert in
+inflicting wounds as my sage Hakim in curing them.  I trust I
+shall see the learned leech.  I have much to thank him for, and
+had brought some small present."
+
+As he spoke, Saladin exchanged his turban for a Tartar cap.  He
+had no sooner done so, than De Vaux opened at once his extended
+mouth and his large, round eyes, and Richard gazed with scarce
+less astonishment, while the Soldan spoke in a grave and altered
+voice:  "The sick man, saith the poet, while he is yet infirm,
+knoweth the physician by his step; but when he is recovered, he
+knoweth not even his face when he looks upon him."
+
+"A miracle!--a miracle!"  exclaimed Richard.
+
+"Of Mahound's working, doubtless," said Thomas de Vaux.
+
+"That I should lose my learned Hakim," said Richard, "merely by
+absence of his cap and robe, and that I should find him again in
+my royal brother Saladin!"
+
+"Such is oft the fashion of the world," answered the Soldan; "the
+tattered robe makes not always the dervise."
+
+"And it was through thy intercession," said Richard, "that yonder
+Knight of the Leopard was saved from death, and by thy artifice
+that he revisited my camp in disguise?"
+
+"Even so," replied Saladin.  "I was physician enough to know
+that, unless the wounds of his bleeding honour were stanched, the
+days of his life must be few.  His disguise was more easily
+penetrated than I had expected from the success of my own."
+
+"An accident," said King Richard (probably alluding to the
+circumstance of his applying his lips to the wound of the
+supposed Nubian), "let me first know that his skin was
+artificially discoloured; and that hint once taken, detection
+became easy, for his form and person are not to be forgotten.  I
+confidently expect that he will do battle on the morrow."
+
+"He is full in preparation, and high in hope," said the Soldan.
+"I have furnished him with weapons and horse, thinking nobly of
+him from what I have seen under various disguises."
+
+"Knows he now," said Richard, "to whom he lies under obligation?"
+
+"He doth," replied the Saracen.  "I was obliged to confess my
+person when I unfolded my purpose."
+
+"And confessed he aught to you?"  said the King of England.
+
+"Nothing explicit," replied the Soldan; "but from much that
+passed between us, I conceive his love is too highly placed to be
+happy in its issue."
+
+"And thou knowest that his daring and insolent passion crossed
+thine own wishes?"  said Richard.
+
+"I might guess so much," said Saladin; "but his passion had
+existed ere my wishes had been formed--and, I must now add, is
+likely to survive them.  I cannot, in honour, revenge me for my
+disappointment on him who had no hand in it.  Or, if this high-born dame loved him better than myself, 
+who can say that she did
+not justice to a knight of her own religion, who is full of
+nobleness?"
+
+"Yet of too mean lineage to mix with the blood of Plantagenet,"
+said Richard haughtily.
+
+"Such may be your maxims in Frangistan," replied the Soldan.
+"Our poets of the Eastern countries say that a valiant camel-driver is worthy to kiss the lip of a fair Queen, 
+when a cowardly
+prince is not worthy to salute the hem of her garment.  But with
+your permission, noble brother, I must take leave of thee for the
+present, to receive the Duke of Austria and yonder Nazarene
+knight, much less worthy of hospitality, but who must yet be
+suitably entreated, not for their sakes, but for mine own honour
+--for what saith the sage Lokman?  'Say not that the food is lost
+unto thee which is given to the stranger; for if his body be
+strengthened and fattened therewithal, not less is thine own
+worship and good name cherished and augmented.'"
+
+The Saracen Monarch departed from King Richard's tent, and having
+indicated to him, rather with signs than with speech, where the
+pavilion of the Queen and her attendants was pitched, he went to
+receive the Marquis of Montserrat and his attendants, for whom,
+with less goodwill, but with equal splendour, the magnificent
+Soldan had provided accommodations.  The most ample refreshments,
+both in the Oriental and after the European fashion, were spread
+before the royal and princely guests of Saladin, each in their
+own separate pavilion; and so attentive was the Soldan to the
+habits and taste of his visitors, that Grecian slaves were
+stationed to present them with the goblet, which is the
+abomination of the sect of Mohammed.  Ere Richard had finished
+his meal, the ancient Omrah, who had brought the Soldan's letter
+to the Christian camp, entered with a plan of the ceremonial to
+be observed on the succeeding day of combat.  Richard, who knew
+the taste of his old acquaintance, invited him to pledge him in a
+flagon of wine of Shiraz; but Abdallah gave him to understand,
+with a rueful aspect, that self-denial in the present
+circumstances was a matter in which his life was concerned, for
+that Saladin, tolerant in many respects, both observed and
+enforced by high penalties the laws of the Prophet.
+
+"Nay, then," said Richard, "if he loves not wine, that lightener
+of the human heart, his conversion is not to be hoped for, and
+the prediction of the mad priest of Engaddi goes like chaff down
+the wind."
+
+The King then addressed himself to settle the articles of combat,
+which cost a considerable time, as it was necessary on some
+points to consult with the opposite parties, as well as with the
+Soldan.
+
+They were at length finally agreed upon, and adjusted by a
+protocol in French and in Arabian, which was subscribed by
+Saladin as umpire of the field, and by Richard and Leopold as
+guarantees for the two combatants.  As the Omrah took his final
+leave of King Richard for the evening, De Vaux entered.
+
+"The good knight," he said, "who is to do battle tomorrow
+requests to know whether he may not to-night pay duty to his
+royal godfather!"
+
+"Hast thou seen him, De Vaux?"  said the King, smiling; "and
+didst thou know an ancient acquaintance?"
+
+"By our Lady of Lanercost," answered De Vaux, "there are so many
+surprises and changes in this land that my poor brain turns.  I
+scarce knew Sir Kenneth of Scotland, till his good hound, that
+had been for a short while under my care, came and fawned on me;
+and even then I only knew the tyke by the depth of his chest, the
+roundness of his foot, and his manner of baying, for the poor
+gazehound was painted like any Venetian courtesan."
+
+"Thou art better skilled in brutes than men, De Vaux," said the
+King.
+
+"I will not deny," said De Vaux, "I have found them ofttimes the
+honester animals.  Also, your Grace is pleased to term me
+sometimes a brute myself; besides that, I serve the Lion, whom
+all men acknowledge the king of brutes."
+
+"By Saint George, there thou brokest thy lance fairly on my
+brow," said the King.  "I have ever said thou hast a sort of wit,
+De Vaux; marry, one must strike thee with a sledge-hammer ere it
+can be made to sparkle.  But to the present gear--is the good
+knight well armed and equipped?"
+
+"Fully, my liege, and nobly," answered De Vaux.  "I know the
+armour well; it is that which the Venetian commissary offered
+your highness, just ere you became ill, for five hundred
+byzants."
