"
"Saint George!" said Richard, in astonishment. "Ill as I have
justly thought of them, I could not have dreamed they would have
humbled themselves to such dishonour. Speak, Sir Kenneth, with
what will did you carry such a message?"
"With right good will, my lord," said Kenneth; "because, when we
had lost our noble leader, under whose guidance alone I hoped for
victory, I saw none who could succeed him likely to lead us to
conquest, and I accounted it well in such circumstances to avoid
defeat."
"And on what conditions was this hopeful peace to be contracted?"
said King Richard, painfully suppressing the passion with which
his heart was almost bursting.
"These were not entrusted to me, my lord," answered the Knight of
the Couchant Leopard. "I delivered them sealed to the hermit."
"And for what hold you this reverend hermit--for fool, madman,
traitor, or saint?" said Richard.
"His folly, sire," replied the shrewd Scottish man, "I hold to be
assumed to win favour and reverence from the Paynimrie, who
regard madmen as the inspired of Heaven--at least it seemed to me
as exhibited only occasionally, and not as mixing, like natural
folly, with the general tenor of his mind.
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