As soon as all fighting had ceased on the field of battle, Saladin proceeded to a tent, whither, in obedience to his commands, the king of Jerusalem, Gerard de Riderfort, the Grand Master of the Temple, and Reginald de Chatillon had been conducted. This last nobleman had greatly distinguished himself in various daring expeditions against the caravans of pilgrims travelling to Mecca, and had become on that account particularly obnoxious to the pious Saladin. The sultan, on entering the tent, ordered a bowl of sherbet, the sacred pledge amongst the Arabs of hospitality and security, to be presented to the fallen monarch of Jerusalem, and to the Grand Master of the Temple; but when Reginald de Chatillon would have drunk thereof, Saladin prevented him, and reproaching the christian nobleman with perfidy and impiety, he commanded him instantly to acknowledge the prophet whom he had blasphemed, or to be prepared to meet the death he had so often deserved. On Reginald’s refusal, Saladin struck him with his scimitar, and he was immediately despatched by the guards. Bohadin, Saladin’s friend and secretary, an eye-witness of the scene, gives the following account of it: “Then Saladin told the interpreter to say thus to the king, ‘It is thou, not I, who givest drink to this man!’ Then the sultan sat down at the entrance of the tent, and they brought Prince Reginald before him, and after refreshing the man’s memory, Saladin said to him, ‘Now then, I myself will act the part of the defender of Mohammed!’ He then offered the man the Mohammedan faith, but he refused it; then the king struck him on the shoulder with a drawn scimitar, which was a hint to those that were present to do for him; so they sent his soul to
hell
, and cast out his body before the tent door!”
The next day Saladin proceeded in cold blood to enact the grand concluding tragedy. The warlike monks of the Temple and of the Hospital, the bravest and most zealous defenders of the christian faith, were, of all the warriors of the cross, the most obnoxious to zealous Mussulmen, and it was determined that death or conversion to Mahometanism should be the portion of every captive of either order, excepting the Grand Master of the Temple, for whom it was expected a heavy ransom would be given. Accordingly, on the christian Sabbath, at the hour of sunset, the appointed time of prayer, the Moslems were drawn up in battle array under their respective leaders. The Mamlook emirs stood in two ranks clothed in yellow, and, at the sound of the holy trumpet, all the captive knights of the Temple and of the Hospital were led on to the eminence above Tiberias, in full view of the beautiful lake of Gennesareth, whose bold and mountainous shores had been the scene of so many of their Saviour’s miracles. There, as the last rays of the sun were fading away from the mountain tops, they were called upon to deny him who had been crucified, to choose God for their Lord, Islam for their faith, Mecca for their temple, the Moslems for their brethren, and Mahomet for their prophet. To a man they refused, and were all decapitated in the presence of Saladin by the devout zealots of his army, and the doctors and expounders of the law. An oriental historian, who was present, says that Saladin sat with a smiling countenance viewing the execution, and that some of the executioners cut off the heads with a degree of dexterity that excited great applause. “Oh,” say Omad’eddin Muhammed, “how beautiful an ornament is the blood of the infidels sprinkled over the followers of the faith and the true religion!”
69
69
Omad’eddin Kateb
, in the book called Fatah. Extraits Arabes,
Michaud. Radulph Coggleshale
. Chron. Terr. Sanct. apud
Martene
, tom. v. col. 552 to 559. Contin. Hist. ib. col. 602 – 608.
Bohadin
, p. 70.
Jac. de Vitr.
cap. xciv.
Abulfeda
, cap. 27.
Abulpharag.
Chron. Syr. p. 399, 401, 402. Gesta Dei, tom. i. p. 1150, 1.
Vinisauf.
apud
Gale
, p. 15.
If the Mussulmen displayed a becoming zeal in the decapitation and annihilation of the infidel Templars, these last manifested a no less praiseworthy eagerness for martyrdom by the swords of the unbelieving Moslems. The Knight Templar, Brother Nicolas, strove vigorously, we are told, with his companions to be the first to suffer, and with great difficulty accomplished his purpose. It was believed by the Christians, in accordance with the superstitious ideas of those times, that heaven testified its approbation by a visible sign, and that for three nights, during which the bodies of the Templars remained unburied on the field, celestial rays of light played around the corpses of those holy martyrs.
