most beloved soul! Saladin
will not suffer me to see you, though he has promised that I
shall be with you at the last, so watch for me then. I still dare
to hope that it may please God to change the Sultan's heart and
spare you. If so, this is my prayer and desire--that you two
should wed as soon as may be, and get home to England, where, if
I live, I hope to visit you in years to come. Till then seek me
not, who would be lonely a while. But if it should be fated
otherwise, then when my sins are purged I will seek you among the
saints, you who by your noble deed have earned the sure grace of
God.

"The embassy rides. I have no time for more, though there is much
to say. Farewell.--Godwin."

The terms of Saladin had been accepted. With rejoicing because
their lives were spared, but with woe and lamentation because the
holy city had fallen again into the hands of the Moslem, the
people of Jerusalem made ready to leave the streets and seek new
homes elsewhere. The great golden cross was torn from the mosque
el-Aksa, and on every tower and wall floated the yellow banners
of Saladin. All who had money paid their ransoms, and those who
had none begged and borrowed it as they could, and if they could
not, gave themselves over to despair and slavery. Only the
patriarch Heraclius, forgetting the misery of these wretched
ones, carried off his own great wealth and the gold plate of the
churches.

Then Saladin showed his mercy, for he freed all the aged without
charge, and from his own treasure paid the ransom of hundreds of
ladies whose husbands and fathers had fallen in battle, or lay in
prison in other cities.

So for forty days, headed by Queen Sybilla and her ladies, that
sad procession of the vanquished marched through the gates, and
there were many of them who, as they passed the conqueror seated
in state, halted to make a prayer to him for those who were left
behind. A few also who remembered Rosamund, and that it was
because of her sacrifice that they continued to look upon the
sun, implored him that if they were not already dead, he would
spare her and her brave knight.

At length it was over, and Saladin took possession of the city.
Having purged the Great Mosque, washing it with rose-water, he
worshipped in it after his own fashion, and distributed the
remnant of the people who could pay no ransom as slaves among his
emirs and followers. Thus did the Crescent triumph aver the Cross
in Jerusalem, not in a sea o