"Well done, Sir Gilbert!" cried some. "God bless the Guide of
Aquitaine!" cried many others. And all the voices praised him, so that
his heart warmed.
Following the herald, he came to his place in the procession, in the
front rank of the great vassals of the two kingdoms, and just after the
sovereign lords; and as he was somewhat taller than other men, he could
look over their heads, and he saw the King and Queen in their furs,
walking together, and before them the bishops and priests. At the stir
made by his coming Eleanor turned and looked back, and her eyes met
Gilbert's through the smoky glare, gazing at him sadly, as if she would
have made him understand something she could not say.
But he would not have spoken if he could, for his thoughts were on
other things. The procession went on toward the royal altar, set up
under an open tent in a wide space, so that the multitude could kneel
on the grass and both see and hear the celebration. So they all knelt
down, the great barons and chief vassals having small hassocks for
their knees, while the King and Queen and the sovereign lords of Savoy
and Alsatia and Lorraine, and of Bohemia and of Poland, had rich
praying-stools set out for them in a row, next to the King and Queen.
The torches were stuck into the ground to burn down as they might, and
the great wax candles shone quietly on the white altar, for the night
was now very still and clear. There all the great nobles and many
thousands of other men heard the Christmas mass, just after midnight,
knowing that many of them should never hear it again on earth.
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