168 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book rr.

masters were again sent; but if they had a doubt,it soon vanished, and they were taught how fruit-less all such errands were. Mahomet uses all hispower, and adds to Bibars’ ferocity . 1 He is reportednot to have rested a single day during his reign ofseventeen years, in Syria, Egypt, on the banks ofthe Euphrates; often was he walking in the streetsof Aleppo, while his officers were waiting in hisante-rooms at Cairo, thinking he was not yet risen.u To-day in Egypt, to-morrow in Arabia, the dayafter in Syria, and in four days at Aleppo! ” saidhis Mihmandor. Bibars was a great conqueror, butthe most suspicious, vindictive, sanguinary of men.By a mistake he poisoned himself , 2 intending topoison another, and in various ways, and undermany pretexts, murdered two hundred and ninetyof his own emirs. So these, added to the sultansand the princes, make a formidable list, and wellmerit him his terrible character . 3 One sole princein Europe spent a thought on the Holy Land; St.Louis could not forget it was there he passed manyof his younger days; the hope to avenge theFrench disasters in Egypt, and far above all, thethought it was where our Saviour had shed hisDivine blood, and redeemed us from our fallen state

1 Michaud : Hist., v. 30. 2 Arab. Chron., 538.

3 Michaud : Hist., v. 107.