The other guests were now fast dispersing, with the exception of those
immediately attached to Prince John's faction, and his retinue.
"This, then, is the result of your advice," said the Prince, turning
an angry countenance upon Fitzurse; "that I should be bearded at my
own board by a drunken Saxon churl, and that, on the mere sound of my
brother's name, men should fall off from me as if I had the leprosy?"
"Have patience, sir," replied his counsellor; "I might retort your
accusation, and blame the inconsiderate levity which foiled my
design, and misled your own better judgment. But this is no time for
recrimination. De Bracy and I will instantly go among these shuffling
cowards, and convince them they have gone too far to recede."
"It will be in vain," said Prince John, pacing the apartment with
disordered steps, and expressing himself with an agitation to which the
wine he had drank partly contributed--"It will be in vain--they have
seen the handwriting on the wall--they have marked the paw of the
lion in the sand--they have heard his approaching roar shake the
wood--nothing will reanimate their courage."
"Would to God," said Fitzurse to De Bracy, "that aught could reanimate
his own! His brother's very name is an ague to him. Unhappy are the
counsellors of a Prince, who wants fortitude and perseverance alike in
good and in evil!"