rode to the space before the arch and halted,
saluting with their pennoned spears. Then from the further side
advanced another procession, which, opening, revealed the knight
Lozelle riding on his great black horse, and a huge man and a
fierce he seemed in his armour.

"What!" he shouted, glowering at them. "Am I to fight one against
two? Is this your chivalry?"

"Nay, nay, Sir Traitor," answered Wulf. "Nay, nay betrayer of
Christian maids to the power of the heathen dog; you have fought
Godwin, now it is the turn of Wulf. Kill Wulf and Godwin remains.
Kill Godwin and God remains. Knave, you look your last upon the
moon."

Lozelle heard, and seemed to go mad with rage, or fear, or both.

"Lord Sinan," he shouted in Arabic, "this is murder. Am I, who
have done you so much service, to be butchered for your pleasure
by the lovers of that woman, whom you would honour with the name
of wife?"

Sinan heard, and stared at him with dull, angry eyes.

"Ay, you may stare," went on the maddened Lozelle, "but it is
true--they are her lovers, not her brothers. Would men take so
much pains for a sister's sake, think you? Would they swim into
this net of yours for a sister's sake?"

Sinan held up his hand for silence.

"Let the lots be cast," he said, "for whatever these men are,
this fight must go on, and it shall be fair."

So a dai, standing by himself, cast lots upon the ground, and
having read them, announced that Lozelle must run the first
course from the further side of the bridge. Then one took his
bridle to lead him across. As he passed the brethren he grinned
in their faces and said:

"At least this is sure, you also look your last upon the moon. I
am avenged already. The bait that hooked me is a meal for yonder
pike, and he will kill you both before her eyes to whet his
appetite."

But the brethren answered nothing.

The black horse of Lozelle grew dim in the distance of the
moonlit bridge, and vanished beneath the farther archway that led
to the outer city. Then a herald cried, Masouda translating his
words, which another herald echoed from beyond the gulf.

"Thrice will the trumpets blow. At the third blast of the
trumpets the knights shall charge and meet in the centre of the
bridge. Thenceforward they may fight as it pleases them, ahorse,
or afoot, with lance, with sword, or with dagger, but to the
vanquished no mercy will be shown. If he be brought living from
the bridge, living he shall be cast into