The Talisman

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Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost
intolerable splendour, and all living nature seemed to have
hidden itself from the rays, excepting the solitary figure which
moved through the flitting sand at a foot's pace, and appeared
the sole breathing thing on the wide surface of the plain. The
dress of the rider and the accoutrements of his horse were
peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country. A coat of
linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel
breastplate, had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour;
there were also his triangular shield suspended round his neck,
and his barred helmet of steel, over which he had a hood and
collar of mail, which was drawn around the warrior's shoulders
and throat, and filled up the vacancy between the hauberk and the
headpiece. His lower limbs were sheathed, like his body, in
flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs, while the feet
rested in plated shoes, which corresponded with the gauntlets. A
long, broad, straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with a
handle formed like a cross, corresponded with a stout poniard on
the other side. The knight also bore, secured to his saddle,
with one end resting on his stirrup, the long steel-headed lance,
his own proper weapon, which, as he rode, projected backwards,
and displayed its little pennoncelle, to dally with the faint
breeze, or drop in the dead calm. To this cumbrous equipment
must be added a surcoat of embroidered cloth, much frayed and
worn, which was thus far useful that it excluded the burning rays
of the sun from the armour, which they would otherwise have
rendered intolerable to the wearer. The surcoat bore, in several
places, the arms of the owner, although much defaced. These
seemed to be a couchant leopard, with the motto, "I sleep; wake
me not." An outline of the same device might be traced on his
shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting. The
flat top of his cumbrous cylindrical helmet was unadorned with
any crest. In retaining their own unwieldy defensive armour, the
Northern Crusaders seemed to set at defiance the nature of the
climate and country to which they had come to war.

The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and
unwieldy than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle
plated with steel, uniting in front with a species of
breastplate, and behind with defensive armour made to cover the
loins. Then there was a steel axe, or hammer, called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow.
The reins were secured
by chain-work, and the front-stall of the bridle was a steel
plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the
midst a short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the
horse like the horn of the fabulous unicorn.

But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second
nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers,
indeed, of the Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere
they became inured to the burning climate; but there were others
to whom that climate became innocent and even friendly, and among
this fortunate number was the solitary horseman who now traversed
the border of the Dead Sea.

Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength,
fitted to wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the
meshes had been formed of cobwebs, had endowed him with a
constitution as strong as his limbs, and which bade defiance to
almost all changes of climate, as well as to fatigue and
privations of every kind. His disposition seemed, in some
degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as
the one possessed great strength and endurance, united with the
power of violent exertion, the other, under a calm and
undisturbed semblance, had much of the fiery and enthusiastic
love of glory which constituted the principal attribute of the
renowned Norman line, and had rendered them sovereigns in every
corner of Europe where they had drawn their adventurous swords.

It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such
tempting rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight
during two years' campaign in Palestine had been only temporal
fame, and, as he was taught to believe, spiritual privileges.
Meantime, his slender stock of money had melted away, the rather
that he did not pursue any of the ordinary modes by which the
followers of the Crusade condescended to recruit their diminished
resources at the expense of the people of Palestine--he exacted
no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing their possessions
when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he had not availed
himself of any opportunity of enriching himself by the ransom of
prisoners of consequence. The small train which had followed him
from his native country had been gradually diminished, as the
means of maintaining them disappeared, and his only remaining
squire was at present on a sick-bed, and unable to attend his
master, who travelled, as we have seen, singly and alone. This
was of little consequence to the Crusader, who was accustomed to
consider his good sword as his safest escort, and devout thoughts
as his best companion.

Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even
on the iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the
Sleeping Leopard; and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some
distance on his right, he joyfully hailed the sight of two or
three palm-trees, which arose beside the well which was assigned
for his mid-day station. His good horse, too, which had plodded
forward with the steady endurance of his master, now lifted his
head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened his pace, as if he
snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the place of
repose and refreshment. But labour and danger were doomed to
intervene ere the horse or horseman reached the desired spot.

