I dare not call myself older than a hundred revolutions of the Hegira." [Meaning that his attainments were those which might have been made in a hundred years.] The Baron of Gilsland, who took this for a literal assertion that he was a century old, looked doubtfully upon the prelate, who, though he better understood the meaning of El Hakim, answered his glance by mysteriously shaking his head.

He resumed an air of importance when he again authoritatively demanded what evidence Adonbec could produce of his medical proficiency.
"Ye have the word of the mighty Saladin," said the sage, touching his cap in sign of reverence--"a word which was never broken towards friend or foe.

What, Nazarene, wouldst thou demand more ?" "I would have ocular proof of thy skill," said the baron, "and without it thou approachest not to the couch of King Richard." "The praise of the physician," said the Arabian, "is in the recovery of his patient.

Behold this sergeant, whose blood has been dried up by the fever which has whitened your camp with skeletons, and against which the art of your Nazarene leeches hath been like a silken doublet against a lance of steel.

Look at his fingers and arms, wasted like the claws and shanks of the crane.