s, defended the pilgrims, managed the government, and
performed all other similar functions.

2. _Chaplains._--These were the priests and monks. They
conducted worship, and attended, in general, to all the
duties of devotion. They were the scholars, too, and acted
as secretaries and readers, whenever such duties were
required.

3. _Servitors._--The duty of the servitors was, as their
name imports, to take charge of the buildings and grounds
belonging to the order, to wait upon the sick, and accompany
pilgrims, and to perform, in general, all other duties
pertaining to their station.

[Illustration: THE RAMPARTS OF ACRE.]

The town of Acre stood on the shore of the sea, and was very strongly
fortified. The walls and ramparts were very massive--altogether too
thick and high to be demolished or scaled by any means of attack known
in those days. The place had been in possession of the Knights of St.
John, but in the course of the wars between the Saracens and the
Crusaders that had prevailed before Richard came, it had fallen into
the hands of the Saracens, and now the Crusaders were besieging it, in
hopes to recover possession. They were encamped in thousands on a
plain outside the town, in a beautiful situation overlooking the sea.
Still farther back among the mountains were immense hordes of
Saracens, watching an opportunity to come down upon the plain and
overwhelm the Christian armies, while they, on the other hand, were
making continued assaults upon the town, in hopes of carrying it
by storm, before their enemies on the mountains could attack them. Of
course, the Crusaders were extremely anxious to have Richard arrive,
for they knew that he was bringing with him an immense re-enforcement.

Philip, the French king, had already arrived, and he exerted himself
to the utmost to take the town before Richard should come. But he
could not succeed. The town resisted all the attempts he could make to
storm it, and, in the mean time, his position and that of the other
Crusaders in the camp was becoming very critical, on account of the
immense numbers of Saracens in the mountains behind them, who were
gradually advancing their posts and threatening to surround the
Christians entirely. Philip, therefore, and the forces joined with
him, were beginning to feel very anxious to see Richard's ships
drawing near, and from their encampment on the plain they looked out
over t