CHAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

159

And strange it is, that not only then, but during allthe crusades, more Christians became Mahometansthan Mahometans Christians . 1 During his stay inPalestine, he fortified some of the Christian towns , 2and did his best to allay the spirit of discord; buthis holy discourse and virtuous example were for-gotten too soon . 8

Perhaps it is hard to call wasting his time whatcontributed to his chief object—bettering the lotof those Eastern Christians. A long time preventedby the sickness among that small Court, he broughtwith him from the Nile a hundred knights only — 4the epidemic was so destructive, that Joinville tellsus twenty funerals a-day used to pass under thewindow of his own lodgings—he might have beenmuch occupied about the twelve thousand prisonershe had left in Egypt—while the three militaryorders and the Franks of Acre were never withoutconjuring him not to abandon them; and that heshould not, was not merely the opinion of themonarch, but also of many of his best barons, in-cluding Joinville. Latterly the king waspreparingfor visiting Jerusalem, at that time (for him par-ticularly) very difficult; and before any oppor-

1 Michaud : Hist., iv. 305.

2 Beaulieu: Cliron.—Bib. Crois., i. 298.

3 Micbaud: Hist., v. 2. 4 Michaud: Hist., iv. 382.