ld sound
harsh in an Eastern ear. Brave Saracen, let me ask which of the tribes
of Arabia claims your descent, and by what name you are known?"

"Sir Kenneth," said the Moslem, "I joy that your name is such as my lips
can easily utter. For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my descent from
a line neither less wild nor less warlike. Know, Sir Knight of the
Leopard, that I am Sheerkohf, the Lion of the Mountain, and that
Kurdistan, from which I derive my descent, holds no family more noble
than that of Seljook."

"I have heard," answered the Christian, "that your great Soldan claims
his blood from the same source?"

"Thanks to the Prophet that hath so far honoured our mountains as to
send from their bosom him whose word is victory," answered the paynim.
"I am but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria, and yet in my
own land something my name may avail. Stranger, with how many men didst
thou come on this warfare?"

"By my faith," said Sir Kenneth, "with aid of friends and kinsmen, I was
hardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed lances, with maybe
some fifty more men, archers and varlets included. Some have deserted
my unlucky pennon--some have fallen in battle--several have died of
disease--and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing my
pilgrimage, lies on the bed of sickness."

"Christian," said Sheerkohf, "here I have five arrows in my quiver,
each feathered from the wing of an eagle. When I send one of them to my
tents, a thousand warriors mount on horseback--when I send another, an
equal force will arise--for the five, I can command five thousand men;
and if I send my bow, ten thousand mounted riders will shake the desert.
And with thy fifty followers thou hast come to invade a land in which I
am one of the meanest!"

"Now, by the rood, Saracen," retorted the Western warrior, "thou
shouldst know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steel glove can crush
a whole handful of hornets."

"Ay, but it must first enclose them within its grasp," said the Saracen,
with a smile which might have endangered their new alliance, had he not
changed the subject by adding, "And is bravery so much esteemed amongst
the Christian princes that thou, thus void of means and of men, canst
offer, as thou didst of late, to be my protector and security in the
camp of thy brethren?"

"Know, Saracen," said the Christian, "since such is thy style, that the
name of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle hi