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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brethren, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Brethren
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: November 7, 2004 [EBook #2762]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRETHREN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by JoAnn Rees otter@best.com
+
+
+
+
+
+The Brethren
+
+by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+
+Dedication
+
+
+
+
+
+R.M.S. Mongolia, 12th May, 1904 Mayhap, Ella, here too distance
+lends its enchantment, and these gallant brethren would have
+quarrelled over Rosamund, or even had their long swords at each
+other's throat. Mayhap that Princess and heroine might have
+failed in the hour of her trial and never earned her saintly
+crown. Mayhap the good horse "Smoke" would have fallen on the
+Narrow Way, leaving false Lozelle a victor, and Masouda, the
+royal-hearted, would have offered up a strangely different
+sacrifice upon the altars of her passionate desire.
+
+Still, let us hold otherwise, though we grow grey and know the
+world for what it is. Let us for a little time think as we
+thought while we were young; when faith knew no fears for
+anything and death had not knocked upon our doors; when you
+opened also to my childish eyes that gate of ivory and pearl
+which leads to the blessed kingdom of Romance.
+
+At the least I am sure, and I believe that you, my sister, will
+agree with me, that, above and beyond its terrors and its
+pitfalls, Imagination has few finer qualities, and none, perhaps,
+more helpful to our hearts, than those which enable us for an
+hour to dream that men and women, their fortunes and their fate,
+are as we would fashion them.
+
+ H. Rider Haggard. To Mrs. Maddison Green.
+
+
+
+ Contents:
+
+Author's Note
+Prologue
+Chapter One: By the Waters of Death Creek
+Chapter Two: Sir Andrew D'Arcy
+Chapter Three: The Knighting of the Brethren
+Chapter Four: The Letter of Saladin
+Chapter Five: The Wine Merchant
+Chapter Six: The Christmas Feast at Steeple
+Chapter Seven: The Banner of Saladin
+Chapter Eight: The Widow Masouda
+Chapter Nine: The Horses Flame and Smoke
+Chapter Ten: On Board the Galley
+Chapter Eleven: The City of Al-je-bal
+Chapter Twelve: The Lord of Death
+Chapter Thirteen: The Embassy
+Chapter Fourteen: The Combat on the Bridge
+Chapter Fifteen: The Flight to Emesa
+Chapter Sixteen: The Sultan Saladin
+Chapter Seventeen: The Brethren Depart from Damascus
+Chapter Eighteen: Wulf Pays for the Drugged Wine
+Chapter Nineteen: Before the Walls of Ascalon
+Chapter Twenty: The Luck of the Star of Hassan
+Chapter Twenty-One: What Befell Godwin
+Chapter Twenty-Two: At Jerusalem
+Chapter Twenty-Three: Saint Rosamund
+Chapter Twenty-Four: The Dregs of the Cup
+
+"Two lovers by the maiden sate, Without a glance of jealous
+hate; The maid her lovers sat between, With open brow and equal
+mien;--It is a sight but rarely spied, Thanks to man's wrath and
+woman's pride."
+
+Scott
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE: Standing a while ago upon the flower-clad plain
+above Tiberius, by the Lake of Galilee, the writer gazed at the
+double peaks of the Hill of Hattin. Here, or so tradition says,
+Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount--that perfect rule of
+gentleness and peace. Here, too--and this is certain--after
+nearly twelve centuries had gone by, Yusuf Salah-ed-din, whom we
+know as the Sultan Saladin, crushed the Christian power in
+Palestine in perhaps the most terrible battle which that land of
+blood has known. Thus the Mount of the Beatitudes became the
+Mount of Massacre.
+
+Whilst musing on these strangely-contrasted scenes enacted in one
+place there arose in his mind a desire to weave, as best he
+might, a tale wherein any who are drawn to the romance of that
+pregnant and mysterious epoch, when men by thousands were glad to
+lay down their lives for visions and spiritual hopes, could find
+a picture, however faint and broken, of the long war between
+Cross and Crescent waged among the Syrian plains and deserts. Of
+Christian knights and ladies also, and their loves and sufferings
+in England and the East; of the fearful lord of the Assassins
+whom the Franks called Old Man of the Mountain, and his fortress
+city, Masyaf. Of the great-hearted, if at times cruel Saladin
+and his fierce Saracens; of the rout at Hattin itself, on whose
+rocky height the Holy Rood was set up as a standard and captured,
+to be seen no more by Christian eyes; and of the Iast surrender,
+whereby the Crusaders lost Jerusalem forever.
+
+Of that desire this story is the fruit.
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+
+
+Salah-ed-din, Commander of the Faithful, the king Strong to Aid,
+Sovereign of the East, sat at night in his palace at Damascus and
+brooded on the wonderful ways of God, by Whom he had been lifted
+to his high estate. He remembered how, when he was but small in
+the eyes of men, Nour-ed-din, king of Syria, forced him to
+accompany his uncle, Shirkuh, to Egypt, whither he went, "like
+one driven to his death," and how, against his own will, there he
+rose to greatness. He thought of his father, the wise Ayoub, and
+the brethren with whom he was brought up, all of them dead now
+save one; and of his sisters, whom he had cherished. Most of all
+did he think of her, Zobeide, who had been stolen away by the
+knight whom she loved even to the loss of her own soul--yes, by
+the English friend of his youth, his father's prisoner, Sir
+Andrew D'Arcy, who, led astray by passion, had done him and his
+house this grievous wrong. He had sworn, he remembered, that he
+would bring her back even from England, and already had planned
+to kill her husband and capture her when he learned her death.
+She had left a child, or so his spies told him, who, if she still
+lived, must be a woman now--his own niece, though half of noble
+English blood.
+
+Then his mind wandered from this old, half-forgotten story to the
+woe and blood in which his days were set, and to the last great
+struggle between the followers of the prophets Jesus and Mahomet,
+that Jihad [Holy War] for which he made ready--and he sighed. For
+he was a merciful man, who loved not slaughter, although his
+fierce faith drove him from war to war.
+
+Salah-ed-din slept and dreamed of peace. In his dream a maiden
+stood before him. Presently, when she lifted her veil, he saw
+that she was beautiful, with features like his own, but fairer,
+and knew her surely for the daughter of his sister who had fled
+with the English knight. Now he wondered why she visited him
+thus, and in his vision prayed Allah to make the matter clear.
+Then of a sudden he saw this same woman standing before him on a
+Syrian plain, and on either side of her a countless host of
+Saracens and Franks, of whom thousands and tens of thousands were
+appointed to death. Lo! he, Salah-ed-din, charged at the head of
+his squadrons, scimitar aloft, but she held up her hand and
+stayed him.
+
+"What do you hear, my niece?" he asked.
+
+"I am come to save the lives of men through you," she answered;
+"therefore was I born of your blood, and therefore I am sent to
+you. Put up your sword, King, and spare them."
+
+"Say, maiden, what ransom do you bring to buy this multitude from
+doom? What ransom, and what gift?"
+
+"The ransom of my own blood freely offered, and Heaven's gift of
+peace to your sinful soul, O King." And with that outstretched
+hand she drew down his keen-edged scimitar until it rested on her
+breast.
+
+Salah-ed-din awoke, and marvelled on his dream, but said nothing
+of it to any man. The next night it returned to him, and the
+memory of it went with him all the day that followed, but still he
+said nothing.
+
+When on the third night he dreamed it yet again, even more
+vividly, then he was sure that this thing was from God, and
+summoned his holy Imauns and his Diviners, and took counsel with
+them. These, after they had listened, prayed and consulted,
+spoke thus:
+
+"O Sultan, Allah has warned you in shadows that the woman, your
+niece, who dwells far away in England, shall by her own
+nobleness and sacrifice, in some time to come, save you from
+shedding a sea of blood, and bring rest upon the land. We charge
+you, therefore, draw this lady to your court, and keep her ever
+by your side, since if she escape you, her peace goes with her."
+
+Salah-ed-din said that this interpretation was wise and true, for
+thus also he had read his dream. Then he summoned a certain
+false knight who bore the Cross upon his breast, but in secret
+had accepted the Koran, a Frankish spy of his, who came from that
+country where dwelt the maiden, his niece, and from him learned
+about her, her father, and her home. With him and another spy
+who passed as a Christian palmer, by the aid of Prince Hassan,
+one of the greatest and most trusted of his Emirs, he made a
+cunning plan for the capture of the maiden if she would not come
+willingly, and for her bearing away to Syria.
+
+Moreover--that in the eyes of all men her dignity might be worthy
+of her high blood and fate--by his decree he created her, the
+niece whom he had never seen, Princess of Baalbec, with great
+possessions--a rule that her grandfather, Ayoub, and her uncle,
+Izzeddin, had held before her. Also he purchased a stout galley
+of war, manning it with proved sailors and with chosen
+men-at-arms, under the command of the Prince Hassan, and wrote a
+letter to the English lord, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, and to his
+daughter, and prepared a royal gift of jewels, and sent them to
+the lady, his niece, far away in England, and with it the Patent
+of her rank. Her he commanded this company to win by peace, or
+force, or fraud, as best they might, but that without her not
+one of them should dare to look upon his face again. And with
+these he sent the two Frankish spies, who knew the place where
+the lady lived, one of whom, the false knight, was a skilled
+mariner and the captain of the ship.
+
+These things did Yusuf Salah-ed-din, and waited patiently till it
+should please God to accomplish the vision with which God had
+filled his soul in sleep.
+
+
+
+Chapter One: By The Waters of Death Creek
+
+From the sea-wall on the coast of Essex, Rosamund looked out
+across the ocean eastwards. To right and left, but a little
+behind her, like guards attending the person of their sovereign,
+stood her cousins, the twin brethren, Godwin and Wulf, tall and
+shapely men. Godwin was still as a statue, his hands folded over
+the hilt of the long, scabbarded sword, of which the point was
+set on the ground before him, but Wulf, his brother, moved
+restlessly, and at length yawned aloud. They were beautiful to
+look at, all three of them, as they appeared in the splendour of
+their youth and health. The imperial Rosamund, dark-haired and
+eyed, ivory skinned and slender-waisted, a posy of marsh flowers
+in her hand; the pale, stately Godwin, with his dreaming face;
+and the bold-fronted, blue-eyed warrior, Wulf, Saxon to his
+finger-tips, notwithstanding his father's Norman blood.
+
+At the sound of that unstifled yawn, Rosamund turned her head
+with the slow grace which marked her every movement.
+
+"Would you sleep already, Wulf, and the sun not yet down?" she
+asked in her rich, low voice, which, perhaps because of its
+foreign accent, seemed quite different to that of any other
+woman.
+
+"I think so, Rosamund," he answered. "It would serve to pass the
+time, and now that you have finished gathering those yellow
+flowers which we rode so far to seek, the time--is somewhat
+long."
+
+"Shame on you, Wulf," she said, smiling. "Look upon yonder sea and
+sky, at that sheet of bloom all gold and purple--"
+
+"I have looked for hard on half an hour, Cousin Rosamund; also at
+your back and at Godwin's left arm and side-face, till in truth I
+thought myself kneeling in Stangate Priory staring at my father's
+effigy upon his tomb, while Prior John pattered the Mass. Why,
+if you stood it on its feet, it is Godwin, the same crossed hands
+resting on the sword, the same cold, silent face staring at the
+sky."
+
+"Godwin as Godwin will no doubt one day be, or so he hopes--that
+is, if the saints give him grace to do such deeds as did our
+sire," interrupted his brother.
+
+Wulf looked at him, and a curious flash of inspiration shone in
+his blue eyes.
+
+"No, I think not," he answered; "the deeds you may do, and
+greater, but surely you will lie wrapped not in a shirt of mail,
+but with a monk's cowl at the last--unless a woman robs you of it
+and the quickest road to heaven. Tell me now, what are you
+thinking of, you two--for I have been wondering in my dull way,
+and am curious to learn how far I stand from truth? Rosamund,
+speak first. Nay, not all the truth--a maid's thoughts are her
+own--but just the cream of it, that which rises to the top and
+should be skimmed."
+
+Rosamund sighed. "I? I was thinking of the East, where the sun
+shines ever and the seas are blue as my girdle stones, and men
+are full of strange learning--"
+
+"And women are men's slaves!" interrupted Wulf. "Still, it is
+natural that you should think of the East who have that blood in
+your veins, and high blood, if all tales be true. Say,
+Princess"--and he bowed the knee to her with an affectation of
+mockery which could not hide his earnest reverence--"say,
+Princess, my cousin, granddaughter of Ayoub and niece of the
+mighty monarch, Yusuf Salah-ed-din, do you wish to leave this
+pale land and visit your dominions in Egypt and in Syria?"
+
+She listened, and at his words her eyes seemed to take fire, the
+stately form to erect itself, the breast to heave, and the thin
+nostrils to grow wider as though they scented some sweet,
+remembered perfume. Indeed, at that moment, standing there on
+the promontory above the seas, Rosamund looked a very queen.
+
+Presently she answered him with another question.
+
+"And how would they greet me there, Wulf, who am a Norman D'Arcy
+and a Christian maid?"
+
+"The first they would forgive you, since that blood is none so
+ill either, and for the second--why, faiths can be changed."
+
+Then it was that Godwin spoke for the first time.
+
+"Wulf, Wulf," he said sternly, "keep watch upon your tongue, for
+there are things that should not be said even as a silly jest.
+See you, I love my cousin here better than aught else upon the
+earth--"
+
+"There, at least, we agree," broke in Wulf.
+
+"Better than aught else on the earth," repeated Godwin; "but, by
+the Holy Blood and by St. Peter, at whose shrine we are, I would
+kill her with my own hand before her lips kissed the book of the
+false prophet."
+
+"Or any of his followers," muttered Wulf to himself, but
+fortunately, perhaps, too low for either of his companions to
+hear. Aloud he said, "You understand, Rosamund, you must be
+careful, for Godwin ever keeps his word, and that would be but a
+poor end for so much birth and beauty and wisdom."
+
+"Oh, cease mocking, Wulf," she answered, laying her hand lightly
+on the tunic that hid his shirt of mail. "Cease mocking, and pray
+St. Chad, the builder of this church, that no such dreadful
+choice may ever be forced upon you, or me, or your beloved
+brother--who, indeed, in such a case would do right to slay me."
+
+"Well, if it were," answered Wulf, and his fair face flushed as
+he spoke, "I trust that we should know how to meet it. After
+all, is it so very hard to choose between death and duty?"
+
+"I know not," she replied; "but oft-times sacrifice seems easy
+when seen from far away; also, things may be lost that are more
+prized than life."
+
+"What things? Do you mean place, or wealth, or--love?"
+
+"Tell me," said Rosamund, changing her tone, "what is that boat
+rowing round the river's mouth? A while ago it hung upon its oars
+as though those within it watched us."
+
+"Fisher-folk," answered Wulf carelessly. "I saw their nets."
+
+"Yes; but beneath them something gleamed bright, like swords."
+
+"Fish," said Wulf; "we are at peace in Essex." Although Rosamund
+did not look convinced, he went on: "Now for Godwin's thoughts--
+what were they?"
+
+"Brother, if you would know, of the East also--the East and its
+wars."
+
+"Which have brought us no great luck," answered Wulf, "seeing that
+our sire was slain in them and naught of him came home again save
+his heart, which lies at Stangate yonder."
+
+"How better could he die," asked Godwin, "than fighting for the
+Cross of Christ? Is not that death of his at Harenc told of to
+this day? By our Lady, I pray for one but half as glorious!"
+
+"Aye, he died well--he died well," said Wulf, his blue eyes
+flashing and his hand creeping to his sword hilt. "But, brother,
+there is peace at Jerusalem, as in Essex."
+
+"Peace? Yes; but soon there will be war again. The monk
+Peter--he whom we saw at Stangate last Sunday, and who left Syria
+but six months gone--told me that it was coming fast. Even now
+the Sultan Saladin, sitting at Damascus, summons his hosts from
+far and wide, while his priests preach battle amongst the tribes
+and barons of the East. And when it comes, brother, shall we not
+be there to share it, as were our grandfather, our father, our
+uncle, and so many of our kin? Shall we rot here in this dull
+land, as by our uncle's wish we have done these many years, yes,
+ever since we were home from the Scottish war, and count the kine
+and plough the fields like peasants, while our peers are charging
+on the pagan, and the banners wave, and the blood runs red upon
+the holy sands of Palestine?"
+
+Now it was Wulf's turn to take fire.
+
+"By our Lady in Heaven, and our lady here!"--and he looked at
+Rosamund, who was watching the pair of them with her quiet
+thoughtful eyes--"go when you will, Godwin, and I go with you,
+and as our birth was one birth, so, if it is decreed, let our
+death be one death." And suddenly his hand that had been playing
+with the sword-hilt gripped it fast, and tore the long, lean
+blade from its scabbard and cast it high into the air, flashing
+in the sunlight, to catch it as it fell again, while in a voice
+that caused the wild fowl to rise in thunder from the Saltings
+beneath, Wulf shouted the old war-cry that had rung on so many a
+field--"A D'Arcy! a D'Arcy! Meet D'Arcy, meet Death!" Then he
+sheathed his sword again and added in a shamed voice, "Are we
+children that we fight where no foe is? Still, brother, may we
+find him soon!"
+
+Godwin smiled grimly, but answered nothing; only Rosamund said:
+
+"So, my cousins, you would be away, perhaps to return no more,
+and that will part us. But"--and her voice broke
+somewhat--"such is the woman's lot, since men like you ever love
+the bare sword best of all, nor should I think well of you were
+it otherwise. Yet, cousins, I know not why"--and she shivered a
+little--"it comes into my heart that Heaven often answers such
+prayers swiftly. Oh, Wulf! your sword looked very red in the
+sunlight but now: I say that it looked very red in the sunlight.
+I am afraid--of I know not what. Well, we must be going, for we
+have nine miles to ride, and the dark is not so far away. But
+first, my cousins, come with me into this shrine, and let us pray
+St. Peter and St. Chad to guard us on our journey home."
+
+"Our journey?" said Wulf anxiously. "What is there for you to fear
+in a nine-mile ride along the shores of the Blackwater?"
+
+"I said our journey home Wulf; and home is not in the hall at
+Steeple, but yonder," and she pointed to the quiet, brooding sky.
+
+"Well answered," said Godwin, "in this ancient place, whence so
+many have journeyed home; all the Romans who are dead, when it
+was their fortress, and the Saxons who came after them, and
+others without count."
+
+Then they turned and entered the old church--one of the first
+that ever was in Britain, rough-built of Roman stone by the very
+hands of Chad, the Saxon saint, more than five hundred years
+before their day. Here they knelt a while at the rude altar and
+prayed, each of them in his or her own fashion, then crossed
+themselves, and rose to seek their horses, which were tied in the
+shed hard by.
+
+Now there were two roads, or rather tracks, back to the Hall at
+Steeple--one a mile or so inland, that ran through the village
+of Bradwell, and the other, the shorter way, along the edge of
+the Saltings to the narrow water known as Death Creek, at the
+head of which the traveller to Steeple must strike inland,
+leaving the Priory of Stangate on his right. It was this latter
+path they chose, since at low tide the going there is good for
+horses--which, even in the summer, that of the inland track was
+not. Also they wished to be at home by supper-time, lest the old
+knight, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, the father of Rosamund and the uncle
+of the orphan brethren, should grow anxious, and perhaps come out
+to seek them.
+
+For the half of an hour or more they rode along the edge of the
+Saltings, for the most part in silence that was broken only by
+the cry of curlew and the lap of the turning tide. No human
+being did they see, indeed, for this place was very desolate and
+unvisited, save now and again by fishermen. At length, just as
+the sun began to sink, they approached the shore of Death
+Creek--a sheet of tidal water which ran a mile or more inland,
+growing ever narrower, but was here some three hundred yards in
+breadth. They were well mounted, all three of them. Indeed,
+Rosamund's horse, a great grey, her father's gift to her, was
+famous in that country-side for its swiftness and power, also
+because it was so docile that a child could ride it; while those
+of the brethren were heavy-built but well-trained war steeds,
+taught to stand where they were left, and to charge when they
+were urged, without fear of shouting men or flashing steel.
+
+Now the ground lay thus. Some seventy yards from the shore of
+Death Creek and parallel to it, a tongue of land, covered with
+scrub and a few oaks, ran down into the Saltings, its point
+ending on their path, beyond which were a swamp and the broad
+river. Between this tongue and the shore of the creek the track
+wended its way to the uplands. It was an ancient track; indeed
+the reason of its existence was that here the Romans or some
+other long dead hands had built a narrow mole or quay of rough
+stone, forty or fifty yards in length, out into the water of the
+creek, doubtless to serve as a convenience for fisher boats,
+which could lie alongside of it even at low tide. This mole had
+been much destroyed by centuries of washing, so that the end of
+it lay below water, although the landward part was still almost
+sound and level.
+
+Coming over the little rise at the top of the wooded tongue, the
+quick eyes of Wulf, who rode first--for here the path along the
+border of the swamp was so narrow that they must go in single
+file--caught sight of a large, empty boat moored to an iron ring
+set in the wall of the mole.
+
+"Your fishermen have landed, Rosamund," he said, "and doubtless
+gone up to Bradwell."
+
+"That is strange," she answered anxiously, "since here no
+fishermen ever come." And she checked her horse as though to
+turn.
+
+"Whether they come or not, certainly they have gone," said
+Godwin, craning forward to look about him; "so, as we have nothing
+to fear from an empty boat, let us push on."
+
+On they rode accordingly, until they came to the root of the
+stone quay or pier, when a sound behind them caused them to look
+back. Then they saw a sight that sent the blood to their hearts,
+for there behind them, leaping down one by one on to that narrow
+footway, were men armed with naked swords, six or eight of them,
+all of whom, they noted, had strips of linen pierced with eyelet
+holes tied beneath their helms or leather caps, so as to conceal
+their faces.
+
+"A snare! a snare!" cried Wulf, drawing his sword. "Swift!
+follow me up the Bradwell path!" and he struck the spurs into his
+horse. It bounded forward, to be dragged next second with all
+the weight of his powerful arm almost to its haunches. "God's
+mercy!" he cried, "there are more of them!" And more there were,
+for another band of men armed and linen-hooded like the first,
+had leapt down on to that Bradwell path, amongst them a stout
+man, who seemed to be unarmed, except for a long, crooked knife
+at his girdle and a coat of ringed mail, which showed through the
+opening of his loose tunic.
+
+"To the boat!" shouted Godwin, whereat the stout man laughed--a
+light, penetrating laugh, which even then all three of them heard
+and noted.
+
+Along the quay they rode, since there was nowhere else that they
+could go, with both paths barred, and swamp and water on one side
+of them, and a steep, wooded bank upon the other. When they
+reached it, they found why the man had laughed, for the boat was
+made fast with a strong chain that could not be cut; more, her
+sail and oars were gone.
+
+"Get into it," mocked a voice; "or, at least, let the lady get
+in; it will save us the trouble of carrying her there."
+
+Now Rosamund turned very pale, while the face of Wulf went red
+and white, and he gripped his sword-hilt. But Godwin, calm as
+ever, rode forward a few paces, and said quietly:
+
+"Of your courtesy, say what you need of us. If it be money, we
+have none--nothing but our arms and horses, which I think may
+cost you dear."
+
+Now the man with the crooked knife advanced a little, accompanied
+by another man, a tall, supple-looking knave, into whose ear he
+whispered.
+
+"My master says," answered the tall man, "that you have with you
+that which is of more value than all the king's gold--a very fair
+lady, of whom someone has urgent need. Give her up now, and go
+your way with your arms and horses, for you are gallant young
+men, whose blood we do not wish to shed."
+
+At this it was the turn of the brethren to laugh, which both of
+them did together.
+
+"Give her up," answered Godwin, "and go our ways dishonoured?
+Aye, with our breath, but not before. Who then has such urgent
+need of the lady Rosamund?"
+
+Again there was whispering between the pair.
+
+"My master says," was the answer, "he thinks that all who see her
+will have need of her, since such loveliness is rare. But if you
+wish a name, well, one comes into his mind; the name of the
+knight Lozelle."
+
+"The knight Lozelle!" murmured Rosamund, turning even paler than
+before, as well she might. For this Lozelle was a powerful man
+and Essex-born. He owned ships of whose doings upon the seas and
+in the East evil tales were told, and once had sought Rosamund's
+hand in marriage, but being rejected, uttered threats for which
+Godwin, as the elder of the twins, had fought and wounded him.
+Then he vanished--none knew where.
+
+"Is Sir Hugh Lozelle here then?" asked Godwin, "masked like you
+common cowards? If so, I desire to meet him, to finish the work I
+began in the snow last Christmas twelvemonths."
+
+"Find that out if you can," answered the tall man. But Wulf
+said, speaking low between his clenched teeth:
+
+"Brother, I see but one chance. We must place Rosamund between
+us and charge them."
+
+The captain of the band seemed to read their thoughts, for again
+he whispered into the ear of his companion, who called out:
+
+"My master says that if you try to charge, you will be fools,
+since we shall stab and ham-string your horses, which are too
+good to waste, and take you quite easily as you fall. Come then,
+yield, as you can do without shame, seeing there is no escape,
+and that two men, however brave, cannot stand against a crowd.
+He gives you one minute to surrender."
+
+Now Rosamund spoke for the first time.
+
+"My cousins," she said, "I pray you not to let me fall living
+into the hands of Sir Hugh Lozelle, or of yonder men, to be taken
+to what fate I know not. Let Godwin kill me, then, to save my
+honour, as but now he said he would to save my soul, and strive
+to cut your way through, and live to avenge me."
+
+The brethren made no answer, only they looked at the water and
+then at one another, and nodded. It was Godwin who spoke again,
+for now that it had come to this struggle for life and their
+lady, Wulf, whose tongue was commonly so ready, had grown
+strangely silent, and fierce-faced also.
+
+"Listen, Rosamund, and do not turn your eyes," said Godwin.
+"There is but one chance for you, and, poor as it is, you must
+choose between it and capture, since we cannot kill you. The
+grey horse you ride is strong and true. Turn him now, and spur
+into the water of Death Creek and swim it. It is broad, but the
+incoming tide will help you, and perchance you will not drown."
+
+Rosamund listened and moved her head backwards towards the boat.
+Then Wulf spoke--few words and sharp: "Begone, girl! we guard the
+boat."
+
+She heard, and her dark eyes filled with tears, and her stately
+head sank for a moment almost to her horse's mane.
+
+"Oh, my knights! my knights! And would you die for me? Well, if
+God wills it, so it must be. But I swear that if you die, that
+no man shall be aught to me who have your memory, and if you
+live--" And she looked at them confusedly, then stopped.
+
+"Bless us, and begone," said Godwin.
+
+So she blessed them in words low and holy; then of a sudden
+wheeled round the great grey horse, and striking the spur into
+its flank, drove straight at the deep water. A moment the
+stallion hung, then from the low quay-end sprang out wide and
+clear. Deep it sank, but not for long, for presently its rider's
+head rose above the water, and regaining the saddle, from which
+she had floated, Rosamund sat firm and headed the horse straight
+for the distant bank. Now a shout of wonderment went up from the
+woman thieves, for this was a deed that they had never thought a
+girl would dare. But the brethren laughed as they saw that the
+grey swam well, and, leaping from their saddles, ran forward a
+few paces--eight or ten--along the mole to where it was
+narrowest, as they went tearing the cloaks from their shoulders,
+and, since they had none, throwing them over their left arms to
+serve as bucklers.
+
+The band cursed sullenly, only their captain gave an order to his
+spokesman, who cried aloud:
+
+"Cut them down, and to the boat! We shall take her before she
+reaches shore or drowns."
+
+For a moment they wavered, for the tall twin warriors who barred
+the way had eyes that told of wounds and death. Then with a rush
+they came, scrambling over the rough stones. But here the
+causeway was so narrow that while their strength lasted, two men
+were as good as twenty, nor, because of the mud and water, could
+they be got at from either side. So after all it was but two to
+two, and the brethren were the better two. Their long swords
+flashed and smote, and when Wulf's was lifted again, once more it
+shone red as it had been when he tossed it high in the sunlight,
+and a man fell with a heavy splash into the waters of the creek,
+and wallowed there till he died. Godwin's foe was down also,
+and, as it seemed, sped.
+
+Then, at a muttered word, not waiting to be attacked by others,
+the brethren sprang forward. The huddled mob in front of them
+saw them come, and shrank back, but before they had gone a yard,
+the swords were at work behind. They swore strange oaths, they
+caught their feet among the rocks, and rolled upon their faces.
+In their confusion three of them were pushed into the water,
+where two sank in the mud and were drowned, the third only
+dragging himself ashore, while the rest made good their escape
+from the causeway. But two had been cut down, and three had
+fallen, for whom there was no escape. They strove to rise and
+fight, but the linen masks flapped about their eyes, so that
+their blows went wide, while the long swords of the brothers
+smote and smote again upon their helms and harness as the hammers
+of smiths smite upon an anvil, until they rolled over silent and
+stirless.
+
+"Back!" said Godwin; "for here the road is wide; and they will
+get behind us."
+
+So back they moved slowly, with their faces to the foe, stopping
+just in front of the first man whom Godwin had seemed to kill,
+and who lay face upwards with arms outstretched.
+
+"So far we have done well," said Wulf, with a short laugh. "Are
+you hurt?"
+
+"Nay," answered his brother, "but do not boast till the battle is
+over, for many are left and they will come on thus no more. Pray
+God they have no spears or bows."
+
+Then he turned and looked behind him, and there, far from the
+shore now, swam the grey horse steadily, and there upon its back
+sat Rosamund. Yes, and she had seen, since the horse must swim
+somewhat sideways with the tide, for look, she took the kerchief
+from her throat and waved it to them. Then the brethren knew
+that she was proud of their great deeds, and thanked the saints
+that they had lived to do even so much as this for her dear sake.
+
+Godwin was right. Although their leader commanded them in a
+stern voice, the band sank from the reach of those awful swords,
+and, instead, sought for stones to hurl at them. But here lay
+more mud than pebbles, and the rocks of which the causeway was
+built were too heavy for them to lift, so that they found but
+few, which when thrown either missed the brethren or did them
+little hurt. Now, after some while, the man called "master"
+spoke through his lieutenant, and certain of them ran into the
+thorn thicket, and thence appeared again bearing the long oars of
+the boat.
+
+"Their counsel is to batter us down with the oars. What shall we
+do now, brother?" asked Godwin.
+
+"What we can," answered Wulf. "It matters little if Rosamund is
+spared by the waters, for they will scarcely take her now, who
+must loose the boat and man it after we are dead."
+
+As he spoke Wulf heard a sound behind him, and of a sudden Godwin
+threw up his arms and sank to his knees. Round he sprang, and
+there upon his feet stood that man whom they had thought dead,
+and in his hand a bloody sword. At him leapt Wulf, and so fierce
+were the blows he smote that the first severed his sword arm and
+the second shore through cloak and mail deep into the thief's
+side; so that this time he fell, never to stir again. Then he
+looked at his brother and saw that the blood was running down his
+face and blinding him.
+
+"Save yourself, Wulf, for I am sped," murmured Godwin.
+
+"Nay, or you could not speak." And he cast his arm round him and
+kissed him on the brow.
+
+Then a thought came into his mind, and lifting Godwin as though
+he were a child, he ran back to where the horses stood, and
+heaved him onto the saddle.
+
+"Hold fast!" he cried, "by mane and pommel. Keep your mind, and
+hold fast, and I will save you yet."
+
+Passing the reins over his left arm, Wulf leapt upon the back of
+his own horse, and turned it. Ten seconds more, and the pirates,
+who were gathering with the oars where the paths joined at the
+root of the causeway, saw the two great horses thundering down
+upon them. On one a sore wounded man, his bright hair dabbled
+with blood, his hands gripping mane and saddle, and on the other
+the warrior Wulf, with starting eyes and a face like the face of
+a flame, shaking his red sword, and for the second time that day
+shouting aloud: "A D'Arcy! a D'Arcy! Contre D'Arcy, contre
+Mort!"
+
+They saw, they shouted, they massed themselves together and held
+up the oars to meet them. But Wulf spurred fiercely, and, short
+as was the way, the heavy horses, trained to tourney, gathered
+their speed. Now they were on them. The oars were swept aside
+like reeds; all round them flashed the swords, and Wulf felt that
+he was hurt, he knew not where. But his sword flashed also, one
+blow--there was no time for more--yet the man beneath it sank
+like an empty sack.
+
+By St. Peter! They were through, and Godwin still swayed upon
+the saddle, and yonder, nearing the further shore, the grey horse
+with its burden still battled in the tide. They were through!
+they were through! while to Wulf's eyes the air swam red, and the
+earth seemed as though it rose up to meet them, and everywhere
+was flaming fire.
+
+But the shouts had died away behind them, and the only sound was
+the sound of the galloping of their horses' hoofs. Then that
+also grew faint and died away, and silence and darkness fell upon
+the mind of Wulf.
+
+
+
+Chapter Two: Sir Andew D'Arcy
+
+Godwin dreamed that he was dead, and that beneath him floated
+the world, a glowing ball, while he was borne to and fro through
+the blackness, stretched upon a couch of ebony. There were bright
+watchers by his couch also, watchers twain, and he knew them for
+his guardian angels, given him at birth. Moreover, now and again
+presences would come and question the watchers who sat at his
+head and foot. One asked:
+
+"Has this soul sinned?" And the angel at his head answered:
+
+"It has sinned."
+
+Again the voice asked: "Did it die shriven of its sins?"
+
+The angel answered: "It died unshriven, red sword aloft, fighting
+a good fight."
+
+"Fighting for the Cross of Christ?"
+
+"Nay; fighting for a woman."
+
+"Alas! poor soul, sinful and unshriven, who died fighting for a
+woman's love. How shall such a one find mercy?" wailed the
+questioning voice, growing ever fainter, till it was lost far,
+far away.
+
+Now came another visitor. It was his father--the warrior sire
+whom he had never seen, who fell in Syria. Godwin knew him well,
+for the face was the face carven on the tomb in Stangate church,
+and he wore the blood-red cross upon his mail, and the D'Arcy
+Death's-head was on his shield, and in his hand shone a naked
+sword.
+
+"Is this the soul of my son?" he asked of the whiterobed
+watchers. "If so, how died he?"
+
+Then the angel at his foot answered: "He died, red sword aloft,
+fighting a good fight."
+
+"Fighting for the Cross of Christ?"
+
+"Nay; fighting for a woman."
+
+"Fighting for a woman's love who should have fallen in the Holy
+War? Alas! poor son; alas! poor son! Alas! that we must part
+again forever!" and his voice, too, passed away.
+
+Lo! a Glory advanced through the blackness, and the angels at
+head and foot stood up and saluted with their flaming spears.
+
+"How died this child of God?" asked a voice, speaking out of the
+Glory, a low and awful voice.
+
+"He died by the sword," answered the angel.
+
+"By the sword of the children of the enemy, fighting in the war
+of Heaven?"
+
+Then the angels were silent.
+
+"What has Heaven to do with him, if he fought not for Heaven?"
+asked the voice again.
+
+"Let him be spared," pleaded the guardians, "who was young and
+brave, and knew not. Send him back to earth, there to retrieve
+his sins and be our charge once more."
+
+"So be it," said the voice. "Knight, live on, but live as a knight
+of Heaven if thou wouldst win Heaven."
+
+"Must he then put the woman from him?" asked the angels.
+
+"It was not said," answered the voice speaking from the Glory.
+And all that wild vision vanished.
+
+Then a space of oblivion, and Godwin awoke to hear other voices
+around him, voices human, well-beloved, remembered; and to see a
+face bending over him--a face most human, most well-beloved, most
+remembered--that of his cousin Rosamund. He babbled some
+questions, but they brought him food, and told him to sleep, so
+he slept. Thus it went on, waking and sleep, sleep and waking,
+till at length one morning he woke up truly in the little room
+that opened out of the solar or sitting place of the Hall of
+Steeple, where he and Wulf had slept since their uncle took them
+to his home as infants. More, on the trestle bed opposite to him,
+his leg and arm bandaged, and a crutch by his side, sat Wulf
+himself, somewhat paler and thinner than of yore, but the same
+jovial, careless, yet at times fierce-faced Wulf.
+
+"Do I still dream, my brother, or is it you indeed?"
+
+A happy smile spread upon the face of Wulf, for now he knew that
+Godwin was himself again.
+
+"Me sure enough," he answered. "Dream-folk don't have lame legs;
+they are the gifts of swords and men."
+
+"And Rosamund? What of Rosamund? Did the grey horse swim the
+creek, and how came we here? Tell me quick--I faint for news!"
+
+"She shall tell you herself." And hobbling to the curtained door,
+he called, "Rosamund, my--nay, our--cousin Rosamund, Godwin is
+himself again. Hear you, Godwin is himself again, and would speak
+with you!"
+
+There was a swift rustle of robes and a sound of quick feet among
+the rushes that strewed the floor, and then--Rosamund herself,
+lovely as ever, but all her stateliness forgot in joy. She saw
+him, the gaunt Godwin sitting up upon the pallet, his grey eyes
+shining in the white and sunken face. For Godwin's eyes were
+grey, while Wulf's were blue, the only difference between them
+which a stranger would note, although in truth Wulf's lips were
+fuller than Godwin's, and his chin more marked; also he was a
+larger man. She saw him, and with a little cry of delight ran and
+cast her arms about him, and kissed him on the brow.
+
+"Be careful," said Wulf roughly, turning his head aside, "or,
+Rosamund, you will loose the bandages, and bring his trouble back
+again; he has had enough of blood-letting."
+
+"Then I will kiss him on the hand--the hand that saved me," she
+said, and did so. More, she pressed that poor, pale hand against
+her heart.
+
+"Mine had something to do with that business also but I don't
+remember that you kissed it, Rosamund. Well, I will kiss him too,
+and oh! God be praised, and the holy Virgin, and the holy Peter,
+and the holy Chad, and all the other holy dead folk whose names I
+can't recall, who between them, with the help of Rosamund here,
+and the prayers of the Prior John and brethren at Stangate, and
+of Matthew, the village priest, have given you back to us, my
+brother, my most beloved brother." And he hopped to the bedside,
+and throwing his long, sinewy arms about Godwin embraced him
+again and again.
+
+"Be careful," said Rosamund drily, "or, Wulf, you will disturb
+the bandages, and he has had enough of blood-letting."
+
+Then before he could answer, which he seemed minded to do, there
+came the sound of a slow step, and swinging the curtain aside, a
+tall and noble-looking knight entered the little place. The man
+was old, but looked older than he was, for sorrow and sickness
+had wasted him. His snow-white hair hung upon his shoulders, his
+face was pale, and his features were pinched but
+finely-chiselled, and notwithstanding the difference of their
+years, wonderfully like to those of the daughter Rosamund. For
+this was her father, the famous lord, Sir Andrew D'Arcy.
+
+Rosamund turned and bent the knee to him with a strange and
+Eastern grace, while Wulf bowed his head, and Godwin, since his
+neck was too stiff to stir, held up his hand in greeting. The old
+man looked at him, and there was pride in his eye.
+
+"So you will live after all, my nephew," he said, "and for that I
+thank the giver of life and death, since by God, you are a
+gallant man--a worthy child of the bloods of the Norman D'Arcy
+and of Uluin the Saxon. Yes, one of the best of them."
+
+"Speak not so, my uncle," said Godwin; "or at least, here is a
+worthier,"--and he patted the hand of Wulf with his lean
+fingers. "It was Wulf who bore me through. Oh, I remember as much
+as that--how he lifted me onto the black horse and bade me to
+cling fast to mane and pommel. Ay, and I remember the charge, and
+his cry of 'Contre D'Arcy, contre Mort!' and the flashing of
+swords about us, and after that--nothing."
+
+"Would that I had been there to help in that fight," said Sir
+Andrew D'Arcy, tossing his white hair. "Oh, my children, it is
+hard to be sick and old. A log am I--naught but a rotting log.
+Still, had I only known--"
+
+"Father, father," said Rosamund, casting her white arm about
+his neck. "You should not speak thus. You have done your share."
+
+"Yes, my share; but I should like to do more. Oh, St. Andrew,
+ask it for me that I may die with sword aloft and my grandsire's
+cry upon my lips. Yes, yes; thus, not like a worn-out war-horse
+in his stall. There, pardon me; but in truth, my children, I am
+jealous of you. Why, when I found you lying in each other's arms
+I could have wept for rage to think that such a fray had been
+within a league of my own doors and I not in it."
+
+"I know nothing of all that story," said Godwin.
+
+"No, in truth, how can you, who have been senseless this month or
+more? But Rosamund knows, and she shall tell it you. Speak on,
+Rosamund. Lay you back, Godwin, and listen."
+
+"The tale is yours, my cousins, and not mine," said Rosamund.
+"You bade me take the water, and into it I spurred the grey
+horse, and we sank deep, so that the waves closed above my head.
+Then up we came, I floating from the saddle, but I regained it,
+and the horse answered to my voice and bridle, and swam out for
+the further shore. On it swam, somewhat slantwise with the tide,
+so that by turning my head I could see all that passed upon the
+mole. I saw them come at you, and men fall before your swords; I
+saw you charge them, and run back again. Lastly, after what
+seemed a very long while, when I was far away, I saw Wulf lift
+Godwin into the saddle--I knew it must be Godwin, because he set
+him on the black horse--and the pair of you galloped down the
+quay and vanished.
+
+"By then I was near the home shore, and the grey grew very weary
+and sank deep in the water. But I cheered it on with my voice,
+and although twice its head went beneath the waves, in the end it
+found a footing, though a soft one. After resting awhile, it
+plunged forward with short rushes through the mud, and so at
+length came safe to land, where it stood shaking with fear and
+weariness. So soon as the horse got its breath again, I pressed
+on, for I saw them loosing the boat, and came home here as the
+dark closed in, to meet your uncle watching for me at the gate.
+Now, father, do you take up the tale."
+
+"There is little more to tell," said Sir Andrew. "You will
+remember, nephews, that I was against this ride of Rosamund's to
+seek flowers, or I know not what, at St. Peter's shrine, nine
+miles away, but as the maid had set her heart on it, and there
+are but few pleasures here, why, I let her go with the pair of
+you for escort. You will mind also that you were starting
+without your mail, and how foolish you thought me when I called
+you back and made you gird it on. Well, my patron saint--or
+yours--put it into my head to do so, for had it not been for
+those same shirts of mail, you were both of you dead men to-day.
+But that morning I had been thinking of Sir Hugh Lozelle--if
+such a false, pirate rogue can be called a knight, not but that
+he is stout and brave enough--and his threats after he recovered
+from the wound you gave him, Godwin; how that he would come back
+and take your cousin for all we could do to stay him. True, we
+heard that he had sailed for the East to war against Saladin--or
+with him, for he was ever a traitor--but even if this were so,
+men return from the East. Therefore I bade you arm, having some
+foresight of what was to come, for doubtless this onslaught must
+have been planned by him."
+
+"I think so," said Wulf, "for, as Rosamund here knows, the tall
+knave who interpreted for the foreigner whom he called his
+master, gave us the name of the knight Lozelle as the man who
+sought to carry her off."
+
+"Was this master a Saracen?" asked Sir Andrew, anxiously.
+
+"Nay, uncle, how can I tell, seeing that his face was masked like
+the rest and he spoke through an interpreter? But I pray you go
+on with the story, which Godwin has not heard."
+
+"It is short. When Rosamund told her tale of which I could make
+little, for the girl was crazed with grief and cold and fear,
+save that you had been attacked upon the old quay, and she had
+escaped by swimming Death Creek--which seemed a thing
+incredible--I got together what men I could. Then bidding her
+stay behind, with some of them to guard her, and nurse herself,
+which she was loth to do, I set out to find you or your bodies.
+It was dark, but we rode hard, having lanterns with us, as we
+went rousing men at every stead, until we came to where the roads
+join at Moats. There we found a black horse--your horse,
+Godwin--so badly wounded that he could travel no further, and I
+groaned, thinking that you were dead. Still we went on, till we
+heard another horse whinny, and presently found the roan also
+riderless, standing by the path-side with his head down.
+
+"'A man on the ground holds him!' cried one, and I sprang from
+the saddle to see who it might be, to find that it was you, the
+pair of you, locked in each other's arms and senseless, if not
+dead, as well you might be from your wounds. I bade the
+country-folk cover you up and carry you home, and others to run
+to Stangate and pray the Prior and the monk Stephen, who is a
+doctor, come at once to tend you, while we pressed onwards to
+take vengeance if we could. We reached the quay upon the creek,
+but there we found nothing save some bloodstains and--this is
+strange--your sword, Godwin, the hilt set between two stones, and
+on the point a writing."
+
+"What was the writing?" asked Godwin.
+
+"Here it is," answered his uncle, drawing a piece of parchment
+from his robe. "Read it, one of you, since all of you are
+scholars and my eyes are bad."
+
+Rosamund took it and read what was written, hurriedly but in a
+clerkly hand, and in the French tongue. It ran thus: "The sword of
+a brave man. Bury it with him if he be dead, and give it back to
+him if he lives, as I hope. My master would wish me to do this
+honour to a gallant foe whom in that case he still may meet.
+(Signed) Hugh Lozelle, or Another."
+
+"Another, then; not Hugh Lozelle," said Godwin, "since he cannot
+write, and if he could, would never pen words so knightly."
+
+"The words may be knightly, but the writer's deeds were base
+enough," replied Sir Andrew; "nor, in truth do I understand this
+scroll."
+
+"The interpreter spoke of the short man as his master," suggested
+Wulf.
+
+"Ay, nephew; but him you met. This writing speaks of a master
+whom Godwin may meet, and who would wish the writer to pay him a
+certain honour."
+
+"Perhaps he wrote thus to blind us."
+
+"Perchance, perchance. The matter puzzles me. Moreover, of whom
+these men were I have been able to learn nothing. A boat was seen
+passing towards Bradwell--indeed, it seems that you saw it, and
+that night a boat was seen sailing southwards down St. Peter's
+sands towards a ship that had anchored off Foulness Point. But
+what that ship was, whence she came, and whither she went, none
+know, though the tidings of this fray have made some stir."
+
+"Well," said Wulf, "at the least we have seen the last of her
+crew of women-thieves. Had they meant more mischief, they would
+have shown themselves again ere now."
+
+Sir Andrew looked grave as he answered.
+
+"So I trust, but all the tale is very strange. How came they to
+know that you and Rosamund were riding that day to St.
+Peter's-on-the-Wall, and so were able to waylay you? Surely some
+spy must have warned them, since that they were no common pirates
+is evident, for they spoke of Lozelle, and bade you two begone
+unharmed, as it was Rosamund whom they needed. Also, there is the
+matter of the sword that fell from the hand of Godwin when he was
+hurt, which was returned in so strange a fashion. I have known
+many such deeds of chivalry done in the East by Paynim men--"
+
+"Well, Rosamund is half an Eastern," broke in Wulf carelessly;
+"and perhaps that had something to do with it all."
+
+Sir Andrew started, and the colour rose to his pale face. Then in
+a tone in which he showed he wished to speak no more of this
+matter, he said:
+
+"Enough, enough. Godwin is very weak, and grows weary, and before
+I leave him I have a word to say that it may please you both to
+hear. Young men, you are of my blood, the nearest to it except
+Rosamund--the sons of that noble knight, my brother. I have ever
+loved you well, and been proud of you, but if this was so in the
+past, how much more is it thus to-day, when you have done such
+high service to my house? Moreover, that deed was brave and
+great; nothing more knightly has been told of in Essex this many
+a year, and those who wrought it should no longer be simple
+gentlemen, but very knights. This boon it is in my power to grant
+to you according to the ancient custom. Still, that none may
+question it, while you lay sick, but after it was believed that
+Godwin would live, which at first we scarcely dared to hope, I
+journeyed to London and sought audience of our lord the king.
+Having told him this tale, I prayed him that he would be pleased
+to grant me his command in writing that I should name you
+knights.
+
+"My nephews, he was so pleased, and here I have the brief sealed
+with the royal signet, commanding that in his name and my own I
+should give you the accolade publicly in the church of the Priory
+at Stangate at such season as may be convenient. Therefore,
+Godwin, the squire, haste you to get well that you may become Sir
+Godwin the knight; for you, Wulf, save for the hurt to your leg,
+are well enough already."
+
+Now Godwin's white face went red with pride, and Wulf dropped his
+bold eyes and looked modest as a girl.
+
+"Speak you," he said to his brother, "for my tongue is blunt and
+awkward."
+
+"Sir," said Godwin in a weak voice, "we do not know how to thank
+you for so great an honour, that we never thought to win till we
+had done more famous deeds than the beating off of a band of
+robbers. Sir, we have no more to say, save that while we live we
+will strive to be worthy of our name and of you."
+
+"Well spoken," said his uncle, adding as though to himself, "this
+man is courtly as he is brave."
+
+Wulf looked up, a flash of merriment upon his open face.
+
+"I, my uncle, whose speech is, I fear me, not courtly, thank you
+also. I will add that I think our lady cousin here should be
+knighted too, if such a thing were possible for a woman, seeing
+that to swim a horse across Death Creek was a greater deed than
+to fight some rascals on its quay."
+
+"Rosamund?" answered the old man in the same dreamy voice. "Her
+rank is high enough--too high, far too high for safety." And
+turning, he left the little chamber.
+
+"Well, cousin," said Wulf, "if you cannot be a knight, at least
+you can lessen all this dangerous rank of yours by becoming a
+knight's wife." Whereat Rosamund looked at him with indignation
+which struggled with a smile in her dark eyes, and murmuring that
+she must see to the making of Godwin's broth, followed her father
+from the place.
+
+"It would have been kinder had she told us that she was glad,"
+said Wulf when she was gone.
+
+"Perhaps she would," answered his brother, "had it not been for
+your rough jests, Wulf, which might have a meaning in them."
+
+"Nay, I had no meaning. Why should she not become a knight's
+wife?"
+
+"Ay, but what knight's? Would it please either of us, brother,
+if, as may well chance, he should be some stranger?"
+
+Now Wulf swore a great oath, then flushed to the roots of his
+fair hair, and was silent.
+
+"Ah!" said Godwin; "you do not think before you speak, which it
+is always well to do."
+
+"She swore upon the quay yonder"--broke in Wulf.
+
+"Forget what she swore. Words uttered in such an hour should not
+be remembered against a maid."
+
+"God's truth, brother, you are right, as ever! My tongue runs
+away with me, but still I can't put those words out of my mind,
+though which of us--"
+
+"Wulf!"
+
+"I mean to say that we are in Fortune's path to-day, Godwin. Oh,
+that was a lucky ride! Such fighting as I have never seen or
+dreamed of. We won it too! And now both of us are alive, and a
+knighthood for each!"
+
+"Yes, both of us alive, thanks to you, Wulf--nay, it is so,
+though you would never have done less. But as for Fortune's path,
+it is one that has many rough turns, and perhaps before all is
+done she may lead us round some of them."
+
+"You talk like a priest, not like a squire who is to be knighted
+at the cost of a scar on his head. For my part I will kiss
+Fortune while I may, and if she jilts me afterwards--"
+
+"Wulf," called Rosamund from without the curtain, "cease
+talking of kissing at the top of your voice, I pray you, and
+leave Godwin to sleep, for he needs it." And she entered the
+little chamber, bearing a bowl of broth in her hand.
+
+Thereon, saying that ladies should not listen to what did not
+concern them, Wulf seized his crutch and hobbled from the place.
+
+
+
+Chapter Three: The Knighting of the Brethren
+
+Another month had gone by, and though Godwin was still somewhat
+weak and suffered from a headache at times, the brethren had
+recovered from their wounds. On the last day of November, about
+two o'clock in the afternoon, a great procession might have been
+seen wending its way from the old Hall at Steeple. In it rode
+many knights fully armed, before whom were borne their banners.
+These went first. Then came old Sir Andrew D'Arcy, also fully
+armed, attended by squires and retainers. He was accompanied by
+his lovely daughter, the lady Rosamund, clad in beautiful apparel
+under her cloak of fur, who rode at his right hand on that same
+horse which had swum Death Creek. Next appeared the brethren,
+modestly arrayed as simple gentlemen, followed each of them by
+his squire, scions of the noble houses of Salcote and of Dengie.
+After them rode yet more knights, squires, tenants of various
+degree, and servants, surrounded by a great number of peasantry
+and villeins, who walked and ran with their women folk and
+children.
+
+Following the road through the village, the procession turned to
+the left at the great arch which marked the boundary of the
+monk's lands, and headed for Stangate Abbey, some two miles
+away, by the path that ran between the arable land and the Salt
+marshes, which are flooded at high tide. At length they came to
+the stone gate of the Abbey, that gave the place its name of
+Stangate. Here they were met by a company of the Cluniac monks,
+who dwelt in this wild and lonely spot upon the water's edge,
+headed by their prior, John Fitz Brien. He was a venerable,
+white-haired man, clad in wide-sleeved, black robes, and preceded
+by a priest carrying a silver cross. Now the procession
+separated, Godwin and Wulf, with certain of the knights and their
+esquires, being led to the Priory, while the main body of it
+entered the church, or stood about outside its door.
+
+Arrived in the house, the two knights elect were taken to a room
+where their hair was cut and their chins were shaved by a barber
+who awaited them. Then, under the guidance of two old knights
+named Sir Anthony de Mandeville and Sir Roger de Merci, they were
+conducted to baths surrounded with rich cloths. Into these,
+having been undressed by the squires, they entered and bathed
+themselves, while Sir Anthony and Sir Roger spoke to them through
+the cloths of the high duties of their vocation, ending by
+pouring water over them, and signing their bare bodies with the
+sign of the Cross. Next they were dressed again, and preceded by
+minstrels, led to the church, at the porch of which they and
+their esquires were given wine to drink.
+
+Here, in the presence of all the company, they were clothed first
+in white tunics, to signify the whiteness of their hearts; next
+in red robes, symbolical of the blood they might be called upon
+to shed for Christ; and lastly, in long black cloaks, emblems of
+the death that must be endured by all. This done, their armour
+was brought in and piled before them upon the steps of the altar,
+and the congregation departed homeward, leaving them with their
+esquires and the priest to spend the long winter night in orisons
+and prayers.
+
+Long, indeed, it was, in that lonesome, holy place, lit only by a
+lamp which swung before the altar. Wulf prayed and prayed until
+he could pray no more, then fell into a half dreamful state that
+was haunted by the face of Rosamund, where even her face should
+have been forgotten. Godwin, his elbow resting against the tomb
+that hid his father's heart, prayed also, until even his
+earnestness was outworn, and he began to wonder about many
+things.
+
+That dream of his, for instance, in his sickness, when he had
+seemed to be dead, and what might be the true duty of man. To be
+brave and upright? Surely. To fight for the Cross of Christ
+against the Saracen? Surely, if the chance came his way. What
+more? To abandon the world and to spend his life muttering
+prayers like those priests in the darkness behind him? Could that
+be needful or of service to God or man? To man, perhaps, because
+such folk tended the sick and fed the poor. But to God? Was he
+not sent into the world to bear his part in the world--to live
+his full life? This would mean a half-life--one into which no
+woman might enter, to which no child might be added, since to
+monks and even to certain brotherhoods, all these things, which
+Nature decreed and Heaven had sanctified, were deadly sin.
+
+It would mean, for instance, that he must think no more of
+Rosamund. Could he do this for the sake of the welfare of his
+soul in some future state?
+
+Why, at the thought of it even, in that solemn place and hour of
+dedication, his spirit reeled, for then and there for the first
+time it was borne in upon him that he loved this woman more than
+all the world beside--more than his life, more, perhaps, than his
+soul. He loved her with all his pure young heart--so much that it
+would be a joy to him to die for her, not only in the heat of
+battle, as lately had almost chanced on the Death Creek quay, but
+in cold blood, of set purpose, if there came need. He loved her
+with body and with spirit, and, after God, here to her he
+consecrated his body and his spirit. But what value would she put
+upon the gift? What if some other man--?
+
+By his side, his elbows resting on the altar rails, his eyes
+fixed upon the beaming armour that he would wear in battle, knelt
+Wulf, his brother--a mighty man, a knight of knights, fearless,
+noble, open-hearted; such a one as any woman might well love. And
+he also loved Rosamund. Of this Godwin was sure. And, oh! did not
+Rosamund love Wulf? Bitter jealousy seized upon his vitals. Yes;
+even then and there, black envy got hold of Godwin, and rent him
+so sore that, cold as was the place, the sweat poured from his
+brow and body.
+
+Should he abandon hope? Should he fly the battle for fear that he
+might be defeated? Nay; he would fight on in all honesty and
+honour, and if he were overcome, would meet his fate as a brave
+knight should--without bitterness, but without shame. Let destiny
+direct the matter. It was in the hands of destiny, and stretching
+out his arm, he threw it around the neck of his brother, who
+knelt beside him, and let it rest there, until the head of the
+weary Wulf sank sleepily upon his shoulder, like the head of an
+infant upon its mother's breast.
+
+"Oh Jesu," Godwin moaned in his poor heart, "give me strength to
+fight against this sinful passion that would lead me to hate the
+brother whom I love. Oh Jesu, give me strength to bear it if he
+should be preferred before me. Make me a perfect knight--strong
+to suffer and endure, and, if need be, to rejoice even in the
+joy of my supplanter."
+
+At length the grey dawn broke, and the sunlight, passing through
+the eastern window, like a golden spear, pierced the dusk of the
+long church, which was built to the shape of a cross, so that
+only its transepts remained in shadow. Then came a sound of
+chanting, and at the western door entered the Prior, wearing all
+his robes, attended by the monks and acolytes, who swung censers.
+In the centre of the nave he halted and passed to the
+confessional, calling on Godwin to follow. So he went and knelt
+before the holy man, and there poured out all his heart. He
+confessed his sins. They were but few. He told him of the vision
+of his sickness, on which the Prior pondered long; of his deep
+love, his hopes, his fears, and his desire to be a warrior who
+once, as a lad, had wished to be a monk, not that he might shed
+blood, but to fight for the Cross of Christ against the Paynim,
+ending with a cry of--
+
+"Give me counsel, O my father. Give me counsel."
+
+"Your own heart is your best counsellor," was the priest's
+answer. "Go as it guides you, knowing that, through it, it is God
+who guides. Nor fear that you will fail. But if love and the joys
+of life should leave you, then come back, and we will talk again.
+Go on, pure knight of Christ, fearing nothing and sure of the
+reward, and take with you the blessing of Christ and of his
+Church."
+
+"What penance must I bear, father?"
+
+"Such souls as yours inflict their own penance. The saints forbid
+that I should add to it," was the gentle answer.
+
+Then with a lightened heart Godwin returned to the altar rails,
+while his brother Wulf was summoned to take his place in the
+confessional. Of the sins that he had to tell we need not speak.
+They were such as are common to young men, and none of them very
+grievous. Still, before he gave him absolution, the good Prior
+admonished him to think less of his body and more of his spirit;
+less of the glory of feats of arms and more of the true ends to
+which he should enter on them. He bade him, moreover, to take his
+brother Godwin as an earthly guide and example, since there lived
+no better or wiser man of his years, and finally dismissed him,
+prophesying that if he would heed these counsels, he would come
+to great glory on earth and in heaven.
+
+"Father, I will do my best," answered Wulf humbly; "but there
+cannot be two Godwins; and, father, sometimes I fear me that our
+paths will cross, since two men cannot win one woman."
+
+"I know the trouble," answered the Prior anxiously, "and with
+less noble-natured men it might be grave. But if it should come
+to this, then must the lady judge according to the wishes of her
+own heart, and he who loses her must be loyal in sorrow as in
+joy. Be sure that you take no base advantage of your brother in
+the hour of temptation, and bear him no bitterness should he win
+the bride."
+
+"I think I can be sure of that," said Wulf; "also that we, who
+have loved each other from birth, would die before we betrayed
+each other."
+
+"I think so also," answered the Prior; "but Satan is very
+strong."
+
+Then Wulf also returned to the altar rails, and the full Mass was
+sung, and the Sacrament received by the two neophytes, and the
+offerings made all in their appointed order. Next they were led
+back to the Priory to rest and eat a little after their long
+night's vigil in the cold church, and here they abode awhile,
+thinking their own thoughts, seated alone in the Prior's chamber.
+At length Wulf, who seemed to be ill at ease, rose and laid his
+hand upon his brother's shoulder, saying:
+
+"I can be silent no more; it was ever thus: that which is in my
+mind must out of it. I have words to say to you."
+
+"Speak on, Wulf," said Godwin.
+
+Wulf sat himself down again upon his stool, and for a while
+stared hard at nothing, for he did not seem to find it easy to
+begin this talk. Now Godwin could read his brother's mind like a
+book, but Wulf could not always read Godwin's, although, being
+twins who had been together from birth, their hearts were for the
+most part open to each other without the need of words.
+
+"It is of our cousin Rosamund, is it not?" asked Godwin
+presently.
+
+"Ay. Who else?"
+
+"And you would tell me that you love her, and that now you are a
+knight--almost--and hard on five-and twenty years of age, you
+would ask her to become your affianced wife?"
+
+"Yes, Godwin; it came into my heart when she rode the grey horse
+into the water, there upon the pier, and I thought that I should
+never see her any more. I tell you it came into my heart that
+life was not worth living nor death worth dying without her."
+
+"Then, Wulf," answered Godwin slowly, "what more is there to say?
+Ask on, and prosper. Why not? We have some lands, if not many,
+and Rosamund will not lack for them. Nor do I think that our
+uncle would forbid you, if she wills it, seeing that you are the
+properest man and the bravest in all this country side."
+
+"Except my brother Godwin, who is all these things, and good and
+learned to boot, which I am not," replied Wulf musingly. Then
+there was silence for a while, which he broke.
+
+"Godwin, our ill-luck is that you love her also, and that you
+thought the same thoughts which I did yonder on the quay-head."
+
+Godwin flushed a little, and his long fingers tightened their
+grip upon his knee.
+
+"It is so," he said quietly. "To my grief it is so. But Rosamund
+knows nothing of this, and should never know it if you will keep
+a watch upon your tongue. Moreover, you need not be jealous of
+me, before marriage or after."
+
+"What, then, would you have me do?" asked Wulf hotly. "Seek her
+heart, and perchance--though this I doubt--let her yield it to
+me, she thinking that you care naught for her?"
+
+"Why not?" asked Godwin again, with a sigh; "it might save her
+some pain and you some doubt, and make my own path clearer.
+Marriage is more to you than to me, Wulf, who think sometimes
+that my sword should be my spouse and duty my only aim."
+
+"Who think, having a heart of gold, that even in such a thing as
+this you will not bar the path of the brother whom you love. Nay,
+Godwin, as I am a sinful man, and as I desire her above all
+things on earth, I will play no such coward's game, nor conquer
+one who will not lift his sword lest he should hurt me. Sooner
+would I bid you all farewell, and go to seek fortune or death in
+the wars without word spoken."
+
+"Leaving Rosamund to pine, perchance. Oh, could we be sure that
+she had no mind toward either of us, that would be best--to
+begone together. But, Wulf, we cannot be sure, since at times, to
+be honest, I have thought she loves you."
+
+"And at times, to be honest, Godwin, I have been sure that she
+loves you, although I should like to try my luck and hear it from
+her lips, which on such terms I will not do."
+
+"What, then, is your plan, Wulf?"
+
+"My plan is that if our uncle gives us leave, we should both
+speak to her--you first, as the elder, setting out your case as
+best you can, and asking her to think of it and give you your
+answer within a day. Then, before that day is done I also should
+speak, so that she may know all the story, and play her part in
+it with opened eyes, not deeming, as otherwise she might, that we
+know each other's minds, and that you ask because I have no will
+that way."
+
+"It is very fair," replied Godwin; "and worthy of you, who are the
+most honest of men. Yet, Wulf, I am troubled. See you, my
+brother, have ever brethren loved each other as we do? And now
+must the shadow of a woman fall upon and blight that love which
+is so fair and precious?"
+
+"Why so?" asked Wulf. "Come, Godwin, let us make a pact that it
+shall not be thus, and keep it by the help of heaven. Let us show
+the world that two men can love one woman and still love each
+other, not knowing as yet which of them she will choose--if,
+indeed, she chooses either. For, Godwin, we are not the only
+gentlemen whose eyes have turned, or yet may turn, towards the
+high-born, rich, and lovely lady Rosamund. Is it your will that
+we should make such a pact?"
+
+Godwin thought a little, then answered:
+
+"Yes; but if so, it must be one so strong that for her sake and
+for both our sakes we cannot break it and live with honour."
+
+"So be it," said Wulf; "this is man's work, not child's
+make-believe."
+
+Then Godwin rose, and going to the door, bade his squire, who
+watched without, pray the Prior John to come to them as they
+sought his counsel in a matter. So he came, and, standing before
+him with downcast head, Godwin told him all the tale, which,
+indeed, he who knew so much already, was quick to understand, and
+of their purpose also; while at a question from the prior, Wulf
+answered that it was well and truly said, nothing having been
+kept back. Then they asked him if it was lawful that they should
+take such an oath, to which he replied that he thought it not
+only lawful, but very good.
+
+So in the end, kneeling together hand in hand before the Rood that
+stood in the chamber, they repeated this oath after him, both of
+them together.
+
+"We brethren, Godwin and Wulf D'Arcy, do swear by the holy Cross
+of Christ, and by the patron saint of this place, St. Mary
+Magdalene, and our own patron saints, St. Peter and St. Chad,
+standing in the presence of God, of our guardian angels, and of
+you, John, that being both of us enamoured of our cousin,
+Rosamund D'Arcy, we will ask her to wife in the manner we have
+agreed, and no other. That we will abide by her decision, should
+she choose either of us, nor seek to alter it by tempting her
+from her troth, or in any fashion overt or covert. That he of us
+whom she refuses will thenceforth be a brother to her and no
+more, however Satan may tempt his heart otherwise. That so far as
+may be possible to us, who are but sinful men, we will suffer
+neither bitterness nor jealousy to come between our love because
+of this woman, and that in war or peace we will remain faithful
+comrades and brethren. Thus we swear with a true heart and
+purpose, and in token thereof, knowing that he who breaks this
+oath will be a knight dishonoured and a vessel fit for the wrath
+of God, we kiss this Rood and one another."
+
+This, then, these brethren said and did, and with light minds and
+joyful faces received the blessing of the Prior, who had
+christened them in infancy, and went down to meet the great
+company that had ridden forth to lead them back to Steeple, where
+their knighting should be done.
+
+So to Steeple, preceded by the squires, who rode before them
+bareheaded, carrying their swords by the scabbarded points, with
+their gold spurs hanging from the hilts, they came at last. Here
+the hall was set for a great feast, a space having been left
+between the tables and the dais, to which the brethren were
+conducted. Then came forward Sir Anthony de Mandeville and Sir
+Roger de Merci in full armour, and presented to Sir Andrew D'Arcy,
+their uncle, who stood upon the edge of the dais, also in his
+armour, their swords and spurs, of which he gave back to them two
+of the latter, bidding them affix these upon the candidates' right
+heels. This done, the Prior John blessed the swords, after which
+Sir Andrew girded them about the waists of his nephews, saying:
+
+"Take ye back the swords that you have used so well."
+
+Next, he drew his own silver-hilted blade that had been his
+father's and his grandfather's, and whilst they knelt before
+him, smote each of them three blows upon the right shoulder,
+crying with a loud voice: "In the name of God, St. Michael, and
+St. George, I knight ye. Be ye good knights."
+
+Thereafter came forward Rosamund as their nearest kinswoman, and,
+helped by other ladies, clad upon them their hauberks, or coats
+of mail, their helms of steel, and their kite-shaped shields,
+emblazoned with a skull, the cognizance of their race. This done,
+with the musicians marching before them, they walked to Steeple
+church--a distance of two hundred paces from the Hall, where they
+laid their swords upon the altar and took them up again, swearing
+to be good servants of Christ and defenders of the Church. As
+they left its doors, who should meet them but the cook, carrying
+his chopper in his hand and claiming as his fee the value of the
+spurs they wore, crying aloud at the same time:
+
+"If either of you young knights should do aught in despite of
+your honour and of the oaths that you have sworn--from which may
+God and his saints prevent you!--then with my chopper will I hack
+these spurs from off your heels."
+
+Thus at last the long ceremony was ended, and after it came a
+very great feast, for at the high table were entertained many
+noble knights and ladies, and below, in the hall their squires,
+and other gentlemen, and outside all the yeomanry and villagers,
+whilst the children and the aged had food and drink given to them
+in the nave of the church itself. When the eating at length was
+done, the centre of the hall was cleared, and while men drank,
+the minstrels made music. All were very merry with wine and
+strong ale, and talk arose among them as to which of these
+brethren--Sir Godwin or Sir Wulf--was the more brave, the more
+handsome, and the more learned and courteous.
+
+Now a knight--it was Sir Surin de Salcote--seeing that the
+argument grew hot and might lead to blows, rose and declared that
+this should be decided by beauty alone, and that none could be
+more fitted to judge than the fair lady whom the two of them had
+saved from woman-thieves at the Death Creek quay. They all
+called, "Ay, let her settle it," and it was agreed that she would
+give the kerchief from her neck to the bravest, a beaker of wine
+to the handsomest, and a Book of Hours to the most learned.
+
+So, seeing no help for it, since except her father, the
+brethren, the most of the other ladies and herself, who drank but
+water, gentle and simple alike, had begun to grow heated with
+wine, and were very urgent, Rosamund took the silk kerchief from
+her neck. Then coming to the edge of the dais, where they were
+seated in the sight of all, she stood before her cousins, not
+knowing, poor maid, to which of them she should offer it. But
+Godwin whispered a word to Wulf, and both of them stretching out
+their right hands, snatched an end of the kerchief which she held
+towards them, and rending it, twisted the severed halves round
+their sword hilts. The company laughed at their wit, and cried:
+
+"The wine for the more handsome. They cannot serve that thus."
+
+Rosamund thought a moment; then she lifted a great silver
+beaker, the largest on the board, and having filled it full of
+wine, once more came forward and held it before them as though
+pondering. Thereon the brethren, as though by a single movement,
+bent forward and each of them touched the beaker with his lips.
+Again a great laugh went up, and even Rosamund smiled.
+
+"The book! the book!" cried the guests. "They dare not rend the
+holy book!"
+
+So for the third time Rosamund advanced, bearing the missal.
+
+"Knights," she said, "you have torn my kerchief and drunk my wine.
+Now I offer this hallowed writing--to him who can read it best."
+
+"Give it to Godwin," said Wulf. "I am a swordsman, not a clerk."
+
+"Well said! well said!" roared the company. "The sword for
+us--not the pen!" But Rosamund turned on them and answered:
+
+"He who wields sword is brave, and he who wields pen is wise, but
+better is he who can handle both sword and pen--like my cousin
+Godwin, the brave and learned."
+
+"Hear her! hear her!" cried the revellers, knocking their horns
+upon the board, while in the silence that followed a woman's
+voice said, "Sir Godwin's luck is great, but give me Sir Wulf's
+strong arms."
+
+Then the drinking began again, and Rosamund and the ladies
+slipped away, as well they might--for the times were rough and
+coarse.
+
+On the morrow, after most of the guests were gone, many of them
+with aching heads, Godwin and Wulf sought their uncle, Sir
+Andrew, in the solar where he sat alone, for they knew Rosamund
+had walked to the church hard by with two of the serving women to
+make it ready for the Friday's mass, after the feast of the
+peasants that had been held in the nave. Coming to his oaken
+chair by the open hearth which had a chimney to it--no common
+thing in those days--they knelt before him.
+
+"What is it now, my nephews?" asked the old man, smiling. "Do you
+wish that I should knight you afresh?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Godwin; "we seek a greater boon."
+
+"Then you seek in vain, for there is none."
+
+"Another sort of boon," broke in Wulf.
+
+Sir Andrew pulled his beard, and looked at them. Perhaps the
+Prior John had spoken a word to him, and he guessed what was
+coming.
+
+"Speak," he said to Godwin. "The gift is great that I would not
+give to either of you if it be within my power."
+
+"Sir," said Godwin, "we seek the leave to ask your daughter's
+hand in marriage."
+
+"What! the two of you?"
+
+"Yes, sir; the two of us."
+
+Then Sir Andrew, who seldom laughed, laughed outright.
+
+"Truly," he said, "of all the strange things I have known, this
+is the strangest--that two knights should ask one wife between
+them."
+
+"It seems strange, sir; but when you have heard our tale you will
+understand."
+
+So he listened while they told him all that had passed between
+them and of the solemn oath which they had sworn.
+
+"Noble in this as in other things," commented Sir Andrew when
+they had done; "but I fear that one of you may find that vow hard
+to keep. By all the saints, nephews, you were right when you said
+that you asked a great boon. Do you know, although I have told
+you nothing of it, that, not to speak of the knave Lozelle,
+already two of the greatest men in this land have sought my
+daughter Rosamund in marriage?"
+
+"It may well be so," said Wulf.
+
+"It is so, and now I will tell you why one or other of the pair
+is not her husband, which in some ways I would he were. A simple
+reason. I asked her, and she had no mind to either, and as her
+mother married where her heart was, so I have sworn that the
+daughter should do, or not at all--for better a nunnery than a
+loveless bridal.
+
+"Now let us see what you have to give. You are of good
+blood--that of Uluin by your mother, and mine, also on one side
+her own. As squires to your sponsors of yesterday, the knights
+Sir Anthony de Mandeville and Sir Roger de Merci, you bore
+yourselves bravely in the Scottish War; indeed, your liege king
+Henry remembered it, and that is why he granted my prayer so
+readily. Since then, although you loved the life little, because
+I asked it of you, you have rested here at home with me, and done
+no feats of arms, save that great one of two months gone which
+made you knights, and, in truth, gives you some claim on
+Rosamund.
+
+"For the rest, your father being the younger son, your lands are
+small, and you have no other gear. Outside the borders of this
+shire you are unknown men, with all your deeds to do--for I will
+not count those Scottish battles when you were but boys. And she
+whom you ask is one of the fairest and noblest and most learned
+ladies in this land, for I, who have some skill in such things,
+have taught her myself from childhood. Moreover, as I have no
+other heir, she will be wealthy. Well, what more have you to
+offer for all this?"
+
+"Ourselves," answered Wulf boldly. "We are true knights of whom
+you know the best and worst, and we love her. We learned it for
+once and for all on Death Creek quay, for till then she was our
+sister and no more."
+
+"Ay," added Godwin, "when she swore herself to us and blessed us,
+then light broke on both."
+
+"Stand up," said Sir Andrew, "and let me look at you."
+
+So they stood side by side in the full light of the blazing fire,
+for little other came through those narrow windows.
+
+"Proper men; proper men," said the old knight; "and as like to one
+another as two grains of wheat from the same sample. Six feet
+high, each of you, and broad chested, though Wulf is larger made
+and the stronger of the two. Brown and waving-haired both, save
+for that line of white where the sword hit yours, Godwin--Godwin
+with grey eyes that dream and Wulf with the blue eyes that shine
+like swords. Ah! your grandsire had eyes like that, Wulf; and I
+have been told that when he leapt from the tower to the wall at
+the taking of Jerusalem, the Saracens did not love the light
+which shone in them--nor, in faith, did I, his son, when he was
+angry. Proper men, the pair of you; but Sir Wulf most
+warriorlike, and Sir Godwin most courtly."
+
+"Now which do you think would please a woman most?"
+
+"That, sir, depends upon the woman," answered Godwin, and
+straightway his eyes began to dream.
+
+"That, sir, we seek to learn before the day is out, if you give
+us leave," added Wulf; "though, if you would know, I think my
+chance a poor one."
+
+"Ah, well; it is a very pretty riddle. But I do not envy her who
+has its answering, for it might well trouble a maid's mind,
+neither is it certain when all is done that she will guess best
+for her own peace. Would it not be wiser, then, that I should
+forbid them to ask this riddle?" he added as though to himself
+and fell to thinking while they trembled, seeing that he was
+minded to refuse their suit.
+
+At length he looked up again and said: "Nay, let it go as God
+wills Who holds the future in His hand. Nephews, because you are
+good knights and true, either of whom would ward her well--and
+she may need warding--because you are my only brother's sons,
+whom I have promised him to care for; and most of all because I
+love you both with an equal love, have your wish, and go try your
+fortunes at the hands of my daughter Rosamund in the fashion you
+have agreed. Godwin, the elder, first, as is his right; then
+Wulf. Nay, no thanks; but go swiftly, for I whose hours are short
+wish to learn the answer to this riddle."
+
+So they bowed and went, walking side by side. At the door of the
+hall, Wulf stopped and said:
+
+"Rosamund is in the church. Seek her there, and--oh! I would that
+I could wish you good fortune; but, Godwin, I cannot. I fear me
+that this may be the edge of that shadow of woman's love whereof
+you spoke, falling cold upon my heart."
+
+"There is no shadow; there is light, now and always, as we have
+sworn that it should be," answered Godwin.
+
+
+
+Chapter Four: The Letter of Saladin
+
+Twas past three in the afternoon, and snow clouds were fast
+covering up the last grey gleam of the December day, as Godwin,
+wishing that his road was longer, walked to Steeple church across
+the meadow. At the door of it he met the two serving women coming
+out with brooms in their hands, and bearing between them a great
+basket filled with broken meats and foul rushes. Of them he asked
+if the Lady Rosamund were still in the church, to which they
+answered, curtseying:
+
+"Yes, Sir Godwin; and she bade us desire of you that you would
+come to lead her to the Hall when she had finished making her
+prayers before the altar."
+
+"I wonder," mused Godwin, "whether I shall ever lead her from the
+altar to the Hall, or whether--I shall bide alone by the altar?"
+
+Still he thought it a good omen that she had bidden him thus,
+though some might have read it otherwise.
+
+Godwin entered the church, walking softly on the rushes with
+which its nave was strewn, and by the light of the lamp that
+burnt there always, saw Rosamund kneeling before a little shrine,
+her gracious head bowed upon her hands, praying earnestly. Of
+what, he wondered--of what?
+
+Still, she did not hear him; so, coming into the chancel, he
+stood behind her and waited patiently. At length, with a deep
+sigh, Rosamund rose from her knees and turned, and he noted by
+the light of the lamp that there were tear-stains upon her face.
+Perhaps she, too, had spoken with the Prior John, who was her
+confessor also. Who knows? At the least, when her eyes fell upon
+Godwin standing like a statue before her, she started, and there
+broke from her lips the words:
+
+"Oh, how swift an answer!" Then, recovering herself, added, "To
+my message, I mean, cousin."
