His mind was to impress the Old Man of Musse, but it fell out otherwise.  The Old Man was not easily impressed, because he was so accustomed to impressing.  You do not prophesy to prophets, or shake priests with miracles.  When he reached the top of Mont-Ferrand he was met by a grave old Sheik, who informed him quietly that he must remain there.  The Marquess was very angry, the Sheik very grave.  The Marquess stormed, and talked of armed hosts.  ‘Look up, my lord,’ said the Sheik.  The mountain-ridges were lined with bowmen; in the hanging-woods he saw the gleam of spears; between them and the sky, on all sides as far as one could see, gloomed the frozen peaks.  The Marquess felt a sinking.  He arose chastened on the morrow, and negotiations were resumed on the altered footing.  Finally, he begged for but three persons, without whose company he said he could not do.  He must have his chaplain, his fool, and his barber.  Impossible, the Sheik said; adding that if they were so necessary to the Marquess he might ‘for the present’ remain with them at Mont-Ferrand.  In that case, however, he would not see the Lord of the Assassins.

‘But that, very honourable sir,’ said the Marquess, with ill-concealed impatience, ‘is the simple object of my journey.’

‘So it was reported,’ the Sheik observed.  ’It is for you to consider.  For my own part I should say that these persons cannot be indispensable for a short visit.’

‘I can give his lordship a week,’ said the Marquess.

‘My master,’ replied the Sheik, ’may give you an hour, but considers that half that time should be ample.  To be sure, there is the waiting for audience, which is always wearisome.’

‘My friend,’ the Marquess said, opening his eyes, ’I am the King-elect of Jerusalem.’

‘I know nothing of such things,’ replied the Sheik.  ’I think we had better go down.’  Three only went down:  the Sheik, the Marquess, and Giafar ibn Mulk.

When at last they were in the garden-valley, and better still had reached the third of the halls of degree, they were met by the chief of the eunuchs, who told them his master was in the harem, and could not be disturbed.  The Marquess, who so far had been all smiles and interest, was now greatly annoyed; but there was no help for that.  In the blue court he must needs wait for nearly three hours.  By the time he was ushered into the milky light of the audience chamber he was faint with rage and apprehension; he was dazzled, he stumbled over the blood-red carpet, arrived fainting at the throne.  There he stayed, tongue-cloven, while the colourless Lord of Assassins blinked inscrutably upon him, with eyes so narrow that he could not tell whether he so much as saw him; and the adepts, rigid by the tribune-wall, stared at their own knees.

’What do you need of me, Marquess of Montferrat? ’asked the old hierarch in his most remote voice.  The Marquess gulped some dignity into himself.