en.

"Ah, my gallant young knight," the king exclaimed, "I am right glad to
see you with me. We shall have more fighting before we have done, and I
know that that suits your mood as well as my own."

The king's vessel was far in advance of any of the others, when early
the following morning it arrived at Jaffa.

"Your eyes are better than mine," the king said to Cuthbert. "Tell me
what is that flag flying on the top of the town."

Cuthbert looked at it earnestly.

"I fear, sire, that it is the crescent. We have arrived too late."

"By the holy cross," said King Richard, "that shall not be so; for if
the place be taken, we will retake it."

As the vessel neared the shore a monk ran out into the water up to his
shoulders, and said to the king that the citadel still held out, and
that even now the Saracens might be driven back. Without delay the king
leaped into the water, followed by the knights and men-at-arms, and
entering the gate, threw himself upon the infidels within, who, busy
plundering, had not noticed the arrival of the ship.

The war cry of "St. George! St. George!" which the king always shouted
in battle, struck panic among the infidels; and although the king was
followed but by five knights and a few men-at-arms, the Saracens, to the
number of three thousand, fled before him, and all who tarried were
smitten down. The king followed them out upon the plain, driving them
before him as a lion would drive a flock of sheep, and then returned
triumphant into the city.

The next day, some more ships having arrived, King Richard found that in
all, including the garrison, he could muster two thousand combatants.
The enemy renewed the attack in great numbers, and the assaults upon
the walls were continuous and desperate. King Richard, who loved
fighting in the plain rather than behind walls, was impatient at this,
and at one time so fierce was the attack that he resolved to sally out.
Only ten horses remained in the town, and King Richard, mounting one,
called upon nine of the knights to mount and sally out with him. The
little band of ten warriors charged down upon the host of the Saracens
and swept them before them. It was a marvelous sight indeed to see so
small a group of horsemen dashing through a crowd of Saracen warriors.
These, although at first beaten back, yet rallied, and the ten knights
had great difficulty in fighting their way back to the town. When near
the walls the Christians again made a sta