+
+"I met the women at the door," he said.
+
+"It is kind of you to come," Rosamund went on; "but, in truth,
+since that day on Death Creek I fear to walk a bow-shot's length
+alone or in the company of women only. With you I feel safe."
+
+"Or with Wulf?"
+
+"Yes; or with Wulf," she repeated; "that is, when he is not
+thinking of wars and adventures far away."
+
+By now they had reached the porch of the church, to find that the
+snow was falling fast.
+
+"Let us bide here a minute," he said; "it is but a passing
+cloud."
+
+So they stayed there in the gloom, and for a while there was
+silence between them. Then he spoke.
+
+"Rosamund, my cousin and lady, I come to put a question to you,
+but first--why you will understand afterwards--it is my duty to
+ask that you will give me no answer to that question until a full
+day has passed."
+
+"Surely, Godwin, that is easy to promise. But what is this
+wonderful question which may not be answered?"
+
+"One short and simple. Will you give yourself to me in marriage,
+Rosamund?"
+
+She leaned back against the wall of the porch.
+
+"My father--" she began.
+
+"Rosamund, I have his leave."
+
+"How can I answer since you yourself forbid me?"
+
+"Till this time to-morrow only. Meanwhile, I pray you hear me,
+Rosamund. I am your cousin, and we were brought up
+together--indeed, except when I was away at the Scottish war, we
+have never been apart. Therefore, we know each other well, as
+well as any can who are not wedded. Therefore, too, you will know
+that I have always loved you, first as a brother loves his
+sister, and now as a man loves a woman."
+
+"Nay, Godwin, I knew it not; indeed, I thought that, as it used
+to be, your heart was other--where."
+
+"Other--where? What lady--?"
+
+"Nay, no lady; but in your dreams."
+
+"Dreams? Dreams of what?"
+
+"I cannot say. Perchance of things that are not here--things
+higher than the person of a poor maid."
+
+"Cousin, in part you are right, for it is not only the maid whom
+I love, but her spirit also. Oh, in truth, you are to me a
+dream--a symbol of all that is noble, high and pure. In you and
+through you, Rosamund, I worship the heaven I hope to share with
+you."
+
+"A dream? A symbol? Heaven? Are not these glittering garments to
+hang about a woman's shape? Why, when the truth came out you
+would find her but a skull in a jewelled mask, and learn to
+loath her for a deceit that was not her own, but yours. Godwin,
+such trappings as your imagination pictures could only fit an
+angel's face."
+
+"They fit a face that will become an angel's."
+
+"An angel's? How know you? I am half an Eastern; the blood runs
+warm in me at times. I, too, have my thoughts and visions. I
+think that I love power and imagery and the delights of life--a
+different life from this. Are you sure, Godwin, that this poor
+face will be an angel's?"
+
+"I wish I were as sure of other things. At least I'll risk it."
+
+"Think of your soul, Godwin. It might be tarnished. You would not
+risk that for me, would you?"
+
+He thought. Then answered:
+
+"No; since your soul is a part of mine, and I would not risk
+yours, Rosamund."
+
+"I like you for that answer," she said. "Yes; more than for all
+you have said before, because I know that it is true. Indeed, you
+are an honourable knight, and I am proud--very proud--that you
+should love me, though perhaps it would have been better
+otherwise." And ever so little she bent the knee to him.
+
+"Whatever chances, in life or death those words will make me
+happy, Rosamund."
+
+Suddenly she caught his arm. "Whatever chances? Ah! what is about
+to chance? Great things, I think, for you and Wulf and me.
+Remember, I am half an Eastern, and we children of the East can
+feel the shadow of the future before it lays its hands upon us
+and becomes the present. I fear it, Godwin--I tell you that I
+fear it."
+
+"Fear it not, Rosamund. Why should you fear? On God's knees lies
+the scroll of our lives, and of His purposes. The words we see
+and the words we guess may be terrible, but He who wrote it knows
+the end of the scroll, and that it is good. Do not fear,
+therefore, but read on with an untroubled heart, taking no
+thought for the morrow."
+
+She looked at him wonderingly, and asked,
+
+"Are these the words of a wooer or of a saint in wooer's weeds? I
+know not, and do you know yourself? But you say you love me and
+that you would wed me, and I believe it; also that the woman whom
+Godwin weds will be fortunate, since such men are rare. But I am
+forbid to answer till to-morrow. Well, then I will answer as I am
+given grace. So till then be what you were of old, and--the snow
+has ceased; guide me home, my cousin Godwin."
+
+So home they went through the darkness and the cold, moaning
+wind, speaking no word, and entered the wide hall, where a great
+fire built in its centre roared upwards towards an opening in the
+roof, whence the smoke escaped, looking very pleasant and
+cheerful after the winter night without.
+
+There, standing in front of the fire, also pleasant and cheerful
+to behold, although his brow seemed somewhat puckered, was Wulf.
+At the sight of him Godwin turned back through the great door,
+and having, as it were, stood for one moment in the light,
+vanished again into the darkness, closing the door behind him.
+But Rosamund walked on towards the fire.
+
+"You seem cold, cousin," said Wulf, studying her. "Godwin has
+kept you too long to pray with him in church. Well, it is his
+custom, from which I myself have suffered. Be seated on this
+settle and warm yourself."
+
+She obeyed without a word, and opening her fur cloak, stretched
+out her hands towards the flame, which played upon her dark and
+lovely face. Wulf looked round him.
+
+The hall was empty. Then he looked at Rosamund.
+
+"I am glad to find this chance of speaking with you alone,
+Cousin, since I have a question to ask of you; but I must pray of
+you to give me no answer to it until four-and-twenty hours be
+passed."
+
+"Agreed," she said. "I have given one such promise; let it serve
+for both; now for your question."
+
+"Ah!" replied Wulf cheerfully; "I am glad that Godwin went first,
+since it saves me words, at which he is better than I am."
+
+"I do not know that, Wulf; at least, you have more of them,"
+answered Rosamund, with a little smile.
+
+"More perhaps, but of a different quality--that is what you mean.
+Well, happily here mere words are not in question."
+
+"What, then, are in question, Wulf?"
+
+"Hearts. Your heart and my heart--and, I suppose, Godwin's heart,
+if he has one--in that way."
+
+"Why should not Godwin have a heart?"
+
+"Why? Well, you see just now it is my business to belittle
+Godwin. Therefore I declare--which you, who know more about it,
+can believe or not as it pleases you--that Godwin's heart is like
+that of the old saint in the reliquary at Stangate--a thing which
+may have beaten once, and will perhaps beat again in heaven, but
+now is somewhat dead--to this world."
+
+Rosamund smiled, and thought to herself that this dead heart had
+shown signs of life not long ago. But aloud she said:
+
+"If you have no more to say to me of Godwin's heart, I will
+begone to read with my father, who waits for me."
+
+"Nay, I have much more to say of my own." Then suddenly Wulf
+became very earnest--so earnest that his great frame shook, and
+when he strove to speak he could but stammer. At length it all
+came forth in a flood of burning words.
+
+"I love you, Rosamund! I love you--all of you, as I have ever
+loved you--though I did not know it till the other day--that of
+the fight, and ever shall love you--and I seek you for my wife. I
+know that I am only a rough soldier-man, full of faults, not holy
+and learned like Godwin. Yet I swear that I would be a true
+knight to you all my life, and, if the saints give me grace and
+strength, do great deeds in your honour and watch you well. Oh!
+what more is there to say?"
+
+"Nothing, Wulf," answered Rosamund, lifting her downcast eyes.
+"You do not wish that I should answer you, so I will thank
+you--yes, from my heart, though, in truth, I am grieved that we
+can be no more brother and sister, as we have been this many a
+year--and be going."
+
+"Nay, Rosamund, not yet. Although you may not speak, surely you
+might give me some little sign, who am in torment, and thus must
+stay until this time to-morrow. For instance, you might let me
+kiss your hand--the pact said nothing about kissing."
+
+"I know naught of this pact, Wulf," answered Rosamund sternly,
+although a smile crept about the corners of her mouth, "but I do
+know that I shall not suffer you to touch my hand."
+
+"Then I will kiss your robe," and seizing a corner of her cloak,
+he pressed it to his lips.
+
+"You are strong--I am weak, Wulf, and cannot wrench my garment
+from you, but I tell you that this play advantages you nothing."
+
+He let the cloak fall.
+
+"Your pardon. I should have remembered that Godwin would never
+have presumed so far."
+
+"Godwin," she said, tapping her foot upon the ground, "if he gave
+a promise, would keep it in the spirit as well as in the letter."
+
+"I suppose so. See what it is for an erring man to have a saint
+for a brother and a rival! Nay, be not angry with me, Rosamund,
+who cannot tread the path of saints."
+
+"That I believe, but at least, Wulf, there is no need to mock
+those who can."
+
+"I mock him not. I love him as well as--you do." And he watched
+her face.
+
+It never changed, for in Rosamund's heart were hid the secret
+strength and silence of the East, which can throw a mask
+impenetrable over face and features.
+
+"I am glad that you love him, Wulf. See to it that you never
+forget your love and duty."
+
+"I will; yes--even if you reject me for him."
+
+"Those are honest words, such as I looked to hear you speak," she
+replied in a gentle voice. "And now, dear Wulf, farewell, for I am
+weary--"
+
+"To-morrow--" he broke in.
+
+"Ay," she answered in a heavy voice. "To-morrow I must speak,
+and--you must listen."
+
+The sun had run his course again, and once more it was near four
+o'clock in the afternoon. The brethren stood by the great fire in
+the hall looking at each other doubtfully--as, indeed, they had
+looked through all the long hours of the night, during which
+neither of them had closed an eye.
+
+"It is time," said Wulf, and Godwin nodded.
+
+As he spoke a woman was seen descending from the solar, and they
+knew her errand.
+
+"Which?" asked Wulf, but Godwin shook his head.
+
+"Sir Andrew bids me say that he would speak with you both," said
+the woman, and went her way.
+
+"By the saints, I believe it's neither!" exclaimed Wulf, with a
+little laugh.
+
+"It may be thus," said Godwin, "and perhaps that would be best for
+all."
+
+"I don't think so," answered Wulf, as he followed him up the
+steps of the solar.
+
+Now they had passed the passage and closed the door, and before
+them was Sir Andrew seated in his chair by the fire, but not
+alone, for at his side, her hand resting upon his shoulder, stood
+Rosamund. They noted that she was clad in her richest robes, and
+a bitter thought came into their minds that this might be to show
+them how beautiful was the woman whom both of them must lose. As
+they advanced they bowed first to her and then to their uncle,
+while, lifting her eyes from the ground, she smiled a little in
+greeting.
+
+"Speak, Rosamund," said her father. "These knights are in doubt
+and pain."
+
+"Now for the coup de grace," muttered Wulf.
+
+"My cousins," began Rosamund in a low, quiet voice, as though she
+were saying a lesson, "as to the matter of which you spoke to me
+yesterday, I have taken counsel with my father and with my own
+heart. You did me great honour, both of you, in asking me to be
+the wife of such worthy knights, with whom I have been brought
+up and have loved since childhood as a sister loves her brothers.
+I will be brief as I may. Alas! I can give to neither of you the
+answer which you wish."
+
+"Coup de grace indeed," muttered Wulf, "through hauberk, gambeson,
+and shirt, right home to the heart."
+
+But Godwin only turned a trifle paler and said nothing.
+
+Now there was silence for a little space, while from beneath his
+bushy eyebrows the old knight watched their faces, on which the
+light of the tapers fell.
+
+Then Godwin spoke: "We thank you, Cousin. Come, Wulf, we have our
+answer; let us be going."
+
+"Not all of it," broke in Rosamund hastily, and they seemed to
+breathe again.
+
+"Listen," she said; "for if it pleases you, I am willing to make a
+promise which my father has approved. Come to me this time two
+years, and if we all three live, should both of you still wish
+for me to wife, that there may be no further space of pain or
+waiting, I will name the man whom I shall choose, and marry him
+at once."
+
+"And if one of us is dead?" asked Godwin.
+
+"Then," replied Rosamund, "if his name be untarnished, and he has
+done no deed that is not knightly, will forthwith wed the other."
+
+"Pardon me--" broke in Wulf.
+
+She held up her hand and stopped him, saying: "You think this a
+strange saying, and so, perhaps, it is; but the matter is also
+strange, and for me the case is hard. Remember, all my life is at
+stake, and I may desire more time wherein to make my choice, that
+between two such men no maiden would find easy. We are all of us
+still young for marriage, for which, if God guards our lives,
+there will be time and to spare. Also in two years I may learn
+which of you is in truth the worthier knight, who to-day both
+seem so worthy."
+
+"Then is neither of us more to you than the other?" asked Wulf
+outright.
+
+Rosamund turned red, and her bosom heaved as she replied:
+
+"I will not answer that question."
+
+"And Wulf should not have asked it," said Godwin. "Brother, I read
+Rosamund's saying thus: Between us she finds not much to choose,
+or if she does in her secret heart, out of her kindness--since
+she is determined not to marry for a while--she will not suffer
+us to see it and thereby bring grief on one of us. So she says,
+'Go forth, you knights, and do deeds worthy of such a lady, and
+perchance he who does the highest deeds shall receive the great
+reward.' For my part, I find this judgment wise and just, and I
+am content to abide its issue. Nay, I am even glad of it, since
+it gives us time and opportunity to show our sweet cousin here,
+and all our fellows, the mettle whereof we are made, and strive
+to outshine each other in the achievement of great feats which,
+as always, we shall attempt side by side."
+
+"Well spoken," said Sir Andrew. "And you, Wulf?"
+
+Then Wulf, feeling that Rosamund was watching his face beneath
+the shadow of her long eyelashes, answered:
+
+"Before Heaven, I am content also, for whatever may be said
+against it, now at least there will be two years of war in which
+one or both of us well may fall, and for that while at least no
+woman can come between our brotherhood. Uncle, I crave your leave
+to go serve my liege in Normandy."
+
+"And I also," said Godwin.
+
+"In the spring; in the spring," replied Sir Andrew hastily; "when
+King Henry moves his power. Meanwhile, bide you here in all good
+fellowship, for, who knows--much may happen between now and then,
+and perhaps your strong arms will be needed as they were not long
+ago. Moreover, I look to all three of you to hear no more of this
+talk of love and marriage, which, in truth, disturbs my mind and
+house. For good or ill, the matter is now settled for two years
+to come, by which time it is likely I shall be in my grave and
+beyond all troubling.
+
+"I do not say that things have gone altogether as I could have
+wished, but they are as Rosamund wishes, and that is enough for
+me. On which of you she looks with the more favour I do not know,
+and be you content to remain in ignorance of what a father does
+not think it wise to seek to learn. A maid's heart is her own,
+and her future lies in the hand of God and His saints, where let
+it bide, say I. Now we have done with all this business.
+Rosamund, dismiss your knights, and be you all three brothers and
+sister once more till this time two years, when those who live
+will find an answer to the riddle."
+
+So Rosamund came forward, and without a word gave her right hand
+to Godwin and her left to Wulf, and suffered that they should
+press their lips upon them. So for a while this was the end of
+their asking of her in marriage.
+
+The brethren left the solar side by side as they had come into
+it, but changed men in a sense, for now their lives were afire
+with a great purpose, which bade them dare and do and win. Yet
+they were lighter-hearted than when they entered there, since at
+least neither had been scorned, while both had hope, and all the
+future, which the young so seldom fear, lay before them.
+
+As they descended the steps their eyes fell upon the figure of a
+tall man clad in a pilgrim's cape, hood and low-crowned hat, of
+which the front was bent upwards and laced, who carried in his
+hand a palmer's staff, and about his waist the scrip and
+water-bottle.
+
+"What do you seek, holy palmer?" asked Godwin, coming towards
+him. "A night's lodging in my uncle's house?"
+
+The man bowed; then, fixing on him a pair of beadlike brown eyes,
+which reminded Godwin of some he had seen, he knew not when or
+where, answered in the humble voice affected by his class:
+
+"Even so, most noble knight. Shelter for man and beast, for my
+mule is held without. Also--a word with the lord, Sir Andrew
+D'Arcy, for whom I have a message."
+
+"A mule?" said Wulf. "I thought that palmers always went afoot?"
+
+"True, Sir Knight; but, as it chances, I have baggage. Nay, not
+my own, whose earthly gear is all upon my back--but a chest, that
+contains I know not what, which I am charged to deliver to Sir
+Andrew D'Arcy, the owner of this hall, or should he be dead, then
+to the lady Rosamund, his daughter."
+
+"Charged? By whom?" asked Wulf.
+
+"That, sir," said the palmer, bowing, "I will tell to Sir Andrew,
+who, I understand, still lives. Have I your leave to bring in the
+chest, and if so, will one of your servants help me, for it is
+heavy?"
+
+"We will help you," said Godwin. And they went with him into the
+courtyard, where by the scant light of the stars they saw a fine
+mule in charge of one of the serving men, and bound upon its back
+a long-shaped package sewn over with sacking. This the palmer
+unloosed, and taking one end, while Wulf, after bidding the man
+stable the mule, took the other, they bore it into the hall,
+Godwin going before them to summon his uncle. Presently he came
+and the palmer bowed to him.
+
+"What is your name, palmer, and whence is this box?" asked the
+old knight, looking at him keenly.
+
+"My name, Sir Andrew, is Nicholas of Salisbury, and as to who
+sent me, with your leave I will whisper in your ear." And,
+leaning forward, he did so.
+
+Sir Andrew heard and staggered back as though a dart had pierced
+him.
+
+"What?" he said. "Are you, a holy palmer, the messenger of--" and
+he stopped suddenly.
+
+"I was his prisoner," answered the man, "and he--who at least ever
+keeps his word--gave me my life--for I had been condemned to
+die--at the price that I brought this to you, and took back your
+answer, or hers, which I have sworn to do."
+
+"Answer? To what?"
+
+"Nay, I know nothing save that there is a writing in the chest.
+Its purport I am not told, who am but a messenger bound by oath
+to do certain things. Open the chest, lord, and meanwhile, if you
+have food, I have travelled far and fast."
+
+Sir Andrew went to a door, and called to his men-servants, whom
+he bade give meat to the palmer and stay with him while he ate.
+Then he told Godwin and Wulf to lift the box and bring it to the
+solar, and with it hammer and chisel, in case they should be
+needed, which they did, setting it upon the oaken table.
+
+"Open," said Sir Andrew. So they ripped off the canvas, two folds
+of it, revealing within a box of dark, foreign looking wood bound
+with iron bands, at which they laboured long before they could
+break them. At length it was done, and there within was another
+box beautifully made of polished ebony, and sealed at the front
+and ends with a strange device. This box had a lock of silver, to
+which was tied a silver key.
+
+"At least it has not been tampered with," said Wulf, examining
+the unbroken seals, but Sir Andrew only repeated:
+
+"Open, and be swift. Here, Godwin, take the key, for my hand
+shakes with cold."
+
+The lock turned easily, and the seals being broken, the lid rose
+upon its hinges, while, as it did so, a scent of precious odours
+filled the place. Beneath, covering the contents of the chest,
+was an oblong piece of worked silk, and lying on it a parchment.
+
+Sir Andrew broke the thread and seal, and unrolled the parchment.
+Within it was written over in strange characters. Also, there was
+a second unsealed roll, written in a clerkly hand in Norman
+French, and headed, "Translation of this letter, in case the
+knight, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, has forgotten the Arabic tongue, or
+that his daughter, the lady Rosamund, has not yet learned the
+same."
+
+Sir Andrew glanced at both headings, then said:
+
+"Nay, I have not forgotten Arabic, who, while my lady lived,
+spoke little else with her, and who taught it to our daughter.
+But the light is bad, and, Godwin, you are scholarly; read me the
+French. We can compare them afterwards."
+
+At this moment Rosamund entered the solar from her chamber, and
+seeing the three of them so strangely employed, said:
+
+"Is it your will that I go, father?"
+
+"No, daughter. Since you are here, stay here. I think that this
+matter concerns you as well as me. Read on, Godwin."
+
+So Godwin read:
+
+"In the Name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate! I,
+Salah-ed-din, Yusuf ibn Ayoub, Commander of the Faithful, cause
+these words to be written, and seal them with my own hand, to the
+Frankish lord, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, husband of my sister by another
+mother, Sitt Zobeide, the beautiful and faithless, on whom Allah
+has taken vengeance for her sin. Or if he be dead also, then to
+his daughter and hers, my niece, and by blood a princess of Syria
+and Egypt, who among the English is named the lady Rose of the
+World.
+
+"You, Sir Andrew, will remember how, many years ago, what we were
+friends, you, by an evil chance, became acquainted with my sister
+Zobeide, while you were a prisoner and sick in my father's house.
+How, too, Satan put it into her heart to listen to your words of
+love, so that she became a Cross-worshipper, and was married to
+you after the Frankish custom, and fled with you to England. You
+will remember also, although at the time we could not recapture
+her from your vessel, how I sent a messenger to you, saying that
+soon or late I would yet tear her from your arms and deal with
+her as we deal with faithless women. But within six years of that
+time sure news reached me that Allah had taken her, therefore I
+mourned for my sister and her fate awhile, and forgot her and
+you.
+
+"Know that a certain knight named Lozelle, who dwelt in the part
+of England where you have your castle, has told me that Zobeide
+left a daughter, who is very beautiful. Now my heart, which loved
+her mother, goes out towards this niece whom I have never seen,
+for although she is your child and a Cross-worshipper at
+least--save in the matter of her mother's theft--you were a brave
+and noble knight, of good blood, as, indeed, I remember your
+brother was also, he who fell in the fight at Harenc.
+
+"Learn now that, having by the will of Allah come to great estate
+here at Damascus and throughout the East, I desire to lift your
+daughter up to be a princess of my house. Therefore I invite her
+to journey to Damascus, and you with her, if you live. Moreover,
+lest you should fear some trap, on behalf of myself, my
+successors and councillors, I promise in the Name of God, and by
+the word of Salah-ed-din, which never yet was broken, that
+although I trust the merciful God may change her heart so that
+she enters it of her own will, I will not force her to accept the
+Faith or to bind herself in any marriage which she does not
+desire. Nor will I take vengeance upon you, Sir Andrew, for what
+you have done in the past, or suffer others to do so, but will
+rather raise you to great honour and live with you in friendship
+as of yore.
+
+"But if my messenger returns and tells me that my niece refuses
+this, my loving offer, then I warn her that my arm is long, and I
+will surely take her as I can.
+
+"Therefore, within a year of the day that I receive the answer of
+the lady, my niece, who is named Rose of the World, my emissaries
+will appear wherever she may be, married or single, to lead her
+to me, with honour if she be willing, but still to lead her to me
+if she be unwilling. Meanwhile, in token of my love, I send
+certain gifts of precious things, and with them my patent of her
+title as Princess, and Lady of the City of Baalbec, which title,
+with its revenue and prerogatives, are registered in the archives
+of my empire in favour of her and her lawful heirs, and declared
+to be binding upon me and my successors forever.
+
+"The bearer of this letter and of my gifts is a certain
+Cross-worshipper named Nicholas, to whom let your answer be
+handed for delivery to me. This devoir he is under oath to
+perform and will perform it, for he knows that if he fails
+therein, then that he must die.
+
+"Signed by Salah-ed-din, Commander of the Faithful, at Damascus,
+and sealed with his seal, in the spring season of the year of the
+Hegira 581.
+
+"Take note also that this writing having been read to me by my
+secretary before I set my name and seal thereunto, I perceive
+that you, Sir Andrew, or you, Lady Rose of the World, may think
+it strange that I should be at such pains and cost over a maid
+who is not of my religion and whom I never saw, and may therefore
+doubt my honesty in the matter. Know then the true reason. Since
+I heard that you, Lady Rose of the World, lived, I have thrice
+been visited by a dream sent from God concerning you, and in it I
+saw your face.
+
+"Now this was the dream--that the oath I made as regards your
+mother is binding as regards you also; further, that in some way
+which is not revealed to me, your presence here will withhold me
+from the shedding of a sea of blood, and save the whole world
+much misery. Therefore it is decreed that you must come and bide
+in my house. That these things are so, Allah and His Prophet be
+my witnesses."
+
+
+
+Chapter Five: The Wine Merchant
+
+Godwin laid down the letter, and all of them stared at one
+another in amazement.
+
+"Surely," said Wulf, "this is some fool's trick played off upon
+our uncle as an evil jest."
+
+By way of answer Sir Andrew bade him lift the silk that hid the
+contents of the coffer and see what lay there. Wulf did so, and
+next moment threw back his head like a man whom some sudden light
+had blinded, as well he might, for from it came such a flare of
+gems as Essex had rarely seen before. Red, green and blue they
+sparkled; and among them were the dull glow of gold and the white
+sheen of pearls.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful! how beautiful!" said Rosamund.
+
+"Ay," muttered Godwin; "beautiful enough to maze a woman's mind
+till she knows not right from wrong."
+
+Wulf said nothing, but one by one drew its treasures from the
+chest--coronet, necklace of pearls, breast ornaments of rubies,
+girdle of sapphires, jewelled anklets, and with them veil,
+sandals, robes and other garments of gold-embroidered purple
+silk. Moreover, among these, also sealed with the seals of
+Salah-ed-din, his viziers, officers of state, and secretaries,
+was that patent of which the letter spoke, setting out the full
+titles of the Princess of Baalbec; the extent and boundaries of
+her great estates, and the amount of her annual revenue, which
+seemed more money than they had ever heard of.
+
+"I was wrong," said Wulf. "Even the Sultan of the East could not
+afford a jest so costly."
+
+"Jest?" broke in Sir Andrew; "it is no jest, as I was sure from
+the first line of that letter. It breathes the very spirit of
+Saladin, though he be a Saracen, the greatest man on all the
+earth, as I, who was a friend of his youth, know well. Ay, and he
+is right. In a sense I sinned against him as his sister sinned,
+our love compelling us. Jest? Nay, no jest, but because a vision
+of the night, which he believes the voice of God, or perhaps some
+oracle of the magicians has deeply stirred that great soul of his
+and led him on to this wild adventure."
+
+He paused awhile, then looked up and said, "Girl, do you know what
+Saladin has made of you? Why, there are queens in Europe who
+would be glad to own that rank and those estates in the rich
+lands above Damascus. I know the city and the castle of which
+he speaks. It is a mighty place upon the banks of Litani and
+Orontes, and after its military governor--for that rule he would
+not give a Christian--you will be first in it, beneath the seal
+of Saladin--the surest title in all the earth. Say, will you go
+and queen it there?"
+
+Rosamund gazed at the gleaming gems and the writings that made
+her royal, and her eyes flashed and her breast heaved, as they
+had done by the church of St. Peter on the Essex coast. Thrice
+she looked while they watched her, then turned her head as from
+the bait of some great temptation and answered one word
+only--"Nay."
+
+"Well spoken," said her father, who knew her blood and its
+longings. "At least, had the 'nay' been 'yea,' you must have gone
+alone. Give me ink and parchment, Godwin."
+
+They were brought, and he wrote:
+
+"To the Sultan Saladin, from Andrew D'Arcy and his daughter
+Rosamund.
+
+"We have received your letter, and we answer that where we are
+there we will bide in such state as God has given us.
+Nevertheless, we thank you, Sultan, since we believe you honest,
+and we wish you well, except in your wars against the Cross. As
+for your threats, we will do our best to bring them to nothing.
+Knowing the customs of the East, we do not send back your gifts
+to you, since to do so would be to offer insult to one of the
+greatest men in all the world; but if you choose to ask for them,
+they are yours--not ours. Of your dream we say that it was but an
+empty vision of the night which a wise man should forget.--Your
+servant and your niece."
+
+Then he signed, and Rosamund signed after him, and the writing
+was done up, wrapped in silk, and sealed.
+
+"Now," said Sir Andrew, "hide away this wealth, since were it
+known that we had such treasures in the place, every thief in
+England would be our visitor, some of them bearing high names, I
+think."
+
+So they laid the gold-embroidered robes and the priceless sets of
+gems back in their coffer, and having locked it, hid it away in
+the great iron-bound chest that stood in Sir Andrew's sleeping
+chamber.
+
+When everything was finished, Sir Andrew said: "Listen now,
+Rosamund, and you also, my nephews. I have never told you the
+true tale of how the sister of Saladin, who was known as
+Zobeide, daughter of Ayoub, and afterwards christened into our
+faith by the name of Mary, came to be my wife. Yet you should
+learn it, if only to show how evil returns upon a man. After the
+great Nur-ed-din took Damascus, Ayoub was made its governor; then
+some three-and-twenty years ago came the capture of Harenc, in
+which my brother fell. Here I was wounded and taken prisoner.
+They bore me to Damascus, where I was lodged in the palace of
+Ayoub and kindly treated. Here too it was, while I lay sick, that
+I made friends with the young Saladin, and with his sister
+Zobeide, whom I met secretly in the gardens of the palace. The
+rest may be guessed. Although she numbered but half my years, she
+loved me as I loved her, and for my sake offered to change her
+faith and fly with me to England if opportunity could be found,
+which was hard.
+
+"Now, as it chanced, I had a friend, a dark and secret man named
+Jebal, the young sheik of a terrible people, whose cruel rites no
+Christian understands. They are the subjects of one Mahomet, in
+Persia, and live in castles at Masyaf, on Lebanon. This man had
+been in alliance with the Franks, and once in a battle I saved
+his life from the Saracens at the risk of my own, whereon he
+swore that did I summon him from the ends of the earth he would
+come to me if I needed help. Moreover, he gave me his signet-ring
+as a token, and, by virtue of it, so he said, power in his
+dominions equal to his own, though these I never visited. You
+know it," and holding up his hand, Sir Andrew showed them a heavy
+gold ring, in which was set a black stone, with red veins running
+across the stone in the exact shape of a dagger, and beneath the
+dagger words cut in unknown characters.
+
+"So in my plight I bethought me of Jebal, and found means to send
+him a letter sealed with his ring. Nor did he forget his promise,
+for within twelve days Zobeide and I were galloping for Beirut on
+two horses so swift that all the cavalry of Ayoub could not
+overtake them. We reached the city, and there were married,
+Rosamund. There too your mother was baptised a Christian. Thence,
+since it was not safe for us to stay in the East, we took ship
+and came safe home, bearing this ring of Jebal with us, for I
+would not give it up, as his servants demanded that I should do,
+except to him alone. But before that vessel sailed, a man
+disguised as a fisherman brought me a message from Ayoub and his
+son Saladin, swearing that they would yet recapture Zobeide, the
+daughter of one of them and sister of the other.
+
+"That is the story, and you see that their oath has not been
+forgotten, though when in after years they learned of my wife's
+death, they let the matter lie. But since then Saladin, who in
+those days was but a noble youth, has become the greatest sultan
+that the East has ever known, and having been told of you,
+Rosamund, by that traitor Lozelle, he seeks to take you in your
+mother's place, and, daughter, I tell you that I fear him."
+
+"At least we have a year or longer in which to prepare ourselves,
+or to hide," said Rosamund. "His palmer must travel back to the
+East before my uncle Saladin can have our answer."
+
+"Ay," said Sir Andrew; "perhaps we have a year."
+
+"What of the attack on the quay?" asked Godwin, who had been
+thinking. "The knight Lozelle was named there. Yet if Saladin had
+to do with it, it seems strange that the blow should have come
+before the word."
+
+Sir Andrew brooded a while, then said:
+
+"Bring in this palmer. I will question him."
+
+So the man Nicholas, who was found still eating as though his
+hunger would never be satisfied, was brought in by Wulf. He bowed
+low before the old knight and Rosamund, studying them the while
+with his sharp eyes, and the roof and the floor, and every other
+detail of the chamber. For those eyes of his seemed to miss
+nothing.
+
+"You have brought me a letter from far away, Sir Palmer, who are
+named Nicholas," said Sir Andrew.
+
+"I have brought you a chest from Damascus, Sir Knight, but of its
+contents I know nothing. At least you will bear me witness that
+it has not been tampered with," answered Nicholas.
+
+"I find it strange," went on the old knight, "that one in your
+holy garb should be chosen as the messenger of Saladin, with whom
+Christian men have little to do."
+
+"But Saladin has much to do with Christian men, Sir Andrew. Thus
+he takes them prisoner even in times of peace, as he did me."
+
+"Did he, then, take the knight Lozelle prisoner?"
+
+"The knight Lozelle?" repeated the palmer. "Was he a big,
+red-faced man, with a scar upon his forehead, who always wore a
+black cloak over his mail?"
+
+"That might be he."
+
+"Then he was not taken prisoner, but he came to visit the Sultan
+at Damascus while I lay in bonds there, for I saw him twice or
+thrice, though what his business was I do not know. Afterwards he
+left, and at Jaffa I heard that he had sailed for Europe three
+months before I did."
+
+Now the brethren looked at each other. So Lozelle was in
+England. But Sir Andrew made no comment, only he said: "Tell me
+your story, and be careful that you speak the truth."
+
+"Why should I not, who have nothing to hide?" answered Nicholas.
+"I was captured by some Arabs as I journeyed to the Jordan upon a
+pilgrimage, who, when they found that I had no goods to be
+robbed of, would have killed me. This, indeed, they were about to
+do, had not some of Saladin's soldiers come by and commanded
+them to hold their hands and give me over to them. They did so,
+and the soldiers took me to Damascus. There I was imprisoned,
+but not close, and then it was that I saw Lozelle, or, at least,
+a Christian man who had some such name, and, as he seemed to be
+in favour with the Saracens, I begged him to intercede for me.
+Afterwards I was brought before the court of Saladin, and having
+questioned me, the Sultan himself told me that I must either
+worship the false prophet or die, to which you can guess my
+answer. So they led me away, as I thought, to death, but none
+offered to do me hurt.
+
+"Three days later Saladin sent for me again, and offered to spare
+my life if I would swear an oath, which oath was that I should
+take a certain package and deliver it to you, or to your daughter
+named the Lady Rosamund here at your hall of Steeple, in Essex,
+and bring back the answer to Damascus. Not wishing to die, I said
+that I would do this, if the Sultan passed his word, which he
+never breaks, that I should be set free afterwards."
+
+"And now you are safe in England, do you purpose to return to
+Damascus with the answer, and, if so, why?"
+
+"For two reasons, Sir Andrew. First, because I have sworn to do
+so, and I do not break my word any more than does Saladin.
+Secondly, because I continue to wish to live, and the Sultan
+promised me that if I failed in my mission, he would bring about
+my death wherever I might be, which I am sure he has the power to
+do by magic or otherwise. Well, the rest of the tale is short.
+The chest was handed over to me as you see it, and with it money
+sufficient for my faring to and fro and something to spare. Then
+I was escorted to Joppa, where I took passage on a ship bound to
+Italy, where I found another ship named the Holy Mary sailing for
+Calais, which we reached after being nearly cast away. Thence I
+came to Dover in a fishing boat, landing there eight days ago,
+and having bought a mule, joined some travellers to London, and
+so on here."
+
+"And how will you return?"
+
+The palmer shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"As best I may, and as quickly. Is your answer ready, Sir
+Andrew?"
+
+"Yes; it is here," and he handed him the roll, which Nicholas hid
+away in the folds of his great cloak. Then Sir Andrew added, "You
+say you know nothing of all the business in which you play this
+part?"
+
+"Nothing; or, rather, only this--the officer who escorted me to
+Jaffa told me that there was a stir among the learned doctors and
+diviners at the court because of a certain dream which the Sultan
+had dreamed three times. It had to do with a lady who was half of
+the blood of Ayoub and half English, and they said that my
+mission was mixed up with this matter. Now I see that the noble
+lady before me has eyes strangely like those of the Sultan
+Saladin." And he spread out his hands and ceased.
+
+"You seem to see a good deal, friend Nicholas."
+
+"Sir Andrew, a poor palmer who wishes to preserve his throat
+unslit must keep his eyes open. Now I have eaten well, and I am
+weary. Is there any place where I may sleep? I must be gone at
+daybreak, for those who do Saladin's business dare not tarry, and
+I have your letter."
+
+"There is a place," answered Sir Andrew. "Wulf, take him to it,
+and to-morrow, before he leaves, we will speak again. Till then,
+farewell, holy Nicholas."
+
+With one more searching glance the palmer bowed and went. When
+the door closed behind him Sir Andrew beckoned Godwin to him, and
+whispered:
+
+"To-morrow, Godwin, you must take some men and follow this
+Nicholas to see where he goes and what he does, for I tell you I
+do not trust him--ay, I fear him much! These embassies to and
+from Saracens are strange traffic for a Christian man. Also,
+though he says his life hangs on it, I think that were he honest,
+once safe in England here he would stop, since the first priest
+would absolve him of an oath forced from him by the infidel."
+
+"Were he dishonest would he not have stolen those jewels?" asked
+Godwin. "They are worth some risk. What do you think, Rosamund?"
+
+"I?" she answered. "Oh, I think there is more in this than any of
+us dream.
+
+"I think," she added in a voice of distress and with an
+involuntary wringing motion of the hands, "that for this house and
+those who dwell in it time is big with death, and that sharp-eyed
+palmer is its midwife. How strange is the destiny that wraps us
+all about! And now comes the sword of Saladin to shape it, and
+the hand of Saladin to drag me from my peaceful state to a
+dignity which I do not seek; and the dreams of Saladin, of whose
+kin I am, to interweave my life with the bloody policies of Syria
+and the unending war between Cross and Crescent, that are, both
+of them, my heritage." Then, with a woeful gesture, Rosamund
+turned and left them.
+
+Her father watched her go, and said:
+
+"The maid is right. Great business is afoot in which all of us
+must bear our parts. For no little thing would Saladin stir
+thus--he who braces himself as I know well, for the last struggle
+in which Christ or Mahomet must go down. Rosamund is right. On
+her brow shines the crescent diadem of the house of Ayoub, and at
+her heart hangs the black cross of the Christian and round her
+struggle creeds and nations. What, Wulf, does the man sleep
+already?"
+
+"Like a dog, for he seems outworn with travel."
+
+"Like a dog with one eye open, perhaps. I do not wish that he
+should give us the slip during the night, as I want more talk
+with him and other things, of which I have spoken to Godwin."
+
+"No fear of that, uncle. I have locked the stable door, and a
+sainted palmer will scarcely leave us the present of such a
+mule."
+
+"Not he, if I know his tribe," answered Sir Andrew. "Now let us
+sup and afterwards take counsel together, for we shall need it
+before all is done."
+
+An hour before the dawn next morning Godwin and Wulf were up, and
+with them certain trusted men who had been warned that their
+services would be needed. Presently Wulf, bearing a lantern in
+his hand, came to where his brother stood by the fire in the
+hall.
+
+"Where have you been?" Godwin asked. "To wake the palmer?"
+
+"No. To place a man to watch the road to Steeple Hill, and
+another at the Creek path; also to feed his mule, which is a very
+fine beast--too good for a palmer. Doubtless he will be stirring
+soon, as he said that he must be up early."
+
+Godwin nodded, and they sat together on the bench beside the
+fire, for the weather was bitter, and dozed till the dawn began
+to break. Then Wulf rose and shook himself, saying:
+
+"He will not think it uncourteous if we rouse him now," and
+walking to the far end of the hall, he drew a curtain and called
+out, "Awake, holy Nicholas! awake! It is time for you to say your
+prayers, and breakfast will soon be cooking."
+
+But no Nicholas answered.
+
+"Of a truth," grumbled Wulf, as he came back for his lantern,
+"that palmer sleeps as though Saladin had already cut his
+throat." Then having lit it, he returned to the guest place.
+
+"Godwin," he called presently, "come here. The man has gone!"
+
+"Gone?" said Godwin as he ran to the curtain. "Gone where?"
+
+"Back to his friend Saladin, I think," answered Wulf. "Look, that
+is how he went." And he pointed to the shutter of the
+sleeping-place, that stood wide open, and to an oaken stool
+beneath, by means of which the sainted Nicholas had climbed up to
+and through the narrow window slit.
+
+"He must be without, grooming the mule which he would never have
+left," said Godwin.
+
+"Honest guests do not part from their hosts thus," answered Wulf;
+"but let us go and see."
+
+So they ran to the stable and found it locked and the mule safe
+enough within. Nor--though they looked--could they find any
+trace of the palmer--not even a footstep, since the ground was
+frostbound. Only on examining the door of the stable they
+discovered that an attempt had been made to lift the lock with
+some sharp instrument.
+
+"It seems that he was determined to be gone, either with or
+without the beast," said Wulf. "Well, perhaps we can catch him
+yet," and he called to the men to saddle up and ride with him to
+search the country.
+
+For three hours they hunted far and wide, but nothing did they
+see of Nicholas.
+
+"The knave has slipped away like a night hawk, and left as little
+trace," reported Wulf. "Now, my uncle, what does this mean?"
+
+"I do not know, save that it is of a piece with the rest, and
+that I like it little," answered the old knight anxiously. "Here
+the value of the beast was of no account, that is plain. What the
+man held of account was that he should be gone in such a fashion
+that none could follow him or know whither he went. The net is
+about us, my nephews, and I think that Saladin draws its string."
+
+Still less pleased would Sir Andrew have been, could he have seen
+the palmer Nicholas creeping round the hall while all men slept,
+ere he girded up his long gown and ran like a hare for London.
+Yet he had done this by the light of the bright stars, taking
+note of every window slit in it, more especially of those of the
+solar; of the plan of the outbuildings also, and of the path that
+ran to Steeple Creek some five hundred yards away.
+
+From that day forward fear settled on the place--fear of some
+blow that none were able to foresee, and against which they could
+not guard. Sir Andrew even talked of leaving Steeple and of
+taking up his abode in London, where he thought that they might
+be safer, but such foul weather set in that it was impossible to
+travel the roads, and still less to sail the sea. So it was
+arranged that if they moved at all--and there were many things
+against it, not the least of which were Sir Andrew's weak health
+and the lack of a house to go to--it should not be till after New
+Year's Day.
+
+Thus the time went on, and nothing happened to disturb them. The
+friends of whom the old knight took counsel laughed at his
+forebodings. They said that so long as they did not wander about
+unguarded, there was little danger of any fresh attack upon them,
+and if one should by chance be made, with the aid of the men they
+had they could hold the Hall against a company until help was
+summoned. Moreover, at heart, none of them believed that Saladin
+or his emissaries would stir in this business before the spring,
+or more probably until another year had passed. Still, they
+always set guards at night, and, besides themselves, kept twenty
+men sleeping at the Hall. Also they arranged that on the lighting
+of a signal fire upon the tower of Steeple Church their
+neighbours should come to succour them.
+
+So the time went on towards Christmas, before which the weather
+changed and became calm, with sharp frost.
+
+It was on the shortest day that Prior John rode up to the Hall
+and told them that he was going to Southminster to buy some wine
+for the Christmas feast. Sir Andrew asked what wine there was at
+Southminster. The Prior answered that he had heard that a ship,
+laden amongst other things with wine of Cyprus of wonderful
+quality, had come into the river Crouch with her rudder broken.
+He added that as no shipwrights could be found in London to
+repair it till after Christmas, the chapman, a Cypriote, who was
+in charge of the wine, was selling as much as he could in
+Southminster and to the houses about at a cheap rate, and
+delivering it by means of a wain that he had hired.
+
+Sir Andrew replied that this seemed a fair chance to get fine
+liquor, which was hard to come by in Essex in those times. The
+end of it was that he bade Wulf, whose taste in strong drink was
+nice, to ride with the Prior into Southminster, and if he liked
+the stuff to buy a few casks of it for them to make merry with at
+Christmas--although he himself, because of his ailments, now
+drank only water.
+
+So Wulf went, nothing loth. In this dark season of the year when
+there was no fishing, it grew very dull loitering about the Hall,
+and since he did not read much, like Godwin, sitting for long
+hours by the fire at night watching Rosamund going to and fro
+upon her tasks, but not speaking with her overmuch. For
+notwithstanding all their pretense of forgetfulness, some sort of
+veil had fallen between the brethren and Rosamund, and their
+intercourse was not so open and familiar as of old. She could not
+but remember that they were no more her cousins only, but her
+lovers also, and that she must guard herself lest she seemed to
+show preference to one above the other. The brethren for their
+part must always bear in mind also that they were bound not to
+show their love, and that their cousin Rosamund was no longer a
+simple English lady, but also by creation, as by blood, a
+princess of the East, whom destiny might yet lift beyond the
+reach of either of them.
+
+Moreover, as has been said, dread sat upon that rooftree like a
+croaking raven, nor could they escape from the shadow of its
+wing. Far away in the East a mighty monarch had turned his
+thoughts towards this English home and the maid of his royal
+blood who dwelt there, and who was mingled with his visions of
+conquest and of the triumph of his faith. Driven on by no dead
+oath, by no mere fancy or imperial desire, but by some spiritual
+hope or need, he had determined to draw her to him, by fair means
+if he could; if not, by foul. Already means both foul and fair
+had failed, for that the attack at Death Creek quay had to do
+with this matter they could no longer doubt. It was certain also
+that others would be tried again and again till his end was won
+or Rosamund was dead--for here, if even she would go back upon
+her word, marriage itself could not shield her.
+
+So the house was sad, and saddest of all seemed the face of the
+old knight, Sir Andrew, oppressed as he was with sickness, with
+memories and fears. Therefore, Wulf could find pleasure even in
+an errand to Southminster to buy wine, of which, in truth, he
+would have been glad to drink deeply, if only to drown his
+thoughts awhile.
+
+So away he rode up Steeple Hill with the Prior, laughing as he
+used to do before Rosamund led him to gather flowers at St.
+Peter's-on-the-Wall.
+
+Asking where the foreign merchant dwelt who had wine to sell,
+they were directed to an inn near the minster. Here in a back
+room they found a short, stout man, wearing a red cloth cap, who
+was seated on a pillow between two kegs. In front of him stood a
+number of folk, gentry and others, who bargained with him for his
+wine and the silks and embroideries that he had to sell, giving
+the latter to be handled and samples of the drink to all who
+asked for them.
+
+"Clean cups," he said, speaking in bad French, to the drawer who
+stood beside him. "Clean cups, for here come a holy man and a
+gallant knight who wish to taste my liquor. Nay, fellow, fill
+them up, for the top of Mount Trooidos in winter is not so cold
+as this cursed place, to say nothing of its damp, which is that
+of a dungeon," and he shivered, drawing his costly shawl closer
+round him.
+
+"Sir Abbot, which will you taste first--the red wine or the
+yellow? The red is the stronger but the yellow is the more costly
+and a drink for saints in Paradise and abbots upon earth. The
+yellow from Kyrenia? Well, you are wise. They say it was my
+patron St. Helena's favourite vintage when she visited Cyprus,
+bringing with her Disma's cross."
+
+"Are you a Christian then?" asked the Prior. "I took you for a
+Paynim."
+
+"Were I not a Christian would I visit this foggy land of yours to
+trade in wine--a liquor forbidden to the Moslems?" answered the
+man, drawing aside the folds of his shawl and revealing a silver
+crucifix upon his broad breast. "I am a merchant of Famagusta in
+Cyprus, Georgios by name, and of the Greek Church which you
+Westerners hold to be heretical. But what do you think of that
+wine, holy Abbot?"
+
+The Prior smacked his lips.
+
+"Friend Georgios, it is indeed a drink for the saints," he
+answered.
+
+"Ay, and has been a drink for sinners ere now--for this is the
+very tipple that Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, drank with her Roman
+lover Antony, of whom you, being a learned man, may have heard.
+And you, Sir Knight, what say you of the black stuff--'Mavro,' we
+call it--not the common, but that which has been twenty years in
+cask?"
+
+"I have tasted worse," said Wulf, holding out his horn to be
+filled again.
+
+"Ay, and will never taste better if you live as long as the
+Wandering Jew. Well, sirs, may I take your orders? If you are
+wise you will make them large, since no such chance is likely to
+come your way again, and that wine, yellow or red, will keep a
+century."
+
+Then the chaffering began, and it was long and keen. Indeed, at
+one time they nearly left the place without purchasing, but the
+merchant Georgios called them back and offered to come to their
+terms if they would take double the quantity, so as to make up a
+cartload between them, which he said he would deliver before
+Christmas Day. To this they consented at length, and departed
+homewards made happy by the gifts with which the chapman clinched
+his bargain, after the Eastern fashion. To the Prior he gave a
+roll of worked silk to be used as an edging to an altar cloth or
+banner, and to Wulf a dagger handle, quaintly carved in olive
+wood to the fashion of a rampant lion. Wulf thanked him, and then
+asked him with a somewhat shamed face if he had more embroidery
+for sale, whereat the Prior smiled. The quick-eyed Cypriote saw
+the smile, and inquired if it might be needed for a lady's wear,
+at which some neighbours present in the room laughed outright.
+
+"Do not laugh at me, gentlemen," said the Eastern; "for how can I,
+a stranger, know this young knight's affairs, and whether he has
+mother, or sisters, or wife, or lover? Well here are broideries
+fit for any of them." Then bidding his servant bring a bale, he
+opened it, and began to show his goods, which, indeed, were very
+beautiful. In the end Wulf purchased a veil of gauze-like silk
+worked with golden stars as a Christmas gift for Rosamund.
+Afterwards, remembering that even in such a matter he must take
+no advantage of his brother, he added to it a tunic broidered
+with gold and silver flowers such as he had never seen--for they
+were Eastern tulips and anemones, which Godwin would give her
+also if he wished.
+
+These silks were costly, and Wulf turned to the Prior to borrow
+money, but he had no more upon him. Georgios said, however, that
+it mattered nothing, as he would take a guide from the town and
+bring the wine in person, when he could receive payment for the
+broideries, of which he hoped to sell more to the ladies of the
+house.
+
+He offered also to go with the Prior and Wulf to where his ship
+lay in the river, and show them many other goods aboard of her,
+which, he explained to them, were the property of a company of
+Cyprian merchants who had embarked upon this venture jointly with
+himself. This they declined, however, as the darkness was not far
+off; but Wulf added that he would come after Christmas with his
+brother to see the vessel that had made so great a voyage.
+Georgios replied that they would be very welcome, but if he could
+make shift to finish the repairs to his rudder, he was anxious to
+sail for London while the weather held calm, for there he looked
+to sell the bulk of his cargo. He added that he had expected to
+spend Christmas at that city, but their helm having gone wrong in
+the rough weather, they were driven past the mouth of the Thames,
+and had they not drifted into that of the Crouch, would, he
+thought, have foundered. So he bade them farewell for that time,
+but not before he had asked and received the blessing of the
+Prior.
+
+Thus the pair of them departed, well pleased with their purchases
+and the Cypriote Georgios, whom they found a very pleasant
+merchant. Prior John stopped to eat at the Hall that night, when
+he and Wulf told of all their dealings with this man. Sir Andrew
+laughed at the story, showing them how they had been persuaded by
+the Eastern to buy a great deal more wine than they needed, so
+that it was he and not they who had the best of the bargain. Then
+he went on to tell tales of the rich island of Cyprus, where he
+had landed many years before and stayed awhile, and of the
+gorgeous court of its emperor, and of its inhabitants. These
+were, he said, the cunningest traders in the world--so cunning,
+indeed, that no Jew could overmatch them; bold sailors, also,
+which they had from the Phoenicians of Holy Writ, who, with the
+Greeks, were their forefathers, adding that what they told him of
+this Georgios accorded well with the character of that people.
+
+Thus it came to pass that no suspicion of Georgios or his ship
+entered the mind of any one of them, which, indeed, was scarcely
+strange, seeing how well his tale held together, and how plain
+were the reasons of his presence and the purpose of his dealings
+in wines and silks.
+
+
+
+Chapter Six: The Christmas Feast at Steeple
+
+The fourth day after Wulf's visit to Southminster was Christmas
+morning, and the weather being bad, Sir Andrew and his household
+did not ride to Stangate, but attended mass in Steeple Church.
+Here, after service, according to his custom on this day, he gave
+a largesse to his tenants and villeins, and with it his good
+wishes and a caution that they should not become drunk at their
+Yuletide feast, as was the common habit of the time.
+
+"We shall not get the chance," said Wulf, as they walked to the
+Hall, "since that merchant Georgios has not delivered the wine,
+of which I hoped to drink a cup to-night."
+
+"Perhaps he has sold it at a better price to someone else; it
+would be like a Cypriote," answered Sir Andrew, smiling.
+
+Then they went into the hall, and as had been agreed between
+them, together the brethren gave their Christmas gifts to
+Rosamund. She thanked them prettily enough, and much admired the
+beauty of the work. When they told her that it had not yet been
+paid for, she laughed and said that, however they were come by,
+she would wear both tunic and veil at their feast, which was to
+be held at nightfall.
+
+About two o'clock in the afternoon a servant came into the hall
+to say that a wain drawn by three horses and accompanied by two
+men, one of whom led the horses, was coming down the road from
+Steeple village.
+
+"Our merchant--and in time after all," said Wulf, and, followed
+by the others, he went out to meet them.
+
+Georgios it was, sure enough, wrapped in a great sheepskin cloak
+such as Cypriotes wear in winter, and seated on the head of one
+of his own barrels.
+
+"Your pardon, knights," he said as he scrambled nimbly to the
+ground. "The roads in this country are such that, although I have
+left nearly half my load at Stangate, it has taken me four long
+hours to come from the Abbey here, most of which time we spent in
+mud-holes that have wearied the horses and, as I fear, strained
+the wheels of this crazy wagon. Still, here we are at last, and,
+noble sir," he added, bowing to Sir Andrew, "here too is the wine
+that your son bought of me."
+
+"My nephew," interrupted Sir Andrew.
+
+"Once more your pardon. I thought from their likeness to you that
+these knights were your sons."
+
+"Has he bought all that stuff?" asked Sir Andrew--for there were
+five tubs on the wagon, besides one or two smaller kegs and some
+packages wrapped in sheepskin.
+
+"No, alas!" answered the Cypriote ruefully, and shrugging his
+shoulders. "Only two of the Mavro. The rest I took to the Abbey,
+for I understood the holy Prior to say he would purchase six
+casks, but it seems that it was but three he needed."
+
+"He said three," put in Wulf.
+
+"Did he, sir? Then doubtless the error was mine, who speak your
+tongue but ill. So I must drag the rest back again over those
+accursed roads," and he made another grimace. "Yet I will ask
+you, sir," he added to Sir Andrew, "to lighten the load a little
+by accepting this small keg of the old sweet vintage that grows
+on the slopes of Trooidos."
+
+"I remember it well," said Sir Andrew, with a smile; "but, friend,
+I do not wish to take your wine for nothing."
+
+At these words the face of Georgios beamed.
+
+"What, noble sir," he exclaimed, "do you know my land of Cyprus?
+Oh, then indeed I kiss your hands, and surely you will not
+affront me by refusing this little present? Indeed, to be frank,
+I can afford to lose its price, who have done a good trade, even
+here in Essex."
+
+"As you will," said Sir Andrew. "I thank you, and perhaps you
+have other things to sell."
+
+"I have indeed; a few embroideries if this most gracious lady
+would be pleased to look at them. Some carpets also, such as the
+Moslems used to pray on in the name of their false prophet,
+Mahomet," and, turning, he spat upon the ground.
+
+"I see that you are a Christian," said Sir Andrew. "Yet, although
+I fought against them, I have known many a good Mussulman. Nor do
+I think it necessary to spit at the name of Mahomet, who to my
+mind was a great man deceived by the artifice of Satan."
+
+"Neither do I," said Godwin reflectively. "Its true servants
+should fight the enemies of the Cross and pray for their souls,
+not spit at them."
+
+The merchant looked at them curiously, fingering the silver
+crucifix that hung upon his breast. "The captors of the Holy City
+thought otherwise," he said, "when they rode into the Mosque El
+Aksa up to their horses' knees in blood, and I have been taught
+otherwise. But the times grow liberal, and, after all, what right
+has a poor trader whose mind, alas! is set more on gain than on
+the sufferings of the blessed Son of Mary," and he crossed
+himself, "to form a judgment upon such high matters? Pardon me, I
+accept your reproof, who perhaps am bigoted."
+
+Yet, had they but known it, this "reproof" was to save the life
+of many a man that night.
+
+"May I ask help with these packages?" he went on, "as I cannot
+open them here, and to move the casks? Nay, the little keg I will
+carry myself, as I hope that you will taste of it at your
+Christmas feast. It must be gently handled, though I fear me that
+those roads of yours will not improve its quality." Then twisting
+the tub from the end of the wain onto his shoulder in such a
+fashion that it remained upright, he walked off lightly towards
+the open door of the hall.
+
+"For one not tall that man is strangely strong," thought Wulf,
+who followed with a bale of carpets.
+
+Then the other casks of wine were stowed away in the stone cellar
+beneath the hall.
+
+Leaving his servant--a silent, stupid-looking, dark-eyed fellow
+named Petros--to bait the horses, Georgios entered the hall and
+began to unpack his carpets and embroideries with all the skill
+of one who had been trained in the bazaars of Cairo, Damascus, or
+Nicosia. Beautiful things they were which he had to show;
+broideries that dazzled the eye, and rugs of many hues, yet soft
+and bright as an otter's pelt. As Sir Andrew looked at them,
+remembering long dead days, his face softened.
+
+"I will buy that rug," he said, "for of a truth it might be one
+on which I lay sick many a year ago in the house of Ayoub at
+Damascus. Nay, I haggle not at the price. I will buy it." Then he
+fell to thinking how, whilst lying on such a rug (indeed,
+although he knew it not, it was the same), looking through the
+rounded beads of the wooden lattice-work of his window, he had
+first seen his Eastern wife walking in the orange garden with her
+father Ayoub. Afterwards, still recalling his youth, he began to
+talk of Cyprus, and so time went on until the dark was falling.
+
+Now Georgios said that he must be going, as he had sent back his
+guide to Southminster, where the man desired to eat his Christmas
+feast. So the reckoning was paid--it was a long one--and while
+the horses were harnessed to the wain the merchant bored holes in
+the little cask of wine and set spigots in them, bidding them all
+be sure to drink of it that night. Then calling down good fortune
+on them for their kindness and liberality, he made his salaams in
+the Eastern fashion, and departed, accompanied by Wulf.
+
+Within five minutes there was a sound of shouting, and Wulf was
+back again saying that the wheel of the wain had broken at the
+first turn, so that now it was lying upon its side in the
+courtyard. Sir Andrew and Godwin went out to see to the matter,
+and there they found Georgios wringing his hands, as only an
+Eastern merchant can, and cursing in some foreign tongue.
+
+"Noble knights," he said, "what am I to do? Already it is nearly
+dark, and how I shall find my way up yonder steep hill I know
+not. As for the priceless broideries, I suppose they must stay
+here for the night, since that wheel cannot be mended till
+to-morrow--"
+
+"As you had best do also," said Sir Andrew kindly. "Come, man, do
+not grieve; we are used to broken axles here in Essex, and you
+and your servant may as well eat your Christmas dinners at
+Steeple as in Southminster."
+
+"I thank you, Sir knight; I thank you. But why should I, who am
+but a merchant, thrust myself upon your noble company? Let me
+stop outside with my man, Petros, and dine with your people in
+that barn, where I see they are making ready their food."
+
+"By no means," answered Sir Andrew. "Leave your servant with my
+people, who will look after him, and come you into the hall, and
+tell me some more of Cyprus till our food is ready, which will be
+soon. Do not fear for your goods; they shall be placed under
+cover."
+
+"All unworthy as I am, I obey," answered the obsequious Georgios.
+"Petros, do you understand? This noble lord gives us hospitality
+for the night. His people will show you where to eat and sleep,
+and help you with your horses."
+
+This man, who, he explained, was a Cypriote--a fisherman in
+summer and a muleteer in winter--bowed, and fixing his dark eyes
+upon those of his master, spoke in some foreign tongue.
+
+"You hear what he says, the silly fellow?" said Georgios. "What?
+You do not understand Greek--only Arabic? Well, he asks me to
+give him money to pay for his dinner and his night's lodging. You
+must forgive him, for he is but a simple peasant, and cannot
+believe that anyone may be lodged and fed without payment. I will
+explain to him, the pig!" And explain he did in shrill, high
+notes, of which no one else could understand a word.
+
+"There, Sir Knight, I do not think he will offend you so again.
+Ah! look. He is walking off--he is sulky. Well, let him alone; he
+will be back for his dinner, the pig! Oh, the wet and the wind! A
+Cypriote does not mind them in his sheepskins, in which he will
+sleep even in the snow."
+
+So, Georgios still declaiming upon the shortcomings of his
+servant, they went back into the hall. Here the conversation soon
+turned upon other matters, such as the differences between the
+creeds of the Greek and Latin churches--a subject upon which he
+seemed to be an expert--and the fear of the Christians in Cyprus
+lest Saladin should attempt to capture that island.
+
+At length five o'clock came, and Georgios having first been taken
+to the lavatory--it was but a stone trough--to wash his hands,
+was led to the dinner, or rather to the supper-table, which stood
+upon a dais in front of the entrance to the solar. Here places
+were laid for six--Sir Andrew, his nephews, Rosamund, the
+chaplain, Matthew, who celebrated masses in the church and ate at
+the hall on feast-days, and the Cypriote merchant, Georgios
+himself. Below the dais, and between it and the fire, was another
+table, at which were already gathered twelve guests, being the
+chief tenants of Sir Andrew and the reeves of his outlying lands.
+On most days the servants of the house, with the huntsmen,
+swineherds, and others, sat at a third table beyond the fire. But
+as nothing would stop these from growing drunken on the good ale
+at a feast, and though many ladies thought little of it, there
+was no sin that Rosamund hated so much as this, now their lord
+sent them to eat and drink at their ease in the barn which stood
+in the courtyard with its back to the moat.
+
+When all had taken their seats, the chaplain said grace, and the
+meal began. It was rude but very plentiful. First, borne in by
+the cook on a wooden platter, came a great codfish, whereof he
+helped portions to each in turn, laying them on their
+"trenchers"--that is, large slices of bread--whence they ate
+them with the spoons that were given to each. After the fish
+appeared the meats, of which there were many sorts, served on
+silver spits. These included fowls, partridges, duck, and, chief
+of all, a great swan, that the tenants greeted by knocking their
+horn mugs upon the table; after which came the pastries, and with
+them nuts and apples. For drink, ale was served at the lower
+table. On the dais however, they drank some of the black wine
+which Wulf had bought--that is, except Sir Andrew and Rosamund,
+the former because he dared not, and the latter because she had
+always hated any drink but water--a dislike that came to her,
+doubtless, with her Eastern blood.
+
+Thus they grew merry since their guest proved himself a cheerful
+fellow, who told them many stories of love and war, for he seemed
+to know much of loves, and to have been in sundry wars. At these
+even Sir Andrew, forgetting his ailments and forebodings, laughed
+well, while Rosamund, looking more beautiful than ever in the
+gold-starred veil and the broidered tunic which the brethren had
+given her, listened to them, smiling somewhat absently. At last
+the feast drew towards its end, when suddenly, as though struck
+by a sudden recollection, Georgios exclaimed:
+
+"The wine! The liquid amber from Trooidos! I had forgotten it.
+Noble knight, have I your leave to draw?"
+
+"Ay, excellent merchant," answered Sir Andrew. "Certainly you can
+draw your own wine."
+
+So Georgios rose, and took a large jug and a silver tankard from
+the sideboard where such things were displayed. With these he
+went to the little keg which, it will be remembered, had been
+stood ready upon the trestles, and, bending over it while he drew
+the spigots, filled the vessels to the brim. Then he beckoned to
+a reeve sitting at the lower table to bring him a leather jack
+that stood upon the board. Having rinsed it out with wine, he
+filled that also, handing it with the jug to the reeve to drink
+their lord's health on this Yule night. The silver vessel he bore
+back to the high table, and with his own hand filled the horn
+cups of all present, Rosamund alone excepted, for she would touch
+none, although he pressed her hard and looked vexed at her
+refusal. Indeed, it was because it seemed to pain the man that
+Sir Andrew, ever courteous, took a little himself, although, when
+his back was turned, he filled the goblet up with water. At
+length, when all was ready, Georgios charged, or seemed to
+charge, his own horn, and, lifting it, said:
+
+"Let us drink, everyone of us here, to the noble knight, Sir
+Andrew D'Arcy, to whom I wish, in the phrase of my own people,
+that he may live for ever. Drink, friends, drink deep, for never
+will wine such as this pass your lips again."
+
+Then, lifting his beaker, he appeared to drain it in great
+gulps--an example which all followed, even Sir Andrew drinking a
+little from his cup, which was three parts filled with water.
+There followed a long murmur of satisfaction.
+
+"Wine! It is nectar!" said Wulf.
+
+"Ay," put in the chaplain, Matthew; "Adam might have drunk this
+in the Garden," while from the lower table came jovial shouts of
+praise of this smooth, creamlike vintage.
+
+Certainly that wine was both rich and strong. Thus, after his sup
+of it, a veil as it were seemed to fall on the mind of Sir Andrew
+and to cover it up. It lifted again, and lo! his brain was full
+of memories and foresights. Circumstances which he had forgotten
+for many years came back to him altogether, like a crowd of
+children tumbling out to play. These passed, and he grew suddenly
+afraid. Yet what had he to fear that night? The gates across the
+moat were locked and guarded. Trusty men, a score or more of
+them, ate in his outbuildings within those gates; while others,
+still more trusted, sat in his hall; and on his right hand and on
+his left were those two strong and valiant knights, Sir Godwin
+and Sir Wulf. No, there was nothing to fear--and yet he felt
+afraid. Suddenly he heard a voice speak. It was Rosamund's; and
+she said:
+
+"Why is there such silence, father? A while ago I heard the
+servants and bondsmen carousing in the barn; now they are still
+as death. Oh, and look! Are all here drunken? Godwin--"
+
+But as she spoke Godwin's head fell forward on the board, while
+Wulf rose, half drew his sword, then threw his arm about the neck
+of the priest, and sank with him to the ground. As it was with
+these, so it seemed with all, for folk rocked to and fro, then
+sank to sleep, everyone of them, save the merchant Georgios, who
+rose to call another toast.
+
+"Stranger," said Sir Andrew, in a heavy voice, "your wine is very
+strong."
+
+"It would seem so, Sir Knight," he answered; "but I will wake them
+from their wassail." Springing from the dais lightly as a cat, he
+ran down the hall crying, "Air is what they need. Air!" Now
+coming to the door, he threw it wide open, and drawing a silver
+whistle from his robe, blew it long and loud. "What," he laughed,
+"do they still sleep? Why, then, I must give a toast that will
+rouse them all," and seizing a horn mug, he waved it and
+shouted:
+
+"Arouse you, ye drunkards, and drink to the lady Rose of the
+World, princess of Baalbec, and niece to my royal master, Yusuf
+Salah-ed-din, who sends me to lead her to him!"
+
+"Oh, father," shrieked Rosamund, "the wine was drugged and we are
+betrayed!"
+
+As the words passed her lips there rose a sound of running feet,
+and through the open door at the far end of the hall burst in a
+score or over of armed men. Then at last Sir Andrew saw and
+understood.
+
+With a roar of rage like that of a wounded lion, he seized his
+daughter and dragged her back with him down the passage into the
+solar where a fire burned and lights had been lit ready for their
+retiring, flinging to and bolting the door behind them.
+
+"Swift!" he said, as he tore his gown from him, "there is no
+escape, but at least I can die fighting for you. Give me my
+mail."
+
+She snatched his hauberk from the wall, and while they thundered
+at the door, did it on to him--ay, and his steel helm also, and
+gave him his long sword and his shield.
+
+"Now," he said, "help me." And they thrust the oak table forward,
+and overset it in front of the door, throwing the chairs and
+stools on either side, that men might stumble on them.
+
+"There is a bow," he said, "and you can use it as I have taught
+you. Get to one side and out of reach of the sword sweeps, and
+shoot past me as they rush; it may stay one of them. Oh, that
+Godwin and Wulf were here, and we would still teach these Paynim
+dogs a lesson!"
+
+Rosamund made no answer but there came into her mind a vision of
+the agony of Godwin and of Wulf should they ever wake again to
+learn what had chanced to her and them. She looked round. Against
+the wall stood a little desk, at which Godwin was wont to write,
+and on it lay pen and parchment. She seized them, and as the door
+gave slowly inwards, scrawled:
+
+"Follow me to Saladin. In that hope I live on.--Rosamund."
+
+Then as the stout door at length crashed in Rosamund turned what
+she had written face downwards on the desk, and seizing the bow,
+set an arrow to its string. Now it was down and on rushed the mob
+up the six feet of narrow passage. At the end of it, in front of
+the overturned table, they halted suddenly. For there before
+them, skull-emblazoned, shield on arm, his long sword lifted, and
+a terrible wrath burning in his eyes, stood the old knight, like
+a wolf at bay, and by his side, bow in hand, the beauteous lady
+Rosamund, clad in all her festal broideries.
+
+"Yield you!" cried a voice. By way of answer the bowstring
+twanged, and an arrow sped home to its feathers through the
+throat of the speaker, so that he went down, grabbing at it, and
+spoke no more for ever.
+
+As he fell clattering to the floor, Sir Andrew cried in a great
+voice:
+
+"We yield not to pagan dogs and poisoners. A D'Arcy! A D'Arcy!
+Meet D'Arcy, meet Death!"
+
+Thus for the last time did old Sir Andrew utter the warcry of his
+race, which he had feared would never pass his lips again. His
+prayer had been heard, and he was to die as he had desired.
+
+"Down with him! seize the Princess!" said a voice. It was that of
+Georgios, no longer humble with a merchant's obsequious whine,
+but speaking in tones of cold command and in Arabic. For a moment
+the swarthy mob hung back, as well they might in face of that
+glittering sword. Then with a cry of "Salah-ed-din!
+Salah-ed-din!" on they surged, with flashing spears and
+scimitars. The overthrown table was in front of them, and one
+leapt upon its edge, but as he leapt, the old knight, all his
+years and sickness forgotten now, sprang forward and struck
+downwards, so heavy a blow that in the darkling mouth of the
+passage the sparks streamed out, and where the Saracen's head had
+been, appeared his heels. Back Sir Andrew stepped again to win
+space for his sword-play, while round the ends of the table broke
+two fierce-faced men. At one of them Rosamund shot with her bow,
+and the arrow pierced his thigh, but as he fell he struck with
+his keen scimitar and shore the end off the bow, so that it was
+useless. The second man caught his foot in the bar of the oak
+chair which he did not see, and went down prone, while Sir
+Andrew, taking no heed of him, rushed with a shout at the crowd
+who followed, and catching their blows upon his shield, rained
+down others so desperate that, being hampered by their very
+number, they gave before him, and staggered back along the
+passage.
+
+"Guard your right, father!" cried Rosamund. He sprang round, to
+see the Saracen, who had fallen, on his feet again. At him he
+went, nor did the man wait the onset, but turned to fly, only to
+find his death, for the great sword caught him between neck and
+shoulders. Now a voice cried: "We make poor sport with this old
+lion, and lose men. Keep clear of his claws, and whelm him with
+spear casts."
+
+But Rosamund, who understood their tongue, sprang in front of
+him, and answered in Arabic:
+
+"Ay, through my breast; and go, tell that tale to Saladin!"
+
+Then, clear and calm was heard the command of Georgios. "He who
+harms a hair of the Princess dies. Take them both living if you
+may, but lay no hand on her. Stay, let us talk."
+
+So they ceased from their onslaught and began to consult
+together.
+
+Rosamund touched her father and pointed to the man who lay upon
+the floor with an arrow through his thigh. He was struggling to
+his knee, raising the heavy scimitar in his hand. Sir Andrew
+lifted his sword as a husbandman lifts a stick to kill a rat,
+then let it fall again, saying:
+
+"I fight not with the wounded. Drop that steel, and get you back
+to your own folk."
+
+The fellow obeyed him--yes, and even touched the floor with his
+forehead in salaam as he crawled away, for he knew that he had
+been given his life, and that the deed was noble towards him who
+had planned a coward's stroke. Then Georgios stepped forward, no
+longer the same Georgios who had sold poisoned wine and Eastern
+broideries, but a proud-looking, high-browed Saracen clad in the
+mail which he wore beneath his merchant's robe, and in place of
+the crucifix wearing on his breast a great star-shaped jewel, the
+emblem of his house and rank.
+
+"Sir Andrew," he said, "hearken to me, I pray you. Noble was that
+act," and he pointed to the wounded man being dragged away by his
+fellows, "and noble has been your defence--well worthy of your
+lineage and your knighthood. It is a tale that my master," and he
+bowed as he said the word, "will love to hear if it pleases Allah
+that we return to him in safety. Also you will think that I have
+played a knave's trick upon you, overcoming the might of those
+gallant knights, Sir Godwin and Sir Wulf, not with sword blows
+but with drugged wine, and treating all your servants in like
+fashion, since not one of them can shake off its fumes before
+to-morrow's light. So indeed it is--a very scurvy trick which I
+shall remember with shame to my life's end, and that perchance
+may yet fall back upon my head in blood and vengeance. Yet
+bethink you how we stand, and forgive us. We are but a little
+company of men in your great country, hidden, as it were, in a
+den of lions, who, if they saw us, would slay us without mercy.
+That, indeed, is a small thing, for what are our lives, of which
+your sword has taken tithe, and not only yours, but those of the
+twin brethren on the quay by the water?"
+
+"I thought it," broke in Sir Andrew contemptuously. "Indeed, that
+deed was worthy of you--twenty or more men against two."
+
+Georgios held up his hand.
+
+"Judge us not harshly," he said, speaking slowly, who, for his
+own ends wished to gain time, "you who have read the letter of
+our lord. See you, these were my commands: To secure the lady
+Rose of the World as best I might, but if possible without
+bloodshed. Now I was reconnoitring the country with a troop of
+the sailors from my ship who are but poor fighters, and a few of
+my own people, when my spies brought me word that she had ridden
+out attended by only two men, and surely I thought that already
+she was in my hands. But the knights foiled me by strategy and
+strength, and you know the end of it. So afterwards my messenger
+presented the letter, which, indeed, should have been done at
+first. The letter failed also, for neither you, nor the
+Princess"--and he bowed to Rosamund--"could be bought. More, the
+whole country was awakened; you were surrounded with armed men,
+the knightly brethren kept watch and ward over you, and you were
+about to fly to London, where it would have been hard to snare
+you. Therefore, because I must, I--who am a prince and an emir,
+who also, although you remember it not, have crossed swords with
+you in my youth; yes, at Harenc--became a dealer in drugged
+wine.
+
+"Now hearken. Yield you, Sir Andrew, who have done enough to make
+your name a song for generations, and accept the love of
+Salah-ed-din, whose word you have, the word that, as you know
+well, cannot be broken, which I, the lord El-Hassan--for no
+meaner man has been sent upon this errand--plight to you afresh.
+Yield you, and save your life, and live on in honour, clinging
+to your own faith, till Azrael takes you from the pleasant fields
+of Baalbec to the waters of Paradise--if such there be for
+infidels, however gallant.
+
+"For know, this deed must be done. Did we return without the
+princess Rose of the World, we should die, every one of us, and
+did we offer her harm or insult, then more horribly than I can
+tell you. This is no fancy of a great king that drives him on to
+the stealing of a woman, although she be of his own high blood.
+The voice of God has spoken to Salah-ed-din by the mouth of his
+angel Sleep. Thrice has Allah spoken in dreams, telling him who
+is merciful, that through your daughter and her nobleness alone
+can countless lives be saved; therefore, sooner than she should
+escape him, he would lose even the half of all his empire. Outwit
+us, defeat us now, capture us, cause us to be tortured and
+destroyed, and other messengers would come to do his bidding--
+indeed, they are already on the way. Moreover, it is useless to
+shed more blood, seeing it is written in the Books that this
+lady, Rose of the World, must return to the East where she was
+begot, there to fulfil her destiny and save the lives of men."
+
+"Then, emir El-Hassan, I shall return as a spirit," said Rosamund
+proudly.
+
+"Not so, Princess," he answered, bowing, "for Allah alone has
+power over your life, and it is otherwise decreed. Sir Andrew,
+the time grows short, and I must fulfil my mission. Will you take
+the peace of Salah-ed-din, or force his servants to take your
+life?"
+
+The old knight listened, resting on his reddened sword; then he
+lifted his head, and spoke:
+
+"I am aged and near my death, wine-seller Georgios, or prince
+El-Hassan, whichever you may be. In my youth I swore to make no
+pact with Paynims, and in my eld I will not break that vow. While
+I can lift sword I will defend my daughter, even against the
+might of Saladin. Get to your coward's work again, and let things
+go as God has willed them."
+
+"Then, Princess," answered El-Hassan, "bear me witness throughout
+the East that I am innocent of your father's blood. On his own
+head be it, and on yours," and for the second time he blew upon
+the whistle that hung around his neck.
+
+
+
+Chapter Seven: The Banner of Saladin
+
+As the echoes of Hassan's whistle died away there was a crash
+amongst the wooden shutters of the window behind them, and down
+into the room leaped a long, lithe figure, holding an axe aloft.
+Before Sir Andrew could turn to see whence the sound came, that
+axe dealt him a fearful blow between the shoulders which,
+although the ringed mail remained unshorn, shattered his spine
+beneath. Down he fell, rolled on to his back, and lay there,
+still able to speak and without pain, but helpless as a child.
+For he was paralysed, and never more would move hand or foot or
+head.
+
+In the silence that followed he spoke in a heavy voice, letting
+his eyes rest upon the man who had struck him down.
+
+"A knightly blow, truly; one worthy of a Christian born who does
+murder for Paynim pay! Traitor to God and man, who have eaten my
+bread and now slaughter me like an ox on my hearth-stone, may
+your own end be even worse, and at the hands of those you
+serve."
+
+The palmer Nicholas, for it was he, although he no longer wore
+the palmer's robe, slunk away muttering, and was lost among the
+crowd in the passage. Then, with a sudden and a bitter cry,
+Rosamund swooped forward, as a bird swoops, snatched up the
+sword her sire would never lift again, and setting its hilt upon
+the floor, cast herself forward. But its point never touched her
+breast, for the emir sprang swiftly and struck the steel aside;
+then, as she fell, caught her in his arms. "Lady," he said,
+loosing her very gently. "Allah does not need you yet. I have
+told you that it is not fated. Now will you pass me your
+word--for being of the blood of Salah-ed-din and D'Arcy, you,
+too, cannot lie--that neither now nor afterwards you will attempt
+to harm yourself? If not, I must bind you, which I am loth to
+do--it is a sacrilege to which I pray you will not force me."
