Page 188 - A Knight of the White Cross

the food for the slaves. They were already eating their bread and meat with
an air of satisfaction that showed how warmly they appreciated the unusual

indulgence, while there were few indeed who did not hold up their drinking
horns as a servant passed along between the benches with a skin of wine.

Gervaise spoke to many of them.

"Ah, my lord," one of them said, "if we were always treated like this,

slavery would be endurable. For ten years have I rowed in Christian
galleys, but never before has an awning been spread to keep off the sun or

the dew. We shall not forget your kindness, my lord, and will row our
hardest right cheerfully when you call upon us for an effort."

There was a murmur of assent from the galley slaves around.

"May Allah be merciful to you, as you are merciful to us!" another slave
exclaimed. "The blessing of those whom you regard as infidels can at least
do you no harm."

"On the contrary, it can do me good," Gervaise said. "The God you

Moslems and we Christians worship is, I believe, the same, though under
another name."

Gervaise had, indeed, during his long conversations with Suleiman Ali,
often discussed with him the matter of his faith, and had come, in

consequence, to regard it in a very different light to that in which it was
viewed by his companions. There was faith in one God at the bottom of
both Mohammedanism and Christianity. The Mohammedans held in

reverence the lawgivers and prophets of the Old Testament, and even
regarded Christ Himself as being a prophet. They had been grievously led

away by Mahomet, whom Gervaise regarded as a false teacher; but as he
had seen innumerable instances of the fidelity of the Moslems to their
creed, and the punctuality and devotion with which the slaves said their

daily prayers, exposed though they were to the scorn and even the anger of
their taskmasters, he had quite lost, during his nine months of constant

association with Suleiman Ali, the bigoted hatred of Mohammedanism so
universal at the time. He regarded Moslems as foes to be opposed to the