noon
The cavalcade halted at Thouars , and lay the night in a convent of the Order of Savigny . King Richard kept himself to himself , ate little , spoke less . He prayed out the night , or most of it , kneeling in his shirt in the sanctuary , with his bare sword held before him like a cross . Next morning he called up his household by the first cock , had them out on the road before the sun , and pushed forward with such haste that it was one hour short of noon when they saw the great church of the nuns of Fontevrault like a pile of dim rock in their way . At a mile 's distance from the walls the King got off his horse , and bid his squires strip him . He ungirt his sword , took off helm and circlet , cloak , blazoned surcoat , the girdle of his county . Beggared so of all emblems of his grace , clad only in hauberk of steel , bareheaded , without weapon , and on foot , he walked among his mounted men into the little town of Fontevrault .