Evidently some personage was about to arrive, and the fate of the prisoners would be solved.

A few words were from time to time exchanged between these, each urging the other to keep up his heart and defy the infidel.

One or two had succumbed to their wounds during the afternoon, and only six were able to stand erect when summoned to do so by some of their guard, who made signs to them that a great personage was coming.

Soon the shouts of the horsemen and other sounds announced that the great chief was near at hand, and the captives gathered from the swelling shouts of the Arabs that the new arrival was Sultan Suleiman--or Saladin, for he was called by both names--surrounded by a bodyguard of splendidly-dressed attendants.

The emir, who was himself plainly attired, reined up his horse in front of the captives.
"You are English," he said, in the _lingua-franca_, which was the medium of communication between the Eastern and Western peoples in those days.
"You are brave warriors, and I hear that before you were taken you slaughtered numbers of my people.