Caliph invested him with a robe of honor, which was the usual manifestation of a monarch's approval. Shirkuh promptly displayed his new dress before the eyes of the citizens, for the old fellow had a shrewd sense of politics and was determined that this time Shawer must be put in his place. Little doubt that the fighting and more or less swaggering Kurd appealed to the average Egyptian, as he did at home. He had just enough of human failings to be thought a good fellow, and his parade through the crowded streets in the Caliph's robe of honor must have evoked quite a few malicious grins at the expense of the none too popular vizier. So, undoubtedly, did Shirkuh's treatment of the hitherto all powerful one. Everybody else waited upon the latter, but he had to do the calling when it came to Shirkuh. " On these occasions he used to come on horseback, with drums, trumpets and banners," but all this pomp did not disguise the true facts. Shirkuh was the conqueror as well as the savior of the country. And " then the claws of the Lion of the Faith fastened themselves upon Egypt," wrote Beha ed-din. Shirkuh's full name was As ad ed-din, hence the " Lion of the Faith." It fell to Saladin's lot to put an end to the travesty of Shawer's nominal power. It became known to the Syrians that the vizier was again plotting treachery, and that this time he proposed to have Shirkuh and his staff seized at a banquet. So Saladin, accompanied by a few officers, rode out to meet him as he came to visit Shirkuh and made him prisoner. No sooner was