the truce by plundering some
Egyptian traders near Margat. The sultan immediately revenged the outrage
by taking possession of Margat, and war once more raged between the
nations. Margat made a gallant defence, but no reinforcements arrived from
Europe to prevent its fall. Tripoli was the next, and other cities in
succession, until at last Acre was the only city of Palestine that
remained in possession of the Christians.

[Illustration: TOMB OF QUEEN ELEANOR.]

The Grand Master of the Templars collected together his small and devoted
band, and, with the trifling aid afforded by the King of Cyprus, prepared
to defend to the death the last possession of his order. Europe was deaf
to his cry for aid, the numbers of the foe were overwhelming, and devoted
bravery was of no avail. In that disastrous siege the Christians were all
but exterminated. The king of Cyprus fled when he saw that resistance was
vain, and the Grand Master fell at the head of his knights, pierced with a
hundred wounds. Seven Templars, and as many Hospitallers, alone escaped
from the dreadful carnage. The victorious Moslems then set fire to the
city, and the rule of the Christians in Palestine was brought to a close
for ever.

This intelligence spread alarm and sorrow among the clergy of Europe, who
endeavoured to rouse once more the energy and enthusiasm of the nations in
the cause of the Holy Land. But the popular mania had run its career; the
spark of zeal had burned its appointed time, and was never again to be
re-illumined. Here and there a solitary knight announced his determination
to take up arms, and now and then a king gave cold encouragement to the
scheme; but it dropped almost as soon as spoken of, to be renewed again,
still more feebly, at some longer interval.

Now what was the grand result of all these struggles? Europe expended
millions of her treasures, and the blood of two millions of her children;
and a handful of quarrelsome knights retained possession of Palestine for
about one hundred years! Even had Christendom retained it to this day, the
advantage, if confined to that, would have been too dearly purchased. But
notwithstanding the fanaticism that originated, and the folly that
conducted them, the Crusades were not productive of unmitigated evil. The
feudal chiefs became better members of society by coming in contact, in
Asia, with a civilisation superior to their own; the people secured some
small instalments of their rights; ki