TNE LAST OF THE LiOULITSS, £03

followed him into the water; and close to the galley
in which the Lord of Joinville was, the heir of
Saladin—the last of the Eioubites—died miserably.

It was now that the Mamelukes rushed into the
tent where Louis and his brothers were.

‘King,’ cried Octai, pointing to his bloody sword,
‘Touran Chah is no more. What will you give me
for having freed you from an enemy who meditated
your destruction as well as ours?’

Louis vouchsafed no reply.

‘What!’ cried the emir, furiously presenting the
point of his sword; ‘know you not that I am master
of your person? Make me a knight, or thou art a
dead man.’

‘Make thyself a Christian, and I will make thee a
knight,’ said Louis, calmly.

Rather cowed than otherwise with his reception,
and with the demeanour of the royal captive, Octai
retired ; and the French king and his brothers once
more breathed with as much freedom as men could
under the circumstances. But they were not long
left undisturbed. Scarcely had the Mameluke aspi-
rant for knighthood disappeared when the tent was
crowded with Saracens, who brandished their sabres
and threatened Louis with destruction.

‘Frenchman!’ cried they, addressing the king,
wildly and fiercely ; ‘art thou ignorant of thy danger,
or what may be the fate that awaits thee? Phares-
cour is not Mansourah, as events may convince thee
yet. Here thou mayest find a tomb instead of the
house of Lokman, and the two terrible angels,
Munkir and Nakir, instead of the Eunuch Sahil.’