"Cid Iftikhar, the Christians are madmen; yet respect the embassy. Let this fellow go!"
Iftikhar flung the arm from him.
"Go then, go," rang his threat in Arabic, which a hundred heard. "To-morrow we will clear the reckoning. It grows ever longer. Do you know," and he showed his white teeth, "I have killed your sister Eleanor with my own hand?"
Richard bowed in his stateliest fashion.
"My lord," said he, "my sister was long since worse than dead; I did not know she was in El Halebah when I came to Aleppo, or I might have rescued. Our Lady is merciful; she has peace. And as for me—ask your own heart if I am a harmless foe; remember you fell at Aleppo twice, thrice, and by my strength! So let God judge us, and give fair battle!"
"Let Him judge!" retorted Iftikhar, turning, and Kerbogha shook out his handkerchief, the signal for the breaking up of the assembly.
So the three Christians were led away, and they did not quail when wild desert dervishes flourished bare cimeters over their heads, and chanted from Al Koran:—
"Strike off their heads and strike off their fingers!
"They shall suffer because they resisted Allah and his apostle!
"Yea, the infidels shall suffer the torment of hell fire!"