hard'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. Whi