“To Wulf, my brother, and Rosamund, my cousin and his betrothed,—­I live, though well-nigh I died by dead Masouda—­Jesus rest her gallant and most beloved soul!  Saladin will not suffer me to see you, though he has promised that I shall be with you at the last, so watch for me then.  I still dare to hope that it may please God to change the Sultan’s heart and spare you.  If so, this is my prayer and desire—­that you two should wed as soon as may be, and get home to England, where, if I live, I hope to visit you in years to come.  Till then seek me not, who would be lonely a while.  But if it should be fated otherwise, then when my sins are purged I will seek you among the saints, you who by your noble deed have earned the sure grace of God.

“The embassy rides.  I have no time for more, though there is much to say.  Farewell.—­Godwin.”

The terms of Saladin had been accepted.  With rejoicing because their lives were spared, but with woe and lamentation because the holy city had fallen again into the hands of the Moslem, the people of Jerusalem made ready to leave the streets and seek new homes elsewhere.  The great golden cross was torn from the mosque el-Aksa, and on every tower and wall floated the yellow banners of Saladin.  All who had money paid their ransoms, and those who had none begged and borrowed it as they could, and if they could not, gave themselves over to despair and slavery.  Only the patriarch Heraclius, forgetting the misery of these wretched ones, carried off his own great wealth and the gold plate of the churches.

Then Saladin showed his mercy, for he freed all the aged without charge, and from his own treasure paid the ransom of hundreds of ladies whose husbands and fathers had fallen in battle, or lay in prison in other cities.

So for forty days, headed by Queen Sybilla and her ladies, that sad procession of the vanquished marched through the gates, and there were many of them who, as they passed the conqueror seated in state, halted to make a prayer to him for those who were left behind.  A few also who remembered Rosamund, and that it was because of her sacrifice that they continued to look upon the sun, implored him that if they were not already dead, he would spare her and her brave knight.

At length it was over, and Saladin took possession of the city.  Having purged the Great Mosque, washing it with rose-water, he worshipped in it after his own fashion, and distributed the remnant of the people who could pay no ransom as slaves among his emirs and followers.  Thus did the Crescent triumph aver the Cross in Jerusalem, not in a sea of blood, as ninety years before the Cross had triumphed over the Crescent within its walls, but with what in those days passed for gentleness, peace, and mercy.

For it was left to the Saracens to teach something of their own doctrines to the followers of Christ.

During all those forty days Rosamund and Wulf lay in their separate prisons, awaiting their doom of death.  The letter of Godwin was brought to Wulf, who read it and rejoiced to learn that his brother lived.  Then it was taken from him to Rosamund, who, although she rejoiced also, wept over it, and wondered a little what it might mean.  Of one thing she was sure from its wording—­that they had no hope of life.