of joy
crowded up, Cuthbert made his way, shaking hands right and left with the
men, among whom he was greatly loved, for they regarded him as being in
a great degree the cause of their having been freed from outlawry, and
restored to civil life again. The earl was really affected. As Cuthbert
rode up he held out both arms, and as his page alighted he embraced him
as a father.

"My dear Cuthbert!" he exclaimed. "What anxiety have we not suffered.
Had you been my own son, I could not have felt more your loss. We did
not doubt for an instant that you had fallen into the hands of some of
the retainers of that villain count; and from all we could learn, and
from the absence of any dead body by the side of that of Cnut, I
imagined that you must have been carried off. It was clear that your
chance of life, if you fell into the hands of that evil page, or his
equally vile master, was small indeed. The very day that Cnut was
brought in I visited the French camp, and accused him of having been the
cause of your disappearance and Cnut's wounds. He affected the greatest
astonishment at the charge. He had not, as he said, been out of the camp
for two days. My accusation was unfounded and malicious, and I should
answer this as well as the previous outrage, when the vow of the
Crusaders to keep peace among themselves was at an end. Of course I had
no means of proving what I said, or I would have gone direct to the king
and charged him with the outrage. As it was I gained nothing by my
pains. He has accompanied the French division to Genoa; but when we meet
at Sicily, where the two armies are to rendezvous, I will bring the
matter before the king, as the fact that his page was certainly
concerned in it must be taken as showing that he was the instigator."

"It would, my lord earl, be perhaps better," Cuthbert said, "if I might
venture to advise, to leave the matter alone. No doubt the count would
say that he had discharged his page after the tournament, and that the
latter was only carrying out his private feud with me. We should not be
able to disprove the story, and should gain no satisfaction by the
matter."

The earl admitted the justice of Cuthbert's reasoning, but reserved to
himself the task of punishing the author of the outrage upon the first
fitting opportunity.

There was a weary delay at Marseilles before the expedition set sail.
This was caused by the fact of the English fleet, which had been ordered
to be there upon