us from over the sea. We must take ship and thrust them from Africa.'
'By heaven, yes!' cried the prince. 'And it is the dream of my heart that our English pennons shall wave upon the Mount of Olives, and the lions and lilies float over the holy city.'
'And why not, dear coz? Your bowmen have cleared a path to Paris, and why not to Jerusalem? Once there, your arms might rest.'
'Nay, there is more to be done,' cried, the prince, carried away by the ambitious dream. 'There is still the city of Constantine to be taken, and war to be waged against the Soldan of Damascus. And beyond him again there is tribute to be levied from the Cham of Tartary, and from the kingdom of Cathay. Ha! John, what say you? Can we not go as far eastward as Richard of the Lion Heart?'
'Old John will bide at home, sire,' said the rugged soldier. 'By my soul! as long as I am seneschal of Aquitaine I will find enough to do in guarding the marches which you have entrusted to me. It would be a blithe day for the king of France when he heard that the seas lay between him and us.'
'By my soul! John,' said the prince, 'I have never known you turn laggard before.'
'The babbling hound, sire, is not always the first at the mort,' the old knight answered.
'Nay, my true-heart! I have tried you too often not to know. But, by my soul! I have not seen so dense a throng since the day that we brought King John down Cheapside.'
It was, indeed, an enormous crowd which covered the whole vast plain from the line of vineyards to the river bank. From the northern gate the prince and his companions looked down at a dark sea of heads, brightened here and there by the coloured hoods of the women or by the sparkling head-pieces of archers and men-at-arms. In the centre of this vast assemblage the lists seemed but a narrow
