may well have had some doubts of the personal conse quences of his breach of faith to Saladin. However, he made the best of the unfavorable circumstances and was aided to some extent by the Patriarch, who stripped the silver covering from the Holy Sepulcher and had this converted into coin of the realm to pay the soldiers. As there were only two knights left, Bal ian gave the accolade to forty burghers, hoping that their new distinction would inspire them with added courage and the spirit of self-sacrifice. It was Sunday, the 20th of September, 1187 that the anxious waiters on the walls saw the Saracen army approaching on the road leading to the David Gate. As far as their worried eyes could see the soldiers of the Prophet filled the dusty roadway, and with them came the tall towers and mangonels which would soon be sending their missiles of destruction upon the doomed city. In the seventy-five days since the battle of Hattin these soldiers had overrun all Palestine, and there was little reason to think they could be stopped now. At first the Sultan made the mistake of placing his forces before the walls facing the David Gate and stretching from there to the Gate of St. Stephen. Here they were dominated by the Tower of David and that of Tancred, and were subjected to the further disadvantage of having the sun in their eyes. Repeated sallies of the garrison drove back his engineers seeking to place the mangonels in position, while the arrows of the defenders did considerable damage in the ranks.