200 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book I.

told by my father that King Baldwin wrote toTogdekin the moment he heard of the bloody deed:“ They who deprive themselves of their protector , andeven upon a festival day , and in the very temple oftheir God , merit well that God should exterminatethem from the face of the earth." 1 The Mahometanalso who ruled at Aleppo was a great supporter ofthe Assassins or Battenians at that time. And afterhis death in 1115, his odious son drove the emirsinto a conspiracy that smothered him in his bed.Add to all which horrors an earthquake thatinjured Aleppo, Antioch, Haraoun, and severalcities in Syria. 2 The sultan then sent Borsaki

„, . „ from Moussul, to attack the Franks in Pa-

1117 . .

lestine, which was not pleasing to all theSyrian Mahometans, who feared that under thispretext the sultan wanted to seize the wholecountry.

So both Moslems and Christians joined againstBorsaki, who passed the Euphrates without doingmuch, the Moslems restraining the ardour of theFranks, lest these should become the masters ofSyria, if Borsaki were defeated. The end wasthat he and his army ran away beyond theEuphrates. All was confusion 3 and frightful im-

1 Arab. Cliron. 33.

2 Id.: 37. 3 Michaud: Hist., ii. 49.