As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed
to him as if some object was moving among them. The distant form
separated itself from the trees, which partly hid its motions,
and advanced towards the knight with a speed which soon showed a
mounted horseman, whom his turban, long spear, and green caftan
floating in the wind, on his nearer approach showed to be a
Saracen cavalier. "In the desert," saith an Eastern proverb, "no
man meets a friend." The Crusader was totally indifferent
whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb as if
borne on the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe--perhaps,
as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred
the latter. He disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized it
with the right hand, placed it in rest with its point half
elevated, gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's
mettle with the spur, and prepared to encounter the stranger with
the calm self-confidence belonging to the victor in many
contests.

The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman,
managing his steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his
body than by any use of the reins, which hung loose in his left
hand; so that he was enabled to wield the light, round buckler of
the skin of the rhinoceros, ornamented with silver loops, which
he wore on his arm, swinging it as if he meant to oppose its
slender circle to the formidable thrust of the Western lance.
His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that of his
antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and
brandished at arm's-length above his head. As the cavalier
approached his enemy at full career, he seemed to expect that the
Knight of the Leopard should put his horse to the gallop to
encounter him. But the Christian knight, well acquainted with
the customs of Eastern warriors, did not mean to exhaust his good
horse by any unnecessary exertion; and, on the contrary, made a
dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced to the actual
shock, his own weight, and that of his powerful charger, would
give him sufficient advantage, without the additional momentum of
rapid motion. Equally sensible and apprehensive of such a
probable result, the Saracen cavalier, when he had approached
towards the Christian within twice the length of his lance,
wheeled his steed to the left with inimitable dexterity, and rode
twice around his antagonist, who, turning without quitting his
ground, and presenting his front constantly to his enemy,
frustrated his attempts to attack him on an unguarded point; so
that the Saracen, wheeling his horse, was fain to retreat to the
distance of a hundred yards. A second time, like a hawk
attacking a heron, the heathen renewed the charge, and a second
time was fain to retreat without coming to a close struggle. A
third time he approached in the same manner, when the Christian
knight, desirous to terminate this illusory warfare, in which he
might at length have been worn out by the activity of his foeman,
suddenly seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and, with
a strong hand and unerring aim, hurled it against the head of the
Emir, for such and not less his enemy appeared. The Saracen was
just aware of the formidable missile in time to interpose his
light buckler betwixt the mace and his head; but the violence of
the blow forced the buckler down on his turban, and though that
defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the Saracen was
beaten from his horse. Ere the Christian could avail himself of
this mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and,
calling on his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he
leaped into his seat without touching the stirrup, and regained
all the advantage of which the Knight of the Leopard hoped to
deprive him. But the latter had in the meanwhile recovered his
mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who remembered the strength and
dexterity with which his antagonist had aimed it, seemed to keep
cautiously out of reach of that weapon of which he had so lately
felt the force, while he showed his purpose of waging a distant
warfare with missile weapons of his own. Planting his long spear
in the sand at a distance from the scene of combat, he strung,
with great address, a short bow, which he carried at his back;
and putting his horse to the gallop, once more described two or
three circles of a wider extent than formerly, in the course of
which he discharged six arrows at the Christian with such
unerring skill that the goodness of his harness alone saved him
from being wounded in as many places. The seventh shaft
apparently found a less perfect part of the armour, and the
Christian dropped heavily from his horse. But what was the
surprise of the Saracen, when, dismounting to examine the
condition of his prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly
within the grasp of the European, who had had recourse to this
artifice to bring his enemy within his reach! Even in this
deadly grapple the Saracen was saved by his agility and presence
of mind. He unloosed the sword-belt, in which the Knight of the
Leopard had fixed his hold, and, thus eluding his fatal grasp,
mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with the
intelligence of a human being, and again rode off. But in the
last encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of
arrows, both of which were attached to the girdle which he was
obliged to abandon. He had also lost his turban in the struggle.

These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a truce. He
approached the Christian with his right hand extended, but no
longer in a menacing attitude.

