Here I was wounded and taken prisoner.
They bore me to Damascus, where I was lodged in the palace of Ayoub and kindly treated.

Here too it was, while I lay sick, that I made friends with the young Saladin, and with his sister Zobeide, whom I met secretly in the gardens of the palace.

The rest may be guessed.

Although she numbered but half my years, she loved me as I loved her, and for my sake offered to change her faith and fly with me to England if opportunity could be found, which was hard.
"Now, as it chanced, I had a friend, a dark and secret man named Jebal, the young sheik of a terrible people, whose cruel rites no Christian understands.

They are the subjects of one Mahomet, in Persia, and live in castles at Masyaf, on Lebanon.