From the Salt River a tract of wild wooded country called the Forest of Arsuf stretched southward for twelve miles or more. Saladin had taken up his position on a hill almost in the middle of it; here his foot-soldiers had rejoined him on the morning of September 4; and here, on the same day, he received a message from the Christian princes asking for a parley about terms of peace between him and the native Franks of the kingdom, “such as might enable those from over-sea to return to their homes.” They were [Sidenote: _Sept. 5_] evidently becoming awake to the extreme difficulty of their enterprise; and the Sultan’s apparent reluctance to engage in a pitched battle may have raised hopes of a peaceful settlement with him. He, on his part, was glad of anything to delay their further advance till the Turcoman reinforcements which he was expecting had arrived; so a meeting took place between Richard and Safadin, with Humphry of Toron as interpreter, early on Thursday, September 5. Richard spoke first; at the mention of peace Safadin asked, “What conditions am I to propose to the Sultan in your name?” “One condition only,” answered Richard, “that you restore the whole land to us, and go back to your own country.” This brought the conference to an abrupt end; Safadin returned to his brother,[770] and the Christians set forward on their march through the Forest. They seem to have traversed it in a south-westerly direction which brought them back to the coast-road. A report had reached them that the enemy intended to set fire to the Forest “and make of it such a blaze that they would all be roasted”; but nothing of the kind took place; “no host ever had a better day’s march; they met with no hindrance at all”; they passed the “Hill of Arsuf”—seemingly the hill which Saladin was occupying—and came safely out on the plain, where they found a good camping-ground beside what they called “the River of the Cleft Rock” (Rochetaillie).[771] They soon learned why they had been thus left unmolested through the day’s march; Saladin was disposing his whole force—estimated by a scout at three hundred thousand men, while the Christians were only about a third of that number[772]—to give them battle as soon as they should emerge from the cover of the Forest into the open fields and cultivated land around Arsuf. It was therefore in very carefully planned array that they set forth again on Saturday, September 7.[773] The host was divided into five battalions; the vanguard consisted of the Templars; next came the Bretons and Angevins; then the Poitevins, who were placed under the command of King Guy; after these the Normans and English with the Standard; in the rear the troops of the Hospital. Every battalion was subdivided into two squadrons, one of horse, one of foot, which advanced parallel to each other; the duke of Burgundy and some picked followers rode up and down and round about the host to regulate and