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<h2> CHAPTER I. </h2>
<p>They, too, retired<br/>
To the wilderness, but 'twas with arms.<br/>
PARADISE REGAINED.<br/></p>
<p>The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the
horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant northern
home and joined the host of the Crusaders in Palestine, was pacing slowly
along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, or, as
it is called, the Lake Asphaltites, where the waves of the Jordan pour
themselves into an inland sea, from which there is no discharge of waters.</p>
<p>The warlike pilgrim had toiled among cliffs and precipices during the
earlier part of the morning. More lately, issuing from those rocky and
dangerous defiles, he had entered upon that great plain, where the
accursed cities provoked, in ancient days, the direct and dreadful
vengeance of the Omnipotent.</p>
<p>The toil, the thirst, the dangers of the way, were forgotten, as the
traveller recalled the fearful catastrophe which had converted into an
arid and dismal wilderness the fair and fertile valley of Siddim, once
well watered, even as the Garden of the Lord, now a parched and blighted
waste, condemned to eternal sterility.</p>
<p>Crossing himself, as he viewed the dark mass of rolling waters, in colour
as in duality unlike those of any other lake, the traveller shuddered as
he remembered that beneath these sluggish waves lay the once proud cities
of the plain, whose grave was dug by the thunder of the heavens, or the
eruption of subterraneous fire, and whose remains were hid, even by that
sea which holds no living fish in its bosom, bears no skiff on its
surface, and, as if its own dreadful bed were the only fit receptacle for
its sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes, a tribute to the ocean.
The whole land around, as in the days of Moses, was "brimstone and salt;
it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth thereon." The land as
well as the lake might be termed dead, as producing nothing having
resemblance to vegetation, and even the very air was entirely devoid of
its ordinary winged inhabitants, deterred probably by the odour of bitumen
and sulphur which the burning sun exhaled from the waters of the lake in
steaming clouds, frequently assuming the appearance of waterspouts. Masses
of the slimy and sulphureous substance called naphtha, which floated idly
on the sluggish and sullen waves, supplied those rolling clouds with new
vapours, and afforded awful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic history.</p>
<p>Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost intolerable
splendour, and all living nature seemed to have hidden itself from the
rays, excepting the solitary figure which moved through the flitting sand
at a foot's pace, and appeared the sole breathing thing on the wide
surface of the plain. The dress of the rider and the accoutrements of his
horse were peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country. A coat of
linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel breastplate,
had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour; there were also his
triangular shield suspended round his neck, and his barred helmet of
steel, over which he had a hood and collar of mail, which was drawn around
the warrior's shoulders and throat, and filled up the vacancy between the
hauberk and the headpiece. His lower limbs were sheathed, like his body,
in flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs, while the feet rested in
plated shoes, which corresponded with the gauntlets. A long, broad,
straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with a handle formed like a cross,
corresponded with a stout poniard on the other side. The knight also bore,
secured to his saddle, with one end resting on his stirrup, the long
steel-headed lance, his own proper weapon, which, as he rode, projected
backwards, and displayed its little pennoncelle, to dally with the faint
breeze, or drop in the dead calm. To this cumbrous equipment must be added
a surcoat of embroidered cloth, much frayed and worn, which was thus far
useful that it excluded the burning rays of the sun from the armour, which
they would otherwise have rendered intolerable to the wearer. The surcoat
bore, in several places, the arms of the owner, although much defaced.
These seemed to be a couchant leopard, with the motto, "I sleep; wake me
not." An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though
many a blow had almost effaced the painting. The flat top of his cumbrous
cylindrical helmet was unadorned with any crest. In retaining their own
unwieldy defensive armour, the Northern Crusaders seemed to set at
defiance the nature of the climate and country to which they had come to
war.</p>
<p>The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and unwieldy
than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated with steel,
uniting in front with a species of breastplate, and behind with defensive
armour made to cover the loins. Then there was a steel axe, or hammer,
called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow. The reins were
secured by chain-work, and the front-stall of the bridle was a steel
plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the midst a
short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the horse like the horn
of the fabulous unicorn.</p>
<p>But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second nature,
both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers, indeed, of the
Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere they became inured to
the burning climate; but there were others to whom that climate became
innocent and even friendly, and among this fortunate number was the
solitary horseman who now traversed the border of the Dead Sea.</p>
<p>Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength, fitted to
wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the meshes had been formed
of cobwebs, had endowed him with a constitution as strong as his limbs,
and which bade defiance to almost all changes of climate, as well as to
fatigue and privations of every kind. His disposition seemed, in some
degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as the one
possessed great strength and endurance, united with the power of violent
exertion, the other, under a calm and undisturbed semblance, had much of
the fiery and enthusiastic love of glory which constituted the principal
attribute of the renowned Norman line, and had rendered them sovereigns in
every corner of Europe where they had drawn their adventurous swords.</p>
<p>It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such tempting
rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight during two years'
campaign in Palestine had been only temporal fame, and, as he was taught
to believe, spiritual privileges. Meantime, his slender stock of money had
melted away, the rather that he did not pursue any of the ordinary modes
by which the followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit their
diminished resources at the expense of the people of Palestine—he
exacted no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed himself
of any opportunity of enriching himself by the ransom of prisoners of
consequence. The small train which had followed him from his native
country had been gradually diminished, as the means of maintaining them
disappeared, and his only remaining squire was at present on a sick-bed,
and unable to attend his master, who travelled, as we have seen, singly
and alone. This was of little consequence to the Crusader, who was
accustomed to consider his good sword as his safest escort, and devout
thoughts as his best companion.</p>
<p>Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even on the
iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the Sleeping Leopard;
and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some distance on his right, he
joyfully hailed the sight of two or three palm-trees, which arose beside
the well which was assigned for his mid-day station. His good horse, too,
which had plodded forward with the steady endurance of his master, now
lifted his head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened his pace, as if he
snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the place of repose and
refreshment. But labour and danger were doomed to intervene ere the horse
or horseman reached the desired spot.</p>
<p>As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed to him as
if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated itself
from the trees, which partly hid its motions, and advanced towards the
knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman, whom his turban,
long spear, and green caftan floating in the wind, on his nearer approach
showed to be a Saracen cavalier. "In the desert," saith an Eastern
proverb, "no man meets a friend." The Crusader was totally indifferent
whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb as if borne on
the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe—perhaps, as a vowed
champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred the latter. He
disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized it with the right hand,
placed it in rest with its point half elevated, gathered up the reins in
the left, waked his horse's mettle with the spur, and prepared to
encounter the stranger with the calm self-confidence belonging to the
victor in many contests.</p>
<p>The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman, managing his
steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his body than by any use of
the reins, which hung loose in his left hand; so that he was enabled to
wield the light, round buckler of the skin of the rhinoceros, ornamented
with silver loops, which he wore on his arm, swinging it as if he meant to
oppose its slender circle to the formidable thrust of the Western lance.
