Part 1 (2/2)
”O Sultan, Allah has warned you in shadows that the woman, your niece, who dwells far away in England, shall by her own n.o.bleness and sacrifice, in some time to come, save you from shedding a sea of blood, and bring rest upon the land. We charge you, therefore, draw this lady to your court, and keep her ever by your side, since if she escape you, her peace goes with her.”
Salah-ed-din said that this interpretation was wise and true, for thus also he had read his dream. Then he summoned a certain false knight who bore the Cross upon his breast, but in secret had accepted the Koran, a Frankish spy of his, who came from that country where dwelt the maiden, his niece, and from him learned about her, her father, and her home. With him and another spy who pa.s.sed as a Christian palmer, by the aid of Prince Ha.s.san, one of the greatest and most trusted of his Emirs, he made a cunning plan for the capture of the maiden if she would not come willingly, and for her bearing away to Syria.
Moreover--that in the eyes of all men her dignity might be worthy of her high blood and fate--by his decree he created her, the niece whom he had never seen, Princess of Baalbec, with great possessions--a rule that her grandfather, Ayoub, and her uncle, Izzeddin, had held before her. Also he purchased a stout galley of war, manning it with proved sailors and with chosen men-at-arms, under the command of the Prince Ha.s.san, and wrote a letter to the English lord, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, and to his daughter, and prepared a royal gift of jewels, and sent them to the lady, his niece, far away in England, and with it the Patent of her rank. Her he commanded this company to win by peace, or force, or fraud, as best they might, but that without her not one of them should dare to look upon his face again. And with these he sent the two Frankish spies, who knew the place where the lady lived, one of whom, the false knight, was a skilled mariner and the captain of the s.h.i.+p.
These things did Yusuf Salah-ed-din, and waited patiently till it should please G.o.d to accomplish the vision with which G.o.d had filled his soul in sleep.
Chapter One: By The Waters of Death Creek
From the sea-wall on the coast of Ess.e.x, Rosamund looked out across the ocean eastwards. To right and left, but a little behind her, like guards attending the person of their sovereign, stood her cousins, the twin brethren, G.o.dwin and Wulf, tall and shapely men. G.o.dwin was still as a statue, his hands folded over the hilt of the long, scabbarded sword, of which the point was set on the ground before him, but Wulf, his brother, moved restlessly, and at length yawned aloud. They were beautiful to look at, all three of them, as they appeared in the splendour of their youth and health. The imperial Rosamund, dark-haired and eyed, ivory skinned and slender-waisted, a posy of marsh flowers in her hand; the pale, stately G.o.dwin, with his dreaming face; and the bold-fronted, blue-eyed warrior, Wulf, Saxon to his finger-tips, notwithstanding his father's Norman blood.
At the sound of that unstifled yawn, Rosamund turned her head with the slow grace which marked her every movement.
”Would you sleep already, Wulf, and the sun not yet down?” she asked in her rich, low voice, which, perhaps because of its foreign accent, seemed quite different to that of any other woman.
”I think so, Rosamund,” he answered. ”It would serve to pa.s.s the time, and now that you have finished gathering those yellow flowers which we rode so far to seek, the time--is somewhat long.”
”Shame on you, Wulf,” she said, smiling. ”Look upon yonder sea and sky, at that sheet of bloom all gold and purple--”
”I have looked for hard on half an hour, Cousin Rosamund; also at your back and at G.o.dwin's left arm and side-face, till in truth I thought myself kneeling in Stangate Priory staring at my father's effigy upon his tomb, while Prior John pattered the Ma.s.s. Why, if you stood it on its feet, it is G.o.dwin, the same crossed hands resting on the sword, the same cold, silent face staring at the sky.”
”G.o.dwin as G.o.dwin will no doubt one day be, or so he hopes--that is, if the saints give him grace to do such deeds as did our sire,” interrupted his brother.
Wulf looked at him, and a curious flash of inspiration shone in his blue eyes.
”No, I think not,” he answered; ”the deeds you may do, and greater, but surely you will lie wrapped not in a s.h.i.+rt of mail, but with a monk's cowl at the last--unless a woman robs you of it and the quickest road to heaven. Tell me now, what are you thinking of, you two--for I have been wondering in my dull way, and am curious to learn how far I stand from truth? Rosamund, speak first. Nay, not all the truth--a maid's thoughts are her own--but just the cream of it, that which rises to the top and should be skimmed.”
Rosamund sighed. ”I? I was thinking of the East, where the sun s.h.i.+nes ever and the seas are blue as my girdle stones, and men are full of strange learning--”
”And women are men's slaves!” interrupted Wulf. ”Still, it is natural that you should think of the East who have that blood in your veins, and high blood, if all tales be true. Say, Princess”--and he bowed the knee to her with an affectation of mockery which could not hide his earnest reverence--”say, Princess, my cousin, granddaughter of Ayoub and niece of the mighty monarch, Yusuf Salah-ed-din, do you wish to leave this pale land and visit your dominions in Egypt and in Syria?”
She listened, and at his words her eyes seemed to take fire, the stately form to erect itself, the breast to heave, and the thin nostrils to grow wider as though they scented some sweet, remembered perfume. Indeed, at that moment, standing there on the promontory above the seas, Rosamund looked a very queen.
Presently she answered him with another question.
”And how would they greet me there, Wulf, who am a Norman D'Arcy and a Christian maid?”
”The first they would forgive you, since that blood is none so ill either, and for the second--why, faiths can be changed.”
Then it was that G.o.dwin spoke for the first time.
”Wulf, Wulf,” he said sternly, ”keep watch upon your tongue, for there are things that should not be said even as a silly jest.
See you, I love my cousin here better than aught else upon the earth--”
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