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enterprise, and of their return to Ramula.

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Itinerary
203
The feast of St. Hilary was now at hand, and so great was the
disaffection and sorrow of the army that many of them abandoned their
pilgrimage, cursing the day in which they were born to suffer such a
disappointment. Some of them also were so worn down by their sufferings
and by want, that they with difficulty could bear up against it. Their horses
and beasts of burden, also, affected by the cold and rain, were unable to
proceed through the mud, but fell famished and knocked up beneath their
loads. The drivers, in bitterness of spirit, raised their hands in anguish to
heaven, and uttered imprecations approaching even to blasphemy. It was
impossible to conceive a severer lot, even in the worst of criminals, than
that which our men now suffered. Their brave deeds, their prowess in war,
were now succeeded by grief and despair of mind, in addition to their
bodily sufferings; and whilst all were in this state, the weak and sick would
have been in danger of perishing, if it had not been for the care of King
Richard, who sent out messengers on all sides to collect them together and
bring them to Ramula, where the whole army soon assembled, not long
after they had left it.
Chapter III. Ñ Of the tribulation and anguish which our men endured between
Ramula and Ascalon, from the dangers of the roads and the state of the weather,
and how many of the French left the army.
Whilst our men remained at Ramula, many of them, either to avoid
the painful march, or from indignation and obstinacy, deserted from the
army, thereby considerably diminishing its numbers. The greater part of
the French departed out of indignation; some of them went to enjoy their
ease at Joppa, others retired to Acre, where there was plenty of provisions.
Some joined the marquis at Tyre, as he had often urged them to do, others,
with the duke of Burgundy, from anger and indignation turned aside to the
fort des Plans, where they remained eight days. King Richard, angry at the
situation in which things were, proceeded with his nephew, Henry Count
of Champagne, and the army thus reduced in its numbers, towards Ibelin;
but they found the roads so muddy that it was necessary to halt there, that
the army might have rest; for their misery, both mental and bodily, was so

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Itinerary
204
great that no pen can write, nor tongue tell it. At dawn of day the men with
the tents were sent forwards, and the rest of the army followed; the
sufferings of the day before were nothing to those which they now endured
from fatigue, rain, hail, and floods, so that it might be thought all heaven
had conspired to destroy them. The ground, too, was muddy and soft
beneath them, and the horses and men had the greatest difficulty to
maintain their footing: some of them sunk, never to rise again. Who can tell
the calamities of that day? The bravest of the soldiers shed tears like rain,
and were wearied even of their very existence for the severity of their
sufferings. When the beasts of burden fell, the provisions which they
carried were either spoiled by the mud, or dissolved in the water. In this
manner, cursing the day on which they were born, and beating their
breasts with their hands, they reached Ascalon, which they found so
dismantled by the Saracens that they could scarcely enter through its gates
for the heaps of stones. This day was the 20th of January, and they
encamped for the night, every man as well as he was able.
Chapter IV. Ñ How the army suffered at Ascalon from the weather and want of