After you had left Damascus, when you were the guest of Saladin, we dwelt together in the same lodging in Jerusalem, and together we travelled here, during all which time I learned to know you also as the worthy son of a worthy sire--no dissolute knight, but a true servant of the Church.

It well may be that to such a one as you foresight has been given, that through you those who rule us may be warned, and all Christendom saved from great sorrow and disgrace.

Come; let us go to the king, and tell this story, for he still sits in council yonder." So they went out together and rode to the royal tent.

Here the bishop was admitted, leaving them without.
Presently he returned and beckoned to them, and as they passed, the guards whispered to them: "A strange council, sirs, and a fateful!" Already it was near midnight, but still the great pavilion was crowded with barons and chief captains who sat in groups, or sat round a narrow table made of boards placed upon trestles.

At the head of that table sat the king, Guy of Lusignan, a weak-faced man, clad in splendid armour.