BOYS' AND GIRLS" MAGAZINE SECTION

had been many contentions, •and thoughRichard was far too honorable to have re-Bortcd to this horrible way of getting rid ofa rival, the belief to the contrary wag veryprevalent in Germany.

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He traveled on for some time without de-tection, and after several"

adventures foundhimself near the grand :old Austrian city ofVienna. He stopped at 'a rustic hostelry,and sent a boy who attended ,him on an er-rand to the village to make purchases. Apretty, fair-haired little page this boy was,and be still wore a glittering tunic, and ear-ni

a,filken Purse, well filled with silverand gold pieces. • -The lad's rich dress attracted attention,

and one day he was seized and taken beforev jPWf1™'68.. who demanded that .heshould tell them in whose service he was em-ployed. - - •' •-•._.

"v yt J?Mter ia « "eh Syrian merchant,"replied the page who began to be alarmedfor the kings safety. \u25a0 -\u25a0 •

"Aye, and perchance |thou wilt say thatthis gauntlet, which bath a royal braceletaround the wrist, belongeth to thy Syrianmaster? cried a grim baron, pulling KingRichard'B gauntlet :from the pocket of tbeboy s jerkin, where he had placed it for saferC-.1

"8,- I™?* «love belongeth to the Kingof Kneland. 1saw it on his hand after thestorming of Acre, at the very time be in-sulted our noble duke by tramping on hisbanner. \u25a0

•t . . - '

The page was dreadfully frightened now,and when they threatened to cut out histongue unless he told speedily where KingRichard was, he was forced to betray hismaster. A body of soldiers was Bent, imineidiately to the old country inn. *

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; 'Is Richard Kingof l&igland, here?" theyinquired of the host.

- . .'Richard of England ?" exclaimed the ns-onished man. "No; unless the tall Templar

in the kitchen, who is turning the spit, beDC \u25a0 \u25a0" \u25a0_ \u0084•,.-..

\u25a0They rushed to the kitchen, and therewas the royal crusader busily employed inroasting a fowl for dinner. Seeing how mat-ters stood, Richard 'sprang up, drew hissword, and offered .a desperate -resistance:but when Duke Leopold appeared lie agreedand he gave up his weapon.

\u25a0 Lieopold • took his :captive before the Ger-man Jwnperbr and made • his complaint.. No duke must :presume to imprison aking,', said: the mean an^wicked Henry VI"It only belongs to an emperor to do that."

So he took the royal•captive into his ownpossession. .. , •• ; \u25a0_• s•

iThere was a gloomy old castle on the banksof the Danube, called Durenstein. From itsdark, stone portals no captive, it was said,ever came forth alive. Into this strong fort-ress the German emperor put the captiveking, and ordered Duke Leopold and the

W b y Do Cat 5 His s ?

Austrian nobles not to disclose the placehis concealment..So Richard disappeared. •\u25a0' His star had

blazed so brightly that its sudden eclipsetilled the world ..with wonder. His fate wnsthe all-absorbing theme in every Christianland. His friends knew not \u25a0 where to lockfor him, and some even thought that he wasdead... But Blondel, the troubadour;- said: '-

"1 do not think they would dare to fclaythe !King of Kngland. They have ioiprm-oned him in some old castle. If he is to befound, Iwill find him, and Iwill not giveup the search till Ihave searched the wideworld over."

So Blondel slung his harp on his shoulder,and traveled from castle- to castle on thebanks of the Rhine. At last lie reached theDanube.

One lovely evening, footsore and weary,he stopped at the foot of a steep, rocky hill,crowned with sombre-looking pine trees, allwrithed and twisted by the winter's storm,but clustering around the great towers andbuttresses of a massive . stone castle, thatlorded over a village in the valley beneath

The minstrel paused by the clatteringwheel of a little mill at the entrance of thevillage, and gazed up at the castle. The fat,

of an enraged, cat, together with its threat-emng-hisa, might disconcert an enemy 'suf-ficiently togive an advantage to the cat. Curi-ously enough, cats of all aspects have theirtans marked transversely in a way whichresembles the markings of serpents, and sev-eral naturalists have remarked how. similarare the sinuous, waving movements of thetai of an angry cat to the movements of thetail ofa snake in a. state of excitement. Thetrue tabby when it is curled up asleep has acurious resemblance to a coiled serpent, andthe same is true- of many wild cata ofdifferentvarieties and coming from different partß ofthe world. If this really is an instance ofprotective mimicry,Ithink it is probable thatthe chief foe guarded against was the eagle.Kagles are very fond of cat's flesh, and ithas been remarked by.naturalists in variousparts of the world that these formidable birdshabitually make war upon the smaller fe-lidae. » •-'-.\u25a0_.,.>'. t -:

-.

