“Nay,” said the Princess, “it were frenzy to take it thus in its wet garments; and frenzy to remain in thine, Richard.” As she spoke, the Prince and the other persons of the suite had embarked, and the barge was pushing away from the steps. “Give the child to me,” she added, holding out her arms, and disregarding a remonstrance from one of her ladies, disregarding too the sobs and struggles of the child, whom she strove to soothe, while hastily removing the little thing’s soaked blue frock and hood, and wrapping it up in a warm woollen cloak. “It is a pretty little maiden,” she said, “and not ill cared for. Some mother’s heart must be bursting for her!—Hush thee! hush thee, little one; we will take thee home and clothe thee, and then thou shalt go to thy mother,” she added, in better English than she had spoken four years earlier in Alton Wood. But the child still cried for her da-da, and the Princess asked again, “What is thy father’s name, little maid?” “Père,” she answered, with a peculiar accent that made the Prince say, “That is a Provençal tongue.” “They are Provençal eyes likewise,” added Eleanor. “See how like their hue is to Richard’s own;” and in Provençal she repeated the question what the father’s name and the child’s own might be. But “Père” again, and “Bessee, pretty Bessee,” was all the answer she obtained, the last in unmistakable English. “I thought,” said Eleanor, “that it was only my own children that scarce knew whether they spoke English, Languédoc, or Languéd’ouì.” “It was the same with us, Lady,” said Richard. “Father Adam was wont to say we were a little Babel.” The child looked towards him on hearing his voice, and held out her hands to go to him, reiterating an entreaty to be taken to her father. “She is probably the child of some minstrel or troubadour,” said the Prince. “We will send in search of him as soon as we have reached the Savoy.” The Savoy Palace had been built for Queen Eleanor’s obnoxious uncle, Prince Thomas of Savoy, and had recently been purchased by the Queen herself, as a wedding gift for her son Edmund; but in the meantime Edward and his family were occupying it during their stay near Westminster, and their barge was brought up to the wide stairs of its noble court. Richard was obliged to give up the child to the Princess and her ladies, though she shrieked after him so pertinaciously, that Eleanor called to him to return so soon as he should have changed his garments.