+
+"And he hath sold it to the infidel Soldan, I warrant me, for a
+few ducats more, and present payment.  These Venetians would sell
+the Sepulchre itself!"
+
+"The armour will never be borne in a nobler cause," said De Vaux.
+
+"Thanks to the nobleness of the Saracen," said the King, "not to
+the avarice of the Venetians."
+
+"I would to God your Grace would be more cautious," said the
+anxious De Vaux.  "Here are we deserted by all our allies, for
+points of offence given to one or another; we cannot hope to
+prosper upon the land; and we have only to quarrel with the
+amphibious republic, to lose the means of retreat by sea!"
+
+"I will take care," said Richard impatiently; "but school me no
+more.  Tell me rather, for it is of interest, hath the knight a
+confessor?"
+
+"He hath," answered De Vaux; "the hermit of Engaddi. who erst did
+him that office when preparing for death, attends him on the
+present occasion, the fame of the duel having brought him
+hither."
+
+"'Tis well," said Richard; "and now for the knight's request.
+Say to him, Richard will receive him when the discharge of his
+devoir beside the Diamond of the Desert shall have atoned for his
+fault beside the Mount of Saint George; and as thou passest
+through the camp, let the Queen know I will visit her pavilion--
+and tell Blondel to meet me there."
+
+De Vaux departed, and in about an hour afterwards, Richard,
+wrapping his mantle around him, and taking his ghittern in his
+hand, walked in the direction of the Queen's pavilion.  Several
+Arabs passed him, but always with averted heads and looks fixed
+upon the earth, though he could observe that all gazed earnestly
+after him when he was past.  This led him justly to conjecture
+that his person was known to them; but that either the Soldan's
+commands, or their own Oriental politeness, forbade them to seem
+to notice a sovereign who desired to remain incognito.
+
+When the King reached the pavilion of his Queen he found it
+guarded by those unhappy officials whom Eastern jealousy places
+around the zenana.  Blondel was walking before the door, and
+touched his rote from time to time in a manner which made the
+Africans show their ivory teeth, and bear burden with their
+strange gestures and shrill, unnatural voices.
+
+"What art thou after with this herd of black cattle, Blondel?"
+said the King; "wherefore goest thou not into the tent?"
+
+"Because my trade can neither spare the head nor the fingers,"
+said Blondel, "and these honest blackamoors threatened to cut me
+joint from joint if I pressed forward."
+
+"Well, enter with me," said the King, "and I will be thy
+safeguard."
+
+The blacks accordingly lowered pikes and swords to King Richard,
+and bent their eyes on the ground, as if unworthy to look upon
+him.  In the interior of the pavilion they found Thomas de Vaux
+in attendance on the Queen.  While Berengaria welcomed Blondel,
+King Richard spoke for some time secretly and apart with his fair
+kinswoman.
+
+At length, "Are we still foes, my fair Edith?"  he said, in a
+whisper.
+
+"No, my liege," said Edith, in a voice just so low as not to
+interrupt the music; "none can bear enmity against King Richard
+when he deigns to show himself, as he really is, generous and
+noble, as well as valiant and honourable."
+
+So saying, she extended her hand to him.  The King kissed it in
+token of reconciliation, and then proceeded.
+
+"You think, my sweet cousin, that my anger in this matter was
+feigned; but you are deceived.  The punishment I inflicted upon
+this knight was just; for he had betrayed--no matter for how
+tempting a bribe, fair cousin--the trust committed to him.  But I
+rejoice, perchance as much as you, that to-morrow gives him a
+chance to win the field, and throw back the stain which for a
+time clung to him upon the actual thief and traitor.  No!--future
+times may blame Richard for impetuous folly, but they shall say
+that in rendering judgment he was just when he should and
+merciful when he could."
+
+"Laud not thyself, cousin King," said Edith.  "They may call thy
+justice cruelty, thy mercy caprice."
+
+"And do not thou pride thyself," said the King, "as if thy
+knight, who hath not yet buckled on his armour, were unbelting it
+in triumph--Conrade of Montserrat is held a good lance.  What if
+the Scot should lose the day?"
+
+"It is impossible!"  said Edith firmly.  "My own eyes saw yonder
+Conrade tremble and change colour like a base thief; he is
+guilty, and the trial by combat is an appeal to the justice of
+God.  I myself, in such a cause, would encounter him without
+fear."
+
+"By the mass, I think thou wouldst, wench," said the King, "and
+beat him to boot, for there never breathed a truer Plantagenet
+than thou."
+
+ He paused, and added in a very serious tone, "See that thou
+continue to remember what is due to thy birth."
+
+"What means that advice, so seriously given at this moment?"
+said Edith.  "Am I of such light nature as to forget my name--my
+condition?"
+
+"I will speak plainly, Edith," answered the King, "and as to a
+friend.  What will this knight be to you, should he come off
+victor from yonder lists?"
+
+"To me?"  said Edith, blushing deep with shame and displeasure.
+"What can he be to me more than an honoured knight, worthy of
+such grace as Queen Berengaria might confer on him, had he
+selected her for his lady, instead of a more unworthy choice?
+The meanest knight may devote himself to the service of an
+empress, but the glory of his choice," she said proudly, "must be
+his reward."
+
+"Yet he hath served and suffered much for you," said the King.
+
+"I have paid his services with honour and applause, and his
+sufferings with tears," answered Edith.  "Had he desired other
+reward, he would have done wisely to have bestowed his affections
+within his own degree."
+
+"You would not, then, wear the bloody night-gear for his sake?"
+said King Richard.
+
+"No more," answered Edith, "than I would have required him to
+expose his life by an action in which there was more madness than
+honour."
+
+"Maidens talk ever thus," said the King; "but when the favoured
+lover presses his suit, she says, with a sigh, her stars had
+decreed otherwise."
+
+"Your Grace has now, for the second time, threatened me with the
+influence of my horoscope," Edith replied, with dignity.  "Trust
+me, my liege, whatever be the power of the stars, your poor
+kinswoman will never wed either infidel or obscure adventurer.
+Permit me that I listen to the music of Blondel, for the tone of
+your royal admonitions is scarce so grateful to the ear."
+
+The conclusion of the evening offered nothing worthy of notice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Heard ye the din of battle bray,
+Lance to lance, and horse to horse?     GRAY.
