A.D. 1191. APPEARANCE OP THE VIRGIN MART. in which they then were ; on condition, however, that the said kings should either go with him, or send with him six thousand knights and twenty thousand foot soldiers, to defend his territories against the lord Musse and the sons of Noureddin, who had conquered his uncle Thekedin in battle, and taken possession of all his territory, although they had permitted them to depart uninjured. However, the kings declined to do this, and the pagans before-named entered the city disconsolate and in confusion; their friends, however, deserting Saladin, loaded him with censures. On the seventh day of the month of July, being the Lord's day, the king of France and his army made an assault upon the city, near the tower called Maledetta, at the same spot at which they had previously so done, but lost forty men, and were able to effect nothing whatever. On the eighth day of the month of July, Saladin burned Caiaphas, and destroyed the vineyards in its vicinity. On the following night, when many of the knights and men-at-arms of the Christian army were watehing before the tower of Maledetta, a light from heaven shone around them, in which appeared to them the blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ ; on which, from fear, the guards were exceedingly alarmed, and became as though dead men. But the blessed Virgin benignantly comforted them, saying, " Be not terrified, for the Lord has sent me hither for your safety. As soon as the day shall have dawned, go and teU your kings, in the name of Jesus Christ my Son and Lord, and in my name, to cease levelling the walls of this city, as, on the fourth day from this, the Lord shaB deBver it into their hands." At the same hour also at which the Mother of Christ was speaking to the guards, a great earthquake took place in the city, and so terrified the pagans, that they wished rather to die than to live. In like manner shaB the Lord, when He shaB come to judgment, appear gentle to the good, and terrible to the wicked. After the Virgin Mary had thus spoken, she was severed from before their eyes, and with her the Bght departed which had shone around them. Accordingly, in the morning the guards related to the kings and the chief men of the army the vision which they had seen and the words which the Mother of the Lord had spoken unto them ; and immediately aB the words which she had spoken were spread throughout the army, and there was great rejoicing among the people of God. Moreover, on the ninth and tenth