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CHAPTER XXXII.
PERILS AND SUSPENSE.

HE Saracen chiefs, after having dyed their sabres
in the blood of the sultan, did not confine their
menaces and violent demonstrations to the tent in
which the captive King of France was lodged. With
swords drawn and battle-axes on their shoulders,
thirty of them boarded the galley where Joinville
was with the Count of Brittany, Sir Baldwin d’Ebelin,
aud the Constable of Cyprus, and menaced them
with gestures and furious imprecations.

‘Il asked Sir Baldwin d’Ebelin,’ writes Joinville,
‘what they were saying; and he, understanding
Saracenic, replied that they were come to cut off our
heads, and shortly after I saw a large body of our
men on board confessing themselves to a monk of
La Trinité, who had accompanied the Count of
Flanders. Ino longer thought of any sin or evil I
had done, but that I was about to receive my death. |
In consequence, I fell on my knees at the feet of one
of them, and making the sign of the cross, said “ Thus
aied St. Agnes.” The Constable of Cyprus knelt
beside me, and confessed himself to me, and I gave
him such absolution as Gcd was pleased to grant me