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[Ferster <asp...@te...>]

The Constable of France was surprised by a visit from a Bedouin, and
demanded his business. The Bedouin thereupon offered, for five hundred
golden bezants, to point out a ford by which the Crusaders might,
without danger or difficulty, cross in safety to the opposite bank. The
constable at once promised the required reward, in the event of the
information proving satisfactory; but it was not till the money was told
down that the Bedouin conducted him to the spot, and convinced him that
the ford was there. Gladly hastening to Louis, the constable revealed
the means of extricating the armed pilgrims from their embarrassment;
and the king, assembling the princes and nobles, decided on leaving the
Duke of Burgundy on the Damietta side with a sufficient force to guard
the camp; and then, mastering their men and mounting their horses, they
at midnight marched along the bank of the canal to the ford pointed out
by the Bedouin, and awaited the break of day to dash through the water
and move towards Mansourah. It was the morning of Tuesday, the 8th of
February, 1250--Shrove Tuesday--when the armed pilgrims, under the
auspices of King Louis, halted on the Damietta side of the Achmoun, and
awaited the signal to pass to that on which Mansourah was situated.
Everything so far had gone quite as smoothly as could reasonably have
been expected. Some horsemen, indeed, rode too near the margin of the
canal, and, getting on soft and slippery ground, they and their horses
fell in and were drowned. Among them was Sir John of Orleans, a valiant
knight, who bore the French banner. But this was a slight misfortune
compared with that which the folly and presumption of one man was
preparing for that ill-starred host. At all times, and under all
circumstances, the Count of Artois was one of the most unreasonable of
human beings; and at this moment, so important to Louis, to France, to
the Crusaders, and to the Christian kingdom of Jerus