+
+"Promise, Rosamund," said the hollow voice of her father, "and go
+to fulfil your fate. Self-murder is a crime, and the man is
+right; it is decreed. I bid you promise."
+
+"I obey and promise," said Rosamund. "It is your hour, my lord
+Hassan."
+
+He bowed deeply and answered:
+
+"I am satisfied, and henceforth we are your servants. Princess,
+the night air is bitter; you cannot travel thus. In which chamber
+are your garments?"
+
+She pointed with her finger. A man took a taper, and, accompanied
+by two others, entered the place, to return presently with their
+arms full of all the apparel they could find. Indeed, they even
+brought her missal and the silver crucifix which hung above her
+bed and with it her leathern case of trinkets.
+
+"Keep out the warmest cloak," said Hassan, "and tie the rest up
+in those carpets."
+
+So the rugs that Sir Andrew had bought that day from the merchant
+Georgios were made to serve as travelling bags to hold his
+daughter's gear. Thus even in this hour of haste and danger
+thought was taken for her comfort.
+
+"Princess," said Hassan, bowing, "my master, your uncle, sent you
+certain jewels of no mean value. Is it your wish that they should
+accompany you?"
+
+Without lifting her eyes from her dying father's face, Rosamund
+answered heavily:
+
+"Where they are, there let them bide. What have I to do with
+jewels?"
+
+"Your will is my law," he said, "and others will be found for
+you. Princess, all is ready; we wait your pleasure."
+
+"My pleasure? Oh, God, my pleasure?" exclaimed Rosamund in the
+same drear voice, still staring at her father, who lay before her
+on the ground.
+
+"I cannot help it," said Hassan, answering the question in her
+eyes, and there was grief in his tone. "He would not come, he
+brought it on himself; though in truth I wish that accursed Frank
+had not struck so shrewdly. If you ask it, we will bear him with
+you; but, lady, it is idle to hide the truth--he is sped. I have
+studied medicine, and I know."
+
+"Nay," said Sir Andrew from the floor, "leave me here. Daughter,
+we must part awhile. As I stole his child from Ayoub, so Ayoub's
+son steals my child from me. Daughter, cling to the faith--that
+we may meet again."
+
+"To the death," she answered.
+
+"Be comforted," said Hassan. "Has not Salah-ed-din passed his
+word that except her own will or that of Allah should change her
+heart, a Cross-worshipper she may live and die? Lady, for your
+own sake as well as ours, let this sad farewell be brief. Begone,
+my servants, taking these dead and wounded with you. There are
+things it is not fitting that common eyes should see."
+
+They obeyed, and the three of them remained alone together. Then
+Rosamund knelt down beside her father, and they whispered into
+each other's ears. Hassan turned his back upon them, and threw
+the corner of his cloak over his head and eyes that he might
+neither see nor hear their voices in this dread and holy hour of
+parting.
+
+It would seem that they found some kind of hope and consolation
+in it--at least when Rosamund kissed him for the last time, Sir
+Andrew smiled and said:
+
+"Yes, yes; it may all be for the best. God will guard you, and
+His will be done. But I forgot. Tell me, daughter, which?"
+
+Again she whispered into his ear, and when he had thought a
+moment, he answered:
+
+"Maybe you are right. I think that is wisest for all. And now on
+the three of you--aye, and on your children's children's
+children--let my blessing rest, as rest it shall. Come hither,
+Emir."
+
+Hassan heard him through his cloak, and, uncovering, came.
+
+"Say to Saladin, your master, that he has been too strong for me,
+and paid me back in my own coin. Well, had it been otherwise, my
+daughter and I must soon have parted, for death drew near to me.
+At least it is the decree of God, to which I bow my head,
+trusting there may be truth in that dream of his, and that our
+sorrows, in some way unforeseen, will bring blessings to our
+brethren in the East. But to Saladin say also that whatever his
+bigot faith may teach, for Christian and for Paynim there is a
+meeting-place beyond the grave. Say that if aught of wrong or
+insult is done towards this maiden, I swear by the God who made
+us both that there I will hold him to account. Now, since it must
+be so, take her and go your way, knowing that my spirit follows
+after you and her; yes, and that even in this world she will find
+avengers."
+
+"I hear your words, and I will deliver them," answered Hassan.
+"More, I believe that they are true, and for the rest you have
+the oath of Salah-ed-din--ay, and my oath while she is in my
+charge. Therefore, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, forgive us, who are but the
+instruments of Allah, and die in peace."
+
+"I, who have so much to be forgiven, forgive you," answered the
+old knight slowly.
+
+Then his eyes fixed themselves upon his daughter's face with one
+long, searching look, and closed.
+
+"I think that he is dead," said Hassan. "May God, the Merciful
+and Compassionate, rest his soul!" And taking a white garment
+from the wall, he flung it over him, adding, "Lady, come."
+
+Thrice Rosamund looked at the shrouded figure on the floor; once
+she wrung her hands and seemed about to fall. Then, as though a
+thought struck her, she lifted her father's sword from where it
+lay, and gathering her strength, drew herself up and passed like
+a queen down the blood-stained passage and the steps of the
+solar. In the hall beneath waited the band of Hassan, who bowed
+as she came--a vision of despairing loveliness, that held aloft a
+red and naked sword. There, too, lay the drugged men fallen this
+way and that, and among them Wulf across the table, and Godwin on
+the dais. Rosamund spoke.
+
+"Are these dead or sleeping?"
+
+"Have no fear," answered Hassan. "By my hope of paradise, they do
+but sleep, and will awake ere morning."
+
+Rosamund pointed to the renegade Nicholas--he that had struck
+down her father from behind--who, an evil look upon his face,
+stood apart from the Saracens, holding in his hand a lighted
+torch.
+
+"What does this man with the torch?" she asked.
+
+"If you would know, lady," Nicholas answered with a sneer, "I
+wait till you are out of it to fire the hall."
+
+"Prince Hassan," said Rosamund, "is this a deed that great
+Saladin would wish, to burn drugged men beneath their own roof?
+Now, as you shall answer to him, in the name of Saladin I, a
+daughter of his House, command you, strike the fire from that
+man's hand, and in my hearing give your order that none should
+even think of such an act of shame."
+
+"What?" broke in Nicholas, "and leave knights like these, whose
+quality you know"--and he pointed to the brethren--"to follow in
+our path, and take our lives in vengeance? Why, it is madness!"
+
+"Are you master here, traitor, or am I?" asked Hassan in cold
+contempt. "Let them follow if they will, and I for one shall
+rejoice to meet foes so brave in open battle, and there give them
+their revenge. Ali," he added, addressing the man who had been
+disguised as a merchant's underling, and who had drugged the men
+in the barn as his master had drugged those in the hall, and
+opened the moat gate to the band, "Ali, stamp upon the torch and
+guard that Frank till we reach the boat lest the fool should
+raise the country on us with his fires. Now, Princess, are you
+satisfied?"
+
+"Ay, having your word," she answered. "One moment, I pray you. I
+would leave a token to my knights."
+
+Then, while they watched her with wondering eyes, she unfastened
+the gold cross and chain that hung upon her bosom, and slipping
+the cross from the chain, went to where Godwin lay, and placed it
+on his breast. Next, with a swift movement, she wound the chain
+about the silver hilt of Sir Andrew's sword, and passing to Wulf,
+with one strong thrust, drove the point between the oak boards of
+the table, so that it stood before him--at once a cross, a brand
+of battle, and a lady's token.
+
+"His grandsire bore it," she said in Arabic, "when he leapt on
+to the walls of Jerusalem. It is my last gift to him." But the
+Saracens muttered and turned pale at these words of evil omen.
+
+Then taking the hand of Hassan, who stood searching her white,
+inscrutable face, with never a word or a backward look, she swept
+down the length of the long hall, and out into the night beyond.
+
+"It would have been well to take my counsel and fire the place,
+or at least to cut the throats of all within it," said the man
+Nicholas to his guard Ali as they followed with the rest. "If I
+know aught of these brethren, cross and sword will soon be hard
+upon our track, and men's lives must pay the price of such soft
+folly." And he shivered as though in fear.
+
+"It may be so, Spy," answered the Saracen, looking at him with
+sombre, contemptuous eyes. "It may be that your life will pay the
+price."
+
+Wulf was dreaming, dreaming that he stood on his head upon a
+wooden plank, as once he had seen a juggler do, which turned
+round one way while he turned round the other, till at length
+some one shouted at him, and he tumbled off the board and hurt
+himself. Then he awoke to hear a voice shouting surely
+enough--the voice of Matthew, the chaplain of Steeple Church.
+
+"Awake!" said the voice. "In God's name, I conjure you, awake!"
+
+"What is it?" he said, lifting his head sleepily, and becoming
+conscious of a dull pain across his forehead.
+
+"It is that death and the devil have been here, Sir Wulf."
+
+"Well, they are often near together. But I thirst. Give me
+water."
+
+A serving-woman, pallid, dishevelled, heavy-eyed, who was
+stumbling to and fro, lighting torches and tapers, for it was
+still dark, brought it to him in a leathern jack, from which he
+drank deeply.
+
+"That is better," he said. Then his eye fell upon the bloody
+sword set point downwards in the wood of the table before him,
+and he exclaimed, "Mother of God! what is that? My uncle's
+silver-hilted sword, red with blood, and Rosamund's gold chain
+upon the hilt! Priest, where is the lady Rosamund?"
+
+"Gone," answered the chaplain in a voice that sounded like a
+groan. "The women woke and found her gone, and Sir Andrew lies
+dead or dying in the solar--but now I have shriven him--and oh!
+we have all been drugged. Look at them!" and he waved his hand
+towards the recumbent forms. "I say that the devil has been
+here."
+
+Wulf sprang to his feet with an oath.
+
+"The devil? Ah! I have it now. You mean the Cyprian chapman
+Georgios. He who sold wine."
+
+"He who sold drugged wine," echoed the chaplain, "and has stolen
+away the lady Rosamund."
+
+Then Wulf seemed to go mad.
+
+"Stolen Rosamund over our sleeping carcases! Stolen Rosamund with
+never a blow struck by us to save her! O, Christ, that such a
+thing should be! O, Christ, that I should live to hear it!" And
+he, the mighty man, the knight of skill and strength, broke down
+and wept like a very child. But not for long, for presently he
+shouted in a voice of thunder:
+
+"Awake, ye drunkards! Awake, and learn what has chanced to us.
+Your lady Rosamund has been raped away while we were lost in
+sleep!"
+
+At the sound of that great voice a tall form arose from the
+floor, and staggered towards him, holding a gold cross in its
+hand.
+
+"What awful words are those my brother?" asked Godwin, who, pale
+and dull-eyed, rocked to and fro before him. Then he, too, saw
+the red sword and stared, first at it and next at the gold cross
+in his hand. "My uncle's sword, Rosamund's chain, Rosamund's
+cross! Where, then, is Rosamund?"
+
+"Gone! gone! gone!" cried Wulf. "Tell him, priest."
+
+So the chaplain told him all he knew.
+
+"Thus have we kept our oaths," went on Wulf. "Oh, what can we do
+now, save die for very shame?"
+
+"Nay," answered Godwin, dreamingly; "we can live on to save her.
+See, these are her tokens--the cross for me, the blood-stained
+sword for you, and about its hilt the chain, a symbol of her
+slavery. Now both of us must bear the cross; both of us must
+wield the sword, and both of us must cut the chain, or if we
+fail, then die."
+
+"You rave," said Wulf; "and little wonder. Here, drink water.
+Would that we had never touched aught else, as she did, and
+desired that we should do. What said you of my uncle, priest?
+Dead, or only dying? Nay, answer not, let us see. Come, brother."
+
+Now together they ran, or rather reeled, torch in hand, along the
+passage.
+
+Wulf saw the bloodstains on the floor and laughed savagely.
+
+"The old man made a good fight," he said, "while, like drunken
+brutes, we slept."
+
+They were there, and before them, beneath the white, shroud-like
+cloak, lay Sir Andrew, the steel helm on his head, and his face
+beneath it even whiter than the cloak.
+
+At the sound of their footsteps he opened his eyes. "At length,
+at length," he muttered. "Oh, how many years have I waited for
+you? Nay, be silent, for I do not know how long my strength will
+last, but listen--kneel down and listen."
+
+So they knelt on either side of him, and in quick, fierce words
+he told them all--of the drugging, of the fight, of the long
+parley carried on to give the palmer knave time to climb to the
+window; of his cowardly blow, and of what chanced afterwards.
+Then his strength seemed to fail him, but they poured drink down
+his throat, and it came back again.
+
+"Take horse swiftly," he gasped, pausing now and again to rest,
+"and rouse the countryside. There is still a chance. Nay, seven
+hours have gone by; there is no chance. Their plans were too well
+laid; by now they will be at sea. So hear me. Go to Palestine.
+There is money for your faring in my chest, but go alone, with no
+company, for in time of peace these would betray you. Godwin,
+draw off this ring from my finger, and with it as a token, find
+out Jebal, the black sheik of the Mountain Tribe at Masyaf on
+Lebanon. Bid him remember the vow he made to Andrew D'Arcy, the
+English knight. If any can aid you, it will be Jebal, who hates
+the Houses of Nur-ed-din and of Ayoub. So, I charge you, let
+nothing--I say nothing--turn you aside from seeking him.
+
+"Afterwards act as God shall guide you. If they still live, kill
+that traitor Nicholas and Hugh Lozelle, but, save in open war,
+spare the Emir Hassan, who did but do his duty as an Eastern
+reads it, and shown some mercy, for he could have slain or burnt
+us all. This riddle has been hard for me; yet now, in my dying
+hour, I seem to see its answer. I think that Saladin did not
+dream in vain. Keep brave hearts, for I think also that at Masyaf
+you will find friends, and that things will yet go well, and our
+sorrows bear good fruit.
+
+"What is that you said? She left you my father's sword, Wulf?
+Then wield it bravely, winning honour for our name. She left you
+the cross, Godwin? Wear it worthily, winning glory for the Lord,
+and salvation to your soul. Remember what you have sworn.
+Whate'er befall, bear no bitterness to one another. Be true to
+one another, and to her, your lady, so that when at the last you
+make your report to me before high Heaven, I may have no cause to
+be ashamed of you, my nephews, Godwin and Wulf."
+
+For a moment the dying man was silent, until his face lit up as
+with a great gladness, and he cried in a loud, clear
+voice, "Beloved wife, I hear you! O, God, I come!"
+
+Then though his eyes stayed open, and the smile still rested on
+his face, his jaw fell.
+
+Thus died Sir Andrew D'Arcy.
+
+Still kneeling on either side of him, the brethren watched the
+end, and, as his spirit passed, bowed their heads in prayer.
+
+"We have seen a great death," said Godwin presently. "Let us
+learn a lesson from it, that when our time comes we may die like
+him."
+
+"Ay," answered Wulf, springing to his feet, "but first let us take
+vengeance for it. Why, what is this? Rosamund's writing! Read it,
+Godwin."
+
+Godwin took the parchment and read:
+
+"Follow me to Saladin. In that hope I live on."
+
+"Surely we will follow you, Rosamund," he cried aloud. "Follow
+you through life to death or victory."
+
+Then he threw down the paper, and calling for the chaplain to
+come to watch the body, they ran into the hall. By this time
+about half of the folk were awake from their drugged sleep,
+whilst others who had been doctored by the man Ali in the barn
+staggered into the hall--wild-eyed, white-faced, and holding
+their hands to their heads and hearts. They were so sick and
+bewildered, indeed, that it was difficult to make them understand
+what had chanced, and when they learned the truth, the most of
+them could only groan. Still, a few were found strong enough in
+wit and body to grope their way through the darkness and the
+falling snow to Stangate Abbey, to Southminster, and to the
+houses of their neighbours, although of these there were none
+near, praying that every true man would arm and ride to help them
+in the hunt. Also Wulf, cursing the priest Matthew and himself
+that he had not thought of it before, called him from his prayers
+by their dead uncle, and charged him to climb the church tower as
+swiftly as he could, and set light to the beacon that was laid
+ready there.
+
+Away he went, taking flint, steel, and tinder with him, and ten
+minutes later the blaze was flaring furiously above the roof of
+Steeple Church, warning all men of the need for help. Then they
+armed, saddled such horses as they had, amongst them the three
+that had been left there by the merchant Georgios, and gathered
+all of them who were not too sick to ride or run, in the
+courtyard of the Hall. But as yet their haste availed them
+little, for the moon was down. Snow fell also, and the night was
+still black as death--so black that a man could scarcely see the
+hand he held before his face. So they must wait, and wait they
+did, eating their hearts out with grief and rage, and bathing
+their aching brows in icy water.
+
+At length the dawn began to break, and by its first grey light
+they saw men mounted and afoot feeling their way through the
+snow, shouting to each other as they came to know what dreadful
+thing had happened at Steeple. Quickly the tidings spread among
+them that Sir Andrew was slain, and the lady Rosamund snatched
+away by Paynims, while all who feasted in the place had been
+drugged with poisoned wine by a man whom they believed to be a
+merchant. So soon as a band was got together--perhaps thirty men
+in all--and there was light to stir by, they set out and began
+to search, though where to look they knew not, for the snow had
+covered up all traces of their foes.
+
+"One thing is certain," said Godwin, "they must have come by
+water."
+
+"Ay," answered Wulf, "and landed near by, since, had they far to
+go, they would have taken the horses, and must run the risk also
+of losing their path in the darkness. To the Staithe! Let us try
+Steeple Staithe."
+
+So on they went across the meadow to the creek. It lay but three
+bow-shots distant. At first they could see nothing, for the snow
+covered the stones of the little pier, but presently a man cried
+out that the lock of the water house, in which the brethren kept
+their fishing-boat, was broken, and next minute, that the boat
+was gone.
+
+"She was small; she would hold but six men," cried a voice. "So
+great a company could never have crowded into her."
+
+"Fool!" one answered, "there may have been other boats."
+
+So they looked again, and beneath the thin coating of rime, found
+a mark in the mud by the Staithe, made by the prow of a large
+boat, and not far from it a hole in the earth into which a peg
+had been driven to make her fast.
+
+Now the thing seemed clear enough, but it was to be made yet
+clearer, for presently, even through the driving snow, the quick
+eye of Wulf caught sight of some glittering thing which hung to
+the edge of a clump of dead reeds. A man with a lance lifted it
+out at his command, and gave it to him.
+
+"I thought so," he said in a heavy voice; "it is a fragment of
+that star-wrought veil which was my Christmas gift to Rosamund,
+and she has torn it off and left it here to show us her road. To
+St. Peter's-on-the-Wall! To St. Peter's, I say, for there the
+boats or ship must pass, and maybe that in the darkness they have
+not yet won out to sea."
+
+So they turned their horses' heads, and those of them that were
+mounted rode for St. Peter's by the inland path that runs through
+Steeple St. Lawrence and Bradwell town, while those who were
+not, started to search along the Saltings and the river bank. On
+they galloped through the falling snow, Godwin and Wulf leading
+the way, whilst behind them thundered an ever-gathering train of
+knights, squires and yeomen, who had seen the beacon flare on
+Steeple tower, or learned the tale from messengers--yes, and even
+of monks from Stangate and traders from Southminster.
+
+Hard they rode, but the lanes were heavy with fallen snow and mud
+beneath, and the way was far, so that an hour had gone by before
+Bradwell was left behind, and the shrine of St. Chad lay but half
+a mile in front. Now of a sudden the snow ceased, and a strong
+northerly wind springing up, drove the thick mist before it and
+left the sky hard and blue behind. Still riding in this mist,
+they pressed on to where the old tower loomed in front of them,
+then drew rein and waited.
+
+"What is that?" said Godwin presently, pointing to a great, dim
+thing upon the vapour-hidden sea.
+
+As he spoke a strong gust of wind tore away the last veils of
+mist, revealing the red face of the risen sun, and not a hundred
+yards away from them--for the tide was high--the tall masts of a
+galley creeping out to sea beneath her banks of oars. As they
+stared the wind caught her, and on the main-mast rose her
+bellying sail, while a shout of laughter told them that they
+themselves were seen. They shook their swords in the madness of
+their rage, knowing well who was aboard that galley; while to the
+fore peak ran up the yellow flag of Saladin, streaming there
+like gold in the golden sunlight.
+
+Nor was this all, for on the high poop appeared the tall shape of
+Rosamund herself, and on one side of her, clad now in coat of
+mail and turban, the emir Hassan, whom they had known as the
+merchant Georgios, and on the other, a stout man, also clad in
+mail, who at that distance looked like a Christian knight.
+Rosamund stretched out her arms towards them. Then suddenly she
+sprang forward as though she would throw herself into the sea,
+had not Hassan caught her by the arm and held her back, whilst
+the other man who was watching slipped between her and the
+bulwark.
+
+In his fury and despair Wulf drove his horse into the water till
+the waves broke about his middle, and there, since he could go no
+further, sat shaking his sword and shouting:
+
+"Fear not! We follow! we follow!" in such a voice of thunder,
+that even through the wind and across the everwidening space of
+foam his words may have reached the ship. At least Rosamund
+seemed to hear them, for she tossed up her arms as though in
+token.
+
+But Hassan, one hand pressed upon his heart and the other on his
+forehead, only bowed thrice in courteous farewell.
+
+Then the great sail filled, the oars were drawn in, and the
+vessel swept away swiftly across the dancing waves, till at
+length she vanished, and they could only see the sunlight playing
+on the golden banner of Saladin which floated from her truck.
+
+
+
+Chapter Eight: The Widow Masouda
+
+Many months had gone by since the brethren sat upon their horses
+that winter morning, and from the shrine of St.
+Peter's-on-the-Wall, at the mouth of the Blackwater in Essex,
+watched with anguished hearts the galley of Saladin sailing
+southwards; their love and cousin, Rosamund, standing a prisoner
+on the deck. Having no ship in which to follow her--and this,
+indeed, it would have been too late to do--they thanked those who
+had come to aid them, and returned home to Steeple, where they
+had matters to arrange. As they went they gathered from this man
+and that tidings which made the whole tale clear to them.
+
+They learned, for instance, then and afterwards, that the galley
+which had been thought to be a merchantman put into the river
+Crouch by design, feigning an injury to her rudder, and that on
+Christmas eve she had moved up with the tide, and anchored in the
+Blackwater about three miles from its mouth. Thence a great boat,
+which she towed behind her, and which was afterwards found
+abandoned, had rowed in the dusk, keeping along the further shore
+to avoid observation, to the mouth of Steeple Creek, which she
+descended at dark, making fast to the Staithe, unseen of any. Her
+crew of thirty men or more, guided by the false palmer Nicholas,
+next hid themselves in the grove of trees about fifty yards from
+the house, where traces of them were found afterwards, waiting
+for the signal, and, if that were necessary, ready to attack and
+burn the Hall while all men feasted there. But it was not
+necessary, since the cunning scheme of the drugged wine, which
+only an Eastern could have devised, succeeded. So it happened
+that the one man they had to meet in arms was an old knight, of
+which doubtless they were glad, as their numbers being few, they
+wished to avoid a desperate battle, wherein many must fall, and,
+if help came, they might be all destroyed.
+
+When it was over they led Rosamund to the boat, felt their way
+down the creek, towing behind them the little skiff which they
+had taken from the water-house--laden with their dead and
+wounded. This, indeed, proved the most perilous part of their
+adventures, since it was very dark, and came on to snow; also
+twice they grounded upon mud banks. Still guided by Nicholas, who
+had studied the river, they reached the galley before dawn, and
+with the first light weighed anchor, and very cautiously rowed
+out to sea. The rest is known.
+
+Two days later, since there was no time to spare, Sir Andrew was
+buried with great pomp at Stangate Abbey, in the same tomb where
+lay the heart of his brother, the father of the brethren, who had
+fallen in the Eastern wars. After he had been laid to rest amidst
+much lamentation and in the presence of a great concourse of
+people, for the fame of these strange happenings had travelled
+far and wide, his will was opened. Then it was found that with
+the exception of certain sums of money left to his nephews, a
+legacy to Stangate Abbey, and another to be devoted to masses for
+the repose of his soul, with some gifts to his servants and the
+poor, all his estate was devised to his daughter Rosamund. The
+brethren, or the survivor of them, however, held it in trust on
+her behalf, with the charge that they should keep watch and ward
+over her, and manage her lands till she took a husband.
+
+These lands, together with their own, the brethren placed in the
+hands of Prior John of Stangate, in the presence of witnesses, to
+administer for them subject to the provisions of the will, taking
+a tithe of the rents and profits for his pains. The priceless
+jewels also that had been sent by Saladin were given into his
+keeping, and a receipt with a list of the same signed in
+duplicate, deposited with a clerk at Southminster. This, indeed,
+was necessary, seeing that none save the brethren and the Prior
+knew of these jewels, of which, being of so great a value, it was
+not safe to speak. Their affairs arranged, having first made
+their wills in favour of each other with remainder to their
+heirs-at-law, since it was scarcely to be hoped that both of them
+would return alive from such a quest, they received the
+Communion, and with it his blessing from the hands of the Prior
+John. Then early one morning, before any were astir, they rode
+quietly away to London.
+
+On the top of Steeple Hill, sending forward the servant who led
+the mule laden with their baggage--that same mule which had been
+left by the spy Nicholas--the brethren turned their horses' heads
+to look in farewell on their home. There to the north of them lay
+the Blackwater, and to the west the parish of Mayland, towards
+which the laden barges crept along the stream of Steeple Creek.
+Below was the wide, flat, plain outlined with trees, and in it,
+marked by the plantation where the Saracens had hid, the Hall and
+church of Steeple, the home in which they had grown from
+childhood to youth, and from youth to man's estate in the company
+of the fair, lost Rosamund, who was the love of both, and whom
+both went forth to seek. That past was all behind them, and in
+front a dark and troublous future, of which they could not read
+the mystery nor guess the end.
+
+Would they ever look on Steeple Hall again? Were they who stood
+there about to match their strength and courage against all the
+might of Saladin, doomed to fail or gloriously to succeed?
+
+Through the darkness that shrouded their forward path shone one
+bright star of love--but for which of them did that star shine,
+or was it perchance for neither? They knew not. How could they
+know aught save that the venture seemed very desperate. Indeed,
+the few to whom they had spoken of it thought them mad. Yet they
+remembered the last words of Sir Andrew, bidding them keep a high
+heart, since he believed that things would yet go well. It seemed
+to them, in truth, that they were not quite alone--as though his
+brave spirit companioned them on their search, guiding their
+feet, with ghostly counsel which they could not hear.
+
+They remembered also their oaths to him, to one another, and to
+Rosamund; and in silent token that they would keep them to the
+death, pressed each other's hands. Then, turning their horses
+southwards, they rode forward with light hearts, not caring what
+befell, if only at the last, living or dead, Rosamund and her
+father should, in his own words, find no cause to be ashamed of
+them.
+
+Through the hot haze of a July morning a dromon, as certain
+merchant vessels of that time were called, might have been seen
+drifting before a light breeze into St. George's Bay at Beirut,
+on the coast of Syria. Cyprus, whence she had sailed last, was
+not a hundred miles away, yet she had taken six days to do the
+journey, not on account of storms--of which there were none at
+this time of year, but through lack of wind to move her. Still,
+her captain and the motley crowd of passengers--for the most part
+Eastern merchants and their servants, together with a number of
+pilgrims of all nations--thanked God for so prosperous a
+voyage--for in those times he who crossed the seas without
+shipwreck was very fortunate.
+
+Among these passengers were Godwin and Wulf, travelling, as their
+uncle had bidden them, unattended by squires or by servants. Upon
+the ship they passed themselves off as brothers named Peter and
+John of Lincoln, a town of which they knew something, having
+stayed there on their way to the Scottish wars; simple gentlemen
+of small estate, making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in
+penitence for their sins and for the repose of the souls of their
+father and mother. At this tale their fellow-passengers, with
+whom they had sailed from Genoa, to which place they travelled
+overland, shrugged their shoulders. For these brethren looked
+what they were, knights of high degree; and considering their
+great stature, long swords, and the coats of mail they always
+wore beneath their gambesons, none believed them but plain
+gentlefolk bent on a pious errand. Indeed, they nicknamed them
+Sir Peter and Sir John, and as such they were known throughout
+the voyage.
+
+The brethren were seated together in a little place apart in the
+bow of the ship, and engaged, Godwin in reading from an Arabic
+translation of the Gospels made by some Egyptian monk, and Wulf
+in following it with little ease in the Latin version. Of the
+former tongue, indeed, they had acquired much in their youth,
+since they learned it from Sir Andrew with Rosamund, although
+they could not talk it as she did, who had been taught to lisp it
+as an infant by her mother. Knowing, too, that much might hang
+upon a knowledge of this tongue, they occupied their long journey
+in studying it from such books as they could get; also in
+speaking it with a priest, who had spent many years in the East,
+and instructed them for a fee, and with certain Syrian merchants
+and sailors.
+
+"Shut the book, brother," said Wulf; "there is Lebanon at last,"
+and he pointed to the great line of mountains revealing
+themselves dimly through their wrappings of mist. "Glad I am to
+see them, who have had enough of these crooked scrolls and
+learnings."
+
+"Ay," said Godwin, "the Promised Land."
+
+"And the Land of Promise for us," answered his brother. "Well,
+thank God that the time has come to act, though how we are to set
+about it is more than I can say."
+
+"Doubtless time will show. As our uncle bade, we will seek out
+this Sheik Jebal---"
+
+"Hush!" said Wulf, for just then some merchants, and with them a
+number of pilgrims, their travel-worn faces full of rapture at
+the thought that the terrors of the voyage were done, and that
+they were about to set foot upon the ground their Lord had
+trodden, crowded forward to the bow to obtain their first view of
+it, and there burst into prayers and songs of thanksgiving.
+Indeed, one of these men--a trader known as Thomas of
+Ipswich--was, they found, standing close to them, and seemed as
+though he listened to their talk.
+
+The brethren mingled with them while this same Thomas of Ipswich,
+who had visited the place before, or so it seemed, pointed out
+the beauties of the city, of the fertile country by which it was
+surrounded, and of the distant cedar-clad mountains where, as he
+said, Hiram, King of Tyre, had cut the timber for Solomon's
+Temple.
+
+"Have you been on them?" asked Wulf.
+
+"Ay, following my business," he answered, "so far." And he showed
+them a great snow-capped peak to the north. "Few ever go
+further."
+
+"Why not?" asked Godwin.
+
+"Because there begins the territory of the Sheik Al-je-bal"--and
+he looked at them meaningly--"whom," he added, "neither Christian
+nor Saracen visit without an invitation, which is seldom given."
+
+Again they inquired why not.
+
+"Because," answered the trader, still watching them, "most men
+love their lives, and that man is the lord of death and magic.
+Strange things are to be seen in his castle, and about it lie
+wonderful gardens inhabited by lovely women that are evil
+spirits, who bring the souls of men to ruin. Also, this Old Man
+of the Mountain is a great murderer, of whom even all the
+princes of the East are terrified, for he speaks a word to his
+fedais--or servants--who are initiated, and they go forth and
+bring to death any whom he hates. Young men, I like you well, and
+I say to you, be warned. In this Syria there are many wonders to
+be seen; leave those of Masyaf and its fearful lord alone if you
+desire to look again upon--the towers of Lincoln."
+
+"Fear not; we will," answered Godwin, "who come to seek holy
+places--not haunts of devils."
+
+"Of course we will," added Wulf. "Still, that country must be
+worth travelling in."
+
+Then boats came out to greet them from the shore--for at that
+time Beirut was in the hands of the Franks--and in the shouting
+and confusion which followed they saw no more of this merchant
+Thomas. Nor did they seek him out again, since they thought it
+unwise to show themselves too curious about the Sheik Al-je-bal.
+Indeed, it would have been useless, since that trader was ashore
+two full hours before they were suffered to leave the ship, from
+which he departed alone in a private boat.
+
+At length they stood in the motley Eastern crowd upon the quay,
+wondering where they could find an inn that was quiet and of
+cheap charges, since they did not wish to be considered persons
+of wealth or importance. As they lingered here, somewhat
+bewildered, a tall, veiled woman whom they had noted watching
+them, drew near, accompanied by a porter, who led a donkey. This
+man, without more ado, seized their baggage, and helped by other
+porters began to fasten it upon the back of the donkey with great
+rapidity, and when they would have forbidden him, pointed to the
+veiled woman.
+
+"Your pardon," said Godwin to her at length and speaking in
+French, "but this man--"
+
+"Loads up your baggage to take it to my inn. It is cheap, quiet
+and comfortable--things which I heard you say you required just
+now, did I not?" she answered in a sweet voice, also speaking in
+good French.
+
+Godwin looked at Wulf, and Wulf at Godwin, and they began to
+discuss together what they should do. When they had agreed that
+it seemed not wise to trust themselves to the care of a strange
+woman in this fashion, they looked up to see the donkey laden
+with their trunks being led away by the porter.
+
+"Too late to say no, I fear me," said the woman with a laugh, "so
+you must be my guests awhile if you would not lose your baggage.
+Come, after so long a journey you need to wash and eat. Follow
+me, sirs, I pray you."
+
+Then she walked through the crowd, which, they noted, parted for
+her as she went, to a post where a fine mule was tied. Loosing
+it, she leaped to the saddle without help, and began to ride
+away, looking back from time to time to see that they were
+following her, as, indeed, they must.
+
+"Whither go we, I wonder," said Godwin, as they trudged through
+the sands of Beirut, with the hot sun striking on their heads.
+
+"Who can tell when a strange woman leads?" replied Wulf, with a
+laugh.
+
+At last the woman on the mule turned through a doorway in a wall
+of unburnt brick, and they found themselves before the porch of
+a white, rambling house which stood in a large garden planted
+with mulberries, oranges and other fruit trees that were strange
+to them, and was situated on the borders of the city.
+
+Here the woman dismounted and gave the mule to a Nubian who was
+waiting. Then, with a quick movement she unveiled herself, and
+turned towards them as though to show her beauty. Beautiful she
+was, of that there could be no doubt, with her graceful, swaying
+shape, her dark and liquid eyes, her rounded features and
+strangely impassive countenance. She was young also--perhaps
+twenty-five, no more--and very fair-skinned for an Eastern.
+
+"My poor house is for pilgrims and merchants, not for famous
+knights; yet, sirs, I welcome you to it," she said presently,
+scanning them out of the corners of her eyes.
+
+"We are but squires in our own country, who make the pilgrimage,"
+replied Godwin. "For what sum each day will you give us board and
+a good room to sleep in?"
+
+"These strangers," she said in Arabic to the porter, "do not
+speak the truth."
+
+"What is that to you?" he answered, as he busied himself in
+loosening the baggage. "They will pay their score, and all sorts
+of mad folk come to this country, pretending to be what they are
+not. Also you sought them--why, I know not--not they you."
+
+"Mad or sane, they are proper men," said the impassive woman, as
+though to herself, then added in French, "Sirs, I repeat, this is
+but a humble place, scarce fit for knights like you, but if you
+will honour it, the charge is--so much."
+
+"We are satisfied," said Godwin, "especially," he added, with a
+bow and removing the cap from his head, "as, having brought us
+here without leave asked, we are sure that you will treat us who
+are strangers kindly."
+
+"As kindly as you wish--I mean as you can pay for," said the
+woman. "Nay, I will settle with the porter; he would cheat you."
+
+Then followed a wrangle five minutes long between this curious,
+handsome, still-faced woman and the porter who, after the eastern
+fashion, lashed himself into a frenzy over the sum she offered,
+and at length began to call her by ill names.
+
+She stood looking at him quite unmoved, although Godwin, who
+understood all, but pretended to understand nothing, wondered at
+her patience. Presently, however, in a perfect foam of passion he
+said, or rather spat out: "No wonder, Masouda the Spy, that after
+hiring me to do your evil work, you take the part of these
+Christian dogs against a true believer, you child of Al-je-bal!"
+
+Instantly the woman seemed to stiffen like a snake about to
+strike.
+
+"Who is he?" she said coldly. "Do you mean the lord--who kills?"
+And she looked at him--a terrible look.
+
+At that glance all the anger seemed to go out of the man.
+
+"Your pardon, widow Masouda," he said. "I forgot that you are a
+Christian, and naturally side with Christians. The money will
+not pay for the wear of my ass's hoofs, but give it me, and let
+me go to pilgrims who will reward me better."
+
+She gave him the sum, adding in her quiet voice: "Go; and if you
+love life, keep better watch over your words."
+
+Then the porter went, and now so humble was his mien that in his
+dirty turban and long, tattered robe he looked, Wulf thought,
+more like a bundle of rags than a man mounted on the donkey's
+back. Also it came into his mind that their strange hostess had
+powers not possessed by innkeepers in England. When she had
+watched him through the gate, Masouda turned to them and said in
+French:
+
+"Forgive me, but here in Beirut these Saracen porters are
+extortionate, especially towards us Christians. He was deceived
+by your appearance. He thought that you were knights, not simple
+pilgrims as you avow yourselves, who happen to be dressed and
+armed like knights beneath your gambesons; and," she added,
+fixing her eyes upon the line of white hair on Godwin's head
+where the sword had struck him in the fray on Death Creek quay,
+"show the wounds of knights, though it is true that a man might
+come by such in any brawl in a tavern. Well, you are to pay me a
+good price, and you shall have my best room while it pleases you
+to honour me with your company. Ah! your baggage. You do not wish
+to leave it. Slave, come here."
+
+With startling suddenness the Nubian who had led away the mule
+appeared, and took up some of the packages. Then she led them
+down a passage into a large, sparsely-furnished room with high
+windows, in which were two beds laid on the cement floor, and
+asked them if it pleased them.
+
+They said: "Yes; it will serve." Reading what passed in their
+minds, she added: "Have no fear for your baggage. Were you as
+rich as you say you are poor, and as noble as you say you are
+humble, both it and you are safe in the inn of the widow Masouda,
+O my guests--but how are you named?"
+
+"Peter and John."
+
+"O, my guests, Peter and John, who have come to visit the land of
+Peter and John and other holy founders of our faith--"
+
+"And have been so fortunate as to be captured on its shore by the
+widow Masouda," answered Godwin, bowing again.
+
+"Wait to speak of the fortune until you have done with her,
+Sir--is it Peter, or John?" she replied, with something like a
+smile upon her handsome face.
+
+"Peter," answered Godwin. "Remember the pilgrim with the line of
+white hair is Peter."
+
+"You need it to distinguish you apart, who, I suppose, are twins.
+Let me see--Peter has a line of white hair and grey eyes. John
+has blue eyes. John also is the greater warrior, if a pilgrim can
+be a warrior--look at his muscles; but Peter thinks the more. It
+would be hard for a woman to choose between Peter and John, who
+must both of them be hungry, so I go to prepare their food."
+
+"A strange hostess," said Wulf, laughing, when she had left the
+room; "but I like her, though she netted us so finely. I wonder
+why? What is more, brother Godwin, she likes you, which is as
+well, since she may be useful. But, friend Peter, do not let it
+go too far, since, like that porter, I think also that she may be
+dangerous. Remember, he called her a spy, and probably she is
+one."
+
+Godwin turned to reprove him, when the voice of the widow Masouda
+was heard without saying:
+
+"Brothers Peter and John, I forgot to caution you to speak low in
+this house, as there is lattice-work over the doors to let in the
+air. Do not be afraid. I only heard the voice of John, not what
+he said."
+
+"I hope not," muttered Wulf, and this time he spoke very low
+indeed.
+
+Then they undid their baggage, and having taken from it clean
+garments, washed themselves after their long journey with the
+water that had been placed ready for them in great jars. This,
+indeed, they needed, for on that crowded dromon there was little
+chance of washing. By the time they had clothed themselves
+afresh, putting on their shirts of mail beneath their tunics, the
+Nubian came and led them to another room, large and lighted with
+high-set lattices, where cushions were piled upon the floor round
+a rug that also was laid upon the floor. Motioning them to be
+seated on the cushions, he went away, to return again presently,
+accompanied by Masouda bearing dishes upon brass platters. These
+she placed before them, bidding them eat. What that food was they
+did not know, because of the sauces with which it had been
+covered, until she told them that it was fish.
+
+After the fish came flesh, and after the flesh fowls, and after
+the fowls cakes and sweetmeats and fruits, until, ravenous as
+they were, who for days had fed upon salted pork and biscuits
+full of worms washed down with bad water, they were forced to beg
+her to bring no more.
+
+"Drink another cup of wine at least," she said, smiling and
+filling their mugs with the sweet vintage of Lebanon--for it
+seemed to please her to see them eat so heartily of her fare.
+
+They obeyed, mixing the wine with water. While they drank she
+asked them suddenly what were their plans, and how long they
+wished to stay in Beirut. They answered that for the next few
+days they had none, as they needed to rest, to see the town and
+its neighbourhood, and to buy good horses--a matter in which
+perhaps she could help them. Masouda nodded again, and asked
+whither they wished to ride on horses.
+
+"Out yonder," said Wulf, waving his hand towards the mountains.
+"We desire to look upon the cedars of Lebanon and its great hills
+before we go on towards Jerusalem."
+
+"Cedars of Lebanon?" she replied. "That is scarcely safe for two
+men alone, for in those mountains are many wild beasts and wilder
+people who rob and kill. Moreover, the lord of those mountains
+has just now a quarrel with the Christians, and would take any
+whom he found prisoners."
+
+"How is that lord named?" asked Godwin.
+
+"Sinan," she answered, and they noted that she looked round
+quickly as she spoke the word.
+
+"Oh," he said, "we thought the name was Jebal."
+
+Now she stared at him with wide, wondering eyes, and replied:
+
+"He is so called also; but, Sir Pilgrims, what know you of the
+dread lord Al-je-bal?"
+
+"Only that he lives at a place called Masyaf, which we wish to
+visit."
+
+Again she stared.
+
+"Are you mad?" she queried, then checked herself, and clapped her
+hands for the slave to remove the dishes. While this was being
+done they said they would like to walk abroad.
+
+"Good," answered Masouda, "the man shall accompany you--nay, it
+is best that you do not go alone, as you might lose your way.
+Also, the place is not always safe for strangers, however humble
+they may seem," she added with meaning. "Would you wish to visit
+the governor at the castle, where there are a few English
+knights, also some priests who give advice to pilgrims?"
+
+"We think not," answered Godwin; "we are not worthy of such high
+company. But, lady, why do you look at us so strangely?"
+
+"I am wondering, Sir Peter and Sir John, why you think it worth
+while to tell lies to a poor widow? Say, in your own country did
+you ever hear of certain twin brethren named--oh, how are they
+named?--Sir Godwin and Sir Wulf, of the house of D'Arcy, which
+has been told of in this land?"
+
+Now Godwin's jaw dropped, but Wulf laughed out loud, and seeing
+that they were alone in the room, for the slave had departed,
+asked in his turn:
+
+"Surely those twins would be pleased to find themselves so
+famous. But how did you chance to hear of them, O widowed hostess
+of a Syrian inn?"
+
+"I? Oh, from a man on the dromon who called here while I made
+ready your food, and told me a strange story that he had learned
+in England of a band sent by Salah-ed-din--may his name be
+accursed!--to capture a certain lady. Of how the brethren named
+Godwin and Wulf fought all that band also--ay, and held them
+off--a very knightly deed he said it was--while the lady escaped;
+and of how afterwards they were taken in a snare, as those are
+apt to be who deal with the Sultan, and this time the lady was
+snatched away."
+
+"A wild tale truly," said Godwin. "But did this man tell you
+further whether that lady has chanced to come to Palestine?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Of that he told me nothing, and I have heard nothing. Now
+listen, my guests. You think it strange that I should know so
+much, but it is not strange, since here in Syria, knowledge is
+the business of some of us. Did you then believe, O foolish
+children, that two knights like you, who have played a part in a
+very great story, whereof already whispers run throughout the
+East, could travel by land and sea and not be known? Did you then
+think that none were left behind to watch your movements and to
+make report of them to that mighty one who sent out the ship of
+war, charged with a certain mission? Well, what he knows I know.
+Have I not said it is my business to know? Now, why do I tell you
+this? Well, perhaps because I like such knights as you are, and I
+like that tale of two men who stood side by side upon a pier
+while a woman swam the stream behind them, and afterwards, sore
+wounded, charged their way through a host of foes. In the East we
+love such deeds of chivalry. Perhaps also because I would warn
+you not to throw away lives so gallant by attempting to win
+through the guarded gates of Damascus upon the maddest of all
+quests.
+
+"What, you still stare at me and doubt? Good, I have been telling
+you lies. I was not awaiting you upon the quay, and that porter
+with whom I seemed to quarrel was not charged to seize your
+baggage and bring it to my house. No spies watched your movements
+from England to Beirut. Only since you have been at dinner I
+visited your room and read some writings which, foolishly, you
+and John have left among your baggage, and opened some books in
+which other names than Peter and John were written, and drew a
+great sword from its scabbard on which was engraved a motto:
+'Meet D'Arcy, meet Death!' and heard Peter call John Wulf, and
+John call Peter Godwin, and so forth."
+
+"It seems," said Wulf in English, "that we are flies in a web,
+and that the spider is called the widow Masouda, though of what
+use we are to her I know not. Now, brother, what is to be done?
+Make friends with the spider?"
+
+"An ill ally," answered Godwin. Then looking her straight in the
+face he asked, "Hostess, who know so much, tell me why, amongst
+other names, did that donkey driver call you 'daughter of
+Al-je-bal'?"
+
+She started, and answered:
+
+"So you understand Arabic? I thought it. Why do you ask? What
+does it matter to you?"
+
+"Not much, except that, as we are going to visit Al-je-bal, of
+course we think ourselves fortunate to have met his daughter."
+
+"Going to visit Al-je-bal? Yes, you hinted as much upon the ship,
+did you not? Perhaps that is why I came to meet you. Well, your
+throats will be cut before ever you reach the first of his
+castles."
+
+"I think not," said Godwin, and, putting his hand into his
+breast, he drew thence a ring, with which he began to play
+carelessly.
+
+"Whence that ring?" she said, with fear and wonder in her eyes.
+"It is--" and she ceased.
+
+"From one to whom it was given and who has charged us with a
+message. Now, hostess, let us be plain with one another. You know
+a great deal about us, but although it has suited us to call
+ourselves the pilgrims Peter and John, in all this there is
+nothing of which we need be ashamed, especially as you say that
+our secret is no secret, which I can well believe. Now, this
+secret being out, I propose that we remove ourselves from your
+roof, and go to stay with our own people at the castle, where, I
+doubt not, we shall be welcome, telling them that we would bide
+no longer with one who is called a spy, whom we have discovered
+also to be a 'daughter of Al-je-bal.' After which, perhaps, you
+will bide no longer in Beirut, where, as we gather, spies and
+the 'daughters of Al-je-bal' are not welcome."
+
+She listened with an impassive face, and answered: "Doubtless you
+have heard that one of us who was so named was burned here
+recently as a witch?"
+
+"Yes," broke in Wulf, who now learned this fact for the first
+time, "we heard that."
+
+"And think to bring a like fate upon me. Why, foolish men, I can
+lay you both dead before ever those words pass your lips."
+
+"You think you can," said Godwin, "but for my part I am sure that
+this is not fated, and am sure also that you do not wish to harm
+us any more than we wish to harm you. To be plain, then, it is
+necessary for us to visit Al-je-bal. As chance has brought us
+together--if it be chance--will you aid us in this, as I think
+you can, or must we seek other help?"
+
+"I do not know. I will tell you after four days. If you are not
+satisfied with that, go, denounce me, do your worst, and I will
+do mine, for which I should be sorry."
+
+"Where is the security that you will not do it if we are
+satisfied?" asked Wulf bluntly.
+
+"You must take the word of a 'daughter of Al-je-bal.' I have none
+other to offer," she replied.
+
+"That may mean death," said Wulf.
+
+"You said just now that was not fated, and although I have sought
+your company for my own reasons, I have no quarrel with you--as
+yet. Choose your own path. Still, I tell you that if you go, who,
+chancing to know Arabic, have learned my secret, you die, and
+that if you stay you are safe--at least while you are in this
+house. I swear it on the token of Al-je-bal," and bending forward
+she touched the ring in Godwin's hand, "but remember that for the
+future I cannot answer."
+
+Godwin and Wulf looked at each other. Then Godwin replied:
+
+"I think that we will trust you, and stay," words at which she
+smiled a little as though she were pleased, then said:
+
+"Now, if you wish to walk abroad, guests Peter and John, I will
+summon the slave to guide you, and in four days we will talk
+more of this matter of your journey, which, until then, had best
+be forgotten."
+
+So the man came, armed with a sword, and led them out, clad in
+their pilgrims' robes, through the streets of this Eastern town,
+where everything was so strange, that for awhile they forgot
+their troubles in studying the new life about them. They noted,
+moreover, that though they went into quarters where no Franks
+were to be seen, and where fierce-looking servants of the Prophet
+stared at them sourly, the presence of this slave of Masouda
+seemed to be sufficient to protect them from affront, since on
+seeing him even the turbaned Saracens nudged each other and
+turned aside. In due course they came to the inn again, having
+met no one whom they knew, except two pilgrims who had been their
+fellow-passengers on the dromon. These men were astonished when
+they said that they had been through the Saracen quarter of the
+city, where, although this town was in the hands of the
+Christians, it was scarcely thought safe for Franks to venture
+without a strong guard.
+
+When the brethren were back in their chamber, seated at the far
+end of it, and speaking very low, lest they should be overheard,
+they consulted together long and earnestly as to what they should
+do. This was clear--they and something of their mission were
+known, and doubtless notice of their coming would soon be given
+to the Sultan Saladin. From the king and great Christian lords in
+Jerusalem they could expect little help, since to give it might
+be to bring about an open rupture with Saladin, such as the
+Franks dreaded, and for which they were ill prepared. Indeed, if
+they went to them, it seemed likely that they would be prevented
+from stirring in this dangerous search for a woman who was the
+niece of Saladin, and for aught they knew thrown into prison, or
+shipped back to Europe. True, they might try to find their way to
+Damascus alone, but if the Sultan was warned of their coming,
+would he not cause them to be killed upon the road, or cast into
+some dungeon where they would languish out their lives? The more
+they spoke of these matters the more they were perplexed, till at
+length Godwin said:
+
+"Brother, our uncle bade us earnestly to seek out this
+Al-je-bal, and though it seems that to do so is very dangerous, I
+think that we had best obey him who may have been given foresight
+at the last. When all paths are full of thorns what matter which
+you tread?"
+
+"A good saying," answered Wulf. "I am weary of doubts and
+troublings. Let us follow our uncle's will, and visit this Old
+Man of the Mountains, to do which I think the widow Masouda is
+the woman to help us. If we die on that journey, well, at least
+we shall have done our best."
+
+
+
+Chapter Nine: The Horses Flame and Smoke
+
+On the following morning, when they came into the eating-room of
+the inn, Godwin and Wulf found they were no longer alone in the
+house, for sundry other guests sat there partaking of their
+morning meal. Among them were a grave merchant of Damascus,
+another from Alexandria in Egypt, a man who seemed to be an Arab
+chief, a Jew of Jerusalem, and none other than the English trader
+Thomas of Ipswich, their fellow-passenger, who greeted them
+warmly.
+
+Truly they seemed a strange and motley set of men. Considering
+them as the young and stately widow Masouda moved from one to the
+other, talking to each in turn while she attended to their wants,
+it came into Godwin's mind that they might be spies meeting there
+to gain or exchange information, or even to make report to their
+hostess, in whose pay perhaps they were. Still if so, of this
+they showed no sign. Indeed, for the most part they spoke in
+French, which all of them understood, on general matters, such as
+the heat of the weather, the price of transport animals or
+merchandise, and the cities whither they purposed to travel.
+
+The trader Thomas, it appeared, had intended to start for
+Jerusalem that morning with his goods. But the riding mule he had
+bought proved to be lame from a prick in the hoof, nor were all
+his hired camels come down from the mountains, so that he must
+wait a few days, or so he said.
+
+Under these circumstances, he offered the brethren his company in
+their ramblings about the town. This they thought it wise not to
+refuse, although they felt little confidence in the man,
+believing that it was he who had found out their story and true
+names and revealed them to Masouda, either through talkativeness
+or with a purpose.
+
+However these things might be, this Thomas proved of service to
+them, since, although he was but just landed, he seemed to know
+all that had passed in Syria since he left it, and all that was
+passing then. Thus he told them how Guy of Lusignan had just made
+himself king in Jerusalem on the death of the child Baldwin, and
+how Raymond of Tripoli refused to acknowledge him and was about
+to be besieged in Tiberias. How Saladin also was gathering a
+great host at Damascus to make war upon the Christians, and many
+other things, false and true.
+
+In his company, then, and sometimes in that of the other guests--
+none of whom showed any curiosity concerning them, though
+whether this was from good manners or for other reasons they
+could not be sure--the brethren passed the hours profitably
+enough.
+
+It was on the third morning of their stay that their hostess
+Masouda, with whom as yet they had no further private talk, asked
+them if they had not said that they wished to buy horses. On
+their answering "Yes," she added that she had told a certain man
+to bring two for them to look at, which were now in the stable
+beyond the garden. Thither they went, accompanied by Masouda, to
+find a grave Arab, wrapped in a garment of camel's hair and
+carrying a spear in his hand, standing at the door of the cave
+which served the purpose of a stable, as is common in the East
+where the heat is so great. As they advanced towards him, Masouda
+said:
+
+"If you like the horses, leave me to bargain, and seem to
+understand nothing of my talk."
+
+The Arab, who took no notice of them, saluted Masouda, and said
+to her in Arabic:
+
+"Is it then for Franks that I have been ordered to bring the two
+priceless ones?"
+
+"What is that to you, my Uncle, Son of the Sand?" she asked. "Let
+them be led forth that I may know whether they are those for
+which I sent."
+
+The man turned and called into the door of the cave.
+
+"Flame, come hither!" As he spoke, there was a sound of hoofs,
+and through the low archway leapt the most beautiful horse that
+ever their eyes had seen. It was grey in colour, with flowing
+mane and tail, and on its forehead was a black star; not over
+tall, but with a barrel-like shape of great strength,
+small-headed, large-eyed; wide-nostriled, big-boned, but fine
+beneath the knee, and round-hoofed. Out it sprang snorting; then
+seeing its master, the Arab, checked itself and stood still by
+him as though it had been turned to stone.
+
+"Come hither, Smoke," called the Arab again, and another horse
+appeared and ranged itself by the first. In size and shape it was
+the same, but the colour was coal-black and the star upon its
+forehead white. Also the eye was more fiery.
+
+"These are the horses," said the Arab, Masouda translating. "They
+are twins, seven years old and never backed until they were
+rising six, cast at a birth by the swiftest mare in Syria, and of
+a pedigree that can be counted for a hundred years."
+
+"Horses indeed!" said Wulf. "Horses indeed! But what is the price
+of them?"
+
+Masouda repeated the question in Arabic, whereon the man replied
+in the same tongue with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
+
+"Be not foolish. You know this is no question of price, for they
+are beyond price. Say what you will."
+
+"He says," said Masouda, "that it is a hundred gold pieces for
+the pair. Can you pay as much?"
+
+The brethren looked at each other. The sum was large.
+
+"Such horses have saved men's lives ere now," added Masouda, "and
+I do not think that I can ask him to take less, seeing that, did
+he but know it, in Jerusalem they could be sold for thrice as
+much. But if you wish, I could lend you money, since doubtless
+you have jewels or other articles of value you could give as
+security--that ring in your breast, for instance, Peter."
+
+"We have the gold itself," answered Wulf, who would have paid to
+his last piece for those horses.
+
+"They buy," said Masouda.
+
+"They buy, but can they ride?" asked the Arab. "These horses are
+not for children or pilgrims. Unless they can ride well they
+shall not have them--no, not even if you ask it of me."
+
+Godwin said that he thought so--at least, they would try. Then
+the Arab, leaving the horses standing there, went into the
+stable, and with the help of two of the inn servants, brought out
+bridles and saddles unlike any they had seen. They were but
+thickly-quilted pads stretching far back upon the horses' loins,
+with strong hide girths strapped with wool and chased stirrups
+fashioned like half hoofs. The bits also were only snaffles
+without curbs.
+
+When all was ready and the stirrups had been let down to the
+length they desired, the Arab motioned to them to mount. As they
+prepared to do so, however, he spoke some word, and suddenly
+those meek, quiet horses were turned into two devils, which
+reared up on their hind legs and threatened them with their teeth
+and their front hoofs, that were shod with thin plates of iron.
+Godwin stood wondering, but Wulf, who was angry at the trick, got
+behind the horses, and watching his chance, put his hands upon
+the flanks of the stallion named Smoke, and with one spring leapt
+into the saddle. Masouda smiled, and even the Arab muttered
+"Good," while Smoke, feeling himself backed, came to the ground
+again and became quiet as a sheep. Then the Arab spoke to the
+horse Flame, and Godwin was allowed to vault into the saddle
+also.
+
+"Where shall we go?" he asked.
+
+Masouda said they would show them, and, accompanied by her and
+the Arab, they walked the horses until they were quite clear of
+the town, to find themselves on a road that had the sea to the
+left, and to the right a stretch of flat land, some of it
+cultivated, above which rose the steep and stony sides of hills.
+Here on this road the brethren trotted and cantered the horses to
+and fro, till they began to be at home in their strange saddles
+who from childhood had ridden barebacked in the Essex marshes,
+and to learn what pressure on the bit was needed to check or turn
+them. When they came back to where the pair stood, Masouda said
+that if they were not afraid the seller wished to show them that
+the horses were both strong and swift.
+
+"We fear no ride that he dares to take himself," answered Wulf
+angrily, whereon the Arab smiled grimly and said something in a
+low voice to Masouda. Then, placing his hand upon Smoke's flank,
+he leapt up behind Wulf, the horse never stirring.
+
+"Say, Peter, are you minded to take a companion for this ride?"
+asked Masouda; and as she spoke a strange look came into her
+eyes, a wild look that was new to the brethren.
+
+"Surely," answered Godwin, "but where is the companion?"
+
+Her reply was to do as the Arab had done, and seating herself
+straddle-legged behind Godwin, to clasp him around the middle.
+
+"Truly you look a pretty pilgrim now, brother," said Wulf,
+laughing aloud, while even the grave Arab smiled and Godwin
+muttered between his teeth the old proverb "Woman on croup, devil
+on bow." But aloud he said, "I am indeed honoured; yet, friend
+Masouda, if harm should come of this, do not blame me."
+
+"No harm will come--to you, friend Peter; and I have been so
+long cooped in an inn that I, who am desert-born, wish for a
+gallop on the mountains with a good horse beneath me and a brave
+knight in front. Listen, you brethren; you say you do not fear;
+then leave your bridles loose, and where'er we go and whate'er we
+meet seek not to check or turn the horses Flame and Smoke. Now,
+Son of the Sand, we will test these nags of which you sing so
+loud a song. Away, and let the ride be fast and far!"
+
+"On your head be it then, daughter," answered the old Arab.
+"Pray Allah that these Franks can sit a horse!"
+
+Then his sombre eyes seemed to take fire, and gripping the
+encircling saddle girth, he uttered some word of command, at
+which the stallions threw up their heads and began to move at a
+long, swinging gallop towards the mountains a mile away. At first
+they went over cultivated land off which the crops had been
+already cut, taking two or three ditches and a low wall in their
+stride so smoothly that the brethren felt as though they were
+seated upon swallows. Then came a space of sandy sward, half a
+mile or more, where their pace quickened, after which they began
+to breast the long slope of a hill, picking their way amongst its
+stones like cats.
+
+Ever steeper it grew, till in places it was so sheer that Godwin
+must clutch the mane of Flame, and Masouda must cling close to
+Godwin's middle to save themselves from slipping off behind. Yet,
+notwithstanding the double weights they bore, those gallant
+steeds never seemed to falter or to tire. At one spot they
+plunged through a mountain stream. Godwin noted that not fifty
+yards to their right this stream fell over a little precipice
+cutting its way between cliffs which were full eighteen feet from
+bank to bank, and thought to himself that had they struck it
+lower down, that ride must have ended. Beyond the stream lay a
+hundred yards or so of level ground, and above it still steeper
+country, up which they pushed their way through bushes, till at
+length they came to the top of the mountain and saw the plain
+they had left lying two miles or more below them.
+
+"These horses climb hills like goats," Wulf said; "but one thing
+is certain: we must lead them down."
+
+Now on the top of the mountain was a stretch of land almost flat
+and stoneless, over which they cantered forward, gathering speed
+as the horses recovered their wind till the pace grew fast.
+Suddenly the stallions threw themselves on to their haunches and
+stopped, as well they might, for they were on the verge of a
+chasm, at whose far foot a river brawled in foam. For a moment
+they stood; then, at some word from the Arab, wheeled round, and,
+bearing to the left, began to gallop back across the tableland,
+until they approached the edge of the mountainside, where the
+brethren thought that they would stop.
+
+But Masouda cried to the Arab, and the Arab cried to the horses,
+and Wulf cried to Godwin in the English tongue, "Show no fear,
+brother. Where they go, we can go."
+
+"Pray God that the girths may hold," answered Godwin, leaning
+back against the breast of Masouda behind him. As he spoke they
+began to descend the hill, slowly at first, afterwards faster and
+yet more fast, till they rushed downwards like a whirlwind.
+
+How did those horses keep their footing? They never knew, and
+certainly none that were bred in England could have done so. Yet
+never falling, never stumbling even, on they sped, taking great
+rocks in their stride, till at length they reached the level
+piece of land above the stream, or rather above the cleft full
+eighteen feet in width at the foot of which that stream ran.
+Godwin saw and turned cold. Were these folk mad that they would
+put double-laden horses at such a jump? If they hung back, if
+they missed their stride, if they caught hoof or sprang short,
+swift death was their portion.
+
+But the old Arab seated behind Wulf only shouted aloud, and
+Masouda only tightened her round arms about Godwin's middle and
+laughed in his ear. The horses heard the shout, and seeming to
+see what was before them, stretched out their long necks and
+rushed forward over the flat ground.
+
+Now they were on the edge of the terrible place, and, like a man
+in a dream, Godwin noted the sharp, sheer lips of the cliff, the
+gulf between them, and the white foam of the stream a score of
+yards beneath. Then he felt the brave horse Flame gather itself
+together and next instant fly into the air like a bird.
+Also--and was this dream indeed, or even as they sped over that
+horrible pit did he feel a woman's lips pressed upon his cheek?
+He was not sure. Who could have been at such a time, with death
+beneath them? Perchance it was the wind that kissed him, or a
+lock of her loose hair which struck across his face.
+
+Indeed, at the moment he thought of other things than women's
+lips--those of the black and yawning gulf, for instance.
+
+They swooped through the air, the white foam vanished, they were
+safe. No; the hind feet of Flame had missed their footing, they
+fell, they were lost. A struggle. How tight those arms clung
+about him. How close that face was pressed against his own. Lo!
+it was over. They were speeding down the hill, and alongside of
+the grey horse Flame raced the black horse Smoke. Wulf on its
+back, with eyes that seemed to be starting from his head, was
+shouting, "A D'Arcy! A D'Arcy!" and behind him, turban gone, and
+white burnous floating like a pennon on the air, the grim-visaged
+Arab, who also shouted.
+
+Swifter and yet swifter. Did ever horses gallop so fast? Swifter
+and yet swifter, till the air sang past them and the ground
+seemed to fly away beneath. The slope was done. They were on the
+flat; the flat was past, they were in the fields; the fields were
+left behind; and, behold! side by side, with hanging heads and
+panting flanks, the horses Smoke and Flame stood still upon the
+road, their sweating hides dyed red in the light of the sinking
+sun.
+
+The grip loosened from about Godwin's middle. It had been close;
+on Masouda's round and naked arms were the prints of the steel
+shirt beneath his tunic, for she slipped to the ground and stood
+looking at them. Then she smiled one of her slow, thrilling
+smiles, gasped and said: "You ride well, pilgrim Peter, and
+pilgrim John rides well also, and these are good horses; and, oh!
+that ride was worth the riding, even though death had been its
+end. Son of the Sand, my Uncle, what say you?"
+
+"That I grow old for such gallops--two on one horse, with
+nothing to win."
+
+"Nothing to win?" said Masouda. "I am not so sure!" and she
+looked at Godwin. "Well, you have sold your horses to pilgrims
+who can ride, and they have proved them, and I have had a change
+from my cooking in the inn, to which I must now get me back
+again."
+
+Wulf wiped the sweat from his brow, shook his head, and muttered:
+
+"I always heard the East was full of madmen and devils; now I
+know that it is true."
+
+But Godwin said nothing.
+
+They led the horses back to the inn, where the brethren groomed
+them down under the direction of the Arab, that the gallant
+beasts might get used to them, which, after carrying them upon
+that fearful ride, they did readily enough. Then they fed them
+with chopped barley, ear and straw together, and gave them water
+to drink that had stood in the sun all day to warm, in which the
+Arab mixed flour and some white wine.
+
+Next morning at the dawn they rose to see how Flame and Smoke
+fared after that journey. Entering the stable, they heard the
+sound of a man weeping, and hidden in the shadow, saw by the low
+light of the morning that it was the old Arab, who stood with his
+back to them, an arm around the neck of each horse, which he
+kissed from time to time. Moreover, he talked aloud in his own
+tongue to them, calling them his children, and saying that rather
+would he sell his wife and his sister to the Franks.
+
+"But," he added, "she has spoken--why, I know not--and I must
+obey. Well, at least they are gallant men and worthy of such
+steeds. Half I hoped that you and the three of us and my niece
+Masouda, the woman with the secret face and eyes that have looked
+on fear, might perish in the cleft of the stream; but it was not
+willed of Allah. So farewell, Flame, and farewell, Smoke,
+children of the desert, who are swifter than arrows, for never
+more shall I ride you in battle. Well, at least I have others of
+your matchless blood."
+
+Then Godwin touched Wulf on the shoulder, and they crept away
+from the stable without the Arab knowing that they had been
+there, for it seemed shameful to pry upon his grief. When they
+reached their room again Godwin asked Wulf:
+
+"Why does this man sell us those noble steeds?"
+
+"Because his niece Masouda has bid him so to do," he answered.
+
+"And why has she bidden him?"
+
+"Ah!" replied Wulf. "He called her 'the woman with the secret
+face and eyes that have looked on fear,' didn't he? Well, for
+reasons that have to do with his family perhaps, or with her
+secrets, or us, with whom she plays some game of which we know
+neither the beginning nor the end. But, Brother Godwin, you are
+wiser than I. Why do you ask me these riddles? For my part, I do
+not wish to trouble my head about them. All I know is that the
+game is a brave one, and I mean to go through with it, especially
+as I believe that this playing will lead us to Rosamund."
+
+"May it lead us nowhere worse," answered Godwin with something
+like a groan, for he remembered that dream of his which he
+dreamed in mid-air between the edges of black rock with the
+bubbling foam beneath.
+
+But to Wulf he said nothing of this dream.
+
+When the sun was fully up they prepared to go out again, taking
+with them the gold to pay the Arab; but on opening the door of
+their room they met Masouda, apparently about to knock upon it.
+
+"Whither go you, friends Peter and John, and so early?" she
+asked, looking at them with a smile upon her beautiful face that
+was so thrilling and seemed to hide so much mystery.
+
+Godwin thought to himself that it was like another smile, that on
+the face of the woman-headed, stone sphinx which they had seen
+set up in the market place of Beirut.
+
+"To visit our horses and pay your uncle, the Arab, his money,"
+answered Wulf.
+
+"Indeed! I thought I saw you do the first an hour ago, and as for
+the second, it is useless; Son of the Sand has gone."
+
+"Gone! With the horses?"
+
+"Nay, he has left them behind."
+
+"Did you pay him, then, lady?" asked Godwin.
+
+It was easy to see that Masouda was pleased at this courteous
+word, for her voice, which in general seemed a little hard,
+softened as she answered, for the first time giving him his own
+title.
+
+"Why do you call me 'lady,' Sir Godwin D'Arcy, who am but an
+inn-keeper, for whom sometimes men find hard names? Well,
+perhaps I was a lady once before I became an inn-keeper; but now
+I am--the widow Masouda, as you are the pilgrim Peter. Still, I
+thank you for this--bad guess of yours." Then stepping back a
+foot or two towards the door, which she had closed behind her,
+she made him a curtsey so full of dignity and grace that any who
+saw it must be sure that, wherever she might dwell, Masouda was
+not bred in inns.
+
+Godwin returned the bow, doffing his cap. Their eyes met and in
+hers he learned that he had no treachery to fear from this woman,
+whatever else he might have to fear. Indeed, from that moment,
+however black and doubtful seemed the road, he would have trusted
+his life to her; for this was the message written there, a
+message which she meant that he should read. Yet at his heart he
+felt terribly afraid.
+
+Wulf, who saw something of all this and guessed more, also was
+afraid. He wondered what Rosamund would have thought of it, if
+she had seen that strange and turbulent look in the eyes of this
+woman who had been a lady and was an inn-keeper; of one whom men
+called Spy, and daughter of Satan, and child of Al-je-bal. To his
+fancy that look was like a flash of lightning upon a dark night,
+which for a second illumines some magical, unguessed landscape,
+after which comes the night again, blacker than before.
+
+Now the widow Masouda was saying in her usual somewhat hard
+voice:
+
+"No; I did not pay him. At the last he would take no money; but,
+having passed it, neither would he break his word to knights who
+ride so well and boldly. So I made a bargain with him on behalf
+of both of you, which I expect that you will keep, since my good
+faith is pledged, and this Arab is a chief and my kinsman. It is
+this, that if you and these horses should live, and the time
+comes when you have no more need of them, you will cause it to be
+cried in the market-place of whatever town is nearest to you, by
+the voice of the public crier, that for six days they stand to be
+returned to him who lent them. Then if he comes not they can be
+sold, which must not be sold or given away to any one without
+this proclamation. Do you consent?"
+
+"Ay," answered both of them, but Wulf added: "Only we should like
+to know why the Arab, Son-of-the-Sand, who is your kinsman,
+trusts his glorious horses to us in this fashion."
+
+"Your breakfast is served, my guests," answered Masouda in tones
+that rang like the clash of metal, so steely were they. Whereon
+Wulf shook his head and followed her into the eating-room, which
+was now empty again as it had been on the afternoon of their
+arrival.
+
+Most of that day they spent with their horses. In the evening,
+this time unaccompanied by Masouda, they rode out for a little
+way, though rather doubtfully, since they were not sure that
+these beasts which seemed to be almost human would not take the
+bits between their teeth and rush with them back to the desert
+whence they came. But although from time to time they looked
+about them for their master, the Arab, whinnying as they looked,
+this they did not do, or show vice of any kind; indeed, two
+Iadies' palfreys could not have been more quiet. So the brethren
+brought them home again, groomed, fed and fondled them, while
+they pricked their ears, sniffing them all over, as though they
+knew that these were their new lords and wished to make friends
+of them.
+
+The morrow was a Sunday, and, attended by Masouda's slave,
+without whom she would not suffer them to walk in the town, the
+brethren went to mass in the big church which once had been a
+mosque, wearing pilgrim's robes over their mail.
+
+"Do you not accompany us, who are of the faith?" asked Wulf.
+
+"Nay," answered Masouda, "I am in no mood to make confession.
+This day I count my beads at home."
+
+So they went alone, and mingling with a crowd of humble persons
+at the back of the church, which was large and dim, watched the
+knights and priests of various nations struggling for precedence
+of place beneath the dome. Also they heard the bishop of the town
+preach a sermon from which they learnt much. He spoke at length
+of the great coming war with Saladin, whom he named Anti-Christ.
+Moreover, he prayed them all to compose their differences and
+prepare for that awful struggle, lest in the end the Cross of
+their Master should be trampled under foot of the Saracen, His
+soldiers slain, His fanes desecrated, and His people slaughtered
+or driven into the sea--words of warning that were received in
+heavy silence.
+
+"Four full days have gone by. Let us ask our hostess if she has
+any news for us," said Wulf as they walked back to the inn.
+
+"Ay, we will ask her," answered Godwin.
+
+As it chanced, there was no need, for when they entered their
+chamber they found Masouda standing in the centre of it,
+apparently lost in thought.
+
+"I have come to speak with you," she said, looking up. "Do you
+still wish to visit the Sheik Al-je-bal?"
+
+They answered "Yes."
+
+"Good. I have leave for you to go; but I counsel you not to go,
+since it is dangerous. Let us be open with one another. I know
+your object. I knew it an hour before ever you set foot upon this
+shore, and that is why you were brought to my house. You would
+seek the help of the lord Sinan against Salah-ed-din, from whom
+you hope to rescue a certain great lady of his blood who is your
+kinswoman and whom both of you--desire in marriage. You see, I
+have learned that also. Well, this land is full of spies, who
+travel to and from Europe and make report of all things to those
+who pay them enough. For instance--I can say it, as you will not
+see him again--the trader Thomas, with whom you stayed in this
+house, is such a spy. To him your story has been passed on by
+other spies in England, and he passed it on to me."
+
+"Are then you a spy also, as the porter called you?" asked Wulf
+outright.
+
+"I am what I am," she answered coldly. "Perhaps I also have sworn
+oaths and serve as you serve. Who my master is or why I do so is
+naught to you. But I like you well, and we have ridden together--
+a wild ride. Therefore I warn you, though perhaps I should not
+say so much, that the lord Al-je-bal is one who takes payment for
+what he gives, and that this business may cost you your lives."
+
+"You warned us against Saladin also," said Godwin, "so what is
+left to us if we may dare a visit to neither?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. "To take service under one of the
+great Frankish lords and wait a chance that will never come. Or,
+better still, to sew some cockle shells into your hats, go home
+as holy men who have made the pilgrimage, marry the richest wives
+that you can find, and forget Masouda the widow, and Al-je-bal
+and Salah-ed-din and the lady about whom he has dreamed a dream.
+Only then," she added in a changed voice, "remember, you must
+leave the horses Flame and Smoke behind you."
+
+"We wish to ride those horses," said Wulf lightly, and Godwin
+turned on her with anger in his eyes.
+
+"You seem to know our story," he said, "and the mission to which
+we are sworn. What sort of knights do you think us, then, that
+you offer us counsel which is fitter for those spies from whom
+you learn your tidings? You talk of our lives. Well, we hold our
+lives in trust, and when they are asked of us we will yield them
+up, having done all that we may do."
+
+"Well spoken," answered Masouda. "Ill should I have thought of
+you had you said otherwise. But why would you go to Al-je-bal?"
+
+"Because our uncle at his death bade us so to do without fail,
+and having no other counsel we will take that of his spirit, let
+come what may."
+
+"Well spoken again! Then to Al-je-bal you shall go, and let come
+what come may--to all three of us!"
+
+"To all three of us?" said Wulf. "What, then, is your part in
+this matter?"
+
+"I do not know, but perhaps more than you think. At least, I must
+be your guide."
+
+"Do you mean to betray us?" asked Wulf bluntly.
+
+She drew herself up and looked him in the eyes till he grew red,
+then said:
+
+"Ask your brother if he thinks that I mean to betray you. No; I
+mean to save you, if I can, and it comes into my mind that before
+all is done you will need saving, who speak so roughly to those
+who would befriend you. Nay, answer not; it is not strange that
+you should doubt. Pilgrims to the fearful shrine of Al-je-bal, if
+it pleases you, we will ride at nightfall. Do not trouble about
+food and such matters. I will make preparation, but we go alone
+and secretly. Take only your arms and what garments you may need;
+the rest I will store, and for it give you my receipt. Now I go
+to make things ready. See, I pray of you, that the horses Flame
+and Smoke are saddled by sunset."
+
+At sundown, accordingly, the brethren stood waiting in their
+room. They were fully armed beneath their rough pilgrims' robes,
+even to the bucklers which had been hidden in their baggage. Also
+the saddle-bags of carpet which Masouda had given them were
+packed with such things as they must take, the rest having been
+handed over to her keeping.
+
+Presently the door opened, and a young man stood before them
+clothed in the rough camel-hair garment, or burnous, which is
+common in the East.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Godwin.
+
+"I want you, brothers Peter and John," was the reply, and they
+saw that the slim young man was Masouda. "What! you English
+innocents, do you not know a woman through a camel-hair cloak?"
+she added as she led the way to the stable. "Well, so much the
+better, for it shows that my disguise is good. Henceforth be
+pleased to forget the widow Masouda and, until we reach the land
+of Al-je-bal, to remember that I am your servant, a halfbreed
+from Jaffa named David, of no religion--or of all."
+
+In the stable the horses stood saddled, and near to them
+another--a good Arab--and two laden Cyprian mules, but no
+attendant was to be seen. They brought them out and mounted,
+Masouda riding like a man and leading the mules, of which the
+head of one was tied to the tail of the other. Five minutes later
+they were clear of Beirut, and through the solemn twilight hush,
+followed the road whereon they had tried the horses, towards the
+Dog River, three leagues away, which Masouda said they would
+reach by moonrise.
+
+Soon it grew very dark, and she rode alongside of them to show
+them the path, but they did not talk much. Wulf asked her who
+would take care of the inn while she was absent, to which she
+answered sharply that the inn would take care of itself, and no
+more. Picking their way along the stony road at a slow amble,
+they crossed the bed of two streams then almost dry, till at
+length they heard running water sounding above that of the slow
+wash of the sea to their left, and Masouda bade them halt. So
+they waited, until presently the moon rose in a clear sky,
+revealing a wide river in front, the pale ocean a hundred feet
+beneath them to the left, and to the right great mountains, along
+the face of which their path was cut. So bright was it that
+Godwin could see strange shapes carven on the sheer face of the
+rock, and beneath them writing which he could not read.
+
+"What are these?" he asked Masouda.
+
+"The tablets of kings," she answered, "whose names are written in
+your holy book, who ruled Syria and Egypt thousands of years ago.
+They were great in their day when they took this land, greater
+even than Salah-ed-din, and now these seals which they set upon
+this rock are all that is left of them."
+
+Godwin and Wulf stared at the weather-worn sculptures, and in the
+silence of that moonlit place there arose in their minds a vision
+of the mighty armies of different tongues and peoples who had
+stood in their pride on this road and looked upon yonder river
+and the great stone wolf that guarded it, which wolf, so said the
+legend, howled at the approach of foes. But now he howled no
+more, for he lay headless beneath the waters, and there he lies
+to this day. Well, they were dead, everyone of them, and even
+their deeds were forgotten; and oh! how small the thought of it
+made them feel, these two young men bent upon a desperate quest
+in a strange and dangerous land. Masouda read what was passing in
+their hearts, and as they came to the brink of the river, pointed
+to the bubbles that chased each other towards the sea, bursting
+and forming again before their eyes.
