The Boy Knight: A Tale of the Crusades Page 11

  CHAPTER XI.

  IN THE HOLY LAND.

  As soon as the galley which had escaped reached the town from which ithad started, it with three others at once set out in pursuit; while froma narrow creek two other galleys made their appearance.

  There were a few words of question among the English whether to stop andgive battle to these opponents, or to make their way with all speed. Thelatter counsel prevailed; the earl pointing out that their lives werenow scarcely their own, and that they had no right on their way to theholy sepulcher to risk them unnecessarily.

  Fortunately they had it in their hands to fight or escape, as theychose; for doubly banked as the oars now were there was little chance ofthe enemy's galleys overtaking them. Gradually as they rowed to sea thepursuing vessels became smaller and smaller to view, until at last theywere seen to turn about and make again for land.

  After some consultation between the earl and the captain of the lostship it was determined to make for Rhodes. This had been settled as ahalting point for the fleet, and the earl thought it probable that thegreater portion of those scattered by the storm would rendezvous there.

  So it proved; after a voyage, which although not very long was tedious,owing to the number of men cramped up in so small a craft, they camewithin sight of the port of Rhodes, and were greatly pleased at seeing aperfect forest of masts there, showing that at least the greater portionof the fleet had survived the storm.

  This was indeed the fact, and a number of other single ships dropped induring the next day or two.

  There was great astonishment on the part of the fleet when the long,swift galley was seen approaching, and numerous conjectures were offeredas to what message the pirates could be bringing--for there was nomistaking the appearance of the long, dangerous-looking craft.

  When, upon her approach, the standard of the Earl of Evesham was seenflying on the bow, a great shout of welcome arose from the fleet; andKing Richard himself, who happened to be on the deck of the royal ship,shouted to the earl to come on board and tell him what masquerading hewas doing there. The earl of course obeyed the order, anchoring near theroyal vessel, and going on board in a small boat, taking with him hispage and squire.

  The king heard with great interest the tale of the adventures of theRose; and when the Earl of Evesham said that it was to Cuthbert that wasdue the thought of the stratagem by which the galley was captured, andits crew saved from being carried away into hopeless slavery, the kingpatted the boy on the shoulder with such hearty force as nearly to throwCuthbert off his feet.

  "By St. George!" said the monarch, "you are fated to be a very pink ofknights. You seem as thoughtful as you are brave; and whatever your agemay be, I declare that the next time your name is brought before me Iwill call a chapter of knights, and they shall agree that exceptionshall be made in your favor, and that you shall at once be admitted tothe honorable post. You will miss your page, Sir Walter; but I am sureyou will not grudge him that."

  "No, no, sire," said the earl. "The lad, as I have told your majesty, isa connection of mine--distant it is true, but one of the nearest Ihave--and it will give me the greatest pleasure to see him rising sorapidly, and on a fair way to distinguish himself so highly. I feelalready as proud of him as if he were my own son."

  The fleet remained some two or three weeks at Rhodes, for many of thevessels were sorely buffeted and injured, masts were carried away aswell as bulwarks battered in, and the efforts of the crews and of thoseof the whole of the artificers of Rhodes were called into requisition.Light sailing craft were sent off in all directions, for the king was ina fever of anxiety. Among the vessels still missing was that which borethe Queen of Navarre and the fair Berengaria.

  One day a solitary vessel was seen approaching. "Another of our lostsheep," the earl said, looking out over the poop.

  She proved, however, to be a merchant ship of Greece, and newly comefrom Cyprus.

  Her captain went on board the royal ship, and delivered a message to theking, to the effect that two of the vessels had been cast upon the coastof Cyprus, that they had been plundered by the people, the crewsill-treated and made prisoners by the king, and that the Queen ofNavarre and the princess were in their hands.

  This roused King Richard into one of his furies. "Before I move a steptoward the Holy Land," he said, "I will avenge these injuries upon thisfaithless and insolent king. I swear that I will make him pay dearly forhaving laid a hand upon these ladies."

