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CHAPTER XVII.
FACE TO FACT.

HILE the Crusaders were preparing to leave
Damietta, march up the Nile, and attack
Cairo, Melikul Salih, after struggling desperately
with the great destroyer, yielded to his fate, and
breathed his last at Mansourah. The death of the
sultan was regarded by the emirs as most untimely;
for his son, Touran Chah, was then in Mesopotamia,
and they were apprehensive of the most serious
troubles. At this crisis, however, a woman, whose
great ability enabled her to comprehend the emer-
eency and to deal with it, suggested measures for
averting the ruin with which the empire of Egypt
was menaced.

Her name was Cheeger Eddour, and she is said to
have been an Armenian. She had originally been
brought to Cairo as merchandise, and purchased by
Melikul Salih as a slave. But her wit and beauty
won the sultan’s heart, and he became so enamoured >
that he elevated her to the position of favourite
sultana, and carried her about with him wherever he
went. One son whom she had by the sultan died
young. Nevertheless her influence daily increased ;