+
+"Such are we," she said briefly; "but the ocean is always yonder,
+and the river is always here, and of fresh bubbles there will
+always be a plenty. So dance on life's water while you may, in
+the sunlight, in the moonlight, beneath the storm, beneath the
+stars, for ocean calls and bubbles burst. Now follow me, for I
+know the ford, and at this season the stream is not deep. Pilgrim
+Peter, ride you at my side in case I should be washed from the
+saddle; and pilgrim John, come you behind, and if they hang back,
+prick the mules with your sword point."
+
+Thus, then, they entered the river, which many might have feared
+to do at night, and, although once or twice the water rose to
+their saddles and the mules were stubborn in the swift stream, in
+the end gained the further bank in safety. Thence they pursued
+their path through mountains till at length the sun rose and they
+found themselves in a lonely land where no one was to be seen.
+Here they halted in a grove of oaks, off-saddled their animals,
+tethered and fed them with barley which they had brought upon a
+mule, and ate of the food that Masouda had provided. Then, having
+secured the beasts, they lay down to sleep, all three of them,
+since Masouda said that here there was nothing to fear; and being
+weary, slept on till the heat of noon was past, when once more
+they fed the horses and mules, and having dined themselves, set
+forward upon their way.
+
+Now their road--if road it could be called, for they could see
+none--ran ever upwards through rough, mountainous country, where
+seemed to dwell neither man nor beast. At sunset they halted
+again, and at moonrise went forward till the night turned
+towards morning, when they came to a place where was a little
+cave.
+
+Before they reached this spot of a sudden the silence of those
+lonely hills was broken by a sound of roaring, not very near to
+them, but so loud and so long that it echoed and reechoed from
+the cliff. At it the horses Flame and Smoke pricked their ears
+and trembled, while the mules strove to break away and run back.
+
+"What is that?" asked Wulf, who had never heard its like.
+
+"Lions," answered Masouda. "We draw near the country where there
+are many of them, and therefore shall do well to halt presently,
+since it is best to pass through that land in daylight."
+
+So when they came to the cave, having heard no more of the lion,
+or lions, they unsaddled there, purposing to put the horses into
+it, where they would be safe from the attack of any such ravening
+beast. But when they tried to do this, Smoke and Flame spread out
+their nostrils, and setting their feet firm before them, refused
+to enter the place, about which there was an evil smell.
+
+"Perhaps jackals have been here," said Masouda. "Let us tether
+them all in the open."
+
+This then they did, building a fire in front of them with dry
+wood that lay about in plenty, for here grew sombre cedar trees.
+The brethren sat by this fire; but, the night being hot, Masouda
+laid herself down about fifteen paces away under a cedar tree,
+which grew almost in front of the mouth of the cave, and slept,
+being tired with long riding. Wulf slept also, since Godwin had
+agreed to keep watch for the first part of the night.
+
+For an hour or more he sat close by the horses, and noted that
+they fed uneasily and would not lie down. Soon, however, he was
+lost in his own thoughts, and, as he heard no more of the lions,
+fell to wondering over the strangeness of their journey and of
+what the end of it might be. He wondered also about Masouda, who
+she was, how she came to know so much, why she befriended them if
+she really was a friend, and other things--for instance, of that
+leap over the sunken stream; and whether--no, surely he had been
+mistaken, her eyes had never looked at him like that. Why, he was
+sleeping at his post, and the eyes in the darkness yonder were
+not those of a woman. Women's eyes were not green and gold; they
+did not grow large, then lessen and vanish away.
+
+Godwin sprang to his feet. As he thought, they were no eyes. He
+had dreamed, that was all. So he took cedar boughs and threw them
+on to the fire, where soon they flared gloriously, which done he
+sat himself down again close to Wulf, who was lost in heavy
+slumber.
+
+The night was very still and the silence so deep that it pressed
+upon him like a weight. He could bear it no longer, and rising,
+began to walk up and down in front of the cave, drawing his sword
+and holding it in his hand as sentries do. Masouda lay upon the
+ground, with her head pillowed on a saddle-bag, and the moonlight
+fell through the cedar boughs upon her face. Godwin stopped to
+look at it, and wondered that he had never noted before how
+beautiful she was. Perhaps it was but the soft and silvery light
+which clothed those delicate features with so much mystery and
+charm. She might be dead, not sleeping; but even as he thought
+this, life came into her face, colour stole up beneath the pale,
+olive-hued skin, the red lips opened, seeming to mutter some
+words, and she stretched out her rounded arms as though to clasp
+a vision of her dream.
+
+Godwin turned aside; it seemed not right to watch her thus,
+although in truth he had only come to know that she was safe. He
+went back to the fire, and lifting a cedar bough, which blazed
+like a torch in his left hand, was about to lay it down again on
+the centre of the flame, when suddenly he heard the sharp and
+terrible cry of a woman in an agony of pain or fear, and at the
+same moment the horses and mules began to plunge and snort. In an
+instant, the blazing bough still in his hand, he was back by the
+cave, and lo! there before him, the form of Masouda, hanging from
+its jaws, stood a great yellow beast, which, although he had
+never seen its like, he knew must be a lioness. It was heading
+for the cave, then catching sight of him, turned and bounded away
+in the direction of the fire, purposing to reenter the wood
+beyond.
+
+But the woman in its mouth cumbered it, and running swiftly,
+Godwin came face to face with the brute just opposite the fire.
+He hurled the burning bough at it, whereon it dropped Masouda,
+and rearing itself straight upon its hind legs, stretched out its
+claws, and seemed about to fall on him. For this Godwin did not
+wait. He was afraid, indeed, who had never before fought lions,
+but he knew that he must do or die. Therefore he charged straight
+at it, and with all the strength of his strong arm drove his long
+sword into the yellow breast, till it seemed to him that the
+steel vanished and he could see nothing but the hilt.
+
+Then a shock, a sound of furious snarling, and down he went to
+earth beneath a soft and heavy weight, and there his senses left
+him.
+
+When they came back again something soft was still upon his face;
+but this proved to be only the hand of Masouda, who bathed his
+brow with a cloth dipped in water, while Wulf chafed his hands.
+Godwin sat up, and in the light of the new risen sun, saw a dead
+lioness lying before him, its breast still transfixed with his
+own sword.
+
+"So I saved you," he said faintly.
+
+"Yes, you saved me," answered Masouda, and kneeling down she
+kissed his feet; then rising again, with her long, soft hair
+wiped away the blood that was running from a wound in his arm.
+
+
+
+Chapter Ten: On Board the Galley
+
+Rosamund was led from the Hall of Steeple across the meadow down
+to the quay at Steeple Creek, where a great boat waited--that of
+which the brethren had found the impress in the mud. In this the
+band embarked, placing their dead and wounded, with one or two
+to tend them, in the fishing skiff that had belonged to her
+father. This skiff having been made fast to the stern of the
+boat, they pushed off, and in utter silence rowed down the creek
+till they reached the tidal stream of the Blackwater, where they
+turned their bow seawards. Through the thick night and the
+falling snow slowly they felt their way along, sometimes rowing,
+sometimes drifting, while the false palmer Nicholas steered them.
+The journey proved dangerous, for they could scarcely see the
+shore, although they kept as close to it as they dared.
+
+The end of it was that they grounded on a mud bank, and, do what
+they would, could not thrust themselves free. Now hope rose in
+the heart of Rosamund, who sat still as a statue in the middle of
+the boat, the prince Hassan at her side and the armed men--twenty
+or thirty of them--all about her. Perhaps, she thought, they
+would remain fast there till daybreak, and be seen and rescued
+when the brethren woke from their drugged sleep. But Hassan read
+her mind, and said to her gently enough:
+
+"Be not deceived, lady, for I must tell you that if the worst
+comes to the worst, we shall place you in the little skiff and go
+on, leaving the rest to take their chance."
+
+As it happened, at the full tide they floated off the bank and
+drifted with the ebb down towards the sea. At the first break of
+dawn she looked up, and there, looming large in the mist, lay a
+galley, anchored in the mouth of the river. Giving thanks to
+Allah for their safe arrival, the band brought her aboard and led
+her towards the cabin. On the poop stood a tall man, who was
+commanding the sailors that they should get up the anchor. As she
+came he advanced to her, bowing and saying:
+
+"Lady Rosamund, thus you find me once more, who doubtless you
+never thought to see again."
+
+She looked at him in the faint light and her blood went cold. It
+was the knight Lozelle.
+
+"You here, Sir Hugh?" she gasped.
+
+"Where you are, there I am," he answered, with a sneer upon his
+coarse, handsome face. "Did I not swear that it should be so,
+beauteous Rosamund, after your saintly cousin worsted me in the
+fray?"
+
+"You here?" she repeated, "you, a Christian knight, and in the
+pay of Saladin!"
+
+"In the pay of anyone who leads me to you, Rosamund." Then,
+seeing the emir Hassan approach, he turned to give some orders to
+the sailors, and she passed on to the cabin and in her agony fell
+upon her knees.
+
+When Rosamund rose from them she felt that the ship was moving,
+and, desiring to look her last on Essex land, went out again upon
+the poop, where Hassan and Sir Hugh placed themselves, one upon
+either side of her. Then it was that she saw the tower of St.
+Peter's-on-the-Wall and her cousins seated on horseback in front
+of it, the light of the risen sun shining upon their mail. Also
+she saw Wulf spur his horse into the sea, and faintly heard his
+great cry of "Fear not! We follow, we follow!"
+
+A thought came to her, and she sprang towards the bulwark; but
+they were watching and held her, so that all that she could do
+was to throw up her arms in token.
+
+Now the wind caught the sail and the ship went forward swiftly,
+so that soon she lost sight of them. Then in her grief and rage
+Rosamund turned upon Sir Hugh Lozelle and beat him with bitter
+words till he shrank before her.
+
+"Coward and traitor!" she said. "So it was you who planned this,
+knowing every secret of our home, where often you were a guest!
+You who for Paynim gold have murdered my father, not daring to
+show your face before his sword, but hanging like a thief upon
+the coast, ready to receive what braver men had stolen. Oh! may
+God avenge his blood and me on you, false knight--false to Him
+and me and faith and honour--as avenge He will! Heard you not
+what my kinsman called to me? 'We follow. We follow!' Yes, they
+follow, and their swords--those swords you feared to look
+on--shall yet pierce your heart and give up your soul to your
+master Satan," and she paused, trembling with her righteous
+wrath, while Hassan stared at her and muttered:
+
+"By Allah, a princess indeed! So have I seen Salah-ed-din look in
+his rage. Yes, and she has his very eyes."
+
+But Sir Hugh answered in a thick voice.
+
+"Let them follow--one or both. I fear them not and out there my
+foot will not slip in the snow."
+
+"Then I say that it shall slip in the sand or on a rock," she
+answered, and turning, fled to the cabin and cast herself down
+and wept till she thought that her heart would break.
+
+Well might Rosamund weep whose beloved sire was slain, who was
+torn from her home to find herself in the power of a man she
+hated. Yet there was hope for her. Hassan, Eastern trickster as
+he might be, was her friend; and her uncle, Saladin, at least,
+would never wish that she should be shamed. Most like he knew
+nothing of this man Lozelle, except as one of those Christian
+traitors who were ever ready to betray the Cross for gold. But
+Saladin was far away and her home lay behind her, and her cousins
+and lovers were eating out their hearts upon that fading shore.
+And she--one woman alone--was on this ship with the evil man
+Lozelle, who thus had kept his promise, and there were none save
+Easterns to protect her, none save them--and God, Who had
+permitted that such things should be.
+
+The ship swayed, she grew sick and faint. Hassan brought her
+food with his own hands, but she loathed it who only desired to
+die. The day turned to night, the night turned to day again, and
+always Hassan brought her food and strove to comfort her, till at
+length she remembered no more.
+
+Then came a long, long sleep, and in the sleep dreams of her
+father standing with his face to the foe and sweeping them down
+with his long sword as a sickle sweeps corn--of her father felled
+by the pilgrim knave, dying upon the floor of his own house, and
+saying "God will guard you. His will be done." Dreams of Godwin
+and Wulf also fighting to save her, plighting their troths and
+swearing their oaths, and between the dreams blackness.
+
+Rosamund awoke to feel the sun streaming warmly through the
+shutter of her cabin, and to see a woman who held a cup in her
+hand, watching her--a stout woman of middle age with a not
+unkindly face. She looked about her and remembered all. So she
+was still in the ship.
+
+"Whence come you?" she asked the woman.
+
+"From France, lady. This ship put in at Marseilles, and there I
+was hired to nurse one who lay sick, which suited me very well,
+as I wished to go to Jerusalem to seek my husband, and good money
+was offered me. Still, had I known that they were all Saracens on
+this ship, I am not sure that I should have come--that is, except
+the captain, Sir Hugh, and the palmer Nicholas; though what they,
+or you either, are doing in such company I cannot guess."
+
+"What is your name?" asked Rosamund idly.
+
+"Marie--Marie Bouchet. My husband is a fishmonger, or was, until
+one of those crusading priests got hold of him and took him off
+to kill Paynims and save his soul, much against my will. Well, I
+promised him that if he did not return in five years I would come
+to look for him. So here I am, but where he may be is another
+matter."
+
+"It is brave of you to go," said Rosamund, then added by an
+afterthought, "How long is it since we left Marseilles?"
+
+Marie counted on her fat fingers, and answered:
+
+"Five--nearly six weeks. You have been wandering in your mind all
+that time, talking of many strange things, and we have called at
+three ports. I forget their names, but the last one was an island
+with a beautiful harbour. Now, in about twenty days, if all goes
+well, we should reach another island called Cyprus. But you must
+not talk so much, you must sleep. The Saracen called Hassan, who
+is a clever doctor, told me so."
+
+So Rosamund slept, and from that time forward, floating on the
+calm Mediterranean sea, her strength began to come back again
+rapidly, who was young and strong in body and constitution.
+Three days later she was helped to the deck, where the first man
+she saw was Hassan, who came forward to greet her with many
+Eastern salutations and joy written on his dark, wrinkled face.
+
+"I give thanks to Allah for your sake and my own," he said. "For
+yours that you still live whom I thought would die, and for
+myself that had you died your life would have been required at my
+hands by Salah-ed-din, my master."
+
+"If so, he should have blamed Azrael, not you," answered
+Rosamund, smiling; then suddenly turned cold, for before her was
+Sir Hugh Lozelle, who also thanked Heaven that she had recovered.
+She listened to him coldly, and presently he went away, but soon
+was at her side again. Indeed, she could never be free of him,
+for whenever she appeared on deck he was there, nor could he be
+repelled, since neither silence nor rebuff would stir him. Always
+he sat near, talking in his false, hateful voice, and devouring
+her with the greedy eyes which she could feel fixed upon her
+face. With him often was his jackal, the false palmer Nicholas,
+who crawled about her like a snake and strove to flatter her,
+but to this man she would never speak a word.
+
+At last she could bear it no longer, and when her health had
+returned to her, summoned Hassan to her cabin.
+
+"Tell me, prince," she said, "who rules upon this vessel?"
+
+"Three people," he answered, bowing. "The knight, Sir Hugh
+Lozelle, who, as a skilled navigator, is the captain and rules
+the sailors; I, who rule the fighting men; and you, Princess, who
+rule us all."
+
+"Then I command that the rogue named Nicholas shall not be
+allowed to approach me. Is it to be borne that I must associate
+with my father's murderer?"
+
+"I fear that in that business we all had a hand, nevertheless
+your order shall be obeyed. To tell you the truth, lady, I hate
+the fellow, who is but a common spy."
+
+"I desire also," went on Rosamund, "to speak no more with Sir
+Hugh Lozelle."
+
+"That is more difficult," said Hassan, "since he is the captain
+whom my master ordered me to obey in all things that have to do
+with the ship."
+
+"I have nothing to do with the ship," answered Rosamund; "and
+surely the princess of Baalbec, if so I am, may choose her own
+companions. I wish to see more of you and less of Sir Hugh
+Lozelle."
+
+"I am honoured," replied Hassan, "and will do my best."
+
+For some days after this, although he was always watching her,
+Lozelle approached Rosamund but seldom, and whenever he did so he
+found Hassan at her side, or rather standing behind her like a
+guard.
+
+At length, as it chanced, the prince was taken with a sickness
+from drinking bad water which held him to his bed for some days,
+and then Lozelle found his opportunity. Rosamund strove to keep
+her cabin to avoid him, but the heat of the summer sun in the
+Mediterranean drove her out of it to a place beneath an awning on
+the poop, where she sat with the woman Marie. Here Lozelle
+approached her, pretending to bring her food or to inquire after
+her comfort, but she would answer him nothing. At length, since
+Marie could understand what he said in French, he addressed her
+in Arabic, which he spoke well, but she feigned not to understand
+him. Then he used the English tongue as it was talked among the
+common people in Essex, and said:
+
+"Lady, how sorely you misjudge me. What is my crime against you?
+I am an Essex man of good lineage, who met you in Essex and
+learnt to love you there. Is that a crime, in one who is not
+poor, who, moreover, was knighted for his deeds by no mean hand?
+Your father said me nay, and you said me nay, and, stung by my
+disappointment and his words--for he called me sea-thief and
+raked up old tales that are not true against me--I talked as I
+should not have done, swearing that I would wed you yet in spite
+of all. For this I was called to account with justice, and your
+cousin, the young knight Godwin, who was then a squire, struck me
+in the face. Well, he worsted and wounded me, fortune favouring
+him, and I departed with my vessel to the East, for that is my
+business, to trade between Syria and England.
+
+"Now, as it chanced, there being peace at the time between the
+Sultan and the Christians, I visited Damascus to buy merchandise.
+Whilst I was there Saladin sent for me and asked if it were true
+that I belonged to a part of England called Essex. When I
+answered yes, he asked if I knew Sir Andrew D'Arcy and his
+daughter. Again I said yes, whereon he told me that strange tale
+of your kinship to him, of which I had heard already; also a
+still stranger tale of some dream that he had dreamed concerning
+you, which made it necessary that you should be brought to his
+court, where he was minded to raise you to great honour. In the
+end, he offered to hire my finest ship for a large sum, if I
+would sail it to England to fetch you; but he did not tell me
+that any force was to be used, and I, on my part, said that I
+would lift no hand against you or your father, nor indeed have I
+done so."
+
+"Who remembered the swords of Godwin and Wulf," broke in Rosamund
+scornfully, "and preferred that braver men should face them."
+
+"Lady," answered Lozelle, colouring, "hitherto none have accused
+me of a lack of courage. Of your courtesy, listen, I pray you. I
+did wrong to enter on this business; but lady, it was love for
+you that drove me to it, for the thought of this long voyage in
+your company was a bait I could not withstand."
+
+"Paynim gold was the bait you could not withstand--that is what
+you mean. Be brief, I pray you. I weary.
+
+"Lady, you are harsh and misjudge me, as I will show," and he
+looked about him cautiously. "Within a week from now, if all goes
+well, we cast anchor at Limazol in Cyprus, to take in food and
+water before we run to a secret port near Antioch, whence you are
+to be taken overland to Damascus, avoiding all cities of the
+Franks. Now, the Emperor Isaac of Cyprus is my friend, and over
+him Saladin has no power. Once in his court, you would be safe
+until such time as you found opportunity to return to England.
+This, then, is my plan--that you should escape from the ship at
+night as I can arrange."
+
+"And what is your payment," she asked, "who are a merchant
+knight?"
+
+"My payment, lady, is--yourself. In Cyprus we will be wed--oh!
+think before you answer. At Damascus many dangers await you; with
+me you will find safety and a Christian husband who loves you
+well--so well that for your sake he is willing to lose his ship
+and, what is more, to break faith with Saladin, whose arm is
+long."
+
+"Have done," she said coldly. "Sooner will I trust myself to an
+honest Saracen than to you, Sir Hugh, whose spurs, if you met
+your desert, should be hacked from your heels by scullions. Yes,
+sooner would I take death for my lord than you, who for your own
+base ends devised the plot that brought my father to his murder
+and me to slavery. Have done, I say, and never dare again to
+speak of love to me," and rising, she walked past him to her
+cabin.
+
+But Lozelle looking after her muttered to himself, "Nay, fair
+lady, I have but begun; nor will I forget your bitter words, for
+which you shall pay the merchant knight in kisses."
+
+From her cabin Rosamund sent a message to Hassan, saying that
+she would speak with him.
+
+He came, still pale with illness, and asked her will, whereon she
+told him what had passed between Lozelle and herself, demanding
+his protection against this man.
+
+Hassan's eyes flashed.
+
+"Yonder he stands," he said, "alone. Will you come with me and
+speak to him?"
+
+She bowed her head, and giving her his hand, he led her to the
+poop.
+
+"Sir captain," he began, addressing Lozelle, "the Princess here
+tells me a strange story--that you have dared to offer your love
+to her, by Allah! to her, a niece of Salah-ed-din."
+
+"What of it, Sir Saracen?" answered Lozelle, insolently. "Is not
+a Christian knight fit mate for the blood of an Eastern chief?
+Had I offered her less than marriage, you might have spoken."
+
+"You!" answered Hassan, with rage in his low voice, "you,
+huckstering thief and renegade, who swear by Mahomet in Damascus
+and by your prophet Jesus in England--ay, deny it not, I have
+heard you, as I have heard that rogue, Nicholas, your servant.
+You, her fit mate? Why, were it not that you must guide this
+ship, and that my master bade me not to quarrel with you till
+your task was done, I would behead you now and cut from your
+throat the tongue that dared to speak such words," and as he
+spoke he gripped the handle of his scimitar.
+
+Lozelle quailed before his fierce eyes, for well he knew Hassan,
+and knew also that if it came to fighting his sailors were no
+match for the emir and his picked Saracens.
+
+"When our duty is done you shall answer for those words," he
+said, trying to look brave.
+
+"By Allah! I hold you to the promise," replied Hassan. "Before
+Salah-ed-din I will answer for them when and where you will, as
+you shall answer to him for your treachery."
+
+"Of what, then, am I accused?" asked Lozelle. "Of loving the lady
+Rosamund, as do all men--perhaps yourself, old and withered as
+you are, among them?"
+
+"Ay, and for that crime I will repay you, old and withered as I
+am, Sir Renegade. But with Salah-ed-din you have another score to
+settle--that by promising her escape you tried to seduce her from
+this ship, where you were sworn to guard her, saying that you
+would find her refuge among the Greeks of Cyprus."
+
+"Were this true," replied Lozelle, "the Sultan might have cause
+of complaint against me. But it is not true. Hearken, since speak
+I must. The lady Rosamund prayed me to do this deed, and I told
+her that for my honour's sake it is not possible, although it was
+true that I loved her now as always, and would dare much for her.
+Then she said that if I did but save her from you Saracens, I
+should not go without my reward, since she would wed me. Again,
+although it cost me sore, I answered that it might not be, but
+when once I had brought my ship to land, I was her true knight,
+and being freed of my oath, would do my best to save her."
+
+"Princess, you hear," said Hassan, turning to Rosamund. "What say
+you?"
+
+"I say," she answered coldly, "that this man lies to save
+himself. I say, moreover, that I answered to him, that sooner
+would I die than that he should lay a finger on me."
+
+"I hold also that he lies," said Hassan. "Nay; unclasp that
+dagger if you would live to see another sun. Here, I will not
+fight with you, but Salah-ed-din shall learn all this case when
+we reach his court, and judge between the word of the princess of
+Baalbec and of his hired servant, the false Frank and pirate, Sir
+Hugh Lozelle."
+
+"Let him learn it--when we reach his court," answered Lozelle,
+with meaning; then added, "Have you aught else to say to me,
+prince Hassan? Because if not, I must be attending to the
+business of my ship, which you suppose that I was about to
+abandon to win a lady's smile."
+
+"Only this, that the ship is the Sultan's and not yours, for he
+bought it from you, and that henceforth this lady will be guarded
+day and night, and doubly guarded when we come to the shores of
+Cyprus, where it seems that you have friends. Understand and
+remember."
+
+"I understand, and certainly I will remember," replied Lozelle,
+and so they parted.
+
+"I think," said Rosamund, when he had gone, "that we shall be
+fortunate if we land safe in Syria."
+
+"That was in my mind, also, lady. I think, too, that I have
+forgot my wisdom, but my heart rose against this man, and being
+still weak from sickness, I lost my judgment and spoke what was
+in my heart, who would have done better to wait. Now, perhaps, it
+will be best to kill him, if it were not that he alone has the
+skill to navigate the ship, which is a trade that he has followed
+from his youth. Nay, let it go as Allah wills. He is just, and
+will bring the matter to judgment in due time."
+
+"Yes, but to what judgment?" asked Rosamund.
+
+"I hope to that of the sword," answered Hassan, as he bowed and
+left her.
+
+From that time forward armed men watched all the night through
+before Rosamund's cabin, and when she walked the deck armed men
+walked after her. Nor was she troubled by Lozelle, who sought to
+speak with her no more, or to Hassan either. Only with the man
+Nicholas he spoke much.
+
+At length upon one golden evening--for Lozelle was a skilful
+pilot, one of the best, indeed, who sailed those seas--they came
+to the shores of Cyprus, and cast anchor. Before them, stretched
+along the beach, lay the white town of Limazol, with palm trees
+standing up amidst its gardens, while beyond the fertile plain
+rose the mighty mountain range of Trooidos. Sick and weary of the
+endless ocean, Rosamund gazed with rapture at this green and
+beauteous shore, the home of so much history, and sighed to think
+that on it she might set no foot. Lozelle saw her look and heard
+her sigh, and as he climbed into the boat which had come out to
+row him into the harbour, mocked her, saying:
+
+"Will you not change your mind, lady, and come with me to visit
+my friend, the Emperor Isaac? I swear that his court is gay, not
+packed full of sour Saracens or pilgrims thinking of their souls.
+In Cyprus they only make pilgrimages to Paphos yonder, where
+Venus was born from out the foam, and has reigned since the
+beginning of the world--ay, and will reign until its end."
+
+Rosamund made no answer, and Lozelle, descending into the boat,
+was rowed shorewards through the breakers by the dark-skinned,
+Cyprian oarsmen, who wore flowers in their hair and sang as they
+laboured at the oars.
+
+For ten whole days they rolled off Limazol, although the weather
+was fair and the wind blew straight for Syria. When Rosamund
+asked why they bided there so long, Hassan stamped his foot and
+said it was because the Emperor refused to supply them with more
+food or water than was sufficient for their daily need, unless
+he, Hassan, would land and travel to an inland town called
+Nicosia, where his court lay, and there do homage to him. This,
+scenting a trap, he feared to do, nor could they put out to sea
+without provisions.
+
+"Cannot Sir Hugh Lozelle see to it?" asked Rosamund.
+
+"Doubtless, if he will," answered Hassan, grinding his teeth;
+"but he swears that he is powerless."
+
+So there they bode day after day, baked by the sweltering summer
+sun and rocked to and fro on the long ocean rollers till their
+hearts grew sick within them, and their bodies also, for some of
+them were seized with a fever common to the shores of Cyprus, of
+which two died. Now and again some officer would come off from
+the shore with Lozelle and a little food and water, and bargain
+with them, saying that before their wants were supplied the
+prince Hassan must visit the Emperor and bring with him the fair
+lady who was his passenger, whom he desired to see.
+
+Hassan would answer no, and double the guard about Rosamund, for
+at nights boats appeared that cruised round them. In the daytime
+also bands of men, fantastically dressed in silks, and with them
+women, could be seen riding to and fro upon the shore and staring
+at them, as though they were striving to make up their minds to
+attack the ship.
+
+Then Hassan armed his grim Saracens and bade them stand in line
+upon the bulwarks, drawn scimitar in hand, a sight that seemed to
+frighten the Cypriotes--at least they always rode away towards
+the great square tower of Colossi.
+
+At length Hassan would bear it no more. One morning Lozelle came
+off from Limazol, where he slept at night, bringing with him
+three Cyprian lords, who visited the ship--not to bargain as they
+pretended, but to obtain sight of the beauteous princess
+Rosamund. Thereon the common talk began of homage that must be
+paid before food was granted, failing which the Emperor would bid
+his seamen capture the ship. Hassan listened a while, then
+suddenly issued an order that the lords should be seized.
+
+"Now," he said to Lozelle, "bid your sailors haul up the anchor,
+and let us begone for Syria."
+
+"But," answered the knight, "we have neither food nor water for
+more than one day."
+
+"I care not," answered Hassan, "as well die of thirst and
+starvation on the sea as rot here with fever. What we can bear
+these Cyprian gallants can bear also. Bid the sailors lift the
+anchor and hoist the sail, or I loose my scimitars among them."
+
+Now Lozelle stamped and foamed, but without avail, so he turned
+to the three lords, who were pale with fear, and said:
+
+"Which will you do: find food and water for this ship, or put to
+sea without them, which is but to die?"
+
+They answered that they would go ashore and supply all that was
+needful.
+
+"Nay," said Hassan, "you bide here until it comes."
+
+In the end, then, this happened, for one of the lords chanced to
+be a nephew of the Emperor, who, when he learned that he was
+captive, sent supplies in plenty. Thus it came about that the
+Cyprian lords having been sent back with the last empty boat,
+within two days they were at sea again.
+
+Now Rosamund missed the hated face of the spy, Nicholas, and told
+Hassan, who made inquiry, to find--or so said Lozelle--that he
+went ashore and vanished there on the first day of their landing
+in Cyprus, though whether he had been killed in some brawl, or
+fallen sick, or hidden himself away, he did not know. Hassan
+shrugged his shoulders, and Rosamund was glad enough to be rid of
+him, but in her heart she wondered for what evil purpose Nicholas
+had left the ship.
+
+When the galley was one day out from Cyprus steering for the
+coast of Syria, they fell into a calm such as is common in those
+seas in summer. This calm lasted eight whole days, during which
+they made but little progress. At length, when all were weary of
+staring at the oil-like sea, a wind sprang up that grew gradually
+to a gale blowing towards Syria, and before it they fled along
+swiftly. Worse and stronger grew that gale, till on the evening
+of the second day, when they seemed in no little danger of being
+pooped, they saw a great mountain far away, at the sight of which
+Lozelle thanked God aloud.
+
+"Are those the mountains near Antioch?" asked Hassan.
+
+"Nay," he answered, "they are more than fifty miles south of
+them, between Ladikiya and Jebela. There, by the mercy of Heaven,
+is a good haven, for I have visited it, where we can lie till
+this storm is past."
+
+"But we are steering for Darbesak, not for a haven near Jebela,
+which is a Frankish port," answered Hassan, angrily.
+
+"Then put the ship about and steer there yourself," said Lozelle,
+"and I promise you this, that within two hours every one of you
+will be dead at the bottom of the sea."
+
+Hassan considered. It was true, for then the waves would strike
+them broadside on, and they must fill and sink.
+
+"On your head be it," he answered shortly.
+
+The dark fell, and by the light of the great lantern at their
+prow they saw the white seas hiss past as they drove shorewards
+beneath bare masts. For they dared hoist no sail.
+
+All that night they pitched and rolled, till the stoutest of them
+fell sick, praying God and Allah that they might have light by
+which to enter the harbour. At length they saw the top of the
+loftiest mountain grow luminous with the coming dawn, although
+the land itself was still lost in shadow, and saw also that it
+seemed to be towering almost over them.
+
+"Take courage," cried Lozelle, "I think that we are saved," and
+he hoisted a second lantern at his masthead--why, they did not
+know.
+
+After this the sea began to fall, only to grow rough again for a
+while as they crossed some bar, to find themselves in calm water,
+and on either side of them what appeared in the dim, uncertain
+light to be the bush-clad banks of a river. For a while they ran
+on, till Lozelle called in a loud voice to the sailors to let the
+anchor go, and sent a messenger to say that all might rest now,
+as they were safe. So they laid them down and tried to sleep.
+
+But Rosamund could not sleep. Presently she rose, and throwing on
+her cloak went to the door of the cabin and looked at the beauty
+of the mountains, rosy with the new-born light, and at the misty
+surface of the harbour. It was a lonely place--at least, she
+could see no town or house, although they were lying not fifty
+yards from the tree-hidden shore. As she stood thus, she heard
+the sound of boats being rowed through the mist, and perceived
+three or four of these approaching the ship in silence, perceived
+also that Lozelle, who stood alone upon the deck, was watching
+their approach. Now the first boat made fast and a man in the
+prow rose up and began to speak to Lozelle in a low voice. As he
+did so the hood fell back from his head, and Rosamund saw the
+face. It was that of the spy Nicholas! For a moment she stood
+amazed, for they had left this man in Cyprus; then understanding
+came to her and she cried aloud:
+
+"Treachery! Prince Hassan, there is treachery."
+
+As the words left her lips fierce, wild-looking men began to
+scramble aboard at the low waist of the galley, to which boat
+after boat made fast. The Saracens also tumbled from the benches
+where they slept and ran aft to the deck where Rosamund was, all
+except one of them who was cut off in the prow of the ship.
+Prince Hassan appeared, too, scimitar in hand, clad in his
+jewelled turban and coat of mail, but without his cloak, shouting
+orders as he came, while the hired crew of the ship flung
+themselves upon their knees and begged for mercy. To him Rosamund
+cried out that they were betrayed and by Nicholas, whom she had
+seen. Then a great man, wearing a white burnous and holding a
+naked sword in his hand, stepped forward and said in Arabic:
+
+"Yield you now, for you are outnumbered and your captain is
+captured," and he pointed to Lozelle, who was being held by two
+men while his arms were bound behind him.
+
+"In whose name do you bid me yield?" asked the prince, glaring
+about him like a lion in a trap.
+
+"In the dread name of Sinan, in the name of the lord Al-je-bal, O
+servant of Salah-ed-din."
+
+At these words a groan of fear went up even from the brave
+Saracens, for now they learned that they had to do with the
+terrible chief of the Assassins.
+
+"Is there then war between the Sultan and Sinan?" asked Hassan.
+
+"Ay, there is always war. Moreover, you have one with you," and
+he pointed to Rosamund, "who is dear to Salah-ed-din, whom,
+therefore, my master desires as a hostage."
+
+"How knew you that?" said Hassan, to gain time while his men
+formed up.
+
+"How does the lord Sinan know all things?" was the answer; "Come,
+yield, and perhaps he will show you mercy."
+
+"Through spies," hissed Hassan, "such spies as Nicholas, who has
+come from Cyprus before us, and that Frankish dog who is called a
+knight," and he pointed to Lozelle. "Nay, we yield not, and here,
+Assassins, you have to do not with poisons and the knife, but
+with bare swords and brave men. Ay, and I warn you--and your
+lord--that Salah-ed-din will take vengeance for this deed."
+
+"Let him try it if he wishes to die, who hitherto has been
+spared," answered the tall man quietly. Then he said to his
+followers, "Cut them down, all save the women"--for the
+Frenchwoman, Marie, was now clinging to the arm of Rosamund--"and
+emir Hassan, whom I am commanded to bring living to Masyaf."
+
+"Back to your cabin, lady," said Hassan, "and remember that
+whate'er befalls, we have done our best to save you. Ay, and
+tell it to my lord, that my honour may be clean in his eyes. Now,
+soldiers of Salah-ed-din, fight and die as he has taught you how.
+The gates of Paradise stand open, and no coward will enter
+there."
+
+They answered with a fierce, guttural cry. Then, as Rosamund fled
+to the cabin, the fray began, a hideous fray. On came the
+Assassins with sword and dagger, striving to storm the deck.
+Again and again they were beaten back, till the waist seemed full
+of their corpses, as man by man they fell beneath the curved
+scimitars, and again and again they charged these men who, when
+their master ordered, knew neither fear nor pity. But more
+boatloads came from the shore, and the Saracens were but few,
+worn also with storm and sickness, so at last Rosamund, peeping
+beneath her hand, saw that the poop was gained.
+
+Here and there a man fought on until he fell beneath the cruel
+knives in the midst of the circle of the dead, among them the
+warrior-prince Hassan. Watching him with fascinated eyes as he
+strove alone against a host, Rosamund was put in mind of another
+scene, when her father, also alone, had striven thus against that
+emir and his soldiers, and even then she bethought her of the
+justice of God.
+
+See! his foot slipped on the blood-stained deck. He was down, and
+ere he could rise again they had thrown cloaks over him, these
+fierce, silent men, who even with their lives at stake,
+remembered the command of their captain, to take him living. So
+living they took him, with not a wound upon his skin, who when he
+struck them down, had never struck back at him lest the command
+of Sinan should be broken.
+
+Rosamund noted it, and remembering that his command was also that
+she should be brought to him unharmed, knew that she had no
+violence to fear at the hands of these cruel murderers. From this
+thought, and because Hassan still lived, she took such comfort as
+she might.
+
+"It is finished," said the tall man, in his cold voice. "Cast
+these dogs into the sea who have dared to disobey the command of
+Al-je-bal."
+
+So they took them up, dead and living together, and threw them
+into the water, where they sank, nor did one of the wounded
+Saracens pray them for mercy. Then they served their own dead
+likewise, but those that were only wounded they took ashore. This
+done, the tall man advanced to the cabin and said:
+
+"Lady, come, we are ready to start upon our journey."
+
+Having no choice, Rosamund obeyed him, remembering as she went
+how from a scene of battle and bloodshed she had been brought
+aboard that ship to be carried she knew not whither, which now
+she left in a scene of battle and bloodshed to be carried she
+knew not whither.
+
+"Oh!" she cried aloud, pointing to the corpses they hurled into
+the deep, "ill has it gone with these who stole me, and ill may
+it go with you also, servant of Al-je-bal."
+
+But the tall man answered nothing, as followed by the weeping
+Marie and the prince Hassan, he led her to the boat.
+
+Soon they reached the shore, and here they tore Marie from her,
+nor did Rosamund ever learn what became of her, or whether or no
+this poor woman found her husband whom she had dared so much to
+seek.
+
+
+
+Chapter Eleven: The City of Al-Je-Bal
+
+"I pray you have done," said Godwin, "it is but a scratch from
+the beast's claws. I am ashamed that you should put your hair to
+such vile uses. Give me a little water."
+
+He asked it of Wulf, but Masouda rose without a word and fetched
+the water, in which she mingled wine. Godwin drank of it and his
+faintness left him, so that he was able to stand up and move his
+arms and legs.
+
+"Why," he said, "it is nothing; I was only shaken. That lioness
+did not hurt me at all."
+
+"But you hurt the lioness," said Wulf, with a laugh. "By St. Chad
+a good thrust!" and he pointed to the long sword driven up to the
+hilt in the brute's breast. "Why, I swear I could not have made a
+better myself."
+
+"I think it was the lion that thrust," answered Godwin. "I only
+held the sword straight. Drag it out, brother, I am still too
+weak."
+
+So Wulf set his foot upon the breast of the lion and tugged and
+tugged until at length he loosened the sword, saying as he
+strained at it:
+
+"Oh! what an Essex hog am I, who slept through it all, never
+waking until Masouda seized me by the hair, and I opened my eyes
+to see you upon the ground with this yellow beast crouched on the
+top of you like a hen on a nest egg. I thought that it was alive
+and smote it with my sword, which, had I been fully awake, I
+doubt if I should have found the courage to do. Look," and he
+pushed the lioness's head with his foot, whereon it twisted round
+in such a fashion that they perceived for the first time that it
+only hung to the shoulders by a thread of skin.
+
+"I am glad you did not strike a little harder," said Godwin, "or
+I should now be in two pieces and drowned in my own blood,
+instead of in that of this dead brute," and he looked ruefully at
+his burnous and hauberk, that were soaked with gore.
+
+"Yes," said Wulf, "I never thought of that. Who would, in such a
+hurry?"
+
+"Lady Masouda," asked Godwin, "when last I saw you you were
+hanging from those jaws. Say, are you hurt?"
+
+"Nay," she answered, "for I wear mail like you, and the teeth
+glanced on it so that she held me by the cloak only. Come, let us
+skin the beast, and take its pelt as a present to the lord
+Al-je-bal."
+
+"Good," said Godwin, "and I give you the claws for a necklace."
+
+"Be sure that I will wear them," she answered, and helped Wulf to
+flay the lioness while he sat by resting. When it was done Wulf
+went to the little cave and walked into it, to come out again
+with a bound.
+
+"Why!" he said, "there are more of them in there. I saw their
+eyes and heard them snarl. Now, give me a burning branch and I
+will show you, brother, that you are not the only one who can
+fight a lion."
+
+"Let be, you foolish man," broke in Masouda. "Doubtless those are
+her cubs, and if you kill them, her mate will follow us for
+miles; but if they are left safe he will stay to feed them. Come,
+let us begone from this place as swiftly as we can."
+
+So having shown them the skin of the lion, that they might know
+it was but a dead thing, at the sight of which they snorted and
+trembled, they packed it upon one of the mules and rode off
+slowly into a valley some five miles away, where was water but no
+trees. Here, since Godwin needed rest, they stopped all that day
+and the night which followed, seeing no more of lions, though
+they watched for them sharply enough. The next morning, having
+slept well, he was himself again, and they started forward
+through a broken country towards a deep cleft, on either side of
+which stood a tall mountain.
+
+"This is Al-je-bal's gateway," said Masouda, "and tonight we
+should sleep in the gate, whence one day's ride brings us to his
+city."
+
+So on they rode till at length, perched upon the sides of the
+cleft, they saw a castle, a great building, with high walls, to
+which they came at sunset. It seemed that they were expected in
+this place, for men hastened to meet them, who greeted Masouda
+and eyed the brethren curiously, especially after they had heard
+of the adventure with the lion. These took them, not into the
+castle, but to a kind of hostelry at its back, where they were
+furnished with food and slept the night.
+
+Next morning they went on again to a hilly country with beautiful
+and fertile valleys. Through this they rode for two hours,
+passing on their way several villages, where sombre-eyed people
+were labouring in the fields. From each village, as they drew
+near to it, horsemen would gallop out and challenge them, whereon
+Masouda rode forward and spoke with the leader alone. Then he
+would touch his forehead with his hand and bow his head and they
+rode on unmolested.
+
+"See," she said, when they had thus been stopped for the fourth
+time, "what chance you had of winning through to Masyaf
+unguarded. Why, I tell you, brethren, that you would have been
+dead before ever you passed the gates of the first castle."
+
+Now they rode up a long slope, and at its crest paused to look
+upon a marvellous scene. Below them stretched a vast plain, full
+of villages, cornfields, olive-groves, and vineyards. In the
+centre of this plain, some fifteen miles away, rose a great
+mountain, which seemed to be walled all about. Within the wall
+was a city of which the white, flat-roofed houses climbed the
+slopes of the mountain, and on its crest a level space of land
+covered with trees and a great, many-towered castle surrounded by
+more houses.
+
+"Behold the home of Al-je-bal, Lord of the Mountain," said
+Masouda, "where we must sleep to-night. Now, brethren, listen to
+me. Few strangers who enter that castle come thence living. There
+is still time; I can pass you back as I passed you hither. Will
+you go on?"
+
+"We will go on," they answered with one breath.
+
+"Why? What have you to gain? You seek a certain maiden. Why seek
+her here whom you say has been taken to Salah-ed-din? Because the
+Al-je-bal in bygone days swore to befriend one of your blood. But
+that Al-je-bal is dead, and another of his line rules who took no
+such oath. How do you know that he will befriend you--how that he
+will not enslave or kill you? I have power in this land, why or
+how does not matter, and I can protect you against all that dwell
+in it--as I swear I will, for did not one of you save my life?"
+and she glanced at Godwin, "except my lord Sinan, against whom I
+have no power, for I am his slave."
+
+"He is the enemy of Saladin, and may help us for his hate's
+sake."
+
+"Yes, he is the enemy of Salah-ed-din now more than ever. He may
+help you or he may not. Also," she added with meaning, "you may
+not wish the help he offers. Oh!" and there was a note of
+entreaty in her voice, "think, think! For the last time, I pray
+you think!"
+
+"We have thought," answered Godwin solemnly; "and, whatever
+chances, we will obey the command of the dead."
+
+She heard and bowed her head in assent, then said, looking up
+again:
+
+"So be it. You are not easily turned from your purpose, and I
+like that spirit well. But hear my counsel. While you are in this
+city speak no Arabic and pretend to understand none. Also drink
+nothing but water, which is good here, for the lord Sinan sets
+strange wines before his guests, that, if they pass the lips,
+produce visions and a kind of waking madness in which you might
+do deeds whereof you were afterwards ashamed. Or you might swear
+oaths that would sit heavy on your souls, and yet could not be
+broken except at the cost of life."
+
+"Fear not," answered Wulf. "Water shall be our drink, who have
+had enough of drugged wines," for he remembered the Christmas
+feast in the Hall at Steeple.
+
+"You, Sir Godwin," went on Masouda, "have about your neck a
+certain ring which you were mad enough to show to me, a
+stranger--a ring with writing on it which none can read save the
+great men that in this land are called the dais. Well, as it
+chances, the secret is safe with me; but be wise; say nothing of
+that ring and let no eye see it."
+
+"Why not?" asked Godwin. "It is the token of our dead uncle to
+the Al-je-bal."
+
+She looked round her cautiously and replied:
+
+"Because it is, or was once, the great Signet, and a day may come
+when it will save your lives. Doubtless when the lord who is dead
+thought it gone forever he caused another to be fashioned, so
+like that I who have had both in my hand could not tell the two
+apart. To him who holds that ring all gates are open; but to let
+it be known that you have its double means death. Do you
+understand?"
+
+They nodded, and Masouda continued:
+
+"Lastly--though you may think that this seems much to ask--trust
+me always, even if I seem to play you false, who for your sakes,"
+and she sighed, "have broken oaths and spoken words for which the
+punishment is to die by torment. Nay, thank me not, for I do only
+what I must who am a slave--a slave."
+
+"A slave to whom?" asked Godwin, staring at her.
+
+"To the Lord of all the Mountains," she answered, with a smile
+that was sweet yet very sad; and without another word spurred on
+her horse.
+
+"What does she mean," asked Godwin of Wulf, when she was out of
+hearing, "seeing that if she speaks truth, for our sakes, in
+warning us against him, Masouda is breaking her fealty to this
+lord?"
+
+"I do not know, brother, and I do not seek to know. All her talk
+may be a part of a plot to blind us, or it may not. Let well
+alone and trust in fortune, say I."
+
+"A good counsel," answered Godwin, and they rode forward in
+silence.
+
+They crossed the plain, and towards evening came to the wall of
+the outer city, halting in front of its great gateway. Here, as
+at the first castle, a band of solemn-looking mounted men came
+out to meet them, and, having spoken a few words with Masouda,
+led them over the drawbridge that spanned the first rock-cut
+moat, and through triple gates of iron into the city. Then they
+passed up a street very steep and narrow, from the roofs and
+windows of the houses on either side of which hundreds of
+people--many of whom seemed to be engaged at their evening
+prayer--watched them go by. At the head of this street they
+reached another fortified gateway, on the turrets of which, so
+motionless that at first they took them to be statues cut in
+stone, stood guards wrapped in long white robes. After parley,
+this also was opened to them, and again they rode through triple
+doors.
+
+Then they saw all the wonder of that place, for between the outer
+city where they stood and the castle, with its inner town which
+was built around and beneath it yawned a vast gulf over ninety
+feet in depth. Across this gulf, built of blocks of stone, quite
+unrailed, and not more than three paces wide, ran a causeway some
+two hundred yards in length, which causeway was supported upon
+arches reared up at intervals from the bottom of the gulf.
+
+"Ride on and have no fear," said Masouda. "Your horses are
+trained to heights, and the mules and mine will follow."
+
+So Godwin, showing nothing in his face of the doubt that he felt
+in his heart, patted Flame upon the neck, and, after hanging back
+a little, the horse started lifting its hoofs high and glancing
+from side to side at the terrible gulf beneath. Where Flame went
+Smoke knew that it could go, and came on bravely, but snorting a
+little, while the mules, that did not fear heights so long as the
+ground was firm beneath their feet, followed. Only Masouda's
+horse was terrified, backed, and strove to wheel round, till she
+drove the spur into it, when of a sudden it started and came over
+at a gallop.
+
+At length they were across, and, passing under another gateway
+which had broad terraces on either side of it, rode up the long
+street beyond and entered a great courtyard, around which stood
+the castle, a vast and frowning fortress. Here a white-robed
+officer came forward, greeting them with a low bow, and with him
+servants who assisted them to dismount. These men took the horses
+to a range of stables on one side of the courtyard, whither the
+brethren followed to see their beasts groomed and fed. Then the
+officer, who had stood patiently by the while, conducted them
+through doorways and down passages to the guest chambers, large,
+stone-roofed rooms, where they found their baggage ready for
+them. Here Masouda said that she would see them again on the
+following morning, and departed in company with the officer.
+
+Wulf looked round the great vaulted chamber, which, now that the
+dark had fallen, was lit by flickering lamps set in iron
+brackets upon the wall, and said:
+
+"Well, for my part, I had rather pass the night in a desert among
+the lions than in this dismal place."
+
+Scarcely were the words out of his lips when curtains swung aside
+and beautiful women entered, clad in gauzy veils and bearing
+dishes of food. These they placed upon the ground before them,
+inviting them to eat with nods and smiles, while others brought
+basins of scented water, which they poured over their hands. Then
+they sat down and ate the food that was strange to them, but very
+pleasant to the taste; and while they ate, women whom they could
+not see sang sweet songs, and played upon harps and lutes. Wine
+was offered to them also; but of this, remembering Masouda's
+words, they would not drink, asking by signs for water, which was
+brought after a little pause.
+
+When their meal was done, the beautiful women bore away the
+dishes, and black slaves appeared. These men led them to baths
+such as they had never seen, where they washed first in hot
+water, then in cold. Afterwards they were rubbed with
+spicy-smelling oils, and having been wrapped in white robes,
+conducted back to their chamber, where they found beds spread for
+them. On these, being very weary, they lay down, when the
+strange, sweet music broke out afresh, and to the sound of it
+they fell asleep.
+
+When they awoke it was to see the light streaming through the
+high, latticed windows.
+
+"Did you sleep well, Godwin?" asked Wulf.
+
+"Well enough," answered his brother, "only I dreamed that
+throughout the night people came and looked at me."
+
+"I dreamed that also," said Wulf; "moreover, I think that it was
+not all a dream, since there is a coverlet on my bed which was
+not there when I went to sleep."
+
+Godwin looked at his own, where also was another coverlet added,
+doubtless as the night grew colder in that high place.
+
+"I have heard of enchanted castles," he said; "now I think that
+we have found one."
+
+"Ay," replied Wulf, "and it is well enough while it lasts."
+
+They rose and dressed themselves, putting on clean garments and
+their best cloaks, that they had brought with them on the mules,
+after which the veiled women entered the room with breakfast, and
+they ate. When this was finished, having nothing else to do, they
+made signs to one of the women that they wished for cloths
+wherewith to clean their armour, for, as they had been bidden,
+they pretended to understand no word of Arabic. She nodded, and
+presently returned with a companion carrying leathers and paste
+in a jar. Nor did they leave them, but, sitting upon the ground,
+whether the brethren willed it or no, took the shirts of mail and
+rubbed them till they shone like silver, while Godwin and Wulf
+polished their helms, spurs, and bucklers, cleansing their swords
+and daggers also, and sharpening them with a stone which they
+carried for that purpose.
+
+Now as these women worked, they began to talk to each other in a
+low voice, and some of their talk, though not all, the brethren
+understood.
+
+"A handsome pair truly," said the first. "We should be fortunate
+if we had such men for husbands, although they are Franks and
+infidels."
+
+"Ay," answered the other; "and from their likeness they must be
+twins. Now which of them would you choose?"
+
+Then for a long while they discussed them, comparing them feature
+by feature and limb by limb, until the brethren felt their faces
+grow red beneath the sunburn and scrubbed furiously at their
+armour to show a reason for it. At length one of the women said:
+
+"It was cruel of the lady Masouda to bring these birds into the
+Master's net. She might have warned them."
+
+"Masouda was ever cruel," answered the other, "who hates all men,
+which is unnatural. Yet I think if she loved a man she would love
+him well, and perhaps that might be worse for him than her hate."
+
+"Are these knights spies?" asked the first.
+
+"I suppose so," was the answer, "silly fellows who think that
+they can spy upon a nation of spies. They would have done better
+to keep to fighting, at which, doubtless, they are good enough.
+What will happen to them?"
+
+"What always happens, I suppose--a pleasant time at first; then,
+if they can be put to no other use, a choice between the faith
+and the cup. Or, perhaps, as they seem men of rank, they may be
+imprisoned in the dungeon tower and held to ransom. Yes, yes; it
+was cruel of Masouda to trick them so, who may be but travellers
+after all, desiring to see our city."
+
+Just then the curtain was drawn, and through it entered Masouda
+herself. She was dressed in a white robe that had a dagger worked
+in red over the left breast, and her long black hair fell upon
+her shoulders, although it was half hid by the veil, open in
+front, which hung from her head. Never had they seen her look so
+beautiful as she seemed thus.
+
+"Greetings, brothers Peter and John. Is this fit work for
+pilgrims?" she said in French, pointing to the long swords which
+they were sharpening.
+
+"Ay," answered Wulf, as they rose and bowed to her, "for pilgrims
+to this--holy city."
+
+The women who were cleaning the mail bowed also, for it seemed
+that here Masouda was a person of importance. She took the
+hauberks from their hands.
+
+"Ill cleansed," she said sharply. "I think that you girls talk
+better than you work. Nay, they must serve. Help these lords to
+don them. Fools, that is the shirt of the grey-eyed knight. Give
+it me; I will be his squire," and she snatched the hauberk from
+their hands, whereat, when her back was turned, they glanced at
+one another.
+
+"Now," she said, when they were fully armed and had donned their
+mantles, "you brethren look as pilgrims should. Listen, I have a
+message for you. The Master"--and she bowed her head, as did the
+women, guessing of whom she spoke--"will receive you in an hour's
+time, till when, if it please you, we can walk in the gardens,
+which are worth your seeing."
+
+So they went out with her, and as they passed towards the curtain
+she whispered:
+
+"For your lives' sake, remember all that I have told you--above
+everything, about the wine and the ring, for if you dream the
+drink-dream you will be searched. Speak no word to me save of
+common matters."
+
+In the passage beyond the curtain white-robed guards were
+standing, armed with spears, who turned and followed them without
+a word. First they went to the stables to visit Flame and Smoke,
+which whinnied as they drew near. These they found well-fed and
+tended--indeed, a company of grooms were gathered round them,
+discussing their points and beauty, who saluted as the owners of
+such steeds approached. Leaving the stable, they passed through
+an archway into the famous gardens, which were said to be the
+most beautiful in all the East. Beautiful they were indeed,
+planted with trees, shrubs, and flowers such as are seldom seen,
+while between fern-clad rocks flowed rills which fell over deep
+cliffs in waterfalls of foam. In places the shade of cedars lay
+so dense that the brightness of day was changed to twilight, but
+in others the ground was open and carpeted with flowers which
+filled the air with perfume. Everywhere grew roses, myrtles, and
+trees laden with rich fruits, while from all sides came the sound
+of cooing doves and the voices of many bright-winged birds which
+flashed from palm to palm.
+
+On they walked, down the sand-strewn paths for a mile or more,
+accompanied by Masouda and the guard. At length, passing through
+a brake of whispering, reed-like plants, of a sudden they came to
+a low wall, and saw, yawning black and wide at their very feet,
+that vast cleft which they had crossed before they entered the
+castle.
+
+"It encircles the inner city, the fortress, and its grounds,"
+said Masouda; "and who lives to-day that could throw a bridge
+across it? Now come back."
+
+So, following the gulf round, they returned to the castle by
+another path, and were ushered into an ante-room, where stood a
+watch of twelve men. Here Masouda left them in the midst of the
+men, who stared at them with stony eyes. Presently she returned,
+and beckoned to them to follow her. Walking down a long passage
+they came to curtains, in front of which were two sentries, who
+drew these curtains as they approached. Then, side by side, they
+entered a great hall, long as Stangate Abbey church, and passed
+through a number of people, all crouched upon the ground. Beyond
+these the hall narrowed as a chancel does.
+
+Here sat and stood more people, fierce-eyed, turbaned men, who
+wore great knives in their girdles. These, as they learned
+afterwards, were called the fedai, the sworn assassins, who lived
+but to do the command of their lord the great Assassin. At the
+end of this chancel were more curtains, beyond which was a
+guarded door. It opened, and on its further side they found
+themselves in full sunlight on an unwalled terrace, surrounded by
+the mighty gulf into which it was built out. On the right and
+left edges of this terrace sat old and bearded men, twelve in
+number, their heads bowed humbly and their eyes fixed upon the
+ground. These were the dais or councillors.
+
+At the head of the terrace, under an open and beautifully carved
+pavilion of wood, stood two gigantic soldiers, having the red
+dagger blazoned on their white robes. Between them was a black
+cushion, and on the cushion a black heap. At first, staring out
+of the bright sunlight at this heap in the shadow, the brethren
+wondered what it might be. Then they caught sight of the glitter
+of eyes, and knew that the heap was a man who wore a black turban
+on his head and a black, bell-shaped robe clasped at the breast
+with a red jewel. The weight of the man had sunk him down deep
+into the soft cushion, so that there was nothing of him to be
+seen save the folds of the bell-shaped cloak, the red jewel, and
+the head. He looked like a coiled-up snake; the dark and
+glittering eyes also were those of a snake. Of his features, in
+the deep shade of the canopy and of the wide black turban, they
+could see nothing.
+
+The aspect of this figure was so terrible and inhuman that the
+brethren trembled at the sight of him. They were men and he was a
+man, but between that huddled, beady-eyed heap and those two tall
+Western warriors, clad in their gleaming mail and coloured
+cloaks, helm on brow, buckler on arm, and long sword at side, the
+contrast was that of death and life.
+
+
+
+Chapter Twelve: The Lord of Death
+
+Masouda ran forward and prostrated herself at full length, but
+Godwin and Wulf stared at the heap, and the heap stared at them.
+Then, at some motion of his chin, Masouda arose and said:
+
+"Strangers, you stand in the presence of the Master, Sinan, Lord
+of Death. Kneel, and do homage to the Master."
+
+But the brethren stiffened their backs and would not kneel. They
+lifted their hands to their brows in salute, but no more.
+
+Then from between the black turban and the black cloak came a
+hollow voice, speaking in Arabic, and saying:
+
+"Are these the men who brought me the lion's skin? Well, what
+seek ye, Franks?" They stood silent.
+
+"Dread lord," said Masouda, "these knights are but now come from
+England over sea, and do not understand our tongue."
+
+"Set out their story and their request," said Al-je-bal, "that we
+may judge of them."
+
+"Dread lord," answered Masouda, "as I sent you word, they say
+that they are the kin of a certain knight who in battle saved
+the life of him who ruled before you, but is now an inhabitant of
+Paradise."
+
+"I have heard that there was such a knight," said the voice. "He
+was named D'Arcy, and he bore the same cognizance on his
+shield--the sign of a skull."
+
+"Lord, these brethren are also named D'Arcy, and now they come
+to ask your help against Salah-ed-din."
+
+At that name the heap stirred as a snake stirs when it hears
+danger, and the head erected itself a little beneath the great
+turban.
+
+"What help, and why?" asked the voice.
+
+"Lord, Salah-ed-din has stolen a woman of their house who is his
+niece, and these knights, her brothers, ask you to aid them to
+recover her."
+
+The beady eyes instantly became interested.
+
+"Report has been made to me of that story," said the voice; "but
+what sign do these Franks show? He who went before me gave a
+ring, and with it certain rights in this land, to the knight
+D'Arcy who befriended him in danger. Where is that sacred ring,
+with which he parted in his foolishness?"
+
+Masouda translated, and seeing the warning in her eyes and
+remembering her words, the brethren shook their heads, while Wulf
+answered:
+
+"Our uncle, the knight Sir Andrew, was cut down by the soldiers
+of Salah-ed-din, and as he died bade us seek you out. What time
+had he to tell us of any ring?"
+
+The head sank upon the breast.
+
+"I hoped," said Sinan to Masouda, "that they had the ring, and it
+was for this reason, woman, that I allowed you to lead these
+knights hither, after you had reported of them and their quest to
+me from Beirut. It is not well that there should be two holy
+Signets in the world, and he who went before me, when he lay
+dying, charged me to recover his if that were possible. Let them
+go back to their own land and return to me with the ancient ring,
+and I will help them."
+
+Masouda translated the last sentence only, and again the brethren
+shook their heads. This time it was Godwin who spoke.
+
+"Our land is far away, O lord, and where shall we find this
+long-lost ring? Let not our journey be in vain. O mighty One,
+give us justice against Salah-ed-din."
+
+"All my years have I sought justice on Salah-ed-din," answered
+Sinan, "and yet he prevails against me. Now I make you an offer.
+Go, Franks, and bring me his head, or at least put him to death
+as I shall show you how, and we will talk again."
+
+When they heard this saying Wulf said to Godwin, in English:
+
+"I think that we had best go; I do not like this company." But
+Godwin made no answer.
+
+As they stood silent thus, not knowing what to say, a man entered
+through the door, and, throwing himself on his hands and knees,
+crawled towards the cushion through the double line of
+councillors or dais.
+
+"Your report?" said Sinan in Arabic.
+
+"Lord," answered the man, "I acquaint you that your will has been
+done in the matter of the vessel." Then he went on speaking in a
+low voice, so rapidly that the brethren could scarcely hear and
+much less understand him.
+
+Sinan listened, then said:
+
+"Let the fedai enter and make his own report, bringing with him
+his prisoners."
+
+Now one of the dais, he who sat nearest the canopy, rose and
+pointing towards the brethren, said.
+
+"Touching these Franks, what is your will?"
+
+The beady eyes, which seemed to search out their souls, fixed
+themselves upon them and for a long while Sinan considered. They
+trembled, knowing that he was passing some judgment concerning
+them in his heart, and that on his next words much might
+hang--even their lives.
+
+"Let them stay here," he said at length. "I may have questions to
+ask them."
+
+For a time there was silence. Sinan, Lord of Death, seemed to be
+lost in thought under the black shade of his canopy; the double
+line of dais stared at nothingness across the passage way; the
+giant guards stood still as statues; Masouda watched the brethren
+from beneath her long eye-lashes, while the brethren watched the
+sharp edge of the shadow of the canopy on the marble floor. They
+strove to seem unconcerned, but their hearts were beating fast
+within them who felt that great things were about to happen,
+though what these might be they knew not.
+
+So intense was the silence, so dreadful seemed that inhuman,
+snake-like man, so strange his aged, passionless councillors, and
+the place of council surrounded by a dizzy gulf, that fear took
+hold of them like the fear of an evil dream. Godwin wondered if
+Sinan could see the ring upon his breast, and what would happen
+to him if he did see it; while Wulf longed to shout aloud, to do
+anything that would break this deathly, sunlit quiet. To them
+those minutes seemed like hours; indeed, for aught they knew,
+they might have been hours.
+
+At length there was a stir behind the brethren, and at a word
+from Masouda they separated, falling apart a pace or two, and
+stood opposite each other and sideways to Sinan. Standing thus,
+they saw the curtains drawn. Through them came four men, carrying
+a stretcher covered with a cloth, beneath which they could see
+the outline of a form, that lay there stirless. The four men
+brought the stretcher to the front of the canopy, set it on the
+ground, prostrated themselves, and retired, walking backwards
+down the length of the terrace.
+
+Again there was silence, while the brethren wondered whose corpse
+it was that lay beneath the cloth, for a corpse it must surely
+be; though neither the Lord of the Mountain nor his dais and
+guards seemed to concern themselves in the matter. Again the
+curtains parted, and a procession advanced up the terrace. First
+came a great man clad in a white robe blazoned with the bleeding
+dagger, after whom walked a tall woman shrouded in a long veil,
+who was followed by a thick-set knight clad in Frankish armour
+and wearing a cape of which the cowl covered his head as though
+to keep the rays of the sun from beating on his helm. Lastly
+walked four guards. Up the long place they marched, through the
+double line of dais, while with a strange stirring in their
+breasts the brethren watched the shape and movements of the
+veiled woman who stepped forward rapidly, not seeing them, for
+she turned her head neither to the right nor left. The leader of
+the little band reached the space before the canopy, and,
+prostrating himself by the side of the stretcher, lay still. She
+who walked behind him stopped also, and, seeing the black heap
+upon the cushion, shuddered.
+
+"Woman, unveil," commanded the voice of Sinan.
+
+She hesitated, then swiftly undid some fastening, so that her
+drapery fell from her head. The brethren stared, rubbed their
+eyes, and stared again.
+
+Before them stood Rosamund!
+
+Yes, it was Rosamund, worn with sickness, terrors, and travel,
+Rosamund herself beyond all doubt. At the sight of her pale,
+queenly beauty the heap on the cushion stirred beneath his black
+cloak, and the beady eyes were filled with an evil, eager light.
+Even the dais seemed to wake from their contemplation, and
+Masouda bit her red lip, turned pale beneath her olive skin, and
+watched with devouring eyes, waiting to read this woman's heart.
+
+"Rosamund!" cried the brethren with one voice.
+
+She heard. As they sprang towards her she glanced wildly from
+face to face, then with a low cry flung an arm about the neck of
+each and would have fallen in the ecstacy of her joy had they not
+held her. Indeed, her knees touched the ground. As they stooped
+to lift her it flashed into Godwin's mind that Masouda had told
+Sinan that they were her brethren. The thought was followed by
+another. If this were so, they might be left with her, whereas
+otherwise that black-robed devil--
+
+"Listen," he whispered in English; "we are not your cousins--we
+are your brothers, your half-brothers, and we know no Arabic."
+
+She heard and Wulf heard, but the watchers thought that they were
+but welcoming each other, for Wulf began to talk also, random
+words in French, such as "Greeting, sister!" "Well found,
+sister!" and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+Rosamund opened her eyes, which had closed, and, gaining her
+feet, gave one hand to each of the brethren. Then the voice of
+Masouda was heard interpreting the words of Sinan.
+
+"It seems, lady, that you know these knights."
+
+"I do--well. They are my brothers, from whom I was stolen when
+they were drugged and our father was killed."
+
+"How is that, lady, seeing that you are said to be the niece of
+Salah-ed-din? Are these knights, then, the nephews of
+Salah-ed-din?"
+
+"Nay," answered Rosamund, "they are my father's sons, but of
+another wife."
+
+The answer appeared to satisfy Sinan, who fixed his eyes upon the
+pale beauty of Rosamund and asked no more questions. While he
+remained thus thinking, a noise arose at the end of the terrace,
+and the brethren, turning their heads, saw that the thick-set
+knight was striving to thrust his way through the guards who
+stood by the curtains and barred his path with the shafts of
+their spears.
+
+Then it came into Godwin's mind that just before Rosamund
+unveiled he had seen this knight suddenly turn and walk down the
+terrace.
+
+The lord Sinan looked up at the sound and made a sign. Thereon
+two of the dais sprang to their feet and ran towards the curtain,
+where they spoke with the knight, who turned and came back with
+them, though slowly, as one who is unwilling. Now his hood had
+fallen from his head, and Godwin and Wulf stared at him as he
+advanced, for surely they knew those great shoulders, those round
+black eyes, those thick lips, and that heavy jowl.
+
+"Lozelle! It is Lozelle!" said Godwin.
+
+"Ay," echoed Rosamund, "it is Lozelle, the double traitor, who
+betrayed me first to the soldiers of Saladin, and, because I
+would have none of his love, next to this lord Sinan."
+
+Wulf heard, and, as Lozelle drew near to them, sprang forward
+with an oath and struck him across the face with his mailed hand.
+Instantly guards thrust themselves between them, and Sinan asked
+through Masouda:
+
+"Why do you dare to strike this Frank in my presence?"
+
+"Because, lord," answered Wulf, "he is a rogue who has brought
+all these troubles on our house. I challenge him to meet me in
+battle to the death."
+
+"And I also," said Godwin.
+
+"I am ready," shouted Lozelle, stung to fury by the blow.
+
+"Then, dog, why did you try to run away when you saw our faces?"
+asked Wulf.
+
+Masouda held up her hand and began to interpret, addressing
+Lozelle, and speaking in the first person as the "mouth" of
+Sinan.
+
+"I thank you for your service who have served me before. Your
+messenger came, a Frank whom I knew in old days. As you had
+arranged it should be, I sent one of my fedais with soldiers to
+kill the men of Salah-ed-din on the ship and capture this lady
+who is his niece, all of which it seems has been done. The
+bargain that your messenger made was that the lady should be
+given over to you--"
+
+Here Godwin and Wulf ground their teeth and glared at him.
+
+"But these knights say that you stole her, their kinswoman, from
+them, and one of them has struck you and challenged you to single
+combat, which challenge you have accepted. I sanction the combat
+gladly, who have long desired to see two knights of the Franks
+fight in tourney according to their custom. I will set the
+course, and you shall be given the best horse in my kingdom; this
+knight shall ride his own. These are the conditions--the course
+shall be on the bridge between the inner and outer gates of the
+castle city, and the fight, which must be to the death, shall
+take place on the night of the full moon--that is, three days
+from now. If you are victor, we will talk of the matter of the
+lady for whom you bargained as a wife."
+
+"My lord, my lord," answered Lozelle, "who can lay a lance on
+that terrible place in moonlight? Is it thus that you keep faith
+with me?"
+
+"I can and will!" cried Wulf. "Dog, I would fight you in the
+gates of hell, with my soul on the hazard."
+
+"Keep faith with yourself," said Sinan, "who said that you
+accepted the challenge of this knight and made no conditions,
+and when you have proved upon his body that his quarrel is not
+just, then speak of my faith with you. Nay, no more words; when
+this fight is done we will speak again, and not before. Let him
+be led to the outer castle and there given of our best. Let my
+great black horse be brought to him that he may gallop it to and
+fro upon the bridge, or where he will within the circuit of the
+walls, by day or by night; but see that he has no speech with
+this lady whom he has betrayed into my power, or with these
+knights his foes, nor suffer him to come into my presence. I will
+not talk with a man who has been struck in the face until he has
+washed away the blow in blood."
+
+As Masouda finished translating, and before Lozelle could answer,
+the lord Sinan moved his head, whereon guards sprang forward and
+conducted Lozelle from the terrace.
+
+"Farewell, Sir Thief," cried Wulf after him, "till we meet again
+upon the narrow bridge and there settle our account. You have
+fought Godwin, perhaps you will have better luck with Wulf."
+
+Lozelle glared back at him, and, finding no answer, went on his
+way.
+
+"Your report," said Sinan, addressing the tall fedai who all this
+while had lain upon his face before him, still as the form that
+was stretched upon the bier. "There should have been another
+prisoner, the great emir Hassan. Also, where is the Frankish
+spy?"
+
+The fedai rose and spoke.
+
+"Lord," he said, "I did your bidding. The knight who has gone
+steered the ship into the bay, as had been arranged. I attacked
+with the daylight. The soldiers of Salah-ed-din fought bravely,
+for the lady here saw us, and gave them time to gather, and we
+lost many men. We overcame and killed them all, except the prince
+Hassan, whom we took prisoner. I left some men to watch the ship.
+The crew we spared, as they were the servants of the Frank
+Lozelle, setting them loose upon the beach, together with a
+Frankish woman, who was the servant of the lady here, to find
+their way to the nearest city. This woman I would have killed,
+but the lady your captive begged for her life, saying she had
+come from the land of the Franks to seek her husband; so, having
+no orders, let her go. Yesterday morning we started for Masyaf,
+the prince Hassan riding in a litter together with that Frankish
+spy who was here a while ago, and told you of the coming of the
+ship. At night they slept in the same tent; I left the prince
+bound and set a guard, but in the morning when we looked we found
+him gone--how, I know not--and lying in the tent the Frankish
+spy, dead, with a knife-wound through his heart. Behold!" and
+withdrawing the cloth from the stretcher he revealed the stiff
+form of the spy Nicholas, who lay there dead, a look of terror
+frozen on his face.
+
+"At least this one has come to an end he deserved," muttered Wulf
+to Godwin.
+
+"So, having searched without avail, I came on here with the lady
+your prisoner and the Frank Lozelle. I have spoken."
+
+Now when he had heard this report, forgetting his calm, Sinan
+arose from the cushion and stepped forward two paces. There he
+halted, with fury in his glittering eyes, looking like a man
+clothed in a black bell. For a moment he stroked his beard, and
+the brethren noted that on the first finger of his right hand
+was a ring so like to that which hung about the neck of Godwin
+that none could have told them apart.
+
+"Man," Sinan said in a low voice, "what have you done? You have
+left the emir Hassan go, who is the most trusted friend and
+general of the Sultan of Damascus. By now he is there, or near
+it, and within six days we shall see the army of Salah-ed-din
+riding across the plain. Also you have not killed the crew and
+the Frankish woman, and they too will make report of the taking
+of the ship and the capture of this lady, who is of the house of
+Salah-ed-din and whom he seeks more earnestly than all the
+kingdom of the Franks. What have you to say?"
+
+"Lord," answered the tall fedai, and his hand trembled as he
+spoke, "most mighty lord, I had no orders as to the killing of
+the crew from your lips, and the Frank Lozelle told me that he
+had agreed with you that they should be spared."
+
+"Then, slave, he lied. He agreed with me through that dead spy
+that they should be slain, and do you not know that if I give no
+orders in such a case I mean death, not life? But what of the
+prince Hassan?"
+
+"Lord, I have nothing to say. I think he must have bribed the spy
+named Nicholas"--and he pointed to the corpse--"to cut his bonds,
+and afterwards killed the man for vengeance sake, for by the body
+we found a heavy purse of gold. That he hated him as he hated
+yonder Lozelle I know, for he called them dogs and traitors in
+the boat; and since he could not strike them, his hands being
+bound, he spat in their faces, cursing them in the name of Allah.
+That is why, Lozelle being afraid to be near him, I set the spy
+Nicholas, who was a bold fellow, as a watch over him, and two
+soldiers outside the tent, while Lozelle and I watched the lady."
+
+"Let those soldiers be brought," said Sinan, "and tell their
+story."
+
+They were brought and stood by their captain, but they had no
+story to tell. They swore that they had not slept on guard, nor
+heard a sound, yet when morning came the prince was gone. Again
+the Lord of Death stroked his black beard. Then he held up the
+Signet before the eyes of the three men, saying:
+
+"You see the token. Go."
+
+"Lord," said the fedai, "I have served you well for many years."
+
+"Your service is ended. Go!" was the stern answer.
+
+The fedai bowed his head in salute, stood for a moment as though
+lost in thought, then, turning suddenly, walked with a steady
+step to the edge of the abyss and leapt. For an instant the
+sunlight shone on his white and fluttering robe, then from the
+depths of that darksome place floated up the sound of a heavy
+fall, and all was still.
+
+"Follow your captain to Paradise," said Sinan to the two
+soldiers, whereon one of them drew a knife to stab himself, but a
+dai sprang up, saying:
+
+"Beast, would you shed blood before your lord? Do you not know
+the custom? Begone!"
+
+So the poor men went, the first with a steady step, and the
+second, who was not so brave, reeling over the edge of the
+precipice as one might who is drunken.
+
+"It is finished," said the dais, clapping their hands gently.
+"Dread lord, we thank thee for thy justice."
+
+But Rosamund turned sick and faint, and even the brethren paled.
+This man was terrible indeed--if he were a man and not a
+devil--and they were in his power. How long would it be, they
+wondered, before they also were bidden to walk that gulf? Only
+Wulf swore in his heart that if he went by this road Sinan should
+go with him.
+
+Then the corpse of the false palmer was borne away to be thrown
+to the eagles which always hovered over that house of death, and
+Sinan, having reseated himself upon the cushion, began to talk
+again through his "mouth" Masouda, in a low, quiet voice, as
+though nothing had happened to anger him.
+
+"Lady," he said to Rosamund, "your story is known to me.
+Salah-ed-din seeks you, nor is it wonderful"--here his eyes
+glittered with a new and horrible light--"that he should desire
+to see such loveliness at his court, although the Frank Lozelle
+swore through yonder dead spy that you are precious in his eyes
+because of some vision that has come to him. Well, this heretic
+sultan is my enemy whom Satan protects, for even my fedais have
+failed to kill him, and perhaps there will be war on account of
+you. But have no fear, for the price at which you shall be
+delivered to him is higher than Salah-ed-din himself would care
+to pay, even for you. So, since this castle is impregnable, here
+you may dwell at peace, nor shall any desire be denied you.
+Speak, and your wishes are fulfilled."
+
+"I desire," said Rosamund in a low, steady voice, "protection
+against Sir Hugh Lozelle and all men."
+
+"It is yours. The Lord of the Mountain covers you with his own
+mantle."
+
+"I desire," she went on, "that my brothers here may lodge with
+me, that I may not feel alone among strange people."
+
+He thought awhile, and answered:
+
+"Your brethren shall lodge near you in the guest castle. Why not,
+since from them you cannot need protection? They shall meet you
+at the feast and in the garden. But, lady, do you know it? They
+came here upon faith of some old tale of a promise made by him
+who went before me to ask my help to recover you from
+Salah-ed-din, unwitting that I was your host, not Salah-ed-din.
+That they should meet you thus is a chance which makes even my
+wisdom wonder, for in it I see omens. Now she whom they wished to
+rescue from Salah-ed-din, these tall brethren of yours might wish
+to rescue from Al-je-bal. Understand then, all of you, that from
+the Lord of Death there is but one escape. Yonder runs its path,"
+and he pointed to the dizzy place whence his three servants had
+leapt to their doom.
+
+"Knights," he went on, addressing Godwin and Wulf, "lead your
+sister hence. This evening I bid her, and you to my banquet. Till
+then, farewell. Woman," he added to Masouda, "accompany them. You
+know your duties; this lady is in your charge. Suffer that no
+strange man comes near her--above all, the Frank Lozelle. Dais
+take notice and let it be proclaimed--To these three is given the
+protection of the Signet in all things, save that they must not
+leave my walls except under sanction of the Signet--nay, in its
+very presence."
+
+The dais rose, bowed, and seated themselves again. Then, guided
+by Masouda and preceded and followed by guards, the brethren and
+Rosamund walked down the terrace through the curtains into the
+chancel-like place where men crouched upon the ground; through
+the great hall were more men crouched upon the ground; through
+the ante-chamber where, at a word from Masouda, the guards
+saluted; through passages to that place where they had slept.
