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CHAPTER XXXITT.
ACRE.

A T the time when King Louis, sad but unsubdued,
A left Damietta and steered for the Syrian coast,
Acre, situated on a promontory at the foot of Mount
Carmel and washed by the blue waters of the Medi-
terranean, was a place of great strength, and re-
nowned throughout Christendom for riches and
splendour. For a long period previous to its destruc-
tion by the Mameluke Sultan—indeed, from the time
of the seizure of Jerusalem by Saladin the Great—
Acre was regarded as of higher importance than any
city in the Christian kingdom of which Jerusalem
had been the metropolis; and thither, when driven
from other towns which they had called their own
in the days of Godfrey and the Baldwins, most of
the Christians carried such wealth as they could
save from the grasp of sultans and emirs. Acre
had, in fact, come to be regarded as the capital of
the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and by far the finest of
the cities in Syria.

Naturally enough, a capital so wealthy was cathe
tempting to men bent on conquest. But Acre had
the advantage of being strongly fortified. On the