The Knights Templars

d destroyed by the Templars-The exploits of the Templars in Egypt-King Louis of France visits th

s their strong fortresses, and decapitates six hundred of their brethren-The Grand Master comes to England for succour-The renewal of the war-The fall of Acre-The Templars establish their

s and fanatic character; if they neglected to live, they

amid the ruins of the ancient castle, where he found a solitary Knight Templar keeping watch in a miserable hovel. Struck with the position of the place, and its importance in a military point of view, he sought on his return to Acre an interview with the Grand Master of the Temple, and urged him to restore the castle of Saphet to its pristine condition. The bishop was invited to attend a general chapter of the order of the Temple, when the matter was discussed, and it was unanimously determined that the mountain of Saphet should immediately be refortified. The bishop himself laid the first stone, and animated the workmen by a spirited oration. Eight hundred and fifty masons and artificers, and four hundred slaves, were employed in the task. During the first thirty months after the commencement of operations, the Templars expended eleven thousand golden bezants upon the works, and in succeeding years they spent upwards of forty thousand. The walls, when finishe

ntain, and on its summit a round castle, with walls of incredible thickness, and with a corridor or covered passage extending round the walls, and ascended by a winding staircase. The thickness of the walls and corridor together was twenty paces. The whole was of hewn stone, and some of the stones are eight or nine spans in length.... This castle was anciently surrounded with stupendous works, as appears from the remains of two moats lined with free-stone, several fragments of walls, bulwarks, towers, &c., all very solid and strongly built; and below these moats other massive works, having corridors round them in the same

ople, who had been driven from their abodes, in the neighbourhood of the Caspian, by the successful arms of the Moguls, and had rushed headlong upon the weak and effeminate nations of the south. They had devastated and laid waste Armenia and the north-western parts of Persia, cutting off by the sword, or dragging away into captivity, all who had ventured to oppose their progress. For years past they had been leading a migratory, wandering life, exhausting the resources of one district, and then passing onwards into another, without making any fixed settlement, or having any regular places of abode, and their destructive progress has been compared by the Arabian writers to the wasting tempest or the terrible inundation. The rude hardships of their roving life had endowed them with a passive endurance which enabled them

. The intelligence of these events reached the Grand Master of the Temple when he was busily engaged in rebuilding the vast and extensive fortifications of the Holy City. A council of war was called together, and it was determined that Jerusalem was untenable, and that the Holy City must once again be abandoned to the infidels. The Hospitallers in their black mantles, and the Templars in their white habits, were drawn up in martial array in the streets of Jerusalem, and the weeping Christians were exhorted once again to leave their homes and avail themselves of the escort and protection of the military friars to Jaffa. Many gathered together their little property and quitted the devoted city, and many lingered behind amid the scenes they loved and cherished. Soon, however, frightful reports reached Jerusalem of the horrors of the Carizmian invasion, and the fugitives, who had fled with terror and astonishment from their destructive progress, spread alarm

er which they sent messengers across the desert to the sultan of Egypt to announce their arrival. Ayoub immediately sent a robe of honour and sumptuous gifts to their chief, and despatched his army from Cairo in all haste, under the command of Rokmeddin Bibars, one of his principal Mamlooks, to join them before Gaza. The Grand Masters of the Temple and the Hospital, on the other hand, collected their forces together, a

Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, and the whole church of the resurrection. They have taken away, indeed, the sculptured columns which were placed as a decoration before the sepulchre of the Lord; and, as a mark of victory, and as a taunt to the Christians, they have sent them to the sepulchre of the wicked Mahomet. They have violated the tombs of the happy kings of Jerusalem in the same church, and they have scattered, to the hurt of Christendom, the ashes of those holy men to the winds, irreverently profaning the revered Mount Sion. The Temple of the Lord, the church of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where the Virgin lies buried, the church of Bethlehem, and the place of the nativity of our Lord, they have polluted with enormities too horrible to be related, far exceeding the iniquity of all the Saracens, who, though they frequently occupied the land of the Christians, yet always reverenced and preserved the holy places...." The subsequent military operations are then described; the march of the Templars and Hospitallers, on the 4th of October, A. D. 1244, from Acre to C?sarea; the junction of their forces with those of the Moslem sultans; the retreat of the Carizmians to Gaza, where they received succour from the sultan of Egypt; and the

