"So thou hast no better news to bring me from without, Sir
Thomas!" said the King, after a long and perturbed silence,
spent in the feverish agitation which we have endeavoured to
describe. "All our knights turned women, and our ladies become
devotees, and neither a spark of valour nor of gallantry to
enlighten a camp which contains the choicest of Europe's
chivalry--ha!"
"The truce, my lord," said De Vaux, with the same patience with
which he had twenty times repeated the explanation--"the truce
prevents us bearing ourselves as men of action; and for the
ladies, I am no great reveller, as is well known to your Majesty,
and seldom exchange steel and buff for velvet and gold--but thus
far I know, that our choicest beauties are waiting upon the
Queen's Majesty and the Princess, to a pilgrimage to the convent
of Engaddi, to accomplish their vows for your Highness's
deliverance from this trouble."
"And is it thus," said Richard, with the impatience of
indisposition, "that royal matrons and maidens should risk
themselves, where the dogs who defile the land have as little
truth to man as they have faith towards God?"
"Nay, my lord," said De Vaux, "they have Saladin's word for their
safety.
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