by what would now appear to be ludicrously inadequate aids to man-power. After the capture of Azaz Saladin returned to Aleppo and attacked this so vigorously that the defenders came to terms. A treaty recognizing the validity of his conquests was agreed to on July 29, 1176 and this was maintained for six years. In September he was back in Egypt, engaged in strengthening the walls of Cairo and making many other improvements, including the building of colleges and hospitals. A whole year passed in this work and then he set out to punish the Franks for raiding his territories in violation of a truce arranged with the King of Jerusalem. It was a campaign entered into with perfect confidence, for this time he took along adequate forces, including eight thousand of his fighting mamelukes and eighteen thousand blacks, and for a time all went as planned. Far and wide through Palestine went the army in almost frolicsome abandon, plundering and devastating up to the very gates of Jerusalem. Then, suddenly, on November 25, 1177, the combined forces of the Christians caught him off his guard near Ramleh. Most of the army was away and Saladin had only his bodyguard to protect him. He tried to get his men into fighting order and succeeded at first in presenting some defense, but the enemy were too strong. In the worst defeat of his career he escaped himself only by good fortune, and, mounted on a swift camel, raced across the desert, practically unattended. Of the splendid army which had moved out of Egypt with him so