ath with his own dagger, at the same time
calling loudly for assistance.[22] His attendants came at his call, and
found him bleeding profusely, and ascertained on inspection that the
dagger was poisoned. Means were instantly taken to purify the wound, and
an antidote was sent by the Grand Master of the Templars which removed all
danger from the effects of the poison. Camden, in his history, has adopted
the more popular, and certainly more beautiful version of this story,
which says that the Princess Eleonora, in her love for her gallant
husband, sucked the poison from his wound at the risk of her own life: to
use the words of old Fuller, "it is a pity so pretty a story should not be
true; and that so sovereign a remedy as a woman's tongue, anointed with
the virtue of loving affection," should not have performed the good deed.

[21] Mills, in his history, gives the name of this chief as "Al
Malek al Dhaker Rok neddin Abulfeth Bibars al Ali al
Bundokdari al Salehi."

[22] The reader will recognise the incident which Sir Walter Scott
has introduced into his beautiful romance, _The Talisman_,
and which, with the license claimed by poets and romancers,
he represents as having befallen King Richard I.

Edward suspected, and doubtless not without reason, that the assassin was
employed by the sultan of Egypt. But it amounted to suspicion only; and by
the sudden death of the assassin the principal clue to the discovery of
the truth was lost for ever. Edward, on his recovery, prepared to resume
the offensive; but the sultan, embarrassed by the defence of interests
which, for the time being, he considered of more importance, made offers
of peace to the Crusaders. This proof of weakness on the part of the enemy
was calculated to render a man of Edward's temperament more anxious to
prosecute the war; but he had also other interests to defend. News arrived
in Palestine of the death of his father, King Henry III.; and his presence
being necessary in England, he agreed to the terms of the sultan. These
were, that the Christians should be allowed to retain their possessions in
the Holy Land, and that a truce of ten years should be proclaimed. Edward
then set sail for England; and thus ended the last Crusade.

The after-fate of the Holy Land may be told in a few words. The
Christians, unmindful of their past sufferings and of the jealous
neighbours they had to deal with, first broke