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 litt