Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/108

82 in their turn refused to join in that made with the sultan of Egypt. Thus the absurd and fatal anomaly was to be witnessed of the two Orders each remaining at war with a prince with whom the other was in alliance. To this unfortunate division must be attributed much of the sad result of the next campaign, a result which Bertrand de Comps was not destined to witness, he having died, in the year 1241, of wounds received in an action against the Turcomans, who had made an irruption into the territories of the prince of Antioch. They were in this battle completely routed, and their defeat cast a halo of glory over the chivalric end of the gallant and aged Master.

The short rule of his successor, Peter de Villebride, was marked by events most disastrous to the fortunes of the kingdom and of the Order, at the head of which the unanimous voice of the fraternity had placed him. A savage horde, known by the name of Korasmins, who dwelt near the shores of the Caspian Sea, having been driven from their homes by the Mogul Tartars, had spread themselves over the neighbouring countries. The leader of this irruption was called Barbacan, a general whose skill in war and intelligence in the art of government were such as to raise him in the scale of civilization far above his wild followers. The sultan of Egypt, dreading lest this inroad should take the direction of his territories, sought to divert the impetuosity of the current into another channel, and with a politic selfishness which the circumstances of the case might well excuse, determined on sacrificing his weaker neighbours to the safety of his own dominions. With this view he suggested to Barbacan that there would be no difficulty in seizing upon the Latin possessions in Syria; and in order still further to induce him to turn his steps in that direction, offered to assist him with a subsidiary force.

This proposition was just suited to a man in the position of Barbacan, who, having been expelled from his own mountain home, had the wide world before him. To him it was perfectly immaterial whether his enemy were Christian or Moslem. All he demanded was that he should be weaker than himself, and that the prospect of booty should be sufficient to render the enterprise lucrative. On, therefore, came the new foe, over-