tuffs, with cushions laid for the guests. But we cannot
stop to describe the cloth of gold and silver--the superb embroidery in
arabesque--the shawls of Kashmere and the muslins of India, which were
here unfolded in all their splendour; far less to tell the different
sweetmeats, ragouts edged with rice coloured in various manners, with
all the other niceties of Eastern cookery. Lambs roasted whole, and
game and poultry dressed in pilaus, were piled in vessels of gold, and
silver, and porcelain, and intermixed with large mazers of sherbet,
cooled in snow and ice from the caverns of Mount Lebanon. A magnificent
pile of cushions at the head of the banquet seemed prepared for the
master of the feast, and such dignitaries as he might call to share that
place of distinction; while from the roof of the tent in all quarters,
but over this seat of eminence in particular, waved many a banner and
pennon, the trophies of battles won and kingdoms overthrown. But amongst
and above them all, a long lance displayed a shroud, the banner
of Death, with this impressive inscription--"SALADIN, KING OF
KINGS--SALADIN, VICTOR OF VICTORS--SALADIN MUST DIE." Amid these
preparations, the slaves who had arranged the refreshments stood
with drooped heads and folded arms, mute and motionless as monumental
statuary, or as automata, which waited the touch of the artist to put
them in motion.

Expecting the approach of his princely guests, the Soldan, imbued, as
most were, with the superstitions of his time, paused over a horoscope
and corresponding scroll, which had been sent to him by the hermit of
Engaddi when he departed from the camp.

"Strange and mysterious science," he muttered to himself, "which,
pretending to draw the curtain of futurity, misleads those whom it seems
to guide, and darkens the scene which it pretends to illuminate! Who
would not have said that I was that enemy most dangerous to Richard,
whose enmity was to be ended by marriage with his kinswoman? Yet it now
appears that a union betwixt this gallant Earl and the lady will bring
about friendship betwixt Richard and Scotland, an enemy more dangerous
than I, as a wildcat in a chamber is more to be dreaded than a lion
in a distant desert. But then," he continued to mutter to
himself, "the combination intimates that this husband was to be
Christian.--Christian!" he repeated, after a pause. "That gave the
insane fanatic star-gazer hopes that I might renounce my faith! But me,
the