W'iHY do otherwise well-bred cats hiss

\u25a0and spit when enraged? Dr. Louisr | Hobinson answers the question inanBragg article on "Wild Traits in Tame

lEsS==y, Animals." Says Dr.Robinson: "Thehissing and jspitting of young kit-tens, even before they see, was, in-the firstplace, probably an attempt to intimidate ene-

mies by making them think that the holewhere the helpless wild kittens resided con-tained a venomous snake. Itis a verycuriousand remarkable fact that many different kinds°f which have their hgmes inshallow holes have .a similar habit of hiss-ing.or spitting when an enemy approaches.Furthermore, J think it probable that theexpression of a cat at bay is part of thesame |instinctive stratagem. We know howgeneral is the horror of the serpent tribethroughout all nature/ and hence itseem* like-ly that the very serpentlike aispect of the head

"Ah! 'Tis the bnllad thou taught me whenIwas ill at Bordeaux," said the king. "1can yet recall every line, and Itbinkest thousaid no other one could sing it"but thee andme." ... . ; .;

"Of a truth said Iso, your Majesty, and ifIheard the. song in Holy Land or in ourprovince, Ishould know it was the LionHeart who sang it." :

'• -. \u25a0.. >"Prouder .is \u25a0 Richard of.that meed than of

all bis fame in arms!" cried the mighty war-rior. "St. George and our. Lady keep thee!"

A« he murmured the benediction, the greatEnglish.king and leader of the third Crusadeturned away, and stepped into the gorgeouscraft that 'was waiting for him.

Blondel Vde Nesle watched the'tall form of

,the monarch tillhe saw him mount the highdeck of .the war-vessel, with its carpets ofpainted cloths, its. waving banners and itscrowds of panoplied knights. .".'.-.Brightly 'the morning sun shone on tbescene, the breeze kissed the white sails, andwith music and merry shouts, like a festal

party going to a bridal, the great fleet movedslowly out of the harbor toward the HolyLand. -•

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-After many months there came tidings ofthe brave king back to France, tales ofrav-age battles with the Saracen, and of deeds

of high emprise and daring wrought upon thePaynim hosts:—. \u25a0

'

Then came other .tales-^-of .victories lost,of dissensions, of bitter disappointment, andhow the great kins held his round shield be-fore his face, and turned from • Jerusalem,with tears in his eyes, declaring that he wasunworthy to gaze upon the city that he wasunable to conquer. ,

At last they heard that the fleet had\u25a0ailed from Acre, and '• that Kit-hard wascoming back With his crusading hosts, orwhat was left of them. ...

Months and months went by, but the LionHeart did not come to his kingdom.

'Hie king's fleet had been wrecked in theAdriatic, and despairing of reaching bis owndominions any other way, Kit-hard assumedthe disguise of a Templar, and, like a com-mon pilgrim, took his way on foot throughGermany. With a palmer's gown over hisarmor and a palmer's staff in his stronghand, he begun what was for him a perilousjourney. .. .It was a foolhardy undertaking; but peo-

ple did many foolish things in those days.-

Richard happened to -De in bad reputeamong' the Oerman princes. .A murder hadbeen committed in the- Holy Land while hewas, there,' of,which many believed that hewas* the instigator. ." > . .

The victim was Conrad, Marquis of Mont-ferrat, between whom and Richard there

\u25a0\u25a0'. . *'\u25a0'\u25a0*\u25a0 . ' r~

"The swallow fliea borne to the fair northernsummer; «' -

The^jrtorks have forsaken the reeds of theThe rose 'breathes 'a srcctlnjt to hull the newSweet Kunmii'tj.falrsummer! dear summer!Flee apt bo fast, pretty swallow, the whilenlil8t ,t? tb/ .twitter, and buk In the smile .Of tbe llfc-Klvint;sun of sweet Bummer!"

"pS~NNK .morning on the quay at Mar-l1 seilles, bo long ago as .the year

mmm H9l> a tall, fair-haired man,fS»jjS dressed very gorgeously ill Rpark-

Jing mail, and ha ving a mantle of| silver, stuff over his broad shoul-

ders, stopped. and turned to a man of slighterphysique,' who had accompanied him to theboat that was to bear him to his galliot inthe harbor. : \u25a0

'•: \u25a0\u25a0 :,.. \u25a0 ,"Fare thee well, Blondel, my sweet min-iIii

he.Bal°- '"may not. see thee again.

