elf has always
been deservedly popular. It is full of colour, mystery, plot,
and counterplot, and Sir Kenneth's performances in
withstanding the jealous enemies of Richard Coeur-de-Lion glow
with life. Conrade of Montserrat, Richard's opponent in the
armies of the Crusaders, was a well-known figure in the wars
against the Saracens, and when he perished at their hands, it
was said that Richard instigated his death.

_I.--The Knight of the Leopard_

The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point when a
Knight of the Red Cross was pacing slowly along the sandy deserts in the
vicinity of the Dead Sea. At noon he joyfully hailed the sight of two or
three palm trees, and his good horse, too, lifted up his head as if he
snuffed from afar off the living waters which marked the place of repose
and refreshment. But a distant form separated itself from the trees, and
advanced towards the knight at a speed which soon showed a Saracen
cavalier. The Crusader, whose arms were a couchant leopard, disengaged
his lance, and well acquainted with the customs of Eastern warriors,
made a dead halt, confident that his own weight would give him the
advantage if the enemy advanced to the actual shock; but the Saracen,
wheeling his horse with inimitable dexterity, rode round the Christian,
who, constantly turning, frustrated his attempts to attack him in an
unguarded point, until, desirous to terminate the elusory warfare, the
knight suddenly seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and hurled
it at the head of the Emir, who, though beaten to the ground, instantly
sprang again into his seat and regained the advantage, enlarging his
circles, and discharging arrows. At the seventh, the Christian knight
dropped heavily to the ground, and the Saracen dismounting to examine
his fallen foe, suddenly found himself in his grasp. He unloosed the
sword belt in which the Knight of the Leopard had fixed his hold,
mounted, and again rode off. But the loss of his sword and quiver of
arrows seemed to incline the Muslim to a truce; he again approached the
Christian, but no longer menacingly.

"There is truce betwixt our nations," he said. "Let there be peace
betwixt us."

"I am well content," answered he of the couchant leopard, and the late
foes, without an angry look or a gesture of doubt, rode side by side to
the palm trees; where each relieved his horse from saddle, bit, and
rein, and permitt