"I have been attending to mine own business," answered De Bracy calmly,

"as you, Fitzurse, have been minding yours."

"I minding mine own business!" echoed Waldemar; "I have been engaged in

that of Prince John, our joint patron."

"As if thou hadst any other reason for that, Waldemar," said De Bracy,

"than the promotion of thine own individual interest? Come, Fitzurse,

we know each other--ambition is thy pursuit, pleasure is mine, and they

become our different ages. Of Prince John thou thinkest as I do; that

he is too weak to be a determined monarch, too tyrannical to be an easy

monarch, too insolent and presumptuous to be a popular monarch, and too

fickle and timid to be long a monarch of any kind. But he is a monarch

by whom Fitzurse and De Bracy hope to rise and thrive; and therefore you

aid him with your policy, and I with the lances of my Free Companions."

"A hopeful auxiliary," said Fitzurse impatiently; "playing the fool in

the very moment of utter necessity.--What on earth dost thou purpose by

this absurd disguise at a moment so urgent?"

"To get me a wife," answered De Bracy coolly, "after the manner of the

tribe of Benjamin."

"The tribe of Benjamin?" said Fitzurse; "I comprehend thee not."

"Wert thou not in presence yester-even," said De Bracy, "when we heard

the Prior Aymer tell us a tale in reply to the romance which was sung by

the Minstrel?--He told how, long since in Palestine, a deadly feud arose

between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Israelitish nation;

and how they cut to pieces well-nigh all the chivalry of that tribe; and

how they swore by our blessed Lady, that they would not permit those

who remained to marry in their lineage; and how they became grieved for

their vow, and sent to consult his holiness the Pope how they might be

absolved from it; and how, by the advice of the Holy Father, the youth

of the tribe of Benjamin carried off from a superb tournament all the

ladies who were there present, and thus won them wives without the

consent either of their brides or their brides' families."

"I have heard the story," said Fitzurse, "though either the Prior or

thou has made some singular alterations in date and circumstances."

"I tell thee," said De Bracy, "that I mean to purvey me a wife after the

fashion of the tribe of Benjamin; which is as much as to say, that in

this same equipment I will fall upon that herd of Saxon bullocks, who

have this night left the castle, and carry off from them the lovely

Rowena."




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