ed his sword from the pillar of the tent, and without any
other weapon, or calling any attendance, he rushed out of his pavilion.
Conrade, holding up his hands as if in astonishment, seemed willing to
enter into conversation with De Vaux; but Sir Thomas pushed rudely past
him, and calling to one of the royal equerries, said hastily, "Fly to
Lord Salisbury's quarters, and let him get his men together and follow
me instantly to Saint George's Mount. Tell him the King's fever has left
his blood and settled in his brain."

Imperfectly heard, and still more imperfectly comprehended, by the
startled attendant whom De Vaux addressed thus hastily, the equerry and
his fellow-servants of the royal chamber rushed hastily into the tents
of the neighbouring nobility, and quickly spread an alarm, as general
as the cause seemed vague, through the whole British forces. The English
soldiers, waked in alarm from that noonday rest which the heat of the
climate had taught them to enjoy as a luxury, hastily asked each other
the cause of the tumult, and without waiting an answer, supplied by the
force of their own fancy the want of information. Some said the Saracens
were in the camp, some that the King's life was attempted, some that he
had died of the fever the preceding night, many that he was assassinated
by the Duke of Austria. The nobles and officers, at an equal loss with
the common men to ascertain the real cause of the disorder, laboured
only to get their followers under arms and under authority, lest their
rashness should occasion some great misfortune to the Crusading army.
The English trumpets sounded loud, shrill, and continuously. The
alarm-cry of "Bows and bills, bows and bills!" was heard from quarter
to quarter, again and again shouted, and again and again answered by the
presence of the ready warriors, and their national invocation, "Saint
George for merry England!"

The alarm went through the nearest quarter of the camp, and men of
all the various nations assembled, where, perhaps, every people in
Christendom had their representatives, flew to arms, and drew together
under circumstances of general confusion, of which they knew neither
the cause nor the object. It was, however, lucky, amid a scene so
threatening, that the Earl of Salisbury, while he hurried after De
Vaux's summons with a few only of the readiest English men-at-arms,
directed the rest of the English host to be drawn up and kept under
arms, to advance to Ric