Part 48 (2/2)
”Why, Sir G.o.dwin?”
”For two reasons, sire. As you learned to-day, at length the riddle is answered. It is Wulf who is beloved of the lady Rosamund, and therefore to kill him would be a crime. Further, it is I and not he whom the eunuch heard bargaining with the captain Abdullah in the tent--I swear it. Take your vengeance upon me, and let him go to fulfil his fate.”
Saladin pulled at his beard, then answered:
”If this is to be so, time is short, Sir G.o.dwin. What farewells have you to make? You say that you would speak with my niece Rosamund? Nay, the princess you shall not see, and indeed cannot, for she lies swooning in her chamber. Do you desire to meet your brother for the last time?”
”No, sire, for then he might learn the truth and--”
”Refuse this sacrifice, Sir G.o.dwin, which perchance will be scarcely to his liking.”
”I wish to say good-bye to Masouda, she who is waiting woman to the princess.”
”That you cannot do, for, know, I mistrust this Masouda, and believe that she was at the bottom of your plot. I have dismissed her from the person of the princess and from my camp, which she is to leave--if she has not already left--with some Arabs who are her kin. Had it not been for her services in the land of the a.s.sa.s.sins and afterwards, I should have put her to death.”
”Then,” said G.o.dwin with a sigh, ”I desire only to see Egbert the bishop, that he may shrive me according to our faith and make note of my last wishes.”
”Good; he shall be sent to you. I accept your statement that you are the guilty man and not Sir Wulf, and take your life for his.
Leave me now, who have greater matters on my mind. The guard will seek you at the appointed time.”
G.o.dwin bowed and walked away with a steady step while Saladin, looking after him, muttered:
”The world could ill spare so brave and good a man.”
Two hours later guards summoned G.o.dwin from the place where he was prisoned, and, accompanied by the old bishop who had shriven him, he pa.s.sed its door with a happy countenance, such as a bridegroom might have worn. In a fas.h.i.+on, indeed, he was happy, whose troubles were done with, who had few sins to mourn, whose faith was the faith of a child, and who laid down his life for his friend and brother. They took him to a vault of the great house where Saladin was lodged--a large, rough place, lit with torches, in which waited the headsman and his a.s.sistants.
Presently Saladin entered, and, looking at him curiously, said:
”Are you still of the same mind, Sir G.o.dwin?”
”I am.”
”Good. Yet I have changed mine. You shall say farewell to your cousin, as you desired. Let the princess of Baalbec be brought hither, sick or well, that she may see her work. Let her come alone.”
”Sire,” pleaded G.o.dwin, ”spare her such a sight.”
But he pleaded in vain, for Saladin answered only, ”I have said.”
A while pa.s.sed, and G.o.dwin, hearing the sweep of robes, looked up, and saw the tall shape of a veiled woman standing in the corner of the vault where the shadow was so deep that the torchlight only glimmered faintly upon her royal ornaments.
”They told me that you were sick, princess, sick with sorrow, as well you may be, because the man you love was about to die for you,” said Saladin in a slow voice. ”Now I have had pity on your grief, and his life has been bought with another life, that of the knight who stands yonder.”
The veiled form started wildly, then sank back against the wall.
”Rosamund,” broke in G.o.dwin, speaking in French, ”I beseech you, be silent and do not unman me with words or tears. It is best thus, and you know that it is best. Wulf you love as he loves you, and I believe that in time you will be brought together. Me you do not love, save as a friend, and never have. Moreover, I tell you this that it may ease your pain and my conscience; I no longer seek you as my wife, whose bride is death. I pray you, give to Wulf my love and blessing, and to Masouda, that truest and most sweet woman, say, or write, that I offer her the homage of my heart; that I thought of her in my last moments, and that my prayer is we may meet again where all crooked paths are straightened. Rosamund, farewell; peace and joy go with you through many years, ay, and with your children's children. Of G.o.dwin I only ask you to remember this, that he lived serving you, and so died.”
She heard and stretched out her arms, and, none forbidding him, G.o.dwin walked to where she stood. Without lifting her veil she bent forward and kissed him, first upon the brow and next upon the lips; then with a low, moaning cry, she turned and fled from that gloomy place, nor did Saladin seek to stay her. Only to himself the Sultan wondered how it came about that if it was Wulf whom Rosamund loved, she still kissed G.o.dwin thus upon the lips.
As he walked back to the death-place G.o.dwin wondered also, first that Rosamund should have spoken no single word, and secondly because she had kissed him thus, even in that hour. Why or wherefore he did not know, but there rose in his mind a memory of that wild ride down the mountain steeps at Beirut, and of lips which then had touched his cheek, and of the odour of hair that then was blown about his breast. With a sigh he thrust the thought aside, blus.h.i.+ng to think that such memories should come to him who had done with earth and its delights, knelt down before the headsman, and, turning to the bishop, said:
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