Part 24 (2/2)
”It is finished,” said the tall man, in his cold voice. ”Cast these dogs into the sea who have dared to disobey the command of Al-je-bal.”
So they took them up, dead and living together, and threw them into the water, where they sank, nor did one of the wounded Saracens pray them for mercy. Then they served their own dead likewise, but those that were only wounded they took ash.o.r.e. This done, the tall man advanced to the cabin and said:
”Lady, come, we are ready to start upon our journey.”
Having no choice, Rosamund obeyed him, remembering as she went how from a scene of battle and bloodshed she had been brought aboard that s.h.i.+p to be carried she knew not whither, which now she left in a scene of battle and bloodshed to be carried she knew not whither.
”Oh!” she cried aloud, pointing to the corpses they hurled into the deep, ”ill has it gone with these who stole me, and ill may it go with you also, servant of Al-je-bal.”
But the tall man answered nothing, as followed by the weeping Marie and the prince Ha.s.san, he led her to the boat.
Soon they reached the sh.o.r.e, and here they tore Marie from her, nor did Rosamund ever learn what became of her, or whether or no this poor woman found her husband whom she had dared so much to seek.
Chapter Eleven: The City of Al-Je-Bal
”I pray you have done,” said G.o.dwin, ”it is but a scratch from the beast's claws. I am ashamed that you should put your hair to such vile uses. Give me a little water.”
He asked it of Wulf, but Masouda rose without a word and fetched the water, in which she mingled wine. G.o.dwin drank of it and his faintness left him, so that he was able to stand up and move his arms and legs.
”Why,” he said, ”it is nothing; I was only shaken. That lioness did not hurt me at all.”
”But you hurt the lioness,” said Wulf, with a laugh. ”By St. Chad a good thrust!” and he pointed to the long sword driven up to the hilt in the brute's breast. ”Why, I swear I could not have made a better myself.”
”I think it was the lion that thrust,” answered G.o.dwin. ”I only held the sword straight. Drag it out, brother, I am still too weak.”
So Wulf set his foot upon the breast of the lion and tugged and tugged until at length he loosened the sword, saying as he strained at it:
”Oh! what an Ess.e.x hog am I, who slept through it all, never waking until Masouda seized me by the hair, and I opened my eyes to see you upon the ground with this yellow beast crouched on the top of you like a hen on a nest egg. I thought that it was alive and smote it with my sword, which, had I been fully awake, I doubt if I should have found the courage to do. Look,” and he pushed the lioness's head with his foot, whereon it twisted round in such a fas.h.i.+on that they perceived for the first time that it only hung to the shoulders by a thread of skin.
”I am glad you did not strike a little harder,” said G.o.dwin, ”or I should now be in two pieces and drowned in my own blood, instead of in that of this dead brute,” and he looked ruefully at his burnous and hauberk, that were soaked with gore.
”Yes,” said Wulf, ”I never thought of that. Who would, in such a hurry?”
”Lady Masouda,” asked G.o.dwin, ”when last I saw you you were hanging from those jaws. Say, are you hurt?”
”Nay,” she answered, ”for I wear mail like you, and the teeth glanced on it so that she held me by the cloak only. Come, let us skin the beast, and take its pelt as a present to the lord Al-je-bal.”
”Good,” said G.o.dwin, ”and I give you the claws for a necklace.”
”Be sure that I will wear them,” she answered, and helped Wulf to flay the lioness while he sat by resting. When it was done Wulf went to the little cave and walked into it, to come out again with a bound.
”Why!” he said, ”there are more of them in there. I saw their eyes and heard them snarl. Now, give me a burning branch and I will show you, brother, that you are not the only one who can fight a lion.”
”Let be, you foolish man,” broke in Masouda. ”Doubtless those are her cubs, and if you kill them, her mate will follow us for miles; but if they are left safe he will stay to feed them. Come, let us begone from this place as swiftly as we can.”
So having shown them the skin of the lion, that they might know it was but a dead thing, at the sight of which they snorted and trembled, they packed it upon one of the mules and rode off slowly into a valley some five miles away, where was water but no trees. Here, since G.o.dwin needed rest, they stopped all that day and the night which followed, seeing no more of lions, though they watched for them sharply enough. The next morning, having slept well, he was himself again, and they started forward through a broken country towards a deep cleft, on either side of which stood a tall mountain.
”This is Al-je-bal's gateway,” said Masouda, ”and tonight we should sleep in the gate, whence one day's ride brings us to his city.”
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