esteemed as the noblest quality of a hero; and in that Richard excelled not only his companions, valiant as they were, but almost all the genuine warriors of antient days, and the Paladins of romance. It was not till after the departure of Philip Augustus from Acre, that Richard became the leader of the Crusaders; and even then each independant chieftain arrayed his followers with more regard to his own interest and glory than to the common good; yet the march to Arsouf, and the battle of Jaffa, are evidences that he both possessed and could exert the talents of a general; and the brief period of his stay in Palestine is almost the only page of the crusades which can be read without horror, as it is the only one which is free from distresses and disasters of the most dreadful kind, and brought on by the most childish want of forethought and discipline.

"With regard to his personal character, there are but two of the leaders of the crusades that will bear the test of time; Godfrey of Bouillon, who was equally exemplary as a private soldier, a general, a monarch, and a Christian; and Tancred, the perfect model of chivalry. Hume, in his History of England, has stigmatized Richard as a bad son, a bad husband, and a bad king; but let us compare him with his contemporaries. The stains of rebellion, of rapacity, perfidy, and cruelty, are strong upon the names of his brother John, of Alphonso of Arragon, of Leopold of Austria, and Henry the sixth of Germany. While we condemn his rebellion to his father, let us not forget his provocation and his repentance; as a husband, his history is at least unstained by the cold and inexplicable cruelty with which Philip Augustus treated, for a number of years, the most beautiful and accomplished princess of her time; and if the indulgence of his martial genius impoverished his subjects, it endeared him to their hearts, and made the name of Cœur de Lion the pride of England, and the terror of Asia. A blind admiration of the great of former ages, has been so often ridiculed, that we are now apt to run into an opposite extreme; they are like the fossil plants which we sometimes discover far beneath the surface; we know that

our soil and atmosphere would not now support them, yet they once flourished there in appropriate use and beauty.

"France was the cradle of the crusades; and we have, till very lately, left it to the French to write their history. It has been remarked, that the monarchs of France and England never fought together in one cause, except at the siege of Acre; and though the martial achievements and magnificence of Richard be more congenial with the general taste of our Gallic neighbours, than the cool calculating policy of Philip Augustus, is cannot be matter of surprize that this circumstance should have peculiarly excited the feelings of national rivalry, to deepen the darker shades of his character, and to pass lightly over many traits of generosity and magnanimity. The jealousy of his comrades occasioned the crusade to fail in its principal object of the re-establishment of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and their treachery rendered it a source of misery and civil conflict to England; but I cannot help thinking, that had a longer life been permitted to him, he would have triumphed over his enemies, consolidated his power, and in the maturity of years and reflection, would have become one of the greatest monarchs in our annals.

"The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem maintained itself not quite one hundred years. Of the multitudes that accompanied Godfrey, few contemplated a permanent expatriation; and when the object of their pilgrimage was accomplished in the redemption of the sepulchre, they returned to Europe, leaving him to defend it with very inadequate force. Yet the single year of his reign was a course of victory; and the code of laws which he caused to be compiled, has been considered as the best example of feudal jurisprudence. On his death, his brother Baldwin was called from the principality of Edessa to the vacant throne; and though the territory which he quitted was richer and more extensive than his new dominions, these were advantages not to be compared with the glory of reigning over the Holy City, and he cheerfully resigned his conquest into the hand of his cousin, Baldwin du Bourg.

"The avarice and ambition of the first Baldwin, had been

a source of constant dissention among the Crusaders, and retarded the completion of their enterprize; but from the time of his accession, the brother of Godfrey proved himself not unworthy of his relationship. During a reign of eighteen years, with forces that seemed scarcely sufficient for the defence of his little state, he made it formidable to the Saracens of Syria and Egypt, and increased it to an extent which his successors were unequal to maintain. He died childless, and Jerusalem again looked to Edessa for a ruler; while Baldwin du Bourg was succeeded in the principality by his cousin, Josceline de Courtenay.

