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CHAPTER XI.

END OF THE ARMED PILGRIMAGE.

HE Templar and the English knight after a

variety of adventures reached Acre, having on
their way fallen in with Father Yves, whom King
Louis had sent on a mission to ‘ the Old Man of the
Mountains ’"—that remarkable personage to whose
behests kings bowed, and at whose name princes
trembled —and a knight of the noble House of
Coucy, who had come from Constantinople, and
whose accounts of the state of the Latin empire of
the East much increased Bisset’s desire to go and
offer his sword to the Emperor Baldwin de Courtenay,
then struggling desperately to maintain his throne
against Greeks and Turks.

On reaching Acre, however, the ambassadors found
that King Louis and the court were at Sajecte, and
without delay repaired thither to present the gifts
sent by Oulagon, and inform him of the unexpected
event which had frustrated the object of their mis-
sion. Louis was deeply grieved at the failure of his
attempt to open the prison doors of the unfortunate
captives, and with tears bewailed their unhappy fate.

But soon after this, the saint-king found that the