Part 23 (1/2)
Ha.s.san's eyes flashed.
”Yonder he stands,” he said, ”alone. Will you come with me and speak to him?”
She bowed her head, and giving her his hand, he led her to the p.o.o.p.
”Sir captain,” he began, addressing Lozelle, ”the Princess here tells me a strange story--that you have dared to offer your love to her, by Allah! to her, a niece of Salah-ed-din.”
”What of it, Sir Saracen?” answered Lozelle, insolently. ”Is not a Christian knight fit mate for the blood of an Eastern chief?
Had I offered her less than marriage, you might have spoken.”
”You!” answered Ha.s.san, with rage in his low voice, ”you, huckstering thief and renegade, who swear by Mahomet in Damascus and by your prophet Jesus in England--ay, deny it not, I have heard you, as I have heard that rogue, Nicholas, your servant.
You, her fit mate? Why, were it not that you must guide this s.h.i.+p, and that my master bade me not to quarrel with you till your task was done, I would behead you now and cut from your throat the tongue that dared to speak such words,” and as he spoke he gripped the handle of his scimitar.
Lozelle quailed before his fierce eyes, for well he knew Ha.s.san, and knew also that if it came to fighting his sailors were no match for the emir and his picked Saracens.
”When our duty is done you shall answer for those words,” he said, trying to look brave.
”By Allah! I hold you to the promise,” replied Ha.s.san. ”Before Salah-ed-din I will answer for them when and where you will, as you shall answer to him for your treachery.”
”Of what, then, am I accused?” asked Lozelle. ”Of loving the lady Rosamund, as do all men--perhaps yourself, old and withered as you are, among them?”
”Ay, and for that crime I will repay you, old and withered as I am, Sir Renegade. But with Salah-ed-din you have another score to settle--that by promising her escape you tried to seduce her from this s.h.i.+p, where you were sworn to guard her, saying that you would find her refuge among the Greeks of Cyprus.”
”Were this true,” replied Lozelle, ”the Sultan might have cause of complaint against me. But it is not true. Hearken, since speak I must. The lady Rosamund prayed me to do this deed, and I told her that for my honour's sake it is not possible, although it was true that I loved her now as always, and would dare much for her.
Then she said that if I did but save her from you Saracens, I should not go without my reward, since she would wed me. Again, although it cost me sore, I answered that it might not be, but when once I had brought my s.h.i.+p to land, I was her true knight, and being freed of my oath, would do my best to save her.”
”Princess, you hear,” said Ha.s.san, turning to Rosamund. ”What say you?”
”I say,” she answered coldly, ”that this man lies to save himself. I say, moreover, that I answered to him, that sooner would I die than that he should lay a finger on me.”
”I hold also that he lies,” said Ha.s.san. ”Nay; unclasp that dagger if you would live to see another sun. Here, I will not fight with you, but Salah-ed-din shall learn all this case when we reach his court, and judge between the word of the princess of Baalbec and of his hired servant, the false Frank and pirate, Sir Hugh Lozelle.”
”Let him learn it--when we reach his court,” answered Lozelle, with meaning; then added, ”Have you aught else to say to me, prince Ha.s.san? Because if not, I must be attending to the business of my s.h.i.+p, which you suppose that I was about to abandon to win a lady's smile.”
”Only this, that the s.h.i.+p is the Sultan's and not yours, for he bought it from you, and that henceforth this lady will be guarded day and night, and doubly guarded when we come to the sh.o.r.es of Cyprus, where it seems that you have friends. Understand and remember.”
”I understand, and certainly I will remember,” replied Lozelle, and so they parted.
”I think,” said Rosamund, when he had gone, ”that we shall be fortunate if we land safe in Syria.”
”That was in my mind, also, lady. I think, too, that I have forgot my wisdom, but my heart rose against this man, and being still weak from sickness, I lost my judgment and spoke what was in my heart, who would have done better to wait. Now, perhaps, it will be best to kill him, if it were not that he alone has the skill to navigate the s.h.i.+p, which is a trade that he has followed from his youth. Nay, let it go as Allah wills. He is just, and will bring the matter to judgment in due time.”
”Yes, but to what judgment?” asked Rosamund.
”I hope to that of the sword,” answered Ha.s.san, as he bowed and left her.
From that time forward armed men watched all the night through before Rosamund's cabin, and when she walked the deck armed men walked after her. Nor was she troubled by Lozelle, who sought to speak with her no more, or to Ha.s.san either. Only with the man Nicholas he spoke much.
At length upon one golden evening--for Lozelle was a skilful pilot, one of the best, indeed, who sailed those seas--they came to the sh.o.r.es of Cyprus, and cast anchor. Before them, stretched along the beach, lay the white town of Limazol, with palm trees standing up amidst its gardens, while beyond the fertile plain rose the mighty mountain range of Trooidos. Sick and weary of the endless ocean, Rosamund gazed with rapture at this green and beauteous sh.o.r.e, the home of so much history, and sighed to think that on it she might set no foot. Lozelle saw her look and heard her sigh, and as he climbed into the boat which had come out to row him into the harbour, mocked her, saying: