or cry of hidden birds
take up the rule again. This did not often obtain. Mostly he watched out
the night, sleeping little, talking none, but revolving in his mind the
great deeds to do. By day he was master of the fleet, an admirable
seaman who, knowing nothing of ships' business before he embarked, dared
not confess so much to himself. Richard must be leader if he was to be
undertaker at all. So he led his fleet from his first hour with it, and
brought it safely into the roadstead.

* * * * *

They made Messina prosperously, a white city cooped within walls, with
turrets and belfries and shining domes, stooping sharply to the violet
sea. King Philip with his legions was to have come by land as far as
Genoa, and was not expected yet awhile. Nor was there any sign of the
Queen-Mother, of Berengere, or of the convoy from Navarre.

A landing was made in the early morning. Before the Sicilians were well
awake Richard's army was in camp, the camp entrenched, and a most
salutary gallows set up just outside it, with a thief upon it as a
warning to his brothers of Sicily. So far good. The next thing was an
embassy to King Tancred, the Sicilian King, which demanded (1) the
person of Queen Joan (Richard's sister), (2) her dowry, (3) a golden
table twelve foot long, (4) a silk tent, and (5) a hundred galleys
fitted out for two years. This despatched, Richard entertained himself
with his hawks and dogs, and with short excursions into Calabria. On one
of these he went to visit the saintly Abbot Joachim, at once prophet and
philosopher and man of cool sense; and on another to kill wild boars.
When he came back in October from the second of these, he found matters
going rather ill.

King Tancred avoided seeing him, sent no tables, nor ships, nor dowry.
He did send Queen Joan, and Queen Joan's bed; moreover, because she had
been Queen of Sicily, he sent a sack of gold coins for her
entertainment; but he did not propose to go any further. Richard, seeing
what sort of courses his plans were likely to take, crossed once more
into Calabria, attacked a fortified town which the Sicilians had
settled, turned the settlers out, and established his sister there with
Jehane, her shipload of ladies, and a strong garrison. Then he returned
to Messina.

Certainly, he saw, his camp there could be of no long tenure. The
Grifons, as they called the inhabitants, were about it like hornets; not
a day passed without t