  At once the signal was hoisted for all the vessels in a condition tosail to take on board water and provisions, and to prepare to sail forCyprus; and the next morning at daybreak the fleet sailed out, and madetheir way toward that island, casting anchor off the harbor ofFamagosta.

  King Richard sent a messenger on shore to the king, ordering him at onceto release the prisoners; to make the most ample compensation to them;to place ships at their service equal to those which had been destroyed;and to pay a handsome sum of money as indemnity.

  The King of Cyprus, however, an insolent and haughty despot, sent backa message of defiance. King Richard at once ordered the anchors to beraised, and all to follow the royal ship.

  The fleet entered the harbor of Famagosta; the English archers began thefight by sending a flight of arrows into the town. This was answeredfrom the walls by a shower of stones and darts from the machines.

  There was no time wasted. The vessels were headed toward the shore, andas the water was deep, many of them were able to run close alongside therocky wharves. In an instant, regardless of the storm of weapons poureddown by the defenders, the English leaped ashore.

  The archers kept up so terrible a rain of missiles against thebattlements that the defenders could scarcely show themselves for aninstant there, and the men-at-arms, placing ladders against them,speedily mounted, and putting aside all opposition, poured into thetown. The effeminate Greek soldiers of the monarch could offer noeffectual resistance whatever, and he himself fled from the palace andgained the open country, followed by a few adherents. The English gaineda considerable booty, for in those days a town taken by assault wasalways looked upon as the property of the captors. The Queen of Navarreand the princess were rescued.

  King Richard, however, was not satisfied with the success he had gained,and was determined to punish this insolent little king. Accordingly theEnglish were set in motion into the interior, and town after townspeedily fell, or opened their gate to him. The king, deserted by histroops, and detested by his people for having brought so terrible ascourge upon them by his reckless conduct, now sued for peace; but KingRichard would give him no terms except dethronement, and this he wasforced to accept. He was deprived of his crown, and banished from theisland.

  The king now, to the surprise of his barons, announced his intention ofat once marrying the Princess Berengaria.

  Popular as he was, there was yet some quiet grumbling among his troops;as they said, with justice, they had been waiting nearly six months inthe island of Sicily, and the king might well have married there,instead of a fresh delay being caused when so near their place ofdestination.

  However, the king as usual had his own way, and the marriage wassolemnized amid great rejoicing and solemnity.

  It was a brilliant scene indeed in the cathedral of Limasol. There wereassembled all the principal barons of England, together with a greatnumber of the nobles of Cyprus.

  Certainly no better matched pair ever stood at the altar together, foras King Richard was one of the strongest and bravest men of his own orany other time, so Berengaria is admitted to have been one of theloveliest maidens.

  The air was rent with the acclamations of the assembled English hostand of the numerous inhabitants of Limasol as they emerged from thecathedral. For a fortnight the town was given up to festivity;tournaments, joustings, banquets succeeded each other day after day, andthe islanders, who were fond of pleasure, and indeed very wealthy, viedwith the English in the entertainments which they gave in honor of theoccasion.

  The
festivities over, the king gave the welcome order to proceed ontheir voyage. They had now been joined by all the vessels left behind atRhodes, and it was found that only a few were missing, and that thegreat storm, terrible as it had been, had inflicted less damage upon thefleet than was at first feared.

  Two days' sail brought them within sight of the white walls of Acre, andit was on June 8, 1191, that the fleet sailed into the port of thattown. Tremendous acclamations greeted the arrival of the English army bythe host assembled on the shores.

  Acre had been besieged for two years, but in vain; and even the arrivalof the French army under Philip Augustus had failed to turn the scale.The inhabitants defended themselves with desperate bravery; everyassault upon the walls had been repulsed with immense slaughter; and atno great distance off the Sultan Saladin, with a large army, waswatching the progress of the siege.

  The fame of King Richard and the English was so great, however, that thebesiegers had little doubt that his arrival would change the position ofthings; and even the French, in spite of the bad feeling which hadexisted in Sicily, joined with the knights and army of the King ofJerusalem in acclaiming the arrival of the English.

