ight fallen by my mandate, I should have
wished the deed undone though it had cost me a limb. A limb! I should
have wished it undone had it cost me my life---since the world would
have said that Richard had abused the condition in which the heir of
Scotland had placed himself by his confidence in his generosity."

"Yet, may we know of your Grace by what strange and happy chance this
riddle was at length read?" said the Queen Berengaria.

"Letters were brought to us from England," said the King, "in which
we learned, among other unpleasant news, that the King of Scotland had
seized upon three of our nobles, when on a pilgrimage to Saint Ninian,
and alleged, as a cause, that his heir, being supposed to be fighting in
the ranks of the Teutonic Knights against the heathen of Borussia, was,
in fact, in our camp, and in our power; and, therefore, William proposed
to hold these nobles as hostages for his safety. This gave me the first
light on the real rank of the Knight of the Leopard; and my suspicions
were confirmed by De Vaux, who, on his return from Ascalon, brought back
with him the Earl of Huntingdon's sole attendant, a thick-skulled slave,
who had gone thirty miles to unfold to De Vaux a secret he should have
told to me."

"Old Strauchan must be excused," said the Lord of Gilsland. "He knew
from experience that my heart is somewhat softer than if I wrote myself
Plantagenet."

"Thy heart soft? thou commodity of old iron and Cumberland flint, that
thou art!" exclaimed the King.--"It is we Plantagenets who boast soft
and feeling hearts. Edith," turning to his cousin with an expression
which called the blood into her cheek, "give me thy hand, my fair
cousin, and, Prince of Scotland, thine."

"Forbear, my lord," said Edith, hanging back, and endeavouring to hide
her confusion under an attempt to rally her royal kinsman's credulity.
"Remember you not that my hand was to be the signal of converting to
the Christian faith the Saracen and Arab, Saladin and all his turbaned
host?"

"Ay, but the wind of prophecy hath chopped about, and sits now in
another corner," replied Richard.

"Mock not, lest your bonds be made strong," said the hermit stepping
forward. "The heavenly host write nothing but truth in their brilliant
records. It is man's eyes which are too weak to read their characters
aright. Know, that when Saladin and Kenneth of Scotland slept in my
grotto, I read in the stars that there rested under my roof a prince