The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-07
AUTHORS NOTE.

Standing a while ago upon the flow
er-clad plain above Tiberius, by the
Lake of Galilee, the writer s'azed at
the double peaks of the Hill of Hat
tin. Here, or so tradition says, Christ
preached the sermon on the Mount
that perfect rule of gentleness and
peace. Here, too-and this is certain
after nearly twelve centuries had
gone by. Yusuf Salah-ed- dine, whom
we know as the Sultan Saladin. crush
ed the Christian power in Palestine
in perhaps the most terrible battle
which that land of blood has known,
and the Mount of the Beatitudes be-
came the Mount of Massacre.
1t was while musing on these strange
ly-contrasted scenes enacted in one
place that there arose in his mind a
desire to weave, as best he might,
tale wherein any who are drawn to
the romance of that pregnant and
mysterious epoch, when men by
thousands were glad to lay
down their lives for visions
could find picture, however
faint and broken, of the long war be-
tween Cross and Crescent waged
among the Syrian plains and deserts.
OF Christian knights and ladies, also,
and their loves and sufferings in Eng
land and the East: of the fearful lord
of the assassins whom the Franks
called Old Man of the Mountains, and
his fortress city, Masyaf; of the great
4 -
his fierce Saracens; of the rout of Hat
tin itself, or whose rocky higt the
Holy Rood was set up as a standard
and captured, to be seen no more by
Christian eyes; and, amongst other
matters, of the last surrender, where
by the Crusaders lost Jerusalem for
ever.
OF that desire this story is the fruit.
PROLOGUE.
Salah-ed-din, commander of the
Faithful, the King Strong to aid, Sow
ereign of the East, sat at night in his
palace at Damascus and brooded on
the wonderful ways of God by whom
he had been lifted to his high estate.
He remembered how, when he was but
small in the eyes of men, Nour- ed-din,
King of Syria, forced him to accompa-
y
er he went. like one driven to his
DEATH" and how, against his own will,
there he arose to greatness. He
thought of his father, the wise Ayoub,
and the brethren with whom he was
brought up, all of them dead now save
one; and of his sisters, whom he had
cherished Most of all did he think of
her, Zobeide. who had been stolen away
by the knight whom she loved even
to the loss of her own soul-yes, by
the English friend of his youth, his
fathers prisoner, Sir Andrew Darcy,
who, led astray by passion, had done
him and his house this grievous wrong
He had sworn, he remembered. that
he would bring her back even from
England, and already had planned to
kill her husband and capture her when
he learned her death. She had left
child. or so his spies told him, who
if she still lived. must be a woman
now-his own niece, though half of no.
BILE English blood.
Then his mind wandered from this
old half-forgotten story to the woe and
blood in which his days were set, and
to the last great struggle between the
followers of the prophets Jesus and
Mohamet, that Fibad% for which he
made ready-and he sighed. For he
was a merciful man, who loved not
slaughter, although his fierce faith
drove him on from war to war.
%Holy War.
Salah-ed-din slept and and dreamed
OF peace. In his dream a maiden stood
before him, and when she lifted her
veil, he saw that she was beautiful,
with features like his own, but fairer,
and knew her surely for the daughter
OF his sister who had fed with the
English knight. Now he wondered
why she visited him thus, and in his
vision prayed Allah to make the mat
ter clear Then suddenly he saw this
same woman standing before him on
syrian plain, and on either side of her
countess host of Saracens and
Franks, of whom thousands and tens
OF thousands were appointed to death.
Lo! he, Salad-ed-din, charged at the
head of his squadrons, seimitar afioat,
but she held up her hand and stayed
him.
What do you hear, my niece?" he
asked
I am come to save the lives Of men
through you" she answered; land
therefore was l born of your blood
ana therefore I am sent to you. Put up
your sword, King, and spare them"
say. maiden what ransom do you
bring to buy this multitude from doom?
what ransom, and what gift?''
The ransom of my own blood free