"Yet thou mayest be right, Calista, in thy caution.

Let this Nubian, as thou callest him, first do his errand to our cousin--besides, he is mute too, is he not ?" "He is, gracious madam," answered the knight.
"Royal sport have these Eastern ladies," said Berengaria, "attended by those before whom they may say anything, yet who can report nothing.
Whereas in our camp, as the Prelate of Saint Jude's is wont to say, a bird of the air will carry the matter." "Because," said De Neville, "your Grace forgets that you speak within canvas walls." The voices sunk on this observation, and after a little whispering, the English knight again returned to the Ethiopian, and made him a sign to follow.

He did so, and Neville conducted him to a pavilion, pitched somewhat apart from that of the Queen, for the accommodation, it seemed, of the Lady Edith and her attendants.

One of her Coptic maidens received the message communicated by Sir Henry Neville, and in the space of a very few minutes the Nubian was ushered into Edith's presence, while Neville was left on the outside of the tent.

The slave who introduced him withdrew on a signal from her mistress, and it was with humiliation, not of the posture only but of the very inmost soul, that the unfortunate knight, thus strangely disguised, threw himself on one knee, with looks bent on the ground and arms folded on his bosom, like a criminal who expects his doom.