but a difficult,
controversy. Some time after this, Tancred, lounging in front of his
tent, and watching the shadows as they stole over the mountain tombs,
observed Fakredeen issue from the pavilion of Amalek. His flushed and
radiant countenance would seem to indicate good news. As he recognised
Tancred, he saluted him in the Eastern fashion, hastily touching his
heart, his lip, and his brow. When he had reached Tancred, Fakredeen
threw himself in his arms, and, embracing him, whispered in an agitated
voice on the breast of Lord Montacute, 'Friend of my heart, you are
free!'

In the meantime, Amalek announced to his tribe that at sunset the
encampment would break up, and they would commence their return to the
Syrian wilderness, through the regions eastward of the Dead Sea. The
Lady Eva would accompany them, and the children of Rechab were to have
the honour of escorting her and her attendants to the gates of Damascus.
A detachment of five-and-twenty Beni-Rechab were to accompany Fakredeen
and Tancred, Hassan and his Jellaheens, in a contrary direction of the
desert, until they arrived at Gaza, where they were to await further
orders from the young Emir.

No sooner was this intelligence circulated than the silence which had
pervaded the desert ruins at once ceased. Men came out of every tent and
tomb. All was bustle and noise. They chattered, they sang, they talked
to their horses, they apprised their camels of the intended expedition.
They declared that the camels had consented to go; they anticipated a
prosperous journey; they speculated on what tribes they might encounter.

It required all the consciousness of great duties, all the inspiration
of a great purpose, to sustain Tancred under this sudden separation
from Eva. Much he regretted that it was not also his lot to traverse the
Syrian wilderness, but it was not for him to interfere with arrangements
which he could neither control nor comprehend. All that passed amid
the ruins of this desert city was as incoherent and restless as the
incidents of a dream; yet not without the bright passages of strange
fascination which form part of the mosaic of our slumbering reveries.
At dawn a prisoner, at noon a free man, yet still, from his position,
unable to move without succour, and without guides; why he was captured,
how he was enfranchised, alike mysteries; Tancred yielded without a
struggle to the management of that individual who was clearly master
of the situatio