'74 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

It was evening; and Joinville, who was suffering
fearfully from the prevailing malady, perceiving that
everyone was preparing to depart towards Damietta,
withdrew to his galley, with his chaplain, and such of
his company, including Guy Muschamp, as had es-
caped the pestilence, and the swords of the Saracens ;
and no sooner did darkness descend over the hill,
than he commanded his captain to raise the anchor,
and float down the stream.

‘My lord,’ replied the man, ‘I dare not; for
between us and Damietta are the large galleys of the
Saracens, who would infallibly capture us.’

And at this moment a terrible spectacle arrested
Joinville’s attention. It happened that the king’s
seamen were waiting to take the sick and wounded on
board; but many of the sick and wounded were still
in the camp on the banks of the river. Suddenly,
by the light of fires which the sailors had lighted for
the comfort of the sick, Joinville saw the Saracens
enter the camp, and gratify their thirst for blood by
a general massacre. In great alarm, the king’s
seamen cut their cables; and while Joinville’s men
were raising their anchor, the huge galleys came
down upon them with such force, that he expected
every moment to be sunk. However he escaped this
danger, and made some way down the Nile. But it
speedily appeared that the Crusaders who had em-
barked on the river were not to be more fortunate in
their attempt to reach Damietta than were those who
remained on shore.

Joinville very soon discovered that he had scarcely
a chance of escape. During the night, a tempest