CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

107

stcrnation at the plight in which they returned. Butto console them, there was a grand procession ; thePatriarch holding the true cross! How could hehave it in 1222, whereas it had been taken bySaladin, who (and his descendants) always refusedto restore it to the Christians? Very simply(replies the chronicler), because its thickness hadbeen sawed in two previous to the battle of Tibe-rias, so that one half was preserved! 1

But scarcely two years 2 of sweet pacific giving andreceiving had elapsed, when Cairenes andDamascenes fell out; the former accusing thelatter of partiality to the Franks, in consequence ofwhich there were skirmishes near Ascalon, in one ofwhich the Templars took a Turkish grandee prisoner,whom rumour called Prince of Damascus; and ifthey did not kill him instantly, it could have beenfor no common purpose they conceded him a respite,since they seldom either were given or gave quarter.So there took place a meeting of deputies from allthe military orders of Acre in their cloaks and hoods,presided overby the Grand Master of the Templars,when the president thus addressed the prisoner:“ Sir Turk, it having been too long the customto except us and our associates of the other two

1 Oliveri: Clu’oii.—Bib. Crois., iii. 139.

2 Cod. Dipl. Gcros., i. 254.—Num. eoxiii.—Appendix, lxxxix.