  Philip Augustus, the French king, was of a somewhat weak and waveringdisposition. It would have been thought that after his dispute with KingRichard he would have gladly done all in his power to carry Acre beforethe arrival of his great rival. To the great disappointment of theFrench, however, he declared that he would take no step in the generalassault until the arrival of Richard; and although the French had givensome assistance to the besiegers, the army had really remained passivefor many weeks.

  Now, however, that the English had arrived, little time was lost; forthe moment the dissensions and jealousies between the monarchs werepatched up, the two hosts naturally imitated the example of theirsovereigns, and French and English worked side by side in throwing uptrenches against the walls, in building movable towers for the attack,and in preparing for the great onslaught.

  The French were the first to finish their preparations, and theydelivered a tremendous assault upon the walls. The besieged, however,did not lose heart, and with the greatest bravery repulsed everyattempt. The scaling ladders were hurled backward, the towers weredestroyed by Greek fire; boiling oil was hurled down upon the men whoadvanced under the shelter of machines to undermine the walls; andafter desperate fighting the French fell back, baffled and beaten.

  There was some quiet exultation in the English lines at the defeat ofthe French, for they believed that a better fortune would crown theirown efforts. Such, however, to their surprise and mortification, was notthe case. When their preparations were completed they attacked withsplendid bravery. They were fighting under the eyes of their king and insight of the French army, who had a few days before been baffled; and ifbravery and devotion could have carried the walls of Acre, assuredlyKing Richard's army would have accomplished the task.

  It was, however, too great for them, and with vast loss the army fellback to its camp, King Richard raging like a wounded lion. Many of hisbarons had been killed in the assault, and the pikemen and men-at-armshad suffered heavily. The Earl of Evesham had been wounded; Cuthbert hadtaken no part in the assault, for the earl, knowing his bravery, hadforbidden his doing so, as he foresaw the struggle would be of the mostdesperate character; and as it was not usual for pages to accompanytheir lords on the battlefield, Cuthbert could not complain of his beingforbidden to take part in the fight.

  The earl, however, permitted him to accompany Cnut and the bowmen, whodid great service by the accuracy of their aim, preventing by theirstorm of arrows the men on the battlements from taking steady aim andworking their machines, and so saved the Earl of Evesham's troop andthose fighting near him from suffering nearly as heavy loss as some ofthose engaged in other quarters.

  But while successful in beating off all assaults, the defenders of Acrewere now nearly at the end of their resources. The Emperor Saladin,although he had collected an army of two hundred thousand men, yetfeared to advance and give battle to the Crusaders in their ownlines--for they had thrown up round their camp strong intrenchments toprevent the progress of the siege being disturbed by forces fromwithout.

  The people of Acre seeing the time pass and no sign of a rescuing force,their provisions being utterly exhausted, and pestilence and fevermaking frightful ravages in the city, at last determined to surrender.

  For over two years they had made a resistance of the most valiantdescription, and now, despairing of success or rescue, and seeing thehosts of their besiegers increasing day by day, they hoisted a flag uponthe walls and sent a deputation to the kings, asking for terms if theysubmitted. They would have done well had they submitted upon the arrivalof the French and English reinforcements. For the monarchs, annoyed bythe defeat of their forces and by the heavy losses they had sustained,and knowing that the besieged were now at their last crust, were notdisposed to be merciful.

  However, the horrors which then attended the capture of cities in a warin which so little quarter was given on either side were avoided. Thecity was to be surrendered; the much-prized relic contained within itswalls--said to be a piece of the true cross which had been captured bythe Saracens at the battle of Tiberias, in which they had almostannihilated the Christian armies a few years before--was to besurrendered; the Christian prisoners in their hands were to be given upunharmed; and the inhabitants undertook to pay two hundred thousandpieces of gold to the kings within forty days, under the condition thatthe fighting men now taken prisoners were to be put to death should thisransom not be paid.

  The conquest of Acre was hailed throughout Christendom as a triumph ofthe highest importance. It opened again the gates of the Holy Land; andso tremendous was the strength of the fortress that it was deemed thatif this stronghold were unable to resist effectually the arms of theCrusaders, and that if Saladin with so great an army did not dare toadvance to its rescue, then the rest of the Holy Land would speedilyfall under the hands of the invading army.

