Therefore, because I must, I--who am a prince and an emir, who also, although you remember it not, have crossed swords with you in my youth; yes, at Harenc--became a dealer in drugged wine.
"Now hearken.

Yield you, Sir Andrew, who have done enough to make your name a song for generations, and accept the love of Salah-ed-din, whose word you have, the word that, as you know well, cannot be broken, which I, the lord El-Hassan--for no meaner man has been sent upon this errand--plight to you afresh.
Yield you, and save your life, and live on in honour, clinging to your own faith, till Azrael takes you from the pleasant fields of Baalbec to the waters of Paradise--if such there be for infidels, however gallant.
"For know, this deed must be done.

Did we return without the princess Rose of the World, we should die, every one of us, and did we offer her harm or insult, then more horribly than I can tell you.

This is no fancy of a great king that drives him on to the stealing of a woman, although she be of his own high blood.
The voice of God has spoken to Salah-ed-din by the mouth of his angel Sleep.

Thrice has Allah spoken in dreams, telling him who is merciful, that through your daughter and her nobleness alone can countless lives be saved; therefore, sooner than she should escape him, he would lose even the half of all his empire.