His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that of his
antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and brandished
at arm's-length above his head. As the cavalier approached his enemy at
full career, he seemed to expect that the Knight of the Leopard should put
his horse to the gallop to encounter him. But the Christian knight, well
acquainted with the customs of Eastern warriors, did not mean to exhaust
his good horse by any unnecessary exertion; and, on the contrary, made a
dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced to the actual shock, his
own weight, and that of his powerful charger, would give him sufficient
advantage, without the additional momentum of rapid motion. Equally
sensible and apprehensive of such a probable result, the Saracen cavalier,
when he had approached towards the Christian within twice the length of
his lance, wheeled his steed to the left with inimitable dexterity, and
rode twice around his antagonist, who, turning without quitting his
ground, and presenting his front constantly to his enemy, frustrated his
attempts to attack him on an unguarded point; so that the Saracen,
wheeling his horse, was fain to retreat to the distance of a hundred
yards. A second time, like a hawk attacking a heron, the heathen renewed
the charge, and a second time was fain to retreat without coming to a
close struggle. A third time he approached in the same manner, when the
Christian knight, desirous to terminate this illusory warfare, in which he
might at length have been worn out by the activity of his foeman, suddenly
seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and, with a strong hand and
unerring aim, hurled it against the head of the Emir, for such and not
less his enemy appeared. The Saracen was just aware of the formidable
missile in time to interpose his light buckler betwixt the mace and his
head; but the violence of the blow forced the buckler down on his turban,
and though that defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the
Saracen was beaten from his horse. Ere the Christian could avail himself
of this mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and, calling on
his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat
without touching the stirrup, and regained all the advantage of which the
Knight of the Leopard hoped to deprive him. But the latter had in the
meanwhile recovered his mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who remembered the
strength and dexterity with which his antagonist had aimed it, seemed to
keep cautiously out of reach of that weapon of which he had so lately felt
the force, while he showed his purpose of waging a distant warfare with
missile weapons of his own. Planting his long spear in the sand at a
distance from the scene of combat, he strung, with great address, a short
bow, which he carried at his back; and putting his horse to the gallop,
once more described two or three circles of a wider extent than formerly,
in the course of which he discharged six arrows at the Christian with such
unerring skill that the goodness of his harness alone saved him from being
wounded in as many places. The seventh shaft apparently found a less
perfect part of the armour, and the Christian dropped heavily from his
horse. But what was the surprise of the Saracen, when, dismounting to
examine the condition of his prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly
within the grasp of the European, who had had recourse to this artifice to
bring his enemy within his reach! Even in this deadly grapple the Saracen
was saved by his agility and presence of mind. He unloosed the sword-belt,
in which the Knight of the Leopard had fixed his hold, and, thus eluding
his fatal grasp, mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with
the intelligence of a human being, and again rode off. But in the last
encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of arrows, both of
which were attached to the girdle which he was obliged to abandon. He had
also lost his turban in the struggle.</p>
<p>These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a truce. He approached
the Christian with his right hand extended, but no longer in a menacing
attitude.</p>
<p>"There is truce betwixt our nations," he said, in the lingua franca
commonly used for the purpose of communication with the Crusaders;
"wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me? Let there be peace
betwixt us."</p>
<p>"I am well contented," answered he of the Couchant Leopard; "but what
security dost thou offer that thou wilt observe the truce?"</p>
<p>"The word of a follower of the Prophet was never broken," answered the
Emir. "It is thou, brave Nazarene, from whom I should demand security, did
I not know that treason seldom dwells with courage."</p>
<p>The Crusader felt that the confidence of the Moslem made him ashamed of
his own doubts.</p>
<p>"By the cross of my sword," he said, laying his hand on the weapon as he
spoke, "I will be true companion to thee, Saracen, while our fortune wills
that we remain in company together."</p>
<p>"By Mohammed, Prophet of God, and by Allah, God of the Prophet," replied
his late foeman, "there is not treachery in my heart towards thee. And now
wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour of rest is at hand, and the
stream had hardly touched my lip when I was called to battle by thy
approach."</p>
<p>The Knight of the Couchant Leopard yielded a ready and courteous assent;
and the late foes, without an angry look or gesture of doubt, rode side by
side to the little cluster of palm-trees.</p>
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