are the instruments by which the Omnipotent preserves His Church in the East from the defilements of the infidels.” This was written in 1130: the following year witnessed the death of Baldwin II., and was succeeded by sorrowful times for Palestine. Those who came after him, and bore in turn the title of kings of Jerusalem, were but little fitted for the kingdom whose sceptre was a sword. Under Guy of Lusignan the cause of the Crusaders became well-nigh desperate; and on the fatal field of Tiberias, after a combat which lasted three days, the flower of the Christian army was cut to pieces, and the king himself was taken prisoner. When he recovered his freedom, it was to mourn over a yet greater disaster; for Jerusalem itself had fallen (A.D. 1187), and, eighty-eight years after the triumphant entry of Godfrey de Bouillon, was once more in the hands of the Moslems. The news of that event, which is said to have caused the death of the reigning Pope, immediately roused the sovereigns of Europe to prepare for a fresh crusade. Nevertheless it was marked by one circumstance equally honourable to the Christians and to their enemies. Saladin, we are told, was so touched by the reports brought him of the charity exercised at the hospital of St. John, that he gave permission for the Hospitallers to remain in the city one year undisturbed, that the sick and wounded under their charge might be perfectly restored before removal. In 1191 the forces of France and England were united before the walls of Acre; and the third crusade may be said to have opened by the capitulation of that city, when it fell into the hands of Richard Cœur de Lion. The Hospitallers were foremost in the glorious campaign that followed. It lasted little more than a year; but when the English monarch again embarked for Europe he showed his gratitude and esteem for the Order of St. John by bestowing on them the city of Acre as a free donation; and thus the knights came for the first time to have a fixed residence and sovereignty, and gave their name to the city, which has ever since been known as St. Jean d’Acre. It is here, then, that our narrative finds them, the sovereigns of a city which in all ages seems destined to be the battle-field for East and West, and which in its very aspect appears to claim for itself the right never to sink into insignificance.