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There, too, Wulf left her, and riding away, reported himself to Balian of Ibelin, the elected commander of the city, who was glad enough to welcome so stout a knight where knights were few. Oh! weary, weary was that ride of Godwin's beneath the sun, beneath the stars.
Last of all marched a hundred or more of captains and warriors, among them Wulf, headed by Sir Balian and ended by the patriarch Heraclius in his gorgeous robes, with his attendant priests and acolytes.
For I think, my father, that to this end I was born." Three days later Godwin was ordained a priest, there in the camp of Saladin, by the hand of the bishop Egbert, while around his tent the servants of Mahomet, triumphant at the approaching downfall of the Cross, shouted that God is great and Mahomet His only prophet. Saladin lifted his head and looked at Balian.
She had taken the sanctuary there by the altar which we deem so sacred and inviolable, and refused to come." Saladin laughed. "Cannot all your men-at-arms drag one maiden from an altar stone? unless, indeed, the great knight Wulf stood before it with sword aloft," he added. "So he stood," answered Balian, "but it was not of him that we thought, though assuredly he would have slain some of us.
Such who remain or have no money for their ransom and there is still much gold in Jerusalem shall become my slaves. These are my terms, which I grant at the dying prayer of my niece, the lady Rosamund, and to her prayer alone. Deliver them to Sir Balian, and bid him wait on me at the dawn with his chief notables, and answer whether he is willing to accept them on behalf of the people.
Then she can return with them to me, or she can bide where she is, when I shall know that I saw but a lying vision of peace and mercy flowing from her hands, and will press on this war to its bloody end." Within an hour Balian rode to the city under safe conduct, taking with him the envoys of Saladin and the letter, which they were charged to deliver to Rosamund.
Now Balian, the guardian of the city, who had followed them to the chapel and standing in the background heard what passed there, stepped forward and said: "My lord Patriarch, I pray you let this thing be, since from such a crime no good could come to us or any. That altar is the holiest and most noted place of sanctuary in all Jerusalem.
"What high-born lady would take such terms?" asked Balian in dismay. "Rather, I think, would she choose to die by her own hand than by that of your hangman, since she can never abjure her faith." "And thereby doom eighty thousand of her fellow Christians, who must accompany her to that death," answered Saladin sternly.
Then Balian answered him in those words that will ring through history forever. "For this reason, Sultan. Before God, if die we must, we will first slaughter our women and our little children, leaving you neither male nor female to enslave. We will burn the city and its wealth; we will grind the holy Rock to powder and make of the mosque el-Aksa, and the other sacred places, a heap of ruins.
In Borneo, as far as my experience goes, these priest-doctors, whether male or female, are generally recognised by the name blian, or balian. Although some tribes have their own and different designations, for the sake of convenience I shall call them all blians.
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