When the Turks inside Banyas realized that our sergeants were breaking through the walls they lost heart. They fled toward the castle of Subeibah half a league up the mountain where the slope was strewn with rocks as big as hutches. I was directed to occupy a position on the slope but a troop of Germans belonging to the Comte d’Eu, seeing these Turks retreat, came flying past me to go after them. I called out that they were exceeding orders but they ignored me. Soon enough they saw they had made a mistake and turned back, whereupon the enemy regained courage, attacking with arrows and maces. My sergeants did not like the look of this because they were afoot. I said if they gave up our position they would be dismissed from the king’s service. They pointed out that it was easy for me to talk, considering that I was on horseback. Very well, I said, if that troubles you, and dismounted and sent my horse to the Templars. A little while afterward one of my knights, Jean de Bussey, was struck in the throat by a Turkish quarrel. He dropped at my feet. His uncle, Hugues d’Escot, asked me to help carry Jean’s body down the slope but I was angry with all who disobeyed orders. Bad luck to you and to anybody who helps you, I said, because you deserve it. I then added that he might lug his nephew’s corpse to the dungheap by himself but as for me I would not move. I was told afterward that the barons of Languedoc had been informed of my perilous situation and urged to rescue me, but Guillaume de Beaumont said there was little sense worrying because I already was killed. I do not know who told him this. In any event, they decided to find out if I was on my back or on my feet so they could report to the king. Olivier de Termes, Jean de Valenciennes, and others came riding along the slope and I think were surprised to find me upright. Olivier explained what I knew quite well, that it would be a good idea to get out of there, but I did not see how, since the Turks above us would come rolling down like an avalanche if we turned our backs. Olivier replied that he had a plan. All right, I said, tell us what to do. He said we should ride along as if we were going to Damascus so the Turks would think we meant to attack from the opposite side. Then after we got down on the plain we should cross the brook and do them some damage by setting fire to the corn in the fields. It did not sound like a good plan but I had no better idea. So, having got myself another mount, we did as he suggested and with the help of Almighty God made it to the cornfields. There at Olivier’s direction we took hollow canes of the sort used in flutes, stuffed them with live coals and went around burning heaps of threshed corn. Some time later when we got back to camp, grateful to be alive, we learned that nobody had given us a thought.
Next day we continued to Saida where the king was. We were told that he personally supervised the burial of citizens murdered by Turks and helped carry putrid bodies to the trench, but did not hold his nose as others did. By the time we arrived he was meting out sites where we would camp. I had been given space not far from the youthful and spirited Comte d’Eu, which pleased me because I enjoyed his company. He reveled in pranks. I had my tent pitched in such a way that while at table we might take advantage of light through the aperture and he would often watch us. He constructed a tiny machine like a petrary from which he let fly pebbles, breaking several jugs and tumblers. Someone gave him a bear cub that he turned loose among my chickens. The poultry woman flogged the bear with her distaff but it killed a dozen before my men arrived and put a stop to the business.
We were busy fortifying Saida when some merchants appeared at our camp with news that a Tartar host had captured Baghdad. This was accomplished through treachery. After the city had been surrounded the Tartar chief sent to the caliph, saying he would like to arrange marriage between their children. The caliph agreed, however reluctantly, because he did not think Baghdad was strong enough to withstand a siege. The Tartars asked him to send forty members of his council who would swear to this marriage. He complied. Then he was asked to send forty notable citizens who would stand surety. This, too, he did. Now the Tartars would have forty more, chosen from among the wisest men at court. Again the caliph did as they requested. And the Tartar chief, having got all these important men in his grasp, lopped off their heads. Next he assaulted and took the city because he knew that without their leaders the people would not put up much resistance. We were told that he held the foolish caliph in an iron cage and for a long time gave him almost nothing to eat. Then he asked if the caliph was hungry. The caliph replied that he was nearly dead of starvation. The Tartar placed before him a gold dish full of jewels and asked if he recognized them. I do, said the caliph, because they were mine. Do you prize them? asked the Tartar. I do, said the caliph. Eat them, the Tartar said. They are not
