A CELESTIAL LIGHT
A CELESTIAL LIGHT
Book XV.. Joseph-Francois Michaud .. Illustrated by Gustave Dore

History of the Crusades
History of the Crusades

Illus -74 Tissue

A CELESTIAL LIGHT

The capitulation of Sefed granted the Christians permission to retire wherever they wished, upon condition that they would take away with them nothing but their clothes. . . . On the morrow, two only of those captives were set at liberty ; one was a brother Hospitaller, whom Bibars sent to Ptolemais to announce to the Christians the taking of Sefed ; the others was a Templar, who abandoned the faith of Christ, and attached himself to the fortunes of the Sultan ; all the others, to number of six hundred, fell beneath the sword of the Mamelukes.

It is impossible to describe the despair and consternation of the Christians of Palestine, when they learned the tragical end of he defenders of Sefed. Their superstitious grief invented or blindly received the most marvellous accouunts, which the Western chroniclers have not distained to repeat ; it was said that a celestial light shone every night over the bodies of the Christian warriors that remained unburied. It was added that the Sultan, annoyed by this prodigy, which was every day renewed before his eyes, gave orders that the martyrs of the Christian faith should be buried, and that around their place of sepulture high walls should be built, in order that nobody might witness the miracles operated in favour of the victims he had immolated to his vengeance. - Book XV

We offer Beautiful Giclee Art Print Productions of all of these illustrations at HistoryoftheCrusades.net

 

ill -1 ill -2 ill -3 ill 4 ill -5 ill -6 ill -7 ill -8 ill -9 ill -10 ill -11 ill -12 ill -13 ill -14 ill -15 ill -16 ill -17 ill -18 ill -19 ill -20 ill -21 ill -22 ill -23 ill -24 ill -25 ill -26 ill -27 ill -28 ill -29 ill -30 ill -31 ill -32 ill -33 ill -34 ill -35 ill -36 ill -37 ill -38 ill -39 ill -40 ill -41 ill-42 ill -43 ill -44 ill -45 ill -46 ill -47 ill -48 ill -49 ill -50 ill -51 ill -52 ill -53 ill -54 ill -55 ill -56 ill -57 ill -58 ill -59 ill -60 ill -61 ill -62 ill -63 ill -64 ill -65 ill -66 ill -67 ill -68 ill -69 ill -70 ill -71 ill -72 ill -73 ill -74 ill -75 ill -76 ill -77 ill-78 ill -79 ill -80 ill -81 ill -82 ill -83 ill -84 ill -85 ill -86 ill -87 ill -88 ill -89 ill -90 ill -91 ill -92 ill -93 ill -94 ill -95 ill -96 ill -97 ill -98 ill -99 ill -100
The images you see are only low resolution scans from our books. We offer Beautiful Art Print Productions of all of these illustrations at HistoryoftheCrusades.net
Home All Content design images text within this site are Copyright de Haerne 2003-2004

Note; page 173 to 174 Described .. Bibars, To inflame the ardour of the Mamelukes, he caused robes of honour and purses of money to be distributed on the field of battle. . .The Christians however, defended themselves valiantly. This resistance at first astonished their enemies, and soon produced discouragement ; in vain the sultan endeavoured to reanimate his soldiers, in vain he ordered those who fled should be beaten with clubs, and placed several emirs in chains for deserting their posts ; neither the dread of chastisements, nor the hopes of reward, could revive the courage of the Mussulmans. Bibars would have been obliged to raise the siege, if discord had not come to his assistance. He himself took great pains to give birth to it among the Christians ; in frequent messages sent to the garrison, perfidious promises and well-directed threats sowed seeds of suspicion and mistrust. *The arabian chroniclers describe this event in a very obcure and equivocal manner ; they scarcely mention the massacre of the prisoners, and say but little of the captiulation ; they accuse the Franks of having taken Mussulman prisoners away with them, which is not very probable.