'
'Is she not living in rooms with many divans?' said Amalek.
'Alas!' said Tancred, 'she was a prisoner, and is now a fugitive.'
'What children of Gin have done this deed? Are there strange camels
drinking at my wells? Is it some accursed Kurd that has stolen her
sheep; or some Turkman, blacker than night, that has hankered after her
bracelets?'
'Nothing of all this, yet more than all this. All shall be told to you,
great Sheikh, yet before I speak, tell me again, can you get me tidings
of Eva, the daughter of Besso?'
'Can I fire an arrow that will hit its mark?' said Amalek; 'tell me the
city of Syria where Eva the daughter of Besso may be found, and I will
send her a messenger that would reach her even in the bath, were she
there.'
Tancred then gave the great Sheikh a rapid sketch of what had occurred
to Eva, and expressed his fear that she might have been intercepted
by the Turkish troops. Amalek decided that she must be at Aleppo, and,
instantly summoning one of his principal men, he gave instructions for
the departure of a trusty scout in that direction.
'Ere the tenth day shall have elapsed,' said the great Sheikh, 'we
shall have sure tidings. And now let me know, prince of England, by
what strange cause you could have found yourself in the regions of those
children of hell, the Ansarey, who, it is well known, worship Eblis in
every obscene form.
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