This was the fact; but the Virgin Mary and her company, having the Christians under their care, watched over them; and this night they received no harm, for the Saracens were afraid to advance, and returned the way they had come. The Christians were more attentive to their future guards. The Saracen knights and squires within the town were much cast down at the sight they had seen, more especially those who were advanced near this company of ladies; while, on the other hand, the Christians were greatly exerting themselves to win the place, which was courageously defended. At this period the weather was exceedingly hot; for it was the month of August, when the sun is in its greatest force, and that country was warmer than France, from being nearer the sun, and from the heat of the sands. The wines the besiegers were supplied with, from La Puglia and Calabria, were fiery, and hurtful to the constitutions of the French, many of whom suffered severely by fevers from the heating quality of their liquors. I know not how the Christians were enabled to bear the fatigues in such a climate, where sweet water was difficult to be had. They, however, had much resource in the wells they dug, for there were upward of two hundred sunk through the sands along the shore; but at times even this water was muddy and heated. They were frequently distressed for provision, for the supply was irregular from Sicily and the other islands: at times they had abundance, at other times they were in want. The healthy comforted the sick, and those who had provision shared it with such as had none; for in this campaign they were all as brothers. The Lord de Coucy, in particular, was beloved by every gentleman: he was kind to all, and behaved himself by far more graciously in all respects than the Duke of Bourbon, who was proud and haughty, and never conversed with the knights and squires from foreign countries in the same agreeable manner the Lord de Coucy did. The Duke was accustomed to sit cross-legged the greater part of the day before his pavilion; and those who had any thing to say to him were obliged to make many reverences, and address him through the means of a third person. He was indifferent whether the poorer knights and squires were well or ill at their ease: this the Lord de Coucy always inquired into, and by it gained great popularity. It was told me by some foreign knights who had been there, that, had the Lord de Coucy been commander-in-chief instead of the Duke of Bourbon, the success would have been very different; for many attacks on the town of Africa were frustrated by the pride and fault of the Duke of Bourbon: several thought it would have been taken if it had not been for him.