THE KHORASMIANS l6l
were being made on the Christians. Although the attacks
were on a small scale, they served to divert the attention of
the Christians from the question of government. El Kamel
was not responsible for the breaches of the treaty. The
attacks were made without his authority by the Moslems of
ceded territories. They refused to accept the Christian
dominion, and, organised in armed bands, they swept down
on pilgrims on the way from the coast to Jerusalem. On one
occasion ten thousand Christians were trapped and slaughtered
by these marauders. At the same time the Prince of
Damascus invaded the Christian lands. The succession of
minor engagements was a constant drain on the military
Orders. In 1237 the Templars in Antioch, led by the Pre-
ceptor, were taken unawares by a Moslem army. " In the
battle fell more than a hundred knights of the Temple and
three hundred crossbowmen, apart from a large number of
seculars and many foot soldiers." The chronicler goes on to
relate that three thousand Turks were killed by the Christians,
but the Moslems had a host from which new troops could be
raised whereas a hundred knights represented more than half
the total of the Knights Templars in Antioch.
So long as the treaty with Egypt was in force, the Franks
lost little land, but almost immediately the truce expired in
1239 the Egyptians invaded the Latin kingdom. A great
army ruthlessly pushed back the Christians, who were forced
to surrender Jerusalem and several other places. El Kamel
had, however, died shortly before, and when the usual
quarrels about succession broke out among the Saracens, the
Franks were able to regain part of the lost territory, though
they failed to recover Jerusalem.
The recapture of the Holy City had seemed certain, for,
during the struggle between the claimants to El KamePs
empire, a new Crusade arrived from the West. These
Crusaders had left Europe despite the prohibition both of the
Pope and the Emperor Frederick. The Holy See forbade
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