170 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

had he settled this than he wasted not a moment in
hesitation. Drawing back towards the wall, and
halting for a moment, with his face to his foes, to
breathe his panting steed, he once more, with battle-
axe in hand, charged forward upon his now recoiling
foes, but this time not to return. Nothing daunted by
the darts and arrows that flew around him, he deliber-
ately pursued the course which his eye had marked
out, literally felling to the earth all who attempted to
stop his progress, but skillfully avoiding foes whom
it was not necessary to encounter. Only a man of
the highest courage would have made such an
attempt: only a man of the strongest will would
have persevered.

Now Bisset had both courage and strength of will,
and in spite of all the chances against him, he did
reach the orange grove, and making his way through
it as well as he could, found himself in the verge of
a wood of palms and sycamores. But he himself was
wounded; his horse was bleeding in a dozen places;
and close behind him were three Saracens, well
mounted, and thirsting for his blood. It may seem
to the reader, that such being the circumstances,
Bisset might as well have fallen at Mansourah or
with Walter de Chatillon at the entrance to the
narrow street leading to the house to which the king
had been carried. But, certainly, that was by no
means his view of the case; for he was one of
those warriors who never despair; and he turned on
his pursuers like a lion at bay.

‘Surely,’ said he, speaking to himself, ‘wounded
and weary as I am, I should be but a poor Christian