along. " Had I not a guarantee in thy kindred," said ho glancing at Eva, " I should somewhat challenge the famil-iarity that has given such success to our expedition." " Nay, and that thon well mightst," returned the Clare, " for the history of mankind does not furnish the idea of so daring and desperate a hand as these assassins of Mt. Lebanon." " Heaven save us!" exclaimed Eva, her lips white with fear. " From what terrible fate have I been delivered! That vile Sir Francis declared that he had snatched me from the hostile Arabs, and would bring me safe to Acre, and that it was in pity for my fatigue he turned aside to a castle of christian natives. It makes me shudder, even now, to think that I have been in the presence of the mau whose very name hath made me tremble, when beyond the sea, in merrie England." " Nay, love," said her father, tenderly, " the Sheik owed thee no malice, and might have rescued thee, had not Sir Francis been his tributary." " They exact, then, toll and custom ?" said Courtenay, inquiringly. "Thou sayest well exact" replied the knight. "Didst not mark the battle-axe of the rude seneschal ? 'Tis said the Danish weapon once belonged to the founder of the band, and each dagger stuck in the oaken helve, inscribed with a sentence in a different dialect, is significantly pointed against the prince or ruler who shall dare withhold tribute from their chief. One of my ancestors, I reck not whom, once resided in the vicinity of Croyland, and received from the venerable abbot the parchment which thou sawest me use with such marvellous effect. My ancestor fought in the first crusade under the Atheling, and, unlike most of his companions, returned in safety, whence a tradition arose in the family that the scroll was a charm. " On my setting out for the holy wars, I placed the heir-loom in my aumonilre, and had nearly forgotten its exist-ence, when a startling circumstance recalled it to memory. My plan for the redemption of Palestine (for I have not HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.