volume one

302 niSTOET OF THE CEUSADES.
prince had died among the infidels, others only recognising
a kins: when at the head of an army, or on the field of
battle. The doge refused the crown they oflered him ; and,
satisfied with the title of prince of Jerusalem, sailed with his
victorious fleet back to Italy.
AVhilst they were oflerinor the throne of Jerusalem to q,
foreign prince, the captivity of Baldwin du Bourg was drawing
to an end. The emir Balac,* who held him prisoner,
after ha^'iug conquered in a battle ten thousand Christians
commanded by Josselin, besieged the citadel of a Mussulman
city of S\Tia, and was preparing to succour the city of Tyre,
when he was wounded by a javelin, and died regretted by
the most ardent disciples of Mahomet. Baldwin was then
enabled to purchase his liberty, and, after a captivity of
eighteen months, appeared once again among the Christians.
The king of Jerusalem had promised the Saracens a considerable
sum as his ransom ; but it was much more easy for
him to fight and conquer his enemies than to fulfil such a
promise. The Mussulmans, besides, by ill-treating the
hostages he had left with them,t furnished him with a pretext
to attack them. Allien the infidels demanded of him
tlie stipulated price of his liberty, he only replied by gaining
victories over them. The Christian knights, who seemed to
have forgotten him, now that they saw him once again in
arms, returned thanks to Heaven for his deliverance, and
came in troops to range themselves under his baimers, and
recognised with joy the authority of a prince who appeared
only to have issued from his prison to lead them to new
combats.
The Christian states at that period numbered as enemies
the caliphs of Bagdad and Damascus, the emirs of Mossoul
and Aleppo, and the descendants of Ortoc, who were masters
of several places on the Euphrates. ;]: The Egyptians
were weakened by their numerous defeats, and of all their
ancient conquests on the coasts of S\Tia, only retained the
* The emir Balac was a prince of the family of Ortoc, who possessed
many places on the Euphrates, reigned in Aleppo and ^lesopotamia, and
could set on toot innumerable armies of Turcomans.
t Edma, the daughter of Baldwin, still a child, was violated by the
Mussulmans, to whom her father had given her as an hostage.
% See, as well for the incursion of the Turks as of those of the Christians,
Kemaleddin, Tabari, and Aboul-Feda.