[943] Bohadin, 307.
[944] Among the Saracens, according to Bohadin (l.c.), it was reported that one of this second party of scouts was Richard himself, who, disguised as an Arab, made a circuit of the Egyptians’ encampment and then, having found them all sound asleep, rode back and called up his men. Such a thing is by no means impossible; but if it were a fact, it would probably have been known to the Franks, whereas it was evidently not known even as a rumour to Ambrose, who would surely have made the most of it in his poetic story.
[945] Bohadin, 306, 307.
[946] Itin., 385-7; cf. Est., ll. 10329-421.
[947] Bohadin, 307, 308.
[948] Cf. Bohadin, 308, 309, with Est., ll. 10435-511, and Itin., 387-90.
[949] Est., ll. 10512-64; Itin., 390, 391.
[950] Bohadin, 309. He calls the day “Tuesday, 11th of Jomada II”; but as 11 Jomada II in that year was a Wednesday, it is doubtful whether he means Tuesday 10 (= June 23) or Wednesday 11 (= June 24). The former is almost certainly the true date. Roger of Howden, iii. 182, says the affair occurred “on the eve of S. John”; Imad-ed-Din, apud Abu Shama, 55, says the Frank army set out on the night preceding June 22; the Estoire, l. 10304, says it set out “un seir de diemaine,” which thus seems to have been Sunday June 21; and both Estoire and Itinerarium clearly indicate that the fight took place on the second morning after. Imad-ed-Din, l.c., locates it at “El Hesy”; but we cannot possibly set aside the plain and unanimous testimony of Bohadin and the Frank writers as to Kuweilfeh. The Franks do not mention El Hesy at all on this occasion; Bohadin makes it clear that both parties passed through that locality on their way. It seems plain also that in this case, as in an earlier one, “El Hesy” stands not for the village now so called, but for the Wady, and more especially for its western end, or head. In one place the actual phrase used is “the source of El Hesy” (“la source d’El Hasy,” French edition of Bohadin, l.c.; “caput El Hissi,” Schultens’ edition, 232).
[951] Bohadin, 311-15.
[952] Cf. Bohadin, 309, Est., ll. 10565-75, and Itin., 392. Bohadin says they got back to their camp on “Friday, 16 Jomada II,” which is self-contradictory, as 16 Jomada II (= June 26) that year was Monday. He may have meant either Monday June 26 or Friday 30; he may even have meant both, and confused them together. The indications in Estoire and Itinerarium are vague, but they seem to imply a two days’ journey from the Round Cistern to Ramlah; thus Ramlah may have been reached on the 26th and the “camp” proper, at Beit Nuba, on the 30th. Richard seems not to have gone to Beit Nuba at all, but to his former quarters at Castle Arnold; R. Coggeshall, 40.