, and grave gestures was present to
his imagination; but so soon as he opened them, the graceful and
richly-gemmed turban, the light hauberk of steel rings entwisted with
silver, which glanced brilliantly as it obeyed every inflection of the
body, the features freed from their formal expression, less swarthy, and
no longer shadowed by the mass of hair (now limited to a well-trimmed
beard), announced the soldier and not the sage.

"Art thou still so much surprised," said the Emir, "and hast thou walked
in the world with such little observance, as to wonder that men are not
always what they seem? Thou thyself--art thou what thou seemest?"

"No, by Saint Andrew!" exclaimed the knight; "for to the whole Christian
camp I seem a traitor, and I know myself to be a true though an erring
man."

"Even so I judged thee," said Ilderim; "and as we had eaten salt
together, I deemed myself bound to rescue thee from death and contumely.
But wherefore lie you still on your couch, since the sun is high in
the heavens? or are the vestments which my sumpter-camels have afforded
unworthy of your wearing?"

"Not unworthy, surely, but unfitting for it," replied the Scot. "Give
me the dress of a slave, noble Ilderim, and I will don it with pleasure;
but I cannot brook to wear the habit of the free Eastern warrior with
the turban of the Moslem."

"Nazarene," answered the Emir, "thy nation so easily entertain suspicion
that it may well render themselves suspected. Have I not told thee that
Saladin desires no converts saving those whom the holy Prophet shall
dispose to submit themselves to his law? violence and bribery are
alike alien to his plan for extending the true faith. Hearken to me,
my brother. When the blind man was miraculously restored to sight, the
scales dropped from his eyes at the Divine pleasure. Think'st thou that
any earthly leech could have removed them? No. Such mediciner might have
tormented the patient with his instruments, or perhaps soothed him with
his balsams and cordials, but dark as he was must the darkened man have
remained; and it is even so with the blindness of the understanding. If
there be those among the Franks who, for the sake of worldly lucre, have
assumed the turban of the Prophet, and followed the laws of Islam, with
their own consciences be the blame. Themselves sought out the bait; it
was not flung to them by the Soldan. And when they shall hereafter be
sentenced, as hypocrites, to the lowest gulf of