had been offered to the first crusaders, it
would have been sternly and fiercely refused.

Four days were allowed to the people to prepare for their departure.
On the fifth they passed through the camp of the enemy, the women
carrying or leading their children, the men bearing such of their
household goods as they were able to move. On the approach of the
Queen and her ladies in the garb and with the gestures of suppliants
Saladin himself came forward, and with genuine courtesy addressed to
them words of encouragement and consolation. Cheered by his generous
language, they told him that for their lands, their houses, and their
goods they cared nothing. Their prayer was that he would restore to
them their fathers, their husbands, and their brothers. Saladin
granted their request, added his alms for those who had been left
orphans or destitute by the war, and remitted a portion of the ransom
appointed for the poor. In this way the number of those who remained
unredeemed was reduced to eleven or twelve thousand; and Saracenic
slavery, although degrading, was seldom as cruel as the slavery which
had but as yesterday been extinguished by the most fearful of recent
wars.

The entry of Saladin into Jerusalem was accompanied by the usual signs
of triumph. Amid the waving of banners and the clash of martial music
he advanced to the Mosque of Omar, on the summit of which the
Christian cross still flashed in the clear air. A wail of agony burst
from the Christians who were present as this emblem was hurled down to
the earth and dragged through the mire. For two days it underwent this
indignity, while the mosque was purified from its defilements by
streams of rosewater, and dedicated afresh to the worship of the one
God adored by Islam. The crosses, the relics, the sacred vessels of
the Christian sanctuaries, which had been carefully stowed away in
four chests, had fallen into the hands of the conquerors, and it was
the wish of Saladin to send them to the Caliph of the Prophet as the
proudest trophies of his victory. Even this wish he generously
consented to forego. The chests were left in the keeping of the
patriarch, and the price put upon them, fifty-two thousand golden
bezants, was paid by Richard of England.

Conrad still held out in Tyre, nor was he induced to surrender even
when Saladin himself assailed its walls. The siege was raised; and the
next personage to appear before its gates was Guy of Lusignan, who,
having reg