But Conrade understood not, or heeded not, the prohibition.
"What the Archduke does," he said, "is of little consequence to any one, least of all to himself, since he probably knows not what he is acting; yet, to say truth, it is a gambol I should not like to share in, since he is pulling down the banner of England from Saint George's Mount, in the centre of the camp yonder, and displaying his own in its stead." "WHAT sayest thou ?" exclaimed the King, in a tone which might have waked the dead.
"Nay," said the Marquis, "let it not chafe your Highness that a fool should act according to his folly--" "Speak not to me," said Richard, springing from his couch, and casting on his clothes with a dispatch which seemed marvellous--"Speak not to me, Lord Marquis!--De Multon, I command thee speak not a word to me--he that breathes but a syllable is no friend to Richard Plantagenet .-- Hakim, be silent, I charge thee!" All this while the King was hastily clothing himself, and, with the last word, snatched his sword from the pillar of the tent, and without any other weapon, or calling any attendance, he rushed out of his pavilion.
Conrade, holding up his hands as if in astonishment, seemed willing to enter into conversation with De Vaux; but Sir Thomas pushed rudely past him, and calling to one of the royal equerries, said hastily, "Fly to Lord Salisbury's quarters, and let him get his men together and follow me instantly to Saint George's Mount.

Tell him the King's fever has left his blood and settled in his brain." Imperfectly heard, and still more imperfectly comprehended, by the startled attendant whom De Vaux addressed thus hastily, the equerry and his fellow-servants of the royal chamber rushed hastily into the tents of the neighbouring nobility, and quickly spread an alarm, as general as the cause seemed vague, through the whole British forces.

The English soldiers, waked in alarm from that noonday rest which the heat of the climate had taught them to enjoy as a luxury, hastily asked each other the cause of the tumult, and without waiting an answer, supplied by the force of their own fancy the want of information.

Some said the Saracens were in the camp, some that the King's life was attempted, some that he had died of the fever the preceding night, many that he was assassinated by the Duke of Austria.

The nobles and officers, at an equal loss with the common men to ascertain the real cause of the disorder, laboured only to get their followers under arms and under authority, lest their rashness should occasion some great misfortune to the Crusading army.
The English trumpets sounded loud, shrill, and continuously.