CHAP. by fervice or ranfom, were inhumanly maffa LIX. cred; and the walls of Cairo were decorated His captivity in Egypt, A. D. 1250, April 5- with a circle of Chriftian heads ". The king of France was loaded with chains; but the generous victor, a great grandson of the brother of Saladin, fent a robe of honour to his royal captive; and his deliverance, with that of his foldiers, was obtained by the restitution of Damietta 98 and the payment of four hundred thoufand pieces of gold. In a foft and luxurious climate, the degenerate children of the companions of Noureddin and Saladin were incapable of refifting the flower of European chivalry: they triumphed by the arms of their slaves or Mamalukes, the hardy natives of Tartary, who at a tender age had been purchased of the Syrian merchants, and were educated in the camp and palace of the fultan. But Egypt foon afforded a new example of the danger of prætorian bands; and the rage of thefe ferocious animals, who had been let loofe on the strangers, was provoked to devour their benefactor. In the pride of conqueft, Touran Shaw, the laft of his race, was murdered by his Mamalukes; and the most daring of the affaffins entered the chamber of the captive king, with drawn fcymetars, and their hands imbrued 97 Savary, in his agreeable Lettres fur l'Egypte, has given a defcription of Damietta (tom. i. lettre xxiii. p. 274—290.), and a narrative of the expedition of St. Louis (xxv. p. 306–350.). 98 For the ransom of St. Louis, a million of byzants was afked and granted; but the fultan's generofity reduced that fum to 800,000 byzants, which are valued by Joinville at 400,000 French livres of his own time, and expreffed by Matthew Paris by 100,000 marks of filver (Ducange, Differtation xx. fur Joinville.). 99 *LIX. in the blood of their fultan. The firmnefs of CHA P. Louis commanded their refpect "; their avarice prevailed over cruelty and zeal; the treaty was accomplished; and the king of France, with the relics of his army, was permitted to embark for Palestine. He wafted four years within the walls of Acre, unable to visit Jerufalem, and unwilling to return without glory to his native country. The memory of his defeat excited Louis, after fixteen years of wisdom and repofe, to undertake the seventh and laft of the crufades. His finances were reftored, his kingdom was enlarged; a new generation of warriors had arisef, and he embarked with fresh confidence at the head of fix thoufand horse and thirty thousand foot. The lofs of Antioch had provoked the enterprife: a wild hope of baptifing the king of Tunis, tempted him to fteer for the African coaft; and the report of an immenfe treasure reconciled his troops to the delay of their voyage to the Holy Land. In- His death ftead of a profelyte, he found a fiege; the French Tunis panted and died on the burning fands; St. Louis in the expired in his tent; and no fooner had he clofed crufade, his eyes, than his fon and fucceffor gave the fignal of the retreat "It is thus," fays a lively Aug. 25. 100 99 The idea of the emirs to chufe Louis for their fultan, is seriously attested by Joinville (p. 77, 78.), and does not appear to me fo abfurd as to M. de Voltaire (Hift. Generale, tom. ii. p. 386, 387.). The Mamalukes themselves were strangers, rebels, and equals; they had felt his valour, they hoped his converfion; and fuch a motion, which was not feconded, might be made, perhaps by a fecret Chriftian, in their tumultuous affembly. 100 See the expedition in the Annals of St. Louis, by William de Nangis, p. 270-287, and the Arabic Extracts, p. 545. 855of the Louvre edition of Joinville. before seventh A. D. 1270, LIX. CHAP. writer," that a Chriftian king died near the "ruins of Carthage, waging war against the "fectaries of Mahomet, in a land to which Dido had introduced the deities of Syria The Ma- 1250- 101 99 A more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised, than that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual fervitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and flaves. Yet fuch has been the ftate of Egypt above five hundred years. The most illuftrious fultans of the Baharite and Borgite dynafties 102, were themfelves promoted from the Tartar and Circaffian bands; and the four-and-twenty beys or military chiefs, have ever been fucceeded, not by their fons, but by their fervants. They produce the great charter of their liberties, the treaty of Selim the first with the republic "3; and the Othman emperor ftill accepts from Egypt a flight acknowledgment of tribute and fubjection. With fome breathing intervals of peace and order, the two dynasties are marked as a period of rapine IC3 101 Voltaire, Hift. Generale, tom. ii. p. 391. Toz The chronology of the two dynasties of Mamalukes, the Baharites, Turks or Tartars of Kipzak, and the Borgites, Circaffians, is given by Pocock (Prolegom. ad Abulpharag. p. 6— 31.) and de Guignes (tom.i. p. 264-270.); their history from Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c. to the beginning of the xvth century, by the fame M. de Guignes (tom. iv. p. 110--328.). 