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a foldierfwho afterwards ufurped the fceptre, rallied tlie 
flying Egyptian troops : the main body of tire Chriftians 
was far behind their vanguard ; and count Artois was 
overpowered and (lain. A fhower, of Greek fire was in- 
ceflantly poured on 1 the invaders; the Nile was com¬ 
manded by tire Egyptian galleys, the open country by 
the Arabs; all provjfions. were intercepted; each day 
aggravated the ficknefs and famine ; and about the fame 
time a retreat was found to be necelfary and impracti¬ 
cable. The Oriental writers confefs, that Louis' might 
have efcapcd, if he would have defected his fubjeCts: 
he was.made prifoner, with the greatelt part of his no¬ 
bles; all who could not redeem their lives by fervice or 
ranfom, were inhumanly maffacred; and the walls of 
Cairo were furmounted with innumerable heads of the 
vanquifhed Chriftians. The king of France was loaded 
with chains; but the generous viCtor, Touran, great 
grandfon of the brother of Saladin, lent a robe of ho¬ 
nour to liis royal captive ; and his deliverance, witli 
that of Iris foldiers, was decreed, by the reltitution of 
Damietta, and the payment of four hundred thoufand 
pieces of gold. The .king of France was made prifoner 
by the fultan of Egypt, on the 5th of April, 1250; and 
it was not until a month after this fatal conflict, that 
Louis, and his captured nobles, were permitted to leave 
Cairo. For amid the exultations of victory and the tu¬ 
mult of favagi war, a moll unforefeen and degrading re¬ 
volution was to take place in the imperial city of Egypt: 
it was now that the dynafty of the fugitive race of Mama- 
hikes was to be founded in blood and rapine; an event 
that at once aftoniflted and (hocked mankind, and which, 
for upwards of five centuries, hath lubjected the rich 
and fertile province of Egypt to the dominion of its own 
flaves. In a foft and luxurious climate, the degenerate 
children of Saladin were incapable of refilling the flower 
©f European chivalry: they triumphed chiefly by the 
arms of their Haves or mamalukes; for in the language 
of the country, mamalukt means (lave. Thefe were the 
hardy natives of Tartary, who at an early age were pur- 
chafed of the Syrian merchants; and educated in the camp 
and palace of tire fultan. Thus Egypt afforded a new 
example of tire danger of introducing praetorian bands ; 
the rage of thefe ferocious animals, who had been let 
loofe on the Franks, was finally provoked to devour their 
benefactor. In the midft of victory, Touran Shah was 
murdered by his mamalukes, on the id of May, 1250 ; 
and the moil daring of the aflafiins entered the chamber 
of the captive king of France, with drawn feymetars, and 
their bands imbrued in the blood of their fultan. The 
firnmefs of Louis, however, commanded their refpett ; 
their avarice prevailed over-cruelty and zeal ; the treaty 
was accomplilhed ; and the king of France, with-the re¬ 
lics of his army, was permitted to embark for Paleftine, 
on the 6th day of the fame month. He then wafted four 
years within the walls of Acre, unable to vifit Jerufalem, 
and unwilling to return without fome noble exploit to 
welcome him to his native country. 
The affairs of Egypt, in the mean while, were in the 
utmoft confufion. The afpiring mamalukes, as if over¬ 
come for the moment with fhame and remorle, knew not 
.on whom to confer the fupreme authority. In this inter¬ 
val of dread and confternation, they haltily affigned the 
iceptre to an intriguing, female, the ftep-mother of Tou¬ 
ran Shah, the murdered fultan; but feeling a(hanted of 
being governed by a woman, a (lave of the haratn, they 
proclaimed a child of fix years old to be their fultan, the 
.only defeendant they couLd find of the Aiubite family, 
and in him doled the domination of the race of Saladin 
in Egypt. Ezzed-din Moaz Ibegli, the mamuluke who 
had rallied the flying Egyptians in the conteft with the 
Ftench count Artois, married the ftep-mother of Touran 
Shah ; foon after which he found means to dethrone the 
infant fultan, andalfumed to himfelf the regal authority. 
