CHAP. V.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

315

words of at least one chronicle 1 —yet was his deathto be a calamity to Palestine—the Leper King,seeing it Avas impossible for him to marry, or evenhold the reins of government, and being nowentirely out of minority, began the removal of CountTripoli, and to associate his own brother-in-law,Guy; reserving to himself only the title of king, thepossession of the metropolis, and a pension of aboutten thousand crowns. . But it excited the envyof the grandees; nor Tripoli disrelished suchdivisions . 2 Renaud, from Petra and Montreale, byhis lawless incursions affording too good groundsfor the reprisals Saladin desired, this called outa Christian army, and Guy at its head; and how-ever it was, whether from his own incapacity, orwant of discipline in his officers, he spent morethan eight days in presence of an enemyinferior to him in numbers, without comingto battle ; 3 which coAvardice, and the loud protestsof the chiefs of the state, prepared the sure ruin ofthe Latins, say Mahometans.

Both they and Christians agree in pronouncingthat the proximate cause was Renaud de Chatillon’s

1 Aimales Acquininctem.—Bibl. Crois., iii. 320.

2 Yertot: ii. 241. 3 Michaud: Hist., ii. 358.