The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the TempleAddison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet)
History
The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple
Addison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet)
Templars -- History
they filled up the ditch with the bodies of dead men and horses, piles of
wood, stones, and earth, and their trumpets then sounded to the assault.
Ranged under the yellow banner of Mahomet, the Mamlooks forced the breach,
and penetrated sword in hand to the very centre of the city; but their
victorious career and insulting shouts were there stopped by the mail-clad
Knights of the Temple and the Hospital, who charged on horseback through
the narrow streets, drove them back with immense carnage, and precipitated
them headlong from the walls.
At sunrise the following morning the air resounded with the deafening
noise of drums and trumpets, and the breach was carried and recovered
several times, the military friars at last closing up the passage with
their bodies, and presenting a wall of steel to the advance of the enemy.
Loud appeals to God and to Mahomet, to heaven and the saints, were to be
heard on all sides; and after an obstinate engagement from sunrise to
sunset, darkness put an end to the slaughter. On the third day, (the
18th,) the infidels made the final assault on the side next the gate of
St. Anthony. The Grand Masters of the Temple and the Hospital fought side
by side at the head of their knights, and for a time successfully resisted
all the efforts of the enemy. They engaged hand to hand with the Mamlooks,
and pressed like the meanest of the soldiers into the thick of the battle.
But as each knight fell beneath the keen scimitars of the Moslems, there
were none in reserve to supply his place, whilst the vast hordes of the
infidels pressed on with untiring energy and perseverance. The Marshall of
the Hospital fell covered with wounds, and William de Beaujeu, as a last
resort, requested the Grand Master of that order to sally out of an
adjoining gateway at the head of five hundred horse, and attack the
enemy's rear. Immediately after the Grand Master of the Temple had given
these orders, he was himself struck down by the darts and the arrows of
the enemy; the panic-stricken garrison fled to the port, and the infidels
rushed on with tremendous shouts of _Allah acbar! Allah acbar!_ "GOD is
victorious." Three hundred Templars, the sole survivors of their
illustrious order in Acre, were now left alone to withstand the shock of
the victorious Mamlooks. In a close and compact column they fought their
way, accompanied by several hundred christian fugitives, to the Temple,
and shutting their gates, they again bade defiance to the advancing foe.
[Sidenote: GAUDINI. A. D. 1291.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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