History of the Templars

"People, pontiff, king... we die innocent." original: "Peuple, pontife, roi... nous mourons innocens." These are the final lines of the Templars in Raynouard's play as they are led to the pyre, asserting their innocence before God and the public.
I was weeping..... and of my tears I dared to make a

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"Why let yourself be moved? This is not in his-"

Said a spectator, seated at my side;
Our author has everywhere betrayed the truth:
Each of these warriors in his time was a

You are moved by the fate of the Grand Master,
But to perish thus, MOLAY was very fortunate.....
Tomorrow in my journal you shall read his confessions. The "spectator" represents the cynical critics of the era who argued that the historical Knights Templar were guilty of the crimes they confessed to under torture, whereas Raynouard’s play depicted them as pure victims of political greed.
What! Virtue did not illustrate his career at all!
The Grand Master owes his fine character to you alone! The poet is now addressing the playwright Raynouard directly again.
Ah! if he is but the fruit of a sublime error,
He honors at once your genius and your heart.
Thus, far from imitating those weak tragedians,
Servile imitators of past tragedians, original: "tragiques." A reference to writers of tragedies who merely followed the strict formulas of the previous century without original feeling.
Your genius has created each of your scenes,
You have borrowed nothing.... not even your faults.