"You say truth," said the Saracen; "for the curse is still on yonder sea of death, and neither man nor beast drink of its waves, nor of the river which feed without filling it, until this inhospitable desert be passed."

They mounted and pursued their journey across the sandy waste. The ardour of noon was now past, and a light breeze somewhat alleviated the terrors of the desert, though not without bearing on its wings an impalpable dust, which the Saracen little heeded, though his heavily armed companion felt it as such an annoyance, that he hung his iron casque at his saddlebow, and substituted the light riding cap, termed in the language of the time, a mortier, from its resemblance in shape to an ordinary mortar. They rode together for some time in silence, the Saracen performing the part of director and guide of the journey, which he did by observing minute marks and bearings of the distant rocks, on the ridge of which they were gradually approaching. For a little time he seemed absorbed in the task, as a pilot when navigating a vessel through a diffi. cult channel; but they had not proceeded half a league when he seemed secure of his route, and disposed, with more frankness than was proper to his nation, to enter into conver sation.

"You have asked the name," he said, " of a mute fountain, which hath the semblance, but not the reality, of a living thing. Let me be pardoned to ask the name of the companion with whom I have this day encountered, both in danger and in repose, and which I cannot fancy unknown, even here among the deserts of Palestine ???

"It is not yet worth publishing," said he Christian. "Know, however, that among the soldiers of the Cross I am called Kenneth-Kenneth of the Couching Leopard; at home I have other titles, but they would sound harsh in an Eastern ear. Brave Saracen, let me ask which of the tribes of Arabia claims your descent, and by what name you are known?"

"Sir Kenneth," said the Moslem, "I joy that your name is such as my lips can easily utter. For me, I am no Arab, yet derive my descent from a line neither less wild nor less warlike. Know, Sir Knight of the Leopard, that I am Sheerkohf, the the Lion of the Mountain, and that Kurdistan, from which I

derive my descent, holds no family more noble than that of Seljook."

" I have heard," answered the Christian, "that your great Soldan claims his blood from the same source?"

"Thanks to the Prophet, that hath so far honoured our mountains, as to send from their bosom Him whose word is victory," answered the Paynim. "I am but as a worm before the King of Egypt and Syria, and yet in my own land something my name may avail. Stranger, with how many men didst thou come on this warfare ?יי

" By my faith," said Sir Kenneth, "with aid of friends and kinsmen, I was hardly pinched to furnish forth ten well-appointed lances, with maybe some fifty more men, archers and varlets included. Some have deserted my unlucky pennon-some have fallen in battle-several have died of disease-and one trusty armour-bearer, for whose life I am now doing my pilgrimage, lies on the bed of sickness."

"Christian," said Sheerkohf, "here I have five arrows in my quiver, each feathered from the wing of an eagle. When I send one of them to my tents, a thousand warriors mount on horseback-when I send another, an equal force will arise-for the five, I can command five thousand men; and if I send my bow, ten thousand mounted riders will shake the desert. And with thy fifty followers thou hast come to invade a land, in which I am one of the meanest!"

"Now, by the rood, Saracen," retorted the western warrior, "thou should'st know, ere thou vauntest thyself, that one steelglove can crush a whole handful of hornets."

"Ay, but it must first inclose them within its grasp," said the Saracen, with a smile which might have endangered their new alliance, had he not changed the subject by adding, "And is bravery so much esteemed amongst the Christian princes, that thou, thus void of means, and of men, canst offer as thou didst of late, to be my protector and security in the camp of thy brethren?יי

"Know, Saracen," said the Christian, "since such is thy style, that the name of a knight, and the blood of a gentleman, entitle him to place himself on the same rank with sovereigns even of the first degree, in so far as regards all but regal authority and dominion. Were Richard of England himself to wound the honour of a knight as poor as I am, he could not, by the law of chivalry, deny him the combat."

VOL. III.-3.

"Methinks I should like to look upon so strange a scene," said the Emir, in which a leathern belt and a pair of spurs put the poorest upon a level with the most powerful."

"You must add free blood and a fearless heart," said the Christian; "then, perhaps, you will not have spoken untruly." "And mix you as boldly amongst the females of your chiefs and leaders?" asked the Saracen.

"God forbid," said the Knight of the Leopard, " that the poorest knight in Christendom should not be free, in all honourable service to devote his heart and sword, the fame of his actions, and the fixed devotion of his heart, upon the fairest princes who ever wore coronet on her brow."

"But a little while since," said the Saracen, " and you described love as the highest treasure of the heart-thine hath undoubtedly been high and nobly bestowed?"

