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Conrade read the letter, which was in these words: "Aymer, by divine grace, Prior of the Cistertian house of Saint Mary's of Jorvaulx, to Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, a Knight of the holy Order of the Temple, wisheth health, with the bounties of King Bacchus and of my Lady Venus.
Sitting at the table of the Archduke, Conrade was at once stunned and amused with the clang of Teutonic sounds assaulting his ears on all sides, notwithstanding the solemnity of a princely banquet.
We will go to Palestine, where Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat, is my friend a friend free as myself from the doting scruples which fetter our free-born reason rather with Saladin will we league ourselves, than endure the scorn of the bigots whom we contemn.
"Thou hast tarried long," he said; "I have been as if stretched on red-hot iron with very impatience. What if the Grand Master, or his spy Conrade, had come hither? I had paid dear for my complaisance. But what ails thee, brother? Thy step totters, thy brow is as black as night. Art thou well, Bois-Guilbert?" "Ay," answered the Templar, "as well as the wretch who is doomed to die within an hour.
Zack was quite right to protect his father's property, but he might have been more civil. Now shake hands, and have done with it." "Not shake hands with a low boy," growled Francis. But happily Conrade was of a freer spirit, and in spite of Rachel's interference, had sense enough to know himself in the wrong.
But, blessed Mary! we shall become the curse of all Europe, the malediction of every one, from the Pope on his throne to the very beggar at the church gate, who, ragged and leprous, in the last extremity of human wretchedness, shall bless himself that he is neither Giles Amaury nor Conrade of Montserrat."
"The lion hath taken a spring above the eagle," said Conrade carelessly. The Archduke reddened, and fixed his eyes on the speaker, while the SPRUCH-SPRECHER answered, after a minute's consideration, "The Lord Marquis will pardon me a lion cannot fly above an eagle, because no lion hath got wings." "Except the lion of Saint Mark," responded the jester.
No wonder that the hand of God is upon us, and that in the Holy Land we lose place by place, foot by foot, before the infidels, when we have such churchmen as this Aymer. And what meaneth he, I trow, by this second Witch of Endor?" said he to his confident, something apart. "There is more in it than thou dost guess, Conrade; thy simplicity is no match for this deep abyss of wickedness.
The Ethiopian, though not without difficulty, disengaged the dog; while the voice of Richard, loud and sonorous, was heard clear above all others: "He dies the death who injures the hound. Stand forward for a false traitor, Conrade of Montserrat. I impeach thee of treason!"
May not one ask thee whether the rule of the troops remains with the shadow or the substance?" Conrade was commencing his reply with a smile, when Roswal, the noble hound, uttering a furious and savage yell, sprung forward.
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