The Heart of the Lion - Plaidy Jean (читать книги бесплатно полностью без регистрации сокращений txt) 📗

Richard said firmly: ‘I doubt not it is now on its way to Messina. And your army, brother? I trust your men are not dispirited to see their leader in such sickness.’

‘They know I shall recover. I am not an old man. Ten years younger than you, remember.’

‘I remember it well,’ said Richard with a faint scowl.

‘Why when we first met I thought you were quite an old man. Thus do the young think of those who are ten years their senior.’

‘Age is a matter of health. If a man feels young then so he is.’

‘’Tis true and at this time I am the feeble one, you the strong. I remember when you had fits of fever. Pray tell me, Richard, have you had any bouts lately?’

‘Nay, nay. I know no discomfort save that of delay.’

‘You are too impatient, my dear friend.’

‘Are you not?’

Philip hesitated and Richard went on: ‘I fancy you have lost your passion for the fight.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘Yet you seem less eager.’

‘My affairs have changed. You know what care I took to leave my realm in good hands. I trusted my Queen, Richard. I knew she would look after my affairs as none other could. There is Louis my little son. He is but a child. He needs paternal care. The Queen’s death has made me sad and sober. I think perpetually of France.’

‘But you have set up a Regency, have you not?’

‘Yes. My mother will serve me well as will my uncle the Cardinal of Champagne. But I could have wished that Isabella was there to care for our son.’

‘It is because you are weak that you fret. Wait until you are well, then you will forget these trifling matters. I do not fret for my kingdom. If I could win back the Holy City to Christianity I would ask nothing more in life. I would give everything I possess to do that.’

‘You,’ said Philip, ‘are a fanatic. I am merely a king.’

‘Which of us think you will be in Messina first?’ asked Richard.

‘You have the advantage now.’

‘What matters it? There we will meet. There we will make our further plans. We will sail together for Acre.’

Philip looked at Richard’s face and said simply: ‘It pleases me to see you. You have done me more good than all the doctors. You have aroused in me the determination to reach Messina before you.’

They kissed tenderly when Richard took his leave. Rivals, passionate friends and enemies.

Arrived at Naples the King disembarked and rested a while. He was expecting to hear news of the arrival of the fleet at Marseilles where he had left orders that when they came they were to go direct to Messina. It was important that he should not arrive before them with only the ships he had been able to muster.

It was while he was in this neighbourhood that he came near to losing his life through his own reckless folly. While he was out walking with but one attendant they passed through a hamlet and there he saw a peasant standing at the door of his cottage with a magnificent hawk. Passionate hunter that he was, Richard was immediately interested in anything concerning it and the hawk having caught his fancy he longed to possess it. Had he been with a party he would have commanded that the hawk be taken and the man given more than it was worth in money or goods. As he had but one attendant he went to the man and took the hawk meaning to bargain with him.

‘What a fine creature,’ he said to his attendant. ‘I shall enjoy testing it.’

The peasant, not realising who he was, began to shout to his neighbours that he had been robbed and in a very short while Richard and his attendant were surrounded by a vicious mob.

Richard drew his sword. The peasants armed with sticks sought to beat off the pair. Then one of the peasants drew a knife which he attempted to plunge into Richard’s heart.

Skilled in combat as he was, the King could have slain them all, but this he had no wish to do. He wanted to tell them that he would reward the owner of the hawk, but he saw at once that words were no use. Calling to his attendant not to kill any of them but to use the flat side of his sword, as he would, he began to fight his way through the mob.

With the flat side of his own sword he broke the knife in two and the peasants realised that this was clearly a knight practised in any form of warfare. Even so Richard needed all his skill to save them from the righteous wrath of the peasants.

Finally, hawkless, they managed to escape.

‘The fools,’ said Richard. ‘I would have given them two or three times what the bird was worth.’

‘They would never have believed that, my lord,’ said his attendant.

‘And now I shall never be able to test it.’

‘I am grateful, Sire, for your skill in bringing us safely out of that.’

‘Ah, you were afraid, my man. If they had harmed you I would have slain them all.’

And as they walked to their ships which lay at anchor he was thinking of what Philip would have said had he been there. He would have taunted him with making strict rules for his men which he himself flouted. Philip could never resist making a long discussion over such a point. There was little Philip liked better than an argument and the reason was that he always emerged the victor.

’Twas not robbery, Richard reminded himself. I would have paid the fellow. No one can accuse me of a lack of generosity.

‘It is not the point . . .’ He could almost hear Philip’s voice.

He must stop thinking of Philip. He should be preoccupied with thoughts of his bride, for by now his mother would be waiting with Berengaria for him to have extricated himself from the engagement with Alice so that he might, to the satisfaction of the world, take to be his bride the daughter of the King of Navarre.

THE SICILIAN ADVENTURE

The English fleet had arrived from Marseilles and lay off the

Sicilian capital. There were a hundred galleys and fourteen large busses in which were soldiers, provisions, arms and horses. Pennants and banners fluttered in the wind and from the shore the Sicilians marvelled.

Tancred was seized by a great fear. This mighty fleet belonged to the brother of Joanna who was now his prisoner. What would Richard do when he arrived? Fortunately for Tancred Richard was not yet there. He had left Marseilles before the fleet and had come via a different route, but Tancred had to face the fact that he could reach Messina at any time now.

The Sicilians, who had heard stories of Richard’s might, and knowing that their King had imprisoned his sister believed that the King of England had come in anger, trembled to contemplate what might happen next.

Meanwhile the French fleet limped into Messina. It had been beset by severe storms and it was said that only a miracle had saved it from disaster. As it was horses and provisions had had to be thrown overboard to lighten the ships and save men’s lives.

It was with some relief that Tancred received Philip and his men. They were in a sorry state and needed shelter and the time to repair the damage to their ships; but at least this was the King of France and the storm’s havoc could only be a temporary setback. It seemed to Tancred that if he feted Philip he could find an ally in him but when he looked at the magnificent ships of the King of England and compared them with the shattered ones of the King of France, he was uneasy. All the same he felt he might be in urgent need of help, and Philip was at least King of France.

Tancred entertained Philip in his own palace and told him how much he admired his resolve to go and fight the Infidel.