+Here Masouda halted and said:
+
+"Lady Rose of the World, who are fitly so named, I go to prepare
+your chamber. Doubtless you will wish to speak awhile with these
+your--brothers. Speak on and fear not, for it shall be my care
+that you are left alone, if only for a little while. Yet walls
+have ears, so I counsel you use that English tongue which none of
+us understand in the land of Al-je-bal--not even I."
+
+Then she bowed and went.
+
+
+
+Chapter Thirteen: The Embassy
+
+The brethren and Rosamund looked at each other, for having so
+much to say it seemed that they could not speak at all. Then with
+a low cry Rosamund said:
+
+"Oh! let us thank God, Who, after all these black months of
+travel and of danger, has thus brought us together again," and,
+kneeling down there together in the guest-hall of the lord of
+Death, they gave thanks earnestly. Then, moving to the centre of
+the chamber where they thought that none would hear them, they
+began to speak in low voices and in English.
+
+"Tell you your tale first, Rosamund," said Godwin.
+
+She told it as shortly as she could, they listening without a
+word.
+
+Then Godwin spoke and told her theirs. Rosamund heard it, and
+asked a question almost in a whisper.
+
+"Why does that beautiful dark-eyed woman befriend you?"
+
+"I do not know," answered Godwin, "unless it is because of the
+accident of my having saved her from the lion."
+
+Rosamund looked at him and smiled a little, and Wulf smiled also.
+Then she said:
+
+"Blessings be on that lion and all its tribe! I pray that she may
+not soon forget the deed, for it seems that our lives hang upon
+her favour. How strange is this story, and how desperate our
+case! How strange also that you should have come on hither
+against her counsel, which, seeing what we have, I think was
+honest?"
+
+"We were led," answered Godwin. "Your father had wisdom at his
+death, and saw what we could not see."
+
+"Ay," added Wulf, "but I would that it had been into some other
+place, for I fear this lord Al-je-bal at whose nod men hurl
+themselves to death."
+
+"He is hateful," answered Rosamund, with a shudder; "worse even
+than the knight Lozelle; and when he fixes his eyes on me, my
+heart grows sick. Oh! that we could escape this place!"
+
+"An eel in an osier trap has more chance of freedom," said Wulf
+gloomily. "Let us at least be thankful that we are caged
+together--for how long, I wonder?"
+
+As he spoke Masouda appeared, attended by waiting women, and,
+bowing to Rosamund, said:
+
+"It is the will of the Master, lady, that I lead you to the
+chambers that have been made ready for you, there to rest until
+the hour of the feast. Fear not; you shall meet your brethren
+then. You knights have leave, if it so pleases you, to exercise
+your horses in the gardens. They stand saddled in the courtyard,
+to which this woman will bring you," and she pointed to one of
+those two maids who had cleaned the armour, "and with them are
+guides and an escort."
+
+"She means that we must go," muttered Godwin, adding aloud,
+"farewell, sister, until tonight."
+
+So they parted, unwillingly enough. In the courtyard they found
+the horses, Flame and Smoke, as they had been told, also a
+mounted escort of four fierce-looking fedais and an officer. When
+they were in the saddle, this man, motioning to them to follow
+him, passed by an archway out of the courtyard into the gardens.
+Hence ran a broad road strewn with sand, along which he began to
+gallop. This road followed the gulf which encircled the citadel
+and inner town of Masyaf, that was, as it were, an island on a
+mountain top with a circumference of over three miles.
+
+As they went, the gulf always on their right hand, holding in
+their horses to prevent their passing that of their guide, swift
+as it was, they saw another troop approaching them. This was also
+preceded by an officer of the Assassins, as these servants of
+Al-je-bal were called by the Franks, and behind him, mounted on a
+splendid coalblack steed and followed by guards, rode a mail-clad
+Frankish knight.
+
+"It is Lozelle," said Wulf, "upon the horse that Sinan promised
+him."
+
+At the sight of the man a fury took hold of Godwin. With a shout
+of warning he drew his sword. Lozelle saw, and out leapt his
+blade in answer. Then sweeping past the officers who were with
+them and reining up their steeds, in a second they were face to
+face. Lozelle struck first and Godwin caught the stroke upon his
+buckler, but before he could return it the fedais of either party
+rushed between them and thrust them asunder.
+
+"A pity," said Godwin, as they dragged his horse away. "Had they
+left us alone I think, brother, I might have saved you a
+moonlight duel."
+
+"That I do not want to miss, but the chance at his head was good
+if those fellows would have let you take it," answered Wulf
+reflectively.
+
+Then the horses began to gallop again, and they saw no more of
+Lozelle. Now, skirting the edge of the town, they came to the
+narrow, wall-less bridge that spanned the gulf between it and the
+outer gate and city. Here the officer wheeled his horse, and,
+beckoning to them to follow, charged it at full gallop. After him
+went the brethren--Godwin first, then Wulf. In the deep gateway
+on the further side they reined up. The captain turned, and began
+to gallop back faster than he had come--as fast, indeed, as his
+good beast would travel.
+
+"Pass him!" cried Godwin, and shaking the reins loose upon the
+neck of Flame he called to it aloud.
+
+Forward it sprang, with Smoke at its heels. Now they had
+overtaken the captain, and now even on that narrow way they had
+swept past him. Not an inch was there to spare between them and
+the abyss, and the man, brave as he was, expecting to be thrust
+to death, clung to his horse's mane with terror in his eyes. On
+the city side the brethren pulled up laughing among the
+astonished fedais who had waited for them there.
+
+"By the Signet," cried the officer, thinking that the knights
+could not understand, "these are not men; they are devils, and
+their horses are goats of the mountains. I thought to frighten
+them, but it is I who was frightened, for they swept past me like
+eagles of the air."
+
+"Gallant riders and swift, well-trained steeds," answered one of
+the fedais, with admiration in his voice. "The fight at the full
+moon will be worth our seeing."
+
+Then once more they took the sand-strewn road and galloped on.
+Thrice they passed round the city thus, the last time by
+themselves, for the captain and the fedais were far outstripped.
+Indeed it was not until they had unsaddled Flame and Smoke in
+their stalls that these appeared, spurring their foaming horses.
+Taking no heed of them, the brethren thrust aside the grooms,
+dressed their steeds down, fed and watered them.
+
+Then having seen them eat, there being no more to do, they walked
+back to the guest-house, hoping to find Rosamund. But they found
+no Rosamund, so sat down together and talked of the wonderful
+things that had befallen them, and of what might befall them in
+the future; of the mercy of Heaven also which had brought them
+all three together safe and sound, although it was in this house
+of hell. So the time passed on, till about the hour of sunset the
+women servants came and led them to the bath, where the black
+slaves washed and perfumed them, clothing them in fresh robes
+above their armour.
+
+When they came out the sun was down, and the women, bearing
+torches in their hands, conducted them to a great and gorgeous
+hall which they had not seen before, built of fretted stone and
+having a carved and painted roof. Along one side of this hall,
+that was lit with cressets, were a number of round-headed open
+arches supported by elegant white columns, and beyond these a
+marble terrace with flights of steps which led to the gardens
+beneath. On the floor of this hall, each seated upon his cushion
+beside low tables inlaid with pearl sat the guests, a hundred or
+more, all dressed in white robes on which the red dagger was
+blazoned, and all as silent as though they were asleep.
+
+When the brethren reached the place the women left them, and
+servants with gold chains round their necks escorted them to a
+dais in the middle of the hall where were many cushions, as yet
+unoccupied, arranged in a semicircle, of which the centre was a
+divan higher and more gorgeous than the rest.
+
+Here places were pointed out to them opposite the divan, and they
+took their stand by them. They had not long to wait, for
+presently there was a sound of music, and, heralded by troops of
+singing women, the lord Sinan approached, walking slowly down the
+length of the great hall. It was a strange procession, for after
+the women came the aged, white robed dais, then the lord
+Al-je-bal himself, clad now in his blood-red, festal robe, and
+wearing jewels on his turban.
+
+Around him marched four slaves, black as ebony, each of whom held
+a flaming torch on high, while behind followed the two gigantic
+guards who had stood sentry over him when he sat under the canopy
+of justice. As he advanced down the hall every man in it rose
+and prostrated himself, and so remained until their lord was
+seated, save only the two brethren, who stood erect like the
+survivors among the slain of a battle. Settling himself among the
+cushions at one end of the divan, he waved his hand, whereon the
+feasters, and with them Godwin and Wulf, sat themselves down.
+
+Now there was a pause, while Sinan glanced along the hall
+impatiently. Soon the brethren saw why, since at the end opposite
+to that by which he had entered appeared more singing women, and
+after them, also escorted by four black torch-bearers, only these
+were women, walked Rosamund and, behind her, Masouda.
+
+Rosamund it was without doubt, but Rosamund transformed, for now
+she seemed an Eastern queen. Round her head was a coronet of gems
+from which hung a veil, but not so as to hide her face. Jewelled,
+too, were her heavy plaits of hair, jewelled the rose-silk
+garments that she wore, the girdle at her waist, her naked, ivory
+arms and even the slippers on her feet. As she approached in her
+royal-looking beauty all the guests at that strange feast stared
+first at her and next at each other. Then as though by a single
+impulse they rose and bowed.
+
+"What can this mean?" muttered Wulf to Godwin as they did
+likewise. But Godwin made no answer.
+
+On came Rosamund, and now, behold! the lord Al-je-bal rose also
+and, giving her his hand, seated her by him on the divan.
+
+"Show no surprise, Wulf," muttered Godwin, who had caught a
+warning look in the eyes of Masouda as she took up her position
+behind Rosamund.
+
+Now the feast began. Slaves running to and fro, set dish after
+dish filled with strange and savoury meats, upon the little
+inlaid tables, those that were served to Sinan and his guests
+fashioned, all of them, of silver or of gold.
+
+Godwin and Wulf ate, though not for hunger's sake, but of what
+they ate they remembered nothing who were watching Sinan and
+straining their ears to catch all he said without seeming to take
+note or listen. Although she strove to hide it and to appear
+indifferent, it was plain to them that Rosamund was much afraid.
+Again and again Sinan presented to her choice morsels of food,
+sometimes on the dishes and sometimes with his fingers, and these
+she was obliged to take. All the while also he devoured her with
+his fierce eyes so that she shrank away from him to the furthest
+limit of the divan.
+
+Then wine, perfumed and spiced, was brought in golden cups, of
+which, having drunk, he offered to Rosamund. But she shook her
+head and asked Masouda for water, saying that she touched nothing
+stronger, and it was given her, cooled with snow. The brethren
+asked for water also, whereon Sinan looked at them suspiciously
+and demanded the reason. Godwin replied through Masouda that they
+were under an oath to touch no wine till they returned to their
+own country, having fulfilled their mission. To this he answered
+meaningly that it was good and right to keep oaths, but he feared
+that theirs would make them water-drinkers for the rest of their
+lives, a saying at which their hearts sank.
+
+Now the wine that he had drunk took hold of Sinan, and he began
+to talk who without it was so silent.
+
+"You met the Frank Lozelle to-day," he said to Godwin, through
+Masouda, "when riding in my gardens, and drew your sword on him.
+Why did you not kill him? Is he the better man?"
+
+"It seems not, as once before I worsted him and I sit here
+unhurt, lord," answered Godwin. "Your servants thrust between and
+separated us."
+
+"Ay," replied Sinan, "I remember; they had orders. Still, I would
+that you had killed him, the unbelieving dog, who has dared to
+lift his eyes to this Rose of Roses, your sister. Fear not," he
+went on, addressing Rosamund, "he shall offer you no more insult,
+who are henceforth under the protection of the Signet," and
+stretching out his thin, cruel-looking hand, on which gleamed the
+ring of power, he patted her on the arm.
+
+All of these things Masouda translated, while Rosamund dropped
+her head to hide her face, though on it were not the blushes that
+he thought, but loathing and alarm.
+
+Wulf glared at the Al-je-bal, whose head by good fortune was
+turned away, and so fierce was the rage swelling in his heart
+that a mist seemed to gather before his eyes, and through it this
+devilish chief of a people of murderers, clothed in his robe of
+flaming red, looked like a man steeped in blood. The thought came
+to him suddenly that he would make him what he looked, and his
+hand passed to his sword-hilt. But Godwin saw the terror in
+Masouda's eyes, saw Wulf's hand also, and guessed what was about
+to chance. With a swift movement of his arm he struck a golden
+dish from the table to the marble floor, then said, in a clear
+voice in French:
+
+"Brother, be not so awkward; pick up that dish and answer the
+lord Sinan as is your right--I mean, touching the matter of
+Lozelle."
+
+Wulf stooped to obey, and his mind cleared which had been so near
+to madness.
+
+"I wish it not, lord," he said, "who, if I can, have your good
+leave to slay this fellow on the third night from now. If I fail,
+then let my brother take my place, but not before."
+
+"Yes, I forgot," said Sinan. "So I decreed, and that will be a
+fight I wish to see. If he kills you then your brother shall meet
+him. And if he kills you both, then perhaps I, Sinan, will meet
+him--in my own fashion. Sweet lady, knowing where the course is
+laid, say, do you fear to see this fray?"
+
+Rosamund's face paled, but she answered proudly:
+
+"Why should I fear what my brethren do not fear? They are brave
+knights, bred to arms, and God, in Whose hand are all our
+destinies--even yours, O Lord of Death--He will guard the
+right."
+
+When this speech was translated to him Sinan quailed a little.
+Then he answered:
+
+"Lady, know that I am the Voice and Prophet of Allah--ay, and his
+sword to punish evil-doers and those who do not believe. Well, if
+what I hear is true, your brethren are skilled horsemen who even
+dared to pass my servant on the narrow bridge, so victory may
+rest with them. Tell me which of them do you love the least, for
+he shall first face the sword of Lozelle."
+
+Now as Rosamund prepared herself to answer Masouda scanned her
+face through her half-closed eyes. But whatever she may have felt
+within, it remained calm and cold as though it were cut in stone.
+
+"To me they are as one man," she said. "When one speaks, both
+speak. I love them equally."
+
+"Then, Guest of my heart, it shall go as I have said. Brother
+Blue-eyes shall fight first, and if he falls then Brother
+Grey-eyes. The feast is ended, and it is my hour for prayer.
+Slaves, bid the people fill their cups. Lady, I pray of you,
+stand forward on the dais."
+
+She obeyed, and at a sign the black slave-women gathered behind
+her with their flaming torches. Then Sinan rose also, and cried
+with a loud voice:
+
+"Servants of Al-je-bal, pledge, I command you, this Flower of
+flowers, the high-born Princess of Baalbec, the niece of the
+Sultan, Salah-ed-din, whom men call the Great," and he sneered,
+"though he be not so great as I, this Queen of maids who soon--"
+Then, checking himself, he drank off his wine, and with a low bow
+presented the empty, jewelled cup to Rosamund. All the company
+drank also, and shouted till the hall rang, for her loveliness as
+she stood thus in the fierce light of the torches, aflame as
+these men were with the vision-breeding wine of Al-je-bal, moved
+them to madness.
+
+"Queen! Queen!" they shouted. "Queen of our Master and of us
+all!"
+
+Sinan heard and smiled. Then, motioning for silence, he took the
+hand of Rosamund, kissed it, and turning, passed from the hall
+preceded by his singing women and surrounded by the dais and
+guards.
+
+Godwin and Wulf stepped forward to speak with Rosamund, but
+Masouda interposed herself between them, saying in a cold, clear
+voice:
+
+"It is not permitted. Go, knights, and cool your brows in yonder
+garden, where sweet water runs. Your sister is my charge. Fear
+not, for she is guarded."
+
+"Come," said Godwin to Wulf; "we had best obey."
+
+So together they walked through the crowd of those feasters that
+remained, for most of them had already left the hall, who made
+way, not without reverence, for the brethren of this new star of
+beauty, on to the terrace, and from the terrace into the gardens.
+Here they stood awhile in the sweet freshness of the night, which
+was very grateful after the heated, perfume-laden air of the
+banquet; then began to wander up and down among the scented trees
+and flowers. The moon, floating in a cloudless sky, was almost at
+its full, and by her light they saw a wondrous scene. Under many
+of the trees and in tents set about here and there, rugs were
+spread, and to them came men who had drunk of the wine of the
+feast, and cast themselves down to sleep.
+
+"Are they drunk?" asked Wulf.
+
+"It would seem so," answered Godwin.
+
+Yet these men appeared to be mad rather than drunk, for they
+walked steadily enough, but with wide-set, dreamy eyes; nor did
+they seem to sleep upon the rugs, but lay there staring at the
+sky and muttering with their lips, their faces steeped in a
+strange, unholy rapture. Sometimes they would rise and walk a few
+paces with outstretched arms, till the arms closed as though they
+clasped something invisible, to which they bent their heads to
+babble awhile. Then they walked back to their rugs again, where
+they remained silent.
+
+As they lay thus, white-veiled women appeared, who crouched by
+the heads of these sleepers, murmuring into their ears, and when
+from time to time they sat up, gave them to drink from cups they
+carried, after partaking of which they lay down again and became
+quite senseless.
+
+Only the women would move on to others and serve them likewise.
+Some of them approached the brethren with a slow, gliding motion,
+and offered them the cup; but they walked forward, taking no
+notice, whereupon the girls left them, laughing softly, and
+saying such things as "Tomorrow we shall meet," or "Soon you will
+be glad to drink and enter into Paradise."
+
+"When the time comes doubtless we shall be glad, who have dwelt
+here," answered Godwin gravely, but as he spoke in French they
+did not understand him.
+
+"Step out, brother," said Wulf, "for at the very sight of those
+rugs I grow sleepy, and the wine in the cups sparkles as bright
+as their bearers' eyes."
+
+So they walked on towards the sound of a waterfall, and, when
+they came to it, drank, and bathed their faces and heads.
+
+"This is better than their wine," said Wulf. Then, catching sight
+of more women flitting round them, looking like ghosts amid the
+moonlit glades, they pressed forward till they reached an open
+sward where there were no rugs, no sleepers, and no cupbearers.
+
+"Now," said Wulf, halting, "tell me what does all this mean?"
+
+"Are you deaf and blind?" asked Godwin. "Cannot you see that
+yonder fiend is in love with Rosamund, and means to take her, as
+he well may do?"
+
+Wulf groaned aloud, then answered: "I swear that first I will
+send his soul to hell, even though our own must keep it
+company."
+
+"Ay," answered Godwin, "I saw; you went near to it tonight. But
+remember, that is the end for all of us. Let us wait then to
+strike until we must--to save her from worse things."
+
+"Who knows that we may find another chance? Meanwhile,
+meanwhile--" and again he groaned.
+
+"Among those ornaments that hung about the waist of Rosamund I
+saw a jewelled knife," answered Godwin, sadly. "She can be
+trusted to use it if need be, and after that we can be trusted to
+do our worst. At least, I think that we should die in a fashion
+that would be remembered in this mountain."
+
+As they spoke they had loitered towards the edge of the glade,
+and halting there stood silent, till presently from under the
+shadow of a cedar tree appeared a solitary, white robed woman.
+
+"Let us be going," said Wulf; "here is another of them with her
+accursed cup."
+
+But before they could turn the woman glided up to them and
+suddenly unveiled. It was Masouda.
+
+"Follow me, brothers Peter and John," she said in a laughing
+whisper. "I have words to say to you. What! you will not drink?
+Well, it is wisest." And emptying the cup upon the ground she
+flitted ahead of them.
+
+Silently as a wraith she went, now appearing in the open spaces,
+now vanishing, beneath the dense gloom of cedar boughs, till she
+reached a naked, lonely rock which stood almost upon the edge of
+the gulf. Opposite to this rock was a great mound such as ancient
+peoples reared over the bodies of their dead, and in the mound,
+cunningly hidden by growing shrubs, a massive door.
+
+Masouda took a key from her girdle, and, having looked around to
+see that they were alone, unlocked it.
+
+"Enter," she said, pushing them before her. They obeyed, and
+through the darkness within heard her close the door.
+
+"Now we are safe awhile," she said with a sigh, "or, at least, so
+I think. But I will lead you to where there is more light."
+
+Then, taking each of them by the hand, she went forward along a
+smooth incline, till presently they saw the moonlight, and by it
+discovered that they stood at the mouth of a cave which was
+fringed with bushes. Running up from the depths of the gulf
+below to this opening was a ridge or shoulder of rock, very steep
+and narrow.
+
+"See the only road that leads from the citadel of Masyaf save
+that across the bridge," said Masouda.
+
+"A bad one," answered Wulf, staring downward.
+
+"Ay, yet horses trained to rocks can follow it. At its foot is
+the bottom of the gulf, and a mile or more away to the left a
+deep cleft which leads to the top of the mountain and to freedom.
+Will you not take it now? By tomorrow's dawn you might be far
+away."
+
+"And where would the lady Rosamund be?" asked Wulf.
+
+"In the harem of the lord Sinan--that is, very soon," she
+answered, coolly.
+
+"Oh, say it not!" he exclaimed, clasping her arm, while Godwin
+leaned back against the wall of the cave.
+
+"Why should I hide the truth? Have you no eyes to see that he is
+enamoured of her loveliness--like others? Listen; a while ago my
+master Sinan chanced to lose his queen--how, we need not ask, but
+it is said that she wearied him. Now, as he must by law, he
+mourns for her a month, from full moon to full moon. But on the
+day after the full moon--that is, the third morning from now--he
+may wed again, and I think there will be a marriage. Till then,
+however, your sister is as safe as though she yet sat at home in
+England before Salah-ed-din dreamed his dream."
+
+"Therefore," said Godwin, "within that time she must either
+escape or die."
+
+"There is a third way," answered Masouda, shrugging her
+shoulders. "She might stay and become the wife of Sinan."
+
+Wulf muttered something between his teeth, then stepped towards
+her threateningly, saying:
+
+"Rescue her, or--"
+
+"Stand back, pilgrim John," she said, with a laugh. "If I rescue
+her, which indeed would be hard, it will not be for fear of your
+great sword."
+
+"What, then, will avail, Masouda?" asked Godwin in a sad voice.
+"To promise you money would be useless, even if we could."
+
+"I am glad that you spared me that insult," she replied with
+flashing eyes, "for then there had been an end. Yet," she added
+more humbly, "seeing my home and business, and what I appear to
+be," and she glanced at her dress and the empty cup in her hand,
+"it had not been strange. Now hear me, and forget no word. At
+present you are in favour with Sinan, who believes you to be the
+brothers of the lady Rosamund, not her lovers; but from the
+moment he learns the truth your doom is sealed. Now what the
+Frank Lozelle knows, that the Al-je-bal may know at any time--and
+will know, if these should meet.
+
+"Meanwhile, you are free; so to-morrow, while you ride about the
+garden, as you will do, take note of the tall rock that stands
+without, and how to reach it from any point, even in the dark.
+To-morrow, also, when the moon is up, they will lead you to the
+narrow bridge, to ride your horses to and fro there, that they
+may learn not to fear it in that light. When you have stabled
+them go into the gardens and come hither unobserved, as the place
+being so far away you can do. The guards will let you pass,
+thinking only that you desire to drink a cup of wine with some
+fair friend, as is the custom of our guests. Enter this
+cave--here is the key," and she handed it to Wulf, "and if I be
+not there, await me. Then I will tell you my plan, if I have any,
+but until then I must scheme and think. Now it grows late--go."
+
+"And you, Masouda," said Godwin, doubtfully; "how will you escape
+this place?"
+
+"By a road you do not know of, for I am mistress of the secrets
+of this city. Still, I thank you for your thought of me. Go, I
+say, and lock the door behind you."
+
+So they went in silence, doing as she bade them, and walked back
+through the gardens, that now seemed empty enough, to the
+stable-entrance of the guest-house, where the guards admitted
+them without question.
+
+That night the brethren slept together in one bed, fearing that
+if they lay separate they might be searched in their sleep and
+not awake. Indeed, it seemed to them that, as before, they heard
+footsteps and voices in the darkness.
+
+Next morning, when they had breakfasted, they loitered awhile,
+hoping to win speech with Rosamund, or sight of her, or at the
+least that Masouda would come to them; but they saw no Rosamund,
+and no Masouda came. At length an officer appeared, and beckoned
+to them to follow him. So they followed, and were led through the
+halls and passages to the terrace of justice, where Sinan, clad
+in his black robe, sat as before beneath a canopy in the midst of
+the sun-lit marble floor. There, too, beside him, also beneath
+the canopy and gorgeously apparelled, sat Rosamund. They strove
+to advance and speak with her, but guards came between them,
+pointing out a place where they must stand a few yards away. Only
+Wulf said in a loud voice, in English:
+
+"Tell us, Rosamund, is it well with you?" Lifting her pale face,
+she smiled and nodded.
+
+Then, at the bidding of Sinan, Masouda commanded them to be
+silent, saying that it was not lawful for them to speak to the
+Lord of the Mountain, or his Companion, unless they were first
+bidden so to do. So, having learnt what they wished to know, they
+were silent.
+
+Now some of the dais drew near the canopy, and consulted with
+their master on what seemed to be a great matter, for their faces
+were troubled. Presently he gave an order, whereon they resumed
+their seats and messengers left the terrace. When they appeared
+again, in their company were three noble-looking Saracens, who
+were accompanied by a retinue of servants and wore green turbans,
+showing that they were descendants of the Prophet. These men, who
+seemed weary with long travel, marched up the terrace with a
+proud mien, not looking at the dais or any one until they saw the
+brethren standing side by side, at whom they stared a little.
+Next they caught sight of Rosamund sitting in the shadow of the
+canopy, and bowed to her, but of the Al-je-bal they took no
+notice.
+
+"Who are you, and what is your pleasure?" asked Sinan, after he
+had eyed them awhile. "I am the ruler of this country. These are
+my ministers," and he pointed to the dais, "and here is my
+sceptre," and he touched the bloodred dagger broidered on his
+robe of black.
+
+Now that Sinan had declared himself the embassy bowed to him,
+courteously enough. Then their spokesman answered him.
+
+"That sceptre we know; it has been seen afar. Twice already we
+have cut down its bearers even in the tent of our master. Lord
+of Murder, we acknowledge the emblem of murder, and we bow to
+you whose title is the Great Murderer. As for our mission, it is
+this. We are the ambassadors of Salah-ed-din, Commander of the
+Faithful, Sultan of the East; in these papers signed with his
+signet are our credentials, if you would read them."
+
+"So," answered Sinan, "I have heard of that chief. What is his
+will with me?"
+
+"This, Al-je-bal. A Frank in your pay, and a traitor, has
+betrayed to you a certain lady, niece of Salah-ed-din, the
+princess of Baalbec, whose father was a Frankish noble named
+D'Arcy, and who herself is named Rose of the World. The Sultan,
+Salah-ed-din, having been informed of this matter by his servant,
+the prince Hassan, who escaped from your soldiers, demands that
+this lady, his niece, be delivered to him forthwith, and with her
+the head of the Frank Lozelle."
+
+"The head of the Frank Lozelle he may have if he will after
+to-morrow night. The lady I keep," snarled Sinan.
+
+"What then?"
+
+"Then, Al-je-bal, in the name of Salah-ed-din, we declare war on
+you--war till this high place of yours is pulled stone from
+stone; war till your tribe be dead, till the last man, woman, and
+child be slain, until your carcass is tossed to the crows to feed
+on."
+
+Now Sinan rose in fury and rent at his beard.
+
+"Go back," he said, "and tell that dog you name a sultan, that
+low as he is, the humble-born son of Ayoub, I, Al-je-bal, do him
+an honour that he does not observe. My queen is dead, and two
+days from now, when my month of mourning is expired, I shall take
+to wife his niece, the princess of Baalbec, who sits here beside
+me, my bride-elect."
+
+At these words Rosamund, who had been listening intently, started
+like one who has been stung by a snake, put her hands before her
+face and groaned.
+
+"Princess," said the ambassador, who was watching her, "you seem
+to understand our language; is this your will, to mate your noble
+blood with that of the heretic chief of the Assassins ?"
+
+"Nay, nay!" she cried. "It is no will of mine, who am a helpless
+prisoner and by faith a Christian. If my uncle Salah-ed-din is
+indeed as great as I have heard, then let him show his power and
+deliver me, and with me these my brethren, the knights Sir Godwin
+and Sir Wulf."
+
+"So you speak Arabic," said Sinan. "Good; our loving converse
+will be easier, and for the rest--well, the whims of women
+change. Now, you messengers of Salah-ed-din, begone, lest I send
+you on a longer journey, and tell your master that if he dares to
+lift his standards against my walls my fedais shall speak with
+him. By day and by night, not for one moment shall he be safe.
+Poison shall lurk in his cup and a dagger in his bed. Let him
+kill a hundred of them, and another hundred shall appear. His
+most trusted guards shall be his executioners. The women in his
+harem shall bring him to his doom--ay, death shall be in the very
+air he breathes. If he would escape it, therefore, let him hide
+himself within the walls of his city of Damascus, or amuse
+himself with wars against the mad Cross-worshippers, and leave me
+to live in peace with this lady whom I have chosen."
+
+"Great words, worthy of the Great Assassin," said the ambassador.
+
+"Great words in truth, which shall be followed by great deeds.
+What chance has this lord of yours against a nation sworn to obey
+to the death? You smile? Then come hither you--and you." And he
+summoned two of his dais by name.
+
+They rose and bowed before him.
+
+"Now, my worthy servants," he said, "show these heretic dogs how
+you obey, that their master may learn the power of your master.
+You are old and weary of life. Begone, and await me in Paradise."
+
+The old men bowed again, trembling a little. Then, straightening
+themselves, without a word they ran side by side and leapt into
+the abyss.
+
+"Has Salah-ed-din servants such as these?" asked Sinan in the
+silence that followed. "Well, what they have done, all would do,
+if I bid them slay him. Back, now; and, if you will, take these
+Franks with you, who are my guests, that they may bear witness of
+what you have seen, and of the state in which you left their
+sister. Translate to the knights, woman."
+
+So Masouda translated. Then Godwin answered through her.
+
+"We understand little of this matter, who are ignorant of your
+tongue, but, O Al-je-bal, ere we leave your sheltering roof we
+have a quarrel to settle with the man Lozelle. After that, with
+your permission, we will go, but not before."
+
+Now Rosamund sighed as if in relief, and Sinan answered:
+
+"As you will; so be it," adding, "Give these envoys food and
+drink before they go."
+
+But their spokesman answered: "We partake not of the bread and
+salt of murderers, lest we should become of their fellowship.
+Al-je-bal, we depart, but within a week we appear again in the
+company of ten thousand spears, and on one of them shall your
+head be set. Your safe-conduct guards us till the sunset. After
+that, do your worst, as we do ours. High Princess, our counsel to
+you is that you slay yourself and so gain immortal honour."
+
+Then, bowing to her one by one, they turned and marched down the
+terrace followed by their servants.
+
+Now Sinan waved his hand and the court broke up, Rosamund leaving
+it first, accompanied by Masouda and escorted by guards, after
+which the brethren were commanded to depart also.
+
+So they went, talking earnestly of all these things, but save in
+God finding no hope at all.
+
+
+
+Chapter Fourteen: The Combat on the Bridge
+
+"Saladin will come," said Wulf the hopeful, and from the high
+place where they stood he pointed to the plain beneath, across
+which a band of horsemen moved at full gallop. "Look; yonder goes
+his embassy."
+
+"Ay," answered Godwin, "he will come, but, I fear me, too late."
+
+"Yes, brother, unless we go to meet him. Masouda has promised."
+
+"Masouda," sighed Godwin. "Ah! to think that so much should hang
+upon the faithfulness of one woman."
+
+"It does not hang on her," said Wulf; "it hangs on Fate, who
+writes with her finger. Come, let us ride."
+
+So, followed by their escort, they rode in the gardens, taking
+note, without seeming to do so, of the position of the tall rock,
+and of how it could be approached from every side. Then they went
+in again and waited for some sign or word of Rosamund, but in
+vain. That night there was no feast, and their meal was brought
+to them in the guest-house. While they sat at it Masouda appeared
+for a moment to tell them that they had leave to ride the bridge
+in the moonlight, and that their escort would await them at a
+certain hour.
+
+The brethren asked if their sister Rosamund was not coming to
+dine with them. Masouda answered that as the queen-elect of the
+Al-je-bal it was not lawful that she should eat with any other
+men, even her brothers. Then as she passed out, stumbling as
+though by accident, she brushed against Godwin, and muttered:
+
+"Remember, to-night," and was gone.
+
+When the moon had been up an hour the officer of their escort
+appeared, and led them to their horses, which were waiting, and
+they rode away to the castle bridge. As they approached it they
+saw Lozelle departing on his great black stallion, which was in a
+lather of foam. It seemed that he also had made trial of that
+perilous path, for the people, of whom there were many gathered
+there, clapped their hands and shouted, "Well ridden, Frank! well
+ridden!"
+
+Now, Godwin leading on Flame, they faced the bridge and walked
+their horses over it. Nor did these hang back, although they
+snorted a little at the black gulf on either side. Next they
+returned at a trot, then over again, and yet again at a canter
+and a gallop, sometimes together and sometimes singly. Lastly,
+Wulf made Godwin halt in the middle of the bridge and galloped
+down upon him at speed, till within a lance's length. Then
+suddenly he checked his horse, and while his audience shouted,
+wheeled it around on its hind legs, its forehoofs beating the
+air, and galloped back again, followed by Godwin.
+
+"All went well," Wulf said as they rode to the castle, "and
+nobler or more gentle horses were never crossed by men. I have
+good hopes for to-morrow night."
+
+"Ay, brother, but I had no sword in my hand. Be not over
+confident, for Lozelle is desperate and a skilled fighter, as I
+know who have stood face to face with him. More over, his black
+stallion is well trained, and has more weight than ours. Also,
+yonder is a fearsome place on which to ride a course, and one of
+which none but that devil Sinan would have thought."
+
+"I shall do my best," answered Wulf, "and if I fall, why, then,
+act upon your own counsel. At least, let him not kill both of
+us."
+
+Having stabled their horses the brethren wandered into the
+garden, and, avoiding the cup-bearing women and the men they
+plied with their drugged drink, drew by a roundabout road to the
+tall rock. Then, finding themselves alone, they unlocked the
+door, and slipping through it, locked it again on the further
+side and groped their way to the moonlit mouth of the cave. Here
+they stood awhile studying the descent of the gulf as best they
+could in that light, till suddenly Godwin, feeling a hand upon
+his shoulder, started round to find himself face to face with
+Masouda.
+
+"How did you come?" he asked.
+
+"By a road in which is your only hope," she answered. "Now, Sir
+Godwin, waste no words, for my time is short, but if you think
+that you can trust me--and this is for you to judge--give me the
+Signet which hangs about your neck. If not, go back to the castle
+and do your best to save the lady Rosamund and yourselves."
+
+Thrusting down his hand between his mail shirt and his breast,
+Godwin drew out the ancient ring, carved with the mysterious
+signs and veined with the emblem of the dagger, and handed it to
+Masouda.
+
+"You trust indeed," she said with a little laugh, as, after
+scanning it closely by the light of the moon and touching her
+forehead with it, she hid it in her bosom.
+
+"Yes, lady," he answered, "I trust you, though why you should
+risk so much for us I do not know."
+
+"Why? Well, perhaps for hate's sake, for Sinan does not rule by
+love; perhaps because, being of a wild blood, I am willing to set
+my life at hazard, who care not if I win or die; perhaps because
+you saved me from the lioness. What is it to you, Sir Godwin, why
+a certain woman-spy of the Assassins, whom in your own land you
+would spit on, chooses to do this or that?"
+
+She ceased and stood before him with heaving breast and flashing
+eyes, a mysterious white figure in the moonlight, most beautiful
+to see.
+
+Godwin felt his heart stir and the blood flow to his brow, but
+before he could speak Wulf broke in, saying:
+
+"You bade us spare words, lady Masouda, so tell us what we must
+do."
+
+"This," she answered, becoming calm again. "Tomorrow night about
+this hour you fight Lozelle upon the narrow way. That is certain,
+for all the city talks of it, and, whatever chances, Al-je-bal
+will not deprive them of the spectacle of this fray to the death.
+Well, you may fall, though that man at heart is a coward, which
+you are not, for here courage alone will avail nothing, but
+rather skill and horsemanship and trick of war. If so, then Sir
+Godwin fights him, and of this business none can tell the end.
+Should both of you go down, then I will do my best to save your
+lady and take her to Salah-ed-din, with whom she will be safe, or
+if I cannot save her I will find her a means to save herself by
+death."
+
+"You swear that?" said Wulf.
+
+"I have said it; it is enough," she answered impatiently.
+
+"Then I face the bridge and the knave Lozelle with a light
+heart," said Wulf again, and Masouda went on.
+
+"Now if you conquer, Sir Wulf, or if your fall and your brother
+conquers, both of you--or one of you, as it may happen--must
+gallop back at full speed toward the stable gate that lies more
+than a mile from the castle bridge. Mounted as you are, no horse
+can keep pace with you, nor must you stop at the gate, but ride
+on, ride like the wind till you reach this place. The gardens
+will be empty of feasters and of cup-bearers, who with every soul
+within the city will have gathered on the walls and on the
+house-tops to see the fray. There is but one fear--by then a
+guard may be set before this mound, seeing that Salah-ed-din has
+declared war upon Al-je-bal, and though yonder road is known to
+few, it is a road, and sentries may watch here. If so, you must
+cut them down or be cut down, and bring your story to an end. Sir
+Godwin, here is another key that you may use if you are alone.
+Take it."
+
+He did so, and she continued:
+
+"Now if both of you, or one of you, win through to this cave,
+enter with your horses, lock the door, bar it, and wait. It may
+be I will join you here with the princess. But if I do not come by
+the dawn and you are not discovered and overwhelmed--which should
+not be, seeing that one man can hold that door against many--then
+know that the worst has happened, and fly to Salah-ed-din and
+tell him of this road, by which he may take vengeance upon his
+foe Sinan. Only then, I pray you, doubt not that I have done my
+best, who if I fail must die--most horribly. Now, farewell, until
+we meet again or--do not meet again. Go; you know the road."
+
+They turned to obey, but when they had gone a few paces Godwin
+looked round and saw Masouda watching them. The moonlight shone
+full upon her face, and by it he saw also that tears were running
+from her dark and tender eyes. Back he came again, and with him
+Wulf, for that sight drew them. Down he bent before her till his
+knee touched the ground, and, taking her hand, he kissed it, and
+said in his gentle voice:
+
+"Henceforth through life, through death, we serve two ladies,"
+and what he did Wulf did also.
+
+"Mayhap," she answered sadly; "two ladies--but one love."
+
+Then they went, and, creeping through the bushes to the path,
+wandered about awhile among the revellers and came to the
+guest-house safely.
+
+Once more it was night, and high above the mountain fortress of
+Masyaf shone the full summer moon, lighting crag and tower as
+with some vast silver lamp. Forth from the guest-house gate rode
+the brethren, side by side upon their splendid steeds, and the
+moon-rays sparkled on their coats of mail, their polished
+bucklers, blazoned with the cognizance of a grinning skull, their
+close-fitting helms, and the points of the long, tough lances
+that had been given them. Round them rode their escort, while in
+front and behind went a mob of people.
+
+The nation of the Assassins had thrown off its gloom this night,
+for the while it was no longer oppressed even by the fear of
+attack from Saladin, its mighty foe. To death it was accustomed;
+death was its watchword; death in many dreadful forms its daily
+bread. From the walls of Masyaf, day by day, fedais went out to
+murder this great one, or that great one, at the bidding of their
+lord Sinan.
+
+For the most part they came not back again; they waited week by
+week, month by month, year by year, till the moment was ripe,
+then gave the poisoned cup or drove home the dagger, and escaped
+or were slain. Death waited them abroad, and if they failed,
+death waited them at home. Their dreadful caliph was himself a
+sword of death. At his will they hurled themselves from towers or
+from precipices; to satisfy his policy they sacrificed their
+wives and children. And their reward--in life, the drugged cup
+and voluptuous dreams; after it, as they believed, a still more
+voluptuous paradise.
+
+All forms of human agony and doom were known to this people; but
+now they were promised an unfamiliar sight, that of Frankish
+knights slaying each other in single combat beneath the silent
+moon, tilting at full gallop upon a narrow place where many might
+hesitate to walk, and--oh, joy!--falling perchance, horse and
+rider together, into the depths below. So they were happy, for to
+them this was a night of festival, to be followed by a morrow of
+still greater festival, when their sultan and their god took to
+himself this stranger beauty as a wife. Doubtless, too, he would
+soon weary of her, and they would be called together to see her
+cast from some topmost tower and hear her frail bones break on
+the cruel rocks below, or--as had happened to the last queen--to
+watch her writhe out her life in the pangs of poison upon a
+charge of sorcery. It was indeed a night of festival, a night
+filled full of promise of rich joys to come.
+
+On rode the brethren, with stern, impassive faces, but wondering
+in their hearts whether they would live to see another dawn. The
+shouting crowd surged round them, breaking through the circle of
+their guards. A hand was thrust up to Godwin; in it was a letter,
+which he took and read by the bright moonlight. It was written in
+English, and brief:
+
+"I cannot speak with you. God be with you both, my brothers, God
+and the spirit of my father. Strike home, Wulf, strike home,
+Godwin, and fear not for me who will guard myself. Conquer or
+die, and in life or death, await me. To-morrow, in the flesh, or
+in the spirit, we will talk--Rosamund."
+
+Godwin handed the paper to Wulf, and, as he did so, saw that the
+guards had caught its bearer, a withered, grey-haired woman. They
+asked her some questions, but she shook her head. Then they cast
+her down, trampled the life out of her beneath their horses'
+hoofs, and went on laughing. The mob laughed also.
+
+"Tear that paper up," said Godwin. Wulf did so, saying:
+
+"Our Rosamund has a brave heart. Well, we are of the same blood,
+and will not fail her."
+
+Now they were come to the open space in front of the narrow
+bridge, where, tier on tier, the multitude were ranged, kept back
+from its centre by lines of guards. On the flat roofed houses
+also they were crowded thick as swarming bees, on the circling
+walls, and on the battlements that protected the far end of the
+bridge, and the houses of the outer city. Before the bridge was a
+low gateway, and upon its roof sat the Al-je-bal, clad in his
+scarlet robe of festival, and by his side, the moonlight gleaming
+on her jewels, Rosamund. In front, draped in a rich garment, a
+dagger of gems in her dark hair, stood the interpreter or "mouth"
+Masouda, and behind were dais and guards.
+
+The brethren rode to the space before the arch and halted,
+saluting with their pennoned spears. Then from the further side
+advanced another procession, which, opening, revealed the knight
+Lozelle riding on his great black horse, and a huge man and a
+fierce he seemed in his armour.
+
+"What!" he shouted, glowering at them. "Am I to fight one against
+two? Is this your chivalry?"
+
+"Nay, nay, Sir Traitor," answered Wulf. "Nay, nay betrayer of
+Christian maids to the power of the heathen dog; you have fought
+Godwin, now it is the turn of Wulf. Kill Wulf and Godwin remains.
+Kill Godwin and God remains. Knave, you look your last upon the
+moon."
+
+Lozelle heard, and seemed to go mad with rage, or fear, or both.
+
+"Lord Sinan," he shouted in Arabic, "this is murder. Am I, who
+have done you so much service, to be butchered for your pleasure
+by the lovers of that woman, whom you would honour with the name
+of wife?"
+
+Sinan heard, and stared at him with dull, angry eyes.
+
+"Ay, you may stare," went on the maddened Lozelle, "but it is
+true--they are her lovers, not her brothers. Would men take so
+much pains for a sister's sake, think you? Would they swim into
+this net of yours for a sister's sake?"
+
+Sinan held up his hand for silence.
+
+"Let the lots be cast," he said, "for whatever these men are,
+this fight must go on, and it shall be fair."
+
+So a dai, standing by himself, cast lots upon the ground, and
+having read them, announced that Lozelle must run the first
+course from the further side of the bridge. Then one took his
+bridle to lead him across. As he passed the brethren he grinned
+in their faces and said:
+
+"At least this is sure, you also look your last upon the moon. I
+am avenged already. The bait that hooked me is a meal for yonder
+pike, and he will kill you both before her eyes to whet his
+appetite."
+
+But the brethren answered nothing.
+
+The black horse of Lozelle grew dim in the distance of the
+moonlit bridge, and vanished beneath the farther archway that led
+to the outer city. Then a herald cried, Masouda translating his
+words, which another herald echoed from beyond the gulf.
+
+"Thrice will the trumpets blow. At the third blast of the
+trumpets the knights shall charge and meet in the centre of the
+bridge. Thenceforward they may fight as it pleases them, ahorse,
+or afoot, with lance, with sword, or with dagger, but to the
+vanquished no mercy will be shown. If he be brought living from
+the bridge, living he shall be cast into the gulf. Hear the
+decree of the Al-je-bal!"
+
+Then Wulf's horse was led forward to the entrance of the bridge,
+and from the further side was led forward the horse of Lozelle.
+
+"Good luck, brother," said Godwin, as he passed him. "Would that
+I rode this course instead of you."
+
+"Your turn may come, brother," answered the grim Wulf, as he set
+his lance in rest.
+
+Now from some neighbouring tower pealed out the first long blast
+of trumpets, and dead silence fell on all the multitude. Grooms
+came forward to look to girth and bridle and stirrup strap, but
+Wulf waved them back.
+
+"I mind my own harness," he said.
+
+The second blast blew, and he loosened the great sword in its
+scabbard, that sword which had flamed in his forbear's hand upon
+the turrets of Jerusalem.
+
+"Your gift," he cried back to Rosamund, and her answer came clear
+and sweet:
+
+"Bear it like your fathers, Wulf. Bear it as it was last borne in
+the hall at Steeple."
+
+Then there was another silence--a silence long and deep. Wulf
+looked at the white and narrow ribbon of the bridge, looked at
+the black gulf on either side, looked at the blue sky above, in
+which floated the great globe of the golden moon. Then he leant
+forward and patted Smoke upon the neck.
+
+For the third time the trumpets blew, and from either end of that
+bridge, two hundred paces long, the knights flashed towards each
+other like living bolts of steel. The multitude rose to watch;
+even Sinan rose. Only Rosamund sat still, gripping the cushions
+with her hands. Hollow rang the hoofs of the horses upon the
+stonework, swifter and swifter they flew, lower and lower bent
+the knights upon their saddles. Now they were near, and now they
+met. The spears seemed to shiver, the horses to hustle together
+on the narrow way and overhang its edge, then on came the black
+horse towards the inner city, and on sped Smoke towards the
+further gulf.
+
+"They have passed! They have passed!" roared the multitude.
+
+Look! Lozelle approached, reeling in his saddle, as well he
+might, for the helm was torn from his head and blood ran from his
+skull where the lance had grazed it.
+
+"Too high, Wulf; too high," said Godwin sadly. "But oh! if those
+laces had but held!"
+
+Soldiers caught the horse and turned it.
+
+"Another helm!" cried Lozelle.
+
+"Nay," answered Sinan; "yonder knight has lost his shield. New
+lances--that is all."
+
+So they gave him a fresh lance, and, presently, at the blast of
+the trumpets again the horses were seen speeding together over
+the narrow way. They met, and lo! Lozelle, torn from his saddle,
+but still clinging to the reins, was flung backwards, far
+backwards, to fall on the stonework of the bridge. Down, too,
+beneath the mighty shock went his black horse, a huddled heap,
+and lay there struggling.
+
+"Wulf will fall over him!" cried Rosamund. But Smoke did not
+fall; the stallion gathered itself together--the moonlight shone
+so clear that every watcher saw it--and since stop it could not,
+leapt straight over the fallen black horse--ay, and over the
+rider beyond--and sped on in its stride. Then the black found its
+feet again and galloped forward to the further gate, and Lozelle
+also found his feet and turned to run.
+
+"Stand! Stand, coward!" yelled ten thousand voices, and, hearing
+them, he drew his sword and stood.
+
+Within three great strides Wulf dragged his charger to its
+haunches, then wheeled it round.
+
+"Charge him!" shouted the multitude; but Wulf remained seated, as
+though unwilling to attack a horseless man. Next he sprang from
+his saddle, and accompanied by the horse Smoke, which followed
+him as a dog follows its master, walked slowly towards Lozelle,
+as he walked casting away his lance and drawing the great,
+cross-hilted sword.
+
+Again the silence fell, and through it rang the cry of Godwin:
+
+"A D'Arcy! A D'Arcy!"
+
+"A D'Arcy! A D'Arcy!" came back Wulf's answer from the bridge,
+and his voice echoed thin and hollow in the spaces of the gulf.
+Yet they rejoiced to hear it, for it told them that he was sound
+and strong.
+
+Wulf had no shield and Lozelle had no helm--the fight was even.
+They crouched opposite each other, the swords flashed aloft in
+the moonlight; from far away came the distant clank of steel, a
+soft, continual clamour of iron on iron. A blow fell on Wulf's
+mail, who had nought wherewith to guard himself, and he staggered
+back. Another blow, another, and another, and back, still back he
+reeled--back to the edge of the bridge, back till he struck
+against the horse that stood behind him, and, resting there a
+moment, as it seemed, regained his balance.
+
+Then there was a change. Look, he rushed forward, wielding the
+great blade in both hands. The stroke lit upon Lozelle's shield
+and seemed to shear it in two, for in that stillness all could
+hear the clang of its upper half as it fell upon the stones.
+Beneath the weight of it he staggered, sank to his knee, gained
+his feet again, and in his turn gave back. Yes, now it was
+Lozelle who rocked and reeled. Ay, by St. Chad! Lozelle who went
+down beneath that mighty blow which missed the head but fell upon
+his shoulder, and lay there like a log, till presently the
+moonlight shone upon his mailed hand stretched upward in a prayer
+for mercy. From house-top and terrace wall, from soaring gates
+and battlements, the multitude of the people of the Assassins
+gathered on either side the gulf broke into a roar that beat up
+the mountain sides like a voice of thunder. And the roar shaped
+itself to these words:
+
+"Kill him! kill him! kill him!"
+
+Sinan held up his hand, and a sudden silence fell. Then he, too,
+screamed in his thin voice:
+
+"Kill him! He is conquered!"
+
+But the great Wulf only leaned upon the cross-handle of his
+brand, and looked at the fallen foe. Presently he seemed to speak
+with him; then Lozelle lifted the blade that lay beside him and
+gave it to him in token of surrender. Wulf handled it awhile,
+shook it on high in triumph, and whirled it about his head till
+it shone in the moonlight. Next, with a shout he cast it from him
+far into the gulf, where it was seen for a moment, an arc of
+gleaming light, and the next was gone.
+
+Now, taking no more heed of the conquered knight, Wulf turned and
+began to walk towards his horse.
+
+Scarcely was his back towards him when Lozelle was on his feet
+again, a dagger in his hand.
+
+"Look behind you!" yelled Godwin; but the spectators, pleased
+that the fight was not yet done, broke into a roar of cheers.
+Wulf heard and swung round. As he faced Lozelle the dagger struck
+him on the breast, and well must it have been for him that his
+mail was good. To use his sword he had neither space nor time,
+but ere the next stroke could fall Wulf's arms were about
+Lozelle, and the fight for life begun.
+
+To and fro they reeled and staggered, whirling round and round,
+till none could tell which of them was Wulf or which his foe. Now
+they were on the edge of the abyss, and, in that last dread
+strain for mastery, seemed to stand there still as stone. Then
+one man began to bend down. See! his head hung over. Further and
+further he bent, but his arms could not be loosened.
+
+"They will both go!" cried the multitude in their joy.
+
+Look! A dagger flashed. Once, twice, thrice it gleamed, and those
+wrestlers fell apart, while from deep down in the gulf came the
+thud of a fallen body.
+
+"Which--oh, which?" cried Rosamund from her battlement.
+
+"Sir Hugh Lozelle," answered Godwin in a solemn voice.
+
+Then the head of Rosamund fell forward on her breast, and for a
+while she seemed to sleep.
+
+Wulf went to his horse, turned it about on the bridge, and
+throwing his arm around its neck, rested for a space. Then he
+mounted and walked slowly towards the inner gate. Pushing through
+the guard and officers, Godwin rode out to meet him.
+
+"Bravely done, brother," he said, when they came face to face.
+"Say, are you hurt?"
+
+"Bruised and shaken--no more," answered Wulf.
+
+"A good beginning, truly. Now for the rest," said Godwin. Then he
+glanced over his shoulder, and added, "See, they are leading
+Rosamund away, but Sinan remains, to speak with you doubtless,
+for Masouda beckons."
+
+"What shall we do?" asked Wulf. "Make a plan, brother, for my
+head swims."
+
+"Hear what he has to say. Then, as your horse is not wounded
+either, ride for it when I give the signal as Masouda bade us.
+There is no other way. Pretend that you are wounded."
+
+So, Godwin leading, while the multitude roared a welcome to the
+conquering Wulf who had borne himself so bravely for their
+pleasure, they rode to the mouth of the bridge and halted in the
+little space before the archway. There Al-je-bal spoke by
+Masouda.
+
+"A noble fray," he said. "I did not think that Franks could fight
+so well; Say, Sir Knight, will you feast with me in my palace?"
+
+"I thank you, lord," answered Wulf, "but I must rest while my
+brother tends my hurts," and he pointed to blood upon his mail.
+"To-morrow, if it pleases you."
+
+Sinan stared at them and stroked his beard, while they trembled,
+waiting for the word of fate.
+
+It came.
+
+"Good. So be it. To-morrow I wed the lady Rose of Roses, and you
+two--her brothers--shall give her to me, as is fitting," and he
+sneered. "Then also you shall receive the reward of valour--a
+great reward, I promise you."
+
+While he spoke Godwin, staring upward, had noted a little
+wandering cloud floating across the moon. Slowly it covered it,
+and the place grew dim.
+
+"Now," he whispered, and bowing to the Al-je-bal, they pushed
+their horses through the open gate where the mob closed in on
+them, thus for a little while holding back the escort from
+following on their heels. They spoke to Flame and Smoke, and the
+good horses plunged onward side by side, separating the crowd as
+the prows of boats separate the water. In ten paces it grew thin,
+in thirty it was behind them, for all folk were gathered about
+the archway where they could see, and none beyond. Forward they
+cantered, till the broad road turned to the left, and in that
+faint light they were hidden.
+
+"Away!" said Godwin, shaking his reins.
+
+Forward leapt the horses at speed. Again Godwin turned, taking
+that road which ran round the city wall and through the gardens,
+leaving the guest-castle to the left, whereas their escort
+followed that whereby they had come, which passed along the main
+street of the inner town, thinking that they were ahead of them.
+Three minutes more and they were in the lonely gardens, in which
+that night no women wandered and no neophytes dreamed in the
+pavilions.
+
+"Wulf," said Godwin, as they swept forward, skimming the turf
+like swallows, "draw your sword and be ready. Remember the secret
+cave may be guarded, and, if so, we must kill or be killed."
+
+Wulf nodded, and next instant two long blades flashed in the
+moonlight, for the little cloud had passed away. Within a
+hundred paces of them rose the tall rock, but between it and the
+mound were two mounted guards. These heard the beating of horses'
+hoofs, and wheeling about, stared to see two armed knights
+sweeping down upon them like a whirlwind. They called to them to
+stop, hesitating, then rode forward a few paces, as though
+wondering whether this were not a vision.
+
+In a moment the brethren were on them. The soldiers lifted their
+lances, but ere they could thrust the sword of Godwin had caught
+one between neck and shoulder and sunk to his breast bone, while
+the sword of Wulf, used as a spear, had pierced the other through
+and through, so that those men fell dead by the door of the
+mound, never knowing who had slain them.
+
+The brethren pulled upon their bridles and spoke to Flame and
+Smoke, halting them within a score of yards. Then they wheeled
+round and sprang from their saddles. One of the dead guards still
+held his horses's reins, and the other beast stood by snorting.
+Godwin caught it before it stirred, then, holding all four of
+them, threw the key to Wulf and bade him unlock the door. Soon it
+was done, although he staggered at the task; then he held the
+horses, while one by one Godwin led them in, and that without
+trouble, for the beasts thought that this was but a cave-hewn
+stable of a kind to which they were accustomed.
+
+"What of the dead men?" said Wulf.
+
+"They had best keep us company," answered Godwin, and, running
+out, he carried in first one and then the other.
+
+"Swift!" he said, as he threw down the second corpse. "Shut the
+door. I caught sight of horsemen riding through the trees. Nay,
+they saw nothing."
+
+So they locked the massive door and barred it, and with beating
+hearts waited in the dark, expecting every moment to hear
+soldiers battering at its timbers. But no sound came; the
+searchers, if such they were, had passed on to seek elsewhere.
+
+Now while Wulf made shift to fasten up the horses near the mouth
+of the cave, Godwin gathered stones as large as he could lift,
+and piled them up against the door, till they knew that it would
+take many men an hour or more to break through.
+
+For this door was banded with iron and set fast in the living
+rock.
+
+
+
+Chapter Fifteen: The Flight to Emesa
+
+Then came the weariest time of waiting the brethren had ever
+known, or were to know, although at first they did not feel it so
+long and heavy. Water trickled from the walls of this cave, and
+Wulf, who was parched with thirst, gathered it in his hands and
+drank till he was satisfied. Then he let it run upon his head to
+cool its aching; and Godwin bathed such of his brother's hurts
+and bruises as could be come at, for he did not dare to remove
+the hauberk, and so gave him comfort.
+
+When this was done, and he had looked to the saddles and
+trappings of the horses, Wulf told of all that had passed between
+him and Lozelle on the bridge. How at the first onset his spear
+had caught in the links of and torn away the head-piece of his
+foe, who, if the lacings had not burst, would have been hurled to
+death, while that of Lozelle struck his buckler fair and
+shattered on it, rending it from his arm. How they pushed past
+each other, and for a moment the fore hoofs of Smoke hung over
+the abyss, so that he thought he was surely sped: How at the next
+course Lozelle's spear passed beneath his arm, while his,
+striking full upon Sir Hugh's breast, brought down the black
+horse and his rider as though a thunderbolt had smitten them, and
+how Smoke, that could not check its furious pace, leapt over
+them, as a horse leaps a-hunting: How he would not ride down
+Lozelle, but dismounted to finish the fray in knightly fashion,
+and, being shieldless, received the full weight of the great
+sword upon his mail, so that he staggered back and would have
+fallen had he not struck against the horse.
+
+Then he told of the blows that followed, and of his last that
+wounded Lozelle, shearing through his mail and felling him as an
+ox is felled by the butcher: How also, when he sprang forward to
+kill him, this mighty and brutal man had prayed for mercy, prayed
+it in the name of Christ and of their own mother, whom as a child
+he knew in Essex: How he could not slaughter him, being helpless,
+but turned away, saying that he left him to be dealt with by
+Al-je-bal, whereupon this traitorous dog sprang up and strove to
+knife him. He told also of their last fearful struggle, and how,
+shaken as he was by the blow upon his back, although the point of
+the dagger had not pierced his mail, he strove with Lozelle, man
+to man; till at length his youth, great natural strength, and the
+skill he had in wrestling, learnt in many a village bout at home,
+enabled him to prevail, and, while they hung together on the
+perilous edge of the gulf, to free his right hand, draw his
+poniard, and make an end.
+
+"Yet," added Wulf, "never shall I forget the look of that man's
+eyes as he fell backwards, or the whistling scream which came
+from his pierced throat."
+
+"At least there is a rogue the less in the world, although he was
+a brave one in his own knavish fashion," answered Godwin.
+"Moreover, my brother," he added, placing his arm about Wulf's
+neck, "I am glad it fell to you to fight him, for at the last
+grip your might overcame, where I, who am not so strong, should
+have failed. Further, I think you did well to show mercy, as a
+good knight should; that thereby you have gained great honour,
+and that if his spirit can see through the darkness, our dead
+uncle is proud of you now, as I am, my brother."
+
+"I thank you," replied Wulf simply; "but, in this hour of
+torment, who can think of such things as honour gained?"
+
+Then, lest he should grow stiff, who was sorely bruised beneath
+his mail, they began to walk up and down the cave from where the
+horses stood to where the two dead Assassins lay by the door, the
+faint light gleaming upon their stern, dark features. Ill company
+they seemed in that silent, lonely place.
+
+The time crept on; the moon sank towards the mountains.
+
+"What if they do not come?" asked Wulf.
+
+"Let us wait to think of it till dawn," answered Godwin.
+
+Again they walked the length of the cave and back.
+
+"How can they come, the door being barred?" asked Wulf.
+
+"How did Masouda come and go?" answered Godwin. "Oh, question me
+no more; it is in the hand of God."
+
+"Look," said Wulf, in a whisper. "Who stand yonder at the end of
+the cave--there by the dead men?"
+
+"Their spirits, perchance," answered Godwin, drawing his sword
+and leaning forward. Then he looked, and true enough there stood
+two figures faintly outlined in the gloom. They glided towards
+them, and now the level moonlight shone upon their white robes
+and gleamed in the gems they wore.
+
+"I cannot see them," said a voice. "Oh, those dead soldiers--what
+do they portend?"
+
+"At least yonder stand their horses," answered another voice.
+
+Now the brethren guessed the truth, and, like men in a dream,
+stepped forward from the shadow of the wall.
+
+"Rosamund!" they said.
+
+"Oh Godwin! oh Wulf!" she cried in answer. "Oh, Jesu, I thank
+Thee, I thank Thee--Thee, and this brave woman!" and, casting her
+arms about Masouda, she kissed her on the face.
+
+Masouda pushed her back, and said, in a voice that was almost
+harsh: "It is not fitting, Princess, that your pure lips should
+touch the cheek of a woman of the Assassins."
+
+But Rosamund would not be repulsed.
+
+"It is most fitting," she sobbed, "that I should give you thanks
+who but for you must also have become 'a woman of the Assassins,'
+or an inhabitant of the House of Death."
+
+Then Masouda kissed her back, and, thrusting her away into the
+arms of Wulf, said roughly:
+
+"So, pilgrims Peter and John, your patron saints have brought you
+through so far; and, John, you fight right well. Nay, do not stop
+for our story, if you wish us to live to tell it. What! You have
+the soldiers' horses with your own? Well done! I did not credit
+you with so much wit. Now, Sir Wulf, can you walk? Yes; so much
+the better; it will save you a rough ride, for this place is
+steep, though not so steep as one you know of. Now set the
+princess upon Flame, for no cat is surer-footed than that horse,
+as you may remember, Peter. I who know the path will lead it.
+John, take you the other two; Peter, do you follow last of all
+with Smoke, and, if they hang back, prick them with your sword.
+Come, Flame, be not afraid, Flame. Where I go, you can come," and
+Masouda thrust her way through the bushes and over the edge of
+the cliff, talking to the snorting horse and patting its neck.
+
+A minute more, and they were scrambling down a mountain ridge so
+steep that it seemed as though they must fall and be dashed to
+pieces at the bottom. Yet they fell not, for, made as it had been
+to meet such hours of need, this road was safer than it appeared,
+with ridges cut in the rock at the worst places.
+
+Down they went, and down, till at length, panting, but safe, they
+stood at the bottom of the darksome gulf where only the starlight
+shone, for here the rays of the low moon could not reach.
+
+"Mount," said Masouda. "Princess, stay you on Flame; he is the
+surest and the swiftest. Sir Wulf, keep your own horse Smoke;
+your brother and I will ride those of the soldiers. Though not
+very swift, doubtless they are good beasts, and accustomed to
+such roads." Then she leapt to the saddle as a woman born in the
+desert can, and pushed her horse in front.
+
+For a mile or more Masouda led them along the rocky bottom of the
+gulf, where because of the stones they could only travel at a
+foot pace, till they came to a deep cleft on the left hand, up
+which they began to ride. By now the moon was quite behind the
+mountains, and such faint light as came from the stars began to
+be obscured with drifting clouds. Still, they stumbled on till
+they reached a little glade where water ran and grass grew.
+
+"Halt," said Masouda. "Here we must wait till dawn for in this
+darkness the horses cannot keep their footing on the stones.
+Moreover, all about us lie precipices, over one of which we might
+fall."
+
+"But they will pursue us," pleaded Rosamund.
+
+"Not until they have light to see by," answered Masouda, "or at
+least we must take the risk, for to go forward would be madness.
+Sit down and rest a while, and let the horses drink a little and
+eat a mouthful of grass, holding their reins in our hands, for we
+and they may need all our strength before to-morrow's sun is set.
+Sir Wulf, say, are you much hurt?"
+
+"But very little," he answered in a cheerful voice; "a few
+bruises beneath my mail--that is all, for Lozelle's sword was
+heavy. Tell us, I pray you, what happened after we rode away from
+the castle bridge."
+
+"This, knights. The princess here, being overcome, was escorted
+by the slaves back to her chambers, but Sinan bade me stay with
+him awhile that he might speak to you through me. Do you know
+what was in his mind? To have you killed at once, both of you,
+whom Lozelle had told him were this lady's lovers, and not her
+brothers. Only he feared that there might be trouble with the
+people, who were pleased with the fighting, so held his hand.
+Then he bade you to the supper, whence you would not have
+returned; but when Sir Wulf said that he was hurt, I whispered to
+him that what he wished to do could best be done on the morrow at
+the wedding-feast when he was in his own halls, surrounded by his
+guards.
+
+"'Ay,' he answered, 'these brethren shall fight with them until
+they are driven into the gulf. It will be a goodly sight for me
+and my queen to see.'"
+
+"Oh! horrible, horrible!" said Rosamund; while Godwin muttered:
+
+"I swear that I would have fought, not with his guards, but with
+Sinan only."
+
+"So he suffered you to go, and I left him also. Before I went he
+spoke to me, bidding me bring the princess to him privately
+within two hours after we had supped, as he wished to speak to
+her alone about the ceremony of her marriage on the morrow, and
+to make her gifts. I answered aloud that his commands should be
+obeyed, and hurried to the guest-castle. There I found your lady
+recovered from her faintness, but mad with fear, and forced her
+to eat and drink.
+
+"The rest is short. Before the two hours were gone a messenger
+came, saying that the Al-je-bal bade me do what he had commanded.
+
+"'Return,' I answered; 'the princess adorns herself. We follow
+presently alone, as it is commanded.'
+
+"Then I threw this cloak about her and bade her be brave, and, if
+we failed, to choose whether she would take Sinan or death for
+lord. Next, I took the ring you had, the Signet of the dead
+Al-je-bal, who gave it to your kinsman, and held it before the
+slaves, who bowed and let me pass. We came to the guards, and to
+them again I showed the ring. They bowed also, but when they saw
+that we turned down the passage to the left and not to the
+right, as we should have done to come to the doors of the inner
+palace, they would have stopped us.
+
+"'Acknowledge the Signet,' I answered. 'Dogs, what is it to you
+which road the Signet takes?' Then they also let us pass.
+
+"Now, following the passage, we were out of the guest house and
+in the gardens, and I led her to what is called the prison tower,
+whence runs the secret way. Here were more guards whom I bade
+open in the name of Sinan.
+
+"They said: 'We obey not. This place is shut save to the Signet
+itself.'
+
+"'Behold it!' I answered. The officer looked and said: 'It is
+the very Signet, sure enough, and there is no other.'
+
+"Yet he paused, studying the black stone veined with the red
+dagger and the ancient writing on it.
+
+"'Are you, then, weary of life?' I asked. 'Fool, the Al-je-bal
+himself would keep a tryst within this house, which he enters
+secretly from the palace. Woe to you if he does not find his lady
+there!'
+
+"'It is the Signet that he must have sent, sure enough,' the
+captain said again, 'to disobey which is death.'
+
+"'Yes, open, open,' whispered his companions.
+
+"So they opened, though doubtfully, and we entered, and I barred
+the door behind us. Then, to be short, through the darkness of
+the tower basement, guiding ourselves by the wall, we crept to
+the entrance of that way of which I know the secret. Ay, and
+along all its length and through the rock door of escape at the
+end of which I set so that none can turn it, save skilled masons
+with their tools, and into the cave where we found you. It was no
+great matter, having the Signet, although without the Signet it
+had not been possible to-night, when every gate is guarded."
+
+"No great matter!" gasped Rosamund. "Oh, Godwin and Wulf! if you
+could know how she thought of and made ready everything; if you
+could have seen how all those cruel men glared at us, searching
+out our very souls! If you could have heard how high she answered
+them, waving that ring before their eyes and bidding them to obey
+its presence, or to die!"
+
+"Which they surely have done by now," broke in Masouda quietly,
+"though I do not pity them, who were wicked. Nay; thank me not; I
+have done what I promised to do, neither less nor more, and--I
+love danger and a high stake. Tell us your story, Sir Godwin."
+
+So, seated there on the grass in the darkness, he told them of
+their mad ride and of the slaying of the guards, while Rosamund
+raised her hands and thanked Heaven for its mercies, and that
+they were without those accursed walls.
+
+"You may be within them again before sunset," said Masouda
+grimly.
+
+"Yes," answered Wulf, "but not alive. Now what plan have you? To
+ride for the coast towns?"
+
+"No," replied Masouda; "at least not straight, since to do so we
+must pass through the country of the Assassins, who by this day's
+light will be warned to watch for us. We must ride through the
+desert mountain lands to Emesa, many miles away, and cross the
+Orontes there, then down into Baalbec, and so back to Beirut."
+
+"Emesa?" said Godwin. "Why Saladin holds that place, and of
+Baalbec the lady Rosamund is princess."
+
+"Which is best?" asked Masouda shortly. "That she should fall
+into the hands of Salah-ed-din, or back into those of the master
+of the Assassins? Choose which you wish."
+
+"I choose Salah-ed-din," broke in Rosamund, "for at least he is
+my uncle, and will do me no wrong." Nor, knowing the case, did
+the others gainsay her.
+
+Now at length the summer day began to break, and while it was
+still too dark to travel, Godwin and Rosamund let the horses
+graze, holding them by their bridles. Masouda, also, taking off
+the hauberk of Wulf, doctored his bruises as best she could with
+the crushed leaves of a bush that grew by the stream, having
+first washed them with water, and though the time was short,
+eased him much. Then, so soon as the dawn was grey, having drunk
+their fill and, as they had nothing else, eaten some watercress
+that grew in the stream, they tightened their saddle girths and
+started. Scarcely had they gone a hundred yards when, from the
+gulf beneath, that was hidden in grey mists, they heard the sound
+of horse's hoofs and men's voices.
+
+"Push on," said Masouda, "Al-je-bal is on our tracks."
+
+Upwards they climbed through the gathering light, skirting the
+edge of dreadful precipices which in the gloom it would have been
+impossible to pass, till at length they reached a great table
+land, that ran to the foot of some mountains a dozen miles or
+more away. Among those mountains soared two peaks, set close
+together. To these Masouda pointed, saying that their road ran
+between them, and that beyond lay the valley of the Orontes.
+While she spoke, far behind them they heard the sound of men
+shouting, although they could see nothing because of the dense
+mist.
+
+"Push on," said Masouda; "there is no time to spare," and they
+went forward, but only at a hand gallop, for the ground was
+still rough and the light uncertain.
+
+When they had covered some six miles of the distance between them
+and the mountain pass, the sun rose suddenly and sucked up the
+mist. This was what they saw. Before them lay a flat, sandy
+plain; behind, the stony ground that they had traversed, and
+riding over it, two miles from them, some twenty men of the
+Assassins.
+
+"They cannot catch us," said Wulf; but Masouda pointed to the
+right, where the mist still hung, and said:
+
+"Yonder I see spears."
+
+Presently it thinned, and there a league away they saw a great
+body of mounted soldiers--perhaps there were four hundred.
+
+"Look," she said; "they have come round during the night, as I
+feared they would. Now we must cross the path before them or be
+taken," and she struck her horse fiercely with a stick she had
+cut at the stream. Half a mile further on a shout from the great
+body of men to their right, which was answered by another shout
+from those behind, told them that they were seen.
+
+"On!" said Masouda. "The race will be close." So they began to
+gallop their best.
+
+Two miles were done, but although that behind was far off, the
+great cloud of dust to their right grew ever nearer till it
+seemed as though it must reach the mouth of the mountain pass
+before them. Then Godwin spoke:
+
+"Wulf and Rosamund ride on. Your horses are swift and can outpace
+them. At the crest of the mountain pass wait a while to breathe
+the beasts, and see if we come. If not, ride on again, and God be
+with you."
+
+"Ay," said Masouda, "ride and head for the Emesa bridge--it can
+be seen from far--and there yield yourselves to the officers of
+Salah-ed-din."
+
+They hung back, but in a stern voice Godwin repeated:
+
+"Ride, I command you both."
+
+"For Rosamund's sake, so be it," answered Wulf.
+
+Then he called to Smoke and Flame, and they stretched
+themselves out upon the sand and passed thence swifter than
+swallows. Soon Godwin and Masouda, toiling behind, saw them enter
+the mouth of the pass.
+
+"Good," she said. "Except those of their own breed, there are no
+horses in Syria that can catch those two. They will come to
+Emesa, have no fear."
+
+"Who was the man who brought them to us?" asked Godwin, as they
+galloped side by side, their eyes fixed upon the ever-nearing
+cloud of dust, in which the spear points sparkled.
+
+"My father's brother--my uncle, as I called him," she answered.
+"He is a sheik of the desert, who owns the ancient breed that
+cannot be bought for gold."
+
+"Then you are not of the Assassins, Masouda?"
+
+"No; I may tell you, now that the end seems near. My father was
+an Arab, my mother a noble Frank, a French woman, whom he found
+starving in the desert after a fight, and took to his tent and
+made his wife. The Assassins fell upon us and killed him and her,
+and captured me as a child of twelve. Afterwards, when I grew
+older, being beautiful in those days, I was taken to the harem of
+Sinan, and, although in secret I had been bred up a Christian by
+my mother, they swore me of his accursed faith. Now you will
+understand why I hate him so sorely who murdered my father and my
+mother, and made me what I am; why I hold myself so vile also.
+Yes, I have been forced to serve as his spy or be killed, who,
+although he believed me his faithful slave, desired first to be
+avenged upon him."
+
+"I do not hold you vile," panted Godwin, as he spurred his
+labouring steed. "I hold you most noble."
+
+"I rejoice to hear it before we die," she answered, looking him
+in the eyes in such a fashion that he dropped his head before her
+burning gaze, "who hold you dear, Sir Godwin, for whose sake I
+have dared these things, although I am nought to you. Nay, speak
+not; the lady Rosamund has told me all that story--except its
+answer."
+
+Now they were off the sand over which they had been racing side
+by side, and beginning to breast the mountain slope, nor was
+Godwin sorry that the clatter of their horses' hoofs upon the
+stones prevented further speech between them. So far they had
+outpaced the Assassins, who had a longer and a rougher road to
+travel; but the great cloud of dust was not seven hundred yards
+away, and in front of it, shaking their spears, rode some of the
+best mounted of their soldiers.
+
+"These horses still have strength; they are better than I thought
+them," cried Masouda. "They will not gain on us across the
+mountains, but afterwards--"
+
+For the next league they spoke no more, who must keep their
+horses from falling as they toiled up the steep path. At length
+they reached the crest, and there, on the very top of it, saw
+Wulf and Rosamund standing by Flame and Smoke.
+
+"They rest," Godwin said, then he shouted, "Mount! mount! The foe
+is close."
+
+So they climbed to their saddles again, and, all four of them
+together began to descend the long slope that stretched to the
+plain two leagues beneath. Far off across this plain ran a broad
+silver streak, beyond which from that height they could see the
+walls of a city.
+
+"The Orontes!" cried Masouda. "Cross that, and we are safe." But
+Godwin looked first at his horse, then at Masouda, and shook his
+head.
+
+Well might he do so, for, stout-hearted as they were, the beasts
+were much distressed that had galloped so far without drawing
+rein. Down the steep road they plunged, panting; indeed at times
+it was hard to keep them on their feet.
+
+"They will reach the plain--no more," said Godwin, and Masouda
+nodded.
+
+The descent was almost done, and not a mile behind them the
+white-robed Assassins streamed endlessly. Godwin plied his spurs
+and Masouda her whip, although with little hope, for they knew
+that the end was near. Down the last declivity they rushed, till
+suddenly, as they reached its foot, Masouda's horse reeled,
+stopped, and sank to the ground, while Godwin's pulled up beside
+it.
+
+"Ride on!" he cried to Rosamund and Wulf in front; but they
+would not. He stormed at them, but they replied: "Nay, we will
+die together."
+
+Masouda looked at the horses Flame and Smoke, which seemed but
+little troubled.
+
+"So be it," she said; "they have carried double before, and must
+again. Mount in front of the lady, Sir Godwin; and, Sir Wulf,
+give me your hand, and you will learn what this breed can do."
+
+So they mounted. Forward started Flame and Smoke with a long,
+swinging gallop, while from the Assassins above, who thought that
+they held them, went up a shout of rage and wonder.
+
+"Their horses are also tired, and we may beat them yet," called
+the dauntless Masouda. But Godwin and Wulf looked sadly at the
+ten miles of plain between them and the river bank.
+
+On they went, and on. A quarter of it was done. Half of it was
+done, but now the first of the fedai hung upon their flanks not
+two hundred yards behind. Little by little this distance
+lessened. At length they were scarcely fifty yards away, and one
+of them flung a spear. In her terror Rosamund sobbed aloud.
+
+"Spur the horses, knights," cried Masouda, and for the first time
+they spurred them.
+
+At the sting of the steel Flame and Smoke sprang forward as
+though they had but just left their stable door, and the gap
+between pursuers and pursued widened. Two more miles were done,
+and scarce seven furlongs from them they saw the broad mouth of
+the bridge, while the towers of Emesa beyond seemed so close that
+in this clear air they could discern the watchmen outlined
+against the sky. Then they descended a little valley, and lost
+sight of bridge and town.
+
+At the rise of the opposing slope the strength of Flame and Smoke
+at last began to fail beneath their double burdens. They panted
+and trembled; and, save in short rushes, no longer answered to
+the spur. The Assassins saw, and came on with wild shouts. Nearer
+and nearer they drew, and the sound of their horses hoofs beating
+on the sand was like the sound of thunder. Now once more they
+were fifty yards away, and now but thirty, and again the spears
+began to flash, though none struck them.
+
+Masouda screamed to the horses in Arabic, and gallantly did they
+struggle, plunging up the hill with slow, convulsive bounds.
+Godwin and Wulf looked at each other, then, at a signal, checked
+their speed, leapt to earth, and, turning, drew their swords.
+
+"On!" they cried, and lightened of their weight, once more the
+reeling horses plunged forward.
