where the high winds had full play and the tents swayed over a sea of mud, while the sharpshooters in the castle could pick off their enemy wherever they showed themselves. Nevertheless the siege was pressed so strenuously that the garrison capitulated under terms, rather than take the chance of a worse fate. During this time also the Sultan had the satisfaction of receiving the surrender of that pestiferous annoyance of many years, the fortress of Kerak, which capitulated in order to obtain the freedom of its new lord, Humphrey IV of Toron. Here again he took the opportunity offered him to show he was living up to the vows made to that same Humphrey's ancestor in one of the most gracious acts of his career. The garrison at Kerak had held out valiantly against the blockading troops under el-Adel until starvation had to be met. Even then there had been an effort to lessen its threat by getting rid of the women and children. Possibly they entertained some hope of aid from without, or counted upon the Moslem dislike of long sieges. At all events, the unfortunate dependents were driven out to rid the fighters of so many superfluous hungry mouths, with the indifference common to the times, when fighting was the first and only absolutely essential industry. Prisoners of the Moslems, they were destined for the harems and slave markets, but Saladin bought them from their captors and set them free. The next four months were given over to a general survey of the more important conquests, and to brief periods of rest. The feeling that trouble was brewing