“In one of these,” said the Sultan, “is that jewel known as the enchanted Star and the Luck of the House of Hassan, which the prince presented to his conqueror on the day of Hattin, and for the desire of which my captain Abdullah became a traitor and was brought to death.  In the other is a pebble of the same weight.  Come, my niece, take you these boxes and give them to your kinsmen, to each the box you will.  The jewel that is called the Star of Hassan is magical, and has virtue, so they say.  Let it choose, therefore, which of these knights is ripe for death, and let him perish in whose box the Star is found.”

“Now,” muttered the imaum into the ear of his master, “now at length we shall learn which it is of these two men that the lady loves.”

“That is what I seek to know,” answered Saladin in the same low voice.

As she heard this decree Rosamund looked round wildly and pleaded: 

“Oh! be not so cruel.  I beseech you spare me this task.  Let it be another hand that is chosen to deal death to one of those of my own blood with whom I have dwelt since childhood.  Let me not be the blind sword of fate that frees his spirit, lest it should haunt my dreams and turn all my world to woe.  Spare me, I beseech you.”

But Saladin looked at her very sternly and answered: 

“Princess, you know why I have brought you to the East and raised you to great honour here, why also I have made you my companion in these wars.  It is for my dream’s sake, the dream which told me that by some noble act of yours you should save the lives of thousands.  Yet I am sure that you desire to escape, and plots are made to take you from me, though of these plots you say that you and your woman”—­and he looked darkly at Masouda—­“know nothing.  But these men know, and it is right that you, for whose sake if not by whose command the thing was done, should mete out its reward, and that the blood of him whom you appoint, which is spilt for you, should be on your and no other head.  Now do my bidding.”

For a moment Rosamund stared at the boxes, then suddenly she closed her eyes, and taking them up at hazard, stretched out her arms, leaning forward over the edge of the dais.  Thereon, calmly enough the brethren took, each of them, the box that was nearest to him, that in Rosamund’s left hand falling to Godwin and that in her right to Wulf.  Then she opened her eyes again, stood still, and watched.

“Cousin,” said Godwin, “before we break this cord that is our chain of doom, know well that, whatever chances, we blame you not at all.  It is God Who acts through you, and you are as innocent of the death of either of us as of that plot whereof we stand accused.”