The Prince and the Page: A Story of the Last CrusadeYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
General
The Prince and the Page: A Story of the Last Crusade
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Crusades -- Eighth, 1270 -- Fiction
Of shorter stature, darker browed, of less regular feature and less clear
complexion, so as to look as if he were the elder of the brothers, Prince
Edmund moved by his side, using much exertion, and bending with the
effort, so as to increase the slight sloop that had led to his historical
nickname of the Crouchback, though some think this was merely taken from
his crusading cross. He bore the arms of Sicily, to which he had not yet
resigned his claim. His eye wandered, but not far away, like that of his
brother. It was in search of his young betrothed, the Lady Aveline of
Lancaster, the fair young heiress to whom he was to owe the great earldom
that was a fair portion for a younger brother even of royalty.
All the four were bare-footed, and both princes were in robes much
resembling that of their father, except that upon the left shoulder of
each might be seen, in white cloth, the two lines of the Cross, that
marked them as pilgrims and Crusaders, already on the eve of departure
for the Holy Land.
The shrine where the golden coffin was to rest is substantially the same
in our own day, with its triple-cusped arches below, the stage of six and
stage of four above them, and the twisted columns in imitation of that
which was supposed to have come from the Beautiful Gate of the Temple.
But at that time it was a glittering fabric of mosaic work, in gold,
lapis-lazuli, and precious stones, aided here and there by fragments of
coloured glass, the only part of the costly workmanship that has come
down to us. Around this shrine the preceding members of the procession
had taken their places. Archbishop Boniface of Savoy was there, old age
ennobling a countenance that once had been light and frivolous, and all
his bishops in the splendour of their richest copes, solidly embroidered
with absolute scenes and portraits in embroidery, with tall mitres worked
with gold wire and jewels, and crosiers of beauteous workmanship in gold,
ivory, and enamel. Mitred abbots, no less glorious in array, stood in
another rank; the scarlet-mantled Grand Prior of the Hospital, and the
white-cloaked Templar, made a link between the ecclesiastic and the
warrior. Priests and monks, selected for their voices’ sake, clustered
in every available space; and, in full radiance, on a stage on the
further side, were seated the ladies of the court, mostly with their hair
uncovered, and surrounded by a garland of precious stones. Queen Eleanor
of Provence, still bent on youthfulness, looked somewhat haggard in this
garb; but it well became Beatrix von Falkmorite, the young German girl
whom Richard King of the Romans had wedded in his old age for the sake of
her fair face. Smiling, plump, and rosy, she sat opening her wide blue
eyes, wearing her emerald and ruby wreath as though it had been a coronal
of daisies, and gazing with childish whisperings as she watched the
movements of her king, and clung for direction and help in her own part
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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