CHAP. V.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

331

should return as he did (otherwise he would havestayed to share the heroic death of Maille, no doubt),and that all the other grandees not in the secrethad gone to the states general at Naplouse to con-sult about who should be king—then the plotbroke out, and the gates of the metroplis were shut(as we learn from, an eye-witness), and no one wasallowed to enter or go out for two days "and nights,during which there was a meeting of those calledthe princes; but indeed (adds the same authority)there were no princes there, but only a few priestsand the Grand Master of the Temple, and Sybilla,Countess of Joppa, and Guy and their friends—that is, the conspirators. And Sybilla being crownedby the Patriarch and told by him, that as a womanshe should give that crown to the person mostcapable of governing the kingdom, she arose andcalling her husband, there present, she said, “ Sire,come and receive this crown, for I know no onewho can employ it so well!” On which he knelt,and she placed the crown on his head, and so theywere king and queen, and proclaimed publicly;and the gates flung open again, and the tidingsreached Naplouse. The consternation of thosebarons was great, 1 and Tripoli exclaimed, “Have1 Michaud : Hist., ii. 264.—Bib. Crois., i. 368.