PERILS AND SUSPENSE.
THE Saracen chiefs, after having dyed their sabres in the blood of the
sultan, did not confine their menaces and violent demonstrations to the
tent in which the captive King of France was lodged. With swords drawn
and battle-axes on their shoulders, thirty of them boarded the galley
where Joinville was with the Count of Brittany, Sir Baldwin d'Ebelin,
and the Constable of Cyprus, and menaced them with gestures and furious
imprecations.
'I asked Sir Baldwin d'Ebelin,' writes Joinville, 'what they were
saying; and he, understanding Saracenic, replied that they were come to
cut off our heads, and shortly after I saw a large body of our men on
board confessing themselves to a monk of La Trinite, who had accompanied
the Count of Flanders. I no longer thought of any sin or evil I had
done, but that I was about to receive my death. In consequence, I fell
on my knees at the feet of one of them, and making the sign of the
cross, said "Thus died St. Agnes." The Constable of Cyprus knelt beside
me, and confessed himself to me, and I gave him such absolution as god
was pleased to grant me the power of bestowing. But of all the things
he had said to me, when I rose up I could not remember one of them.'
'We were confined in the hold of the galleys,' continues the chronicler,
'and laid heads and heels together. We thought it had been so ordered
because they were afraid of attacking us in a body, and that they would
destroy us one at a time. This danger lasted the whole night. I had my
feet right on the face of the Count of Brittany, whose feet, in return,
were beside my face. On the morrow we were taken out of the hold, and
the emirs sent to inform us that we might renew the treaties we had made
with the sultan.'
'So far, all seemed well. But the danger was not yet over, as the
Crusaders were destined to feel. At first the form of the oaths to be
taken by the king and the emirs presented much difficulty; and, even
when it was settled, the emirs in council gravely discussed the
propriety of putting the French king and his barons to death. Only one
of them pleaded for keeping faith; and his voice would have been drowned
in the clamour, but fortunately he used an argument which appealed
irresistibly to their cupidity.'
'You may put these Franks to death if you will,' said he; 'but reflect
ere doing so that dead men pay no ransom.'
Nevertheless, it really seemed that after all the Crusaders were doomed;
and while they were on board the galleys, and this discussion was
proceeding, an incident occurred which caused them to give themselves up
for lost.
'One of the emirs that were against us,' says Joinville, 'threatening we
were to be slain, came to the bank of the river, and shouted out in
Saracen to those who were on board our galley, and, taking off his
turban, made signs, and told them they were to carry us back to Babylon.
The anchors were instantly raised, and we were carried a good league up
the river. This caused great grief to all of us, and many tears fell
from our eyes, for we now expected nothing but death.'
And what in the meantime was taking place in Damietta?
Nothing in truth could have exceeded the anxiety which prevailed within
the walls of that city, when thither were carried tidings of the
assassination of the Sultan of Egypt, and of the new danger to which the
King of France and the captive Crusaders were exposed.
The aspect of affairs was indeed menacing; and it was not till
messengers from King Louis came to announce that the treaty was to be
maintained and the city evacuated, that something like confidence was
restored. On the evening of Friday, Queen Margaret, with the Countesses
of Anjou, Poictiers, and Artois, and the other ladies, went on board a
Genoese vessel. As night advanced, Oliver de Thermes and all the
Crusaders who had garrisoned Damietta embarked on the Nile, and Geoffrey
de Segrines, having brought the keys to the emirs, the Saracens took
possession. Next morning at daybreak the Moslem standards were floating
over tower and turret. But still King Louis was in the hands of his
enemies, and still the emirs were debating whether or not they ought to
put him and the companions of his captivity to death.
At the mouth of the Nile, a Genoese galley awaited the king; and, while
every eye was strained towards the shore with an anxiety which was not
without cause, Walter Espec and Bisset, the English knight, stood on
deck in no enviable frame of mind.
'I mislike all this delay,' said Walter, more agitated than he was wont
to appear. 'What if, after all, these emirs should prove false to their
covenant?'
'In truth,' replied Bisset, 'it would not amaze me so much as many
things that have come to pass of late; and both the king and his nobles
may yet find to their cost that their hopes of freedom are dashed; for
we all know the truth of the proverb as to there being so much between
the cup and the lip.'
At this moment they observed the galleys, on board of which Joinville
and other captive Crusaders were, move up the Nile, and each uttered an
exclamation of horror.
'Now may Holy Katherine be our aid,' cried Walter, 'for our worst
anticipations are like to be realised.'
'The saints forbid,' replied Bisset; 'and yet I am not so hopeful as I
might be, for I have long since learned not to holloa till out of the
wood.'
It was indeed a critical moment for Louis and his nobles; but in the
council of the emirs the milder views ultimately prevailed, and Bisset
and Walter Espec observed with delight that the galleys which had moved
up the Nile were brought back towards Damietta, and that Louis,
attended by a multitude of Saracens who watched his movements in
silence, was approaching. Immediately the Genoese galley moved towards
the shore, and Louis, having been joined by the Count of Anjou and the
Lord of Joinville, stepped on board, while the other knights and nobles
hastened to embark in the vessels that lay in wait for them. As soon as
the king was on board, Bisset made a signal; and, as he did so, eighty
archers with their crossbows strung appeared on deck so suddenly that
the crowd of Saracens who had been pressing forward immediately
dispersed in alarm, and the galley moved from the shore. Ere long, the
Count of Poictiers, who had remained as a hostage in Damietta till the
ransom of the Crusaders was paid, came on board; and, all being now in
readiness for leaving the place where he had experienced so many
misfortunes and so much misery, the saint-king made a sign to the
mariners, the sails were given to the wind, and the fleet of the armed
pilgrims--the wreck of a brilliant army--glided away towards Syria. But
thousands of the survivors still remained in captivity, and, albeit
Louis was conscientiously bent on ransoming them, their prospect was
gloomy, and the thought of their unhappy plight clouded the saint-king's
brow.
And sad was the heart of Walter Espec, as he recalled the day when he
landed at Damietta side by side with Guy Muschamp; and for the hundredth
time asked himself mournfully whether his brother-in-arms had died for
his faith, or whether a worse fate had befallen him.
But why linger on the Egyptian shore amid scenes suggestive of
reminiscences so melancholy and so dismal--reminiscences of misfortunes
and calamities and losses not to be repaired? Let us on to the Syrian
coast, and gladden our eyes with a sight of the white walls of Acre,
washed by the blue waters of the Mediterranean.