emed that they were expected in
this place, for men hastened to meet them, who greeted Masouda
and eyed the brethren curiously, especially after they had heard
of the adventure with the lion. These took them, not into the
castle, but to a kind of hostelry at its back, where they were
furnished with food and slept the night.

Next morning they went on again to a hilly country with beautiful
and fertile valleys. Through this they rode for two hours,
passing on their way several villages, where sombre-eyed people
were labouring in the fields. From each village, as they drew
near to it, horsemen would gallop out and challenge them, whereon
Masouda rode forward and spoke with the leader alone. Then he
would touch his forehead with his hand and bow his head and they
rode on unmolested.

"See," she said, when they had thus been stopped for the fourth
time, "what chance you had of winning through to Masyaf
unguarded. Why, I tell you, brethren, that you would have been
dead before ever you passed the gates of the first castle."

Now they rode up a long slope, and at its crest paused to look
upon a marvellous scene. Below them stretched a vast plain, full
of villages, cornfields, olive-groves, and vineyards. In the
centre of this plain, some fifteen miles away, rose a great
mountain, which seemed to be walled all about. Within the wall
was a city of which the white, flat-roofed houses climbed the
slopes of the mountain, and on its crest a level space of land
covered with trees and a great, many-towered castle surrounded by
more houses.

"Behold the home of Al-je-bal, Lord of the Mountain," said
Masouda, "where we must sleep to-night. Now, brethren, listen to
me. Few strangers who enter that castle come thence living. There
is still time; I can pass you back as I passed you hither. Will
you go on?"

"We will go on," they answered with one breath.

"Why? What have you to gain? You seek a certain maiden. Why seek
her here whom you say has been taken to Salah-ed-din? Because the
Al-je-bal in bygone days swore to befriend one of your blood. But
that Al-je-bal is dead, and another of his line rules who took no
such oath. How do you know that he will befriend you--how that he
will not enslave or kill you? I have power in this land, why or
how does not matter, and I can protect you against all that dwell
in it--as I swear I will, for did not one of you save my life?"
and she glanced at Godwin, "except my lord Sinan, against who