Brother Renaud of Vichier

Then spoke brother Renaud of Vichier, who was Marshal of the Temple, and he said this: “ Sire, let us set to one side this quarrel between the Lord of Joinville and our commander; for indeed, as our commander says, we could not advance any of this money without being forsworn. And as to what the seneschal advises, viz., that if we will not lend you the money, you had better take it why, he says nothing that is very outrageous, and you must do as you think best; and if you do take what is ours here in Egypt, why, we have so much of what is yours at Acre, that you can easily in dignify us.”

I said to the king that I would go and take the money, if he so ordered; and he ordered me accordingly. So I went to one of the galleys belonging to the Temple, the chief galley, and when I wished to go down into the hold of the galley, where the treasure was, I asked the Commander of the Temple to come and see what I took; but he did not deign to do so. The marshal said he would come and be a witness to the violence I should do him.

Treasurer of the Temple

So soon as I had gone down to where the treasure was, I asked the Treasurer of the Temple, who was there, to give me the keys of a chest that lay before me; and he, seeing I was thin and emaciated with sickness, and had on only such clothes as I had worn in prison, said he would give me none of them. Then I perceived a hatchet lying there, and lifted it. and said I would make of it the king’s key. When the marshal saw this, he. took me by the fist, and said: “ Lord, we see right well that you are using force against us, and we will cause the keys to be handed over to yon.” Then he ordered the treasurer to give me the keys, which he did. And when the marshal told the treasurer who I was, he was greatly astonished.

I found that the chest that I opened belonged to Nicholas of Choisi, a sergeant of the king. I threw out the silver I found therein, and went and sat on the prow of our little vessel that had brought me. And I took the Marshal of France, and left him with the silver in the Templar’s galley, and on the galley I put the Minister of the Trinity. On the galley the marshal handed the silver to the minister, and the minister gave it over to me on the little vessel where I sat. When we had ended and came towards the king’s galley, I began to shout to the king: “ Sire, sire, see how well I am furnished!” And the saintly man received me right willingly and right joyfully. We gave over what I had brought to those who were counting the money for the ransom.

Also the count of Anjou

A plank was thrown to the land, so that the king might go on board, as also the count of Anjou, his brother, and my Lord Geofiry of Sargines, and my lord Philip of Nemours, the Marshal of Fiance, who was called of the Mez, and the Master of the Trinity, and I myself. The Count of Poitiers they kept in captivity, until such time as the king had paid the two hundred thousand livres, which he was to pay as a ransom before he left the river.

On Ihe Saturday (7th May 1250) after Ascension Day ,vhich Saturday was the day following the day of our deliver ance the Count of Flanders, and the Count of Soissons, and several other men of note who had been taken in the galleys, came to take leave of the king. The king told them he thought they would do well to wait till the Count of Poitiers, his brother, had been released. But they said they could aot wait, seeing their galleys were all ready for sea. So they embarked on board their galleys, and left for France; and they took with them the good Count Peter of Brittany, who was so sick that he lived no longer than three weeks, and lied at sea.

PAYMENT CF THE RANSOM MONEY TAKEN BY JOINVILLE FROM THE TEMPLARS

They began to count1 the money for the ransom on Saturday, in the morning; and they took for the counting the whole of Saturday, and Sunday until night; for they reckoned by weight in the balance, and each measure was worth ten thousand livres. When it came to the time of vespers on Sunday, the king’s people who were counting the money sent to teU him that they still were short of the sum required by full thirty thousand livres. And the king had by him only the King of Sicily, and the Marshal of France, and the Minister of the Trinity, and I. All the rest were at the counting of the money for the payment of the ransom.

Joinville says, “make the payment.” But it seems clear from what follows that this was only the preliminary counting.

