184 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
Knights were eager to take advantage of the presence of a
king so renowned as Louis and a Christian army which was
not only large but much better equipped than most Crusading
expeditions. The garrisons of Palestine were reduced in
order that a strong force should be sent with the French to
Damietta, and in June, 1249, William de Sonnac led several
hundred Knights Templars from Acre.
Damietta was easily taken—" not by the strength of our
own arms ", said the Grand Master of the Temple, " but
through the assistance and power of heaven ". Although
half of his ships had been blown off their course and had not
yet rejoined him, Louis determined to land at once and after
a short struggle he defeated a Moslem army which tried to
repel him. In the Fifth Crusade, Damietta had proved that
it could withstand a long siege, but it made little attempt to
resist the French on this occasion. The inhabitants—misled,
it is said, by a report that the Sultan had died and that no
assistance could be sent to them—hastily evacuated the city.
Trouble broke out when the Christians entered Damietta, for
Louis would not surrender the third of the booty which the
Church claimed as its share.
There were soon further quarrels. Some of the Crusaders
wished to push on, but Louis preferred to wait till his brother,
Alphonse of Poitiers, who had remained in France to collect
reinforcements, could join the Crusade. The winter was
passed at Damietta, and the Crusaders became demoralised in
idleness. An English contingent had arrived and was soon
on terms of enmity with the French. The Temple squabbled
with the Hospital, the Hospital with the Teutonic Knights,
and all three military organisations with the secular troops.
The advance which had been promised for the spring was
postponed to the summer and then to the autumn, and not
before November, 1250, did the Crusade leave Damietta.
Men had come from all parts of Christendom to serve under
Louis and the army now numbered over seventy thousand 5