CHAP. V.]

ST. JOHN OP JERUSALEM.

293

retreat to Palestine. For was not evident irony inthe vizier’s words? The king himself had brokena treaty; and why expect the Egyptians to keeptheirs ? The whole world shall hear of the retreatof the Christians. Yillany has been punished, andperjury; and the Egyptians rejoice at it . 1 Onemoiety of the gold pieces was given back to them,and the other being nearly expended, this militarychest would hardly suffice to keep his men alive asfar as Jerusalem ; and the Constantinopolitan fleetshipwrecked ! 2 Not only his dreams, but all hisbest-founded hopes had vanished.

Nor were D’Assaly’s ideas brighter; for wherewas Heliopolis? City, commerce, maritime power,immense revenue, sovereign rights over a vast tractof most fertile country comprising fifty villages,nearly a million of inhabitants, handed over like somany beasts of burden—all had disappeared; andwhat remained to the order was a debt of four hun-dred thousand crowns, prodigious sum for that time . 3

Pushed hard by Noureddin’s Turcomans all alongthat disastrous road, when Almeric reached hismetropolis, it was with an army frightfully reduced

1 Arab. Chron., 133.

2 Vertot: ii. 204.—Bosio : par. 1, lib. in., anno 1169.

3 Id. ii. 205.