24 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



ted him, that he determined to enlarge his fcheme of ven- 

 geance beyond the Umits he had firft prefcribed to it. "With 

 this view, he called the principal ollicers of his army toge- 

 ther, while he himfelf flood upon an eminence, the foldiers 

 furrounding him on all fides. Near him, on the fame emi- 

 nence, was a monk, noted for his holinefs, in the habit in 

 which he celebrated divine fervice. The king, in a long 

 fpeech pronounced with unufual vehemence, defcribed the 

 many offences committed againft him by the Mahometan 

 ilates on the coaft. The ringleaders of thefe commotions, he 

 declared, were the kings of Adel and Mara. He enumerated 

 various inftances of cruelty, of murder, and facrilege, of 

 which they had been guilty; the number of priefts that they 

 had llain, the churches that they had burned, and the Chri- 

 ilian women and children that they had carried into flavery, 

 which was now become a commerce, and a great motive of 

 war. They, and they only, had ftirred up his Mahometan fub- 

 je(5ts to infeil the frontiers both in peace and war. He faid, 

 that, confidcring the immcnfc booty which had been taken, 

 it might feem that avarice was the motive of his being 

 now in arms, but this, for his ovv^n part, he totally dif- 

 claimed. He neither had nor would apply the fmallefl por- 

 tion of the plunder to his own ufe, but confidered it as un- 

 lawful, as being purchafed with the blood and liberty of his 

 fubjc(5ts and brethren, the mcaneft of whom he valued more 

 than the blood and riches of all the infidels in Adel. He, there- 

 fore, called them together to be witnefies that he dedicated 

 himfelf a foldier to Jefus Chrift ; and he did nov/ fwear upon 

 the holy euchariil, that, though but ' twenty of his army 

 fI:iould join with him, he would not turn his back upon A- 

 del or Mara, till he had either forced them to tribute and 



2 fubmiilion, 



