volume one

316 nisTOEY or the ceusades.
According to the conditious of the alliance vrith. the Christians,
the citv of Paneas, or Ca?sarea of Philippi, -^hich had
recentlv fallen, into the hands of the Saracens, was to -be
given lip to them. The warriors of Damascus and Jerusalem
marched together to lav siege to that city, situated at
the foot of Libanus, and near the sources of the Jordan.
For the second time the standards of Christ and Mahomet
were seen floating over one army and one camp. Caesarea
of Phihppi capitulated after a siege of a few days, and was
given up to the king of Jerusalem.
This conquest was the most important event that signalized
the latter years of the reign of Foulque of Anjou. The
king of Jerusalem, whilst hunting in the plain of Ptolemais,
fell fi'om his horse, and died of the fall, leaving no one to
succeed him but two children of tender age. He was less
regretted on account of his personal quahties than for the
sad condition in which his death left the kingdom. "William
of Tvre, who praises the ^irtue3 of Foulque of Anjou,
remai'ks. with a naivete worthv of these remote times, that
this prince had red hau-, and yet he could not be reproached
with any of the faults usually attributed to men of that
colour. He was more than sixty years of age when he
ascended the throne of Jerusalem ; in the last vears of his
life his memoiy was so weakened that he did not know his
own servants, and had not sufficient strenofth and activitv to
be the head of a kincjdom surrounded bv enemies. He
emploved himself more in building fortresses than in collecting
armies, and in defending his frontiers than in making
new conquests. Under his reign the military ardour of the
Christians seemed to grow weaker, and was displaced by a
spirit of discord, which brought about calamities much
greater than those of war. At the period of the coronation
of Foulque of Anjou, the Christian states were at the
highest degree of their prosperity ; towards the end of his
reign thev showed a tendencv to decline.
Baldwin III., thirteen years of age, succeeded his father,
and Queen Melisende became regent of the kingdom. Thus
the reins of government fell from the weak and powerless
hands of an old man into those of a woman and a child.
Parties soon sprung up around the throne ; the clergy, the
knights, the barons, even the people took a dangerous part