dread of
being the next victim.'

At that moment, and almost ere Walter had spoken, there arose loud and
shrill cries, and then loud shouts of alarm.

'By good St. George!' shouted Hugh Bisset, rushing in, 'the Saracens are
upon us; they are carrying off the Lord Perron, and his brother the Lord
Duval. Arm, arm, brave squires. To the rescue! to the rescue!'

As Bisset gave the alarm, the Earl of March came forth. He was arrayed
in chain-mail, and his helmet was on his brow.

'What, ho!' cried the earl, with lofty indignation; 'do the sons of
darkness, who worship Mahound and Termagaunt, venture where my white
lion ramps in his field of red? Out upon them! My axe and shield.'

Mounting his white steed, the earl caused one of the sides of his
pavilion to be raised, and issuing forth, spurred against the foe with
shouts of 'Let him who loves me follow me! Holy Cross! Holy Cross!' Nor
did the aged warrior confine his hostility to words. Encountering the
leader of the Saracens face to face, he bravely commenced the attack,
and, after a brief conflict, with his heavy axe cleft the infidel from
the crown almost to the chest.

'Pagan dog!' exclaimed the earl, as the Saracen fell lifeless to the
ground; 'I devote thine impure soul to the powers of hell.'

But this achievement was the last which Earl Patrick was destined to
perform. As he spurred forward to pursue his success, his steed became
refractory, and he was flung violently to the ground. Ere his friends
could come to his aid, the Saracens gave him several blows with their
clubs, and he would have been killed on the spot but for the arrival of
Bisset, with Guy Muschamp and Walter Espec, who, having mounted, now
came with a rush to the rescue. A sharp conflict then took place. Guy,
advancing as gaily as if he had been in the tiltyard at Wark, gallantly
unhorsed one Saracen with the point of his lance. Walter, going more
gravely into the combat, killed another with his falchion, at the use of
which he was expert. After much trouble the French lords were rescued;
and such of the Saracens as had not fallen, fled, and galloped along the
banks of the Nile.

Meanwhile the squires and grooms of the Earl of March raised him from
the ground; and, supported by them, he contrived to reach his tent; but
he was much bruised, and so exhausted that he could not muster voice to
speak. When, however, surgeons and physicians were called, they
expressed themselves hopefully, and, no