volume one

432 nisTORT OF the ceusades.
There only remained in bondage about fourteen thousand
Christians, amongst ^Yhom there were four or five thousand
children of tender age, who Avere insensible of their mis-
fortunes, but whose fate the Christians the more deplored,
from the certainty that these innocent victims of war would
be brought up in the idolatry of jMahomet.
Many modern writers have compared the generous conduct
of Saladin with the revolting scenes which accompanied
the entrance of the first Crusaders into Jerusalem ; but we
must not forget that the Christians offered to capitulate,
whilst the Mussulmans sustained a long siege with fanatical
obstinacy ; and that the companions of Grodfrey, who were
in an unknown land, in the midst of hostile nations, carried
the city by assault, after bra\TJig numberless perils, and
suffering all kinds of miseries. But we beg to observe that
we do not make this observation to justify the Christians,
or to weaken the praises history owes to Saladin, and which
he even obtained from the people he had conquered.
After having done honoiu* to misfortune and consoled
humanity, Saladin gave his attention to his triumph. He
entered Jerusalem preceded by his victorious standards. A
great number of imauns, doctors of the law, and the ambassadors
of many Mussidman princes, formed his train. By
his orders all the churches, except that of the Holy Sepidchre,
were converted into mosques. The sultan caused the walls
and the vestibule of the mosque of Omar to be wasliedwith
rose-water, brought from Damascus, and with his own hands
placed in it the pulpit constructed by Noureddin. On the
first Fridav which followed his entrance into Jerusalem, the
people and the army assembled in the principal mosque, and
the chief of the imauns, ascending the pulpit of the Prophet,
returned thanks to God for the victories of Saladin. " Glory
to God," said he, "who has caused Islamism to triumph,
and who has broken the power of the infidels. Praise with
me the Lord, Avho has restored to us Jerusalem, the dwelling
of God, the abode of saints and prophets ; it was from the
bosom of this sacred dwelling that God caused his servant
to travel during the darkness of night ; it was to facilitate
the conquest of Jerusalem by Joshua that God formerly
arrested the course of the sun ; and it is in this city, at the
end of time, will assem^ble all the prophets of the earth."