purpose either broken by the Engines of the Town or burnt by the Greek Wildfire from which they were never able to secure them But the greatest of all the evils which the Besiegers suffered was the division which happened between the Infantry and Cavalry which had like in one day to have ruined the whole Army For the Cavalry in those times was in a manner wholly composed of Gentlemen who loved their ease and pleasure so much that they left the Foot to all the hard duty and exempted themselves from it The Foot who believed themselves undervalued loudly murmured against them reproaching them with want of Courage and accusing them of leaving them to shift for themselves in the most dangerous combats On the contrary the Cavalry maintained the quite contrary saying the Foot did nothing at all as appeared plainly in the last Battle within the Lines where the Infantry proved themselves good Footman in running for it and that all had been infallibly lost if the Cavalry had not spurred up to their assistance and almost alone repulsed the Enemies So that by the most foolish and strange adventure that ever was seen in an Army both Horse and Foot that they might manifest who had the greatest Courage and most Valour compelled the King to lead them against the Enemy and oblige them to a Battle It was then that St. Francis of Assise who by the earnest desire which he had to gain the Crown of Martyrdom by preaching the Faith to the Infidels was come to the Camp at Damiata and contrary to his custom in medling with matters which were not religious or agreable to his Profession opposed himself stoutly against this foolish Resolution And the Spirit of God being an Emanation of the divine Wisdom upon us which agrees perfectly with good sense and reason made him predict with a great deal of reason to these foolish Braves that if they would be so rash to undertake such an ill grounded Enrerprise it would prove fatal to them year 1219 But these People could hear no other Language but that of their Passions and such was their Fury that they compelled their Captains to go along with them making little Account of what St. Francis threatned them withal who was a man of no presence and whom they did not believe to be a Prophet Leaving therefore a few men to guard the Camp against the Besieged they marched against the Enemy in Battalia upon the nine and twentieth day of August The Sarasins upon the sight of them drew off and retreated into a large Champaign between the Nile and the Sea where there being no water and the season excessive hot they were reduced to the utmost extremities of weariness and thirst and broak all their Ranks and order to search for water to refresh themselves The Sarasins then who waited for this disorder to make advantage of it immediately faced about and came pouring upon the Cyprus Cavalry which was upon the left Wing and charging them in the Flank broak them and dissipated them in a moment whereupon the Italian Infantry who were covered by them presently fled and after them the Horse the Legate and Patriarch who carried the Cross being not able to stop them and in short all had been infallibly lost that day if the King who was in the main Battle perceiving the horrible disorder and letting the Fugitives pass by him that they might not hinder his march had not instantly advanced being followed by the Knights of the three orders the English French and Flemings who stopped the Pursuit of the Sarasins and made good an honourable retreat to their Camp where the Army entred well mortified with the ill Fortune which they had met withal in this foolish adventure For they lost above six thousand men besides the Prisoners among which were the Bishop of of Beauvais and his Brother Andrew de Chastillon Nantueil Gautier de Nemours Brother of Peter the Bishop of Paris John d' Arcis and Henry de l' Orme the Marshal of the order of St. John of Jerusalem and above thirty Knights of the Temple Thus the Prediction of the holy man St. Francis d' Assise was accomplished but he pursuing his principal design wandered from the Christian Camp and permitted himself to be taken by the Sarasins who after they had given him a thousand blows presented him to Meledin to get the reward which he had promised to those who should bring him a Christian dead or alive The good man notwithstanding this preached the Gospel to him with an admirable Zeal offering himself to the Flames for the proof of the truth thereof But he laboured in vain as to the design which he had propounded to himself being neither able to gain the Crown of Martyrdom by reason that the Sultan charmed with his discourse his Patience and his Vertue was so far from putting him to death that he gave him a thousand carresses and all the obliging Usage imaginable nor could he obtain the Conversion of this Prince the fear in which he was of his Subjects being more prevalent with him than the truth which was propounded to him So that the Saint finding there was no good to be done took his way back again and the Prayers which the Sultan whose presents he refused desired of him for his Salvation proved ineffectual