106 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS tones equally among his generals, according to the feudal system, and summon- ing an Assize, or Assembly of his wisest councillors to draw up a code of laws. This code, which long remained in operation, amply testified to the legislative wisdom of the Crusaders. But the new state was not long favored with his pres- ence to enforce and exemplify its constitution. In returning from a successful expedition against some Arabs of Galilee, he was met by the Emir of Csesarea, who offered him a present of fruits. Godfrey tasted a cedar apple, and immedi- ately was seized with illness. He died, not without suspicion of poison having been thus administered, shortly after reaching Jerusalem, commending to his comrades the care of the holy places, and the state which he had founded. His age scarcely exceeded forty years. One of the most celebrated and beautiful Italian poems, the "Jerusalem Delivered " of Tasso, has " the pious Godfrey " for the presiding hero of the glorious scenes which it narrates. But there are no grounds for supposing that his fame belongs to romance rather than history. Contemporary writers have painted his portrait in no less flattering colors than Tasso has used, and the poet's affectionate fancy has scarcely exaggerated the tribute which the soberest his- torian may feel warranted in rendering to the memory of the great and good Crusader, Godfrey de Bouillon. SALADIN* Bv WALTER BESANT (1137-1192) (HERE are two great names in the tangled and somewhat tedious story of Islam which stand out, deathless, from the crowd of sul- tans, viziers, and Moslem conquerors the names of Haroun al Raschid and Saladin. The former has become the accepted type of a good and just despot ; the latter is the Bayard of his religion, the knight and captain, king and magistrate, sans pcur et sans reproche ; whose enemies respected and trusted him as much as his own people loved him. His conquest of Jerusalem and overthrow of the Latin kingdom were but episodes, and from his point of view, not .the most important episodes in his thirty years of war and victory. The History of Egypt, the History of Syria, the History of the Mohammedan faith, contain more pages filled with the achievements of Saladin than even the History of the Crusades. Everyone has read of the battle of Hattin ; * but of the healing of the great schism and the restoration of Egypt to orthodoxy a step thought to be impossible and of the highest importance to
- In the battle of Tiberias, or Hattin, Saladin completely overthrew the Christians and conquered their
K.ngdom. Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.