"The new king spent nearly the two first years of his reign in captivity among the infidels; but the honour of his kingdom was maintained by his vassals; and with the assistance of the Venetians, he afterwards captured the important city of Tyre. As he had no son, he determined to choose among the nobles of Europe a husband for his daughter Melesinda, and an heir to his crown. His choice fell upon Fulk, Count of Anjou; the father, by a former wife, of the House of Plantagenet, and who had already distinguished himself in a pilgrimage to Palestine. Fulk accepted the invitation of Baldwin, who expired after a reign of twelve years; and in him his subjects wept over the last of the companions of Godfrey, in whom they could find no fault, but that he was more of a saint than a hero. About this time arose the Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John, and the Knights Templars, afterwards the strongest defence of Jerusalem. But the power of the Christians was already beginning to decline; the virtues of Fulk were esteemed, but his faculties were enfeebled by age, and he left his sceptre to a minor.

"The kingdom had hitherto subsisted through the weakness and disunion of the Saracens; they were now beginning to be united under formidable leaders; and in the reign of the third Baldwin, Edessa was torn from the degenerate heir of Josceline de Courtenay, by Zenghi, or Sanguin, Sultan of Aleppo, and his son, the celebrated Noureddin. The news of this disaster revived the enthusiasm of the West.

The

Emperor, Conrad III. of Germany, and Louis VII. of France, accompanied by his wife Eleanor, of Guyenne (afterwards married to Henry II. of England, and mother of Richard and John), led a force of seven hundred thousand warriors to the Holy Land. More than two thirds of this immense armament perished through the ignorance and disobedience of its chieftains, the treachery of the Greeks, and the hostility of the Turkish Sultans of Iconium. The remnant besieged Damascus, but their valour was rendered vain by the jealousy of the Syriac Christians; and the second crusade was without one glorious action to atone for the appalling waste of human blood, or to vindicate the promises and exhortations of St. Bernard, which had tempted such multitudes from the bosom of their families. Soon after, in the midst of a succession of victory, Baldwin III. died by poison, and was succeeded by his brother Amalric. A brave soldier, but an imprudent king, he often purchased peace from the Saracens by the cession of some of the strongest bulwarks of his dominions; and then as foolishly violated the treaty bought so dear, whenever the arrival of a few straggling pilgrims from Europe held out the hope of obtaining some trifling advantage. He suffered himself to be involved in the domestic broils of Egypt, and afterwards sacrificed the interests of his kingdom to the chimerical hope of conquering that rich country.

"The wars of Egypt were, indeed, fatal to Jerusalem, for it was in them that Saladine first learnt the duties of a soldier; and it is remarkable that Noureddin with difficulty compelled into the path of military renown the man, who was shortly after to pluck the sceptre from the hands of his son, and to become one of the greatest monarchs of the East. At his first campaign the unambitious son of Ayoub reluctantly quitted the pleasures of Damascus, and the toils and perils of war were so little to his taste, that even the distinction which he acquired by the successful defence of Alexandria could not vanquish his disgust; and when the Sultan again ordered him to the banks of the Nile, he went, according to his own confession, with the despair

of a man conducted to death. But after he had once fairly tasted the cup of glory his thirst became insatiable. The desire of empire and the triumph of the Koran annihilated every other passion, and the voluptuous youth became remarkable for the simplicity and even austerity of his life. His religious feelings were gratified by the deposition of the heretic Caliph of Cairo, and the restoration of Egypt to the orthodox faith of Islam. During the life of Noureddin, Saladine was contented to govern in his name; but at his death he raised the standard of revolt, won province after province from his children and his emirs, and then advanced to subdue Jerusalem, a city almost equally sacred in the eyes of a Moslem and a Christian. Gibbon has remarked that the successes of Saladine were prepared by the circumstances of the times, and that he was seldom victorious when opposed by equal forces. It is also worthy of observation that he was unable to sustain the frowns of fortune. The loss of a battle or a friend sunk him into a state of despondency, from which he was to be roused only by the remembrance, that, according to the doctrine of his prophet, all was predestined, and that it was impious to murmur at the will of Alla. His character has derived a singular colouring from the mixture of severe devotion to a bigoted and cruel faith, with the feelings of a heart unusually generous and humane.

"Jerusalem was a victim ready for sacrifice: Amalric left his crown to his son, a leper and a child, who died just as he was beginning to show that he possessed talents worthy of dominion. His infant nephew survived him but a few months, and the kingdom, weakened by intestine broils and exposed to a powerful enemy, remained in the insufficient hands of his sister Sybilla, and her husband Guy de Lusignan, who had not even the prudence to conciliate those whom he pretended to govern, or the good faith to observe a treaty with Saladine, which might have delayed for a few years the ruin of his power. He lost his army and his liberty at the battle of Tiberias; and Jerusalem, after a short