“Oh! my son,” the old bishop said, his face lighting up, “if God calls you, come to God.  I will show you the road.”

“Yes, I will come,” Godwin answered quietly.  “I will come, and, unless the Cross should once more call me to follow it in war, I will strive to spend the time that is left to me in His service and that of men.  For I think, my father, that to this end I was born.”

Three days later Godwin was ordained a priest, there in the camp of Saladin, by the hand of the bishop Egbert, while around his tent the servants of Mahomet, triumphant at the approaching downfall of the Cross, shouted that God is great and Mahomet His only prophet.

* * *

Saladin lifted his head and looked at Balian.

“Tell me,” he said, “what of the princess of Baalbec, whom you know as the lady Rosamund D’Arcy?  I told you that I would speak no more with you of the safety of Jerusalem until she was delivered to me for judgment.  Yet I see her not.”

“Sultan,” answered Balian, “we found this lady in the convent of the Holy Cross, wearing the robe of a novice of that order.  She had taken the sanctuary there by the altar which we deem so sacred and inviolable, and refused to come.”

Saladin laughed.

“Cannot all your men-at-arms drag one maiden from an altar stone?—­unless, indeed, the great knight Wulf stood before it with sword aloft,” he added.

“So he stood,” answered Balian, “but it was not of him that we thought, though assuredly he would have slain some of us.  To do this thing would have been an awful crime, which we were sure must bring down the vengeance of our God upon us and upon the city.”

“What of the vengeance of Salah-ed-din?”

“Sore as is our case, Sultan, we still fear God more than Saladin.”

“Ay, Sir Balian, but Salah-ed-din may be a sword in the hand of God.”

“Which sword, Sultan, would have fallen swiftly had we done this deed.”

“I think that it is about to fall,” said Saladin, and again was silent and stroked his beard.

“Listen, now,” he said at length.  “Let the princess, my niece, come to me and ask it of my grace, and I think that I will grant you terms for which, in your plight, you may be thankful.”

“Then we must dare the great sin and take her,” answered Balian sadly, “having first slain the knight Wulf, who will not let her go while he is alive.”

“Nay, Sir Balian, for that I should be sorry, nor will I suffer it, for though a Christian he is a man after my own heart.  This time I said ‘Let her come to me,’ not ‘Let her be brought.’  Ay, come of her own free will, to answer to me for her sin against me, understanding that I promise her nothing, who in the old days promised her much, and kept my word.  Then she was the princess of Baalbec, with all the rights belonging to that great rank, to whom I had sworn that no husband should be forced upon her, nor any change of faith.  Now I take back these oaths, and if she comes, she comes as an escaped Cross-worshipping slave, to whom I offer only the choice of Islam or of a shameful death.”