The Knights Templars.

become an independent power , able to do battle on their own account , without requiring aid from the other Christians , whom Odo viewed as mere auxiliaries . Continually at war among themselves he conceived a contempt for the Princes of Palestine ,

through whose disputes , the Infidel had been able to make a successful stand against the Christians . " Union is strength , " was the motto of Odo and this union was only to be found in the ranks of the Temple . He accordingly , fortified strongly the

castles of the Order , and placed in them garrisons , composed of the bravest Knights , and commanded by the most experienced leaders . He likewise impressed npon the European Brethren the necessity

of drafting into the ranks of the Temple the best blood of the countries , in which they had jaossessious , so that new Brethren might be ready to fill the places of those who fell in battle . The Knights Hospitallers were the objects of his suspicious

regard , for he could not fail to perceive that , since they had changed their peaceful character of providing shelter for the poor pilgrims , to take up arms in their defence , they would become an important and powerful body , and in time prove

dangerous rivals to his own Order of the Temple . They were , besides , intimately allied to Almeric , who , since they had supported him in his attack upon Egypt , had cherished and given them every support and assistance in his power .

Odo found himself thus in a dangerous position , from which he resolved to free himself by some bold measure ; for , although he cared little for the favourable countenance of the King , he had no wish to permit the Order to sink before the new

blaze of the Hospitallers , which under the warmth and sunshine of the King ' s friendship , had began to expand in the eyes of the Eastern Christians . He determined to set the King ' s authority at defiance , and to act as an independent sovereign .

He waited , therefore , for an opportunity to sink the standard of the Hospitallers before the Beauseant , and so prove to the world , that the Templars were the only true bulwarks of Christianity in the East . At the same time , he did not

conceal his contempt , for the less eminently distinguished soldiery of St John , whose rise had been upon an act of treachery . He was a man according to William of Tyre , who had the fear of neither God nor man before his eyes . In any other

man such policy would have been dangerous in the last degree , and the worst consequences might have followed to the Order ; but the gallantry of the

Grand Master in the field , and his renown as a sage councillor in the cabinet , made him the hope and admiration of the barons and people , who could not but sympathise with him in his contempt for the King . His haughtiness , and his care to have due

homage paid to his exalted rank , caused considerable jealousy among the Christian nobles ; but knowing how little he cared for their opinions , so long as they did not attempt to cross him in his schemes , they swallowed their resentment , and

bowed to him , as a superior , with the best grace they could muster up . Shortly after his elevation to the Grand Masterships , the opportunity wished for by him occurred , in which to display in a signal manner

Odo's contempt for all authority , even of that of the King , which dared to infringe upon the rights , or attempted to exercise any power over the members of the Order . This opportunity Odo greedily seized upon .

Two emissaries of the Old Man of the Mountain , assassinated Raymond , Count of Tripoli , at the foot of the high altar , in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Tortosa , while he was kneeling befoi'e it engaged in prayer . The Templars , who were

closely allied by interest to the murdered Count , flew to arms , and assembling a large body of troops , marched against the fanatics , for the double purpose of avenging the murder of their ally , and of punishing the temerity and sacrilege of the

assassins . They cut their way through swarms of the enemy into their mountain fastnesses , took several of their strongholds by storm , and put to death every prisoner who fell into their hands . Alarmed at the approach of the Templars , the Old Man of

the Mountain put himself at the head of a chosen band of his followers , and made a determined stand against the victorious Knights ; but in an engagement his army was defeated with great slaughter , and he was compelled to sue for peace . This was

granted him upon the condition , among others , of his paying an annual tribute of two thousand golden ducats to the treasury of the Templars . Von Nammer , who has so savagely attacked the Order in our day , could not understand the

possibility of such an arrangement , and ascribed the payment of this tribute to a secret understanding with the assassins , and for the receipt of the same the Templars were to render them certain secret and important services . In 1172 , during the ninth year of the reign of Almeric , and the second of the Grand Mastership