by the just Judgement of God who rigorously punishes those who either out of fear or malice refuse his Grace and the tenders of Salvation For the Authors who have written for the Honour of St. Francis that in Virtue of his Prayers this Sultan was converted and baptized before his Death are under a mistake of the Sultan of Iconium who never saw St. Francis who this very year of the Siege of Damiata received Baptism at his death whereas this Sultan of Egypt neither died that year nor was ever baptized And it is a great weakness to give it no worse Title to make such fabulous relations of holy men for the Saints who in Heaven enjoy infinite happiness do neither desire nor stand in necessity that those who write their lives or make their Elogies should give them praises upon Earth that are not true whether it be in magnifiing their Actions or in attributing to them such miracles as may well be doubted and rationally disproved and which is the most abominable and pernicious flattery making them so perfect in all things as to be free from all manner of sin That which is certainly true in this matter is That Sultan Meledin not only treated St. Francis but after this the Christians and particularly the Prisoners with great humanity sending some of the principal of them to the Christian Camp to treat of a Peace year 1219 This Sultan who was a better Politician them a Soldier understood very well that notwithstanding his Victory he had many pressing Considerations to move him to labour all he could for a Peace All the provisions in the City were almost spent the Siege
fell upon it in his absence by the deadly division which had he been there he would have prevented and which was the last cause of the loss of the Holy Land The Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans who had most advantageously served in all the Crusades by their shipping had in Acre their quarter and their Jurisdiction assigned them and their Magistrate who was Independant of any other though the Church of the fair Monastery of St. Sabas was common to the three Nations for the celebration of the Divine Offices The Venetians and the Genoese who in those times rarely agreed had abundance of quarrels under diverse pretences which served to cover the true cause of all these Embroilments which in truth was the Jealousie of State and the Ambition which they had to be the sole Masters of the Sea and every one of them equally pretended that this Church appertained solely to their Republick And whereas Alexander the fourth who succeeded to Pope Innocent had declared that the Church ought to be in common to the three Nations the Genoese who first received this declaration nevertheless being supported by the Authority and the Forces of Count Philip de Montfort who was then the Governour of Ptolemais chased the Venetians from the City and seized upon the Church and the Monastery which they fortified in the form of a Cittadel They took for their Pretext a great violence which a Venetian had offered to a Genoese whom he used very scurvily and which had been sufficiently revenged by the Genoeses upon the Venetians who would never receive the excuses which had been offered to them in the name of the Republick which constantly disavowed these actions of private Persons The War then being declared in this manner by the Way of Fact year 1256 the Venetians assisted by the Pisans who declared for them in renouncing the Amity of the Genoese with whom they were confederated before rigged out a potent Navy year 1257 with which they seized upon the Port of Ptolemais burnt the Genoese ships entred the City and there fought gaining by Inches the quarter of the Enemy besieging and forcing the Monastery year 1258 the Church of St. Sabas and chasing from Ptolemais Count Philip and the Genoese who retreated to Tyre from whence coming the year following with nine and forty Gallies and four great men of War they came to a great Battle which they lost between Ptolemais and Caiphas So that the Cities the Princes the Lords and all the Knights of the Country being divided upon this quarrel some declaring for the Venetians and others for the Genoese their happened between these two Potent Republicks a most cruel War which being from time to time suspended by Feeble Treaties which were quickly broken continued for a whole Age to the great prejudice of all Christendom and especially to the Affairs of the East being the principal Cause of the irreparable loss of all And certainly the Sarasins of Syria and Mesopotamia had not failed upon such a deplorable opportunity as was this miserable division to have ruined the Christians of the Holy Land if God had not at the same time raised other Enemies against those Infidels to destroy them For the Tartars having subdued all Persia passed over the Tygris under the Conduct of Halon the Brother of Mangon the Great Cham of Tartary That Prince who is reported to have been a Christian and a great Enemy to the Mahometans having endeavoured to push his Conquests to the Mediterranean Sea was now going to lay Siege to the City of Bagdad which is not as hath been believed