e morrow at
the wedding-feast when he was in his own halls, surrounded by his
guards.

"'Ay,' he answered, 'these brethren shall fight with them until
they are driven into the gulf. It will be a goodly sight for me
and my queen to see.'"

"Oh! horrible, horrible!" said Rosamund; while Godwin muttered:

"I swear that I would have fought, not with his guards, but with
Sinan only."

"So he suffered you to go, and I left him also. Before I went he
spoke to me, bidding me bring the princess to him privately
within two hours after we had supped, as he wished to speak to
her alone about the ceremony of her marriage on the morrow, and
to make her gifts. I answered aloud that his commands should be
obeyed, and hurried to the guest-castle. There I found your lady
recovered from her faintness, but mad with fear, and forced her
to eat and drink.

"The rest is short. Before the two hours were gone a messenger
came, saying that the Al-je-bal bade me do what he had commanded.

"'Return,' I answered; 'the princess adorns herself. We follow
presently alone, as it is commanded.'

"Then I threw this cloak about her and bade her be brave, and, if
we failed, to choose whether she would take Sinan or death for
lord. Next, I took the ring you had, the Signet of the dead
Al-je-bal, who gave it to your kinsman, and held it before the
slaves, who bowed and let me pass. We came to the guards, and to
them again I showed the ring. They bowed also, but when they saw
that we turned down the passage to the left and not to the
right, as we should have done to come to the doors of the inner
palace, they would have stopped us.

"'Acknowledge the Signet,' I answered. 'Dogs, what is it to you
which road the Signet takes?' Then they also let us pass.

"Now, following the passage, we were out of the guest house and
in the gardens, and I led her to what is called the prison tower,
whence runs the secret way. Here were more guards whom I bade
open in the name of Sinan.

"They said: 'We obey not. This place is shut save to the Signet
itself.'

"'Behold it!' I answered. The officer looked and said: 'It is
the very Signet, sure enough, and there is no other.'

"Yet he paused, studying the black stone veined with the red
dagger and the ancient writing on it.

"'Are you, then, weary of life?' I asked. 'Fool, the Al-je-bal
himself would keep a tryst within this house, which he enters
secretly from the palace. Woe to you if he does not find his la