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his assailants, found time to give a sharp blow together with a shout to

Robin. The poor beast tried to rise, and the movement, short as it was,

enabled me to draw my leg from under him, and then with my mace I was

enabled to make a stand until you arrived at my side. I think, my lords,

that you will agree with me that Cuthbert, the son of Sir William de

Lance, is fit for the honour of knighthood."

A general chorus of approval arose from the assembly, and the king,

bidding Cuthbert kneel before him, drew his sword and laid it across his

shoulders, dubbing him Sir Cuthbert de Lance. When he had risen, the

great barons of England pressed round to shake his hand, and Cuthbert,

who was a modest young fellow, felt almost ashamed at the honours which

were bestowed upon him. The usual ceremonies and penances which young

knights had to undergo before admission into the body--and which in those

days were extremely punctilious, and indeed severe, consisting, among

other things, in fasting, in watching the armour at night, in seclusion

and religious services--were omitted when the accolade was bestowed for

bravery in the field.

The king ordered his armourer at once to make for Cuthbert a suit of the

finest armour, and authorized him to carry on his shield a sword raising

a royal crown from the ground, in token of the deed for which the honour

of knighthood had been bestowed upon him.

Upon his return to the earl's camp the news of his new dignity spread at

once among the followers of Sir Walter, and many and hearty were the

cheers that went up from the throats of the Saxon foresters, led by Cnut.

These humble friends were indeed delighted at his success, for they felt

that to him they owed very much; and his kindness of manner and the

gaiety of heart which he had shown during the hardships they had

undergone since their start, had greatly endeared him to them.

Cuthbert was now to take rank among the knights who followed the banner

of the earl. A tent was erected for him, an esquire assigned to him, and

the lad as he entered his new abode felt almost bewildered at the change

which had taken place in one short day--that he, at the age of sixteen,

should have earned the honour of knighthood, and the approval of the King

of England, expressed before all the great barons of the realm, was

indeed an honour such as he could never have hoped for; and the thought

of what his mother would say should the news reach her in her quiet Saxon

home, brought the tears into his eyes. He had not gone through the usual

religious ceremonies, but he knelt in his tent alone, and prayed that he

might be made worthy of the honours bestowed upon him; that he might

fulfil the duties of a Christian knight fearlessly and honourably; that

his sword might never be raised but for the right; that he might devote

himself to the protection of the oppressed, and the honour of God; that

his heart might be kept from evil; and that he might carry through life,

unstained his new escutcheon.

If the English had thought that their victory would have gained them

immunity from the Saracen attacks, they were speedily undeceived. The

host, indeed, which had barred their way had broken up; but its fragments

were around them, and the harassing attacks began again with a violence

and persistency even greater than before. The crusaders, indeed, occupied

only the ground upon which they stood. It was death to venture 100 yards

from the camp, unless in a strong body; and the smallest efforts to bring

in food from the country round were instantly met and repelled. Only in

very strong bodies could the knights venture from camp even to forage for

their horses, and the fatigues and sufferings of all were in a way

relieved by the great victory of Azotus.

CHAPTER XIII.

IN THE HANDS OF THE SARACENS.

The English had hoped that after one pitched battle they should be able

to advance upon Jerusalem, but they had reckoned without the climate

and illness.

Although unconquered in the fray, the Christian army was weakened by its

sufferings to such an extent that it was virtually brought to a

standstill. Even King Richard, with all his impetuosity, dared not

venture to cut adrift from the seashore, and to march direct upon

Jerusalem; that city was certainly not to be taken without a long siege,

and this could only be undertaken by an army strong enough, not only to

carry out so great a task, but to meet and defeat the armies which

Saladin would bring up to the rescue, and to keep open the line down to

Joppa, by which alone provisions, and the engines necessary for the

siege, could be brought up. Hence the war resolved itself into a series

of expeditions and detached fights.

The British camp was thoroughly fortified, and thence parties of the

knights sallied out and engaged in conflicts with the Saracens, with

varying success. On several of these expeditions Cuthbert attended the

earl, and behaved with a bravery which showed him well worthy of the

honours which he had received.

Upon one occasion the news reached camp that a party of knights, who had

gone out to guard a number of footmen cutting forage and bringing it

into camp, had been surrounded and had taken refuge in a small town,

whose gates they had battered in when they saw the approach of an

overwhelming host of the enemy. King Richard himself headed a strong

force and advanced to their assistance. Their approach was not seen until

within a short distance of the enemy, upon whom the crusaders fell with

the force of a thunderbolt, and cleft their way through their lines.

After a short pause in the little town, they prepared to again cut their

way through, joined by the party who had there been besieged. The task

was now however, far more difficult; for the footmen would be unable to

keep up with the rapid charge of the knights, and it was necessary not

only to clear the way, but to keep it open for their exit. King Richard

himself and the greater portion of his knights were to lead the charge;

another party were to follow behind the footmen, who were ordered to

advance at the greatest speed of which they were capable, while their

rearguard by charges upon the enemy, kept them at bay. To this latter

party Cuthbert was attached.

The Saracens followed their usual tactics, and this time with great

success. Dividing as the king with his knights charged them, they

suffered these to pass through with but slight resistance, and then

closed in upon their track, while another and still more numerous body

fell upon the footmen and their guard. Again and again did the knights

charge through the ranks of the Moslems, while the billmen stoutly kept

together and resisted the onslaughts of the enemy's cavalry. In spite of

their bravery, however, the storm of arrows shot by the desert horsemen

thinned their ranks with terrible rapidity. Charging up to the very point

of the spears, these wild horsemen fired their arrows into the faces of

their foe, and although numbers of them fell beneath the more formidable

missiles sent by the English archers, their numbers were so overwhelming

that the little band melted away. The small party of knights, too, were

rapidly thinned, although performing prodigious deeds of valour. The

Saracens when dismounted or wounded still fought on foot, their object

being always to stab or hough the horses, and so dismount the riders.

