The rank and file were naturally puzzled and scandalized by Richard’s diplomatic dealings with the Infidels, which seemed to them unlawful, and of which they neither understood the purpose nor knew the real character. The Frank chroniclers excuse him as a simple-minded Christian duped by the cunning of the Saracens. He cleared himself in the eyes of his accusers in a fashion of his own. “Right and left the enemies came swarming about the camp; and the king met them and gave practical proof of his loyalty to God and Christendom, for several times he shewed in the host the many Turks’ heads that he had cut off.”[829]
Besides the enemy, the Crusaders had now another obstacle to contend with—the climate. The “former rains,” or heavy showers which open the agricultural year in Palestine, would begin about the time when the host left Joppa, at the end of October, and continue through November; these would be followed by a season of constantly increasing rainfall lasting throughout the next three months. This great rain “pursued the soldiers of the Cross,” as one of them says, till it drove them to take what shelter they could find within the ruins of Ramlah and Lydda.[830] Here they remained “in great discomfort and difficulties”[831] till the end of December or beginning of January. Saladin held them in check by remaining in his camp near Natroun till December 12; then he withdrew to Jerusalem and disbanded his army[832] for the rest of the winter, trusting for the defence of Judea to the guerilla troops who still remained among the hills, to the weather, and above all, to the physical character of the country. The Christian host was now on the edge of the Shephelah, or Lowlands of Judea, so called in distinction 1191 from the “Hills” proper, the loftier central range, or ridge, which forms the backbone of the land, and on whose eastern side lie Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The low, soft chalk-hills of the Shephelah are not a range; they lie in groups and clusters interspersed with level spaces and valleys opening into the plain on the west, and falling on the east into the long, deep trench which runs between the “Lowlands” and the “Highlands” like—as a modern writer says—“a great fosse planted along the ramparts of Judea.” At the mouth of the northernmost of these cross-valleys—Joshua’s Valley of Ajalon—Lydda and Ramlah were frontier towns of the Shephelah and the maritime plain. Along this vale or over the low hills on each side of it, and through the narrow defiles which at its other end penetrate the central range, ran the most direct lines of communication between the Holy City and the coast. One of these was the old “way that goeth to Beth-horon” from Gibeon on the plateau above Jerusalem. This road led to Joppa through Lydda; so did another which crossed the fosse some three miles south of the first. The two were linked together by a cross-road which ran on south-westward to the ancient Nicopolis—called Amwas by the Arabs and Emmaus by the Franks—and then divided into two branches, one going southward by Natroun, the other to Joppa through Ramlah. This latter way seems to have been in general use since the eighth century, when the first Moslem conquerors overthrew Lydda and founded Ramlah to supersede it.[833] The First Crusaders had marched by the road from Ramlah to Emmaus and thence to Beth-horon, Gibeon, and Jerusalem, without opposition. Richard resolved to try how far he could follow in their steps; but he knew he could not expect such good fortune as theirs, for the Shephelah was still full of what one Frank writer calls “the outside Turkish army,”[834] that is, the troops whom Saladin had left to keep guard and to prowl about among the hills, in contradistinction to the 1191 “inner” force which was with him at Jerusalem. In this district of tumbled hill and dale, moorland, glen, and torrent-bed, of chalky slopes and limestone boulders covered with thick scrub and brushwood that sheltered caves and hiding-places innumerable, these light-armed Saracen horsemen were at home, and had every advantage for the guerilla warfare in which they excelled; and the ease and rapidity with which they could move about through the intricacies of the hills enabled them to swoop down suddenly from the most unexpected quarters, with fatal effect, upon foraging or reconnoitring parties and convoys.[835] One chronicler says that when the bulk of the host sought shelter in Lydda and Ramlah, the count of Saint-Pol betook himself to “the Casal of the Baths”; which seems to represent a place now called Umm-el-Hummum, about twelve miles north-east of Lydda.[836] If this statement be correct, the count’s object may perhaps have been to act as an advanced guard on that side of the host and keep watch against a possible gathering of the Saracens in force on the lower slopes of the hills of Samaria—especially at Mirabel, or as the Saracens called it Mejdel Yaba, which was close to Umm-el-Hummum and one of the few castles which Saladin had not caused to be evacuated—and their descent thence on the Christians at Lydda. It is at any rate probable that Richard’s purpose was to render some such service as this in another direction, towards the south and south-east of Ramlah, when on December 22 or 23 he removed his own headquarters to the “Post of Observation,” Natroun, which Saladin had quitted ten days before.