ds will be
made manifest, and damnation will follow.'

'Nevertheless,' protested the renegade, 'I had rather live at my ease,
as I am, like a rich man, than become an object of contempt.'

'I cannot brook your presence,' said the earl, growing very indignant:
'therefore begone; I can have no more to say to you.'

'Be not over-hasty,' said the renegade; 'for be it known to you, noble
Earl, that I have that to tell which it will profit you much to know.'

'Speak, then,' said the earl, hesitating, 'but be brief; for my patience
is not so long as was my father's sword.'

'It is of a rich caravan I would speak,' said the renegade, with a
glance and a gesture of peculiar significance.

'Ah!' exclaimed the earl, pricking up his ears, and listening with
evident interest.

'It is on its way to Alexandria, and will pass within six leagues of
Damietta within four days,' said the renegade. 'And whoever can capture
that caravan may gain an immense booty.'

'And how does this concern me?' asked the earl.

'My lord,' replied the renegade, 'I see not wherefore you should not
seize the prize as well as another.'

'But how am I to trust your report? How am I to know that your intent is
not to betray me?'

'My lord,' answered the renegade, 'I am in your power. I will answer for
the truth of my story with my head; and, I promise you, I am as yet
neither so old nor so weary of life as to hazard it needlessly.'

'One question further,' said the earl, who was by this time much excited
with the prospect of a rich booty. 'How am I, being in a strange
country, to find this caravan of which you speak?'

'I myself will be your guide,' replied the renegade.

'And wherefore do you hazard so much to put me in possession of this
prize, when, by doing so, you expose yourself to the enmity of the
Egyptians, among whom you have cast your lot?'

'Well, my lord,' said the renegade, after a pause, 'I will be frank. I
expect my share of the spoil; and, besides, I see very clearly that this
army of pilgrims is likely to conquer Egypt, in spite of all the
resistance sultans and emirs may make; and, at such a time, I would fain
have some powerful lord among the conquerors to befriend me.'

'Ha!' exclaimed Longsword, smiling grimly,'I am now convinced.'

'Of what, noble earl?'

'Either that I must have the caravan or your head.'

CHAPTER XV.

CAPTURE OF A CARAVAN.

WHILE King Louis lay at Damietta, awaiting the arrival of Crusad