By this time they reached the place of the camp where the Knight of the Leopard had assumed his abode.
Appearances here did indeed promise no breach of the laws of mortification, to which the Crusaders, according to the opinion expressed by him of Gilsland, ought to subject themselves.

A space of ground, large enough to accommodate perhaps thirty tents, according to the Crusaders' rules of castrametation, was partly vacant--because, in ostentation, the knight had demanded ground to the extent of his original retinue--partly occupied by a few miserable huts, hastily constructed of boughs, and covered with palm-leaves.

These habitations seemed entirely deserted, and several of them were ruinous.

The central hut, which represented the pavilion of the leader, was distinguished by his swallow-tailed pennon, placed on the point of a spear, from which its long folds dropped motionless to the ground, as if sickening under the scorching rays of the Asiatic sun.

But no pages or squires--not even a solitary warder--was placed by the emblem of feudal power and knightly degree.