volume one

UISTORY OF TUE CRUSADES. 239
or Serfend, situated bet-sA-een Jaffa and Ascalon. The day-
after the Christians arrived on this plain, they perceived at
a distance, towards seven o'clock in the evening, a vast multitude,
which they took for the army of the enemy. Two
hundred horsemen, who were sent out to reconnoitre, soon
returned, however, with the agreeable intelligence that the
multitude they had taken for the Egyptian army was nothing
but a drove of oxen and camels. So rich a booty at first
awakened the avidity of the soldiers, but the prudent Grodfrey,
who saw nothing in this cii'cumstance but a stratagem
of the enemy to throw the Christian army in disorder, forbade
his soldiers to leave their ranks. The other leaders,
after his example, endeavoured to restrain the men under
their command, and all remained firm beneath their standards.
The Crusaders learned from some prisoners they had made,
that the enemy were encamped at three leagues from them,
and that they were preparing to come and attack the Christian
army. Upon receiving this advice, the leaders made
their dispositions to receive the infidels. The army was
drawn up in nine divisions, and formed a sort of square
battalion, so as to be able at need, to face the enemy at all
points. The Crusaders passed the night under arms. On
the following morning (it was the eve of the Assumption)
the heralds announced by sound of trumpet that they were
about to give battle to the infidels. At break of day the
Crusaders received the benediction of the patriarch of Jerusalem.
The wood of the true cross was carried through the
ranks, and shown to the soldiers as a certain pledge of victory.
The leaders then gave the signal, all the ensigns were
unfurled, and the army marched to meet the Saracens.
The nearer the Christians approached the army of Egypt,
the more were they filled with confidence and hope. Their
drums, cymbals, hymns, and war-songs animated them to
the fight. They marched towards the enemy, says Albert
d'Aix, as to a joyous feast. An emir of Palestine, who
followed the army as an auxiliary, could not sufiiciently
admire, if we may believe historians, this joy of the soldiers
of the cross at the approach of danger. He came to express
his surprise to the king of Jerusalem, and swore before him
to embrace a religion which could give so much strength and
bravery to its defenders.