l them there that I, Cigarette, gave it him--he must say no
word of what you have done to me, or his white flag will not protect him
from the vengeance of my army--and then receive your reward from your
chief, Ben-Ihreddin, when you lay my head down for his horse's hoofs to
trample into the dust. Answer me--is the compact fair? Ride on with this
paper northward, and then kill me with what torments you choose."

She spoke with calm unwavering resolve, meaning that which she uttered
to its very uttermost letter. She knew that these men had thirsted for
her blood; she offered it to be shed to gain for him that messenger on
whose speed his life was hanging; she knew that a price was set upon her
head, but she delivered herself over to the hands of her enemies so that
thereby she might purchase his redemption.

As they heard, silence fell upon the brutal clamorous herd around--the
silence of amaze and of respect. The young chief listened gravely; by
the glistening of his keen black eyes, he was surprised and moved,
though, true to his teaching, he showed neither emotion as he answered
her:

"Who is this Frank for whom you do this thing?"

"He is the warrior to whom you offered life on the field of Zaraila,
because his courage was as the courage of gods."

She knew the qualities of the desert character; knew how to appeal to
its reverence and to its chivalry.

"And for what does he perish?" he asked.

"Because he forgot for once that he was a slave; and because he has
borne the burden of a guilt that was not his own."

They were quite still now, closed around her; these ferocious
plunderers, who had been thirsty a moment before to sheathe their
weapons in her body, were spell-bound by the sympathy of courageous
souls, by some vague perception that there was a greatness in this
little tigress of France, whom they had sworn to hunt down and
slaughter, which surpassed all they had known or dreamed.

"And you have given yourself up to us that by your death you may
purchase a messenger from us for this errand?" pursued their leader. He
had been reared as a boy in the high tenets and the pure chivalries of
the school of Abd-el-Kader; and they were not lost in him despite the
crimes and the desperation of his life.

She held the paper out to him with a passionate entreaty breaking
through the enforced calm of despair with which she had hitherto spoken.

"Cut me in ten thousand pieces with your swords, but save _him_, as