ever return to
claim your rights, it was worth no one's while to embroil himself
unnecessarily with the prince on such a subject. God knows that there
are subjects enough of dispute between John Lackland and the English
barons without any fresh ones arising. The kingdom is in a state of
disturbance. There have been several risings against Prince John's
authority; but those have been, so far, suppressed. Now that we know
where King Richard is, and hope for his return ere very long, it is
probable that peace will be maintained; but should treachery prevail,
and King Richard's return be prevented, you may be sure that John will
not be permitted to mount the throne without the determined resistance
of a large number of the nobles."

"But," Cuthbert said, "John is not the successor to the throne. Prince
Arthur of Brittany was named by King Richard from the first as his
successor. He is so by blood and by right, and John can have no pretense
to the throne so long as he lives."

"That is so," Sir Baldwin said. "But unhappily in England at present
might makes right, and you may be sure that at King Richard's death, be
it when it may, Prince John will make a bold throw for the throne, and,
aided as he will be by the pope and by Philip of France, methinks that
his chances are better than those of the young prince. A man's power, in
warlike times, is more than a boy's. He can intrigue and promise and
threaten, while a boy must be in the hands of partisans. I fear that
Prince Arthur will have troubled times indeed before he mounts the
throne of England. Should Richard survive until he becomes of age to
take the field himself and head armies, he may succeed, for all speak
well of him as a boy of singular sweetness of disposition, while Prince
John is detested by all save those who flatter and live by him. But
enough for the present of politics, Cuthbert; let us now to table. It is
long since we two feasted together; and, indeed, such meals as we took
in the Holy Land could scarcely have been called feasts. A boar's head
and a good roasted capon are worthy all the strange dishes that we had
there. I always misdoubted the meat, which seemed to me to smack in
flavor of the Saracens, and I never could bring myself to inquire whence
that strange food was obtained. A stoup of English ale, too, is worth
all the Cyprus wines, especially when the Cyprus wines are half-full of
the sand of the desert. Pah! it makes my throat dry to think of t