d Genoese, utterly unmoved by the loyal
lady's distress, 'we have no provisions left, and we cannot consent to
remain at the risk of dying of hunger.'

'Be under no such apprehension,' said the queen quickly; 'you shall not
die of hunger; I will cause all the provisions in Damietta to be bought
in the king's name, and distributed forthwith.'

The Pisans and Genoese on hearing this assurance consented to remain in
Damietta; and, after an expenditure of three hundred and sixty thousand
livres, Margaret provided for their subsistence. But the men who were
thus bribed to remain as a garrison were not likely to make any very
formidable resistance in the event of an attack taking place; and such
an event was no longer improbable. Indeed rumours, vague but most
alarming, reached Damietta that a Saracenic host was already on its way
to capture the city.

The rumour that the Moslems were actually coming made the bravest men in
Damietta quake, and inspired the ladies who were in the city with
absolute terror. Even the courage of the queen, who had just given birth
to her son John, failed; and her faculties well-nigh deserted her. One
moment her imagination conjured up visions of Saracens butchering her
husband; at another she shrieked with terror at the idea that the
Saracens had taken the city and were entering her chamber. Ever and anon
she sank into feverish sleep, and then, wakened by some fearful dream,
sprang up, shouting, 'Help! help! they are at hand. I hear their
lelies.'

It was while Margaret of Provence was in this unhappy state of mind,
that a French knight, who was eighty years of age, but whose heart, in
spite of his four score of years, still overflowed with chivalry,
undertook the duty of guarding the door of her chamber night and day.

'Madam,' said he, 'be not alarmed. I am with you. Banish your fears.'

'Sir knight,' exclaimed the unhappy queen, throwing herself on her knees
before him, 'I have a favour to ask. Promise that you will grant my
request.'

'I swear, madam, that I will comply with your wishes,' replied the aged
knight.

'Well, then,' said the queen; 'what I have to request is this, that if
the Saracens should take the city, you, by the faith you have pledged,
will rather cut off my head than suffer me to fall into their hands.'

'Madam,' replied the veteran chevalier, 'I had already resolved on doing
what you have asked, in case the worst should befall.'

CHAPTER XXIX.

A WOUNDE