CHAPTER XXXII.
PERILS AND SUSPENSE.
THE Saracen chiefs, after having dyed their sabres in the blood of thesultan, did not confine their menaces and violent demonstrations to thetent in which the captive King of France was lodged. With swords drawnand battle-axes on their shoulders, thirty of them boarded the galleywhere Joinville was with the Count of Brittany, Sir Baldwin d'Ebelin,and the Constable of Cyprus, and menaced them with gestures and furiousimprecations.
'I asked Sir Baldwin d'Ebelin,' writes Joinville, 'what they weresaying; and he, understanding Saracenic, replied that they were come tocut off our heads, and shortly after I saw a large body of our men onboard confessing themselves to a monk of La Trinite, who had accompaniedthe Count of Flanders. I no longer thought of any sin or evil I haddone, but that I was about to receive my death. In consequence, I fellon my knees at the feet of one of them, and making the sign of thecross, said "Thus died St. Agnes." The Constable of Cyprus knelt besideme, and confessed himself to me, and I gave him such absolution as godwas pleased to grant me the power of bestowing. But of all the thingshe had said to me, when I rose up I could not remember one of them.'
'We were confined in the hold of the galleys,' continues the chronicler,'and laid heads and heels together. We thought it had been so orderedbecause they were afraid of attacking us in a body, and that they woulddestroy us one at a time. This danger lasted the whole night. I had myfeet right on the face of the Count of Brittany, whose feet, in return,were beside my face. On the morrow we were taken out of the hold, andthe emirs sent to inform us that we might renew the treaties we had madewith the sultan.'
'So far, all seemed well. But the danger was not yet over, as theCrusaders were destined to feel. At first the form of the oaths to betaken by the king and the emirs presented much difficulty; and, evenwhen it was settled, the emirs in council gravely discussed thepropriety of putting the French king and his barons to death. Only oneof them pleaded for keeping faith; and his voice would have been drownedin the clamour, but fortunately he used an argument which appealedirresistibly to their cupidity.'
'You may put these Franks to death if you will,' said he; 'but reflectere doing so that dead men pay no ransom.'
Nevertheless, it really seemed that after all the Crusaders were doomed;and while they were on board the galleys, and this discussion wasproceeding, an incident occurred which caused them to give themselves upfor lost.
'One of the emirs that were against us,' says Joinville, 'threatening wewere to be slain, came to the bank of the river, and shouted out inSaracen to those who were on board our galley, and, taking off histurban, made signs, and told them they were to carry us back to Babylon.The anchors were instantly raised, and we were carried a good league upthe river. This caused great grief to all of us, and many tears fellfrom our eyes, for we now expected nothing but death.'
And what in the meantime was taking place in Damietta?
Nothing in truth could have exceeded the anxiety which prevailed withinthe walls of that city, when thither were carried tidings of theassassination of the Sultan of Egypt, and of the new danger to which theKing of France and the captive Crusaders were exposed.
The aspect of affairs was indeed menacing; and it was not tillmessengers from King Louis came to announce that the treaty was to bemaintained and the city evacuated, that something like confidence wasrestored. On the evening of Friday, Queen Margaret, with the Countessesof Anjou, Poictiers, and Artois, and the other ladies, went on board aGenoese vessel. As night advanced, Oliver de Thermes and all theCrusaders who had garrisoned Damietta embarked on the Nile, and Geoffreyde Segrines, having brought the keys to the emirs, the Saracens tookpossession. Next morning at daybreak the Moslem standards were floatingover tower and turret. But still King Louis was in the hands of hisenemies, and still the emirs were debating whether or not they ought toput him and the companions of his captivity to death.
At the mouth of the Nile, a Genoese galley awaited the king; and, whileevery eye was strained towards the shore with an anxiety which was notwithout cause, Walter Espec and Bisset, the English knight, stood ondeck in no enviable frame of mind.
'I mislike all this delay,' said Walter, more agitated than he was wontto appear. 'What if, after all, these emirs should prove false to theircovenant?'
'In truth,' replied Bisset, 'it would not amaze me so much as manythings that have come to pass of late; and both the king and his noblesmay yet find to their cost that their hopes of freedom are dashed; forwe all know the truth of the proverb as to there being so much betweenthe cup and the lip.'
At this moment they observed the galleys, on board of which Joinvilleand other captive Crusaders were, move up the Nile, and each uttered anexclamation of horror.
'Now may Holy Katherine be our aid,' cried Walter, 'for our worstanticipations are like to be realised.'
'The saints forbid,' replied Bisset; 'and yet I am not so hopeful as Imight be, for I have long since learned not to holloa till out of thewood.'
It was indeed a critical moment for Louis and his nobles; but in thecouncil of the emirs the milder views ultimately prevailed, and Bissetand Walter Espec observed with delight that the galleys which had movedup the Nile were brought back towards Damietta, and that Louis,attended by a multitude of Saracens who watched his movements insilence, was approaching. Immediately the Genoese galley moved towardsthe shore, and Louis, having been joined by the Count of Anjou and theLord of Joinville, stepped on board, while the other knights and nobleshastened to embark in the vessels that lay in wait for them. As soon asthe king was on board, Bisset made a signal; and, as he did so, eightyarchers with their crossbows strung appeared on deck so suddenly thatthe crowd of Saracens who had been pressing forward immediatelydispersed in alarm, and the galley moved from the shore. Ere long, theCount of Poictiers, who had remained as a hostage in Damietta till theransom of the Crusaders was paid, came on board; and, all being now inreadiness for leaving the place where he had experienced so manymisfortunes and so much misery, the saint-king made a sign to themariners, the sails were given to the wind, and the fleet of the armedpilgrims--the wreck of a brilliant army--glided away towards Syria. Butthousands of the survivors still remained in captivity, and, albeitLouis was conscientiously bent on ransoming them, their prospect wasgloomy, and the thought of their unhappy plight clouded the saint-king'sbrow.
And sad was the heart of Walter Espec, as he recalled the day when helanded at Damietta side by side with Guy Muschamp; and for the hundredthtime asked himself mournfully whether his brother-in-arms had died forhis faith, or whether a worse fate had befallen him.
But why linger on the Egyptian shore amid scenes suggestive ofreminiscences so melancholy and so dismal--reminiscences of misfortunesand calamities and losses not to be repaired? Let us on to the Syriancoast, and gladden our eyes with a sight of the white walls of Acre,washed by the blue waters of the Mediterranean.
Boy Crusaders: A Story of the Days of Louis IX. Page 33