Immediately after this fatal battle, the citadel of Tiberias surrendered to Saladin, and the countess of Tripoli was permitted to depart in safety in search of her fugitive husband. There was now no force in the Latin kingdom capable of offering the least opposition to the victorious career of the infidels, and Saladin, in order that he might overrun and subjugate the whole country with the greatest possible rapidity, divided his army into several bodies, which were to proceed in different directions, and assemble at last under the walls of Jerusalem. One strong column, under the command of Malek el Afdal, proceeded to attack La Feue or Faba, the castle of the Knights Templars. Nearly all the garrison had perished in the battle of Tiberias, and after a short conflict the infidels walked into the fortress, over the dead bodies of the last of its defenders. From thence they crossed the great plain to Sebaste, and entered the magnificent church erected by the empress Helena, over the prison in which St. John the Baptist was beheaded, and over the humble grave where still repose the remains of St. John and of Zacharias and Elizabeth his parents. The terrified bishop and clergy had removed all the gold and silver vessels from the altars and the rich copes and vestments of the priests, to conceal them from the cupidity of the Moslems, whereupon these last caused the bishop to be stripped naked and beaten with rods, and led away all his clergy into captivity. The wild Turcoman and Bedouin cavalry then dashed up the beautiful valley of Succoth to Naplous, the ancient Shechem; which they found deserted and desolate; the inhabitants had abandoned their dwellings and fled to Jerusalem, and the Mussulmen planted their banners upon the gray battlements of the castle, and upon the lofty summit of Mount Gerizim. They then pitched their tents around the interesting well where our Saviour spoke with the woman of Samaria, and pastured their cavalry in the valley where Joseph’s brethren were feeding their flocks when they sold him to the wandering Ishmaelites. Here they remained to gather some tidings of the operations of their fellow-soldiers on the other side of the Jordan, and then proceeded to ravage and lay waste all the country between Naplous and Jerusalem, “continuing,” says Abbot Coggleshale, “both by night and by day to slaughter every living thing that they met.”
The column which was to proceed through the valley of the Jordan, entered the great plain of Esdraelon by Mount Thabor, and taking the direction of Nain and Endor to Jezreel, they crossed the mountains of Gilboa to Beisan, and descended the valley of the Jordan, as far as Jericho. Thence they proceeded to lay siege to a solitary castle of the Templars, seated upon that celebrated mountain where, according to tradition, our Saviour was tempted by the Devil with the visionary scene of “all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.” In this castle the Templars maintained a garrison, for the protection of the pilgrims who came to bathe in the Jordan, and visit the holy places in the neighbourhood of Jericho. From the toppling crag, whereon it was seated, the eye commanded an extensive view of the course of the Jordan, until it falls into the Dead Sea, also of the eastern frontier of the Latin kingdom, and of the important passes communicating with Jerusalem. The place was called
Maledoim
, or “the Red Mountain,” on account of the blood that had been shed upon the spot. Fifty Tyrian dinars had been offered by Saladin, for the head of every Knight Templar that was brought him, and the blood-thirsty infidels surrounded the doomed castle eager for the reward. The whole garrison was put to the sword, and the place was left a shapeless ruin. The infidels then marched off in the direction of Jerusalem, and laid waste all the country between Jericho and the Holy City. They pitched their tents at Bethany, upon the spot where stood the houses of Simon the leper, and of Mary Magdalene and Martha, and they destroyed the church built over the house and tomb of Lazarus. The wild Arab cavalry then swept over the Mount of Olives; they took possession of the church constructed upon the summit of that sacred edifice, and extended their ravages up to the very gates of Jerusalem.
In the mean time Saladin’s valiant brother Saifeddin, “sword of the faith,” had crossed the desert from Egypt, to participate in the plunder and spoil of the christian territories. He laid waste all the country from Daron and Gerar to Jerusalem. In front of his fierce warriors were to be seen the long bands of mournful captives tied together by the wrists, and behind them was a dreary desert, soaked with christian blood. Saifeddin had besieged the strong town of Mirabel, and placed his military engines in position, when the terrified inhabitants sent a suppliant deputation to implore his clemency. He agreed to spare their lives in return for the immediate surrender of the place, and gave them an escort of four hundred Mussulmen, to conduct them in safety to Jerusalem. Accompanied by their wives and little ones, the miserable Christians cast a last look upon their once happy homes, and proceeded on their toilsome journey to the Holy City. On their arrival at an eminence, two miles from Jerusalem, their Arabian escort left them, and immediately afterwards a party of Templars dashed through the ravine, charged the retiring Moslems, and put the greater part of them to the sword.
