the nativity of our Lord, they have polluted with enormities too Hbbmivn de horrible to be related, far exceeding the iniquity of all the Sa- ^**"^ ; racens, who, though they frequently occupied the land of the Christians, yet always reverenced and preserved the holy places " They then describe the subsequent military operations, the inarch of the Templars and llospitallers, on the 4th of October, λ .» . 1244, from Acre to Cœsarea; the junction of their forces with those of the Moslem sultans ; the retreat of the Carizmiuns to Gaza, where tbey received succour from the sultan of Egypt ; and the preparation of the Hospitallers and Templars for the attack before that place. " Those holy warriors," say they, " boldly rushed in upon the enemy, but the Saracens who had joined us, having lost many of their men, fled, and the warriors of the cross were left alone to withstand the united attack of the Egyptians and Carizinians. Like stout champions of the Lord, and Irne defenders of catholicity, whom the same faith and the same cross and passion make true brotliei's, they bravely resisted ; but as they were few in number in comparison with the enemy, they at last succumbed, so that of the convents of the house of the chivalry of the Temple, and of the house of the Hospital of Saint John at Jerusalem, only thirty-three Templars and twenty-six llospitallers escaped ; the archbishop of Tyre, the bishop of Saint George, the abbot of Saint Mary of Jehoshaphat, and the Master of the Temple, with many other clerks mid holy men, being slain in that [sanguinary light. W e ourselves, having by our sins provoked this dire calamity, tied half dead to Ascalon ; from thence we proceeded by sea to Acre, and found that city and the adjoining province filled with sorrow and mourning, misery and death. There was not a house or a family that hud not lost an inmate or α re lation "