to submit to superior strength, and to repose in quiet on his
couch. "I would I were--I would I were but strong enough to dash
thy brains out with my battle-axe!"

"I would you had the strength, my liege," said De Vaux, "and
would even take the risk of its being so employed. The odds
would be great in favour of Christendom were Thomas Multon dead
and Coeur de Lion himself again."

"Mine honest faithful servant," said Richard, extending his hand,
which the baron reverentially saluted, "forgive thy master's
impatience of mood. It is this burning fever which chides thee,
and not thy kind master, Richard of England. But go, I prithee,
and bring me word what strangers are in the camp, for these
sounds are not of Christendom."

De Vaux left the pavilion on the errand assigned, and in his
absence, which he had resolved should be brief, he charged the
chamberlains, pages, and attendants to redouble their attention
on their sovereign, with threats of holding them to
responsibility, which rather added to than diminished their timid
anxiety in the discharge of their duty; for next, perhaps, to the
ire of the monarch himself, they dreaded that of the stern and
inexorable Lord of Gilsland. [Sir Thomas Multon of Gilsland.]



CHAPTER VII.

There never was a time on the march parts yet,