The Lord de Joinville, the friend of king Louis, and one of the bravest of the French captains, gives a lively and most interesting account of the campaign, and of the famous exploits of the Templars. During the march towards Cairo, they led the van of the christian army, and on one occasion, when the king of France had given strict orders that no attack should be made upon the infidels, and that an engagement should be avoided, a body of Turkish cavalry advanced against them. "One of these Turks," says Joinville, "gave a Knight Templar in the first rank so heavy a blow with his battle-axe, that it felled him under the feet of the Lord Reginald de Vichier's horse, who was Marshall of the Temple; the Marshall, seeing his man fall, cried out to his brethren, 'At them in the name of God, for I cannot longer stand this.' He instantly stuck spurs into his horse, followed by all his brethren, and as their horses were fresh, not a Saracen escaped." On another occasion, the Templars marched forth at the head of the christian army, to make trial of a ford across the Tanitic branch of the Nile. "Before we set out," says Joinville, "the king had ordered that the Templars should form the van, and the Count d'Artois, his brother, should command the second division after the Templars; but the moment the Compte d'Artois had passed the ford, he and all his people fell on the Saracens, and putting them to flight, galloped after them. The Templars sent to call the Compte d'Artois back, and to tell him that it was his duty to march behind and not before them; but it happened that the Count d'Artois could not make any answer by reason of my Lord Foucquault du Melle, who held the bridle of his horse, and my Lord Foucquault, who was a right good knight, being deaf, heard nothing the Templars were saying to the Count d'Artois, but kept bawling out, '_Forward! forward!_' ("Or a eulz! or a eulz!") When the Templars perceived this, they thought they should be dishonoured if they allowed the Count d'Artois thus to take the lead; so they spurred their horses more and more, and faster and faster, and chased the Turks, who fled before them, through the town of Massoura, as far as the plains towards Babylon; but on their return, the Turks shot at them plenty of arrows, and attacked them in the narrow streets of the town. The Count d'Artois and the Earl of Leicester were there slain, and as many as three hundred other knights. The Templars lost, as their chief informed me, full fourteen score men-at-arms, and all his horsemen."[289] [Sidenote: A. D. 1250.]