spoken, and the naïve assertion of Beha ed-din years later would suggest that there was foundation for this. " I have heard him say," reported Saladino biographer, " 6 When God allowed me to obtain possession of Egypt with so little trouble, I understood that He purposed to grant me the conquest of the Sahel, for He himself implanted the thought in my mind.' " That was a confession that even from the first his imagination had been fired by the ambition to possess himself of the places possessed by the Franks along the Syrian coast, which was Nur ed-din's purpose also. The Saladin of later years, marvel of self-restraint and patience, had not fully emerged from the chrysalis stage. Extraordinary for his years and slight experience of human affairs, but not yet the great master. The Saladin to be would have shaped his conduct towards Nur ed-din with a surer hand. He would not have been afraid of him. He would not have run away from him. This occurred twice, once when he was besieging Esh-Shobek, a fortress which commanded the desert route from Syria to Egypt and had proved annoying to Moslem caravans. The siege was progressing when he heard that Nur ed-din proposed to march from Damascus to join with him. His excuse for not waiting for his lord was the discovery of another conspiracy in Egypt, but he had provided against this and his brothers were there to see his plans put into force. The second time he was again attacking a fortress of the Franks, this one even a greater menace to the desert trade and the pilgrimages to Mecca. El Kerak