‘I have seen two eagles over Gibel Kiflis twice this morning,’ said one of the horsemen to his companion. ‘What does that portend?’
‘A good backsheesh for our Queen, comrade. If these children of Franguestan can pay a princess’s dower to visit some columns in the desert, like Tadmor, they may well give us the golden keys of their treasury when they enter where none should go but those who are——’
‘But they say that this Frank is one.’
‘It has never been known that there were any among the Franks,’ replied his comrade, shaking his head. ‘The Franks are all Nazareny, and, before they were Nazareny, they were savages, and lived in caves.’
‘But Keferinis has given the word that all are to guard over the strangers as over the Queen herself, and that one is a prince, who is unquestionably one of us.’
‘My father had counted a hundred and ten years when he left us, Azaz, and he had twenty-four children, and when he was at the point of death he told us two things: one was, never to forget what we were; and the other, that never in his time had one like us ever visited our country.’
‘Eagles again fly over Gibel Kiflis: methinks the strangers must be at hand.’
‘May their visit lead to no evil to them or to us!’
‘Have you misgivings?’
‘We are alone among men: let us remain so.’