"Little did I look to part with my brother thus," said Wulf at length in a thick and angry voice."By God's Wounds! I had more gladly died at his side in battle than leave him to meet his doom alone.""And leave me to meet my doom alone," murmured Rosamund; then added, "Oh! I would that I were dead who have lived to bring all this woe upon you both, and upon that great heart, Masouda.Isay, Wulf, I would that I were dead."
"Like enough the wish will be fulfilled before all is done,"answered Wulf wearily, "only then I pray that I may be dead with you, for now, Rosamund, Godwin has gone, forever as I fear, and you alone are left to me.Come; let us cease complaining, since to dwell upon these griefs cannot help us, and be thankful that for a while, at least, we are free.Follow me, Rosamund, and we will ride to this nunnery to find you shelter, if we may."So they rode on through the narrow streets that were crowded with scared people, for now the news was spread that the embassy had rejected the terms of Saladin.He had offered to give the city food and to suffer its inhabitants to fortify the walls, and to hold them till the following Whitsuntide if, should no help reach them, they would swear to surrender then.But they had answered that while they had life they would never abandon the place where their God had died.
So now war was before them--war to the end; and who were they that must bear its brunt? Their leaders were slain or captive, their king a prisoner, their soldiers skeletons on the field of Hattin.Only the women and children, the sick, the old, and the wounded remained--perhaps eighty thousand souls in all--but few of whom could bear arms.Yet these few must defend Jerusalem against the might of the victorious Saracen.Little wonder that they wailed in the streets till the cry of their despair went up to heaven, for in their hearts all of them knew that the holy place was doomed and their lives were forfeited.
Pushing their path through this sad multitude, who took little note of them, at length they came to the nunnery on the sacred Via Dolorosa, which Wulf had seen when Godwin and he were in Jerusalem after they had been dismissed by Saladin from Damascus.
Its door stood in the shadow of that arch where the Roman Pilate had uttered to all generations the words "Behold the man!"Here the porter told him that the nuns were at prayer in their chapel.Wulf replied that he must see the lady abbess upon a matter which would not delay, and they were shown into a cool and lofty room.Presently the door opened, and through it came the abbess in her white robes--a tall and stately Englishwoman, of middle age, who looked at them curiously.
"Lady Abbess," said Wulf, bowing low, "my name is Wulf D'Arcy.Do you remember me?""Yes.We met in Jerusalem--before the battle of Hattin," she answered."Also I know something of your story in this land--a very strange one.""This lady," went on Wulf, "is the daughter and heiress of Sir Andrew D'Arcy, my dead uncle, and in Syria the princess of Baalbec and the niece of Saladin."The abbess started, and asked: "Is she, then, of their accursed faith, as her garb would seem to show?""Nay, mother," said Rosamund, " I am a Christian, if a sinful one, and I come here to seek sanctuary, lest when they know who Iam and he clamours at their gates, my fellow Christians may surrender me to my uncle, the Sultan.""Tell me the story," said the abbess; and they told her briefly, while she listened, amazed.When they had finished, she said:
"Alas! my daughter, how can we save you, whose own lives are at stake? That belongs to God alone.Still, what we can we will do gladly, and here, at least, you may rest for some short while.At the most holy altar of our chapel you shall be given sanctuary, after which no Christian man dare lay a hand upon you, since to do so is a sacrilege that would cost him his soul.Moreover, Icounsel that you be enrolled upon our books as a novice, and don our garb.Nay," she added with a smile, noting the look of alarm on the face of Wulf, "the lady Rosamund need not wear it always, unless such should be her wish.Not every novice proceeds to the final vows.""Long have I been decked in gold-embroidered silks and priceless gems," answered Rosamund, "and now I seem to desire that white robe of yours more than anything on earth."So they led Rosamund to the chapel, and in sight of all their order and of priests who had been summoned, at the altar there, upon that holy spot where they said that once Christ had answered Pilate, they placed her hand and gave her sanctuary, and threw over her tired head the white veil of a novice.There, too, Wulf left her, and riding away, reported himself to Balian of Ibelin, the elected commander of the city, who was glad enough to welcome so stout a knight where knights were few.
Oh! weary, weary was that ride of Godwin's beneath the sun, beneath the stars.Behind him, the brother who had been his companion and closest friend, and the woman whom he had loved in vain; and in front, he knew not what.What went he forth to seek?
Another woman, who had risked her life for them all because she loved him.And if he found her, what then? Must he wed her, and did he wish this? Nay, he desired no woman on the earth; yet what was right that he would do.And if he found her not, what then?
