On Saturday, the 7th of November, king Richard, having completed all his arrangements for a general engagement, drew up his army at dawn. The Templars again formed the first division, and were the first to cross the mountain torrent, and drive in Saladin’s advanced guard. They were followed by Guy, king of Jerusalem, who was at the head of the division of Poitou, and then by the main body of the army under the personal conduct of king Richard. Geoffrey de Vinisauf tells us, that on all sides, far as the eye could reach, from the sea-shore to the mountains, nought was to be seen but a forest of spears, above which waved banners and standards innumerable. The wild Bedouins, the children of the desert, with skins blacker than soot, mounted on their fleet Arab mares, coursed with the rapidity of lightning over the vast plain, and darkened the air with clouds of missiles. They advanced to the attack with horrible screams and bellowings, which, with the deafening noise of the trumpets, horns, cymbals, and brazen kettle-drums, produced a clamour that resounded through the plain, and would have drowned even the thunder of heaven. King Richard received the attack in close and compact array, strict orders having previously been given that all the soldiers should remain on the defensive until two trumpets had been sounded in the front, two in the centre, and two in the rear of the army, when they were in their turn to become the assailants. The ferocious Turks, the wild Bedouins, and the swarthy Æthiopians, gathered around the advanced guard of the Templars, and kept up a distant and harassing warfare with their bows and arrows, whilst the swift cavalry of the Arabs dashed down upon the foot soldiers as if about to overwhelm them, then suddenly checking their horses, they wheeled off to the side, raising clouds of smothering, suffocating dust, which oppressed and choked the toiling warriors. The baggage moved on between the army and the sea, and the Christians thus continued slowly to advance under the scorching rays of an autumnal sun. “They moved,” says Vinisauf, “inch by inch; it could not be called walking, for they were pushing and hacking their way through an overpowering crowd of resisting foes.” Emboldened by their passive endurance, the Moslems approached nearer, and began to ply their darts and lances. The Marshall of the Hospital then charged at the head of his knights, without waiting for the signal, and in an instant the action became general. The clash of swords, the ringing of armour, and the clattering of iron clubs and flails, as they descended upon the helmets and bucklers of the European warriors, became mingled with the groans of the dying, and with the fierce cries of the wild Bedouins. Clouds of dust were driven up into the skies, and the plain became covered with banners, lances, and all kinds of arms, and with emblems of every colour and device, torn and broken, and soiled with blood and dust.