Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/115

Rh of the military Orders, led by their respective chiefs in person, as well as by a small body of 200 English lances, under the command of William Lougspee, who had already served with distinction in the former Crusade, under the Earl of Cornwall. An advance towards Cairo was decided on, and the army proceeded without interruption as far as Massoura, a fortified town situated near the confluence of the two branches of the Nile. Here they found the entire Egyptian force awaiting their arrival within an entrenched camp on the far side of the river. For some time all their efforts to effect a passage by means of a temporary bridge were rendered futile by the opposition of the Egyptians. At length, however, a Bedouin Arab, tempted by the offer of a large bribe, consented to guide them to a practicable ford through which the crossing might be made. The king directed his brother, the count of Artois, to cross the ford at the head of a selected body of troops, consisting principally of the military Orders and the English knights under William Longspee. The Arab was true to his word; the ford was reached, the river crossed, and the enemy, who had in vain sought to oppose the operation, was driven from the field. At this moment a strange panic seems to have fallen on the Saracens. Abandoning their intrenchments under the idea that the whole French army was upon them, and even deserting Massoura in their terror, they fled, leaving the count of Artois in undisputed possession of both camp and city.

Had matters ended here, and had cool counsels been allowed to prevail, all would have been well, but it seems to have been the fate of these crusading expeditions that some rash and hot-headed zealot was invariably permitted to override the judgment of those who from their position and long acquaintance with the warfare of Palestine were best qualified to direct operations. The count of Artois, rejecting the prudent advice of Sonnac, the Grand-Master of the Templars, supported though it was by Longspee and the other leaders, determined to push his advantage to the utmost, and heedless of the paucity of his numbers, dashed in hot pursuit alter the retreating enemy. Those soon recovered from their senseless panic, and perceiving the numerical inferiority of the Christians, rallied rapidly at the call of Bendoedar, a valiant Mameluke chief, who had assumed