CHAPTER XXVII.
JOINVILLE IN PERIL.
WHILE King Louis and the brave companions of his ill-starred retreatwere seized as captives, or mercilessly massacred by the Saracens atMinieh, the sick and wounded Crusaders who embarked on the Nile were notmore fortunate. In order to understand the extent of their dangers andsufferings, it is necessary to refer to the chronicle of the good Lordof Joinville--who, still suffering from disease, embarked with hisknights and followers, including Guy Muschamp, not yet recovered fromthe sickness by which he had been prostrated.
Nor is it possible to peruse the seneschal's simple narrative withoutprofound interest. In reading his account of this disastrous expedition,we are transported, in imagination, to the thirteenth century, andwitness, with the mind's eye, the scenes in which he was an actor, andgradually come to feel as if we were not reading a chronicle pennedcenturies ago, but listening to a Crusader who, just returned from theEast, and seated on the dais of the castle hall, tells his story overthe wine-cup to his kinsmen and neighbours assembled at the festiveboard.
It was evening; and Joinville, who was suffering fearfully from theprevailing malady, perceiving that everyone was preparing to departtowards Damietta, withdrew to his galley, with his chaplain, and such ofhis company, including Guy Muschamp, as had escaped the pestilence, andthe swords of the Saracens; and no sooner did darkness descend over thehill, than he commanded his captain to raise the anchor, and float downthe stream.
'My lord,' replied the man, 'I dare not; for between us and Damietta arethe large galleys of the Saracens, who would infallibly capture us.'
And at this moment a terrible spectacle arrested Joinville's attention.It happened that the king's seamen were waiting to take the sick andwounded on board; but many of the sick and wounded were still in thecamp on the banks of the river. Suddenly, by the light of fires whichthe sailors had lighted for the comfort of the sick, Joinville saw theSaracens enter the camp, and gratify their thirst for blood by a generalmassacre. In great alarm, the king's seamen cut their cables; and whileJoinville's men were raising their anchor, the huge galleys came downupon them with such force, that he expected every moment to be sunk.However he escaped this danger, and made some way down the Nile. But itspeedily appeared that the Crusaders who had embarked on the river werenot to be more fortunate in their attempt to reach Damietta than werethose who remained on shore.
Joinville very soon discovered that he had scarcely a chance of escape.During the night, a tempest arose; and the wind blowing with greatforce towards Damietta drove the vessels of the Crusaders straight inthe way of the sultan's fleet, and about break of day they foundthemselves close to the galleys of the Saracens. Immediately onobserving the Crusaders approaching, the Saracens raised loud shouts,and shot large bolts, and threw Greek fire in such quantities, that itseemed as if the stars were falling from the heavens.
Great, of course, was the alarm of the Crusaders. Joinville and hiscompany, however, gained the current, and endeavoured to push forward;but the wind becoming more and more violent drove them against thebanks, and close to the Saracens, who, having already taken severalvessels, were murdering the crews, and throwing the dead bodies into theriver.
On seeing what was taking place, and finding that the Saracens began toshoot bolts at his galley, Joinville, to protect himself, put on hisarmour. He had hardly done so, when some of his people began to shout ingreat consternation.
'My lord, my lord,' cried they, 'because the Saracens menace us, oursteersman is going to run us ashore, where we shall all be murdered.'
At that moment Joinville was so faint that he had seated himself, butinstantly rising he drew his sword and advanced.
'Beware what you do,' said he; 'for I vow to slay the first person whoattempts to run us ashore.'
'My lord,' said the captain in a resolute tone, 'it is impossible toproceed; so you must make up your mind whether you will be landed onshore, or stranded in the mud of the banks.'
'Well,' replied Joinville, 'I choose rather to be run on a mud bank thanto be carried ashore, where even now I see our people beingslaughtered.'
But escape proved impossible. Almost as he spoke, Joinville perceivedfour of the sultan's galleys making towards his barge; and, givinghimself up for lost, he took a little casket containing his jewels, andthrew it into the Nile. However, it turned out that, though he could notsave his liberty, there was still a chance of saving his life.
'My lord,' said the mariner, 'you must permit me to say you are theking's cousin; if not, we are as good as murdered.'
'Say what you please,' replied Joinville.
And now Joinville met with a protector, whose coming he attributed tothe direct interposition of heaven. 'It was God,' says he, 'who then, asI verily believe, sent to my aid a Saracen, who was a subject of theEmperor of Germany. He wore a pair of coarse trowsers, and, swimmingstraight to me, he came into my vessel and embraced my knees. "My lord,"he said, "if you do not what I shall advise, you are lost. In order tosave yourself, you must leap into the river, without being observed." Hehad a cord thrown to me, and I leaped into the river, followed by theSaracen, who saved me, and conducted me to a galley, wherein werefourteen score of men, besides those who had boarded my vessel. But thisgood Saracen held me fast in his arms.'
