The truth of this he soon found out. The Cyprians formed by far the greater part of the host of Eastern warriors, led by the high marshal Felingher, but the number of these was not more than two thousand. Rome had already taken her precautions. A Papal bull was issued denouncing Frederick, and he was placed under an interdict. Messages both from the Pope and the Patriarch warned the knights not to obey the emperor’s commands, and it was promulgated amongst the soldiery, that Frederick was under the curse of God, and of the Church, and that all his acts were of no effect. Multitudes of the Crusaders, despairing of the success of their undertaking, deserted. The Knights of the Temple and of St. John fell away from the emperor’s standard, and the rest of the warriors of the Cross refused to be led to battle. The Cyprian barons began to discuss the question whether the oath they had taken to Frederick, was not overridden by the feudal allegiance they owed to their king. The Germans who had come over with the emperor under the command of their leader, Hermann von Salza, kept their plighted faith, and were the only supporters of the imperial authority: these, however, taking them all together, knights and squires, soldiers from Germany, Sicily, and Lombardy, hardly amounted to twelve thousand men. With so feeble an army—with the Eastern knights partly at open enmity, partly vacillating, with the clergy altogether inimical—it was quite impossible for Frederick to think of giving battle to the unbelievers. He established himself in a camp near Akkon, and while he strengthened the defences of Joppa, gave all his attention to the establishment of a secret understanding with the Sultan. Overtures to this effect had in truth been already made by him from Italy, and during his stay in Cyprus had been still further advanced.