+
+It had been agreed, on account of the heat of the climate, that
+the judicial combat which was the cause of the present assemblage
+of various nations at the Diamond of the Desert should take place
+at one hour after sunrise.  The wide lists, which had been
+constructed under the inspection of the Knight of the Leopard,
+enclosed a space of hard sand, which was one hundred and twenty
+yards long by forty in width.  They extended in length from north
+to south, so as to give both parties the equal advantage of the
+rising sun. Saladin's royal seat was erected on the western side
+of the enclosure, just in the centre, where the combatants were
+expected to meet in mid encounter.  Opposed to this was a gallery
+with closed casements, so contrived that the ladies, for whose
+accommodation it was erected, might see the fight without being
+themselves exposed to view.  At either extremity of the lists was
+a barrier, which could be opened or shut at pleasure.  Thrones
+had been also erected, but the Archduke, perceiving that his was
+lower than King Richard's, refused to occupy it; and Coeur de
+Lion, who would have submitted to much ere any formality should
+have interfered with the combat, readily agreed that the
+sponsors, as they were called, should remain on horseback during
+the fight. At one extremity of the lists were placed the
+followers of Richard, and opposed to them were those who
+accompanied the defender Conrade.  Around the throne destined for
+the Soldan were ranged his splendid Georgian Guards, and the rest
+of the enclosure was occupied by Christian and Mohammedan
+spectators.
+
+Long before daybreak the lists were surrounded by even a larger
+number of Saracens than Richard had seen on the preceding
+evening.  When the first ray of the sun's glorious orb arose
+above the desert, the sonorous call, "To prayer--to prayer!"  was
+poured forth by the Soldan himself, and answered by others, whose
+rank and zeal entitled them to act as muezzins.  It was a
+striking spectacle to see them all sink to earth, for the purpose
+of repeating their devotions, with their faces turned to Mecca.
+But when they arose from the ground, the sun's rays, now
+strengthening fast, seemed to confirm the Lord of Gilsland's
+conjecture of the night before.  They were flashed back from many
+a spearhead, for the pointless lances of the preceding day were
+certainly no longer such.  De Vaux pointed it out to his master,
+who answered with impatience that he had perfect confidence in
+the good faith of the Soldan; but if De Vaux was afraid of his
+bulky body, he might retire.
+
+Soon after this the noise of timbrels was heard, at the sound of
+which the whole Saracen cavaliers threw themselves from their
+horses, and prostrated themselves, as if for a second morning
+prayer.  This was to give an opportunity to the Queen, with Edith
+and her attendants, to pass from the pavilion to the gallery
+intended for them.  Fifty guards of Saladin's seraglio escorted
+them with naked sabres, whose orders were to cut to pieces
+whomsoever, were he prince or peasant, should venture to gaze on
+the ladies as they passed, or even presume to raise his head
+until the cessation of the music should make all men aware that
+they were lodged in their gallery, not to be gazed on by the
+curious eye.
+
+This superstitious observance of Oriental reverence to the fair
+sex called forth from Queen Berengaria some criticisms very
+unfavourable to Saladin and his country.  But their den, as the
+royal fair called it, being securely closed and guarded by their
+sable attendants, she was under the necessity of contenting
+herself with seeing, and laying aside for the present the still
+more exquisite pleasure of being seen.
+
+Meantime the sponsors of both champions went, as was their duty,
+to see that they were duly armed and prepared for combat.  The
+Archduke of Austria was in no hurry to perform this part of the
+ceremony, having had rather an unusually severe debauch upon wine
+of Shiraz the preceding evening.  But the Grand Master of the
+Temple, more deeply concerned in the event of the combat, was
+early before the tent of Conrade of Montserrat.  To his great
+surprise, the attendants refused him admittance.
+
+"Do you not know me, ye knaves?"  said the Grand Master, in great
+anger.
+
+"We do, most valiant and reverend," answered Conrade's squire;
+"but even you may not at present enter--the Marquis is about to
+confess himself."
+
+"Confess himself!"  exclaimed the Templar, in a tone where alarm
+mingled with surprise and scorn--"and to whom, I pray thee?"
+
+"My master bid me be secret," said the squire; on which the Grand
+Master pushed past him, and entered the tent almost by force.
+
+The Marquis of Montserrat was kneeling at the feet of the hermit
+of Engaddi, and in the act of beginning his confession.
+
+"What means this, Marquis?"  said the Grand Master; "up, for
+shame--or, if you must needs confess, am not I here?"
+
+"I have confessed to you too often already," replied Conrade,
+with a pale cheek and a faltering voice.  "For God's sake, Grand
+Master, begone, and let me unfold my conscience to this holy
+man."
+
+"In what is he holier than I am?"  said the Grand Master.
+--"Hermit, prophet, madman--say, if thou darest, in what thou
+excellest me?"
+
+"Bold and bad man," replied the hermit, "know that I am like the
+latticed window, and the divine light passes through to avail
+others, though, alas!  it helpeth not me. Thou art like the iron
+stanchions, which neither receive light themselves, nor
+communicate it to any one."
+
+"Prate not to me, but depart from this tent," said the Grand
+Master; "the Marquis shall not confess this morning, unless it be
+to me, for I part not from his side."
+
+"Is this YOUR pleasure?"  said the hermit to Conrade; "for think
+not I will obey that proud man, if you continue to desire my
+assistance."
+
+"Alas," said Conrade irresolutely, "what would you have me say?
+Farewell for a while---we will speak anon."
+
+"O procrastination!"  exclaimed the hermit, "thou art a soul-murderer!--Unhappy man, farewell--not for a 
+while, but until we
+shall both meet no matter where.  And for thee," he added,
+turning to the Grand Master, "TREMBLE!"
+
+"Tremble!"  replied the Templar contemptuously, "I cannot if I
+would."
+
+The hermit heard not his answer, having left the tent.
+
+"Come!  to this gear hastily," said the Grand Master, "since thou
+wilt needs go through the foolery.  Hark thee--I think I know
+most of thy frailties by heart, so we may omit the detail, which
+may be somewhat a long one, and begin with the absolution.  What
+signifies counting the spots of dirt that we are about to wash
+from our hands?"
+
+"Knowing what thou art thyself," said Conrade, "it is blasphemous
+to speak of pardoning another."
+
+"That is not according to the canon, Lord Marquis," said the
+Templar; "thou art more scrupulous than orthodox.  The absolution
+of the wicked priest is as effectual as if he were himself a
+saint--otherwise, God help the poor penitent!  What wounded man
+inquires whether the surgeon that tends his gashes has clean
+hands or no?  Come, shall we to this toy?"
+
+"No," said Conrade, "I will rather die unconfessed than mock the
+sacrament."
+
+"Come, noble Marquis," said the Templar, "rouse up your courage,
+and speak not thus.  In an hour's time thou shalt stand
+victorious in the lists, or confess thee in thy helmet, like a
+valiant knight."
+
+"Alas, Grand Master," answered Conrade, "all augurs ill for this
+affair, the strange discovery by the instinct of a dog--the
+revival of this Scottish knight, who comes into the lists like a
+spectre--all betokens evil."
+
+"Pshaw," said the Templar, "I have seen thee bend thy lance
+boldly against him in sport, and with equal chance of success.
