Wulf cried from where he lay:

"Why, it is our merchant of the drugged wine--none other! Oh! Sir
Saracen, does not the memory of that chapman's trick shame you
now?"

The emir Hassan heard and grew red, muttering in his beard:

"Like you, Sir Wulf, I am the slave of Fate, and must obey. Be
not bitter against me till you know all."

"I am not bitter," answered Wulf, "but I always pay for my drink,
and we will settle that score yet, as I have sworn."

"Hush!" broke in Rosamund. "Although he stole me, he is also my
deliverer and friend through many a peril, and, had it not been
for him, by now--" and she shuddered.

"I do not know all the story, but, Princess, it seems that you
should thank not me, but these goodly cousins of yours and those
splendid horses," and Hassan pointed to Smoke and Flame, which
stood by quivering, with hollow flanks and drooping heads.

"There is another whom I must thank also, this noble woman, as
you will call her also when you hear the story," said Rosamund,
flinging her arm about the neck of Masouda.

"My master will reward her," said Hassan. "But oh! lady, what
must you think of me who seemed to desert you so basely? Yet I
reasoned well. In the castle of that son of Satan, Sinan," and he
spat upon the ground, "I could not have aided you, for there he
would only have butchered me. But by escaping I thought that I
might help, so I bribed the Frankish knave with the priceless
Star of my House," and he touched the great jewel that he wore in
his turban, "and with what money I had, to loose my bonds, and
while he pouched the gold I stabbed him with his own knife and
fled. But this morning I reached yonder city in command of ten
thousand men, charged to rescue you if I could; if not, to avenge
you, for the ambassadors of Salah-ed-din informed me of your
plight. An hour ago the watchmen on the towers reported that they
saw two horses galloping across the plain beneath a double
burden, pursued by soldiers whom from their robes they took to be
Assassins. So, as I have a quarrel with the Assassins, I crossed
the bridge, formed up five hundred men in a hollow, and waited,
never guessing that it was you who fled. You know the rest--and
the Assassins know it also, for," he added grimly, "you have been
well avenged."

"Follow it up," said Wulf, "and the vengeance shall be better,
for I will show you the secret way into Masyaf--or, if I cannot,
Godwin will--and there you may hurl Sinan from h