202 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
dissolve with the situation which had brought them into being.
A group of Moslem princes who had been too busy fighting
among themselves to pay much attention to the Latin states
would sink their differences and combine against a Crusade.
They might be defeated by the Crusaders, but as soon as the
Western army had withdrawn the allied princes would
descend on the settlers. The alliance did not last and the
princes were soon ranged against each other again, but before
the combination broke down severe blows were perhaps
inflicted on Jerusalem, or Antioch, or Tripoli.
A Crusade might add territory to the Latin states, and
it was pleasant to the settlers to have new lands opened up to
them. Every addition of territory, however, meant an
actual weakening of the strength of the kingdom. One of
the problems of the Latin states was the amount of territory
which had to be defended} every new conquest meant more
castles and more men employed on garrison duty. The
Moslem prince who had been dispossessed by a Crusading
army waited until that army had returned to the West, and
then threw himself on the Latins who occupied his land.
Sometimes he captured other Christian territory as well as
regained what he had lost, but, whether he did so or not,
the number of Christian defenders was reduced by losses in
such battles, and the Franks were worn down by these almost
constant struggles for the possession of places acquired by
later Crusades from Europe.
For many years the Temple and the Hospital could not
resist the lure of conquest, and, though well aware of the
penalty that must be paid as soon as a Crusade had left the
country, they encouraged the Western armies to press into
Moslem territory. Even the rashest and most foolhardy
of the leaders learned by experience that the price of such
conquests was too high. With the assistance of fifty thousand
pilgrims from the West, the brethren might capture a rich
town. The Temple would probably be able to garrison the