346 THE DECLINE AND FALL and the moment Wcas now arrived to expiate in blood, the innocent blood which had been spilt by Godfrey and the first crusaders." But a desperate and successful struggle of the Franks admonished the sultan that his triumph was not )'et secure • he listened with reverence to a solemn adjuration in the name of the common Father of mankind ; and a senti- ment of human sympathy mollified the rigour of fanaticism and conquest. He consented to accept the city, and to spare the inhabitants. The Greek and Oriental Christians were permitted to live under his dominion ; but it was stipulated, that in forty days all the Franks and Latins should evacuate Jerusalem, and be safely conducted to the sea-ports of Syria and Egypt ; that ten pieces of gold should be paid for each man, five for each woman, and one for every child ; and that those who were unable to purchase their freedom should be detained in pei-petual slavery. Of some writers it is a favourite and invidious theme to compare the humanity of Saladin with the massacre of the first crusade. The difference would be merely personal ; but we should not forget that the Christians had offered to capitulate, and that the Mahometans of Jerusalem sustained the last ex- tremities of an assault and storm. Justice is indeed due to the fidelity with which the Turkish conqueror fulfilled the conditions of the treaty ; and he may be deservedly praised for the glance of pity which he cast on the misery of the vanquished. Instead of a rigorous exaction of his debt, he accepted a sum of thirty thousand byzants, for the ransom of seven thousand poor ; two or three thousand more were dismissed by his gratuitous clemency ; and the number of slaves was reduced to eleven or fourteen thousand persons. In his interview with the queen, his words, and even his tears, suggested the kindest consolations ; his liberal alms were distributed among those who had been made orphans or widows by the fortune of war ; and, while the knights of the hospital were in arms against him, he allowed their more pious brethren to continue, during the term of a year, the cai*e and service of the sick. In these acts of mercy, the virtue of Saladin deserves our admiration and love : he was above the necessit}^ of dissimulation ; and his stern fanaticism would have pi'ompted him to dissemble, rather tlian to affect, this profane compassion for the enemies of the Koran. After Jerusalem had been delivered from the presence of the strangers, the sultan made his triumpliant entry, his banners waving in the wind, and to the harmony of martial music. The great mosque of Omar, which had been converted into a church, was again
