Master of the Halca

Guard had horns, and drums, and cymbals. And with these they made such a noise at the point of day and at nightfall, that those who were near could not hear one another speak; and dearly were they heard throughout the camp.

Nor would the minstrels have been rash enough to sound their instruments during the day, save by order of the master of the Halca ; whence it happened that if the Soldan wished to give an order, he sent for the master of the Halca, and gave the order through him; and then the master caused the Soldan’s instruments to be sounded, and all the host assembled to hear the order of the Soldan: the master of the Halca spoke it, and all the host carried it out.

When the Soldan went to war, the knights of the Halca, if so be that they approved themselves well in battle, were made emirs by the Soldan, and he placed them in command of two hundred knights, or three hundred; and the better they approved themselves the more knights did he set them over.

The reward reserved for their deeds of chivalry is this: when they become famous anti rich beyond question, and the soldan is afraid lest they should kill or disinherit him, then he causes them to be taken and put to death in his prison, and their wives deprived of all they possess. This is how the Soldan dealt with those who captured the Count of Montfort, and the Count of Bar; and so did Bondocdar deal with those who had discomfited the King of Armenia. For these latter, thinking to have some reward, dismounted and went to salute Bondocdar while he was hunting wild beasts; and he replied: “ I salute you not,” because they had disturbed his hunting; and he caused them to be beheaded.

CONSPIRACY OF THE EMIRS AGAINST THE NEW SOLDAN

Let us now return to the matter in hand, and tell how the Soldan, who was dead, had a son of the age of five and twenty years, wise, adroit, and crafty; aim because the dead Soldan feared that his son would dispossess him, he bestowed on him a kingdom which he had in the East. And now when the Soldan was dead, the emirs sent to fetch the son, and so soon as the son was come into Egypt he took the golden rods from his father’s seneschal, and constable, and marshal, and bestowed them upon those who had come with him from the East.

When the seneschal, constable, and marshal saw this they were very wroth, as were also those who had been of the father’s council, and they felt that great shame had been put upon them. And because they doubted not that the son would do to them as the father had done to those who cap trued the Count of Bar, and the Count of Montfort (as you have been already told), they so practised with the men of the Halca, whose duty it was to guard the person of the Soldan, that the men of the Halca agreed, at their request, to kill the Soldan.

THE CHRISTIANS BEGIN TO SUFFER FROM DISEASE AND FAMINE

After the two battles aforementioned, the host began to suffer very grievously; for at the end of nint days the bodies of our people, whom the Saracens had slain, came to the surface of the water; and this was said to be because the gall had putrefied. The bodies came floating to the bridge between our two camps, and could not pass under because the bridge touched the water. There was such great foison of them that all the river was full of corpses, from the one bank to the other, and, lengthwise, the cast of a small stone.

The king had Jiired a hundred vagabonds, who took full eight days to clear the river. They cast the bodies of the Saracens, who were circumcised, on the other side of the bridge, and let them go down with the stream; the Christians they caused to be put in great trenches, one with another. I saw there the chamberlains of the Count of Artois, and many others, seeking for their friends among the dead; but never did I hear tell that any was found (identified).

Sickness was such that the flesh of our legs dried up

We ate no fish in the camp the whole of Lent save eels; and the eels ate the dead people, for they are a gluttonous fish. And because of this evil, and for the unhealthiness of the land where it never rains a drop of water there came upon us the sickness of the host, which sickness was such that the flesh of our legs dried up, and the skin upon our legs became spotted, black and earth colour, like an old boot; and with us, who had this sickness, the flesh of our gums putrefied; nor could any one escape from this sickness, but he had to die. The sign of death was this, that when there was bleeding of the nose, then death was sure.

A fortnight afterwards the Turks, in order to starve us which very much astonished our people took several of their galleys that were above our camp, and caused them to be dragged by land and put into the river, a full league below our camp. And these galleys brought famine upon us; for no one, because of these galleys, dared to come up the stream from Damietta and bring us provisions. We knew naught of these things till such time as a little ship, belonging to the Count of Flanders, escaped from them by force and told us of them, as also that the galleys of the Soldan had taken full eighty of our galleys coming from Damietta, and put to death the people that were therein.

