Instead of feet to end our dumb, keen, futile questionings, to numb
The brain that binds us with the chain of kingdom go and kingdom come.
One of our knights for plunder's sake undid us, roused the foe who brake
In through the pass of Banias, cutting our lands in two like cake.
The hour was here, but not the man. That murderer Guy de Lusignan
Was sent to head our fight for life. The craven took for talisman
Me and my hundred years, alas, a relic of the man I was.
I toiled to still our private feuds. We marched upon Tiberias,
For none would listen when I urged our leaders to await attack.
We marched across the waterless inferno. Summer burnt us black.