The destroying angel
hath stood still, as of old by the threshing-floor of Araunah the
Jebusite, and the blade is drawn in his hand, by which, at no
distant date, Richard, the lion-hearted, shall be as low as the
meanest peasant."
"Must it, then, be so soon?" said Richard. "Yet, even so be it.
May my course be bright, if it be but brief!"
"Alas! noble King," said the solitary, and it seemed as if a
tear (unwonted guest) were gathering in his dry and glazened eye,
"short and melancholy, marked with mortification, and calamity,
and captivity, is the span that divides thee from the grave which
yawns for thee--a grave in which thou shalt be laid without
lineage to succeed thee--without the tears of a people, exhausted
by thy ceaseless wars, to lament thee-- without having extended
the knowledge of thy subjects-- without having done aught to
enlarge their happiness."
"But not without renown, monk--not without the tears of the lady
of my love! These consolations, which thou canst neither know
nor estimate, await upon Richard to his grave.
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