If there be those among the Franks who,
for the sake of worldly lucre, have assumed the turban of the
Prophet, and followed the laws of Islam, with their own
consciences be the blame. Themselves sought out the bait; it was
not flung to them by the Soldan. And when they shall hereafter
be sentenced, as hypocrites, to the lowest gulf of hell, below
Christian and Jew, magician and idolater, and condemned to eat
the fruit of the tree Yacoun, which is the heads of demons, to
themselves, not to the Soldan, shall their guilt and their
punishment be attributed. Wherefore wear, without doubt or
scruple, the vesture prepared for you, since, if you proceed to
the camp of Saladin, your own native dress will expose you to
troublesome observation, and perhaps to insult."
"IF I go to the camp of Saladin?" said Sir Kenneth, repeating the
words of the Emir; "alas! am I a free agent, and rather must I
NOT go wherever your pleasure carries me?"
"Thine own will may guide thine own motions," said the Emir, "as
freely as the wind which moveth the dust of the desert in what
direction it chooseth.
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