ich they tell in the camps true, that a vision came to you
before the battle of Hattin, and that you warned the leaders of
the Franks not to advance against me?"

"Yes, it is true," answered Godwin, and he told the vision, and
of how he had sworn to it on the Rood.

"And what did they say to you?"

"They laughed at me, and hinted that I was a sorcerer, or a
traitor in your pay, or both."

"Blind fools, who would not hear the truth when it was sent to
them by the pure mouth of a prophet," muttered Saladin. "Well,
they paid the price, and I and my faith are the gainers. Do you
wonder, then, Sir Godwin, that I also believe my vision which
came to me thrice in the night season, bringing with it the
picture of the very face of my niece, the princess of Baalbec?"

"I do not wonder," answered Godwin.

"Do you wonder also that I was mad with rage when I learned that
at last yonder brave dead woman had outwitted me and all my spies
and guards, and this after I had spared your lives? Do you wonder
that I am still so wroth, believing as I do that a great occasion
has been taken from me?"

"I do not wonder. But, Sultan, I who have seen a vision speak to
you who also have seen a vision--a prophet to a prophet. And I
tell you that the occasion has not been taken--it has been
brought, yes, to your very door, and that all these things have
happened that it might thus be brought."

"Say on," said Saladin, gazing at him earnestly.

"See now, Salah-ed-din, the princess Rosamund is in Jerusalem. She
has been led to Jerusalem that you may spare it for her sake, and
thus make an end of bloodshed and save the lives of folk
uncounted."

"Never!" said the Sultan, springing up. "They have rejected my
mercy, and I have sworn to sweep them away, man, woman, and
child, and be avenged upon all their unclean and faithless race."

"Is Rosamund unclean that you would be avenged upon her? Will her
dead body bring you peace? If Jerusalem is put to the sword, she
must perish also."

"I will give orders that she is to be saved--that she may be
judged for her crime by me," he added grimly.

"How can she be saved when the stormers are drunk with slaughter,
and she but one disguised woman among ten thousand others?"

"Then," he answered, stamping his foot, "she shall be brought or
dragged out of Jerusalem before the slaughter begins."

"That, I think, will not happen while Wulf is there to protect
her," said Godwin quietly.

"Yet I say