ve heretofore been wont to pay to the Christians, so that the church of Jerusalem and the christian kingdom have now no territory, except a few fortifications, which are defended with great difficulty and labour by the Templars and Hospitallers.... To you, dear Father, upon whom the burthen of the defence of the cause of Christ justly resteth, we have caused these sad tidings to be communicated, earnestly beseeching you to address your prayers to the throne of grace, imploring mercy from the Most

e the empty title of king of Jerusalem, made no attempt to save the wreck of his feeble kingdom. His bride, the fair and youthful Violante, queen of the Latin kingdom, had been dead several years, killed by his coldness and neglect; and the emperor bestowed no thought upon his eastern subjects and the Holy Land, except to abuse those by whom that land had been so gallantly defended. In a letter to Richard earl of Cornwall, the brother of Henry the Third, king of England, Frederick accuses the Templars of making war upon the sultan of Egypt, in defiance of a treaty entered into with that monarch, of compelling him to call in the Carizmians to his assistance; and he compares the union of the Templars with the infidel sultan, for purposes of defence, to an attempt to extinguish a fire by pouring upon it a quantity of oil. "The proud religion of the Temple," says he, in continuation, "nurtured amid the luxuries of the barons of the land, waxeth wanton. It hath been made manifest to us, by certain religious persons lately arrived from parts beyon

teenth of the apostles, the leader of the sons of baptism, the high priest of the Christians, (may God strengthen him and establish him, and give him happiness!) from the most powerful sultan ruling over the necks of nations; wielding the two great weapons, the sword and the pen; possessing two pre-eminent excellencies-

im to see us face to face, and inclining our ears towards him, we listened to his speech, and we have put faith in the words he hath spoken unto us concerning Christ, upon whom be salvation and praise. But we know more concerning that same Christ than ye know, and we magnify him more than ye magnify him. And as to what you say concerning your desire for peace, tranquillity, and quiet, and that you wish to put down war, so also do we; we desire and wish nothing to the contrary. But let the pope know, that between ourselves and the emperor (Frederick) there hath been mutual love, and alliance, and

slain to a man. Their very name perished from the face of the earth, but the traces of their existence were long preserved in the ruin and desolation they had spread around them.[123] The Holy Land, although happily freed from the destructive presence of these barbarians, had yet everything to fear from the powerful sultan of Egypt, with whom hostilities still continued; and Brother William de

ony, "our lord the king, with a devout and contrite spirit, as became that most christian prince, fasting on bread and water, and watching all night with a great light, and performing many pious exercises, prudently prepared himself for the morrow's solemnity." On the morrow a procession of bishops, monks, and priests, having been duly marshalled and arranged, king Henry made his appearance upon the steps at the south door of St. Paul's cathedral, and receiving with "the greatest honour, and reverence, and fear, the little vase containing the memorable treasure, he bore it publicly through the

the prince of Antioch despatched messengers to the Templars and Hospitallers for succour; and the Grand Masters, collecting all their disposable forces, hurried to the relief of the distressed provinces. In a long and bloody battle, fought in the neighbourhood of the iron bridge o

don:-"Brother William de Sonnac, by the grace of God Master of the poor chivalry of the Temple, to his beloved brother in Christ, Robert de Sanford, Preceptor of England, salvation through the Lord. We hasten to unfold to you by these presents, agreeable and happy intelligence.... (He details the landing of the French, the defeat of the infidels with the loss of one christian soldier, and the subsequent capture of t

this.' He instantly stuck spurs into his horse, followed by all his brethren, and as their horses were fresh, not a Saracen escaped." After marching for some days, the Templars arrived on the banks of the Tanitic branch of the Nile, (the ancient Pelusiac mouth of the river,) and found the sultan encamped with his entire force on the opposite side, to prevent and oppose their passage. King Louis attempted to construct a bridge to enable him to cross the stream, and long and earnestly did the Templars labour at the task, "but," says Joinville, "as fast as we advanced our bridge the Saracens destroyed it; they dug, on their side of the river, wide and deep holes in the earth, and as the water recoiled from our bridge it filled these holes with water, and tore away the bank, so that what we had been employ

