University of Virginia Library

II.9. CHAPTER IX

HOW THE CHRISTIANS TRIED TO BUILD A CAUSEWAY OVER THE STREAM OF RAXI THE ADVENTURE OF THE TORTOISE-TOWERS.

THE King decided to build a causeway across the stream, by which to pass over to the Saracens. And in order to protect those who were working at the causeway, he caused two turrets to be built, called " tortoise-towers," for there were two towers in front of the tortoises, and two outworks behind the towers, to shelter those on guard from the shots from the Turkish engines; for they had sixteen engines, all fixed.

So soon as we arrived, the King had eighteen engines constructed, of which Jocelyn of Cornaut was the chief engineer.

Our engines used to fling at theirs, and theirs used to fling back at ours; but I never heard it said, that ours did much damage.

The King's brothers kept guard by day, and we

other knights used to watch the tortoises by night; so we reached the week before Christmas.

Now that the tortoises were made, they set to work to build the causeway; for the King would not have it begun sooner, lest the Saracens should injure those who were carrying the earth; for they could pick us off by sight as we worked in the river. The King and barons were blind when they attempted to make this causeway, imagining, because they had dammed one arm of the river, (which was easy to do, because they made the dam where it separates off from the main bed) that therefor they would be able to dam the stream of Raxi a good elf-league below where it leaves the main river.

I Moreover, in order to spoil the dam that the King was making, the Saracens used to scoop hollows in the ground, on the side of their camp; and as fast as the stream found its way into the hollows it spread itself out in them, and made a broad new channel. So it would come to pass, that what we had taken three weeks to do, they would undo in a single day; for as fast as we dammed up the stream on our side, they would enlarge it on theirs, by means of these hollows that they dug.

The Sultan having died from the sickness that he took before the city of Homs, they had chosen as captain a Saracen whose name was Scecedin, the son of Seik. He was said to have been knighted by the Emperor Frederick.

This man sent orders to a number of his followers to come and attack us on the Damietta side, which they did, for they crossed over at a town on the stream of Raxi called Sormesac. On Christmas Day, I and my knights were dining with Lord Peter of Avalon, and whilst we were at table, they came spurring right up to the camp, and killed several poor people, who had gone afoot into the fields. We went to arm ourselves, but for all the haste we made we had not got back before Lord Peter, our host, whose quarters were outside the camp, was off in pursuit of the Saracens. We galloped after him, and rescued him from the Turks, who had got him down onto the ground; and we brought him and his brother, the Lord of Le Val, back into the camp. The Templars, who had hastened up at our shouts, defended our rear well and bravely; but the Turks hung on us and worried us right back into camp.

After this, the King ordered the camp to be

surrounded with trenches on the Damietta side, as far as the stream of Raxi.

Scecedin, which as I told you before was the name of the Turkish captain, had distinguished himself above all the rest of pagandom. He bore on his banners the arms of the Emperor who had knighted him. His banner was "bendy," and on one of the bends was the Emperor's arms; on another were the arms of the Sultan of Harapha, and on the other, those of the Sultan of Grand Cairo. His name was Scecedin the son of Seik, which is as much as to say: "The Ancient Son of the Ancient," which means a great deal in pagandom, for they are the people of all others who most honour the ancient, since God has preserved them from shame unto old age.

Scecedin, this vile Turk, boasted that on Saint Sebastian's day he would eat in the King's pavilions.

The King, knowing all this, arranged his camp in such wise that the Count of Artois, his brother, should keep guard over the tortoises and engines; the King and the Count of Anjou (who afterwards was King of Sicily) were appointed to guard the

camp on the side towards Grand Cairo; whilst the Count of Poitiers and we of Champagne were to guard it on the Damietta side.

Now it came to pass, that the aforesaid Prince of the Turks crossed his men over into the island which lies between the streams of Damietta and Raxi, where our camp lay, and drew up his ranks reaching from one stream to the other.

The King of Sicily engaged with this party and routed them. Numbers were drowned in both rivers, but still there remained a great number, with whom they dared not engage, because of the Saracen engines, whose shot ranged over both rivers.

In the engagement between the King of Sicily and the Turks, Count Guy of Forez cut his way on horseback through the ranks of the Turks, and he and his knights engaged a troop of Turkish serjeants, who pulled him down off his horse, and he got his leg broken, and two of his knights carried him back by the arms. With great exertions they extricated the King of Sicily from the danger he was in; and this day's work was much praised.

The Turks came to the Count of Poitiers and us, and we charged them, and drove them before

us a good way. A few of their men were slain, and we returned without loss.

