And, for your envoy, he shall die the rather and the sooner that thou dost entreat for him." "Now God be gracious to thee, Lord King!" said the hermit, with much emotion; "thou art setting that mischief on foot which thou wilt hereafter wish thou hadst stopped, though it had cost thee a limb.

Rash, blinded man, yet forbear!" "Away, away," cried the King, stamping; "the sun has risen on the dishonour of England, and it is not yet avenged .-- Ladies and priest, withdraw, if you would not hear orders which would displease you; for, by St.George, I swear--" "Swear NOT!" said the voice of one who had just then entered the pavilion.
"Ha! my learned Hakim," said the King, "come, I hope, to tax our generosity." "I come to request instant speech with you--instant--and touching matters of deep interest." "First look on my wife, Hakim, and let her know in you the preserver of her husband." "It is not for me," said the physician, folding his arms with an air of Oriental modesty and reverence, and bending his eyes on the ground--"it is not for me to look upon beauty unveiled, and armed in its splendours." "Retire, then, Berengaria," said the Monarch; "and, Edith, do you retire also;--nay, renew not your importunities! This I give to them that the execution shall not be till high noon.

Go and be pacified--dearest Berengaria, begone .-- Edith," he added, with a glance which struck terror even into the courageous soul of his kinswoman, "go, if you are wise." The females withdrew, or rather hurried from the tent, rank and ceremony forgotten, much like a flock of wild-fowl huddled together, against whom the falcon has made a recent stoop.
They returned from thence to the Queen's pavilion to indulge in regrets and recriminations, equally unavailing.

Edith was the only one who seemed to disdain these ordinary channels of sorrow.

Without a sigh, without a tear, without a word of upbraiding, she attended upon the Queen, whose weak temperament showed her sorrow in violent hysterical ecstasies and passionate hypochondriacal effusions, in the course of which Edith sedulously and even affectionately attended her.
"It is impossible she can have loved this knight," said Florise to Calista, her senior in attendance upon the Queen's person.