Thus there arose a great dearth in the camp, so that as soon as Easter was come an ox was valued at eighty limes, and a sheep at thirty livres, and a pig at thirty limes, and an egg twelve deniers, and a measure of wine ten limes.

JOINVILLE FALLS SICK DEATH OF HIS PRIEST

Owing to the wounds I had received on Shrove Tuesday, the sickness of the host took hold upon me, in my mouth and legs, as also a double tertian fever, and so great a cold in my head that the rheum flowed from the head through the nostrils; and because of the said sicknesses, I took to sick bed at mid-Lent; and thus it befell that my priest sang mass for me, before my bed, in my pavilion. And he had the same sickness as I. Now it chanced that at the consecration, he turned faint. When I saw that he was about to fall, I, who had on my tunic, leapt from my bed barefoot, and took him in my arms, and told him to do all leisurely, and to proceed fairly with the consecration, for that I should not leave him till he had brought it to an end. He came to him self, and finished the consecration, and sang his mass fully to a close. But never did he sing mass again.

ATTEMPT TO TREAT WITH THE SARACENS PITIFUL CONDITION OF THE HOST

After these things the king’s councillors and the councillors of the Soldan appointed a set day on which to come to an agreement. The proposed conditions were these: that we should surrender Damietta to the Soldan, and the Soldan sur render to the kingtne kingdom of Jerusalem; and that the Soldan should take charge of the sick that were at Damietta, and also of the salted meats because they did not eat pork and of the king’s engines of war, until such time as the king was able to send and fetch all these things.

They asked the king’s councillors what security would be given that the Soldan should repossess Damietta. The king’s councillors offered to deliver over one of the king’s brothers, either the Count of Anjou, or the Count of Poitiers, to be kept until such time as Damietta was placed in the Soldan’s hands. The Saracens said they would consent to nothing unless the person of the king were left with them as a pledge; where upon my Lord Geoffry of Sargines, the good knight, said he would rather that the Saracens should have them all dead or captive than bear the reproach of having left the king in pledge.

The sickness began to increase in the host in such sort, and the dead flesh so to grow upon the gums of our people, that the barber surgeons had to remove the dead flesh in order that the people might masticate their food and swallow it. Great pity it was to hear the cry throughout the camp of the people whose dead flesh was being cut away; for they cried like women labouring of child.

Somewhat of the Lord of Brancion

And now will I speak to you somewhat of the Lord of Brancion. He had been, when he died, in thirty-six battles and skirmishes hand to hand, and always borne away the prize of valour. I saw him once in the host of the Count of Chalon, whose cousin he was, and he came to me and to my brother, and said to us, on a Good Friday: “ My nephews, come and help me, you and your people, for the Germans are destroying the church.” We went with him, and ran upon them with our swords drawn, and with great labour and after a fierce struggle we drave them from the church. When this was done the right worthy man knelt before the altar, and called on our Saviour with a loud voice, and said: “ Lord, 1 pray thee to have mercy upon me, and to take me out of these wars among Christians, in which I have lived a great while; and grant that I may die in Thy service, and so come to possess Thy kingdom of paradise.” And I have told you of these things, because I believe that God heard his prayer, as you may have seen from what has gone before.

After this battle, which was fought on the first Friday in Lent, the king summoned all his barons before him, and said to them: “ Great thanks do we owe to our Saviour, in that he has twice done us honour during this week: on Shrove Tuesday, when we drove the foe from their camp where we are ourselves now lodged and on the Friday following, which has just passed, when we have defended ourselves against them, we on foot, and they mounted.” And many other good and fair words did he speak for their recomforting.

THE “ HALCA ” OR GUARD OF THE SOLD

It is convenient, in pursuing our story, to disturb its course somewhat, at this point, for the purpose of showing how the Soldans kept their forces ordered and conditioned. And it is sooth that they had formed the main part of their chivalry7 of foreigners, whom merchants had brought for sale out of strange lands, and whom they bought right willingly and at a high price. And these people that the merchants brought into Egypt were obtained in the East, because when one Eastern king defeated another, he took the poor people whom he had conquered, and sold them to the merchants, and the merchants came and sold them in Egypt.