Shortly after, Joinville with the good Saracen's aid was landed, andthe other Saracens rushed on him to cut his throat, and he expected nobetter fate. But the Saracen who had saved him would not quit his hold.
'He is the king's cousin,' shouted he; 'the king's cousin.'
'I had already,' says Joinville, 'felt the knife at my throat, and castmyself on my knees; but, by the hands of this good Saracen, Goddelivered me from this peril; and I was led to the castle where theSaracen chiefs had assembled.'
When Joinville was conducted with some of his company, along with thespoils of his barge, into the presence of the emirs, they took off hiscoat of mail; and perceiving that he was very ill, they, from pity,threw one of his scarlet coverlids lined with minever over him, and gavehim a white leathern girdle, with which he girded the coverlid roundhim, and placed a small cap on his head. Nevertheless, what with hisfright and his malady, he soon began to shake so that his teethchattered, and he complained of thirst.
On this the Saracens gave him some water in a cup; but he no sooner putit to his lips, than the water began to run back through his nostrils.'Having an imposthume in my throat,' says he, 'imagine what a wretchedstate I was in; and I looked more to death than life.'
When Joinville's attendants saw the water running through his nostrils,they began to weep; and the good Saracen who had saved him asked themwhy they were so sorrowful.
'Because,' they replied, 'our lord is nearly dead.'
And thereupon the good Saracen, taking pity on their distress, ran totell the emirs; and one of them coming, told Joinville to be of goodcheer, for he would bring a drink that should cure him in two days.Under the influence of this beverage, the seneschal ere long recovered;and when he was well, he was sent for by the admiral, who commanded thesultan's galleys.
'Are you,' asked the admiral, 'the king's cousin, as was reported?'
'No,' answered Joinville, 'I am not;' and he informed the admiral why ithad been stated.
'You were well advised,' said the admiral; 'for otherwise you would havebeen all murdered, and cast into the river. Have you any acquaintancewith the Emperor Frederic, or are you of his lineage?'
'Truly,' replied Joinville, 'I have heard my mother say that I am theemperor's second cousin.'
'Ah,' said the admiral, 'I rejoice to hear it; and I love you all thebetter on that account.'
It appears that Joinville became quite friendly with the admiral, andwas treated by him with kindness; and, on Sunday, when it was orderedthat all the Crusaders who had been taken prisoners on the Nile shouldbe brought to a castle on the banks, Joinville was invited to go thitherin the admiral's company. On that occasion, the seneschal had to endurethe horror of seeing his
chaplain dragged from the hold of his galleyand instantly killed and flung into the water; and scarcely was thisover when the chaplain's clerk was dragged out of the hold, so weak thathe could hardly stand, felled on the head with a mortar, and cast afterhis master. In this manner the Saracens dealt with all the captives whowere suffering from sickness.
Horrorstruck at such a destruction of human life, Joinville, by means ofthe good Saracen who had saved his life, informed them that they weredoing very wrong; but they treated the matter lightly.
'We are only destroying men who are of no use,' said they; 'for they aremuch too ill with their disorders to be of any service.'
Soon after witnessing this harrowing spectacle, Joinville was requestedby the Saracen admiral to mount a palfrey; and they rode together, overa bridge, to the place where the Crusaders were imprisoned. At theentrance of a large pavilion the good Saracen, who had been Joinville'spreserver, and had always followed him about, stopped, and requested hisattention.
'Sir,' said he, 'you must excuse me, but I cannot come further. Ientreat you not to quit the hand of this boy, otherwise the Saracenswill kill him.'
'Who is he?' asked Joinville.
'The boy's name,' replied the good Saracen, 'is Bartholomew de Bar, andhe is son of the Lord Montfaucon de Bar.'
And now conducted by the admiral, and leading the little boy by thehand, Joinville entered the pavilion, where the nobles and knights ofFrance, with more than ten thousand persons of inferior rank, wereconfined in a court, large in extent, and surrounded by walls of mud.From this court the captive Christians were led forth, one at a time,and asked if they would become renegades, yes or no. He who answered'Yes,' was put aside; but he who answered 'No,' was instantly beheaded.
Such was the plight of the Christian warriors who so recently hadboasted of being about to conquer Egypt. Already thirty thousand of theCrusaders had perished; and the survivors were so wretched, that theyalmost envied their comrades who had gone where the weary are at rest.
Now in the midst of all this suffering and anxiety, what had become ofGuy Muschamp? Had the gay young squire, who boasted that if killed bythe Saracens he would die laughing, been drowned in the Nile, or was hea captive in that large court surrounded by walls of mud? Neither. Butas our narrative proceeds, the reader will see that Guy Muschamp's fatewas hardly less sad than the fate of those who had found a watery grave,or of those who were offered the simple choice of denying their God orlosing their lives.
Boy Crusaders: A Story of the Days of Louis IX. Page 28