The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1899-05-13

aCteT, resolved that she NOuld ma ner
brother alive or dead, if she had to go to
Jerusalem on foot.
In those wild days, with all their lack of
what we call civilization" there was one
advantage possessed by the poorest: The
garb of pilgrim to Jerusalem, consisting
of a brown wooden robe, with a broad hat,
in which was stuck a scallop shell, enabled
the wearer to travel safely in every Chris
tan country without any money, for it
was counted shame to refuse aims to a
pilgrim.
Blanche de Naux, after visiting her
mother at the convent, took the pilgrims
staff and made her way on foot through
Italy to Venice and thence across the
whole of what are now Scrvia and Bull
garia, to the city of Constantinople, that
had been in the possession of the Greek
Emperor Comnenus till the year 1904.
when the crusaders, under Baldwin,
Count of Flanders, instead Of fighting the
Turks they had sworn to drive from the
Holy City, had turned out their fellow
Christian, Comnenus and set up the Lat
in empire of Baldwin in his stead.
1t had been an act of the most barefaced
robbery, but it had this advantage for
poor Blanche that it enabled her to travel
as far as the Hellespont in a nOminally
Christian country, where pilgrims were
protected and welcomed.
From Constantinople she was put across
the Bosphorus in u boat, by charity, and
then began the real peris and hardShipS
of her journey, she toiled on, on foot,
through the country of the Turks she had
been accustomed to think of as cruel in
fdels and wild beasts" determined to suf-
fer anything, so long as she found her
brother Stephen. She had one hope in
using the name of Prince Saphadin,
whose gratitude she remembered we'll
and whom she told the Turks she met, she
was going to see. This name she soon
found to be n tower of strength; for Saph-
adm, it seemed, had been made sultan,
and any person going to see him was sure
of protection on the journey.
It took the poor girl long time to reach
Jerusalem, for she had to walk every step
of the way. as she had done from France,
and was frequently stopped, and some
times carried off, for a time. by the Num-
erous robbers who infested the Turkish
territory, who would keep her a prisoner a
while, but always released her at last,
when they had sent to some place, of
which she was ignorant, to ascertain if
her name was known TO the Turkish sui
tan
In every instance the message came
ba ok that the woman was to be allowed
to depart in peace though no help was
extended to her. 1t seemed strange to her
that robbers should have such n respect
for the name of the sultan. but she found
out ut last that what she thought common
robbers were merely chipftains. like the
1 u i.
eighty over certain spots and the right of
levying tribute on all the pilgrims that
came in their way And as the poor girl
could not pay for her release, she would
have been sold for slave many time
but for the potent spell of the name of
Sultan Saphadim.
At last, nearly four years after the i'll
starred enterprise of the Children's Cru
SADIE. Blanche de Naux reached JcruSa-
lem, and boldly demanded an audience of
the sultan. She was admitted to his pres
euce at once. with the simplicity charac-
teristic of the Noslcm of that day when
he became n sovereign Saphadim the
Turk, mindful of the prccepts of the 10
ran. though not n Christian, showed the
poor pilgrim a kindness no Christian had
yet exhibited to her.
emacinted. sunburned woman who came.
the slender, beautiful girl who had saved
him when a slave from the lash of the
cruel crusader; but as soon as she spoke
and reminded him who she was, the
naughty young prince melted into tears at
the pathetic story Of her sufferngS, and
told her she should have any gift she ask
ed for
10 ri a In2 " 30 hA frna dom Of
her brother, and Saphadim sent for him at
once, and restored to the arms of his sis
ter Stephen, the once brilliant young hoy
count of Naucluse now haggard. dark,
emaciated slave. who had been toiling on
the Notifications of Jerusalem. digging
wells, carrying heavy blocks of stone for
the masons, driven to his work under the
lash day after day till all the fire and inn
petuosity of his boyhood had been knock
cd out of him. and the young man of only
twenty-five looked like one of forty.
He had almost forgotten, in his misery,
the face of his sister, and when she spoke
to him could hardly believe her story.
But at last they We're sent away by the
generous Sultan Saphadim. clothed at his
expense, and supplied with money, in a
ship which was about to sail for Italy
They departed and were landed safely at
Naples, whence they proceeded TO France,
still in the guise of pilgrims, as the safest
dress in the disturbed state of the coun-
try, where Christians were fighting each
other as fiercely as ever
AS Stephen advanced through the midst
of moro familiar scenes. he gradually re
gained the balance of his mind which had
been almost fatally disturbed during his
slavery, by the influence of the rcmorSc
that had preyed on him, at the sight of his
companions dying by scores under the
hardshpS which they might never have
had to suffer had he not led them on that
terrible Children's Crusade When he en-
tered Provence and neared his fathers
castle, he was much affected. but took his
measures efectually TO get back his in
neritance. lie found il necessary to Chal-
lense the villain Castor to the trial hy
combat, which was then legal way Of
deciding an issue a law: overthrow him,
and finally regaiued his inheritance.
There we might end his story, but for
the question that occurs TO Us. How about
The moral that lies hidden in it?
Let stephen himself give it in his words,
in the old chronicle, from which these
facts have been CLEANED.
Il hold 10 this" he says. in the quaint
old Proyencal. which We are obliged t.
translate for our modern readers, tha'
the empty tomb of Christ. though deslF.
able thing is not worth the splllns Of on"
drop of blood And ! hold, further. that
woman. in her love. will 90 further than
man in his valor: and that the same God
is worshiped by Turk and Christian. 50
that the man who fights for his religion,
fights against his God.
The end
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