volume one

42G UISTORY OF THE CEUSADES.
but you shall
obtain ^•ictones over the unhappy Christians ;
not enter into Ascalon unless you take pity on our families,
and promise to restore the king of Jerusalem to liberty."
Saladin, touched by the heroism of the inhabitants of
Ascalon, accepted the conditions proposed. Such devotedness
merited the redemption of a prince of nobler character
and more worthy of the love of his subjects than Gruy de
Lusignan. Saladin consented to liberate the captive monarch
at the expiration of a year.
The moment was now come in which Jerusalem was again
fated to fall into the power of the infidels ; and all Mussulmans
earnestly implored Mahomet for this crowning
triumph for the arms of Saladin. After having taken Gaza,
and several fortresses in the neighbourhood, the sultan drew
his army together and marched towards the holy city. A
queen in tears, the children of the wan-iors slain at the
battle of Tiberias, a few fugitive soldiers, and some pilgrims
recently arrived from the West were the only guardians of
the Holy Sepulchre. A gi'eat number of Christian families
which had left the devastated proAinces of Palestine, filled
the capital, and, very far from bringing it any assistance,
only served to increase the general trouble and conster-
nation.
AVhen Saladin drew near to the holv city, he caused the
principal inhabitants to be sent for, and said to them : " I
acknowledge, as well as you, that Jerusalem is the house of
God ; I do not wish to profane its sanctity by the effusion
of blood : abandon its walls and I will bestow upon you a
part of my treasm-es ; I will give you as much land as you
win be able to cultivate." "'\\'e cannot," they replied,
" yield the city in which our God died ; still less can we give
it up to you." Saladin, enraged by their refusal, swore upon
the Koran to lay prostrate the towers and ramparts of
Jerusalem, and to avenge the death of the ^Mussulmans
slaughtered by the companions and soldiers of Godfrey of
Bouillon.
At the moment in which Saladin was speaking to the
deputies, an eclipse of the sun all at once left the heavens
in utter darkness, and appeared to be a presage fatal for the
Christians. iSTevertheless, the inhabitants, encouraged by
the clerg}', prepared to defend the city, and chose as their