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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. The Hospitallers constituted a military body—Raymond Dn Puis Grandmaster.— Wars in Antioch and JKdessa— The Seamd Crusade—Siege of Ascalon—Battle of Sueta— Death of Raymond Du Puis. The Egyptian Khalif, unconscious of the capture of Jerusalem, had despatched a large army to its succour; but the crusaders routed this force on the edge of the desert that separates Palestine from Egypt —a victory which enabled the leaders afterwards to devote themselves exclusively to the consolidation of the infant state. In consonance with the established principles of feudal polity, the conquered territory was divided among the chief crusaders, who, betaking themselves to the towns, suffered the Moslem peasantry to remain in precarious vassalage in the open country. One of the first acts of Godfrey, who was signally devout, was to found several new churches; and he also made it his duty personally to inspect the house of the Hospitallers of Saint John, which he found crowded with wounded soldiers, who loudly extolled the humane attentions that had been bestowed on them. Several illustrious crusaders were so deeply affected by the example of the Hospitallers, that, in the pious fervour of their souls, they abandoned the idea of returning to their native land, and voluntarily devoted themselves to the same charitable duties. Among those who took the habit of the fraternity, were Raymond du Puis, and Dudon de Comps, gentlemen of Dauphiny—Gastus of Ber- diez, and Canon de Montaigu of Auvergne. To contribute to the endowment of the Hospital, Godfrey bestowed on it the lordship of Montboire in Brabant, with all its dependencies. His example was followed by the principal chiefs of the crusade; and, in a short time, the Hospitallers had the revenues of a great number of rich manors, both...
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