The Historians' History of the World 08

The Saracens, however, cut off all communications between St. Louis and Damietta. Famine and disease appeared in the Christian camp, and the French described the latter of those evils as having sprung from a pestilential air emitted from the dead bodies of their friends and foes, and from eating eel pouts which had fed on corpses in the river.b “From this poisonous diet,” says De Joinville, “and from the bad air of a country where it scarcely ever rains, the whole army was infected by a shocking disorder, which dried up the flesh on one’s legs to the bone, and our skins became tanned as black as the ground, or like an old boot that has long lain behind a coffer. In addition to this miserable disorder, those afflicted by it had another sore complaint in the mouth, from eating eel pouts that rotted the gums. Very few escaped death that were attacked, and the surest symptoms of its being fatal was a bleeding at the nose. The barbers were obliged to cut away large pieces of flesh from the gums to enable the patient to eat. It was pitiful to hear the cries and groans of those on whom the operation was performed; they seemed like to the cries of women in labour, and I cannot express the great concern all felt who heard them.”f

ST. LOUIS A PRISONER

Negotiations for peace were opened between the contending powers, and the exchange of the lordship of Jerusalem for that of Damietta formed the basis of the treaty. The king offered either of his brothers as a hostage for the delivery of Damietta to the Egyptians; but the sultan objected, and all hopes of peace were abandoned, because the Christians would not consent to the delivery of their king as the hostage. The miserable condition of the French army forbade all thoughts of victory, and called for a retreat to Damietta.

The retreat was ordered; but those who attempted it by the river were taken by the enemy, and the fate of such as proceeded by land was equally disastrous. While they were occupied in constructing a bridge over the canal, the Mussulmans entered the camp, and murdered the sick. The valiant Louis, though oppressed with the general calamity of disease, sustained boldly, with Sir Godfrey de Sergines, the shock of the enemy, and threw himself into the midst of them, resolved to perish in defending his troops. The brave Sergines, who never left him, succeeded at last in drawing him from the foe, and conducted him to a village, where he sank into insensibility and helplessness.[75]

In that state the Mussulmans made him prisoner. Charles count of Anjou, Alphonsus of Poitiers, and indeed all the nobility fell into the enemy’s hands. The sultan clothed the king and the nobles with robes of honour, and treated them with kindness and generosity. But many of the unfortunate men who were ill, and therefore useless, were killed by their new masters in defiance of the command of Saladin, and the general usage of oriental nations not to put to death anyone to whom they had given bread and salt. Other prisoners saved their lives by renouncing their religion; the Saracenic commander indulged the fanaticism of his people by allowing the converts to be received, though he well remembered the sage remark of Saladin, that a Christian was never known to make a good Moslem, nor a good Saracen a Christian.[76] So great were the calamities of the French in this attempted retreat, that twenty thousand were made captives, and seven thousand were slain or drowned.b The last battles and disasters of St. Louis made, it may well be believed, a vivid impression on the Saracens. We may quote the account of Makrisi, a Moslem historian.a

MOSLEM ACCOUNT OF ST. LOUIS’ CAPTURE

The day of Bairam (January 6th, 1250) a great lord and relative to the king of France was made prisoner. Not a day passed without skirmishes on both sides, and with alternate success. The Mussulmans were particularly anxious to make prisoners, to gain information as to the state of the enemy’s army, and used all sorts of stratagems for this purpose. A soldier from Cairo bethought himself of putting his head withinside of a watermelon, the interior of which he had scooped out, and of thus swimming towards the French camp; a Christian soldier, not suspecting the trick, leaped into the Nile to seize the melon; but the Egyptian was a stout swimmer, and catching hold of him, dragged him to his general. On Wednesday, the 7th day of the moon Shawwal (January 13th, 1250), the Mussulmans captured a large boat, in which were a hundred soldiers, commanded by an officer of distinction. On Thursday, the 15th of the same moon, the French marched out of their camp, and their cavalry began to move. The troops were ordered to file off, when a slight skirmish took place, and the French left on the field forty cavaliers with their horses.