s giving vent to in
words.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem hastened to break the embarrassing silence,
and to bear witness for the Archduke of Austria that he had exculpated
himself, by a solemn oath, from all knowledge, direct or indirect, of
the aggression done to the Banner of England.

"Then we have done the noble Archduke the greater wrong," said Richard;
"and craving his pardon for imputing to him an outrage so cowardly, we
extend our hand to him in token of renewed peace and amity. But how is
this? Austria refuses our uncovered hand, as he formerly refused our
mailed glove? What! are we neither to be his mate in peace nor his
antagonist in war? Well, let it be so. We will take the slight esteem in
which he holds us as a penance for aught which we may have done against
him in heat of blood, and will therefore hold the account between us
cleared."

So saying, he turned from the Archduke with an air rather of dignity
than scorn, leaving the Austrian apparently as much relieved by the
removal of his eye as is a sullen and truant schoolboy when the glance
of his severe pedagogue is withdrawn.

"Noble Earl of Champagne--princely Marquis of Montserrat--valiant Grand
Master of the Templars--I am here a penitent in the confessional. Do any
of you bring a charge or claim amends from me?"

"I know not on what we could ground any," said the smooth-tongued
Conrade, "unless it were that the King of England carries off from his
poor brothers of the war all the fame which they might have hoped to
gain in the expedition."

"My charge, if I am called on to make one," said the Master of the
Templars, "is graver and deeper than that of the Marquis of Montserrat.
It may be thought ill to beseem a military monk such as I to raise his
voice where so many noble princes remain silent; but it concerns our
whole host, and not least this noble King of England, that he should
hear from some one to his face those charges which there are enow to
bring against him in his absence. We laud and honour the courage and
high achievements of the King of England; but we feel aggrieved that he
should on all occasions seize and maintain a precedence and superiority
over us, which it becomes not independent princes to submit to. Much we
might yield of our free will to his bravery, his zeal, his wealth,
and his power; but he who snatches all as matter of right, and leaves
nothing to grant out of courtesy and favour, degrades us from allies
into retaine