Jerusalem, the City of Herod and SaladinBesant, Walter
History
Jerusalem, the City of Herod and Saladin
Besant, Walter
Jerusalem -- Description and travel; Jerusalem -- History
That night Balak had a fearful dream. He thought that he met the
terrible Jocelyn, alone and unprotected, and that the Christian
knight, hurling him to the ground, tore out both his eyes. Awaking
with fright, he sent off messengers in hot haste to behead Jocelyn
at once. They arrived too late. The castle was taken and the bird
was flown. But the flight of the count was full of dangers. He got
safely enough to the banks of the Euphrates, but here an unforeseen
difficulty met him, for he could not swim. How to cross the river?
They had two leathern bottles. These, inflated, they tied round
Jocelyn’s body, and the other two men, who could swim, steering by
the right and left, managed to get him across the water. Then they
went on, bare-footed, hungry, and thirsty, till Jocelyn could travel
no farther, and, covering himself with branches, in order to conceal
himself, he lay down to sleep. One of the attendants, meantime, was
sent off to find some inhabitant of the country, and either beg,
buy, or rob provisions of some kind. He met an Armenian peasant
loaded with grapes and wild figs, whom he brought along to his
master. The peasant knew him. “Hail, Lord Jocelyn!” he cried, at
sight of the ragged knight. “At these words,” says Foulcher, “which
the count would fain not have heard, he replied, all in alarm but
nevertheless with mildness, ‘I am not he whom you name; may the Lord
help him wherever he be,’
“‘Seek not,’ said the peasant, ‘to conceal thyself. Fear nothing,
and tell me what evil has befallen thee.’
“‘Whoever thou art,’ said the count, ‘have pity on me; do not, I
pray, make known my misfortune to my enemies; lead me into some
place where I may be in safety.... I am a fugitive and a
wanderer.... Tell me what property thou hast in this place, and what
is its value; and I will give thee property of far more worth in my
own dominion.’
“‘Seigneur, I ask nothing,’ replied the other. ‘I will lead thee
safe and sound where thou wishest to go; once thou didst deprive
thyself of bread to make me eat. It is now my turn. I have a wife,
an only daughter of tender years, an ass, two brothers, and two
oxen. I will go with thee and carry everything away. I have also a
pig, which I will bring here immediately.’
“‘Nay, my brother,’ said the count, ‘a whole pig may not be eaten in
a single meal, and we must not excite suspicions.’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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