that false pretention.  He had no sooner passed the barrier than he felt ashamed of his baseness, and was overwhelmed with regret.  To make amends for his fault he ran forward to the second gate, and cried to the porter, “Dog of a misbeliever, I command you in the name of Him who died on the cross, open to me!” The points of a hundred weapons immediately opposed his passage.  Huon then remembered for the first time the ring he had received from his uncle, the Governor.  He produced it, and demanded to be led to the Sultan’s presence.  The officer of the guard recognized the ring, made a respectful obeisance, and allowed him free entrance.  In the same way he passed the other doors to the rich saloon where the great Sultan was at dinner with his tributary princes.  At sight of the ring the chief attendant led Huon to the head of the hall, and introduced him to the Sultan and his princes as the ambassador of Charlemagne.  A seat was provided for him near the royal party.

The Prince of Hyrcania, the same whom Huon had rescued from the lion, and who was the destined bridegroom of the beautiful Clarimunda, sat on the Sultan’s right hand, and the princess herself on his left.  It chanced that Huon found himself near the seat of the princess, and hardly were the ceremonies of reception over before he made haste to fulfill the commands of Charlemagne by imprinting a kiss upon her rosy lips, and after that a second, not by command, but by good will.  The Prince of Hyrcania cried out, “Audacious infidel! take the reward of thy insolence!” and aimed a blow at Huon, which, if it had reached him, would have brought his embassy to a speedy termination.  But the ingrate failed of his aim, and Huon punished his blasphemy and ingratitude at once by a blow which severed his head from his body.

So suddenly had all this happened that no hand had been raised to arrest it; but now Gaudisso cried out, “Seize the murderer!” Huon was hemmed in on all sides, but his redoubtable sword kept the crowd of courtiers at bay.  But he saw new combatants enter, and could not hope to maintain his ground against so many.  He recollected his horn, and raising it to his lips, blew a blast almost as loud as that of Roland at Roncesvalles.  It was in vain.  Oberon heard it; but the sin of which Huon had been guilty in bearing, though but for a moment, the character of a believer in the false prophet, had put it out of Oberon’s power to help him.  Huon, finding himself deserted, and conscious of the cause, lost his strength and energy, was seized, loaded with chains, and plunged into a dungeon.

His life was spared for the time, merely that he might be reserved for a more painful death.  The Sultan meant that, after being made to feel all the torments of hunger and despair, he should be flayed alive.