whom danger encompassed on all sides, yielded to their unanimous
wishes, and Noureddin seemed to be tempted by the fair offer of
one third of the revenue of the kingdom. The Franks were already
at the gates of Cairo; but the suburbs, the old city, were burnt
on their approach; they were deceived by an insidious
negotiation, and their vessels were unable to surmount the
barriers of the Nile. They prudently declined a contest with the
Turks in the midst of a hostile country; and Amaury retired into
Palestine with the shame and reproach that always adhere to
unsuccessful injustice. After this deliverance, Shiracouh was
invested with a robe of honor, which he soon stained with the
blood of the unfortunate Shawer. For a while, the Turkish emirs
condescended to hold the office of vizier; but this foreign
conquest precipitated the fall of the Fatimites themselves; and
the bloodless change was accomplished by a message and a word.
The caliphs had been degraded by their own weakness and the
tyranny of the viziers: their subjects blushed, when the
descendant and successor of the prophet presented his naked hand
to the rude gripe of a Latin ambassador; they wept when he sent
the hair of his women, a sad emblem of their grief and terror, to
excite the pity of the sultan of Damascus. By the command of
Noureddin, and the sentence of the doctors, the holy names of
Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, were solemnly restored: the caliph
Mosthadi, of Bagdad, was acknowledged in the public prayers as
the true commander of the faithful; and the green livery of the
sons of Ali was exchanged for the black color of the Abbassides.
The last of his race, the caliph Adhed, who survived only ten
days, expired in happy ignorance of his fate; his treasures
secured the loyalty of the soldiers, and silenced the murmurs of
the sectaries; and in all subsequent revolutions, Egypt has never