The Brethren | Page 3

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This Project Gutenberg E Etext was created by JoAnn Rees [email protected]

The Brethren
by H. Rider Haggard

Dedication

R.M.S. Mongolia, 12th May, 1904 Mayhap, Ella, here too distance lends its enchantment, and these gallant brethren would have quarrelled over Rosamund, or even had their long swords at each other's throat. Mayhap that Princess and heroine might have failed in the hour of her trial and never earned her saintly crown. Mayhap the good horse "Smoke" would have fallen on the Narrow Way, leaving false Lozelle a victor, and Masouda, the royal-hearted, would have offered up a strangely different sacrifice upon the altars of her passionate desire.
Still, let us hold otherwise, though we grow grey and know the world for what it is. Let us for a little time think as we thought while we were young; when faith knew no fears for anything and death had not knocked upon our doors; when you opened also to my childish eyes that gate of ivory and pearl which leads to the blessed kingdom of Romance.
At the least I am sure, and I believe that you, my sister, will agree with me, that, above and beyond its terrors and its pitfalls, Imagination has few finer qualities, and none, perhaps, more helpful to our hearts, than those which enable us for an hour to dream that men and women, their fortunes and their fate, are as we would fashion them.
H. Rider Haggard. To Mrs. Maddison Green.

Contents:
* Author's Note
* Prologue
* Chapter One: By the Waters of Death Creek
* Chapter Two: Sir Andrew D'Arcy
* Chapter Three: The Knighting of the Brethren
* Chapter Four: The Letter of Saladin
* Chapter Five: The Wine Merchant
* Chapter Six: The Christmas Feast at Steeple
* Chapter Seven: The Banner of Saladin
* Chapter Eight: The Widow Masouda
* Chapter Nine: The Horses Flame and Smoke
* Chapter Ten: On Board the Galley
* Chapter Eleven: The City of Al-je-bal
* Chapter Twelve: The Lord of Death
* Chapter Thirteen: The Embassy
* Chapter Fourteen: The Combat on the Bridge
* Chapter Fifteen: The Flight to Emesa
* Chapter Sixteen: The Sultan Saladin
* Chapter Seventeen: The Brethren Depart from Damascus
* Chapter Eighteen: Wulf Pays for the Drugged Wine
* Chapter Nineteen: Before the Walls of Ascalon
* Chapter Twenty: The Luck of the Star of Hassan
* Chapter Twenty-One: What Befell Godwin
* Chapter Twenty-Two: At Jerusalem
* Chapter Twenty-Three: Saint Rosamund
* Chapter Twenty-Four: The Dregs of the Cup
"Two lovers by the maiden sate, Without a glance of jealous hate; The maid her lovers sat between, With open brow and equal mien;-- It is a sight but rarely spied, Thanks to man's wrath and woman's pride."
Scott
AUTHOR'S NOTE Standing a while ago upon the flower-clad plain above Tiberius, by the Lake of Galilee, the writer gazed at the double peaks of the Hill of Hattin. Here, or so tradition says, Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount--that perfect rule of gentleness and peace. Here, too-- and this is certain--after nearly twelve centuries had gone by, Yusuf Salah-ed-din, whom