Then I said to the king that it would be well if he sent for the Marshal of the Temple the master being dead and asked them to lend him the thirty thousand livres for the release of his brother. The king sent to fetch the Templars and directed me to lay the matter before them. When I had spoken to them, brother Stephen of Otricourt, who was Commander of the Temple, answered me thus: “ Lord of Joinville, this advice that you have given to the king is neither good nor reasonable. For you know that we receive funds in such sort, that we are bound, by our oaths, not to deliver them up, save to those who have entrusted them to us.” Many were the hard and angry wrords that passed between him and me.

Lord Geoffry of Sarginei

At sun-rising my Lord Geoffry of Sarginei went into the city, and caused the city to be given up to the emirs. The >0!dan’s flags were hoisted on all the towers of the city. The Saracen knights got into the city, and began to drink the wines, and were soon all drunken; whereupon one of them me to our galley, and drew his sword all reeking with blood, and said that for his part he had killed six of our people.

Before Damietta was surrounded, the queen had been received into our ships, together with all our people who were in Damietta, save the sick only. These last the Saracens, by their oath, were bound to keep and guard; but they killed them all. The king’s engines of war, which they were also bound to preserve, they knocked to pieces. And the salted meat, which they were bound to keep for us, inasmuch as they do not eat pork, they did not keep. They made a pile of the engines, and a pile of the bacon, and another of the dead people, and they set fire thereto; and the fire was so great that it lasted the Friday, the Saturday, and the Sunday.

THE MASSACRE OF THE PRISONERS IS CONSIDERED

The king, and all we who were there, should have been set free at sunrise, but the Saracens kept us till sunset; and we nad nothing to eat, nor the emirs either, and they were quarrelling the livelong day. And one of them spoke in this wise for those who belonged to his party: “ Lords, if you will listen to me, and to those who are of my party, you will kill the king and the men of note who are here; for then, for the space of forty years, we need fear nothing, seeing that their children are young, and that we hold Damietta; wherefore we can do this with the greater security.”

Another Saracen, whose name was Sebreci, and who was a native of Mauritania, spoke contrariwise, and said this: “ If we kill the king, after we have killed the Soldan, it will be said that the Egyptians are the most evil people in the world, and the most disloyal.” And those who desired that we should he killed, rejoined: “ It is sooth that we have too wickedly rid ourselves of our Soldan, whom we put to death; for we have therein gone counter to the commandments of Mahomet, in that he commanded us to guard our lord as the apple of our eye. And behold in this book, here is the commandment written.

But listen,” said he, “ to this other commandment of Mahomet, that comes after.” And with that he turned over the leaf of a book that he held in his hand, and showed them another commandment, which was to this effect: “ For the assurance of the faith, slay the enemy of the law.” “ Now have we disobeyed the commandments of Mahomet, in that we have killed our lord; but we shall do worse if we do not kill the king, whatever promise of safety has been given to him, seeing that he is the most powerful enemy of the pagan law.”

So straightly bound

They would not listen to this; but they took the patriarch from the side of the king, and tied him to the pole of the pavilion with his hands behind his back, and so straightly bound that the said hands swelled to the size of his head and that the blood started from between the nails. The patriarch cried to the kens;“ Sire, for the love of God, swear without fear; for seeing that you intend to hold to your oath, I take upon my own soul whatsoever there may be of sin in the oath that you take! ” I know not how this matter of the oath was settled; but in the end the emirs held >„ themselves satisfied with the oath taken by the king, and by the other men of note there present.

EXECUTION OF THE TREATY DAMIETTA RESTORED TO THE SARACENS

As soon as the soldan was killed, they caused the instruments of the Soldan to be brought before the king’s tent; and it was told to the king that the emirs had had a great desire to make him Soldan of Babylon, and had held council thereon. And he asked me whether I thought he would have taken the kingdom of Babylon if it had been offered to him. And I told him that had he so taken it, he would have acted like a fool, seeing they had killed their lord; but he told me that in sooth he would not have refused it.

