Or, if you so desire, bide where you are of your own free will, and be dealt with as God shall decree.

This hangs upon your judgment.

If you come and ask it of me, I will consider the question of the sparing of Jerusalem and its inhabitants.

If you refuse to come, I will certainly put every one of them to the sword, save such of the women and children as may be kept for slaves.

Decide, then, Niece, and quickly, whether you will return with my envoys, or bide where they find you .-- "Yusuf Salah-ed-din." Rosamund finished reading, and the letter fluttered from her hand down to the marble floor.
Then the queen said: "Lady, we ask this sacrifice of you in the name of these and all their fellows," and she pointed to the women and the children behind her.
"And my life ?" mused Rosamund aloud.