indeed, of the Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere
they became inured to the burning climate; but there were others
to whom that climate became innocent and even friendly, and among
this fortunate number was the solitary horseman who now traversed
the border of the Dead Sea.

Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength,
fitted to wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the
meshes had been formed of cobwebs, had endowed him with a
constitution as strong as his limbs, and which bade defiance to
almost all changes of climate, as well as to fatigue and
privations of every kind. His disposition seemed, in some
degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as
the one possessed great strength and endurance, united with the
power of violent exertion, the other, under a calm and
undisturbed semblance, had much of the fiery and enthusiastic
love of glory which constituted the principal attribute of the
renowned Norman line, and had rendered them sovereigns in every
corner of Europe where they had drawn their adventurous swords.

It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such
tempting rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight
during two years' campaign in Palestine had been only temporal
fame, and, as he was taught to believe, spiritual privileges.
Meantime, his slender stock of money had melted away, the rather
that he did not pursue any of the ordinary modes by which the
followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit their diminished
resources at the expense of the people of Palestine--he exacted
no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed