The Boy Knight: A Tale of the Crusades Page 13

  CHAPTER XIII.

  IN THE HANDS OF THE SARACENS.

  The English had hoped that after one pitched battle they should be ableto advance upon Jerusalem, but they had reckoned without the climate andillness.

  Although unconquered in the fray, the Christian army was weakened by itssufferings to such an extent that it was virtually brought to astandstill. Even King Richard, with all his impetuosity, dared notventure to cut adrift from the seashore and to march direct uponJerusalem; 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 tocarry out so great a task, but to meet and defeat the armies whichSaladin would bring up to the rescue, and to keep open the line down toJoppa, by which alone provisions and the engines necessary for the siegecould be brought up. Hence the war resolved itself into a series ofexpeditions and detached fights.

  The British camp was thoroughly fortified, and thence parties of theknights sallied out and engaged in conflicts with the Saracens, withvarying success. On several of these expeditions Cuthbert attended theearl, and behaved with a bravery which showed him well worthy of thehonors which he had received.

  Upon one occasion the news reached camp that a party of knights, who hadgone out to guard a number of footmen cutting forage and bringing itinto camp, had been surrounded and had taken refuge in a small town,whose gates they had battered in when they saw the approach of anoverwhelming host of the enemy. King Richard himself headed a strongforce and advanced to their assistance. Their approach was not seenuntil within a short distance of the enemy, upon whom the Crusaders fellwith the force of a thunderbolt, and cleft their way through theirlines. After a short pause in the little town they prepared to again cuttheir way through, joined by the party who had there been besieged. Thetask was now, however, far more difficult; for the footmen would beunable to keep up with the rapid charge of the knights, and it wasnecessary 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 leadthe charge; another party were to follow behind the footmen, who wereordered to advance at the greatest speed of which they were capable,while their rearguard by charges upon the enemy kept them at bay. Tothis latter party Cuthbert was attached.

  The Saracens followed their usual tactics, and this time with greatsuccess. Dividing as the king with his knights charged them, theysuffered these to pass through with but slight resistance, and thenclosed in upon their track, while another and still more numerous bodyfell upon the footmen and their guard. Again and again did the knightscharge through the ranks of the Moslems, while the billmen stoutly kepttogether and resisted the onslaughts of the enemy's cavalry. In spite oftheir bravery, however, the storm of arrows shot by the desert horsementhinned their ranks with terrible rapidity. Charging up to the verypoint of the spears, these wild horsemen fired their arrows into thefaces of their foe, and although numbers of them fell beneath the moreformidable missiles sent by the English archers, their numbers were sooverwhelming that the little band melted away. The small party ofknights, too, were rapidly thinned, although performing prodigious deedsof valor. The Saracens when dismounted or wounded still fought on foot,their object being always to stab or hough the horses, and so dismountthe riders. King Richard and his force, though making the most desperateefforts to return to the assistance of the rearguard, were baffled bythe sturdy resistance of the Saracens, and the position of those in therear was fast becoming hopeless.

  One by one the gallant little band of knights fell, and a sea of turbansclosed over the fluttering plumes. Cuthbert, after defending himselfwith extreme bravery for a long time, was at last separated from thesmall remainder of his comrades by a rush of the enemy's horse, and whenfighting desperately he received a heavy blow at the back of the headfrom the mace of a huge Nubian soldier, and fell senseless to theground.

  When he recovered his consciousness the first impression upon his mindwas the stillness which had succeeded to the din of battle; the shoutsand war-cries of the Crusaders, the wild yells of the Moslems werehushed, and in their place was a quiet chatter in many unknown tongues,and the sound of laughter and feasting. Raising his head and lookinground, Cuthbert saw that he and some ten of his comrades were lyingtogether in the midst of a Saracen camp, and that he was a prisoner tothe infidels. The sun streamed down with tremendous force upon them;there was no shelter; and though all were wounded and parched withthirst, the Saracens of whom they besought water, pointing to theirmouths and making signs of their extreme thirst, laughed in their faces,and signified by a gesture that it was scarcely worth the trouble todrink when they were likely so soon to be put to death.