the ancient Babylon of the Chaldeans which was situate upon the River Euphrates and of which there are now not so much as the ruins remaining For this which still carries something of the Name is above fifty miles from Euphrates and stands upon the Tygris near the place where was anciently the Famous City of Seleucia There was the principal Seat of the Mahometan Empire in those times where the Caliph whom all the other Sultans acknowledged at least in appearance for their Head and the cheif Priest of their Law kept his Court. Now the Caliph then in being as he was not at all martially inclined so was so extremely covetous that though he was prodigiously rich yet would he not be at any Charge either to fortifie the City or to maintain a good Garrison so that the City was instantly taken by the Tartar who after he had put to the Sword all the Sarasins which he found there caused the miserable Caliph to be locked up in one of the Chambers where his Treasure lay amongst an infinite quantity of Rich Furniture Plate Money and Jewels telling him with a terrible and Bloody Rallery that since he so delighted in Riches and was so passionately in Love with Gold and Silver he should be treated according to his Inclinations and eat nothing less delicate than Gold Thus this Unfortunate Miser who was the last of the Caliphs the Successors of Mahomet died with hunger in the midst of a most incredible abundance of Gold Silver Pearls and Gemms the sight whereof would not content nature or satisfie her necessities and with which if he had known how to use them he might have avoided this miserable Destiny and at least have died nobly at the head of an Army sighting for his Life and Liberty with this Treasure which would have raised and paid them and have possibly secured him from this insolent Tartar A great but most just punishment of a Covetous Wretch who having all his Life made Idols of his Riches without daring to touch them more than if they had been most Sacred things deservedly learnt at his death that these false Divinities had not the Power either to save his Soul or his Body and that Gold and Silver are no further valuable than by the good use which is made of them year 1259 After this Victory the Tartar Prince entred into Mesopotamia which yielded to the Conqueror without resistance took Edessa passed the Euphrates made himself Master of Samothracia Emessa Haman Harenc and all the places which the Sultan had taken from the Christians in Syria besieged and by storm took Alepo which is thought to have been the Ancient Berea and there he took the Sultan Prisoner whom he carried in Irons to Damascus constraining the Inhabitants to yield after they had seen their Captive Sultan put to death before their Eyes And from thence returning with a small retinue into Tartary upon the news which arrived of his Brother's death to whom he was to succeed year 1260 he left the Command of the Army to his Lieutenant Cathogoba And he who was imbroiled with the Christians whom before he seemed to favour entred into the Realm of Jerusalem and there took Cesarea and Sidon and began to threaten Ptolemais when the Christians received a suddain assistance from Egypt from whence they least expected it The first of the Mamaluke Sultans Atbec or
Emperor betrayed the Latins The History of the false Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac and his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stranagem of the Emperor's An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battel of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The second Battel of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battel of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the Length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue year 1188 THe sad news of the loss of Jerusalem and the deplorable estate into which the fortune of the Christians was reduced in the East made a mighty Change upon the Spirits and a strange Revolution of all the Affairs of the West Pope Vrban III. who was then at Ferrara was so strangely surprized with it that in a Moment he found himself seized and pierced with such an excessive and as it proved a mortal Grief which in a little time after he had heard it carried him to his Tomb. Gregory VIII who succeeded him and was chosen the very next Day after his Decease at the same time writ most pressing and passionate Letters to all faithful Christians exhorting to take up the Cross for the Recovery of the Holy Land promising to them the same Graces which his Predecessors the Popes Vrban II. and Eugenius III. had granted to those who were enrolled upon the two first Crusades And to appease the Wrath of God by Humiliations and by the Sufferings of voluntary Penitences he ordained That throughout all Christendom for the space of five Years the Fast of Friday should be observed with the same Austerity that it was in the time of Lent And besides the Abstinence upon Wednesdays and Saturdays he obliged himself and all his Brethren the Cardinals and Bishops exactly to observe the like Abstinence upon every Monday By which Method he made upon the