The Talisman
by Walter Scott
"Mascot" is the story of Sir Walter Scott's Crusades - a story about chivalry, violence, virtue, romance and deception. In Scott's own words: "... Richard I's warrior character, a model of chivalry with all its brutal and generous, all its exaggerated virtues and equally absurd mistakes, contradicted the character of Saladin, in which the Christian and English monarch showed all the cruelty and violence of the Sultan of the East, and on the other hand, Saladin, while demonstrating the deep politics and common sense of European sovereignty, argued that courage and generosity should surpass the other in their knightly qualities. This particular contrast, as the author intended, gave materials for a work of art with a peculiar relevance.
