Here their preparations were soon made, and taking ship in a merchantman bound for the Netherlands, they started without delay upon their adventure.
The minstrels and troubadours were at that time a privileged race in Europe, belonging generally to the south of France, although produced in all lands.

They travelled over Europe singing the lays which they themselves had composed, and were treated with all honour at the castles where they chose to alight.

It would have been considered as foul a deed to use discourtesy to a minstrel as to insult a herald.

Their persons were, indeed, regarded as sacred, and the knights and barons strove to gain their good will by hospitality and presents, as a large proportion of their ballads related to deeds of war; and while they would write lays in honour of those who courteously entertained them, they did not hesitate to heap obloquy upon those who received them discourteously, holding them up to the gibes and scoffs of their fellows.

In no way, therefore, would success be so likely to attend the mission of those who set out to discover the hiding place of King Richard as under the guise of a minstrel and his attendant.