Sir Kenneth's eyes the approaching crisis had a different aspect,
and when Adonbec said to him, "Thou must tarry close by my side," he
answered solemnly in the negative.

"Yonder," he said, "are my comrades in arms--the men in whose society I
have vowed to fight or fall. On their banner gleams the sign of our
most blessed redemption--I cannot fly from the Cross in company with the
Crescent."

"Fool!" said the Hakim; "their first action would be to do thee to
death, were it only to conceal their breach of the truce."

"Of that I must take my chance," replied Sir Kenneth; "but I wear not
the bonds of the infidels an instant longer than I can cast them from
me."

"Then will I compel thee to follow me," said El Hakim.

"Compel!" answered Sir Kenneth angrily. "Wert thou not my benefactor,
or one who has showed will to be such, and were it not that it is to
thy confidence I owe the freedom of these hands, which thou mightst have
loaded with fetters, I would show thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsion
would be no easy task."

"Enough, enough," replied the Arabian physician, "we lose time even when
it is becoming precious."

So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill cry, as
a signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed themselves on the face
of the desert, in as many different directions as a chaplet of beads
when the string is broken. Sir Kenneth had no time to note what ensued;
for, at the same instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed,
and putting his own to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with the
suddenness of light, and at a pitch of velocity which almost deprived
the Scottish knight of the power of respiration, and left him absolutely
incapable, had he been desirous, to have checked the career of his
guide. Practised as Sir Kenneth was in horsemanship from his earliest
youth, the speediest horse he had ever mounted was a tortoise in
comparison to those of the Arabian sage. They spurned the sand from
behind them; they seemed to devour the desert before them; miles flew
away with minutes--and yet their strength seemed unabated, and their
respiration as free as when they first started upon the wonderful
race. The motion, too, as easy as it was swift, seemed more like flying
through the air than riding on the earth, and was attended with no
unpleasant sensation, save the awe naturally felt by one who is moving
at such astonishing speed, and the difficulty of breathing occasioned