108 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS ever, only in order to collect new forces. Next year he was back again. Alex- andria was taken by his nephew, and held for three months against the combined forces of Christians and Fatimites. At last a peace was agreed upon : both Christians and Damascenes were to retire, each party to have a share in the revenues of Egypt. The first part of the contract was faithfully carried out ; the second part neither Syrian nor Christian expected to be obeyed. And now the same ambition possessed the mind both of Amaury and of NOr-ed-Din. This was nothing less than the conquest of Egypt. Both perceived that the Fatimite power was gone. Both realized the fact that the country could easily be over- run. As for the Christian king, he had dreams of a splendid and luxurious capi- tal, grander than his own narrow city set in the midst of the mountains ; his knights, orientals now and fallen from the old western rudeness, looked on with envy at the luxuries of these weak Mohammedans ; it would be a fine thing to transfer the capital of the Christian kingdom in the East to Cairo, leaving Jeru- salem as a Christian Mecca, a city for the priests. And the Syrian sultan, for his part, would restore the unity of Islam, would unite Egypt with Syria, and by the strength of that union would destroy the Christian and recover the Holy Places. These were schemes worthy of statesman or of soldier. The only question was how were they to be realized ? The point which Amaury failed to understand was this. He who moved first was bound to lose. For he would draw upon himself the other two. Amaury moved first. We cannot follow the Christian king on his disastrous attempt. It is sufficient to say that Shirkoh, after a brief struggle, remained master of the field and of Egypt, and that the fall of the Latin kingdom, thus rendered possible, was only delayed until the consolidation of the new power was complete. Immediately after his final victory Shirkoh died, and was succeeded by his nephew Yussuf ibn Ayub, now called Salah-ed-Din (Shield of Religion), el Melek el Mansur (the Victorious King), and Emir el Jayush (Commander-in-chief of the Forces). The Fatimite caliph, not yet deposed, made him Grand Vizier. In oth er words this soldier of fortune was master of Egypt and of the Fatimite caliphate. More important still, if the King of Jerusalem understood the importance of the fact, he acknowledged himself to be the vassal of Nur-ed-Din, Sultan of Syria The first step taken by Saladin, a coup d'dtai which restored Egypt to the or thodox sect, was the substitution of the Abbaside caliph's name for that of their own prince in the Friday prayers. This was done without the slightest opposition ; contempt for the head of their religion could not be more effectually shown ; Saladin therefore boldly proclaimed the name of the Baghdad caliph. It was re- ceived so quietly, as the Arab historian says, "that not a brace of goats butted over it." The last of the Fatimite caliphs died a few days after : it was one of those deaths, so frequent in history, which occur so exactly at the moment most con- venient. Did Saladin order him to be bowstrung ? Probably. Such an act would be regarded as perfectly legitimate and in accordance with the rules of the game. How the victorious emir, on the death of Nur-ed-Din, succeeded in making himself master of Syria and succeeding his lord ; how he carried on the war with
