Upon the arrival of the count of Poitiers, the king summoned all the barons of the army to decide in what direction he should march, whether towards Alexandria, or towards Babylon.[454] It resulted that the good Count Peter of Brittany, and most of the barons of the army, were of the opinion that the king should lay siege to Alexandria, because that city is possessed of a good Decision to proceed against Cairo port where the vessels could lie that should bring provisions for the army. To this the count of Artois was opposed. He said that he could not advise going anywhere except to Babylon, because that was the chief town in all the realm of Egypt; he added, that whosoever wished to kill a serpent outright should crush its head. The king set aside the advice of his barons, and held to that of his brother.
At the beginning of Advent, the king set out with his army to march against Babylon, as the count of Artois had counseled him. Not far from Damietta we came upon a stream of water which issued from the great river [Nile], and it was resolved that the army should halt for a day to dam up this branch, so that it might be crossed. The thing was done easily enough, for the arm was dammed up close to the great river. At the passage of this stream the sultan sent 500 of his knights, the best mounted in his whole army, to harass the king's troops, and retard our march.
On St. Nicholas's day[455] the king gave the order to march and forbade that any one should be so bold as to sally out upon the Saracens who were before us. So it chanced that when the army was in motion to resume the march and the Turks saw that no one would sally out against them, and learned from their spies that the king had forbidden it, they became emboldened A skirmish between the Saracens and the Templars and attacked the Templars,[456] who formed the advance-guard. And one of the Turks hurled to the ground one of the knights of the Temple, right before the feet of the horse of Reginald de Bichiers, who was at that time Marshal of the Temple. When the latter saw this, he shouted to the other brethren: "Have at them, in God's name! I cannot suffer any more of this." He dashed in his spurs, and all the army did likewise. Our people's horses were fresh, while those of the Turks were already worn out. Whence it happened, as I have heard, that not a Turk escaped, but all perished, several of them having plunged into the river, where they were drowned....[457]
One evening when we were on duty near the cat castles, they brought against us an engine called pierrière,[458] which they had never done before, and they placed Greek fire[459] in the sling of the engine. When Monseigneur Walter de Cureil, the good knight, who was with me, saw that, he said to us: "Sirs, we are in the greatest peril we have yet been in; for if they set fire to our towers, and we remain here, we are dead men, and if we leave our posts which have been intrusted to us, we are put to shame; and no one can rescue us from this peril save God. It is therefore my opinion and my advice to you that each time they discharge the fire at us we should throw ourselves upon our elbows and knees, and pray our Lord to bring us out of this danger."
As soon as they fired we threw ourselves upon our elbows and knees, as he had counseled us. The first shot they fired came between our two cat castles, and fell in front of us on the open place which the army had made for the purpose of damming the river. Our men whose duty it was to extinguish fires were all ready for it; and because the Saracens could not aim at them on account of the two wings of the sheds which the king had erected there, they fired straight up towards the clouds, so that The Saracens make use of Greek fire their darts came down from above upon the men. The nature of the Greek fire was in this wise, that it rushed forward as large around as a cask of verjuice,[460] and the tail of the fire which issued from it was as big as a large-sized spear. It made such a noise in coming that it seemed as if it were a thunderbolt from heaven and looked like a dragon flying through the air. It cast such a brilliant light that in the camp they could see as clearly as if it were daytime, because of the light diffused by such a bulk of fire. Three times that night they discharged the Greek fire at us, and four times they sent it from the fixed cross-bows. Each time that Our sainted king heard that they had discharged the Greek fire at us, he dressed himself on his bed and stretched out his hands towards our Lord, and prayed with tears: "Fair Sire God, preserve me my people!" And I verily believe that his prayers stood us in good stead in our hour of need. That evening, every time the fire fell, he sent one of his chamberlains to inquire in what state we were and if the fire had done us any damage. One time when they threw it, it fell close to the cat castle which Monseigneur de Courtenay's people were guarding, and struck on the river-bank. Then a knight named Aubigoiz called to me and said: "Sir, if you do not help us we are all burnt, for the Saracens have discharged so many of their darts dipped in Greek fire that there is of them, as it were, a great blazing hedge coming towards our tower."
We ran forward and hastened thither and found that he spoke the truth. We extinguished the fire, but before we had done so the Saracens covered us with the darts they discharged from the other side of the river.
The king's brothers mounted guard on the roof of the cat castles to fire bolts from cross-bows against the Saracens, and which fell into their camp. The king had commanded that when the king of Sicily[461] mounted guard in the daytime at the cat castles, we were to do so at night. One day when the king of Sicily was keeping watch, which we should have to do at night, we were in much trouble of mind because the Saracens had shattered Progress of the conflict our cat castles. The Saracens brought out the pierrière in the daytime, which they had hitherto done only at night, and discharged the Greek fire at our towers. They had advanced their engines so near to the causeway which the army had constructed to dam the river that no one dared to go to the towers, because of the huge stones which the engines flung upon the road. The consequence was that our two towers were burned, and the king of Sicily was so enraged about it that he came near flinging himself into the fire to extinguish it. But if he were wrathful, I and my knights, for our part, gave thanks to God; for if we had mounted guard at night, we should all have been burned....[462]
It came to pass that the sainted king labored so much that the king of England, his wife, and children, came to France to treat with him about peace between him and them. The members of his council were strongly opposed to this peace, and said to him:
"Sire, we greatly marvel that it should be your pleasure to yield to the king of England such a large portion of your land, which The treaty of Paris, 1259 you and your predecessors have won from him, and obtained through forfeiture. It seems to us that if you believe you have no right to it, you do not make fitting restitution to the king of England unless you restore to him all the conquests which you and your predecessors have made; but if you believe that you have a right to it, it seems to us that you are throwing away all that you yield to him."