Come forth, then, we pray you." Now Rosamund rose and faced them, with her hand resting upon the altar.
"I risked my life and I believe another gave her life," she said, "that I might escape from the power of the Moslems.

I will not come forth to return to them." "Then, our need being sore, we must take you," answered Heraclius sullenly.
"What!" she cried.

"You, the patriarch of this sacred city, would tear me from the sanctuary of its holiest altar?
Oh! then, indeed shall the curse fall upon it and you.

Hence, they say, our sweet Lord was haled to sacrifice by the command of an unjust judge, and thereafter Jerusalem was taken by the sword.

Must I too be dragged from the spot that His feet have hallowed, and even in these weeds"-- and she pointed to her white robe--"thrown as an offering to your foes, who mayhap will bid me choose between death and the Koran?
If so, I say assuredly that offering will be made in vain, and assuredly your streets shall run red with the blood of those who tore me from my sanctuary." Now they consulted together, some taking one side and some the other, but the most of them declared that she must be given up to Saladin.
"Come of your own will, I pray you," said the patriarch, "since we would not take you by force." "By force only will you take me," answered Rosamund.
Then the abbess spoke.
"Sirs, will you commit so great a crime?
Then I tell you that it cannot go without its punishment.