At length, as it chanced, the prince was taken with a sickness from drinking bad water which held him to his bed for some days, and then Lozelle found his opportunity.  Rosamund strove to keep her cabin to avoid him, but the heat of the summer sun in the Mediterranean drove her out of it to a place beneath an awning on the poop, where she sat with the woman Marie.  Here Lozelle approached her, pretending to bring her food or to inquire after her comfort, but she would answer him nothing.  At length, since Marie could understand what he said in French, he addressed her in Arabic, which he spoke well, but she feigned not to understand him.  Then he used the English tongue as it was talked among the common people in Essex, and said: 

“Lady, how sorely you misjudge me.  What is my crime against you?  I am an Essex man of good lineage, who met you in Essex and learnt to love you there.  Is that a crime, in one who is not poor, who, moreover, was knighted for his deeds by no mean hand?  Your father said me nay, and you said me nay, and, stung by my disappointment and his words—­for he called me sea-thief and raked up old tales that are not true against me—­I talked as I should not have done, swearing that I would wed you yet in spite of all.  For this I was called to account with justice, and your cousin, the young knight Godwin, who was then a squire, struck me in the face.  Well, he worsted and wounded me, fortune favouring him, and I departed with my vessel to the East, for that is my business, to trade between Syria and England.

“Now, as it chanced, there being peace at the time between the Sultan and the Christians, I visited Damascus to buy merchandise.  Whilst I was there Saladin sent for me and asked if it were true that I belonged to a part of England called Essex.  When I answered yes, he asked if I knew Sir Andrew D’Arcy and his daughter.  Again I said yes, whereon he told me that strange tale of your kinship to him, of which I had heard already; also a still stranger tale of some dream that he had dreamed concerning you, which made it necessary that you should be brought to his court, where he was minded to raise you to great honour.  In the end, he offered to hire my finest ship for a large sum, if I would sail it to England to fetch you; but he did not tell me that any force was to be used, and I, on my part, said that I would lift no hand against you or your father, nor indeed have I done so.”

“Who remembered the swords of Godwin and Wulf,” broke in Rosamund scornfully, “and preferred that braver men should face them.”

“Lady,” answered Lozelle, colouring, “hitherto none have accused me of a lack of courage.  Of your courtesy, listen, I pray you.  I did wrong to enter on this business; but lady, it was love for you that drove me to it, for the thought of this long voyage in your company was a bait I could not withstand.”

“Paynim gold was the bait you could not withstand—­that is what you mean.  Be brief, I pray you.  I weary.