econd division after the Templars; but the moment the Count d'Artois had passed the ford, he and all his people fell on the Saracens, and putting them to flight, galloped after them. The Templars sent to call the Count d'Artois back, and to tell him that it was his duty to march behind and not before them; but it happened that the Count d'Artois could not make any answer by reason of my Lord Foucquault du Melle, who held the bridle of his horse, and my Lord Foucquault, who was

ody of the army, and their horsemen became embarrassed in the narrow streets of Mansourah, where there was no room to charge or man?uvre with effect. The infidels rallied; they returned to the attack with vast reinforcements; the inhabitants of the town mounted to their house-tops, and discharged stones and brickbats upon the heads of the christian knights, and the Templars were defeated and driven out of the city with dreadful carnage. "The Count d'Artois and the Earl of Leice

t his army in battle array, and posted them in eight divisions in front of the camp. The Templars, under their venerable Grand Master, formed the fourth division, and the fate of their gallant chieftain is thus described by the lord de Joinville. "The next battalion was under the command of Brother William de Sonnac, Master of the Temple, who had with him the small remnant of the brethren of his order who survived the battle of Shrove Tuesday. The Master of the Temple made of the engines which he had taken from the Saracens a sort of rampart in his front, but when the Saracens marched up to the assault, they threw Greek fire upon it, and as the Templars had piled up many planks of fir-wood

ater. These bodies floated down the river until they came to the small bridge that communicated with each part of our army; the arch was so low that it prevented the bodies from passing underneath, and the river was consequently covered with them from bank to bank, so that the water could not be seen.... God knows how great was the stench. I never heard that any who were exposed to this infectious smell ever recover

of the place. All those of the prisoners who were unable to redeem their lives by services as slaves to the conquerors, or by ransom, were inhumanly massacred, and a grim circle of christian heads decorated the walls and battlements of Cairo. The Egyptians required as the price of the liberty of the French monarch the surrender of all the fortresses of the order of the Temple in Palestine; but the king told them that the Templars were not subject to his command, nor had he any means of compelling them to give effect to such an

our oaths;' and Brother Reginald de Vichier, who was Marshal of the Temple, said to the king, 'Sire, it is as our commander has said, we cannot dispose of any of the money intrusted to us but for the means intended, in accordance with the rules of our institution, without being perjured. Know that the seneschal hath ill advised you to take our money by force, but in this you will act as you please; should you, however, do so, we will make ourselves amends out of the money you have in Acre.' I then told the king that if he wished I would go and get the money, and he c

d ordered prayers to be offered up to God for the success of his arms, in all the churches of Christendom. King Henry assembled a parliament to obtain the necessary supplies, and fixed the 24th day of June, A. D. 1255, as the period of his departure. His knights and barons, however, refused him the necessary funds, and the needy monarch addressed the military orders of the Temple and the Hospital in the following very curious letter. "As you are said to possess a well-equipped fleet, we beseech you to set apart for our own use some of your strongest vessels, and have them furnished and equipped with provisions, sailors, and all things requisite for

he Hospital on the other. The ambassadors refused to repeat what they had said in the morning, but the Masters of the Temple and the Hospital commanded them so to do. Then the Masters of the Temple and Hospital told them that their lord had very foolishly and impudently sent such a message to the king of France, and had they not been invested with the character of ambassadors, they would have thrown them into the filthy sea of Acre, and have drowned them in despite of their master. 'And we command you,' continued the Masters, 'to return to

ault, (A. D. 1254,) whilst the workmen and artificers were diligently employed in rebuilding the walls; eight hundred men were put to the sword, and four hundred masons and artificers were taken prisoners and carried off to Damascus. After residing nearly two years at Acre, and spending vast sums of money upon the defences of the maritime towns of Palestine, king Louis returned to France. He set sail from Acre on the 24th of April, with a fleet of fourteen sail, his ship being steered by Brother Rèmond, the pilot of the Grand Master of the Temple, who was charged to conduct the king across the wide waters in safety to his own dominions. On his arrival in France, Loui

Temple with meat, fish, bread, and wine; and at a later hour the king of France and all his nobles came to dine with the English monarch. "Never," says Matthew Paris, "was there at any period in bygone times so noble and so celebrated an entertainment. They feasted in the great hall of the Temple, where hang the shields on every side, as many as they can place along the four walls, according to the custom of the order beyond sea...." The Knights Templars in this country likewise exercised a magnificent hospitality, and constantly entertained kings, princes, nobles, prelates, and foreign ambassadors at the Temple. Immediately after the re

e ecclesiastical benefices of the order, all clerks presented to them by the preceptors, without previously requiring them to make a fixed maintenance for such clerks, and severely to punish, all who appropriated to their own use the alms gifts and eleemosynary donations made to the brotherhood. By these bulls the Templars are declared to be exempt from the duty of

