words 'Behold I send you as sheep in the
midst of wolves.'"

Then there appeared some Saracen soldiers. They were, at first, for
letting the two unarmed men go by; but, on questioning Francis, they
grew angrier and angrier.

"Are you deserters from the Christian camp?" they asked.

"No," replied Francis.

"Are you envoys from the commander come to plead for peace?"

"No," was the answer again.

"Will you give up the infidel religion and become a true believer and
say 'There is no God but Allah, and Mahomet is his prophet?'"

"No, no," cried Francis, "we are come to preach the Good News of Jesus
Christ to the Sultan of Egypt."

The eyes of the Saracen soldiers opened with amazement: they could
hardly believe their ears. Their faces flushed under their dark skins
with anger.

"Chain them," they cried to one another. "Beat them--the infidels."

Chains were brought and snapped upon the wrists and ankles of
Francis and Illuminato. Then they took rods and began to beat the two
men--just as Paul and Silas had been beaten eleven centuries earlier.

As the rods whistled through the air and came slashing upon their
wounded backs Francis kept crying out one word--"Soldan--Soldan." That
is "Sultan--Sultan."

He thus made them understand that he wished to be taken to their
Commander-in-Chief. So they decided to take these strange beings to
Malek-Kamel.

As the Sultan sat in his pavilion Francis and Illuminato were led in.
They bowed and saluted him courteously and Malek-Kamel returned the
salute.

"Have you come with a message from your Commander?" said the Sultan.

"No," replied Francis.

"You wish then to become Saracens--worshippers of Allah in the name of
Mahomet?"

"Nay, nay," answered Francis, "Saracens we will never be. We have come
with a message from God; it is a message that will save your life. If
you die under the law of Mahomet you are lost. We have come to tell
you so: if you listen to us we will show all this to you."

The Sultan seems to have been amused and interested rather than angry.

"I have bishops and archbishops of my own," he said, "they can tell me
all that I wish to know."

"Of this we are glad," replied Francis, "send and fetch them, if you
will."

The Sultan agreed; he sent for eight of his Moslem great men. When
they came in he said to them: "See these men, they have come to teach
us a new faith. Shall we listen to them?"

"Sire," they answered him at once, "thou knowest th