entered, and carefully secured
the covering of the pavillion behind him. His victim started from sleep,
and it would appear that he instantly suspected the purpose of his old
associate, for it was in a tone of alarm that he demanded wherefore he
disturbed him.

"I come to confess and absolve thee," answered the Grand Master.

Of their further speech the terrified dwarf remembered little, save that
Conrade implored the Grand Master not to break a wounded reed, and that
the Templar struck him to the heart with a Turkish dagger, with the
words _Accipe hoc_,--words which long afterward haunted the terrified
imagination of the concealed witness.

"I verified the tale," said Saladin, "by causing the body to be
examined; and I made this unhappy being, whom Allah hath made the
discoverer of the crime, repeat in your own presence the words which the
murderer spoke, and you yourselves saw the effect which they produced
upon his conscience."

The Soldan paused, and the King of England broke silence:--

"If this be true, as I doubt not, we have witnessed a great act of
justice, though it bore a different aspect. But wherefore in this
presence? wherefore with thine own hand?"

"I had designed otherwise," said Saladin, "but had I not hastened his
doom, it had been altogether averted, since, if I had permitted him to
taste of my cup, as he was about to do, how could I, without incurring
the brand of inhospitality, have done him to death as he deserved? Had
he murdered my father, and afterward partaken of my food and my bowl,
not a hair of his head could have been injured by me. But enough of him;
let his carcass and his memory be removed from amongst us."

The body was carried away, and the marks of the slaughter obliterated or
concealed with such ready dexterity, as showed that the case was not
altogether so uncommon, as to paralyze the assistants and officers of
Saladin's household.

But the Christian princes felt that the scene which they had beheld
weighed heavily on their spirits, and although, at the courteous
invitation of the Soldan, they assumed their seats at the banquet, yet
it was with the silence of doubt and amazement. The spirits of Richard
alone surmounted all cause for suspicion or embarrassment. Yet he, too,
seemed to ruminate on some proposition, as if he were desirous of making
it in the most insinuating and acceptable manner which was possible. At
length he drank off a large bowl of wine, and addressing