208 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

Damietta, and that Louis, attended by a multitude
of Saracens who watched his movements in silence,
was approaching. Immediately the Genoese galley
moved towards the shore, and Louis, having been
joined by the Count of Anjou and the Lord of
Joinville, stepped on board, while the other knights
and nobles hastened to embark in the vessels that
lay in wait for them. As soon as the king was on
board, Bisset made a signal; and, as he did so, eighty
archers with their crossbows strung appeared on
deck so suddenly that the crowd of Saracens who
had been pressing forward immediately dispersed in
alarm, and the galley moved from the shore. Ere long,
the Count of Poictiers, who had remained as a
hostage in Damietta till the ransom of the Crusaders
was paid, came on board; and, all being now in readi-
ness for leaving the place where he had experienced
so many misfortunes and so much misery, the saint-
king made a sign to the mariners, the sails were
given to the wind, and the fleet of the armed pilgrims
-——the wreck of a brilliant army—glided away towards
Syria. But thousands of the survivors still remained
in captivity, and, albeit Louis was conscientiously
bent on ransoming them, their prospect was gloomy,
and the thought of their unhappy plight clouded the
saint-kine’s brow.

And sad was the heart of Walter Espec, as he
recalled the day when he landed at Damietta side
by side with Guy Muschamp; and for the hundredth
time asked himself mournfully whether his brother-
in-arms had died for his faith, or whether a worse
fate had befallen him.