As to the children, the Soldan brought them up in his own house till their beards began to grow; and he would see that they had bows proportioned to their strength; and so soon as they waxed stronger, the weaker bows were cast into the Soldan’s arsenal, and the master artilleryman provided them with bows as strong as they could bend.

The arms of the Soldan were or, and such arms as the Soldan wore were worn by these young people also; and they were called buhariz.1 So soon as their beards began to grow the Soldan made them knights. And they wore the Soldan’s arms, save for one difference, viz., that they added on to the arms, crimson devices, roses, or crimson bends, or birds or other devices, according to their pleasure.

And these people, of whom I am speaking to you, were called of the Ualcaa, because the Bahariz slept in the tent of the Soldan. When the Soldan was in camp, those of the Halca were lodged about his quarters, and set to guard his person. At the entrance to his quarters were lodged, in a little tent, the porters of the Soldan, and his minstrels, who 1 Folk from the sea.

CROSSES THE RIVER SIX OF JOINVILLE

THE HOST RE-CROSSES THE RIVER SIX OF JOINVILLE’s HEIGHTS PUNISHED FOR THEIR WICKEDNESS

When the king and the barons saw this, they agreed that the king should shift his camp, which was on the side towards Babylon, and move to the camping ground of the Duke of Burgundy, which was on the river that went to Damietta. In order to collect hi people wnh greater safety, the king caused a barbican to be constructed before the bridge between our two camps, in such wise that one could enter the barbican from either side on horseback.

So soon as the barbican was ready, all the king’s host gat to their arms, and the Turks made an attack in force upon the king’s camp. Nevertheless, neither the king nor his people moved till all the baggage had been carried over, and then the king passed, and his body of troops after him, and after them ail the other barons, save my Lord Walter of Chatillon, who had the rearguard. As they were entering into the barbican, my Lord Everard of Valery delivered my Lord John, his brother, whom the Turks were carrying away captive.

The barbican

When all the host had passed, those who remained in the barbican were in great peril, for the barbican was not high, on the eve of Shrove Tuesday I beheld a marvel, of which I will now tell you’; ion on that day was buried my Lord f Hugh of Land Ricourt, who was with me, carrying a banner. There as he lay on a bier in my chapel, six of my knights were leaning on sacks full of barley; and because they were speaking loud in my chapel, and disturbing the priest, I went to them, and told them to hold their peace, and said it was a discourteous thing for knights and gentlemen to talk while mass was being sung. And they began to laugh and told me, laughing, that they were remarrying the dead man’s wife.

And I spoke sharply to them, and told them that such words were neither good nor seemly, and that they had forgotten their companion over soon. And God took such vengeance upon them, that on the morrow was the great battle of Shrove Tuesday, in which they were all killed or mortally wounded, so that the wives of all six were in case to marry again.

Saracen held me constantly

They set me in the galley, where there were full fourteen :ore men of their people, and he held me always in his arms, hen they threw me to the ground, and jumped upon my iditol cut my throat, for any one would have thought it armour to kill me. But the Saracen held me constantly in s arms, and cried: “ Cousin to the king! ” In this manner ley bore me down to the ground twice, and once upon lees, and then I felt the knife at my throat. In this cremate God saved me by the help of the Saracen, who 10k me to the castle of the ship, where the Saracen knights t ere assembled.

My lady mother

When I came among them, they took off my hauberk; and the pity they had upon me, they threw over me a scarlet varlet lined with miniver, which my lady mother had given e erethic; and one of them brought me a white belt, and girt myself over the coverlet; and in the coverlet I had ado a hole, donning it as a garment. And another brought e a hood which I put upon my head. And then, because : the fear in which I was, I began to tremble very much, id also because of the sickness. Then I asked for drink, id they brought me some water in a jar; and as soon as I ;t the water to my mouth to drink it down, it spurted out rough my nostrils.

