CHAPTER XXV.
Yet this inconstancy is such, As thou, too, shalt adore; I could not love thee, love so much, Loved I not honour more.
MONTROSE'S LINES.
When King Richard returned to his tent, he commanded the Nubian to be brought before him.

He entered with his usual ceremonial reverence, and having prostrated himself, remained standing before the King in the attitude of a slave awaiting the orders of his master.

It was perhaps well for him that the preservation of his character required his eyes to be fixed on the ground, since the keen glance with which Richard for some time surveyed him in silence would, if fully encountered, have been difficult to sustain.
"Thou canst well of woodcraft," said the King, after a pause, "and hast started thy game and brought him to bay as ably as if Tristrem himself had taught thee.

[A universal tradition ascribed to Sir Tristrem, famous for his love of the fair Queen Yseult, the laws concerning the practice of woodcraft, or VENERIE, as it was called, being those that related to the rules of the chase, which were deemed of much consequence during the Middle Ages.] But this is not all--he must be brought down at force.

I myself would have liked to have levelled my hunting-spear at him.