"We agreed to surrender Damietta, with all the prisoners which we had in Tyre and at Acre, on condition that the sultan restored to us the wood of the true cross and the prisoners that he detained at Cairo and Damascus. We, with some others, were deputed by the whole army to announce to the people of Damietta the terms that had been imposed upon us. These were very displeasing to the bishop of Acre,[261] to the chancellor, and some others, who wished to defend the town, a measure which we should indeed have greatly approved of, had there been any reasonable chance of success; for we would rather have been thrust into perpetual imprisonment than have surrendered, to the shame of Christendom, this conquest to the infidels. But after having made a strict investigation into the means of defence, and finding neither men nor money wherewith to protect the place, we were obliged to submit to the conditions of the sultan, who, after having exacted from us an oath and hostages, accorded to us a truce of eight years. During the negotiations the sultan faithfully kept his word, and for the space of fifteen days furnished our soldiers with the bread and corn necessary for their subsistence. "Do you, therefore, pitying our misfortunes, hasten to relieve them to the utmost of your ability. Farewell."[262] [Sidenote: A. D. 1223.] Brother Alan Marcell, to whom the above letter is addressed, succeeded Amaric de St. Maur, and was at the head of the order in England for the space of sixteen years. He was employed by king Henry the Third in various important negotiations; and was Master of the Temple at London, when Reginald, king of the island of Man, by the advice and persuasion of the legate Pandulph, made a solemn surrender at that place of his island to the pope and his catholic successors, and consented to hold the same from thenceforth as the feudatory of the church of Rome.[263] [Sidenote: A. D. 1224.]