This respectable monarch was frequently
in the habit of stopping his followers, one by one, in a narrow
defile, and of causing them to be searched carefully, lest the
possession of the least sum of money should render them unworthy
of the name of his subjects. If even two sous were found upon
any one, he was instantly expelled the society of his tribe, the
king bidding him contemptuously buy arms and fight.
"This troop, so far from being cumbersome to the army, was
infinitely serviceable, carrying burdens, bringing in forage,
provisions, and tribute; working the machines in the sieges; and,
above all, spreading consternation among the Turks, who feared
death from the lances of the knights less than that further
consummation they heard of under the teeth of the Thafurs."
[James's "History of Chivalry."]
It is easy to conceive that an ignorant minstrel, finding the
taste and ferocity of the Thafurs commemorated in the historical
accounts of the Holy Wars, has ascribed their practices and
propensities to the Monarch of England, whose ferocity was
considered as an object of exaggeration as legitimate as his
valour.
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