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physically, but it was not at him that Geoffrey looked when he was called to be told of the answer decided upon for a complaint or suggestion he had transmitted. Geoffrey looked at the king. That barrel body grew no thinner and, although from time to time he would rant and roar, to Geoffrey's ears there was something false in John's display of rage. |
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Ian rode down from the north and arrived on June 14. He was tired, for he had ridden through two nights, but he was very happy because a dream that he had held for many years seemed near to fruition. Geoffrey kept his jaw clamped shut. What was the use of moaning of vague disquiets and spoiling Ian's joy with forebodings? He rode back and forth between London and Windsor, opening his mouth only to repeat as near word perfect as he could what other men had bid him say. |
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Late that night, he was summoned for the last time, now to his father's apartments where he was shown a copy of the completed document. Politely he scanned it. He was familiar with most of the sixty-one articles, particularly with those of which every word had been picked over until both sides agreed it was bare and strong as bone. He looked a little more closely at the other articles, those which had been left as mere suggestions because they did not sear men's souls, things like the measures by which goods should be judged. There was nothing in those that could account for his uneasiness, Geoffrey decided, until he came to the very last. He had heard nothing of this, and he read it with starting eyes. |
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Having done, he cried out to Salisbury that it was madness, pacing the floor as he expostulated. Salisbury, who still winced inwardly at Geoffrey's uneven gait, looked aside. The king had always had a council, he pointed out in a dead voice. This was only a formalization of that. |
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"Formalization! Papa, have you not read this? This council has the right to rebel against the king and to call up the country to force the king to its will. I have my differences with my uncle, but he cannot agree to this. No king can agree to this." |
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