On Board the Galley
Rosamund was led from the Hall of Steeple across the meadow down to the
quay at Steeple Creek, where a great boat waited—that of which the
brethren had found the impress in the mud. In this the band embarked,
placing their dead and wounded, with one or two to tend them, in the
fishing skiff that had belonged to her father. This skiff having been
made fast to the stern of the boat, they pushed off, and in utter
silence rowed down the creek till they reached the tidal stream of the
Blackwater, where they turned their bow seawards. Through the thick
night and the falling snow slowly they felt their way along, sometimes
rowing, sometimes drifting, while the false palmer Nicholas steered
them. The journey proved dangerous, for they could scarcely see the
shore, although they kept as close to it as they dared.
The end of it was that they grounded on a mud bank, and, do what they
would, could not thrust themselves free. Now hope rose in the heart of
Rosamund, who sat still as a statue in the middle of the boat, the
prince Hassan at her side and the armed men—twenty or thirty of
them—all about her. Perhaps, she thought, they would remain fast there
till daybreak, and be seen and rescued when the brethren woke from
their drugged sleep. But Hassan read her mind, and said to her gently
enough:
“Be not deceived, lady, for I must tell you that if the worst comes to
the worst, we shall place you in the little skiff and go on, leaving
the rest to take their chance.”
As it happened, at the full tide they floated off the bank and drifted
with the ebb down towards the sea. At the first break of dawn she
looked up, and there, looming large in the mist, lay a galley, anchored
in the mouth of the river. Giving thanks to Allah for their safe
arrival, the band brought her aboard and led her towards the cabin. On
the poop stood a tall man, who was commanding the sailors that they
should get up the anchor. As she came he advanced to her, bowing and
saying:
“Lady Rosamund, thus you find me once more, who doubtless you never
thought to see again.”
She looked at him in the faint light and her blood went cold. It was
the knight Lozelle.
“You here, Sir Hugh?” she gasped.
“Where you are, there I am,” he answered, with a sneer upon his coarse,
handsome face. “Did I not swear that it should be so, beauteous
Rosamund, after your saintly cousin worsted me in the fray?”
“You here?” she repeated, “you, a Christian knight, and in the pay of
Saladin!”
“In the pay of anyone who leads me to you, Rosamund.” Then, seeing the
emir Hassan approach, he turned to give some orders to the sailors, and
she passed on to the cabin and in her agony fell upon her knees.
When Rosamund rose from them she felt that the ship was moving, and,
desiring to look her last on Essex land, went out again upon the poop,
where Hassan and Sir Hugh placed themselves, one upon either side of
her. Then it was that she saw the tower of St. Peter’s-on-the-Wall and
her cousins seated on horseback in front of it, the light of the risen
sun shining upon their mail. Also she saw Wulf spur his horse into the
sea, and faintly heard his great cry of “Fear not! We follow, we
follow!”
A thought came to her, and she sprang towards the bulwark; but they
were watching and held her, so that all that she could do was to throw
up her arms in token.
Now the wind caught the sail and the ship went forward swiftly, so that
soon she lost sight of them. Then in her grief and rage Rosamund turned
upon Sir Hugh Lozelle and beat him with bitter words till he shrank
before her.
“Coward and traitor!” she said. “So it was you who planned this,
knowing every secret of our home, where often you were a guest! You who
for Paynim gold have murdered my father, not daring to show your face
before his sword, but hanging like a thief upon the coast, ready to
receive what braver men had stolen. Oh! may God avenge his blood and me
on you, false knight—false to Him and me and faith and honour—as avenge
He will! Heard you not what my kinsman called to me? ‘We follow. We
follow!’ Yes, they follow, and their swords—those swords you feared to
look on—shall yet pierce your heart and give up your soul to your
master Satan,” and she paused, trembling with her righteous wrath,
while Hassan stared at her and muttered:
“By Allah, a princess indeed! So have I seen Salah-ed-din look in his
rage. Yes, and she has his very eyes.”
But Sir Hugh answered in a thick voice.
“Let them follow—one or both. I fear them not and out there my foot
will not slip in the snow.”
“Then I say that it shall slip in the sand or on a rock,” she answered,
and turning, fled to the cabin and cast herself down and wept till she
thought that her heart would break.
