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M.Besant E.Walter
Jerusalem, the city of Herod and Saladin
page 242
:
CHAPTEE IX.
KIKG BALDWIN II. A.D. 1118—1131.
Veramente è costui nato all' impero
Si del regnar del commandar sa l'arti ;
E non minor che duce è cavaliere.
As the soldiers bearing the body of King Baldwin entered the city at one gate, his cousin, Baldwin du Bourg, Count of Edessa, came in at another. He was in time to be present at the funeral. Immediately afterwards a council was held to determine on his successor. On the one hand, by the laws of succession, and in accordance with the king's own request, Eustace, his brother, should have been the heir. But Eustace was in France. It would have been many months before he could be brought to Palestine, and- the state of affairs brooked no delay. While the minds of the electing council were still uncertain what to do, Jocelyn stood up and spoke: "W e have, here," he said, " the Count of Edessa, a just man, and one who fears Grod, the cousin of the late king, valiant in battle, and worthy of praise on all points ; no country could furnish us a better king ; it were better to choose him at once than wait for chances full of peril."
Jocelyn was the old enemy of Baldwin ; he was supposed, but unjustly, to bear him a grudge for the ill-treatment he had received at the count's hands ; his advice, therefore,
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