These prisoners—the late garrison of Acre—were, by the terms of capitulation, to be detained till the relic of the Cross, the stipulated number of Christian captives, and the indemnity, should all be delivered up by Saladin; then they were to depart free with their personal property and their wives and children.[694] The fulfilment of the conditions on which their release depended was obviously beyond the control of the officers who had made the agreement. Those officers were understood by the Christians to be acting with Saladin’s authorization, but it appears that this was not the fact; according to Saladin’s friend and biographer Bohadin, they communicated the terms to the Sultan and then acted upon them without waiting for his reply, and he was about to send back a flat refusal of his sanction to them when he saw the Frank banners on the walls.[695] After waiting two days in the hope of some movement which might give him a chance of successfully attacking the [Sidenote: _July 14_] Christian camp, he on the 14th removed his headquarters from Ayadiyeh to Shefr’ Amm, a village in the plain, ten miles south-east of Acre.[696] Thence he sent a messenger to inquire what were the terms on which the surrender had been made, and the date fixed for their fulfilment. On the same day three envoys came from Acre to speak with him about the Christian prisoners to be released and the money to be paid; he gave them an honourable reception, and sent them on to Damascus, that they might inspect the prisoners there.[697] Thus he, implicitly if not explicitly, committed himself to the conditions which had been accepted in his name.