“Swear not!” said the voice of one who now entered—­

“Ho! my learned Hakim,” said the king, “come, I hope, to tax our generosity.”

“I come to request instant speech with you—­instant.”

“Retire then, Berengaria,” said the monarch.  “Nay, renew not thy importunities—­nay, this I give to thee—­the execution shall not be till high noon.  Edith, go—­if you are wise.”

The females hurried from the tent, and El Hakim made his humble prayer for the knight about to die.  The king hardening himself as the leech assumed a more lofty tone: 

“Know, then,” he said, “that through every court of Europe and Asia will I denounce thee as thankless and ungenerous.”

Richard turned fiercely from him.

“Hakim, thou hast chosen thy boon, and I may not, king-like, refuse thee.  Take this Scot, therefore, use him as thy bond-slave if thou wilt, only let him beware how he comes before the eyes of Richard.  Is there aught else in which I may do thee pleasure?”

“Let me touch that victorious hand,” said the sage, “in token that should Adonbec El Hakim hereafter demand a boon of Richard of England, he may do so.”

“Thou hast hand and glove upon it, man,” replied Richard.

“May thy days be multiplied,” answered the Hakim.

“Strange pertinacity,” said the King, gazing after him as he departed, “in this Hakim to interfere between this Scot and the chastisement he has merited so richly.  Yet, let him live! there is one brave man the more in the world.”

IV.—­The Victory of Sir Kenneth

Surrounded by his valiant knights, Coeur de Lion stood beside the banner of England while the powers of the various Crusading Princes swept round before him; their commanders, as they passed, making a signal of courtesy “in sign of regard and amity,” as the protocol of the ceremony heedfully expressed it, “not of vassalage.”  By the king’s side stood an Ethiopian slave, recently sent to Richard by Saladin, holding a noble dog in a leash, who watched the ranks with a sagacious look as they passed.  King Richard looked more than once at the Nubian and his dog, and at last said: 

“Thy success, my sable friend, will not place thee high in the list of wizards.”

But Conrade of Montserrat no sooner came within his ken than the noble hound, uttering a furious yell (the Nubian at the same time slipping his leash), leapt upon the noble charger, and seizing the marquis by the throat, pulled him from the saddle.

The Ethiopian, though not without difficulty, disengaged the dog; while the voice of Richard, loud and sonorous, was heard clear above all others: 

“He dies the death who injures the hound.  Stand forward for a false traitor, Conrade of Montserrat.  I impeach thee of treason!”

When King Richard returned to his tent some hours later, he commanded the Nubian to be brought before him, and his keen glance surveyed him for some time in silence.