103 Savary, Lettres fur l'Egypte, tom. ii. lettre xv. p. 189208. I much question the authenticity of this copy; yet it is true, that fultan Selim concluded a treaty with the Circaffians or Mamalukes of Egypt, and left them in poffeflion of arms, riches, and power. See a new Abregé de l'Hiftoire Ottomane, compofed in Egypt, and translated by M. Digeon (tom.i. p. 55~ 58. Paris, 1781), a curious, authentic, and national history. and LIX. and bloodshed 104: but their throne, however CHA P. fhaken, repofed on the two pillars of difcipline and valour; their fway extended over Egypt, Nubia, Arabia, and Syria; their Mamalukes were multiplied from eight hundred to twenty-five thou fand horfe; and their numbers were encreased by a provincial militia of one hundred and feven thousand foot, and the occafional aid of fixtyfix thousand Arabs 105. Princes of fuch power and spirit could not long endure on their coaft an hoftile and independent nation; and if the ruin of the Franks was poftponed about forty years, they were indebted to the cares of an unfettled reign, to the invafion of the Mogols, and to the occafional aid of fome warlike pilgrims. Among thefe, the English reader will observe the name of our firft Edward, who affumed the crofs in the lifetime of his father Henry. At the head of a thousand foldiers, the future conqueror of Wales and Scotland delivered Acre from a siege; marched as far as Nazareth with an army of nine thousand men; emulated the fame of his uncle Richard; extorted, by his valour, a ten years truce; and escaped, with a dangerous wound, from the dag 104 Si totum quo regnum occupârunt tempus refpicias, prefertim quod fini propius, reperies illud bellis, pugnis, injuriis, ac rapinis refertum (Al Jannabi, apud Pocock, p. 31.). The reign of Mohammed (A. D. 1311-1341) affords an happy exception (de Guignes, tom. iv. p. 208-210.). " 105 They are now reduced to 850p: but the expence of each Mamaluke may be rated at 100 louis; and Egypt groans under the avarice and infolence of these strangers (Voyages de Volney, tom. i, P. 89-187.). CHAP. ger of a fanatic affaffin 105. Antioch 107 LIX. Lofs of 12. A. D. whofe fituation had been lefs expofed to the calamities of the holy war, was finally occupied and ruined by Bondocdar, or Bibars, fultan of Egypt and 1268, June Syria; the Latin principality was extinguished; and the first feat of the Chriftian name was dispeopled by the flaughter of feventeen, and the captivity of one hundred, thoufand of her inhabitants. The maritime towns of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli, Berytus, Sidon, Tyre, and Jaffa, and the stronger caitles of the Hofpitalers and Templars, fucceffively fell; and the whole exiftence of the Franks was confined to the city and colony of St. John of Acre, which is fometimes defcribed by the more claffic title of Ptolemais. After the lofs of Jerufalem, Acre 108, which is diftant about feventy miles, became the metropolis of the Latin Christians, and was adorned with ftrong and ftately buildings, with aqueducts, an artificial port, and a double wall. The population was encreafed by the inceffant ftreains of pilgrims and fugitives; in the paufes of hoftility, 106 See Carte's Hiftory of England, vol. ii. p. 165-175. and his original authors, Thomas Wilkes and Walter Hemingford (l. iii. c. 34, 35.), in Gale's Collection (tom. ii. p. 97. 589–592.). They are both ignorant of the princefs Eleanor's piety in fucking the poifoned wound, and faving her husband at the risk of. her own life. 107 Sanutus, Secret. Fidelium Crucis, 1. iii. p. xii. c. 9. and de Guignes, Hift. des Huns, tom. iv. p. 143. from the Arabic hiftorians. 108 The state of Acre is represented in all the chronicles of the times, and most accurately in John Villani, 1. vii. c. 144. in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. xiii. P 337, 338. the |