Count Raymond, with his broad shoulders and bronzed face and dark hair
just turning gray at the temples, came down to meet the army at the
shore; and first he embraced the King, according to custom, and then he
kissed the Queen, his niece, not once, but four or five times, and she
kissed him, for they were very glad to see each other; but it is not
true, as some have said in their chronicles, that there were thoughts
of love between them. Queen Eleanor had many bitter enemies, and her
sins were almost as many as her good deeds, but love for Count Raymond
was not among them.
Nevertheless, King Louis was very jealous as soon as he saw the two
embracing, for he had always believed that there was more than he knew.
But he said nothing, for he feared his Queen. So there were great
rejoicings in Antioch, when all the ladies and the barons and other
nobles were installed there to keep Easter together; and though they
had still some days of fasting during Holy Week, they were so glad to
be in the great city, and so much lightened of trouble by having left
the poorer pilgrims to shift for themselves, that it would have been
easy for them to live on bread and water, instead of eating the dainty
dishes of good fish, and the imitations of eggs made with flour and
saffron and blanched almonds, and the delicate sweetmeats, and all the
many good things which Count Raymond's fifty cooks knew how to prepare
for Lent. For the Count lived luxuriously, though he was a good fighter
at need.
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