A.D. 1190. THE KING or ENGLAND'S FLEET REPAIRED. de Tours, sister of the said Sibylla, held a conference with the Patriarch Heraclius before mentioned, and the mother of the lady before named, and all the chief men of the army of the Christians, and demanded that the sister of the deceased queen should be given him to wife, promising that for the future he would feithfully and zealously promote the interests of the army of the Christians, and would from that time forward hold no communication whatever with Saladin. On this, the mother of the lady, the Patriarch, and a considerable number of the chief men of the army, yielded assent to his requests, and, effecting a divorce between the said lady and Amfrid de Tours, her husband, gave her in marriage to Conrad ; who immediately laid claim to the kingdom of Jerusalem against Guido, in right of his wife; upon which Guido offered to abide by the lawful decision of the court of the kings of Prance and England, who were shortly about to arrive ; but Conrad, being unwilling to wait so long a time, usurped all power in the kingdom, and banished king Guido. In the same year, while Philip, king of the Pranks, and Eichard, king of the English, were staying at Messina, in Sicily, in the month of December, on the fourteenth day before the calends of January, being the fourth day of the week, loud thunder was heard at Messina, and many and terrible flashes of lightning were seen ; a thunderbolt also fell in one of the galleys of the king of England and sank it, striking the walls of the city of Messina, of which it levelled a great part. The knights also and men-at-arms of the king of England, who were keeping guard in the monastery of the Griffons, in which were the treasures of the king of England, asserted as a truth that they saw a ball of fire on a pinnacle of that monastery, not burning but sending forth a light, which remained there as long as the tempest raged, and after that ceased the ball of fire disappeared. On their expressing surprise at this, and making careful enquiries what it could possibly mean, the Griffons there serving God made answer with one accord, that this always happened whenever a storm arose. The king of England in the meantime, while he was staying at Messina, caused all the ships of his fleet to be hauled ashore and repaired, as many of them had become damaged in consequence of being eaten away by worms. Por in the river Del Paro there are certain thin worms, which in the language of the people-are called "Beom," whose food is every kind