第118章 Saint Rosamund(1)

From the day when he saw Saladin Godwin began to grow strong again, and as his health came back, so he fell to thinking.

Rosamund was lost to him and Masouda was dead, and at times he wished that he were dead also.What more had he to do with his life, which had been so full of sorrow, struggle and bloodshed?

Go back to England to live there upon his lands, and wait until old age and death overtook him? The prospect would have pleased many, but it did not please Godwin, who felt that his days were not given to him for this purpose, and that while he lived he must also labour.

As he sat thinking thus, and was very unhappy, the aged bishop Egbert, who had nursed him so well, entered his tent, and, noting his face, asked:

"What ails you, my son?"

"Would you wish to hear?" said Godwin.

"Am I not your confessor, with a right to hear?" answered the gentle old man."Show me your trouble."So Godwin began at the beginning and told it all--how as a lad he had secretly desired to enter the Church; how the old prior of the abbey at Stangate counselled him that he was too young to judge; how then the love of Rosamund had entered into his life with his manhood, and he had thought no more of religion.He told him also of the dream that he had dreamed when he lay wounded after the fight on Death Creek; of the vows which he and Wulf had vowed at the time of their knighting, and of how by degrees he had learned that Rosamund's love was not for him.Lastly, he told him of Masouda, but of her Egbert, who had shriven her, knew already.

The bishop listened in silence till he had finished.Then he looked up, saying:

"And now?"

"Now," answered Godwin, "I know not.Yet it seems to me that Ihear the sound of my own feet walking upon cloister stones, and of my own voice lifted up in prayer before the altar.""You are still young to talk thus, and though Rosamund be lost to you and Masouda dead, there are other women in the world," said Egbert.

Godwin shook his head.

"Not for me, my father."

"Then there are the knightly Orders, in which you might rise high."Again he shook his head.

"The Templars and the Hospitallers are crushed.Moreover, Iwatched them in Jerusalem and the field, and love them not.

Should they change their ways, or should I be needed to fight against the Infidel, I can join them by dispensation in days to come.But counsel me--what shall I do now?""Oh! my son," the old bishop said, his face lighting up, "if God calls you, come to God.I will show you the road.""Yes, I will come," Godwin answered quietly."I will come, and, unless the Cross should once more call me to follow it in war, Iwill strive to spend the time that is left to me in His service and that of men.For I think, my father, that to this end I was born."Three days later Godwin was ordained a priest, there in the camp of Saladin, by the hand of the bishop Egbert, while around his tent the servants of Mahomet, triumphant at the approaching downfall of the Cross, shouted that God is great and Mahomet His only prophet.

Saladin lifted his head and looked at Balian.

"Tell me," he said, "what of the princess of Baalbec, whom you know as the lady Rosamund D'Arcy? I told you that I would speak no more with you of the safety of Jerusalem until she was delivered to me for judgment.Yet I see her not.""Sultan," answered Balian, "we found this lady in the convent of the Holy Cross, wearing the robe of a novice of that order.She had taken the sanctuary there by the altar which we deem so sacred and inviolable, and refused to come."Saladin laughed.

"Cannot all your men-at-arms drag one maiden from an altar stone?--unless, indeed, the great knight Wulf stood before it with sword aloft," he added.

"So he stood," answered Balian, "but it was not of him that we thought, though assuredly he would have slain some of us.To do this thing would have been an awful crime, which we were sure must bring down the vengeance of our God upon us and upon the city.""What of the vengeance of Salah-ed-din?"

"Sore as is our case, Sultan, we still fear God more than Saladin.""Ay, Sir Balian, but Salah-ed-din may be a sword in the hand of God.""Which sword, Sultan, would have fallen swiftly had we done this deed.""I think that it is about to fall," said Saladin, and again was silent and stroked his beard.

"Listen, now," he said at length."Let the princess, my niece, come to me and ask it of my grace, and I think that I will grant you terms for which, in your plight, you may be thankful.""Then we must dare the great sin and take her," answered Balian sadly, "having first slain the knight Wulf, who will not let her go while he is alive.""Nay, Sir Balian, for that I should be sorry, nor will I suffer it, for though a Christian he is a man after my own heart.This time I said 'Let her come to me,' not 'Let her be brought.' Ay, come of her own free will, to answer to me for her sin against me, understanding that I promise her nothing, who in the old days promised her much, and kept my word.Then she was the princess of Baalbec, with all the rights belonging to that great rank, to whom I had sworn that no husband should be forced upon her, nor any change of faith.Now I take back these oaths, and if she comes, she comes as an escaped Cross-worshipping slave, to whom Ioffer only the choice of Islam or of a shameful death.""What high-born lady would take such terms?" asked Balian in dismay."Rather, I think, would she choose to die by her own hand than by that of your hangman, since she can never abjure her faith.""And thereby doom eighty thousand of her fellow Christians, who must accompany her to that death," answered Saladin sternly.

"Know, Sir Balian, I swear it before Allah and for the last time, that if my niece Rosamund does not come, of her own free will, unforced by any, Jerusalem shall be put to sack.""Then the fate of the holy city and all its inhabitants hangs upon the nobleness of a single woman?" stammered Balian.