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CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE LAST OF THE CALIPIS,

STONISHED as the Caliph Musteazem might

be at the audacity which prompted a Frankish

king to send ambassadors to the heir of the prophet,
he did not venture to decline receiving the message
of a prince who so recently had threatened the
empire of Egypt with destruction, and might have
the power of doing so again. Besides, Musteazem
was not in the most celestial humour with the
Mamelukes, who seemed inclined to defy his and
every other person’s authority; and, on hearing that
the result of all the disorders and revolutions had
been the elevation of Bibars Bendocdar to the throne
of Saladin, he remarked, in homely oriental phrase,
‘when the pot boils, the scum rises to the top.’
Above all, Musteazem was a miser, and covetous to
the last degree; and when it was explained to him by
his grand vizier, whom the Templar had already
bribed with a purse of gold, that the King of France
was liberal in money matters, and was ready to pay
handsomely for the ransom of his captive country-
men, the caliph’s ruling passion prevailed—his
avarice got the better of his dignity; ana, without

P