+
+The Assassins were upon them. Wulf struck a mighty blow and
+emptied the saddle of the first, then was swept to earth. As he
+fell from behind him he heard a scream of joy, and struggling to
+his knees, looked round. Lo! from over the crest of the rise
+rushed squadron upon squadron of turbaned cavalry, who, as they
+came, set their lances in rest, and shouted:
+
+"Salah-ed-din! Salah-ed-din!"
+
+The Assassins saw also, and turned to fly--too late!
+
+"A horse! A horse!" screamed Godwin in Arabic; and presently--
+how he never knew--found himself mounted and charging with the
+Saracens.
+
+To Wulf, too, a horse was brought, but he could not struggle to
+its saddle. Thrice he strove, then fell backwards and lay upon
+the sand, waving his sword and shouting where he lay, while
+Masouda stood by him, a dagger in her hand, and with her Rosamund
+upon her knees.
+
+Now the pursuers were the pursued, and dreadful was the reckoning
+that they must pay. Their horses were outworn and could not fly
+at speed. Some of the fedai were cut down upon them. Some
+dismounted, and gathering themselves in little groups, fought
+bravely till they were slain, while a few were taken prisoners.
+Of all that great troup of men not a score won back alive to
+Masyaf to make report to their master of how the chase of his
+lost bride had ended.
+
+A while later and Wulf from his seat upon the ground saw Godwin
+riding back towards him, his red sword in his hand. With him rode
+a sturdy, bright-eyed man gorgeously apparelled, at the sight of
+whom Rosamund sprang to her feet; then, as he dismounted, ran
+forward and with a little cry cast her arms about him.
+
+"Hassan! Prince Hassan! Is it indeed you? Oh, God be praised!"
+she gasped, then, had not Masouda caught her, would have fallen.
+
+The Emir looked at her, her long hair loose, her face stained,
+her veil torn, but still clad in the silk and gleaming gems with
+which she had been decked as the bride-elect of Al-je-bal. Then
+low to the earth he bent his knee, while the grave Saracens
+watched, and taking the hem of her garment, he kissed it.
+
+"Allah be praised indeed!" he said. "I, His unworthy servant,
+thank Him from my heart, who never thought to see you living
+more. Soldiers, salute. Before you stands the lady Rose of the
+World, princess of Baalbec and niece of your lord, Salah-ed-din,
+Commander of the Faithful."
+
+Then in stately salutation to this dishevelled, outworn, but
+still queenly woman, uprose hand, and spear, and scimitar, while
+Wulf cried from where he lay:
+
+"Why, it is our merchant of the drugged wine--none other! Oh! Sir
+Saracen, does not the memory of that chapman's trick shame you
+now?"
+
+The emir Hassan heard and grew red, muttering in his beard:
+
+"Like you, Sir Wulf, I am the slave of Fate, and must obey. Be
+not bitter against me till you know all."
+
+"I am not bitter," answered Wulf, "but I always pay for my drink,
+and we will settle that score yet, as I have sworn."
+
+"Hush!" broke in Rosamund. "Although he stole me, he is also my
+deliverer and friend through many a peril, and, had it not been
+for him, by now--" and she shuddered.
+
+"I do not know all the story, but, Princess, it seems that you
+should thank not me, but these goodly cousins of yours and those
+splendid horses," and Hassan pointed to Smoke and Flame, which
+stood by quivering, with hollow flanks and drooping heads.
+
+"There is another whom I must thank also, this noble woman, as
+you will call her also when you hear the story," said Rosamund,
+flinging her arm about the neck of Masouda.
+
+"My master will reward her," said Hassan. "But oh! lady, what
+must you think of me who seemed to desert you so basely? Yet I
+reasoned well. In the castle of that son of Satan, Sinan," and he
+spat upon the ground, "I could not have aided you, for there he
+would only have butchered me. But by escaping I thought that I
+might help, so I bribed the Frankish knave with the priceless
+Star of my House," and he touched the great jewel that he wore in
+his turban, "and with what money I had, to loose my bonds, and
+while he pouched the gold I stabbed him with his own knife and
+fled. But this morning I reached yonder city in command of ten
+thousand men, charged to rescue you if I could; if not, to avenge
+you, for the ambassadors of Salah-ed-din informed me of your
+plight. An hour ago the watchmen on the towers reported that they
+saw two horses galloping across the plain beneath a double
+burden, pursued by soldiers whom from their robes they took to be
+Assassins. So, as I have a quarrel with the Assassins, I crossed
+the bridge, formed up five hundred men in a hollow, and waited,
+never guessing that it was you who fled. You know the rest--and
+the Assassins know it also, for," he added grimly, "you have been
+well avenged."
+
+"Follow it up," said Wulf, "and the vengeance shall be better,
+for I will show you the secret way into Masyaf--or, if I cannot,
+Godwin will--and there you may hurl Sinan from his own towers."
+
+Hassan shook his head and answered:
+
+"I should like it well, for with this magician my master also has
+an ancient quarrel. But he has other feuds upon his hands," and
+he looked meaningly at Wulf and Godwin, "and my orders were to
+rescue the princess and no more. Well, she has been rescued, and
+some hundreds of heads have paid the price of all that she has
+suffered. Also, that secret way of yours will be safe enough by
+now. So there I let the matter bide, glad enough that it has
+ended thus. Only I warn you all--and myself also--to walk warily,
+since, if I know aught of him, Sinan's fedais will henceforth dog
+the steps of every one of us, striving to bring us to our ends by
+murder. Now here come litters; enter them, all of you, and be
+borne to the city, who have ridden far enough to-day. Fear not
+for your horses; they shall be led in gently and saved alive, if
+skill and care can save them. I go to count the slain, and will
+join you presently in the citadel."
+
+So the bearers came and lifted up Wulf, and helped Godwin from
+his horse--for now that all was over he could scarcely stand--and
+with him Rosamund and Masouda. Placing them in the litters, they
+carried them, escorted by cavalry, across the bridge of the
+Orontes into the city of Emesa, where they lodged them in the
+citadel.
+
+Here also, after giving them a drink of barley gruel, and rubbing
+their backs and legs with ointment, they led the horses Smoke and
+Flame, slowly and with great trouble, for these could hardly
+stir, and laid them down on thick beds of straw, tempting them
+with food, which after awhile they ate. The four--Rosamund,
+Masouda, Godwin, and Wulf--ate also of some soup with wine in
+it, and after the hurts of Wulf had been tended by a skilled
+doctor, went to their beds, whence they did not rise again for
+two days.
+
+
+
+Chapter Sixteen: The Sultan Saladin
+
+In the third morning Godwin awoke to see the ray of sunrise
+streaming through the latticed window.
+
+They fell upon another bed near-by where Wulf still lay sleeping,
+a bandage on his head that had been hurt in the last charge
+against the Assassins, and other bandages about his arms and
+body, which were much bruised in the fight upon the dreadful
+bridge.
+
+Wondrous was it to Godwin to watch him lying there sleeping
+healthily, notwithstanding his injuries, and to think of what
+they had gone through together with so little harm; to think,
+also, of how they had rescued Rosamund out of the very mouth of
+that earthly hell of which he could see the peaks through the
+open window-place--out of the very hands of that fiend, its
+ruler. Reckoning the tale day by day, he reflected on their
+adventures since they landed at Beirut, and saw how Heaven had
+guided their every step.
+
+In face of the warnings that were given them, to visit the
+Al-je-bal in his stronghold had seemed a madness. Yet there,
+where none could have thought that she would be, they had found
+Rosamund. There they had been avenged upon the false knight Sir
+Hugh Lozelle, who had betrayed her, first to Saladin, then to
+Sinan, and sent him down to death and judgment; and thence they
+had rescued Rosamund.
+
+Oh, how wise they had been to obey the dying words of their
+uncle, Sir Andrew, who doubtless was given foresight at the end!
+God and His saints had helped them, who could not have helped
+themselves, and His minister had been Masouda. But for Masouda,
+Rosamund would by now be lost or dead, and they, if their lives
+were still left to them, would be wanderers in the great land of
+Syria, seeking for one who never could be found.
+
+Why had Masouda done these things, again and again putting her
+own life upon the hazard to save theirs and the honour of another
+woman? As he asked himself the question Godwin felt the red blood
+rise to his face. Because she hated Sinan, who had murdered her
+parents and degraded her, she said; and doubtless that had to do
+with the matter. But it was no longer possible to hide the truth.
+She loved him, and had loved him from the first hour when they
+met. He had always suspected it--in that wild trial of the horses
+upon the mountain side, when she sat with her arms about him and
+her face pressed against his face; when she kissed his feet after
+he had saved her from the lion, and many another time.
+
+But as they followed Wulf and Rosamund up the mountain pass while
+the host of the Assassins thundered at their heels, and in broken
+gasps she had told him of her sad history, then it was that he
+grew sure. Then, too, he had said that he held her not vile, but
+noble, as indeed he did; and, thinking their death upon them, she
+had answered that she held him dear, and looked on him as a woman
+looks upon her only love--a message in her eyes that no man could
+fail to read. Yet if this were so, why had Masouda saved
+Rosamund, the lady to whom she knew well that he was sworn?
+Reared among those cruel folk who could wade to their desire
+through blood and think it honour, would she not have left her
+rival to her doom, seeing that oaths do not hold beyond the
+grave?
+
+An answer came into the heart of Godwin, at the very thought of
+which he turned pale and trembled. His brother was also sworn to
+Rosamund, and she in her soul must be sworn to one of them. Was
+it not to Wulf, Wulf who was handsomer and more strong than he,
+to Wulf, the conqueror of Lozelle? Had Rosamund told Masouda
+this? Nay, surely not.
+
+Yet women can read each other's hearts, piercing veils through
+which no man may see, and perchance Masouda had read the heart of
+Rosamund. She stood behind her during the dreadful duel at the
+gate, and watched her face when Wulf's death seemed sure; she
+might have heard words that broke in agony from her lips in those
+moments of torment.
+
+Oh, without doubt it was so, and Masouda had protected Rosamund
+because she knew that her love was for Wulf and not for him. The
+thought was very bitter, and in its pain Godwin groaned aloud,
+while a fierce jealousy of the brave and handsome knight who
+slept at his side, dreaming, doubtless, of the fame that he had
+won and the reward by which it would be crowned, gripped his
+vitals like the icy hand of death. Then Godwin remembered the
+oath that they two had sworn far away in the Priory at Stangate,
+and the love passing the love of woman which he bore towards this
+brother, and the duty of a Christian warrior whereto he was
+vowed, and hiding his face in his pillow he prayed for strength.
+
+It would seem that it came to him--at least, when he lifted his
+head again the jealousy was gone, and only the great grief
+remained. Fear remained also--for what of Masouda? How should he
+deal with her? He was certain that this was no fancy which would
+pass--until her life passed with it, and, beautiful as she was,
+and noble as she was, he did not wish her love. He could find no
+answer to these questions, save this--that things must go on as
+they were decreed. For himself, he, Godwin, would strive to do
+his duty, to keep his hands clean, and await the end, whatever
+that might be.
+
+Wulf woke up, stretched his arms, exclaimed because that action
+hurt him, grumbled at the brightness of the light upon his eyes,
+and said that he was very hungry. Then he arose, and with the
+help of Godwin, dressed himself, but not in his armour. Here,
+with the yellow-coated soldiers of Saladin, grave-faced and
+watchful, pacing before their door--for night and day they were
+trebly guarded lest Assassins should creep in--there was no need
+for mail. In the fortress of Masyaf, indeed, where they were also
+guarded, it had been otherwise. Wulf heard the step of the
+sentries on the cemented pavement without, and shook his great
+shoulders as though he shivered.
+
+"That sound makes my backbone cold," he said. "For a moment, as
+my eyes opened, I thought that we were back again in the guest
+chambers of Al-je-bal, where folk crept round us as we slept and
+murderers marched to and fro outside the curtains, fingering
+their knife-points. Well, whatever there is to come, thank the
+Saints, that is done with. I tell you, brother, I have had enough
+of mountains, and narrow bridges, and Assassins. Henceforth, I
+desire to live upon a flat with never a hill in sight, amidst
+honest folk as stupid as their own sheep, who go to church on
+Sundays and get drunk, not with hachich, but on brown ale,
+brought to them by no white-robed sorceress, but by a
+draggle-tailed wench in a tavern, with her musty bedstraw still
+sticking in her hair. Give me the Saltings of Essex with the east
+winds blowing over them, and the primroses abloom upon the bank,
+and the lanes fetlock deep in mud, and for your share you may
+take all the scented gardens of Sinan and the cups and jewels of
+his ladies, with the fightings and adventures of the golden East
+thrown in."
+
+"I never sought these things, and we are a long way from Essex,"
+answered Godwin shortly.
+
+"No," said Wulf, "but they seem to seek you. What news of
+Masouda? Have you seen her while I slept, which has been long?"
+
+"I have seen no one except the apothecary who tended you, the
+slaves who brought us food, and last evening the prince Hassan,
+who came to see how we fared. He told me that, like yourself,
+Rosamund and Masouda slept."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," answered Wulf, "for certainly their rest
+was earned. By St. Chad! what a woman is this Masouda! A heart of
+fire and nerves of steel! Beautiful, too--most beautiful; and the
+best horsewoman that ever sat a steed. Had it not been for
+her--By Heaven! when I think of it I feel as though I loved
+her--don't you?"
+
+"No," said Godwin, still more shortly.
+
+"Ah, well, I daresay she can love enough for two who does nothing
+by halves, and, all things considered," he added, with one of his
+great laughs, "I am glad it is I of whom she thinks so
+little--yes, I who adore her as though she were my patron saint.
+Hark! the guards challenge," and, forgetting where he was, he
+snatched at his sword.
+
+Then the door opened, and through it appeared the emir Hassan,
+who saluted them in the name of Allah, searching them with his
+quiet eyes.
+
+"Few would judge, to look at you, Sir Knights," he said with a
+smile, "that you have been the guests of the Old Man of the
+Mountain, and left his house so hastily by the back door. Three
+days more and you will be as lusty as when we met beyond the seas
+upon the wharf by a certain creek. Oh, you are brave men, both of
+you, though you be infidels, from which error may the Prophet
+guide you; brave men, the flower of knighthood. Ay, I, Hassan,
+who have known many Frankish knights, say it from my heart," and,
+placing his hand to his turban, he bowed before them in
+admiration that was not feigned.
+
+"We thank you, Prince, for your praise," said Godwin gravely, but
+Wulf stepped forward, took his hand, and shook it.
+
+"That was an ill trick, Prince, which you played us yonder in
+England," he said, "and one that brought as good a warrior as
+ever drew a sword--our uncle Sir Andrew D'Arcy--to an end sad as
+it was glorious. Still, you obeyed your master, and because of
+all that has happened since, I forgive you, and call you friend,
+although should we ever meet in battle I still hope to pay you
+for that drugged wine."
+
+Here Hassan bowed, and said softly:
+
+"I admit that the debt is owing; also that none sorrow more for
+the death of the noble lord D'Arcy than I, your servant, who, by
+the will of God, brought it upon him. When we meet, Sir Wulf, in
+war--and that, I think, will be an ill hour for me--strike, and
+strike home; I shall not complain. Meanwhile, we are friends, and
+in very truth all that I have is yours. But now I come to tell
+you that the princess Rose of the World--Allah bless her
+footsteps!--is recovered from her fatigues, and desires that you
+should breakfast with her in an hour's time. Also the doctor
+waits to tend your bruises, and slaves to lead you to the bath
+and clothe you. Nay, leave your hauberk; here the faith of
+Salah-ed-din and of his servants is your best armour."
+
+"Still, I think that we will take them," said Godwin, "for faith
+is a poor defence against the daggers of these Assassins, who
+dwell not so far away."
+
+"True," answered Hassan; "I had forgotten." So thus they
+departed.
+
+An hour later they were led to the hall, where presently came
+Rosamund, and with her Masouda and Hassan.
+
+She was dressed in the rich robes of an Eastern lady, but the
+gems with which she had been adorned as the bride elect of
+Al-je-bal were gone; and when she lifted her veil the brethren
+saw that though her face was still somewhat pallid, her strength
+had come back to her, and the terror had left her eyes. She
+greeted them with sweet and gentle words, thanking first Godwin
+and then Wulf for all that they had done, and turning to Masouda,
+who stood by, stately, and watchful, thanked her also. Then they
+sat down, and ate with light hearts and a good appetite.
+
+Before their meal was finished, the guard at the door announced
+that messengers had arrived from the Sultan. They entered,
+grey-haired men clad in the robes of secretaries, whom Hassan
+hastened to greet. When they were seated and had spoken with him
+awhile, one of them drew forth a letter, which Hassan, touching
+his forehead with it in token of respect, gave to Rosamund. She
+broke its seal, and, seeing that it was in Arabic, handed it to
+her cousin, saying:
+
+"Do you read it, Godwin, who are more learned than I."
+
+So he read aloud, translating the letter sentence by sentence.
+This was its purport:
+
+"Salah-ed-din, Commander of the Faithful, the Strong-to-aid, to
+his niece beloved, Rose of the World, princess of Baalbec:--
+
+"Our servant, the emir Hassan, has sent us tidings of your rescue
+from the power of the accursed lord of the Mountain, Sinan, and
+that you are now safe in our city of Emesa, guarded by many
+thousands of our soldiers, and with you a woman named Masouda,
+and your kinsmen, the two Frankish knights, by whose skill in
+arms and courage you were saved. Now this is to command you to
+come to our court at Damascus so soon as you may be fit to
+travel, knowing that here you will be received with love and
+honour. Also I invite your kinsmen to accompany you, since I knew
+their father, and would welcome knights who have done such great
+deeds, and the woman Masouda with them. Or, if they prefer it,
+all three of them may return to their own lands and peoples.
+
+"Hasten, my niece, lady Rose of the World, hasten, for my spirit
+seeks you, and my eyes desire to look upon you. In the name of
+Allah, greeting."
+
+"You have heard," said Rosamund, as Godwin finished reading the
+scroll. "Now, my cousins, what will you do?"
+
+"What else but go with you, whom we have come so far to seek?"
+answered Wulf, and Godwin nodded his head in assent.
+
+"And you, Masouda?"
+
+"I, lady? Oh, I go also, since were I to return yonder," and she
+nodded towards the mountains, "my greeting would be one that I do
+not wish."
+
+"Do you note their words, prince Hassan?" asked Rosamund.
+
+"I expected no other," he answered with a bow. "Only, knights,
+you must give me a promise, for even in the midst of my army such
+is needful from men who can fly like birds out of the fortress of
+Masyaf and from the knives of the Assassins--who are mounted,
+moreover, on the swiftest horses in Syria that have been trained
+to carry a double burden," and he looked at them meaningly. "It
+is that upon this journey you will not attempt to escape with the
+princess, whom you have followed from over-sea to rescue her out
+of the hand of Salah-ed-din."
+
+Godwin drew from his tunic the cross which Rosamund had left him
+in the hall at Steeple, and saying: "I swear upon this holy
+symbol that during our journey to Damascus I will attempt no
+escape with or without my cousin Rosamund," he kissed it.
+
+"And I swear the same upon my sword," added Wulf, laying his hand
+upon the silver hilt of the great blade which had been his
+forefather's.
+
+"A security that I like better," said Hassan with a smile, "but
+in truth, knights, your word is enough for me." Then he looked at
+Masouda and went on, still smiling: "Nay it is useless; for women
+who have dwelt yonder oaths have no meaning. Lady, we must be
+content to watch you, since my lord has bidden you to his city,
+which, fair and brave as you are, to be plain, I would not have
+done."
+
+Then he turned to speak to the secretaries, and Godwin, who was
+noting all, saw Masouda's dark eyes follow him and in them a very
+strange light.
+
+"Good," they seemed to say; "as you have written, so shall you
+read."
+
+That same afternoon they started for Damascus, a great army of
+horsemen. In its midst, guarded by a thousand spears, Rosamund
+was borne in a litter. In front of her rode Hassan, with his
+yellow-robed bodyguard; at her side, Masouda; and behind--for,
+notwithstanding his hurts, Wulf would not be carried--the
+brethren, mounted upon ambling palfreys. After them, led by
+slaves, came the chargers, Flame and Smoke, recovered now, but
+still walking somewhat stiffly, and then rank upon rank of
+turbaned Saracens. Through the open curtains of her litter
+Rosamund beckoned to the brethren, who pushed alongside of her.
+
+"Look," she said, pointing with her hand.
+
+They looked, and there, bathed in the glory of the sinking sun,
+saw the mountains crowned far, far away with the impregnable city
+and fortress of Masyaf, and below it the slopes down which they
+had ridden for their lives. Nearer to them flashed the river
+bordered by the town of Emesa. Set at intervals along its walls
+were spears, looking like filaments against the flaming, sunset
+sky, and on each of them a black dot, which was the head of an
+Assassin, while from the turrets above, the golden banner of
+Saladin fluttered in the evening wind. Remembering all that she
+had undergone in that fearful home of devil-worshippers, and the
+fate from which she had been snatched, Rosamund shuddered.
+
+"It burns like a city in hell," she said, staring at Masyaf,
+environed by that lurid evening light and canopied with black,
+smoke-like clouds. "Oh! such I think will be its doom."
+
+"I trust so," answered Wulf fervently. "At least, in this world
+and the next we have done with it."
+
+"Yes," added Godwin in his thoughtful voice; "still, out of that
+evil place we won good, for there we found Rosamund, and there,
+my brother, you conquered in such a fray as you can never hope to
+fight again, gaining great glory, and perhaps much more."
+
+Then reining in his horse, Godwin fell back behind the litter,
+while Wulf wondered, and Rosamund watched him with dreaming eyes.
+
+That evening they camped in the desert, and next morning,
+surrounded by wandering tribes of Bedouins mounted on their
+camels, marched on again, sleeping that night in the ancient
+fortress of Baalbec, whereof the garrison and people, having been
+warned by runners of the rank and titles of Rosamund came out to
+do her homage as their lady.
+
+Hearing of it, she left her litter, and mounting a splendid horse
+which they had sent her as a present, rode to meet them, the
+brethren, in full armour and once more bestriding Flame and
+Smoke, beside her, and a guard of Saladin's own Mameluks behind.
+Solemn, turbaned men, who had been commanded so to do by
+messengers from the Sultan, brought her the keys of the gates on
+a cushion, minstrels and soldiers marched before her, whilst
+crowding the walls and running alongside came the citizens in
+their thousands. Thus she went on, through the open gates, past
+the towering columns of ruined temples once a home of the worship
+of heathen gods, through courts and vaults to the citadel
+surrounded by its gardens that in dead ages had been the
+Acropolis of forgotten Roman emperors.
+
+Here in the portico Rosamund turned her horse, and received the
+salutations of the multitude as though she also were one of the
+world's rulers. Indeed, it seemed to the brethren watching her as
+she sat upon the great white horse and surveyed the shouting,
+bending crowd with flashing eyes, splendid in her bearing and
+beautiful to see, a prince at her stirrup and an army at her
+back, that none of those who had trod that path before her could
+have seemed greater or more glorious in the hour of their pride
+than did this English girl, who by the whim of Fate had suddenly
+been set so high. Truly by blood and nature she was fitted to be
+a queen. Yet as Rosamund sat thus the pride passed from her face,
+and her eyes fell.
+
+"Of what are you thinking?" asked Godwin at her side.
+
+"That I would we were back among the summer fields at Steeple,"
+she answered, "for those who are lifted high fall low. Prince
+Hassan, give the captains and people my thanks and bid them be
+gone. I would rest."
+
+Thus for the first and last time did Rosamund behold her ancient
+fief of Baalbec, which her grandsire, the great Ayoub, had ruled
+before her.
+
+That night there was feasting in the mighty, immemorial halls,
+and singing and minstrelsy and the dancing of fair women and the
+giving of gifts. For Baalbec, where birth and beauty were ever
+welcome, did honour to its lady, the favoured niece of the mighty
+Salah-ed-din. Yet there were some who murmured that she would
+bring no good fortune to the Sultan or this his city, who was not
+all of the blood of Ayoub, but half a Frank, and a Cross
+worshipper, though even these praised her beauty and her royal
+bearing. The brethren they praised also, although these were
+unbelievers, and the tale of how Wulf had fought the traitor
+knight upon the Narrow Way, and of how they had led their
+kinswoman from the haunted fortress of Masyaf, was passed from
+mouth to mouth. At dawn the next day, on orders received from
+the Sultan, they left Baalbec, escorted by the army and many of
+the notables of the town. That afternoon they drew rein upon the
+heights which overlook the city of Damascus, Bride of the Earth,
+set amidst its seven streams and ringed about with gardens, one
+of the most beautiful and perhaps the most ancient city in the
+world. Then they rode down to the bounteous plain, and as night
+fell, having passed the encircling gardens, were escorted through
+the gates of Damascus, outside of which most of the army halted
+and encamped.
+
+Along the narrow streets, bordered by yellow, flat-roofed houses,
+they rode slowly, looking now at the motley, many-coloured
+crowds, who watched them with grave interest, and now at the
+stately buildings, domed mosques and towering minarets, which
+everywhere stood out against the deep blue of the evening sky.
+Thus at length they came to an open space planted like a garden,
+beyond which was seen a huge and fantastic castle that Hassan
+told them was the palace of Salah-ed-din. In its courtyard they
+were parted, Rosamund being led away by officers of state, whilst
+the brethren were taken to chambers that had been prepared,
+where, after they had bathed, they were served with food.
+Scarcely had they eaten it when Hassan appeared, and bade them
+follow him. Passing down various passages and across a court they
+came to some guarded doors, where the soldiers demanded that they
+should give up their swords and daggers.
+
+"It is not needful," said Hassan, and they let them go by. Next
+came more passages and a curtain, beyond which they found
+themselves in a small, domed room, lit by hanging silver lamps
+and paved in tesselated marbles, strewn with rich rugs and
+furnished with cushioned couches.
+
+At a sign from Hassan the brethren stood still in the centre of
+this room, and looked about them wondering. The place was empty
+and very silent; they felt afraid--of what they knew not.
+Presently curtains upon its further side opened and through them
+came a man turbaned and wrapped in a dark robe, who stood awhile
+in the shadow, gazing at them beneath the lamps.
+
+The man was not very tall, and slight in build, yet about him was
+much majesty, although his garb was such as the humblest might
+have worn. He came forward, lifting his head, and they saw that
+his features were small and finely cut; that he was bearded, and
+beneath his broad brow shone thoughtful yet at times piercing
+eyes which were brown in hue. Now the prince Hassan sank to his
+knees and touched the marble with his forehead, and, guessing
+that they were in the presence of the mighty monarch Saladin, the
+brethren saluted in their western fashion. Presently the Sultan
+spoke in a low, even voice to Hassan, to whom he motioned that he
+should rise, saying:
+
+"I can see that you trust these knights, Emir," and he pointed to
+their great swords.
+
+"Sire," was the answer, "I trust them as I trust myself. They are
+brave and honourable men, although they be infidels."
+
+The Sultan stroked his beard.
+
+"Ay," he said, "infidels. It is a pity, yet doubtless they
+worship God after their own fashion. Noble to look on also, like
+their father, whom I remember well, and, if all I hear is true,
+brave indeed. Sir Knights, do you understand my language?"
+
+"Sufficiently to speak it, lord," answered Godwin, "who have
+learned it since childhood, yet ill enough."
+
+"Good. Then tell me, as soldiers to a soldier, what do you seek
+from Salah-ed-din?"
+
+"Our cousin, the lady Rosamund, who, by your command, lord, was
+stolen from our home in England."
+
+"Knights, she is your cousin, that I know, as surely as I know
+that she is my niece. Tell me now, is she aught more to you?" and
+he searched them with those piercing eyes.
+
+Godwin looked at Wulf, who said in English:
+
+"Speak the whole truth, brother. From that man nothing can be
+hid."
+
+Then Godwin answered:
+
+"Sire, we love her, and are affianced to her."
+
+The Sultan stared at them in surprise.
+
+"What! Both of you?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, both."
+
+"And does she love you both?"
+
+"Yes," replied Godwin, "both, or so she says."
+
+Saladin stroked his beard and considered them, while Hassan
+smiled a little.
+
+"Then, knights," he said presently, "tell me, which of you does
+she love best?"
+
+"That, sire, is known to her alone. When the time comes, she will
+say, and not before."
+
+"I perceive," said Saladin, "that behind this riddle hides a
+story. If it is your good pleasure, be seated, and set it out to
+me."
+
+So they sat down on the divan and obeyed, keeping nothing back
+from the beginning to the end, nor, although the tale was long,
+did the Sultan weary of listening.
+
+"A great story, truly," he said, when at length they had
+finished, "and one in which I seem to see the hand of Allah. Sir
+Knights, you will think that I have wronged you--ay, and your
+uncle, Sir Andrew, who was once my friend, although an older man
+than I, and who, by stealing away my sister, laid the foundations
+of this house of love and war and woe, and perchance of happiness
+unforeseen.
+
+"Now listen. The tale that those two Frankish knaves, the priest
+and the false knight Lozelle, told to you was true. As I wrote to
+your uncle in my letter, I dreamed a dream. Thrice I dreamed it;
+that this niece of mine lived, and that if I could bring her here
+to dwell at my side she should save the shedding of much blood by
+some noble deed of hers--ay, of the blood of tens of thousands;
+and in that dream I saw her face. Therefore I stretched out my
+arm and took her from far away. And now, through you--yes,
+through you--she has been snatched from the power of the great
+Assassin, and is safe in my court, and therefore henceforth I am
+your friend."
+
+"Sire, have you seen her?" asked Godwin.
+
+"Knights, I have seen her, and the face is the face of my dreams,
+and therefore I know full surely that in those dreams God spoke.
+Listen, Sir Godwin and Sir Wulf," Saladin went on in a changed
+voice, a stern, commanding voice. "Ask of me what you will, and,
+Franks though you are, it shall be given you for your service's
+sake--wealth, lands, titles, all that men desire and I can
+grant--but ask not of me my niece, Rose of the World, princess of
+Baalbec, whom Allah has brought to me for His own purposes. Know,
+moreover, that if you strive to steal her away you shall
+certainly die; and that if she escapes from me and I recapture
+her, then she shall die. These things I have told her already,
+and I swear them in the name of Allah. Here she is, and in my
+house she must abide until the vision be fulfilled."
+
+Now in their dismay the brethren looked at each other, for they
+seemed further from their desire than they had been even in the
+castle of Sinan. Then a light broke upon the face of Godwin, and
+he stood up and answered:
+
+"Dread lord of all the East, we hear you and we know our risk.
+You have given us your friendship; we accept it, and are
+thankful, and seek no more. God, you say, has brought our lady
+Rosamund to you for His own purposes, of which you have no doubt
+since her face is the very face of your dreams. Then let His
+purposes be accomplished according to His will, which may be in
+some way that we little guess. We abide His judgment Who has
+guided us in the past, and will guide us in the future."
+
+"Well spoken," replied Saladin. "I have warned you, my guests,
+therefore blame me not if I keep my word; but I ask no promise
+from you who would not tempt noble knights to lie. Yes, Allah has
+set this strange riddle; by Allah let it be answered in His
+season."
+
+Then he waved his hand to show that the audience was ended.
+
+
+
+Chapter Seventeen: The Brethren Depart from Damascus
+
+At the court of Saladin Godwin and Wulf were treated with much
+honour. A house was given them to dwell in, and a company of
+servants to minister to their comfort and to guard them. Mounted
+on their swift horses, Flame and Smoke, they were taken out into
+the desert to hunt, and, had they so willed, it would have been
+easy for them to out-distance their retinue and companions and
+ride away to the nearest Christian town. Indeed, no hand would
+have been lifted to stay them who were free to come or go. But
+whither were they to go without Rosamund?
+
+Saladin they saw often, for it pleased him to tell them tales of
+those days when their father and uncle were in the East, or to
+talk with them of England and the Franks, and even now and again
+to reason with Godwin on matters of religion. Moreover, to show
+his faith in them, he gave them the rank of officers of his own
+bodyguard, and when, wearying of idleness, they asked it of him,
+allowed them to take their share of duty in the guarding of his
+palace and person. This, at a time when peace still reigned
+between Frank and Saracen, the brethren were not ashamed to do,
+who received no payment for their services.
+
+Peace reigned indeed, but Godwin and Wulf could guess that it
+would not reign for long. Damascus and the plain around it were
+one great camp, and every day new thousands of wild tribesmen
+poured in and took up the quarters that had been prepared for
+them. They asked Masouda, who knew everything, what it meant. She
+answered:
+
+"It means the jihad, the Holy War, which is being preached in
+every mosque throughout the East. It means that the great
+struggle between Cross and Crescent is at hand, and then,
+pilgrims Peter and John, you will have to choose your standard."
+
+"There can be little doubt about that," said Wulf.
+
+"None," replied Masouda, with one of her smiles, "only it may
+pain you to have to make war upon the princess of Baalbec and her
+uncle, the Commander of the Faithful."
+
+Then she went, still smiling. For this was the trouble of it:
+Rosamund, their cousin and their love, had in truth become the
+princess of Baalbec--for them. She lived in great state and
+freedom, as Saladin had promised that she should live in his
+letter to Sir Andrew D'Arcy. No insult or violence were offered
+to her faith; no suitor was thrust upon her. But she was in a
+land where women do not consort with men, especially if they be
+high-placed. As a princess of the empire of Saladin, she must
+obey its rules, even to veiling herself when she went abroad, and
+exchanging no private words with men. Godwin and Wulf prayed
+Saladin that they might be allowed to speak with her from time to
+time, but he only answered shortly:
+
+"Sir Knights, our customs are our customs. Moreover, the less you
+see of the princess of Baalbec the better I think it will be for
+her, for you, whose blood I do not wish to have upon my hands,
+and for myself, who await the fulfilment of that dream which the
+angel brought."
+
+Then the brethren left his presence sore at heart, for although
+they saw her from time to time at feasts and festivals, Rosamund
+was as far apart from them as though she sat in Steeple
+Hall--ay, and further. Also they came to see that of rescuing her
+from Damascus there was no hope at all. She dwelt in her own
+palace, whereof the walls were guarded night and day by a company
+of the Sultan's Mameluks, who knew that they were answerable for
+her with their lives. Within its walls, again, lived trusted
+eunuchs, under the command of a cunning fellow named Mesrour,
+and her retinue of women, all of them spies and watchful. How
+could two men hope to snatch her from the heart of such a host
+and to spirit her out of Damascus and through its encircling
+armies?
+
+One comfort, however, was left to them. When she reached the
+court Rosamund had prayed of the Sultan that Masouda should not
+be separated from her, and this because of the part she had
+played in his niece's rescue from the power of Sinan, he had
+granted, though doubtfully. Moreover, Masouda, being a person of
+no account except for her beauty, and a heretic, was allowed to
+go where she would and to speak with whom she wished. So, as she
+wished to speak often with Godwin, they did not lack for tidings
+of Rosamund.
+
+From her they learned that in a fashion the princess was happy
+enough--who would not be that had just escaped from
+Al-je-bal?--yet weary of the strange Eastern life, of the
+restraints upon her, and of her aimless days; vexed also that she
+might not mix with the brethren. Day by day she sent them her
+greetings, and with them warnings to attempt nothing--not even
+to see her--since there was no hope that they would succeed. So
+much afraid of them was the Sultan, Rosamund said, that both she
+and they were watched day and night, and of any folly their lives
+would pay the price. When they heard all this the brethren began
+to despair, and their spirits sank so low that they cared not
+what should happen to them.
+
+Then it was that a chance came to them of which the issue was to
+make them still more admired by Saladin and to lift Masouda to
+honour. One hot morning they were seated in the courtyard of
+their house beside the fountain, staring at the passers-by
+through the bars of the bronze gates and at the sentries who
+marched to and fro before them. This house was in one of the
+principal thoroughfares of Damascus, and in front of it flowed
+continually an unending, many-coloured stream of folk.
+
+There were white-robed Arabs of the desert, mounted on their
+grumbling camels; caravans of merchandise from Egypt or
+elsewhere; asses laden with firewood or the grey, prickly growth
+of the wild thyme for the bakers' ovens; water-sellers with their
+goatskin bags and chinking brazen cups; vendors of birds or
+sweetmeats; women going to the bath in closed and curtained
+litters, escorted by the eunuchs of their households; great lords
+riding on their Arab horses and preceded by their runners, who
+thrust the crowd asunder and beat the poor with rods; beggars,
+halt, maimed, and blind, beseeching alms; lepers, from whom all
+shrank away, who wailed their woes aloud; stately companies of
+soldiers, some mounted and some afoot; holy men, who gave
+blessings and received alms; and so forth, without number and
+without end.
+
+Godwin and Wulf, seated in the shade of the painted house,
+watched them gloomily. They were weary of this ever-changing
+sameness, weary of the eternal glare and glitter of this
+unfamiliar life, weary of the insistent cries of the mullahs on
+the minarets, of the flash of the swords that would soon be red
+with the blood of their own people; weary, too, of the hopeless
+task to which they were sworn. Rosamund was one of this
+multitude; she was the princess of Baalbec, half an Eastern by
+her blood, and growing more Eastern day by day--or so they
+thought in their bitterness. As well might two Saracens hope to
+snatch the queen of England from her palace at Westminster, as
+they to drag the princess of Baalbec out of the power of a
+monarch more absolute than any king of England.
+
+So they sat silent since they had nothing to say, and stared now
+at the passing crowd, and now at the thin stream of water falling
+continually into the marble basin.
+
+Presently they heard voices at the gate, and, looking up, saw a
+woman wrapped in a long cloak, talking with the guard, who with a
+laugh thrust out his arm, as though to place it round her. Then a
+knife flashed, and the soldier stepped back, still laughing, and
+opened the wicket. The woman came in. It was Masouda. They rose
+and bowed to her, but she passed before them into the house.
+Thither they followed, while the soldier at the gate laughed
+again, and at the sound of his mockery Godwin's cheek grew red.
+Even in the cool, darkened room she noticed it, and said,
+bitterly enough:
+
+"What does it matter? Such insults are my daily bread whom they
+believe--" and she stopped.
+
+"They had best say nothing of what they believe to me," muttered
+Godwin.
+
+"I thank you," Masouda answered, with a sweet, swift smile, and,
+throwing off her cloak, stood before them unveiled, clad in the
+white robes that befitted her tall and graceful form so well, and
+were blazoned on the breast with the cognizance of Baalbec. "Well
+for you," she went on, "that they hold me to be what I am not,
+since otherwise I should win no entry to this house."
+
+"What of our lady Rosamund?" broke in Wulf awkwardly, for, like
+Godwin, he was pained.
+
+Masouda laid her hand upon her breast as though to still its
+heaving, then answered:
+
+"The princess of Baalbec, my mistress, is well and as ever,
+beautiful, though somewhat weary of the pomp in which she finds
+no joy. She sent her greetings, but did not say to which of you
+they should be delivered, so, pilgrims, you must share them."
+
+Godwin winced, but Wulf asked if there were any hope of seeing
+her, to which Masouda answered:
+
+"None," adding, in a low voice, "I come upon another business. Do
+you brethren wish to do Salah-ed-din a service?"
+
+"I don't know. What is it?" asked Godwin gloomily.
+
+"Only to save his life--for which he may be grateful, or may not,
+according to his mood."
+
+"Speak on," said Godwin, "and tell us how we two Franks can save
+the life of the Sultan of the East."
+
+"Do you still remember Sinan and his fedais? Yes--they are not
+easily forgotten, are they? Well, to-night he has plotted to
+murder Salah-ed-din, and afterwards to murder you if he can, and
+to carry away your lady Rosamund if he can, or, failing that, to
+murder her also. Oh! the tale is true enough. I have it from one
+of them under the Signet--surely that Signet has served us
+well--who believes, poor fool, that I am in the plot. Now, you
+are the officers of the bodyguard who watch in the ante-chamber
+to-night, are you not? Well, when the guard is changed at
+midnight, the eight men who should replace them at the doors of
+the room of Salah-ed-din will not arrive; they will be decoyed
+away by a false order. In their stead will come eight murderers,
+disguised in the robes and arms of Mameluks. They look to deceive
+and cut you down, kill Salah-ed-din, and escape by the further
+door. Can you hold your own awhile against eight men, think you?"
+
+"We have done so before and will try," answered Wulf. "But how
+shall we know that they are not Mameluks?"
+
+"Thus--they will wish to pass the door, and you will say, 'Nay,
+sons of Sinan,' whereon they will spring on you to kill you. Then
+be ready and shout aloud."
+
+"And if they overcome us," asked Godwin, "then the Sultan would
+be slain?"
+
+"Nay, for you must lock the door of the chamber of Salah-ed-din
+and hide away the key. The sound of the fighting will arouse the
+outer guard ere hurt can come to him. Or," she added, after
+thinking awhile, "perhaps it will be best to reveal the plot to
+the Sultan at once."
+
+"No, no," answered Wulf; "let us take the chance. I weary of
+doing nothing here. Hassan guards the outer gate. He will come
+swiftly at the sound of blows."
+
+"Good," said Masouda; "I will see that he is there and awake. Now
+farewell, and pray that we may meet again. I say nothing of this
+story to the princess Rosamund until it is done with." Then
+throwing her cloak about her shoulders, she turned and went.
+
+"Is that true, think you?" asked Wulf of Godwin.
+
+"We have never found Masouda to be a liar," was his answer.
+"Come; let us see to our armour, for the knives of those fedai
+are sharp."
+
+It was near midnight, and the brethren stood in the small, domed
+ante-chamber, from which a door opened into the sleeping rooms of
+Saladin. The guard of eight Mameluks had left them, to be met by
+their relief in the courtyard, according to custom, but no relief
+had as yet appeared in the ante-chamber.
+
+"It would seem that Masouda's tale is true," said Godwin, and
+going to the door he locked it, and hid the key beneath a
+cushion.
+
+Then they took their stand in front of the locked door, before
+which hung curtains, standing in the shadow with the light from
+the hanging silver lamps pouring down in front of them. Here they
+waited awhile in silence, till at length they heard the tramp of
+men, and eight Mameluks, clad in yellow above their mail, marched
+in and saluted.
+
+"Stand!" said Godwin, and they stood a minute, then began to edge
+forward.
+
+"Stand!" said both the brethren again, but still they edged
+forward.
+
+"Stand, sons of Sinan!" they said a third time, drawing their
+swords.
+
+Then with a hiss of disappointed rage the fedai came at them.
+
+"A D'Arcy! A D'Arcy! Help for the Sultan!" shouted the brethren,
+and the fray began.
+
+Six of the men attacked them, and while they were engaged with
+these the other two slipped round and tried the door, only to
+find it fast. Then they also turned upon the brethren, thinking
+to take the key from off their bodies. At the first rush two of
+the fedai went down beneath the sweep of the long swords, but
+after that the murderers would not come close, and while some
+engaged them in front, others strove to pass and stab them from
+behind. Indeed, a blow from one of their long knives fell upon
+Godwin's shoulder, but the good mail turned it.
+
+"Give way," he cried to Wulf, "or they will best us."
+
+So suddenly they gave way before them till their backs were
+against the door, and there they stood, shouting for help and
+sweeping round them with their swords into reach of which the
+fedai dare not come. Now from without the chamber rose a cry and
+tumult, and the sound of heavy blows falling upon the gates that
+the murderers had barred behind them, while upon the further side
+of the door, which he could not open, was heard the voice of the
+Sultan demanding to know what passed.
+
+The fedai heard these sounds also, and read in them their doom.
+Forgetting caution in their despair and rage, they hurled
+themselves upon the brethren, for they thought that if they could
+get them down they might still break through the door and slay
+Salah-ed-din before they themselves were slain. But for awhile
+the brethren stopped their rush with point and buckler, wounding
+two of them sorely; and when at length they closed in upon them,
+the gates were burst, and Hassan and the outer guard were at
+hand.
+
+A minute later and, but little hurt, Godwin and Wulf were leaning
+on their swords, and the fedai, some of them dead or wounded and
+some of them captive, lay before them on the marble floor.
+Moreover, the door had been opened, and through it came the
+Sultan in his nightgear.
+
+"What has chanced?" he asked, looking at them doubtfully.
+
+"Only this, lord," answered Godwin; "these men came to kill you
+and we held them off till help arrived."
+
+"Kill me! My own guard kill me?"
+
+"They are not your guard; they are fedai, disguised as your
+guard, and sent by Al-je-bal, as he promised."
+
+Now Salah-ed-din turned pale, for he who feared nothing else was
+all his life afraid of the Assassins and their lord, who thrice
+had striven to murder him.
+
+"Strip the armour from those men," went on Godwin, "and I think
+that you will find truth in my words, or, if not, question such
+of them as still live."
+
+They obeyed, and there upon the breast of one of them, burnt into
+his skin, was the symbol of the blood-red dagger. Now Saladin
+saw, and beckoned the brethren aside.
+
+"How knew you of this?" he asked, searching them with his
+piercing eyes.
+
+"Masouda, the lady Rosamund's waiting woman, warned us that you,
+lord, and we, were to be murdered tonight by eight men, so we
+made ready."
+
+"Why, then, did you not tell me?"
+
+"Because," answered Wulf, "we were not sure that the news was
+true, and did not wish to bring false tidings and be made
+foolish. Because, also, my brother and I thought that we could
+hold our own awhile against eight of Sinan's rats disguised as
+soldiers of Saladin."
+
+"You have done it well, though yours was a mad counsel," answered
+the Sultan. Then he gave his hand first to one and next to the
+other, and said, simply:
+
+"Sir Knights, Salah-ed-din owes his life to you. Should it ever
+come about that you owe your lives to Salah-ed-din, he will
+remember this."
+
+Thus this business ended. On the morrow those of the fedai who
+remained alive were questioned, and confessing freely that they
+had been sent to murder Salah-ed-din who had robbed their master
+of his bride, the two Franks who had carried her off, and the
+woman Masouda who had guided them, they were put to death cruelly
+enough. Also many others in the city were seized and killed on
+suspicion, so that for awhile there was no more fear from the
+Assassins.
+
+Now from that day forward Saladin held the brethren in great
+friendship, and pressed gifts upon them and offered them honours.
+But they refused them all, saying that they needed but one thing
+of him, and he knew what it was--an answer at which his face
+sank.
+
+One morning he sent for them, and, except for the presence of
+prince Hassan, the most favourite of his emirs, and a famous
+imaum, or priest of his religion, received them alone.
+
+"Listen," he said briefly, addressing Godwin. "I understand that
+my niece, the princess of Baalbec, is beloved by you. Good.
+Subscribe the Koran, and I give her to you in marriage, for thus
+also she may be led to the true faith, whom I have sworn not to
+force thereto, and I gain a great warrior and Paradise a brave
+soul. The imaum here will instruct you in the truth."
+
+Thus he spoke, but Godwin only stared at him with eyes set wide
+in wonderment, and answered:
+
+"Sire, I thank you, but I cannot change my faith to win a woman,
+however dearly I may love her."
+
+"So I thought," said Saladin with a sigh, "though indeed it is
+sad that superstition should thus blind so brave and good a man.
+Now, Sir Wulf, it is your turn. What say you to my offer? Will
+you take the princess and her dominions with my love thrown in as
+a marriage portion?"
+
+Wulf thought a moment, and as he thought there arose in his mind
+a vision of an autumn afternoon that seemed years and years ago,
+when they two and Rosamund had stood by the shrine of St. Chad on
+the shores of Essex, and jested of this very matter of a change
+of faith. Then he answered, with one of his great laughs:
+
+"Ay, sire, but on my own terms, not on yours, for if I took these
+I think that my marriage would lack blessings. Nor, indeed, would
+Rosamund wish to wed a servant of your Prophet, who if it pleased
+him might take other wives."
+
+Saladin leant his head upon his hand, and looked at them with
+disappointed eyes, yet not unkindly.
+
+"The knight Lozelle was a Cross-worshipper," he said, "but you
+two are very different from the knight Lozelle, who accepted the
+Faith when it was offered to him--"
+
+"To win your trade," said Godwin, bitterly.
+
+"I know not," answered Saladin, "though it is true the man seems
+to have been a Christian among the Franks, who here was a
+follower of the Prophet. At least, he is dead at your hands, and
+though he sinned against me and betrayed my niece to Sinan,
+peace be with his soul. Now I have one more thing to say to you.
+That Frank, Prince Arnat of Karak, whom you call Reginald de
+Chatillon--accursed be his name!--" and he spat upon the ground,
+"has once more broken the peace between me and the king of
+Jerusalem, slaughtering my merchants, and stealing my goods. I
+will suffer this shame no more, and very shortly I unfurl my
+standards, which shall not be folded up again until they float
+upon the mosque of Omar and from every tower top in Palestine.
+Your people are doomed. I, Yusuf Salah-ed-din," and he rose as
+he said the words, his very beard bristling with wrath, "declare
+the Holy War, and will sweep them to the sea. Choose now, you
+brethren. Do you fight for me or against me? Or will you give up
+your swords and bide here as my prisoners?"
+
+"We are the servants of the Cross," answered Godwin, "and cannot
+lift steel against it and thereby lose our souls." Then he spoke
+with Wulf, and added, "As to your second question, whether we
+should bide here in chains. It is one that our lady Rosamund must
+answer, for we are sworn to her service. We demand to see the
+princess of Baalbec."
+
+"Send for her, Emir," said Saladin to the prince Hassan, who
+bowed and departed.
+
+A while later Rosamund came, looking beautiful but, as they saw
+when she threw back her veil, very white and weary. She bowed to
+Saladin, and the brethren, who were not allowed to touch her
+hand, bowed to her, devouring her face with eager eyes.
+
+"Greeting, my uncle," she said to the Sultan, "and to you, my
+cousins, greeting also. What is your pleasure with me?"
+
+Saladin motioned to her to be seated and bade Godwin set out the
+case, which he did very clearly, ending:
+
+"Is it your wish, Rosamund, that we stay in this court as
+prisoners, or go forth to fight with the Franks in the great war
+that is to be?"
+
+Rosamund looked at them awhile, then answered:
+
+"To whom were you sworn the first? Was it to the service of our
+Lord, or to the service of a woman? I have said."
+
+"Such words as we expected from you, being what you are,"
+exclaimed Godwin, while Wulf nodded his head in assent, and
+added:
+
+"Sultan, we ask your safe conduct to Jerusalem, and leave this
+lady in your charge, relying on your plighted word to do no
+violence to her faith and to protect her person."
+
+"My safe conduct you have," replied Saladin, "and my friendship
+also. Nor, indeed, should I have thought well of you had you
+decided otherwise. Now, henceforth we are enemies in the eyes of
+all men, and I shall strive to slay you as you will strive to
+slay me. But as regards this lady, have no fear. What I have
+promised shall be fulfilled. Bid her farewell, whom you will see
+no more."
+
+"Who taught your lips to say such words, O Sultan?" asked Godwin.
+"Is it given to you to read the future and the decrees of God?"
+
+"I should have said," answered Saladin, "'Whom you will see no
+more if I am able to keep you apart.' Can you complain who, both
+of you, have refused to take her as a wife?"
+
+Here Rosamund looked up wondering, and Wulf broke in:
+
+"Tell her the price. Tell her that she was asked to wed either of
+us who would bow the knee to Mahomet, and to be the head of his
+harem, and I think that she will not blame us."
+
+"Never would I have spoken again to him who answered otherwise,"
+exclaimed Rosamund, and Saladin frowned at the words. "Oh! my
+uncle," she went on, "you have been kind to me and raised me
+high, but I do not seek this greatness, nor are your ways my
+ways, who am of a faith that you call accursed. Let me go, I
+beseech you, in care of these my kinsmen."
+
+"And your lovers," said Saladin bitterly. "Niece, it cannot be. I
+love you well, but did I know even that your life must pay the
+price of your sojourn here, here you still should stay, since, as
+my dream told me, on you hang the lives of thousands, and I
+believe that dream. What, then, is your life, or the lives of
+these knights, or even my life, that any or all of them should
+turn the scale against those of thousands. Oh! everything that my
+empire can give is at your feet, but here you stay until the
+dream be accomplished, and," he added, looking at the brethren,
+"death shall be the portion of any who would steal you from my
+hand."
+
+"Until the dream be accomplished?" said Rosamund catching at the
+words. "Then, when it is accomplished, shall I be free?"
+
+"Ay," answered the Sultan; "free to come or to go, unless you
+attempt escape, for then you know your certain doom."
+
+"It is a decree. Take note, my cousins, it is a decree. And you,
+prince Hassan, remember it also. Oh! I pray with all my soul I
+pray, that it was no lying spirit who brought you that dream, my
+uncle, though how I shall bring peace, who hitherto have brought
+nothing except war and bloodshed, I know not. Now go, my cousins
+but, if you will, leave me Masouda, who has no other friends. Go,
+and take my love and blessing with you, ay, and the blessing of
+Jesu and His saints which shall protect you in the hour of
+battle, and bring us together again."
+
+So spoke Rosamund and threw her veil before her face that she
+might hide her tears.
+
+Then Godwin and Wulf stepped to where she stood by the throne of
+Saladin, bent the knee before her, and, taking her hand, kissed
+it in farewell, nor did the Sultan say them nay. But when she was
+gone and the brethren were gone, he turned to the emir Hassan and
+to the great imaum who had sat silent all this while, and said:
+
+"Now tell me, you who are old and wise, which of those men does
+the lady love? Speak, Hassan, you who know her well."
+
+But Hassan shook his head. "One or the other. Both or neither--I
+know not," he answered. "Her counsel is too close for me."
+
+Then Saladin turned to the imaum--a cunning, silent man.
+
+"When both the infidels are about to die before her face, as I
+still hope to see them do, we may learn the answer. But unless
+she wills it, never before," he replied, and the Sultan noted his
+saying.
+
+Next morning, having been warned that they would pass there by
+Masouda, Rosamund, watching through the lattice of one of her
+palace windows, saw the brethren go by. They were fully armed
+and, mounted on their splendid chargers Flame and Smoke, looked
+glorious men as, followed by their escort of swarthy, turbaned
+Mameluks, they rode proudly side by side, the sunlight glinting
+on their mail. Opposite to her house they halted awhile, and,
+knowing that Rosamund watched, although they could not see her,
+drew their swords and lifted them in salute. Then sheathing them
+again, they rode forward in silence, and soon were lost to
+sight.
+
+Little did Rosamund guess how different they would appear when
+they three met again. Indeed, she scarcely dared to hope that
+they would ever meet, for she knew well that even if the war went
+in favour of the Christians she would be hurried away to some
+place where they would never find her. She knew well also that
+from Damascus her rescue was impossible, and that although
+Saladin loved them, as he loved all who were honest and brave, he
+would receive them no more as friends, for fear lest they should
+rob him of her, whom he hoped in some way unforeseen would enable
+him to end his days in peace. Moreover, the struggle between
+Cross and Crescent would be fierce and to the death, and she was
+sure that where was the closest fighting there in the midst of it
+would be found Godwin and Wulf. Well might it chance, therefore,
+that her eyes had looked their last upon them.
+
+Oh! she was great. Gold was hers, with gems more than she could
+count, and few were the weeks that did not bring her added wealth
+or gifts. She had palaces to dwell in--alone; gardens to wander
+in--alone; eunuchs and slaves to rule over--alone. But never a
+friend had she, save the woman of the Assassins, to whom she
+clung because she, Masouda, had saved her from Sinan, and who
+clung to her, why, Rosamund could not be sure, for there was a
+veil between their spirits.
+
+They were gone--they were gone! Even the sound of their horses'
+hoofs had died away, and she was desolate as a child lost in a
+city full of folk. Oh! and her heart was filled with fears for
+them, and most of all for one of them. If he should not come back
+into it, what would her life be?
+
+Rosamund bowed her head and wept; then, hearing a sound behind
+her, turned to see that Masouda was weeping also.
+
+"Why do you weep?" she asked.
+
+"The maid should copy her mistress," answered Masouda with a hard
+laugh; "but, lady, why do you weep? At least you are beloved,
+and, come what may, nothing can take that from you. You are not
+of less value than the good horse between the rider's knees, or
+the faithful hound that runs at his side."
+
+A thought rose in Rosamund's mind--a new and terrible thought.
+The eyes of the two women met, and those of Rosamund asked,
+"Which?" anxiously as once in the moonlight she had asked it with
+her voice from the gate above the Narrow Way. Between them stood
+a table inlaid with ivory and pearl, whereon the dust from the
+street had gathered through the open lattice. Masouda leaned
+over, and with her forefinger wrote a single Arabic letter in the
+dust upon the table, then passed her hand across it.
+
+Rosamund's breast heaved twice or thrice and was still. Then she
+asked:
+
+"Why did not you who are free go with him?"
+
+"Because he prayed me to bide here and watch over the lady whom
+he loved. So to the death--I watch."
+
+Slowly Masouda spoke, and the heavy words seemed like blood
+dropping from a death wound. Then she sank forward into the arms
+of Rosamund.
+
+
+
+Chapter Eighteen: Wulf Pays for the Drugged Wine
+
+Many a day had gone by since the brethren bade farewell to
+Rosamund at Damascus. Now, one burning July night, they sat upon
+their horses, the moonlight gleaming on their mail. Still as
+statues they sat, looking out from a rocky mountain top across
+that grey and arid plain which stretches from near Nazareth to
+the lip of the hills at whose foot lies Tiberias on the Sea of
+Galilee. Beneath them, camped around the fountain of Seffurieh,
+were spread the hosts of the Franks to which they did sentinel;
+thirteen hundred knights, twenty thousand foot, and hordes of
+Turcopoles--that is, natives of the country, armed after the
+fashion of the Saracens. Two miles away to the southeast
+glimmered the white houses of Nazareth, set in the lap of the
+mountains. Nazareth, the holy city, where for thirty years lived
+and toiled the Saviour of the world. Doubtless, thought Godwin,
+His feet had often trod that mountain whereon they stood, and in
+the watered vales below His hands had sped the plow or reaped the
+corn. Long, long had His voice been silent, yet to Godwin's ears
+it still seemed to speak in the murmur of the vast camp, and to
+echo from the slopes of the Galilean hills, and the words it said
+were: "I bring not peace, but a sword."
+
+To-morrow they were to advance, so rumour said, across yonder
+desert plain and give battle to Saladin, who lay with all his
+power by Hattin, above Tiberias.
+
+Godwin and his brother thought that it was a madness; for they
+had seen the might of the Saracens and ridden across that thirsty
+plain beneath the summer sun. But who were they, two wandering,
+unattended knights, that they should dare to lift up their voices
+against those of the lords of the land, skilled from their birth
+in desert warfare? Yet Godwin's heart was troubled and fear took
+hold of him, not for himself, but for all the countless army that
+lay asleep yonder, and for the cause of Christendom, which staked
+its last throw upon this battle.
+
+"I go to watch yonder; bide you here," he said to Wulf, and,
+turning the head of Flame, rode some sixty yards over a shoulder
+of the rock to the further edge of the mountain which looked
+towards the north. Here he could see neither the camp, nor Wulf,
+nor any living thing, but indeed was utterly alone. Dismounting,
+and bidding the horse stand, which it would do like a dog, he
+walked forward a few steps to where there was a rock, and,
+kneeling down, began to pray with all the strength of his pure,
+warrior heart.
+
+"O Lord," he prayed, "Who once wast man and a dweller in these
+mountains, and knowest what is in man, hear me. I am afraid for
+all the thousands who sleep round Nazareth; not for myself, who
+care nothing for my life, but for all those, Thy servants and my
+brethren. Yes, and for the Cross upon which Thou didst hang, and
+for the faith itself throughout the East. Oh! give me light! Oh!
+let me hear and see, that I may warn them, unless my fears are
+vain!"
+
+So he murmured to Heaven above and beat his hands against his
+brow, praying, ever praying, as he had never prayed before, that
+wisdom and vision might be given to his soul.
+
+It seemed to Godwin that a sleep fell on him--at least, his mind
+grew clouded and confused. Then it cleared again, slowly, as
+stirred water clears, till it was bright and still; yet another
+mind to that which was his servant day by day which never could
+see or hear those things he saw and heard in that strange hour.
+Lo! he heard the spirits pass, whispering as they went;
+whispering, and, as it seemed to him, weeping also for some great
+woe which was to be; weeping yonder over Nazareth. Then like
+curtains the veils were lifted from his eyes, and as they swung
+aside he saw further, and yet further.
+
+He saw the king of the Franks in his tent beneath, and about him
+the council of his captains, among them the fierce-eyed master of
+the Templars, and a man whom he had seen in Jerusalem where they
+had been dwelling, and knew for Count Raymond of Tripoli, the
+lord of Tiberias. They were reasoning together, till, presently,
+in a rage, the Master of the Templars drew his sword and dashed
+it down upon the table.
+
+Another veil was lifted, and lo! he saw the camp of Saladin, the
+mighty, endless camp, with its ten thousand tents, amongst which
+the Saracens cried to Allah through all the watches of the night.
+He saw the royal pavilion, and in it the Sultan walked to and fro
+alone--none of his emirs, not even his son, were with him. He was
+lost in thought, and Godwin read his thought.
+
+It was: "Behind me the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, into which,
+if my flanks were turned, I should be driven, I and all my host.
+In front the territories of the Franks, where I have no friend;
+and by Nazareth their great army. Allah alone can help me. If
+they sit still and force me to advance across the desert and
+attack them before my army melts away, then I am lost. If they
+advance upon me round the Mountain Tabor and by the watered land,
+I may be lost. But if--oh! if Allah should make them mad, and
+they should strike straight across the desert--then, then they
+are lost, and the reign of the Cross in Syria is forever at an
+end. I will wait here. I will wait here. . ."
+
+Look! near to the pavilion of Saladin stood another tent, closely
+guarded, and in it on a cushioned bed lay two women. One was
+Rosamund, but she slept sound; and the other was Masouda, and she
+was waking, for her eyes met his in the darkness.
+
+The last veil was withdrawn, and now Godwin saw a sight at which
+his soul shivered. A fire-blackened plain, and above it a
+frowning mountain, and that mountain thick, thick with dead,
+thousands and thousands and thousands of dead, among which the
+hyenas wandered and the night-birds screamed. He could see their
+faces, many of them he knew again as those of living men whom he
+had met in Jerusalem and elsewhere, or had noted with the army.
+He could hear also the moanings of the few who were yet alive.
+
+About that field--yes, and in the camp of Saladin, where lay more
+dead--his body seemed to wander searching for something, he knew
+not what, till it came to him that it was the corpse of Wulf for
+which he sought and found it not--nay, nor his own either. Then
+once more he heard the spirits pass--a very great company, for to
+them were gathered all those dead--heard them pass away, wailing,
+ever more faintly wailing for the lost cause of Christ, wailing
+over Nazareth.
+
+Godwin awoke from his dream trembling, mounted his horse, and
+rode back to Wulf. Beneath, as before, lay the sleeping camp,
+yonder stretched the brown desert, and there sat Wulf watching
+both.
+
+"Tell me," asked Godwin, "how long is it since I left you?"
+
+"Some few minutes--ten perhaps," answered his brother.
+
+"A short while to have seen so much," replied Godwin. Then Wulf
+looked at him curiously and asked:
+
+"What have you seen?"
+
+"If I told you, Wulf, you would not believe."
+
+"Tell me, and I will say."
+
+So Godwin told him all, and at the end asked him, "What think
+you?"
+
+Wulf considered awhile, and answered:
+
+"Well, brother, you have touched no wine to-day, so you are not
+drunk, and you have done nothing foolish, so you are not mad.
+Therefore it would seem that the saints have been talking to you,
+or, at least, so I should think of any other man whom I knew to
+be as good as you are. Yet it is folk like you that see visions,
+and those visions are not always true, for sometimes, I believe,
+the devil is their showman. Our watch is ended, for I hear the
+horses of the knights who come to relieve us. Listen; this is my
+counsel. In the camp yonder is our friend with whom we travelled
+from Jerusalem, Egbert, the bishop of Nazareth, who marches with
+the host. Let us go to him and lay this matter before him, for he
+is a holy man and learned; no false, self-seeking priest."
+
+Godwin nodded in assent, and presently, when the other knights
+were come and they had made their report to them, they rode off
+together to the tent of Egbert, and, leaving their horses in
+charge of a servant, entered.
+
+Egbert was an Englishman who had spent more than thirty years of
+his life in the East, whereof the suns had tanned his wrinkled
+face to the hue of bronze, that seemed the darker in contrast
+with his blue eyes and snow-white hair and beard. Entering the
+tent, they found him at his prayers before a little image of the
+Virgin, and stood with bowed heads until he had finished.
+Presently he rose, and greeting them with a blessing, asked them
+what they needed.
+
+"Your counsel, holy father," answered Wulf. "Godwin, set out your
+tale."
+
+So, having seen that the tent flap was closed and that none
+lingered near, Godwin told him his dream.
+
+The old man listened patiently, nor did he seem surprised at this
+strange story, since in those days men saw--or thought they
+saw--many such visions, which were accepted by the Church as
+true.
+
+When he had finished Godwin asked of him as he had asked of Wulf:
+"What think you, holy father? Is this a dream, or is it a
+message? And if so, from whom comes the message?"
+
+"Godwin D'Arcy," he answered, "in my youth I knew your father. It
+was I who shrove him when he lay dying of his wounds, and a
+nobler soul never passed from earth to heaven. After you had left
+Damascus, when you were the guest of Saladin, we dwelt together
+in the same lodging in Jerusalem, and together we travelled here,
+during all which time I learned to know you also as the worthy
+son of a worthy sire--no dissolute knight, but a true servant of
+the Church. It well may be that to such a one as you foresight
+has been given, that through you those who rule us may be warned,
+and all Christendom saved from great sorrow and disgrace. Come;
+let us go to the king, and tell this story, for he still sits in
+council yonder."
+
+So they went out together and rode to the royal tent. Here the
+bishop was admitted, leaving them without.
+
+Presently he returned and beckoned to them, and as they passed,
+the guards whispered to them:
+
+"A strange council, sirs, and a fateful!"
+
+Already it was near midnight, but still the great pavilion was
+crowded with barons and chief captains who sat in groups, or sat
+round a narrow table made of boards placed upon trestles. At the
+head of that table sat the king, Guy of Lusignan, a weak-faced
+man, clad in splendid armour. On his right was the white-haired
+Count Raymond of Tripoli, and on his left the black-bearded,
+frowning Master of the Templars, clad in his white mantle on the
+left breast of which the red cross was blazoned.
+
+Words had been running high, their faces showed it, but just then
+a silence reigned as though the disputants were weary, and the
+king leaned back in his chair, passing his hand to and fro across
+his forehead. He looked up, and seeing the bishop, asked
+peevishly:
+
+"What is it now? Oh! I remember, some tale from those tall twin
+knights. Well, bring them forward and speak it out, for we have
+no time to lose."
+
+So the three of them came forward and at Godwin's prayer the
+bishop Egbert told of the vision that had come to him not more
+than an hour ago while he kept watch upon the mountain top. At
+first one or two of the barons seemed disposed to laugh, but when
+they looked at Godwin's high and spiritual face, their laughter
+died away, for it did not seem wonderful to them that such a man
+should see visions. Indeed, as the tale of the rocky hill and the
+dead who were stretched upon it went on, they grew white with
+fear, and whitest of them all was the king, Guy of Lusignan.
+
+"Is all this true, Sir Godwin?" he asked, when the bishop had
+finished.
+
+"It is true, my lord king," answered Godwin.
+
+"His word is not enough," broke in the Master of the Templars.
+"Let him swear to it on the Holy Rood, knowing that if he lies it
+will blast his soul to all eternity." And the council muttered,
+"Ay, let him swear."
+
+Now there was an annexe to the tent, rudely furnished as a
+chapel, and at the end of this annexe a tall, veiled object.
+Rufinus, the bishop of Acre, who was clad in the armour of a
+knight, went to the object, and drawing the veil, revealed a
+broken, blackened cross, set around with jewels, that stood
+about the height of a man above the ground, for all the
+lower part was gone.
+
+At the sight of it Godwin and every man present there fell upon
+his knees, for since St. Helena found it, over seven centuries
+before, this had been accounted the most precious relic in all
+Christendom; the very wood upon which the Saviour suffered, as,
+indeed, it may have been.
+
+Millions had worshipped it, tens of thousands had died for it,
+and now, in the hour of this great struggle between Christ and
+the false prophet it was brought from its shrine that the host
+which escorted it might prove invincible in battle. Soldiers who
+fought around the very Cross could not be defeated, they said,
+for, if need were, legions of angels would come to aid them.
+
+Godwin and Wulf stared at the relic with wonder, fear, and
+adoration. There were the nail marks, there was the place where
+the scroll of Pilate had been affixed above the holy head--almost
+could they seem to see that Form divine and dying.
+
+"Now," broke in the voice of the Master of the Templars, "let Sir
+Godwin D'Arcy swear to the truth of his tale upon this Rood."
+
+Rising from his knees Godwin advanced to the Cross, and laying
+his hand upon the wood, said: "Upon the very Rood I swear that
+not much more than an hour ago I saw the vision which has been
+told to the king's highness and to all; that I believe this
+vision was sent to me in answer to my prayer to preserve our host
+and the holy city from the power of the Saracen, and that it is a
+true foreshadowing of what will come about should we advance upon
+the Sultan. I can say no more. I swear, knowing that if I lie
+eternal damnation is my doom."
+
+The bishop drew back the covering over the Cross, and in silence
+the council took their seats again about the table. Now the king
+was very pale, and fearful; indeed a gloom lay upon all of them.
+
+"It would seem," he said, "that here a messenger has been sent to
+us from heaven. Dare we disobey his message?"
+
+The Grand Templar lifted his rugged, frowning face. "A messenger
+from heaven, said you, king? To me he seems more like a messenger
+from Saladin. Tell us, Sir Godwin, were not you and your brother
+once the Sultan's guests at Damascus?"
+
+"That is so, my lord Templar. We left before the war was
+declared."
+
+"And," went on the Master, "were you not officers of the Sultan's
+bodyguard?"
+
+Now all looked intently at Godwin, who hesitated a little,
+foreseeing how his answer would be read, whereon Wulf spoke in
+his loud voice:
+
+"Ay, we acted as such for awhile, and--doubtless you have heard
+the story--saved Saladin's life when he was attacked by the
+Assassins."
+
+"Oh!" said the Templar with bitter sarcasm, "you saved Saladin's
+life, did you? I can well believe it. You, being Christians, who
+above everything should desire the death of Saladin, saved his
+life! Now, Sir Knights, answer me one more question--"
+
+"Sir Templar, with my tongue or with my sword?" broke in Wulf,
+but the king held up his hand and bade him be silent.
+
+"A truce to your tavern ruffling, young sir, and answer," went on
+the Templar. "Or, rather, do you answer, Sir Godwin. Is your
+cousin, Rosamund, the daughter of Sir Andrew D'Arcy, a niece of
+Saladin, and has she been created by him princess of Baalbec, and
+is she at this moment in his city of Damascus?"
+
+"She is his niece," answered Godwin quietly; "she is the princess
+of Baalbec, but at this moment she is not in Damascus."
+
+"How do you know that, Sir Godwin?"
+
+"I know it because in the vision of which you have been told I
+saw her sleeping in a tent in the camp of Saladin."
+
+Now the council began to laugh, but Godwin, with a set, white
+face, went on:
+
+"Ay, my lord Templar, and near that very blazoned tent I saw
+scores of the Templars and of the Hospitallers lying dead.
+Remember it when the dreadful hour comes and you see them also."
+
+Now the laughter died away, and a murmur of fear ran round the
+board, mixed with such words as "Wizardry." "He has learnt it
+from the Paynims." "A black sorcerer, without doubt."
+
+Only the Templar, who feared neither man nor spirit, laughed, and
+gave him the lie with his eyes.
+
+"You do not believe me," said Godwin, "nor will you believe me
+when I say that while I was on guard on yonder hill-top I saw you
+wrangling with the Count of Tripoli--ay, and draw your sword and
+dash it down in front of him upon this very table."
+
+Now again the council stared and muttered, for they too had seen
+this thing; but the Master answered:
+
+"He may have learnt it otherwise than from an angel. Folk have
+been in and out of this tent. My lord king, have we more time to
+waste upon these visions of a knight of whom all we know for
+certain is, that like his brother, he has been in the service of
+Saladin, which they left, he says, in order to fight against him
+in this war. It may be so; it is not for us to judge; though were
+the times different I would inform against Sir Godwin D'Arcy as a
+sorcerer, and one who has been in traitorous communication with
+our common foe."
+
+"And I would thrust the lie down your throat with my sword's
+point!" shouted Wulf.
+
+But Godwin only shrugged: his shoulders and said nothing, and the
+Master went on, taking no heed.
+
+"King, we await your word, and it must be spoken soon, for in
+four hours it will be dawn. Do we march against Saladin like
+bold, Christian men, or do we bide here like cowards?"
+
+Then Count Raymond of Tripoli rose, and said:
+
+"Before you answer, king, hear me, if it be for the last time,
+who am old in war and know the Saracens. My town of Tiberias is
+sacked; my vassals have been put to the sword by thousands; my
+wife is imprisoned in her citadel, and soon must yield, if she be
+not rescued. Yet I say to you, and to the barons here assembled,
+better so than that you should advance across the desert to
+attack Saladin. Leave Tiberias to its fate and my wife with it,
+and save your army, which is the last hope of the Christians of
+the East. Christ has no more soldiers in these lands, Jerusalem
+has no other shield. The army of the Sultan is larger than yours;
+his cavalry are more skilled. Turn his flank--or, better still,
+bide here and await his attack, and victory will be to the
+soldiers of the Cross. Advance and the vision of that knight at
+whom you scoff will come true, and the cause of Christendom be
+lost in Syria. I have spoken, and for the last time."
+
+"Like his friend the knight of Visions," sneered the Grand
+Master, "the count Raymond is an old ally of Saladin. Will you
+take such coward council? On--on! and smite these heathen dogs,
+or be forever shamed. On, in the name of the Cross! The Cross is
+with us!"
+
+"Ay," answered Raymond, "for the last time."
+
+Then there arose a tumult through which every man shouted to his
+fellow, some saying one thing and some another, while the king
+sat at the head of the board, his face hidden in his hands.
+Presently he lifted it, and said:
+
+"I command that we march at dawn. If the count Raymond and these
+brethren think the words unwise, let them leave us and remain
+here under guard until the issue be known."
+
+Now followed a great silence, for all there knew that the words
+were fateful, in the midst of which Count Raymond said:
+
+"Nay, I go with you," while Godwin echoed, "And we go also to
+show whether or not we are the spies of Saladin."
+
+Of these speeches none of them seemed to take heed, for all were
+lost in their own thoughts. One by one they rose, bowed to the
+king, and left the tent to give their commands and rest awhile,
+before it was time to ride. Godwin and Wulf went also, and with
+them the bishop of Nazareth, who wrung his hands and seemed ill
+at ease. But Wulf comforted him, saying:
+
+"Grieve no more, father; let us think of the joy of battle, not
+of the sorrow by which it may be followed."
+
+"I find no joy in battles," answered the holy Egbert.
+
+When they had slept awhile, Godwin and Wulf rose and fed their
+horses. After they had washed and groomed them, they tested and
+did on their armour, then took them down to the spring to drink
+their fill, as their masters did. Also Wulf, who was cunning in
+war, brought with him four large wineskins which he had provided
+against this hour, and filling them with pure water, fastened two
+of them with thongs behind the saddle of Godwin and two behind
+his own. Further, he filled the water-bottles at their
+saddle-bows, saying:
+
+"At least we will be among the last to die of thirst."
+
+Then they went back and watched the host break its camp, which it
+did with no light heart, for many of them knew of the danger in
+which they stood; moreover, the tale of Godwin's vision had been
+spread abroad. Not knowing where to go, they and Egbert, the
+bishop of Nazareth--who was unarmed and rode upon a mule, for
+stay behind he would not--joined themselves to the great body of
+knights who followed the king. As they did so, the Templars, five
+hundred strong, came up, a fierce and gallant band, and the
+Master, who was at their head, saw the brethren and called out,
+pointing to the wineskins which were hung behind their saddles:
+
+"What do these water-carriers here among brave knights who trust
+in God alone?"
+
+Wulf would have answered, but Godwin bade him be silent, saying:
+
+"Fall back; we will find less ill-omened company."
+
+So they stood on one side and bowed themselves as the Cross went
+by, guarded by the mailed bishop of Acre. Then came Reginald of
+Chatillon, Saladin's enemy, the cause of all this woe, who saw
+them and cried:
+
+"Sir Knights, whatever they may say, I know you for brave men,
+for I have heard the tale of your doings among the Assassins.
+There is room for you among my suite--follow me."
+
+"As well him as another," said Godwin. "Let us go where we are
+led." So they followed him.
+
+By the time that the army reached Kenna, where once the water was
+made wine, the July sun was already hot, and the spring was so
+soon drunk dry that many men could get no water. On they pushed
+into the desert lands below, which lay between them and Tiberias,
+and were bordered on the right and left by hills. Now clouds of
+dust were seen moving across the plains, and in the heart of them
+bodies of Saracen horsemen, which continually attacked the
+vanguard under Count Raymond, and as continually retreated before
+they could be crushed, slaying many with their spears and arrows.
+Also these came round behind them, and charged the rearguard,
+where marched the Templars and the light-armed troops named
+Turcopoles, and the band of Reginald de Chatillon, with which
+rode the brethren.
+
+From noon till near sundown the long harassed line, broken now
+into fragments, struggled forward across the rough, stony plain,
+the burning heat beating upon their armour till the air danced
+about it as it does before a fire. Towards evening men and horses
+became exhausted, and the soldiers cried to their captains to
+lead them to water. But in that place there was no water. The
+rearguard fell behind, worn out with constant attacks that must
+be repelled in the burning heat, so that there was a great gap
+between it and the king who marched in the centre. Messages
+reached them to push on, but they could not, and at length camp
+was pitched in the desert near a place called Marescalcia, and
+upon this camp Raymond and his vanguard were forced back. As
+Godwin and Wulf rode up, they saw him come in bringing his
+wounded with him, and heard him pray the king to push on and at
+all hazards to cut his way through to the lake, where they might
+drink--ay, and heard the king say that he could not, since the
+soldiers would march no more that day. Then Raymond wrung his
+hands in despair and rode back to his men, crying aloud:
+
+"Alas! alas! Oh! Lord God, alas! We are dead, and Thy Kingdom is
+lost."
