ABEY. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

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large armies of cavalry were conveyed in theirships, the King of France alone having had forty-five thousand cavalry at least when he sailed fromMarseilles to Acre. Chroniclers never talk of anydifficulty as to transport, nor of the Franks buyingany horses in Syria. All seem to have broughttheir horses from Europe. The light Saracenhorses may have been used by a few officers, but thesoldiers were on powerful horses from Normandy,England, or Germany—remarkable for strength,as befits cuirassiers. With respect to sappers andminers, those from Aleppo were perhaps as good asany we have now. The invention of gunpowderhas given an immense superiority to our artillery,no doubt. Yet the machines that could throw ballsof six hundred pounds weight were dreadful things;as the steel barb from the zemboureck, that passedthrough three cuirasses and their contents—threehuman bodies.

Many are the stories told about King Richardand Saladin, some of which may be true, but somenot possibly so ; if no gravestone of the latterremains at Damascus now, that may fairly be as-cribed to the lapse of ages. A similar reproach mightfor a long time have been made to England, and intruth both have their best of monuments in tra-dition, the lasting memory of nations. England

VOL. II.

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