ks
of which the Saracens were drawn up to dispute the passage. Louis gave
orders that a bridge should be thrown across; and the operations
commenced under cover of two cat-castles, or high moveable towers. The
Saracens soon destroyed them by throwing quantities of Greek fire, the
artillery of that day, upon them, and Louis was forced to think of some
other means of effecting his design. A peasant agreed, for a
considerable bribe, to point out a ford where the army might wade
across, and the Count d'Artois was despatched with fourteen hundred men
to attempt it, while Louis remained to face the Saracens with the main
body of the army. The Count d'Artois got safely over, and defeated the
detachment that had been sent to oppose his landing. Flushed with the
victory, the brave Count forgot the inferiority of his numbers, and
pursued the panic-stricken enemy into Massoura. He was now completely
cut off from the aid of his brother-crusaders, which the Moslems
perceiving, took courage and returned upon him, with a force swollen by
the garrison of Massoura, and by reinforcements from the surrounding
districts. The battle now became hand to hand. The Christians fought
with the energy of desperate men, but the continually increasing
numbers of the foe surrounded them completely, and cut off all hope,
either of victory or escape. The Count d'Artois was among the foremost
of the slain, and when Louis arrived to the rescue, the brave
advance-guard was nearly cut to pieces. Of the fourteen hundred but
three hundred remained. The fury of the battle was now increased
threefold. The French King and his troops performed prodigies of
valour, and the Saracens, under the command of the Emir Ceccidun,
fought as if they were determined to exterminate, in one last decisive
effort, the new European swarm that had settled upon their coast. At
the fall of the evening dews the Christians were masters of the field
of Massoura, and flattered themselves that they were the victors.
Self-love would not suffer them to confess that the Saracens had
withdrawn, and not retreated; but their leaders were too wofully
convinced that that fatal field had completed the disorganization of
the Christian army, and that all hopes of future conquest were at an
end.

Impressed with this truth, the crusaders sued for peace. The Sultan
insisted upon the immediate evacuation of Damietta, and that Louis
himself should be delivered as hostage for the fulfilment of the