wounded pride had not the usual alleviation of meditated revenge. On his return to Damascus, he found that during his absence a division of the Empire had been determined upon ; that his younger brother had been made Sultan of Egypt, while to himself was committed the sovereignty of Syria and Palestine. Affairs were in this posture when Jean de Brienne, the nobleman designated by Philip Augustus, with a train of three hundred knights arrived at Acre. The next day he received the hand of Mary in marriage, and shortly after-wards was crowned King of Jerusalem. CHAPTER II. • -"Death grinned horribly A ghastly smile." A FEW years of unsuccessful conflict with the politic and warlike Saphadin, sufficed to acquaint the new king with the condition of affairs in Palestine. He displayed his valor in many a fierce encounter, and saved his states from utter annihilation, but he foresaw the approaching ruin of the holy cause, and wrote a letter to the pope, stating that the kingdom of Jerusalem consisted only of two or three towns, which by a vigorous action on tha part of his foes, might be wrested from him at any moment. Innocent III. answered by a circular letter, calling on all the sovereigns and clergy of Christendom, to seek a crown of glory in the sacred wars of Palestine ; and by an epistle to Saphadin, in which he reminded the powerful Infidel, that the Holy Land was in the possession of the Mussul-mans, not on account of their virtues, but the sins of the Christians. The anger of Heaven, however, he said, was tempered with mercy, and the time was at hand when that 314 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.