+Think thou art but in a tournament, and who bears him better in
+the tilt-yard than thou?--Come, squires and armourers, your
+master must be accoutred for the field."
+
+The attendants entered accordingly, and began to arm the Marquis.
+
+"What morning is without?"  said Conrade.
+
+"The sun rises dimly," answered a squire.
+
+"Thou seest, Grand Master," said Conrade, "nought smiles on us."
+
+"Thou wilt fight the more coolly, my son," answered the Templar;
+"thank Heaven, that hath tempered the sun of Palestine to suit
+thine occasion."
+
+Thus jested the Grand Master.  But his jests had lost their
+influence on the harassed mind of the Marquis, and
+notwithstanding his attempts to seem gay, his gloom communicated
+itself to the Templar.
+
+"This craven," he thought, "will lose the day in pure faintness
+and cowardice of heart, which he calls tender conscience.  I,
+whom visions and auguries shake not---who am firm in my purpose
+as the living rock--I should have fought the combat myself.
+Would to God the Scot may strike him dead on the spot; it were
+next best to his winning the victory.  But come what will, he
+must have no other confessor than myself--our sins are too much
+in common, and he might confess my share with his own."
+
+While these thoughts passed through his mind, he continued to
+assist the Marquis in arming, but it was in silence.
+
+The hour at length arrived; the trumpets sounded; the knights
+rode into the lists armed at all points, and mounted like men who
+were to do battle for a kingdom's honour.  They wore their visors
+up, and riding around the lists three times, showed themselves to
+the spectators.  Both were goodly persons, and both had noble
+countenances.  But there was an air of manly confidence on the
+brow of the Scot--a radiancy of hope, which amounted even to
+cheerfulness; while, although pride and effort had recalled much
+of Conrade's natural courage, there lowered still on his brow a
+cloud of ominous despondence.  Even his steed seemed to tread
+less lightly and blithely to the trumpet-sound than the noble
+Arab which was bestrode by Sir Kenneth; and the SPRUCH-SPRECHER
+shook his head while he observed that, while the challenger rode
+around the lists in the course of the sun--that is, from right to
+left--the defender made the same circuit WIDDERSINS--that is,
+from left to right--which is in most countries held ominous.
+
+A temporary altar was erected just beneath the gallery occupied
+by the Queen, and beside it stood the hermit in the dress of his
+order as a Carmelite friar.  Other churchmen were also present.
+To this altar the challenger and defender were successively
+brought forward, conducted by their respective sponsors.
+Dismounting before it, each knight avouched the justice of his
+cause by a solemn oath on the Evangelists, and prayed that his
+success might be according to the truth or falsehood of what he
+then swore.  They also made oath that they came to do battle in
+knightly guise, and with the usual weapons, disclaiming the use
+of spells, charms, or magical devices to incline victory to their
+side.  The challenger pronounced his vow with a firm and manly
+voice, and a bold and cheerful countenance.  When the ceremony
+was finished, the Scottish Knight looked at the gallery, and bent
+his head to the earth, as if in honour of those invisible
+beauties which were enclosed within; then, loaded with armour as
+he was, sprung to the saddle without the use of the stirrup, and
+made his courser carry him in a succession of caracoles to his
+station at the eastern extremity of the lists.  Conrade also
+presented himself before the altar with boldness enough; but his
+voice as he took the oath sounded hollow, as if drowned in his
+helmet.  The lips with which he appealed to Heaven to adjudge
+victory to the just quarrel grew white as they uttered the
+impious mockery.  As he turned to remount his horse, the Grand
+Master approached him closer, as if to rectify something about
+the sitting of his gorget, and whispered, "Coward and fool!
+recall thy senses, and do me this battle bravely, else, by
+Heaven, shouldst thou escape him, thou escapest not ME!"
+
+The savage tone in which this was whispered perhaps completed the
+confusion of the Marquis's nerves, for he stumbled as he made to
+horse; and though he recovered his feet, sprung to the saddle
+with his usual agility, and displayed his address in horsemanship
+as he assumed his position opposite to the challenger's, yet the
+accident did not escape those who were on the watch for omens
+which might predict the fate of the day.
+
+The priests, after a solemn prayer that God would show the
+rightful quarrel, departed from the lists.  The trumpets of the
+challenger then rung a flourish, and a herald-at-arms proclaimed
+at the eastern end of the lists--"Here stands a good knight, Sir
+Kenneth of Scotland, champion for the royal King Richard of
+England, who accuseth Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat, of foul
+treason and dishonour done to the said King."
+
+When the words Kenneth of Scotland announced the name and
+character of the champion, hitherto scarce generally known, a
+loud and cheerful acclaim burst from the followers of King
+Richard, and hardly, notwithstanding repeated commands of
+silence, suffered the reply of the defendant to be heard.  He, of
+course, avouched his innocence, and offered his body for battle.
+The esquires of the combatants now approached, and delivered to
+each his shield and lance, assisting to hang the former around
+his neck, that his two hands might remain free, one for the
+management of the bridle, the other to direct the lance.
+
+The shield of the Scot displayed his old bearing, the leopard,
+but with the addition of a collar and broken chain, in allusion
+to his late captivity.  The shield of the Marquis bore, in
+reference to his title, a serrated and rocky mountain. Each shook
+his lance aloft, as if to ascertain the weight and toughness of
+the unwieldy weapon, and then laid it in the rest.  The sponsors,
+heralds, and squires now retired to the barriers, and the
+combatants sat opposite to each other, face to face, with couched
+lance and closed visor, the human form so completely enclosed,
+that they looked more like statues of molten iron than beings of
+flesh and blood.  The silence of suspense was now general.  Men
+breathed thicker, and their very souls seemed seated in their
+eyes; while not a sound was to be heard save the snorting and
+pawing of the good steeds, who, sensible of what was about to
+happen, were impatient to dash into career.  They stood thus for
+perhaps three minutes, when, at a signal given by the Soldan, a
+hundred instruments rent the air with their brazen clamours, and
+each champion striking his horse with the spurs, and slacking the
+rein, the horses started into full gallop, and the knights met in
+mid space with a shock like a thunderbolt.  The victory was not
+in doubt--no, not one moment.  Conrade, indeed, showed himself a
+practised warrior; for he struck his antagonist knightly in the
+midst of his shield, bearing his lance so straight and true that
+it shivered into splinters from the steel spear-head up to the
+very gauntlet.  The horse of Sir Kenneth recoiled two or three
+yards and fell on his haunches; but the rider easily raised him
+with hand and rein.  But for Conrade there was no recovery.  Sir
+Kenneth's lance had pierced through the shield, through a plated
+corselet of Milan steel, through a SECRET, or coat of linked
+mail, worn beneath the corselet, had wounded him deep in the
+bosom, and borne him from his saddle, leaving the truncheon of
+the lance fixed in his wound.  The sponsors, heralds, and Saladin
+himself, descending from his throne, crowded around the wounded
+man; while Sir Kenneth, who had drawn his sword ere yet he
+discovered his antagonist was totally helpless, now commanded him
+to avow his guilt.  The helmet was hastily unclosed, and the
+wounded man, gazing wildly on the skies, replied, "What would you
+more?  God hath decided justly--I am guilty; but there are worse
+traitors in the camp than I.  In pity to my soul, let me have a
+confessor!"
