VI. sade against him, rather than against the Saracens. The CHAP. king, out of respect to the Count of Toulouse, who accompanied him, besought the Pope to allow the body of his father Raymond to be buried. But even this the Pontiff refused to grant. Louis did not embark until August, and reached Cyprus, which was the place of rendezvous, in September. His brother crusaders and their forces, in different vessels, were slow to arrive; so that winter surprised them and kept them in Cyprus; nor was it till the following June that the king could sail to Egypt. The Sultan of that country was the most powerful of the Mussulman princes; it was he who had taken Jerusalem, and slain the Christians there, so that the Holy Land was considered to be best conquered in Egypt. Several of the Mussulman chiefs in Palestine sent embassies, and sought alliance; as did one of the great Tartar princes, affecting an inclination to Christianity. But little came of these overtures, and a fleet of nearly 2000 sail bore 3000 knights, and their still more numerous followers, to the shores of Egypt. There were not more than 6000 Saracens to oppose the landing, which took place without impediment, the king jumping almost the first into the water up to his shoulders. It happened that the Sultan of Egypt was seriously ill at the moment and at the point of death, which made his general, Fakreddin, retire in haste to Cairo, and abandon Damietta to the crusaders without resistance. Here began the necessity for good generalship, for skilful and authoritative command. But the King of France, who in Paris knew so well how to reduce his barons to obedience, in camp could not command his soldiers. His chiefs gave themselves up to all kinds of licence and debauchery, Louis afterwards complaining that there were brothels kept by his followers within a stone's throw of his tent! To have marched on with the army, while the river Nile was yet low, would have CHAP. VI. been the wisest step. But the king resolved to await his brother Alphonso, who had been blown off by a tempest to one of the ports of Syria; and thus the army remained at Damietta till November. Peter of Brittany was then for proceeding to Alexandria; but the Count d'Artois insisted on marching to Cairo, "the best way to kill a snake being to aim at the head." The crusaders accordingly marched forth from Damietta, and great was the consternation in Cairo. The Egyptians, however, took courage on perceiving the French advance very slowly. When obstructed by the current of the Nile, they set about piling up earth to make a causeway, and stopped to put together immense wooden towers to protect the work. These towers, or chats chatels, were not completed till Christmas; and they proved useless, the Saracens digging holes in front of the Christian mounds. The infidels, too, made use of Greek fire, flinging it several times in the night: it resembled "a huge tun, with a tail as long as a spear." When King Louis saw these fiery dragons coming upon his towers and his warriors, he shed tears, and prayed loudly to God "to preserve his people." The French, nevertheless, saw all their engines destroyed, and instead of forcing their way, were indebted for their final passage to a ford, the disclosure of which they purchased from a Bedouin. In the passage of this ford, the English and Templars were ordered to advance first, and to guard it, whilst the second and third divisions, under the Count d'Artois and the king, should be crossing. But this order was disobeyed by Robert d'Artois, who galloped off at once to engage the Saracen. The Templars expostulated, but the prince called them traitors, and they felt obliged to follow him in order to refute the reproach. Robert d'Artois had, on a former occasion, insulted the English crusaders, especially William of the Long Sword, illegitimate son of King Henry. William had signalised himself by many exploits which rendered certain of the French jealous of him, and Robert d'Artois particularly. On one occasion they robbed him of his legitimate spoil. William complained to the king, who did his utmost to protect him, and expostulated with his brother on his mean jealousy of the English. It was in vain, and the English were obliged to leave Louis' camp-William of the Long Sword saying he would not serve so weak a prince. On their withdrawing, the Count d'Artois exulted in seeing the army delivered of the people with tails.