CIIAP. III.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

201

country under heaven, and shows of some sort orother every day in the twelvemonth.—Not to speakof processions more or less religious, there werejousts, tourneys, tournaments, balls, masquerades,assemblies, concerts, parades, and other militarydisplays, horse and foot, from all the services inChristendom, and several of the Pagan or Maho-metan too—a perpetual fair and merry-making.Crowds of municipalities; if disorder, they also in-dicated liberty, independence, patriotism; and thatwith laudable pride, those of Acre never forgottheir distant homes; nor be the same not said, asto the rivalry between Genoese and Venetians, and■what was general to all Italians, the separationinto Guelphs and Ghibellines; and it was the periodof the Republics of the middle ages in Italy . 1 Resortof diplomatists from every nation in the world—ifsome of these soon disappeared on the darkening ofevents, as the Papal Legate, yet the greater partof them remained at their post to the last; andamongst these are especially noted the ambassadorsof France and England, one of whom certainly, andprobably both, were afterwards killed on the ram-parts, gallantly heading their compatriots at thebloodiest moment of the siege. And each one hadhis own law and tribunal, and national flags were1 Michaud : Hist., v. 122.