The Knights Templars.

the Carizmans , and who Avere also bound according to the terms of the treaty to defend the territory which the Christians held against all other Saracens , as we thought they Avould be alarmed by the arrival of these said Carizmans . They ,

however , although they had faithfully promised and sworn to afford us assistance , greatly delayed in giving us any succour , and , whilst the Christians , who were so very few compared to their enemies , Avere hesitating as to whether they would

fight against these Carizmans , they often attacked the city of Jerusalem , which Avas entirely unprotected by ramparts . The Christians , therefore , who were in the city , fearing the cruelty of these infidels , assembled to the number of more than

six thousand men , and , trusting to the truce made by them with the Sultan of Carac aud the Saracens of the mountainous districts , left a few only in the city , aud set out through the mountainous districts , Avith their families and all their property

to go into the territory of the Christians . But the Saracens of the provinces sallied out and attacked them , putting some of them mercilessly to the sword , taking away others to a hopeless captivity , and exposing the Christians of both sexes , and even nuns for sale to the other Saracens . Some

of them , howeA r er , escaping , descended into the plain of Ratnab , when the Carizmans rushed on them and committed such slaughter amongst them that out of all this great multitude scarce three hundred Avere left , and those nearly lifeless . These

aforesaid perfidious Avretches then entered the city of the Israelites , UOAV almost destitute of people , and there disembowelled all the Christians who had remained there before the very sepulchre of our Lord , into the Church of Avhich they had

fled for refuge , and even decapitated the priests who were performing mass at the altars , saying amongst themselves , ' Here let us pour forth the blood of this Christian people where they have drunk wine in honour of their God , Avho they

say was here suspended upon a cross / Besides this , Ave inform you of it with sorrow and grief , they laid their sacrilegious hands on the sepulchre of our Lord ' s Resurrection and defiled it in many ways . They entirely tore up the marble tablet

which was placed round it , and polluted Avith every kind of insult in their power the Mount of Calvary , Avhere Christ was crucified , and the whole city , beyond what we are able to express . The sculptured pillars Avhich were placed as an

ornament before our Lord ' s sepulchre , they took

away , and m contempt of the Christians they sent them to the tomb of that most wicked wretch Mahomet as a sign of victory ; and as a farther insult to Christianity they violated the tombs of the happy kings , which Avere placed in the same

church , and scattered their bones in all dii'ections . The reverend Mount of Zion they irreverently profaned , and polluted with enormities unfit to relate the Temple of the Lord , the church of the valley of Jehoshaphat , Avhere is the tomb of the

blessed Virgin , the Church of Bethlehem , and the place of our Lord ' s nativity , thus exceeding the Avickedness of all the other Saracens , who although they often invaded the Clmstian territory always observed some respect for those holy places . But

as these said Carizmans , not content with all this , were aiming at the capture and destruction of the whole country , the Christian people , provoked by so many injuries and enormities , and unable any longer to endure such great evils , sufficient to

arouse grief and bitterness in the heart of rveiy zealous folloAver of the Catholic faith , determined by common consent to unite the forces of the aforesaid Sultan , with those of the Christians in order to resist them . With all these united forces , therefore , on the 4 bk day of October , the Christian

army began to move against them from the Port of Acre , and proceeded through Caesarea and other maritime districts . The Carizmans , then , having gained knowledge of our approach , retreated through various districts , and at length

pitched their camp before Gazara , awaiting there the succours which the Sultan of Babylon—that head and chief of sacrilege—was about to send to them . Having been joined by a large host , sent by the said Sultan , when the army of the

Christians and the aforesaid Sultans approached them , which they did on the eve of St . Luke ' s Day , we found them before Gazara with an innumerable host , aud their legions drawn out in order of battle . On this our army was arranged by the chiefs in

the proper order to attack the enemy , and the Patriarch and other prelates then , by the authority of the omnipotent God and of the Apostolic See , absolved them of their sins , and all gave such signs of sincere contrition in abundant Sowings

of tears , that , regarding as nothing the death of the body , and hoping for eternal reward , they all thought that to die for Christ Avas to live . For although bodily calamity should happen to us through our sins , we must believe that the Most

High , who is the Searcher of Hearts , and knows