returned the latter, " it chooses the top of a tree, so as to preserve them from danger; but you have left the lofty fortresses to your relatives, and placed your children on the ground. Aleppo, the capital of a large state, is in the hands of your brother; Hamat is held by your cousin, Taki ed-din; Hems [Emesa] by the son of Asad ed-din Shirkuh, whilst your son, al-Afdal, is in Egypt with Taki ed-din, who can expel him from that country whenever he pleases. Another of your sons is under the same tent with a brother of yours, who may do with him what he likes." Did the poison work? Apparently it did. The recorder asserts that Saladin replied : " You are right, but let what you have said remain a secret." After which he took Aleppo from el-Adel and gave it to his son, ez-Zaher, giving the brother cities outside of Syria, where he would be no menace to the Sultan's children. But the force of this anecdote is weakened when we read that the emir was angry at el-Adel, who had given to another the promotion he expected, a fact which could not have been unknown to Saladin. The latter was clever enough to pretend to agree when he thought it politic to do so, and his treatment of el-Adel showed no indication of suspicion at any time. In his last will el-Adel was made guardian of his sons. Although absent from his family for long periods his tenderness towards his children was the cause of comment, and on one occasion his yearning for the youngest, a mere infant in arms, was so strong that