Hamah, Hems, Damascus, Tiberias, and Naplous, and at last entered in triumph the holy city of Jerusalem.[133] The Grand Master Brother Thomas Berard wrote a melancholy letter to king Henry the Third for succour. "With continual letters and many prayers," says he, "has our poor Christianity on this side the sea besought the assistance of the kings and princes of this world, and above all, the aid and succour of your majesty, imploring your royal compassion with sighs and tears, and a loud sounding voice, and crying out with a bitter cry in the hope that it would penetrate the royal ear, and reach the ends of the earth, and arouse the faithful from their slumbers, and draw them to the protection of the Holy Land."[134] The king of England, however, was in pe

spired to the possession of the throne which he had so successfully defended, and slew with his own hand his sovereign and master Kothuz, the third Mamlook sultan of Egypt. The Mamlooks hailed him with acclamations as their sovereign, and on the 24th day of October, A. D. 1260, he was solemnly proclaimed sultan of Egypt, in the town of Salahieh in the Delta. Bendocdar was one of the greatest men of the age, and soon proved the most formidable enemy that the Templars had encountered in the field since the days of Saladin. The

eat churches of Nazareth and Mount Tabor; and sought to awaken the zeal and enthusiasm of his soldiers in behalf of Islam by performing the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and visiting with great devotion the Mosque of Omar. He then retired to Cairo with his troops, and the Templars and Hospitallers became the assailants. They surprised and stormed the castle of Lilion, razed the walls and fortifications to the ground, and brought off three

phet on the ramparts, ere the inhabitants had time to rouse themselves from their morning slumbers. The citadel, however, still remained to be taken, and the garrison being forewarned, made an obstinate defence. The Arabian writers tell us, that the citadel was a strong and handsome fortification, erected by king Louis, and adorned with pillars and columns. It stood on a small neck of land which jutted out into the sea, and the ditches around the fortress were filled with

l procession, with their banners reversed, and with their crosses, broken into pieces, hung round their necks. Bendocdar had already despatched his bravest Mamlook generals, at the head of a considerable body of forces, to blockade Beaufort and Saphet, two strong fortresses of the order of the Temple, and he now advanced at the head of a vast army to conduct the siege of the latter place in person. On 21 Ramadan, the separate timbers of his military machines arrived from Damascus at Jacob's bridge on the Jordan; the sultan sent down his emirs and part of his army, with hundreds of oxen, to drag them up the mountains to Saphet, and went with his principal officers to assist in the transport of them. "I worked by the sultan's side, and aided him with all my might," says the cadi Mohieddin; "being fatigued, I sat down. I began again, and was once more tired, and compelled to take rest, but the sultan continued to work without inter

ing them to prefer the crown of martyrdom to a few short years of miserable existence in this sinful world, and not to disgrace themselves and their order by a shameful apostasy. At sunrise, on the following morning, the Templars were led on to the brow of the hill, in front of the castle of Saphet, and when the first rays of the rising sun gilded the wooded summits of Mount Hermon, and the voice of the muezzin was heard calling the faithful to morning prayer, they were required to join in the Moslem chaunt, La-i-la i-la Allah, Mahommed re sul Allah, "There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his apostle;" the executioners drew near with their naked scimitars, but not a man of the noble company of knightly warriors, say the Christian writers, would renounce

e of twelve hundred pieces of gold, fifty thousand bushels of wheat, and fifty thousand bushels of barley annually rendered to them by the Assassins or Ismaelians of the mountains of Tripoli: and the several tributes paid by the cities or districts of Schayzar, Apamea, and Aintab, which consisted of five hundred crowns of Tyrian silve

is nephew; many others of the royal family were killed, and some made their escape. All the castles of the Templars in Armenia were assaulted and taken, and the garrisons massacred. The most famous of these was the castle of Amoud, which was stormed after an obstinate defence, and every soul found in it was put to the sword. The city of Sis was pillaged, and then delivered up to the flames; the inhabitants of all the towns were either massacred or reduced to slavery; their goods and pos

