Harold Lamb

“ The horse Abdullah bestrode was a remarkably fine one, a black Kabuli stallion.
“When does a minstrel of Islam follow the shadow of a Nazarene?” Sir Robert asked curtly.
The white teeth of the stranger flashed through the black tangle of his beard.
“Wallah! You ride with a loose rein. Surely a penned tiger is kin to the young warrior who is freed from camp. Not otherwise was I, in another day. To a woman or a battle, a man should ride boldly.” ”

“ This troubled Sir Robert, who had known no other land, and no fellowship other than that of the Croises.
While he mused Abdullah had been studying his face. Now the minstrel leaned down swiftly and caught up a fistful of sand.
“My lord,” he said, “I can read what passes in your mind. Who can change a book that is written, if that book be fate? No one among the Franks can keep Palestine for long, and your people will go again upon the sea whence they came. And their empire will pass—so!” ”

“ Taking up his reins, Robert urged the bay between the angry throng and his companion. Whatever the mission upon which Abdullah of Khar had been sent, the man was of gentle blood, and the nobles of Palestine had sworn a truce with the Moslems, giving hand and glove upon it. This oath Robert felt to be binding unless the enemy broke the truce.
“Back, ribalds,” he commanded. “Pass on. This is a minstrel who rides with me.”
The mob seemed made up of villains, of commoners, and the knight did not feel called upon to voice reasons for his action to them. ”

“ His companion is a black-browed Moslem, and surely that is not seemly.”
Against the crowd of grease- and vermin-ridden men the slight figure of the maid stood out in bold relief. The pulse throbbed in her delicate throat, and the circles darkened under her eyes that blazed with the tensity of long suffering. Abdullah glanced from her to Robert with some amusement.
“Father Evagrius,” observed the knight, “if you are verily the leader of this company you do ill to turn your back on the castle of Montserrat. The river is scarce a safe abiding-place.” ”

“ Robert wondered who the lass of this array might be, but just then some dozen men began to crowd around Abdullah, cursing him and fingering the axes at their belts. Some one flung a stone that made the black horse rear, the minstrel keeping his seat in the saddle with easy grace. ”

“ There was a truce between it and the Saracens who had reconquered Jerusalem and all of the cities of Palestine except the sea coast and the rich province of Antioch.
Before the truce the crusaders had suffered heavily in an attempt to take the port of Egypt, Damietta, and its triple wall. And the retreat over the desert to Ascalon had taken its further toll of the lives of peers and men-at-arms alike. Meanwhile, on three sides of the strip of sea coast, the Moslems gathered their power for the blow that would send the Croises back into the sea from which they had come. ”

“ As he entered the rushes he drew rein sharply and turned in the saddle to stare down at a fresh trail that ran athwart the path he was following. Many a man would have passed it by with a casual glance. But the castellan had been born in the hills that towered over Antioch, and he knew the sandy wastes of the Orontes as his father before him had known the courtyard of an earl's hold in England. ”

“ Many things have I seen—your men-at-arms picking their noses, having no better thing to do—your king holding court on an island, because his foes can not ride over the paths of the sea. Yet I have not seen a leopard change his skin, nor a spy look otherwise than faithless. ”