an altar
stone?--unless, indeed, the great knight Wulf stood before it
with sword aloft," he added.

"So he stood," answered Balian, "but it was not of him that we
thought, though assuredly he would have slain some of us. To do
this thing would have been an awful crime, which we were sure
must bring down the vengeance of our God upon us and upon the
city."

"What of the vengeance of Salah-ed-din?"

"Sore as is our case, Sultan, we still fear God more than
Saladin."

"Ay, Sir Balian, but Salah-ed-din may be a sword in the hand of
God."

"Which sword, Sultan, would have fallen swiftly had we done this
deed."

"I think that it is about to fall," said Saladin, and again was
silent and stroked his beard.

"Listen, now," he said at length. "Let the princess, my niece,
come to me and ask it of my grace, and I think that I will grant
you terms for which, in your plight, you may be thankful."

"Then we must dare the great sin and take her," answered Balian
sadly, "having first slain the knight Wulf, who will not let her
go while he is alive."

"Nay, Sir Balian, for that I should be sorry, nor will I suffer
it, for though a Christian he is a man after my own heart. This
time I said 'Let her come to me,' not 'Let her be brought.' Ay,
come of her own free will, to answer to me for her sin against
me, understanding that I promise her nothing, who in the old days
promised her much, and kept my word. Then she was the princess of
Baalbec, with all the rights belonging to that great rank, to
whom I had sworn that no husband should be forced upon her, nor
any change of faith. Now I take back these oaths, and if she
comes, she comes as an escaped Cross-worshipping slave, to whom I
offer only the choice of Islam or of a shameful death."

"What high-born lady would take such terms?" asked Balian in
dismay. "Rather, I think, would she choose to die by her own hand
than by that of your hangman, since she can never abjure her
faith."

"And thereby doom eighty thousand of her fellow Christians, who
must accompany her to that death," answered Saladin sternly.
"Know, Sir Balian, I swear it before Allah and for the last time,
that if my niece Rosamund does not come, of her own free will,
unforced by any, Jerusalem shall be put to sack."

"Then the fate of the holy city and all its inhabitants hangs
upon the nobleness of a single woman?" stammered Balian.

"Ay, upon the nobleness of a single woman, as my vision told me
it sho