ence, thou mightest
have held out against me. But that which thou didst prize most highly
has failed thee in the hour of need.'

And Oulagon withdrew with the Templar and the English knight; and soon
after this interview Musteazem drew his last breath. But whether he
perished of hunger, or of indignant despair, or by the violence of his
conquerors, is not clearly ascertained. In the midst of the tumult and
disorder which followed the sack of Bagdad, and the extinction of the
caliphate, chroniclers neglected to record under what circumstances,
and how, died the last of the caliphs.

But, however that may have been, the ambassadors next morning took their
departure from Bagdad.

'Now God and all the saints be praised!' exclaimed Bisset: 'our heads
are out of the lion's mouth.'

CHAPTER XL.

END OF THE ARMED PILGRIMAGE.

THE Templar and the English knight after a variety of adventures reached
Acre, having on their way fallen in with Father Yves, whom King Louis
had sent on a mission to 'the Old Man of the Mountains'--that remarkable
personage to whose behests kings bowed, and at whose name princes
trembled--and a knight of the noble House of Coucy, who had come from
Constantinople, and whose accounts of the state of the Latin empire of
the East much increased Bisset's desire to go and offer his sword to the
Emperor Baldwin de Courtenay, then struggling desperately to maintain
his throne against Greeks and Turks.

On reaching Acre, however, the ambassadors found that King Louis and the
court were at Sajecte, and without delay repaired thither to present the
gifts sent by Oulagon, and inform him of the unexpected event which had
frustrated the object of their mission. Louis was deeply grieved at the
failure of his attempt to open the prison doors of the unfortunate
captives, and with tears bewailed their unhappy fate.

But soon after this, the saint-king found that the case was not
desperate. The Sultan of Damascus went to war with the Mamelukes, and
both parties craved the alliance of the French monarch. Louis,
therefore, sent John de Valence to Cairo once more to demand the release
of the captives, and this time he obtained something like satisfaction.
Two hundred knights were immediately set at liberty, and allowed to
depart for Acre, which they reached in safety.

At length, however, news came to King Louis, while he was at Sajecte,
which compelled him to turn his thoughts towards France, where he was