Well might Rosamund weep whose beloved sire was slain, who was torn
from her home to find herself in the power of a man she hated. Yet
there was hope for her. Hassan, Eastern trickster as he might be, was
her friend; and her uncle, Saladin, at least, would never wish that she
should be shamed. Most like he knew nothing of this man Lozelle, except
as one of those Christian traitors who were ever ready to betray the
Cross for gold. But Saladin was far away and her home lay behind her,
and her cousins and lovers were eating out their hearts upon that
fading shore. And she—one woman alone—was on this ship with the evil
man Lozelle, who thus had kept his promise, and there were none save
Easterns to protect her, none save them—and God, Who had permitted that
such things should be.
The ship swayed, she grew sick and faint. Hassan brought her food with
his own hands, but she loathed it who only desired to die. The day
turned to night, the night turned to day again, and always Hassan
brought her food and strove to comfort her, till at length she
remembered no more.
Then came a long, long sleep, and in the sleep dreams of her father
standing with his face to the foe and sweeping them down with his long
sword as a sickle sweeps corn—of her father felled by the pilgrim
knave, dying upon the floor of his own house, and saying “God will
guard you. His will be done.” Dreams of Godwin and Wulf also fighting
to save her, plighting their troths and swearing their oaths, and
between the dreams blackness.
Rosamund awoke to feel the sun streaming warmly through the shutter of
her cabin, and to see a woman who held a cup in her hand, watching
her—a stout woman of middle age with a not unkindly face. She looked
about her and remembered all. So she was still in the ship.
“Whence come you?” she asked the woman.
“From France, lady. This ship put in at Marseilles, and there I was
hired to nurse one who lay sick, which suited me very well, as I wished
to go to Jerusalem to seek my husband, and good money was offered me.
Still, had I known that they were all Saracens on this ship, I am not
sure that I should have come—that is, except the captain, Sir Hugh, and
the palmer Nicholas; though what they, or you either, are doing in such
company I cannot guess.”
“What is your name?” asked Rosamund idly.
“Marie—Marie Bouchet. My husband is a fishmonger, or was, until one of
those crusading priests got hold of him and took him off to kill
Paynims and save his soul, much against my will. Well, I promised him
that if he did not return in five years I would come to look for him.
So here I am, but where he may be is another matter.”
“It is brave of you to go,” said Rosamund, then added by an
afterthought, “How long is it since we left Marseilles?”
Marie counted on her fat fingers, and answered:
“Five—nearly six weeks. You have been wandering in your mind all that
time, talking of many strange things, and we have called at three
ports. I forget their names, but the last one was an island with a
beautiful harbour. Now, in about twenty days, if all goes well, we
should reach another island called Cyprus. But you must not talk so
much, you must sleep. The Saracen called Hassan, who is a clever
doctor, told me so.”
So Rosamund slept, and from that time forward, floating on the calm
Mediterranean sea, her strength began to come back again rapidly, who
was young and strong in body and constitution. Three days later she was
helped to the deck, where the first man she saw was Hassan, who came
forward to greet her with many Eastern salutations and joy written on
his dark, wrinkled face.
“I give thanks to Allah for your sake and my own,” he said. “For yours
that you still live whom I thought would die, and for myself that had
you died your life would have been required at my hands by
Salah-ed-din, my master.”
“If so, he should have blamed Azrael, not you,” answered Rosamund,
smiling; then suddenly turned cold, for before her was Sir Hugh
Lozelle, who also thanked Heaven that she had recovered. She listened
to him coldly, and presently he went away, but soon was at her side
again. Indeed, she could never be free of him, for whenever she
appeared on deck he was there, nor could he be repelled, since neither
silence nor rebuff would stir him. Always he sat near, talking in his
false, hateful voice, and devouring her with the greedy eyes which she
could feel fixed upon her face. With him often was his jackal, the
false palmer Nicholas, who crawled about her like a snake and strove to
flatter her, but to this man she would never speak a word.
At last she could bear it no longer, and when her health had returned
to her, summoned Hassan to her cabin.
“Tell me, prince,” she said, “who rules upon this vessel?”
“Three people,” he answered, bowing. “The knight, Sir Hugh Lozelle,
who, as a skilled navigator, is the captain and rules the sailors; I,
who rule the fighting men; and you, Princess, who rule us all.”
“Then I command that the rogue named Nicholas shall not be allowed to
approach me. Is it to be borne that I must associate with my father’s
murderer?”
