e won when we stormed Famagosta. Fill
to the stout Lord of Gilsland, gentles--a more careful and faithful
servant never had any prince."

"I am glad," said Thomas de Vaux, "that your Grace finds the mule a
useful slave, though his voice be less musical than horse-hair or wire."

"What, thou canst not yet digest that quip of the mule?" said Richard.
"Wash it down with a brimming flagon, man, or thou wilt choke upon it.
Why, so--well pulled!--and now I will tell thee, thou art a soldier
as well as I, and we must brook each other's jests in the hall as each
other's blows in the tourney, and love each other the harder we hit.
By my faith, if thou didst not hit me as hard as I did thee in our late
encounter! thou gavest all thy wit to the thrust. But here lies the
difference betwixt thee and Blondel. Thou art but my comrade--I might
say my pupil--in the art of war; Blondel is my master in the science of
minstrelsy and music. To thee I permit the freedom of intimacy; to him
I must do reverence, as to my superior in his art. Come, man, be not
peevish, but remain and hear our glee."

"To see your Majesty in such cheerful mood," said the Lord of Gilsland,
"by my faith, I could remain till Blondel had achieved the great romance
of King Arthur, which lasts for three days."

"We will not tax your patience so deeply," said the King. "But see,
yonder glare of torches without shows that our consort approaches. Away
to receive her, man, and win thyself grace in the brightest eyes of
Christendom. Nay, never stop to adjust thy cloak. See, thou hast let
Neville come between the wind and the sails of thy galley."

"He was never before me in the field of battle," said De Vaux, not
greatly pleased to see himself anticipated by the more active service of
the chamberlain.

"No, neither he nor any one went before thee there, my good Tom of the
Gills," said the King, "unless it was ourself, now and then."

"Ay, my liege," said De Vaux, "and let us do justice to the unfortunate.
The unhappy Knight of the Leopard hath been before me too, at a season;
for, look you, he weighs less on horseback, and so--"

"Hush!" said the King, interrupting him in a peremptory tone, "not a
word of him," and instantly stepped forward to greet his royal consort;
and when he had done so, he presented to her Blondel, as king of
minstrelsy and his master in the gay science. Berengaria, who well knew
that her royal husband's passion for poetry and music almost eq