King Richard and his force, though making the most desperate efforts to

return to the assistance of the rearguard, were baffled by the sturdy

resistance of the Saracens, and the position of those in the rear was

fast becoming hopeless.

One by one the gallant little band of knights fell, and a sea of turbans

closed over the fluttering plumes. Cuthbert, after defending himself with

extreme bravery for a long time, was at last separated from the small

remainder of his comrades by a rush of the enemy's horse, and when

fighting desperately he received a heavy blow at the back of the head

from the mace of a huge Nubian soldier, and fell senseless to the ground.

When he recovered his consciousness, the first impression upon his mind

was the stillness which had succeeded to the din of battle; the shouts

and war-cries of the crusaders, the wild yells of the Moslems, were

hushed, and in their place was a quiet chatter in many unknown tongues,

and the sound of laughter and feasting. Raising his head and looking

round, Cuthbert saw that he and some ten of his comrades were lying

together in the midst of a Saracen camp, and that he was a prisoner to

the infidels. The sun streamed down with tremendous force upon them;

there was no shelter; and though all were wounded and parched with

thirst, the Saracens of whom they besought water, pointing to their

mouths and making signs of their extreme thirst, laughed in their faces,

and signified by a gesture that it was scarcely worth the trouble to

drink when they were likely so soon to be put to death.

It was late in the afternoon before any change was manifest. Then

Cuthbert observed a stir in the camp; the men ran to their horses, leapt

on their backs, and with wild cries of "Welcome!" started off at full

speed. Evidently some personage was about to arrive, and the fate of the

prisoners would be solved. A few words were from time to time exchanged

between these, each urging the other to keep up his heart and defy the

infidel. One or two had succumbed to their wounds during the afternoon,

and only six were able to stand erect when summoned to do so by some of

their guard, who made signs to them that a great personage was coming.

Soon the shouts of the horsemen and other sounds announced that the great

chief was near at hand, and the captives gathered from the swelling

shouts of the Arabs that the new arrival was Sultan Suleiman--or Saladin,

for he was called by both names--surrounded by a body-guard of

splendidly-dressed attendants. The emir, who was himself plainly attired,

reined up his horse in front of the captives.

"You are English," he said, in the lingua-franca which was the medium of

communication between the Eastern and Western peoples in those days. "You

are brave warriors, and I hear that before you were taken you slaughtered

numbers of my people. They did wrong to capture you and bring you here to

be killed. Your cruel king gives no mercy to those who fall into his

hands. You must not expect it here, you who without a pretence of right

invade my country, slaughter my people, and defeat my armies. The murder

of the prisoners of Acre has closed my heart to all mercy. There, your

king put 10,000 prisoners to death in cold blood, a month after the

capture of the place, because the money at which he had placed their

ransom had not arrived. We Arabs do not carry huge masses of gold about

with us; and although I could have had it brought from Egypt, I did not

think that so brave a monarch as Richard of England could have committed

so cruel an action in cold blood. When we are fresh from battle, and our

wounds are warm, and our hearts are full of rage and fury, we kill our

prisoners; but to do so weeks after a battle is contrary to the laws

alike of your religion and of ours. However, it is King Richard who has

sealed your doom, not I. You are knights, and I do not insult you with

the offer of turning from your religion and joining me. Should one of you

wish to save his life on these conditions, I will, however, promise him a

place of position and authority among us."

None of the knights moved to accept the offer, but each, as the eye of

the emir ran along the line, answered with an imprecation of contempt and

hatred. Saladin waved his hand, and one by one the captives were led

aside, walking as proudly to their doom as if they had been going to a

feast. Each wrung the hand of the one next to him as he turned, and then

without a word followed his captors. There was a dull sound heard, and

one by one the heads of the knights rolled in the sand.

Cuthbert happened to be last in the line, and as the executioners laid

hands upon him and removed his helmet, the eye of the sultan fell upon

him, and he almost started at perceiving the extreme youth of his

captive. He held his hand aloft to arrest the movements of the

executioners, and signalled for Cuthbert to be brought before him again.

"You are but a boy," he said. "All the knights who have hitherto fallen

into my hands have been men of strength and power; how is it that I see a

mere youth among their ranks, and wearing the golden spurs of

knighthood?"

"King Richard himself made me a knight," Cuthbert said proudly, "after

having stood across him when his steed had been foully stabbed at the

battle of Azotus, and the whole Moslem host were around him."

"Ah!" said the emir, "were you one of the two who, as I have heard,

defended the king for some time against all assaults? It were hard

indeed to kill so brave a youth. I doubt me not that at present you are

as firmly determined to die a Christian knight as those who have gone

before you? But time may change you. At any rate for the present your

doom is postponed."

He turned to a gorgeously-dressed noble next to him, and said,--

"Your brother, Ben Abin, is Governor of Jerusalem, and the gardens of

the palace are fair. Take this youth to him as a present, and set him to

work in his gardens. His life I have spared, in all else Ben Abin will

be his master."

Cuthbert heard without emotion the words which changed his fate from

death to slavery. Many, he knew, who were captured in these wars were

carried away as slaves to different parts of Asia, and it did not seem to

him that the change was in any way a boon. However, life is dear, and it

was but natural that a thought should leap into his heart that soon

either the crusaders might force a way into Jerusalem and there rescue

him, or that he himself might in some way escape.

The sultan having thus concluded the subject, turned away, and galloped

off surrounded by his body-guard.

Those who had captured the Christians now stripped off the armour of