[837] On that day, however, a convoy from Joppa was intercepted by the enemy; and similar mishaps occurred several times in the ensuing week.[838] To this unsatisfactory Dec. state of affairs the leaders, having now fully ascertained 1191 that Saladin and his main army had really “taken to the Mountains” properly so called—the mountain-wall which shelters Jerusalem from the world—“and left the champaign to us,” boldly decided to put an end by advancing to the foot of the said mountains, where they told their followers they would find a resting-place and be able to get food for themselves.[839]
1192
The advance was ordered for January 3. Some of the Saracen guerilla bands which were constantly scouring the country between Joppa and the hills had apparently discovered that a movement was in contemplation, but were uncertain as to its object; they spent the night of the Jan. 3 2nd lying hid near Casal des Plains and at daybreak dashed forward in the direction which the host was about to take; probably they hoped to lie hidden while it passed, and fall at unawares on the rearguard or the slow-moving baggage-train. Richard, however, knew of their lying in wait, and had himself, with Geoffrey de Lusignan, been lying in wait for them all the preceding night at the Casal of the Baths; a locality where, seeing that it was quite as far (in a different direction) from Lydda as their own lurking-place and double that distance from his known headquarters at Natroun, they were not likely to suspect his presence. While they were hurrying up from the west, he was spurring to meet them from the north, the very opposite quarter to that where they doubtless supposed him to be; and scarcely had they pounced upon and slain two men-at-arms who went forth alone in advance of the host, when the unexpected apparition of a banner which they well knew to be the king’s, and a figure whose bearing and headlong onset were equally unmistakeable,[840] threw them into utter confusion. Most of them fled in the very direction whence Richard had come, towards Mirabel; probably hoping to escape pursuit among the hills. Richard, who was mounted on Fauvel, dashed after them and unhorsed two before any of his own followers 1192 could rejoin him; some twenty others were slain or brought back prisoners to the Christian camp.[841]
A march of ten miles brought the host to Beit Nuba, on a level space of high ground close to the northern end of the natural fosse which lies between the Shephelah and the mountain range. The hearts of the pilgrims “were glad with the hope that they were going to the Sepulchre”; but “their bodies were ill at ease,” for the Syrian winter was now at its worst, and in their present exposed encampment there was no shelter from its ravages. Stormy wind and tempest, torrential rain and hail, beat down or tore up the tents; armour rusted, clothes rotted, biscuits and bacon were so soaked that they became putrid; horses died, men sickened; and in less than a week “the wise Templars, the brave Hospitaliers, and the men of the land” came to the conclusion that under the existing circumstances an attempt to besiege Jerusalem could lead to nothing but disaster. They told Richard that if the city were invested its besiegers would be between two fires, Saladin breaking forth upon them from within and the “outside” Turkish army cutting them off from communication with the coast and depriving them of supplies.[842] The men who spoke thus knew well that it was vain to dream of existing by foraging on the barren, rocky tableland which forms the summit of the Judean mountain-range, and that the host, if it got there at all, would probably starve long before the defenders of the city, which Saladin was sure to have victualled for a siege, and which it would hardly be possible to blockade so completely as to cut it off from all means of obtaining further provisions. Nor was this all. Supposing—these counsellors urged—that the city were taken, its capture would be useless unless it could be at once filled with troops capable of holding it permanently; and this would be no easy matter, for the western pilgrims, who formed the bulk of the host, would return to their home-lands as soon as their pilgrimage was accomplished, and thus when they were gone 1192 all that had been won would be lost again.[843] Hereupon the western leaders called a council of war at Natroun;[844] they may have retired there on purpose to be well away from the rest of the army while discussing the matter. However this may be, they asked “the wise folk who were born in the land” what course they would recommend under existing circumstances. The Templars and Hospitaliers Jan. 6-13 at once answered that what they would advise was not to proceed towards Jerusalem at present, but to re-fortify and occupy Ascalon, so as to obtain some control over the transit of provisions from the great Saracen storehouse, Cairo, to the Holy City.[845] An Arab historian gives, very likely from the report of some spy who overheard the proceedings of the council, a curious account of the way in which the final decision was reached. Richard, he says, asked to see a plan of Jerusalem, that he might judge for himself of the force of the arguments put forward by the Knights. They drew a plan for him; and when he thoroughly understood the character of the site and surroundings of the city, he pronounced them such as to make the city, in his opinion, virtually impregnable “so long”—thus the Arab reports the words of the western king—“as Saladin lives and the Moslems are united.”[846] Before the middle of January the host was back at Ramlah.[847]
