"
"My sanction to marry my kinswoman to an infidel!" said Richard;
yet he spoke rather in a tone of doubt than as distinctly
reprobating the measure proposed. "Could I have dreamed of such
a composition when I leaped upon the Syrian shore from the prow
of my galley, even as a lion springs on his prey! And now--But
proceed--I will hear with patience."
Equally delighted and surprised to find his task so much easier
than he had apprehended, the Archbishop hastened to pour forth
before Richard the instances of such alliances in Spain--not
without countenance from the Holy See; the incalculable
advantages which all Christendom would derive from the union of
Richard and Saladin by a bond so sacred; and, above all, he spoke
with great vehemence and unction on the probability that Saladin
would, in case of the proposed alliance, exchange his false faith
for the true one.
"Hath the Soldan shown any disposition to become Christian?"
said Richard. "If so, the king lives not on earth to whom I
would grant the hand of a kinswoman, ay, or sister, sooner than
to my noble Saladin--ay, though the one came to lay crown and
sceptre at her feet, and the other had nothing to offer but his
good sword and better heart!"
"Saladin hath heard our Christian teachers," said the Bishop,
somewhat evasively--"my unworthy self, and others--and as he
listens with patience, and replies with calmness, it can hardly
be but that he be snatched as a brand from the burning.
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