"There is truce betwixt our nations," he said, in the lingua
franca commonly used for the purpose of communication with the
Crusaders; "wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me?
Let there be peace betwixt us."

"I am well contented," answered he of the Couchant Leopard; "but
what security dost thou offer that thou wilt observe the truce?"

"The word of a follower of the Prophet was never broken,"
answered the Emir. "It is thou, brave Nazarene, from whom I
should demand security, did I not know that treason seldom dwells
with courage."

The Crusader felt that the confidence of the Moslem made him
ashamed of his own doubts.

"By the cross of my sword," he said, laying his hand on the
weapon as he spoke, "I will be true companion to thee, Saracen,
while our fortune wills that we remain in company together."

"By Mohammed, Prophet of God, and by Allah, God of the Prophet,"
replied his late foeman, "there is not treachery in my heart
towards thee. And now wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour
of rest is at hand, and the stream had hardly touched my lip when
I was called to battle by thy approach."

The Knight of the Couchant Leopard yielded a ready and courteous
assent; and the late foes, without an angry look or gesture of
doubt, rode side by side to the little cluster of palm-trees.

CHAPTER II.

Times of danger have always, and in a peculiar degree, their
seasons of good-will and security; and this was particularly so
in the ancient feudal ages, in which, as the manners of the
period had assigned war to be the chief and most worthy
occupation of mankind, the intervals of peace, or rather of
truce, were highly relished by those warriors to whom they were
seldom granted, and endeared by the very circumstances which
rendered them transitory. It is not worth while preserving any
permanent enmity against a foe whom a champion has fought with
to-day, and may again stand in bloody opposition to on the next
morning. The time and situation afforded so much room for the
ebullition of violent passions, that men, unless when peculiarly
opposed to each other, or provoked by the recollection of private
and individual wrongs, cheerfully enjoyed in each other's society
the brief intervals of pacific intercourse which a warlike life
admitted.

The distinction of religions, nay, the fanatical zeal which
animated the followers of the Cross and of the Crescent against
each other, was much softened by a feeling so natural to generous
combatants, and especially cherished by the spirit of chivalry.
This last strong impulse had extended itself gradually from the
Christians to their mortal enemies the Saracens, both of Spain
and of Palestine. The latter were, indeed, no longer the
fanatical savages who had burst from the centre of Arabian
deserts, with the sabre in one hand and the Koran in the other,
to inflict death or the faith of Mohammed, or, at the best,
slavery and tribute, upon all who dared to oppose the belief of
the prophet of Mecca. These alternatives indeed had been offered
to the unwarlike Greeks and Syrians; but in contending with the
Western Christians, animated by a zeal as fiery as their own, and
possessed of as unconquerable courage, address, and success in
arms, the Saracens gradually caught a part of their manners, and
especially of those chivalrous observances which were so well
calculated to charm the minds of a proud and conquering people.
They had their tournaments and games of chivalry; they had even
their knights, or some rank analogous; and above all, the
Saracens observed their plighted faith with an accuracy which
might sometimes put to shame those who owned a better religion.
Their truces, whether national or betwixt individuals, were
faithfully observed; and thus it was that war, in itself perhaps
the greatest of evils, yet gave occasion for display of good
faith, generosity, clemency, and even kindly affections, which
less frequently occur in more tranquil periods, where the
passions of men, experiencing wrongs or entertaining quarrels
which cannot be brought to instant decision, are apt to smoulder
for a length of time in the bosoms of those who are so unhappy as
to be their prey.

It was under the influence of these milder feelings which soften
the horrors of warfare that the Christian and Saracen, who had so
lately done their best for each other's mutual destruction, rode
at a slow pace towards the fountain of palm-trees to which the
Knight of the Couchant Leopard had been tending, when interrupted
in mid-passage by his fleet and dangerous adversary. Each was
wrapt for some time in his own reflections, and took breath after
an encounter which had threatened to be fatal to one or both; and
their good horses seemed no less to enjoy the interval of repose.

