Arab countries -- Fiction; Crusades -- Fiction; Great Britain -- History -- Medieval period, 1066-1485 -- Fiction
They answered that they would go ashore and supply all that was
needful.
“Nay,” said Hassan, “you bide here until it comes.”
In the end, then, this happened, for one of the lords chanced to be a
nephew of the Emperor, who, when he learned that he was captive, sent
supplies in plenty. Thus it came about that the Cyprian lords having
been sent back with the last empty boat, within two days they were at
sea again.
Now Rosamund missed the hated face of the spy, Nicholas, and told
Hassan, who made inquiry, to find—or so said Lozelle—that he went
ashore and vanished there on the first day of their landing in Cyprus,
though whether he had been killed in some brawl, or fallen sick, or
hidden himself away, he did not know. Hassan shrugged his shoulders,
and Rosamund was glad enough to be rid of him, but in her heart she
wondered for what evil purpose Nicholas had left the ship.
When the galley was one day out from Cyprus steering for the coast of
Syria, they fell into a calm such as is common in those seas in summer.
This calm lasted eight whole days, during which they made but little
progress. At length, when all were weary of staring at the oil-like
sea, a wind sprang up that grew gradually to a gale blowing towards
Syria, and before it they fled along swiftly. Worse and stronger grew
that gale, till on the evening of the second day, when they seemed in
no little danger of being pooped, they saw a great mountain far away,
at the sight of which Lozelle thanked God aloud.
“Are those the mountains near Antioch?” asked Hassan.
“Nay,” he answered, “they are more than fifty miles south of them,
between Ladikiya and Jebela. There, by the mercy of Heaven, is a good
haven, for I have visited it, where we can lie till this storm is
past.”
“But we are steering for Darbesak, not for a haven near Jebela, which
is a Frankish port,” answered Hassan, angrily.
“Then put the ship about and steer there yourself,” said Lozelle, “and
I promise you this, that within two hours every one of you will be dead
at the bottom of the sea.”
Hassan considered. It was true, for then the waves would strike them
broadside on, and they must fill and sink.
“On your head be it,” he answered shortly.
The dark fell, and by the light of the great lantern at their prow they
saw the white seas hiss past as they drove shorewards beneath bare
masts. For they dared hoist no sail.
All that night they pitched and rolled, till the stoutest of them fell
sick, praying God and Allah that they might have light by which to
enter the harbour. At length they saw the top of the loftiest mountain
grow luminous with the coming dawn, although the land itself was still
lost in shadow, and saw also that it seemed to be towering almost over
them.
“Take courage,” cried Lozelle, “I think that we are saved,” and he
hoisted a second lantern at his masthead—why, they did not know.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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