--Why did you not
mention your rank, noble Huntingdon, when endangered by my hasty
and passionate sentence? Was it that you thought Richard capable
of abusing the advantage I possessed over the heir of a King whom
I have so often found hostile?"
"I did you not that injustice, royal Richard," answered the Earl
of Huntingdon; "but my pride brooked not that I should avow
myself Prince of Scotland in order to save my life, endangered
for default of loyalty. And, moreover, I had made my vow to
preserve my rank unknown till the Crusade should be accomplished;
nor did I mention it save IN ARTICULO MORTIS, and under the seal
of confession, to yonder reverend hermit."
"It was the knowledge of that secret, then, which made the good
man so urgent with me to recall my severe sentence?" said
Richard. "Well did he say that, had this good knight fallen by
my mandate, I should have wished the deed undone though it had
cost me a limb. A limb! I should have wished it undone had it
cost me my life---since the world would have said that Richard
had abused the condition in which the heir of Scotland had placed
himself by his confidence in his generosity.
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