"Sirs, will you commit so great a crime? Then I tell you that it cannot go without its punishment.With this lady I say"--and she drew up her tall shape--"that it shall be paid for in your blood, and mayhap in the blood of all of us.Remember my words when the Saracens have won the city, and are putting its children to the sword.""I absolve you from the sin," shouted the patriarch, "if sin it is.""Absolve yourself," broke in Wulf sternly, "and know this.I am but one man, but I have some strength and skill.If you seek but to lay a hand upon the novice Rosamund to hale her away to be slain by Saladin, as he has sworn that he would do should she dare to fly from him, before I die there are those among you who have looked the last upon the light."Then, standing there before the altar rails, he lifted his great blade and settled the skull-blazoned shield upon his arm.
Now the patriarch raved and stormed, and one among them cried that they would fetch bows and shoot Wulf down from a distance.
"And thus," broke in Rosamund, "add murder to sacrilege! Oh!
sirs, bethink what you do--ay, and remember this, that you do it all in vain.Saladin has promised you nothing, except that if you deliver me to him, he will talk with you, and then you may find that you have sinned for nothing.Have pity on me and go your ways, leaving the issue in the hand of God.""That is true," cried some."Saladin made no promises."Now Balian, the guardian of the city, who had followed them to the chapel and standing in the background heard what passed there, stepped forward and said:
"My lord Patriarch, I pray you let this thing be, since from such a crime no good could come to us or any.That altar is the holiest and most noted place of sanctuary in all Jerusalem.Will you dare to tear a maiden from it whose only sin is that she, a Christian, has escaped the Saracens by whom she was stolen? Do you dare to give her back to them and death, for such will be her doom at the hands of Saladin? Surely that would be the act of cowards, and bring upon us the fate of cowards.Sir Wulf, put up your sword and fear nothing.If there is any safety in Jerusalem, your lady is safe.Abbess, lead her to her cell.""Nay," answered the abbess with fine sarcasm, "it is not fitting that we should leave this place before his Holiness.""Then you have not long to wait," shouted the patriarch in fury.
"Is this a time for scruples about altars? Is this a time to listen to the prayers of a girl or to threats of a single knight, or the doubts of a superstitious captain? Well, take your way and let your lives pay its cost.Yet I say that if Saladin asked for half the noble maidens in the city, it would be cheap to let him have them in payment for the blood of eighty thousand folk," and he stalked towards the door.
So they went away, all except Wulf, who stayed to make sure that they were gone, and the abbess, who came to Rosamund and embraced her, saying that for the while the danger was past, and she might rest quiet.
"Yes, mother," answered Rosamund with a sob, "but oh! have I done right? Should I not have surrendered myself to the wrath of Saladin if the lives of so many hang upon it? Perhaps, after all, he would forget his oath and spare my life, though at best Ishould never be suffered to escape again while there is a castle in Baalbec or a guarded harem in Damascus.Moreover, it is hard to bid farewell to all one loves forever," and she glanced towards Wulf, who stood out of hearing.
"Yes," answered the abbess, "it is hard, as we nuns know well.
But, daughter, that sore choice has not yet been thrust upon you.
When Saladin says that he sets you against the lives of all this cityful, then you must judge.""Ay," repeated Rosamund, "then I--must judge."The siege went on; from terror to terror it went on.The mangonels hurled their stones unceasingly, the arrows flew in clouds so that none could stand upon the walls.Thousands of the cavalry of Saladin hovered round St.Stephen's Gate, while the engines poured fire and bolts upon the doomed town, and the Saracen miners worked their way beneath the barbican and the wall.The soldiers within could not sally because of the multitude of the watching horsemen; they could not show themselves, since he who did so was at once destroyed by a thousand darts, and they could not build up the breaches of the crumbling wall.As day was added to day, the despair grew ever deeper.In every street might be met long processions of monks bearing crosses and chanting penitential psalms and prayers, while in the house-doors women wailed to Christ for mercy, and held to their breasts the children which must so soon be given to death, or torn from them to deck some Mussulman harem.
The commander Balian called the knights together in council, and showed them that Jerusalem was doomed.
"Then," said one of the leaders, "let us sally out and die fighting in the midst of foes.""Ay," added Heraclius, "and leave our children and our women to death and dishonour.Then that surrender is better, since there is no hope of succour.""Nay," answered Balian, "we will not surrender.While God lives, there is hope.""He lived on the day of Hattin, and suffered it," said Heraclius;and the council broke up, having decided nothing.
That afternoon Balian stood once more before Saladin and implored him to spare the city.
Saladin led him to the door of the tent and pointed to his yellow banners floating here and there upon the wall, and to one that at this moment rose upon the breach itself.
"Why should I spare what I have already conquered, and what Ihave sworn to destroy?" he asked."When I offered you mercy you would have none of it.Why do you ask it now?"Then Balian answered him in those words that will ring through history forever.
"For this reason, Sultan.Before God, if die we must, we will first slaughter our women and our little children, leaving you neither male nor female to enslave.We will burn the city and its wealth; we will grind the holy Rock to powder and make of the mosque el-Aksa, and the other sacred places, a heap of ruins.We will cut the throats of the five thousand followers of the Prophet who are in our power, and then, every man of us who can bear arms, we will sally out into the midst of you and fight on till we fall.So I think Jerusalem shall cost you dear."The Sultan stared at him and stroked his beard.
"Eighty thousand lives," he muttered; "eighty thousand lives, besides those of my soldiers whom you will slay.A great slaughter--and the holy city destroyed forever.Oh! it was of such a massacre as this that once I dreamed."Then Saladin sat still and thought a while, his head bowed upon his breast.
