ess towards Massoura, on the road to Cairo, was
checked by the Thanisian canal, on the banks of which the Saracens were
drawn up to dispute the passage. Louis gave orders that a bridge should be
thrown across: and the operations commenced under cover of two
cat-castles, or high movable towers. The Saracens soon destroyed them by
throwing quantities of Greek fire, the artillery of that day, upon them,
and Louis was forced to think of some other means of effecting his design.
A peasant agreed, for a considerable bribe, to point out a ford where the
army might wade across, and the Count d'Artois was despatched with
fourteen hundred men to attempt it, while Louis remained to face the
Saracens with the main body of the army. The Count d'Artois got safely
over, and defeated the detachment that had been sent to oppose his
landing. Flushed with the victory, the brave count forgot the inferiority
of his numbers, and pursued the panic-stricken enemy into Massoura. He was
now completely cut off from the aid of his brother Crusaders, which the
Moslems perceiving, took courage and returned upon him, with a force
swollen by the garrison of Massoura, and by reinforcements from the
surrounding districts. The battle now became hand to hand. The Christians
fought with the energy of desperate men, but the continually increasing
numbers of the foe surrounded them completely, and cut off all hope,
either of victory or escape. The Count d'Artois was among the foremost of
the slain; and when Louis arrived to the rescue, the brave advanced-guard
was nearly cut to pieces. Of the fourteen hundred but three hundred
remained. The fury of the battle was now increased threefold. The French
king and his troops performed prodigies of valour, and the Saracens, under
the command of the Emir Ceccidun, fought as if they were determined to
exterminate, in one last decisive effort, the new European swarm that had
settled upon their coast. At the fall of the evening dews the Christians
were masters of the field of Massoura, and flattered themselves that they
were the victors. Self-love would not suffer them to confess that the
Saracens had withdrawn, and not retreated; but their leaders were too
wofully convinced that that fatal field had completed the disorganisation
of the Christian army, and that all hopes of future conquest were at an
end.

Impressed with this truth, the Crusaders sued for peace. The sultan
insisted upon the immediate evacuation of Damiet