their way into the place by clambering over heaps of broken wall, and find a partial shelter among the ruins within.[851] Ascalon stood amid what the poet-pilgrim Ambrose emphatically calls “a very good country”; but the stormy season, and the uncertainty as to how many armed enemies might be still lurking around, made this practically useless for foraging purposes; and the harbour was a dangerous one, the sea being often so rough that no ship could ride in it. This was the case for a week after the arrival of the Crusaders, who were thus limited to what little food they had brought with them—much of the stores with which they started from Ramlah having been lost in the swamps on the way—till by a change in the weather the transports coming from Joppa to meet them were enabled to land their supplies. Scarcely was this done, however, when the storms rose again, and barges and galleys and “all our beautiful smacks” were dashed to pieces and some of the sailors drowned. Richard caused all the wood that drifted ashore to be collected and employed for the construction of some galleys, which he destined for his own use; “but,” adds Ambrose, “it was not to be.” Towards Candlemas he sent a message to the French, exhorting them to restore the unity of the host by coming to rejoin their brethren and take counsel with them as to what should be done next. They answered that they would come, and would continue with him till Easter (April 5), on condition that if they then wished to depart, he would give them safe-conduct by land to Acre or Tyre. To this he agreed; whereupon they came, and—the worst of the winter’s rages having now subsided—the reunited host by common consent set to work to rebuild Ascalon. The task was no light one; it was said that the fortifications had originally included no less than fifty-three great towers, all now almost levelled with the ground. Most of the nobles were by this time too short of money to be able to hire workmen; so knights, men-at-arms, squires, clerks, and laymen of all ranks set themselves to make a clearance of the ruins, with such a will that soon they were astonished at their own success. As the rebuilding, however, required more skilled labour than theirs, Richard took the direction of it upon himself, and not only caused the greater part of it to be performed at his expense, but also made good whatever was lacking of labour and of the money to pay for it in the parts assigned to the charge of others.[852] The English chronicler of the Crusade says the king wrought at the building with his own hands,[853] and we can well believe the story. Saladin was about this time doing the same thing at Jerusalem.[854]