"I
wish I might shut my eyes and rest here--now that I know."
"Rest, sweet, rest!"
A moment, and then, from far away, a clarion call rang on the still
air. With the instinct of the soldier, Gilbert started, and listened,
holding his breath, but still pressing the girl close to him.
"What is it?" she asked, half frightened.
It came again, joyous and clear.
"It is nothing," he said. "It is the Christmas banquet, and perhaps the
King drinks the Queen's health--and she his."
"And perhaps, though no one knows it, she--" But Beatrix stopped and
laughed. "I will not say it! Why should I care?"
She was thinking that if the Queen drank a health it might be meant, in
her heart, for the Guide of Aquitaine, and she nestled closer to him in
the sunshine.
CHAPTER XXII
A week the army stayed in camp by the pleasant waters of the Maeander,
and daily at noon Gilbert and Beatrix met at the same place. She told
him that she had not seen her father again, and believed that he had
left the camp. The Queen knew that the lovers met, but she would not
hinder them, though it was cruel pain to think of their happiness. Many
have spoken and written evil things of Eleanor, for she was a haughty
woman and overbearing, and she feared neither God nor man, nor Satan
either; but she had a strong and generous heart, and, having promised,
she kept her word as well as she could. She would not send for Gilbert,
nor see him alone, lest she should fail of resolution when her eyes
looked on him too closely.
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