"At least," said the king, "to keep up the seeming of a respect that you appear little inclined to pay in reality. Earl of Salisbury, take a royal order for his release.--Clerk, let one be drawn."
The clerk drew the order, and John read it over with a degree of wilful slowness that excited not a little Lord Salisbury's suspicions. At length, however, the king concluded; and, having signed it, he gave it to the earl, saying, "There, deliver him yourself if you will--and God send he may have eaten his dinner!" muttered the king to himself, as William Longsword took the paper, and turned with hasty steps to give it effect. "William!--William of Salisbury!" cried John, before the other had traversed half the hall. "Which is the page? Shall he count out the ransom while you are gone?"
"That is the page," said the earl, turning unwillingly, and pointing to Ermold de Marcy, who, accompanied by a herald and Gallon the fool, with two men-at-arms, bearing bags of money, stood at the farther end of the hall, in which the strange and painful scene we have endeavoured to describe had taken place. "That is the page. Let him tell down the ransom if you will. I will be back directly; 'tis but ten paces to the Tower.--That is the page," he repeated, as he saw John about to add some new question.
"And the gentleman with the nose?" demanded the light monarch, unable, under any circumstances, to restrain his levity. "And the gentleman with the nose--the snout!--the proboscis!--If you love me, tell me who is he?"
But Salisbury was gone; and Gallon, as usual, took upon him to answer for himself.--"Bless your mightiness," cried he, "I am twin brother of John, King of England. Nature cast our two heads out of the same batch of clay; she made him more knave than fool, and me more fool than knave; and verily, because she gave him a crown to his head, and me none, she furnished me forthwith an ell of nose to make up for it."
"Thou art a smart fool, whatever thou art," replied John, glad to fill up the time, during which he was obliged to endure the presence of his barons, and the uncertainty of what the order he had given for De Coucy's liberation might produce. "Come hither, fool;--and you, sir page, tell down the money, to the secretary. And now, fool, wilt thou take service with me? Wouldst thou rather serve a king, or a simple knight?"
"Haw! haw!" shouted Gallon, reeling with laughter, as if there was something perfectly ridiculous in the proposition.--"Haw! haw! haw! I am fool enough, 'tis true! But I am not fool enough to serve a king."
"And why not?"' demanded John. "Methinks there is no great folly in that. Why not, fellow?"
"Haw, haw!" cried Gallon again. "A king's smiles are too valuable for me. That is the coin they pay in, where other men pay in gold. Besides, since the time of Noe downwards, kings have always been ungrateful to their best subjects."
"How so?" asked the king. "In faith, I knew not that the patriarch had ever such a beast as thee in the ark."