was very white and wild, shaking all over. I said,
"Dear Master, save thy people. On all sides they cry to thee--from
England, from Normandy, from Anjou, from Joppa also, and Acre. There is
no lack of entreaty." He shook his head. "Here," he said, "I can do no
more. God is against me, the work too holy for such a wretch." "Lord," I
said, "we are all wretches, Heaven save us! If your Grace is held off
God's inheritance, you can at least hold others from your own. Here, may
be, you took a charge too heavy; but there, at home, the charge was laid
upon you. Renouncing here, you shall gain there. It cannot be
otherwise." I believed in what I said; but he gripped the caps of his
knees and rocked himself about. "They have beaten me, Milo. Saint-Pol,
Burgundy, Beauvais--I am bayed by curs. What am I, Milo?" "Sire," I
said, "your father's son. As they bayed the old lion, so they bay the
young." He gaped at me, open-mouthed. "By God. Milo," he said, "I bayed
him myself, and believed that he deserved it." "Lord," I answered, "who
am I to judge a great king? For my part I never believed that monstrous
sin was upon him." Here he jumped up. "I am going home, Milo," he said;
"I am going home. I am going to my father's tomb. I will do penance
there, and serve my people, and live clean. Look now, Milo, shrive me if
thou hast the power, for my need is great." The thought was blessed to
him. He confessed his sins then and there, all a huddle of them, weeping
so bitterly that I should have wept myself had I not been ready rather
to laugh and crack my fingers to see the breaking up of his long and
deadly frost. Before I shrived him, moreover, I dared to speak of Madame
Jehane, how he had now lost her for ever, and why; how she was now at
last a man's wife, and that by her own deliberate will; and how also he
must do his duty by the Queen. To all of which he gave heed and promises
of quiet endurance. Then I shrived him, and that very morning gave him
the Lord's sacred body in the Church of the Sepulchre. I believed him
sane; and so for a long time he was, as he testified by deeds of
incredible valour.'

It was not long after this that the fleet put out to sea, shaping course
for Acre. Message after message came in from beleaguered Joppa; but King
Richard paid little heed to them, pending the issue of new treating with
Saladin. He certainly sailed with a single eye on Acre. But Joppa lay on
his course, and it is probable, he being what he was