t 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.

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 Hospitallets, 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 civilization superior to their
own; the people secured some small instalments of their rights; kings,
no longer at war with their nobility, had time to pass some good laws;
the human mind learned some little wisdom from hard experience, and,
casting off the slough of superstition in which the Roman clergy had so
long enveloped it, bec