CHAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

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and circumscribed to Acre itself. Not its closestallies, nor even its own property, but only to thatindividual city did he concede a respite, for theexpress purpose of separating it little by little fromevery one of its resources in the country and iso-lating it, leaving it nothing to depend on, exceptfickle Europe—and even this but partly; for hadhe a better fleet, he would have blocked it com-pletely, by sea as well as land, and preserved itfrom all contact as his own peculiar prey. Thatit remained vilely neutral, while every one of itsfriends were disappearing, may be blamed; butwhat on earth could it do? The Hospitallers re-duced to a mere handful—a group of officers with-out troops, or very few. The Templars no better.Indeed, one chronicler makes them already allkilled, but this is an exaggeration. The Teutonicsnecessarily of trivial account, since their grandmaster and head-quarters were in Germany, so thatin the treaty with Acre not the Grand Master ofthe Teutonics, but his Maggiordomo signs it, withthe Grand Masters of the Hospital and Temple . 1

Acre submitted to the condition of informingthe sultan at least two months beforehand, when-ever any Franks were coming. Ample proof of

N 2

1 Arab. Chron., 545.