"Stranger," answered the Christian, blushing deeply as he spoke, "we tell not rashly where it is we have bestowed our choicest treasures-it is enough for thee to know, that, as thou sayest, my love is highly and nobly bestowed-most highlymost nobly; but if thou would'st hear of love and broken lances, venture thyself, as thou sayest, to the camp of the crusaders, and thou wilt find exercise for thine ears, and, if thou wilt, for thy hands too.”

The Eastern warrior, raising himself in his stirrups, and shaking aloft his lance, replied "Hardly I fear will I find one with a crossed shoulder, who will exchange with me the cast of the jerrid,"

"I will not promise for that," replied the Knight, "though there be in the camp certain Spaniards, who have right good skill in your eastern game of hurling the javelin.

"Dogs, and sons of dogs!" ejaculated the Saracen ; "what have these Spaniards to do to come hither to combat the true believers, who in their own land, are their lords and taskmasters? with them I would mix in no warlike pastime."

"Let not the knights of Leon or Asturias hear you speak thus of them," said the Knight of the Leopard; " but" added he, smiling, at the recollection of the morning's combat, " if, instead of a reed, you are inclined to stand the cast of a battle-axe, there are enough of western warriors who would gratify your longing."

"By the beard of my father, sir," said the Saracen, with an approach to laughter, "the game is too rough for mere sport. I will never shun them in battle, but my head" (pressing his hand to his brow) "will not, for a while, permit me to seek them in game."

"I would you saw the axe of King Richard," answered the western warrior, " to which that which hangs to my saddle-bow weighs but a feather."

"We hear much of that Island sovereign," said the Saracen, "art thou one of his subjects ?"

"One of his followers I am, for this expedition," answered the knight, "and honoured in the service; but not born his subject, although a native of the island in which he reigns."

"How mean you?" said the eastern soldier; "have you then two kings in one poor island ?"

"As thou sayest," said the Scot, for such was Sir Kenneth by birth-" It is even so; and yet although the inhabitants of that island are engaged in frequent war, the country can, as thou seest, furnish forth such a body of men-at-arms, as may go far to shake the unholy hold which your master hath laid on the cities of Zion."

"By the beard of Saladin, Nazarene, but that it is a thoughtless and boyish folly, I could laugh at the simplicity of your great Sultan, who comes hither to make conquests of deserts and rocks, and dispute the possession of them with those who have tenfold numbers at command, while he leaves a part of his narrow islet, in which he was born a sovereign, to the dominion of another sceptre than his. Surely, Sir Kenneth, you and the other good men of your country should have submitted yourself to the dominion of this King Richard, ere you left your native land, divided against itself, to set forth on this expedition?"

Hasty and fierce was Kenneth's answer. "No, by the bright light of Heaven! If the king of England had not set forth to the crusade till he was sovereign of Scotland, the crescent might for me, and all true-hearted Scots, glimmer forever on the walls of Zion."

Thus far he had proceeded, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he muttered, "Mea culpa! mea culpa! what have I,

a soldier of the Cross, to do with the recollection of war betwixt Christian nations!"

The rapid expression of feeling corrected by the dictates of duty, did not escape the Moslem, who, if he did not entirely understand all which it conveyed, saw enough to convince him with the assurance, that Christians, as well as Moslemah, had private feelings of personal pique, and national quarrels, which were not entirely reconcilable. But the Saracens were a race, polished, perhaps, to the utmost extent which their religion permitted, and particularly capable of entertaining high ideas of courtesy and politeness; and such sentiments prevented his. taking any notice of the inconsistency of Sir Kenneth's feelings, in the opposite characters of Scot and a crusader.

Meanwhile, as they advanced, the scene began to change around them. They were now turning to the eastward, and had reached the range of steep and barren hills, which binds in that quarter the naked plain, and varies the surface of the country, without changing its sterile character. Sharp rocky eminences began to arise around them, and in a short time, deep declivities and ascents, both formidable in height, and difficult from the narrowness of the path, offered to the travellers obstacles of a different kind from those with which they had recently contended. Dark caverns and chasms amongst the rocks, those grottoes so often alluded to in Scripture, yawned fearfully on either side as they proceeded, and the Scottish knight was informed by the Emir, that these were often the refuge of beasts of prey, or of men still more ferocious, who, driven to desperation by the constant war, and the oppression exercised by the soldiery, as well of the Cross as of the Crescent, had become robbers, and spared neither rank nor religion, neither sex nor age, in their depredations.

The Scottish knight listened with indifference to the accounts of ravages committed by wild beasts or wicked men, secure as he felt himself in his own valour and personal strength; but he was struck with mysterious dread, when he recollected that he was now in the awful wilderness of the forty days' fast, and the scene of the actual personal temptation, wherewith the Evil Principle was permitted to assail the Son of Man. He withdrew his attention gradually from the light and worldly conversation of the infidel warrior beside him, and, however acceptable his gay and gallant bravery would have rendered