1shall miss thy lays in Paynim lands, butglad am Ithat thou risketh not thy lifeandfair face in Holy Land." \u25a0

"Yea, but if thou shduldst fall into thehands of those heathen dogs, there lives nota knight who would fly to thy rescue like thetroubadour, answered Blondel. • ."Iknow thy faithful heart of old, but

Richard needs not thy services. Fear not.And now one touch of thy harpstrings ere 1• go, that the memory of the gone may lingerlong in the breast of thy king.'?"Iwould

'rather weep than sing," said the

troubadour. "But, to please thee, Iobey."And. Blondel assumed a graceful attitude,

and touching the strings of the harp, sanithe first stanza of a Provencal ballad—

Copyright by James Elrerson.

Never.SatisfiedYoung I'liilipis something of a poet. Here

is bis latest jingle:"Man wants but little here below,

Of wealth's bright golden calf;But when he gets the horns and heels,.- He wants the other half." |

Still Had Some Hair

Bertie—"Pa, who« that a picture of?"Pa—"Father Time, with his scythe."Bertie— "But '.he's nearly bald." ..Pa— "Yes: movt old gentlemen are."Bertie— "But say, pa, 1 thought Time had

a forelock,"

"izy-lcoking miller, stood* at the door, and,seeing Blondel's look of curiosity, asked himwhat he sought. - ' • . :\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0

'"r° ]"[.uonl does yonder castle belong?"lo the emperor; and a' strong castle it i»,

S'r.**.tn,OBe will say who once get into it."Doubtless its dungeons are filled with un-I'appy captives," said the minstrel. "Me-tninks Iwill go up and ant them a rouride-lay- It will cheer their loneliness.'.' ;

•il

"c castle has held prisoners enough inits day, observed Hans Duhkerkopf, gladto talk with any one who would listen tohim, but for the nonce there chances to bebut one in its dungeons— a.' foreign knight, Xshould say, big as a giant, with light,curlinghair and beard. He looks like a match foranything. They tell how the emperor let a-lion on him once, and this strange knight, -without a weapon, killed the beast with hisbare hand, all alone. He isa wonderful man,Itell you, and, for all Iknow, may be aking in his own country; but they keep himas close as an. oyster in its shell/

Hlondel felt his heart lighten, and he walkedup the zigzag path in the twilight'with elas-tic steps. As he paused under the highesttower, he heard far above him from an opei-

casement, a deep, powerful voice singing afamiliar air. He listened. It was the oldProvencal ballad that he had sung for theking on- the quays of Marseilles.

Irerabling all over with excitement, Blon-del struck the chorda of his harp, and sangout the second stanza: .

"S!e1.a.wilJ gwallo"r- aml "whisper my lore,_Twitter thy nieMojte. so soft to her ear; .Tell her that I. who have roamed the world

Ilove her! Ilove her! 1 love her!. (.'lmiuM cannot bind me—my soul is not here,But away o'er the sea. with my lady mdear.Who has tamed the wildheart of the rover™

Then the minstrel paused, and '; listenedagain intently. . \u25a0 .- . ' :','lf it be Richard, .my king," he mur-mured,-"he will answer/me."And truly the prisoner's voice was heard

singing, with \u25a0 triumphant fervor,' the thirdstanza of the well-remembered ballad: :•

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"Opmo a«rain. swallow! swiftly, oh, (wallow!BrtuK me tho mcwaire my heart waits \u25a0to

TS!1 m!Cj?y ladT '• fa' to 'nliowAfter tbeo, swallow—love breattitiiK swallow,• Tell me the comes lo her love, void of fearTo comfort the captive, so far, yet bo near,Who whinuers huj love by the swallow.".

Blondel clasped his hands with delight.•\u25a0 It is he, my liege, my king. Praise God •

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for His mercies." \u25a0. o,...

With- winged feet, • the light-hearted min-strel journeyed back to Normandy to an-nounce lua great discovery. Measures wereat once taken to obtain the captivo king'srelease.

rhe wicked emperor . refused to surrender .up his prisoner for leas than one hundredthousand silver markß, but the people, learn-ing that their kin* was alive, parted with \u25a0

their jewels, and the churches melted downtheir plate, to provide his ransom. Kichard

-returned, saved by the wit of aminstrel, andall his kingdom wag filled with festivity andrejoicing. . .

The Story

Of Blondel