“Judging from my own experience,” Cuthbert said, “I fear that he may have come to harm at the hands of the friends of Conrad of Montferat, who falsely allege that the death of their kinsman was caused by King Richard.  The Archduke John, too, owes him no good-will; and even the emperor is evilly disposed toward him.  The king traveled under an assumed name; but it might well be that he would be recognized upon the way.  His face was known to all who fought in the East; and his lordly manner and majestic stature could ill be concealed beneath a merchant’s garb.  Still, lady, as I have been so long in making my way across, it may be that King Richard has been similarly delayed without danger befalling him, and it could hardly be that so important a man as the King of England would be detained, or come to any misfortune, without the news being bruited abroad.”

In spite of Cuthbert’s reassuring words, the duke and duchess were greatly alarmed at the news of King Richard’s disappearance, although indeed consoled to find that their previous fears, that he had been drowned in the storm or captured by the Moorish corsairs, were unfounded.

They now requested from Cuthbert the story of what had befallen him since he left the king; and this he related at some length.  The duke was greatly interested, and begged Cuthbert at least to remain at his court until some news might arrive of King Richard.

For a month Cuthbert tarried at the castle of the Duke of Saxony, where he was nobly entertained, and treated as a guest of much honor.  Cnut and the archers were delighted at the treatment they received, for never in their lives had they been so royally entertained.  Their Saxon tongue was nigh enough akin to the language spoken here to be understood; and their tales of adventure in the Holy Land rendered them as popular among the retainers of the duke as their master became with the duke and duchess.

CHAPTER XX.

Under the greenwood.

At the end of a month, news came from England that Sir Baldwin of Bethune had returned there, bearing the news that the king had been arrested at Gortz, only two days’ journey north of the Adriatic—­that he had been recognized, and at once captured.  He had offered no resistance, finding indeed that it would be hopeless so to do.  Sir Baldwin had been permitted to depart without molestation.  He believed that the folk into whose hands he had fallen were retainers of the Archduke John.  This news, although sad in itself, was yet in some degree reassuring to the duke and his wife; for they felt that while the followers of Conrad of Montferat would not hesitate to put King Richard to death should he fall into their hands, the Archduke John would not dare to bring upon himself the indignation of Europe by such treatment of his royal captive.  Cuthbert at once determined to return to England to see Sir