suddain such a wonderful Reformation in the Court of Rome that the Cardinals did not only voluntarily submit themselves to the Rigour of this Penitence but did of themselves without any Command from him which certainly must strangely surprize my Readers oblige themselves to very strict Rules for their way of Living and the Reformation of their Manners such as certainly could not proceed but from Hearts perfectly contrite and humbled before God thereby to satisfie his Justice and to implore his Mercy and his Pity For being with the Pope's Consent assembled to deliberate among themselves upon what ought to be done for the Service of the Church in this pressing Necessity they resolved and most religiously promised one to another to observe these following Articles year 1188 That they would retrench in their Families what soever was superfluous and whatever had too much of the Pomp and Vanity of the present World That they themselves would for Example be the first who would take up the Cross and not only preach it by their Words but by their Actions That for this purpose they would neither make use of Horses Mules or Litters but that they would constantly go on soot so long as the Feet of the Turks and Sarasins defiled that Holy Land which Jesus Christ had sanctified by his Presence and sacred Steps That they would go in Person themselves before the rest into Palestine without any other Equipage except the Cross and the Poverty of Jesus Christ living upon Alms. And lastly at their Return that they would no more receive any Presents from those who had Affairs in the Court of Rome but content themselves with what was strictly necessary for their living in that modest Way which was conformable to their Condition These were their great Resolves And truly I am of Opinion that without doing any Injury to the Memory of these good Cardinals one may lawfully say that their Devotion in the Transports of its first Heats carried them something further than the Limits of a holy Discretion would have prescribed to them Nor is it to be found in History that these brave Resolutions produced those Effects which they seemed to promise and which might have been expected from them possibly because whilst they would do too much they did too little by that Weakness which is so commonly incident to Mankind to fall very much below when they come to repent themselves of having gone too high above those just Measures which a wise Man after he hath once taken will be sure in all things to observe most exactly After this Gregory seeing that it was impossibly that the Design of Succouring the Holy Land should prosper so long as the Christian Princes of Europe were engaged in Wars among themselves he resolved to send his Legates to bring them to an Accord at least to conclude a Truce for certain Years And that he might do something on his part towards such an excellent Work he went in Person with the Deputies of Genoua to accord the Differences which had occasioned a War between them and Pisa But as he laboured very happily in re-uniting these two potent Republicks who in conclusion embraced that Spirit of Peace wherewith he endeavoured to inspire them he was seized with a Tertian Ague and Fever which in a few days carried him off in the second Month of his Pontificate Clement III. who in twenty days after succeeded him confirmed all that he had done and pursued the same holy Enterprise with the very same Zeal He was admirably seconded by the Negotiation of William Archbishop of Tyre who was come to implore the Assistance of the Christian Princes This is that great Man who with so much strength of Judgment writ the History of the Holy War which he continued till a little before the death of Baldwin IV. and who after he had so often managed the greatest Affairs of that Realm whereof he was the Chancellor was at last sent Ambassador into the West upon the hope that he would negotiate in a different manner than the Patriarch Heraclius had done whom he much surpassed in all manner of Abilities
to do him prejudice and on the other that though he had a resolution to maintain a good understanding with the Empire yet he was not deposed to purchase it at the rate of so disobliging and dishonourable a refusal of his demands insomuch that this Prince as fierce as he was being afraid to provoke a King whom he both extremely honoured and feared in consequence upon his more cool and deliberate thoughts judged it convenient to satisfie him and therefore sent home his Bishops and Abbots into France In short this Accident so fatal to the whole Church and which ruined all the good designs of the Pope for the Holy Land did so afflict him that his extreme old Age although wonderful vigorous being unable long to resist the Violence of his Grief he died of Age and his resentment of this Blow about three Months after having for above fourteen years with marvellous Courage steered the Ship of St. Peter in that terrible Tempest which had been raised by the Quarrels year 1241 and Persecutions of Frederick Geossry de Chastillon a Milanese was thirty days after chosen by the name of Celestine the fourth