"
"I--I!" exclaimed Richard, now indeed greatly moved--"am I one
to be jealous of renown? I would he were here to profess such an
equality! I would waive my rank and my crown, and meet him,
manlike, in the lists, that it might appear whether Richard
Plantagenet had room to fear or to envy the prowess of mortal
man. Come, Edith, thou think'st not as thou sayest. Let not
anger or grief for the absence of thy lover make thee unjust to
thy kinsman, who, notwithstanding all thy techiness, values thy
good report as high as that of any one living."
"The absence of my lover?" said the Lady Edith, "But yes, he may
be well termed my lover, who hath paid so dear for the title.
Unworthy as I might be of such homage, I was to him like a light,
leading him forward in the noble path of chivalry; but that I
forgot my rank, or that he presumed beyond his, is false, were a
king to speak it."
"My fair cousin," said Richard, "do not put words in my mouth
which I have not spoken. I said not you had graced this man
beyond the favour which a good knight may earn, even from a
princess, whatever be his native condition.
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