In the dilemma the Syrians advised a change of base. The rage and cupidity of the various parties blinded all to the stupidity of this plan. The army swung round from the gardens they had conquered, and faced the impregnable walls that rose from the desert side. With neither water nor natural protection, they camped in the open, arid plain. At this juncture twenty thousand Turkomans and Kurds arrived and joined the defenders. Among the Saracens was Ayoub, the founder of the dynasty of Ayoubites, and with him his son Saladin, afterwards to become the most famous of Moslem leaders, then a lad of thirteen years, who was here to receive his first baptism of blood as he saw his eldest brother slain in a sortie.
The succor received by the enemy led the Christians to raise the siege as ignominiously as they had bravely begun it. Conrad in disgust returned to Germany. Louis remained a year longer, vainly seeking some enterprise in which to brighten his sword. It was not until his barons and knights had deserted him, and his minister, Suger, in the name of the French nation, had urged his return, that in July, 1149, he sailed from St. Jean d’Acre.
Europe felt the shame of the ill-advised second crusade. The discredit fell sorely upon its chief advocate. Bernard was compelled to lead Christendom in the Miserere rather than the Te Deum. “We have fallen on evil days,” he exclaimed, “in which the Lord, provoked by our sins, has judged the world with justice, indeed, but not with His wonted mercy.” The saint seems almost to have lost his faith. “Why,” he cried, “has not God regarded our fasts, and appeared to know nothing of our humiliations? With what patience is He now listening to the sacrilegious and blasphemous voices of the nations of Arabia, who accuse Him of having led His people into the desert that they might perish! All the world knows that the judgments of the Lord are just, but this is so profound an abyss that he is happy who has not been disgraced by it.”
The only one who benefited by the movement was Suger, whose repute for wisdom was exalted not only by the fact that he had uttered his warning against the undertaking, but more by the skill with which he had conducted the affairs of the kingdom during the absence of its nominal head. He died not long after the disasters he predicted, leaving France more prosperous than before. Of him it is significantly said that “he served faithfully a young king without losing his friendship.” Foreign visitors to Paris called him the “Solomon of his age.” Louis VII. paid him a filial compliment by naming him the “father of his country.” His friend Bernard soon followed him to the grave, having won the honorable distinction of the “last father of the church.”
CHAPTER XXV.
NOURREDIN—RISE OF SALADIN—KING GUY—QUEEN SIBYLLA.
The return of the two royal crusaders was not so much of an affliction to the kingdom of Jerusalem as it was felt to be a disgrace to their own nations. Relieved of their rivalry, King Baldwin III. took counsel of his own ambition to avenge the recent disasters. He found himself pitted against the most astute leader the Moslem cause had yet produced. Nourredin had swept like a cyclone over Mesopotamia and northern Syria, had conquered all his competitors, and established his throne at Damascus. Leaving Ayoub, the father of Saladin, as governor, he was pouring his invincible warriors southward.
Nourredin was more than a soldier; he had mastered much of the science of the age, and displayed a statesman’s clemency and justice in administration. As a thorough religionist he held his power in stewardship of his cause and refused all personal emolument from his position. His wife once complained of the trivial value of his gifts to her; he replied, “I have naught else, for all I have I hold only as treasure for the faithful.” He treated his soldiers as his children; if any of them fell in battle he made their families his care, anticipating thus the modern system of army pensions.
Baldwin III., undeterred by the greatness of his rival, besieged and captured Ascalon, whose wealth suggested the Arabic title of the “Spouse of Syria” (August 12, 1153). Four years later he assaulted Cæsarea on the Orontes, and would have gained the place but for the outburst of the chronic jealousy among the Christians. In 1159 he obtained for wife Theodora, niece of the Emperor Manuel of Constantinople, and with her munificent dowry the alliance of the Greeks. Manuel appeared in Syria with an enormous army, which, however, accomplished little and withdrew, having been quickly appeased by the shrewdness of Nourredin, or, as some say, having been frightened by news of insurrection in Constantinople.
Nourredin then extended his ravages, avoiding direct encounter with Baldwin, who died February 10, 1163, and is said to have been poisoned by the court physician at Antioch. The magnanimity of Nourredin and his appreciation of the character of young Baldwin were illustrated by his reply to those who urged this as an opportune time for assault upon Jerusalem: “No; we should pity this people’s sorrow, for they have lost a prince whose like is not now left in the world.”
Amaury (Amalric) succeeded his brother, Baldwin III., on the throne. Had his gains equalled his ambition, his power would have dominated far beyond any boundaries the Christian sword had as yet set to the kingdom of Jerusalem.