+
+He revived as he uttered these words.
+
+"The talisman--the powerful remedy, royal brother!" said King
+Richard to Saladin.
+
+"The traitor," answered the Soldan, "is more fit to be dragged
+from the lists to the gallows by the heels, than to profit by its
+virtues.  And some such fate is in his look," he added, after
+gazing fixedly upon the wounded man; "for though his wound may be
+cured, yet Azrael's seal is on the wretch's brow."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Richard, "I pray you do for him what you
+may, that he may at least have time for confession.  Slay not
+soul and body!  To him one half hour of time may be worth more,
+by ten thousandfold, than the life of the oldest patriarch."
+
+"My royal brother's wish shall be obeyed," said Saladin.--
+"Slaves, bear this wounded man to our tent."
+
+"Do not so," said the Templar, who had hitherto stood gloomily
+looking on in silence.  "The royal Duke of Austria and myself
+will not permit this unhappy Christian prince to be delivered
+over to the Saracens, that they may try their spells upon him.
+We are his sponsors, and demand that he be assigned to our care."
+
+"That is, you refuse the certain means offered to recover him?"
+said Richard.
+
+"Not so," said the Grand Master, recollecting himself.  "If the
+Soldan useth lawful medicines, he may attend the patient in my
+tent."
+
+"Do so, I pray thee, good brother," said Richard to Saladin,
+"though the permission be ungraciously yielded.--But now to a
+more glorious work.  Sound, trumpets--shout, England--in honour
+of England's champion!"
+
+Drum, clarion, trumpet, and cymbal rung forth at once, and the
+deep and regular shout, which for ages has been the English
+acclamation, sounded amidst the shrill and irregular yells of the
+Arabs, like the diapason of the organ amid the howling of a
+storm.  There was silence at length.
+
+"Brave Knight of the Leopard," resumed Coeur de Lion, "thou hast
+shown that the Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his
+spots, though clerks quote Scripture for the impossibility.  Yet
+I have more to say to you when I have conducted you to the
+presence of the ladies, the best judges and best rewarders of
+deeds of chivalry."
+
+The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent.
+
+"And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them.  I promise
+thee our Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the
+opportunity to thank her royal host for her most princely
+reception."
+
+Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation.
+
+"I must attend the wounded man," he said.  "The leech leaves not
+his patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be
+summoned to a bower like those of Paradise.  And further, royal
+Richard, know that the blood of the East flows not so temperately
+in the presence of beauty as that of your land.  What saith the
+Book itself?--Her eye is as the edge of the sword of the Prophet,
+who shall look upon it?  He that would not be burnt avoideth to
+tread on hot embers--wise men spread not the flax before a
+flickering torch.  He, saith the sage, who hath forfeited a
+treasure, doth not wisely to turn back his head to gaze at it."
+
+Richard, it may be believed, respected the motives of delicacy
+which flowed from manners so different from his own, and urged
+his request no further.
+
+"At noon," said the Soldan, as he departed, "I trust ye will all
+accept a collation under the black camel-skin tent of a chief of
+Kurdistan."
+
+The same invitation was circulated among the Christians,
+comprehending all those of sufficient importance to be admitted
+to sit at a feast made for princes.
+
+"Hark!"  said Richard, "the timbrels announce that our Queen and
+her attendants are leaving their gallery--and see, the turbans
+sink on the ground, as if struck down by a destroying angel.  All
+lie prostrate, as if the glance of an Arab's eye could sully the
+lustre of a lady's cheek!  Come, we will to the pavilion, and
+lead our conqueror thither in triumph. How I pity that noble
+Soldan, who knows but of love as it is known to those of inferior
+nature!"
+
+Blondel tuned his harp to his boldest measure, to welcome the
+introduction of the victor into the pavilion of Queen Berengaria.
+He entered, supported on either side by his sponsors, Richard and
+Thomas Longsword, and knelt gracefully down before the Queen,
+though more than half the homage was silently rendered to Edith,
+who sat on her right hand.
+
+"Unarm him, my mistresses," said the King, whose delight was in
+the execution of such chivalrous usages; "let Beauty honour
+Chivalry!  Undo his spurs, Berengaria; Queen though thou be, thou
+owest him what marks of favour thou canst give.--Unlace his
+helmet, Edith;--by this hand thou shalt, wert thou the proudest
+Plantagenet of the line, and he the poorest knight on earth!"
+
+Both ladies obeyed the royal commands--Berengaria with bustling
+assiduity, as anxious to gratify her husband's humour, and Edith
+blushing and growing pale alternately, as, slowly and awkwardly,
+she undid, with Longsword's assistance, the fastenings which
+secured the helmet to the gorget.
+
+"And what expect you from beneath this iron shell?"  said
+Richard, as the removal of the casque gave to view the noble
+countenance of Sir Kenneth, his face glowing with recent
+exertion, and not less so with present emotion.  "What think ye
+of him, gallants and beauties?"  said Richard. "Doth he resemble
+an Ethiopian slave, or doth he present the face of an obscure and
+nameless adventurer?  No, by my good sword!  Here terminate his
+various disguises.  He hath knelt down before you unknown, save
+by his worth; he arises equally distinguished by birth and by
+fortune.  The adventurous knight, Kenneth, arises David, Earl of
+Huntingdon, Prince Royal of Scotland!"
+
+There was a general exclamation of surprise, and Edith dropped
+from her hand the helmet which she had just received.
+
+"Yes, my masters," said the King, "it is even so.  Ye know how
+Scotland deceived us when she proposed to send this valiant Earl,
+with a bold company of her best and noblest, to aid our arms in
+this conquest of Palestine, but failed to comply with her
+engagements.  This noble youth, under whom the Scottish Crusaders
+were to have been arrayed, thought foul scorn that his arm should
+be withheld from the holy warfare, and joined us at Sicily with a
+small train of devoted and faithful attendants, which was
+augmented by many of his countrymen to whom the rank of their
+leader was unknown.  The confidants of the Royal Prince had all,
+save one old follower, fallen by death, when his secret, but too
+well kept, had nearly occasioned my cutting off, in a Scottish
+adventurer, one of the noblest hopes of Europe.--Why did you not
+mention your rank, noble Huntingdon, when endangered by my hasty
+and passionate sentence?  Was it that you thought Richard capable
+of abusing the advantage I possessed over the heir of a King whom
+I have so often found hostile?"