Whether Richard’s verdict on the prospects of the Crusade was really quite so pessimistic as Ibn Alathyr represents may be doubted. The scheme now proposed by the Military Orders and accepted by the king was simply a reversion to the original plan of campaign with which they had all set out from Acre, and from which Saladin’s seeming panic after Arsuf had tempted them to diverge; and there can be little doubt that the divergence was unwise. The Frank pilgrim-chroniclers, sharing and voicing the disappointment of the rank and file, declare indeed that the retirement from Beit Nuba was a blunder, and that if their leaders had but known the evil plight—due, like their own, to the weather—of Saladin and his men at Jerusalem, the city might, “without doubt,” have been taken easily.[848] But those who spoke thus could have no real knowledge as to the state of affairs in Jerusalem, and their version of it finds no countenance in the pages of Bohadin, who was there, and who may fairly be trusted on the subject, since he makes no mystery about the Sultan’s perils and alarms on other occasions. The picture drawn by the very same Frankish chroniclers of the condition in which the host, “doleful and down-hearted,” marched back to Ramlah shows that it was quite unfit to attempt an invasion of the hill-country. Men and beasts were alike worn out with weakness and fever, caused by the wet and cold, and many of the “lesser folk,” sick and helpless, would have been left behind but for King Richard, who caused them to be sought out and brought away in safety.[849] Among the French Crusaders discontent took the form of wholesale desertion. Some went to Joppa; of these, some stayed there, and others sailed back to Acre, “where living was not dear,” sarcastically observes the Norman poet; some joined the marquis at Tyre, whither he had long been trying to entice them; the duke of Burgundy himself went off in dudgeon with his followers to Casal of the Plains. Extremely angry, but nothing daunted, Richard and the faithful remnant of the host set out on January 19 by a road which, crossing the plain from Ramlah, brought them back 1192 at Ibelin[850] to the main road along the coast. The ten miles’ march through mud and mire to Ibelin was a sufficiently Jan. 20 hard day’s work; but “that day was nothing compared to the next,” when nearly double that distance had to be covered, on a road where men and horses were constantly sinking into swamps, and beneath a ceaseless downpour of rain, hail and snow; and when at length they arrived before Ascalon, they could only make their way into the place by clambering over heaps of broken wall, and find a partial shelter among the ruins within.[851]
Ascalon stood amid what the poet-pilgrim Ambrose emphatically calls “a very good country”; but the stormy season, and the uncertainty as to how many armed enemies might be still lurking around, made this practically useless for foraging purposes; and the harbour was a dangerous one, the sea being often so rough that no ship could ride in it. This was the case for a week after the arrival of the Crusaders, who were thus limited to what little food they had brought with them—much of the stores with which they started from Ramlah having been lost in the swamps on the way—till by a change in the weather the transports coming from Joppa to meet them were enabled to land their supplies. Scarcely was this done, however, when the storms rose again, and barges and galleys and “all our beautiful smacks” were dashed to pieces and some of the sailors drowned. Richard caused all the wood that drifted ashore to be collected and employed for the construction of some galleys, which he destined for his own use; “but,” adds 1192 Ambrose, “it was not to be.” Towards Candlemas he sent a message to the French, exhorting them to restore the unity of the host by coming to rejoin their brethren and take counsel with them as to what should be done next. They answered that they would come, and would continue with him till Easter (April 5), on condition that if they then wished to depart, he would give them safe-conduct by land to Acre or Tyre. To this he agreed; whereupon they came, and—the worst of the winter’s rages having now subsided—the reunited host by common consent set to work to rebuild Ascalon. The task was no light one; it was said that the fortifications had originally included no less than fifty-three great towers, all now almost levelled with the ground. Most of the nobles were by this time too short of money to be able to hire workmen; so knights, men-at-arms, squires, clerks, and laymen of all ranks set themselves to make a clearance of the ruins, with such a will that soon they were astonished at their own success. As the rebuilding, however, required more skilled labour than theirs, Richard took the direction of it upon himself, and not only caused the greater part of it to be performed at his expense, but also made good whatever was lacking of labour and of the money to pay for it in the parts assigned to the charge of others.