strength, or rather my reason told me how insane such an undertaking
would be in the midst of the civil wars that are desolating our unhappy
country. If I am not to see you again and I must leave this house, where
at least I have been able to weep in peace, free from the shame and the
trials of slavery, there will be nothing left to me but to die."

"I do not like to see you despair, Rosen-Aer. This is my plan for you.
During my absence you shall leave Narbonne. My forces are to take the
field against the Franks; my army is brave, but the will of God is
immovable. If it be his pleasure that victory fall to Charles and that
the Franks prevail over the Crescent, they may lay siege to this town
and take it. In that event you and all its inhabitants will be exposed
to the fate of people in a place carried by assault--death or slavery.
It is with an eye to withdrawing you from so sad a fate that I would
induce you to leave the town, and to take temporary shelter in one of
the Gallic colonies nearby that cultivate my fields."

"Your fields!" exclaimed Rosen-Aer with bitterness; "you should rather
say the fields that your soldiers seized by force and rapine, the
inseparable companions of conquest."

"Such was the will of God."

"Oh, for the sake of your race and of yourself, Abd-el-Kader, I hope the
will of God may save you the pain of some day seeing the fields of your
fathers at the mercy of conquerors!"

"God ordains ... Man submits. If God decrees against Charles Martel at
the approaching battle and we are victorious, you can return here to
Narbonne; if we are vanquished, if I am killed in the battle, if we are
driven out of Gaul, you shall have nothing to fear in the retreat that I
am providing for you. You can remain with the family of my servant. Here
is a little purse with enough gold pieces to supply your wants."

"I shall remember you, Abd-el-Kader, as a generous man, despite the
wrong your race has done mine."

"God sent us hither to cause the religion preached by Mahomet to
triumph, the only true religion. May his name be glorified."

"But the Christian bishops, priests and monks also pretend that their
religion is the only true one."

"Let them prove it ... we leave them free to preach their belief. Barely
a century since its foundation, the Musselman faith has subjugated the
Orient almost entirely, Spain and a portion of Gaul. We are instruments
of the divine will. If God has decided that I shall die in