dear brother Henry, the illustrious king of England," gives a THOMAS long list of golden wands, golden combs, diamond buckles, chop-AlD. 12-·]'. lets, and circlets, golden crowns, imperial beavers, rich girdles, golden peacocks, and rings innumerable, adorned with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, topazes, and carbuncles, which she says she had inspected in the presence of the treasurer of the Temple at Paris, and that the same were safely deposited in the coffers of the Templars.* The military power of the orders of the Temple and the Hospital in Palestine was at last completely broken by Bibars, or Benocdar, the fourth Mamlook sultan of Egypt, who, from the humble station of a Tartar slave, had raised himself to the sovereignty of that country, and through his valour and military talents had acquired the title of " the Conqueror." He invaded Palestine (A.D. 1262) at the head of thirty thousand cavalry, and defeated the Templars and Hospitallers with immense slaughter.f After several years of continuous warfare, during which the most horrible excesses were committed by both parties, all the strongholds of the Christians, with the solitary exception of the Pilgrim's Castle and the city of Acre, fell into the hands of the infidels. On the last day of April, (A.D. 1265,) Benocdar stormed Arsuf, one of the strongest of the castles of the Hospitallers ; he slew ninety of the garrison, and led away a thousand iuto captivity. The year following he stormed Castel Blanco, a fortress of the Knights Templars, and immediately after laid siege to their famous and important castle of Saphet. After an obstinate defence, the Preceptor, finding himself destitute of provisions, agreed to capitulate, on condition that the surviving brethren and • Acta Jtymcri, torn. i. p. 730, 87(1, 879, ad ann. 1361. t Furent nuire et pria, et pe»»dirent les Templiers tot lor bernois, et le cominandeor du Temple frère Matthieu le Sauvage.—Coutin. hist. bell. sacr. ut sup. col. 737. Maria &anui, cap.1i.