  With the fall of Acre, however, the dissensions between the two kings,which had for awhile been allowed to rest while the common work was tobe done, broke out again with renewed intensity. The jealousy of PhilipAugustus was raised to the highest point by the general enthusiasm ofthe combined armies for the valiant King of England, and by theauthority which that monarch exercised in the councils. He thereforesuddenly announced his intention of returning to France.

  This decision at first occasioned the greatest consternation in theranks of the Crusaders; but this feeling was lessened when the kingannounced that he should leave a large portion of the French armybehind, under the command of the Duke of Burgundy. The wiser councilorswere satisfied with the change. Although there was a reduction of thetotal fighting force, yet the fact that it was now centered under onehead, and that King Richard would now be in supreme command, was deemedto more than counterbalance the loss of a portion of the French army.

  Before starting on the march for Jerusalem King Richard sullied hisreputation by causing all the defenders of Acre to be put to death,their ransom not having arrived at the stipulated time.

  Then the allied army set out upon their journey. The fleet cruised alongnear them, and from it they obtained all that was requisite for theirwants, and yet, notwithstanding these advantages, the toil and fatiguewere terrible. Roads scarcely existed, and the army marched across therough and broken country. There was no straggling, but each kept hisplace; and if unable to do so, fell and died. The blazing sun poureddown upon them with an appalling force; the dust which rose when theyleft the rocks and came upon flat, sandy ground almost smothered them.Water was only obtainable at the halts, and then was frequentlyaltogether insufficient for the wants of the army; while in front, onflank, and in rear hovered clouds of the cavalry of Saladin.

  At times King Richard would allow parties of his knights to detachthemselves from the force to drive off these enemies. But it was thechase of a lion after a hare. The knights in their heavy ar
mor andpowerful steeds were left behind as if standing still, by the fleetBedouins on their desert coursers; and the pursuers, exhausted and wornout, were always glad to regain the ranks of the army.

  These clouds of cavalry belonging to the enemy did not contentthemselves with merely menacing and cutting off stragglers. At times,when they thought they saw an opening, they would dash in and attack thecolumn desperately, sometimes gaining temporary advantages, killing andwounding many, then fleeing away again into the desert.

  Finding that it was impossible to catch these wary horsemen, KingRichard ordered his bowmen to march outside his cavalry, so that whenthe enemy's horse approached within bowshot they should open upon themwith arrows; then, should the horsemen persist in charging, the archerswere at once to take refuge behind the lines of the knights.

  Day after day passed in harassing conflicts. The distance passed overeach day was very small, and the sufferings of the men from thirst,heat, and fatigue enormous. Cuthbert could well understand now what hehad heard of great armies melting away, for already men began to succumbin large numbers to the terrible heat, and the path traversed by thearmy was scattered with corpses of those who had fallen victims tosunstroke. Not even at night did the attacks of the enemy cease, and aportion of the harassed force was obliged to keep under arms to repelassaults.

  So passed the time until the army arrived at Azotus, and there, to thedelight of the Crusaders, who only longed to get at their foes, theybeheld the whole force of Saladin, two hundred thousand strong, barringtheir way. Had it not been for the stern discipline enforced by KingRichard the knights of England and France would have repeated themistake which had caused the extermination of the Christian force atTiberias, and would have leveled their lances and charged recklesslyinto the mass of their enemies. But the king, riding round the flanksand front of the force, gave his orders in the sternest way, with thethreat that any man who moved from the ranks should die by his hand.

  The army was halted, the leaders gathered round the king, and a hastyconsultation was held. Richard insisted upon the fight being conductedupon the same principles as the march--that the line of archers shouldstand outside the knights, and should gall the advancing force witharrows till the last moment, and then retire among the cavalry, only tosally out again as the Bedouins fell back from the steel wall ofhorsemen.

  Cuthbert had now for the first time donned full armor, and rode behindthe Earl of Evesham as his esquire, for the former esquire had been leftbehind, ill with fever at Acre.