Persia in the year 613. The Jews dispersed throughout Palestine purchased of this prince ninety thousand Christian prisoners, whom they vindictively slaughtered. Heraclius vanquished Cosroes in 627, recovered the cross which the Persian monarch had carried off, and deposited it again in the city. Nine years afterwards the calif Omar, the third in succession from Mahomet, obtained possession of Jerusalem, after a siege of four months, and Palestine as well as Egypt passed under the yoke of the conqueror. Omar was assassinated in 643. The establishment of different califats in Arabia and Syria, the downfall of the dynasty of the Ommiades and the elevation of the Abassides, filled Judæa with calamity during the space of two hundred years.

Milton has asserted that the skirmishes of kites and crows are as much deserving a particular narrative, as the confused transactions and battles of the Saxon heptarchy the factions, which distracted Palestine at the same period, can scarcely therefore possess sufficient interest to merit a succinct account. After a variety of struggles with the chiefs of rival parties, whose very names it would be difficult to transcribe, the Fatimite caliphs obtained the ascendancy, and were in possession

of the holy city when the champions of the cross appeared on the frontiers of Palestine.

"Les croisades," says the Vicomte de Châteaubriand, "ne furent des folies, comme on affectoit de "les appeler, ni dans leur principe, ni dans leur résul"tat. Si les sujets d'Omar, partis de Jérusalem, après "avoir fait le tour d'Afrique, fondirent sur la Sicile,

sur l'Espagne, sur la France même, où Charles-Martel "les extermina, pourquoi des sujets de Philippe 1er, "sortis de la France, n'auroient-ils pas fait le tour de "l'Asie pour se venger des descendans d'Omar jusque "dans Jérusalem?-N'apercevoir dans les croisades que "des pélerins armés qui courent délivrer un tombeau 66 en Palestine, c'est montrer une vue très bornée en his"toire. Il s'agissoit non-seulement de la délivrance de (6 ce tombeau sacré, mais encore de savoir qui devoit "l'emporter sur la terre, ou d'un culte ennemi de la

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civilisation, favorable par systême à l'ignorance, au

despotisme, à l'esclavage; ou d'un culte qui a fait "revivre chez les modernes le génie de la docte anti

quité, et aboli la servitude. L'esprit du Mahomé"tisme est la persécution et la conquête; l'Evangile, au "contraire, ne prêche que la tolérance et la paix.-Où "" en serions-nous, si nos pères n'eussent repoussé la

"force par la force? Que l'on contemple la Grèce, "et l'on apprendra ce que devient un peuple sous le "joug des Musulmans. Ceux qui s'applaudissent aujourd'hui du progrès des lumières, auroient-ils donc "voulu voir régner parmi nous une religion qui a brûlé “ la bibliothèque d'Alexandrie, qui se fait un mérite de "fouler aux pieds les hommes, et de mépriser souve"rainement les lettres et les arts?

"Le temps de ces expéditions est le temps héroïque de notre histoire; c'est celui qui a donné "naissance à notre poésie épique. Tout ce qui répand "du merveilleux sur une nation, ne doit point être "méprisé par cette nation même. On voudroit en "vain se le dissimuler, il y a quelque chose dans notre

cœur qui nous fait aimer la gloire; l'homme ne "se compose pas absolument de calculs positifs pour

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son bien et pour son mal, ce seroit trop le ravaler: "c'est en entretenant les Romains de L'ETERNITÉ de "leur ville, qu'on les a menés à la conquête du monde, "et qu'on leur a fait laisser dans l'histoire un nom " éternel."

Godfroy of Bouillon, duke of Brabant, presented himself on the confines of the Holy Land in the year 1099 he was accompanied by Baudouin, his brother,

and several other distinguished nobles, attended by Peter the hermit, who marched at their head with his pilgrim's staff. According to the lowest calculation, 1,300,000 men, each bearing the ensign of a piece of red cloth in the figure of a cross on the right shoulder, were employed in this religious expedition. Godfroy and his division soon gained possession of Rama and Emmaus, while Tancred and Baudouin penetrated to Bethlehem. Jerusalem was quickly invested, and the banner of the cross floated on the walls of the citadel on Friday the 15th July, 1099. Godfroy was elected sovereign of the vanquished city by his brothers in arms; but he refused to place on his brows the brilliant diadem which they offered him, from a reluctance to wear a crown of gold on that ground, where the Messiah had borne one of thorns. The place of Godfroy's decease is not correctly known; it is probable that he died at Jaffa, whose walls he had reestablished. He was succeeded by his brother Baudouin, who expired in the midst of successes, leaving the government in 1118 to his nephew Baudouin du Bourg. Melisandre, eldest daughter of Baudouin II. married Foulques of Anjou, and towards the year 1130

carried the kingdom of Jerusalem as a dowry to her husband's family.

The second crusade preached by St. Bernard and conducted by Louis VII. of France and the emperor Conrad, took place in the reign of Baudouin III. After having filled the throne twenty years, Baudouin left the crown to his brother Amaury, who wore it eleven years: he was succeeded by his son Baudouin, the fourth of that name. It was at this period that the celebrated Saladin appeared on the theatre of action: though defeated at his first ouset, he became eventually successful, and triumphantly closed the contest by wresting the sacred places from their Christian pos

sessors.

The only Christian temple that escaped the fury of the infidels, was the church of the holy sepulchre, the Sirians having secured its integrity by an ample payment in silver. Saladin died soon after the capture of Acre, and Richard, the rival of his glory, on his return to Europe, endured a protracted and rigorous imprisonment in Germany. This event gave birth to a series of adventures, which have furnished a fruitful subject for the ballads of the troubadours, though history has