"
The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent.
"And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them. I promise
thee our Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the
opportunity to thank her royal host for her most princely
reception."
Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation.
"I must attend the wounded man," he said. "The leech leaves not
his patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be
summoned to a bower like those of Paradise. And further, royal
Richard, know that the blood of the East flows not so temperately
in the presence of beauty as that of your land. What saith the
Book itself?--Her eye is as the edge of the sword of the Prophet,
who shall look upon it? He that would not be burnt avoideth to
tread on hot embers--wise men spread not the flax before a
flickering torch. He, saith the sage, who hath forfeited a
treasure, doth not wisely to turn back his head to gaze at it."
Richard, it may be believed, respected the motives of delicacy
which flowed from manners so different from his own, and urged
his request no further.
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