[45] The text of this treaty may be read in the life of Kelaoun.
[46] M. de Sacy has translated a treaty concluded between the sultan of Egypt and the kings of Sicily and Arragon. The following is one of the clauses of this treaty:—“If the case should happen that the pope of Rome, the kings of the Franks, of the Greeks, of the Tartars, or others, should ask the king of Arragon or his brothers, or should cause to be asked in the states of their dominions, auxiliary troops or any succour, whether of cavalry, infantry, money, vessels, clothing, or arms, the said princes would give no consent to it, either openly or in secret; they would grant them no succour, and would consent to nothing of the kind. If the king of Arragon should learn that one of the above-named kings should have any intention of carrying war into the states of the sultan, or to cause him any prejudice, he will send and advise the sultan of it, and will inform him on what side his enemies propose to attack him, and that with the shortest delay possible, before they shall be put in motion, and he will conceal nothing concerning it from him.” This treaty is very long, and provides against all difficulties. We may here make a general remark, which is, that most of the treaties made between the Orientals and the Christians surpass, in some sort, the sagacity of modern diplomacy; so much mistrust gave foresight to the negotiators and the contracting powers.
[47] We can find no document on this subject in the chronicles of the West; our guide has been Ibn-Ferat.
[48] All these curious details upon Ptolemaïs, its morals, and the mode of living of its inhabitants, are furnished by Herman Cornarius (Ekard’s Collection). A more extensive extract will be found in our analysis of the German authors.
[49] We find this fact in two Austrian chronicles, which have for title, one, Chronicon Anonymi Leobensis; the other, Thomœ Ebendorfeiri de Haselbach Chronicon. The first says that the legate called together the people of Ptolemaïs, that he launched against them the anathemas of the Church, and then embarked to return to Rome. This last circumstance appears to us improbable, and we have, therefore, passed it over in silence.
[50] This circumstance is related in the life of the sultan Kelaoun. (See the extracts from Arabian manuscripts in our Appendix.)
[51] For the siege of Ptolemaïs we have consulted Sanuti, Herman, and a manuscript relation. This relation, written in the French of the time, appears to have been drawn from a letter from John de Vile, marshal of the hospital of St. John, who wrote to his brother, William de Vile, prior of St. Gilles, in Provence. Either John de Vile was at Ptolemaïs, or he wrote from the evidence of some Hospitallers who had escaped the swords of the Mussulmans, and had retired to the isle of Cyprus. This manuscript chronicle, which we often use, is divided into twenty-two chapters It is in the King’s Library, No. 1290.
[52] This fact is related in the chronicle we have before quoted.
[53] A manuscript account of the siege and taking of Acre by the Saracens.
[54] This extraordinary fact is related in a discourse addressed to Pope Nicholas IV. by Brother Arsene, a Greek priest, who had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the time of the siege of Ptolemaïs. This account is found in Muratori; we have translated it entirely, as will be seen in our Appendix.