One of these was the old “way that goeth to Beth-horon” from Gibeon on the plateau above Jerusalem. This road led to Joppa through Lydda; so did another which crossed the fosse some three miles south of the first. The two were linked together by a cross-road which ran on south-westward to the ancient Nicopolis—called Amwas by the Arabs and Emmaus by the Franks—and then divided into two branches, one going southward by Natroun, the other to Joppa through Ramlah. This latter way seems to have been in general use since the eighth century, when the first Moslem conquerors overthrew Lydda and founded Ramlah to supersede it.[833] The First Crusaders had marched by the road from Ramlah to Emmaus and thence to Beth-horon, Gibeon, and Jerusalem, without opposition. Richard resolved to try how far he could follow in their steps; but he knew he could not expect such good fortune as theirs, for the Shephelah was still full of what one Frank writer calls “the outside Turkish army,”[834] that is, the troops whom Saladin had left to keep guard and to prowl about among the hills, in contradistinction to the “inner” force which was with him at Jerusalem. In this district of tumbled hill and dale, moorland, glen, and torrent-bed, of chalky slopes and limestone boulders covered with thick scrub and brushwood that sheltered caves and hiding-places innumerable, these light-armed Saracen horsemen were at home, and had every advantage for the guerilla warfare in which they excelled; and the ease and rapidity with which they could move about through the intricacies of the hills enabled them to swoop down suddenly from the most unexpected quarters, with fatal effect, upon foraging or reconnoitring parties and convoys.[835] One chronicler says that when the bulk of the host sought shelter in Lydda and Ramlah, the count of Saint-Pol betook himself to “the Casal of the Baths”; which seems to represent a place now called Umm-el-Hummum, about twelve miles north-east of Lydda.[836] If this statement be correct, the count’s object may perhaps have been to act as an advanced guard on that side of the host and keep watch against a possible gathering of the Saracens in force on the lower slopes of the hills of Samaria—especially at Mirabel, or as the Saracens called it Mejdel Yaba, which was close to Umm-el-Hummum and one of the few castles which Saladin had not caused to be evacuated—and their descent thence on the Christians at Lydda. It is at any rate probable that Richard’s purpose was to render some such service as this in another direction, towards the south and south-east of Ramlah, when on December 22 or 23 he removed his own headquarters to the “Post of Observation,” Natroun, which Saladin had quitted ten days before.[837] On that day, however, a convoy from Joppa was intercepted by the enemy; and similar mishaps occurred several times in the ensuing week.[838] To this unsatisfactory [Sidenote: _Dec._] state of affairs the leaders, having now fully ascertained