So far, a few
had ridden, and many had been carried in closed litters slung between
mules or borne on the broad shoulders of Swiss porters; and each lady
had her serving-maid, and her servants and mules heavy laden with the
furniture of beauty, with laces and silks and velvets, jewellery and
scented waters, and salves for the face, of great virtue against cold
and heat. It was a little army in itself, recruited of the women, and
in which beauty was rank, and rank was power; and in order that the
three hundred might ride with Queen Eleanor in the most marvellous
masquerade of all time, a host of some two thousand servants and
porters crossed Europe on foot and on horseback from the Rhine to the
Bosphorus. The mere idea was so vastly absurd that Gilbert had laughed
at it many a time by himself; and yet there was at the root of it an
impulse which was rather sublime than ridiculous. Between its
conception and its execution the time was too long, and the hot blood
of daring romance already felt the fatal chill of coming failure.
Gilbert looked at the delicate features and the slight figure beside
him, and he resented the mere thought that Beatrix should ever be
exposed to weariness and hardship. But she laughed.
"I am always left behind on great occasions," she said. "You need not
fear for me, for I shall certainly not be seen on the Queen's left hand
when she overcomes the Seljuks without your help. I shall be told to
wait quietly in my tent until it is all over.
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