a candidate for the office during life of sympathizer and protector. In the joy of welcoming her youngest daughter, Queen Eleanor forgot her hereditary enmity to her cousin of Tou-louse, and Count Raimond received the hand of Joanna with the resignation of the contested claim to that splendid fief, which had so long filled the south of France with strife and bloodshed. Deprived of the society of the tranquil and considerate Joanna, Berengaria was more than ever lonely and disconsolate, and the death of her father, San-cho the "Wise, not long after, added another weight to the sorrow that oppressed her. Eleanor's detention of the Princess Alice had drawn upon Normandy a fierce invasion by Philip Augustus, and the noble domain might have fallen a prey to his rapacity had not Sancho the Strong, moved by the pleadings of his sister, traversed France with a choice band of knights, and compelled his grasping sovereign to abandon the siege of Rouen. Meantime the faithful Blondel traverses many a weary league in search of the lion-hearted king. His harp gives him ready entrance to the castles of the great and the cot-tages of the lowly. "Warriors mingle their rude voices with the chorus of his soul-stirring tensons, and light-hearted maidens weep pitying tears at the sound of his tender plaintes. Stern jailers, like the Furies that guarded the lost Eurydice, leave their dismal avocations, and " listen-ing crowd the sweet musician's side." The lyre of Orpheus draws back the rusty bolts and opens wide the ponderous doors, and many a hapless prisoner is charmed with the strains of light and love that for years had only visited his dreams. But Richard is not among the minstrels ; his voice echoes not in the chorus of the warriors ; his sad complaint is not heard among the wail of the captives. The troubadour turns away disappointed from each new trial, but restless 266 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.