by exacting a small tribute from each visitor. But the cruelties
practiced upon the pilgrims by the Turks were many, and report of them
soon roused all Europe to a pitch of indignation, and brought about that
series of holy wars, which for a time restored the holy sepulcher into
Christian hands. Jerusalem was stormed and taken July 15, 1099, and
50,000 Moslems were slaughtered by their wrathful Christian foes. The
new sovereignty was precariously maintained until 1187, when it fell
before the power of Saladin. Jerusalem, after a siege of twelve days,
surrendered. Saladin, however, did not put his captives to death, but
contented himself with expelling them from the city. Jerusalem passed
into the hands of the Franks by treaty, in 1229, was retaken by the
Moslems in 1239, once more restored in 1243, and finally conquered in
1244 by a horde of Kharesmian Turks. In 1517 Palestine was conquered by
Sultan Selin I., and since then has been under the rule of the Ottoman
Empire, except for a brief period--from 1832 to 1840, when it was in the
hands of Mahomet Ali Pasha of Egypt, and his son Ibrahim had his seat of
government in Jerusalem.


THE BLACK DEATH.--- This great plague, known as the "Black Death," was
the most deadly epidemic ever known. It is believed to have been an
aggravated outburst of the Oriental plague, which from the earliest
records of history has periodically appeared in Asia and Northern
Africa. There had been a visitation of the plague in Europe in 1342;
the Black Death, in terrible virulence, appeared in 1348-9; it also
came in milder form in 1361-2, and again in 1369. The prevalence and
severity of the pestilence during this century is ascribed to the
disturbed conditions of the elements that preceded it. For a number
of years Asia and Europe had suffered from mighty earthquakes, furious
tornadoes, violent floods, clouds of locusts darkening the air and