The Knights Templars.

despatched a large lorce to the relief of the fortress . On approaching , they summoned the Templars to retire from the siege , and to surrender themselves prisoners . The Knights refused , whereupon the Musselmen attacked them , and a

furious battle ensued . In a compact body the Templars charged the enemy , and many an infidel , in the emphatic words of the chronicler , was despatched to hell . The other Christians , who had remained with the Templars , fought bravely . It

was not till the Christians were surrounded and overwhelmed by the enemy that the Musselmen obtained the victory . The Templars , in this conflict , behaved with their accustomed valour , and performed prodigies worthy of their predecessors ,

with which fche reader is acquainted . Where all were brave it is scarcely just to mention individual cases . The Balcanifer , an English Knight , called Reginald d'Argenton , added another name to the roll of Templars , who fell gallantly in the cause of

the cross . Early in the battle he received severe wounds which completely disabled him from defending the Beauseant or himself . Still in his bleeding hands he held it aloft , while the fury of the battle raged around him . His legs and arms were hewed off and he was slain . After the battle he

was found lying with the standard gathered beneath him upon a heap of his dead brethren , whose bodies again covered piles of the Musselmen . William de Montferrat , the gallant leader of the Templars , likewise conducted himself in a glorious

manner , and before he was slain " sent sixteen of the infidels to hell , " not reckoning those whom he had disabled or mortally wounded . A hundred Knights of the Temple , three hundred cross bowmen , many secular Knights , and all the infantry

were slain . Three thousand of the enemy fell in this terrible combat . * This slaughter , following so close upon the loss of so many brethren in previous battles , reduced fco an alarming degree the strength of the Templars , and they wrote urgently to the west for supplies both of meu and

money . The Templars and the Hospitallers , whose numbers had also been heavily reduced , dwelling in London , hearing of these disasters , hastened fco send assistance , ancl those who would aven ° * e the

slaughter of their brethren . The Hospitallers sent their Prior , Theodoric , a German by birth , and an experienced Knight , with a body of Knights and

stipendary attendants , and a large sum of money , to the assistance of the Holy Land . They having made all their arrangements , set out from their house at Clerkenwell , and proceeded in good order with about thirty shields uncovered , with spears

raised , and preceded by their banner through the midst of the city towards the bridge , that they might obtain the blessings of the spectators , and , bowing their heads , and with hoods lowered , commended themselves to the prayers of all . *

The state of Europe at this time was deplorable . The Pope and Emperor came to an open rupture , which resulted in an appeal to arms . The Emperor still persecuted the military Orders , and the money gathered for the relief of the Holy Land was seized

upon to defray the expenses of the unseemly war . The religious Orders following the example of the head of the church carried on feuds among themselves , and Matthew Paris relates with detail the quarrels between the Minorite and Preaching

Friars . Those who had vowed to proceed to the Holy Land were released upon payment of money , which was swept into the Pope ' s exchequer . Frederick proceeded to extreme measures with the Templars . He seized all their property in his

Sicilian and Italian dominions , and likewise possessed himself of the lands and churches of the Hospitallers , for all of which he was again excommunicated by the Pope . The excommunication , so far as it applied to the military Orders , bore ,

that the Templars and Hospitallers had been despoiled of their moveable property as well as fixtures , and had not been restored completely , according to the terms of the previous peace . To this the Emperor replied that it was true that , by

a judgement and an ancient constitution of the kingdom of Sicily , certain feudal and burgage lands were revoked from the Templars and Hospitallers , which they held by a grant from the invaders of the kingdom , to whom they supplied

horses , arms , provisions , wine , and all other necessaries in great abundance , when they were harassing him , and absolutely refused all kinds of assistance when he required it of them , thus lowering him to a mere king in pupillage and destitute .

Other feudal and burgage lands had , however , been allowed fchem , as fchey hacl been obtained and held fchem previous to the death of King William the Second , or of which they had received grants from his predecessors . But some burgage