* William of the Long Sword, De Vere, and the other English crusaders, had rejoined St. Louis at his request, when he marched from Damietta: they were now as much stung as the Templars at the reproaches of the Count d'Artois; so that all vied with him in pursuing the Saracens immediately after crossing the Nile. The latter fled fast to the Egyptian camp, into which the crusaders rushed, killing all they met with, amongst others, the commander Fakreddin, who had emerged from a bath to mount on horseback. The French knights then charged along with the fugitives towards the town of Mansourah, into which they penetrated as far as the Sultan's palace, when the Bahairiz slaves† rushed forth from it, and compelled the Christian cavalry to retreat. Could the infantry and the rest or the crusading army have come up to the aid of the knights, the Mussulman historians admit that Mansourah would have been taken, and Egypt conquered. But as it was, the knights being compelled to retreat were assailed by showers of arrows, and a very great portion of them slain. The king rode up to the rescue, when he was told * The popular legend was, that the English had been furnished with tails immediately after, and in punishment for, the martyrdom of St. Thomas à Becket. †The original of the Mamelukes, brought when young from the borders of the Caspian. CHAP VI. VI. CHAP. that his brother of Artois was surrounded in a house of Mansourah, and hard pressed. The monarch sprang forward to go to succour his brother; but the number of enemies was too great, so that the king's troops were separated, and all had to fight their way to the river. Louis proved himself a valiant knight, and by his own efforts shook off or slew six of the enemy, who had beset him. His brother Robert of Artois was not so fortunate, but perished in Mansourah, as did his rival, William of Salisbury, Robert de Vere, and most of the English. Upwards of 200 Templars were slain, the Grand Master escaping with the loss of an eye, to perish some days later. The king and his army took possession of the Saracen camp and remained there for three days, harassed especially at night. At the expiration of the three days the Egyptians again appeared in force, and were marshalled by their chief Bondocdar. Their light troops first commenced the attack with Greek fire, after which the horse charged. The Duke of Anjou's division was routed, when the king came to the rescue. Several of the French divisions consisted of dismounted knights, who were unable to hold together. The Count of Poitou, another of the king's brothers, being the only mounted man of his division, was taken prisoner, but was fortunately rescued by a charge which the butchers and sutlers of the camp suddenly made to save him. This defensive battle, though bravely fought, completely paralysed the crusaders, and left them no strength to continue their march forwards. They remained stationary, whilst the bodies of the slain floated on the water, and infected the coast with their stench. The army had nothing to eat but the fish which fed on these carcases; and thus a pestilence was generated, which dried up the flesh and caused the gums to rot. To increase this distress the Egyptians intercepted their communications with Damietta; and thus compelled the king to commence his retreat by recrossing the river. Even this VI. was a work of difficulty, and showed the impossibility CHAP. of the army's even fighting its way back to Damietta, thinned as it was in numbers and prostrated by sickness. The French therefore tried to treat: their offer was to surrender Damietta in exchange for Jerusalem, and withdraw from Egypt. The Saracens seemed not to decline these terms, but demanded the king's person as hostage, to which the nobles would not consent, offering to give the princes, his sons. These not being accepted as substitutes, the French recommenced the retreat, some in boats by the river, some by land. The king, suffering extremely from illness, refused to proceed in a boat or cease to share the perils of the greater part of his army. But he had not gone a day's journey when his attendants were obliged to lift him from his horse and lay him on the lap of a woman of the army, as they thought, to die. The Saracens at the same time rushed into the village, and cries were heard ordering the knights to cease defence or they would cause the king to be killed. The monarch, his brothers, and the surviving chiefs accordingly surrendered. The victors slew the wounded, as well as most persons of inferior rank, many-some of the men of Joinville amongst others-embracing Mohammedanism to escape death, a sad result of the crusade. There were about 10,000 captives. The Egyptians tried to make them surrender Rhodes or some strong place of Syria in return for their lives, but the nobles and the king separately denied their power to make any such stipulation. They then threatened to put the king in irons; his only reply was that, being in their power, they might treat him as they liked. At last they demanded a ransom of a million of bezants, equal to 500,000 livres. The king consented to pay this sum for the ransom of his army, and give up Damietta as the price of his own liberation, as one of his rank could not be valued for money. The Egyptians agreed at last to strike off a fifth of the sum. The treaty was scarcel oncluded when the Hauleka, |