This enterpVifing (lave was at the head of the Baharite 
Mamalukes, who were lb Filed from having been origi¬ 
nally employed as mariners, which that word implies, on 
board the fliips of the fultans of Egypt : they were Tar¬ 
tars. Ezzed-din Moaz began to reign, as the founder of 
the Baharite mamalukes, A. D. 1254; but he was aflaflL 
nated the firft year, and his fon Nureddin Ali fucceeded 
as fultan of Egypt in 1255. The celebrated Bondocdar, 
or Bibars, fupplanted Nureddin, and was proclaimed ful¬ 
tan of Egypt and Syria, A. D. 1260. In his reign Louis 
the Ninth undertook the laft of the crufades. After fix- 
teen years of repofe, the French king embarked with frefli 
confidence at the head of fix thoufand horfe and thirty 
thoufand foot. The lofs of Antioch had provoked the 
enterprife : a w ild hope of baptifing the king of Tunis, 
tempted him to (leer for the African coaft; and the re¬ 
port of an immenfe treafure reconciled his troops to the 
delay of their voyage to the Holy Land. But inltead of 
a profelyte, he found a fiege; the French panted and died 
on the burning.fands ; Louis expired in his tent; and no 
fooner had he clofed his eyes, than his fon and fuccelfor 
gave the fignal of the retreat. “ It is thus,” fays Voltaire, 
“ that a Chriftian king died near the ruins of Carthage, 
waging war againft the fedtaries of Mahomet, in a land 
to which Dido had introduced the deities of Syria.” 
A more abfurd conftitution cannot be deviled, than 
that which condemned the Egyptians to perpetual fervi- 
tude, under the arbitrary dominion of ftrangers and (laves. 
Yet in this ftate of Egypt the Franks were finally over¬ 
thrown. With fome breathing intervals of peace and 
order, the mamaluke dynalties are marked as a period of 
rapine and bioodilied : but their throne, hbwever fiiaken, 
repoled on t he two pillars of difeipline and valour; their 
fway extended over Egypt,-Nubia, Arabia, and Syria; 
their cavalry was multiplied to twenty-five thoufand; 
with one hundred and feven thoufand foot, and the occa- 
lional aid of fixty-lix thoufand Arabs. Men of Inch 
power and favage fpirit would not long endure on their 
coaft an hoftile and independent nation ; and if the ruin 
of the Franks had been peftponed, they were indebted to. 
the cares of an unfettled reign, to the invafion of the 
Moguls, and to the c^cafional aid of fome warlike pil¬ 
grims. Among thefe, the Englilh reader will recoiled: 
the name of our firft Edward, who aflumed the crofs in 
the life-time of his father Henry. At the head of a thou¬ 
fand foldiers, the future conqueror of Wales and Scotland 
delivered Acre from a liege ; marched as far as Nazareth- 
with an army of nine thoufand men ; emulated the fame 
of his uncle Richard ; extorted by his valour a ten years 
truce; and efcaped, with a dangerous wound, from the 
dagger of an a (Tallin. Antioch, whofe fituation had been 
lei's expofed to the calamities of the holy war, was finally 
occupied and ruined by the fultan Bibars, on the 12th of 
June, 1268; the Latin principality was extinguilhed ;. 
and the firft feat of the Chriftian name was difpeopled by’ 
the flaughter-of feventeen, and the captivity of one hun¬ 
dred thoufand of her inhabitants. The maritime towns 
of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli, Berytus, Sidon, Tyre, 
and JafFa, and the ftronger caftles of the Hofpitalers and 
Templars, fuccefiively fell; and the whole exiftence of 
the Franks was. confined to the city and colony of St. 
John of Acre, then deferibed by the more claflic title of 
Ptolemais. 
The power and prowefs of Bibars, his frequent victo¬ 
ries over the Moguls, and ftrict adminiftration of juftice, 
were the probable caufes of bis long reign without any 
attempt of atlafiination, or domeftic feud. He was fuc¬ 
ceeded as fultan of Egypt and Syria by Kalil Afcraf, who 
afeended the throne in 1290, and who, tire next year, 
wholly exterminated the power of the Chriftians in Pa¬ 
leftine. After the lofs of Jerufalem, Acre or Ptolemais, 
which is about feventy miles diftant from the holy city, 
became the metropolis of the Latin Chriftians, and was 
adorned with ftrong and (lately buildings, with aqueduds, 
an artificial port, and a double wall. The population was 
increafed by the incelfant ftreams of pilgrims and fugi¬ 
tives : ill the pa Life s of holUlity, the trade of the eaft 
