The Knights Templars.

renounced their faith , and practised the most infamous crimes . The charge regarding Saladin is too absurd for ¦ comment , nor is much credit to be attached to a chronicle of an abbey , not of the highest class , a ¦ chronicle never produced in the process , although

it was important . We are inclined to believe the statement to be a complete fabrication by De Nogaret , who was one of the most accomplished liars of Philip's court . De Molai seems to have kept his temper during his interview with the Commissionersbut the presence and audacious

, insults offered by the Order ' s determined enemy , would appear to have fired his blood , and he replied , "Never until this day have I heard of such calumnies , and never did I hear that such a statement appeared in the Chronicle of St . Denis , or I should have had it proved false and expuuged .

It is perfectly true that , during the Mastership of William de Beaujeu , a noble , pious , and highminded man , an alliance did exist between the Sultan and the Templars . But this arose out of -a truce made by the King of England , on the part of the Christians , and the Saracens . I was in

Palestine at the time , and with several of the younger members of the Order , were scandalized at it , and desired De Beaujeu to recommence hostilities ; but the Grand Master would not break "the truce , and before long we were convinced that Tie had acted not only honourably but prudently ,

• considering that the Order possessed many towns and castles in the heart of the Sultan ' s territories , which they would have lost had they gone to -war , being ill fortified and manned . This treat y had scandalized many Christians , but when they ¦ came to know the truth of the matter , they

applauded , rather than blamed , the conduct of the 'Grand Master . 55 De Molai further said , that such treaties were not uncommon between the Christians and the Infidel , and if such were to be held criminal , he was not aware of a single Order , who had possessed lands in the Holy Land , but who

¦ would be equally culpable with the Templars . This ended the interview . Before the Grand Master retired , he craved permission to be allowed ; to hear Mass in the chapel , and to partake of the Blessed Sacrament . The Commissioners praised his piety , and promised to interest themselves to ¦ obtain this privilege for him .

The presence of De Nogaret sufficiently indicates the injustice done to the Order . By this care to browbeat and intimidate the Templars in public , even under the eye of Justice , we may judge what was done to them in the secrecy of their prisons and torture rooms . De A ogaret had

nothing to say regarding the denial by the Grand Master of the confession imputed to him , and which had been made public in the Papal Bulls . He did not challenge him relative to his faith , his confessions , or his retractions . He came before a tribunal , and usurped its authority , for he was not

a member of it , and had no right to be present , and then his sole statement was a pretended extract from an unknown chronicle of a secondrate abbe }* -. Conduct such as this—not the denials of the accused—prove the falseness of such charges .

Except the Grand Master and Ponsard de Gisi , no other Templar had appeared before the Commissioners , who began to suspect that their summons had never been proclaimed , or that the Templars had been prevented availing themselves of it to defend the Order . They ordered anew

the proclamation of the summons , and obtained the adhesion of the King , who authorised the governors of the prisons to intimate it to the Templars , committing to them the duty of transmitting to Paris such as should wish to defend the Order . In the King s instructions , he renewed

his command , that the Templars should be placed under the charge of a numerous and faithful escort to prevent their escape , and that they should be kept separate , so that they might not concert measures for their defence ; nor by collusion , machination , or subterfuge , defeat the ends of justice . We may imagine that the King reluctantly gave these orders .

The Parisians were now to see a strange spectacle and one that filled them with awe and pity , as shewing the instability of human affairs . In former times the Templars entered Paris , with advanced banners , in full armour , with the white cloaks of the Order , forming a brilliant outset to

the g leaming steel . Their war horses , in magnificent harness , proudly curvetted beneath them , while the noblest of the land rode by their side , paying them all honour and respect . The balconies were filled with the fairest dames of Francewho showered down upon their heads

, wreaths of flowers ,, and the air was rent by the shouts of the populace in praise of the Holy Soldiery of the Blessed Mary and the Temple . Now , all was changed . Despoiled of their habits , dressed in mean garments , and attended by

jailors , the Templars entered Paris . No shouts of joy welcomed them , no flowers were showered down upon them , for them no louger the beauties of France smiled . Yet the populace , who flocked around them , beheld with admiration and with pity , the twofold scars these gallant warriors bore upon

their bodies , the one of wounds won in the sacred cause of the Cross , at the hands of the Infidel ; the other won in the sacred cause of honour , at the hands of . Christians . The one the marks of the sword : the other of the rack . And yet both equallhonourablefor they told of their valour

y , in the cause of the Cross in the battle-field , and their constancy in the cause of truth in the torture-room . Yes , it was a strange spectacle ; one which the ancient philosophers would have deemed worthy of the eyes of Heaven—virtue captive to vice—honour to dishonour—angels to