Mendez," said Heimbert, taking the speaker by the hand and leading
him before the general. "If I now for his sake must forfeit my
promised reward, I must patiently submit; for he has rendered better
service than I have done to the emperor and the army."

"Neither of you shall forfeit his reward," said the great Alba.
"Each has permission from this moment to seek the maiden in whatever
way it seems to him most advisable."

And swift as lightning the two young captains quitted the circle of
officers in opposite directions.





CHAPTER IX.



A sea of sand, stretching out in the distant horizon, without one
object to mark its extensive surface, white and desolate in its
vastness--such is the scene which proclaims the fearful desert of
Sahara to the eye of the wanderer who has lost himself in these
frightful regions. In this also it resembles the sea, that it casts
up waves, and often a misty vapor bangs over its surface. But there
is not the soft play of waves which unite all the coasts of the
earth; each wave as it rolls in bringing a message from the remotest
and fairest island kingdoms, and again rolling back as it were with
an answer, in a sort of love-flowing dance. No; there is here only