iling.

"Count, I am going to suggest something to you that I am sure will shock
you at first: Perhaps we should leave the Holy Land in peace."

Simon felt troubled, but, having heard much the same thing from his
parents--and, indeed, from some of the knights at the royal palace when
King Louis was out of hearing--he was not shocked. But for himself he
had never been able to reconcile such views with his sense of his
obligations as a Christian.

Even so, he began to see why de Verceuil had spoken of Ugolini as if he
were a heretic. How could a man with such opinions get to be a cardinal?

"To leave the Holy Land in the hands of the infidels, Your Eminence?
Would it not betray Our Lord Himself?"

Ugolini, unperturbed, continued to smile as he walked toward Simon. "The
whole world belongs to God. If Our Savior wished the places where He was
born, died, buried, and rose again to be occupied by Christian knights
from Europe, He would have permitted it to happen. As it is, I truly
believe that if we sent every able-bodied man in Christendom to fight in
Outremer, we could not take Jerusalem back and we could not prevent the
crusader strongholds from falling to the Muslims. The infidels, as you
call them, are defending their own lands, and a people fighting for
their homeland is always stronger than an invader. Another crusade, even
with Tartar help, would be a tragic waste."

Ugolini stood before the seated Simon, and such was the difference in
their heights that their eyes were almost on a level. Simon wanted to
stand, but somehow he dared not move. He was beginning to feel
desperate. He had walked into a trap that he had not anticipated. He had
feared that he would not persuade the cardinal. He had not imagined that
the cardinal might persuade him.

"But you would abandon the Christians who are there now to be overrun
and slaughtered by the Turks?" Simon asked.

He reproached himself. It almost sounded as if he were conceding that
there should be no more crusades.

The cardinal shook his head. "I would do everything in my power to bring
them home."

He sighed and turned away. "You are a most impressive young man, Count
Simon. I am glad we have had this chance to hear each other out."

Simon felt deeply shaken, as if he had been galloping in a tournament
and had been ignominiously unhorsed. He had been foolish to think he
could sway a man of Ugolini's eminence and intelligence.

Courtesy demanded, he supposed,