jects of your desires, and have, at the first attack, vsïth the hand of violence seized upon those places ; and, whether you will or no, we hold possession of the spots in which you pretend that your10 superstition took its rise. Already, have we weakened and broken asunder the lances of the Gauls, baflled the efforts of the English, crushed the strength11 of the Germans, and now for the second time subdued the haughty Spaniards ; and though you thought to arouse all your might against us, hardly in any of your attempts did you succeed. Where then is your God? Let him arise now and help you, and let him be the protector of yourselves and of himself. The Germans indeed, who presumed that they should gain over us unheard-of triumphs, with ardent spirits crossed the seas to our land : and after they had taken the single fortified place of Baruth, when no one was defending it, unless the assistance of flight had come to the aid of them and the rest of your potentates, they would have wofully experienced upon themselves our might, and their descendants would have for ever bewailed the slaughter we had made of them. And as for your kings and princes, whom we formerly drove out of the lands of the East, in order that they may conceal their terror by putting on a show of daring, after returning to their skulking places, we will not say kingdoms, they prefer to attack each other, rather than once more experience our strength and our might. What then remains except that, those being cut off by the avenging sword, whom, running away, you dismissed for your own purposes and to restore peace to your territories, we should make an attack upon your territories, for the purpose of destroying your name and your memory?' How then, brethren and sons, are we to rebut the insults of these insultera, in what terms shall we be able to answer them ? When are we to see them on their side in pursuit of the truth,14 judging by what has lately reached our hearing upon certain information ? For we have received letters from parts beyond seas, to the effect that when the Germans had reached Acre with their fleet, they seized the castle of Baruth, there being no one to defend it ; while the Saracens, making an assault upon Joppa on the other side gained possession of it by storm, and having slain many thousand 10 " Nostrani" appears to be a misprint for " vestram." 1 1 " Vires" is probably the right reading and not " viros." w This passage appears to be in a corrupt state.