ess 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 hi