+
+That night none slept, for all were athirst, and who can sleep
+with a burning throat? Now also Godwin and Wulf were no longer
+laughed at because of the water-skins they carried on their
+horses. Rather did great nobles come to them, and almost on their
+knees crave for the boon of a single cup. Having watered their
+horses sparingly from a bowl, they gave what they could, till at
+length only two skins remained, and one of these was spilt by a
+thief, who crept up and slashed it with his knife that he might
+drink while the water ran to waste. After this the brethren drew
+their swords and watched, swearing that they would kill any man
+who so much as touched the skin which was left. All that long
+night through there arose a confused clamour from the camp, of
+which the burden seemed to be, "Water! Give us water!" while from
+without came the shouts of the Saracens calling upon Allah. Here,
+too, the hot ground was covered with scrub dried to tinder by the
+summer drought, and to this the Saracens set fire so that the
+smoke rolled down on the Christian host and choked them, and the
+place became a hell.
+
+Day dawned at last; and the army was formed up in order of
+battle, its two wings being thrown forward. Thus they struggled
+on, those of them that were not too weak to stir, who were
+slaughtered as they lay. Nor as yet did the Saracens attack them,
+since they knew that the sun was stronger than all their spears.
+On they laboured towards the northern wells, till about mid-day
+the battle began with a flight of arrows so thick that for awhile
+it hid the heavens.
+
+After this came charge and counter-charge, attack and repulse,
+and always above the noise of war that dreadful cry for water.
+What chanced Godwin and Wulf never knew, for the smoke and dust
+blinded them so that they could see but a little way. At length
+there was a last furious charge, and the knights with whom they
+were clove the dense mass of Saracens like a serpent of steel,
+leaving a broad trail of dead behind them. When they pulled rein
+and wiped the sweat from their eyes it was to find themselves
+with thousands of others upon the top of a steep hill, of which
+the sides were thick with dry grass and bush that already was
+being fired.
+
+"The Rood! The Rood! Rally round the Rood!" said a voice, and
+looking behind them they saw the black and jewelled fragment of
+the true Cross set upon a rock, and by it the bishop of Acre.
+Then the smoke of the burning grass rose up and hid it from their
+sight.
+
+Now began one of the most hideous fights that is told of in the
+history of the world. Again and again the Saracens attacked in
+thousands, and again and again they were driven back by the
+desperate valour of the Franks, who fought on, their jaws agape
+with thirst. A blackbearded man stumbled up to the brethren, his
+tongue protruding from his lips, and they knew him for the Master
+of the Templars.
+
+"For the love of Christ, give me to drink," he said, recognizing
+them as the knights at whom he had mocked as water-carriers.
+
+They gave him of the little they had left, and while they and
+their horses drank the rest themselves, saw him rush down the
+hill refreshed, shaking his red sword. Then came a pause, and
+they heard the voice of the bishop of Nazareth, who had clung to
+them all this while, saying, as though to himself:
+
+"And here it was that the Saviour preached the Sermon on the
+Mount. Yes, He preached the words of peace upon this very spot.
+Oh! it cannot be that He will desert us--it cannot be."
+
+While the Saracens held off, the soldiers began to put up the
+king's pavilion, and with it other tents, around the rock on
+which stood the Cross.
+
+"Do they mean to camp here?" asked Wulf bitterly.
+
+"Peace," answered Godwin; "they hope to make a wall about the
+Rood. But it is of no avail, for this is the place of my dream."
+
+Wulf shrugged his shoulders. "At least, let us die well," he
+said.
+
+Then the last attack began. Up the hillside rose dense volumes of
+smoke, and with the smoke came the Saracens. Thrice they were
+driven back; thrice they came on. At the fourth onset few of the
+Franks could fight more, for thirst had conquered them on this
+waterless hill of Hattin. They lay down upon the dry grass with
+gaping jaws and protruding tongues, and let themselves be slain or
+taken prisoners. A great company of Saracen horsemen broke
+through the ring and rushed at the scarlet tent. It rocked to and
+fro, then down it fell in a red heap, entangling the king in its
+folds.
+
+At the foot of the Cross, Rufinus, the bishop of Acre, still
+fought on bravely. Suddenly an arrow struck him in the throat,
+and throwing his arms wide, he fell to earth. Then the Saracens
+hurled themselves upon the Rood, tore it from its place, and with
+mockery and spittings bore it down the hill towards their camp,
+as ants may be seen carrying a little stick into their nest,
+while all who were left alive of the Christian army stared
+upwards, as though they awaited some miracle from Heaven. But no
+angels appeared in the brazen sky, and knowing that God had
+deserted them, they groaned aloud in their shame and
+wretchedness.
+
+"Come," said Godwin to Wulf in a strange, quiet voice. "We have
+seen enough. It is time to die. Look! yonder below us are the
+Mameluks, our old regiment, and amongst them Saladin, for I see
+his banner. Having had water, we and our horses are still fresh
+and strong. Now, let us make an end of which they will tell in
+Essex yonder. Charge for the flag of Saladin!"
+
+Wulf nodded, and side by side they sped down the hill. Scimitars
+flashed at them, arrows struck upon their mail and the shields
+blazoned with the Death's-head D'Arcy crest. Through it all they
+went unscathed, and while the army of the Saracens stared, at the
+foot of the Horn of Hattin turned their horses' heads straight
+for the royal standard of Saladin. On they struggled, felling or
+riding down a foe at every stride. On, still on, although Flame
+and Smoke bled from a score of wounds.
+
+They were among the Mameluks, where their line was thin; by
+Heaven! they were through them, and riding straight at the
+well-known figure of the Sultan, mounted on his white horse with
+his young son and his emir, the prince Hassan, at his side.
+
+"Saladin for you, Hassan for me," shouted Wulf.
+
+Then they met, and all the host of Islam cried out in dismay as
+they saw the Commander of the Faithful and his horse borne to the
+earth before the last despairing charge of these mad Christian
+knights. Another instant, and the Sultan was on his feet again,
+and a score of scimitars were striking at Godwin. His horse Flame
+sank down dying, but he sprang from the saddle, swinging the long
+sword. Now Saladin recognized the crest upon his buckler, and
+cried out:
+
+"Yield you, Sir Godwin! You have done well--yield you!"
+
+But Godwin, who would not yield, answered:
+
+"When I am dead--not before."
+
+Thereupon Saladin spoke a word, and while certain of his Mameluks
+engaged Godwin in front, keeping out of reach of that red and
+terrible sword, others crept up behind, and springing on him,
+seized his arms and dragged him to the ground, where they bound
+him fast.
+
+Meanwhile Wulf had fared otherwise, for it was his horse Smoke,
+already stabbed to the vitals, that fell as he plunged on prince
+Hassan. Yet he also arose but little hurt, and cried out:
+
+"Thus, Hassan, old foe and friend, we meet at last in war. Come,
+I would pay the debt I owe you for that drugged wine, man to man
+and sword to sword."
+
+"Indeed, it is due, Sir Wulf," answered the prince, laughing.
+"Guards, touch not this brave knight who has dared so much to
+reach me. Sultan, I ask a boon. Between Sir Wulf and me there is
+an ancient quarrel that can only be washed away in blood. Let it
+be decided here and now, and let this be your decree--that if I
+fall in fair fight, none shall set upon my conqueror, and no
+vengeance shall be taken for my blood."
+
+"Good," said Saladin. "Then Sir Wulf shall be my prisoner and no
+more, as his brother is already. I owe it to the men who saved my
+life when we were friends. Give the Frank to drink that the fight
+may be fair."
+
+So they gave Wulf a cup of which he drank, and when he had done
+it was handed to Godwin. For even the Mameluks knew and loved
+these brethren who had been their officers, and praised the
+fierce charge that they had dared to make alone.
+
+Hassan sprang to the ground, saying:
+
+"Your horse is dead, Sir Wulf, so we must fight afoot."
+
+"Generous as ever," laughed Wulf. "Even the poisoned wine was a
+gift!"
+
+"If so, for the last time, I fear me," answered Hassan with a
+smile.
+
+Then they faced each other, and oh! the scene was strange. Up on
+the slopes of Hattin the fight still raged. There amidst the
+smoke and fires of the burning grass little companies of soldiers
+stood back to back while the Saracens wheeled round them,
+thrusting and cutting at them till they fell. Here and there
+knights charged singly or in groups, and so came to death or
+capture. About the plain hundreds of foot soldiers were being
+slaughtered, while their officers were taken prisoners. Towards
+the camp of Saladin a company advanced with sounds of triumph,
+carrying aloft a black stump which was the holy Rood, while
+others drove or led mobs of prisoners, among them the king and
+his chosen knights.
+
+The wilderness was red with blood, the air was rent with shouts
+of victory and cries of agony or despair. And there, in the midst
+of it all, ringed round with grave, courteous Saracens, stood the
+emir, clad above his mail in his white robe and jewelled turban,
+facing the great Christian knight, with harness hacked and
+reddened, the light of battle shining in his fierce eyes, and a
+smile upon his stained features.
+
+For those who watched the battle was forgotten--or, rather, its
+interest was centred on this point.
+
+"It will be a good fight," said one of them to Godwin, whom they
+had suffered to rise, "for though your brother is the younger and
+the heavier man, he is hurt and weary, whereas the emir is fresh
+and unwounded. Ah! they are at it!"
+
+Hassan had struck first and the blow went home. Falling upon the
+point of Wulf's steel helm, the heavy, razoredged scimitar
+glanced from it and shore away the links from the flap which hung
+upon his shoulder, causing the Frank to stagger. Again he struck,
+this time upon the shield, and so heavily that Wulf came to his
+knees.
+
+"Your brother is sped," said the Saracen captain to Godwin, but
+Godwin only answered:
+
+"Wait."
+
+As he spoke Wulf twisted his body out of reach of a third blow,
+and while Hassan staggered forward with the weight of the missed
+stroke, placed his hand upon the ground, and springing to his
+feet, ran backwards six or eight paces.
+
+"He flies!" cried the Saracens; but again Godwin said, "Wait."
+Nor was there long to wait.
+
+For now, throwing aside his buckler and grasping the great sword
+in both his hands, with a shout of "A D'Arcy! A D'Arcy!" Wulf
+leapt at Hassan as a wounded lion leaps. The sword wheeled and
+fell, and lo! the shield of the Saracen was severed in two. Again
+it fell, and his turbaned helm was cloven. A third time, and the
+right arm and shoulder with the scimitar that grasped it seemed
+to spring from his body, and Hassan sank dying to the ground.
+
+Wulf stood and looked at him, while a murmur of grief went up
+from those who watched, for they loved this emir. Hassan beckoned
+to the victor with his left hand, and throwing down his sword to
+show that he feared no treachery, Wulf came to him and knelt
+beside him.
+
+"A good stroke," Hassan said faintly, "that could shear the
+double links of Damascus steel as though it were silk. Well, as I
+told you long ago, I knew that the hour of our meeting in war
+would be an ill hour for me, and my debt is paid. Farewell, brave
+knight. Would I could hope that we should meet in Paradise! Take
+that star jewel, the badge of my House, from my turban and wear
+it in memory of me. Long, long and happy be your days."
+
+Then, while Wulf held him in his arms, Saladin came up and spoke
+to him, till he fell back and was dead.
+
+Thus died Hassan, and thus ended the battle of Hattin, which
+broke the power of the Christians in the East.
+
+
+
+Chapter Nineteen: Before the Walls of Ascalon
+
+When Hassan was dead, at a sign from Saladin a captain of the
+Mameluks named Abdullah unfastened the jewel from the emir's
+turban and handed it to Wulf. It was a glorious star-shaped
+thing, made of great emeralds set round with diamonds, and the
+captain Abdullah, who like all Easterns loved such ornaments,
+looked at it greedily, and muttered:
+
+"Alas! that an unbeliever should wear the enchanted Star, the
+ancient Luck of the House of Hassan!" a saying that Wulf
+remembered.
+
+He took the jewel, then turned to Saladin and said, pointing to
+the dead body of Hassan:
+
+"Have I your peace, Sultan, after such a deed?"
+
+"Did I not give you and your brother to drink?" asked Saladin
+with meaning. "Whoever dies, you are safe. There is but one sin
+which I will not pardon you--you know what it is," and he looked
+at them. "As for Hassan, he was my beloved friend and servant,
+but you slew him in fair fight, and his soul is now in Paradise.
+None in my army will raise a blood feud against you on that
+score."
+
+Then dismissing the matter with a wave of his hand, he turned to
+receive a great body of Christian prisoners that, panting and
+stumbling like over-driven sheep, were being thrust on towards
+the camp with curses, blows and mockery by the victorious
+Saracens.
+
+Among them the brethren rejoiced to see Egbert, the gentle and
+holy bishop of Nazareth, whom they had thought dead. Also,
+wounded in many places, his hacked harness hanging about him like
+a beggar's rags, there was the black-browed Master of the
+Templars, who even now could be fierce and insolent.
+
+"So I was right," he mocked in a husky voice, "and here you are,
+safe with your friends the Saracens, Sir Knights of the visions
+and the water-skins--"
+
+"From which you were glad enough to drink just now," said Godwin.
+"Also," he added sadly, "all the vision is not done." And
+turning, he looked towards a blazoned tent which with the
+Sultan's great pavilion, and not far behind it, was being
+pitched by the Arab camp-setters. The Master saw and remembered
+Godwin's vision of the dead Templars.
+
+"Is it there that you mean to murder me, traitor and wizard?" he
+asked.
+
+Then rage took hold of Godwin and he answered him:
+
+"Were it not for your plight, here and now I would thrust those
+words down your throat, as, should we both live, I yet shall hope
+to do. You call us traitors. Is it the work of traitors to have
+charged alone through all this host until our horses died beneath
+us?"--he pointed to where Smoke and Flame lay with glazing
+eyes--"to have unhorsed Saladin and to have slain this prince in
+single combat?" and he turned to the body of the emir Hassan,
+which his servants were carrying away.
+
+"You speak of me as wizard and murderer," he went on, "because
+some angel brought me a vision which, had you believed it,
+Templar, would have saved tens of thousands from a bloody death,
+the Christian kingdom from destruction, and yonder holy thing
+from mockery," and with a shudder he glanced at the Rood which
+its captors had set up upon a rock not far away with a dead
+knight tied to its black arms. "You, Sir Templar, are the
+murderer who by your madness and ambition have brought ruin on
+the cause of Christ, as was foretold by the count Raymond."
+
+"That other traitor who also has escaped," snarled the Master.
+
+Then Saracen guards dragged him away, and they were parted.
+
+By now the pavilion was up and Saladin entered it, saying:
+
+"Bring before me the king of the Franks and prince Arnat, he who
+is called Reginald of Chatillon."
+
+Then a thought struck him, and he called to Godwin and Wulf,
+saying:
+
+"Sir Knights, you know our tongue; give up your swords to the
+officer--they shall be returned to you--and come, be my
+interpreters."
+
+So the brethren followed him into the tent, where presently were
+brought the wretched king and the grey-haired Reginald de
+Chatillon, and with them a few other great knights who, even in
+the midst of their misery, stared at Godwin and Wulf in
+wonderment. Saladin read the look, and explained lest their
+presence should be misunderstood:
+
+"King and nobles, be not mistaken. These knights are my
+prisoners, as you are, and none have shown themselves braver
+to-day, or done me and mine more damage. Indeed, had it not been
+for my guards, within the hour I should have fallen beneath the
+sword of Sir Godwin. But as they know Arabic, I have asked them
+to render my words into your tongue. Do you accept them as
+interpreters? If not, others must be found."
+
+When they had translated this, the king said that he accepted
+them, adding to Godwin:
+
+"Would that I had also accepted you two nights gone as an
+interpreter of the will of Heaven!"
+
+The Sultan bade his captains be seated, and seeing their terrible
+thirst, commanded slaves to bring a great bowl of sherbet made of
+rose-water cooled with snow, and with his own hand gave it to
+king Guy. He drank in great gulps, then passed the bowl to
+Reginald de Chatillon, whereon Saladin cried out to Godwin:
+
+"Say to the king it is he and not I who gives this man to drink.
+There is no bond of salt between me and the prince Arnat."
+
+Godwin translated, sorrowfully enough, and Reginald, who knew the
+habits of the Saracens, answered:
+
+"No need to explain, Sir Knight, those words are my
+death-warrant. Well, I never expected less."
+
+Then Saladin spoke again.
+
+"Prince Arnat, you strove to take the holy city of Mecca and to
+desecrate the tomb of the Prophet, and then I swore to kill you.
+Again, when in a time of peace a caravan came from Egypt and
+passed by Esh-Shobek, where you were, forgetting your oath, you
+fell upon them and slew them. They asked for mercy in the name of
+Allah, saying that there was truce between Saracen and Frank. But
+you mocked them, telling them to seek aid from Mahomet, in whom
+they trusted. Then for the second time I swore to kill you. Yet I
+give you one more chance. Will you subscribe the Koran and
+embrace the faith of Islam? Or will you die?"
+
+Now the lips of Reginald turned pale, and for a moment he swayed
+upon his seat. Then his courage came back to him, and he answered
+in a strong voice:
+
+"Sultan, I will have none of your mercy at such a price, nor do I
+bow the knee to your dog of a false prophet, who perish in the
+faith of Christ, and, being weary of the world, am content to go
+to Him."
+
+Saladin sprang to his feet, his very beard bristling with wrath,
+and drawing his sabre, shouted aloud:
+
+"You scorn Mahomet! Behold! I avenge Mahomet upon you! Take him
+away!" And he struck him with the flat of his scimitar.
+
+Then Mameluks leapt upon the prince. Dragging him to the entrance
+of the tent, they forced him to his knees and there beheaded him
+in sight of the soldiers and of the other prisoners.
+
+Thus, bravely enough, died Reginald de Chatillon, whom the
+Saracens called prince Arnat. In the hush that followed this
+terrible deed king Guy said to Godwin:
+
+"Ask the Sultan if it is my turn next."
+
+"Nay," answered Saladin; "kings do not kill kings, but that
+truce-breaker has met with no more than his deserts."
+
+Then came a scene still more dreadful. Saladin went to the door
+of his tent, and standing over the body of Reginald, bade them
+parade the captive Templars and Hospitallers before him. They
+were brought to the number of over two hundred, for it was easy
+to distinguish them by the red and white crosses on their
+breasts.
+
+"These also are faith-breakers," he shouted, "and of their
+unclean tribes will I rid the world. Ho! my emirs and doctors of
+the law," and he turned to the great crowd of his captains about
+him, "take each of you one of them and kill him."
+
+Now the emirs hung back, for though fanatics they were brave, and
+loved not this slaughter of defenceless men, and even the
+Mameluks murmured aloud.
+
+But Saladin cried again:
+
+"They are worthy of death, and he who disobeys my command shall
+himself be slain."
+
+"Sultan," said Godwin, "we cannot witness such a crime; we ask
+that we may die with them."
+
+"Nay," he answered; "you have eaten of my salt, and to kill you
+would be murder. Get you to the tent of the princess of Baalbec
+yonder, for there you will see nothing of the death of these
+Franks, your fellow-worshippers."
+
+So the brethren turned, and led by a Mameluk, fled aghast for the
+first time in their lives, past the long lines of Templars and
+Hospitallers, who in the last red light of the dying day knelt
+upon the sand and prayed, while the emirs came up to kill them.
+
+They entered the tent, none forbidding them, and at the end of it
+saw two women crouched together on some cushions, who rose,
+clinging to each other. Then the women saw also and sprang
+forward with a cry of joy, saying:
+
+"So you live--you live!"
+
+"Ay, Rosamund," answered Godwin, "to see this shame--would God
+that we did not--whilst others die. They murder the knights of
+the holy Orders. To your knees and pray for their passing souls."
+
+So they knelt down and prayed till the tumult died away, and they
+knew that all was done.
+
+"Oh, my cousins," said Rosamund, as she staggered to her feet at
+length, "what a hell of wickedness and bloodshed is this in which
+we dwell! Save me from it if you love me--I beseech you save me!"
+
+"We will do our best," they answered; "but let us talk no more of
+these things which are the decree of God--lest we should go mad.
+Tell us your story."
+
+But Rosamund had little to tell, except that she had been well
+treated, and always kept by the person of the Sultan, marching to
+and fro with his army, for he awaited the fulfilment of his dream
+concerning her. Then they told her all that had chanced to them;
+also of the vision of Godwin and its dreadful accomplishment, and
+of the death of Hassan beneath the sword of Wulf. At that story
+Rosamund wept and shrank from him a little, for though it was
+this prince who had stolen her from her home, she loved Hassan.
+Yet when Wulf said humbly:
+
+"The fault is not mine; it was so fated. Would that I had died
+instead of this Saracen!"
+
+Rosamund answered: "No, no; I am proud that you should have
+conquered."
+
+But Wulf shook his head, and said:
+
+"I am not proud. Although weary with that awful battle, I was
+still the younger and stronger man, though at first he well-nigh
+mastered me by his skill and quickness. At least we parted
+friends. Look, he gave me this," and he showed her the great
+emerald badge which the dying prince had given him.
+
+Masouda, who all this while had sat very quiet, came forward and
+looked at it.
+
+"Do you know," she asked, "that this jewel is very famous, not
+only for its value, but because it is said to have belonged to
+one of the children of the prophet, and to bring good fortune to
+its owner?"
+
+Wulf smiled.
+
+"It brought little to poor Hassan but now, when my grandsire's
+sword shore the Damascus steel as though it were wet clay."
+
+"And sent him swift to Paradise, where he would be, at the hands
+of a gallant foe," answered Masouda. "Nay, all his life this emir
+was happy and beloved, by his sovereign, his wives, his fellows
+and his servants, nor do I think that he would have desired
+another end whose wish was to die in battle with the Franks. At
+least there is scarce a soldier in the Sultan's army who would
+not give all he has for yonder trinket, which is known
+throughout the land as the Star of Hassan. So beware, Sir Wulf,
+lest you be robbed or murdered, although you have eaten the salt
+of Salah-ed-din."
+
+"I remember the captain Abdullah looking at it greedily and
+lamenting that the Luck of the House of Hassan should pass to an
+unbeliever," said Wulf. "Well, enough of this jewel and its
+dangers; I think Godwin has words to say."
+
+"Yes," said Godwin. "We are here in your tent through the
+kindness of Saladin, who did not wish us to witness the death of
+our comrades, but to-morrow we shall be separated again. Now if
+you are to escape--"
+
+"I will escape! I must escape, even if I am recaptured and die
+for it," broke in Rosamund passionately.
+
+"Speak low," said Masouda. "I saw the eunuch Mesrour pass the
+door of the tent, and he is a spy--they all are spies."
+
+"If you are to escape," repeated Godwin in a whisper, "it must be
+within the next few weeks while the army is on the march. The
+risk is great to all of us--even to you, and we have no plan.
+But, Masouda, you are clever; make one, and tell it to us."
+
+She lifted her head to speak, when suddenly a shadow fell upon
+them. It was that of the head eunuch, Mesrour, a fat,
+cunning-faced man, with a cringing air. Low he bowed before them,
+saying:
+
+"Your pardon, O Princess. A messenger has come from Salah-ed-din
+demanding the presence of these knights at the banquet that he
+has made ready for his noble prisoners."
+
+"We obey," said Godwin, and rising they bowed to Rosamund and to
+Masouda, then turned to go, leaving the star jewel where they had
+been seated.
+
+Very skilfully Mesrour covered it with a fold of his robe, and
+under shelter of the fold slipped down his hand and grasped it,
+not knowing that although she seemed to be turned away, Masouda
+was watching him out of the corner of her eye. Waiting till the
+brethren reached the tent door, she called out:
+
+"Sir Wulf, are you already weary of the enchanted Star of
+Fortune, or would you bequeath it to us?"
+
+Now Wulf came back, saying heavily:
+
+"I forgot the thing--who would not at such a time? Where is it? I
+left it on the cushion."
+
+"Try the hand of Mesrour," said Masouda, whereat with a very
+crooked smile the eunuch produced it, and said:
+
+"I wished to show you, Sir Knight, that you must be careful with
+such gems as these, especially in a camp where there are many
+dishonest persons."
+
+"I thank you," answered Wulf as he took it; "you have shown me."
+Then, followed by the sound of Masouda's mocking laughter, they
+left the tent.
+
+The Sultan's messenger led them forward, across ground strewn
+with the bodies of the murdered Templars and Hospitallers, lying
+as Godwin had seen them in his dream on the mountain top near
+Nazareth. Over one of these corpses Godwin stumbled in the
+gloom, so heavily, that he fell to his knees. He searched the
+face in the starlight, to find it was that of a knight of the
+Hospitallers of whom he had made a friend at Jerusalem--a very
+good and gentle Frenchman, who had abandoned high station and
+large lands to join the order for the love of Christ and
+charity. Such was his reward on earth--to be struck down in cold
+blood, like an ox by its butcher. Then, muttering a prayer for
+the repose of this knight's soul, Godwin rose and, filled with
+horror, followed on to the royal pavilion, wondering why such
+things were.
+
+Of all the strange feasts that they ever ate the brethren found
+this the strangest and the most sad. Saladin was seated at the
+head of the table with guards and officers standing behind him,
+and as each dish was brought he tasted it and no more, to show
+that it was not poisoned. Not far from him sat the king of
+Jerusalem and his brother, and all down the board great captive
+nobles, to the number of fifty or more. Sorry spectacles were
+these gallant knights in their hewn and blood-stained armour,
+pale-faced, too, with eyes set wide in horror at the dread deeds
+they had just seen done. Yet they ate, and ate ravenously, for
+now that their thirst was satisfied, they were mad with hunger.
+Thirty thousand Christians lay dead on the Horn and plain of
+Hattin; the kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed, and its king a
+prisoner. The holy Rood was taken as a trophy. Two hundred
+knights of the sacred Orders lay within a few score of yards of
+them, butchered cruelly by those very emirs and doctors of the
+law who stood grave and silent behind their master's seat, at the
+express command of that merciless master. Defeated, shamed,
+bereaved--yet they ate, and, being human, could take comfort from
+the thought that having eaten, by the law of the Arabs, at least
+their lives were safe.
+
+Saladin called Godwin and Wulf to him that they might interpret
+for him, and gave them food, and they also ate who were compelled
+to it by hunger.
+
+"Have you seen your cousin, the princess?" he asked; "and how
+found you her?" he asked presently.
+
+Then, remembering over what he had fallen outside her tent, and
+looking at those miserable feasters, anger took hold of Godwin,
+and he answered boldly:
+
+"Sire, we found her sick with the sights and sounds of war and
+murder; shamed to know also that her uncle, the conquering
+sovereign of the East, had slaughtered two hundred unarmed men."
+
+Wulf trembled at his words, but Saladin listened and showed no
+anger.
+
+"Doubtless," he answered, "she thinks me cruel, and you also
+think me cruel--a despot who delights in the death of his
+enemies. Yet it is not so, for I desire peace and to save life,
+not to destroy it. It is you Christians who for hard upon a
+hundred years have drenched these sands with blood, because you
+say that you wish to possess the land where your prophet lived
+and died more than eleven centuries ago. How many Saracens have
+you slain? Hundreds of thousands of them. Moreover, with you
+peace is no peace. Those Orders that I destroyed tonight have
+broken it a score of times. Well, I will bear no more. Allah has
+given me and my army the victory, and I will take your cities and
+drive the Franks back into the sea. Let them seek their own lands
+and worship God there after their own fashion, and leave the East
+in quiet.
+
+"Now, Sir Godwin, tell these captives for me that tomorrow I send
+those of them who are unwounded to Damascus, there to await
+ransom while I besiege Jerusalem and the other Christian cities.
+Let them have no fear; I have emptied the cup of my anger; no
+more of them shall die, and a priest of their faith, the bishop
+of Nazareth, shall stay with their sick in my army to minister to
+them after their own rites."
+
+So Godwin rose and told them, and they answered not a word, who
+had lost all hope and courage.
+
+Afterwards he asked whether he and his brother were also to be
+sent to Damascus.
+
+Saladin replied, "No; he would keep them for awhile to
+interpret, then they might go their ways without ransom."
+
+On the morrow, accordingly, the captives were sent to Damascus,
+and that day Saladin took the castle of Tiberias, setting at
+liberty Eschiva, the wife of Raymond, and her children. Then he
+moved on to Acre, which he took, relieving four thousand Moslem
+captives, and so on to other towns, all of which fell before him,
+till at length he came to Ascalon, which he besieged in form,
+setting up his mangonels against its walls.
+
+The night was dark outside of Ascalon, save when the flashes of
+lightning in the storm that rolled down from the mountains to the
+sea lit it up, showing the thousands of white tents set round the
+city, the walls and the sentries who watched upon them, the
+feathery palms that stood against the sky, the mighty,
+snow-crowned range of Lebanon, and encircling all the black
+breast of the troubled ocean. In a little open space of the
+garden of an empty house that stood without the walls, a man and
+a woman were talking, both of them wrapped in dark cloaks. They
+were Godwin and Masouda.
+
+"Well," said Godwin eagerly, "is all ready?"
+
+She nodded and answered:
+
+"At length, all. To-morrow afternoon an assault will be made upon
+Ascalon, but even if it is taken the camp will not be moved that
+night. There will be great confusion, and Abdullah, who is
+somewhat sick, will be the captain of the guard over the
+princess's tent. He will allow the soldiers to slip away to
+assist in the sack of the city, nor will they betray him. At
+sunset but one eunuch will be on watch--Mesrour; and I will find
+means to put him to sleep. Abdullah will bring the princess to
+this garden disguised as his young son, and there you two and I
+shall meet them."
+
+"What then?" asked Godwin.
+
+"Do you remember the old Arab who brought you the horses Flame
+and Smoke, and took no payment for them, he who was named Son of
+the Sand? Well, as you know, he is my uncle, and he has more
+horses of that breed. I have seen him, and he is well pleased at
+the tale of Flame and Smoke and the knights who rode them, and
+more particularly at the way in which they came to their end,
+which he says has brought credit to their ancient blood. At the
+foot of this garden is a cave, which was once a sepulchre. There
+we shall find the horses--four of them--and with them my uncle,
+Son of the Sand, and by the morning light we will be a hundred
+miles away and lie hid with his tribe until we can slip to the
+coast and board a Christian ship. Does it please you?"
+
+"Very well; but what is Abdullah's price?"
+
+"One only--the enchanted star, the Luck of the House of Hassan;
+for nothing else will he take such risks. Will Sir Wulf give it?"
+
+"Surely," answered Godwin with a laugh.
+
+"Good. Then it must be done to-night. When I return I will send
+Abdullah to your tent. Fear not; if he takes the jewel he will
+give the price, since otherwise he thinks it will bring him ill
+fortune."
+
+"Does the lady Rosamund know?" asked Godwin again.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Nay, she is mad to escape; she thinks of little else all day
+long. But what is the use of telling her till the time comes? The
+fewer in such a plot the better, and if anything goes wrong, it
+is well that she should be innocent, for then--"
+
+"Then death, and farewell to all things," said Godwin; "nor
+indeed should I grieve to say them good-bye. But, Masouda, you
+run great peril. Tell me now, honestly, why do you do this?"
+
+As he spoke the lightning flashed and showed her face as she
+stood there against a background of green leaves and red lily
+flowers. There was a strange look upon it--a look that made
+Godwin feel afraid, he knew not of what.
+
+"Why did I take you into my inn yonder in Beirut when you were
+the pilgrims Peter and John? Why did I find you the best horses
+in Syria and guide you to the Al-je-bal? Why did I often dare
+death by torment for you there? Why did I save the three of you?
+And why, for all this weary while, have I--who, after all, am
+nobly born--become the mock of soldiers and the tire-woman of the
+princess of Baalbec?
+
+"Shall I answer?" she went on, laughing. "Doubtless in the
+beginning because I was the agent of Sinan, charged to betray
+such knights as you are into his hands, and afterwards because my
+heart was filled with pity and love for--the lady Rosamund."
+
+Again the lightning flashed, and this time that strange look had
+spread from Masouda's face to the face of Godwin.
+
+"Masouda," he said in a whisper, "oh! think me no vain fool, but
+since it is best perhaps that both should know full surely, tell
+me, is it as I have sometimes--"
+
+"Feared?" broke in Masouda with her little mocking laugh. "Sir
+Godwin, it is so. What does your faith teach--the faith in which
+I was bred, and lost, but that now is mine again--because it is
+yours? That men and women are free, or so some read it. Well, it
+or they are wrong. We are not free. Was I free when first I saw
+your eyes in Beirut, the eyes for which I had been watching all
+my life, and something came from you to me, and I--the cast-off
+plaything of Sinan--loved you, loved you, loved you--to my own
+doom? Yes, and rejoiced that it was so, and still rejoice that it
+is so, and would choose no other fate, because in that love I
+learned that there is a meaning in this life, and that there is
+an answer to it in lives to be, otherwhere if not here. Nay,
+speak not. I know your oath, nor would I tempt you to its
+breaking. But, Sir Godwin, a woman such as the lady Rosamund
+cannot love two men," and as she spoke Masouda strove to search
+his face while the shaft went home.
+
+But Godwin showed neither surprise nor pain.
+
+"So you know what I have known for long," he said, "so long that
+my sorrow is lost in the hope of my brother's joy. Moreover, it
+is well that she should have chosen the better knight."
+
+"Sometimes," said Masouda reflectively, "sometimes I have watched
+the lady Rosamund, and said to myself, 'What do you lack? You are
+beautiful, you are highborn, you are learned, you are brave, and
+you are good.' Then I have answered, 'You lack wisdom and true
+sight, else you would not have chosen Wulf when you might have
+taken Godwin. Or perchance your eyes are blinded also.'"
+
+"Speak not thus of one who is my better in all things, I pray
+you," said Godwin in a vexed voice.
+
+"By which you mean, whose arm is perhaps a little stronger, and
+who at a pinch could cut down a few more Saracens. Well, it takes
+more than strength to make a man--you must add spirit."
+
+"Masouda," went on Godwin, taking no note of her words, "although
+we may guess her mind, our lady has said nothing yet. Also Wulf
+may fall, and then I fill his place as best I can. I am no free
+man, Masouda."
+
+"The love-sick are never free," she answered.
+
+"I have no right to love the woman who loves my brother; to her
+are due my friendship and my reverence--no more."
+
+"She has not declared that she loves your brother; we may guess
+wrongly in this matter. They are your words--not mine."
+
+"And we may guess rightly. What then?"
+
+"Then," answered Masouda, "there are many knightly Orders, or
+monasteries, for those who desire such places--as you do in your
+heart. Nay, talk no more of all these things that may or may not
+be. Back to your tent, Sir Godwin, where I will send Abdullah to
+you to receive the jewel. So, farewell, farewell."
+
+He took her outstretched hand, hesitated a moment, then lifted it
+to his lips, and went. It was cold as that of a corpse, and fell
+against her side again like the hand of a corpse. Masouda shrank
+back among the flowers of the garden as though to hide herself
+from him and all the world. When he had gone a few paces, eight
+or ten perhaps, Godwin turned and glanced behind him, and at that
+moment there came a great blaze of lightning. In its fierce and
+fiery glare he saw Masouda standing with outstretched arms, pale,
+upturned face, closed eyes, and parted lips. Illumined by the
+ghastly sheen of the levin her face looked like that of one new
+dead, and the tall red lilies which climbed up her dark,
+pall-like robe to her throat--yes, they looked like streams of
+fresh-shed blood.
+
+Godwin shuddered a little and went his way, but as she slid
+thence into the black, embracing night, Masouda said to herself:
+
+"Had I played a little more upon his gentleness and pity, I think
+that he would have offered me his heart--after Rosamund had done
+with it and in payment for my services. Nay, not his heart, for
+he has none on earth, but his hand and loyalty. And, being
+honourable, he would have kept his promise, and I, who have
+passed through the harem of Al-je-bal, might yet have become the
+lady D'Arcy, and so lived out my life and nursed his babes. Nay,
+Sir Godwin; when you love me--not before; and you will never love
+me--until I am dead."
+
+Snatching a bloom of the lilies into her hand, the hand that he
+had kissed, Masouda pressed it convulsively against her breast,
+till the red juice ran from the crushed flower and stained her
+like a wound. Then she glided away, and was lost in the storm and
+the darkness.
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty: The Luck of the Star of Hassan
+
+An hour later the captain Abdullah might have been seen walking
+carelessly towards the tent where the brethren slept. Also, had
+there been any who cared to watch, something else might have been
+seen in that low moonlight, for now the storm and the heavy rain
+which followed it had passed. Namely, the fat shape of the eunuch
+Mesrour, slipping after him wrapped in a dark camel-hair cloak,
+such as was commonly worn by camp followers, and taking shelter
+cunningly behind every rock and shrub and rise of the ground.
+Hidden among some picketed dromedaries, he saw Abdullah enter the
+tent of the brethren, then, waiting till a cloud crossed the
+moon, Mesrour ran to it unseen, and throwing himself down on its
+shadowed side, lay there like a drunken man, and listened with
+all his ears. But the thick canvas was heavy with wet, nor would
+the ropes and the trench that was dug around permit him, who did
+not love to lie in the water, to place his head against it. Also,
+those within spoke low, and he could only hear single words, such
+as "garden," "the star," "princess."
+
+So important did these seem to him, however, that at length
+Mesrour crept under the cords, and although he shuddered at its
+cold, drew his body into the trench of water, and with the sharp
+point of his knife cut a little slit in the taut canvas. To this
+he set his eye, only to find that it served him nothing, for
+there was no light in the tent. Still, men were there who talked
+in the darkness.
+
+"Good," said a voice--it was that of one of the brethren, but
+which he could not tell, for even to those who knew them best
+they seemed to be the same. "Good; then it is settled. To-morrow,
+at the hour arranged, you bring the princess to the place agreed
+upon, disguised as you have said. In payment for this service I
+hand you the Luck of Hassan which you covet. Take it; here it is,
+and swear to do your part, since otherwise it will bring no luck
+to you, for I will kill you the first time we meet--yes, and the
+other also."
+
+"I swear it by Allah and his prophet," answered Abdullah in a
+hoarse, trembling voice.
+
+"It is enough; see that you keep the oath. And now away; it is
+not safe that you should tarry here."
+
+Then came the sound of a man leaving the tent. Passing round it
+cautiously, he halted, and opening his hand, looked at its
+contents to make sure that no trick had been played upon him in
+the darkness. Mesrour screwed his head round to look also, and
+saw the light gleam faintly on the surface of the splendid jewel,
+which he, too, desired so eagerly. In so doing his foot struck a
+stone, and instantly Abdullah glanced down to see a dead or
+drunken man lying almost at his feet. With a swift movement he
+hid the jewel and started to walk away. Then bethinking him that
+it would be well to make sure that this fellow was dead or
+sleeping, he turned and kicked the prostrate Mesrour upon the
+back and with all his strength. Indeed, he did this thrice,
+putting the eunuch to the greatest agony.
+
+"I thought I saw him move," Abdullah muttered after the third
+kick; "it is best to make sure," and he drew his knife.
+
+Now, had not terror paralysed him, Mesrour would have cried out,
+but fortunately for himself, before he found his voice Abdullah
+had buried the knife three inches deep in his fat thigh. With an
+effort Mesrour bore this also, knowing that if he showed signs of
+life the next stroke would be in his heart. Then, satisfied that
+this fellow, whoever he might be, was either a corpse or
+insensible, Abdullah drew out the knife, wiped it on his victim's
+robe, and departed.
+
+Not long afterwards Mesrour departed also, towards the Sultan's
+house, bellowing with rage and pain and vowing vengeance.
+
+It was not long delayed.
+
+That very night Abdullah was seized and put to the question. In
+his suffering he confessed that he had been to the tent of the
+brethren and received from one of them the jewel which was found
+upon him, as a bribe to bring the princess to a certain garden
+outside the camp. But he named the wrong garden. Further, when
+they asked which of the brethren it was who bribed him, he said
+he did not know, as their voices were alike, and their tent was
+in darkness; moreover, that he believed there was only one man in
+it--at least he heard or saw no other. He added that he was
+summoned to the tent by an Arab man whom he had never seen
+before, but who told him that if he wished for what he most
+desired and good fortune, he was to be there at a certain hour
+after sunset. Then he fainted, and was put back in prison till
+the morning by the command of Saladin.
+
+When the morning came Abdullah was dead, who desired no more
+torments with doom at the end of them, having made shift to
+strangle himself with his robe. But first he had scrawled upon
+the wall with a piece of charcoal:
+
+"May that accursed Star of Hassan which tempted me bring better
+luck to others, and may hell receive the soul of Mesrour."
+
+Thus died Abdullah, as faithful as he could be in such sore
+straits, since he had betrayed neither Masouda nor his son, both
+of whom were in the plot, and said that only one of the brethren
+was present in the tent, whereas he knew well that the two of
+them were there and which of these spoke and gave him the jewel.
+
+Very early that morning the brethren, who were lying wakeful,
+heard sounds without their tent, and looking out saw that it was
+surrounded by Mameluks.
+
+"The plot is discovered," said Godwin to Wulf quietly, but with
+despair in his face. "Now, my brother, admit nothing, even under
+torture, lest others perish with us."
+
+"Shall we fight?" asked Wulf as they threw on their mail.
+
+But Godwin answered:
+
+"Nay, it would serve us nothing to kill a few brave men."
+
+Then an officer entered the tent, and commanded them to give up
+their swords and to follow him to Saladin to answer a charge that
+had been laid against them both, nor would he say any more. So
+they went as prisoners, and after waiting awhile, were ushered
+into a large room of the house where Saladin lodged, which was
+arranged as a court with a dais at one end. Before this they were
+stood, till presently the Sultan entered through the further
+door, and with him certain of his emirs and secretaries. Also
+Rosamund, who looked very pale, was brought there, and in
+attendance on her Masouda, calm-faced as ever.
+
+The brethren bowed to them, but Saladin, whose eyes were full of
+rage, took no notice of their salutation. For a moment there was
+silence, then Saladin bade a secretary read the charge, which was
+brief. It was that they had conspired to steal away the princess
+of Baalbec.
+
+"Where is the evidence against us?" asked Godwin boldly. "The
+Sultan is just, and convicts no man save on testimony."
+
+Again Saladin motioned to the secretary, who read the words that
+had been taken down from the lips of the captain Abdullah. They
+demanded to be allowed to examine the captain Abdullah, and
+learned that he was already dead. Then the eunuch Mesrour was
+carried forward, for walk he could not, owing to the wound that
+Abdullah had given him, and told all his tale, how he had
+suspected Abdullah, and, following him, had heard him and one of
+the brethren speaking in the tent, and the words that passed,
+and afterwards seen Abdullah with the jewel in his hand.
+
+When he had finished Godwin asked which of them he had heard
+speaking with Abdullah, and he answered that he could not say, as
+their voices were so alike, but one voice only had spoken.
+
+Then Rosamund was ordered to give her testimony, and said, truly
+enough, that she knew nothing of the plot and had not thought of
+this flight. Masouda also swore that she now heard of it for the
+first time. After this the secretary announced that there was no
+more evidence, and prayed of the Sultan to give judgment in the
+matter.
+
+"Against which of us," asked Godwin, "seeing that both the dead
+and the living witness declared they heard but one voice, and
+whose that voice was they did not know? According to your own
+law, you cannot condemn a man against whom there is no good
+testimony."
+
+"There is testimony against one of you," answered Saladin
+sternly, "that of two witnesses, as is required, and, as I have
+warned you long ago, that man shall die. Indeed, both of you
+should die, for I am sure that both are guilty. Still, you have
+been put upon your trial according to the law, and as a just
+judge I will not strain the law against you. Let the guilty one
+die by beheading at sundown, the hour at which he planned to
+commit his crime. The other may go free with the citizens of
+Jerusalem who depart to-night, bearing my message to the Frankish
+leaders in that holy town."
+
+"Which of us, then, is to die, and which to go free?" asked
+Godwin. "Tell us, that he who is doomed may prepare his soul."
+
+"Say you, who know the truth," answered Saladin.
+
+"We admit nothing," said Godwin; "yet, if one of us must die, I
+as the elder claim that right."
+
+"And I claim it as the younger. The jewel was Hassan's gift to
+me; who else could give it to Abdullah?" added Wulf, speaking for
+the first time, whereat all the Saracens there assembled, brave
+men who loved a knightly deed, murmured in admiration, and even
+Saladin said:
+
+"Well spoken, both of you. So it seems that both must die."
+
+Then Rosamund stepped forward and threw herself upon her knees
+before him, exclaiming:
+
+"Sire, my uncle, such is not your justice, that two should be
+slain for the offence of one, if offence there be. If you know
+not which is guilty, spare them both, I beseech you."
+
+He stretched out his hand and raised her from her knees: then
+thought awhile, and said:
+
+"Nay, plead not with me, for however much you love him the
+guilty man must suffer, as he deserves. But of this matter Allah
+alone knows the truth, therefore let it be decided by Allah," and
+he rested his head upon his hand, looking at Wulf and Godwin as
+though to read their souls.
+
+Now behind Saladin stood that old and famous imaum who had been
+with him and Hassan when he commanded the brethren to depart from
+Damascus, who all this while had listened to everything that
+passed with a sour smile. Leaning forward, he whispered in his
+master's ear, who considered a moment, then answered him:
+
+"It is good. Do so."
+
+So the imaum left the court, and returned presently carrying two
+small boxes of sandalwood tied with silk and sealed, so like each
+other that none could tell them apart, which boxes he passed
+continually from his right hand to his left and from his left
+hand to his right, then gave them to Saladin.
+
+"In one of these," said the Sultan, "is that jewel known as the
+enchanted Star and the Luck of the House of Hassan, which the
+prince presented to his conqueror on the day of Hattin, and for
+the desire of which my captain Abdullah became a traitor and was
+brought to death. In the other is a pebble of the same weight.
+Come, my niece, take you these boxes and give them to your
+kinsmen, to each the box you will. The jewel that is called the
+Star of Hassan is magical, and has virtue, so they say. Let it
+choose, therefore, which of these knights is ripe for death, and
+let him perish in whose box the Star is found."
+
+"Now," muttered the imaum into the ear of his master, "now at
+length we shall learn which it is of these two men that the lady
+loves."
+
+"That is what I seek to know," answered Saladin in the same low
+voice.
+
+As she heard this decree Rosamund looked round wildly and
+pleaded:
+
+"Oh! be not so cruel. I beseech you spare me this task. Let it be
+another hand that is chosen to deal death to one of those of my
+own blood with whom I have dwelt since childhood. Let me not be
+the blind sword of fate that frees his spirit, lest it should
+haunt my dreams and turn all my world to woe. Spare me, I beseech
+you."
+
+But Saladin looked at her very sternly and answered:
+
+"Princess, you know why I have brought you to the East and raised
+you to great honour here, why also I have made you my companion
+in these wars. It is for my dream's sake, the dream which told me
+that by some noble act of yours you should save the lives of
+thousands. Yet I am sure that you desire to escape, and plots are
+made to take you from me, though of these plots you say that you
+and your woman"--and he looked darkly at Masouda--"know nothing.
+But these men know, and it is right that you, for whose sake if
+not by whose command the thing was done, should mete out its
+reward, and that the blood of him whom you appoint, which is
+spilt for you, should be on your and no other head. Now do my
+bidding."
+
+For a moment Rosamund stared at the boxes, then suddenly she
+closed her eyes, and taking them up at hazard, stretched out her
+arms, leaning forward over the edge of the dais. Thereon, calmly
+enough the brethren took, each of them, the box that was nearest
+to him, that in Rosamund's left hand falling to Godwin and that
+in her right to Wulf. Then she opened her eyes again, stood
+still, and watched.
+
+"Cousin," said Godwin, "before we break this cord that is our
+chain of doom, know well that, whatever chances, we blame you not
+at all. It is God Who acts through you, and you are as innocent
+of the death of either of us as of that plot whereof we stand
+accused."
+
+Then he began to unknot the silk which was bound about his box.
+Wulf, knowing that it would tell all the tale, did not trouble
+himself as yet, but looked around the room, thinking that,
+whether he lived or died, never would he see a stranger sight.
+Every eye in it was fixed upon the box in Godwin's hand; even
+Saladin stared as though it held his own destiny. No; not every
+one, for those of the old imaum were fixed upon the face of
+Rosamund, which was piteous to see, for all its beauty had left
+it, and even her parted lips were ashy. Masouda alone still
+stood upright and unmoved, as though she watched some play, but
+he noted that her rich-hued cheek grew pale and that beneath her
+robe her hand was pressed upon her heart. The silence also was
+intense, and broken only by the little grating noise of Godwin's
+nails as, having no knife to cut it, he patiently untied the
+silk.
+
+"Trouble enough about one man's life in a land where lives are
+cheap!" exclaimed Wulf, thinking aloud, and at the sound of his
+voice all men started, as though it had thundered suddenly in a
+summer sky. Then with a laugh he tore the silk about his box
+asunder with his strong fingers, and breaking the seal, shook out
+its contents. Lo! there on the floor before him, gleaming green
+and white with emerald and diamond, lay the enchanted Star of
+Hassan.
+
+Masouda saw, and the colour crept back to her cheek. Rosamund saw
+also, and nature was too strong for her, for in one bitter cry
+the truth broke from her lips at last:
+
+"Not Wulf! Not Wulf!" she wailed, and sank back senseless into
+Masouda's arms.
+
+"Now, sire," said the old imaum with a chuckle, "you know which
+of those two the lady loves. Being a woman, as usual she chooses
+badly, for the other has the finer spirit."
+
+"Yes, I know now," said Saladin, "and I am glad to know, for the
+matter has vexed me much."
+
+But Wulf, who had paled for a moment, flushed with joy as the
+truth came home to him, and he understood the end of all their
+doubts.
+
+"This Star is well named 'The Luck,'" he said, as bending down
+he took it from the floor and fastened it to his cloak above his
+heart, "nor do I hold it dearly earned." Then he turned to his
+brother, who stood by him white and still, saying:
+
+"Forgive me, Godwin, but such is the fortune of love and war.
+Grudge it not to me, for when I am sped tonight this Luck--and
+all that hangs to it--will be yours."
+
+So that strange scene ended.
+
+The afternoon drew towards evening, and Godwin stood before
+Saladin in his private chamber.
+
+"What seek you now?" said the Sultan sternly.
+
+"A boon," answered Godwin. "My brother is doomed to die before
+nightfall. I ask to die instead of him."
+
+"Why, Sir Godwin?"
+
+"For two reasons, sire. As you learned to-day, at length the
+riddle is answered. It is Wulf who is beloved of the lady
+Rosamund, and therefore to kill him would be a crime. Further, it
+is I and not he whom the eunuch heard bargaining with the captain
+Abdullah in the tent--I swear it. Take your vengeance upon me,
+and let him go to fulfil his fate."
+
+Saladin pulled at his beard, then answered:
+
+"If this is to be so, time is short, Sir Godwin. What farewells
+have you to make? You say that you would speak with my niece
+Rosamund? Nay, the princess you shall not see, and indeed cannot,
+for she lies swooning in her chamber. Do you desire to meet your
+brother for the last time?"
+
+"No, sire, for then he might learn the truth and--"
+
+"Refuse this sacrifice, Sir Godwin, which perchance will be
+scarcely to his liking."
+
+"I wish to say good-bye to Masouda, she who is waiting woman to
+the princess."
+
+"That you cannot do, for, know, I mistrust this Masouda, and
+believe that she was at the bottom of your plot. I have dismissed
+her from the person of the princess and from my camp, which she
+is to leave--if she has not already left--with some Arabs who
+are her kin. Had it not been for her services in the land of the
+Assassins and afterwards, I should have put her to death."
+
+"Then," said Godwin with a sigh, "I desire only to see Egbert the
+bishop, that he may shrive me according to our faith and make
+note of my last wishes."
+
+"Good; he shall be sent to you. I accept your statement that you
+are the guilty man and not Sir Wulf, and take your life for his.
+Leave me now, who have greater matters on my mind. The guard will
+seek you at the appointed time."
+
+Godwin bowed and walked away with a steady step while Saladin,
+looking after him, muttered:
+
+"The world could ill spare so brave and good a man."
+
+Two hours later guards summoned Godwin from the place where he
+was prisoned, and, accompanied by the old bishop who had shriven
+him, he passed its door with a happy countenance, such as a
+bridegroom might have worn. In a fashion, indeed, he was happy,
+whose troubles were done with, who had few sins to mourn, whose
+faith was the faith of a child, and who laid down his life for
+his friend and brother. They took him to a vault of the great
+house where Saladin was lodged--a large, rough place, lit with
+torches, in which waited the headsman and his assistants.
+Presently Saladin entered, and, looking at him curiously, said:
+
+"Are you still of the same mind, Sir Godwin?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Good. Yet I have changed mine. You shall say farewell to your
+cousin, as you desired. Let the princess of Baalbec be brought
+hither, sick or well, that she may see her work. Let her come
+alone."
+
+"Sire," pleaded Godwin, "spare her such a sight."
+
+But he pleaded in vain, for Saladin answered only, "I have said."
+
+A while passed, and Godwin, hearing the sweep of robes, looked
+up, and saw the tall shape of a veiled woman standing in the
+corner of the vault where the shadow was so deep that the
+torchlight only glimmered faintly upon her royal ornaments.
+
+"They told me that you were sick, princess, sick with sorrow, as
+well you may be, because the man you love was about to die for
+you," said Saladin in a slow voice. "Now I have had pity on your
+grief, and his life has been bought with another life, that of
+the knight who stands yonder."
+
+The veiled form started wildly, then sank back against the wall.
+
+"Rosamund," broke in Godwin, speaking in French, "I beseech you,
+be silent and do not unman me with words or tears. It is best
+thus, and you know that it is best. Wulf you love as he loves
+you, and I believe that in time you will be brought together. Me
+you do not love, save as a friend, and never have. Moreover, I
+tell you this that it may ease your pain and my conscience; I no
+longer seek you as my wife, whose bride is death. I pray you,
+give to Wulf my love and blessing, and to Masouda, that truest
+and most sweet woman, say, or write, that I offer her the homage
+of my heart; that I thought of her in my last moments, and that
+my prayer is we may meet again where all crooked paths are
+straightened. Rosamund, farewell; peace and joy go with you
+through many years, ay, and with your children's children. Of
+Godwin I only ask you to remember this, that he lived serving
+you, and so died."
+
+She heard and stretched out her arms, and, none forbidding him,
+Godwin walked to where she stood. Without lifting her veil she
+bent forward and kissed him, first upon the brow and next upon
+the lips; then with a low, moaning cry, she turned and fled from
+that gloomy place, nor did Saladin seek to stay her. Only to
+himself the Sultan wondered how it came about that if it was Wulf
+whom Rosamund loved, she still kissed Godwin thus upon the lips.
+
+As he walked back to the death-place Godwin wondered also, first
+that Rosamund should have spoken no single word, and secondly
+because she had kissed him thus, even in that hour. Why or
+wherefore he did not know, but there rose in his mind a memory
+of that wild ride down the mountain steeps at Beirut, and of lips
+which then had touched his cheek, and of the odour of hair that
+then was blown about his breast. With a sigh he thrust the
+thought aside, blushing to think that such memories should come
+to him who had done with earth and its delights, knelt down
+before the headsman, and, turning to the bishop, said:
+
+"Bless me, father, and bid them strike."
+
+Then it was that he heard a well-known footstep, and looked up to
+see Wulf staring at him.
+
+"What do you here, Godwin?" asked Wulf. "Has yonder fox snared
+both of us?" and he nodded at Saladin.
+
+"Let the fox speak," said the Sultan with a smile. "Know, Sir
+Wulf, that your brother was about to die in your place, and of
+his own wish. But I refuse such sacrifice who yet have made use
+of it to teach my niece, the princess, that should she continue
+in her plottings to escape, or allow you to continue in them,
+certainly it will bring you to your deaths, and, if need be, her
+also. Knights, you are brave men whom I prefer to kill in war.
+Good horses stand without; take them as my gift, and ride with
+these foolish citizens of Jerusalem. We may meet again within its
+streets. Nay, thank me not. I thank you who have taught
+Salah-ed-din how perfect a thing can be the love of brothers."
+
+The brethren stood awhile bewildered, for it is a strange thing
+thus to come back from death to life. Each of them had made sure
+that he must die within some few minutes, and pass through the
+blackness which walls man in, to find he knew not what. And now,
+behold! the road that led to that blackness turned again at its
+very edge, and ran forward through the familiar things of earth
+to some end unknown. They were brave, both of them, and
+accustomed to face death daily, as in such a place and time all
+men must be; moreover, they had been shriven, and looked to see
+the gates of Paradise open on their newborn sight.
+
+Yet, since no man loves that journey, it was very sweet to know
+it done with for a while, and that they still might hope to dwell
+in this world for many years. Little wonder, then, that their
+brains swam, and their eyes grew dim, as they passed from the
+shadow to the light again. It was Wulf who spoke the first.
+
+"A noble deed, Godwin, yet one for which I should not have
+thanked you had it been accomplished, who then must have lived on
+by grace of your sacrifice. Sultan, we are grateful for your boon
+of life, though had you shed this innocent blood surely it would
+have stained your soul. May we bid farewell to our cousin
+Rosamund before we ride?"
+
+"Nay," answered Saladin; "Sir Godwin has done that already--let
+it serve for both. To-morrow she shall learn the truth of the
+story. Now go, and return no more."
+
+"That must be as fate wills," answered Godwin, and they bowed and
+went.
+
+Outside that gloomy place of death their swords were given them,
+and two good horses, which they mounted. Hence guides led them to
+the embassy from Jerusalem that was already in the saddle, who
+were very glad to welcome two such knights to their company.
+Then, having bid farewell to the bishop Egbert, who wept for joy
+at their escape, escorted for a while by Saladin's soldiers, they
+rode away from Ascalon at the fall of night.
+
+Soon they had told each other all there was to tell. When he
+heard of the woe of Rosamund Wulf well-nigh shed tears.
+
+"We have our lives," he said, "but how shall we save her? While
+Masouda stayed with her there was some hope, but now I can see
+none."
+
+"There is none, except in God," answered Godwin, "Who can do all
+things--even free Rosamund and make her your wife. Also, if
+Masouda is at liberty, we shall hear from her ere long; so let us
+keep a good heart."
+
+But though he spoke thus, the soul of Godwin was oppressed with a
+fear which he could not understand. It seemed as though some
+great terror came very close to him, or to one who was near and
+dear. Deeper and deeper he sank into that pit of dread of he knew
+not what, until at length he could have cried aloud, and his brow
+was bathed with a sweat of anguish. Wulf saw his face in the
+moonlight, and asked:
+
+"What ails you, Godwin? Have you some secret wound?"
+
+"Yes, brother," he answered, "a wound in my spirit. Ill fortune
+threatens us--great ill fortune."
+
+"That is no new thing," said Wulf, "in this land of blood and
+sorrows. Let us meet it as we have met the rest."
+
+"Alas! brother," exclaimed Godwin, "I fear that Rosamund is in
+sore danger--Rosamund or another."
+
+"Then," answered Wulf, turning pale, "since we cannot, let us
+pray that some angel may deliver her."
+
+"Ay," said Godwin, and as they rode through the desert sands
+beneath the silent stars, they prayed to the Blessed Mother, and
+to their saints, St. Peter and St. Chad--prayed with all their
+strength. Yet the prayer availed not. Sharper and sharper grew
+Godwin's agony, till, as the slow hours went by, his very soul
+reeled beneath this spiritual pain, and the death which he had
+escaped seemed a thing desirable.
+
+The dawn was breaking, and at its first sign the escort of
+Saladin's soldiers had turned and left them, saying that now they
+were safe in their own country. All night they had ridden fast
+and far. The plain was behind them, and their road ran among
+hills. Suddenly it turned, and in the flaming lights of the
+new-born day showed them a sight so beautiful that for a moment
+all that little company drew rein to gaze. For yonder before
+them, though far away as yet, throned upon her hills, stood the
+holy city of Jerusalem. There were her walls and towers, and
+there, stained red as though with the blood of its worshippers,
+soared the great cross upon the mosque of Omar--that cross which
+was so soon to fall.
+
+Yes, yonder was the city for which throughout the ages men had
+died by tens and hundreds of thousands, and still must die until
+the doom was done. Saladin had offered to spare her citizens if
+they consented to surrender, but they would not. This embassy had
+told him that they had sworn to perish with the holy Places, and
+now, looking at it in its splendour, they knew that the hour was
+near, and groaned aloud.
+
+Godwin groaned also, but not for Jerusalem. Oh! now the last
+terror was upon him. Blackness surged round him, and in the
+blackness swords, and a sound as of a woman's voice murmuring his
+name. Clutching the pommel of his saddle, he swayed to and fro,
+till suddenly the anguish passed. A strange wind seemed to blow
+about him and lift his hair; a deep, unearthly peace sank into
+his spirit; the world seemed far away and heaven very near.
+
+"It is over," he said to Wulf. "I fear that Rosamund is dead."
+
+"If so, we must make haste to follow her," answered Wulf with a
+sob.
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-One: What Befell Godwin
+
+At the village of Bittir, some seven miles from Jerusalem, the
+embassy dismounted to rest, then again they pressed forward down
+the valley in the hope of reaching the Zion Gate before the
+mid-day heat was upon them. At the end of this valley swelled the
+shoulder of a hill whence the eye could command its length, and
+on the crest of that shoulder appeared suddenly a man and a
+woman, seated on beautiful horses. The company halted, fearing
+lest these might herald some attack and that the woman was a man
+disguised to deceive them. While they waited thus irresolute, the
+pair upon the hill turned their horses' heads, and
+notwithstanding its steepness, began to gallop towards them very
+swiftly. Wulf looked at them curiously and said to Godwin:
+
+"Now I am put in mind of a certain ride which once we took
+outside the walls of Beirut. Almost could I think that yonder
+Arab was he who sat behind my saddle, and yonder woman she who
+rode with you, and that those two horses were Flame and Smoke
+reborn. Note their whirlwind pace, and strength, and stride."
+
+Almost as he finished speaking the strangers pulled up their
+steeds in front of the company, to whom the man bowed his
+salutations. Then Godwin saw his face, and knew him at once as
+the old Arab called Son of the Sand, who had given them the
+horses Flame and Smoke.
+
+"Sir," said the Arab to the leader of the embassy, "I have come
+to ask a favour of yonder knights who travel with you, which I
+think that they, who have ridden my horses, will not refuse me.
+This woman," and he pointed to the closely-veiled shape of his
+companion, "is a relative of mine whom I desire to deliver to
+friends in Jerusalem, but dare not do so myself because the
+hilldwellers between here and there are hostile to my tribe. She
+is of the Christian faith and no spy, but cannot speak your
+language. Within the south gate she will be met by her relatives.
+I have spoken."
+
+"Let the knights settle it," said the commander, shrugging his
+shoulders impatiently and spurring his horse.
+
+"Surely we will take her," said Godwin, "though what we shall do
+with her if her friends are wanting I do not know. Come, lady,
+ride between us."
+
+She turned her head to the Arab as though in question, and he
+repeated the words, whereon she fell into the place that was
+shown to her between and a little behind the brethren.
+
+"Perhaps," went on the Arab to Godwin, "by now you have learned
+more of our tongue than you knew when we met in past days at
+Beirut, and rode the mountain side on the good horses Flame and
+Smoke. Still, if so, I pray you of your knightly courtesy disturb
+not this woman with your words, nor ask her to unveil her face,
+since such is not the custom of her people. It is but an hour's
+journey to the city gate during which you will be troubled with
+her. This is the payment that I ask of you for the two good
+horses which, as I am told, bore you none so ill upon the Narrow
+Way and across plain and mountain when you fled from Sinan, also
+on the evil day of Hattin when you unhorsed Salah-ed-din and slew
+Hassan."
+
+"It shall be as you wish," said Godwin; "and, Son of the Sand, we
+thank you for those horses."
+
+"Good. When you want more, let it be known in the market places
+that you seek me," and he began to turn his horse's head.
+
+"Stay," said Godwin. "What do you know of Masouda, your niece? Is
+she with you?"
+
+"Nay," answered the Arab in a low voice, "but she bade me be in a
+certain garden of which you have heard, near Ascalon, at an
+appointed hour, to take her away, as she is leaving the camp of
+Salah-ed-din. So thither I go. Farewell." Then with a reverence
+to the veiled lady, he shook his reins and departed like an arrow
+by the road along which they had come.
+
+Godwin gave a sigh of relief. If Masouda had appointed to meet
+her uncle the Arab, at least she must be safe. So it was no
+voice of hers which seemed to whisper his name in the darkness of
+the night when terror had ahold of him--terror, born perhaps of
+all that he had endured and the shadow of death through which he
+had so lately passed. Then he looked up, to find Wulf staring
+back at the woman behind him, and reproved him, saying that he
+must keep to the spirit of the bargain as well as to the letter,
+and that if he might not speak he must not look either.
+
+"That is a pity," answered Wulf, "for though she is so tied up,
+she must be a tall and noble lady by the way she sits her horse.
+The horse, too, is noble, own cousin or brother to Smoke, I
+think. Perhaps she will sell it when we get to Jerusalem."
+
+Then they rode on, and because they thought their honour in it,
+neither spoke nor looked more at the companion of this adventure,
+though, had they known it, she looked hard enough at them.
+
+At length they reached the gate of Jerusalem, which was crowded
+with folk awaiting the return of their ambassadors. They all
+passed through, and the embassy was escorted thence by the chief
+people, most of the multitude following them to know if they
+brought peace or war.
+
+Now Godwin and Wulf stared at each other, wondering whither they
+were to go and where to find the relatives of their veiled
+companion, of whom they saw nothing. Out of the street opened an
+archway, and beyond this archway was a garden, which seemed to be
+deserted. They rode into it to take counsel, and their companion
+followed, but, as always, a little behind them.
+
+"Jerusalem is reached, and we must speak to her now," said Wulf,
+"if only to ask her whither she wishes to be taken."
+
+Godwin nodded, and they wheeled their horses round.
+
+"Lady," he said in Arabic, "we have fulfilled our charge. Be
+pleased to tell us where are those kindred to whom we must lead
+you."
+
+"Here," answered a soft voice.
+
+They stared about the deserted garden in which stones and sacks
+of earth had been stored ready for a siege, and finding no one,
+said:
+
+"We do not see them."
+
+Then the lady let slip her cloak, though not her veil revealing
+the robe beneath.
+
+"By St. Peter!" said Godwin. "I know the broidery on that dress.
+Masouda! Say, is it you, Masouda?"
+
+As he spoke the veil fell also, and lo! before them was a woman
+like to Masouda and yet not Masouda. The hair was dressed like
+hers; the ornaments and the necklace made of the claws of the
+lion which Godwin killed were hers; the skin was of the same rich
+hue; there even was the tiny mole upon her cheek, but as the head
+was bent they could not see her eyes. Suddenly, with a little
+moan she lifted it, and looked at them.
+
+"Rosamund! It is Rosamund herself!" gasped Wulf. "Rosamund
+disguised as Masouda!"
+
+And he fell rather than leapt from his saddle and ran to her,
+murmuring, "God! I thank Thee!"
+
+Now she seemed to faint and slid from her horse into his arms,
+and lay there a moment, while Godwin turned aside his head.
+
+"Yes," said Rosamund, freeing herself, "it is I and no other, yet
+I rode with you all this way and neither of you knew me."
+
+"Have we eyes that can pierce veils and woollen garments?" asked
+Wulf indignantly; but Godwin said in a strange, strained voice:
+
+"You are Rosamund disguised as Masouda. Who, then, was that woman
+to whom I bade farewell before Saladin while the headsman awaited
+me; a veiled woman who wore the robes and gems of Rosamund?"
+
+"I know not, Godwin," she answered, "unless it were Masouda clad
+in my garments as I left her. Nor do I know anything of this
+story of the headsman who awaited you. I thought--I thought it
+was for Wulf that he waited--oh! Heaven, I thought that."
+
+"Tell us your tale," said Godwin hoarsely.
+
+"It is short," she answered. "After the casting of the lot, of
+which I shall dream till my death-day, I fainted. When I found my
+senses again I thought that I must be mad, for there before me
+stood a woman dressed in my garments, whose face seemed like my
+face, yet not the same.
+
+"'Have no fear,' she said; 'I am Masouda, who, amongst many
+other things, have learned how to play a part. Listen; there is
+no time to lose. I have been ordered to leave the camp; even now
+my uncle the Arab waits without, with two swift horses. You,
+Princess, will leave in my place. Look, you wear my robes and my
+face--almost; and are of my height, and the man who guides you
+will know no difference. I have seen to that, for although a
+soldier of Salah-ed-din, he is of my tribe. I will go with you
+to the door, and there bid you farewell before the eunuchs and
+the guards with weeping, and who will guess that Masouda is the
+princess of Baalbec and that the princess of Baalbec is
+Masouda?'
+
+"'And whither shall I go?' I asked.
+
+"'My uncle, Son of the Sand, will give you over to the embassy
+which rides to Jerusalem, or failing that, will take you to the
+city, or failing that, will hide you in the mountains among his
+own people. See, here is a letter that he must read; I place it
+in your breast.'
+
+"'And what of you, Masouda?' I asked again.
+
+"'Of me? Oh! it is all planned, a plan that cannot fail,' she
+answered. 'Fear not; I escape to-night--I have no time to tell
+you how--and will join you in a day or two. Also, I think that
+you will find Sir Godwin, who will bring you home to England.'
+
+"'But Wulf? What of Wulf?' I asked again. 'He is doomed to die,
+and I will not leave him.'
+
+"'The living and the dead can keep no company,' she answered.
+'Moreover, I have seen him, and all this is done by his most
+urgent order. If you love him, he bids that you will obey.'"
+
+"I never saw Masouda! I never spoke such words! I knew nothing of
+this plot!" exclaimed Wulf, and the brethren looked at each other
+with white faces.
+
+"Speak on," said Godwin; "afterwards we can debate."
+
+"Moreover," continued Rosamund, bowing her head, "Masouda added
+these words, 'I think that Sir Wulf will escape his doom. If you
+would see him again, obey his word, for unless you obey you can
+never hope to look upon him living. Go, now, before we are both
+discovered, which would mean your death and mine, who, if you go,
+am safe.'"
+
+"How knew she that I should escape?" asked Wulf.
+
+"She did not know it. She only said she knew to force Rosamund
+away," answered Godwin in the same strained voice. "And then?"
+
+"And then--oh! having Wulf's express commands, then I went, like
+one in a dream. I remember little of it. At the door we kissed
+and parted weeping, and while the guard bowed before her, she
+blessed me beneath her breath. A soldier stepped forward and
+said, 'Follow me, daughter of Sinan,' and I followed him, none
+taking any note, for at that hour, although perhaps you did not
+see it in your prisons, a strange shadow passed across the sun, of
+which all folk were afraid, thinking that it portended evil,
+either to Saladin or Ascalon.*
+
+[* The eclipse, which overshadowed Palestine and caused much
+terror at Jerusalem on 4th September, 1187, the day of the
+surrender of Ascalon. -Author]
+
+"In the gloom we came to a place, where was an old Arab among
+some trees, and with him two led horses. The soldier spoke to the
+Arab, and I gave him Masouda's letter, which he read. Then he put
+me on one of the led horses and the soldier mounted the other,
+and we departed at a gallop. All that evening and last night we
+rode hard, but in the darkness the soldier left us, and I do not
+know whither he went. At length we came to that mountain shoulder
+and waited there, resting the horses and eating food which the
+Arab had with him, till we saw the embassy, and among them two
+tall knights.
+
+"'See,' said the old Arab, 'yonder come the brethren whom you
+seek. See and give thanks to Allah and to Masouda, who has not
+lied to you, and to whom I must now return.'
+
+"Oh! my heart wept as though it would burst, and I wept in my
+joy--wept and blessed God and Masouda. But the Arab, Son of the
+Sand, told me that for my life's sake I must be silent and keep
+myself close veiled and disguised even from you until we reached
+Jerusalem, lest perhaps if they knew me the embassy might refuse
+escort to the princess of Baalbec and niece of Saladin, or even
+give me up to him.
+
+"Then I promised and asked, 'What of Masouda?' He said that he
+rode back at speed to save her also, as had been arranged, and
+that was why he did not take me to Jerusalem himself. But how
+that was to be done he was not sure as yet; only he was sure that
+she was hidden away safely, and would find a way of escape when
+she wished it. And--and--you know the rest, and here, by the
+grace of God, we three are together again."
+
+"Ay," said Godwin, "but where is Masouda, and what will happen to
+her who has dared to venture such a plot as this? Oh! know you
+what this woman did? I was condemned to die in place of
+Wulf--how, does not matter; you will learn it afterwards--and the
+princess of Baalbec was brought to say me farewell. There, under
+the very eyes of Saladin, Masouda played her part and mimicked
+you so well that the Sultan was deceived, and I, even I, was
+deceived. Yes, when for the first and last time I embraced her, I
+was deceived, although, it is true, I wondered. Also since then a
+great fear has been with me, although here again I was deceived,
+for I thought I feared--for you.
+
+"Now, hark you, Wulf; take Rosamund and lodge her with some lady
+in this city, or, better still, place her in sanctuary with the
+nuns of the Holy Cross, whence none will dare to drag her, and
+let her don their habit. The abbess may remember you, for we have
+met her, and at least she will not refuse Rosamund a refuge."
+
+"Yes, yes; I mind me she asked us news of folk in England. But
+you? Where do you go, Godwin?" said his brother.
+
+"I? I ride back to Ascalon to find Masouda."
+
+"Why?" asked Wulf. "Cannot Masouda save herself, as she told her
+uncle, the Arab, she would do? And has he not returned thither to
+take her away?"
+
+"I do not know," answered Godwin; "but this I do know, that for
+the sake of Rosamund, and perhaps for my sake also, Masouda has
+run a fearful risk. Bethink you, what will be the mood of Saladin
+when at length he finds that she upon whom he had built such
+hopes has gone, leaving a waiting woman decked out in her
+attire."
+
+"Oh!" broke in Rosamund. "I feared it, but I awoke to find myself
+disguised, and she persuaded me that all was well; also that this
+was done by the will of Wulf, whom she thought would escape."
+
+"That is the worst of if," said Godwin. "To carry out her plan
+she held it necessary to lie, as I think she lied when she said
+that she believed we should both escape, though it is true that
+so it came about. I will tell you why she lied. It was that she
+might give her life to set you free to join me in Jerusalem."
+
+Now Rosamund, who knew the secret of Masouda's heart, looked at
+him strangely, wondering within herself how it came about that,
+thinking Wulf dead or about to die, she should sacrifice herself
+that she, Rosamund, might be sent to the care of Godwin. Surely
+it could not be for love of her, although they loved each other
+well. From love of Godwin then? How strange a way to show it!
+
+Yet now she began to understand. So true and high was this great
+love of Masouda's that for Godwin's sake she was ready to hide
+herself in death, leaving him--now that, as she thought, his
+rival was removed--to live on with the lady whom he loved; ay,
+and at the price of her own life giving that lady to his arms.
+Oh! how noble must she be who could thus plan and act, and,
+whatever her past had been, how pure and high of soul! Surely, if
+she lived, earth had no grander woman; and if she were dead,
+heaven had won a saint indeed.
+
+Rosamund looked at Godwin, and Godwin looked at Rosamund, and
+there was understanding in their eyes, for now both of them saw
+the truth in all its glory and all its horror.
+
+"I think that I should go back also," said Rosamund.
+
+"That shall not be," answered Wulf. "Saladin would kill you for
+this flight, as he has sworn."
+
+"That cannot be," added Godwin. "Shall the sacrifice of blood be
+offered in vain? Moreover it is our duty to prevent you."
+
+Rosamund looked at him again and stammered:
+
+"If--if--that dreadful thing has happened, Godwin--if the
+sacrifice--oh! what will it serve?"
+
+"Rosamund, I know not what has chanced; I go to see. I care not
+what may chance; I go to meet it. Through life, through death,
+and if there be need, through all the fires of hell, I ride on
+till I find Masouda, and kneel to her in homage--"
+
+"And in love," exclaimed Rosamund, as though the words broke from
+her lips against her will.
+
+"Mayhap," Godwin answered, speaking more to himself than to her.
+
+Then seeing the look upon his face, the set mouth and the
+flashing eyes, neither of them sought to stay him further.
+
+"Farewell, my liege-lady and cousin Rosamund," Godwin said; "my
+part is played. Now I leave you in the keeping of God in heaven
+and of Wulf on earth. Should we meet no more, my counsel is that
+you two wed here in Jerusalem and travel back to Steeple, there
+to live in peace, if it may be so. Brother Wulf, fare you well
+also. We part to-day for the first time, who from our birth have
+lived together and loved together and done many a deed together,
+some of which we can look back upon without shame. Go on your
+course rejoicing, taking the love and gladness that Heaven has
+given you and living a good and Christian knight, mindful of the
+end which draws on apace, and of eternity beyond."
+
+"Oh! Godwin, speak not thus," said Wulf, "for in truth it breaks
+my heart to hear such fateful words. Moreover, we do not part
+thus easily. Our lady here will be safe enough among the
+nuns--more safe than I can keep her. Give me an hour, and I will
+set her there and join you. Both of us owe a debt to Masouda, and
+it is not right that it should be paid by you alone."
+
+"Nay," answered Godwin; "look upon Rosamund, and think what is
+about to befall this city. Can you leave her at such a time?"
+
+Then Wulf dropped his head, and trusting himself to speak no more
+words, Godwin mounted his horse, and, without so much as looking
+back, rode into the narrow street and out through the gateway,
+till presently he was lost in the distance and the desert.
+
+Wulf and Rosamund watched him go in silence, for they were choked
+with tears.
+
+"Little did I look to part with my brother thus," said Wulf at
+length in a thick and angry voice. "By God's Wounds! I had more
+gladly died at his side in battle than leave him to meet his doom
+alone."
+
+"And leave me to meet my doom alone," murmured Rosamund; then
+added, "Oh! I would that I were dead who have lived to bring all
+this woe upon you both, and upon that great heart, Masouda. I
+say, Wulf, I would that I were dead."
+
+"Like enough the wish will be fulfilled before all is done,"
+answered Wulf wearily, "only then I pray that I may be dead with
+you, for now, Rosamund, Godwin has gone, forever as I fear, and
+you alone are left to me. Come; let us cease complaining, since
+to dwell upon these griefs cannot help us, and be thankful that
+for a while, at least, we are free. Follow me, Rosamund, and we
+will ride to this nunnery to find you shelter, if we may."