The great Saladin, on the other hand, immediately after the battle of Tiberias, hastened with the main body of his forces to Acre, and the terrified inhabitants threw open their gates at his approach. From thence he swept the whole sea coast to Jaffa, reducing all the maritime towns, excepting the city of Tyre, which manfully resisted him. The savage Turcomans from the north, the predatory Bedouins, the fanatical Arabians, and the swarthy Africans, hurried across the frontiers, to share in the spoil and plunder of the Latin kingdom. Radolph, our worthy abbot of Coggleshale, one of those who fled before the ruthless swords of the infidels, gives a frightful picture of the aspect of the country. He tells us that the whole land was covered with dead bodies, rotting and putrifying in the scorching sun-beams. At early morning you might see the rich and stately church, with the bright and happy dwellings scattered around it, the blooming garden, the silvery olive grove, and the rich vineyard; but the fading rays of the evening sun would fall on smoking masses of shapeless ruins, and on a dreary and solitary desert. The holy abbot mourns over the fall of Nazareth, and the desecration by the infidels of the magnificent church of the Holy Virgin at that place. Sidon, Caiphas, Sepphoris, Nazareth, Cæserea, Jaffa, Lidda, and Rama, successively fell into the hands of the Moslems; the inhabitants were led away into captivity, and the garrisons were put to the sword. The infidels laid waste all the country about Mount Carmel and Caiphas, and they burnt the celebrated church of Elias, on the mountain above the port of Acre, which served as a beacon for navigators.
The government of the order of the Temple, in consequence of the captivity of the Grand Master Gerard de Riderfort, who was detained in prison, with Guy, king of Jerusalem, at Damascus, devolved upon Brother Terric, the Grand Preceptor of Jerusalem, who addressed letters to all the brethren in the west, imploring aid and assistance. One of these letters was duly received by Brother Geoffrey, Master of the Temple at London, as follows: – “Brother Terric, Grand Preceptor of the poor house of the Temple, and every poor brother, and the whole convent, now, alas! almost annihilated, to all the preceptors and brothers of the Temple, to whom these letters shall come, salvation through him to whom our fervent aspirations are addressed, through him who causeth the sun and the moon to reign marvellous.
“The many and great calamities wherewith the anger of God, excited by our manifold sins, hath just now permitted us to be afflicted, we cannot for grief unfold to you, neither by letters nor by our sobbing speech. The infidel chiefs having collected together a vast number of their people, fiercely invaded our Christian territories, and we, assembling our battalions, hastened to Tiberias to arrest their march. The enemy having hemmed us in among barren rocks, fiercely attacked us; the holy cross and the king himself fell into the hands of the infidels, the whole army was cut to pieces, two hundred and thirty of our knights were beheaded, without reckoning the sixty who were killed on the 1st of May. The Lord Reginald of Sidon, the Lord Ballovius, and we ourselves, escaped with vast difficulty from that miserable field. The pagans, drunk with the blood of our Christians, then marched with their whole army against the city of Acre, and took it by storm. The city of Tyre is at present fiercely besieged, and neither by night nor by day do the infidels discontinue their furious assaults. So great is the multitude of them, that they cover like ants the whole face of the country from Tyre to Jerusalem, and even unto Gaza. The holy city of Jerusalem, Ascalon, and Tyre, and Beyrout, are yet left to us and to the christian cause, but the garrisons and the chief inhabitants of these places, having perished in the battle of Tiberias, we have no hope of retaining them without succour from heaven and instant assistance from yourselves.”
70
70
Hoveden
, rer. Angl. script. post Bedam, p. 636, 637. Chron.
Gervas.
ib. col. 1562.