and did immediately all that he could by writing to the Emperor Letters full of tenderness to sweeten his Spirit and incline him to restore Peace to the Church But the death of this Pope which followed within ten days after his Exhaltation hindred him from finishing what he had so happily begun After his death the Holy See was Vacant for above two years by reason that the Cardinals always refused to assemble unless Frederick would deliver their Bretliren who had protested the Nullity of such Elections as should be made without them and whom the Emperor persisted obstinately to detain all that time But at length Baldwin the Second the Emperor of Constantinople who in the extremity to which his Affairs were reduced was come in Person to desire the Assistance of the West wrought so effectually upon his Spirit already shaken by the Clamours of all Christendom that he restored them to their Liberty And then by common consent Cardinal Sinibald de Fiesque was chosen at Anagnia upon the twenty fourth day of June year 1243 who took the name of Innocent the fourth which he rendred so famous by his Virtue and by his Knowledge in the Canon Law of which he was called the Father It was the General belief of the World that this Election would fully reestablish the Peace of the Church in regard that this Pope while he was Cardinal had been a mighty Friend to Frederick and that at first the Emperor sent to him a magnificent Ambassage to congratulate him upon his Exaltation to offer him whatever was in his power by submitting himself intirely to him in all things the Rights and Dignities of his Empire and his Realms always excepted After this also he sent his Chancellor Peter de Vignes and Thadeus de Sessa who promised solemnly in his behalf and with an Oath that he would stand to his Judgment as to the satisfaction which he was to make insomuch that there seemed to remain no doubt but Peace would be concluded But this belief was quickly lost for the Pope having sent his Legates to the Emperor to let him know that he was ready to receive him to peace and to the Communion of the Church provided that he purged himself of those Crimes for which Gregory had condemned him and that Innocent on his side was disposed to give him satisfaction if in a General Council which should judge of it it should be found that he had offended This so exasperated the Emperor that he carried matters to the utmost Extremities so that the Pope finding that he was not in safety in Italy was obliged to take refuge in France which hath ever been the Sanctuary and retreat of persecuted Popes year 1244 But as the first and the greatest care which he had so soon as he was elevated to St. Peter's Chair was to reestablish Jerusalem and to secure it to the Christians by procuring all the Princes of Europe to contribute to the rebuilding of the Walls of that City so as to render it impregnable it was at the same time that he received a terrible Surcharge of grief by the sad news which he received of the intire desolation of that Holy City and the horrible Profanation of the Sacred places by the Corasmins whom the Tartars who ravaged the whole East had chased out of their Country And this is the Subject which I am next to recount this miserable accident being the principal Cause of the seventh and last Crusade which was wholly managed in a manner by the French under the King St. Lewis THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the Angust House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The
his Legates for his misfortune and writ to him most excellent Letters dated from Lyons the twelfth of August by which after he had said all the finest and most Christian things suitable to give consolation to a Prince in Afflictions of this nature he conjured him by no means to abandon Palestine but offered him all that he himself should think the Holy See was able to assist him in The Saâ—tan of Damascus also by his Ambassadors desired the conjunction of his Arms against the Mamalukes promising to yield to him thereupon the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem to which St. Lewis willingly accorded provided that the Admirals refused to give him satisfaction But they fearing the Arms of the King offered to give him all manner of satisfaction and to surrender to him all the Realm of Jerusalem which was in their hands provided that he would assist them against the Sultan of Damascus who they said offered the King what was none of his own And to manifest at this time that they dealt sincerely they sent immediately to him all the Christian Prisoners as also the Bones of Count Gantier de Brienne and sometime after the King peremptorily demanding that as a preliminary before he would enter upon a new Treaty with them they sent him the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls of Grand Caire and all the Children and Young People whom they had compelled to deny the Faith of Christ which alone were considerable Effects of the resolution which this Prince had taken to stay in Syria The Ancient of the Mountain also who at first according to his insolent custom had