CHAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

177

And that in the same year the brave and nobleBeaujeu had already become Grand Master of theTemplars, is clear from an inscription found in anexcavation at Acre . 1 The Codex Diplomaticus hasnothing of Lorgne’s earlier, nor of Revel within thelast years; so it is close upon certainty that he ex-pired in the August immediately preceding, atlatest.

Of whatever land De Lorgne was native, hiselection at such a time proves him highly es-teemed.

To Acre’s catastrophe every event hurries^ thegood as well as the bad. Christians might havebeen thankful for the destruction of the Karismiansand similar hordes . 2 Yet it accelerated or clinched theloss of Jerusalem and various inland places, and theruin of the whole Christian cause; for Syrian Maho-metans, often in alliance with Franks, and in a cer-tain manner their friends, were then destroyed, andthe Mahometans of Egypt and all other Mahometanswere their foes. Kelaoun’s bare name made theChristians shudder. And good right they had. Nordid he delay, but girded himself up at once to putan end to them, as natural allies of the Franks.His Cimerian origin much more than his attachment

1 Appendix, c.

2 Michaud: Hist., iv. 104; vi. 127.

VOL. II.

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