And you must know it was reported that this matter only remained where it was, and proceeded no further, because /^he Saracens said the king was the most steadfast Christian that could be found/ And they gave this as an example, .that when he issued from his tent, he put himself cross-wise ‘on the earth, and made the sign of the cross all over his body. And they said that if Mahomet had suffered them to be so maltreated, as the king had been, they would never have retained their belief in him; and they said further that if their people made the king to be Soldan, they would have to become Christians, or else he would put them all to death.

After the covenants between the king and the emirs had oden settled and sworn to, it was agreed that they should release us on the day after Ascension Day; and that so soon as Damietta was delivered over to the emirs, they would release the person of the king and of the men of note who were with him, as has been already said. On the Thursday at night (5th May 1250) those who were in charge of our four galleys came to anchor in the midst of the river, before the bridge of Damietta, and caused a pavilion to be pitched before the bridge, there where the king should land.

Saracen tongue

Our death was nearly agreed to; whence it happened that one of the emirs, who was our adversary, thought we were all to be killed, and came on the river, and began to cry, in the Saracen tongue, to those who had the galleys in charge, and took his turban from his head, and made a sign to them with his turban. And now they lifted anchor, and took us back a full league up the stream towards Babylon. Then we gave ourselves up for lost, and many were the tears shed.

RELEASE OF THE CAPTIVES JOINVILLE EMBARKS ON THE KING’S GALLEY DEPARTURE OF SOME OF THE CRUSADERS FOR FRANCE

As God, who does not forget His own, so willed, it was agreed, at about the setting of the sun, that we should be released. So we were brought back, and our four galleys 1 drawn to the bank. We demanded to be let go. They said they would not let us go till we had eaten, “ for it would be a shame to our emirs if you left our prisons fasting.” So we told them to give us meat, and we would eat; and they said some had gone to fetch it in the camp. The food they gave us was fritters of cheese roasted in the sun so that worms should not come therein, and hard-boiled eggs cooked foul or five days before: and these, in our honor, had beer painted outside with divers colors.

They put us on land, and we went towards the king, whom they were leading to the river from the pavilion in which they had kept him; and there followed him full twenty thousand Saracens on foot, with their swords in their belts. On the river, before the place where the king stood, was a Genoese galley, and it seemed as if there were but one single man on board. As soon as he saw the king on the bank of the river, he sounded a whistle; and at the sound of ;he whistle, eighty crossbowmen leapt from the hold of the Talley , all fully equipped, with their crossbows wound up, and n a moment they had the bolts in socket. As soon as the Saracens saw them, they took to flight like sheep, so that atone remained with the king save two or three.

NEW TREATY OF THE KING WITH THE EMIRS

Those of the Halca had broken down all the enclosed way with their swords; and as the soldan fled along to go to the river, one of them gave him a spear-thrust in the ribs, and the soldan fled to the river, trailing the spear. And they followed after, till they were all swimming, and came and killed him in the river, not far from the galley in which we were. One of the knights, whose name was Faress-Eddin Octay, cut him open with his sword, and took the heart out of his body; and then he came to the king, his hand all reeking with blood, and said: “ What wilt thou give me? for I have slain thine enemy, who, had he lived, would have slain 1 thee!” And the king answered him never a word.

THE LIFE OF THE PRISONERS IS AGAIN THREATENED NEW TREATY OF THE KING WITH THE EMIRS

Full thirty of them came to our galley, with drawn swords in their hands, and Danish axes hanging at their necks. I asked my Lord Baldwin of Ibelin, who well knew the Saracen tongue, what these people said; and he answered that they said they had come to take off our heads. Then were there a whole host of our people confessing to a brother of the Trinity whose name was John, and who belonged to the following of Count William of Flanders. But as for myself, I remembered no sin that I had committed, and only thought that the more I defended myself and the more I tried to escape, the worse I should fare.

Then I crossed myself, and knelt at the feet of one of them, who bore a Danish axe such as carpenters use, and I said: “ Thus died St. Agnes.” My Lord Guy of Ibelin, Constable of Cyprus, knelt by my side, and confessed himself to me, and I said: “ I absolve you, with such power as God has given me.” But when I rose from that place, I had no memory of aught that he had told me.

