Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/112

86 of the Hospitallers surviving the slaughter which marked the close of the struggle. With this disastrous defeat ended all hope of resisting the victorious advance of the Korasmins, and the slender relics of the Christian force sought the shelter of Acre. Here William do Chateauneuf was raised to the post of Master of the Hospital, vacant by the death of Peter de Villebride on the field of Gaza. Prior to his elevation he had been a preceptor in the Order, and it was from a letter of his, recording the fatal issue of that battle, that most of the details of the campaign have been preserved on the page of history.

Chateauneuf found himself at the head of his fraternity at a time when it was plunged into a state of the direst confusion and distress. Within the limits of the Hoiy Land there remained only a few members, mostly wounded, who, from behind the walls of Acre, were compelled to tolerate the ravage of that sacred soil which they were no longer in a position to defend. Spread like a flight of locusts over the province, the Korasmins destroyed far and wide everything which fell within their grasp. Wherever they turned their steps a heart-rending wail of distress and misery arose in their track. Had they remained united amongst themselves it is certain that they must speedily have completed the destruction of the Christians, and there is every probability that they could even have established themselves in secure and permanent empire on the wreck of the two Saracen kingdoms of Egypt and Damascus. Most providentially, however, the seeds of jealousy and mutual animosity soon sprang up in their midst. Commencing in trivial quarrels and unimportant skirmishes their disputes increased in virulence and intensity until eventually they had so far enfeebled themselves as to be no longer an object of dread to the surrounding potentates. Hemmed in on all sides by bitter and now openly declared enemies, and harassed by the peasantry of the district, whose hatred they had aroused by their licentiousness and savage brutality, they gradually diminished in numbers until before long no trace remained of a power which had so lately been the terror of the East.

Freed from the imminent peril which had at one time threatened complete annihilation, Chateauneuf took the most