+
+"I did you not that injustice, royal Richard," answered the Earl
+of Huntingdon; "but my pride brooked not that I should avow
+myself Prince of Scotland in order to save my life, endangered
+for default of loyalty.  And, moreover, I had made my vow to
+preserve my rank unknown till the Crusade should be accomplished;
+nor did I mention it save IN ARTICULO MORTIS, and under the seal
+of confession, to yonder reverend hermit."
+
+"It was the knowledge of that secret, then, which made the good
+man so urgent with me to recall my severe sentence?"  said
+Richard.  "Well did he say that, had this good knight fallen by
+my mandate, I should have wished the deed undone though it had
+cost me a limb.  A limb!  I should have wished it undone had it
+cost me my life---since the world would have said that Richard
+had abused the condition in which the heir of Scotland had placed
+himself by his confidence in his generosity."
+
+"Yet, may we know of your Grace by what strange and happy chance
+this riddle was at length read?"  said the Queen Berengaria.
+
+"Letters were brought to us from England," said the King, "in
+which we learned, among other unpleasant news, that the King of
+Scotland had seized upon three of our nobles, when on a
+pilgrimage to Saint Ninian, and alleged, as a cause, that his
+heir, being supposed to be fighting in the ranks of the Teutonic
+Knights against the heathen of Borussia, was, in fact, in our
+camp, and in our power; and, therefore, William proposed to hold
+these nobles as hostages for his safety.  This gave me the first
+light on the real rank of the Knight of the Leopard; and my
+suspicions were confirmed by De Vaux, who, on his return from
+Ascalon, brought back with him the Earl of Huntingdon's sole
+attendant, a thick-skulled slave, who had gone thirty miles to
+unfold to De Vaux a secret he should have told to me."
+
+"Old Strauchan must be excused," said the Lord of Gilsland.  "He
+knew from experience that my heart is somewhat softer than if I
+wrote myself Plantagenet."
+
+"Thy heart soft?  thou commodity of old iron and Cumberland
+flint, that thou art!"  exclaimed the King.--"It is we
+Plantagenets who boast soft and feeling hearts.  Edith," turning
+to his cousin with an expression which called the blood into her
+cheek, "give me thy hand, my fair cousin, and, Prince of
+Scotland, thine."
+
+"Forbear, my lord," said Edith, hanging back, and endeavouring to
+hide her confusion under an attempt to rally her royal kinsman's
+credulity.  "Remember you not that my hand was to be the signal
+of converting to the Christian faith the Saracen and Arab,
+Saladin and all his turbaned host?"
+
+"Ay, but the wind of prophecy hath chopped about, and sits now in
+another corner," replied Richard.
+
+"Mock not, lest your bonds be made strong," said the hermit
+stepping forward.  "The heavenly host write nothing but truth in
+their brilliant records.  It is man's eyes which are too weak to
+read their characters aright.  Know, that when Saladin and
+Kenneth of Scotland slept in my grotto, I read in the stars that
+there rested under my roof a prince, the natural foe of Richard,
+with whom the fate of Edith Plantagenet was to be united.  Could
+I doubt that this must be the Soldan, whose rank was well known
+to me, as he often visited my cell to converse on the revolutions
+of the heavenly bodies?  Again, the lights of the firmament
+proclaimed that this prince, the husband of Edith Plantagenet,
+should be a Christian; and I--weak and wild interpreter!--argued
+thence the conversion of the noble Saladin, whose good qualities
+seemed often to incline him towards the better faith.  The sense
+of my weakness hath humbled me to the dust; but in the dust I
+have found comfort!  I have not read aright the fate of others--
+who can assure me but that I may have miscalculated mine own?
+God will not have us break into His council-house, or spy out His
+hidden mysteries.  We must wait His time with watching and
+prayer--with fear and with hope.  I came hither the stern seer
+--the proud prophet--skilled, as I thought, to instruct princes,
+and gifted even with supernatural powers, but burdened with a
+weight which I deemed no shoulders but mine could have borne.
+But my bands have been broken!  I go hence humble in mine
+ignorance, penitent--and not hopeless."
+
+With these words he withdrew from the assembly; and it is
+recorded that from that period his frenzy fits seldom occurred,
+and his penances were of a milder character, and accompanied with
+better hopes of the future.  So much is there of self-opinion,
+even in insanity, that the conviction of his having entertained
+and expressed an unfounded prediction with so much vehemence
+seemed to operate like loss of blood on the human frame, to
+modify and lower the fever of the brain.
+
+It is needless to follow into further particulars the conferences
+at the royal tent, or to inquire whether David, Earl of
+Huntingdon, was as mute in the presence of Edith Plantagenet as
+when he was bound to act under the character of an obscure and
+nameless adventurer.  It may be well believed that he there
+expressed with suitable earnestness the passion to which he had
+so often before found it difficult to give words.
+
+The hour of noon now approached, and Saladin waited to receive
+the Princes of Christendom in a tent, which, but for its large
+size, differed little from that of the ordinary shelter of the
+common Kurdman, or Arab; yet beneath its ample and sable covering
+was prepared a banquet after the most gorgeous fashion of the
+East, extended upon carpets of the richest stuffs, with cushions
+laid for the guests.  But we cannot stop to describe the cloth of
+gold and silver--the superb embroidery in arabesque--the shawls
+of Kashmere and the muslins of India, which were here unfolded in
+all their splendour; far less to tell the different sweetmeats,
+ragouts edged with rice coloured in various manners, with all the
+other niceties of Eastern cookery.  Lambs roasted whole, and game
+and poultry dressed in pilaus, were piled in vessels of gold, and
+silver, and porcelain, and intermixed with large mazers of
+sherbet, cooled in snow and ice from the caverns of Mount
+Lebanon.  A magnificent pile of cushions at the head of the
+banquet seemed prepared for the master of the feast, and such
+dignitaries as he might call to share that place of distinction;
+while from the roof of the tent in all quarters, but over this
+seat of eminence in particular, waved many a banner and pennon,
+the trophies of battles won and kingdoms overthrown.  But amongst
+and above them all, a long lance displayed a shroud, the banner
+of Death, with this impressive inscription--"SALADIN, KING OF
+KINGS--SALADIN, VICTOR OF VICTORS--SALADIN MUST DIE."  Amid these
+preparations, the slaves who had arranged the refreshments stood
+with drooped heads and folded arms, mute and motionless as
+monumental statuary, or as automata, which waited the touch of
+the artist to put them in motion.
+
+Expecting the approach of his princely guests, the Soldan,
+imbued, as most were, with the superstitions of his time, paused
+over a horoscope and corresponding scroll, which had been sent to
+him by the hermit of Engaddi when he departed from the camp.
