“What now?” said the Soldan sternly.
“ACCIPE HOC!” groaned out the dwarf.
“Ha! sayest thou?” answered Saladin.
“ACCIPE HOC!” replied the panic-struck creature, unconscious, perhaps, that he repeated the same words as before.
“Hence, I am in no vein for foolery,” said the Emperor.
“Nor am I further fool,” said the dwarf, “than to make my folly help out my wits to earn my bread, poor, helpless wretch! Hear, hear me, great Soldan!”
“Nay, if thou hast actual wrong to complain of,” said Saladin, “fool or wise, thou art entitled to the ear of a King. Retire hither with me;” and he led him into the inner tent.
Whatever their conference related to, it was soon broken off by the fanfare of the trumpets announcing the arrival of the various Christian princes, whom Saladin welcomed to his tent with a royal courtesy well becoming their rank and his own; but chiefly he saluted the young Earl of Huntingdon, and generously congratulated him upon prospects which seemed to have interfered with and overclouded those which he had himself entertained.
“But think not,” said the Soldan, “thou noble youth, that the Prince of Scotland is more welcome to Saladin than was Kenneth to the solitary Ilderim when they met in the desert, or the distressed Ethiop to the Hakim Adonbec. A brave and generous disposition like thine hath a value independent of condition and birth, as the cool draught, which I here proffer thee, is as delicious from an earthen vessel as from a goblet of gold.”
The Earl of Huntingdon made a suitable reply, gratefully acknowledging the various important services he had received from the generous Soldan; but when he had pledged Saladin in the bowl of sherbet which the Soldan had proffered to him, he could not help remarking with a smile, “The brave cavalier Ilderim knew not of the formation of ice, but the munificent Soldan cools his sherbet with snow.”