it the
large Banner of the Cross displayed, and another, on which was portrayed
a female kneeling, with dishevelled hair and disordered dress, meant to
represent the desolate and distressed Church of Jerusalem, and bearing
the motto, AFFLICTAE SPONSAE NE OBLIVISCARIS. Warders, carefully
selected, kept every one at a distance from the neighbourhood of this
tent, lest the debates, which were sometimes of a loud and stormy
character, should reach other ears than those they were designed for.

Here, therefore, the princes of the Crusade were assembled awaiting
Richard's arrival. And even the brief delay which was thus interposed
was turned to his disadvantage by his enemies, various instances being
circulated of his pride and undue assumption of superiority, of which
even the necessity of the present short pause was quoted as an instance.
Men strove to fortify each other in their evil opinion of the King of
England, and vindicated the offence which each had taken, by putting the
most severe construction upon circumstances the most trifling; and all
this, perhaps, because they were conscious of an instinctive reverence
for the heroic monarch, which it would require more than ordinary
efforts to overcome.

They had settled, accordingly, that they should receive him on his
entrance with slight notice, and no more respect than was exactly
necessary to keep within the bounds of cold ceremonial. But when they
beheld that noble form, that princely countenance, somewhat pale from
his late illness--the eye which had been called by minstrels the bright
star of battle and victory--when his feats, almost surpassing human
strength and valour, rushed on their recollection, the Council of
Princes simultaneously arose--even the jealous King of France and the
sullen and offended Duke of Austria--arose with one consent, and the
assembled princes burst forth with one voice in the acclamation, "God
save King Richard of England! Long life to the valiant Lion's-heart!"

With a countenance frank and open as the summer sun when it rises,
Richard distributed his thanks around, and congratulated himself on
being once more among his royal brethren of the Crusade.

"Some brief words he desired to say," such was his address to the
assembly, "though on a subject so unworthy as himself, even at the
risk of delaying for a few minutes their consultations for the weal of
Christendom and the advancement of their holy enterprise."

The assembled princes