themselves fully with their defensive armour, ere the storm of
arrows came down upon them, and most of the party were bleeding.

"They are gone," said the young knight.

"Not they, my lord," replied his Nestor; "a hungry wolf does not so
easily satisfy his craving with a mouthful--not they; they will
come again, and in such a fashion, I fear, as to try our strength
rarely. See, they are wheeling round. Let each man look well to his
armour, steady his spear, guard himself well with shield. They may
charge this time, seeing our strength so sadly reduced."

"Hourra! hourra!" rang over the desert, and once more the savage
horsemen came down like eagles swooping upon their prey.

Again they divided; again they passed at a slight interval of
time--just enough to prevent their receiving, on either side, such
arrows from their own brethren as found no sheath in English shield
or flesh--passed like the wind, and the deadly cloud of
death-dealing darts came like the fatal simoon of the desert, upon
their helpless foe.

Nay, not quite helpless; for at least a dozen Arab steeds roamed
the plain riderless. English archers, for they were from England,
were English archers still.

But in so unequal a strife numbers must have finally prevailed.

It was impossible for the English to charge so impalpable an
assailant; all they could do was to protect themselves, as far as
possible, by shield and coat of mail, while behind the living
rampart of steel-clad warriors, the archers returned arrow for
arrow, so far as time and numbers suffered them.

"Shall we not charge?" whispered more than once our boyish knight
to the old warrior, who had fought thirty years before at Hastings,
by whose advice his elders had instructed him to abide in case of
emergency.

"Nay, were we separated, they would find out every joint in our
mail, and riddle us with arrows till we looked like porcupines,
while they would never tarry to abide one honest blow of a
battle-axe. Upon our archers depends our chance."

It would be a waste of time to tell in detail how the assailants
again and again repeated the same manoeuvre, until their Christian
opponents were reduced to a handful, when at length the Turks
changed their tactics and suddenly charged with all their force.

All would have been over with the Crusaders, crushed beneath the
weight of numbers, in spite of their superior weapons, at close
quarters. All seemed ended; the young knight, indeed, pro