I came across this posting today.  I thought that Y'all might like it

The website is at: http://scaeministries.org/blog/?p=29

The posting follows:

The Fall of Acre   July 28th, 2008 . by Ben

The following is a Concrete Poem that I wrote for school. Concrete Poems are meant to be in a shape that helps accent the words, but that’s rather hard to do in this format, so I’m leaving it in only its words context.

Fear spread through the city like mist on a lake. The Geneose soldiers

were frantically loading their boats to depart from the area. The

Teutonic Knights’ Grand Master resigned and fled in light of the

coming battle. And as the remaining men stood on the ramparts, they

watched the entire horizon fill with dust clouds of one hundred and

sixty-thousand Moslem soldiers and cavalry marching with the

purpose of the Crusaders’ deaths.

April 6th, 1291 – The first few Moslem catapults assaulted the walls,

and the siege of Acre began. This last of the few Crusader cities lay

nestled in the Israeli coast, and the city’s peace ended forever this day

for the Crusaders.

With the Crusaders were the famed Knights Templar, along with the

Teutonic Knights and Knights Hospitaller – all Knight Orders whose

skill in battle was rivaled only by few. As the siege continued, the

Templars grew tired of defending, as they had over 200 years of

offensive experience. So, about sixty Banners – 300 Knights – rode out

under the cover of night without a moon. The Moslems never knew

they were coming and were surprised at the Templars “ambush.” For

the Templars had never attacked a Moslem camp before and knew not

of the ropes that stuck out of the Moslem tents. The full, head-on

charge turned into a disaster that no one could have conceived

beforehand. As morning drew, the remaining Templar Knights waited

for their comrades to enter back into the city gate, but the Knights’

wait was in vain, for every last Knight that had rode out never returned

– slaughtered at the hands of the Moslems.

The boastful rivals of the Templars, the Knights Hospitaller tried to

show the Templars how an ambush was meant to be, and the night

they rode out, the Moslems were prepared. As the Knights silently

snuck out of the city and drew near the camp, the dark of night

erupted into flaming day as the fields and brush surrounding Acre

burst into flames, burning horse and Knight while Moslem crossbows

executed the surviving Hospitallers.

If only the Crusaders had followed the Geneose, they would have been

spared of the massacres. May 16th came as the siege pressed on. That 

day, a tower cracked and Moslem soldiers poured into the city, forcing

the Crusaders and Knights back to the inner wall of the city – losing

the defenders’ valuable ground. Khalil, the Moslem Commander

ordered his archers to deplete their arrows over the walls, and one hit

the Knights Templar Grand Master, De Beaujeu on an unprotected part

of his armor as he raised his sword, and he died that night.

Hemmed in on all sides, eventually the Hospitaller quarter of the inner

wall was breached and the Moslems poured in again and fatally

wounded the Hospitallers’ Grand Master. Soon afterwards, hundreds of

Crusaders lay dead as the rest fled the city by the sea – all except the

Templars. Ironic how the loss of the city would be blamed on the

valiant who stayed to defend its citizens. As the Moslems went house

to house and shacked off women and young boys, the Templars

hurried their efforts to bring all the citizens they could into their fort.

Like an island in a vast ocean, the Templar fort was surrounded and all

inside knew they probably would all die there, but they fought against

the face of defeat.

A Knight of the Templars who came back from a defeat alive was

stripped of his rank and banished or executed – such was their

discipline. Either the surviving 200 Templars remembered that and

feared what would happen if they gave up, or they were brave and

forgot that rule. But, five days passed in their fort and Khalil shouted

his surrender terms to the Templars. Either they could give up their fort

and everyone inside would go free and the Templars could leave with

all they could carry or they would all die in there. The Templar

Commander, Peter de Severy, thought it over, and finally gave the

order to surrender to save the lives of the citizens.

At the top of the fort, the Beauseant – the Templar banner – was

lowered and the Moslem flag was raised. The siege appeared to have

finally ended with a Moslem victory. But as the Moslems entered the

fort, they began molesting the women and young boys. The Templars,

having just dishonored themselves the highest way possible to save

these people, were witnessing some of the most gruesome acts against 

those they were trying to save, and their rage grew with a passion.

Silently, the fort’s gate was barred and swords exited their sheaths and

more than 400 Moslems lay dead in a matter of minutes. The Moslem

flag was lowered and the Beauseant was raised again as the Templars

shouted that they would rather die than surrender again.

That night, The Templar Order’s Treasurer, Tibauld de Gaudin, was

snuck into the fort and helped as many citizens as he could and their

valuables into his ship, and they left for a Templar fortress at Sidon.

That morning, Khalil sent men to say to the Templars he regretted the

actions of a few of his men and wanted a real truce this time. Peter de

Severy forgot about what had happened to the ambassadors sent to

Khalil before the siege began and their deaths, and he went with a few

men anyways to surrender – contrary to what he and his men had

shouted from the fort a day earlier. Once at Khalil’s tent, they were

forced to their knees and executed on the spot as the remaining

Templars watched from the fort.

Not long afterwards, on May 28 - about 54 days after the siege began -

the Moslems set timbers against the fort and set it on fire, piling up

rubble also on its sides. Khalid sent 2,000 of his men into the fort and

once inside, the building could not hold the weight of the rubble

outside and collapsed, killing the 190 Templars and the 2,000

Moslems sent inside.

Thus, Acre finally fell into the Moslem hands, and the Holy Land was

lost in that last, final Crusade. The remaining two Templar Castles in

the Holy Land were deserted and the Order was heavily criticized for

the loss of the Crusades by those who fled at the sight of danger.

Christopher