[ZoomStats] In his youth been a mason. "Have I not heard, Gurth

[Banbury P. <bat...@go...>]

Ed on their way. The air was still and cold, and the sky of a deep,
dark blue, which seemed even darker in
contrast with the whiteness of the snow. At times
they had great difficulty in struggling
through the deep drifts; but for the most part the wind had swept the
path clear. Where it was deepest, the tops of the posts still showed
above the snow, and enabled the guide to direct their footsteps. They
were, however, obliged

to travel slowly, and it was three days before they gained the village
on the northern slope of the mountains, having slept at refuges by the
road. "What are your plans?" the knight asked Sir Cuthbert that night,
as they sat by the fire of the hostelry. "I would warn you that the
town which
you will first arrive at is specially hostile to your
people, for the baron, its master, is a relation of Conrad of
Montferat, who is said to have been killed by order of your king." "It
is false," Cuthbert said. "King Richard had appointed him King of
Jerusalem; and, though he liked him not, thought him the fittest of
those there
to exercise sovereignty. He was the
last man who would have
had an enemy assassinated; for so open is he of disposition that he
would have fought hand to hand with
the meanest soldier of his army had he desired to kill him." "I doubt
not that it is so, since you tell me,"

the knight said courteously.
"But the people here have taken that idea into their minds, and it will
be hard to disabuse them. You must therefore keep up your disguise as a
French knight while passing through this neighborhood. Another week's
journeying,
and yo