Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/97

Rh arrived, it was decided to attack Damietta, then considered the key to Egypt. Siege was accordingly laid to the town in the month of May, 1218, the military Orders as usual occupying a conspicuous position in the van of the army. The sultan of Egypt was apparently doubtful of the powers of resistance of this fortress, and dreading lest its fall should occasion the loss of his entire kingdom, he proposed a treaty to the Christians in virtue of which Jerusalem and the whole of Palestine, with two exceptions, were to revert to them, and all prisoners in the hands of the sultan to be released, provided the siege of Damietta were raised and the invasion of Egypt abandoned. John of Brienne and the Master of the Hospital were urgent that this very advantageous treaty should be accepted, but the papal legate, Pelagius, who had usurped almost unlimited authority in the allied camp, was of a different opinion, and in this he was joined by the Grand-Master of the Temple. Thus backed, his influence carried the point; the offers of the sultan were disdainfully rejected, and the siege was pushed on with redoubled vigour. John of Brienne retired for a time iii anger from an army in which, whilst he was the nominal head, the legate, in point of fact, ruled with absolute power.

After a defence which lasted for upwards of a year, Darnietta fell into the hands of the Christians, more on account of the exhaustion of the defenders than from any very active effort on the part of the assailants. Its population, which before the siege numbered upwards of 70,000 persons, barely at its close amounted to 3,000, and the victors, when they entered the place, found it one vast grave.

Fresh divisions arose in the councils of the army on the capture of Damietta. The king, who had by this time returned to the command, the Hospitallers, and those of the other chiefs who had all along supported his views, urged strongly that they should at once advance on Jerusalem, whilst the legate, the Templars, and their party, were equally strenuous in advising a penetration into the heart of Egypt and the complete overthrow of that monarchy. This they considered would prove the most certain method of permanently securing the safety of the Latin kingdom. The latter, as on the first occasion, carried their