+
+"Strange and mysterious science," he muttered to himself, "which,
+pretending to draw the curtain of futurity, misleads those whom
+it seems to guide, and darkens the scene which it pretends to
+illuminate!   Who would not have said that I was that enemy most
+dangerous to Richard, whose enmity was to be ended by marriage
+with his kinswoman?  Yet it now appears that a union betwixt this
+gallant Earl and the lady will bring about friendship betwixt
+Richard and Scotland, an enemy more dangerous than I, as a wildcat in a chamber is more to be dreaded 
+than a lion in a distant
+desert.  But then" he continued to mutter to himself, "the
+combination intimates that this husband was to be Christian.
+--Christian!" he repeated, after a pause.  "That gave the insane
+fanatic star-gazer hopes that I might renounce my faith!  But me,
+the faithful follower of our Prophet--me it should have
+undeceived.  Lie there, mysterious scroll," he added, thrusting
+it under the pile of cushions; "strange are thy bodements and
+fatal, since, even when true in themselves, they work upon those
+who attempt to decipher their meaning all the effects of
+falsehood.--How now!  what means this intrusion?"
+
+He spoke to the dwarf Nectabanus, who rushed into the tent
+fearfully agitated, with each strange and disproportioned feature
+wrenched by horror into still more extravagant ugliness--his
+mouth open, his eyes staring, his hands, with their shrivelled
+and deformed fingers, wildly expanded.
+
+"What now?"  said the Soldan sternly.
+
+"ACCIPE HOC!"  groaned out the dwarf.
+
+"Ha!  sayest thou?"  answered Saladin.
+
+"ACCIPE HOC!"  replied the panicstruck creature, unconscious,
+perhaps,that he repeated the same words as before.
+
+"Hence, I am in no vein for foolery," said the Emperor.
+
+"Nor am I further fool," said the dwarf, "than to make my folly
+help out my wits to earn my bread, poor, helpless wretch!  Hear,
+hear me, great Soldan!"
+
+"Nay, if thou hast actual wrong to complain of," said Saladin,
+"fool or wise, thou art entitled to the ear of a King.  Retire
+hither with me;" and he led him into the inner tent.
+
+Whatever their conference related to, it was soon broken off by
+the fanfare of the trumpets announcing the arrival of the various
+Christian princes, whom Saladin welcomed to his tent with a royal
+courtesy well becoming their rank and his own; but chiefly he
+saluted the young Earl of Huntingdon, and generously
+congratulated him upon prospects which seemed to have interfered
+with and overclouded those which he had himself entertained.
+
+"But think not," said the Soldan, "thou noble youth, that the
+Prince of Scotland is more welcome to Saladin than was Kenneth to
+the solitary Ilderim when they met in the desert, or the
+distressed Ethiop to the Hakim Adonbec.  A brave and generous
+disposition like thine hath a value independent of condition and
+birth, as the cool draught, which I here proffer thee, is as
+delicious from an earthen vessel as from a goblet of gold."
+
+The Earl of Huntingdon made a suitable reply, gratefully
+acknowledging the various important services he had received from
+the generous Soldan; but when he had pledged Saladin in the bowl
+of sherbet which the Soldan had proffered to him, he could not
+help remarking with a smile, "The brave cavalier Ilderim knew not
+of the formation of ice, but the munificent Soldan cools his
+sherbet with snow."
+
+"Wouldst thou have an Arab or a Kurdman as wise as a Hakim?"
+said the Soldan.  "He who does on a disguise must make the
+sentiments of his heart and the learning of his head accord with
+the dress which he assumes.  I desired to see how a brave and
+single-hearted cavalier of Frangistan would conduct himself in
+debate with such a chief as I then seemed; and I questioned the
+truth of a well-known fact, to know by what arguments thou
+wouldst support thy assertion."
+
+While they were speaking, the Archduke of Austria, who stood a
+little apart, was struck with the mention of iced sherbet, and
+took with pleasure and some bluntness the deep goblet, as the
+Earl of Huntingdon was about to replace it.
+
+"Most delicious!"  he exclaimed, after a deep draught, which the
+heat of the weather, and the feverishness following the debauch
+of the preceding day, had rendered doubly acceptable.  He sighed
+as he handed the cup to the Grand Master of the Templars.
+Saladin made a sign to the dwarf, who advanced and pronounced,
+with a harsh voice, the words, ACCIPE HOC!  The Templar started,
+like a steed who sees a lion under a bush beside the pathway; yet
+instantly recovered, and to hide, perhaps, his confusion, raised
+the goblet to his lips.  But those lips never touched that
+goblet's rim.  The sabre of Saladin left its sheath as lightning
+leaves the cloud.  It was waved in the air, and the head of the
+Grand Master rolled to the extremity of the tent, while the trunk
+remained for a second standing, with the goblet still clenched in
+its grasp, then fell, the liquor mingling with the blood that
+spurted from the veins.
+
+There was a general exclamation of treason, and Austria, nearest
+to whom Saladin stood with the bloody sabre in his hand, started
+back as if apprehensive that his turn was to come next.  Richard
+and others laid hand on their swords.
+
+"Fear nothing, noble Austria," said Saladin, as composedly as if
+nothing had happened,--"nor you, royal England, be wroth at what
+you have seen.  Not for his manifold treasons--not for the
+attempt which, as may be vouched by his own squire, he instigated
+against King Richard's life--not that he pursued the Prince of
+Scotland and myself in the desert, reducing us to save our lives
+by the speed of our horses--not that he had stirred up the
+Maronites to attack us upon this very occasion, had I not brought
+up unexpectedly so many Arabs as rendered the scheme abortive--
+not for any or all of these crimes does he now lie there,
+although each were deserving such a doom--but because, scarce
+half an hour ere he polluted our presence, as the simoom
+empoisons the atmosphere, he poniarded his comrade and
+accomplice, Conrade of Montserrat, lest he should confess the
+infamous plots in which they had both been engaged."
+
+"How!  Conrade murdered?--And by the Grand Master, his sponsor
+and most intimate friend!"  exclaimed Richard. "Noble Soldan, I
+would not doubt thee; yet this must be proved, otherwise--"
+
+"There stands the evidence," said Saladin, pointing to the
+terrified dwarf.  "Allah, who sends the fire-fly to illuminate
+the night season, can discover secret crimes by the most
+contemptible means."
