reconnoitring party of Saracens, attacked them without hesitation, slew several of them and scattered the rest.[814] On the 31st, having completed his arrangements for the security of Joppa, he led the host on the first stage of its advance towards Jerusalem. [Sidenote: _Oct. 31_] The stage was a very short one—only two miles, to Yazour, or as the Franks called it, the Casal of the Plains. This place and Casal Maen, which seems to have been the Frankish name for Beit Dejan, about two miles further to the south-east, had been Frankish strongholds, recently dismantled by the Saracens; it was important that they should be restored in order to secure the command of the road leading from Joppa into the hills. Richard undertook the restoration of Casal Maen, and the Templars that of Casal des Plains; the host lay encamped between the two places for [Sidenote: _Nov. 1-15_] a fortnight while the work was in progress. The Turks did their utmost to hinder it by sending out skirmishing parties. One of these, having been put to flight, was pursued by Richard so far that before he turned back he actually saw [Sidenote: _Nov. 6_] Ramlah and the Sultan’s army there.[815] Another day a foraging party protected by a small escort of Templars was suddenly surrounded by a numerous body of Turks at “Bombrac,” properly Ibn Ibrak or Beni Berak, about two miles from Casal Maen. On learning their peril Richard, who was busy superintending the works at Casal Maen, sent some knights to the rescue and quickly followed in person. When he reached the spot the position of the little band looked so hopeless and the enemy’s numbers so overwhelming that his companions besought him to retire, “for,” said they, “if mischief should befall you, there would be an end of Christendom!”[816] “I sent those men here; if they die without me, may I never again be called king,” was his reply. Setting spurs to his horse and giving him the rein, he burst “like lightning” into the enemy’s ranks, and laid about him so furiously that they all either fled “like beasts,” or were slain or made prisoners.[817] Such is the Frankish version of this encounter; Bohadin, however, describes it as a success for the Saracens,[818] and makes no mention of Richard’s presence.