volume one

niSTOIir OF TUE CKUSADES. 401
unfortunate expedition, the Mussulman governor of the city
of Emessa, then besieged by the new sultan of Damascus,
solicited their alliance and support. The Christian warriors,
after having placed a price upon their services which it was
impossible the governor could pay, entered upon a campaign
without an object, threatening those they pretended to
defend, and ravaging at the same time the territories of their
allies and their enemies. Nevertheless, their presence in
Syria, and their transient alliance with the Mussulman
princes, alarmed Saladin, who was making war against the
son of Noureddin, shut up in the city of Aleppo. The
sidtan, resolving to keep them at a distance from the theatre
of his conquests, made their leaders brilliant promises and
rich presents, and soon succeeded in obtaining a truce, of
which he took advantage to strengthen his power and extend
the limits of his empu-e.
The Pranks returned to Jerusalem, satisfied with having
compelled Saladin to ask for peace. After having imprudently
consented to a truce, they committed n second fault,
which was to violate the treaty they had just signed, and
that not to imdertake an important enterprise, but to make
an incursion into the territories of Damascus. They rai^aged
the country, and pillaged the towns and villages that they
found without defence, whilst Saladin continued making use-
ful conquests in Syria, and rendering himself sufficiently
powerful to punish them for the infraction of their engagements.
The sultan of Cairo and Damascus soon assembled a formidable
army and advanced towards Palestine. The whole
country was in flames through which the Saracens passed
at their approach the Christians abandoned the cities and
towns to take refuge in mountains and caverns. Baldwin IV.,
who had recently assumed the reins of government, placed
himself at the head of the Franks ; but fearing to measure
himself with Saladin, he shut himself up in Ascalon,
whence he contemplated with consternation his desolated
provinces.
Everything appeared to presage the approaching fall of
the kingdom, and Saladin was already distributing its cities
among his emirs, when. Providence, which at length took
pity on the situation of the Christians, offered them an
;