in the sight of Heaven. For me I must return to my
place. Kyrie Eleison! I am he through whom the rays of heavenly grace
dart like those of the sun through a burning-glass, concentrating them
on other objects, until they kindle and blaze, while the glass itself
remains cold and uninfluenced. Kyrie Eleison!--the poor must be called,
for the rich have refused the banquet--Kyrie Eleison!"

So saying, he burst from the tent, uttering loud cries.

"A mad priest!" said Richard, from whose mind the frantic exclamations
of the hermit had partly obliterated the impression produced by the
detail of his personal history and misfortunes. "After him, De Vaux, and
see he comes to no harm; for, Crusaders as we are, a juggler hath more
reverence amongst our varlets than a priest or a saint, and they may,
perchance, put some scorn upon him."

The knight obeyed, and Richard presently gave way to the thoughts which
the wild prophecy of the monk had inspired. "To die early--without
lineage--without lamentation! A heavy sentence, and well that it is not
passed by a more competent judge. Yet the Saracens, who are accomplished
in mystical knowledge, will often maintain that He, in whose eyes the
wisdom of the sage is but as folly, inspires wisdom and prophecy into
the seeming folly of the madman. Yonder hermit is said to read the
stars, too, an art generally practised in these lands, where the
heavenly host was of yore the object of idolatry. I would I had asked
him touching the loss of my banner; for not the blessed Tishbite, the
founder of his order, could seem more wildly rapt out of himself, or
speak with a tongue more resembling that of a prophet.--How now, De
Vaux, what news of the mad priest?"

"Mad priest, call you him, my lord?" answered De Vaux. "Methinks
he resembles more the blessed Baptist himself, just issued from the
wilderness. He has placed himself on one of the military engines, and
from thence he preaches to the soldiers as never man preached since the
time of Peter the Hermit. The camp, alarmed by his cries, crowd around
him in thousands; and breaking off every now and then from the main
thread of his discourse, he addresses the several nations, each in their
own language, and presses upon each the arguments best qualified to urge
them to perseverance in the delivery of Palestine."

"By this light, a noble hermit!" said King Richard. "But what else could
come from the blood of Godfrey? HE despair of safety, because he