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II.16. CHAPTER XVI

DAMIETTA IS SURRENDERED TO THE TURKS, AND AFTER MANY PERILS THE CHRISTIANS ARE SET FREE SOME OF THE RICH MEN SAIL FOR HOME HOW THE FIRST HALF OF THE RANSOM IS PAID, AND JOINVILLE ROBS THE TEMPLARS' BANK BY FORCE OF ARMS.

AFTER the terms had been agreed and sworn to by the King and the Emirs, it was agreed that they should set us free on Ascension day, and that directly Damietta should have been made over to the Emirs, they should deliver the person of the King and the rich men with him, as said before.

On the Thursday evening, the escorts of our four galleys brought them to anchor in mid-stream opposite the bridge of Damietta; and they caused a pavilion to be pitched by the bridge, to receive the King on landing.

At sunrise, my lord Geoffrey of Sargines went into the town, and delivered it over to the Emirs. They hoisted the Sultan's ensigns on the towers.

The Saracen knights took possession of the town,

and began to drink the wines; and soon they were all drunk: so much so, that one of them came to our galley, and drew out his sword all bloody, and said that, for his part, he had killed six of our people.

Before Damietta was yielded up, the Queen had been received on board our ships, together with all our people who were in the town, except those that ere sick, who were left behind. The Saracens ere bound by their oaths to take care of them, and they killed them all.

The King's engines, which they were also to eve taken care of, these they chopped in pieces. and the salted pork, which they were to have kept, because they eat no pork, instead of taking care of it, they made one pile of bacon, and another pile of dead bodies, and set fire to them; and they made such a huge bonfire that it lasted through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

As for the King and us, whom they ought to have set free at sunrise, they kept us until sunset; and we had nothing to eat the whole time, nor the Emirs neither, for they were disputing among themselves the whole day. One Emir, speaking

on behalf of his party, said: "Sirs, if you will listen to me and those of my party here, we shall kill the King, and these rich men here, and then, for forty years to come we shall be free from anxiety; for their children are young, and we have Damietta on our side, so that we can do it with all the more security." Another Saracen, named Sebreci' who was a native of Morocco, opposed this, and said as follows: " If we kill the King, after having killed the Sultan, it will be said that the Egyptians are the wickedest and most treacherous race on earth." And he who was for putting us to death, made answer, " It is only too true that we have rid ourselves of our Sultan by murder, in a very evil way; for we have broken the commandment of Mahomet, who commands us to guard our lord as the apple of our eye. See here, in this book is the commandment written. Now hearken," said he, "to the other commandment of Mahomet, which follows after." (He turned over a page of the book that he was holding, and showed them the next commandment which was like this) "In the assurance of the faith, slay the enemy of the law." See, therefore, how we have sinned against the commandments of Mahomet, in that we have killed our lord; and now we shall do still worse, if we do not kill the King, notwithstanding any assurance we may have given him; for he is the most powerful enemy that the pagan religion has."

Our death was almost agreed upon; so much so, that an Emir who was hostile to us, thinking that we were all to be put to death, came down to the river-bank, and began shouting in Arabic to those In charge of the galleys, and took off his turban and signalled to them with it. Thereupon they weighed anchor again, and brought us back a good league In the direction of Cairo. Then we gave ourselves all up for lost, and many tears were shed.

However, as it pleased God, who does not forget His own, it was decided, about the time of sunset, that we were to be set free; so they brought us back, and ran our four galleys ashore. We besought them to let us depart. They replied, that they would not do so until we should have eaten; " For it would be a disgrace to the Emirs, if you were to leave our prisons fasting." Then we desired that they would give us the food, and we would eat;

and they told us that it was being fetched from the camp.

The food that they gave us, was cheese fritters, cooked in the sun, to prevent maggots getting into them; and eggs hard-boiled for four or five days; and, in our honour, they had been painted outside with various colours.

We were put ashore, and went to meet the King, whom they were bringing down from the pavilion on the bank where they had kept him; and about twenty thousand Saracens, girt with swords, were following him on foot.

In front of the King, in the river, there was a galley full of Genoese, though only one man was visible above board. As soon as he saw the King at the water's edge, he blew a whistle; and at the sound of the whistle, there leaped up from the bilge of the galley a good four score crossbowmen ready-equipped, their cross-bows wound up, and in a twinkling each quarrel was notched; and the moment the Saracens caught sight of them, they turned tail like a flock of sheep; and none of them all save two or three were left beside the King.

A plank was run ashore to bring aboard the King, with his brother the Count of Anjou, Lord Geoffrey of Sargines, Lord Philip of Annemos [Nemours], the Marshall of France whom they called Du Meis, and the Master of the Trinity and myself.

The Count of Poitiers they kept in prison, until such time as the King should have paid them the two hundred thousand pounds, that he was bound to pay them as ransom before he quitted the river.

On the Saturday before Ascension day (which Saturday is the morrow of the day on which we were set free), the Count of Flanders, and the Count of Soissons, came to take leave of the King, together with many of the other rich men who had been imprisoned in the galleys.

