8&0 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

were brought ashore and lodged in the palaces of
the city; and five hundred knights were charged
with the duty of guarding the ramparts and towers;
and the warriors of the Cross, encamping in the plain
outside the gates, gave themselves up to dissipation,
and deluded themselves with the idea that no enter-
prise was too difficult for them to accomplish.

‘Now,’ said the French, as they quaffed the red
wine and rattled the dice-box, ‘we have only to
await the coming of our companions from the coast
of Syria, and of the Count of Poictiers, with the
arriére ban of France, to undertake the conquest of
Egypt.’

‘Ay, said others, ‘and then let the Saracens and
their sultan tremble.’

‘Nothing,’ echoed a third party, ‘can withstand
the warriors of France, when animated by the presence
and example of their king.’

‘I dislike all this boasting,’ remarked Bisset, the
English knight, to Walter Espec and Guy Muschamp,
‘and, albeit I wish not to be thought a prophet of
evil, I predict that it will end in mischief and
disaster.’

‘The saints forbid,’ exclaimed Guy, gaily. ‘For
my part I dread nothing but the thought of being
devoured by some of the crocodiles which, men say,
are hatched in the waters of the Nile.’

‘Nevertheless, mark my words,’ said Bisset, more
gravely than it was his wont to speak. «At present
the Frenchmen believe that, because they have plied
their swords with some effect, that henceforth the
Saracens will fly before their scabbards. Now they