Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/126

100 days of Christian dominion, a scene of reckless turbulence and unbridled debauchery. Drunkenness, prostitution, and other vices more Eastern in their character, and too odious to be particularized, stalked rampant through its streets, and the gaily-dressed and painted harlot of Acre was notorious throughout the neighbouring districts. It was thronged by the people of no less than seventeen countries, speaking different languages, and governed by different laws. Each race occupied a separate and distinct portion of the town, having no community of interests with one another, and rendering allegiance to no supreme head. Every species of vice and wickedness consequently flourished unchecked, and the general demoralization was such that the city had gradually become a perfect sink of iniquity.

Many acts of wanton outrage having been committed on the Moslems of the neighbourhood through the brigandage of some of its heterogeneous inhabitants, the sultan, Mansour, who was only waiting for a plausible excuse to complete the expulsion of the Christians from Syria, demanded instant reparation for these wrongs. The Grand-Masters of the military Orders both urged a prompt compliance with this request. It was, indeed, not only perfectly reasonable in itself, but also at the same time backed by the whole power of Egypt—a power which recent events had taught them they were utterly unable to resist. The advice was, however, rejected with scorn; prudent counsels were stigmatized as cowardice; an answer of defiance was returned, and crc long the inhabitants of Acre learned with dismay that the whole strength of the Egyptian empire was on its road to crush this, the last stronghold of Christianity.

Mansour did not live to carry out the enterprise himself, having been poisoned by one of his generals whilst on the march to Acre. His son Khaled, however, stimulated by the last words of his father, who had directed that his body should not receive the rites of sepulture till after the capture of the city, determined to carry out the enterprise. He pushed forward his troops without delay, and ere long appeared before the walls with an army which the Arabian historians have computed at 160,000 foot and 60,000 horse. Undismayed by this enormous force, the military Orders, at the first sound of the infidel