“I think that I should go back also,” said Rosamund.
“That shall not be,” answered Wulf. “Saladin would kill you for this flight, as he has sworn.”
“That cannot be,” added Godwin. “Shall the sacrifice of blood be offered in vain? Moreover it is our duty to prevent you.”
Rosamund looked at him again and stammered:
“If—if—that dreadful thing has happened, Godwin—if the sacrifice—oh! what will it serve?”
“Rosamund, I know not what has chanced; I go to see. I care not what may chance; I go to meet it. Through life, through death, and if there be need, through all the fires of hell, I ride on till I find Masouda, and kneel to her in homage—”
“And in love,” exclaimed Rosamund, as though the words broke from her lips against her will.
“Mayhap,” Godwin answered, speaking more to himself than to her.
Then seeing the look upon his face, the set mouth and the flashing eyes, neither of them sought to stay him further.
“Farewell, my liege-lady and cousin Rosamund,” Godwin said; “my part is played. Now I leave you in the keeping of God in heaven and of Wulf on earth. Should we meet no more, my counsel is that you two wed here in Jerusalem and travel back to Steeple, there to live in peace, if it may be so. Brother Wulf, fare you well also. We part to-day for the first time, who from our birth have lived together and loved together and done many a deed together, some of which we can look back upon without shame. Go on your course rejoicing, taking the love and gladness that Heaven has given you and living a good and Christian knight, mindful of the end which draws on apace, and of eternity beyond.”