mbly, he made his suit to the Atheling for the
hand of his niece.

Edgar took her apart. "Edith, canst thou brook this man?"

"Uncle, he was good to me when we were children together at the old
King's Court. I have made no vows, I tore the veil mine aunt threw
over me from mine head. Methinks with me beside him he would never
be hard to our people."

"So be it then, Edith. If he holds to this purpose when he hath
been crowned at Westminster, he shall have thee, though I fear thou
hast chosen a hard lot, and wilt rue the day when thou didst quit
these peaceful walls."

And one more stipulation was made by Edgar the Atheling, ere he rode
to own Henry as King in the face of the English people at
Westminster--namely, that Boyatt should be restored to the true
heiress the Lady Elftrud. And to Roger, compensation was secretly
made at the Atheling's expense, ere departing with Bertram in his
train for the Holy War. For Bertram could not look at the scar
without feeling himself a Crusader; and Edgar judged it better for
England to remove himself for awhile, while he laid all earthly
aspirations at the Feet of the King of kings.

The little English troop arrived just in time to share in the
capture of the Holy City, to join in the eager procession of
conquerors to the Holy Sepulchre, and to hear Godfrey de Bouillon
elected to defend the sacred possession, refusing to wear a crown
where the King of Saints and Lord of Heaven and Earth had worn a
Crown of Thorns.

SIGBERT'S GUERDON

A feudal castle, of massive stone, with donjon keep and high
crenellated wall, gateway tower, moat and drawbridge, was a strange,
incongruous sight in one of the purple-red stony slopes of
Palestine, with Hermon's snowy peak rising high above. It was
accounted for, however, by the golden crosses of the kingdom of
Jerusalem waving above the watch-tower, that rose like a pointing
finger above the keep, in company with a lesser ensign bearing a
couchant hound, sable.

It was a narrow rocky pass that the Castle of Gebel-Aroun guarded,
overlooking a winding ravine between the spurs of the hills,
descending into the fertile plain of Esdraelon from the heights of
Galilee Hills, noted in many an Israelite battle, and now held by
the Crusaders.

Bare, hard, and rocky were the hills around--the slopes and the
valley itself, which in the earlier season had been filled with rich
grass, Calvary clover, blood-red anemones, and pale yellow