He had done his work, and he knew what might
happen to him if he were afterwards recognized. But none heeded him.
The uproar went surging towards the King with a rising fury, like the
turn of the tide in a winter storm, roaring up to the breaking pitch,
and many would have stoned him and torn him to pieces; but there were
many also, older and cooler men, who pressed round him, shoulder to
shoulder, with swords drawn and flashing in the sunlight, and faces set
to defend their liege lord and sovereign. In an instant the flying
Germans were forgotten; and the Emperor and his army, and the meaning
of the Holy War and of the Cross itself, were gone from men's minds in
the fury of riot on the one side, in the stern determination of defence
on the other. The vast weight of men rolled forward, pushed by those
behind, forcing the King and those who stood by him to higher ground.
In dire distress, and almost hopeless of extricating her gentle troop
from destruction, the Queen heard the new tumult far away, and felt the
close press yielding on one side. The word 'traitor' ran along like a
quick echo from mouth to mouth, repeated again and again, sometimes
angrily, sometimes in tones of unbelief, but always repeated, until
there was scarcely one man in a hundred thousand whose lips had not
formed the syllables. Eleanor saw her husband and his companions with
their drawn swords moving in the air, on the knoll; she heard the
stinging word, and a hard and scornful look lingered in her face a
moment.
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