It happened one night, whilst we were keeping night-watch over the tortoise-towers, that they brought up against us an engine called a perronel, (which they had not done before) and filled the sling of the engine with Greek fire. When that good knight, Lord Walter of Cureil, who was with me, saw this, he spoke to us as follows: "Sirs, we are in the greatest peril that we have ever yet been in. For, if they set fire to our turrets and shelters, we are lost and burnt; and if, again, we desert our defences which have been entrusted to us, we are disgraced; so none can deliver us from this peril save God alone. My opinion and advice therefor is: that every time they hurl the fire at us, we go down on our elbows and knees, and beseech Our Lord to save us from this danger."

So soon as they flung the first shot, we went down on our elbows and knees, as he had instructed us; and their first shot passed between the two turrets, and lodged just in front of us, where they had been raising the dam. Our firemen were all ready to put out the fire; and the Saracens, not

being able to aim straight at them, on account of the two pent-house wings which the King had made, shot straight up into the clouds, so that the fire-darts fell right on top of them.

This was the fashion of the Greek fire: it came on as broad in front as a vinegar cask, and the tail of fire that trailed behind it was as big as a great spear; and it made such a noise as it came, that it sounded like the thunder of heaven. It looked like a dragon flying through the air. Such a bright light did it cast, that one could see all over the camp as though it were day, by reason of the great mass of fire, and the brilliance of the light that it shed.

Thrice that night they hurled the Greek fire at us, and four times shot it from the tourniquet cross-bow.

Every time that our holy King heard that they were throwing Greek fire at us, he draped his sheet round him, and stretched out his hands to our Lord, and said weeping: " Oh! fair Lord God, protect my people! " And truly, I think his prayers did us good service in our need. At night, every time after the fire had fallen, he used to send one of his

chamberlains to us, to ask us how we did, and whether the fire had not done us any harm.

Once when they flung it at us, it fell close beside the tortoise-tower that my Lord of Courtenay's men were guarding, and buried itself in the river bank. And presently comes a knight, named " the Albigensis," and: "Sir," says he to me, "unless you help us, we are all burnt; for the Saracens have let fly so many of their fire-darts, that it is just like a great hedge all ablaze bearing down on our turret." We jumped up, and hurried to the spot, and found that he had spoken the truth. We put out the fire, and before we had got it under, we were covered from head to foot with the fire-darts that the Saracens shot across the river.

The King's brothers used to keep guard up in the turrets of the tortoises, so that they might shoot quarrels from the cross-bows right into the Saracen camp. Now the King had arranged, that when the King of Sicily watched the tortoise-towers in the day-time, we were to watch them by night. When the day came that the King had day watch and it was to be our turn at night, we were very uneasy, for our tortoise -towers had been quite

shattered by the Saracens. On that day they brought up their perronel in broad daylight, which so far they had only done at night, and flung the Greek fire into our tortoise-towers; and their engines had got the range so accurately onto the finished part of the causeway that no one durst go to the tortoise-towers because of the huge stones that the engines threw, which were falling all over the road. So it came to pass that our two turrets were burnt, whereat the King of Sicily was so beside himself, that he wanted to rush into the flames to put them out. But if he was furious, I and my knights praised God, for had we kept watch that night, we should all have been burnt up.

When the King saw this, he sent for all the barons, and begged them each to give him some timber from their ships to make a tortoise to dam the river; and he pointed out, that, as they could see for themselves, there was no wood to make it with, unless it were the timber of the ships that had brought our baggage up the stream. They gave him as much as each chose; and when this tortoise was finished, the timber was valued at over ten thousand pounds.

The King saw too, that the tortoise should not be pushed along the causeway, until it came to the King of Sicily's day for being on guard, so that he might wipe out the disaster of the other turrets, that were burnt during his watch. And it was done just as had been planned, for no sooner did the King of Sicily's turn on guard come round, than he had the tortoise pushed forward to the same spot where the other tortoise-towers had been burnt. When the Saracens saw this, they directed the shots from all their sixteen engines onto the causeway along which the tortoise had come; and when they saw that our men were afraid to go to the tortoise, because of the falling stones, they brought up the perronel, and flung Greek fire at the tortoise, and burnt it to the ground.

This great favour did God show to me and my knights; for our watch that night would have been as dangerous as it would have been on that other occasion of which I spoke before.

The King, seeing how things were, summoned all his barons to ask their advice. And they all agreed that they would never be able to build a causeway to cross over to the Saracens, since our

men could not possibly dam up this side as fast as they dug out the other.

Then the Constable, my Lord Humbert of Beaujeu, said to the King that there was a Bedouin come, who told him that he would show a good ford, but that they must give him five hundred besants.

The King said: he would consent to pay him, provided he honestly performed what he promised. The Constable spoke with the Bedouin, and he said that he would never show a ford, unless they gave him the money beforehand. It was agreed to give him the money, and he received it.

The King arranged that the Duke of Burgundy and the rich men of the country who were in the camp should stay and guard the camp, so that no harm might come to it; whilst the King and his three brothers should ford the river at the spot the Bedouin was to show them.

The first day of Lent was appointed for this undertaking, and on that day we came to the Bedouin's ford.