274 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book i.

of the Hospitallers and Templars, 1 which led topeace, and an alliance to defend that land from athreatened invasion; and the utmost generosity onthe part of that caliph, who made splendid presentsto his Latin allies, and remunerated their serviceswell, “ to send them home content,” was followedby a solemn treaty between them and the Egyp-tians, by which these were to pay one hundredthousand gold crowns to the King of Jerusalem.The barren Judea appeared to him a sorry sight,and a sway poor and narrow compared to thefat and fertile banks of the Nile; discussing theprobability of Jerusalem becoming again subjectto Cairo, as it had been before Godfrey’s conquest;and if the aged grand master encouraged thosewanderings of the royal mind, what might be par-donable to the fervent imagination of youth, shouldnot to the cold season of judgment and duty.

Almeric pored over the dangerous thought, andthat it would be better for him to seize the Pha-raohs, than wait for the Pharaohs to come andseize him. So he sent ambassadors to the GreekEmperor Manuel, whose niece he had married(like his brother in 1149), and her uncle en-couraged his projects against Egypt, and offered

1 Vertot: ii. 185.—Bosio, par. i., lib. 2, anno 1163.