The Lost Treasure of the Templars Read Free Page A

own sword as he stared at the two dead men.
    â€œWe should never have trusted these infidels,” he said bitterly.
    He strode across to where the boy still lay spread-eagled over the barrel, removed the length of cloth from around his neck, and helped him stand up.
    The first knight bent down beside his decapitated victim and cleaned the blood from the blade of his sword with the Mamluk’s robe. Then he sheathed the weapon and knelt beside the woman who’d been raped. She was still unconscious, but at least she was breathing. The knight rearranged her clothing to cover her thighs andgroin, affording her a slim measure of decency, and then stood up.
    Moments later, Pierre de Sevry himself appeared on the scene with two other senior knights, his face reflecting the fury he felt at what had taken place.
    â€œI was perhaps too hasty, Master,” the first knight said, somewhat hesitantly, “but when I saw what was happening I reacted instinctively.”
    De Sevry shook his head. “No, my brother. You did what any of us, what any decent man, would and should have done.”
    He paused for a moment, and then nodded, his decision made. He turned to the knights standing beside him and issued three simple orders.
    â€œFind them,” he said. “Find them all, and kill them all. When you’ve done that, tear down that rag and hoist the
Beauseant
in its place. And then summon Tibauld de Gaudin to my presence.”
    *   *   *
    â€œI am unhappy about this,” de Gaudin said, sitting on the opposite side of the table to the grand master. “I feel that my place is here, with you and the other members of our order, until the end comes.”
    De Sevry nodded.
    â€œI know that,” he replied, “but we have to look at the whole situation. Because of what happened here today, and no matter what transpires tomorrow, this fortress is going to fall. Perhaps not this week, perhaps not even next week, but within a month the siege engines and the miners will have done their work and the walls will give way. I know that you are unconcerned for your own life, but we have charge of these women and children and the only hope they have is you, my brother. I have alreadyordered my men to load the chests onto the ship. As soon as they have completed that work, I want you to take on board the vessel as many of the women and children as the ship will physically hold, and then sail as quickly as you can to Sidon and to our castle there. That would at least ensure that we salvage something from the disaster of Acre, even if it is only the lives of the innocents.”
    â€œVery well,” de Gaudin said, “if that is your order, then I will of course obey. When I reach Sidon I will organize a force to sail here as quickly as possible to assist you.”
    â€œDo not bother, my friend. I have a feeling that this will all be over long before any reinforcements could possibly arrive.”
    That evening, while it was still light enough to see, the galley that had been allocated to Tibauld de Gaudin, the treasurer of the
Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici
in Outremer, the land beyond the sea, moved slowly and silently away from the dock that was protected by the Templar castle. Positioned in a line above the keel were half a dozen ironbound and locked chests, and sitting or standing on every available few square inches of space on the deck were the women and children fortunate enough to have been selected to accompany him.
    The galley headed directly away from the shore, opening out to the west, so as to put some distance between the vessel and the archers of the besieging Mamluk army as quickly as possible. Only when the crew was certain they were out of range did the heavily laden vessel begin a slow and somewhat cumbersome turn to starboard, around to the north, for the fifty-odd-mile journey up the coast to Sidon.
    In those days, vessels rarely sailed at night, for