Saladin, on the other hand, sent triumphant letters to the caliph. “God and his ANGELS,” says he, “have mercifully succoured Islam. The infidels have been sent to feed the
fires
of HELL! The cross is fallen into our hands, around which they fluttered like the moth round a light; under whose shadow they assembled, in which they boldly trusted as in a wall; the cross, the centre and leader of their pride, their superstition, and their tyranny.”…
Saladin pursued his rapid conquests along the sea coast to the north of Acre, and took by storm several castles of the Templars. After a siege of six days, the strong fortress of Tebnin, on the road to Beirout, was taken by assault, the garrison was put to the sword, and the fortifications were razed to the ground. On the 22nd, Jomada, the important city of Beirout, surrendered to Saladin, and shortly afterwards the castles of Hobeil and Bolerum. The old chronicle published by Martene, has the following strange passage concerning the last named castle. “To this castle belonged the lady whom the count of Tripoli refused to give up to Gerard de Riderfort, the Grand Master of the Temple, whence arose the great quarrel between them, which caused the loss of the Holy Land.” After the reduction of all the maritime towns between Acre and Tripoli, Saladin ordered his different detachments to concentrate before Jerusalem, and hastened in person to the south to complete the conquest of the few places which still resisted the arms of the Mussulmen. He sat down before Ascalon, and whilst preparing his military engines for battering the walls, he sent messengers to the Templars at Gaza, representing to them that the whole land was in his power, that all further efforts at resistance were useless, and offering them their lives and a safe retreat to Europe, if they would give up to him the important fortress committed to their charge. But the military friars sent back a haughty defiance to the victorious sultan, and recommended him to take Ascalon before he ventured to ask for the surrender of Gaza. The season was now advancing – vague rumours were flying about of stupendous preparations in Europe for the recovery of Palestine, and Saladin was anxious to besiege and take Jerusalem ere the winter’s rains commenced. When, therefore, his military engines were planted under the walls of Ascalon, he once more, as the place was strong, summoned the inhabitants to surrender, and they then agreed to capitulate on receiving a solemn promise from Saladin that he would forthwith set at liberty the king of Jerusalem and the Grand Master of the Temple, and would respect both the persons and the property of the inhabitants. These terms were acceded to, and on the 4th of September the gates of Ascalon were thrown open to the infidels.
71
71
Contin. Hist. col. 611.
Jac. de Vitr.
cap. xc.
Vinisauf
, p. 257.
Michaud
, Extr.
The inhabitants of this interesting city appear to have been much attached to their king, Guy de Lusignan, and his queen Sibylla. They had received them when they came from Jerusalem, as fugitives from the wrath of Baldwin IV., and protected them against the power of that monarch. The sultan imposed such conditions upon the prisoners as were necessary for his own security. They were to quit Palestine never more to return, and were in the mean time, until a fitting opportunity for their embarkation to Europe could be found, to take up their abode at Naplous, under the surveillance of the Moslem garrison. Immediately after the capture of Ascalon, Saladin pitched his tents beneath the walls of Gaza, the great fortress of the Knights Templars. He had been repulsed by the military friars with great loss in a previous attack upon this important station, and he now surrounded it with his numerous battalions, thirsting for vengeance. The place surrendered after a short siege; the fortifications were demolished, but the fate of the garrison has not been recorded.
Having subjugated all the country bordering upon the sea coast, Saladin moved forward in great triumph towards the sacred city of Jerusalem. He encamped the first night at Bersabee, the ancient Beersheba, around the well digged by Abraham, in the land of the Philistines, and on the spot where Abraham delivered the seven ewe lambs, and made the covenant with Abimelech, and planted a grove, and called “on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.” The next day Saladin marched towards Bethlehem, halting on the way before a castle of the Hospitallers, which he summoned to surrender, but in vain. Leaving a party of horse to watch the place, he pitched his tents the same evening around Bethlehem, and the next morning at sunrise, the Moslem soldiers might be seen pouring into the vast convent and the magnificent church erected by the empress Helena and her son Constantine, over the sacred spot where the Saviour of the world was born. They wandered with unbounded admiration amid the unrivalled Corinthian colonnade, formed by a quadruple row of forty ancient columns, which support a barn-roof constructed of the cedar of Lebanon. They paused to admire the beautiful mosaics which covered the lofty walls, the richly carved screen on either side of the high altar, and the twenty-five imperial eagles. Saladin was present in person, and no serious disorders appear to have been committed. The inhabitants of the town had all fled to Jerusalem, with whatever property they could carry with them, and in the afternoon, after establishing a garrison in the place, the sultan commenced his march towards the Holy City.
