During a dark winter’s night the garrison succeeded in making their escape, and the next morning the Moslems poured into the citadel by thousands, and abandoned themselves to pillage. The fortifications were levelled with the dust, and Bendocdar assisted with his own hands in the work of demolition. He then detached some Mamlook emirs with a body of cavalry against Caiphas, and proceeded himself to watch the movements of the Templars, and examine into the defences of the Pilgrim’s Castle. Finding the place almost impregnable, and defended by a numerous garrison, he suddenly retraced his steps to the south, and stormed, after a brave and obstinate defence, the strongly fortified city of Arsoof, which belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. The greater part of the garrison was massacred, but one thousand captives were reserved to grace the triumph of the conqueror. They were compelled to march at the head of his triumphal procession, with their banners reversed, and with their crosses, broken into pieces, hung round their necks. Bendocdar had already despatched his bravest Mamlook generals, at the head of a considerable body of forces, to blockade Beaufort and Saphet, two strong fortresses of the order of the Temple, and he now advanced at the head of a vast army to conduct the siege of the latter place in person. On 21 Ramadan, the separate timbers of his military machines arrived from Damascus at Jacob’s bridge on the Jordan; the sultan sent down his emirs and part of his army, with hundreds of oxen, to drag them up the mountains to Saphet, and went with his principal officers to assist in the transport of them. “I worked by the sultan’s side, and aided him with all my might,” says the cadi Mohieddin; “being fatigued, I sat down. I began again, and was once more tired, and compelled to take rest, but the sultan continued to work without intermission, aiding in the transport of beams, bolts, and huge frames of timber.” The Grand Master of the Temple ordered out twelve hundred cavalry from Acre to create a diversion in favour of the besieged; but a treacherous spy conveyed intelligence to Bendocdar, which enabled him to surprise and massacre the whole force, and return to Saphet with their heads stuck on the lances of his soldiers. At last, after an obstinate defence, during which many Moslems, say the Arabian writers, obtained the crown of martyrdom, the huge walls were thrown down, and a breach was presented to the infidels; but that breach was so stoutly guarded that none could be found to mount to the assault. Bendocdar offered a reward of three hundred pieces of gold to the first man who entered the city; he distributed robes of honour and riches to all who were foremost in the fight, and the outer inclosure, or first line of the fortifications was, at last, taken.