midday
As month followed month , though his strength increased upon him under much labour , and though his cheeks were tanned by sunshine and weather , the broad forehead grew whiter under his cap , and more thoughtful , and his eyes were saddened and his features more spiritual ; also , while he longed daily to draw his sword and strike great blows at unbelievers for faith 's sake and to the honouring of the Holy Cross , the rough fighting instinct of his people , that craved to see blood for its redness and to take the world for love of holding it , no longer awoke suddenly in him , like hunger or thirst , at the wayward call of opportunity . He could not now have plucked out steel to hew down men , as he had done on that spring morning among the flowers of the Tuscan valley , only because it was good to see the dazzling red line follow the long quick sword-stroke , and to ride weight at weight to overthrow it , swinging the death-scythe through the field of life . He wanted the cause and the end now , where once he had desired only the deed , and he had risen another step above the self that had been . He knew it , and nevertheless , as he sat still after he had eaten his midday meal , he saw that his years had been very sad since his first great sorrow ; and each time when he thought he had gone forward some strong thing had driven him back , or some great grief had fallen upon him , and he himself had almost been forced down . He had been proud of his arms and his boyish skill at Faringdon , and before his eyes his father had been foully slain ; he had faced the murderer in the cause of right , and he himself had been half killed ; he had believed in his mother as in heaven , and she had defiled his father 's memory and robbed her son of his inheritance ; he had sought peace in Rome , and had found madness and strife ; he had desired to do knightly deeds and had killed men for nothing ; he loved a maiden with a maiden heart , and at the touch of a faithless woman his blood rose in his throat , and for a look of hers and a tone of her voice he had put forth his hands to grapple with sudden death , forgetting the other , the better , the dearer . So he was thinking , and the door of his tent was darkened for a moment , so that he looked up . There stood one of Queen Eleanor 's attendant knights , in tunic and hose , one hand on his sword-hilt , the other holding his round cap in the act of salutation .