MAGNA
EST VERITAS, ET PREVALEBIT! moreover, the hermit of Engaddi, few
of whose words have fallen fruitless to the ground, is possessed
fully with the belief that there is a calling of the Saracens and
the other heathen approaching, to which this marriage shall be
matter of induction. He readeth the course of the stars; and
dwelling, with maceration of the flesh, in those divine places
which the saints have trodden of old, the spirit of Elijah the
Tishbite, the founder of his blessed order, hath been with him as
it was with the prophet Elisha, the son of Shaphat, when he
spread his mantle over him."
King Richard listened to the Prelate's reasoning with a downcast
brow and a troubled look.
"I cannot tell," he said, "How, it is with me, but methinks these
cold counsels of the Princes of Christendom have infected me too
with a lethargy of spirit. The time hath been that, had a layman
proposed such alliance to me, I had struck him to earth--if a
churchman, I had spit at him as a renegade and priest of Baal;
yet now this counsel sounds not so strange in mine ear.
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