On October 4 Saladin, finding that at Ramlah he could not get enough fodder for his horses and camels, owing to his foragers being too much exposed to attacks from the enemy, removed his army some eight or nine miles south-eastward into the hills, close to a place whose character is expressed in one form of its name, Natroun, “post of observation.”[805] The Franks called the place Toron of the Knights; “toron” meaning height or mount, and the knights being those of the Temple, who had built on its summit a tower of great strength overlooking two of the roads to Jerusalem. This tower Saladin at once began to pull down; like the other strongholds which he had demolished, it was useless to him for present purposes, and could be of value only to his enemies, should the site fall [Sidenote: _Oct. 8_] into their hands. Four days later Safadin, whom he had left at Ramlah in command of the advanced guard, sent him word that Richard, having discovered Conrad’s dealings with the Sultan, had sailed for Acre in order to put a stop to them by making friends with the marquis.[806] There was, however, another reason for the king’s visit to Acre. The loiterers there were so slow to move at the bidding of Guy that it was clearly necessary to bring a stronger influence to bear upon them. Richard’s exhortations took such effect [Sidenote: _Oct. 13_] that within a fortnight[807] he was back at Joppa accompanied not only by the two queens, whom he established there with their attendants, but also by so “much people” that the host seemed to have become more numerous than ever.[808] It took another fortnight to clear out of Acre and convey by sea to the new base the remaining stragglers and the stores needed for a fresh advance.[809] During this enforced delay the host was once at least very near losing its commander-in-chief. Richard, having ridden out with a very small escort partly to exercise his hawks,[810] partly to look out for an opportunity of surprising the Turks, was himself surprised by some of them when he had stopped to rest and fallen asleep. Awaking just in time, he sprang to horse and drove them off, but they led him into an ambush, and he was only saved from capture by the devotion of William des Préaux, who concentrated the attention of the enemies on himself by shouting, “Saracens, I am Melec”—that is, the king—and was seized and hurried away accordingly, while the real king escaped. The whole host was aghast when the adventure became known, and some of Richard’s friends upbraided him for his rashness and implored him, for the sake of the cause to which his safety was so important, never again to expose himself thus without sufficient escort; but it was all in vain. “In every conflict he delighted in being the first to attack and the last to return.”[811]