The King spoke to them to this effect: that it seemed to him they would do well to wait until his brother, the Count of Poitiers, should be released. And they said: that it was out of their power, for the galleys were all ready and fitted out. Into their galleys they got, and tried them away to France, taking along with them the good Count Peter of

Brittany, who was so ill that he only lived three weeks longer, and died at sea.

They began to make the payment on Saturday morning, and took all Saturday over it and all day Sunday until dusk; for they paid by weight, and weighed out ten thousand pounds at a time.

When it came to Vespers on the Sunday, the King's men who were making the payment, sent word to the King that they were about thirty thousand pounds short.

Now there were with the King only the King of Sicily and the Marshall of France, the Master of the Trinity and myself; all the rest were watching the weighing. So I said to the King, that it would be well to send for the Commander and Marshall of the Temple (for the Master was dead), and to desire them to lend him thirty thousand pounds to ransom his brother.

The King sent for them, and told me to speak to them. When I had had my say, Brother Stephen of Otricourt, who was Commander of the Temple, answered me thus: " Sir de Joinville, this advice of yours is neither good nor reasonable; for you know that we receive our trusts in such a way, that we

cannot by our oaths resign them to anyone except to those from whom we have received them." Plenty of strong language and hard names passed between him and me; and then Brother Reynold of Vichiers, who was Marshall of the Temple, took up the word and said, " Sir, have done with the squabble between the Lord of Joinville and our Commander; for, as our Commander says, we can give you nothing, without perjuring ourselves. And since the Seneschal is urging you to take it, if we will not lend it well, there is nothing very monstrous in that; and you can do as you like about it. If you do take some of our money, we have surely enough of yours at Acre to make good the loss."

I told the King, that I would go, if he wished and he ordered me to do so. I went off in one of the Templars' galleys to their chief galley; and when I was about to go down into the hold of the galley, where the treasure was, I requested the Commander of the Temple to come and see what I took; but he would not condescend to come. The Marshall said, he would come and see what force I would use. As soon as I got down below where

the treasure was, I desired the Treasurer of the Temple, who was there, to hand over to me the keys of a locker which was in front of me. And he seeing me lean and wasted with the sickness, and in the dress that I had been wearing in prison said, that he should do nothing of the sort. I caught sight of a hatchet that was Iying there; and picking it up, said it should serve as the King's key. The Marshall seeing this, caught me by the wrist, and said, " Sir, it is quite clear that you are using force on us, and we will let you have the keys."

Then he ordered the Treasurer to let me have them. And when the Marshall told the Treasurer who I was, he was very much astounded.

I found that this coffer which I opened, belonged to Nicholas of Choisy one of the King's sergeants. I threw out what money I found in it; and then they left me on the prow of the boat that had brought us. I took the Marshall of France and left him beside the money, and on the deck of the galley I put the Master of the Trinity. The Marshall passed up the money to the Master, and the Master handed it across to me in the vessel where I was.

When we drew near the King's galley I began to shout to the King, " Sir! Sir! look what I have got! " and the holy man was right glad and joyful to see me.

We handed over what I had brought to those who were weighing the ransom.

When the weighing was ended, the King's council, who had been employed on it, came to him, and told him that the Saracens refused to set free his brother, until they should have the money actually before them.

There were some among the council who would have dissuaded the King from paying over the money until he should have his brother back. But the King replied, that he should pay it over, for it was in his agreement; and let them in return keep their part of the bargain, if they were honestly minded.

Then Lord Philip of Annemoes told the King, that they had done the Saracens out of a ten thousand pounds' weight; whereupon the King became violently angry, and said that he insisted on the ten thousand pounds being restored to them, since he had agreed to pay them two hundred

thousand pounds before leaving the river. Then I trod on Lord Philip's foot, and told the King not to pay any heed to him, for he was not speaking the truth, for that the Saracens would out-cheat anybody in the world. And Lord Philip said, that what I said was true, for he had only said it in jest. And the King said that: That kind of jest came to grief. "And I command you," said the King to Lord Philip, " by the faith you owe me, and as my vassal that you are, that if those ten thousand pounds have not been paid, you will have them paid."

Many people had urged the King to withdraw into his ship that was awaiting him at sea, in order to put him beyond the Saracens' reach. But the King would listen to never a one of them, saying on the contrary that, according to his agreement, he should not leave the river until he had paid them two hundred thousand pounds. Directly the payment was made, the King, without anyone urging him, told us that henceforth his oath was fulfilled, and that we were to quit that place and go on board the ship which lay out at sea. Thereupon, our galley started, and we journeyed fully

a good league, before any of us spoke to another, so uneasy were we about the Count of Poitiers. Then came Lord Philip of Montfort in a galleon, and cried to the King, " Sir, sir, speak to your brother, the Count of Poitiers, who is in this other boat." Then the King cried, " Show a light! Show a light! " and they did so. Then was there great joy amongst us, such as could not be surpassed.