“I fear that in that business we all had a hand, nevertheless your
order shall be obeyed. To tell you the truth, lady, I hate the fellow,
who is but a common spy.”
“I desire also,” went on Rosamund, “to speak no more with Sir Hugh
Lozelle.”
“That is more difficult,” said Hassan, “since he is the captain whom my
master ordered me to obey in all things that have to do with the ship.”
“I have nothing to do with the ship,” answered Rosamund; “and surely
the princess of Baalbec, if so I am, may choose her own companions. I
wish to see more of you and less of Sir Hugh Lozelle.”
“I am honoured,” replied Hassan, “and will do my best.”
For some days after this, although he was always watching her, Lozelle
approached Rosamund but seldom, and whenever he did so he found Hassan
at her side, or rather standing behind her like a guard.
At length, as it chanced, the prince was taken with a sickness from
drinking bad water which held him to his bed for some days, and then
Lozelle found his opportunity. Rosamund strove to keep her cabin to
avoid him, but the heat of the summer sun in the Mediterranean drove
her out of it to a place beneath an awning on the poop, where she sat
with the woman Marie. Here Lozelle approached her, pretending to bring
her food or to inquire after her comfort, but she would answer him
nothing. At length, since Marie could understand what he said in
French, he addressed her in Arabic, which he spoke well, but she
feigned not to understand him. Then he used the English tongue as it
was talked among the common people in Essex, and said:
“Lady, how sorely you misjudge me. What is my crime against you? I am
an Essex man of good lineage, who met you in Essex and learnt to love
you there. Is that a crime, in one who is not poor, who, moreover, was
knighted for his deeds by no mean hand? Your father said me nay, and
you said me nay, and, stung by my disappointment and his words—for he
called me sea-thief and raked up old tales that are not true against
me—I talked as I should not have done, swearing that I would wed you
yet in spite of all. For this I was called to account with justice, and
your cousin, the young knight Godwin, who was then a squire, struck me
in the face. Well, he worsted and wounded me, fortune favouring him,
and I departed with my vessel to the East, for that is my business, to
trade between Syria and England.
“Now, as it chanced, there being peace at the time between the Sultan
and the Christians, I visited Damascus to buy merchandise. Whilst I was
there Saladin sent for me and asked if it were true that I belonged to
a part of England called Essex. When I answered yes, he asked if I knew
Sir Andrew D’Arcy and his daughter. Again I said yes, whereon he told
me that strange tale of your kinship to him, of which I had heard
already; also a still stranger tale of some dream that he had dreamed
concerning you, which made it necessary that you should be brought to
his court, where he was minded to raise you to great honour. In the
end, he offered to hire my finest ship for a large sum, if I would sail
it to England to fetch you; but he did not tell me that any force was
to be used, and I, on my part, said that I would lift no hand against
you or your father, nor indeed have I done so.”
“Who remembered the swords of Godwin and Wulf,” broke in Rosamund
scornfully, “and preferred that braver men should face them.”
“Lady,” answered Lozelle, colouring, “hitherto none have accused me of
a lack of courage. Of your courtesy, listen, I pray you. I did wrong to
enter on this business; but lady, it was love for you that drove me to
it, for the thought of this long voyage in your company was a bait I
could not withstand.”
“Paynim gold was the bait you could not withstand—that is what you
mean. Be brief, I pray you. I weary.
“Lady, you are harsh and misjudge me, as I will show,” and he looked
about him cautiously. “Within a week from now, if all goes well, we
cast anchor at Limazol in Cyprus, to take in food and water before we
run to a secret port near Antioch, whence you are to be taken overland
to Damascus, avoiding all cities of the Franks. Now, the Emperor Isaac
of Cyprus is my friend, and over him Saladin has no power. Once in his
court, you would be safe until such time as you found opportunity to
return to England. This, then, is my plan—that you should escape from
the ship at night as I can arrange.”
“And what is your payment,” she asked, “who are a merchant knight?”
“My payment, lady, is—yourself. In Cyprus we will be wed—oh! think
before you answer. At Damascus many dangers await you; with me you will
find safety and a Christian husband who loves you well—so well that for
your sake he is willing to lose his ship and, what is more, to break
faith with Saladin, whose arm is long.”
“Have done,” she said coldly. “Sooner will I trust myself to an honest
Saracen than to you, Sir Hugh, whose spurs, if you met your desert,
should be hacked from your heels by scullions. Yes, sooner would I take
death for my lord than you, who for your own base ends devised the plot
that brought my father to his murder and me to slavery. Have done, I
say, and never dare again to speak of love to me,” and rising, she
walked past him to her cabin.
