Then perhaps this lady will guide us to the city
before his fellows come to seek him, seeing that for one night I have
had a stomach full of fighting."
"Sirs, I will indeed. It is close at hand, and my father will thank you
there; but if it is your pleasure, tell me by what names I shall make
known to him you whose rank seems to be so high?"
"Lady, I am Metem the Phoenician, captain of the merchandise of the
caravan of Hiram, King of Tyre, and this lord who slew the thief is none
other than the prince Aziel, the twice royal, for he is grandson to
the glorious King of Israel, and through his mother of the blood of the
Pharaohs of Egypt."
"And yet he risked his life to save me," the girl murmured astonished;
then dropping to her knees before Aziel, she touched the ground with
her forehead in obeisance, giving him thanks, and praising him after the
fashion of the East.
"Rise, lady," he broke in, "because I chance to be a prince I have not
ceased to be a man, and no man could have seen you in such a plight
without striking a blow on your behalf."
"No," added Metem, "none; that is, as you happen to be noble and young
and lovely. Had you been old and ugly and humble, then the black man
might have carried you from here to Tyre ere I risked my neck to stop
him, or for the matter of that, although he will deny it, the prince
either."
"Men do not often show their hearts so clearly," she answered with
sarcasm.
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