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neighbourhood resided a young and handsomequeen of his ownnation and family, great-grand-daughter of the emperor Alexis, and widow ofBaldwin III, king of Jerusalem . She visitedand loved her kinsman. Theodora was thethird victim of his amorous seduction : and hershame was more public and scandalous thanthat of her predecessors. The emperor stillthirsted for revenge ; and his subjects and alliesof the Syrian frontier, were repeatedly pressedto seize the person, and put out the eyes, of thefugitive. In Palestine he was no longer safe;but the tender Theodora revealed his dangerand accompanied his flight. The queen of Je-rusalem was exposed to the East, his obsequi-ous concubine ; and two illegitimate childrenwere the living monuments of her weakness.Damascus was his first refuge ; and, in the cha-racters of the great Noureddin and his servantSaladin , the superstitious Greek might learn torevere the virtues of the Mussulmans. As thefriend of Noureddin he visited, most probablyBagdad, and the courts of Persia ; and, after along circuit round the Caspian sea and the moun-tains of Georgia, he finally settled among theTurks of Asia Minor , the hereditary enemies ofhis country. The sultan of Colonia afforded anhospitable'retreat to Andronicus, his mistress,and his band of outlaws : the debt of gratitudewas paid by frequent inroads in the Roman pro-vince of Trebizond ; and he seldom returnedwithout an ample harvest of spoil and of Chris,tian captives. In the story of his adventures, liewas fond of comparing himself to David, who

CHAP.

XLVIII.