When I saw this, I sent for my people, and told them I as a dead man, seeing I had the tumour in my throat; and ley asked how I knew it; and I showed them; and as soon 1 ? they saw the water spurting from my throat and from my ostrils, they took to weeping. When the Saracen knights ho were there saw my people weeping, they asked the aracen who had rescued us why they were weeping; and e replied that he understood I had the tumour in the throat, 3 that I could not recover. Then one of the Saracen nights told him to bid us be of good comfort, for he would have me somewhat to drink whereby I should be cured within days; and this he did.

My Lord Raoul of Wanou, who was one of my following, ad been hamstrung in the great battle on Shrove Tuesday, nd could not stand upon his feet; and you must know that n old Saracen knight, who was in the galley, would carry in, hanging from his neck, whenever the sick man’s necessities so required. .

THE HOST ATTEMPTS TO RETREAT BY LAND AND WATER

When the king saw that he could only remain there to die, he and his people, he ordered and arranged that they should strike their camp, late on Tuesday (5th April 1250), at night, after the octave of Easter, to return to Damietta. He caused the mariners who had galleys to be told that they should get together the sick, and take them thither. He also commanded Josselin of Comaut, and his brothers, and the other engineers, to cut the ropes that held the bridge between us and the Saracens; but of this they did nothing.

We embarked on the Tuesday, after dinner, in the after noon, I and two of my knights whom I had remaining, and the rest of my followers. When the night began to fall, I told my mariners to draw up their anchor, and let us go down the stream; but they said they dared not, because the Soldan’s galleys, which were between us and Damietta, would surely put us to death. The mariners had made great fires to gather the sick into their galleys, and the sick had dragged themselves to the bank of the river. While I was exhorting the mariners to let us begone, the Saracens entered into the camp, and I saw, by the light of the fires, that they were slaughtering the sick on the bank.

Mariners appointed

While my mariners were raising their anchor, the mariners appointed to take away the sick cut the ropes of then- anchors and of their galleys, and came alongside our little ship, and so surrounded us on one side and the other that they well-nigh ran us down. When we had escaped from this peril, and while we were going down with the stream, the king, who had upon him the sickness of the host and a very evil dysentery, could easdy have got away on the galleys, if he had been so minded; but he said that, please God, he would never abandon Ids people. That night he fainted several times; and because of the sore dysentery from which he suffered, it was necessary to cut away the lower part of his drawers, so frequent were his necessities.

They cried to us, who were floating on the water, that we should wait for the king; and when we would not wait, they shot at us with crossbow bolts; where for it behooved us to stop until such time as they gave us leave to fare forward.

KING MADE PRISONER THE SARACENS

THE KING MADE PRISONER THE SARACENS REFUSE TO BE BOUND BY TRUCE

Now I will leave off speaking of this matter, and tell you how the king was taken, as he himself related it to me. He told me how he had left his own division and placed himself, he and my lord Geoffry of Sargines, in the division that was under my Lord Gaucher of Chatillon, who commanded the rearguard.

And the king related to me that he was mounted on a little courser covered with a housing of silk; and he told me that of all bis knights and sergeants there only remained behind with him my Lord Geofiry of Sargines, who brought rhe king to a little village, there where the king was taken; and as the king related to me, my Lord Geofiry of Sargines defended him from the Saracens as a good servitor defends his lord’s drinking-cup from flies; for every time that the Saracens approached, he took his spear, which he had placed between himself and the bow of his saddle, and put it to his shoulder, and ran upon them, and drove them away from the kin?.

Philip of Montfort

And thus he brought the king to the little village; and they lifted him into a house, and laid him, almost as one dead, in the lap of a burgher-woman of Paris, and thought he would not last this night. Thither came my Lord Philip of Montfort, and said to the king that he saw the emir with whom he had treated of the truce, and, if the king so willed, he would go to him, and renew the negotiation for a truce in the manner that the Saracens desired. The king begged him to go, and said he was right willing; “So my Lord Philip went to the Saracen; and the Saraceihiad taken off his turban from his head, and took off the ring from his finger in token that he would faithfully observe the truce.!

Meanwhile, a very great rinse chance happened to our people ; for a traitor sergeant, whose name was Marcel, began to cry to our people: “ Yield, lord knights, for the king commands you, and do not cause the king to be slain! ” All thought that the king had so commanded, and gave up their swords to the Saracens. The emir saw that the Saracens were bringing in our people prisoners, so he said to my Lord Philip that it was not fitting that he should grant a truce to our people, for he saw very well that they were already prisoners.