That of the Saracen, however, though he had been forced into much
the more violent and extended sphere of motion, appeared to have
suffered less from fatigue than the charger of the European
knight. The sweat hung still clammy on the limbs of the latter,
when those of the noble Arab were completely dried by the
interval of tranquil exercise, all saving the foam-flakes which
were still visible on his bridle and housings. The loose soil on
which he trod so much augmented the distress of the Christian's
horse, heavily loaded by his own armour and the weight of his
rider, that the latter jumped from his saddle, and led his
charger along the deep dust of the loamy soil, which was burnt in
the sun into a substance more impalpable than the finest sand,
and thus gave the faithful horse refreshment at the expense of
his own additional toil; for, iron-sheathed as he was, he sunk
over the mailed shoes at every step which he placed on a surface
so light and unresisting.

"You are right," said the Saracen--and it was the first word that
either had spoken since their truce was concluded; "your strong
horse deserves your care. But what do you in the desert with an
animal which sinks over the fetlock at every step as if he would
plant each foot deep as the root of a date-tree?"

"Thou speakest rightly, Saracen," said the Christian knight, not
delighted at the tone with which the infidel criticized his
favourite steed--"rightly, according to thy knowledge and
observation. But my good horse hath ere now borne me, in mine
own land, over as wide a lake as thou seest yonder spread out
behind us, yet not wet one hair above his hoof."

The Saracen looked at him with as much surprise as his manners
permitted him to testify, which was only expressed by a slight
approach to a disdainful smile, that hardly curled perceptibly
the broad, thick moustache which enveloped his upper lip.

"It is justly spoken," he said, instantly composing himself to
his usual serene gravity; "List to a Frank, and hear a fable."

"Thou art not courteous, misbeliever," replied the Crusader, "to
doubt the word of a dubbed knight; and were it not that thou
speakest in ignorance, and not in malice, our truce had its
ending ere it is well begun. Thinkest thou I tell thee an
untruth when I say that I, one of five hundred horsemen, armed in
complete mail, have ridden--ay, and ridden for miles, upon water
as solid as the crystal, and ten times less brittle?"

"What wouldst thou tell me?" answered the Moslem. "Yonder
inland sea thou dost point at is peculiar in this, that, by the
especial curse of God, it suffereth nothing to sink in its waves,
but wafts them away, and casts them on its margin; but neither
the Dead Sea, nor any of the seven oceans which environ the
earth, will endure on their surface the pressure of a horse's
foot, more than the Red Sea endured to sustain the advance of
Pharaoh and his host."

"You speak truth after your knowledge, Saracen," said the
Christian knight; "and yet, trust me, I fable not, according to
mine. Heat, in this climate, converts the soil into something
almost as unstable as water; and in my land cold often converts
the water itself into a substance as hard as rock. Let us speak
of this no longer, for the thoughts of the calm, clear, blue
refulgence of a winter's lake, glimmering to stars and moonbeam,
aggravate the horrors of this fiery desert, where, methinks, the
very air which we breathe is like the vapour of a fiery furnace
seven times heated."

The Saracen looked on him with some attention, as if to discover
in what sense he was to understand words which, to him, must have
appeared either to contain something of mystery or of imposition.
At length he seemed determined in what manner to receive the
language of his new companion.

"You are," he said, "of a nation that loves to laugh, and you
make sport with yourselves, and with others, by telling what is
impossible, and reporting what never chanced. Thou art one of
the knights of France, who hold it for glee and pastime to GAB,
as they term it, of exploits that are beyond human power.
[Gaber. This French word signified a sort of sport much used
among the French chivalry, which consisted in vying with each
other in making the most romantic gasconades. The verb and the
meaning are retained in Scottish.] I were wrong to challenge,
for the time, the privilege of thy speech, since boasting is more
natural to thee than truth."

