of forming some regular government Godfrey of Bouillon was unanimously chosen to be king of Jerusalem. Here may be said to terminate the first crusade.

The second crusade began in 1188, and was even more unfortunate than the first. Wasted by famine, fatigue, and the sword, not a tenth part reached Palestine. This crusade is remarkable as giving rise to the various orders of knights, the templars, hospitallers, and cavaliers.

The third crusade was rendered illustrious by the military prowess of Salah-Eddin, or Saladin, the sultan of the Saracens, and Richard I. of England. At the siege of Acre and the battle of Ascalon the most heroic feats of valour were performed. At both places the brave and accomplished Saladin was defeated. This crusade ended in a truce of three years between Richard and Saladin. Saladin, however, did, not survive many months after. He died at Damascus in the year 1193. At his own request his winding-sheet was made into a standard and carried through every street in the city, while a man preceding it cried out in a loud voice, "This is all that remains of the mighty Saladin, the conqueror of the east."

There were six more crusades, and all of them similar to the first and second. For two hundred years, comprising the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Europe did little else but empty itself of vast armies, and send them forth to fight and die in Palestine. Judea, especially, was the scene of conflict, and Jerusalem, the city of sieges, was alternately in the hands of the Christians and the Saracens. Prodigies of valour were performed on both sides; but nothing could enable the crusaders to withstand the burning heat of the climate, and the famines to which they were sometimes reduced. Added to this they were opposed to a wily, flying foe, who came and disappeared in a moment, and kept them in a state of

constant agitation and alarm. Of all the millions that flocked to Palestine, but a few thousands returned to tell of what they had seen. There, in that little country, in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, in the plains of Esdraelon and Sharon, in the valley of the Jordan, and by the shores of the Dead Sea, lay the scattered wrecks of nations and the best heart's blood of Europe.

LESSON IV.

PALESTINE UNDER THE MAMALUKES. For nearly 200 years Palestine was the scene of numerous and bloody battles betwixt the Christians and the Mahommedans. The various crusades sent out to gain possession of the Holy Land signally failed in accomplishing their purpose. Nevertheless the Christians managed to maintain there an insecure footing. About the middle of the thirteenth century, as though they had not enough to do to fight their enemies, they began to fight amongst themselves. Nothing could exceed in angry violence the outbreaks of the various orders of knights. In order to settle their disputes they fought a battle in which nearly all the templars were killed. About this time, however, they were compelled to unite in order to resist the invasion of Bibars, the Mamaluke sovereign of Egypt. As I have not mentioned these Mamalukes before, I must tell you who they were. They were originally slaves or captives from the western shores of the Caspian Sea, who formed the body-guard of the Sultan Saladin. Saladin, being a usurper, distrusted the native troops, and surrounded himself with a guard of foreigners; these foreigners were the Mamalukes. The successors of Saladin increased the number and power of these Mamalukes; and in 1250 such was their strength and influence that they dethroned and slew the reigning sultan, Malek-al-Salek, elected one of their

own number in his place, and thus became the sole masters of Egypt. One of these Mamaluke sovereigns, Bibars by name, now invaded Palestine. He expressed his determination utterly to exterminate the Christians. After destroying the churches of Nazareth and Tabor, and taking possession of Azotus and Sephouri, he attacked Antioch, which speedily submitted to him. A horrible massacre followed the reduction of the city. Forty thousand Christians were put to the sword, and one hundred thousand taken into captivity. In a short time he was entire master of the sea-coast, Acre only excepted. To Acre, as to a city of refuge, the Christians flocked in great numbers. After two hundred years of hard fighting, and the loss of some millions of men, Acre was all that remained in the possession of the Europeans.

About this time, A.D. 1270, the eighth and last crusade set sail for Palestine. One of the leaders was our own Prince Edward, son of Henry the Third. Instead of going to the Holy Land, however, they went to Egypt, where, after some successes, a fierce disease destroyed nearly the whole of the army. In 1271 Edward landed at Acre with the small force of 1000 men, and prevented Bibars from laying siege to it. After committing great cruelties which must ever tarnish his name, and gaining a truce of ten years, he set sail for England to take possession of the throne. The Christians were now left to themselves in the city of Acre. the greatest disorder and violence prevailed. The inhabitants seemed to give themselves up to all kinds of wickedness. Robbery and murder were of almost daily occurrence. Within the walls of the city there were men from almost every nation in Europe, each little section having its own chief who exercised independent authority. Acre contained at this time no fewer than seventeen independent princes and governors. This, as may be

Here

easily imagined, led to the greatest excesses. Murder committed in one district was sanctioned in the next. The multiplicity of conflicting authorities ended in there being no authority whatever. All was confusion, violence, and crime. To make matters worse set of needy adventurers among the inhabitants plundered some Mahommedan villages, and nineteen Syrian merchants were robbed of their property and afterwards hanged. This brought down upon the city the vengeance of the sultan Khalil, who swore by God and the Prophet to take full vengeance upon the Christians. With an army of 200,000 men he came from Egypt and laid siege to the city, A.D. 1291. Many of the inhabitants, seeing the utter ruin that threatened them, escaped by water from the horrors of the siege. Acre was well fortified. A double wall of immense thickness surrounded it, and within were 12,000 men animated to heroism, and resolved to conquer or die. The walls were repeatedly taken and lost. But the most heroic courage prevailed not against the overwhelming numbers of the sultan. After thirty-three days of almost incessant fighting, the walls were at last taken, when the Mamalukes poured into the city, and sixty thousand Christians were put to death or carried into hopeless captivity. From that moment the Crescent triumphed over the Cross. Thus ended all those dreams of glory and dominion which had led the nations of the West to pour their vast armies into Palestine, there to be slaughtered by the triple enemy famine, disease, and the sword.

PALESTINE UNDER THE TURKS. For about 200 years after the fall of Acre and the expulsion of the Christians, Palestine continued in the hands of the sovereigns of Egypt, with some little interruption from the Circassians and Tartars. As all intercourse with both Egypt and Palestine during this 200 years was exceedingly difficult and dangerous, we know but little of what occurred in the Holy Land for

that time. How strange it is that that country, which for two centuries resounded with the shocks of conflicting armies, and engaged the attention of all Europe, should so soon become a mystery! For anything that the majority of Europeans knew Palestine might have been sunk into the sea. Other cares and other anxieties pressed upon them and the Holy Land was forgotten. In 1516 the sultan of the Turks, Selim IX., subdued both Egypt and Palestine. Since that time the Turks have kept possession of the country. They divided it into various provinces, each of which was governed by a pasha, with an authority almost equal to that of the sultan himself. These pashas quarrelled with one another and many fierce and bloody insurrections. took place among them, so that, for more than 200 years, Palestine was distracted with intestine broils and sanguinary revolutions.

In the year 1799 Bonaparte made his memorable invasion of Egypt, by which he intended to overthrow the dominion of the Turks, and establish a mighty empire in the east. While in Egypt he heard that in the pashalic of Acre preparations were making to follow and attack him. Instantly he resolved upon the subjugation of Palestine. With an army of 10,000 men he marched across the desert which separates Egypt from Palestine. El-Arish and Gaza yielded without opposition; Joppa, after a stubborn resistance, was taken by storm, when the town was given up to be pillaged by the soldiers. Here followed a scene of wholesale and cold-blooded butchery which the world has rarely witnessed. In the midst of a hollow square of soldiers nearly 4000 Turks were led out to some sand hills near the town, where they were divided into groups and shot. Not a soul escaped. Those who were not shot were bayonetted. Some unfortunate wretches endeavoured to hide themselves under the dead bodies of their comrades, but they were dragged