Note Note XXV — NOTES TO CHAPTER III.
T. G. (Thomas George) Bonney translation
The behaviour of Saladin to the Christians is deserving of all praise: he gave liberty to a large number of poor persons who could not pay a ransom; he distributed alms to a great number of people; he allowed the Knights Hospitaler to remain at Jerusalem to take charge of their sick; and his brother Malec-Adel paid the ransom of two thousand prisoners. The generous conduct of the Mohammedan chiefs offers, assuredly, an extraordinary contrast to the barbarous excesses committed by the warriors of the first crusade: it is a difficult thing to justify the latter. (See Gibbon, chap. LIX.; Michaud, I. p. 347.)