“You don’t seem to like this Gunrig, I think.”
“No. I hate him. Everybody hates him; he is such a proud brute, but what can we do? when the king commands, all must obey. If I was as big and stout as you are,” added the man with a steady gaze at the prince, “I’d go at this fellow and win the fair princess myself.”
“Perchance I may have a try,” returned Bladud with a light laugh. “Does the princess hate him? and the queen?”
“Ay, worse than poison.”
“Come, let us go and see the sport,” said the prince to his companions, as he hurried away from the river. “You know our language well enough, I think, captain, to understand what has been said?”
“Ay, the most of it; and there is no doubt you are much wanted at this feast.”
In a few minutes our travellers arrived at the suburbs of the little town, which was embosomed among trees and green fields.
As hundreds of people had come in from all the country round, and some of them were Phoenician mariners from ships then in port, our three adventurers might not have attracted much attention, had it not been for the towering height, stalwart frame, and noble bearing of Bladud. As it was, people commented on them, bestowing looks of admiration particularly on the prince, but they did not address or molest them in any way—supposing, of course, that they had come from a distance to see the show; though many wondered that such a strapping fellow as the tall one could have come to the land without having been heard of.
“Perhaps he has only just arrived in one of the ships,” was the sagacious remark of one.
“But the ships have been here a long time, and we have seen all their crews,” was the comment of another.