ur mother, I pray you let us go."

"By the Prophet, that I would do, Lady, only then I fear me that I
should let my head go from its shoulders also. There are too many in
this secret for it to bide there long if I did as you desire. Nay,
you must to the Emir, all three of you--not Musa, but to his rival,
Obaidallah, who loves him little, and by the decree of the Caliph once
again rules Egypt. Be sure that in a matter between you and Musa you
will meet with justice from Obaidallah. Come now, fearing nothing, to
where we may find you all garments more befitting to your station than
those mummer's robes."

So a guard was formed round us, and we went. As my feet touched the quay
I heard a sound of angry voices, followed by groans and a splash in the
water.

"What is that?" I asked of Yusuf.

"I think, General, that your servants from the _Diana_ have settled some
account that they had with the drunken dog who was so good as to bark
out your name to me. But, with your leave, I will not look to make
sure."

"God pardon him! As yet I cannot," I muttered, and marched on.

We stood, whether on that day or another I do not know, in some hall of
judgment. Martina whispered to me that a small, dark man was seated in
the chair of state, and about him priests and others. This was the Emir
Obaidallah. Musa, that had been Emir, who, she said, was fat and sullen,
was there also, and whenever his glance fell upon Heliodore I felt her
shiver at my side. So was the Patriarch Politian who pleaded our cause.
The case was long, so long that, being courteous as ever, they gave us
cushions to sit on, also, in an interval, food and sherbet.

Musa claimed Heliodore as his slave. An officer who prosecuted claimed
that Allah having given me, their enemy and a well-known general who
had done them much damage, into their hands, I should be put to death.
Politian answered on behalf of all of us, saying that we had harmed no
man. He added that as there was a truce between the Christians and the
Moslems, I could not be made to suffer the penalties of war in a time of
peace, who had come to Egypt but to seek a maid to whom I was affianced.
Moreover, that even if it were so, the murder of prisoners was not one
of those penalties.

The Emir listened to all but said little. At length, however, he asked
whether we were willing to become Moslems, since if so he thought that
we might go free. We answered that we were not willing.

"Then it would