"
CHAPTER XVIII.
This work desires a planetary intelligence
Of Jupiter and Sol; and those great spirits
Are proud, fantastical. It asks great charges
To entice them from the guiding of their spheres,
To wait on mortals. ALBUMAZAR.
The hermit followed the ladies from the pavilion of Richard, as
shadow follows a beam of sunshine when the clouds are driving
over the face of the sun. But he turned on the threshold, and
held up his hand towards the King in a warning, or almost a
menacing posture, as he said, "Woe to him who rejects the counsel
of the church, and betaketh himself to the foul divan of the
infidel! King Richard, I do not yet shake the dust from my feet
and depart from thy encampment; the sword falls not--but it hangs
but by a hair. Haughty monarch, we shall meet again."
"Be it so, haughty priest," returned Richard, "prouder in thy
goatskins than princes in purple and fine linen."
The hermit vanished from the tent, and the King continued,
addressing the Arabian, "Do the dervises of the East, wise Hakim,
use such familiarity with their princes?"
"The dervise," replied Adonbec, "should be either a sage or a
madman; there is no middle course for him who wears the khirkhah,
[Literally, the torn robe.
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