The movements of Saladin, in the meanwhile, engrossed the fears of the Christian world. After capturing Jerusalem he attacked Tyre. The bravery of the defence was supplemented by the timely arrival of Conrad, whose father, the Marquis of Montferrat, Saladin held prisoner. Conrad had already made his name famous for valor. For his assistance of the Greek emperor against seditions in Constantinople he had won the title of Cæsar and the hand of the emperor’s sister. Saladin endeavored to divert him by threatening to kill his father unless he relinquished the defence of Tyre. Conrad’s reply was noteworthy: “The life of my father is less dear to me and to him than the cause we both serve.” Saladin was forced to give up the siege. He turned against Tripoli. Aided by Admiral Margarit, whom the King of Sicily had sent with a fleet and who had won the titles of “King of the Sea” and the “New Neptune,” the Tripolitans successfully resisted. Saladin then assailed Carac, which was forced to yield to the Moslem chief. He granted its defenders their liberty, and restored to them their wives and children, whom, in an hour of deathly fear, they had sold as slaves to Saladin rather than see them the victims of such ravages as usually followed the capture by the common soldiery. King Guy of Jerusalem had been released from imprisonment by Saladin on condition that he would leave Palestine and return to Europe. Guy paid no respect to his oath, but, gathering the loyal remnant of his kingdom, laid siege to Ptolemaïs (Acre), there inaugurating a contest which, for its duration and the fame of the great chieftains engaged in it, was the most noted in the sad annals of the third crusade. CHAPTER XXIX. SIEGE OF ACRE. The plain of Acre is surrounded by great natural defences. On the north is Mount Saron, the narrow pathway over which is called the “Ladder of Tyre”; on the south rises the bulwark of Mount Carmel, touching the sea; on the east lie the mountains of Galilee; on the west the plain is washed by the Mediterranean. Within this seemingly impregnable district lay the strongly fortified city of Acre. Its port rivalled those of Tyre, Sidon, and Jaffa. High walls, guarded by deep moats, bent in shape of a horseshoe from the crags on the north to a fortress on the south, which rose from a rock in the waves. With the water front these enclosed the place.