The Knights Templars.

Friars" and "Red Cross Knights . " Furthermore , at this chapter , Bernard Baliol , for the love of God and good of his soul , granted the Templars his estate of Wedelee , in Hertfordshire . This afterwards formed part of the Preceptory of Temple

Dynnesley . From this grant we learn that , besides the Pope and the king , there were present several archbishops , many of the greatest princes and nobles of Christendom , while the members of the Order mustered 130 knights , all clad in the white

mantles of the Temple . At this chapter the new Crusade was finall y determined upon , and large sums were granted fco the Templars to meet the expenses of preparation .

The leaders of the second Crusade were Louis VII . and Conrad III ., Emperor of Germany . Upwards of 1 , 200 , 000 men marched under their banners to the East , moved thereto by the eloquence of St . Bernard . Everard de Barri ,

with 130 of the Knights of the Temple , accompanied the King of France . This Crusade was a total failure , the Emperor Manuel Comnenus of Greece being hostile to them , and in league with the Turks . He permitted both armies to

pass through Asia Minor , but his scouts betrayed them to the enemy , and the armament of Conrad was routed by the Turks at Iconium , while a similar fate befell that of Louis in the defiles of

the Pisidian mountains . Conrad fled to Constantantinople , from whence he took ship to the Holy Land , arriving at Jerusalem with a few attendants . He was there received and entertained by the Templars , and lodged in their House . Had it not

been for the valour and forethought of the Templars , who guarded the rear in this disastrous march , not one of Louis's huge host would have escaped . Everard de Barri shared the command with the brave old warrior , Gilbert , and under these leaders ,

whom the king himself obeyed , the Crusaders avenged their defeats upon the Musselmen , whom they routed on several occasions with terrible slaughter . Odo of Diagolum , the chaplain of Louis , informs

us that the king was delighted with the frugality and simplicity of the Templars , and loved to imitate them ; he praised their union and disinterestedness , admiring above all things the attention they paid to their accoutrements , the care in

husbanding and preserving their equipage and munitions of war , and held them up as models to the army . In a letter to Sugei ' , Abbot of St . Denis , his minister and vicegerent , Louis writes

that he could not irnae ,-me how it would have been , possible for the army to have subsisted for evea the smallest space of time in the East , had it not been for the Templars' support and assistance ,, which had never failed him from the first day he

set foot there up to the time of his despatching * , his letter . He recommended them warmly to the Abbot , and furthermore desired that as he had . borrowed from the Order a considerable sum of money , it should be repaid them quickly , so that ,

they might not suffer loss , and that he , the king , might keep his word , which he had passed to them . The remains of the two armies joining , they pursued their journey to Syria , where they were met by the Princes of Jerusalem and Antioch ,

The Crusaders immediately laid siege to Damascus , "The Queen of Syria , " which was defended by Noureddin and Saif-eddin , the sons of Zenghi .

The Beauseant , now assumed by the Templars as a standard , formed of black and white cloth , was , for the first time , to be flown under the sky of Judea , where , for nearly two hundred years , its presence carried dismay into the ranks of the

heathen , who fled like sparrows from a hawk on its approach . 'Tis strange the power this flag had over the minds of both friend and foe . BJT the one it was looked upon as the talisman of victory , by the other as the thunderbolt of

destruction ; and when we remember that , so long as the Beauseant flew , so long was the battle maintained by the Templars , we cease to marvel at the supertitious awe with which it was regarded by the enemy . The Knights , no longer

wandering in bands of two and three , and performing deeds that rivalled the dreams of the recorder of the famous combats of the Brotherhood of the

Round Table—Aniadis de Gaul and other brave but mythical personages — were now united , a terrible band , that attacked armies , and spread havoc and dismay among hosts . They seemed to possess charmed lives ; aud their antagonists ,

struck with rage and terror , dubbed them sons of Satan . Proud in their strength , and confident in the sacred cause for whose honour he fought , a Templar would have alone attacked a host , or mounted the walls of an enemy's city ; and it was

no great stretch of rhetoric on the part of St .. Bernard when he wrote that one had put a thousand , and two ten thousand , enemies to flight . The meaning of the mixture of black and whiteon the banner was , that , though kind and true totheir Christian brethren , they were black and