Famine and disease continued to make frightful ravages amongst the crusaders. The duke of Suabia, Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, the patriarch Heraclius, four archbishops, twelve bishops, forty counts, and five hundred other nobles and knights, besides common soldiers, fell victims to the malady. From two to three hundred persons died daily, and the survivors became unequal to the task of burying the dead. The trenches which the Christians had dug for their protection, now became their graves. Putrefying corpses were to be seen floating upon the sea, and lining the sea-shore, and the air was infected with an appalling and intolerable effluvia. The bodies of the living became bloated and swollen, and the most trifling wounds were incurable. In addition to all this, numbers of the poorer class of people died daily from starvation. The rich supported themselves for a time upon horse-flesh, and Abbot Coggleshale tells us, that a dinner off the entrails of a horse cost 10_d._ Bones were ground to powder, mixed with water, and eagerly devoured, and all the shoes, bridles, and saddles, and old leather in the camp, were boiled to shreds, and greedily eaten. Queen Sibylla, who appears to have been sincerely attached to the unpopular husband she had raised to the throne, was present in the christian camp with four infant daughters. She had wandered with the king, Guy de Lusignan, from one place to another, ever since his liberation from captivity, and had been his constant companion through all the horrors, trials, and anxieties of the long siege of Acre. Her delicate frame, weakened by sorrow and misfortune, was unable to contend with the many hardships and privations of the christian camp. She fell a victim to the frightful epidemic which raged amongst the soldiers, and her death was speedily followed by that of her four children. The enemies of the king now maintained that the crown of the Latin kingdom had descended upon Isabella, the younger sister of Sibylla, and wife of Humphrey de Thoron, Lord of Montreal, or Mount Royal; but the latter seemed to think otherwise, and took no steps either to have his wife made queen, or himself king. The enterprising and ambitious Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat, accordingly determined to play a bold game for the advancement of his own fortunes. He paid his addresses to Isabella, and induced her to consent to be divorced from Humphrey de Thoron, and take him for her husband. He went to the bishop of Beauvais, and persuaded that prelate to pronounce the divorce, and immediately after it had been done, he carried off Isabella to Acre, and there married her. As soon as the nuptials had been performed, Conrad caused himself and his wife to be proclaimed king and queen of Jerusalem, and forthwith entered upon the exercise of certain royal functions. He went to the christian camp before Acre, and his presence caused serious divisions and dissensions amongst the crusaders. The