CHAP. V.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

317

qualities, and to suffocate his good; and that, with-out meaning anything of the bigotry suspected in amonkish speech, it may be very true that had he beena Christian, he would have been a greater hero,and without many of the blemishes that stain him,and which may be fairly imputed less to him 1 thanto the malignant dervishes, cadis, santons, aroundhim, and the creed in which he was brought up. Toconfirm such excuses, here is a literal translationof a Moslem historian regarding another whom heevidently reverenced: “ Some years before, whenSaladin had a violent sickness, and that his life wasdespaired of, Cadi Fadeltold him that undoubtedlyGod wished to punish him for his pitiless luke-warmness towards Islamism, and that the only wayto recover his health was to promise the Almightyto turn for the future all his efforts against theChristians, adding that, as a sign of his firmpurpose, he ought to begin by swearing to kill withhis own hand, on the very first opportunity, Re-naud of Petra for his sacrilegious enterprise againstMecca and Medina, as also Count Tripoli, firmestpillar of the Christian army. In the cadi’s opinion,it was necessary to put those two wretches to death.

1 Aboulfarage: 19.