Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-31
THE HOLY LAND
X--A CRUSADERS CASTLE
Bv Frederic j. Haskin

of France and Richard Plantagenet OF
England. Despite their quarrels with
each other, these two knightly Kings
had reduced the stronghold OF Acre
and had added it to the Latin KING
dom of Jerusalem at a cost or not less
than 100000 human lives. But IN the
year 1899 there was no GodIrey oA
Bouillon, no Richard of the Lion t1eaas'
to uphold the banner of the cross.
Hugh de Lusignan, king of Jerusalem
claimed dominion over all Palestine,
but in reality there was nothing leII
except Acre, with its cosmopolite pop
ulation made UP of fanatics and adVen-
turers from every European nation.
These lawless Christians perpetraten
such outrageous inJustices upon, the
Moslem merchants of the neighborhood
that in the year 1891 Mameluke prince
of Egypt entered Palestine at the head
of an army of quarter of a million
men and besieged the city. The cow
ardly king escaped the night before the
siege began, and was followed by
majority of the wretched and vicious
inhabitants, who left the defense of the
city to about 10000 soldiers-members
and retainers of the three military
orders, the Teutonic knights, the Tenl-
plars and the Hospitalers. They stood
their ground nobly, however, but at
the end of thirty-three days the MOS
lem army broke through the defenses,
and ended the annals of the Crusades,
just as they had begun two centuries
before In Jerusalem, with festival or
murder. Sixty thousand Christians met
their deaths that day at the swords
OF OF the Mameluke troops. or the
knights who defended the city, only
seven escaped.
Cut off from Acre by the invading
army, small body of Templars was
penned up I'm the castle at Athlit, q
huge pile built in the palmy days of
that knightly order as a branch OF the
chief house which stood without Hoi-
born Bar In London, the ancestor of
the Temple. This castle was built In
1918 over and around a smaller fortih-
cation which was erected by Richard
of the Lion Heart and which was later
used as a stable by the knights, pur-
pose to which 1t is devoted today by It's
Bedouin inhabitants. Within this
stronghold the knights defended them
selves nobly, but when Acre fell they
knew 1t was hopeless to Withstand the
force OF the entire army of the Cres-
cent. And so one night they gathered
them in the banqueting hall and had
last feast, and then they went into tho
church and heard the last prayers, and
then they took to their boats and under
| cover OF DARKNESS escaped TO Ine lSldTQ
of Cypress. The next day the forces of
the Mameluke prince. Sultan Molek-
el-Ashraf, again attacked the fortress.
Finding no opposition they entered 1t
and despolled the church. Later the
sultan destroyed many OF the build
ings to obtain stone to be used In re-
building the ruined Acre.
And now, since seven centuries have
gone. one may visit tho Castle Athlit
in safety and In peace. The breakers
of the Mediterranean lash themselves
against Its mighty wall, and great
flakes of seafoam float through its
broken arches. The moat is filed with
sand and the bridges have long since
crumbled into dust. A picturesqIe'
young Bedouin, carrying preternatur-
ally long rifle on his shoulder. meets
one at the outer gate and demands
baekshish. His savage mein is amelio-
rated by the magic of silver and he
uses his archaic weapon only for or
nament.
He takes one into the fortress and
guides him about amidst the queer con-
glomeration of dead grandeur and liv-
ing squalor. The miserable huts OF the
villagers are built of richly carved
blocks of stone torn from the walls OF
the old castle, but 1t staggers the
imagination to be called upon to believe
that the ancestors of such as these viii
layers were able to prevail against our
own ancestors who built and defended
this magnificent stronghold.
There remains today one wall of the
great church, still standing more than
eighty feet high, showing the bases OF
the great gothic arches which supported
it's ceiling. A little distance away is
the banquet hall, three walls of which
still stand. But the sea breaks on the
lower wall and great flakes of seafoam
float through the broken arches.
The American who sees II today can
not fail TO be most profoundly im-
pressed by the massiveness, the strength
and the antiquity OF this work of his
British, French and German ancestors,
for as yet the United States, with all
its wealth and power, has not produced
building to compare in beauty and
massive strength with this old castle
which was the scene of the last stand
of the knights Templar in the Holy
Land, the death house of the Crusades.
Tomorrow-The Holy Land;
XI.-Nazareth the Despised.