to array. I bring reports on that subject
from Ascalon."

"Thou art a mule, Thomas," said the King--"a very mule for dullness
and obstinacy! Come, nobles--a hall--a hall--range ye around him! Give
Blondel the tabouret. Where is his harp-bearer?--or, soft, lend him my
harp, his own may be damaged by the journey."

"I would your Grace would take my report," said Thomas de Vaux. "I have
ridden far, and have more list to my bed than to have my ears tickled."

"THY ears tickled!" said the King; "that must be with a woodcock's
feather, and not with sweet sounds. Hark thee, Thomas, do thine ears
know the singing of Blondel from the braying of an ass?"

"In faith, my liege," replied Thomas, "I cannot well say; but setting
Blondel out of the question, who is a born gentleman, and doubtless of
high acquirements, I shall never, for the sake of your Grace's question,
look on a minstrel but I shall think upon an ass."

"And might not your manners," said Richard, "have excepted me, who am a
gentleman born as well as Blondel, and, like him, a guild-brother of the
joyeuse science?"

"Your Grace should remember," said De Vaux, smiling, "that 'tis useless
asking for manners from a mule."

"Most truly spoken," said the King; "and an ill-conditioned animal thou
art. But come hither, master mule, and be unloaded, that thou mayest get
thee to thy litter, without any music being wasted on thee. Meantime do
thou, good brother of Salisbury, go to our consort's tent, and tell
her that Blondel has arrived, with his budget fraught with the newest
minstrelsy. Bid her come hither instantly, and do thou escort her, and
see that our cousin, Edith Plantagenet, remain not behind."

His eye then rested for a moment on the Nubian, with that expression of
doubtful meaning which his countenance usually displayed when he looked
at him.

"Ha, our silent and secret messenger returned?--Stand up, slave, behind
the back of De Neville, and thou shalt hear presently sounds which will
make thee bless God that He afflicted thee rather with dumbness than
deafness."

So saying, he turned from the rest of the company towards De Vaux, and
plunged instantly into the military details which that baron laid before
him.

About the time that the Lord of Gilsland had finished his audience, a
messenger announced that the Queen and her attendants were approaching
the royal tent.--"A flask of wine, ho!" said the King; "of old King
Isaac's long-saved Cyprus, which w