volume one

HISTORY OF THE CEUSADES. 417
had been driven from Palestine ; he distributed cities and
provinces beforehand to his faithful emirs, and held out to
all his soldiers the certainty of pillage or a glorious martyrdom.
The caliph of Bagdad and all the imauns of Egypt,
Syria, and Mesopotamia put up prayers for the triumph of
his arms and the deliverance of Jerusalem. He crossed the
Jordan, and advanced into Galilee at the head of eighty
thousand horse.
lu a council held at Jerusalem, Gruy de Lusignan, the
count of Tripoli, and the barons deliberated upon the measures
most proper to be adopted to save the kingdom. The
kniglits of the three military orders, the troops of the king
and the nobles, the garrisons of cities, with all Christians
able to bear arms, received orders to assemble on the plain
of Sephouri. It was determined to employ in the prosecution
of the war the treasures sent by Henry II., which were
kept in the house of the Temple ; and to associate the
English monarch in the glory of this holy expedition, the
arms of England were represented on the standards of the
Christian army. The wood of the true cross, which had
so often animated the Crusaders in fight, was exhibited to
the people as a last means of safety, and carried in
triumph to the place where the defenders of Jerusalem were
assembled.
An army of fifty thousand fighting men had been collected
on the plain of Sephouri, when the leaders learned that
Saladin had carried the city of Tiberias by assault, and
threatened the citadel, in which were shut up the women
and children of the count of Tripoli. The Christians who
had escaped from the sword of the Saracens, in the utmost
terror, took refuge in the camp of Sephouri, conjuring the
king and the chiefs to put an end to the ravages of the
infidels. The barons assembled in the tent of Guy, and all
at once exclaimed that it was necessary to march immediately
against the enemy. Raymond then arose and de-
manded permission to speak. "I am about," said he, "to
lay before you advice which will surprise you ;
but I offer it
with the greater confidence from its being opposed to my
personal interests. My desolated country, my cities in
ashes, my subjects ready to submit to death or slavery, my
Avife exposed to the insults of the Mussulmans all implore