But Lozelle looking after her muttered to himself, “Nay, fair lady, I
have but begun; nor will I forget your bitter words, for which you
shall pay the merchant knight in kisses.”
From her cabin Rosamund sent a message to Hassan, saying that she would
speak with him.
He came, still pale with illness, and asked her will, whereon she told
him what had passed between Lozelle and herself, demanding his
protection against this man.
Hassan’s eyes flashed.
“Yonder he stands,” he said, “alone. Will you come with me and speak to
him?”
She bowed her head, and giving her his hand, he led her to the poop.
“Sir captain,” he began, addressing Lozelle, “the Princess here tells
me a strange story—that you have dared to offer your love to her, by
Allah! to her, a niece of Salah-ed-din.”
“What of it, Sir Saracen?” answered Lozelle, insolently. “Is not a
Christian knight fit mate for the blood of an Eastern chief? Had I
offered her less than marriage, you might have spoken.”
“You!” answered Hassan, with rage in his low voice, “you, huckstering
thief and renegade, who swear by Mahomet in Damascus and by your
prophet Jesus in England—ay, deny it not, I have heard you, as I have
heard that rogue, Nicholas, your servant. You, her fit mate? Why, were
it not that you must guide this ship, and that my master bade me not to
quarrel with you till your task was done, I would behead you now and
cut from your throat the tongue that dared to speak such words,” and as
he spoke he gripped the handle of his scimitar.
Lozelle quailed before his fierce eyes, for well he knew Hassan, and
knew also that if it came to fighting his sailors were no match for the
emir and his picked Saracens.
“When our duty is done you shall answer for those words,” he said,
trying to look brave.
“By Allah! I hold you to the promise,” replied Hassan. “Before
Salah-ed-din I will answer for them when and where you will, as you
shall answer to him for your treachery.”
“Of what, then, am I accused?” asked Lozelle. “Of loving the lady
Rosamund, as do all men—perhaps yourself, old and withered as you are,
among them?”
“Ay, and for that crime I will repay you, old and withered as I am, Sir
Renegade. But with Salah-ed-din you have another score to settle—that
by promising her escape you tried to seduce her from this ship, where
you were sworn to guard her, saying that you would find her refuge
among the Greeks of Cyprus.”
“Were this true,” replied Lozelle, “the Sultan might have cause of
complaint against me. But it is not true. Hearken, since speak I must.
The lady Rosamund prayed me to do this deed, and I told her that for my
honour’s sake it is not possible, although it was true that I loved her
now as always, and would dare much for her. Then she said that if I did
but save her from you Saracens, I should not go without my reward,
since she would wed me. Again, although it cost me sore, I answered
that it might not be, but when once I had brought my ship to land, I
was her true knight, and being freed of my oath, would do my best to
save her.”
“Princess, you hear,” said Hassan, turning to Rosamund. “What say you?”
“I say,” she answered coldly, “that this man lies to save himself. I
say, moreover, that I answered to him, that sooner would I die than
that he should lay a finger on me.”
“I hold also that he lies,” said Hassan. “Nay; unclasp that dagger if
you would live to see another sun. Here, I will not fight with you, but
Salah-ed-din shall learn all this case when we reach his court, and
judge between the word of the princess of Baalbec and of his hired
servant, the false Frank and pirate, Sir Hugh Lozelle.”
“Let him learn it—when we reach his court,” answered Lozelle, with
meaning; then added, “Have you aught else to say to me, prince Hassan?
Because if not, I must be attending to the business of my ship, which
you suppose that I was about to abandon to win a lady’s smile.”
“Only this, that the ship is the Sultan’s and not yours, for he bought
it from you, and that henceforth this lady will be guarded day and
night, and doubly guarded when we come to the shores of Cyprus, where
it seems that you have friends. Understand and remember.”
“I understand, and certainly I will remember,” replied Lozelle, and so
they parted.
“I think,” said Rosamund, when he had gone, “that we shall be fortunate
if we land safe in Syria.”
“That was in my mind, also, lady. I think, too, that I have forgot my
wisdom, but my heart rose against this man, and being still weak from
sickness, I lost my judgment and spoke what was in my heart, who would
have done better to wait. Now, perhaps, it will be best to kill him, if
it were not that he alone has the skill to navigate the ship, which is
a trade that he has followed from his youth. Nay, let it go as Allah
wills. He is just, and will bring the matter to judgment in due time.”
