166 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book II.

mosques. 1 The Mamelukes massacred the greaterpart of the inhabitants of that quarter of Palestine,and the rest of them were made slaves, and oftenforced to destroy their own houses. The conqueredlands were divided among the emirs, maximum ofgenerosity in Bibars, that deserves to be written inthe book of Heaven. 2 So say the Moslems, but theChristians call him very ungenerous when he wrotein 1271 to Sir Hugh de Revel—“Brother Hugh,whom it is to be hoped the Lord will not put amongthe number of those who harden themselves againsttheir destiny and are foolhardy enough to resist themaster of victory, we let you know what theCreator has just done for us. You have fortifiedthis castle, and manned it with a select body of thebravest of your order; well, it is all labour in vain,you have only hastened their death, and by theirssecured your own.” 3 Which intimidated the oldwarrior, so he made proposals of peace, and it wasgenerously granted; but the Christians aifirm thatBibars acted from no such noble sentiment, butthat it was simply because he had not the courageto besiege Margat, but turned, and it was to attackNew Sephet of the Templars (for Old Sephet hadbeen destroyed by Saladin), whose garrison capitu-

i Arab. Chron., 493. 2 Michaud: Hist., v. 17.

* Id., 525.