leanora was innocent, or that she did not deserve
to be repudiated, but he said that if the divorce was to be carried
into effect, then Louis would lose all claim to Eleanora's
possessions, for it will be recollected that the dukedom of Aquitaine,
and the other rich possessions which belonged to Eleanora before her
marriage, continued entirely separate from the kingdom of France, and
still belonged to her.

The king and Eleanora had a daughter named Margaret, who was now a
young child, but who, when she grew up, would inherit both her
father's and her mother's possessions, and thus, in the end, they
would be united, if the king and queen continued to live together in
peace. But this would be all lost, as the minister maintained in his
argument with the king, in case of a divorce.

"If you are divorced from her," said he, "she will soon be married
again, and then all her possessions will finally go out of your
family."

So the king concluded to submit to the shame of his wife's dishonor,
and still keep her as his wife. But he had now lost all interest in
the crusade, partly on account of his want of success in it, and
partly on account of his domestic troubles. So he left the Holy Land,
and took the queen and the ladies, and the remnant of his troops, back
again to Paris. Here he and the queen lived very unhappily together
for about two years.

At the end of this time the queen became involved in new difficulties
in consequence of her intrigues. The time had passed away so rapidly
that it was now thirteen years since her marriage, and she was about
twenty-eight years of age--old enough, one would think, to have
learned some discretion. After, however, amusing herself with various
lovers, she at length became enamored of a young prince named Henry
Plantagenet, who afterward became Henry the Second of England, and was
the father of Richard, the hero of this history. Henry was at this
time Duke of Normandy. He came to visit the court of Louis in Paris,
and here, after a short time, Eleanora conceived the idea of being
divorced from Louis in order to marry him. Henry was a great deal
younger than Eleanora, being then only about eighteen years of age;
but he was very agreeable in his person and manners, and Queen
Eleanora was quite charmed with him. It was not, however, to be
expected that he should be so much charmed with her; for, although she
had been very beautiful, she had now so far passed the period of her
youth,