"No."
"If it were, we would not fight. But we care for no one else."
"It is a good knight though, Sir Palamides, a Saracen by birth, and still unchristened."
"He had best have been christened before he came here, for it will be too late when we have done with him. Let him know that we will be at the Red City in two days, and will give him all the fighting he is likely to want for the rest of his life."
When Palamides came to the city he was received with the greatest joy, and the more so when the people saw what a handsome and well-built man he was, neither too young nor too old, with clean and powerful limbs, and no defect of body.
At the time appointed there came to the city the two brethren, Helius and Helake by name, both of them strong and valiant men, of great prowess in war, false as they were at heart. And with them they brought forty knights, to guard them against any treachery from the Red City, for they knew well that it was filled with their enemies.
The lists had already been prepared, and at the appointed hour Palamides entered full armed, and confronted his antagonists boldly.
"Are you the two brethren Helius and Helake, who slew your king by treason?" he asked.
"We are the men who slew King Hermance," they replied. "And bear in mind, Sir Saracen, we are able to stand by our deeds, and will handle you so before you depart that you will wish you had been christened before you came so far."
"I trust to God I shall die a better Christian than either of you," Palamides replied. "And you had best kill me if you get the chance, for I vow not to spare you."