Listen, then, Richard, and may the grief and despair which cannot avail this wretched remnant of what was once a man be powerful as an example to so noble, yet so wild, a being as thou art! Yes--I will--I WILL tear open the long-hidden wounds, although in thy very presence they should bleed to death!" King Richard, upon whom the history of Alberick of Mortemar had made a deep impression in his early years, when minstrels were regaling his father's halls with legends of the Holy Land, listened with respect to the outlines of a tale, which, darkly and imperfectly sketched, indicated sufficiently the cause of the partial insanity of this singular and most unhappy being.
"I need not," he said, "tell thee that I was noble in birth, high in fortune, strong in arms, wise in counsel.

All these I was.

But while the noblest ladies in Palestine strove which should wind garlands for my helmet, my love was fixed--unalterably and devotedly fixed--on a maiden of low degree.

Her father, an ancient soldier of the Cross, saw our passion, and knowing the difference betwixt us, saw no other refuge for his daughter's honour than to place her within the shadow of the cloister.

I returned from a distant expedition, loaded with spoils and honour, to find my happiness was destroyed for ever! I too sought the cloister; and Satan, who had marked me for his own, breathed into my heart a vapour of spiritual pride, which could only have had its source in his own infernal regions.