226 TIIE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book ii.

chief, for his celebrity as a warrior 1 ) spoke thus tothe Grand Master of the Hospitallers, “ Unless wemake a diversion, the town is lost. Let us hazarda sortie And as large a. body as could begathered was formed that evening, hut not abovefive hundred, and bravely they attacked the infi-del’s flank, and would have taken his camp by sur-prise, had his sentinels been less alert ; 2 but in spiteof the discomfiture, the immense disproportion ofnumbers told, and many of the Hospitallers andmost of the Templars were slain, and though re-entering Acre as victors, those ivere carrying theirgrand master, badly wounded, and these had toomuch reason to fear that theirs had been struck bya poisoned arrow ; 3 which somewhat uncertain asyet, he rode, but very pale. This was on a moon-light night, and the bravest began to be oppressedwith a presentiment of destruction, quite imminent,yet not less determined to sell their lives dearly.And, before dawn , 4 the Grand Master of the Hos-pitallers convoked not only his order, but a meet-ing of Templars and Teutonics, as well, and of thesurviving leaders of the city, including the sickcommander-in-chief himself, and the magnanimous

1 Bosio.—Vertot: iii. 547. 2 Bosio.—Yertot: in. 550.

3 Michaud : Hist., v. 140.—Seb. Paoli : Osservazioni, i. 536.

4 Michaud: Hist., v. 135.