164 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book ii.

incliti robusti eleeti,” and his dear children, biddingthem leave off their black whenever they wereon military duty (which was always, except whenprecisely at home) and wear a scarlet mantle withthe white cross wrought on it (which they haddone of themselves long ago)—was no adequatecompensation for the evil he had done, by publishingto the world in his reply to the ambassadors fromPalestine, that his Holiness was more desirous of acrusade against others than the Mahometans; so thatthe Saracens must have discovered how impossibleit was for any Christian prince to remain long inthe East, and that it could never expect any realsuccour from such a distance; for that cruel truthcame from his lips with dreadful weight—as dis-heartening to the disconsolate Christians as en-couraging to their ruthless foe. Clement IY. in1265 wrote a letter to the Grand Master of theHospital, and to the Grand Master of the Templeas well, praising their past conduct and exhortingthem to persevere in it; but what did such consolingwords lead to? 1

Bibars declared war against them at once. Itwas perhaps his first act of sultanship. 2 Andhe marched into Palestine with such an immense

1 Tresor Matene.—Bib. Crois., i. 426.

2 Michaud: Hist., v. 11.