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neglecting the advice of the Templars and other wise men who dissuaded them.
The army now rejoiced that they should soon set eyes on our LordÕs
sepulchre; and all began to brighten up their armour, their helmets and

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their swords, that there might not be a single spot to spoil their brightness.
In short, all were most eager for the enterprise, and boasted that not all the
power or assaults of the hostile Saracens should prevent them from
accomplishing their plighted vow. But the wiser ones did not acquiesce in
these views; for the Templars, Hospitallers, and Pisans, who had sharper
eyes on the future condition of that land, dissuaded King Richard from
marching at present to Jerusalem, lest, whilst they were besieging Saladin
and the garrison of that city, the Turkish army, which was without among
the mountains, might attack our men by surprise, and so place them
between the attacks of the garrison from within, and the Turkish army
from without: and even if they should take the city, it would be necessary
to garrison it with some of their bravest troops, which could hardly be
done, in consequence of the peopleÕs eagerness to complete their
pilgrimage and return each to his own home, for they were now all tired
out with the privations and disturbances which they had suffered. For
these reasons, they advised that the siege should be delayed, and the army
be kept together, because their vow would not have been accomplished; for
if they could once fulfil their pledge, the army would at once be dissolved.
But the advice of the Templars was not listened to.
Chapter XXXVI. Ñ How King Richard, concealing his troops near the Castle of
the Baths, surprised and slew the Turks on his march towards Jerusalem.
It was now the beginning of a new year, A. D. 1192, being leap-year,
and having D for its Dominical letter. On the third day after our LordÕs
circumcision, the army, bent on their march, were assailed by a multitude
of Turks who had lain in ambush during the night near the fort des Plans
among the bushes on the line of their route. The two foremost of our men
were instantly slain; but God had already prepared to avenge their death,
for King Richard had been apprised of the ambuscade, and advanced with
all speed in the morning, hoping to rescue the advanced guard. But the
Turks who had beheaded them, recognizing the kingÕs banner, took to
flight, being about a hundred in number, of whom seven were either killed
or taken prisoners by the king in the pursuit. Eighty of the Turks fled

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towards Mirabel, and were speedily overtaken by the king, who, seated on
his bay horse, a charger of incomparable swiftness, slew two of them before
any of their friends could assist them. In this skirmish were Geoffrey de
Lusignan and some others, who either slew or made prisoners twenty
Turks, and if they had pursued them further, there is no doubt that they
would have taken many more.

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Book V.
Chapter I. Ñ By the advice of the Templars, though much against the inclinations
of the army, the march to Jerusalem was abandoned until the walls of Ascalon
should first be rebuilt.
In the year 1192, not many days after the feast of the Epiphany, the
councillors of the army, joining with them some of the more discreet of the
natives, again consulted about the march to Jerusalem. The Hospitallers,
Templars, and Pisans, urged, as before, that the city of Ascalon should first
be rebuilt as a check on the Turkish convoys between Babylonia and
Jerusalem. To this the majority of the council gave their assent, that
Ascalon should be rebuilt to check the arrogance and impede the free
passage of the Turks in those parts. When the decision became known the
army were much dejected, conceiving that their hopes of seeing the LordÕs
sepulchre would altogether be frustrated. Their former hilarity altogether
disappeared, and was succeeded by despair at what they had just heard.
They uttered imprecations on the authors of this counsel as destroyers of
all their most ardent wishes. If, however, they had known the penury and
destitution of those who dwelt in Jerusalem, they would have derived
some little consolation from the tribulation of the enemy. For the Turks in
Jerusalem were enduring many severe sufferings from the hail and snow,
which, melting in the mountains, caused a flood of water to descend upon
the city, either drowning their cattle, or causing them to perish afterwards
from the cold. So great were their sufferings from the state of the weather,
that if the Christians had known of them they might certainly have taken
the city; though they could not long have kept it, for the people would
have returned home after fulfilling their vow of pilgrimage, and there
could not have been a sufficient garrison left to defend it.
Chapter II. Ñ Of the despondency of the army at the abandonment of their