When you stand before God, you cannot say, 'But I was told by others to do thus,' or that virtue was not convenient at the time. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. None of us know our end, really, or what hand will guide us there. I felt in that moment I would live to be a hundred. King Baldwin IV: When I was sixteen, I won a great victory. Were you sure of your end once?īalian of Ibelin: To be buried a hundred yards from where I was born.īalian of Ibelin: Now I sit in Jerusalem, and look upon a king. Do anything except remain where you started, and you can't be sure of your end. King Baldwin IV: The whole world is in chess. As wretched as I am, these Arabs believe that the chastisement that awaits me in hell is far more severe and lasting. The Saracens say that this disease is God's vengence against the vanity of our kingdom. It was he, not my father's physicians, who noticed that I felt no pain. He was there when, playing with the other boys, my arm was cut.