The Saracens made us rise from where we were, and set us in prison in the hold of the galley; and many of our people thought they had done this because they did not wish to fall upon us all together, but wished to kill us one after the other. There we lay in great misery that evening, and all through tire night, and we were so pressed together that my feet came against the good Count Peter of Brittany and his came against my face.

NEW TREATY OF THE KING WITH THE EMIRS

Those of the Halca had broken down all the enclosed way with their swords; and as the soldan fled along to go to the river, one of them gave him a spear-thrust in the ribs, and the soldan fled to the river, trailing the spear. And they followed after, till they were all swimming, and came and killed him in the river, not far from the galley in which we were. One of the knights, whose name was Faress-Eddin Octay, cut him open with his sword, and took the heart out of his body; and then he came to the king, his hand all reeking with blood, and said: “ What wilt thou give me? for I have slain thine enemy, who, had he lived, would have slain 1 thee!” And the king answered him never a word.

THE LIFE OF THE PRISONERS IS AGAIN THREATENED NEW TREATY OF THE KING WITH THE EMIRS

Full thirty of them came to our galley, with drawn swords in their hands, and Danish axes hanging at their necks. I asked my Lord Baldwin of Ibelin, who well knew the Saracen tongue, what these people said; and he answered that they said they had come to take off our heads. Then were there a whole host of our people confessing to a brother of the Trinity whose name was John, and who belonged to the following of Count William of Flanders. But as for myself, I remembered no sin that I had committed, and only thought that the more I defended myself and the more I tried to escape, the worse I should fare.

Then I crossed myself, and knelt at the feet of one of them, who bore a Danish axe such as carpenters use, and I said: “ Thus died St. Agnes.” My Lord Guy of Ibelin, Constable of Cyprus, knelt by my side, and confessed himself to me, and I said: “ I absolve you, with such power as God has given me.” But when I rose from that place, I had no memory of aught that he had told me.

The Saracens made us rise from where we were, and set us in prison in the hold of the galley; and many of our people thought they had done this because they did not wish to fall upon us all together, but wished to kill us one after the other. There we lay in great misery that evening, and all through tire night, and we were so pressed together that my feet came against the good Count Peter of Brittany and his came against my face.

The Count of Brittany

On the morrow the emirs caused us to be taken from our prison in the hold; and the messengers told us we were to go and speak to the emirs in order to renew the covenant the Soldan had made with us : and they also told us we might hold it for certain that if the Soldan had lived he would have caused the king to be beheaded, and all of us likewise. Those who were able to go, went. The Count of Brittany, the constable and I, who were grievously sick, remained where we were. The Count of Flanders, the Count John of Soissons, the two brothers of Ibelin, and the rest who could help themselves, went.

These agreed with the emirs in such sort that, so soon as Damietta was delivered over to them, they would set free the king and the other men of rank who were there. As to the lesser folk, the soldan had caused them to be led away towards Babylon, such at least as he had not caused to be put to death. And this thing he had done contrary to the covenant made with the king, whereby it seamoth well that he would have put us to death also, so soon as he had come into possession of Damietta.

Saracens with two hundred thousand

And the king was to swear further to gratify the Saracens with two hundred thousand tom-before he left the river, and with two hundred thousand limes in Acre. The Sara cens, by the covenant they made with the king, were to take charge of the sick in Damietta, and of the crossbows, the arms, the salted meats and the engines of war, until such time as the king sent for them.

The oaths which the emirs were to swear to the king were devised and set forth in writing, and were to this effect: that if they did not observe this covenant with the king they should be as dishonored as a man who, for his sin, goes on pilgrimage to Mahomet, at Mecca, with his head uncovered: and as dishonored as a man who leaves his wife, and then takes her again (for in that case, according to the law oi Mahomet, if a man leaves his wife, he can never have her again, save after seeing her in the arms of another man). The third oath was to this effect: that if they did not observe their covenant with the king, they should be as dishonored as a Saracen who had eaten swine’s flesh. The king was satisfied with the aforesaid oaths of the emirs, because Master Nicholas of Acre, who understood the Saracen tongue, said that, according to their law, they could devise no oaths stronger or more binding.

