But they had answered that while they had life they would never abandon the place where their God had died.
So now war was before them--war to the end; and who were they that must bear its brunt?
Their leaders were slain or captive, their king a prisoner, their soldiers skeletons on the field of Hattin.

Only the women and children, the sick, the old, and the wounded remained--perhaps eighty thousand souls in all--but few of whom could bear arms.

Yet these few must defend Jerusalem against the might of the victorious Saracen.

Little wonder that they wailed in the streets till the cry of their despair went up to heaven, for in their hearts all of them knew that the holy place was doomed and their lives were forfeited.
Pushing their path through this sad multitude, who took little note of them, at length they came to the nunnery on the sacred Via Dolorosa, which Wulf had seen when Godwin and he were in Jerusalem after they had been dismissed by Saladin from Damascus.
Its door stood in the shadow of that arch where the Roman Pilate had uttered to all generations the words "Behold the man!" Here the porter told him that the nuns were at prayer in their chapel.

Wulf replied that he must see the lady abbess upon a matter which would not delay, and they were shown into a cool and lofty room.