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.
Penka's World 