“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, (James de Vitry, the historian,) 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 extracted 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.”[106] Shortly after the disasters in Egypt, and the conclusion of the eight years’ truce with the infidels, John de Brienne, the titular king of Jerusalem, prepared to bid adieu for ever to Palestine. Since the death of the young queen, his wife, he had regarded his kingdom as a place of exile, and was anxious to escape from the toil and turmoil and incessant warfare in which his feeble dominions were continually involved. His daughter Violante, the young queen of Jerusalem, had just attained her thirteenth year, and the king was anxious to seek a suitable husband for her from among the European princes. Accompanied by the fair Violante, he landed in Italy, and attended a council of the clergy and the laity assembled at Ferentino, in the Campagna di Roma, in the summer of the year 1223. Pope Honorius the Third, the emperor Frederick, the patriarch of the Holy City, the bishop of Bethlehem, the Grand Master of the Hospital, and one of the Grand Preceptors of the Temple, were present at this council, and the pope urged the emperor to fulfil the vow which he had made eight years before to lead an army to the succour of the Holy Land; offering him the hand of the lovely Violante, and with her the crown of the Latin kingdom. This offer was accepted, the nuptials were shortly afterwards celebrated, and the emperor solemnly took his oath upon the Holy Gospel to lead in person a great expedition for the recovery of Jerusalem.