a thousand horse and 25,000 foot. But the largest force ever marshalled in Palestine in the experience of the most trustworthy of chroniclers, William of Tyre, consisted of 1,300 horse and 15,000 foot, and it is hardly likely that the army at Saffuria exceeded or even equalled this total. The superiority of the Franks was seen chiefly in the solid resistance of compact bodies of armoured infantry to the enemy's charges at the spear-point. Their defect lay in the unwieldiness of the troops, and especially of the cavalry, whose heavy chargers were ill fitted for pursuit over the yielding soil and sand of Syria. The light-armed Turcopoles were evidently too few to be of much service. Saladin's troopers, on the other hand, formed the bulk of his army, and were mounted on light wiry Arabs of incomparable speed ; his infantry was insignificant in comparison with his horse.

The march from Saffurîa aggravated the defects of the crusading army and gave Saladin's troops their best opportunity. The heavy infantry plodded along, the hot sun scorching their helmets and gambisons, whilst the light horse of the Saracens harassed them at every step, planting arrows and javelins in their weak places, and wheeling off before the ponderous onset of the knights could touch them. Balian of Ibelin lost many of his troopers in the vanguard, and his squire relates how 'li Sarrasin les traisent et tinrent toute jour et hardierent à aus desi qu'il fu bien nonne.' The Templars in the rearguard were so hard pressed that they were forced to halt, and were very nearly cut off. At three o'clock, in the drowsy heat of the afternoon, they were but nine miles on their way; a halt was called, and it was decided to encamp under arms for the night. In vain Count Raymond, who was in front, protested, and urged the vital importance of making a valorous effort to press on to the water. The army had no heart to face the Saracens on the hills in front; the Templars were in difficulties in the rear; in desperation, Guy ordered the fatal halt at Lubia. Raymond rode in from the vanguard, crying, * Alas! alas, Lord God! The war is over; we are all dead men; the kingdom is undone !'

It was a night never to be forgotten. Through its long hours the one cry was 'Water ! water!' A raging thirst consumed man and beast. The poor dumb horses suffered agonies, car il n'i ot home, ne ceval, ne beste qui beust en toute le nuit. It was added misery to hear the cheerful voices of the Saracens, as they closely patrolled the circle of the camp, shouting. Allahu Akbar'-'God is most great,' • There is no God but He.'

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siege sider oppo: Rayr first the but dista

as the Arab chronicler believed, the field long bore traces of colossal slaughter. A year afterwards the heaps of bleaching bones could be seen from afar, and the hillsides were strewn with the relics of the horrid orgies of wild beasts.

The lives of the common prisoners were spared; the King and the great nobles were treated with respect and released a year later. But a terrible vengeance was taken upon the Knights of the Temple and of the Hospital, whose fanaticism and cruelty, even more than their proved valour and daring, marked them out as the bitterest enemies of Islam. Not a man of them was spared. One other signal example was made. When Saladin had pitched his tent on the battle-field, the chief prisoners were brought before him. The King of Jerusalem was received with the honour due to his rank, and Saladin, seeing the extremity of his thirst, gave him a draught of rose water iced in snow. Guy drank and passed the cup to Reginald of Châtillon, but at this the Sultan was visibly wroth. “Tell the King,' he said to the interpreter, ‘that it was he, not I, that gave that man drink. The protection of • bread and salt' was not to baulk his vengeance. Then he rose and confronted the lord of Karak, who was still standing. · Twice have I sworn to kill him- once when he sought to attack the holy cities, and again when he took the caravan by treachery.-Lo! I will avenge Mohammed upon thee!' and he cut him down. The guard dragged out the body, and, in the words of the Arab historian, Allah hustled his soul to hell.'

On the day after the battle of Hittîn there was no longer an army of the Cross.

The Saracens spread over the length and breadth of the Holy Land, and found no enemy capable of taking the field. Every available man had been sent to Hittîn, and the kingdom was denuded of its defenders. Here and there a fortress held out for a while, but the cities, save Tyre, surrendered without a blow. The crusaders, as an army, had vanished. Their leaders were dead or in prison; their warriors were helpless or slain. The Feast of St. Martin saw their overthrow on the plain beside Tiberias; three months later the Feast of St. Leger witnessed the capitulation of Jerusalem. On October 2 Saladin received the keys of the Holy City, nor did the vows and swords of all the chivalry of Europe, in the four years' struggle of the Third Crusade, avail to wrest it from him. The fight at Hittîn won Jerusalem for the Moslems, in whose hands, with two brief intervals, it has remained to this day.

STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
VOL. 1.–NO. 25, N.S.

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The morrow came at last-the feast of the Translation of the blessed Martin, Saturday, the fourth of July, 1187. The knights were early to horse, but the Christian foot were already worn out, and their mouths were gaping with thirst. The Saracens meantime, who held the wells, were fresh and confident. All was ready, and the anxiety of the Moslems was turned to jubilation when they saw the exhausted condition of the enemy. They held off for a time, that the sun might do its work upon the wretched Christians, and they had fired the scrub round about to increase their sufferings. In this misery they were kept till it was full nine of the clock. Then the two armies met in earnest on the plateau near the village of Lubia, a couple of miles to the south-west of the hill of Hittîn. The road from Saffurîa to Tiberias passes up a long open valley,' says Sir C. Wilson, 'till it reaches Lubia, whence it commences its descent to the lake, at first gradually over the plain in front of the Karn Hittîn, then rapidly to the town of Tiberias. Up this road, where there is no water, no shade, and

. where the glare of the limestone rock adds to the intense heat of the sun, the Christians advanced, harassed on all sides by the light horse of the Saracens. King Guy had turned to the left, off the direct road, either in search of water nearer than Tiberias, or to avoid exposing his army to a flank attack,

The battle began with a cloud of arrows, thick as a flight of locusts,' from the Saracen marksmen, and many a saddle was emptied. Then with a great shout, like one man, the Moslems charged, and the fight became hand to hand and eye to eye. Saladin was in every part of the field, inciting, encouraging, restraining his men as the urgency needed ; and the Arabs' tactics of charge and retreat, rally and pursuit, worked havoc among the heavy forces of the King. Exhausted though they were, the knights fought splendidly, but the commoner fibre of the infantry could hold out no longer. Maddened by thirst, scorched by the merciless sun, blinded by the smoke and flame of the burning bush, they thought only of pushing their way to the water. • They had been told off to the various corps of cavalry, and were directed to form line in front of them, “ that the two arms might give each other the proper support, the knights protected by the arrows of the foot, and the foot by the lances of the knights." At the moment of close combat, however, the greater part of the infantry, after wavering for a moment, shrank together into one great mass, and, swerving off the road to the right, climbed a hill

which lay to that flank, and formed in a dense clump on

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its summit, deserting the horsemen on the road below. The King sent messenger after messenger to them, imploring them to come down and play their part in the battle. The only answer which they returned was that they were dying of thirst, and had neither will nor strength to fight.”. Many of them in their distress went humbly and begged quarter, with lolling tongues like thirsty dogs. Even some of Raymond's knights, says Ernoul, went over to Saladin and said bitterly, 'Sire, why do you delay? Fall upon them, for they cannot save themselves: they are all dead men.'

Seeing the desperate situation, King Guy called upon the Count of Tripolis for a last effort: the battle-field was in his territory, and the honour of leading the forlorn hope was his by the laws of chivalry-let him charge. Raymond accepted the point of honour, gathered his knights, and flung them headlong upon the Saracens; but they evaded the shock, opened their ranks, and let the knights pass through. Borne along by the rush of the charge, Raymond at length turned and looked back; he saw the King and the handful of knights that remained completely hemmed in by the enemy. Judging that all was lost, the Count put spurs to his horse, and never drew rein till he was safe at Tyre. Traitor, or coward, or victim of panic, he did not long survive his fault : he died of grief and shame. Legend did not deal gently with his memory. He became the Judas who betrayed Christendom, and minstrels for centuries told how Raymond basely plotted against King Guy and sold the True Cross and the Holy City into the hands of the infidel.

It was as Raymond had judged: the day was lost. The Saracens had purposely let the charge go unchecked, and closed at once round the King. The last stand was on the 'Horn of Hittîn,' where Guy had pitched the royal tent, and a hundred and fifty of his bravest followers were gathered round the standard of the Holy Cross. “The Moslems circled about them as a globe turns round its pole,' and the Franks strove in vain to break through.

Saladin's eldest son, a lad of sixteen, was with his father, watching this final struggle, and he told the piteous story afterwards. “When the King of the Franks had retired to the hill his knights made a gallant charge, and drove the Moslems back

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"I add this from Mr. C. Oman's valuable History of the Art of War: the Middle Ages, published since this article was in type. Mr. Oman seems to me, however, to rely too exclusively on Ralph of Coggeshall. The statement (p. 326) that the battle took place on • Friday, June 4,' is a slip; but Mr. Oman through. out is a weekday too early. July 4 was a Saturday,