ed me to bring you to the
East from England, you know well. Repeat it in your heart before
you answer. That vision told me that by your nobleness and
sacrifice you should save the lives of many. I demanded that you
should be brought back to me, and the request was refused--why,
it matters not. Now I understand the reason--that this was so
ordained. I demand no more that force should be used to you. I
demand that you shall come of your own free will, to suffer the
bitter and shameful reward of your sin. Or, if you so desire,
bide where you are of your own free will, and be dealt with as
God shall decree. This hangs upon your judgment. If you come and
ask it of me, I will consider the question of the sparing of
Jerusalem and its inhabitants. If you refuse to come, I will
certainly put every one of them to the sword, save such of the
women and children as may be kept for slaves. Decide, then,
Niece, and quickly, whether you will return with my envoys, or
bide where they find you.--

"Yusuf Salah-ed-din."

Rosamund finished reading, and the letter fluttered from her hand
down to the marble floor.

Then the queen said:

"Lady, we ask this sacrifice of you in the name of these and all
their fellows," and she pointed to the women and the children
behind her.

"And my life?" mused Rosamund aloud. "It is all I have. When I
have paid it away I shall be beggared," and her eyes wandered to
where the tall shape of Wulf stood by a pillar of the church.

"Perchance Saladin will be merciful," hazarded the queen.

"Why should he be merciful," answered Rosamund, "who has always
warned me that if I escaped from him and was recaptured,
certainly I must die? Nay, he will offer me Islam, or death,
which means--death by the rope--or in some worse fashion."

"But if you stay here you must die," pleaded the queen, "or at
best fall into the hands of the soldiers. Oh! lady, your life is
but one life, and with it you can buy those of eighty thousand
souls."

"Is that so sure?" asked Rosamund. "The Sultan has made no
promise; he says only that, if I pray it of him, he will consider
the question of the sparing of Jerusalem."

"But--but," went on the queen, "he says also that if you do not
come he will surely put Jerusalem to the sword, and to Sir Balian
he said that if you gave yourself up he thought he might grant
terms which we should be glad to take. Therefore we dare to ask
of you to give your life in payment for such a hope.