There was a dull sound heard, and one by one the heads of the knights rolled in the sand.
Cuthbert happened to be last in the line, and as the executioners laid hands upon him and removed his helmet, the eye of the sultan fell upon him, and he almost started at perceiving the extreme youth of his captive.

He held his hand aloft to arrest the movements of the executioners, and signalled for Cuthbert to be brought before him again.
"You are but a boy," he said.

"All the knights who have hitherto fallen into my hands have been men of strength and power; how is it that I see a mere youth among their ranks, and wearing the golden spurs of knighthood ?" "King Richard himself made me a knight," Cuthbert said proudly, "after having stood across him when his steed had been foully stabbed at the battle of Azotus, and the whole Moslem host were around him." "Ah!" said the emir, "were you one of the two who, as I have heard, defended the king for some time against all assaults?
It were hard indeed to kill so brave a youth.

I doubt me not that at present you are as firmly determined to die a Christian knight as those who have gone before you?
But time may change you.

At any rate for the present your doom is postponed." He turned to a gorgeously-dressed noble next to him, and said,-- "Your brother, Ben Abin, is Governor of Jerusalem, and the gardens of the palace are fair.