"Go, Sir Gilbert!" she said. "Go out and fight, and die if need be,
that others may live to win battles for the Cross of Christ."
He was gone, and Anne of Auch stood beside her.
"Lady Anne," said the Queen, "I thank you. I would be alone."
She turned and went into the little oratory, and knelt down before the
altar, looking at the place where the shield had stood.
CHAPTER XIX
So Gilbert Warde was made a knight, and to this day the Wards bear the
cross flory in their shield, which was given to their forefathers by
Eleanor of Aquitaine before she was English Queen. And so, also, Sir
Gilbert promised to ride a day's march before the rest, with a handful
of men whom he chose among his acquaintance; and many envied him his
honour, but there were more who warmed themselves by the camp-fire at
night most comfortably, and were glad that they had not been chosen to
live hardly, half starving on their half-starved horses, with a cloak
and a blanket on the ground for a bed, watching in turns by night, and
waking each morning to wonder whether they should live till sunset.
In truth there was less of danger than of hardship at first, and more
trouble than either; for though Gilbert was sent on with the best of
the Greek guides to choose the way, and had full power of life and
death over them, so that they feared him more than Satan and dared not
hide the truth from him, yet when he had chosen the line of the march
and had sent word by a messenger to the army, the answer often came
back that the King and the Emperor were of another mind, because they
had listened to some lying Greek; and since the Emperor and the King
and Queen had agreed that any one of them must always yield to the
opinion of the other two, Eleanor's advice, which was Gilbert's and
founded on real knowledge, was often overridden by the others, and she
was forced to give way or make an open breach.
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