THE XNJGHT8 TEMl'LARS. 130 fiiiuRo η» fluttered like the moth round a light; under whose shadow they A.A'm. \ assembled, in which they boldly trusted as in a wall ; the cross, the centre and leader of their pride, their superstition, and their tyranny." . . .* After the conquest of between thirty and forty cities and castles, many of which belonged to the order of the Temple, Saladin laid siege to the holy city. On the 20th of September the Mussulman army encamped on the west of the town, and extended itself from the tower of David to the gate of St. Stephen. The Temple could no longer furnish its brave warriors for the defence of the holy sanctuary of the Christians; two miserable knights, with a few serving brethren, alone remained in its now silent halls and deserted courts. After a siege of fourteen days, a breach was effected in the walls, and ten banners of the prophet waved in triumph on the ramparts. In the morning a barefoot procession of the queen, the women, and the monks and priests, was made to the holy sepulchre, to implore the Son of God to save his tomb and his inheritance from impious violation. The females, as a mark of humility and distress, cut off their hair and cast it to the winds ; and the ladies of Jerusalem made their daughters do penance by standing up to their necks in tubs of cold water placed upon Mount Calvary. But it availed nought ; " for our Lord Jesus Christ," says a Syrian Prank, " would not listen to any prayer that they made ; for the filth, the luxury, and the adultery which prevailed in the city, did not suffer prayer or supplication to ascend before God." f * Saladino letter to the caliph Xassfr Deldin-IUak About Abbas Ahmed*—Michaud, Extraits Arabes. f Les dames de Jerusalem rirent prendre cuves et mettre en la place devant le monte Cauviaire, ct emplir rteue froide, et tirent lors filles entrer jusqu'au col, et couper lor ireïee* et jetur les.—·Contiti, lust. bell. sner. apud Mortene, torn. ν. col. 615.