d I hear that before you were taken you
slaughtered numbers of my people. They did wrong to capture you and
bring you here to be killed. Your cruel king gives no mercy to those who
fall into his hands. You must not expect it here, you who without a
pretense of right invade my country, slaughter my people, and defeat my
armies. The murder of the prisoners of Acre has closed my heart to all
mercy. There, your king put ten thousand prisoners to death in cold
blood, a month after the capture of the place, because the money at
which he had placed their ransom had not arrived. We Arabs do not carry
huge masses of gold about with us; and although I could have had it
brought from Egypt, I did not think that so brave a monarch as Richard
of England could have committed so cruel an action in cold blood. When
we are fresh from battle, and our wounds are warm, and our hearts are
full of rage and fury, we kill our prisoners; but to do so weeks after a
battle is contrary to the laws alike of your religion and of ours.
However, it is King Richard who has sealed your doom, not I. You are
knights, and I do not insult you with the offer of turning from your
religion and joining me. Should one of you wish to save his life on
these conditions, I will, however, promise him a place of position and
authority among us."

None of the knights moved to accept the offer, but each, as the eye of
the emir ran along the line, answered with an imprecation of contempt
and hatred. Saladin waved his hand, and one by one the captives were led
aside, walking as proudly to their doom as if they had been going to a
feast. Each wrung the hand of the one next to him as he turned, and then
without a word followed his captors. There was a dull sound heard, and
one by one the heads of the knights rolled in the sand.

Cuthbert happened to be last in the line, and as the executioners laid
hands upon him and removed his helmet, the eye of the sultan fell upon
him, and he almost started at perceiving the extreme youth of his
captive. He held his hand aloft to arrest the movements of the
executioners, and signaled for Cuthbert to be brought before him again.

"You are but a boy," he said. "All the knights who have hitherto fallen
into my hands have been men of strength and power; how is it that I see
a mere youth among their ranks, and wearing the golden spurs of
knighthood?"

"King Richard himself made me a knight," Cuthbert said proudly, "after
having stood acro