nobleness and sacrifice, in some time to come, save you from
shedding a sea of blood, and bring rest upon the land. We charge
you, therefore, draw this lady to your court, and keep her ever
by your side, since if she escape you, her peace goes with her."

Salah-ed-din said that this interpretation was wise and true, for
thus also he had read his dream. Then he summoned a certain
false knight who bore the Cross upon his breast, but in secret
had accepted the Koran, a Frankish spy of his, who came from that
country where dwelt the maiden, his niece, and from him learned
about her, her father, and her home. With him and another spy
who passed as a Christian palmer, by the aid of Prince Hassan,
one of the greatest and most trusted of his Emirs, he made a
cunning plan for the capture of the maiden if she would not come
willingly, and for her bearing away to Syria.

Moreover--that in the eyes of all men her dignity might be worthy
of her high blood and fate--by his decree he created her, the
niece whom he had never seen, Princess of Baalbec, with great
possessions--a rule that her grandfather, Ayoub, and her uncle,
Izzeddin, had held before her. Also he purchased a stout galley
of war, manning it with proved sailors and with chosen
men-at-arms, under the command of the Prince Hassan, and wrote a
letter to the English lord, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, and to his
daughter, and prepared a royal gift of jewels, and sent them to
the lady, his niece, far away in England, and with it the Patent
of her rank. Her he commanded this company to win by peace, or
force, or fraud, as best they might, but that without her not
one of them should dare to look upon his face again. And with
these he sent the two Frankish spies, who knew the place where