In the course of a few years the Carizmians were annihilated. The sultan of Egypt having no further need of their services, left them to perish in the lands they had wasted. They were attacked by the sultans of Aleppo and Hems, and were pursued with equal fury by Moslems and by Christians. Several large bodies of them were cut up in detail by the Templars and Hospitallers, and they were at last slain to a man. Their very name perished from the face of the earth, but the traces of their existence were long preserved in the ruin and desolation they had spread around them.[123] The Holy Land, although happily freed from the destructive presence of these barbarians, had yet everything to fear from the powerful sultan of Egypt, with whom hostilities still continued; and Brother William de Sonnac, the Grand Master of the Temple, for the purpose of stimulating the languid energies of the English nation, and reviving their holy zeal and enthusiasm in the cause of the cross, despatched a distinguished Knight Templar to England, charged with the duty of presenting to king Henry the Third a magnificent crystal vase, containing, as it was alleged, a portion of the blood of Jesus Christ! A solemn attestation of the genuineness of this precious relic, signed by the patriarch of Jerusalem, and the bishops, abbots, and barons of the Holy Land, was forwarded to London, and was deposited, together with the vase and its contents, in the cathedral church of St. Paul. The king ordered the bishops and clergy devoutly and reverently to assemble at St. Paul’s, on the anniversary of the translation of St. Edward the Confessor, in full canonicals, with banners, crosses, and lighted wax-candles. On the eve of that day, according to the monk of St. Albans, who personally assisted at the ceremony, “our lord the king, with a devout and contrite spirit, as became that most christian prince, fasting on bread and water, and watching all night with a great light, and performing many pious exercises, prudently prepared himself for the morrow’s solemnity.” On the morrow a procession of bishops, monks, and priests, having been duly marshalled and arranged, king Henry made his appearance upon the steps at the south door of St. Paul’s cathedral, and receiving with “the greatest honour, and reverence, and fear, the little vase containing the memorable treasure, he bore it publicly through the streets of London, holding it aloft just above his face. Bareheaded, and clothed in a humble habit, he walked afoot without halting, to Westminster Abbey; and although he passed over rough and uneven pavements, yet he invariably kept his eyes stedfastly fixed, either on heaven or on that vase.” He made a solemn procession round the Abbey, then round the palace at Westminster, and then round his own bed-chamber, all the while unweariedly bearing aloft the precious relic, after which he presented it to God, and the church of St. Peter, to his dear Edward, and the sacred convent at