“Yes, but to what judgment?” asked Rosamund.
“I hope to that of the sword,” answered Hassan, as he bowed and left
her.
From that time forward armed men watched all the night through before
Rosamund’s cabin, and when she walked the deck armed men walked after
her. Nor was she troubled by Lozelle, who sought to speak with her no
more, or to Hassan either. Only with the man Nicholas he spoke much.
At length upon one golden evening—for Lozelle was a skilful pilot, one
of the best, indeed, who sailed those seas—they came to the shores of
Cyprus, and cast anchor. Before them, stretched along the beach, lay
the white town of Limazol, with palm trees standing up amidst its
gardens, while beyond the fertile plain rose the mighty mountain range
of Trooidos. Sick and weary of the endless ocean, Rosamund gazed with
rapture at this green and beauteous shore, the home of so much history,
and sighed to think that on it she might set no foot. Lozelle saw her
look and heard her sigh, and as he climbed into the boat which had come
out to row him into the harbour, mocked her, saying:
“Will you not change your mind, lady, and come with me to visit my
friend, the Emperor Isaac? I swear that his court is gay, not packed
full of sour Saracens or pilgrims thinking of their souls. In Cyprus
they only make pilgrimages to Paphos yonder, where Venus was born from
out the foam, and has reigned since the beginning of the world—ay, and
will reign until its end.”
Rosamund made no answer, and Lozelle, descending into the boat, was
rowed shorewards through the breakers by the dark-skinned, Cyprian
oarsmen, who wore flowers in their hair and sang as they laboured at
the oars.
For ten whole days they rolled off Limazol, although the weather was
fair and the wind blew straight for Syria. When Rosamund asked why they
bided there so long, Hassan stamped his foot and said it was because
the Emperor refused to supply them with more food or water than was
sufficient for their daily need, unless he, Hassan, would land and
travel to an inland town called Nicosia, where his court lay, and there
do homage to him. This, scenting a trap, he feared to do, nor could
they put out to sea without provisions.
“Cannot Sir Hugh Lozelle see to it?” asked Rosamund.
“Doubtless, if he will,” answered Hassan, grinding his teeth; “but he
swears that he is powerless.”
So there they bode day after day, baked by the sweltering summer sun
and rocked to and fro on the long ocean rollers till their hearts grew
sick within them, and their bodies also, for some of them were seized
with a fever common to the shores of Cyprus, of which two died. Now and
again some officer would come off from the shore with Lozelle and a
little food and water, and bargain with them, saying that before their
wants were supplied the prince Hassan must visit the Emperor and bring
with him the fair lady who was his passenger, whom he desired to see.
Hassan would answer no, and double the guard about Rosamund, for at
nights boats appeared that cruised round them. In the daytime also
bands of men, fantastically dressed in silks, and with them women,
could be seen riding to and fro upon the shore and staring at them, as
though they were striving to make up their minds to attack the ship.
Then Hassan armed his grim Saracens and bade them stand in line upon
the bulwarks, drawn scimitar in hand, a sight that seemed to frighten
the Cypriotes—at least they always rode away towards the great square
tower of Colossi.
At length Hassan would bear it no more. One morning Lozelle came off
from Limazol, where he slept at night, bringing with him three Cyprian
lords, who visited the ship—not to bargain as they pretended, but to
obtain sight of the beauteous princess Rosamund. Thereon the common
talk began of homage that must be paid before food was granted, failing
which the Emperor would bid his seamen capture the ship. Hassan
listened a while, then suddenly issued an order that the lords should
be seized.
“Now,” he said to Lozelle, “bid your sailors haul up the anchor, and
let us begone for Syria.”
“But,” answered the knight, “we have neither food nor water for more
than one day.”
“I care not,” answered Hassan, “as well die of thirst and starvation on
the sea as rot here with fever. What we can bear these Cyprian gallants
can bear also. Bid the sailors lift the anchor and hoist the sail, or I
loose my scimitars among them.”
Now Lozelle stamped and foamed, but without avail, so he turned to the
three lords, who were pale with fear, and said:
“Which will you do: find food and water for this ship, or put to sea
without them, which is but to die?”
They answered that they would go ashore and supply all that was
needful.