then slaughtered five hundred people outside the walls, cut off their heads and put them into sacks. Amongst them were some poor old women who gained a livelihood by gathering herbs! The ferocious Mamlooks then pulled down all the houses and windmills, plucked up the vines, cut down all the fruit trees and burnt them, and filled up the wells. Some deputies, sent to sue

y engines were planted around the walls, and the doctors of the law and the Fakirs, or teachers of religion, were invited to repair to the Moslem camp, and wield the sword in behalf of Islam. The town was defended by two citadels, the ancient and the new one. The former was garrisoned by the Templars, and the latter by the native militia. These last, after sustaining a short siege, set fire t

take a circuitous route by way of Darbesak, and approach Antioch from the north; the second was to march upon Suadia, and to secure the mouth of the Orontes, to prevent all succour from reaching the city by sea; and the third and last division, which was led by Bendocdar in person, proceeded to Apamea, and from thence marched down the left bank of the river Orontes along the base of the ancient Mons Casius, so as to approach and hem in Antioch from the south. On the 1st Ramadan, all these different divisions were concentrated together, and the city was immediately surrounded by a vast army of horse and foot, which cut off all communication between the town and the surrounding country, and exposed a po

lves with the energy of despair. Bendocdar granted them their lives, and they surrendered. They were bound with cords, and the long string of mournful captives passed in review before the sultan, who caused the scribes and notaries to take down the names of each of them. After several days of pillage, all the booty was brought together in the plain of Antioch, and equally divided amongst the Moslems; the gold and silver were distributed by measure, and merchandize and property of all kinds, piled up in heaps

even the hearts of the Moslems. "It was," says the cadi Mohieddin, "a fearful and a heart-rending sight. Even the hard stones were softened with grief." He tells us, that the captives were so numerous, that a fine hearty boy might be purchased for twelve pieces of silver, and a little girl for five! When the work of pillage had been completed, when all the ornaments a

ns, now consists only of a few Greek families, who still cling to the christian faith amid the insults and persecutions of the infidels. Immediately after the destruction of the city, Bendocdar caused the following letter to be written to the prince of Antioch, who was at Tripoli: "Since not a soul has escaped to tell you what has happened, we will undertake the pleasing task of informing you.... We have slain all whom you appointed to defend Antioch. We have crushed your knights beneath the feet of our horses, and have given up your provinces to pillage: your gold and silver have been divided amongst us by the quintal, and four of your women have been bought and sold for a crown. There is not a single christian in the province that does not now march bound before us, nor a single young girl that is not in our possession. Your churches

, Providence gave it into our hands." The Templars also abandoned the castles of Gaston and Noche de Rusol, and the territory of Port Bounel, at the entrance of Armenia. The towns of Darbesak, Sabah, Al Hadid, and the sea-port of Gabala, successively fell into the hands of Bendocdar, and the whole country from Tripoli to Mount Taurus was made desolate, the houses were set on fire, the fruit trees were cut down, and the c

captives of both sexes, and of every age. He then proceeded to Hamah and Kafarthab, and attempted to undertake the siege of the strong fortress of Merkab, but the winter rains and the snow on the mountain compelled him to abandon the enterprise. He then made an attack upon the castle of the Kurds, which belonged to the Hospitallers, but receiving intelligence of the sailing of the expedition of king Louis, who had left the ports of France with an army of sixty thousand men, and a fleet of eighteen hundred vessels; he hurried with all his forces to Egypt to protect that country against the French. Instead of proceeding direct to the Holy Land, king Louis was unfortunately induced to steer to Tunis. He fell a victim to the insalubrity of the climate, and his army, decimated by sickness, sailed back to France. Bendocdar immediately returned to Palestine. He halted at Ascalon, and

f the poison being obviated by an antidote administered by the Grand Master of the Temple. On the 14th of September, the prince returned to Europe, and thus terminated the last expedition undertaken for the relief of Palestine. Whilst prince Edward was pursuing his voyage to England, his father, king Henry III., died, and the council of the realm, composed of the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the English bishops and barons, assembled in