So it happened to my Lord Philip that whereas all our people were taken captive, yet was not he so taken, because he was an envoy. But there is an evil custom in the land of paynimry that when the king sends envoys to the Soldan, oi the Soldan to the king, and the king dies, or the Soldan, before the envoys’ return, then the envoys, from whithersoever they may come, and whether Christians or Saracens, are made prisoners and slaves.

J0INVILLE STAYED ON THE RIVER BY A CONTRARY WIND

When this mischance befell our people, that they should be taken captive on land, so did it happen to us, to be taken captive on the water, as you shall shortly hear; for the wind blew from Damietta, and so counteracted the current of the river; and the knights, whom the king had placed in the lighter vessels to defend the sick, fled. Thus our mariners lost the current and got into a creek, and we had to turn back towards the Saracens.

We, who were going by water, came, a little before the break of dawn, to the passage where were the Soldan’s galleys that had prevented the coming of provisions from Damietta. Here there was great confusion and tumult; for they shot at us and at our mounted folk who were on the bank so great a quantity of darts with Greek fire, that it seemed as if the stars of heaven were falling.

When our mariners had brought us out of the creek into which they had taken us, we found the king’s light boats, that the king had appointed to defend our sick, and they went flying towards Damietta. Then arose a wind, coming from Damietta, so strong that it counteracted the current of the river.

Great quantity of boats

By the one bank of the stream, and by the other, were a great quantity of boats belonging to our people who could not get down the stream, and whom the Saracens had taken and stayed; and the Saracens slew our people, and cast them into the water, and were dragging the coffers and baggage out of the boats that they had taken. The mounted Saracens on the bank shot at us with darts because we would not go to them. My people had put on me a jousting hauberk, so that I might not be wounded by the darts that fell Into our boat.

At this moment my people, who were at the hinder point at the boat, cried out to me: “ Lord, Lord, your mariners, because the Saracens are threatening them, mean to take you to the bank! ” I had myself raised by the arms, all weak as I was, and drew my sword upon them, and told them I should kill them if they took me to the bank. They answered that I must choose which I would have: whether to be taken to the bank, or anchored in mid-stream till the wind fell. I told them I liked better that they should anchor in mid-stream than that they should take me to the shore where there was nothing before us save death. So they anchored.

Soldan’s galleys

Very shortly after we saw four of the Soldan’s galleys coming to us, and in them full a thousand men. Then I called together my knights and my people, and asked them which they would rather do, either yield to the Soldan’s galleys or yield to those on land. We all agreed that we would rather yield to the Soldan’s galleys, because so we should be kept together, than yield to those on land, who would separate us, and sell us to the Bedouins.

Then one of my cellarers, who was born at Doulevant, said: “ Lord, I do not agree in this decision.” I asked him to what he did agree; and he said to me: “I advise that we should all suffer ourselves to be slain, for thus wye shall go to paradise.” But we heeded him not.

JOINVILLE YIELDS HIMSELF A PRISONER HIS LIFE IS THREATENED

When I saw that we must be taken, I took my casket and my jewels, and threw them into the river, and my relics also. Then said one of my mariners to me: “ Lord, if you do not suffer me to say you are the king’s cousin, they will kill you all, and us also.” And I told him I was quite willing he should say what he pleased. When the people on the first galley that came towards us to strike us amidships heard this, they threw down their anchors near to our boat.

Then did God send me a Saracen belonging to the emperor’s1 land. He had on drawers of unbleached linen, and came swimming across the stream to our vessel, and threw his arms about my waist, and said: “ Lord, if you do not take good heed, you are but lost; for it behoves you to leap from your vessel on to the beak that rises from the keel of that galley; and if you leap, these people will not mind you, for they are thinking only of the booty to be found in your vessel.” They threw me a rope from the galley, and I leapt on to the beak, so as God willed. And you must know that tottered so that if the Saracen had not leapt after me, and eld me up, I should have fallen into the water.