The Crusaders advanced towards the city of Arsur, marching over a long but narrow plain, intersected by torrents, ravines, and marshes, and covered in many places with fragments of rocks, marine plants, and reeds. They had the sea on their right, and on the left rose the steep mountains of Naplouse, defended by the inhabitants of the country and the troops of Saladin. At every passage of a torrent, at every dune or hillock of sand, at every village, a fresh contest had to be sustained, whilst the Mussulman archers, placed upon the heights, annoyed them unceasingly with their arrows. Richard’s army marched in order of battle; the cavalry being placed in the centre; whilst the foot, closing their ranks, presented an impenetrable wall to the enemy, and braved their constantly renewed attacks.
The army of the sultan got in advance of the Crusaders, and laid waste everything in their way; exhausting their efforts and ingenuity to retard, or entirely stop their march. Across the plain of Arsur flowed a torrent which cast itself into the sea near the ramparts of the city; and not far from this torrent, a wood of oaks, which historians call the forest of Sarun, and which is believed to be the forest celebrated by Tasso, extended along the declivities of the mountains of Naplouse: it was upon this spot Saladin awaited the Crusaders to offer them a decisive battle.
A part of his army covered the heights, whilst the remainder encamped upon the banks of the torrent of Arsur. The Christians soon arrived in face of their enemy, and drew up in order of battle. The Danes, Flemings, and Tuscans, commanded by Jacques d’Avesnes, formed the van. Richard marched in the centre, at the head of the English, Normans, Gascons, the Syrian troops, and those of the count of Champagne: the rear-guard was composed of French and Germans, under the orders of the duke of Burgundy and Leopold of Austria. Whilst the archers were showering their arrows from a distance, Saladin passed through the ranks, and roused the courage of his soldiers, who replied to him with cries of Allah ac bar!—God is powerful.[342] Profound silence prevailed in the Christian army; the black cuirasses of the Crusaders seeming to darken the horizon, whilst sixty thousand swords gleamed out from amidst clouds of dust. All at once the Christian infantry opened their ranks, and the cavalry rushed forward towards the enemy, drawn up on the banks of the torrent of Arsur. Jacques d’Avesnes, who commanded them, penetrated twice into the closely-pressed ranks of the Saracens, and twice was compelled to retreat in disorder. At the third charge his leg was severed by the stroke of a sabre, but he still pursued the infidels, when the arm with which he fought was struck off at a blow. The Christian hero fell amidst the enemy, calling aloud upon Richard, and conjuring him to avenge his death.
The king of England advanced with the main body, sweeping away the crowd of Saracens that opposed his passage, and pursuing them to the other side of the torrent; but whilst he yielded to his ardour, and advanced before the Christian army, the chosen troops of the Mussulmans descended from the mountains of Naplouse, and poured down upon the rear of the Christians. Richard was forced to retrace his steps to support the French and Germans, who were beginning to give way. The plain in which the battle was fought, could scarcely contain all the combatants. The Christians and Mussulmans closed, and attacked each other man to man; the foot fought pellmell with the horse, exhorting each other to brave death. The cries of rage, despair, and agony were mingled with the clashing of swords, lances, and shields. The two armies, confounded and mixed together, became nothing but one horrible spectacle. If we believe the somewhat improbable account of an English historian,[343] Richard and Saladin met in the mêlée, and rushed upon each other sword in hand, and the two armies instantly became motionless, leaving to their great leaders the honour of deciding the fate of the battle. This singular circumstance, which poetry might envy history, is not mentioned by Arabian writers.[344] The battle lasted almost during the whole day. Towards evening the Mussulmans were broken on all sides, and retreated in disorder into the forest of Saron, whither the fear of an ambuscade prevented the Christians from pursuing them, and destroying the wreck of their army.
The battle of Arsur was one of the most celebrated of this war; in it the Mussulmans lost a great number of their bravest emirs, and particularly regretted a chief of Saladin’s Mamelukes, whose heroic courage is highly celebrated by their historians. No Saracen warrior was more prompt to meet danger, and he was always the first to fly to the assistance of his companions, though he himself needed aid from no man. His horse being slain, this brave emir was encumbered with the weight of his iron armour, and received several mortal wounds. Many Mussulman soldiers hastened to his relief; but he was already amongst the inhabitants of heaven!
The Christians wept for the death of Jacques d’Avesnes, who had so often shown them the path to victory. In this glorious day the loss of the Crusaders was much less than that of the Mussulmans; their leaders and soldiers displayed a degree of skill that they had never evinced before. The Saracen cavalry, superior to that of the Crusaders, had not room to perform their usual evolutions with advantage in so confined a field. They attacked the Christians several times with great impetuosity, but the Crusaders withstood them with immovable firmness, and constantly rallied around their great standard, which floated from the summit of a rolling tower. A remarkable circumstance of this battle is, that it was principally gained by the infantry, a force which, although held in contempt in the first crusade, had learnt to be redoubtable under the walls of Ptolemaïs.
Richard, who had conquered the Saracens, was not wise enough to profit by their defeat; instead of pursuing the enemy, or marching straight to Jerusalem, he led his army to Jaffa, the ramparts of which Saladin had demolished, and which the Mussulmans had abandoned. He occupied himself with repairing the fortifications, and sent for the Queen Berengaria, Jane, the widow of the king of Sicily, and the daughter of Isaac. Surrounded by a brilliant court, he forgot, in the intoxication of pleasure and festivities, the conquest of Jerusalem, for which he had come into Asia. During this fatal repose, he was on the point of losing with his life and liberty the fruit of all his victories. Being one day hunting in the forest of Saron, overcome by heat or fatigue, he alighted from his horse and fell asleep under a tree. All at once he was aroused by the cries of those who accompanied him,—a troop of Saracens was close upon them! He sprang upon his horse, and prepared to defend himself; but was near sinking beneath the force of numbers, when a knight of his suite, named William Pourcelet, cried out in the Arabic tongue, “I am the king; spare my life.”[345] At these words, this generous warrior was surrounded by the Mussulmans, who made him prisoner and conducted him to Saladin. The king of England, thus saved by the heroism of a French knight, escaped the pursuit of the enemy, and returned to Jaffa, where his army learnt with terror the danger they had been in of losing their leader.
Richard formed the project of besieging Ascalon; and Saladin being doubtful of his power to defend that city, resolved to destroy it. In vain the inhabitants came to implore his pity; in the space of a few days the strongest and most flourishing city of Syria was consumed by fire, and remained nothing but a heap of ruins.
The demolition of Ascalon excited great sorrow among the Mussulmans; and the king of England, who had entertained hopes of rendering himself master of the place, was as much afflicted as if he had lost one of his conquests. This city, which had cost the Christians and Mussulmans so much blood, opened at once to the Crusaders the gates of Palestine and Egypt. Richard undertook to rebuild the ramparts that the Mussulmans had destroyed, and led his army into the plain, covered by the ruins of Ascalon.