CHAPTER XLI.
A SUDDEN DISCOVERY.

T was evening, and shadows were closing over Acre.
But the scene thus presented was fair to behold.
The sky was richly coloured, the setting sun painted
the landscape in brilliant hues, the wind sighed
among the palms and lofty sycamores, and the waves
of the Mediterranean murmured against the white
walls and on the Syrian shore.

Walter Espec sat in the lodgings of Bisset, hard by
the palace occupied by the King of France, and he
was alone. Bisset had been summoned to attend the
king; Guy Muschamp had gone to visit his kinsman,
the Lord of Joinville; and Walter, left with his own
thoughts, was reclining on a couch, and resting his
head against a window, with his eyes fixed on the
citizens who passed before him, on their way to .
breathe the air in the gardens outside the walls,
when he was aroused by the tramp of cavalry, and
the approach of a body of warriors, whose white
mantles over their armour, and whole appearance,
indicated that they were military monks. Walter’s
curiosity was aroused, and he shouted to make
inquiries of a portly citizen who was passing at the