On that same day Saladin, whose scouts kept him well informed of all the enemy’s movements, held a council to decide what course should be taken in view of their apparent intention to attempt the siege of Jerusalem. It was settled that the defence of the walls should be divided among the emirs, a certain portion being assigned to each of them, and that the Sultan himself with the rest of his army should take the field against the invaders.[932] The latter part of this arrangement was, however, not carried into effect: throughout the three weeks which the Franks spent at Beit Nuba they never encountered Saladin, and no general engagement took place, though there were, as Ambrose says, many “adventures and skirmishes and discomfitures,” in several of which Richard was personally engaged. One of these counterbalanced, within twenty-four hours, an evil omen for the Franks with which, according to Bohadin, their stay at Beit Nuba began—the falling of a convoy from Joppa into a Turkish ambush on June 12.[933] That night a scout sent out by Richard returned from the hill of Gibeon—called by the Franks Montjoie, because it was the place whence the earliest Crusaders had first seen the Holy City—with tidings of another ambush which, he seems to have learned, was posted near “the Fountain of Emmaus,” or Amwas, half way between Natroun and Beit Nuba, and close to the point where the roads from Natroun and Ramlah meet. Before dawn Richard was in the saddle; at daybreak he was at the Fountain; the Turks were caught at unawares, twenty were slain, one was captured and his life spared because he was Saladin’s herald; three camels, several fine Turcoman horses, and two good mules laden with silk stuffs, aloes, and spicery, were the prize of the victor. The rest of the party he chased over the hills till he overtook and slew one of them, seemingly on the “Mount of Joy” itself, for according to Ambrose—who says he had the story of the adventure from one who took part in it—he “saw Jerusalem plainly” before he turned back.[934] During his absence from the camp it had been assailed by a band of Turks, but they were driven back into the hills.[935] An attempt of the enemies to intercept another caravan three or four days later was equally unsuccessful, though the Turks killed a few Christians and took some prisoners.[936]