Soldan therewith in the middle of the hand

They went therefore to those of the Halca, and demanded of them that they should kill the Soldan, so soon as they had eaten with him, as he had invited them to do. Thus it befell that, after they had eaten, and the Soldan had taken leave of his emirs, and was going to his chamber, one of the knights of the Halca, who bore the Soldan’s sword, struck the Soldan therewith in the middle of the hand, between the four fingers, and clove the hand up to the arm. The Soldan turned to the emirs, who had caused this to be done to him, and said: “Lords, I make appeal to you against these people of the Halca, who desire to slay me, as you can see! ” Then the knights of the Halca made answer to the Soldan with one voice, and said: “ As thou safest that we desire to slay thee, better is it that we should slay thee than that thou should slay us! ”

Then they caused the cymbals to be struck, and all the host came to ask what was the Soldan’s will. And they answered that Damietta was taken, and that the Soldan was going thither, and that he ordered them to follow. So the host gat to their arms, and spurred towards Damietta. And when we saw that they were going towards Damietta, we were in sore trouble of heart, for we thought that Damietta was lost. But the Soldan, being young and active, fled into ‘ the tower that stood behind his chamber (as you have already ‘ heard), with three of his bishops, who had sat at meat with him; and he was there with them in the tower.

Soldan’s pavilions

Those of the Halca, who were in number five hundred mounted men, threw down the Soldan’s pavilions, and swarmed round and about the tower, besieging him and the three bishops; and they cried to him to come down. And he said so he would if they promised him safety’. They told him they would make him come down by force, for he was not in Damietta. Then they threw at him Greek fire, and it caught the tower, which was made of pine planks and cotton cloth. The tower flared up quickly, nor have I ever seen finer nor straighter flame. When the Soldan saw this, he gat down swiftly, and came flying towards the river, all along the way of which I have already spoken to you.

Covenants with the emirs

When the emirs had sworn they caused to be put in writing the oath they demanded of the king; and this oath was framed on the advice of the priests who had denied their faith and gone over to them, and the writing was to this effect: that if the king did not observe his covenants with the emirs, he should be as dishonored as a Christian who denies God and His mother, and forfeits the fellowship of the twelve Companions of our Lord, and of all the saints. To this the king agreed right willingly. The east point in the oath was to this effect: that if the king did not observe his covenants with the emirs, he should be as dishonored as a Christian who denies God and His law, and who. in despite of God, spits upon the cross, and tramples upon it. When the king heard this he said that, please God, he would never take that oath!

The emirs sent Master Nicholas, who knew the Saracen tongue, to the king, and he spake to the king these words:

“ Sire, the emirs are greatly incensed, forasmuch as they have sworn what you required of them, whereas you will not swear what they require of you; and be assured that if you do not swear tins oath they will cause your head to be cut off, as well as the heads of all your people.” The king replied that they could act in this matter as it seemed best to them; but that he liked better to die as a good Christian rather than to live under the wrath of God and of His mother.

Reverend man of fourscore years

The patriarch of Jerusalem, an old and reverend man of fourscore years, had obtained a safe conduct from the Saracens, and come to help the king to obtain his deliverance. Now it is the custom between the Christians and the Saracens that when the king or the Soldan dies, those who are on an embassage, whether it be in a Christian or a pagan land, are made prisoners and slaves; and because the Soldan, who had given the safe conduct to the patriarch, was now dead, the said patriarch was a prisoner like as we were. When the king had given his answer, one of the emirs said that it was given by the advice of the patriarch, and he said to the pagans: “ If you will believe me, I will make the king swear, for I will cause the head of the patriarch to fly into the king’s lap.”