"Katherine Kurtz - Knights Templar 01 - Temple and the Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

Arnault leafed through the book as he and Torquil sat, letting his eyes rove over the text. While claiming
to be accurate in reporting the events, the author of the work was harshly critical of the defenders
themselves, many of whom were accused of cowardice and self-interest.

"Those who put their faith in words are all too easily deceived by them," Molay said grimly, as Arnault
looked up. "Our deeds have always spoken for us, and they shall do so again. I, for one, will not rest
until we have returned to Outremer and reclaimed every foot of holy ground that once was ours."

The look that accompanied this observation was intended as a prompt, to which Arnault responded
immediately.

"We gathered as much information as we could, Reverend Master," he said. "I must warn you, however,
that Al-Ashraf has vowed never to permit the Franks to return in force to the Holy Land, and has taken
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strong measures to make sure that they never will."

"Then our own measures must be even stronger," Molay replied. "Proceed with your report."

Arnault drew a deep breath. "The Mamelukes have laid waste to all the lands along the coast from
Tortosa to Athlit. The orchards have been cut down; the wells and irrigation systems have been
dismantled; farms, even whole villages, have been razed. We have seen the devastation for ourselves:
The countryside has been stripped to the bare earth. Brother Torquil has prepared a written account of
the details," he finished bleakly, "but the salient fact is that there is now nothing to sustain an invading
army between one town and the next."

"Then we will need to arrange for supplies to be brought in by sea," the Grand Master said. "Now, tell
me about the sultan's troop deployments."

Arnault, too, had kept careful notes of all that he and Torquil had observed during their travels. It was
both records to which he now referred, in reciting the statistics that the Grand Master required. Molay
listened impassively, now and again interrupting one or the other of them to request that some particular
point be repeated or clarified.

"You have done well," he said when Arnault had finished, nodding to both men. "Leave your reports with
my secretary so that they may be copied for the benefit of my senior advisors. The two of you may retire
until Vespers. If I require further clarification, I will send for you."

As he and Torquil took their leave, Arnault was left with private misgivings. Jacques de Molay might
officially be the head of the Order, but he was not privy to all its secrets. At very least, his irrational
mistrust of formal learning barred him from being taken into the confidence of those brothers who shared
a deeper understanding of the purposes for which the Knights Templar had been ordained. It would
never have occurred to Molay to imagine that the pilgrim routes the Order was appointed to guard were
not only those that led to the earthly shrines of Palestine.

As it was, Molay's determination to reestablish the Kingdom of Outremer was so firmly fixed that he was
all but blind to the obstacles that now lay in his way. And there was no telling how this blindness might