218 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

him, made for this troop, and, striking one of them
with his lance, pierced his body through and killed
him on the spot. He then retreated to our men,
pursued by the other Saracens, one of whom gave
him a heavy blow on his helmet with a -battle-
axe. In return, the knight struck the Saracen go
severely on the head that he made his turban fly off.
Another Saracen thought to give the knight a mortal
blow with his Turkish blade, but he twisted his body
in such wise that it missed him, and the knight, by a
back-hand blow on the Saracen’s arm, made hig
sword fall to the ground, and then made a good
retreat with the infantry. These three famous actions
did the Genoese knight perform in the presence of
the constable, and before all the principal persons of
the town who were assembled on the battlements.’
Nevertheless, the Saracens advanced with ‘ fierce
faces threatening war,’ when suddenly a band of
those military monks who at the cry of battle armed
‘with faith within and steel without,’ and long white
mantles over their chain mail, spurred with lances
erect from the Castle of St. Katherine near the gate
of St. Anthony, and, interposing between the Saracens
and the city, formed a barrier that seemed impene-
trable. They were the knights of the Order of St.
Katherine of Mount Sinai, an Order instituted in
honovr of that saint in 1063, and bearing on their
snowy mantles the instruments by which she suffered
martyrdom—the half wheel armed with spikes and
traversed by a sword stained with blood.
The Saracens halted in surprise at the sight of the
Knights of St. Katherine, who were supposed at the