OULAGON THE BRAVE. 249

sideration ; ‘and yet I know not how I am to credit
your words. Knowest thou that the Moslems have
a proverb which says, “ Hearken to a Frank, and
hear a fable? ”’

‘You do me wrong by your suspicions,’ exclaimed
Bisset. ‘On my honour as a Christian knight, I tell
you naught but the truth.’

‘Give me a token by which I may prove the
truth of what you say, suggested the Tartar. And
Bisset forthwith related several incidents that had
occurred during the residence of the Tartars at
Nicosia.

‘Enough,’ said the Tartar. ‘I now give credit to
the words you have spoken; therefore let there be peace
between thee and me, and between thy people and
my people. For the present I leave to take measures
for your security; and I will conduct you to the
presence of Oulagon the brave, brother of the great
khan, and grandson of him who received the title of
‘King of Kings” from a prophet who came down
from heaven on a white horse.’

The ambassadors now breathed freely; and the
attendants looked upon Bisset as almost more than
mortal; and the knight congratulated himself on
the prospect of getting his head out of the lion’s
den. It was not, however, till the morrow that the
Templar and the English knight were led to the
presence of Oulagon; a semi-savage warrior, with
those Tartar features which naturally looked harsh
to the eyes of men accustomed to the features of
Norman and Saxon, and short of stature, but thick-
set, compact of body, and of prodigious strength.