  It was late in the afternoon before any change was manifest. ThenCuthbert observed a stir in the camp; the men ran to their horses,leaped on their backs, and with wild cries of "Welcome!" started off atfull speed. Evidently some personage was about to arrive, and the fateof the prisoners would be solved. A few words were from time to timeexchanged between these, each urging the other to keep up his heart anddefy the infidel. One or two had succumbed to their wounds during theafternoon, and only six were able to stand erect when summoned to do soby some of their guard, who made signs to them that a great personagewas coming. Soon the shouts of the horsemen and other sounds announcedthat the great chief was near at hand, and the captives gathered fromthe swelling shouts of the Arabs that the new arrival was SultanSuleiman--or Saladin, for he was called by both names--surrounded by abodyguard of splendidly-dressed attendants. The emir, who was himselfplainly attired, reined up his horse in front of the captives.

  "You are English," he said, in the _lingua-franca_, which was the mediumof communication between the Eastern and Western peoples in those days."You are brave warriors, and I hear that before you were taken youslaughtered numbers of my people. They did wrong to capture you andbring you here to be killed. Your cruel king gives no mercy to those whofall into his hands. You must not expect it here, you who without apretense of right invade my country, slaughter my people, and defeat myarmies. The murder of the prisoners of Acre has closed my heart to allmercy. There, your king put ten thousand prisoners to death in coldblood, a month after the capture of the place, because the money atwhich he had placed their ransom had not arrived. We Arabs do not carryhuge masses of gold about with us; and although I could have had itbrought from Egypt, I did not think that so brave a monarch as Richardof England could have committed so cruel an action in cold blood. Whenwe are fresh from battle, and our wounds are warm, and our hearts arefull of rage and fury, we kill our prisoners; but to do so weeks after abattle 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 areknights, and I do not insult you with the offer of turning from yourreligion and joining me. Should one of you wish to save his life onthese conditions, I will, however, promise him a place of position andauthority among us."

  None of the knights moved to accept the offer, but each, as the eye ofthe emir ran along the line, answered with an imprecation of contemptand hatred. Saladin waved his hand, and one by one the captives were ledaside, walking as proudly to their doom as if they had been going to afeast. Each wrung the hand of the one next to him as he turned, and thenwithout a word followed his captors. There was a dull sound heard, andone by one the heads of the knights rolled in the sand.

  Cuthbert happened to be last in the line, and as the executioners laidhands upon him and removed his helmet, the eye of the sultan fell uponhim, and he almost started at perceiving the extreme youth of hiscaptive. He held his hand aloft to arrest the movements of theexecutioners, and signaled for Cuthbert to be brought before him again.

  "You are but a boy," he said. "All the knights who have hitherto falleninto my hands have been men of strength and power; how is it that I seea mere youth among their ranks, and wearing the golden spurs ofknighthood?"

  "King Richard himself made me a knight," Cuthbert said proudly, "afterhaving stood across him when his
steed had been foully stabbed at thebattle 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 hardindeed to kill so brave a youth. I doubt me not that at present you areas firmly determined to die a Christian knight as those who have gonebefore you? But time may change you. At any rate for the present yourdoom 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 ofthe palace are fair. Take this youth to him as a present, and set him towork in his gardens. His life I have spared, in all else Ben Abin willbe his master."

  Cuthbert heard without emotion the words which changed his fate fromdeath to slavery. Many, he knew, who were captured in these wars werecarried away as slaves to different parts of Asia, and it did not seemto him that the change was in any way a boon. However, life is dear, andit was but natural that a thought should leap into his heart that sooneither the Crusaders might force a way into Jerusalem and there rescuehim, or that he himself might in some way escape.

  The sultan having thus concluded the subject, turned away, and gallopedoff surrounded by his bodyguard.

  Those who had captured the Christians now stripped off the armor ofCuthbert; then he was mounted on a barebacked steed, and with fourBedouins, with their long lances, riding beside him, started forJerusalem. After a day of long and rapid riding the Arabs stoppedsuddenly on the crest of a hill, with a shout of joy, and throwingthemselves from their horses bent with their foreheads to the earth atthe sight of their holy city.

