f he was
to win his battles; just as a knight in the fighting Crusades must
be swift and sure with his sword. And this is how Lull spoke of the
Crusade on which he was to set out.

"I see many knights," he said, "going to the Holy Land beyond the seas
and thinking that they can acquire it by force of arms; but in the end
all are destroyed before they attain that which they think to have.
Whence it seems to me that the conquest of the Holy Land ought not
to be attempted except in the way in which Christ and His Apostles
achieved it, namely, by love and prayers, and the pouring out of tears
and blood."

Suddenly, as he and the Saracen slave argued together, the Moor
blurted out passionately a horrible blasphemy against the name of
Jesus. Lull's blood was up. He leapt to his feet, leaned forward, and
caught the Moor a swinging blow on the face with his hand. In a fury
the Saracen snatched a dagger from the folds of his robe and, leaping
at Lull, drove it into his side. Raymund fell with a cry. Friends
rushed in. The Saracen was seized and hurried away to a prison-cell,
where he slew himself.

Lull, as he lay day after day waiting for his wound to heal and
remembering his wild blow at the Saracen, realised that, although he
had learned Arabic, he had not yet learned the first lesson of his own
new way of Crusading--to be master of himself.

IV

_The Preparation of Courage_

So Raymund Lull (at home and in Rome and Paris) set himself afresh to
his task of preparing. At last he felt that he was ready. From Paris
he rode south-east through forest and across plain, over mountain and
pass, till the gorgeous palaces and the thousand masts of Genoa came
in sight.

He went down to the harbour and found a ship that was sailing across
the Mediterranean to Africa. He booked his passage and sent his goods
with all his precious manuscripts aboard. The day for sailing came.
His friends came to cheer him. But Lull sat in his room trembling.

As he covered his eyes with his hands in shame, he saw the fiery,
persecuting Saracens of Tunis, whom he was sailing to meet. He knew
they were glowing with pride because of their triumphs over the
Crusaders in Palestine. He knew they were blazing with anger because
their brother Moors had been slaughtered and tortured in Spain. He saw
ahead of him the rack, the thumb-screw, and the boot; the long years
in a slimy dungeon--at the best the executioner's scimitar. He simply
dared not go.