etrius fell into the hands of the
enemy.

As wont in those bloody wars, the poor prisoner was immediately carried
by an escort into the presence of the Caliph, who put the alternative in
his power of either, on the instant, renouncing his religion, or
submitting to the axe of the headsman. Demetrius told his tale with a
noble simplicity; and his youth, his open countenance, and stately
bearing, so far gained on the heart of Abubeker, that, on his refusal to
embrace Mahomedism, he begged of him seriously to consider of his
situation, and ordered a delay of the sentence, which he must otherwise
pronounce, until the morrow.

Heart-broken and miserable, Demetrius was loaded with chains, and carried
to a gloomy place of confinement. In the solitude of the night-hours he
cursed the hour of his birth--bewailed his miserable situation--and
feeling that all his schemes of happiness were thwarted, almost rejoiced
that he had only a few hours to live.

The heavy hours lagged on towards daybreak, and, quite exhausted by the
intense agony of his feelings, he sank down upon the ground in a profound
sleep, from which a band, with crescented turbans and crooked
sword-blades, awoke him. Still persisting to reject the Prophet's faith,
he was led forth to die; but, in passing through the camp, the Soubachis
of the Caliph stopped the troop, as he had been commanded, and Demetrius
was ushered into the tent, where Abubeker, not yet arisen, lay stretched
on his sofa. For a while the captive remained resolute, preferring death
to the disgrace of turning a renegado; but the wily Caliph, who had taken
a deep and sudden interest in the fortunes of the youth, knew well the
spring, by the touch of which his heart was most likely to be affected.
He pointed out to Demetrius prospects of preferment and grandeur, while
he assured him that, in a few days, Damascus must to a certainty
surrender, in which case his mistress must fall into the power of a
fierce soldiery, and be left to a fate full of dishonour, and worse than
death itself; but, if he assumed the turban, he pledged his royal word
that especial care should be taken that no harm should alight on her he
loved.

Demetrius paused, and Abubeker saw that the heart of his captive was
touched. He drew pictures of power, and affluence, and domestic love,
that dazzled the imagination of his hearer; and while the prisoner
thought of his Isabelle, instead of rejecting the impious proposal, as at