  Cuthbert, as he gazed at the stately walls of Jerusalem, and the noblebuildings within, felt bitterly that it was not thus that he had hopedto see the holy city. He had dreamed of arriving before it with hiscomrades, proud and delighted at their success so far, and confident intheir power soon to wrest the town before them from the hands of theMoslems. Instead of this he was a slave--a slave to the infidel, perhapsnever more to see a white face, save that of some other unfortunate likehimself.

  Even now in its fallen state no city is so impressive at first sight asJerusalem; the walls, magnificent in height and strength, andpicturesque in their deep embattlements, rising on the edge of a deepvalley. Every building has its name and history. Here is the churchbuilt by the first Crusaders; there the mighty mosque of Suleiman on thesite of the Temple; far away on a projecting ridge the great buildingknown as the Tomb of Moses; on the right beyond the houses rise thetowers on the Roman walls; the Pool of Bethsaida lies in the hollow; inthe center are the cupolas of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Amongall the fairest cities of the world, there are none which can compare instately beauty with Jerusalem. Doubtless it was a fairer city in thosedays, for long centuries of Turkish possession have reduced many of theformer stately palaces to ruins. Then, as now, the banner of the Prophetfloated over the high places; but whereas at present the population ispoor and squalid, the city in those days contained a far larger numberof inhabitants, irrespective of the great garrison collected for itsdefense.

  The place from which Cuthbert had his first sight of Jerusalem is thatfrom which the best view is to be obtained--the crest of the Mount ofOlives. After a minute or two spent in looking at the city the Arabswith a shout continued their way down into the valley. Crossing thisthey ascended the steep road to the walls, brandishing their lances andgiving yells of triumph; then riding two upon each side of theirprisoner, to protect him from any fanatic who might lay a hand upon him,they passed under the gate known as the Gate of Suleiman into the city.

  The populace thronged the streets; and the news brought by the horsementhat a considerable portion of the Christian host had been defeated andslain passed from mouth to mouth, and was received with yells ofexultation. Execrations were heaped upon Cuthbert, who rode along withan air as quiet and composed as if he were the center of an ovationinstead of that of an outburst of hatred.

  He would, indeed, speedily have been torn from his guards, had not theseshouted that he was placed in their hands by Saladin himself for conductto the governor. As the emir was as sharp and as ruthless with his ownpeople as with the prisoners who fell into his hands, the name acted asa talisman, and Cuthbert and his escort rode forward without molestationuntil they reached the entrance to the palace.

  Dismounting, Cuthbert was now led before the governor himself, a sternand grave-looking man, sitting cross-legged on a divan surrounded byofficers and attendants. He heard in silence the account given him bythe escort, bowed his head at the commands of Suleiman, and, withoutaddressing a word to Cuthbert, indicated to two attendants that he wasto be removed into the interior of the house. Here the young knight wasled to a small dungeon-like room; bread and dates with a cruse of water,were placed before him; the door was then closed and locked without, andhe found himself alone with his thoughts.

  No one came near him that night, and he slept as soundly as he wouldhave done in his tent in the midst of the Christian host. He wasresolved to give no cause for ill-treatment or complaint to his captors,to work as willingly, as cheerfully, as was in his power, and to seizethe first opportunity to make his escape, regardless of any risk of hislife which he might incur in doing so.

  In the morning the door opened, and a black slave led him into thegarden, which was surrounded by a very high and lofty wall. It waslarge, and full of trees and flowers, and far more beautiful than anygarden that Cuthbert had seen in his native land. There were variousother slaves at work; and an Arab, who appeared to be the head of thegardeners, at once appointed to Cuthbert the work assigned to him. Aguard of Arabs with bow and spear watched the doings of the slaves.

  With one glance round, Cuthbert was assured that escape from thisgarden, at least, was not to be thought of, and that for the presentpatience alone was possible. Dismissing all ideas of that kind from hismind, he set to work with a steady attention to his task. He was veryfond of flowers, and soon he became so absorbed in his work as almost toforget that he was a slave. It was not laborious--digging, planting,pruning and training the flowers, and giving them copious draughts ofwater from a large fountain in the center of the garden.

  The slaves were not permitted to exchange a word with each other. At theend of the day's work they were marched off to separate chambers, or,as they might be called, dungeons. Their food consisted of water, drieddates, and bread, and they had little to complain of in this respect;indeed, the slaves in the gardens of the governor's house at Jerusalemenjoyed an exceptionally favored existence. The governor himself wasabsorbed in the cares of the city. The head gardener happened to be aman of unusual humanity, and it was really in his hands that the comfortof the prisoners was placed.

