peculiarly successful.
Beyond the Nubian, and scarce visible from without, lay the large dog,
which might be termed his brother slave, and which, as if he felt awed
by being transferred to a royal owner, was couched close to the side of
the mute, with head and ears on the ground, and his limbs and tail drawn
close around and under him.

While the Monarch and his new attendant were thus occupied, another
actor crept upon the scene, and mingled among the group of English
yeomen, about a score of whom, respecting the unusually pensive posture
and close occupation of their Sovereign, were, contrary to their wont,
keeping a silent guard in front of his tent. It was not, however, more
vigilant than usual. Some were playing at games of hazard with small
pebbles, others spoke together in whispers of the approaching day of
battle, and several lay asleep, their bulky limbs folded in their green
mantles.

Amid these careless warders glided the puny form of a little old Turk,
poorly dressed like a marabout or santon of the desert--a sort of
enthusiasts, who sometimes ventured into the camp of the Crusaders,
though treated always with contumely, and often with violence. Indeed,
the luxury and profligate indulgence of the Christian leaders had
occasioned a motley concourse in their tents of musicians, courtesans,
Jewish merchants, Copts, Turks, and all the varied refuse of the Eastern
nations; so that the caftan and turban, though to drive both from
the Holy Land was the professed object of the expedition, were,
nevertheless, neither an uncommon nor an alarming sight in the camp of
the Crusaders. When, however, the little insignificant figure we have
described approached so nigh as to receive some interruption from the
warders, he dashed his dusky green turban from his head, showed that his
beard and eyebrows were shaved like those of a professed buffoon, and
that the expression of his fantastic and writhen features, as well as
of his little black eyes, which glittered like jet, was that of a crazed
imagination.

"Dance, marabout," cried the soldiers, acquainted with the manners of
these wandering enthusiasts, "dance, or we will scourge thee with our
bow-strings till thou spin as never top did under schoolboy's lash."
Thus shouted the reckless warders, as much delighted at having a subject
to tease as a child when he catches a butterfly, or a schoolboy upon
discovering a bird's nest.

The marabout, as if happy to do their behest