“It is yours. The Lord of the Mountain
covers you with his own mantle.”
“I desire,” she went on, “that my
brothers here may lodge with me, that I may not feel
alone among strange people.”
He thought awhile, and answered:
“Your brethren shall lodge near you in the guest
castle. Why not, since from them you cannot need
protection? They shall meet you at the feast
and in the garden. But, lady, do you know it?
They came here upon faith of some old tale of a promise
made by him who went before me to ask my help to recover
you from Salah-ed-din, unwitting that I was your host,
not Salah-ed-din. That they should meet you thus
is a chance which makes even my wisdom wonder, for
in it I see omens. Now she whom they wished to
rescue from Salah-ed-din, these tall brethren of yours
might wish to rescue from Al-je-bal. Understand
then, all of you, that from the Lord of Death there
is but one escape. Yonder runs its path,”
and he pointed to the dizzy place whence his three
servants had leapt to their doom.
“Knights,” he went on, addressing Godwin
and Wulf, “lead your sister hence. This
evening I bid her, and you to my banquet. Till
then, farewell. Woman,” he added to Masouda,
“accompany them. You know your duties;
this lady is in your charge. Suffer that no strange
man comes near her—above all, the Frank
Lozelle. Dais take notice and let it be proclaimed—To
these three is given the protection of the Signet
in all things, save that they must not leave my walls
except under sanction of the Signet—nay,
in its very presence.”
The dais rose, bowed, and seated themselves again.
Then, guided by Masouda and preceded and followed
by guards, the brethren and Rosamund walked down the
terrace through the curtains into the chancel-like
place where men crouched upon the ground; through
the great hall were more men crouched upon the ground;
through the ante-chamber where, at a word from Masouda,
the guards saluted; through passages to that place
where they had slept. Here Masouda halted and
said:
“Lady Rose of the World, who are fitly so named,
I go to prepare your chamber. Doubtless you will
wish to speak awhile with these your—brothers.
Speak on and fear not, for it shall be my care that
you are left alone, if only for a little while.
Yet walls have ears, so I counsel you use that English
tongue which none of us understand in the land of
Al-je-bal—not even I.”
Then she bowed and went.
The brethren and Rosamund looked at each other, for
having so much to say it seemed that they could not
speak at all. Then with a low cry Rosamund said:
“Oh! let us thank God, Who, after all these
black months of travel and of danger, has thus brought
us together again,” and, kneeling down there
together in the guest-hall of the lord of Death, they
gave thanks earnestly. Then, moving to the centre
of the chamber where they thought that none would
hear them, they began to speak in low voices and in
English.
