cangiar, or poniard, which he had
hidden in his sleeve. Not the presence of his whole army could have
saved their heroic Monarch; but the motions of the Nubian had been as
well calculated as those of the enthusiast, and ere the latter could
strike, the former caught his uplifted arm. Turning his fanatical wrath
upon what thus unexpectedly interposed betwixt him and his object, the
Charegite, for such was the seeming marabout, dealt the Nubian a blow
with the dagger, which, however, only grazed his arm, while the far
superior strength of the Ethiopian easily dashed him to the ground.
Aware of what had passed, Richard had now arisen, and with little more
of surprise, anger, or interest of any kind in his countenance than an
ordinary man would show in brushing off and crushing an intrusive wasp,
caught up the stool on which he had been sitting, and exclaiming only,
"Ha, dog!" dashed almost to pieces the skull of the assassin, who
uttered twice, once in a loud, and once in a broken tone, the words
ALLAH ACKBAR!--God is victorious--and expired at the King's feet.

"Ye are careful warders," said Richard to his archers, in a tone of
scornful reproach, as, aroused by the bustle of what had passed, in
terror and tumult they now rushed into his tent; "watchful sentinels ye
are, to leave me to do such hangman's work with my own hand. Be silent,
all of you, and cease your senseless clamour!--saw ye never a dead Turk
before? Here, cast that carrion out of the camp, strike the head from
the trunk, and stick it on a lance, taking care to turn the face
to Mecca, that he may the easier tell the foul impostor on whose
inspiration he came hither how he has sped on his errand.--For thee, my
swart and silent friend," he added, turning to the Ethiopian--"but how's
this? Thou art wounded--and with a poisoned weapon, I warrant me, for
by force of stab so weak an animal as that could scarce hope to do
more than raze the lion's hide.--Suck the poison from his wound one of
you--the venom is harmless on the lips, though fatal when it mingles
with the blood."

The yeomen looked on each other confusedly and with hesitation, the
apprehension of so strange a danger prevailing with those who feared no
other.

"How now, sirrahs," continued the King, "are you dainty-lipped, or do
you fear death, that you daily thus?"

"Not the death of a man," said Long Allen, to whom the King looked as he
spoke; "but methinks I would not die like a poisoned rat for