volume one

HISTORY or THE CRUSADES. 419
grand master repeated witli bitterness, tliat the name of
Mahomet was better fitted to the mouth of a traitor. The
eoiuit of Tripoli made not the least reply to the insulting
words of the grand master, but finished his speech by these
words, uttered with an accent of perfect conviction : " I
ivill suhmit to the punishment of death if these tilings do not
fall out as I have said.''
The council of the knights and barons adopted the opinion
but when G uy was left alone in his tent, the
of liaymond ;
grand master came to him, and infused into his mind tlie
blackest suspicions of the conduct and secret designs of tlie
count of Tripoli. The feeble Lusignan, who liad already
issued several contradictory orders, gave the command for
marching to meet the enemy. For the first time, the king
of Jerusalem was obeyed, and that was for the ruin of the
Christians.
The undetermined conduct that Lusignan had exhibited,
communicated itself to the other chiefs, and this want of a
fixed purpose spread trouble and confusion throughout the
arm}^ The disheartened soldiers quitted the camp of
Sephouri with reluctance, and saw nothing around them but
presages of an approaching defeat. The Christian army
advanced towards Tiberias, and were marching in silence
across a plain, which modern travellers call the plain of
Batouf, when they perceived the standards of Saladin.
The Mussulman army was encamped on the heights of
Loubi, with the Lake of Tiberias in its rear ; it covered the
tops of the hills, and commanded ail the defdes tlirough
which the Christians had to pass. The barons and knights
then remembered the advice of Eaymond, but they had lost
the opportunity of following it, and the courage of the
Christian soldiers alone coidd repair the errors of their
leaders. The bold and desperate resolution was formed of
cutting themselves a passage through the army of the
enemy, so as to gain the banks of the Jordan. On the 4th
of July, at break of day, the Christians began tlieir march.
From the moment they were in motion, the Mussulman
archers unceasingly poured upon them showers of arrows.
The army of the Franks was bravely enduring, on its march,
the attacks of the Saracen archers, wlien Saladin descended
into the plain at the head of his cavalry. Then the Chria-