the Grand Master of the Hospital, proceeded to Lyons, to attend a general council which had been summoned by the pope to provide succour for the Holy Land. The two Grand Masters took precedence of all the ambassadors and peers present at that famous assembly. It was determined that a new crusade should be preached, that all ecclesiastical dignities and benefices should be taxed to support an armament, and that the sovereigns of Europe should be compelled by ecclesiastical censures to suspend their private quarr

tinguished of the emirs. As there was now no hope of recovering the towns, castles, and territories taken by Bendocdar, the Grand Master directed all his energies to the preservation of the few remaining possessions of the Christians in the Holy Land. At the expiration of the ten years' truce, he entered into various treaties with the infidels. One of these, called "the peace of Tortosa," is expressed to be made between sultan Malek-Mansour-Kelaoun, and his son Malek-Saleh-Ali, "honour of the world and of religion," of the one part, and Afryz Dybadjouk, (William de Beaujeu,) Grand Master of the order of the Templars, of the other part. It relates to the territories and possessions of the order of

area, the half of Alexandretta, the village of Maron, &c., and confirms the Templars in the possessions of Sidon and its citadel, and its fifteen cantons. By this treaty, sultan Malek Mansour conceded to the inhabitants of Acre a truce of ten years, ten months, and ten day

e count of Tripoli had purchased of Bendocdar by the payment of eleven thousand pieces of gold. He maintained that a watch-tower had been erected on the coast between Merkab and Tortosa, in contravention of the stipulation which forbad the erection of new fortifications; and he accordingly marched with his army to lay siege to the rich and flourishing city of Laodicea. The Arabian writers tell us that Laodicea was one of the most commercial cities of the Levant, and was considered to be the rival of Alexandria. A terrible earthquake, which had thrown down the fortifications, and overturned the castle at t

incalculable. Twelve hundred trembling women and children were crowded together for safety in a single magazine of arms, and the conquerors were embarrassed with the quantity of spoil and booty. More than four thousand bales of the richest silks were distributed amongst the soldiers, together with ornaments and articles of luxury and refinement, which astonished the rude simplicity of the Arabs. When the city had been thoroughly ransacked, orders were issued for its destruction. Then the Moslem soldiers were to be seen rushing with torches and pots of burning naphtha to set fire to the churches, and the shops, and the warehouses of the merchants; and Tripoli was speedily enveloped in one vast, fearful, wide-spreading conflagration. The command for the destruction of the fortifications was likewise issued, and thousands of soldiers, stonemasons, and labourers, were employed in throwing down the walls and towers. The Arabian writers tell us that the ramparts were so wide that t

like projects of his father. He assembled the ulemas and cadis around his father's tomb, and occupied himself in reading the Koran, in prayer, and invocation of Mahomet. He then made abundant alms-giving, collected his troops together, and marched across the desert to Damascus, where he was joined by Hosam-eddin Ladjin, viceroy of Syria, Modaffer, prince of Hems, and Saifedd

t the lounger from the scorching sunbeams, of variegated marble fountains, and of rich gardens and shady groves, scented with the delicious orange blossom, and adorned with the delicate almond flower; and we are told that the markets of the city could offer the produce of every clime, and the interpreters of every tongue. The vast and stupendous fortifications consisted of a double wall, strengthened at proper intervals with lofty towers, and defended by the castle called the King's Tower, and by the convent or fortress of the Temple. Between the rampar

cease; huge stones and beams of timber and pots of burning tar and naphtha were continually hurled into the city; the walls were battered from without, and the foundations were sapped by miners, who were incessantly labouring to advance their works. More than six hundred catapults, balist?, and other instruments of destruction, were directed against the fortifications; and the battering machines were of such immense size and weight, that a hundred wagons were required to transport the separate timbers of one of them. Moveable towers were erected by the Moslems, so as to overtop the walls; their workmen and advanced parties were protected by hurdles covered

om the 4th to the 14th of May the attacks were incessant. On the 15th, the double wall was forced, and the king of Cyprus, panic-stricken, fled in the night to his ships, and made sail for the island of Cyprus, with all his followers, and with near three thousand of the best men of the garrison. On the morrow the Saracens attacked the post he had deserted; they filled up the ditch with the bodies of dead men and horses, piles of wood, stones, and

