good knight was lost to sight. 'To the rescue!' cried bold King
Richard, and on rushed the crusaders to Aymer's help; when lo! and
suddenly the ranks severed, and the black steed emerged! Aymer still
on the selle, but motionless, and his helm battered and plumeless, his
brand broken, his arm drooping. On came man and horse, on,--charging
on, not against Infidel but Christian. On dashed the steed, I say,
with fire bursting from eyes and nostrils, and the pike of his
chaffron bent lance-like against the crusaders' van. The foul fiend
seemed in the destrier's rage and puissance. He bore right against
Richard's standard-bearer, and down went the lion and the cross. He
charged the king himself; and Richard, unwilling to harm his own dear
soldier Aymer, halted wondering, till the pike of the destrier pierced
his own charger through the barding, and the king lay rolling in the
dust. A panic seized the cross-men; they fled, the Saracens pursued,
and still with the Saracens came the black steed and the powerless
rider. At last, when the crusaders reached the camp, and the flight
ceased, there halted, also, Aymer. Not a man dared near him. He
spoke not, none spoke to him, till a holy priest and palmer approached
and sprinkled the good knight and the black barb with holy water, and
exorcised both; the spell broke, and Aymer dropped to the earth. They
unbraced his helm,--he was cold and stark. The fierce steed had but
borne a dead man."

"Holy Paul!" cried Gloucester, with seeming sanctimony, though a
covert sneer played round the firm beauty of his pale lips, "a notable
tale, and one that proveth much of Sacred Truth, now lightly heeded.
But, verily, lord earl, I should have little loved a steed with such a
pedigree."

"Hear the rest," said Isabel. "King Richard ordered the destrier to