I am guilty--but there are worse traitors in the camp than I.--In pity to my soul, let me have a confessor!" He revived as he uttered these words. "The talisman--the powerful remedy, royal brother," said King Richard to Saladin. "The traitor," answered the Soldan, "is more fit to be dragged from the lists to the gallows by the heels, than to profit by its virtues: and some such fate is in his look," he added, after gazing fixedly upon the wounded man; "for though his wound may be cured, yet Azrael's seal is on the wretch's brow." "Nevertheless," said Richard, "I pray you do for him what you may, that he may at least have time for confession. Slay not soul and body! To him one half-hour of time may be worth more, by ten thousand fold, than the life of the oldest patriarch." "My royal brother's wish shall be obeyed," said Saladin.--"Slaves, bear this wounded man to our tent." "Do not so," said the Templar, who had hitherto stood gloomily looking on in silence. "The royal Duke of Austria and myself will not permit this unhappy Christian prince to be delivered over to the Saracens, that they may try their spells upon him. We are his sponsors, and demand that he be assigned to our care." "That is, you refuse the certain means offered to recover him?" said Richard. "Not so," said the Grand Master, recollecting himself. "If the Soldan useth lawful medicines, he may attend the patient in my tent." "Do so, I pray thee, good brother," said Richard to Saladin, "though the permission be ungraciously yielded.--But now to a more glorious work. Sound, trumpets--shout, England, in honor of England's champion!" Drum, clarion, trumpet, and cymbal, rung forth at once, and the deep and regular shout, which for ages has been the English acclamation, sounded amidst the shrill and irregular yells of the Arabs, like the diapason of the organ amid the howling of a storm. There was silence at length. "Brave Knight of the Leopard," resumed Coeur de Lion, "thou hast shown that the Ethiopian _may_ change his skin and the Leopard his spots, though clerks quote Scripture for the impossibility. Yet I have more to say to you when I have conducted you to the presence of the ladies, the best judges, and best rewarders, of deeds of chivalry." The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent. "And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them. I promise thee our Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the opportunity to thank her royal host for her most princely reception." Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation. "I must attend the wounded man," he said. "The leech leaves not his patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be summoned to a bower like those of Paradise.... At noon," said the Soldan, as he departed, "I trust ye will all accept a collation under the black camel-skin tent of a chief of Curdistan."