DEATH OF BALDWIN. 233 pains, which increased hourly. To be sick in the East was then to be on the point of death, and, despairing of recovery, he sent for his chiefs, and acquainted them with the certainty of his end. All burst into tears and lamentations, quite selfishly, it would seem, and on their own accounts, " for no one had any hope, from that moment, of ever seeing Jerusalem again." Then the king raised himself and spoke to them, despite his sufferings. "Why, my brothers and companions in arms, should the death of a single man strike down your hearts and oppress you with feebleness in this land of pilgrimage, and in the midst of our enemies ? Bemember, in the name of God, that there are many among you whose strength is as great or greater than mine. Quit yourselves, then, like men, and devise" the means of returning sword in hand, and maintaining the kingdom of Jerusalem according to your oaths." And then, as if for a last prayer, he implored them not to bury his body in the land of the stranger, but to take it to Jerusalem, and lay it beside his brother Godfrey. His soldiers burst into tears. How could they carry, in the heat of summer, his body so far ? But the king sent for Odo, his cook. " Know," he said, " that I am about to die. If you have loved me in health, preserve your fidelity in death. Open my body as soon as the breath is out of it, fill me with salt and spice, and bear me to Jerusalem, to be buried in the forms of the Church." They bore him along, still living. On the third day of the week the end came, and Baldwin died. With his last breath he named his brother Eustace as his successor, but if he would not take the crown, he gave them liberty to choose any other. Odo the cook executed his wishes ; his bowels were buried at- Al Arish, and the little army, in sadness and with misgivings of evil, returned to Jerusalem, bringing with them the king who had so often led them to victory. It was on Palm Sunday when they arrived. They met,