  Sometimes in the course of the day veiled ladies would issue in groupsfrom the palace, attended by black slaves with drawn scimiters. Theypassed without unveiling across the point where the slaves were at work,and all were forbidden on pain of death to look up, or even to approachthe konak or pavilion, where the ladies threw aside their veils, andenjoyed the scent and sight of the flowers, the splash of murmuringwaters, and the strains of music touched by skillful hands.

  Although Cuthbert wondered in his heart what these strange wrapped-upfigures might look like when the veils were thrown back, he certainlydid not care enough about the matter to run any risk of drawing theanger of his guards upon himself by raising his eyes toward them; nordid he ever glance up at the palace, which was also interdicted to theslaves. From the lattice casements during the day the strains of musicand merry laughter often came down to the captives; but this, ifanything, only added to the bitterness of their position, by remindingthem that they were shut off for life from ever hearing the laughter ofthe loved ones they had left behind.

  For upward of a month Cuthbert remained steadily at work, and duringthat time no possible plan of escape had occurred to him, and he hadindeed resigned himself to wait, either until, as he hoped, the citywoul
d be taken by the Christians, or until he himself might be removedfrom his present post and sent into the country, where, although his lotwould doubtless be far harder, some chance of escape might open beforehim.

  One night, long after slumber had fallen upon the city, Cuthbert wasstartled by hearing his door open. Rising to his feet, he saw a blackslave, and an old woman beside him. The latter spoke first in the_lingua-franca_:

  "My mistress, the wife of the governor, has sent me to ask your story.How is it that, although but a youth, you are already a knight? How isit that you come to be a slave to our people? The sultan himself sentyou to her lord. She would fain hear through me how it has happened. Sheis the kindest of ladies, and the sight of your youth has touched herheart."

  With thanks to the unknown lady who had felt an interest in him,Cuthbert briefly related the events which had led to his captivity. Theold woman placed on the ground a basket containing some choice fruit andwhite bread, and then departed with the negro as quietly as she hadcome, leaving Cuthbert greatly pleased at what had taken place.

  "Doubtless," he said to himself, "I shall hear again; and it may be thatthrough the pity of this lady some means of escape may open to me."

  Although for some little time no such prospect appeared, yet the visitsof the old woman, which were frequently repeated, were of interest tohim, and seemed to form a link between him and the world.

  After coming regularly every night for a week she bade the young knightfollow her, holding her finger to her lips in sign that caution must beobserved. Passing through several passages, he was at length led into aroom where a lady of some forty years of age, surrounded by severalslaves and younger women, was sitting. Cuthbert felt no scruple inmaking a deep obeisance to her; the respect shown to women in the daysof chivalry was very great, and Cuthbert, in bowing almost to the groundbefore the lady who was really his mistress, did not feel that he washumiliating himself.

  "Young slave," she said, "your story has interested us. We havefrequently watched from the windows, and have seen how willingly andpatiently you have worked; and it seems strange indeed that one so youngshould have performed such feats of bravery as to win the honor ofknighthood from the hand of that greatest of warriors, Richard ofEngland. What is it, we would fain learn from your lips, that stirs upthe heart of the Christian world that they should launch their armiesagainst us, who wish but to be left alone, and who have no grudgeagainst them? This city is as holy to us as it is to you; and as welive around it, and all the country for thousands of miles is ours, isit likely that we should allow it to be wrested from us by strangersfrom a distance?"

  This was spoken in some Eastern language of which Cuthbert understood noword, but its purport was translated to him by the old woman who hadhitherto acted as his mistress' messenger.

  Cuthbert reported the circumstances of the fight at Azotus, andendeavored to explain the feelings which had given rise to the Crusade.He then, at the orders of the lady, related the incidents of his voyageout, and something of his life at home, which was more interesting eventhan the tale of his adventures to his hearers, as to them the home-lifeof these fierce Christian warriors was entirely unknown.

  After an audience of two hours Cuthbert was conducted back to his cell,his mistress assuring him of her good-will, and promising to do all inher power to make his captivity as light as possible.