At the hour of sunset, when the bells of the churches of Jerusalem were tolling to vespers, the vast host of Saladin crowned in dark array the bleak and desolate eminences which surround the city of David. The air was rent with the loud Mussulman shouts
El Kods, El Kods
– “The Holy City, the Holy City!” and the green and yellow banners of the prophet, and the various coloured emblems of the Arabian tribes, were to be seen standing out in bold relief upon the lofty ridges of the hills, and gleaming brightly in the last trembling rays of the setting sun. The Arabian writers descant with enthusiasm upon the feelings experienced by their countrymen on beholding “the long lost sister of Mecca and Medina,” on gazing once more upon the swelling domes of the Mosque of Omar, and on the sacred eminence from whence, according to their traditions, “Mahomet ascended from earth to heaven.” It must have been, indeed, a strange, and an awful scene. The Moslem host took up their stations around the Holy City at the very hour when the followers both of the Christian and Mahometan religion were wont to assemble to offer up their prayers to the one Great God, the common Father of us all. On the one hand, you might hear the sound of the sweet vesper bells from the towers of the Christian churches wafted softly upon the evening breeze, the hoarse chant of the monks and priests, and the loud swelling hymn of praise; while on the other, over all the hills and eminences around Jerusalem, stole the long shrill cry of the muezzins, loudly summoning the faithful to their evening devotions. Within the walls, for one night at least, the name of Christ was invoked with true piety and fervent devotion; while without the city, the eternal truth and the Moslem fiction were loudly proclaimed, “There is but one God, and
Mahomet
is his apostle.”
That very night, when the Mussulmen had finished their prayers, and ere darkness spread its sable shroud over the land, the loud trumpets of Saladin summoned the Christians to surrender “the house of God” to the arms of the faithful: but the Christians returned for answer, that, please God, the Holy City should
not
be surrendered. The next morning at sunrise, the terrified inhabitants were awakened by the clangour of horns and drums, the loud clash of arms, and the fierce cries of the remorseless foe. The women and children rushed into the churches, and threw themselves on their knees before the altars, weeping and wailing, and lifting up their hands to heaven, whilst the men hastened to man the battlements. The Temple could no longer furnish its hundreds and thousands of brave warriors for the defence of the holy sanctuary of the Christians; a few miserable knights, with some serving brethren, alone remained in its now silent halls and deserted courts. For fifteen days did the Christians successfully resist the utmost efforts of the enemy; the monks and the canons, the bishops and the priests, took arms in defence of the Holy Sepulchre, and lined in warlike array the dark gray battlements and towers of Jerusalem. But the Mussulman archers soon became so numerous and so expert, that the garrison durst not show themselves upon the walls “Their arrows fell,” says our worthy countryman, abbot Coggleshale, one of the brave defenders of the place, “as thick as hail upon the battlements, so that no one could lift a finger above the walls without being maimed. So great indeed was the number of the wounded, that it was as much as all the doctors of the city and of the Hospital could do to extract the weapons from their bodies. The face of the narrator of these events was lacerated with an arrow which pierced right through his nose; the wooden shaft was withdrawn, but a piece of the iron head remains there to this day.”
72
72
Rad. Cogg.
col. 567, 568.
Jerusalem was crowded with fugitives who had been driven into the Holy City from the provinces. The houses could not contain them, and the streets were filled with women and children, who slept night after night upon the cold pavement. At the expiration of a fortnight, Saladin finding his incessant attacks continually foiled, retired from the walls, and employed his troops in the construction of military engines, stationing ten thousand cavalry around the city to intercept fugitives, and prevent the introduction of supplies. When his engines were completed, he directed all his efforts against the northern wall of the city, which extends between St. Stephen’s gate and the gate of Jaffa. Ten thousand soldiers were attached to the military engines, and were employed day and night in battering the fortifications. Barefoot processions of women, monks, and priests were made to the holy sepulchre, to implore the Son of God to save his tomb and his inheritance from impious violation. The females, as a mark of humility and distress, cut off their hair and cast it to the winds; and the ladies of Jerusalem made their daughters do penance by standing up to their necks in tubs of cold water placed upon Mount Calvary. But it availed nought, “for our Lord Jesus Christ,” says the chronicler, “would not listen to any prayer that they made, for the filth, the luxury, and the adultery which prevailed in the city did not suffer prayer or supplication to ascend before God.”
