hat her fate may be
my fate."

"What!" said Saladin. "You are ready to die with her, although
you are young and strong, and there are so many other women in
the world?"

Wulf smiled and nodded his head.

"Good. Who am I that I should stand between a fool and his folly?
I grant the boon. Your fate shall be her fate; Wulf D'Arcy, you
shall drink of the cup of my slave Rosamund to its last
bitterest dregs."

"I desire no less," said Wulf coolly.

Now Saladin looked at Rosamund and asked,

"Woman, why have you come here to brave my vengeance? Speak on if
you have aught to ask."

Then Rosamund rose from her knees, and, standing before him,
said:

"I am come, O my mighty lord, to plead for the people of
Jerusalem, because it was told me that you would listen to no
other voice than that of this your slave. See, many moons ago,
you had a vision concerning me. Thrice you dreamed in the night
that I, the niece whom you had never seen, by some act of mine
should be the means of saving much life and a way of peace.
Therefore you tore me from my home and brought my father to a
bloody death, as you are about to bring his daughter; and after
much suffering and danger I fell into your power, and was treated
with great honour. Still I, who am a Christian, and who grew
sick with the sight of the daily slaughter and outrage of my kin,
strove to escape from you, although you had warned me that the
price of this crime was death; and in the end, through the wit
and sacrifice of another woman, I did escape.

"Now I return to pay that price, and behold! your vision is
fulfilled--or, at the least, you can fulfil it if God should
touch your heart with grace, seeing that of my own will I am come
to pray you, Salah-ed-din, to spare the city, and for its blood
to accept mine as a token and an offering.

"Oh, my lord! as you are great, be merciful. What will it avail
you in the day of your own judgment that you have added another
eighty thousand to the tally of your slain, and with them many
more thousands of your own folk, since the warriors of Jerusalem
will not die unavenged? Give them their lives and let them go
free, and win thereby the gratitude of mankind and the
forgiveness of God above."

So Rosamund spoke, and stretching out her arms towards him, was
silent.

"These things I offered to them, and they were refused," answered
Saladin. "Why should I grant them now that they are conquered?"

"My lord, Strong-to-Aid," said