.

"Is our cousin Edith," said the King, "become insensible to the sound of
the harp she once loved?"

"She thanks Blondel for his lay," replied Edith, "but doubly the
kindness of the kinsman who suggested it."

"Thou art angry, cousin," said the King; "angry because thou hast heard
of a woman more wayward than thyself. But you escape me not. I will walk
a space homeward with you towards the Queen's pavilion. We must have
conference together ere the night has waned into morning."

The Queen and her attendants were now on foot, and the other guests
withdrew from the royal tent. A train with blazing torches, and an
escort of archers, awaited Berengaria without the pavilion, and she was
soon on her way homeward. Richard, as he had proposed, walked beside
his kinswoman, and compelled her to accept of his arm as her support, so
that they could speak to each other without being overheard.

"What answer, then, am I to return to the noble Soldan?" said Richard.
"The kings and princes are falling from me, Edith; this new quarrel hath
alienated them once more. I would do something for the Holy Sepulchre by
composition, if not by victory; and the chance of my doing this depends,
alas, on the caprice of a woman. I would lay my single spear in the rest
against ten of the best lances in Christendom, rather than argue with a
wilful wench who knows not what is for her own good. What answer, coz,
am I to return to the Soldan? It must be decisive."

"Tell him," said Edith, "that the poorest of the Plantagenets will
rather wed with misery than with misbelief."

"Shall I say with slavery, Edith?" said the King. "Methinks that is
nearer thy thoughts."

"There is no room," said Edith, "for the suspicion you so grossly
insinuate. Slavery of the body might have been pitied, but that of the
soul is only to be despised. Shame to thee, King of merry England. Thou
hast enthralled both the limbs and the spirit of a knight, one scarce
less famed than thyself."

"Should I not prevent my kinswoman from drinking poison, by sullying
the vessel which contained it, if I saw no other means of disgusting her
with the fatal liquor?" replied the King.

"It is thyself," answered Edith, "that would press me to drink poison,
because it is proffered in a golden chalice."

"Edith," said Richard, "I cannot force thy resolution; but beware you
shut not the door which Heaven opens. The hermit of Engaddi--he whom
Popes and Councils have regarded as a prop