"Did his pursuers say," asked Ethbert, "that he was dead?"

_Arnold_. They were two of our chevaliers; and I was informed, that
their intention was to seize him; that they called to him repeatedly,
and at last, in the wood, pierced his horse with a lance, that they
might be able to take him prisoner; but they declared that, in falling,
the horse had crushed his rider, who had been killed immediately by
striking his head against a rock. Such was their account. The Lord knows
whether it was so; but Theobald has perished. Poor widow! Sorrowful and
feeble orphans!

"My lord would then have defended him," said Ethbert, feelingly, "had
he been able?"

_Arnold, (with warmth.)_ I would have preserved his life at the peril of
my own.

_Ethbert_. The life of your enemy?

_Arnold_. Does Ethbert forget the word of his God? Or, does he not yet
know that "if we love those who love us," we act only like publicans and
men of the world?

_Ethbert_. Arnold, the Lion, will, therefore, bless the Lord, when he
learns that the Iron-Hearted was not killed, and that he was taken, a
living man, from the spot where he fell.

"Ethbert! is that the truth?" said Arnold, seizing the arm of his
servant.