His grace smiled a little at that, but the smile passed again like the
sunshine between clouds on a dark and windy day, and the crowd crept up
nearer, so that Master Richard could feel hot breath upon his bare neck
behind. He committed his soul again to our Lady's tuition, for he knew
not what might be the end if he were not heard out.

* * * * *

Well, the end of it was as you know, it was not possible for any man
with a heart in his body to look long upon Master Richard and not love
him, and the King's face grew softer as he looked upon that fair young
man with his nut-brown hair and the clear pallour of his face and his
pure simple eyes, and then at the coarse red faces behind him that crept
up like devils after holy Job. It was not hard to know which was in the
right, and besides the brave words that had stung the clerks to anger
had stung the King to pity and pleasure; so the end was that the guards
were bidden to let Master Richard through, and that he was to follow on
in the procession, and be gently treated, and admitted to see the King
when dinner was done.

* * * * *

So that, my children, is the manner in which it came about that my name
was cried aloud before the King's presence, and the cardinals and the
nobles, in Westminster Hall on the Monday after _Deus qui nobis_.
[So the collect of Corpus Christi begins. It was a common method, even
among the laity, of defining dates.]