134 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

flight of the Count of Artois. But fearful in the
meantime was the carnage. Full fifteen hundred
knights had fallen; and of these, three hundred were
of the order of the Temple. Gradually the numbers
diminished, till there remained not a dozen of the
men who had that morning invaded Fakreddin’s camp;
and among these were the Earl of Salisbury, Lord
Robert de Vere, the Grand Masters of the Temple and
the Hospital, Bisset the English knight, and Walter
' Espec, still unwounded, and fighting as if he bore a
charmed life, and felt invulnerable to javelins or arrows.

But all possibility of continuing to resist was now
at an end, and every hope of succour had vanished.
Salisbury, resolved to sell his life dearly, faced the
Saracens with desperate valour, and used his battle-
axe with such effect that a hundred Saracens are
said to have fallen that day by his hand. At length
his horse was killed under him; and, after rising to
lis feet, and fighting for awhile with disdain, he fell
covered with wounds. Robert de Vere, already
bleeding and exhausted, no sooner saw Salisbury sink
than he wrapped the English standard round his
body, and lay down to die by the great earl’s side.
Bisset, Walter Espec, and the two grand masters,
found themselves surrounded by a host of foes, and
defending themselves desperately against every spe-
cies of assailant.

‘Alas!’ exclaimed the grand masters of the
Temple, ‘ we are clearly doomed.’

‘I would fain hope not,’ answered Bisset, reso-
lutely. ‘Our weapons are not willow-wands; we
can cut our way through the pagan rabble.’