volume one

HISTORY or THE CEUSADES. 457
tried during the conquest of Egypt. The sultan then
returned to his camp, prepared to combat afresh the army of
the Crusaders.
The roads of Galilee were covered with Mussulman
soldiers coming from Damascus ; and as Saladin looked
daily for the arrival of a fleet I'rom Egypt, which would make
him master of the sea, he hoped soon to be able to triumph
over the Christians, and deliver Ptolemais. A few days
after the victory he had gained, a great number of vessels
appeared upon the sea, directing their course towards the
land. Both armies Avere filled with hope and joy, the Mussulmans
believing them to be a fleet from the ports of
Damietta and Alexandria, whilst the Crusaders confidently
hoped them to be a Christian armament coming to their
aid. The standard of the cross was soon seen floating from
the masts of the vessels, which, whilst it excited the liveliest
joy in the Christians, equally depressed the Mussulmans.
Two fleets from western ports entered the Bead of Ptolemais.
The first bore the German Crusaders, commanded by the
duke of Gueldres and the landgrave of Thuringia, and the
other the warriors of Eriesland and Denmark, who, after
having fought the Saracens in Spain, came to defend the
kingdom of Jerusalem. Conrad, marquis of Tyre, could not
I'emain idle while this war was going on ; he armed vessels,
raised troops, and united his forces with those of the
Christian army.
The arrival of the new reinforcements restored the ardour
of the Crusaders. The Christian knights, according to an
Arabian historian,* covered wdth their long cuirasses of steel,
looked, from a distance, like serpents spread over the plain;
when they flew to arms, they resembled birds of prey, and
in the melee, they were as indomitable lions. In a council,
several emirs proposed to Saladin to retire before an enemy
as numerous, they said, as the sands of the sea, more \T.olent
than tempests, and more impetuous than torrents.
The Christians, encoiu*aged by the reinforcements that
* The Arabian historians Chehabeddin, the author of the Roudatains,
Omad of Ispahan, and Bohaddin, give many more particulars of the
siege of Ptolemais than the Latin historians. These three Mussulmaa
historians ace >inpanied Saladin in all his expeditions.