“Nay,” said Hassan, “you bide here until it comes.”
In the end, then, this happened, for one of the lords chanced to be a
nephew of the Emperor, who, when he learned that he was captive, sent
supplies in plenty. Thus it came about that the Cyprian lords having
been sent back with the last empty boat, within two days they were at
sea again.
Now Rosamund missed the hated face of the spy, Nicholas, and told
Hassan, who made inquiry, to find—or so said Lozelle—that he went
ashore and vanished there on the first day of their landing in Cyprus,
though whether he had been killed in some brawl, or fallen sick, or
hidden himself away, he did not know. Hassan shrugged his shoulders,
and Rosamund was glad enough to be rid of him, but in her heart she
wondered for what evil purpose Nicholas had left the ship.
When the galley was one day out from Cyprus steering for the coast of
Syria, they fell into a calm such as is common in those seas in summer.
This calm lasted eight whole days, during which they made but little
progress. At length, when all were weary of staring at the oil-like
sea, a wind sprang up that grew gradually to a gale blowing towards
Syria, and before it they fled along swiftly. Worse and stronger grew
that gale, till on the evening of the second day, when they seemed in
no little danger of being pooped, they saw a great mountain far away,
at the sight of which Lozelle thanked God aloud.
“Are those the mountains near Antioch?” asked Hassan.
“Nay,” he answered, “they are more than fifty miles south of them,
between Ladikiya and Jebela. There, by the mercy of Heaven, is a good
haven, for I have visited it, where we can lie till this storm is
past.”
“But we are steering for Darbesak, not for a haven near Jebela, which
is a Frankish port,” answered Hassan, angrily.
“Then put the ship about and steer there yourself,” said Lozelle, “and
I promise you this, that within two hours every one of you will be dead
at the bottom of the sea.”
Hassan considered. It was true, for then the waves would strike them
broadside on, and they must fill and sink.
“On your head be it,” he answered shortly.
The dark fell, and by the light of the great lantern at their prow they
saw the white seas hiss past as they drove shorewards beneath bare
masts. For they dared hoist no sail.
All that night they pitched and rolled, till the stoutest of them fell
sick, praying God and Allah that they might have light by which to
enter the harbour. At length they saw the top of the loftiest mountain
grow luminous with the coming dawn, although the land itself was still
lost in shadow, and saw also that it seemed to be towering almost over
them.
“Take courage,” cried Lozelle, “I think that we are saved,” and he
hoisted a second lantern at his masthead—why, they did not know.
After this the sea began to fall, only to grow rough again for a while
as they crossed some bar, to find themselves in calm water, and on
either side of them what appeared in the dim, uncertain light to be the
bush-clad banks of a river. For a while they ran on, till Lozelle
called in a loud voice to the sailors to let the anchor go, and sent a
messenger to say that all might rest now, as they were safe. So they
laid them down and tried to sleep.
But Rosamund could not sleep. Presently she rose, and throwing on her
cloak went to the door of the cabin and looked at the beauty of the
mountains, rosy with the new-born light, and at the misty surface of
the harbour. It was a lonely place—at least, she could see no town or
house, although they were lying not fifty yards from the tree-hidden
shore. As she stood thus, she heard the sound of boats being rowed
through the mist, and perceived three or four of these approaching the
ship in silence, perceived also that Lozelle, who stood alone upon the
deck, was watching their approach. Now the first boat made fast and a
man in the prow rose up and began to speak to Lozelle in a low voice.
As he did so the hood fell back from his head, and Rosamund saw the
face. It was that of the spy Nicholas! For a moment she stood amazed,
for they had left this man in Cyprus; then understanding came to her
and she cried aloud:
“Treachery! Prince Hassan, there is treachery.”
As the words left her lips fierce, wild-looking men began to scramble
aboard at the low waist of the galley, to which boat after boat made
fast. The Saracens also tumbled from the benches where they slept and
ran aft to the deck where Rosamund was, all except one of them who was
cut off in the prow of the ship. Prince Hassan appeared, too, scimitar
in hand, clad in his jewelled turban and coat of mail, but without his
cloak, shouting orders as he came, while the hired crew of the ship
flung themselves upon their knees and begged for mercy. To him Rosamund
cried out that they were betrayed and by Nicholas, whom she had seen.
