Well! let it be so! Better that I should first break the power of the Barons, and then make my own terms, sword in hand, with the plebeian.

And if I fail in this,--sweet Adeline! I shall see thee again!--that is some comfort!--and Louis of Hungary will bid high for the arm and brain of Walter de Montreal.

What, ho! Rodolf!" he exclaimed aloud, as the sturdy form of the trooper, half-armed and half-intoxicated, reeled along the courtyard.

"Knave! art thou drunk at this hour ?" "Drunk or sober," answered Rodolf, bending low, "I am at thy bidding." "Well said!--are thy friends ripe for the saddle ?" "Eighty of them already tired of idleness and the dull air of Rome, will fly wherever Sir Walter de Montreal wishes." "Hasten, then,--bid them mount; we go not hence with the Colonna--we leave while they are yet talking! Bid my squires attend me!" And when Stephen Colonna was settling himself on his palfrey, he heard, for the first time, that the Knight of Provence, Rodolf the trooper, and eighty of the stipendiaries, had already departed,--whither, none knew.
"To precede us to Rome! gallant barbarian!" said Colonna.

"Sirs, on!".