The which he was ready to take his affidavit he had composed the day
before yesterday. Then he sang an equally ORIGINAL heroic melody, of
which the chorus was
"Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the sea,
For Britons never, never, never slaves shall be," &c.
The courtiers applauded this song as they did the other, all except
Ivanhoe, who sat without changing a muscle of his features, until the
King questioned him, when the knight, with a bow said "he thought he had
heard something very like the air and the words elsewhere." His Majesty
scowled at him a savage glance from under his red bushy eyebrows; but
Ivanhoe had saved the royal life that day, and the King, therefore, with
difficulty controlled his indignation.
"Well," said he, "by St. Richard and St. George, but ye never heard THIS
song, for I composed it this very afternoon as I took my bath after the
melee. Did I not, Blondel?"
Blondel, of course, was ready to take an affidavit that his Majesty had
done as he said, and the King, thrumming on his guitar with his great
red fingers and thumbs, began to sing out of tune and as follows:--
"COMMANDERS OF THE FAITHFUL.
"The Pope he is a happy man,
His Palace is the Vatican,
And there he sits and drains his can:
The Pope he is a happy man.
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