VENGEANCE. 223

husband. Turcoman, however, found that his crown
was somewhat thorny; and at a critical period he
aroused the jealousy of his wife by aspiring to wed
an oriental princess.

The sultana vowed vengeance, and hastened to
execute it by causing Turcoman to be assassinated in
his bath. One night an emir, hastily summoned to
the palace, found Chegeer Edour seated on a couch
with her feet resting on the dead body of her
husband. The emir uttered an exclamation of horror ;
but she calmly stated that she had sent for him to
offer her hand and her crown. The emir fled in
terror, and next day the mother of the murdered
man had the sultana put to death by her slaves, and
caused her corpse to be thrown into a ditch.

A Mameluke named Koutouz was now elevated to
the throne, and signalised himself by a victory over
the Moguls or Tartars, hordes of wandering warriors
who were now making themselves terrible both to
Kurope and Asia. Unfortunately for Koutouz, how-
ever, he at that time renewed a truce with the
Christians of Syria, and raised the anger of his
soldiers to such a height that his death was decreed.
Accordingly, one day, when he had ridden out from
Sallhie to hunt, a Mameluke chief suddenly spurred
into the camp, his garments stained with blood.

‘I have slain the sultan,’ said he.

‘Well, then, reign in his stead,’ replied the by-
standers.

The Mameluke chief was Bibars Bendocdar; and,
having been proclaimed as successor to the man he
bad murdered, he ascended the throne, and, as sultan