had Philip been ill, I had stood by his couch long since.
--Jocelyn, lay me the couch more fairly--it is tumbled like a
stormy sea. Reach me yonder steel mirror--pass a comb through my
hair and beard. They look, indeed, liker a lion's mane than a
Christian man's locks. Bring water."

"My lord," said the trembling chamberlain, "the leeches say that
cold water may be fatal."

"To the foul fiend with the leeches!" replied the monarch; "if
they cannot cure me, think you I will allow them to torment me?
--There, then," he said, after having made his ablutions, "admit
the worshipful envoys; they will now, I think, scarcely see that
disease has made Richard negligent of his person."

The celebrated Master of the Templars was a tall, thin, war-worn
man, with a slow yet penetrating eye, and a brow on which a
thousand dark intrigues had stamped a portion of their obscurity.
At the head of that singular body, to whom their order was
everything, and their individuality nothing--seeking the
advancement of its power, even at the hazard of that very
religion which the fraternity were originally associated to
protect--accused of heresy and witchcraft, although by their
character Christian priests--suspected of secret league with the
Soldan, though by oath devoted to the protection of the Holy
Temple, or its recovery--the whole order, and the whole personal
character of its commander, or Grand Master, was a riddle, at the
exposition of which most men shuddered. The Grand Master was
dressed in his white robes of solemnity, and he bore the ABACUS,
a mystic staff of office, the peculiar form of which has given