Ready to die, not live to play the spy.

FRIAR.

I thought as much. Nor can I censure you
For your resolve. The best has still to come.
Our Patriarch has learnt the very fort,
Its name, its strength, its site on Lebanon,
Wherein those countless treasures are concealed,
Wherewith the Sultan's prudent father pays
His troops, and all the heavy costs of war.
He knows that Saladin, from time to time,
Visits this fortress, by some secret way,
With but a few attendants.

TEMPLAR.

Well! what then?

FRIAR.

'Twould be an easy task, methinks, to seize
The Sultan thus defenceless--and to end him.
You shudder, knight! Two monks who fear the Lord,
Are ready now to undertake the task,
And wait a leader.

TEMPLAR.

And the Patriarch
Has pitched on me to do this noble deed?

FRIAR.

He thinks King Philip might from Ptolemais
Give aid in the design.

TEMPLAR.

Has pitched on me!
On me!--Say, brother, have you never heard
The boundless debt I owe to Saladin?

FRIAR.

Truly I have.

TEMPLAR.

And yet----

FRIAR.

The Patriarch
Says that is very well; but yet your order,
And vows to God----

TEMPLAR.

Change nothing; they command
No villainy.

FRIAR.

No. But the Patriarch
Says what seems villainy to human eyes,
May not appear so in the sight of God.

TEMPLAR.

Brother, I owe my life to Saladin,
And his shall my hand take?

FRIAR.

Oh, no!--But yet
The Patriarch maintains that Saladin,
Who is the common foe of Christendom,
Can never have a claim to be your friend.

TEMPLAR.

My friend? forsooth! because I will not be
A thankless wretch to him!

FRIAR.