[The Innocents Abroad Part 5 of 6 by Mark Twain]@TWC D-Link bookThe Innocents Abroad Part 5 of 6 CHAPTER XLIX 11/17
Towards the middle of the day the bravest of their band cut their way through the Moslem ranks and gained the summit of a little hill, and there, hour after hour, they closed around the banner of the Cross, and beat back the charging squadrons of the enemy. But the doom of the Christian power was sealed.
Sunset found Saladin Lord of Palestine, the Christian chivalry strewn in heaps upon the field, and the King of Jerusalem, the Grand Master of the Templars, and Raynauld of Chatillon, captives in the Sultan's tent.
Saladin treated two of the prisoners with princely courtesy, and ordered refreshments to be set before them.
When the King handed an iced Sherbet to Chatillon, the Sultan said," It is thou that givest it to him, not I." He remembered his oath, and slaughtered the hapless Knight of Chatillon with his own hand. It was hard to realize that this silent plain had once resounded with martial music and trembled to the tramp of armed men.
It was hard to people this solitude with rushing columns of cavalry, and stir its torpid pulses with the shouts of victors, the shrieks of the wounded, and the flash of banner and steel above the surging billows of war.
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