University of Virginia Library

II.8. CHAPTER VIII

HOW THE KING SET OUT TO MARCH ON GRAND CAIRO, AND CAMPED BETWEEN TWO OUTLETS OF THE NILE OF THE RIVER NILE AND ITS SOURCE.

WHEN the Count of Poitiers had arrived, the King summoned all the barons of the army to know, which road he should take, whether to Alexandria, or to Grand Cairo. And it so happened that the good Count, Peter of Brittany, and most of the barons agreed that the King ought to go and lay siege to Alexandria; for there was a good harbour by the town, where the ships put in that bring provisions for the army. The Count of Artois opposed this, and said, that he would never consent to go anywhere except to Grand Cairo, because that was the capital of all Egypt; saying, that if you wished to kill a snake, you must begin by crushing its head. The King neglected the opinion of all the rest of his barons, and followed his brother's advice.

At the beginning of Advent, the King and the army bestirred themselves to march on Grand Cairo, as the Count of Artois advised. Quite close to Damietta, we came to a stream which runs out of the main river; and it was decided to halt the army for a day, in order to build a dam across this arm of the river, so as to cross over. It was easily enough accomplished, for they dammed this arm along the line of the main river.

The Sultan sent five hundred knights, the best mounted to be found in his army, to harass the King's army at the passage, and so delay our march.

On Saint Nicholas' day, the King ordered us to make ready to ride, and forbade that any man should venture to sally from the ranks to fight with the Saracens that were gathered there.

Now, it came to pass, that when the army began their march, and the Saracens saw that we would not leave our ranks to fight with them, and learnt through their spies that the King had forbidden it, that they grew bolder, and engaged with the Templars, who formed the van. And one of the Turks bore down a Knight Templar, right under the feet of Brother Reynold of Bichier's horse, (he

being at that time Marshall of the Temple,) whereupon he cried to his brother Templars, "Now, have at them, in God's name! for I can endure no longer. "

He spurred forwards, and the whole army after him. Our men's horses were fresh, and the Saracens' horses were foundered; so that as I was informed, not one escaped, but all perished, and some of them fled into the river and were drowned.

Before going further, we must speak of that river which flows out of the Earthly Paradise and through Egypt; which things I must mention, in order that you may understand other matters connected with my story.

This river differs from all others; for the farther down other rivers go, the more little streams and brooks flow into them; but into this river there flows none; but it moves along in a single channel until it reaches Egypt, and then it throws out those branches which spread over Egypt. And after Saint Remy's day, the seven streams spread themselves out over the country, and cover all the flat lands. And when the waters have retired, the husbandmen come forth each to till his land, using

ploughs without wheels, with which they turn into the soil wheat and barley and cummin and rice and these thrive so well that they could not be bettered; and nobody knows how such a crop comes, unless by the will of God. But for this, there would be no crops in the country at all, by reason of the great heat of the sun which burns up everything, for in that country it never rains.

The river is always muddy; and so the natives, when they want it for drinking, draw it in the evening, and squeeze into it four almonds or four beans; and the next day, it is as good to drink as could be wished.

Before the river reaches Egypt, men who are practiced in it cast their nets loose into the stream at nightfall, and when morning comes, they find In their nets such raw goods as are imported into this country; to wit, ginger, rhubarb, aloes and cinnamon. And it is said, that these things are washed down from the Earthly Paradise; that the wind blows down the trees of Eden just as the wind in this country blows down the dry wood; and that what the merchants sell to us in this country, is the dry wood that falls into the river there.

The nature of this river's water is such, that when we hung it up from our tent-ropes in white earthenware jars, such as are made there, the water, in the heat of the day, used to become as cold as though it were drawn from a spring.

The people of the country said that the Sultan had often attempted to find the source of the river, and sent men to search for it. They took with them a kind of bread-rolls, which are called "biscuits" because they are twice baked, and on this bread they lived until they got back to the Sultan. They reported, that they had explored the river until they came to a great pile of hewn rocks which it was impossible for any man to climb. Over this wall of rock the river fell, and it seemed to them that there was a great quantity of trees growing up above on the mountain. They said also that they had found marvellous strange wild beasts of divers kinds, lions and serpents and elephants, that came and gazed at them from the water below, as they went climbing upwards along the river bank.

Now we must go back to what we were first speaking about, and say, that when the river

reaches Egypt, it spreads out its branches, (as indeed I said before). One of its branches goes to Damietta, the other to Alexandria, the third to Tanis, the fourth to Raxi; and to that branch which goes to Raxi came the King of France with all his host, and camped between the streams of Damietta and of Raxi. And all the forces of the Sultan camped over against us, on the farther side of the stream of Raxi, to defend the passage; which was an easy matter for them, for nobody could cross over the water to their side, unless indeed we had swum it.