th a view to a joint occupancy and guardianship of the
holy places in Jerusalem was finally abandoned, and Joanna gave up the
hope, or was released from the fear, as the case may have been, of
having a Saracen for a husband.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS.

1191

The conquest of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon.--History of
the contest for the title of King of Jerusalem.--A delicate
question.--The Crusaders' motives.--How Richard and Philip took
sides in the quarrel.--The reason of the importance of the
quarrel.--The French maintain Conrad's cause.--Richard's bargain
with Guy.--Richard's reasons for acceding to Conrad's cause.--The
coronation of Conrad.--His assassination.--The Hassassins.--The
Old Man of the Mountains and his followers.--The reckless spirit
of the Hassassins.--Seizure of the murderers.--The torture as a
means of eliciting evidence.--Conflicting accounts.--Uncertainty
respecting the motive of Conrad's murder.--False and spurious
honor.--General opinion of Richard's conduct.--Suspicions of
Philip.--The events consequent on Conrad's death.--Appearance of
Count Henry.--He becomes king of Jerusalem.--The question at
rest.--Dissatisfaction.--The king's proclamation.

One of the greatest sources of trouble and difficulty which Richard
experienced in managing his heterogeneous mass of followers was the
quarrel which has been already alluded to between the two knights who
claimed the right to be the King of Jerusalem, whenever possession of
that city should by any means be obtained. The reader will recollect,
perhaps, that it has already been stated that a very renowned
Crusader, named Godfrey of Bouillon, had penetrated, about a hundred
years before this time, into the interior of the Holy Land, at the
head of a large army, and there had taken possession of Jerusalem;
that the earls, and barons, and other prominent knights in his army
had chosen him king of the city, and fixed the crown and the royal
title upon him and his descendants forever; that when Jerusalem was
itself, after a time, lost, the title still remained in Godfrey's
family, and that it descended to a princess named Sibylla; that a
knight named Guy of Lusignan married Sibylla, and then claimed the
title of King of Jerusalem in the right of his wife; that, in process
of time, Sibylla died, and then one party claimed that the rights of
her husband, Guy of Lusignan, ceased, since he held them only through
his wife, and