native language, and were proud of the share of Saxon blood in
this renowned warrior's veins, he was termed Thomas, or, more
familiarly, Thom of the Gills, or Narrow Valleys, from which his
extensive domains derived their well-known appellation.

This chief had been exercised in almost all the wars, whether
waged betwixt England and Scotland, or amongst the various
domestic factions which then tore the former country asunder, and
in all had been distinguished, as well from his military conduct
as his personal prowess. He was, in other respects, a rude
soldier, blunt and careless in his bearing, and taciturn--nay,
almost sullen--in his habits of society, and seeming, at least,
to disclaim all knowledge of policy and of courtly art. There
were men, however, who pretended to look deeply into character,
who asserted that the Lord de Vaux was not less shrewd and
aspiring than he was blunt and bold, and who thought that, while
he assimilated himself to the king's own character of blunt
hardihood, it was, in some degree at least, with an eye to
establish his favour, and to gratify his own hopes of deep-laid
ambition. But no one cared to thwart his schemes, if such he
had, by rivalling him in the dangerous occupation of daily
attendance on the sick-bed of a patient whose disease was
pronounced infectious, and more especially when it was remembered
that the patient was Coeur de Lion, suffering under all the
furious impatience of a soldier withheld from battle, and a
sovereign sequestered from authority; and the common soldiers, at
least in the English army, were generally of opinion that De Vaux
attended on the King like comrade upon comrade, in the honest and
disinterested frankness of military friendship contracted between
the partakers of daily dangers.