[852] The English chronicler of the Crusade says the king wrought at the building with his own hands,[853] and we can well believe the story. Saladin was about this time doing the same thing at Jerusalem.[854]
Another small point of resemblance between the two sovereigns was a preference for doing their own scouting. One morning Richard, with a handful of picked knights, rode out from Ascalon to reconnoitre Darum. This castle, built by the late King Amalric on the site of an earlier fortification, had been the extreme south-western outpost of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem; it lay three or four 1192 miles south of the point where the coast-road crosses a watercourse which the historians of the Crusade called the Torrent or River of Egypt, because above that point it was in fact, in Amalric’s and Richard’s days and long afterwards, the boundary between Syria and Egypt.[855] Now that both these countries were under Moslem rule, Darum was the first halting-place in Syria for the caravans which brought supplies from “Babylon”—that is, Cairo—to Jerusalem. It chanced that when Richard drew near the place, a thousand Christian prisoners whom the Sultan was sending to Cairo under the charge of some of his household guards had just arrived there. At the sight of the king’s banner the escort, doubtless thinking the whole host from Ascalon was upon them, left the prisoners and sought shelter for themselves in the castle; but before they could reach it some were slain and twenty captured by Richard and his men. Thus, says Ambrose, “God delivered His people who were appointed to death, by sending King Richard to take the place of Saint Leonard, the liberator of captives.”[856]
Some of the Christians, Frank and Syrian, thus rescued made, no doubt, a welcome addition to the diminished numbers of the host. Richard had several times already sent letters or messages to the marquis, calling on him to come and rejoin the Crusade and render the military service due to the Crown of Jerusalem for the fiefs which he held of it. Conrad at first took no notice of these appeals; to another and more urgent summons he finally answered that he would not set foot in the camp till he had had a personal interview elsewhere with the king of England.[857] Richard seemingly felt it necessary to overlook his insolence and consent to a meeting at Casal Imbert, half way between Acre and Tyre. But meanwhile a new trouble arose. 1192 Philip of France had gone home in August 1191 without leaving his lieutenant in Palestine, the duke of Burgundy, any money for the pay of the French soldiers, counting for that purpose on the share due to him of the bezants which the two kings then expected to receive in a few weeks from Saladin. When this expectation had become hopeless, Hugh asked Richard for a loan, and Richard, to avoid losing the French troops altogether, lent him five thousand marks.[858] This sum was exhausted long before February 1192; the French troops clamoured for their dues; Hugh asked Richard for another loan. This Richard refused. High words passed, and the duke, with the greater part of the Frenchmen, straightway departed to Acre.[859] There they found the Pisans and Genoese at strife. Pending the recovery of Jerusalem, Acre served as temporary capital of the kingdom, and there accordingly King Guy seems to have remained since his return thither in September. His authority was upheld by the Pisans, who from the outset of the Crusade had attached themselves to Richard; the Genoese, having done homage to Philip Augustus, favoured the marquis, and were intriguing to put him in possession of the city. A skirmish between these two parties seems to have been going on when the French arrived; they took to their arms, whereupon the Pisans set themselves to bar their way; the duke’s horse was killed under him; then the Pisans rushed back into the city and shut the gates against him and his men. At this juncture Conrad, in response to the invitation of the Genoese, arrived by sea with his forces. The Pisans “took to the mangonels and stone-casters” and thus kept him off for three days while they sent to call Richard to the rescue. Their messenger found the king at Caesarea, on his way to the projected meeting with Conrad. A hasty ride brought him to Acre at dead of night, and “when the marquis knew that the king had come, nothing could hold him there, but he went with all speed back to Tyre,” whither Burgundy and the French were gone already.[860]