Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/109

Rh running and. ravaging the unfortunate province which had but just returned under the rule of the Latins, and which was still suffering most severely from the perpetual warfare of which it had been the victim. Every effort which the brief space of time permitted had been made to place the sacred city in a defensible position, and had a little longer breathing time been vouchsafed to the defenders, they would probably have succeeded in holding their own, whilst the undisciplined bands of the Korasmins would have thrown themselves in vain against the ramparts. As it was, only a few feeble earthworks had as yet risen, and behind these the military Orders felt that it would be madness to attempt a stand. They therefore, after much sad and painful deliberation, determined once more to abandon to the infidel that consecrated soil, the centre of so many aspirations, and, alas! the grave of so many hopes. Many of the inhabitants, however, having only lately established themselves in their new homes, were blinded by the fury of their zeal, and burning to prevent a renewed desecration of their Saviour’s tomb, persisted in remaining behind with the full determination of opposing to the death the onward course of the invaders. Others followed in the rear of the military Orders, who, after having evacuated the city, pitched their camp sufficiently near to enable them to watch the course of events.

As may be conceived, the Korasmins found an easy prey in the mob of undisciplined enthusiasts by whom they were confronted. Hurling themselves in resistless multitudes upon the feeble and unfinished entrenchments, they carried them at the first onslaught. Thence they poured into the city, where they renewed once again those scenes of carnage which had been so often before enacted on the sell-same spot. It is needless to pause on the painful picture. Where savage and unbridled lust is let loose upon a defenceless people the result may be conceived. In the present instance the horrors perpetrated fully equalled anything which the most vivid imagination could dare to portray. With a cunning scarcely to be looked for in such savages, they had no sooner established themselves securely in the city than they raised upon its ramparts the standard of the Christians. Deceived by its appearance, and imagining in con-