"I know not, only that I repent me of my life of violence: I have been a man of blood from my youth, and I go to the tomb of Him Who bled for me that I may lay my sins there."
"And who shall succeed thee here?"
"I care not. I have neither kith nor kin save one—a Knight Templar. A noble soldier, but, by the rules of his stern order, he is pledged to poverty, chastity, and obedience."
"I have heard that the Templars abound in those virtues, but they are a monastic body, and can hold no property independently of their noble order; and I have no wish to see Wallingford Castle a fief of theirs."
"I leave it all to thee, my liege, and only ask permission to say farewell."
"God be with thee, since go thou must."
Brian kissed the royal hand and was gone.
Once he looked back at the keep of Wallingford Castle from the summit of Nuffield in the Chilterns, on his road to London en route for the sea. Ah! what a look was that!
He never saw it again.