SALADIN: PRINCE OF CHIVALRY ment in their then seemingly desperate situation. The blood that was in the veins of the Sultan to be was not of the kind which submits tamely to reversals of fortune, however serious. Many a time in the career which was just beginning there would be trying moments which only invincible courage and high resolve, coupled with fertility of resource and ability to think through baffling problems to a happy conclusion, would be able to surmount, and all these fortunate qualities might be traced back to inheritance. It was really an exceptional family and this latest sprig was to develop true to form. Just prior to the dire situation mentioned all had been well with them. Schadi had migrated to Bagdad, probably to find better opportunity for a career for his sons, and there the governor, Bihrous, who had been befriended by Schadi in Dovin when the former had been only a slave, gave Ayub (Job) the command of the fortified castle of Tekrit, on the left bank of the Tigris. Schadi and Shirkuh went along, and the prosperity of the family seemed assured when Shirkuh had a quarrel with an official. The suggestion is that the former was acting the cavalier in defense of a woman. That would not be so strange, for the Kurds were noted for their chivalrous attitude towards the fair sex. At all events, Shirkuh, by nature impetuous, ran his sword through the offender, who perished promptly. A killing now and then was not a serious offense in that time and place, but the dead man was a ihem