But the hermit prohibited the baron, by gesture, look, and word,
to stir a yard on such an errand; and holding up his bare arm,
from which the goatskin mantle fell back in the violence of his
action, he waved it aloft, meagre with famine, and wealed with
the blows of the discipline.
"In the name of God, and of the most holy Father, the vicegerent
of the Christian Church upon earth, I prohibit this most profane,
bloodthirsty, and brutal defiance betwixt two Christian princes,
whose shoulders are signed with the blessed mark under which they
swore brotherhood. Woe to him by whom it is broken!--Richard of
England, recall the most unhallowed message thou hast given to
that baron. Danger and death are nigh thee!--the dagger is
glancing at thy very throat!--"
"Danger and death are playmates to Richard," answered the Monarch
proudly; "and he hath braved too many swords to fear a dagger."
"Danger and death are near," replied the seer, and sinking his
voice to a hollow, unearthly tone, he added, "And after death the
judgment!"
"Good and holy father," said Richard, "I reverence thy person and
thy sanctity--"
"Reverence not me!" interrupted the hermit; "reverence sooner
the vilest insect that crawls by the shores of the Dead Sea, and
feeds upon its accursed slime.
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