The Knights Templars.

and would have taken possession of it but for the cupidity of the Templars , who had now begun to degenerate from the single-mindedness aud humility that formerly characterised their Order . Piling great heaps of wood against the wall , the

besiegers set fire to them , and the wind blowing very strongly , carried the smoke into the town , and forced the defenders , on account of the great heat , to retire from that part . In spite of the missiles shot from the town among their ranks by

the enemy , the attackers , by pouring oil and various combustible matters upon the fires , succeeded in keeping them burning , till , on account of the great heat , the wall next the fire cracked and fell down , presenting to the delighted view of the

Christians a wide and easily-entered breach . The army was marshalled for an immediate attack : but Bernard de Trenellepe , with forty of the

knights , sprang into the breach , and refused to allow the others to enter . It was a law amono-O the Crusaders that , whenever a city was taken , any house or spoil seized became the property of the captor . The town of Ascalon being very rich ,

offered great inducements for plunder , and the Templars desired to have the first share of the booty . But they paid dearly for their rashness and cupidity . The Saracens hurried to the spot in great numbers , and seeing how few the

Templars were , surrounded and slew the Master and every one of the Knights . Proud of the massacre of those whom they considered their most dangerous , for most determined , enemies , they exposed the dead bodies of the luckless Knights in triumph

from the walls of the city—a spectacle which filled the hearts of the Christians with fury and despair . ( To he continued . )

Our American Correspondence.

OUR AMERICAN CORRESPONDENCE .

Monthly Series from KOBEKT MOHRIS , LL . D ., of La Grange , Kentucky , U . S ., Past Grand Master , and Writer upon Masonic History , Src . In commencing a series of Masonic epistles " from me to thee , " I am forcibly reminded of the circumstance that it was in September ,

1857—just ten years syne—that I began a similar series for your esteemed predecessor , which was continued for a considerable period , not without delectation to myself . Next to receiving Masonic light , I enjoy the importation of it , and I anticipate considerable pleasure in our monthly communications to come .

Shall I not revert to the changes of ten years ? How can I avoid it ? Where are the lights of English Masonic history in 1847—57 ? Answer to the roll-call—Oliver , Masson , S . B . Wilson I " Dead on the field of glory , " is the sepulchral

reply . Turning over my files to the names of Fnrnell , Allison , Crucifix , and a host of others loom before me , mere shadows , their realities gone" beyond the river . " It is so here afc home . At the date of my last

epistles to the FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE , my handswere strengthened by a band of renowned Masons ,, among whom the names of William B . Hubbard , Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar in the United States ; Philip C .

Tucker , Grand Master of Vermont ; Charles Scott , author of "Analogy of Freemasonry to Natural and Revealed Reli gion ; " G . W . Chase , Masonic author and editor ; and Salem Town .

author of " Speculative Masonry ; " will live in our annals to remotest day . Each of them has yielded to the inevitable stroke . Each too hasbeen followed by hundreds of the lesser lights , whose united rays made American Freemasonry

for 1847 to 1857 , a thing to be fondly regarded by the few of us who remain . I shall limit myself in the present paper to &• ¦ general view of the condition of the Craft here . I apprehend that your readers , accustomed to the

polity of your own Grand Lodge , have but slight conceptions of the way "Brother Jonathan " manages his Masonry . In the first place , then , wehave no less than forty-one Grand Lodges governing an aggregate of not less than 6 , 700 '

lodges ! If the average membership of thesebodies rises as it used to do when I devoted more time to statistics than I can now—that is fort yone to a lodge—we number about 275 , 000-Masons .

Each Grand Lodge , whether like Montana , which has but six constituting lodges , or like New York , which has more than 600 , is supreme within its own geographical territory . There is no analogy , as some of my English correspondents suppose ,

between our American Grand Lodges , and the Provincial Grand Lodges' of England ; the latterare strictly subordinate to the United Grand Lodge of England ; the former are Masonicall y independent and supreme .

The names and comparative strength of these forty-one Grand Lodges may be of sufficientinterest to your readers to occupy a paragraph ,.