A.D. 122?.] '•KOGRKSS OK TIIK CRUSADE. blood for all of the true faith. It is with much fervour of mind and shedding of tears, that his serene highness the emperor did not, as we all hoped, come into Syria in the month of August last past as ho had promised On this the pilgrims from those districts, hearing that the said cmperoi had not arrived in the aforesaid passage, amounting to more than forty thousand strong men, returned in the same ships as they had come, putting their trust in man rather than God. After their departure there remained here nearly eight hundred knights, who continued to cry will] one consent, " Either let us break the truce or let us all depart to gether ; " and they have been detained here not without great difficulty, because the duke of Limburg, a man of noble birth, has been appointed to command the army in the place of the emperor. A council was therefore held, especially of the hospitallers, templars, and of the German hospitallers, and it was agreed that the duke aforesaid should act as seemed most expedient for the cause of Christianity and the Holy Land ; the duke then, having asked and received advice on these points, appeared on a day specially appointed for the purpose before us and some of the nobles of that country, and there openly declared that he wished to break the truce, and asked the assistance and advice of those present, as to how he could proceed most advantageously in that intention. And when the duke and his counsellors were told that it would be dangerous to break the truce, and, as it was confirmed by oath, dishonourable as well, they replied that his holiness the pope had excommunicated all those crusaders who would not join in this crusade, although he knew that the truce was to continue for two years more ; and by this they understood that he did not wish the truce to he kept, and, besides this, the pilgrims would not remain there idle. There were also many who said that, if the pilgrims were to go away, the Saracens would, after their departure, attack them, notwithstanding the truce. Sonic also though! that Coradin was engaged in a fierce war with the rulers of Hainan, Camyle, and Aleppo, and on that account was more than usually afraid of the truce being broken by the Christians; and if the truce were broken, they though', that Coradin. on seeing himself pressed by war on all sides, would probably offer terms of peace. Al length after a long discussion on these matters, all unanimously agreed to inarch