+
+The Soldan proceeded to tell the dwarf's story, which amounted to
+this.  In his foolish curiosity, or, as he partly confessed, with
+some thoughts of pilfering, Nectabanus had strayed into the tent
+of Conrade, which had been deserted by his attendants, some of
+whom had left the encampment to carry the news of his defeat to
+his brother, and others were availing themselves of the means
+which Saladin had supplied for revelling.  The wounded man slept
+under the influence of Saladin's wonderful talisman, so that the
+dwarf had opportunity to pry about at pleasure until he was
+frightened into concealment by the sound of a heavy step. He
+skulked behind a curtain, yet could see the motions, and hear the
+words, of the Grand Master, who entered, and carefully secured
+the covering of the pavilion behind him.  His victim started from
+sleep, and it would appear that he instantly suspected the
+purpose of his old associate, for it was in a tone of alarm that
+he demanded wherefore he disturbed him.
+
+"I come to confess and to absolve thee," answered the Grand
+Master.
+
+Of their further speech the terrified dwarf remembered little,
+save that Conrade implored the Grand Master not to break a
+wounded reed, and that the Templar struck him to the heart with a
+Turkish dagger, with the words ACCIPE HOC!--words which long
+afterwards haunted the terrified imagination of the concealed
+witness.
+
+"I verified the tale," said Saladin, "by causing the body to be
+examined; and I made this unhappy being, whom Allah hath made the
+discoverer of the crime, repeat in your own presence the words
+which the murderer spoke; and you yourselves saw the effect which
+they produced upon his conscience!"
+
+The Soldan paused, and the King of England broke silence.
+
+"If this be true, as I doubt not, we have witnessed a great act
+of justice, though it bore a different aspect. But wherefore in
+this presence?  wherefore with thine own hand?"
+
+"I had designed otherwise," said Saladin.  "But had I not
+hastened his doom, it had been altogether averted, since, if I
+had permitted him to taste of my cup, as he was about to do, how
+could I, without incurring the brand of inhospitality, have done
+him to death as he deserved? Had he murdered my father, and
+afterwards partaken of my food and my bowl, not a hair of his
+head could have been injured by me.  But enough of him--let his
+carcass and his memory be removed from amongst us."
+
+The body was carried away, and the marks of the slaughter
+obliterated or concealed with such ready dexterity, as showed
+that the case was not altogether so uncommon as to paralyze the
+assistants and officers of Saladin's household.
+
+But the Christian princes felt that the scene which they had
+beheld weighed heavily on their spirits, and although, at the
+courteous invitation of the Soldan, they assumed their seats at
+the banquet, yet it was with the silence of doubt and amazement.
+The spirits of Richard alone surmounted all cause for suspicion
+or embarrassment.  Yet he too seemed to ruminate on some
+proposition, as if he were desirous of making it in the most
+insinuating and acceptable manner which was possible.  At length
+he drank off a large bowl of wine, and addressing the Soldan,
+desired to know whether it was not true that he had honoured the
+Earl of Huntingdon with a personal encounter.
+
+Saladin answered with a smile that he had proved his horse and
+his weapons with the heir of Scotland, as cavaliers are wont to
+do with each other when they meet in the desert; and modestly
+added that, though the combat was not entirely decisive, he had
+not on his part much reason to pride himself on the event.  The
+Scot, on the other hand, disclaimed the attributed superiority,
+and wished to assign it to the Soldan.
+
+"Enough of honour thou hast had in the encounter," said Richard,
+"and I envy thee more for that than for the smiles of Edith
+Plantagenet, though one of them might reward a bloody day's
+work.--But what say you, noble princes?  Is it fitting that such
+a royal ring of chivalry should break up without something being
+done for future times to speak of?  What is the overthrow and
+death of a traitor to such a fair garland of honour as is here
+assembled, and which ought not to part without witnessing
+something more worthy of their regard?--How say you, princely
+Soldan?  What if we two should now, and before this fair company,
+decide the long-contended question for this land of Palestine,
+and end at once these tedious wars?  Yonder are the lists ready,
+nor can Paynimrie ever hope a better champion than thou. I,
+unless worthier offers, will lay down my gauntlet in behalf of
+Christendom, and in all love and honour we will do mortal battle
+for the possession of Jerusalem."
+
+There was a deep pause for the Soldan's answer.  His cheek and
+brow coloured highly, and it was the opinion of many present that
+he hesitated whether he should accept the challenge.  At length
+he said, "Fighting for the Holy City against those whom we regard
+as idolaters and worshippers of stocks and stones and graven
+images, I might confide that Allah would strengthen my arm; or if
+I fell beneath the sword of the Melech Ric, I could not pass to
+Paradise by a more glorious death.  But Allah has already given
+Jerusalem to the true believers, and it were a tempting the God
+of the Prophet to peril, upon my own personal strength and skill,
+that which I hold securely by the superiority of my forces."
+
+"If not for Jerusalem, then," said Richard, in the tone of one
+who would entreat a favour of an intimate friend, "yet, for the
+love of honour, let us run at least three courses with grinded
+lances?"
+
+"Even this," said Saladin, half smiling at Coeur de Lion's
+affectionate earnestness for the combat--"even this I may not
+lawfully do.  The master places the shepherd over the flock not
+for the shepherd's own sake, but for the sake of the sheep.  Had
+I a son to hold the sceptre when I fell, I might have had the
+liberty, as I have the will, to brave this bold encounter; but
+your own Scripture saith that when the herdsman is smitten, the
+sheep are scattered."
+
+"Thou hast had all the fortune," said Richard, turning to the
+Earl of Huntingdon with a sigh.  "I would have given the best
+year in my life for that one half hour beside the Diamond of the
+Desert!"
+
+The chivalrous extravagance of Richard awakened the spirits of
+the assembly, and when at length they arose to depart Saladin
+advanced and took Coeur de Lion by the hand.
+
+"Noble King of England," he said, "we now part, never to meet
+again.  That your league is dissolved, no more to be reunited,
+and that your native forces are far too few to enable you to
+prosecute your enterprise, is as well known to me as to yourself.
+I may not yield you up that Jerusalem which you so much desire to
+hold--it is to us, as to you, a Holy City.  But whatever other
+terms Richard demands of Saladin shall be as willingly yielded as
+yonder fountain yields its waters.  Ay and the same should be as
+frankly afforded by Saladin if Richard stood in the desert with
+but two archers in his train!"
+
+The next day saw Richard's return to his own camp, and in a short
+space afterwards the young Earl of Huntingdon was espoused by
+Edith Plantagenet.  The Soldan sent, as a nuptial present on this
+occasion, the celebrated TALISMAN.  But though many cures were
+wrought by means of it in Europe, none equalled in success and
+celebrity those which the Soldan achieved.  It is still in
+existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl of Huntingdon to a
+brave knight of Scotland, Sir Simon of the Lee, in whose ancient
+and highly honoured family it is still preserved; and although
+charmed stones have been dismissed from the modern Pharmacopoeia,
+its virtues are still applied to for stopping blood, and in cases
+of canine madness.
+
+Our Story closes here, as the terms on which Richard relinquished
+his conquests are to be found in every history of the period.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott
+
+
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