volume one

ByO nisTOEY or the CErsADES.
army abandoned its baggage and lost its provisions and
arms, and when Chirkou arrived on tlie banks of the Xile,
lie had no means of defence left except the remembrance of
his former victories. He took great care to conceal the losses
he had experienced, and the wTeck of an army dispersed bv
a fearful tempest proved sufficient to throw all the cities of
Egypt into consternation.
The vizier Chaver, frightened at the approach of the
Syrians, sent ambassadors to the Christians, to promise them
immense riches, and press them to hasten their march. On
his side, the king of Jerusalem deputed to the caliph of
Egypt, Hugh of Csesarea, and Foulcher, a knight of the
Temple, to obtain the ratification of the treaty of alliance
with the Egyptians. Amam-y's deputies were introduced
into a palace in which no Christian had ever before been
admitted. After haA-ing traversed several corridors filled
with Moorish guards, and a vast number of apartments and
courts in which glittered all the splendour of the East, they
arrived in a hall, or rather a sanctuary, where the caliph
awaited them, seated on a throne shining with gold and precious
stones. Chaver, who conducted them, prostrated himself
at the feet of his master, and supplicated him to accept
the treaty of alliance with the kino^ of Jerusalem. The
prayer of the vizier was an imperious order, and the commander
of the faitliful, always docile to the will of the lowest
of his slaves, made a sign of approbation, and stretched his
uncovered hand out to the Christian deputies in presence of
the officers of his court, whom so strange a spectacle filled
with grief and surprise.
The army of the Franks was close to Cairo ; but as the
policy of Amaiuy was to lengthen the war, in order to prolong
his stay in Egypt, he neglected opportunities of attacking
the Syrians with advantagfe, and graye them time to recruit
their strength. After having: left them a long time in repose,
he gave them battle in the isle of Maalle, and forced their
intrenchments, but did not follow up his -victory. Chii'kou,
in his retreat, endeavoured to reanimate the depressed courage
of the soldiers of Xoui-eddin, the latter not haviag yet forgotten
the evils they had encountered in the passage over the
desert. This calamity, still recent, together with the first
victory of the Christians, destroyed the confidence thev had