Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/364
Prophet”—Hold! Hold! I will have not more of that dog of a prophet! I will put myself in charge of this leech, Moslem tho he is. I will trust for once the misbelieving Soldan. And Heaven willing, I shall meet this Saladin, and teach him with my sword to regret his generosity. Sir Knight, haste thee and fetch the leech. (Exit Kenneth.)
DE VAUX: My liege, methinks that the Soldan is an infidel and your most formidable enemy.
RICH. And for that very reason I will trust him. He is too true a soldier to let a paltry fever come between two such kings. By mine honor, it would be a sin not to trust his good faith.
BALD.: Your gracious Majesty, it behooves you to pause ere you take such momentous a step. I cannot but have suspicions of the wily Saracen. These Moslems are skillful in the use of poisons.
RICH.: My lord archbishop, I never knew you to hesitate for fear.
BALD.; Nor would I now, my liege, were it my life, and not yours, at stake.
RICH: I am weary of lying here like an ox dying of the murrain, my lord, when tambours are sounding without, horses stamping, trumpets blowing to horse. No! I’ll trust the Paynim for once. (Reenter Kenneth, with Adonbec.) Art thou a physician, infidel? Or art thou an assassin?
ADON.: Ye have the word of mighty Saladin, a word which was never broken to friend or foe. What more would ye? (Enter a guard.)
GUARD: My liege, a deputation from the Council waits without, begging to be admitted.
RICH.: Aye, it is well that they allow us to be living yet.—Who are the noble ambassadors?
GUARD: My liege, Sir Giles Amaury and Conrad of Montserrat.
RICH.: Jocelyn, lay me on the couch more fairly. Pass a comb thru my hair and beard—they look indeed more like a lion’s mane than a Christian man’s locks. Bring water.
JOC.: My liege, the leeches say that cold water may be fatal.
RICH: To the foul fiend with the leeches! If they cannot cure me, think you I shall allow them to torture me?—There now.—Admit the worshipful envoys. (Exit the Guard. Enter Amaury and Conrad.)
CON.: We are bid, your Majesty, by the Council of the Crusade to inquire after the health of their magnanimous ally, the valiant king of England.
RICH.: We know the importance in which the princes of the Crusade hold our health, and we are well aware how much they must have suffered by suppressing all curiosity concerning it all these days for fear, no doubt, of aggravating our disorder by showing, forsooth, their anxiety concerning the event.
AMAU.: Your Majesty, we are more over bid by the Council to beseech your grace not to permit your health to be tampered with by an infidel physician, said to be dispatched by Saladin, until the Council had taken measures to remove or confirm suspicions which are at present attached to the mission of such a person.
RICH.: My lords, if you but pause a moment, you will see what account we take of the tender remonstrances of our royal and princely colleagues.
AMAU.: (Aside to Conrad.) We must pretend to be urgent in our solicitude, for appearance’s sake—My lord, De Vaux, will you not join our and the Council’s expostulations against the risk of permitting an infidel to tamper with a health so valuable as that of your master, King Richard?
DE VAUX: Sir Giles, I like not the use of many words, nor the sound of them. I am satisfied that the heathen can cure my lord. Time is precious. If Mahommed—God’s curses on him!—stood at the door with such fair purpose as this Adonbec el Hakim entertains, I should hold it a crime to delay him a minute.—Come, prepare, Saracen.
RICH.: So ho! A goodly fellowship come to see Richard take his leap in the dark.—My noble allies, I greet you