CHAP. IV.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

253

dissensions among the Christians; for, at a councilat Acre, of the King of Jerusalem, with his knightsand barons, and the King of France and the em-peror, in the presence of the Queen of Jerusalemand the Christian ladies, neither among these wasthere the Queen of France, nor amongst those thePrince of Antioch, or the Counts of Edessa andTripoli.—sad omen, and so, as all question of be-sieging Aleppo was over, by Raymond of Antioch’sabsence, and scarce a word about Joscelin orEdessa hazarded, although the main object forcalling of the council, was to decide whether toattack Aleppo or Edessa, it was resolved to besiegeDamascus.

Here, for the first time, the Moslem writers dis-tinctly mention the Knights of the Temple, andalmost ever after name them with the Hospitallers.Scarcely either without the other. Indeed ^the historian of the crusades himself, is notmuch earlier; for he hardly speaks of the Templarsbefore telling that their grand master had advancedto meet Louis VII, in Asia Minor . 1

Damascus, one of the holy cities of Islam, andfamous for its fanaticism as well as its gardens ofseven leagues and forest of orange trees, and almostevery kind of fruit, must give up the story about

1 Michaud : Hist., ii. 169.