"I am not of their land, neither of their fashion," said the
Knight, "which is, as thou well sayest, to GAB of that which they
dare not undertake--or, undertaking, cannot perfect. But in this
I have imitated their folly, brave Saracen, that in talking to
thee of what thou canst not comprehend, I have, even in speaking
most simple truth, fully incurred the character of a braggart in
thy eyes; so, I pray you, let my words pass."

They had now arrived at the knot of palm-trees and the fountain
which welled out from beneath their shade in sparkling profusion.

We have spoken of a moment of truce in the midst of war; and
this, a spot of beauty in the midst of a sterile desert, was
scarce less dear to the imagination. It was a scene which,
perhaps, would elsewhere have deserved little notice; but as the
single speck, in a boundless horizon, which promised the
refreshment of shade and living water, these blessings, held
cheap where they are common, rendered the fountain and its
neighbourhood a little paradise. Some generous or charitable
hand, ere yet the evil days of Palestine began, had walled in and
arched over the fountain, to preserve it from being absorbed in
the earth, or choked by the flitting clouds of dust with which
the least breath of wind covered the desert. The arch was now
broken, and partly ruinous; but it still so far projected over
and covered in the fountain that it excluded the sun in a great
measure from its waters, which, hardly touched by a straggling
beam, while all around was blazing, lay in a steady repose, alike
delightful to the eye and the imagination. Stealing from under
the arch, they were first received in a marble basin, much
defaced indeed, but still cheering the eye, by showing that the
place was anciently considered as a station, that the hand of man
had been there and that man's accommodation had been in some
measure attended to. The thirsty and weary traveller was
reminded by these signs that others had suffered similar
difficulties, reposed in the same spot, and, doubtless, found
their way in safety to a more fertile country. Again, the scarce
visible current which escaped from the basin served to nourish
the few trees which surrounded the fountain, and where it sunk
into the ground and disappeared, its refreshing presence was
acknowledged by a carpet of velvet verdure.

In this delightful spot the two warriors halted, and each, after
his own fashion, proceeded to relieve his horse from saddle, bit,
and rein, and permitted the animals to drink at the basin, ere
they refreshed themselves from the fountain head, which arose
under the vault. They then suffered the steeds to go loose,
confident that their interest, as well as their domesticated
habits, would prevent their straying from the pure water and
fresh grass.

Christian and Saracen next sat down together on the turf, and
produced each the small allowance of store which they carried for
their own refreshment. Yet, ere they severally proceeded to
their scanty meal, they eyed each other with that curiosity which
the close and doubtful conflict in which they had been so lately
engaged was calculated to inspire. Each was desirous to measure
the strength, and form some estimate of the character, of an
adversary so formidable; and each was compelled to acknowledge
that, had he fallen in the conflict, it had been by a noble hand.

The champions formed a striking contrast to each other in person
and features, and might have formed no inaccurate representatives
of their different nations. The Frank seemed a powerful man,
built after the ancient Gothic cast of form, with light brown
hair, which, on the removal of his helmet, was seen to curl thick
and profusely over his head. His features had acquired, from the
hot climate, a hue much darker than those parts of his neck which
were less frequently exposed to view, or than was warranted by
his full and well-opened blue eye, the colour of his hair, and of
the moustaches which thickly shaded his upper lip, while his chin
was carefully divested of beard, after the Norman fashion. His
nose was Grecian and well formed; his mouth rather large in
proportion, but filled with well-set, strong, and beautifully
white teeth; his head small, and set upon the neck with much
grace. His age could not exceed thirty, but if the effects of
toil and climate were allowed for, might be three or four years
under that period. His form was tall, powerful, and athletic,
like that of a man whose strength might, in later life, become
unwieldy, but which was hitherto united with lightness and
activity. His hands, when he withdrew the mailed gloves, were
long, fair, and well-proportioned; the wrist-bones peculiarly
large and strong; and the arms remarkably well-shaped and brawny.
A military hardihood and careless frankness of expression
characterized his language and his motions; and his voice had the
tone of one more accustomed to command than to obey, and who was
in the habit of expressing his sentiments aloud and boldly,
whenever he was called upon to announce them.

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