Then a great man, wearing a white burnous and holding a naked sword in
his hand, stepped forward and said in Arabic:
“Yield you now, for you are outnumbered and your captain is captured,”
and he pointed to Lozelle, who was being held by two men while his arms
were bound behind him.
“In whose name do you bid me yield?” asked the prince, glaring about
him like a lion in a trap.
“In the dread name of Sinan, in the name of the lord Al-je-bal, O
servant of Salah-ed-din.”
At these words a groan of fear went up even from the brave Saracens,
for now they learned that they had to do with the terrible chief of the
Assassins.
“Is there then war between the Sultan and Sinan?” asked Hassan.
“Ay, there is always war. Moreover, you have one with you,” and he
pointed to Rosamund, “who is dear to Salah-ed-din, whom, therefore, my
master desires as a hostage.”
“How knew you that?” said Hassan, to gain time while his men formed up.
“How does the lord Sinan know all things?” was the answer; “Come,
yield, and perhaps he will show you mercy.”
“Through spies,” hissed Hassan, “such spies as Nicholas, who has come
from Cyprus before us, and that Frankish dog who is called a knight,”
and he pointed to Lozelle. “Nay, we yield not, and here, Assassins, you
have to do not with poisons and the knife, but with bare swords and
brave men. Ay, and I warn you—and your lord—that Salah-ed-din will take
vengeance for this deed.”
“Let him try it if he wishes to die, who hitherto has been spared,”
answered the tall man quietly. Then he said to his followers, “Cut them
down, all save the women”—for the Frenchwoman, Marie, was now clinging
to the arm of Rosamund—“and emir Hassan, whom I am commanded to bring
living to Masyaf.”
“Back to your cabin, lady,” said Hassan, “and remember that whate’er
befalls, we have done our best to save you. Ay, and tell it to my lord,
that my honour may be clean in his eyes. Now, soldiers of Salah-ed-din,
fight and die as he has taught you how. The gates of Paradise stand
open, and no coward will enter there.”
They answered with a fierce, guttural cry. Then, as Rosamund fled to
the cabin, the fray began, a hideous fray. On came the Assassins with
sword and dagger, striving to storm the deck. Again and again they were
beaten back, till the waist seemed full of their corpses, as man by man
they fell beneath the curved scimitars, and again and again they
charged these men who, when their master ordered, knew neither fear nor
pity. But more boatloads came from the shore, and the Saracens were but
few, worn also with storm and sickness, so at last Rosamund, peeping
beneath her hand, saw that the poop was gained.
Here and there a man fought on until he fell beneath the cruel knives
in the midst of the circle of the dead, among them the warrior-prince
Hassan. Watching him with fascinated eyes as he strove alone against a
host, Rosamund was put in mind of another scene, when her father, also
alone, had striven thus against that emir and his soldiers, and even
then she bethought her of the justice of God.
See! his foot slipped on the blood-stained deck. He was down, and ere
he could rise again they had thrown cloaks over him, these fierce,
silent men, who even with their lives at stake, remembered the command
of their captain, to take him living. So living they took him, with not
a wound upon his skin, who when he struck them down, had never struck
back at him lest the command of Sinan should be broken.
Rosamund noted it, and remembering that his command was also that she
should be brought to him unharmed, knew that she had no violence to
fear at the hands of these cruel murderers. From this thought, and
because Hassan still lived, she took such comfort as she might.
“It is finished,” said the tall man, in his cold voice. “Cast these
dogs into the sea who have dared to disobey the command of Al-je-bal.”
So they took them up, dead and living together, and threw them into the
water, where they sank, nor did one of the wounded Saracens pray them
for mercy. Then they served their own dead likewise, but those that
were only wounded they took ashore. This done, the tall man advanced to
the cabin and said:
“Lady, come, we are ready to start upon our journey.”
Having no choice, Rosamund obeyed him, remembering as she went how from
a scene of battle and bloodshed she had been brought aboard that ship
to be carried she knew not whither, which now she left in a scene of
battle and bloodshed to be carried she knew not whither.
“Oh!” she cried aloud, pointing to the corpses they hurled into the
deep, “ill has it gone with these who stole me, and ill may it go with
you also, servant of Al-je-bal.”
But the tall man answered nothing, as followed by the weeping Marie and
the prince Hassan, he led her to the boat.
Soon they reached the shore, and here they tore Marie from her, nor did
Rosamund ever learn what became of her, or whether or no this poor
woman found her husband whom she had dared so much to seek.