Saincte Catherine,
     Vela la nuict qui gagne!

they would hear, and hang upon the cadence.  At such times Richard, stretched upon his lion-skin, would raise himself, and lift up his face to the immense, and with his noble voice make the darkness tremble as he sang—­

     Domna, dels angels regina,
     Domna, roza ses espina,
     Domna, joves enfantina,
     Domna, estela marina,
     De las autras plus luzens!

But so soon as his voice filled the night, the woman’s faltered and died; and he, holding on for a stave or more, would stop on a note that had a wailing fall, and the lapping of the waves or cry of hidden birds take up the rule again.  This did not often obtain.  Mostly he watched out the night, sleeping little, talking none, but revolving in his mind the great deeds to do.  By day he was master of the fleet, an admirable seaman who, knowing nothing of ships’ business before he embarked, dared not confess so much to himself.  Richard must be leader if he was to be undertaker at all.  So he led his fleet from his first hour with it, and brought it safely into the roadstead.

* * * * *

They made Messina prosperously, a white city cooped within walls, with turrets and belfries and shining domes, stooping sharply to the violet sea.  King Philip with his legions was to have come by land as far as Genoa, and was not expected yet awhile.  Nor was there any sign of the Queen-Mother, of Berengere, or of the convoy from Navarre.

A landing was made in the early morning.  Before the Sicilians were well awake Richard’s army was in camp, the camp entrenched, and a most salutary gallows set up just outside it, with a thief upon it as a warning to his brothers of Sicily.  So far good.  The next thing was an embassy to King Tancred, the Sicilian King, which demanded (1) the person of Queen Joan (Richard’s sister), (2) her dowry, (3) a golden table twelve foot long, (4) a silk tent, and (5) a hundred galleys fitted out for two years.  This despatched, Richard entertained himself with his hawks and dogs, and with short excursions into Calabria.  On one of these he went to visit the saintly Abbot Joachim, at once prophet and philosopher and man of cool sense; and on another to kill wild boars.  When he came back in October from the second of these, he found matters going rather ill.

King Tancred avoided seeing him, sent no tables, nor ships, nor dowry.  He did send Queen Joan, and Queen Joan’s bed; moreover, because she had been Queen of Sicily, he sent a sack of gold coins for her entertainment; but he did not propose to go any further.  Richard, seeing what sort of courses his plans were likely to take, crossed once more into Calabria, attacked a fortified town which the Sicilians had settled, turned the settlers out, and established his sister there with Jehane, her shipload of ladies, and a strong garrison.  Then he returned to Messina.