ss him when his steed had been foully stabbed at the
battle of Azotus, and the whole Moslem host were around him."

"Ah!" said the emir, "were you one of the two who, as I have heard,
defended the king for some time against all assaults? It were hard
indeed to kill so brave a youth. I doubt me not that at present you are
as firmly determined to die a Christian knight as those who have gone
before you? But time may change you. At any rate for the present your
doom is postponed."

He turned to a gorgeously dressed noble next to him, and said:

"Your brother, Ben Abin, is Governor of Jerusalem, and the gardens of
the palace are fair. Take this youth to him as a present, and set him to
work in his gardens. His life I have spared, in all else Ben Abin will
be his master."

Cuthbert heard without emotion the words which changed his fate from
death to slavery. Many, he knew, who were captured in these wars were
carried away as slaves to different parts of Asia, and it did not seem
to him that the change was in any way a boon. However, life is dear, and
it was but natural that a thought should leap into his heart that soon
either the Crusaders might force a way into Jerusalem and there rescue
him, or that he himself might in some way escape.

The sultan having thus concluded the subject, turned away, and galloped
off surrounded by his bodyguard.

Those who had captured the Christians now stripped off the armor of
Cuthbert; then he was mounted on a barebacked steed, and with four
Bedouins, with their long lances, riding beside him, started for
Jerusalem. After a day of long and rapid riding the Arabs stopped
suddenly on the crest of a hill, with a shout of joy, and throwing
themselves from their horses bent with their foreheads to the earth at
the sight of their holy city.

Cuthbert, as he gazed at the stately walls of Jerusalem, and the noble
buildings within, felt bitterly that it was not thus that he had hoped
to see the holy city. He had dreamed of arriving before it with his
comrades, proud and delighted at their success so far, and confident in
their power soon to wrest the town before them from the hands of the
Moslems. Instead of this he was a slave--a slave to the infidel, perhaps
never more to see a white face, save that of some other unfortunate like
himself.

Even now in its fallen state no city is so impressive at first sight as
Jerusalem; the walls, magnificent in height and strength, and
picturesque in t