He will permit a free pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and all the places where the Nazarenes list to worship; nay, he will so far share even his empire with his brother Richard, that he will allow Christian garrisons in the six strongest cities of Palestine, and one in Jerusalem itself, and suffer them to be under the immediate command of the officers of Richard, who, he consents, shall bear the name of King Guardian of Jerusalem.
Yet further, strange and incredible as you may think it, know, Sir Knight--for to your honour I can commit even that almost incredible secret--know that Saladin will put a sacred seal on this happy union betwixt the bravest and noblest of Frangistan and Asia, by raising to the rank of his royal spouse a Christian damsel, allied in blood to King Richard, and known by the name of the Lady Edith of Plantagenet." [This may appear so extraordinary and improbable a proposition that it is necessary to say such a one was actually made.

The historians, however, substitute the widowed Queen of Naples, sister of Richard, for the bride, and Saladin's brother for the bridegroom.

They appear to have been ignorant of the existence of Edith of Plantagenet .-- See MILL'S History of the Crusades, vol.ii., p.

61.] "Ha!--sayest thou ?" exclaimed Sir Kenneth, who, listening with indifference and apathy to the preceding part of El Hakim's speech, was touched by this last communication, as the thrill of a nerve, unexpectedly jarred, will awaken the sensation of agony, even in the torpor of palsy.

Then, moderating his tone, by dint of much effort he restrained his indignation, and, veiling it under the appearance of contemptuous doubt, he prosecuted the conversation, in order to get as much knowledge as possible of the plot, as he deemed it, against the honour and happiness of her whom he loved not the less that his passion had ruined, apparently, his fortunes, at once, and his honour.--"And what Christian," he said, With tolerable calmness, "would sanction a union so unnatural as that of a Christian maiden with an unbelieving Saracen ?" "Thou art but an ignorant, bigoted Nazarene," said the Hakim.