"Noble King of England," he said, "we now part, never to meet
again. That your league is dissolved, no more to be reunited,
and that your native forces are far too few to enable you to
prosecute your enterprise, is as well known to me as to yourself.
I may not yield you up that Jerusalem which you so much desire to
hold--it is to us, as to you, a Holy City. But whatever other
terms Richard demands of Saladin shall be as willingly yielded as
yonder fountain yields its waters. Ay and the same should be as
frankly afforded by Saladin if Richard stood in the desert with
but two archers in his train!"
The next day saw Richard's return to his own camp, and in a short
space afterwards the young Earl of Huntingdon was espoused by
Edith Plantagenet. The Soldan sent, as a nuptial present on this
occasion, the celebrated TALISMAN. But though many cures were
wrought by means of it in Europe, none equalled in success and
celebrity those which the Soldan achieved. It is still in
existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl of Huntingdon to a
brave knight of Scotland, Sir Simon of the Lee, in whose ancient
and highly honoured family it is still preserved; and although
charmed stones have been dismissed from the modern Pharmacopoeia,
its virtues are still applied to for stopping blood, and in cases
of canine madness.
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