The Knights Templars.

learned and most talented Bishop of Acre , AA'IIO -extracted lai'gely from William of Tyre ' s Chronicle , ¦ opposes every statement made by him in prejudice of the Order , ' and speaks of the Templars in the highest terms of praise , and declares the } - Avere

beloved by all men for their piety and humility . But other and most important evidence is derived from the Arabian historians who nnanimosly support De Vitry's account . AVe must weigh carefully the statements of the

chroniclers regarding the Templars , as their records are dictated by feelings of enmity or friendship as they were allied or opposed to them by party feeling . One thing is perfectly certain , if the Templars were luxurious and lax of principle in their houses , they Avere in the field the most chivalrous and bravest soldiers of the Cross in

Palestine . But , as Ave have already said , the whole society of Palestine was rotten at the core , and with the infamous examples of the highest in the Church , and surrounded by temptations to luxury , without any one to challenge them by precept or

example , they must have been more than human to have resisted these temptations . In the present case of perfidy charged against them , luckily , the statements of the Arabian historians , completely exonerate the Templars . We will relate the

story as told by William of Tyre , and then , give the Arabian's version , as it is fair that both sides should be heard ; and while Ave do not admit the Knights to be immaculate , Ave are not prepared to alloAV them to be called such miscreants as the prejudiced William of Tyre Avould have us believe them to have been .

In a contest for the sovereignty of Egypt , which the viziers , bearing the proud title of . Sultan , exercised under the phantom Caliphs , Abbas put his master to death , and usurped the supreme power . Tbe people , hoAvever , filled

with rage at the murder of a monarch Avhom they so much esteemed , rose against Abbas , and compelled him to flee to escape their vengeance . Taking with him his master ' s and his OAVU harem , with the greater portion of the royal treasures ,

he fled through the desert , but at Ascalon Avas waylaid by-a body of Christians , most of AVIIOUI were Templars . The resistance offered by Abbas was slight and ineffectual , he was either slain or fled , and his son , iTassir-ed-deen , and the treasures

fell into the hands of the Christians . The Templars succeeded in appropriating to themselves the largest share of the booty , as Avell as the person

of INassir-ed-deen ; but not content with this , they sold the boy to his father ' s enemies for sixty thousand pieces of gold , standing calmly by and looking on indifferently , heedless of his cries for compassion and protection , Avhile he was bound

hand and foot and placed in a cage or iron latticed sedan on the back of a camel , to be thence conveyed across the desert to Cairo . His death , when taken to Egypt , was ofthe cruellest and most protracted character ; his enemies , with fiendish

malignity , prolonging life to its utmost , and every day inventing IIOAV tortures . What made the Templars' conduct so egregiously bad , according to the chronicler , was the fact of JSTassir-ed-deen having professed his desire to become a Cln-istian , and for that purpose had commenced the study of Latin .

This account differs essentially from that of the Arabians . They write that Kassir-ed-deen himself , with the assistance , or at least the connivance of his father , murdered the Caliph , whose liberality and kindness to both father and son had been

extreme , threw his dead body into a well , and then made their escape into Palestine . The sister of the murdered Caliph Avrote immediately to the commander of the garrison of the Templars at Gaza , offering him a handsome reAvard for the capture of . the murderers , and describing the treacherous manner in which the murder had been

committed . Moved as much by the sense of retributive justice as by the promise of reAvard , the Templars intercepted the fugitives , and ]\ assir-eddeen Avas sent to Cairo , Avhere the female relatives of the murdered Caliph caused him to be cut to

pieces in the seraglio . The statement by the Arabians is most probably the correct one . At the same time , admitting William of TjTe ' s account to be true , Ave must make allowance for the feelings with which the

infidels were vieAved by the Christians . Smarting under a thousand acts ot treachery and cruelty , traversing spots black Avith the blood of slaughtered Christians , they could hold no sympathy with , nor condescend to treat the Mussulmans Avith that

courtesy which distinguished the feuds among themselves . The Church considered them beyond the pale of honour , aud an eminent prelate wrote , that a churchman might reply to an infidel with argument , but a Knight could only give him such

as lay in three inches of steel in the bowels , and a Templar , in his dealings with the folloAvers of Mahomet , forgot his monkish character in what