"See," he said, "this learned teacher, Lull, is declaring the errors
of the Faith. He is dangerous. Let us take him and put him to death."
The Sultan gave the word of command. A body of soldiers went out,
seized Lull, dragged him through the streets, and threw him into a
dark dungeon to wait the death sentence.
But another Moslem who had been deeply touched by Lull's teaching
craved audience with the Sultan.
"See," he said, "this learned man Lull--if he were a Moslem--would
be held in high honour, being so brave and fearless in defence of his
Faith. Do not slay him. Banish him from Tunis."
So when Lull in his dungeon saw the door flung open and waited to be
taken to his death he found to his surprise that he was led from the
dungeon through the streets of Tunis, taken along the canal, thrust
into the hold of a ship, and told that he must go in that ship to
Genoa and never return. But the man who had before been afraid to sail
from Genoa to Tunis, now escaped unseen from the ship that would have
taken him back to safety in order to risk his life once more. He said
to himself the motto he had written:
+--------------------------------------+
| "HE WHO LOVES NOT, LIVES NOT! HE WHO |
| LIVES BY THE LIFE CANNOT DIE." |
+--------------------------------------+
He was not afraid now even of martyrdom. He hid among the wharves
and gathered his converts about him to teach them more and more about
Christ.
VI
_The Last Fight_
At last, however, seeing that he could do little in hiding, Lull took
ship to Naples. After many adventures during a number of years, in a
score of cities and on the seas, the now white-haired Lull sailed into
the curved bay of Bugia farther westward along the African coast. In
the bay behind the frowning walls the city with its glittering mosques
climbed the hill. Behind rose two glorious mountains crowned with the
dark green of the cedar. And, far off, like giant Moors wearing white
turbans, rose the distant mountain peaks crowned with snow.
Lull passed quietly through the arch of the city gateway which he knew
so well, for among other adventures he had once been imprisoned in
this very city. He climbed the steep street and found a friend who hid
him away. There for a year Lull taught in secret till he felt that the
time had come for him to go out boldly and dare death itself.
One day the people in the market-place of Bugia heard a voice ring out
that seemed to some of them strangely familiar. They hurried toward
the sound. There stood the old hero with arm uplifted declaring, in
the full blaze of the North African day, the Love of God shown in
Jesus Christ His Son.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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