sent to demand a kind of Tribute which the other Princes had been used to pay him that thereby they might live in safety sent new Ambassadors to him with presents of Rock-Crystal in diverse Figures which was the only Rarity of his Country desiring his Amity and Protection in a most submissive manner And the King in return also sent him with rich presents Father Breton a Dominican who was very skilful in the Sarasin Language to endeavour his conversion although that pious design was not followed with answerable Success But that which was most taken notice of by the French Lords was the Ambassage of the Emperor Frederick who believing the King was still a Prisoner offered him all that lay in his Power for his deliverance and assured him that he had writ in most positive terms to the Sultan of Egypt of whose death he was then ignorant to let him know that he would renounce his Amity and his Alliance if he did not immediately restore the King to Liberty with all his People who were Prisoners In truth the greatest part of the French Lords distrusted the Intention of this Emperor in regard that although the King would never break with him notwithstanding his differences with the Pope yet nevertheless that Prince had alway manifested a displeasure because St. Lewis had protected Pope Innocent by affording him a Sanctuary in France and giving him the Liberty to hold a Council at Lyons where matters were carried so high against him However they rejoiced mightily that these Ambassadours did not arrive till after the King had regained his liberty in regard their was reason to be afraid lest if they found him still a Prisoner they might possibly have endeavoured underhand to hinder his deliverance But let it be as it will this was one of the last Actions good or bad that Frederick did for he died not long after in the same Year at Tarentum the third of December As the Actions of his Life were diversly discoursed of so was also his Death some will have it That he died impenitent without any fence of God or Religion without Sacraments That he was poysoned and also strangled by the hands of Mainfrey one of his Natural Sons whom he had made Prince of Tarentum and who by this Parricide thought to seize upon his Treasure and the Kingdom of Sicily And the Monk of Padua makes no manner of difficulty to send him directly to Hell loaden as he clownishly enough expresseth it with a Sack full of his sins On the contrary others affirm that he died very peaceably in his Bed between the Arms of the Arch-Bishop of Palermo year 1250 who gave him absolution he having confessed himself with marvellous Sentiments of contrition and humility that he forgave all his Enemies and submitted himself wholly to whatsoever the Church should ordain concerning the restitution of what appertained to it by his Will giving great Alms to pious uses and commanding that for the health of his Soul all the Prisoners which were in the Empire and in his other Kingdoms except Traitors to the State should be set at Liberty and in short saying and doing all the great things which might give hopes of his Salvation But it is frequent to find in History Relations directly contrary one to another which the Passions of contemporary Historians who have been ingaged in different Parties have left us and wherein it is not very easie to distinguish Truth from Falsehood which many times fails not of very plausible Probabilities to impose upon the Reader For my own part who if I could avoid it would neither deceive any nor be deceived I leave the Judgement of this Dead Prince to God Almighty to whom only it appertains and in his Character which I have given I have drawn both the good and the ill qualities which appeared during his Life and as to what appertains to the History of the Crusades I only say that as appears by an extract out of his last Will and Testament which may be seen in the Imperial Constitutions of Goldastus he gave a Legacy of a hundred thousand Ounces of Gold towards the carrying on the War for the recovery of the Holy Land and certainly this deserves so well that an Historian of the Crusades is bound to shew some respect to the Memory of an Emperor who after all performed many most brave and noble Actions if he had not had the misfortune to do some very ill ones year 1251 Mean while the King finding that he had now an Army able to take the Field he parted from Acre towards the end of the Winter and went to incamp near Cesarea which the Sarasins had demolished and which he undertook to rebuild and fortifie as he did neither the Sultan of Damascus nor the Egyptians offering to oppose him in regard that both the one and the other were in continual hopes to conclude their Treaty with him and to strengthen themselves by his assistance in the War which they were about to make Here it was that the Admirals of Egypt to anticipate their Enemy and ingage the King into their Party sent their Commissioners to assure him that they were ready to surrender the Young Runnegado's and the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls and Towers of Grand Caire and that they would also acquit him