Part 32 (2/2)
Then what is the happiest memory?
Is it the foe's defeat?
Is it the splendid praise of a world That thunders by at your feet?
Nay, nay, to the life-worn spirit The happiest thoughts are those That carry us back to the simple joys And the sweetness of life's repose
A simple love and a siht to death Than a whole world's victories won
WILFRED CAMPBELL
KING RICHARD AND SALADIN
Saladin led the way to a splendid pavilion where was everything that royal luxury could devise De Vaux, as in attendance, then re-cloak which Richard wore, and he stood before Saladin in the close dress which showed to advantage the strength and sy contrast to the flowing robes which disguised the thin frame of the Eastern monarch It was Richard's two-handed sword that chiefly attracted the attention of the Saracen--a broad straight blade, the seeh from the shoulder to the heel of the wearer
”Had I not,” said Saladin, ”seen this brand fla in the front of battle, like that of Azrael, I had scarce believed that huht I request to see the Melech Ric strike one bloith it in peace and in pure trial of strength?”
”Willingly, noble Saladin,” answered Richard; and looking around for soth, he saw a steelof the same metal, and about an inch and a half in dia broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft to the king's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway of soround in two pieces, as a wood-bill
”By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!” said the Soldan, critically and accurately exa the iron bar which had been cut asunder; and the blade of the sas so well te suffered by the feat it had perfor on the size and hed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and thin, so inferior in brawn and sinew
”Ay, look well,” said De Vaux in English, ”it will be long ere your long jackanape's fingers do such a feat with your fine gilded reaping-hook there”
”Silence, De Vaux,” said Richard; ”by Our Lady, he understands or guesses thy --be not so broad, I pray thee”
The Soldan, indeed, presently said: ”Soh wherefore should the weak show their inferiority in presence of the strong? Yet, each land hath its own exercises, and this , he took from the floor a cushi+on of silk and down, and placed it upright on one end ”Can thy weapon,Richard
”No, surely,” replied the king; ”no sword on earth, were it the Excalibur of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady resistance to the blow”
”Mark, then,” said Saladin; and tucking up the sleeve of his gown, showed his arm, thin indeed and spare, but which constant exercise had hardened into a ht but bone, brawn, and sinew He unsheathed his scilittered not like the swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue colour,lines, which showed how anxiously thethis weapon, apparently so inefficient when coht upon his left foot, which was slightly advanced; he balanced hi at once forward, drew the scie so dexterously and with so little apparent effort, that the cushi+on seemed rather to fall asunder than to be divided by violence
”It is a juggler's trick,” said De Vaux, darting forward and snatching up the portion of the cushi+on which had been cut off, as if to assure hiramarye in this”
The Soldan seemed to comprehend him, for he undid the sort of veil which he had hitherto worn, laid it double along the edge of his sabre, extended the weapon edgeways in the air, and drawing it suddenly through the veil, although it hung on the blade entirely loose, severed that also into two parts, which floated to different sides of the tent, equally displaying the extreme temper and sharpness of the weapon and the exquisite dexterity of hiood faith, my brother,” said Richard, ”thou art even ht perilous were it to ht English blow, and e cannot do by sleight we eke out by strength Nevertheless, in truth thou art as expert in inflicting wounds asthem
I trust I shall see the learned leech; I have ht soed his turban for a Tartar cap He had no sooner done so, than De Vaux opened at once his extended azed with scarce less astonishrave and altered voice: ”The sick man, sayeth the poet, while he is yet infirm, knoweth the physician by his step; but when he is recovered, he knoweth not even his face when he looks upon him”