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Page 294
away and my head also. If you believe I cannot perform my duty, you have the right to deprive me of offices and even of life. I do not contest your right to that, but otherwise it is my right to appoint what deputy I will to carry out my orders.''
"These are high words, Sir Simon," the King said harshly.
"I am sorry if I offend you, Your Grace," Simon replied steadily, "but I must be sure that what you have given me will not be snatched away upon some pretext, or even no pretext. More than that, I have my honor. I must know that what I have promised will be performed in the way I have planned. If I cannot be sure of this, then I will go back and take up my duties again instead of taking the Cross as I had planned."
The king's expression, which had been growing angrier and angrier, changed to pleased surprise. His monomania had been brought into action.
Longchamp uttered a single strangled oath and said, "And who has thus moved your spirit? I have heard you call those who wished to save God's city idiots."
"I have little interest in God's city," Simon replied truthfully, "and still less in those degenerates who rule it and could not keep it safe. But I have a deep interest in my King. If Lord Richard goes to the Holy Land, I believe it to be my duty to follow himprovided I am clear of oaths previously sworn."
"What oaths?" Richard asked petulantly.
The dose of flattery Simon had administered was very palatable. It was much to Richard's liking to be told that loyalty to his person was a driving force more powerful than the preaching of prelates. The final remark that Simon's oath was more powerful an influence still was a disappointment.
"I have always been the Queen's man," Simon said. "I swore my faith to her long years before you were born, my lord, and I have never broken that faith. I needed your mother's yea-say before I could ask to

 
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