Speak to these curious hearts of ours,
And teach them to be still:
God hath His mysteries of grace,
Ways that we cannot tell;
He hides them deep, like the hidden sleep
Of him He loved so well.

Cecil Frances Alexander




THE CRUSADER AND THE SARACEN


As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm trees, it seemed to him
as if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated
itself from the trees, which partly hid its motions, and advanced
towards the knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman,
whom his turban, long spear, and green caftan floating in the wind, on
his nearer approach, showed to be a Saracen cavalier.

"In the desert," saith an Eastern proverb, "no man meets a friend." The
Crusader was totally indifferent whether the infidel, who now approached
on his gallant barb, as if borne on the wings of an eagle, came as
friend or foe; perhaps, as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might
rather have preferred the latter. He disengaged his lance from his
saddle, seized it with the right hand, placed it in rest with its point
half-elevated, gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's