+
+So they rode on through the narrow streets that were crowded with
+scared people, for now the news was spread that the embassy had
+rejected the terms of Saladin. He had offered to give the city
+food and to suffer its inhabitants to fortify the walls, and to
+hold them till the following Whitsuntide if, should no help reach
+them, they would swear to surrender then. But they had answered
+that while they had life they would never abandon the place where
+their God had died.
+
+So now war was before them--war to the end; and who were they
+that must bear its brunt? Their leaders were slain or captive,
+their king a prisoner, their soldiers skeletons on the field of
+Hattin. Only the women and children, the sick, the old, and the
+wounded remained--perhaps eighty thousand souls in all--but few
+of whom could bear arms. Yet these few must defend Jerusalem
+against the might of the victorious Saracen. Little wonder that
+they wailed in the streets till the cry of their despair went up
+to heaven, for in their hearts all of them knew that the holy
+place was doomed and their lives were forfeited.
+
+Pushing their path through this sad multitude, who took little
+note of them, at length they came to the nunnery on the sacred
+Via Dolorosa, which Wulf had seen when Godwin and he were in
+Jerusalem after they had been dismissed by Saladin from Damascus.
+Its door stood in the shadow of that arch where the Roman Pilate
+had uttered to all generations the words "Behold the man!"
+
+Here the porter told him that the nuns were at prayer in their
+chapel. Wulf replied that he must see the lady abbess upon a
+matter which would not delay, and they were shown into a cool and
+lofty room. Presently the door opened, and through it came the
+abbess in her white robes--a tall and stately Englishwoman, of
+middle age, who looked at them curiously.
+
+"Lady Abbess," said Wulf, bowing low, "my name is Wulf D'Arcy. Do
+you remember me?"
+
+"Yes. We met in Jerusalem--before the battle of Hattin," she
+answered. "Also I know something of your story in this land--a
+very strange one."
+
+"This lady," went on Wulf, "is the daughter and heiress of Sir
+Andrew D'Arcy, my dead uncle, and in Syria the princess of
+Baalbec and the niece of Saladin."
+
+The abbess started, and asked: "Is she, then, of their accursed
+faith, as her garb would seem to show?"
+
+"Nay, mother," said Rosamund, "I am a Christian, if a sinful
+one, and I come here to seek sanctuary, lest when they know who I
+am and he clamours at their gates, my fellow Christians may
+surrender me to my uncle, the Sultan."
+
+"Tell me the story," said the abbess; and they told her briefly,
+while she listened, amazed. When they had finished, she said:
+
+"Alas! my daughter, how can we save you, whose own lives are at
+stake? That belongs to God alone. Still, what we can we will do
+gladly, and here, at least, you may rest for some short while. At
+the most holy altar of our chapel you shall be given sanctuary,
+after which no Christian man dare lay a hand upon you, since to
+do so is a sacrilege that would cost him his soul. Moreover, I
+counsel that you be enrolled upon our books as a novice, and don
+our garb. Nay," she added with a smile, noting the look of alarm
+on the face of Wulf, "the lady Rosamund need not wear it always,
+unless such should be her wish. Not every novice proceeds to the
+final vows."
+
+"Long have I been decked in gold-embroidered silks and priceless
+gems," answered Rosamund, "and now I seem to desire that white
+robe of yours more than anything on earth."
+
+So they led Rosamund to the chapel, and in sight of all their
+order and of priests who had been summoned, at the altar there,
+upon that holy spot where they said that once Christ had answered
+Pilate, they placed her hand and gave her sanctuary, and threw
+over her tired head the white veil of a novice. There, too, Wulf
+left her, and riding away, reported himself to Balian of Ibelin,
+the elected commander of the city, who was glad enough to welcome
+so stout a knight where knights were few.
+
+Oh! weary, weary was that ride of Godwin's beneath the sun,
+beneath the stars. Behind him, the brother who had been his
+companion and closest friend, and the woman whom he had loved in
+vain; and in front, he knew not what. What went he forth to seek?
+Another woman, who had risked her life for them all because she
+loved him. And if he found her, what then? Must he wed her, and
+did he wish this? Nay, he desired no woman on the earth; yet what
+was right that he would do. And if he found her not, what then?
+Well, at least he would give himself up to Saladin, who must
+think ill of them by whom he had dealt well, and tell him that of
+this plot they had no knowledge. Indeed, to him he would go
+first, if it were but to beg forgiveness for Masouda should she
+still be in his hands. Then--for he could not hope to be believed
+or pardoned a second time--then let death come, and he would
+welcome it, who greatly longed for peace.
+
+It was evening, and Godwin's tired horse stumbled slowly through
+the great camp of the Saracens without the walls of fallen
+Ascalon. None hindered him, for having been so long a prisoner he
+was known by many, while others thought that he was but one of
+the surrendered Christian knights. So he came to the great
+house where Saladin lodged, and bade the guard take his name to
+the Sultan, saying that he craved audience of him. Presently he
+was admitted, and found Saladin seated in council among his
+ministers.
+
+"Sir Godwin," he said sternly, "seeing how you have dealt by me,
+what brings you back into my camp? I gave you brethren your
+lives, and you have robbed me of one whom I would not lose."
+
+"We did not rob you, sire," answered Godwin, "who knew nothing of
+this plot. Nevertheless, as I was sure that you would think thus,
+I am come from Jerusalem, leaving the princess and my brother
+there, to tell the truth and to surrender myself to you, that I
+may bear in her place any punishment which you think fit to
+inflict upon the woman Masouda."
+
+"Why should you bear it?" asked Saladin.
+
+"Because, Sultan," answered Godwin sadly, and with bent head,
+"whatever she did, she did for love of me, though without my
+knowledge. Tell me, is she still here, or has she fled?"
+
+"She is still here," answered Saladin shortly. "Would you wish to
+see her?"
+
+Godwin breathed a sigh of relief. At least, Masouda still lived,
+and the terror that had struck him in the night was but an evil
+dream born of his own fears and sufferings.
+
+"I do," he answered, "once, if no more. I have words to say to
+her."
+
+"Doubtless she will be glad to learn how her plot prospered,"
+said Saladin, with a grim smile. "In truth it was well laid and
+boldly executed."
+
+Calling to one of his council, that same old imaum who had
+planned the casting of the lots, the Sultan spoke with him aside.
+Then he said:
+
+"Let this knight be led to the woman Masouda. Tomorrow we will
+judge him."
+
+Taking a silver lamp from the wall, the imaum beckoned to Godwin,
+who bowed to the Sultan and followed. As he passed wearily
+through the throng in the audience room, it seemed to Godwin that
+the emirs and captains gathered there looked at him with pity in
+their eyes. So strong was this feeling in him that he halted in
+his walk, and asked:
+
+"Tell me, lord, do I go to my death?"
+
+"All of us go thither," answered Saladin in the silence, "but
+Allah has not written that death is yours to-night."
+
+They passed down long passages; they came to a door which the
+imaum, who hobbled in front, unlocked.
+
+"She is under ward then?" said Godwin.
+
+"Ay," was the answer, "under ward. Enter," and he handed him the
+lamp. "I remain without."
+
+"Perchance she sleeps, and I shall disturb her," said Godwin, as
+he hesitated upon the threshold.
+
+"Did you not say she loved you? Then doubtless, even if she
+sleeps, she, who has dwelt at Masyaf will not take your visit
+ill, who have ridden so far to find her," said the imaum with a
+sneering laugh. "Enter, I say."
+
+So Godwin took the lamp and went in, and the door was shut behind
+him. Surely the place was familiar to him? He knew that arched
+roof and these rough, stone walls. Why, it was here that he had
+been brought to die, and through that very door the false
+Rosamund had come to bid him farewell, who now returned to greet
+her in this same darksome den. Well, it was empty--doubtless she
+would soon come, and he waited, looking at the door. It did not
+stir; he heard no footsteps; nothing broke that utter silence. He
+turned again and stared about him. Something glinted on the
+ground yonder, towards the end of the vault, just where he had
+knelt before the executioner. A shape lay there; doubtless it was
+Masouda, imprisoned and asleep.
+
+"Masouda," he said, and the sounding echoes from the arched walls
+answered back, "Masouda!"
+
+He must awaken her; there was no choice. Yes, it was she, asleep,
+and she still wore the royal robes of Rosamund, and a clasp of
+Rosamund's still glittered on her breast.
+
+How sound Masouda slept! Would she never wake? He knelt down
+beside her and put out his hand to lift the long hair that hid
+her face.
+
+Now it touched her, and lo! the head fell over.
+
+Then, with horror in his heart, Godwin held down the lamp and
+looked. Oh! those robes were red, and those lips were ashen. It
+was Masouda, whose spirit had passed him in the desert; Masouda,
+slain by the headsman's sword! This was the evil jest that had
+been played upon him, and thus--thus they met again.
+
+Godwin rose to his feet and stood over her still shape as a man
+stands in a dream, while words broke from his lips and a fountain
+in his heart was unsealed.
+
+"Masouda," he whispered, "I know now that I love you and you
+only, henceforth and forever, O woman with a royal heart. Wait
+for me, Masouda, wherever you may dwell."
+
+While the whispered words left his lips, it seemed to Godwin that
+once more, as when he rode with Wulf from Ascalon, the strange
+wind blew about his brow, bringing with it the presence of
+Masouda, and that once more the unearthly peace sank into his
+soul.
+
+Then all was past and over, and he turned to see the old imaum
+standing at his side.
+
+"Did I not tell you that you would find her sleeping?" he said,
+with his bitter, chuckling laugh. "Call on her, Sir Knight; call
+on her! Love, they say, can bridge great gulfs--even that between
+severed neck and bosom."
+
+With the silver lamp in his hand Godwin smote, and the man went
+down like a felled ox, leaving him once more in silence and in
+darkness.
+
+For a moment Godwin stood thus, till his brain was filled with
+fire, and he too fell--fell across the corpse of Masouda, and
+there lay still.
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-two: At Jerusalem
+
+Godwin knew that he lay sick, but save that Masouda seemed to
+tend him in his sickness he knew no more, for all the past had
+gone from him. There she was always, clad in a white robe, and
+looking at him with eyes full of ineffable calm and love, and he
+noted that round her neck ran a thin, red line, and wondered how
+it came there.
+
+He knew also that he travelled while he was ill, for at dawn he
+would hear the camp break up with a mighty noise, and feel his
+litter lifted by slaves who bore him along for hours across the
+burning sand, till at length the evening came, and with a humming
+sound, like the sound of hiving bees, the great army set its
+bivouac. Then came the night and the pale moon floating like a
+boat upon the azure sea above, and everywhere the bright, eternal
+stars, to which went up the constant cry of "Allahu Akbar! Allahu
+Akbar! God is the greatest, there is none but He."
+
+"It is a false god," he would say. "Tell them to cry upon the
+Saviour of the World."
+
+Then the voice of Masouda would seem to answer:
+
+"Judge not. No god whom men worship with a pure and single heart
+is wholly false. Many be the ladders that lead to heaven. Judge
+not, you Christian knight."
+
+At length that journey was done, and there arose new noises as of
+the roar of battle. Orders were given and men marched out in
+thousands; then rose that roar, and they marched back again,
+mourning their dead.
+
+At last came a day when, opening his eyes, Godwin turned to rest
+them on Masouda, and lo! she was gone, and in her accustomed
+place there sat a man whom he knew well--Egbert, once bishop of
+Nazareth, who gave him to drink of sherbet cooled with snow. Yes,
+the Woman had departed and the Priest was there.
+
+"Where am I?" he asked.
+
+"Outside the walls of Jerusalem, my son, a prisoner in the camp
+of Saladin," was the answer.
+
+"And where is Masouda, who has sat by me all these days?"
+
+"In heaven, as I trust," came the gentle answer, "for she was a
+brave lady. It is I who have sat by you."
+
+"Nay," said Godwin obstinately, "it was Masouda."
+
+"If so," answered the bishop again, "it was her spirit, for I
+shrove her and have prayed over her open grave--her spirit, which
+came to visit you from heaven, and has gone back to heaven now
+that you are of the earth again."
+
+Then Godwin remembered the truth, and groaning, fell asleep.
+Afterwards, as he grew stronger, Egbert told him all the story.
+He learned that when he was found lying senseless on the body of
+Masouda the emirs wished Saladin to kill him, if for no other
+reason because he had dashed out the eye of the holy imaum with a
+lamp. But the Sultan, who had discovered the truth, would not,
+for he said that it was unworthy of the imaum to have mocked his
+grief, and that Sir Godwin had dealt with him as he deserved.
+Also, that this Frank was one of the bravest of knights, who had
+returned to bear the punishment of a sin which he did not commit,
+and that, although he was a Christian, he loved him as a friend.
+
+So the imaum lost both his eye and his vengeance.
+
+Thus it had come about that the bishop Egbert was ordered to
+nurse him, and, if possible to save his life; and when at last
+they marched upon Jerusalem, soldiers were told off to bear his
+litter, and a good tent was set apart to cover him. Now the siege
+of the holy city had begun, and there was much slaughter on both
+sides.
+
+"Will it fall?" asked Godwin.
+
+"I fear so, unless the saints help them," answered Egbert. "Alas!
+I fear so."
+
+"Will not Saladin be merciful?" he asked again.
+
+"Why should he be merciful, my son, since they have refused his
+terms and defied him? Nay, he has sworn that as Godfrey took the
+place nigh upon a hundred years ago and slaughtered the Mussulmen
+who dwelt there by thousands, men, women, and children together,
+so will he do to the Christians. Oh! why should he spare them?
+They must die! They must die!" and wringing his hands Egbert left
+the tent.
+
+Godwin lay still, wondering what the answer to this riddle might
+be. He could think of one, and one only. In Jerusalem was
+Rosamund, the Sultan's niece, whom he must desire to recapture,
+above all things, not only because she was of his blood, but
+since he feared that if he did not do so his vision concerning
+her would come to nothing.
+
+Now what was this vision? That through Rosamund much slaughter
+should be spared. Well, if Jerusalem were saved, would not tens
+of thousands of Moslem and Christian lives be saved also? Oh!
+surely here was the answer, and some angel had put it into his
+heart, and now he prayed for strength to plant it in the heart of
+Saladin, for strength and opportunity.
+
+This very day Godwin found the opportunity. As he lay dozing in
+his tent that evening, being still too weak to rise, a shadow
+fell upon him, and opening his eyes he saw the Sultan himself
+standing alone by his bedside. Now he strove to rise to salute
+him, but in a kind voice Saladin bade him lie still, and seating
+himself, began to talk.
+
+"Sir Godwin," he said, "I am come to ask your pardon. When I
+sent you to visit that dead woman, who had suffered justly for
+her crime, I did an act unworthy of a king. But my heart was
+bitter against her and you, and the imaum, he whom you smote, put
+into my mind the trick that cost him his eye and almost cost a
+worn-out and sorrowful man his life. I have spoken."
+
+"I thank you, sire, who were always noble," answered Godwin.
+
+"You say so. Yet I have done things to you and yours that you can
+scarcely hold as noble," said Saladin. "I stole your cousin from
+her home, as her mother had been stolen from mine, paying back
+ill with ill, which is against the law, and in his own hall my
+servants slew her father and your uncle, who was once my friend.
+Well, these things I did because a fate drove me on--the fate of
+a dream, the fate of a dream. Say, Sir Godwin, is that story
+which they tell in the camps true, that a vision came to you
+before the battle of Hattin, and that you warned the leaders of
+the Franks not to advance against me?"
+
+"Yes, it is true," answered Godwin, and he told the vision, and
+of how he had sworn to it on the Rood.
+
+"And what did they say to you?"
+
+"They laughed at me, and hinted that I was a sorcerer, or a
+traitor in your pay, or both."
+
+"Blind fools, who would not hear the truth when it was sent to
+them by the pure mouth of a prophet," muttered Saladin. "Well,
+they paid the price, and I and my faith are the gainers. Do you
+wonder, then, Sir Godwin, that I also believe my vision which
+came to me thrice in the night season, bringing with it the
+picture of the very face of my niece, the princess of Baalbec?"
+
+"I do not wonder," answered Godwin.
+
+"Do you wonder also that I was mad with rage when I learned that
+at last yonder brave dead woman had outwitted me and all my spies
+and guards, and this after I had spared your lives? Do you wonder
+that I am still so wroth, believing as I do that a great occasion
+has been taken from me?"
+
+"I do not wonder. But, Sultan, I who have seen a vision speak to
+you who also have seen a vision--a prophet to a prophet. And I
+tell you that the occasion has not been taken--it has been
+brought, yes, to your very door, and that all these things have
+happened that it might thus be brought."
+
+"Say on," said Saladin, gazing at him earnestly.
+
+"See now, Salah-ed-din, the princess Rosamund is in Jerusalem. She
+has been led to Jerusalem that you may spare it for her sake, and
+thus make an end of bloodshed and save the lives of folk
+uncounted."
+
+"Never!" said the Sultan, springing up. "They have rejected my
+mercy, and I have sworn to sweep them away, man, woman, and
+child, and be avenged upon all their unclean and faithless race."
+
+"Is Rosamund unclean that you would be avenged upon her? Will her
+dead body bring you peace? If Jerusalem is put to the sword, she
+must perish also."
+
+"I will give orders that she is to be saved--that she may be
+judged for her crime by me," he added grimly.
+
+"How can she be saved when the stormers are drunk with slaughter,
+and she but one disguised woman among ten thousand others?"
+
+"Then," he answered, stamping his foot, "she shall be brought or
+dragged out of Jerusalem before the slaughter begins."
+
+"That, I think, will not happen while Wulf is there to protect
+her," said Godwin quietly.
+
+"Yet I say that it must be so--it shall be so."
+
+Then, without more words, Saladin left the tent with a troubled
+brow.
+
+Within Jerusalem all was misery, all was despair. There were
+crowded thousands and tens of thousands of fugitives, women and
+children, many of them, whose husbands and fathers had been slain
+at Hattin or elsewhere. The fighting men who were left had few
+commanders, and thus it came about that soon Wulf found himself
+the captain of very many of them.
+
+First Saladin attacked from the west between the gates of Sts.
+Stephen and of David, but here stood strong fortresses called the
+Castle of the Pisans and the Tower of Tancred, whence the
+defenders made sallies upon him, driving back his stormers. So he
+determined to change his ground, and moved his army to the east,
+camping it near the valley of the Kedron. When they saw the tents
+being struck the Christians thought that he was abandoning the
+siege, and gave thanks to God in all their churches; but lo! next
+morning the white array of these appeared again on the east, and
+they knew that their doom was sealed.
+
+There were in the city many who desired to surrender to the
+Sultan, and fierce grew the debates between them and those who
+swore that they would rather die. At length it was agreed that an
+embassy should be sent. So it came under safe conduct, and was
+received by Saladin in presence of his emirs and counsellors. He
+asked them what was their wish, and they replied that they had
+come to discuss terms. Then he answered thus:
+
+"In Jerusalem is a certain lady, my niece, known among us as the
+princess of Baalbec, and among the Christians as Rosamund D'Arcy,
+who escaped thither a while ago in the company of the knight, Sir
+Wulf D'Arcy, whom I have seen fighting bravely among your
+warriors. Let her be surrendered to me that I may deal with her
+as she deserves, and we will talk again. Till then I have no more
+to say."
+
+Now most of the embassy knew nothing of this lady, but one or two
+said they thought that they had heard of her, but had no
+knowledge of where she was hidden.
+
+"Then return and search her out," said Saladin, and so dismissed
+them.
+
+Back came the envoys to the council and told what Saladin had
+said.
+
+"At least," exclaimed Heraclius the Patriarch, "in this matter it
+is easy to satisfy the Sultan. Let his niece be found and
+delivered to him. Where is she?"
+
+Now one declared that was known by the knight, Sir Wulf D'Arcy,
+with whom she had entered the city. So he was sent for, and came
+with armour rent and red sword in hand, for he had just beaten
+back an attack upon the barbican, and asked what was their
+pleasure.
+
+"We desire to know, Sir Wulf," said the patriarch, "where you have
+hidden away the lady known as the princess of Baalbec, whom you
+stole from the Sultan?"
+
+"What is that to your Holiness?" asked Wulf shortly.
+
+"A great deal, to me and to all, seeing that Saladin will not
+even treat with us until she is delivered to him."
+
+"Does this council, then, propose to hand over a Christian lady
+to the Saracens against her will?" asked Wulf sternly.
+
+"We must," answered Heraclius. "Moreover, she belongs to them."
+
+"She does not belong," answered Wulf. "She was kidnapped by
+Saladin in England, and ever since has striven to escape from
+him."
+
+"Waste not our time," exclaimed the patriarch impatiently. "We
+understand that you are this woman's lover, but however that may
+be, Saladin demands her, and to Saladin she must go. So tell us
+where she is without more ado, Sir Wulf."
+
+"Discover that for yourself, Sir Patriarch," replied Wulf in
+fury. "Or, if you cannot, send one of your own women in her
+place."
+
+Now there was a murmur in the council, but of wonder at his
+boldness rather than of indignation, for this patriarch was a
+very evil liver.
+
+"I care not if I speak the truth," went on Wulf, "for it is known
+to all. Moreover, I tell this man that it is well for him that he
+is a priest, however shameful, for otherwise I would cleave his
+head in two who has dared to call the lady Rosamund my lover."
+Then, still shaking with wrath, the great knight turned and
+stalked from the council chamber.
+
+"A dangerous man," said Heraclius, who was white to the lips; "a
+very dangerous man. I propose that he should be imprisoned."
+
+"Ay," answered the lord Balian of Ibelin, who was in supreme
+command of the city, "a very dangerous man--to his foes, as I can
+testify. I saw him and his brother charge through the hosts of
+the Saracens at the battle of Hattin, and I have seen him in the
+breach upon the wall. Would that we had more such dangerous men
+just now!"
+
+"But he has insulted me," shouted the patriarch, "me and my holy
+office."
+
+"The truth should be no insult," answered Balian with meaning.
+"At least, it is a private matter between you and him on account
+of which we cannot spare one of our few captains. Now as regards
+this lady, I like not the business--"
+
+As he spoke a messenger entered the room and said that the
+hiding-place of Rosamund had been discovered. She had been
+admitted a novice into the community of the Virgins of the Holy
+Cross, who had their house by the arch on the Via Dolorosa.
+
+"Now I like it still less," Balian went on, "for to touch her
+would be sacrilege."
+
+"His Holiness, Heraclius, will give us absolution," said a
+mocking voice.
+
+Then another leader rose--he was one of the party who desired
+peace--and pointed out that this was no time to stand on
+scruples, for the Sultan would not listen to them in their sore
+plight unless the lady were delivered to him to be judged for her
+offence. Perhaps, being his own niece, she would, in fact, suffer
+no harm at his hands, and whether this were so or not, it was
+better that one should endure wrong, or even death, than many.
+
+With such words he over-persuaded the most of them, so that in
+the end they rose and went to the convent of the Holy Cross,
+where the patriarch demanded admission for them, which, indeed,
+could not be refused. The stately abbess received them in the
+refectory, and asked their pleasure.
+
+"Daughter," said the patriarch, "you have in your keeping a lady
+named Rosamund D'Arcy, with whom we desire to speak. Where is
+she?"
+
+"The novice Rosamund," answered the abbess, "prays by the holy
+altar in the chapel."
+
+Now one murmured, "She has taken sanctuary," but the patriarch
+said:
+
+"Tell us, daughter, does she pray alone?"
+
+"A knight guards her prayers," was the answer.
+
+"Ah! as I thought, he has been beforehand with us. Also,
+daughter, surely your discipline is somewhat lax if you suffer
+knights thus to invade your chapel. But lead us thither."
+
+"The dangers of the times and of the lady must answer for it,"
+the abbess replied boldly, as she obeyed.
+
+Presently they were in the great, dim place, where the lamps
+burned day and night. There by the altar, built, it was said,
+upon the spot where the Lord stood to receive judgment, they saw
+a kneeling woman, who, clad in the robe of a novice, grasped the
+stonework with her hands. Without the rails, also kneeling, was
+the knight Wulf, still as a statue on a sepulchre. Hearing them,
+he rose, turned him about, and drew his great sword.
+
+"Sheathe that sword," commanded Heraclius.
+
+"When I became a knight," answered Wulf, "I swore to defend the
+innocent from harm and the altars of God from sacrilege at the
+hands of wicked men. Therefore I sheathe not my sword."
+
+"Take no heed of him," said one; and Heraclius, standing back in
+the aisle, addressed Rosamund:
+
+"Daughter," he cried, "with bitter grief we are come to ask of
+you a sacrifice, that you should give yourself for the people, as
+our Master gave Himself for the people. Saladin demands you as a
+fugitive of his blood, and until you are delivered to him he will
+not treat with us for the saving of the city. Come forth, then,
+we pray you."
+
+Now Rosamund rose and faced them, with her hand resting upon the
+altar.
+
+"I risked my life and I believe another gave her life," she said,
+"that I might escape from the power of the Moslems. I will not
+come forth to return to them."
+
+"Then, our need being sore, we must take you," answered Heraclius
+sullenly.
+
+"What!" she cried. "You, the patriarch of this sacred city, would
+tear me from the sanctuary of its holiest altar? Oh! then, indeed
+shall the curse fall upon it and you. Hence, they say, our sweet
+Lord was haled to sacrifice by the command of an unjust judge,
+and thereafter Jerusalem was taken by the sword. Must I too be
+dragged from the spot that His feet have hallowed, and even in
+these weeds"--and she pointed to her white robe--"thrown as an
+offering to your foes, who mayhap will bid me choose between
+death and the Koran? If so, I say assuredly that offering will be
+made in vain, and assuredly your streets shall run red with the
+blood of those who tore me from my sanctuary."
+
+Now they consulted together, some taking one side and some the
+other, but the most of them declared that she must be given up to
+Saladin.
+
+"Come of your own will, I pray you," said the patriarch, "since
+we would not take you by force."
+
+"By force only will you take me," answered Rosamund.
+
+Then the abbess spoke.
+
+"Sirs, will you commit so great a crime? Then I tell you that it
+cannot go without its punishment. With this lady I say"--and she
+drew up her tall shape--"that it shall be paid for in your blood,
+and mayhap in the blood of all of us. Remember my words when the
+Saracens have won the city, and are putting its children to the
+sword."
+
+"I absolve you from the sin," shouted the patriarch, "if sin it
+is."
+
+"Absolve yourself," broke in Wulf sternly, "and know this. I am
+but one man, but I have some strength and skill. If you seek but
+to lay a hand upon the novice Rosamund to hale her away to be
+slain by Saladin, as he has sworn that he would do should she
+dare to fly from him, before I die there are those among you who
+have looked the last upon the light."
+
+Then, standing there before the altar rails, he lifted his great
+blade and settled the skull-blazoned shield upon his arm.
+
+Now the patriarch raved and stormed, and one among them cried
+that they would fetch bows and shoot Wulf down from a distance.
+
+"And thus," broke in Rosamund, "add murder to sacrilege! Oh!
+sirs, bethink what you do--ay, and remember this, that you do it
+all in vain. Saladin has promised you nothing, except that if you
+deliver me to him, he will talk with you, and then you may find
+that you have sinned for nothing. Have pity on me and go your
+ways, leaving the issue in the hand of God."
+
+"That is true," cried some. "Saladin made no promises."
+
+Now Balian, the guardian of the city, who had followed them to
+the chapel and standing in the background heard what passed
+there, stepped forward and said:
+
+"My lord Patriarch, I pray you let this thing be, since from such
+a crime no good could come to us or any. That altar is the
+holiest and most noted place of sanctuary in all Jerusalem. Will
+you dare to tear a maiden from it whose only sin is that she, a
+Christian, has escaped the Saracens by whom she was stolen? Do
+you dare to give her back to them and death, for such will be her
+doom at the hands of Saladin? Surely that would be the act of
+cowards, and bring upon us the fate of cowards. Sir Wulf, put up
+your sword and fear nothing. If there is any safety in Jerusalem,
+your lady is safe. Abbess, lead her to her cell."
+
+"Nay," answered the abbess with fine sarcasm, "it is not fitting
+that we should leave this place before his Holiness."
+
+"Then you have not long to wait," shouted the patriarch in fury.
+"Is this a time for scruples about altars? Is this a time to
+listen to the prayers of a girl or to threats of a single knight,
+or the doubts of a superstitious captain? Well, take your way and
+let your lives pay its cost. Yet I say that if Saladin asked for
+half the noble maidens in the city, it would be cheap to let him
+have them in payment for the blood of eighty thousand folk," and
+he stalked towards the door.
+
+So they went away, all except Wulf, who stayed to make sure that
+they were gone, and the abbess, who came to Rosamund and embraced
+her, saying that for the while the danger was past, and she might
+rest quiet.
+
+"Yes, mother," answered Rosamund with a sob, "but oh! have I done
+right? Should I not have surrendered myself to the wrath of
+Saladin if the lives of so many hang upon it? Perhaps, after all,
+he would forget his oath and spare my life, though at best I
+should never be suffered to escape again while there is a castle
+in Baalbec or a guarded harem in Damascus. Moreover, it is hard
+to bid farewell to all one loves forever," and she glanced
+towards Wulf, who stood out of hearing.
+
+"Yes," answered the abbess, "it is hard, as we nuns know well.
+But, daughter, that sore choice has not yet been thrust upon you.
+When Saladin says that he sets you against the lives of all this
+cityful, then you must judge."
+
+"Ay," repeated Rosamund, "then I--must judge."
+
+The siege went on; from terror to terror it went on. The
+mangonels hurled their stones unceasingly, the arrows flew in
+clouds so that none could stand upon the walls. Thousands of the
+cavalry of Saladin hovered round St. Stephen's Gate, while the
+engines poured fire and bolts upon the doomed town, and the
+Saracen miners worked their way beneath the barbican and the
+wall. The soldiers within could not sally because of the
+multitude of the watching horsemen; they could not show
+themselves, since he who did so was at once destroyed by a
+thousand darts, and they could not build up the breaches of the
+crumbling wall. As day was added to day, the despair grew ever
+deeper. In every street might be met long processions of monks
+bearing crosses and chanting penitential psalms and prayers,
+while in the house-doors women wailed to Christ for mercy, and
+held to their breasts the children which must so soon be given to
+death, or torn from them to deck some Mussulman harem.
+
+The commander Balian called the knights together in council, and
+showed them that Jerusalem was doomed.
+
+"Then," said one of the leaders, "let us sally out and die
+fighting in the midst of foes."
+
+"Ay," added Heraclius, "and leave our children and our women to
+death and dishonour. Then that surrender is better, since there
+is no hope of succour."
+
+"Nay," answered Balian, "we will not surrender. While God lives,
+there is hope."
+
+"He lived on the day of Hattin, and suffered it," said Heraclius;
+and the council broke up, having decided nothing.
+
+That afternoon Balian stood once more before Saladin and implored
+him to spare the city.
+
+Saladin led him to the door of the tent and pointed to his
+yellow banners floating here and there upon the wall, and to one
+that at this moment rose upon the breach itself.
+
+"Why should I spare what I have already conquered, and what I
+have sworn to destroy?" he asked. "When I offered you mercy you
+would have none of it. Why do you ask it now?"
+
+Then Balian answered him in those words that will ring through
+history forever.
+
+"For this reason, Sultan. Before God, if die we must, we will
+first slaughter our women and our little children, leaving you
+neither male nor female to enslave. We will burn the city and its
+wealth; we will grind the holy Rock to powder and make of the
+mosque el-Aksa, and the other sacred places, a heap of ruins. We
+will cut the throats of the five thousand followers of the
+Prophet who are in our power, and then, every man of us who can
+bear arms, we will sally out into the midst of you and fight on
+till we fall. So I think Jerusalem shall cost you dear."
+
+The Sultan stared at him and stroked his beard.
+
+"Eighty thousand lives," he muttered; "eighty thousand lives,
+besides those of my soldiers whom you will slay. A great
+slaughter--and the holy city destroyed forever. Oh! it was of
+such a massacre as this that once I dreamed."
+
+Then Saladin sat still and thought a while, his head bowed upon
+his breast.
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Three: Saint Rosamund
+
+From the day when he saw Saladin Godwin began to grow strong
+again, and as his health came back, so he fell to thinking.
+Rosamund was lost to him and Masouda was dead, and at times he
+wished that he were dead also. What more had he to do with his
+life, which had been so full of sorrow, struggle and bloodshed?
+Go back to England to live there upon his lands, and wait until
+old age and death overtook him? The prospect would have pleased
+many, but it did not please Godwin, who felt that his days were
+not given to him for this purpose, and that while he lived he
+must also labour.
+
+As he sat thinking thus, and was very unhappy, the aged bishop
+Egbert, who had nursed him so well, entered his tent, and, noting
+his face, asked:
+
+"What ails you, my son?"
+
+"Would you wish to hear?" said Godwin.
+
+"Am I not your confessor, with a right to hear?" answered the
+gentle old man. "Show me your trouble."
+
+So Godwin began at the beginning and told it all--how as a lad he
+had secretly desired to enter the Church; how the old prior of
+the abbey at Stangate counselled him that he was too young to
+judge; how then the love of Rosamund had entered into his life
+with his manhood, and he had thought no more of religion. He told
+him also of the dream that he had dreamed when he lay wounded
+after the fight on Death Creek; of the vows which he and Wulf had
+vowed at the time of their knighting, and of how by degrees he
+had learned that Rosamund's love was not for him. Lastly, he told
+him of Masouda, but of her Egbert, who had shriven her, knew
+already.
+
+The bishop listened in silence till he had finished. Then he
+looked up, saying:
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Now," answered Godwin, "I know not. Yet it seems to me that I
+hear the sound of my own feet walking upon cloister stones, and
+of my own voice lifted up in prayer before the altar."
+
+"You are still young to talk thus, and though Rosamund be lost to
+you and Masouda dead, there are other women in the world," said
+Egbert.
+
+Godwin shook his head.
+
+"Not for me, my father."
+
+"Then there are the knightly Orders, in which you might rise
+high."
+
+Again he shook his head.
+
+"The Templars and the Hospitallers are crushed. Moreover, I
+watched them in Jerusalem and the field, and love them not.
+Should they change their ways, or should I be needed to fight
+against the Infidel, I can join them by dispensation in days to
+come. But counsel me--what shall I do now?"
+
+"Oh! my son," the old bishop said, his face lighting up, "if God
+calls you, come to God. I will show you the road."
+
+"Yes, I will come," Godwin answered quietly. "I will come, and,
+unless the Cross should once more call me to follow it in war, I
+will strive to spend the time that is left to me in His service
+and that of men. For I think, my father, that to this end I was
+born."
+
+Three days later Godwin was ordained a priest, there in the camp
+of Saladin, by the hand of the bishop Egbert, while around his
+tent the servants of Mahomet, triumphant at the approaching
+downfall of the Cross, shouted that God is great and Mahomet His
+only prophet.
+
+    *       *       *
+
+Saladin lifted his head and looked at Balian.
+
+"Tell me," he said, "what of the princess of Baalbec, whom you
+know as the lady Rosamund D'Arcy? I told you that I would speak
+no more with you of the safety of Jerusalem until she was
+delivered to me for judgment. Yet I see her not."
+
+"Sultan," answered Balian, "we found this lady in the convent of
+the Holy Cross, wearing the robe of a novice of that order. She
+had taken the sanctuary there by the altar which we deem so
+sacred and inviolable, and refused to come."
+
+Saladin laughed.
+
+"Cannot all your men-at-arms drag one maiden from an altar
+stone?--unless, indeed, the great knight Wulf stood before it
+with sword aloft," he added.
+
+"So he stood," answered Balian, "but it was not of him that we
+thought, though assuredly he would have slain some of us. To do
+this thing would have been an awful crime, which we were sure
+must bring down the vengeance of our God upon us and upon the
+city."
+
+"What of the vengeance of Salah-ed-din?"
+
+"Sore as is our case, Sultan, we still fear God more than
+Saladin."
+
+"Ay, Sir Balian, but Salah-ed-din may be a sword in the hand of
+God."
+
+"Which sword, Sultan, would have fallen swiftly had we done this
+deed."
+
+"I think that it is about to fall," said Saladin, and again was
+silent and stroked his beard.
+
+"Listen, now," he said at length. "Let the princess, my niece,
+come to me and ask it of my grace, and I think that I will grant
+you terms for which, in your plight, you may be thankful."
+
+"Then we must dare the great sin and take her," answered Balian
+sadly, "having first slain the knight Wulf, who will not let her
+go while he is alive."
+
+"Nay, Sir Balian, for that I should be sorry, nor will I suffer
+it, for though a Christian he is a man after my own heart. This
+time I said 'Let her come to me,' not 'Let her be brought.' Ay,
+come of her own free will, to answer to me for her sin against
+me, understanding that I promise her nothing, who in the old days
+promised her much, and kept my word. Then she was the princess of
+Baalbec, with all the rights belonging to that great rank, to
+whom I had sworn that no husband should be forced upon her, nor
+any change of faith. Now I take back these oaths, and if she
+comes, she comes as an escaped Cross-worshipping slave, to whom I
+offer only the choice of Islam or of a shameful death."
+
+"What high-born lady would take such terms?" asked Balian in
+dismay. "Rather, I think, would she choose to die by her own hand
+than by that of your hangman, since she can never abjure her
+faith."
+
+"And thereby doom eighty thousand of her fellow Christians, who
+must accompany her to that death," answered Saladin sternly.
+"Know, Sir Balian, I swear it before Allah and for the last time,
+that if my niece Rosamund does not come, of her own free will,
+unforced by any, Jerusalem shall be put to sack."
+
+"Then the fate of the holy city and all its inhabitants hangs
+upon the nobleness of a single woman?" stammered Balian.
+
+"Ay, upon the nobleness of a single woman, as my vision told me
+it should be. If her spirit is high enough, Jerusalem may yet be
+saved. If it be baser than I thought, as well may chance, then
+assuredly with her it is doomed. I have no more to say, but my
+envoys shall ride with you bearing a letter, which with their own
+hands they must present to my niece, the princess of Baalbec.
+Then she can return with them to me, or she can bide where she
+is, when I shall know that I saw but a lying vision of peace and
+mercy flowing from her hands, and will press on this war to its
+bloody end."
+
+Within an hour Balian rode to the city under safe conduct, taking
+with him the envoys of Saladin and the letter, which they were
+charged to deliver to Rosamund.
+
+It was night, and in their lamp-lit chapel the Virgins of the
+Holy Cross upon bended knees chanted the slow and solemn
+Miserere. From their hearts they sang, to whom death and
+dishonour were so near, praying their Lord and the merciful
+Mother of God to have pity, and to spare them and the
+inhabitants of the hallowed town where He had dwelt and suffered,
+and to lead them safe through the shadow of a fate as awful as
+His own. They knew that the end was near, that the walls were
+tottering to their fall, that the defenders were exhausted, and
+that soon the wild soldiers of Saladin would be surging through
+the narrow streets.
+
+Then would come the sack and the slaughter, either by the sword
+of the Saracens, or, perchance, if these found time and they were
+not forgotten, more mercifully at the hands of Christian men, who
+thus would save them from the worst.
+
+Their dirge ended, the abbess rose and addressed them. Her
+bearing was still proud, but her voice quavered.
+
+"My daughters in the Lord," she said, "the doom is almost at our
+door, and we must brace our hearts to meet it. If the commanders
+of the city do what they have promised, they will send some here
+to behead us at the last, and so we shall pass happily to glory
+and be ever with the Lord. But perchance they will forget us, who
+are but a few among eighty thousand souls, of whom some fifty
+thousand must thus be killed. Or their arms may grow weary, or
+themselves they may fall before ever they reach this house--and
+what, my daughters, shall we do then?"
+
+Now some of the nuns clung together and sobbed in their affright,
+and some were silent. Only Rosamund drew herself to her full
+height, and spoke proudly.
+
+"My Mother," she said, "I am a newcomer among you, but I have
+seen the slaughter of Hattin, and I know what befalls Christian
+women and children among the unbelievers. Therefore I ask your
+leave to say my say."
+
+"Speak," said the abbess.
+
+"This is my counsel," went on Rosamund, "and it is short and
+plain. When we know that the Saracens are in the city, let us set
+fire to this convent and get us to our knees and so perish."
+
+"Well spoken; it is best," muttered several. But the abbess
+answered with a sad smile:
+
+"High counsel indeed, such as might be looked for from high
+blood. Yet it may not be taken, since self-slaughter is a deadly
+sin."
+
+"I see little difference between it," said Rosamund, "and the
+stretching out of our necks to the swords of friends. Yet,
+although for others I cannot judge, for myself I do judge who am
+bound by no final vows. I tell you that rather than fall into the
+hands of the Paynims, I will dare that sin and leave them nothing
+but the vile mould which once held the spirit of a woman."
+
+And she laid her hand upon the dagger hilt that was hidden in her
+robe.
+
+Then again the abbess spoke.
+
+"To you, daughter, I cannot forbid the deed, but to those who
+have fully sworn to obey me I do forbid it, and to them I show
+another if a more piteous way of escape from the last shame of
+womanhood. Some of us are old and withered, and have naught to
+fear but death, but others are still young and fair. To these I
+say, when the end is nigh, let them take steel and score face and
+bosom and seat themselves here in this chapel, red with their own
+blood and made loathsome to the sight of man. Then will the end
+come upon them quickly, and they will pass hence unstained to be
+the brides of Heaven."
+
+Now a great groan of horror went up from those miserable women,
+who already saw themselves seated in stained robes, and hideous
+to behold, there in the carved chairs of their choir, awaiting
+death by the swords of furious and savage men, as in a day to
+come their sisters of the Faith were to await it in the doomed
+convent of the Virgins of St. Clare at Acre.*
+
+[* Those who are curious to know the story of the end of those
+holy heroines, the Virgins of St. Clare, I think in the year
+1291, may read it in my book, "A Winter Pilgrimage," pp. 270 and
+271--AUTHOR.]
+
+Yet one by one, except the aged among them, they came up to the
+abbess and swore that they would obey her in this as in
+everything, while the abbess said that herself she would lead
+them down that dreadful road of pain and mutilation. Yes, save
+Rosamund, who declared that she would die undisfigured as God had
+made her, and two other novices, they swore it one by one, laying
+their hands upon the altar.
+
+Then again they got them to their knees and sang the Miserere.
+
+Presently, above their mournful chant, the sound of loud,
+insistent knockings echoed down the vaulted roofs. They sprang up
+screaming:
+
+"The Saracens are here! Give us knives! Give us knives!"
+
+Rosamund drew the dagger from its sheath.
+
+"Wait awhile," cried the abbess. "These may be friends, not foes.
+Sister Ursula, go to the door and seek tidings."
+
+The sister, an aged woman, obeyed with tottering steps, and,
+reaching the massive portal, undid the guichet, or lattice, and
+asked with a quavering voice:
+
+"Who are you that knock?" while the nuns within held their breath
+and strained their ears to catch the answer.
+
+Presently it came, in a woman's silvery tones, that sounded
+strangely still and small in the spaces of that tomb-like
+church.
+
+"I am the Queen Sybilla, with her ladies."
+
+"And what would you with us, O Queen? The right of sanctuary?"
+
+"Nay; I bring with me some envoys from Saladin, who would have
+speech with the lady named Rosamund D'Arcy, who is among you."
+
+Now at these words Rosamund fled to the altar, and stood there,
+still holding the naked dagger in her hand.
+
+"Let her not fear," went on the silvery voice, "for no harm shall
+come to her against her will. Admit us, holy Abbess, we beseech
+you in the name of Christ."
+
+Then the abbess said, "Let us receive the queen with such dignity
+as we may." Motioning to the nuns to take their appointed seats.
+in the choir she placed herself in the great chair at the head of
+them, whilst behind her at the raised altar stood Rosamund, the
+bare knife in her hand.
+
+The door was opened, and through it swept a strange procession.
+First came the beauteous queen wearing her insignia of royalty,
+but with a black veil upon her head. Next followed ladies of her
+court--twelve of them--trembling with fright but splendidly
+apparelled, and after these three stern and turbaned Saracens
+clad in mail, their jewelled scimitars at their sides. Then
+appeared a procession of women, most of them draped in mourning,
+and leading scared children by the hand; the wives, sisters, and
+widows of nobles, knights and burgesses of Jerusalem. Last of all
+marched a hundred or more of captains and warriors, among them
+Wulf, headed by Sir Balian and ended by the patriarch Heraclius
+in his gorgeous robes, with his attendant priests and acolytes.
+
+On swept the queen, up the length of the long church, and as she
+came the abbess and her nuns rose and bowed to her, while one
+offered her the chair of state that was set apart to be used by
+the bishop in his visitations. But she would have none of it.
+
+"Nay," said the queen, "mock me with no honourable seat who come
+here as a humble suppliant, and will make my prayer upon my
+knees."
+
+So down she went upon the marble floor, with all her ladies and
+the following women, while the solemn Saracens looked at her
+wondering and the knights and nobles massed themselves behind.
+
+"What can we give you, O Queen," asked the abbess, "who have
+nothing left save our treasure, to which you are most welcome,
+our honour, and our lives?"
+
+"Alas!" answered the royal lady. "Alas, that I must say it! I
+come to ask the life of one of you."
+
+"Of whom, O Queen?"
+
+Sybilla lifted her head, and with her outstretched arm pointed to
+Rosamund, who stood above them all by the high altar.
+
+For a moment Rosamund turned pale, then spoke in a steady voice:
+
+"Say, what service can my poor life be to you, O Queen, and
+by whom is it sought?"
+
+Thrice Sybilla strove to answer, and at last murmured:
+
+"I cannot. Let the envoys give her the letter, if she is able to
+read their tongue."
+
+"I am able," answered Rosamund, and a Saracen emir drew forth a
+roll and laid it against his forehead, then gave it to the
+abbess, who brought it to Rosamund. With her dagger blade she cut
+its silk, opened it, and read aloud, always in the same quiet
+voice, translating as she read:--
+
+"In the name of Allah the One, the All-merciful, to my niece,
+aforetime the princess of Baalbec, Rosamund D'Arcy by name, now a
+fugitive hidden in a convent of the Franks in the city el-Kuds
+Esh-sherif, the holy city of Jerusalem:
+
+"Niece,--All my promises to you I have performed, and more, since
+for your sake I spared the lives of your cousins, the twin
+knights. But you have repaid me with ingratitude and trickery,
+after the manner of those of your false and accursed faith, and
+have fled from me. I promised you also, again and yet again, that
+if you attempted this thing, death should be your portion. No
+longer, therefore, are you the princess of Baalbec, but only an
+escaped Christian slave, and as such doomed to die whenever my
+sword reaches you.
+
+"Of my vision concerning you, which caused me to bring you to the
+East from England, you know well. Repeat it in your heart before
+you answer. That vision told me that by your nobleness and
+sacrifice you should save the lives of many. I demanded that you
+should be brought back to me, and the request was refused--why,
+it matters not. Now I understand the reason--that this was so
+ordained. I demand no more that force should be used to you. I
+demand that you shall come of your own free will, to suffer the
+bitter and shameful reward of your sin. Or, if you so desire,
+bide where you are of your own free will, and be dealt with as
+God shall decree. This hangs upon your judgment. If you come and
+ask it of me, I will consider the question of the sparing of
+Jerusalem and its inhabitants. If you refuse to come, I will
+certainly put every one of them to the sword, save such of the
+women and children as may be kept for slaves. Decide, then,
+Niece, and quickly, whether you will return with my envoys, or
+bide where they find you.--
+
+"Yusuf Salah-ed-din."
+
+
+
+Rosamund finished reading, and the letter fluttered from her hand
+down to the marble floor.
+
+Then the queen said:
+
+"Lady, we ask this sacrifice of you in the name of these and all
+their fellows," and she pointed to the women and the children
+behind her.
+
+"And my life?" mused Rosamund aloud. "It is all I have. When I
+have paid it away I shall be beggared," and her eyes wandered to
+where the tall shape of Wulf stood by a pillar of the church.
+
+"Perchance Saladin will be merciful," hazarded the queen.
+
+"Why should he be merciful," answered Rosamund, "who has always
+warned me that if I escaped from him and was recaptured,
+certainly I must die? Nay, he will offer me Islam, or death,
+which means--death by the rope--or in some worse fashion."
+
+"But if you stay here you must die," pleaded the queen, "or at
+best fall into the hands of the soldiers. Oh! lady, your life is
+but one life, and with it you can buy those of eighty thousand
+souls."
+
+"Is that so sure?" asked Rosamund. "The Sultan has made no
+promise; he says only that, if I pray it of him, he will consider
+the question of the sparing of Jerusalem."
+
+"But--but," went on the queen, "he says also that if you do not
+come he will surely put Jerusalem to the sword, and to Sir Balian
+he said that if you gave yourself up he thought he might grant
+terms which we should be glad to take. Therefore we dare to ask
+of you to give your life in payment for such a hope. Think, think
+what otherwise must be the lot of these"--and again she pointed
+to the women and children--"ay, and your own sisterhood and of
+all of us. Whereas, if you die, it will be with much honour, and
+your name shall be worshipped as a saint and martyr in every
+church in Christendom.
+
+"Oh! refuse not our prayer, but show that you indeed are great
+enough to step forward to meet the death which comes to every one
+of us, and thereby earn the blessings of half the world and make
+sure your place in heaven, nigh to Him Who also died for men.
+Plead with her, my sisters--plead with her!"
+
+Then the women and the children threw themselves down before her,
+and with tears and sobbing prayed her that she would give up her
+life for theirs. Rosamund looked at them and smiled, then said in
+a clear voice:
+
+"What say you, my cousin and betrothed, Sir Wulf D'Arcy? Come
+hither, and, as is fitting in this strait, give me your counsel."
+
+So the grey-eyed, war-worn Wulf strode up the aisle, and,
+standing by the altar rails, saluted her.
+
+"You have heard," said Rosamund. "Your counsel. Would you have me
+die?"
+
+"Alas!" he answered in a hoarse voice. "It is hard to speak. Yet,
+they are many--you are but one."
+
+Now there was a murmur of applause. For it was known that this
+knight loved his lady dearly, and that but the other day he had
+stood there to defend her to the death against those who would
+give her up to Saladin.
+
+Now Rosamund laughed out, and the sweet sound of her laughter was
+strange in that solemn place and hour.
+
+"Ah, Wulf!" she said. "Wulf, who must ever speak the truth, even
+when it costs him dear. Well, I would not have it otherwise.
+Queen, and all you foolish people, I did but try your tempers.
+Could you, then, think me so base that I would spare to spend
+this poor life of mine, and to forego such few joys as God might
+have in store for me on earth, when those of tens of thousands
+may hang upon the issue? Nay, nay; it is far otherwise."
+
+Then Rosamund sheathed the dagger that all this while she had
+held in her hand, and, lifting the letter from the floor, touched
+her brow with it in signal of obedience, saying in Arabic to the
+envoys:
+
+"I am the slave of Salah-ed-din, Commander of the Faithful. I am
+the small dust beneath his feet. Take notice, Emirs, that in
+presence of all here gathered, of my own free will I, Rosamund
+D'Arcy, aforetime princess and sovereign lady of Baalbec,
+determine to accompany you to the Sultan's camp, there to make
+prayer for the sparing of the lives of the citizens of Jerusalem,
+and afterwards to suffer the punishment of death in payment of my
+flight, according to my royal uncle's high decree. One request I
+make only, if he be pleased to grant it--that my body be brought
+back to Jerusalem for burial before this altar, where of my own
+act I lay down my life. Emirs, I am ready."
+
+Now the envoys bowed before her in grave admiration, and the air
+grew thick with blessings. As Rosamund stepped down from the
+altar the queen threw her arms about her neck and kissed her,
+while lords and knights, women and children, pressed their lips
+upon her hands, upon the hem of her white robe, and even on her
+feet, calling her "Saint" and "Deliverer."
+
+"Alas!" she answered, waving them back. "As yet I am neither of
+these things, though the latter of them I hope to be. Come; let
+us be going."
+
+"Ay," echoed Wulf, stepping to her side, "let us be going."
+
+Rosamund started at the words, and all there stared. "Listen,
+Queen, Emirs, and People," he went on. "I am this lady's kinsman
+and her betrothed knight, sworn to serve her to the end. If she
+be guilty of a crime against the Sultan, I am more guilty, and on
+me also shall fall his vengeance. Let us be going."
+
+"Wulf, Wulf," she said, "it shall not be. One life is asked--not
+both."
+
+"Yet, lady, both shall be given that the measure of atonement may
+run over, and Saladin moved to mercy. Nay, forbid me not. I have
+lived for you, and for you I die. Yes, if they hold me by force,
+still I die, if need be, on my own sword. When I counselled you
+just now, I counselled myself also. Surely you never dreamed that
+I would suffer you to go alone, when by sharing it I could make
+your doom easier."
+
+"Oh, Wulf!" she cried. "You will but make it harder."
+
+"No, no; faced hand in hand, death loses half its terrors.
+Moreover, Saladin is my friend, and I also would plead with him
+for the people of Jerusalem."
+
+Then he whispered in her ear, "Sweet Rosamund, deny me not, lest
+you should drive me to madness and self-murder, who will have no
+more of earth without you."
+
+Now, her eyes full of tears and shining with love, Rosamund
+murmured back:
+
+"You are too strong for me. Let it befall as God wills."
+
+Nor did the others attempt to stay him any more.
+
+Going to the abbess, Rosamund would have knelt before her, but it
+was the abbess who knelt and called her blessed, and kissed her.
+The sisters also kissed her one by one in farewell. Then a priest
+was brought--not the patriarch, of whom she would have none, but
+another, a holy man.
+
+To him apart at the altar, first Rosamund and then Wulf made
+confession of their sins, receiving absolution and the sacrament
+in that form in which it was given to the dying; while, save the
+emirs, all in the church knelt and prayed as for souls that pass.
+
+The solemn ritual was ended. They rose, and, followed by two of
+the envoys--for already the third had departed under escort to
+the court of Saladin to give him warning--the queen, her ladies
+and all the company, walked from the church and through the
+convent halls out into the narrow Street of Woe. Here Wulf, as
+her kinsman, took Rosamund by the hand, leading her as a man
+leads his sister to her bridal. Without it was bright moonlight,
+moonlight clear as day, and by now tidings of this strange story
+had spread through all Jerusalem, so that its narrow streets were
+crowded with spectators, who stood also upon every roof and at
+every window.
+
+"The lady Rosamund!" they shouted. "The blessed Rosamund, who
+goes to a martyr's death to save us. The pure Saint Rosamund and
+her brave knight Wulf!" And they tore flowers and green leaves
+from the gardens and threw them in their path.
+
+Down the long, winding streets, with bent heads and humble mien,
+companioned ever by the multitude, through which soldiers
+cleared the way, they walked thus, while women held up their
+children to touch the robe of Rosamund or to look upon her face.
+At length the gate was reached, and while it was unbarred they
+halted. Then came forward Sir Balian of Ibelin, bareheaded, and
+said:
+
+"Lady, on behalf of the people of Jerusalem and of the whole of
+Christendom, I give you honour and thanks, and to you also, Sir
+Wulf D'Arcy, the bravest and most faithful of all knights."
+
+A company of priests also, headed by a bishop, advanced chanting
+and swinging censers, and blessed them solemnly in the name of
+the Church and of Christ its Master.
+
+"Give us not praise and thanks, but prayers," answered Rosamund;
+"prayers that we may succeed in our mission, to which we gladly
+offer up our lives, and afterwards, when we are dead, prayers for
+the welfare of our sinful souls. But should we fail, as it may
+chance, then remember of us only that we did our best. Oh! good
+people, great sorrows have come upon this land, and the Cross of
+Christ is veiled with shame. Yet it shall shine forth once more,
+and to it through the ages shall all men bow the knee. Oh! may
+you live! May no more death come among you! It is our last
+petition, and with it, this--that when at length you die we may
+meet again in heaven! Now fare you well."
+
+Then they passed through the gate, and as the envoys declared
+that none might accompany them further, walked forward followed
+by the sound of the weeping of the multitude towards the camp of
+Saladin, two strange and lonesome figures in the moonlight.
+
+At last these lamentations could be heard no more, and there, on
+the outskirts of the Moslem lines, an escort met them, and
+bearers with a litter.
+
+But into this Rosamund would not enter, so they walked onwards up
+the hill, till they came to the great square in the centre of the
+camp upon the Mount of Olives, beyond the grey trees of the
+Garden of Gethsemane. There, awaiting them at the head of the
+square, sat Saladin in state, while all about, rank upon rank, in
+thousands and tens of thousands, was gathered his vast army, who
+watched them pass in silence.
+
+Thus they came into the presence of the Sultan and knelt before
+him, Rosamund in her novice's white robe, and Wulf in his
+battered mail.
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty Four: The Dregs of the Cup
+
+Saladin looked at them, but gave them no greeting. Then he
+spoke:
+
+"Woman, you have had my message. You know that your rank is taken
+from you, and that with it my promises are at an end; you know
+also that you come hither to suffer the death of faithless women.
+Is it so?"
+
+"I know all these things, great Salah-ed-din," answered Rosamund.
+
+"Tell me, then, do you come of your own free will, unforced by
+any, and why does the knight Sir Wulf, whose life I spared and do
+not seek, kneel at your side?"
+
+"I come of my own free will, Salah-ed-din, as your emirs can tell
+you; ask them. For the rest, my kinsman must answer for himself."
+
+"Sultan," said Wulf, "I counselled the lady Rosamund that she
+should come--not that she needed such counsel--and, having given
+it, I accompanied her by right of blood and of Justice, since her
+offence against you is mine also. Her fate is my fate."
+
+"I have no quarrel against you whom I forgave, therefore you must
+take your own way to follow the path she goes."
+
+"Doubtless," answered Wulf, "being a Christian among many sons of
+the Prophet, it will not be hard to find a friendly scimitar to
+help me on that road. I ask of your goodness that her fate may be
+my fate."
+
+"What!" said Saladin. "You are ready to die with her, although
+you are young and strong, and there are so many other women in
+the world?"
+
+Wulf smiled and nodded his head.
+
+"Good. Who am I that I should stand between a fool and his folly?
+I grant the boon. Your fate shall be her fate; Wulf D'Arcy, you
+shall drink of the cup of my slave Rosamund to its last
+bitterest dregs."
+
+"I desire no less," said Wulf coolly.
+
+Now Saladin looked at Rosamund and asked,
+
+"Woman, why have you come here to brave my vengeance? Speak on if
+you have aught to ask."
+
+Then Rosamund rose from her knees, and, standing before him,
+said:
+
+"I am come, O my mighty lord, to plead for the people of
+Jerusalem, because it was told me that you would listen to no
+other voice than that of this your slave. See, many moons ago,
+you had a vision concerning me. Thrice you dreamed in the night
+that I, the niece whom you had never seen, by some act of mine
+should be the means of saving much life and a way of peace.
+Therefore you tore me from my home and brought my father to a
+bloody death, as you are about to bring his daughter; and after
+much suffering and danger I fell into your power, and was treated
+with great honour. Still I, who am a Christian, and who grew
+sick with the sight of the daily slaughter and outrage of my kin,
+strove to escape from you, although you had warned me that the
+price of this crime was death; and in the end, through the wit
+and sacrifice of another woman, I did escape.
+
+"Now I return to pay that price, and behold! your vision is
+fulfilled--or, at the least, you can fulfil it if God should
+touch your heart with grace, seeing that of my own will I am come
+to pray you, Salah-ed-din, to spare the city, and for its blood
+to accept mine as a token and an offering.
+
+"Oh, my lord! as you are great, be merciful. What will it avail
+you in the day of your own judgment that you have added another
+eighty thousand to the tally of your slain, and with them many
+more thousands of your own folk, since the warriors of Jerusalem
+will not die unavenged? Give them their lives and let them go
+free, and win thereby the gratitude of mankind and the
+forgiveness of God above."
+
+So Rosamund spoke, and stretching out her arms towards him, was
+silent.
+
+"These things I offered to them, and they were refused," answered
+Saladin. "Why should I grant them now that they are conquered?"
+
+"My lord, Strong-to-Aid," said Rosamund, "do you, who are so
+brave, blame yonder knights and soldiers because they fought on
+against desperate odds? Would you not have called them cowards if
+they had yielded up the city where their Saviour died and struck
+no blow to save it? Oh! I am outworn! I can say no more; but once
+again, most humbly and on my knees, I beseech you speak the word
+of mercy, and let not your triumph be dyed red with the blood of
+women and of little children."
+
+Then casting herself upon her face, Rosamund clasped the hem of
+his royal robe with her hands, and pressed it to her forehead.
+
+So for a while she lay there in the shimmering moonlight, while
+utter silence fell upon all that vast multitude of armed men as
+they waited for the decree of fate to be uttered by the
+conqueror's lips. But Saladin sat still as a statue, gazing at
+the domes and towers of Jerusalem outlined against the deep blue
+sky.
+
+"Rise," he said at length, "and know, niece, that you have played
+your part in a fashion worthy of my race, and that I,
+Salah-ed-din, am proud of you. Know also that I will weigh your
+prayer as I have weighed that of none other who breathes upon the
+earth. Now I must take counsel with my own heart, and to-morrow
+it shall be granted--or refused. To you, who are doomed to die,
+and to the knight who chooses to die with you, according to the
+ancient law and custom, I offer the choice of Islam, and with it
+life and honour."
+
+"We refuse," answered Rosamund and Wulf with one voice. The
+Sultan bowed his head as though he expected no other answer, and
+glanced round, as all thought to order the executioners to do
+their office. But he said only to a captain of his Mameluks:
+
+"Take them; keep them under guard and separate them, till my word
+of death comes to you. Your life shall answer for their safety.
+Give them food and drink, and let no harm touch them until I bid
+you."
+
+The Mameluk bowed and advanced with his company of soldiers. As
+they prepared to go with them, Rosamund asked:
+
+"Tell me of your grace, what of Masouda, my friend?"
+
+"She died for you; seek her beyond the grave," answered Saladin,
+whereat Rosamund hid her face with her hands and sighed.
+
+"And what of Godwin, my brother?" cried Wulf; but no answer was
+given him.
+
+Now Rosamund turned; stretching out her arms towards Wulf, she
+fell upon his breast. There, then, in the presence of that
+countless army, they kissed their kiss of betrothal and farewell.
+They spoke no word, only ere she went Rosamund lifted her hand
+and pointed upwards to the sky.
+
+Then a murmur rose from the multitude, and the sound of it seemed
+to shape itself into one word: "Mercy!"
+
+Still Saladin made no sign, and they were led away to their
+prisons.
+
+Among the thousands who watched this strange and most thrilling
+scene were two men wrapped in long cloaks, Godwin and the bishop
+Egbert. Thrice did Godwin strive to approach the throne. But it
+seemed that the soldiers about him had their commands, for they
+would not suffer him to stir or speak; and when, as Rosamund
+passed, he strove to break a way to her, they seized and held
+him. Yet as she went by he cried:
+
+"The blessing of Heaven be upon you, pure saint of God--on you
+and your true knight."
+
+Catching the tones of that voice above the tumult, Rosamund
+stopped and looked around her, but saw no one, for the guard
+hemmed her in. So she went on, wondering if perchance it was
+Godwin's voice which she had heard, or whether an angel, or only
+some Frankish prisoner had spoken.
+
+Godwin stood wringing his hands while the bishop strove to
+comfort him, saying that he should not grieve, since such deaths
+as those of Rosamund and Wulf were most glorious, and more to be
+desired than a hundred lives.
+
+"Ay, ay," answered Godwin, "would that I could go with them!"
+
+"Their work is done, but not yours," said the bishop gently.
+"Come to our tent and let us to our knees. God is more powerful
+than the Sultan, and mayhap He will yet find a way to save them.
+If they are still alive tomorrow at the dawn we will seek
+audience of Saladin to plead with him."
+
+So they entered the tent and prayed there, as the inhabitants of
+Jerusalem prayed behind their shattered walls, that the heart of
+Saladin might be moved to spare them all. While they knelt thus
+the curtain of the tent was drawn aside, and an emir stood before
+them.
+
+"Rise," he said, "both of you, and follow me. The Sultan commands
+your presence."
+
+Egbert and Godwin went, wondering, and were led through the
+pavilion to the royal sleeping place, which guards closed behind
+them. On a silken couch reclined Saladin, the light from the lamp
+falling on his bronzed and thoughtful face.
+
+"I have sent for you two Franks," he said, "that you may bear a
+message from me to Sir Balian of Ibelin and the inhabitants of
+Jerusalem. This is the message:--Let the holy city surrender
+to-morrow and all its population acknowledge themselves my
+prisoners. Then for forty days I will hold them to ransom, during
+which time none shall be harmed. Every man who pays ten pieces of
+gold shall go free, and two women or ten children shall be
+counted as one man at a like price. Of the poor, seven thousand
+shall be set free also, on payment of thirty thousand bezants.
+Such who remain or have no money for their ransom--and there is
+still much gold in Jerusalem--shall become my slaves. These are
+my terms, which I grant at the dying prayer of my niece, the lady
+Rosamund, and to her prayer alone. Deliver them to Sir Balian,
+and bid him wait on me at the dawn with his chief notables, and
+answer whether he is willing to accept them on behalf of the
+people. If not, the assault goes on until the city is a heap of
+ruins covering the bones of its children."
+
+"We bless you for this mercy," said the bishop Egbert, "and we
+hasten to obey. But tell us, Sultan, what shall we do? Return to
+the camp with Sir Balian?"
+
+"If he accepts my terms, nay, for in Jerusalem you will be safe,
+and I give you your freedom without ransom."
+
+"Sire," said Godwin, "ere I go, grant me leave to bid farewell to
+my brother and my cousin Rosamund."
+
+"That for the third time you may plot their escape from my
+vengeance?" said Saladin. "Nay, bide in Jerusalem and await my
+word; you shall meet them at the last, no more."
+
+"Sire," pleaded Godwin, "of your mercy spare them, for they have
+played a noble part. It is hard that they should die who love
+each other and are so young and fair and brave."
+
+"Ay," answered Saladin, "a noble part; never have I seen one more
+noble. Well, it fits them the better for heaven, if
+Cross-worshippers enter there. Have done; their doom is written
+and my purpose cannot be turned, nor shall you see them till the
+last, as I have said. But if it pleases you to write them a
+letter of farewell and to send it back by the embassy, it shall
+be delivered to them. Now go, for greater matters are afoot than
+this punishment of a pair of lovers. A guard awaits you."
+
+So they went, and within an hour stood before Sir Balian and gave
+him the message of Saladin, whereat he rose and blessed the name
+of Rosamund. While he called his counsellors from their sleep and
+bade his servants saddle horses, Godwin found pen and parchment,
+and wrote hurriedly:
+
+"To Wulf, my brother, and Rosamund, my cousin and his
+betrothed,--I live, though well-nigh I died by dead
+Masouda--Jesus rest her gallant and most beloved soul! Saladin
+will not suffer me to see you, though he has promised that I
+shall be with you at the last, so watch for me then. I still dare
+to hope that it may please God to change the Sultan's heart and
+spare you. If so, this is my prayer and desire--that you two
+should wed as soon as may be, and get home to England, where, if
+I live, I hope to visit you in years to come. Till then seek me
+not, who would be lonely a while. But if it should be fated
+otherwise, then when my sins are purged I will seek you among the
+saints, you who by your noble deed have earned the sure grace of
+God.
+
+"The embassy rides. I have no time for more, though there is much
+to say. Farewell.--Godwin."
+
+The terms of Saladin had been accepted. With rejoicing because
+their lives were spared, but with woe and lamentation because the
+holy city had fallen again into the hands of the Moslem, the
+people of Jerusalem made ready to leave the streets and seek new
+homes elsewhere. The great golden cross was torn from the mosque
+el-Aksa, and on every tower and wall floated the yellow banners
+of Saladin. All who had money paid their ransoms, and those who
+had none begged and borrowed it as they could, and if they could
+not, gave themselves over to despair and slavery. Only the
+patriarch Heraclius, forgetting the misery of these wretched
+ones, carried off his own great wealth and the gold plate of the
+churches.
+
+Then Saladin showed his mercy, for he freed all the aged without
+charge, and from his own treasure paid the ransom of hundreds of
+ladies whose husbands and fathers had fallen in battle, or lay in
+prison in other cities.
+
+So for forty days, headed by Queen Sybilla and her ladies, that
+sad procession of the vanquished marched through the gates, and
+there were many of them who, as they passed the conqueror seated
+in state, halted to make a prayer to him for those who were left
+behind. A few also who remembered Rosamund, and that it was
+because of her sacrifice that they continued to look upon the
+sun, implored him that if they were not already dead, he would
+spare her and her brave knight.
+
+At length it was over, and Saladin took possession of the city.
+Having purged the Great Mosque, washing it with rose-water, he
+worshipped in it after his own fashion, and distributed the
+remnant of the people who could pay no ransom as slaves among his
+emirs and followers. Thus did the Crescent triumph aver the Cross
+in Jerusalem, not in a sea of blood, as ninety years before the
+Cross had triumphed over the Crescent within its walls, but with
+what in those days passed for gentleness, peace, and mercy.
+
+For it was left to the Saracens to teach something of their own
+doctrines to the followers of Christ.
+
+During all those forty days Rosamund and Wulf lay in their
+separate prisons, awaiting their doom of death. The letter of
+Godwin was brought to Wulf, who read it and rejoiced to learn
+that his brother lived. Then it was taken from him to Rosamund,
+who, although she rejoiced also, wept over it, and wondered a
+little what it might mean. Of one thing she was sure from its
+wording--that they had no hope of life.
+
+They knew that Jerusalem had fallen, for they heard the shouts of
+triumph of the Moslems, and from far away, through their prison
+bars could see the endless multitude of fugitives passing the
+ancient gates laden with baggage, and leading their children by
+the hand, to seek refuge in the cities of the coast. At this
+sight, although it was so sad, Rosamund was happy, knowing also
+that now she would not suffer in vain.
+
+At length the camp broke up, Saladin and many of the soldiers
+entering Jerusalem; but still the pair were left languishing in
+their dismal cells, which were fashioned from old tombs. One
+evening, while Rosamund was kneeling; at prayer before she sought
+her bed, the door of the place was opened, and there appeared a
+glittering captain and a guard of soldiers, who saluted her and
+bade her follow him.
+
+"Is it the end?" she asked.
+
+"Lady," he answered, "it is the end." So she bowed her head
+meekly and followed. Without a litter was ready, in which they
+placed her and bore her through the bright moonlight into the
+city of Jerusalem and along the Way of Sorrow, till they halted
+at a great door, which she knew again, for by it stood the
+ancient arch.
+
+"They have brought me back to the Convent of the Holy Cross to
+kill me where I asked that I might be buried," she murmured to
+herself as she descended from the litter.
+
+Then the doors were thrown open, and she entered the great
+courtyard of the convent, and saw that it was decorated as though
+for a festival, for about it and in the cloisters round hung many
+lamps. More; these cloisters and the space in front of them were
+crowded with Saracen lords, wearing their robes of state, while
+yonder sat Saladin and his court.
+
+"They would make a brave show of my death," thought Rosamund
+again. Then a little cry broke from her lips, for there, in front
+of the throne of Saladin, the moonlight and the lamp-blaze
+shining on his armour, stood a tall Christian knight. At that cry
+he turned his head, and she grew sure that it was Wulf, wasted
+somewhat and grown pale, but still Wulf.
+
+"So we are to die together," she whispered to herself, then
+walked forward with a proud step amidst the deep silence, and,
+having bowed to Saladin, took the hand of Wulf and held it.
+
+The Sultan looked at them and said:
+
+"However long it may be delayed, the day of fate must break at
+last. Say, Franks, are you prepared to drink the dregs of that
+cup I promised you?"
+
+"We are prepared," they answered with one voice.
+
+"Do you grieve now that you laid down your lives to save those of
+all Jerusalem?" he asked again.
+
+"Nay," Rosamund answered, glancing at Wulf's face; "we rejoice
+exceedingly that God has been so good to us."
+
+"I too rejoice," said Saladin; "and I too thank Allah Who in
+bygone days sent me that vision which has given me back the holy
+city of Jerusalem without bloodshed. Now all is accomplished as
+it was fated. Lead them away."
+
+For a moment they clung together, then emirs took Wulf to the
+right and Rosamund to the left, and she went with a pale face and
+high head to meet her executioner, wondering if she would see
+Godwin ere she died. They led her to a chamber where women waited
+but no swordsman that she could see, and shut the door upon her.
+
+"Perchance I am to be strangled by these women," thought
+Rosamund, as they came towards her, "so that the blood royal may
+not be shed."
+
+Yet it was not so, for with gentle hands, but in silence, they
+unrobed her, and washed her with scented waters and braided her
+hair, twisting it up with pearls and gems. Then they clad her in
+fine linen, and put over it gorgeous, broidered garments, and a
+royal mantle of purple, and her own jewels which she had worn in
+bygone days, and with them others still more splendid, and threw
+about her head a gauzy veil worked with golden stars. It was just
+such a veil as Wulf's gift which she had worn on the night when
+Hassan dragged her from her home at Steeple. She noted it and
+smiled at the sad omen, then said:
+
+"Ladies, why should I mock my doom with these bright garments?"
+
+"It is the Sultan's will," they answered; "nor shall you rest
+to-night less happily because of them."
+
+Now all was ready, and the door opened and she stepped through
+it, a radiant thing, glittering in the lamplight. Then trumpets
+blew and a herald cried: "Way! Way there! Way for the high
+sovereign lady and princess of Baalbec!"
+
+Thus followed by the train of honourable women who attended her,
+Rosamund glided forward to the courtyard, and once more bent the
+knee to Saladin, then stood still, lost in wonder.
+
+Again the trumpets blew, and on the right a herald cried, "Way!
+Way there! Way for the brave and noble Frankish knight, Sir Wulf
+D'Arcy!"
+
+Lo! attended by emirs and notables, Wulf came forth, clad in
+splendid armour inlaid with gold, wearing on his shoulder a
+mantel set with gems and on his breast the gleaming Star of the
+Luck of Hassan. To Rosamund he strode and stood by her, his hands
+resting on the hilt of his long sword.
+
+"Princess," said Saladin, "I give you back your rank and titles,
+because you have shown a noble heart; and you, Sir Wulf, I honour
+also as best I may, but to my decree I hold. Let them go together
+to the drinking of the cup of their destiny as to a bridal bed."
+
+Again the trumpets blew and the heralds called, and they led them
+to the doors of the chapel, which at their knocking were thrown
+wide. From within came the sound of women's voices singing, but
+it was no sad song they sang.
+
+"The sisters of the Order are still there," said Rosamund to
+Wulf, "and would cheer us on our road to heaven."
+
+"Perchance," he answered. "I know not. I am amazed."
+
+At the door the company of Moslems left them, but they crowded
+round the entrance as though to watch what passed. Now down the
+long aisle walked a single whiterobed figure. It was the abbess.
+
+"What shall we do, Mother?" said Rosamund to her.
+
+"Follow me, both of you," she said, and they followed her through
+the nave to the altar rails, and at a sign from her knelt down.
+
+Now they saw that on either side of the altar stood a Christian
+priest. The priest to the right--it was the bishop Egbert--came
+forward and began to read over them the marriage service of their
+faith.
+
+"They'd wed us ere we die," whispered Rosamund to Wulf.
+
+"So be it," he answered; "I am glad."
+
+"And I also, beloved," she whispered back.
+
+The service went on--as in a dream, the service went on, while
+the white-robed sisters sat in their carven chairs and watched.
+The rings that were handed to them had been interchanged; Wulf
+had taken Rosamund to wife, Rosamund had taken Wulf to husband,
+till death did them part.
+
+Then the old bishop withdrew to the altar, and another hooded
+monk came forward and uttered over them the benediction in a deep
+and sonorous voice, which stirred their hearts most strangely, as
+though some echo reached them from beyond the grave. He held his
+hands above them in blessing and looked upwards, so that his hood
+fell back, and the light of the altar lamp fell upon his face.
+
+It was the face of Godwin, and on his head was the tonsure of a
+monk.
+
+Once more they stood before Saladin, and now their train was
+swelled by the abbess and sisters of the Holy Cross.
+
+"Sir Wulf D'Arcy," said the Sultan, "and you, Rosamund, my niece,
+princess of Baalbec, the dregs of your cup, sweet or bitter, or
+bitter-sweet, are drunk; the doom which I decreed for you is
+accomplished, and, according to your own rites, you are man and
+wife till Allah sends upon you that death which I withhold.
+Because you showed mercy upon those doomed to die and were the
+means of mercy, I also give you mercy, and with it my love and
+honour. Now bide here if you will in my freedom, and enjoy your
+rank and wealth, or go hence if you will, and live out your lives
+across the sea. The blessing of Allah be upon you, and turn your
+souls light. This is the decree of Yusuf Salah-ed-din, Commander
+of the Faithful, Conqueror and Caliph of the East."
+
+Trembling, full of joy and wonder, they knelt before him and
+kissed his hand. Then, after a few swift words between them,
+Rosamund spoke.
+
+"Sire, that God whom you have invoked, the God of Christian and
+of Moslem, the God of all the world, though the world worship Him
+in many ways and shapes, bless and reward you for this royal
+deed. Yet listen to our petition. It may be that many of our
+faith still lie unransomed in Jerusalem. Take my lands and gems,
+and let them be valued, and their price given to pay for the
+liberty of some poor slaves. It is our marriage offering. As for
+us, we will get us to our own country."
+
+"So be it," answered Saladin. "The lands I will take and devote
+the sum of them as you desire--yes, to the last bezant. The
+jewels also shall be valued, but I give them back to you as my
+wedding dower. To these nuns further I grant permission to bide
+here in Jerusalem to nurse the Christian sick, unharmed and
+unmolested, if so they will, and this because they sheltered you.
+Ho! minstrels and heralds lead this new-wed pair to the place
+that has been prepared for them."
+
+Still trembling and bewildered, they turned to go, when lo!
+Godwin stood before them smiling, and kissed them both upon the
+cheek, calling them "Beloved brother and sister."
+
+"And you, Godwin?" stammered Rosamund.
+
+"I, Rosamund, have also found my bride, and she is named the
+Church of Christ."
+
+"Do you, then, return to England, brother?" asked Wulf.
+
+"Nay," Godwin answered, in a fierce whisper and with flashing
+eyes, "the Cross is down, but not forever. That Cross has Richard
+of England and many another servant beyond the seas, and they
+will come at the Church's call. Here, brother, before all is
+done, we may meet again in war. Till then, farewell."
+
+So spoke Godwin and then was gone.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brethren, by H. Rider Haggard
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