CHAPTER XIL
AT DAMIETTA.

BOUT a mile from the sea, on the northern bank
of the second mouth of the Nile, stood the
city of Damietta, with its mosques, and palaces, and
towers, and warehouses, defended on the river side
by a double rampart, and on the land side by a
triple wall. Fair and enchanting to the eye was the
locality in which it was situated ; and as the Crusaders
directed their gaze towards the groves of oranges
and citrons, loaded with flowers and fruit, the woods
of palms and sycamores, the thickets of jasmines
and odoriferous shrubs, the vast plains, with pools
and lakes well stocked with fish, the thousand canals
intersecting the land, and crowned with papyrus anc
reeds, they, feeling the influence of a rich climate
and a beautiful sky, could not find words sufficiently
strong to express their admiration and delight.
‘Now, good Walter,’ said Guy Muschamp, as the ©
brothers-in-arms, having ascended to the castle of
the ‘ Hilda,’ looked earnestly towards the shore,
‘who can deny that such a land is worth fighting to
conquer ?’ ,
‘On my faith,’ exclaimed Walter Espec, with en-