authority, when he suddenly died in the year 1171.

37. Saladin now saw the great obstacle to his ambition removed, and
began to aim at realizing those schemes of sovereignty which Noureddin
had projected. The state of the Christian kingdom during the ten or
twelve years which followed directly favored his plans. Civil
dissensions arose which the keen eye of Saladin discovered, and,
already master of all Syria, he resolved to complete his greatness by
the conquest of Palestine. Accordingly, when in the year 1157 it was
known that he was on his march against Jerusalem, the Christian
crusaders saw the necessity of abandoning their dissensions and
uniting cordially against the invader. Town after town surrendered to
the victorious Saracen, and, in October, 1187, Jerusalem itself, after
fourteen days' defense, was obliged to submit to his mercy. The
conduct of Saladin on this occasion was more generous than might have
been expected. A moderate ransom was fixed for every individual, on
the payment of which he was at liberty to remove with his goods to
whatever place he chose. To the Christian ladies, Saladin's conduct
was courteous in the extreme, so that it became a remark among the
Latins of Palestine that Saladin was a barbarian only in name.

38. Thus, after ninety years, was the Holy City again inhabited by the
infidel, and all the fruits of the first crusade lost, as it seemed to
the world. Saladin now possessed the whole of Palestine, with the
single exception of the city of Tyre, which was gallantly defended by
Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat.

39. The epidemic frenzy which had been gradually cooling was now
extinct, or nearly so, and the nations of Europe looked with cold
indifference upon the armaments of their princes. But chivalry was now