by the patriarch Heraclius
in his gorgeous robes, with his attendant priests and acolytes.

On swept the queen, up the length of the long church, and as she
came the abbess and her nuns rose and bowed to her, while one
offered her the chair of state that was set apart to be used by
the bishop in his visitations. But she would have none of it.

"Nay," said the queen, "mock me with no honourable seat who come
here as a humble suppliant, and will make my prayer upon my
knees."

So down she went upon the marble floor, with all her ladies and
the following women, while the solemn Saracens looked at her
wondering and the knights and nobles massed themselves behind.

"What can we give you, O Queen," asked the abbess, "who have
nothing left save our treasure, to which you are most welcome,
our honour, and our lives?"

"Alas!" answered the royal lady. "Alas, that I must say it! I
come to ask the life of one of you."

"Of whom, O Queen?"

Sybilla lifted her head, and with her outstretched arm pointed to
Rosamund, who stood above them all by the high altar.

For a moment Rosamund turned pale, then spoke in a steady voice:

"Say, what service can my poor life be to you, O Queen, and
by whom is it sought?"

Thrice Sybilla strove to answer, and at last murmured:

"I cannot. Let the envoys give her the letter, if she is able to
read their tongue."

"I am able," answered Rosamund, and a Saracen emir drew forth a
roll and laid it against his forehead, then gave it to the
abbess, who brought it to Rosamund. With her dagger blade she cut
its silk, opened it, and read aloud, always in the same quiet
voice, translating as she read:--

"In the name of Allah the One, the All-merciful, to my niece,
aforetime the princess of Baalbec, Rosamund D'Arcy by name, now a
fugitive hidden in a convent of the Franks in the city el-Kuds
Esh-sherif, the holy city of Jerusalem:

"Niece,--All my promises to you I have performed, and more, since
for your sake I spared the lives of your cousins, the twin
knights. But you have repaid me with ingratitude and trickery,
after the manner of those of your false and accursed faith, and
have fled from me. I promised you also, again and yet again, that
if you attempted this thing, death should be your portion. No
longer, therefore, are you the princess of Baalbec, but only an
escaped Christian slave, and as such doomed to die whenever my
sword reaches you.

"Of my vision concerning you, which caus