To prevent the garrison from attempting to break the force of the battering-rams, Saladin constructed vast mangonels and machines, which cast enormous stones and flaming beams of timber, covered with pitch and naptha, upon the ramparts, and over the walls into the city. He moreover employed miners to sap the foundations of the towers, and on the 16th of October the angle of the northern wall, where it touches the valley of Gehinnon, was thrown down with a tremendous crash. The appalling intelligence spread through the city, and filled every heart with mourning. Friends embraced one another as it were for the last time; mothers clung to their little ones, anticipating with heart-rending agony the fearful moment when they would be torn from them for ever; and the men gazed around in gloomy silence, appalled and stupified. Young mothers might be seen carrying their babes in their arms to Mount Calvary, and placing them before the altars of the church of the Resurrection, as if they thought that the sweet innocence of these helpless objects would appease the wrath of heaven. The panic-stricken garrison deserted the fortifications, but the infidels fortunately deferred the assault until the succeeding morning. During the night attempts were made, but in vain, to organize a strong guard to watch the breach. “With my own ears,” says abbot Coggleshale, “I heard it proclaimed, between the wall and the counterscarp, by the patriarch and the chief men of the city, that if fifty strong and valiant foot soldiers would undertake to guard for one night only the angle which had been overthrown, they should receive fifty golden bezants; but none could be found to undertake the duty.”
In the morning a suppliant deputation proceeded to Saladin to implore his mercy, but ere they reached the imperial tent the assault had commenced, and twelve banners of the prophet waved in triumph upon the breach. The haughty sultan accordingly refused to hear the messengers, and dismissed them, declaring that he would take Jerusalem from the Franks as they had taken it from the Moslems, that is say,
sword in hand
. But some spirit of resistance had at last been infused into the quailing garrison, the few Templars and Hospitallers in Jerusalem manned the breach, and in a desperate struggle the Moslems were repulsed, and the standards of the prophet were torn down from the walls. The messengers then returned to Saladin, and declared that if he refused to treat for the surrender of Jerusalem, the Christians would set fire to the Temple or Mosque of Omar, would destroy all the treasures they possessed in the city, and massacre their Moslem prisoners. The announcement of this desperate determination, which was accompanied with the offer of a very considerable ransom, induced Saladin to listen to terms, and a treaty was entered into with the Christians to the following effect. The Moslems were immediately to be put into possession of all the gates of Jerusalem, and the liberty and security of the inhabitants were to be purchased in the following manner. Every man was to pay to Saladin ten golden bezants as a ransom, every woman five, and every child under seven years was to pay one bezant.
When these terms, so disgraceful to the christian negotiators, were known in the Holy City, nothing could exceed the grief and indignation of the poorer classes of people, who had no money wherewith to pay the ransom, and had consequently been delivered up to perpetual bondage by their richer
christian
brethren. All resistance on their part, however, to the treaty was then hopeless; the poor had been betrayed by the rich; the infidels were already in possession of the tower of David, and their spears were gleaming in the streets of the Holy City. It is recorded to the praise of the few Templars and Hospitallers who were then in Jerusalem, that they spent all the money they possessed in ransoming their poor christian brethren, whom they escorted in safety to Tripoli. The number of those who, being unable to pay the ransom, were reduced to a state of hopeless slavery, is estimated at fourteen thousand, men, women, and children. They were sold in the common slave-markets, and distributed through all the Mussulman countries of Asia. The women became the concubines and the handmaids of their masters, and the children were educated in the Mohammedan faith.
The Arabian writers express their astonishment at the number of the christian captives, and give a heart-rending account of their sorrows and misfortunes. One of them tells us that he saw in his native village a fair European woman, bright as the morning star, who had two beautiful children. She seldom spoke, but remained the live-long day absorbed in melancholy contemplation; there was, says he, such a sweetness and gentleness in her deportment, that it made one’s heart ache to see her. “When I was at Aleppo,” says the historian, Azz’eddin Ali Ibn-Al’atsyr, who fought in Saladin’s army, and was present at the battle of Tiberias, “I had for a slave one of the christian women taken at Jaffa. She had with her a little child, about a year old, and many a bitter tear did she shed over this tender infant. I did my best to comfort her, but she exclaimed, ‘Alas, sir, it is not for this child that I weep; I had a husband and two sisters, and I know not what has become of them. I had also six brothers, all of whom have perished.’ This is the case of one person only. Another day I saw at Aleppo a christian slave accompanying her maste