nother wide breach was opened in the walls, and on the third day (the 18th) the infidels made the final assault on the side next the gate of St. Anthony. The army of the Mamlooks was accompanied by a troop of sectaries called Chagis, a set of religious fanatics, whose devotion consisted in suffering all sorts of privations, and in sacrificing themselves in behalf of Islam. The advance of the Mamlook cavalry to the assault was impeded by the deep ditch, which had been imperfectly filled by the fallen ruins and by the efforts of the soldiers, and these religious madmen prec

s rushed on with tremendous shouts of Allah acbar! Allah acbar! "God is victorious!" Thousands of panic-stricken Christians now rushed to the sea-side, and sought with frantic violence to gain possession of the ships and boats that rode at anchor in the port, but a frightful storm of wind, and rain, and lightning, hung over the dark and agitated waters of the sea; the elements themselves warred against the poor Christians, and the loud-pealing thunder became mingled with the din and uproar of the assault and the clash of arms. The boats and vessels were swamped by the surging waves; and the bitter cries of the perishing fugitives ascended alike from the sea and shore. Thousands fled to the churches for refuge, but found none; they prostrated themselves before the altars, and embraced the images of the saints, but these evidences of idolatry only stimulated th

charged with the duty of procuring the necessary supplies for the order and its forces. The following morning very favourable terms were offered to the Templars by the victorious sultan, and they agreed to evacuate the Temple on condition that a galley should be placed at their disposal, and that they should be allowed to retire in safety with the christian fugitives under their protection, and to carry away as much of their effects as each person could load himself with. The Mussulman conqueror pledged himself to the fulfilment of these conditions, and sent a standard to the Templars, which was mounted on one of the towers of the Temple. A guard of three hundred Moslem soldiers, charged to see the articles of capitulation properly carried into effect, was afterwards admitted within the walls of the convent. Some Christian ladie

d "The Tower of the Master," which they defended with desperate energy. The bravest of the Mamlooks were driven back in repeated assaults, and the little fortress was everywhere surrounded with heaps of the slain. The sultan, at last, despairing of taking the place by assault, ordered it to be undermined. As the workmen advanced, they propped the foundations with beams of wood, and w

y consisted of divers conjoining castles, which witness a notable defence, and an unequal assault; and that the rage of the conquerors extended beyond conquest; the huge walls and arches turned topsy-turvy, and lying like rocks upon the foundation." At the period of Dr. Clarke's visit to Acre, the ruins, with the exception of the cathedral, the arsenal, the convent of the knights, and the palace of the Grand Master, were so intermingled with modern buildings, and in such a state of utter subversion, that it was difficult to affor

ay, of the family of the lords of Longvic and Raon in Burgundy. This illustrious nobleman was at the head of the English province of the order at the period of his election to the dignity of Grand Master. He was first appointed Visitor-General, then Grand Preceptor of England, and was afterwards placed at the head of the entire fraternity. During his residence in Britain he held several chapters or assemblies of the brethren at the Temple at London, and at the different preceptories, where he framed and enforced various rules and regulations for the government of the fraternity in England.[141] Shortly after his appointment to the office of Grand Master, he crossed the sea to France, and had the honour of holding the infant son of Philip le Bel at the baptismal font. He then proceeded to Cyp

rope, announcing the victorious progress of his arms, soliciting their alliance, and offering them in return the possession of Palestine. But the Christian nations heeded not the call, and none thought seriously of an expedition to the east excepting the ladies of Genoa, who, frightened by an interdict which had been laid upon their town, assumed the cross as the best means of averting the divine indignation. The Grand Master of the Temple advanced as far as Gaza, and drove the Saracens into the sandy deserts of Egypt; but a Saracen chief, who had been appointed by the Tartars governor of Damascus, instigated the Mussulman population of Syria to revolt, and the Grand Master was obliged to retreat to Jerusalem. He was there joined by the Tartar general, Cotulosse, who

the fortifications along the sea-coast, were demolished, and everything that could afford shelter and security, or invite the approach of the crusaders from the west, was carefully destroyed. The houses were all set on fire, the trees were cut down and burnt,

ruin and decay, and the remains of the rich and populous cities of antiquity are surrounded by uncultivated deserts. God hath said, "I will smite the land with a curse. I will bring the worst of the heathen and

brighter and happier times are yet to come, for the Lord God hath also said, "To the mountains of Israel, to the hills, and to the rivers, to the valleys, and the desolate wastes, and the cities that are forsaken, which became

m, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again