the opening of another.
Saladin was the servant of the Sultan of Aleppo, and he had been
recognized and confirmed in office by Mostadhi strictly on the score
of this lieutenancy. But the new wazir of Egypt had no mind to obey
any longer the summons of his old master, and to his threat of
chastisement Saladin in his council of emirs retorted by a threat of
war. His vehemence was cooled when his own father declared before the
assembly that, were he so commissioned by Noureddin, he would strike
his son's head off from his shoulders. In private, he let Saladin know
that his mistake lay not in thinking of resistance, but in speaking of
it; and a letter sent by his advice sufficed for the present to smooth
matters over. But the time of quietness could not last long. The
designs of Saladin became continually more manifest, and Noureddin was
on his way to Egypt when he was struck down by illness and died at
Damascus.

The widow of Noureddin held the fortress of Paneas; and her husband's
death encouraged Almeric to undertake the siege. A bribe to abandon it
was at first refused. A fortnight later it was accepted; but Almeric
returned to Jerusalem only to die. His life had lasted only five years
longer than that of his predecessor Baldwin; but it had been long
enough to win for him a reputation for consummate avarice and
meanness. His son and successor, Baldwin IV, was a leper, and his
disease made such rapid strides as to make it necessary to delegate
his authority to another. His first choice fell on Guy of Lusignan,
the husband of his sister Sibylla, but either the weakness of Guy or
the quarrels of the barons brought everything into confusion, and
Baldwin, foiled in his wish to annul his marriage, devised his crown
to Baldwin, the infant son of Sibylla by her first marriage, Raymond
II, Count of Tripoli, being nominated regent and Joceline of Courtenay
the guardian of the child. But within three years the leper King died,
followed soon after by the infant Baldwin V, and in the renewed strife
consequent on these events Guy of Lusignan managed to establish
himself, by right of his wife, King of Jerusalem. He was still quite a
young man, but he had earned for himself an evil name. The murderer of
Patric, Earl of Salisbury, he had been banished by Henry II from his
dominions in France; and the opinion of those who knew him found
expression in the words of his brother Geoffrey, "Had they known me,
the men who made my brother king